December 2007

The assassination of Pakistani opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto not only underscores the dangerous and heightening political volatility throughout the entire Middle East, it should also send a message to U.S. voters about the importance of electing leaders whose foreign policy records and pronouncements reflect sound judgment in mitigating hostilities, not contributing to them. Full release

With less than a week before the caucuses open, not even the Iowans themselves know whom they are going to vote for, making this state one of the toughest nuts in the country to crack this January. Keep up with the political environment by reading EIN News' U.S. Politics Today at http://uspolitics.einnews.com/. Full release

As Washington approaches yet another increase in the minimum wage rate on January 1st, the Employment Policies Institute released new data showing that after last year's minimum wage hike the state saw an increase in unemployment among vulnerable groups. The 2008 increase, to $8.07 (the highest rate in the nation) is the fifth such increase in the past five years, totaling $1.06 during that time frame -- a 15% hike. Full release

The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) today announced its enforcement data for Fiscal Year 2007, highlighting a record number of workers helped. For the year, the agency obtained $51,680,950 for 22,251 workers who had been subjected to unlawful employment discrimination. These numbers represent substantial, steady growth over the course of this decade, with financial remediation up 78 percent over Fiscal Year (FY) 2001 and the number of workers helped up 145 percent. Full release

The following is an account of a fictional conversation between former President James Monroe and Mike Matthews, president of Electro-Harmonix, a maker of state-of-the-art sound effects for musicians. Full release

Sobering fact: 63-percent of all New Years resolutions fail after two months. In an effort to dramatically improve upon the high number of failed New Year's resolutions, the Healthy Monday initiative, an organization that dedicates Monday as a day to increasing health awareness and action, suggests a unique New Year's idea to all Americans. Full release

Amnesty International (AI) today condemned in the strongest terms the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. "It is shocking to see someone's life cut short in such a brutal way. Attacks such as these can never be justified. They violate international law and the rules of democratic behavior," said Catherine Baber, director of Amnesty International's Asia Pacific Program. Full release

English First Political Victory Fund today endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for President of the United States. Full release

Today Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, released the following statement on the Small Business Administration's proposed rule on a women's contracting program Congress created in 2000 but which the Bush Administration has failed to implement. Full release

As the Presidential primary season heats up, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today released its earmark candidate challenge. The passage of the fiscal 2008 omnibus appropriations bill, H.R. 2764, reminds taxpayers and politicians alike about Washington's addiction to earmarks. There are 19 organizations and individuals that have co-signed a letter to President Bush urging him to issue an executive order telling federal agencies to ignore earmarks in the House and Senate Appropriations committee reports. Full release

Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich issued the following statement this morning after hearing the news of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Full release

The American Islamic Congress today condemned the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Executive Director Zainab Al-Suwaij issued the following statement. Full release

Former Arkansas Governor and Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee announced the endorsement today from former Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer. Full release

Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent the following letter today to Stephen L. Johnson, Administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency concerning his agency's decision this week to deny the Clean Air Act waiver requested by the state of California. Full release

Every four years, voters head to the polls to elect our nation's president. The process begins with a series of primaries and caucuses in the winter and spring, and ends with the November general election. To mark the start of the 2008 presidential election season, the Census Bureau has culled the following facts from previously released statistical reports. Full release

Since Pennsylvania's film tax credit program started in July, studios have committed to invest more than $68 million into Philadelphia area movie and television productions, Governor Edward G. Rendell announced today. Full release

The new Secretary of Veterans Affairs has applauded the volunteers who remember our nation's veterans, especially those hospitalized in VA facilities, during the holiday season and throughout the year. Full release

National domestic violence advocates are recognizing Congress for increasing funding in the final FY '08 Omnibus Appropriations bill for a number of essential domestic violence programs created by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The overall increase to VAWA programs is $17.3 million dollars. Making compromises to complete the bill, however, Congress made drastic cuts to the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Fund and core VAWA programs. Full release

National domestic violence advocates are recognizing Congress for increasing funding in the final FY '08 Omnibus Appropriations bill for a number of essential domestic violence programs created by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The overall increase to VAWA programs is $17.3 million dollars. Making compromises to complete the bill, however, Congress made drastic cuts to the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Fund and core VAWA programs. Full release

Democratic Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich, who has been the runaway winner in polls of the Party's progressive, grassroots base in recent weeks, scored another huge win yesterday by capturing almost 77% of the vote in a nationwide poll sponsored by a coalition of Independent voting groups across the country. Full release

Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on immigration enforcement measures announced by the Administration. Full release

Mike Huckabee will be the keynote speaker for Hope International University's annual "Celebrate Hope" dinner held at the Disneyland(R) Hotel in Anaheim, CA. The event will take place on Friday, October 12 at 6:00 p.m. Full release

The U.S. Congress yesterday passed an appropriations bill (H.R. 2764) that provides significant funding for various nuclear energy programs totaling more than $970 million. Following is a statement from the Nuclear Energy Institute's president and chief executive officer, Frank L. (Skip) Bowman. Full release

MTV, as part of its Emmy-winning "Choose or Lose" campaign (http://www.ChooseorLose.com), today unveiled "Street Team '08": a specially recruited group of 51 citizen journalists -- one from every state and Washington, D.C. -- who will cover the 2008 elections from a youth perspective and tailor their reports for mobile devices. Full release

After months of speculation, Al Gore's name will be on the presidential ballot in the nation's first primary. A bi partisan group of New Hampshire voters -- unhappy with the timid approach to halting global warming by the primary candidates of both parties -- is organizing a three-week grass roots campaign to write in Gore's name on the primary ballot. Full release

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and other Senate and House Democratic Leaders held a news conference in the Capitol today to discuss the progress made by Democrats in the first year of the 110th Congress. Following the Speaker's remarks is a fact sheet of accomplishments of the New Direction Congress, including a look ahead to 2008. Full release

In his new campaign ad today and out on the campaign trail, Arizona Senator John McCain likes to pretend he opposed Don Rumsfeld's strategy on Iraq from the beginning. Back in Washington, however, John McCain has consistently been one of President Bush's most loyal defenders -- a fact made clear by his event today in Boston with Henry Kissinger and former CIA Director James Woolsey. In sharing a stage with Woolsey, McCain is joining one of the leading members of the Defense Policy Board that helped shape Rumsfeld's Iraq strategy. Full release

As Congress approaches its holiday recess, the Motor Vehicle Owners' Right to Repair Act (HR 2694) gained two more supporters, it was announced today by Kathleen Schmatz, president and CEO of the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA). Reps. Dennis Moore (D-KS) and Michael Honda (D-CA) have joined a growing list of the bill's sponsors. Full release

The Bush administration's reinstated hours-of-service rule meets the economic needs of the trucking industry but not the health and safety needs of truck drivers, a Teamster official told the Senate surface transportation subcommittee on Wednesday. Full release

Today Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) applauded the Senate's passage of the consolidated appropriations bill, which provides more than $40 million in additional funding for key Small Business Administration (SBA) programs over last year's funding. Each of the SBA's core programs, including Small Business Development Centers, Women's Business Centers and the Microloan program, will receive an increase. Full release

Texting all candidates, advisers, pundits and political junkies. During an election season in which more than one-fifth of eligible voters will be younger than 30, AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Rock the Vote today announced plans to use mobile technology in 2008 to help engage, educate and register millions of people, between the ages of 18 and 29, in an effort to build on recent increases in young voter turnout. How? By communicating with young people in their "native tongue." Full release

The Republican Senate minority today filibustered an omnibus budget bill, setting a modern-day record for blocking the most legislation during a congressional session. A new report released today by the Campaign for America's Future details the 62 times conservatives have used the filibuster to block legislation (or force modification of bills) in the first session of the 110th Congress. Full release

Today, Strong American Schools' ED in '08 campaign unveiled a new public service announcement in advance of the early caucuses and primaries highlighting the urgent need for the presidential candidates to focus on K-12 education reform as they lay out their plans for America's future. The PSA is part of an extensive e-campaign effort, reaching out to over 100,000 education reform advocates and voters in the battleground states. Full release

Officials from the ED in '08 campaign and MTV News Correspondent Sway Calloway today held a roundtable discussion with students who will be first-time voters from Des Moines North High School. Full release

Microloans to the poor around the world soared to 133 million last year, up from 13 million just nine years ago, according to a report released today by the Microcredit Summit Campaign, an initiative of RESULTS Educational Fund. The dramatic progress was also evident in the Campaign's focus on loans to the very poor, those living on less than a US$1 a day, which reached 93 million families in 2006, just shy of the Campaign's goal of reaching 100 million poorest. Full release

According to a new study released by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research (IJCR), higher education, health, and cultural arts organizations receive the lion's share of the largest gifts that individuals, foundations, and corporations contribute to American philanthropy. Higher education received nearly half of the dollars from gifts of $10 million or more. Gary A. Tobin and Aryeh K. Weinberg, the study's authors, analyzed over 8,000 gifts of $1 million or more made between 2001-2003. Full release

States have promised at least $2.73 trillion in pension, health care and other retirement benefits for public employees over the next three decades, according to a report released today by The Pew Charitable Trusts' Center on the States. Promises with a Price, the first 50-state analysis of its kind, finds that states have saved enough to cover about 85 percent of their long-term pension costs, but only 3 percent of the funds needed for promised retiree health care and other non-pension benefits. Full release

Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement tonight after the House passed the FY 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill: "Democrats began this year with a fiscally responsible budget plan that balanced over five years, cut taxes for middle-class families, and began to reinvest in education, job training, health care, and energy independence for the American people." Full release

The Disabled American Veterans is urging President Bush to stand up for veterans and sign a 2008 omnibus appropriations bill that provides a much-needed increase in funding for veterans health care and other programs and services. Full release

Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement responding to remarks by President Bush this morning on the nation's economy: "The President's statement this morning fails to grasp that middle-class families are working harder but earning less, while facing record gas prices, failing mortgages, and rising home heating bills. If President Bush thinks this is success, I would hate to see his definition of failure. Full release

The U.S. Conference of Mayors and Sodexho, Inc. released today the results of its 2007 Hunger and Homelessness Survey at a press conference at the Conference of Mayors Headquarters in Washington, D.C. For more than 21 years, the Conference of Mayors has documented the magnitude of the issues of hunger and homelessness in our nation's cities. This report provides an analysis of the scale of the problem in twenty-three of America's major cities (listed below) and the efforts these cities are making to address the issue. Full release

Three years after the devastating tsunami ravaged more than a dozen countries from Southeast Asia to East Africa, the American Red Cross is still on the ground helping communities recover and rebuild. An important and sometimes overlooked part of recovery is disaster preparedness, the training of communities to be better prepared for future disasters. Full release

U.S. financial professionals believe the U.S. economy will weaken over the next 12 months but will not slip into recession in 2008, according to results of a new survey conducted in early December by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP). More than a third of the survey respondents also expect their organizations to expand their U.S. workforce in the coming year. Full release

Labor leaders from four of the nation's largest trade unions were joined by former Vice President Walter Mondale and former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack for a full day of campaigning in Iowa on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Full release

Last week, Congress did not pass a big spending bill as expected. Instead, it passed a bill to fund the government for another week while it works on a final spending plan. That bill spent a little over $210 per U.S. family. Full release

On the same day the Los Angeles Times cited former colleagues who criticize his style at Bain Capital as "grasping and greedy," smooth talking Mitt Romney fumbled to explain his crassly calculating flip-flops today on NBC's Meet the Press. Full release

Late yesterday evening, the Senate passed an energy bill that "will advance geothermal research and development for decades to come," according to the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA), the trade association for the industry. Full release

Amnesty International is seriously concerned that the lifting of the State of Emergency in Pakistan on Saturday, December 15, 2007, will leave the constitution fundamentally flawed and would allow human rights violations to continue unchecked. Full release

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) praised Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) for introducing the Pregnant Women's Support Act (S. 2407), a bill to provide resources and support to pregnant women. Full release

The American Chemical Society (ACS) Office of Communications has launched a podcast that will make cutting-edge scientific discoveries from ACS journals available to a broad public audience at no charge. Full release

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