White House Forum on Women and the Economy

04/05/2012

Today, more than ever before, women are a driving force behind the success of the American economy. Expanding economic opportunities for women and ending discriminatory practices is critical to building an economy that restores security for middle class families, one where hard work and responsibility are rewarded, and where everyone who wants to can find a good job.

On April 6th, the White House Council on Women and Girls is hosting a Forum on Women and the Economy. President Obama will deliver remarks at the Forum to highlight ways the Administration has helped create economic security for women and recognizes that women are key to economic growth and competitiveness. Starting at 8:30 AM EDT, the half-day forum will also include a panel discussion with Senior Administration officials, followed by breakout sessions on: Women at Work, Education, Health, Women’s Entrepreneurship, and Violence Against Women and Girls.

People from across the country can watch the event live at www.wh.gov/live. During the Forum, Administration officials will answer questions from a live audience and also take questions submitted through a form on WhiteHouse.gov and via Twitter with the hashtag #WomenEconForum.

As part of today’s Forum the White House released a new report entitled Keeping America’s Women Moving Forward, The Key to an Economy Built to Last, which examines the ways in which the Administration has worked to ensure women’s economic security through all stages of life – from young women furthering their education and beginning their careers, to working women who create jobs and provide for their families, to seniors in retirement or getting ready for retirement. View the report HERE.

Here’s how you can participate:

  • Right now, you can ask the White House your questions about women and the economy through a web form or on Twitter with the hashtag #WomenEconForum
  •  8:45 AM EDT  12:30 PM EDT watch the forum live at wh.gov/live.
  • 10:15 AM EDT President Obama will deliver remarks.
  • Join the discussion live on Twitter and follow what others are saying with the hashtag #WomenEconForum
  • If you miss the live event, the full video will be posted on WhiteHouse.gov

79 Comments | Civil Rights, Economy, Education, Family, Health Care, PBO, Technology | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by CR

National Worker’s Rights Day 2012

04/03/2012

On April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Memphis to support AFSCME sanitation workers. That evening, he delivered his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech to a packed room of supporters. The next day, he was assassinated.

Read the full Mountaintop” speech

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AFSCME: 75 Years of History

The history of AFSCME began in 1932, as the country suffered through a severe economic depression, when a small group of white-collar professional state employees met in Madison, Wisconsin, and formed what would later become Wisconsin State Employees Union/Council 24. The reason for the group’s creation was simple: to promote, defend and enhance the civil service system. They also were determined to help spread the civil service system across the country.

Gearing up for the biggest nationwide mobilization of workers in decades, CWA, the union movement and a growing list of allies are planning activities and events for April 4, the day in 1968 that Martin Luther King was murdered while supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis.

From wearing stickers that say, “Stand Up for Workers’ Rights” to leafleting, community outreach, rallies, candlelight vigils and more, CWA locals, sectors and districts will be working hard to meet President Larry Cohen’s goal to have dramatic events in every workplace across the United States.

“On April 4 this year, the anniversary of Dr. King’s death, we will stand together across this country for those same human rights and human dignity for working men and women,” the call to action states. “We will remember the courage and determination of those 1,300 workers who endured assault and arrest as they walked a picket line for two months, as we stand with public workers whose bargaining rights are under attack, with private workers who can’t get bargaining rights, and against those politicians and their allies who want to silence our political voice.”

“President Obama is the only choice for the 99%. We must put people back to work, make the 1 percent pay their fair share, and protect Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. President Obama will stand up for working families,” said AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee. “Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have a prescription for the U.S. economy that was written by the same corporate interests that got us into this mess in the first place. We’ve all seen the depths the right-wing extremists governors will go to at the expense of working families, and we certainly don’t need that type of leadership in the White House. The GOP candidates just don’t get it, they are out of touch with reality. We believe that American voters are smarter than that and will say thanks but no thanks to their 1 percent agenda and work to re-elect President Obama to a second term.”

Gerald McEntee, AFSCME President, 12/6/11

106 Comments | Civil Rights, Economy, PBO | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by CR

StartUp America – 3 Day StartUp Events

03/01/2012

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StartUp America

Startup America is the White House initiative to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation.

Startups are engines of job creation.  Entrepreneurs intent on growing their businesses create the lion’s share of new jobs, in every part of the country and in every industry.  President Obama has called on both the federal government and the private sector to dramatically increase the prevalence and success of entrepreneurs across the country.

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3 Day Startups Events

The idea of 3 Day Startup is simple: start a technology company over the course of three days. We rent work space for an entire weekend, recruit 40 students with a wide range of backgrounds, cater food and drinks, invite top-notch entrepreneurs and investors, pick the best idea for a software startup during the Friday brainstorming session, and release a minimal prototype by Sunday night. The goal is to build enough momentum among a network of motivated people to sustain the company beyond the weekend.

Participants: Passionate students with an entrepreneurial drive, including Computer Science (PhD, MS, undergraduate), MBAs, law students, graphic designers, PR, business undergraduates, etc.

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March 16 – 18, 2012

Santa Fe CIED (Center for Innovation and Economic Development)
Gainesville, FL http://www.s.co/event/3-day-startup-gainesville

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March 16-  18th 2012

International Business School
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA http://www.s.co/event/3-day-startup-brandeis-university

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March 23 – 25, 2012

Miller Hall, School of Communication
The Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL http://www.s.co/event/3-day-startup-florida-state-university

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March 30, 2012 – April 1, 2012

Austin Technology Incubator
3925 West Braker Lane
Austin, TX http://www.s.co/event/3-day-startup-austin

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Apr. 6 – 8, 2012

Duncan Hall at Rice University
Houston, TX http://www.s.co/event/3-day-startup-rice-university

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April 13- 15, 2012

Homeaway World Headquarters
1011 West 5th Street
Austin, TX http://www.s.co/event/3-day-startup-homeaway

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April 13- 15, 2012

Duke and University of North Carolina
Durham, NC http://www.s.co/event/3-day-startup-triangle-duke-and-university-north-carolina

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April 20-22, 2012

Hive at 55, 55 Broad Street
New York City, NY http://www.s.co/event/3-day-startup-nyc

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April 28- 30, 2012

The Green House
685 Auahi St
Honolulu, HI http://www.s.co/event/startup-weekend-honolulu-green-house

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May 4- 6, 2012

University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI http://www.s.co/event/3-day-startup-university-wisconsin-madison

93 Comments | Economy, PBO, Technology | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by CR

UAW National Community Action Program Legislative Conference

02/26/2012


President Obama to join UAW members at conference

2/24/12 uaw.org

UAW members were excited today to learn that President Obama will be joining them next week in Washington when they gather for the union’s National Community Action Program (CAP) Legislative Conference.

More than 1,600 members from across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico will discuss the union’s legislative and political priorities for the coming year, meet with members of Congress to advocate on behalf of working families and prepare for the union’s 2012 electoral campaign.

UAW members will be focusing on the union’s jobs creation agenda that includes passing President Obama’s American Jobs Act and demanding policies to strengthen our economy by:

* Ending poverty and rebuilding the middle class by protecting every worker’s right to organize and collective bargaining.

* Extending aid for the unemployed.

* Investing in the nation’s deteriorating infrastructure to immediately create jobs.

* Providing aid for state and local governments that specifically targets layoff prevention and hiring.

* Creating industries for the future that use clean energy to spawn new industries manufacturing environmentally-sustainable materials, technologies and products.

“President Obama has been seriously focused on his jobs agenda since he took office, beginning with one of his first acts – saving the American auto industry,” said UAW President Bob King. “The President made a bold and, at the time, politically unpopular choice. He stood with workers and the American auto industry, and the communities whose economies depend on the industry and saved more than one million American jobs. We are grateful for his support of American workers and we are excited to have him join us next week as we gather in Washington.”

The President will address UAW members on Tuesday morning at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel at 2660 Woodley Road, N.W. UAW members will spend Feb. 29 making legislative visits to discuss the union’s fight for job creation with members of Congress.

Obama administration supports workers http://www.uaw.org/page/obama-administration-supports-workers

83 Comments | Economy, PBO | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by CR

The Stimulus WORKED

02/16/2012

Michael Linden, Director for Tax and Budget Policy of The Center For American Progress spoke of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)

The Private Sector Layoffs, The Gross Domestic Product and the Total Payroll Employment were in bad shape before the stimulus began, and all three turned around at almost exactly the moment the stimulus
started.

For the transcript: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/02/av/stimulus_transcript.html

106 Comments | Economy, PBO | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by CR

Laying The Foundation For America’s Growth

02/14/2012

“We’ve got a choice:  We can settle for a country where a few people do really, really well, and everybody else struggles to get by.  Or we can restore an economy where everybody gets a fair shot, everybody does their fair share, everybody plays by the same set of rules — from Washington to Wall Street to Main Street.  That’s the America we believe in.

Now, we’re still recovering from one of the worst economic crises in three generations.  We’ve got a long way to go before everybody who wants a good job can find one; before middle-class Americans regain that sense of security that’s been slipping away for too long — long before the recession hit.

But over the last 23 months, we’ve added 3.7 million new jobs.   American manufacturers are creating jobs for the first time since the 1990s.  The economy is growing stronger.  The recovery is speeding up.  And the last thing we can afford to do right now is to go back to the very policies that got us into this mess in the first place.  We can’t afford it.  The last thing we need is for Washington to stand in the way of America’s comeback. “

“Congress needs to stop taxes from going up on 160 million Americans by the end of this month.  And if they don’t act, that’s exactly what will happen.   Congress needs to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance without drama, and without delay, and without linking it to some other ideological side issues. “

President Obama 2/13/12 Northern Virginia dale, VA

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President Obama begins a three-day trip to the Midwest and West Coast, heading to Milwaukee, Wis., to talk about his economy plans, American manufacturing and the importance of companies insourcing and investing in America.

Wednesday, February 15
President Obama travels to Master Lock in Milwaukee, WI

Thursday, February 16
President Obama travels to Corona del Mar, CA and San Francisco, CA

Friday, February 17
President Obama travels to the Boeing Everett Production Facility, Everett, WA

Contact your legislator Contact your Congress person to TELL THEM TO START WORKING WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA!!

U.S. Senators
U.S. Representatives
Tweet a Message to Your Representatives


91 Comments | Economy, PBO | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by CR

Washington State Legalizes Gay Marriage

02/12/2012

Washtington State Governor Christine Gregoire to sign newly passed legislation into law to legalize gay marriage in Washington state

11:30 AM PST, 2:30 AM EST Statehouse signing ceremony – Olympia, Washington

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Washington State will be the seventh U.S. state with a law on the books to recognize same-sex marriage, the others being New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire; other entities that also recognize same-sex marriage are The District of Columbia, The Coquille Indian Tribe, and The Suquamish tribe.

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States

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U.S. Civil Unions

Jurisdictions in the U.S. that offer civil unions or domestic partnerships granting nearly all of the state-recognized rights of marriage to same-sex couples include:

Domestic partnership in California (2000 – expanded over time)
Civil union in New Jersey (2007)
Domestic partnership in Oregon (2008)
Domestic partnership in the District of Columbia (1992 law implemented, 2002 became effective – expanded over time)
Domestic partnership in Washington (2007 – expanded over time)
Domestic partnership in Nevada (2009)
Civil union in Illinois (2011)
Civil union in Rhode Island (2011)
Civil union in Hawaii (2012)
Civil union in Delaware (2012)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_union#United_States

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One day all adults will be able to marry the one that they love

74 Comments | Civil Rights, PBO | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by CR

U.S. Recovering Faster Than Other Countries

02/09/2012

Study: U.S. recovering faster than its peers

1/30/12 Posted by  - WashingtonPost

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Two years ago, the McKinsey Global Institute looked at the recoveries of 32 countries that had undergone a financial crisis. Their analysis was grim. It was also correct. Contrary to the hopes some held for a quick recovery, MGI warned that financial crises tended to lead to long, slow recoveries as households, businesses and governments dug their way out of debt. But in a report released last week, MGI delivered some sunnier news — at least for the United States. If you look at the 10 largest developed economies in the world, the United States is the furthest along the path to recovery.

Looking back to their sample of 32 past instances with post-financial crisis recoveries, MGI zeroed in on Finland and Sweden’s experiences in the 1990s as the most relevant to our current moment. Those examples “show two distinct phases of deleveraging. In the first, households, corporations, and financial institutions reduce debt significantly over several years, while economic growth is negative or minimal and government debt rises. In the second phase, growth rebounds and government debt is reduced gradually over many years.”

Most economies, the authors say, are barely even in phase one. In the United Kingdom and Spain, for example, total debt is still rising. But not in the United States. Here, “debt in the financial sector relative to GDP has fallen back to levels last seen in 2000, before the credit bubble. U.S. households have reduced their debt relative to disposable income by 15 percentage points, more than in any other country; at this rate, they could reach sustainable debt levels in two years or so.”

For the entire article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/study-us-recovering-faster-than-its-peers/2011/08/25/gIQAWuD9cQ_blog.html#pagebreak

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Since President Obama signed the Recovery Act of 2009 to help get our economy back on track. As a result:

-The U.S. has seen 23 consecutive months of private-sector job growth.

-The private sector added nearly 3.7 million jobs over those 23 months.

-The manufacturing sector has added 396,000 jobs since December 2009, with annual job growth in the last two years for the first time since 1997.

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To continue America’s recovery:

VOTE DEMOCRATS  IN 2012

to help President Obama and the 99% of America!

90 Comments | Economy, PBO | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by CR

Congress Must Extend the Payroll Tax Cut

01/26/2012

What drove the U.S. economy in 2011? And can it last?

12/28/2011 Posted by Brad Plumer – washingtonpost

Through the first three quarters of 2011, the U.S. economy expanded at a 1.2 percent annual rate. So where did this (middling) growth come from? The Council of Foreign Relations serves up a handy graph breaking things down:

The left-hand side shows the drivers of economic growth — both up and down. Government layoffs and budget cuts, particularly at the local level, slashed growth by about half a percentage point. On the positive side, meanwhile, the biggest driver of growth was an increase in personal consumption. Americans were buying more stuff. Trouble is, it’s unclear how sustainable even this modest spending binge will prove to be.

As the bar graph on the right shows, 44 percent of the increase in consumption this year came because incomes were growing and people were actually getting richer. By contrast, 36 percent of the consumption bump came because Americans were saving less, while 20 percent of the spending boost came thanks to the payroll tax cut, which is set to expire in two months unless Congress extends it again.

Contact your legislator NOW YOU CAN HELP BY CONTACTING YOUR CONGRESS PERSON TO EXTEND THE PAYROLL TAX CUT!

U.S. Senators
U.S. Representatives
Tweet a Message to Your Representatives

76 Comments | Economy, Legislation, PBO | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by CR

State of the Union 2012 – WH Follow Up Events

01/24/2012

State of the Union 2012 – White House Follow Up Events

January 24:

10:00 PM EST
Open for Questions: State of the Union 2012
Senior Administration officials take questions from a live audience at the White House as well as from Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ about the President’s State of the Union Address. January 24, 2012.

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January 25:

All Day Josh Earnest answers your questions on Twitter @jearnest44

12:55 PM EST
President Obama will travel to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to deliver remarks at Conveyor Engineering & Manufacturing

1:00 PM EST
Mark Zuckerman, White House Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council holds a follow up event of the State of the Union speech

3:00 PM EST
Ray LaHood, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary holds a follow up event of the State of the Union speech at Virginia Commonwealth University

3:00 PM EST
Dan Pfeiffer , White House Communications Director  holds a follow up event of the State of the Union speech

6:30 PM EST
President Obama travels to the Phoenix area to deliver remarks at the Intel Ocotillo Campus, Chandler, AZ

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January 26:

11:00 AM EST
Vice President Biden tours and delivers remarks at a center co-operated by Albany Engineered Composites and Safran USA on promoting partnerships between Community Colleges and Businesses in Rochester, NH.

10:00 AM EST
Veterans: Matt Flavin, Director of Veterans & Wounded Warrier Policy

11:00 AM EST
LGBT: Miriam Vogel & Gautam Raghavan

12:00 PM EST
Women: Racquel Russell and Avra Siegel

1:00 PM EST
President Obama delivers remarks at UPS Las Vegas South about the importance of American workers developing American-made energy to an economy that’s built to last

1:00 PM EST
Seniors: Jeanne Lambrew and Nick Papas

1:10 PM EST
Vice President Biden to answer some of the most popular questions on Twitter

2:00 PM EST
Latinos: Felicia Escobar, Julie Rodriguez and Luis Miranda

3:00 PM EST
President Obama delivers remarks at Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora, CO

4:00 PM EST
Small Business Owners: Christine Koronides,Senior Advisor for Economic Policy

5:00 PM EST
African American: Danielle Gray, Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy

5:30 PM EST
President Obama will deliver remarks on American Energy and Promoting Energy Security
at Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora, CO

6:00 PM EST
Asian American Pacific Islanders: Chris Lu, Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary

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January 27:

All Day Submit your questions for President Obama to answer 1/30 at youtube.com/whitehouse

9:00 AM EST
Disability Issues: Kareem Dale, Deputy Assoc. Director of Public Liaison

9:45 AM EST
President Obama will deliver remarks at the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, MI

10:00 AM EST
Rural Issues: Doug McKalip, Senior Policy Advisor for Rural Affairs

11:00 AM EST
Foreign Policy: Ben Rhodes, Deputy NSA for Strategic Communications & Speechwriting

12:00 PM EST
Education: Roberto Rodriguez, Special Assistant to the President for Education Policy

1:00 PM EST
Health: Jeanne Lambrew and Nick Papas

2:00 PM EST
Energy: Heather Zichal and Dan Utech

3:00 PM EST
Consumer Protections: Brian Deese, Deputy Director National Economic Council

4:00 PM EST
Economy: Jason Furman, Principal Deputy Director National Economic Council

5:00 PM EST
Job Opportunities: Portia Wu, Senior Policy Advisor for Mobility & Opportunity Policy

6:00 PM EST
Urban Issues: Racquel Russell, Special Assistant to the President for Mobility & Opportunity

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January 30:

5:30 PM EST
President Obama will answer your top-voted questions in a special post-State of the Union interview from the White House. To participate, visit http://www.youtube.com/whitehouse and submit your question. YouTube videos you submit will drive the interview and will be used to select a few lucky people to join a live Google+ Hangout with the President.

87 Comments | Economy, PBO | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by CR

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