Then Attend the Monthly Fiscal and Economic Issues Discussion Group Meeting and be amazed at what you discover.
We will have our standard update of the economy, both jobs and GDP. We will also continue our discussions of the economic recovery and policy issues that affect the recovery. The discussion will be based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics March 6th, 2015 report.
Key Points from March 6th report on February Jobs:
Over three (3) million jobs added in the last 12 months
295,000 jobs added in February 2015;
January revised to 239,000 jobs added
Unemployment rate nationally at 5.5% in February
Down 1.2% in the last 12 month
Continues to trend down from its high of 10.0% in October 2009
Budget Deficits – Historical and Projected: 2.8% of GDP in FY 2014, down from a high of 9.8%
IL unemployment rate was 6.2% in December
Down from 8,9% in December 2013 and trending down from its high of 11.4%
GDP growth for 4th quarter 2014 now estimated at 2.2% annual rate, 5% in 3rd quarter
Other Possible Open Forum Discussions – Among the possibilities:
Helen has suggested explaining “dynamic scoring.” The Republican House has directed the CBO to include dynamic scoring in its evaluation of tax and spending proposals.
Joe has suggested shifting to Illinois’ fiscal situation, including the cuts currently under consideration for FY 2016 and some possible revenue options to avoid those cuts
The House and Senate have come out with their respective FY 2016 federal budget proposals in the last week and they are currently working their way through committee for passage by the full legislature. President Obama’s proposed budget was submitted last month.
Near term the debt limit is being reinstated, although it won’t be reached until fall, and the Medicare “doc fix” is expiring.
New NWSOFA Minority and Outreach Co-Leaders Announced
University & College Outreach Names Leadership and Organizing Meeting Date
New Initiative for 2015 Announced by OFA
Organizing Meeting
April 1st 7-9 pm
Palatine Library
(in one of the Study rooms)
Feeling the call to work with the young adults at college and University levels to engage them in Progressive Issue Engagement..
NWSOFA announces the University & College Outreach Team Leads;
Kym Garnett, University & College Outreach Team Co-Lead
Renee Gladstone,
University & College Outreach Team Co-Lead
The agenda: includes writing a mission statement, and deciding the timing of our events / actions.. now or wait until fall, given that the colleges are in their last weeks and finals are coming soon. If there is someone interested in this group that is not on the distribution list, please tell us. Thank you to those who have forwarded college contact names to us. If anyone has additional information for a potential contact .. please bring it to the meeting.
Minority Outreach Names Leadership & Sets Organizing Meeting for mid April
Date: TBD
Place: TBD
New Initiative for 2015 Announced by OFA
You Can Make a Difference in Under-Served Communities
NWSOFA announces the University & College Outreach Team Leads;
Antualia (Tuly) Rodriguez,
Minority Outreach Team Co-Lead
Kym Garnett, Minority Outreach Team Co-Lead
Organizing for Action has a strong commitment to providing easy points of entry for
everyday Americans who want to have their voices heard and make a difference in their communities.
Historically, we have found that the tools and tactics employed to help in these efforts skew toward
volunteers who have access to reliable transportation, can afford financially to give hours, and have
ready access to the internet. That, in turn, means that volunteers who gravitate toward OFA tend to be people who are retired, have financial means, and/or live in the suburbs. In order to ensure that OFA remains true to our mission of providing easy access, we have developed the Fulfilling the Promise Program aimed to address these concerns and ensure we are organizing in all communities.
PURPOSE: To ensure that Organizing for Action is providing training, leadership development, team building, and issue advocacy opportunities to communities and people who do not have ready access to the internet, reliable transportation, etc. We will focus specifically in communities of color and historically underserved areas, which tend to have less financial means. The Fulfilling the Promise program will ensure that our organization and the progressive community at large is comprised of a diverse group of talented organizers who are representative of all of the communities that make up our country.
for The Illinois Environmental Council Springfield Earth Day Action for Clean Energy Jobs Bill. This event is a coalition event coordinated by the Sierra Club, Faith-in-Place, and other environmental groups. It will be a grass roots effort to show support for current Illinois environmental bills SB1485 and HB 2607. The Sierra Club will be providing buses.
NWSOFAer’s get together to relax, drink coffee, discuss current topics, enjoy cookies and make some important calls to other Progressives in the suburbs notifying them of our meetings
We call these the 4C’s and we need your help. Volunteer for an hour or two doing what we do best “organizing”!
The Health Insurance Marketplace is providing individuals and families who owe the fee when they file their 2014 taxes with one last chance to get covered for 2015.
The Special Enrollment Period begins today, March 15 and ends on April 30.
During this time, you’ll have the opportunity to enroll in health coverage for 2015 if you owe the fee.
Important: The fee for people who don’t have coverage increases in 2015. If you don’t have health coverage for 2015, the fee is $325 per person or 2% of your household income – whichever is higher.
We hope you take advantage of this extended opportunity to get quality coverage this year
Click on the above Get Coverage Image to link to the website
Click on the above Image to see the full article and e-magazine on CIR
Immigration Reform
(CIR)
in the News
Would you like to get involved with other like minded Progressives and join our Comprehensive Immigration Reform Team ….. then:
Please Call Tuly, Sara or Bill
@ 224-241-2012
Did You Know?
Obama administration asks appeals court to block
judge’s immigration order
The Obama administration on Thursday stepped up its drive to revive President Barack Obama’s recent executive actions on immigration by asking a federal appeals court to block a judge’s order prohibiting the president from going forward with plans to offer quasi-legal status and work permits to millions more illegal immigrants.
Justice Department lawyers filed an emergency motion with the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, asking that court to overturn last month’s injunction by U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen.
Click on the Above Image to see NWSOFA e-magazine Stand With Women.. Timely Articles from the Press
Stand With Women
Gains Momentum
These Are the Worst Paying Jobs for Women
A full-time female employee earned 82.5% of what a man earned in 2014, up considerably from 1979, when women made an estimated 62% of what men did. While this is certainly an improvement, progress has slowed between 2000 and 2014.
In many of the largest occupations in the country, women earn close to what men do on a weekly basis. In others, however, the disparity remains closer to the 1979 levels. Median weekly earnings among female workers in all of the 10 occupations with the widest gender pay gap were less than three-quarters of what males earned. The typical female personal financial ad visor brought in just 61.3% of her male counterpart’s earnings in 2014, the widest pay gap among all occupations reviewed.
An Information packed meeting with discussion on how to protect communities from future Gun Violence … Along with reviews of upcoming events of partner groups was held last Thursday night .
Interested…. For Your Review:
You are invited to join us: for our first celebratory and fundraising event: Celebrate Safer Communities! The event will include craft beer, appetizers, a wine pull, and a silent auction. It is a great opportunity to meet others in the community who want to make a difference to reduce gun violence.
Location: Smylie Brothers Brewing Co., 1615 Oak Street, in Evanston.
Date: Sunday, April 12, 2015 Time: 4:00 to 6:30 p.m.
You may purchase tickets by sending a check to People for a Safer Society, P.O. Box 1352, Skokie, IL 60076 (please write “for event tickets” in the Notes section of the check), or by making an online payment through our website. Tickets are priced at $45 per adult in advance by April 6 ($50 at the door) and $20 per child 14 years and under.
All funds raised from the event will go directly toward supporting our new nonprofit organization and its activities, including gun safety awareness, opposition to the Niles gun shop and range, and other efforts to educate communities about gun violence.
Co-Sponsered by MTA and the Coalition to Restore Democracy
It may of been cold outside but inside
the hall was packed and the
discussion was “Hot”.
Packed house and they just
keep coming
This last Thursday night, 3/5, at the Schaumburg Library we had a packed house as folks arrived to see “Pay to Play” a movie by John Ennis with temperatures as low as 7 degrees.
The film from director John Ennis was interested in doing more than getting people riled up. “How do we get past the pay-to-play system? The answer to Ennis’s question, which he provided himself, is “not just to get mad, but to get active.
He advocates doing whatever one can to protest the status quo, whether it’s as an individual street artist or blogger or as part of a larger collective such as the Occupy movement” and as we discussed in the Q&A become active with MTA, the Coalition to Restore Democracy and NWSOFA.
As one Tweet said: @NWSOFA, Coalition to Restore Democracy, & Move to Amend discussion after viewing of Pay 2 Play.
All about action!
Other News in the Burbs
Florida Rep. Alan Grayson’s visit to Speadk
Wednesday, April 8th, at 6:00 at Pinstripes in Northbrook
Are you curious about what is and what is not going on in Congress? and why? Alan Grayson is one of the smartest, most courageous, and most outspoken Congresspersons in the House. He also has a great sense of humor, and he will tell it like it is and like it should be.
In January 2013 we started as a gathering of friends and neighbors from the NW Suburbs who wanted to continue to have impact on the progressive issues we voted for in 2012.This grassroots, bottom up movement spread across the country and sparked the creation of Organizing for Action, OFA National which now has Chapters all over the country. This is a non-partisan, volunteer organization that focuses on progressive issues we are committed to taking Action on to make a difference locally, statewide and nationally.
NWSOFA’s 1st Issue Team was right after the tragedy at Sandy Hook. The Gun Violence Prevention (GVP) team felt we needed accurate information and facts, events to teach others and actions we could take to make a difference on pushing for common sense gun violence prevention. That has been our basic format as new issues arose and team developed. We now have the GVP, ACA/Obamacare, Climate Change,Fiscal Issues and Stand with Women Issue Teams.Check out their individual pages to see all the events they have scheduled and to join the teams you want to make a difference with. Other teams are developing such as for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
OFA National coordinates “Days of Action” that Chapters across the country will all do on the same day. Each team also has local events and may work with affiliate organizations i.e. Sierra Club, Al Gore Reality Project, etc. to combine like-minded groups on a local, state or national event.
In this type of organization there are numerous ways you can be involved with the teams and in other roles.We were looking for ways to get our events out and now have a Twitter Master, Kathy,and Press Lead, Kym.
Two new initiatives were introduced in January 2015 from OFA. The first one is to get more young people involved in progressives issues. We prioritized working with colleges to reach out to them. One of the major benefits of joining us is learning to be a community organizer. These skills can be beneficial for a lifetime. The second initiative is working with under served populations that traditionally have not a voice on issues that are crucial for them. If either of these sound like something you would be interested in helping to develop, please let us know.
Maybe you have a special skill we haven’t even thought about give us a call we’re always open to new ideas and teams.
Thanks for stopping and hope you’ll stay and join us.
NWSOFA is a whole, diverse wonderful family of people who want to do more than talk about the social issues. We explore and dig deep on the facts and decide what actions we can take that can have an impact locally and nationally. NWSOFA members not only “talk the talk”, but we “walk the walk”.
All our teams have numerous events that will enlighten and inspire you and yes, challenge you to make the effort to make a difference.
We invite you to join us!
Follow NWSOFA on Social Media
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Follow us @NWSOFA’s Website
Click to Link to WebSite
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Join Us for Coffee, Conversation, Cookies and Call @ the 4C’s
NWSOFAer’s get together to relax, drink coffee, discuss current topics, enjoy cookies and make some important calls to other Progressives in the suburbs notifying them of our meetings
We call these the 4C’s and we need your help. Volunteer for an hour or two doing what we do best “organizing”!
March’s Chapter and Movie Night 3/5 “Pay to Play” in Photos
Pizza at the “After Hours” Debrief
February @ NWSOFA in Photos
The ACA team working with Enroll America .. Rocks It! Congradulations
NWSOFA GVP & MDA
Cards for the Victims of
Gun Violence
February Meeting in Photos
Fiscal & Economics February Meeting in Photos
NWSOFA GVP Team
Trip to Senator Dan Kotoski’s Office Congressman to Discuss GVP (Gun Violence Prevention)
NWSOFA
To leave
a message or Sign up for an Issue Team ..
Just click the Sign Up button and fill out the NWSOFA Comment log.
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Notice: This is a public meeting / event(s)
NWSOFA is a 501(c)4, non-partisan organization.
All opinions are solely those of NWSOFA
It’s time to Act .. It Is Time To Get Involved
Over the years the American Citizens have lost their voices, believing that we can not make a difference. We have been beat down by the constant droning noise of the conservative right. This onslaught has made us like sheep .. afraid to express our views. Not anymore! OFA gives us back our voices and by working together we are making change one issue at a time. Together we can and will make a difference.
Thank You to our NWSOFA Issue Leads in 2013 !!
Just Click on the Photo to link the NWSOFA e-magazines daily & archived articles
In January 2013 we started as a gathering of friends and neighbors from the NW Suburbs who wanted to continue to have impact on the progressive issues we voted for in 2012.This grassroots, bottom up movement spread across the country and sparked the creation of Organizing for Action, OFA National which now has Chapters all over the country. This is a non-partisan, volunteer organization that focuses on progressive issues we are committed to taking Action on to make a difference locally, statewide and nationally.
