Contacts:
Patricia Nixon (http://www.linkedin.com/in/pnixon)
Marc Johnson (http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcwjohnson)

CNN Reports: Unemployed Need Not Apply http://bit.ly/aOu1UO

After reading the article above, you must find yourself sickened by this heinous and atrocious practice as many individuals have! Do you find this as reprehensible as we do?? The article uncovers a nasty little secret frequently being practiced during one of the most financially difficult times in modern history.? Respected companies many of us have supported or known of virtually all our lives including Sony Ericsson actively choose not to consider hiring from the vast pool of qualified unemployed candidates.? The Vice President of Adecco Group, the largest staffing firm in the world, admitted this requirement was brought up in 3 out of 4 of the last conversations he had regarding openings.? These may be companies you, your friends or family members may be applying to for jobs right now.

Do not believe this regards only high-level positions.? Latro Consulting was revealed doing the same thing when posting listings for grocery store managers throughout the Southeast.? So even if you have to take a lower-level job to support your family, keep a roof over your head and food on your table, you may also be discriminated against simply because you do not have a job.

We demand that the government we support with our taxes address this head-on.? All discrimination is ugly and this is no exception.? For those of you currently working, you, too, are carrying the weight of this burden.? For those families that are now struggling with the loss of an income their expenses have not decreased in proportion.? Some have to (or soon will) take advantage of discounted or free services just to stay afloat which we know comes out of the pockets of taxpayers struggling with their own finances.? We are losing our homes, our medical benefits, 401(k)s, savings accounts and the college funds of our children.? Unemployed members of our communities who are actively seeking work do not want to further burden the country they have been a backbone to for much of their lives.? Those who can and are willing to work must be allowed opportunities based on experience, credentials and willingness, especially now when many are victims of an economy they did not destroy.? We demand we not be further victimized nor discriminated against!? This country and its people simply cannot afford it!

When businesses fail to support America, America fails as a whole.? We ask you not to fail us now.? Please sign this petition which will be submitted to the White House, local politicians and other media outlets demanding laws be put into place or amended that actively and aggressively investigate, prevent and penalize this discrimination.?

All who participate in this petition can be assured of its delivery as all will be provided an electronic copy of the tracking number once it is sent.? At that time, you can send the form letter that will be provided stating your support and participation in this petition to your local government representatives if you so choose to take additional steps.?

Petitions have been used throughout the history of America to impel changes in laws and policies for the better of all.? We are aiming for 500,000 signatures minimum and we expect to exceed that goal.? Please join us!

And go one step further.? If every single person who signs this petition uses whatever forms of social media (s)he is currently using to spread the word it will add even more leverage behind this effort.? Tweet it, post it in your LinkedIn groups, email a friend, send a text message with the link to this petition.? Every effort will be appreciated.

Your contact information will not be used for any other reason going forward.? We want your support and firm alliance in this endeavor and nothing more.?

America cannot work when America cannot work!
The Unemployed Need Not Apply

The time has come, my fellow Americans, for another Declaration of Independence. But this time it’s not some distant king jeopardizing our future, it’s the dirty energy sources of the past. Fossil fuel companies have a tyrannical stranglehold on our national energy policy. So this Independence Day, let’s declare our independence from fossil fuels.

It just so happens Green For All has a handy petition online so you can do just that. Their website has tools for you to call on your Senators to do their patriotic duty and take action to get us off the dirty stuff. You can also sign a pledge to go dirty energy-free yourself and spread the word about the Dirty Energy Independence pledge.

Of course, it’s not enough for us all to just declare our independence. We need a revolution to assert that independence once and for all — an energy revolution.

For years, however, fossil fuel companies have been telling us it can’t be done: Getting off of coal and oil, they say, would cost us too many jobs and wreak havoc on the economy. They’ve been feeding us the lie that we can’t live without them, and we’ve been swallowing it like sugar.

But it is possible to generate 96 percent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2050 and create over a million jobs in an American renewable energy sector in the next 20 years, all while phasing out the use of fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Greenpeace put out a report a few weeks ago — Energy [R]evolution: A Sustainable USA Energy Outlook — that shows how it can be done.

Why a [r]evolution? Because moving from the dirty fossil fuels of the past and onto the clean, green renewable energy sources of the future requires an evolution and a revolution.

We need a [r]evolution because business-as-usual is not going to stop the tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil spilling into our waters, scores of workers around the world losing their lives in coal mines, or the countless other disasters we are all facing due to our dirty energy reliance.

Declare your energy independence and help launch the energy revolution. It’s what real American patriots will be doing today (plus grilling and shooting off fireworks, of course).

Photo Credit: Beverly & Pack

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Declare Your Energy Independence And Start A Revolution

?Rosemary's?Quarry produces approximately one-million tons of aggregate annually.
????
?Granite has a history of creating pit mines for aggregate. And?quite?a history in Oregon; the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality?
recently fined Granite for polluting?the watershed of that state.?
?What would stop them from doing the same to our watershed???
????
?The Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve is in the midst of the?Santa Margarita Valley.? Nestled?near the?cities of Fallbrook, Murrieta, Rainbow, and?Temecula, the Valley is a welcome retreat from fast-paced city life,?and?is one of the last pristine places in the area.? The?Valley is also home to the Santa Margarita River – one of the?very few free-flowing rivers of Southern California.??
?
?The local Luiseno Indians?are opposed to the quarry. The site is
considered sacred to tribal members, and said to?have artifacts important?to their cultural heritage.??Their voice has thus far been ignored.
?
?Native residents, homeowners, schools, doctors, entire cities, and?nearly 8oo local companies and bussinesses are opposed to the Quarry as well.
?Their opinions don't count, apparently.??
???
?????????????????????????????? The Consequences?
The objective of this?quarry is to mine as much aggregate from the 414 acre site as possible by any means possible.
?The difference between this mine and others??This time, an entire mountain?needs to be taken down and broken up to acquire that aggregate. That means using 10,000 pounds of explosives per blast, per day. Twenty hours a day, six days a week(minemum). For seventy-five years. ?There is also the 310 gallons of fresh, clean water that will be used?per minute to manufacture the aggregate. That adds up to 86,000 gallons per day, or roughly 2,028,233,000 gallons?over the course of the mines 75-year?lifetime.
??Not to mention the huge trucks (needed to take the aggregate to buyers) that will clog the i15 freeway?even more than it already is. Oh, and the extra diesel soot as a byproduct of all those trucks.?
??
? It will also create sillicate dust to pollute the air. That sillicate will be carried on the breeze at least?fifty miles in all directions from the?
quarry site.?Residents, both human and not,?will suffer respiratory problems as a result of the toxic nature of sillicate.? The dust will settle over and smother anything in its path.
???
?? Even Granite's own environmental report admits there will be substantial ecological consequences?to the?area surrounding the mine.?
????
?? The Riverside County Board of Supervisors is considering?approval of??this? monstrous pit mine to increase revenue and create jobs. Every?concern over the impacts -?environmental, cultural, residential -?of this?quarry?have thus far been ignored.???

?Of course, it will create?jobs.? But at what cost?
???
??With so much aggregate already being mined from?Rosemary's Quarry,?within such a close proximity?to the Liberty Quarry,?is yet another pit mine really needed??
??
?What is more important? Economy? Or preserving?our cultural heritage, our right to health as residents, and our?scarce SouthernCalifornia?coastal-inland??habitat???
???????????????????????????????? You decide.?
??

No Quarry!

In a letter to Fortune this morning, the legendary investor admitted that the source of his mind-blowing wealth wasn’t a lifetime of grueling labor or sacrifice. Instead, he attributed his larger-than-life bank account to “a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest” — along with a volatile economic system.

“My luck,” Buffett explained, “was accentuated by my living in a market system that sometimes produces distorted results, though overall it serves our country well.” (That caveat could certainly be debated, especially in the midst of a crippling recession, but his overall message is well-appreciated.)

Buffett’s exposition of America’s capitalist system flies in the face of conventional, meritocratic wisdom: “I’ve worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions,” he wrote. “In short, fate’s distribution of long straws is wildly capricious.”

In a seeming effort to pay penance for reaping the benefits of this unfair economic system, Buffett and Bill Gates recently launched “The Giving Pledge,” an unprecedented effort to encourage hundreds of other billionaires to donate at least 50 percent of their wealth to charity.

According to Fortune, it’s likely that the two mega-rich moguls “have a minimum goal of about $600 billion in commitments … based on the calculation of half of the $1.2 trillion in net worth of the 400 richest individuals compiled by Forbes magazine.” To put that number into perspective, explains Melissa Berman, president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, $600 billion “would easily double or triple the amount of philanthropy in America.”

For his personal donations and new giving venture, not to mention his brutal, hardly-self-serving honesty, Buffett deserves a whole lot of credit. But should we let him and other beneficiaries of America’s poverty-perpetuating economic system off the hook so easily? It’s one thing to recognize your sins and attempt to remedy them via monumental donations; it’s another thing entirely to justify your sins with monumental donations. (I’m reminded of the abuse of Catholic indulgences that sparked Martin Luther’s 1517 protest against the Church.)

Putting aside his self-reflective rhetoric (and what timely, appealing rhetoric it is!), could Buffett simply be another Walmart, earmarking billions for a fight against poverty while profiting off an unjust system that creates that poverty in the first place?

Photo credit: Art Comments

"Lucky" Warren Buffett Urges Fellow Billionaires to Give 50% Away

Source

Pupils in a Irish school are being asked to bring their own toilet paper to school to help offset funding cutbacks.

The principal of St John’s Girls National School in Carrigaline, County Cork, confirmed she had sent out a memo to parents last week requesting that their daughters occasionally bring a roll of toilet paper to give to the class teacher, who would dispense the rolls to students when needed.

The bizarre request is part of the school’s cost-containment programme so that dwindling state funding can be better spent on education, says principal Catherine O’Neill.

She refused to divulge the school’s annual budget but said that the Government’s abolition of various grants was behind the request.

The letter, dated 1 October, reads: “Dear parent. From time to time we will request your daughter to bring in a toilet roll to her class teacher. These rolls will be specifically for your daughter’s class and will be dispensed by the class teacher. We would also request that your daughter has tissues in her sack at all times. This is due to cutbacks. we are endeavouring to trim down expenses and ensure we use our grants towards the educational needs of your child.”

She stressed that the request was just that, and pupils were not obliged to comply.

“We thought with this request that it wouldn’t be a burden on families. We’re just hoping to spend money on education,” she said.

“We’re all aware of cutbacks. We didn’t mean to insult anyone. It’s kind of humorous,” she said, adding she didn’t believe her school was the first to make such a request.

But a parent of one pupil said he was astonished when he got the letter last week.

“Are things really this bad? This is like something Frank McCourt might have written about growing up in the 1930s,” he said. “I was flabbergasted.”

Irish National Teachers’ Organisation spokesman Peter Mullan said many schools were reeling under funding cutbacks and parents were being asked to shoulder an even greater burden of their child’s educational costs.

Despite the Government increasing the capitation grant to cover basic operating costs in the last budget, other grants have been removed. They include the free-book scheme for low-income students, the school library grant and a special grant for Traveller children, he says.

“Two years ago, the Government promised to spend €252m to upgrade computers but not a cent has been spent on them,” he said.

Consequently, parents are being asked to hold fundraising drives in order to pay for basic upgrades of their school’s computer system, he says.

Students are also being asked to bring items like egg cartons and yoghurt containers to use for art class, he says.

“Parents were being asked to fund superficial things but now they’re being asked to pay the core things,” he said.

“It’s no longer a few books or computer equipment. It’s now for basic running costs,” he said.

The Department of Education, however, said that schools were now getting more funding for basic operating costs after the capitation grant was increased last year to €200 per student.

He added that St John’s Girls school had received close to €379,000 in state funding for its 540 pupils since January 2008.

“The school has not come to the department about any financial difficulty,” he said.

Source Irish Independent

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday defended its proposed $33 million settlement with Bank of America over bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives just before the bank took over Merrill last year.

The S.E.C. said in a federal court filing that the settlement was “fair” and “reasonable” and that it had lacked enough evidence to charge individuals at the bank with misleading shareholders about the $3.6 billion in bonuses paid to Merrill employees.

In its own legal filing, Bank of America maintained its previous stance that “there is no evidence that any individual is culpable” and said it had agreed to the settlement with the S.E.C. to avoid a protracted public court fight that could potentially damage its reputation.

On Aug. 25, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the United States District Court in Manhattan refused to approve the proposed settlement until he received an explanation about why the S.E.C. had failed to pursue charges against individuals at the bank.

Even as Bank of America was defending itself in federal court, it moved a day closer to facing potential charges from Andrew M. Cuomo, the New York attorney general, regarding the Merrill acquisition.

The bank’s lawyers sharply rejected an assertion by the attorney general’s office that the bank was hiding behind attorney-client privilege to avoid disclosing crucial facts.

In a strongly worded letter, the bank’s lawyer, Lewis J. Liman of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, wrote that Bank of America was “extremely surprised and disappointed” when it received a letter on Tuesday from the attorney general’s office, and said that its basic premise was wrong.

Mr. Cuomo’s office has been investigating several aspects of the takeover of Merrill, including when and how the bank had decided to disclose unexpected losses at Merrill as well as the bonuses paid to Merrill employees.

The letter on Tuesday from David A. Markowitz, the chief of Mr. Cuomo’s Investor Protection Bureau, said that “attorney-client privilege is hindering this office’s ability to make fair and fully informed decisions as to what charges, if any, to bring and whether individual Bank of America officers should be charged.”

In its response, Bank of America disputed that assertion on several fronts, writing that “because Bank of America did not violate the law, it has not offered reliance on legal advice as a defense.”

The letter, addressed to Eric O. Corngold, Mr. Cuomo’s executive deputy attorney general for economic justice, also said that Bank of America had offered several times to meet with Mr. Cuomo’s office to explain its side of the case but had been rejected each time.

On Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo’s office said it was nearing a decision on whether to file fraud charges against Bank of America or any of its executives. It has given the bank until Monday to provide details on the Merrill deal.

In seeking approval to buy Merrill Lynch last year, Bank of America told investors that Merrill would not pay year-end bonuses without the bank’s consent. But in its complaint filed Aug. 3 in federal court in Manhattan, the S.E.C. said Bank of America had already authorized Merrill to pay bonuses and had not shared that information with shareholders.