Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Let States Create Single-Payer Healthcare

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From: "RootsAction Team" <info@rootsaction.org>
Date: May 30, 2012 10:06 AM
Subject: Let States Create Single-Payer Healthcare
To: <aquarianm@gmail.com>

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A new bill would allow states to set up single-payer. Ask your Rep. to cosponsor.




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Dear Catherine,

Canadians got universal, nonprofit health insurance one province at a time.  Several U.S. states are trying.  But the 2010 healthcare bill protected insurance company profits by making it harder for states to act.

Rep. Jim McDermott is drafting legislation that would allow states to provide their people with universal health coverage and save money -- by cutting private insurance companies and their profits and bureaucracy out of the picture. (McDermott is a medical doctor.)

Ask your Representative to be an original cosponsor.

The "State-Based Universal Healthcare Act" would do more to cut costs and expand health coverage in the United States than any federal health reforms likely to be passed or repealed by Congress or the Supreme Court.

States should have the right, if they choose, to provide their residents with the same basic health coverage that the world's other wealthy nations enjoy – free from the federal requirement to enrich insurance executives in the process.

Ask your Representative to back this bill and to urge his or her colleagues to do the same.

Please forward this email to anyone who might agree that the wealthiest nation on earth should rank higher than 38th in life expectancy.

Onward,
The RootsAction team

P.S. Our small staff is supported by contributions from people like you; your donations are greatly appreciated.

P.P.S. RootsAction is an independent online force endorsed by Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Coleen Rowley, and many others.

Resource
Los Angeles Times: Legislation May Enable States to Offer Universal Healthcare

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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

You Helped This Story Reach the Front Page

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Craig Aaron, FreePress.net" <info@freepress.net>
Date: May 29, 2012 3:10 PM
Subject: You Helped This Story Reach the Front Page
To: "Daniel A. Stafford" <aquarianm@gmail.com>

freepress.net

Same Local News. Different Channel. 

Dear Daniel,

The headline in today's New York Times says it all: "You Can Change the Channel, but Local News Is the Same."

In a front-page story, the Times exposes a widespread but little-known problem: Your local CBS station just might be producing the news for your local NBC affiliate. Or your local ABC station might be providing the news for your local Fox station.Though the specifics vary from community to community, the end result — copycat newscasts — is the same.

The good news? The Federal Communications Commission is now taking a closer look at this practice. We need thousands of people to tell the FCC that we want diverse local news coverage — and not the same content on channel after channel.

Put the Local Back in Local News

Free Press has been tracking covert consolidation for years.2

Here's the deal: One company takes control of multiple stations in a given market, often laying off entire newsrooms at the absorbed stations. Then the new owner centralizes news production, going to great lengths to preserve the illusion of editorial independence. The practice has killed more than 500 newsroom jobs — and left viewers with far fewer sources of local news.

How widespread is this problem? In at least 83 of the nation's 210 television markets, broadcasters are airing the same cookie-cutter programming on two, three or even four stations in the same community. They use the same reporters and even the same anchors. 

In San Angelo, the Texas city profiled in the Times, identical stories appear on KSAN and KLST, but different branding appears on the screen. Unless you're in the habit of flipping back and forth during the news hour, you'd have no idea that these supposedly competing stations are delivering an identical product.

Tell the FCC: Change the Channels. Stop Covert Consolidation.

The FCC could propose new media ownership rules as early as this summer. Let's keep up the public pressure to make covert consolidation a thing of the past.

Thank you!

Craig, Libby, Josh and the rest of the Free Press team

P.S. Like our work? The Free Press Action Fund is powered by donations from people like you. We don't take a single cent from business, government or political parties. Please keep us going strong with a gift of $10 — or more — today. Thank you!

1. "You Can Change the Channel, but Local News Is the Same," the New York Times, May 29, 2012: http://act.freepress.net/go/10520?t=8&akid=3564.9916736.lUZcWU

2. Is covert consolidation affecting your community? Visit our interactive map depicting the impact of newsroom consolidation and learn more.

 

Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Learn more at www.freepress.net.

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E THIS WEEK

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From: "E - The Environmental Magazine" <karen@emagazine.com>
Date: May 29, 2012 2:12 PM
Subject: E THIS WEEK
To: <aquarianm@gmail.com>

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EMagazine
E - THE ENVIRONMENTAL MAGAZINE THIS WEEK
May 27, 2012
WHAT WE'RE FOLLOWING
L.A. Bans the Bags
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Rising Waters and Political Wrangling
Virginia's Middle Peninsula is a Microcosm of Climate Change Impacts and Skepticism

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E 's Green Home Picks: Airing Out
Room-Brightening Baskets, Air Purifiers and Smarter Surge Protectors

A Little Aloha

By the front door, in the bathroom, in the kid's room—a stylish, sturdy basket is one of a home's most necessary de-cluttering items. These baskets ($24-$30) made by Hawaiian-based Etsy shop ManilaExtract from recycled burlap coffee bags and lined with…

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EARTHTALK Q&A
Chemicals in Umbilical Cord Blood

Dear EarthTalk: A few years back a study found over 200 chemicals in the umbilical cord of newborns, particularly African American, Asian and Hispanic babies. What are the causes of this phenomenon and what can be done about it?

—Bettina Olsen, New York, NY

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Predatory Birds Make Comeback

Dear EarthTalk: I understand there is good news about the recovery of bird species like the Peregrine Falcon, Bald Eagle and others owed to the 1972 ban on DDT. Can you explain?

—Mildred Eastover, Bath, ME

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May/June 2012
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