UO Dining is currently in the process of taking away free shift meals as part of the compensation for their student workers. Free shift meals are a normal form of compensation in the dining industry, and have a long tradition at UO. Previously dining employees received a free meal with every shift. Students relied on those meals. Unilaterally cutting compensation in this manner is unacceptable. Currently, the price of shift meals has been raised to $1, but Dining has said that starting January they will be $3. Over the course of a year that is over $700. If we can afford to Pay President Schill $800,000 a year, we don't need to nickel and dime our hard working student employees.

Why We Support the Tahoe City Lodge Project: We have restaurants. We have retail businesses. We have downtown recreational opportunities. But we need high quality lodging. The Tahoe City Lodge project will mean significant positive impacts to the environment generally and to Lake Tahoe specifically. The Tahoe City Lodge Project aligns with the vision of the community and brings numerous benefits to the North Lake Tahoe area. With the Lodge, Tahoe City gains additional visitors without the additional traffic. More stays means less day trip traffic. More walkable, bikeable and mass transit connections means fewer cars. The Tahoe City Lodge will improve Tahoe City’s economy, and make the community more competitive. The Lodge will also replace a blighted property at one of the key entrances to North Lake Tahoe creating an aesthetically pleasing gateway in-line with the community’s character and benefitting the environment.

There are 2.7 million New Yorkers who are food-insecure/hungry -- almost a million of whom are children. Any actions our state government can take to increase access to healthy, nutritious food for those who need it most should be taken. By offering a refundable tax credit to farmers who donate to food banks, this bill is a win-win for New York's farming families and those who rely on emergency food programs to feed themselves and their families. We are urging Governor Cuomo to sign it into law before the end of 2016.

After more than four months of contract negotiations between UC-AFT Librarians and the University administration over the two open articles Salary, and Professional Activities and Development, the librarians are still waiting for a meaningful response to the union’s proposals. While UC Librarians make up to 27% LESS than their counterparts at CSU campuses, the UC offered a mere 1% salary increase. When UC librarians are increasingly being encouraged to demonstrate national prominence in their fields, the UC has offered no changes to Professional Development funding. UC-AFT’s core demands include: *Competitiveness: Librarians need salaries that are competitive with our colleagues in the California Community Colleges and California State University. *Consistency: A minimum level of professional development funding for all librarians across the UC system. *Compression: Librarian salary compression must be addressed by extending the scale. 21st century scholarship means students and faculty need more and better services from professional librarians, but librarians are being asked to do more and more for less and less. In order for the UC to recruit and retain professional librarians, the UC needs to provide competitive salaries and professional development funding. This is why we, the undersigned UCD campus and community members, call on you to support UC-AFT librarians in achieving a fair contract!

There is a continuing effort to try and reduce the level of service the US Postal Service provides to the people of the USA. We believe this is against the Constitution of the United States and against the very moral fiber of our country. We support a vibrant public post office that delivers to every known address in America.

City of Chicago Municipal Code Zoning ordinance requires Salons/ Spas to be at least 1,000 feet away from each other. Currently, FIVE salon/spas operate between 1700-1850 W. Lawrence (within 3 blocks). An appeal has been filed with the city by Dalisa G. Arellano and a public notice put up to open yet another salon/spa at 1716 W. Lawrence Avenue. They do not meet the 1,000 feet restriction and neighbors in the area want more business diversity to patronize, NOT another spa/salon. Please join other local businesses and Lincoln Square/ Ravenswood neighbors to tell Alderman Ameya Pawar that another spa on Lawrence Ave is not in the best interest of the community.

Myrna De los Santos struggled with health issues for years – but she simply could not afford the health care she needed on McDonald’s pay. Last week, she passed away. She was 49. Myrna worked at fast-food restaurants in Independence, Missouri outside Kansas City, for over a decade. For the past 4 and a half years, she worked at McDonald’s – until low pay and deteriorating health drove her to quit 4 months ago. McDonald's failed Myrna with pay so low she couldn't afford to go to the doctor – and even though she made only $9 an hour, Missouri's broken safety net was not there to catch her. She never qualified for Medicaid or other help – she was left on her own. To those who knew her personally, she was an inspiration. Full of warmth and joy. Always hardworking despite the odds – even walking to work through rain and snow when she couldn’t afford transportation. To the #FightFor15, she was a leader – inspiring others on strike lines for over 2 years. She is the reason we fight. The reason we will not stop until all people who work can afford to live. Today, we call on McDonald’s to pay employees enough to afford the care they need – and make sure no hardworking person suffers Myrna’s fate again.

The next City Council meeting is September 14, 2016 at 10 a.m. 121 N. LaSalle- Council Chambers

Computerized “flash-trading” is one trick hedge funders use to manipulate the market for their sole benefit. Essentially, they use a computer program to execute millions of trades in a short period of time – sometimes holding an “investment” for a matter of microseconds. These trades produce nothing of value while destabilizing the market, driving up costs for pension funds and putting everyone else’s investments at risk – yet, it gets a small group of traders very rich. I’ve proposed to tax each stock trade at a modest 0.03% – that’s 3 cents for every $100 in trades! That would be a great thing for America. The tax would drive out traders that created market instability and lead to the “flash crash.” It would raise $40 billion a year that could be invested in education, infrastructure, and other vital economic needs. The stock market should be about making smart long-term investments in growing companies, not electronic insta-trades that treat Wall Street like a casino and destabilize the entire economy.

Fair Trade activists have been excited about our apparent victory in stopping TPP, but there are more battles ahead. Perhaps the most insidious is TISA, the secret privatization pact that poses a threat to democracy. TISA stands for Trade in Service Agreement. and like the TPP, TISA is being negotiated in secret, even though it could have a major impact on countries that sign on. According to Global justice Now, "The Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) is a proposed international trade treaty between 23 Parties, including the European Union and the United States. "Unlike most trade deals, TISA is about services, not goods. This means that it has serious consequences for things that have little to do with trade, affecting areas like labour rights, banking regulation and whether public services like electricity and water are run for the benefit of the people or by profit-making multinational companies. "Five reasons to oppose TISA "It could lock in privatisation of public services. TISA contains mechanisms, such as ‘ratchet’and ‘standstill’ clauses, that make it much harder to reverse privatisations and will allow greater market access for foreign companies. "It will be terrible for the climate. TISA entrenches the idea of technological neutrality on energy policy. This could stop countries favouring renewables over coal, oil and gas. "It will mean more casino capitalism. TISA will undermine efforts to regulate the financial sector and avoid another crisis. "It threatens online privacy. TISA promises to hand much more power to the likes of Google and Microsoft to move personal data across borders to countries with lax data protection laws. "It will be especially damaging to countries in the global south. TISA includes countries likePakistan that could be hindered in developing public services. It also poses a threat to countries outside TISA, because, once approved, rich countries will seek to impose TISA-style measures globally through the WTO." See full report here: http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/resources/what-tisa-and-why-we-need-stop-it

On August 30th, NJ Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill that would have changed the lives of nearly 1 million people by gradually raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2021. Thousands of these workers are parents who are working full-time and still can't bring home enough to take care of their children. And it's back-to-school time to boot—how can they possibly afford food, clothes, AND the school supplies needed to make sure their kids succeed on $17,430 a year? This bill has the support of 73% of of New Jersey voters and would have given a raise to 1 in 4 Jersey workers. The legislature approved it. But Chris Christie is ignoring the will of the people by vetoing it. Here's the good news. We can go around Christie. The NJ State Legislature can pass a resolution to bring the decision to the people by putting it on the ballot in 2017. Let's let the voters decide! Sign our petition to the leaders of the NJ State Legislature to bring a $15 minimum wage to the ballot box.

NOTE: FASTING CAN BE DANGEROUS. THOSE WITH HEALTH ISSUES OR CONCERNS THAT MAY BE AFFECTED BY FASTING SHOULD NOT PARTICIPATE. ANYONE UNSURE OR WITH QUESTIONS SHOULD CONSULT THEIR DOCTOR BEFORE PARTICIPATING. Farm workers are vital to our well-being as a nation. But for nearly 100 years, they’ve been treated like second-class citizens and denied real overtime. But right now, we have an opportunity to right this wrong with Assembly Bill 1066 by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez. AB 1066 is a commonsense solution that will give farm workers overtime pay after eight hours. But powerful corporate lobbyists are trying to tear it down. That is why on Tuesday, August 16, legislators, faith-based leaders, and activists across the country are going to fast for 24 hours in support of farm workers and help pass AB 1066.