neJustice California Communities United Institute Newsletter

www.CalComUI.org

 Activism With A Heart 
 
  
Justice
January, 2013

Do Our Letters Make A Difference?

 

"Nearly identical percentages of legislative staffers said postal mail (90%) and E-mail (88%) would influence an undecided legislator."*

*Congressional Management Foundation
In This Issue - Clickable Links To Articles
Translation Available
Join California Communities United Institute
The Fiscal Cliff In Education
Bullying Continues In Our Schools
Violence Against Women Act Died
Sexual Orientation Based Hate Crimes Down A Lot
Obama Helps Immigrants
 
     
  
    Happy New Year
Wishing you a year filled with good health and happiness 

Translation Available

 

To read any of the following articles in more than thirty languages, click on the link at the bottom of the article and then use the translation widget at the bottom of the web based copy of the article.

 

Traducci�n disponible

Para leer cualquiera de los siguientes art�culos en m�s de treinta idiomas, haga clic en el enlace en la parte inferior del art�culo y, a continuaci�n, usar el widget de traducci�n en la parte inferior de la web seg�n copia del art�culo.

 

可用的翻

 

阅读以下文章以三十多个语言的任何,单击底部的文章的链接,然后在网页的底部使用翻译构件根据文章的复印件


翻訳可能に任意の 30 以上の言語では、以下の記事を読んで、記事の下部にあるリンクをクリックしてし、web ベースのコピーの記事の下部に翻訳ウィジェットを使用しています。

Note: You can place this newsletter on your social networking site (such as Facebook ot Twitter) by clicking on the share buttons at the top of this newsletter.  

 

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Join California Communities United Institute

The members of California Communities United Institute (CalComUI) get monthly E-mailed newsletters filled with information about legislation and other issues that affect each of the communities we serve. The newsletter helps you track the progress of the bills you care about.

 

Members also get E-mailed alerts about legislation of importance to the communities we serve. These alerts help members easily E-mail their elected officials on that legislation.

 

You can join CalComUI by visiting our web site and keying your E-mail address into the yellow box at the bottom of any page on the site. To start the process click here
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The Fiscal Cliff In Education

Falling Off A Cliff  

Recently California's public colleges and universities have suffered huge reductions in the funds provided to them by the state. As a result they have had to enact significant increases in tuition rates to stay afloat.

 

The reduction in state support has forced the schools to greatly reduce the number and variety of classes they offer. The increase in tuition rates has meant that many fewer people could afford college.

 

A recent item on the NBC evening news gives a stark example of just how bad this will be for California and for its people. To read more about this, click here.

 

Boyce Hinman
California Communities United Institute
Join our mailing list; http://bit.ly/yZbxKC
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Bullying Continues In Our Schools

Bully  

A new report issued by KidsData.org indicates that bullying remains a significant problem in California's public schools.

 

And sadly, they say there is little evidence that the prevalence of harassment has declined among 7th graders since 2006-08. KidsData also reports there have been only small declines among 9th and 11th graders.

 

Interestingly this contrasts with some significant reductions in hate crimes in the state. ( See the article on hate crimes in this newsletter.)

 

For more details on the bullying report click here.

 

Boyce Hinman
California Communities United Institute
Join our mailing list; http://bit.ly/yZbxKC
 
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Violence Against Women Act Died

 

Sadly, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) died when Congress failed to renew it prior to December 31, 2012.

 

Over many years this law has provided important resources to help prevent violence against women and to assist those who have experienced such violence. The act was originally enacted in 1994.

 

It was renewed without difficulty in 2000, and 2006.

 

To learn more about VAWA and why it was so important, click here.

 

Boyce Hinman
California Communities United Institute
Join our mailing list; http://bit.ly/yZbxKC
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Sexual Orientation Based Hate Crimes Down A Lot
 
Hate Sign
The California Attorney General has released the California Hate Crimes Report for 2011. A very significant fact in that report is that hate crime events with a sexual orientation bias were down 12.5% in 2011 as compared to the previous year. There were 244 such events in 2011.

Within the sexual orientation category, anti gay (i.e. gay male) hate crimes per year have dropped by 58% since 2002.

These decreases are part of an overall decrease in hate crimes over the years. According to the 2011 report, since 2002, the total number of hate crimes per year has gone down by 33%

To read what the most common types of hate crimes were in 2011 click here.

Boyce Hinman
California Communities United Institute
Join our mailing list; http://bit.ly/yZbxKC

Obama Helps Immigrants

US Department Of Homeland Security 

On January 3, The US Department of Homeland Security issued a new rule change that will help perhaps hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants in this country who have close family members (such as a spouse, parent or child) who are US citizens.

 

The new rule says, if an undocumented immigrant has close relatives in the US, who are US citizens, then they may apply for legal residence in the US while they are in this country.

 

If their request is granted then they would have to go back to their countries of origin to get a visa to this country. The process of obtaining a vis usually takes just a short time.

 

The new rule replaces the previous policy under which undocumented immigrants had to go back to their country of origin, and then apply for legal residency.

 

The application process can be very lengthy and, under the old rules, they might have been separated from close relatives, such as spouses, parents and children, for years.

 

This new rule will become effective on March 4, 2013.

 

To learn more, and to see a copy of the new rule, click here.

 

Boyce Hinman
California Communities United Institute
Join our mailing list; http://bit.ly/yZbxKC
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