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ne California Communities United Institute Newsletter
www.CalComUI.org
Activism With A Heart
Justice
February 2013
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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 |
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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.
Traducción disponible
Para leer cualquiera de los siguientes artículos en más de treinta idiomas, haga clic en el enlace en la parte inferior del artículo y, a continuación, usar el widget de traducción en la parte inferior de la web según copia del artículo.
可用的翻译
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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Violence Against Women Act Reintroduced | 
In 1994 Congress enacted a major law to combat violence against women. It was called the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
It addressed many aspects of the problem. However the programs established by the legislation were temporary. They expired in the fall of 2012. Major work was done to renew the act last year, but it didn't happen.
However, last month Senator Patrick Leahy, of Vermont introduced new legislation (S. 47) to re-enact VAWA. This bill was adopted by the Senate earlier this month. Both California Senators (Boxer and Feinstein) voted for the bill.
Now the US House of Representatives must approve its version of the bill.
To read more about the new VAWA legislation, and read the current status of the House version of the bill, click here.
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AIDS Funding Threatened |  The budget gridlock in Washington poses a severe threat to HIV/AIDS funding in California, and throughout the nation. Twice now Congress has enacted legislation saying that, unless Congress can adopt a long term federal budget, major cuts would automatically be made to the federal budget. The latest deadline for passage of the budget is March 1 of this year. If a comprehensive federal budget is not enacted by that date, federal spending would automatically be reduced by $24 billion for this fiscal year. Since health and human services programs are such a large part of the federal budget, the cuts to these programs would be very large. To read more about the harm this would do, click here. |
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How Does Obama Care Affect Seniors? | 
Recently, an elderly relative expressed a fear that I have heard more than once from seniors. She had been persuaded, by those who opposed passage of the affordable care act, that this legislation is going to take away health care benefits that she now enjoys under Medicare. So, lets talk about that.
The official name of Obama Care is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). First of all, the ACA leaves all the services now available through Medicare in place. None of these benefits are taken away from seniors.
However, the act provides many new benefits to seniors (and to younger people as well).
To see what those benefits are, click here.
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Many Colleges Respect Transgender Students and Employees | 
Now is the time that many high school seniors are deciding what colleges to apply to for admission. Many factors go in to that decision. However, for transgender students, there is a particular issue that they may consider when choosing a college or university. That is, "what colleges or universities provide a welcoming, helpful atmosphere for transgender students?"
To see a video with good advice for transgender students who plan to attend college click here.
To read about some very useful tools that help students find the most transgender friendly colleges, click here.
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Benefits Offered To Same Sex Partners Of Military Service Members |  The families of members of the US military often face huge obstacles created by the low pay of our service members. For years the military has helped these families by allowing the service members' spouses to shop in military exchanges, by providing low cost child care to their children and by offering health care to service members and their families. To see a video on the pain inflicted on same sex families who have been denied these and other benefits, click here. Earlier this month, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta issued a memorandum outlining benefits that will now be offered to the same sex partners of LGBT people in the US military. And, as you will read later in this article, the new policy does a remarkable end run around those states which refuse to recognize same sex families. To see what benefits are being offered to LGBT service members and their families read the rest of this article by clicking here. |
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The Affordable Care Act And Minorities | 
According to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, by 2045, more than half of the US population will be People of Color.
If the Affordable Care Act (ACA) had not been enacted by Congress their health could have been at great risk. That's because, historically, many fewer People of Color have health insurance than do White Americans.
To read why the risk, and how the Affordable Care Act helps People of Color ovecome the problems created by those risks, click here.
Boyce Hinman
California Communities United Institute
Join our mailing list; http://bit.ly/yZbxKC________ |
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Do Latinos Really Earn More Than African Americans? | 
In another article in this newsletter I show the median family income for Hispanic households and for African American households. As you may have seen, the amount for Hispanic households is higher than for African Americans.
I've often seen similar comparisons as I do research for articles, and they have always puzzled me. Certainly there are Latino and Latina lawyers, doctors, and business executives who earn big money. But there is a common perception that many Latinos and Latinas work in low paying jobs in agriculture, hotel housekeeping and gardening, etc.
Shouldn't Latino households have lower median incomes than Black Households?
To see the answer that I found to this question, click here.
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