Key terms of the settlement will include:

• Adoption of an affordable housing plan (or “housing element”) by
  early 2013
• Rezoning sites in and around downtown to promote the development
  of affordable housing near jobs and transit
• Providing local funding for nonprofit housing developers

The lawsuit was filed by civil rights law firm Public Advocates Inc. and the Public Interest Law Project on behalf of Peninsula Interfaith Action (PIA), Youth United for Community Action (YUCA) and Urban Habitat. The three groups are members of a coalition known as Envision-Transform-Build East Palo Alto.

Title: “Tentative Deal to Settle Menlo Park Housing Lawsuit Announced”
Author: Public Advocates Inc.
Date: May 17, 2012
Source: Press release

In the final weeks DC tenants were very present at the City Council. In particular, members of LEDC’s Tenant Purchase Campaign had a great conversation with Councilmember Muriel Bowser concerning the Housing Production Trust Fund the day before the budget vote and many others testified at DHCD’s Oversight hearing concerning the positive impacts of the Trust Fund and the current need for continued funding. Tenant leaders spoke out at CNHED’s Housing for All Advocacy Day, the Housing for All Rally and the Fair Budget Coalition Day in the Strife action. Many also made calls and sent emails to their Councilmembers.

There is one more budget vote on June 5th, as LEDC will continue to work to get a couple more of their priorities addressed. The 5th Annual Tenant Town Hall is just around the corner. This will be a great chance to interact with elected officials and the heads of the DC Housing Agencies.

2012 Tenant Town Hall
Saturday, June 23rd | 1:00 PM
National City Christian Church – 5 Thomas Circle NW (near 14th and M St. NW)

More information on LEDC’s recent and ongoing work can be found here.

Denver, CO – The Colorado Senate passed Senate Bill 46 – the smarter school discipline bill – with an overwhelming bipartisan 32-3 vote this morning.

“Students need to be in school learning, not wasting the time and resources of the law enforcement system,” said Ricardo Martinez, Co-Executive Director of Padres y Jóvenes Unidos. “We are pleased the Senators recognized that existing zero tolerance discipline policies don’t give school administrators the discretion to use common sense when dealing with student behavior problem.”

Youth members of Padres y Jóvenes Unidos have been a driving force for school discipline reform since the fall of 2010, when they began researching state laws and district policies, educating fellow students around the state and testifying before the task force and in other venues. They continue to be a presence at the Capitol to promote smarter discipline for safe schools.

“This bill will keep 10,000 kids a year out of the juvenile justice system for minor misbehavior,” said Dionna Hudson, a leader of Jóvenes Unidos and student at Denver’s South High School. “I’m relieved that legislators understand that students should stay in school.”

The bill will advance to the House of Representatives, where Rep. B.J. Nikkel is the primary sponsor.

Title: “Smarter School Discipline Bill (SB 46) Passes in Colorado Senate”
Author: Padres y Jóvenes Unidos
Date: April 27, 2012
Source: Padres y Jóvenes Unidos Action Alert

Unfortunately, Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t seem to prioritize this need, seeing how he continues to cut funding for programs that do exactly that.

In response to these budget cuts, FUREEous Youth led a direct action at the City Council Youth Services Committee’s March 15th public hearing for the budget of DYCD. We called on the Mayor to allocate more funding to programs that help young people get ready for careers, such as the Summer Youth Employment Program, after school programs, and internship programs.

With our mouths taped shaped, we also pushed for greater democracy for youth in the process that affects us. We urged the Youth Services Committee to provide youth with more access to their meetings and public hearings by holding them later in the day so that more youth can attend and testify on their own behalf.

Check out this video showing FUREEous Youth as we prepared for the action and later reflect on it.

FUREEous Youth meets every Thursday at 4pm. Interested in joining? Contact Dez at dez@furee.org or 718-852-2960 x307.

Title: “Youth Speak Up with Mouths Taped Shut”
Author: FUREE
Date: April 19, 2012
Source: FUREEous Notes Newsletter

Following two years of organizing, mass education awareness and collaborative engagement by advocates for increased student access to the District’s Breakfast Program, LAUSD School Board President Monica Garcia introduced a Resolution to expand the Breakfast in the Classroom program to hundreds of schools throughout the District, with future plans to go district-wide. On April 17th, 2012, the School Board passed the Resolution, titled “Breakfast in the Classroom for Student Success,” with full consent.

On March 29, 2012, InnerCity Struggle joined Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles Fund for Public Education, California Food Policy Advocates, School Board President Monica Garcia, SEIU Local 99, and the Healthy School Food Coalition at a “Food for Thought” press conference to support the Breakfast in the Classroom campaign.

The campaign calls for time during school hours for food to be distributed, eaten, and cleaned-up. Supporters of the Breakfast in the Classroom Resolution highlight the numerous benefits that this program will have for the District’s academic goals. Research shows that the Breakfast in the Classroom program has nutritional and academic benefits for students ensuring that they begin the day with a healthy meal to make certain they are ready to learn. The program will also have significant financial benefits for the District since greater student participation in the program will bring additional federal funding via reimbursements.

Mrs. Rodriguez, a parent leader with InnerCity Struggle and mother of LAUSD students in Boyle Heights, spoke at the press conference and voiced her support for the Breakfast in the Classroom program, “Our schools are surrounded with liquor stores and fast food venues…our children don’t have access to healthy food. In our neighborhoods, there are many low-income families, which means the only place that can provide children with a nutritious meal is in the schools.”

In addition, the program will create much needed staff positions, in particular for cafeteria workers, which is critical in this time of school budgets cuts. With LAUSD revamping the school menu to provide healthier food options, the Breakfast in the Classroom program will be a concrete step forward to increasing access to school food for low-income communities in LAUSD.

School Board President Monica Garcia stated on April 17, 2012, “Everyone wins, when parents, students, community members and LAUSD work together.”

Title: “Breakfast in the Classroom”
Author: InnerCity Struggle
Date: April 18, 2012
Source: InnerCity Struggle Newsletter

The District is taking the right step in drawing a bright line between local police and federal immigration enforcement. This year, D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) introduced the “Immigration Detainer Compliance Amendment Act of 2011,” which stipulates that the District will only hold someone for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if the detainee has been convicted of a dangerous and violent crime. In contrast, the Secure Communities program, which operates pre-conviction, ensnares people who have not been found guilty of a crime or who have committed only minor offenses.

In the District, we work hard to build a diverse and productive workforce and community, and we believe that immigrants are an integral part of that effort. Mr. Mendelson’s effort draws the right balance by ensuring that communities feel safe reporting crimes and cooperating with police. That is what ultimately makes a community more secure.

Nikki Daruwala, Washington
The writer is the executive director of DC Jobs with Justice.

Title: “Letter to the Editor: Local police shouldn’t handle immigration enforcement”
Author: Nikki Daruwala
Date: April 15, 2012
Source: The Washington Post

This past week, I had the privilege of joining with thousands of people from Alabama and around the country who walked from Selma to Montgomery to commemorate the historic march 47 years ago that forced Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act and that changed our country forever. Hundreds of leaders from the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), the immigrant rights coalition convened by the Center for Community Change (CCC), came to Alabama from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Kansas and Colorado. We joined with thousands of members and leaders from civil rights organizations, immigrant rights organizations and AFL-CIO unions and other unions in a powerful, diverse show of strength and unity that transformed the hearts and minds of everyone who was a part of it. I believe that this week’s events will go down in history as a turning point in our efforts to build a broad-based coalition to advance progressive change.

We were marching to honor the extraordinary sacrifices of our forbearers, but we also were marching to right the wrongs of today, especially the assaults on workers’ rights, voting rights and immigrant rights—in Alabama and around the country. There were several lessons that I took from the week’s events.

First, we saw in reality the dream that many of us have been working for decades to achieve: a multiracial, progressive coalition united across issues in the fight for justice. I was part of the team that led the march on Thursday, and there was a moment when we came down a hill and turned around that will stay with me for the rest of my life. We saw well over 1,000 marchers who looked like America, singing and chanting and walking together, arm in arm down U.S. Highway 80. This was a spiritual moment in which I saw and understood the power and potential of the coalition we are building.

This is crucial because what connects our struggles is the desire of our opponents to make sure that the emerging majority of color never attains power in America. The effort to disenfranchise people of color and young people through voter suppression laws is highly strategic. It is an effort to make sure that the country’s changing demography does not result in a change in the electorate. This fear of a new emerging majority also explains the ruthless assault on immigrants and the effort to deny a path to citizenship to millions of immigrants.

The march reminded us that the only antidote to this cynical and undemocratic strategy is the kind of mass movement that lit up Alabama last week.

Second, we learned that when we organize, we can win. It was no coincidence that the same day the marchers focused on the injustices of H.B. 56, Alabama’s worst-in-the-nation immigration law, we heard the amazing news that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unexpectedly enjoined two of the worst provisions of that racist law. We have created a climate of resistance that has forced the courts to act. Even the Alabama state legislature is now considering how to backtrack on the bill. While there is still enormous work to be done, this very real progress is a testament to the extraordinary organizing and coalition building we have done together.

Finally, I and many of the marchers from community organizations were reminded yet again of the centrality of unions to the fight for social justice in America. The march would have been inconceivable without the strategic, human and mobilization capacity of the union movement. Labor leaders such as Bill Lucy, Eliseo Medina and Arlene Holt Baker were the moral and strategic force behind this incredible week. The effort to destroy the labor movement and undermine workers’ rights is a direct and strategic threat to civil and human rights in our country. Our opponents understand that by weakening the labor movement, they will undermine the bulwark of social justice struggles in the United States. That is why we who are in the community and in civil rights organizations understand that workers’ rights is an issue that affects all of us, whether or not we are in unions. The ties between labor and community are so much stronger thanks to the work we did last week.

We still have much work to do. State fights on workers’ rights, immigrant rights and voting rights are ahead of us. The Supreme Court will be taking up cases this year that if decided wrongly could roll back the 20th century and take us back to a dark past. And most importantly, just a few months away loom the 2012 elections, which are crucial to our hope for a better America. By building the broad coalition that can take on these huge fights through the work we did in Alabama last week, we paid proper respect to the marchers who took to the same highway 47 years ago under much harder circumstances. If they could change the country facing violence and repression on a scale that we cannot imagine, we can do our part today to change America. Si, se puede! Yes, we can!

Title: “Making History in Alabama”
Author: Deepak Bhargava
Date: March 13, 2012
Source: AFL-CIO Now Blog

Will bring common sense back to discipline while ensuring safe schools

DENVER – The Colorado Senate Education Committee passed Senate Bill 46 – the smart school discipline bill – this afternoon. Sen. Linda Newell and Sen. Evie Hudak were the bill sponsors.

“We are pleased the Senators recognized that existing zero tolerance discipline policies don’t give school administrators the discretion to use common sense when dealing with student behavior problems,” said Ricardo Martinez, Co-Executive Director of Padres & Jóvenes Unidos.

“Students need to be in school learning, not wasting the time and resources of the law enforcement system.”

Youth members of Padres & Jóvenes Unidos have been a driving force for school discipline reform since the fall of 2010, when they began researching state laws and district policies, educating fellow students around the state and testifying before the task force and in other venues. They continue to be a presence at the Capitol to promote smart discipline for safe schools.

“I’m just glad that the legislators saw that young people need to be in school getting guidance from adults, not turned out on the street with a police record,” said Dionna Hudson, a leader of Jóvenes Unidos and student at Denver’s South High School. “It’s time to end the harmful ‘school to jail track.’”

The bill will advance to the Senate Appropriations Committee. If it passes in that committee, a Senate floor vote will be scheduled later in the legislative session.

For more information please contact Ricardo Martinez at ricardo@padresunidos.org

padresunidos.org

Title: “Smart Discipline (SB 46) bill passes Senate Education Committee”
Author: Padres & Jóvenes Unidos
Date: March 1, 2012
Source: Padres & Jóvenes Unidos

The law, which took effect on September 29 after it was upheld by a federal judge, could also be interpreted to mean
that private utility companies, like Alabama Power, will have to cancel business transactions with undocumented residents as well. Initially, Alabama Power chose to do this, but has since reversed this policy, according to reports.

Pending federal appeals mean that certain aspects of the law are not yet in effect, but already workers—mainly Latino—across Alabama are beginning to take action. Whether or not unionized utility workers will enforce the law will be a test of the newly emerging solidarity that the AFL CIO and other groups have been trying to cultivate between organized labor and recent
immigrants.

Some unions appear slow to develop a public position on whether or not they will potentially shut off power to undocumented residents. IBEW Communications Specialist Alexander Hogan, whose union represents utility workers in the state (including at Alabama Power), said the IBEW would not be issuing a statement on Alabama’s new legislation. However, Hogan did not rule
that the union would condemn it.

Stewart Acuff, chief of staff of the Utility Workers Union of America, whose union does not represent Alabama workers, has much
stronger feelings on the law. “It’s completely and terribly wrong that the Alabama law would cut utilities to workers. We know better than anybody how dangerous it is to cut off utilities especially in the winter time. We are opposed to treating immigrants as second-class citizens or in a discriminatory manner,” says Acuff.

The silence of the IBEW on the law stands in contrast to Latino workers who have taken militant action on the jobs to protest the
immigration law. Last month on October 12,  thousands of Latinos across the state walked off the jobs in wildcat strikes to protest the immigration law. Six major poultry plants were closed in the northeast of Alabama, according to the AP and more than 40 businesses were shut down due to the protests according to Labor Notes. Business across the state reported than usual
absentee rates at worksites. The actions were not sanctioned by any union and organized primarily through word of mouth and using social media, according to reports.

The militant actions and wildcat strikes demonstrate how deeply unsettling the new immigration law is to Latino workers. Over the past few years, the AFL-CIO has been attempting to build stronger relationship with Latino communities that were in the past not as closely linked to organized labor. This was symbolized by the recent affiliation of the National Taxi Worker Alliance (a largely immigrant workforce) and strategic partnerships formed between the AFL-CIO and the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity.

At the Alabama AFL-CIO Convention last week, AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler, a former top staffer of the IBEW, said

Today, we know an employer can replace workers with those who have no rights. We know he can pay less and get away with it because workers who live and work in the shadows, outside our labor laws, can’t complain. Our current immigration system is broken, and is a blueprint for employer manipulation and abuse.

Fairness, justice and equality – these are the pillars that unite us – and as we navigate through what we all agree are difficult waters, we must remain focused on the foundational principles that make the labor movement strong.

Will we accept the politics of division, and join those who blame the uninsured for the health care crisis, teachers for state budget problems, the foreclosed for the housing crisis, or immigrants and jobless workers for the jobs crisis? Or will we live by the
words we say often enough: We Are One?

If utility companies did indeed agree to shut off power to undocumented workers, Shuler’s former union as well as others would be faced with a challenge: Will unions go out of their way to stand in solidarity with undocumented workers, to say “We Are One”? Or will they go along with the state’s new anti-immigrant climate? Answers may be forced soon enough, as the labor movement seeks closer ties with undocumented workers increasingly under attack.

Title: Alabama Immigration Law May Soon Test Union Solidarity
By: Mike Elk
Source: In These Times
Date: Wednesday Nov 2, 2011

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Gov. Rick Scott “overstepped his constitutional authority and violated the separation of powers” with an executive order freezing all pending rules until he could approve them.

In a 5-2 opinion, the court concluded that rule-making authority belongs to the Legislature, not the governor.

“The Legislature retains the sole right to delegate rulemaking authority to agencies,” the majority justices wrote, “and all provisions in [Scott’s executive orders] that operate to suspend rulemaking contrary to the Administrative Procedures Act constitute an encroachment upon a legislative function.”

Scott called the decision a “disappointment” and “not right,” saying he didn’t understand the court’s logic.

“Think about it. Secretaries of these agencies report to me. And they work for me at will,” he said. “And I’m not supposed to supervise them? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Rosalie Whiley, a blind woman from Opa-locka, charged that Scott took over the Legislature’s constitutional authority to direct rule-making when he signed an executive order hours after his Jan. 4 inauguration requiring his approval of all proposed rules through the newly created Office of Fiscal Accountability and Regulatory Reform.

Whiley wanted the executive order lifted. The court, though, declined to honor that request.

Instead, justices concluded the order “will not be enforced against an agency” unless the Legislature specifically grants the governor rule-making authority.

The order was part of Scott’s effort to eliminate “burdensome” and “duplicative” rules and “job-killing” regulations he believes hinder economic growth.

State agencies develop thousands of rules each year to implement laws.

Of the nearly 900 proposed rules reviewed by Scott’s office of Regulatory Review, only a few dozen were rejected through the order. They related to such procedures as record-keeping by home health aides and management of documents by the Agency for Workforce Innovation.

But Scott’s order delayed many rules, and Whiley argued it delayed one that would make it easier for her to apply for food stamps online. The governor ultimately approved the rule specific to her case.

Whiley said she didn’t come up with the idea of suing on her own. Miami attorney Valory Greenfield approached her, asking if she would put a face to those hurt by the governor’s action. Whiley agreed.

“The impact is just letting him know, even though we elected you and we put you there, you have to respect us in all different ways,” she said Tuesday.

Scott attorney Charles Trippe had argued that the “supreme executive power” granted the governor by the state Constitution is among the reasons he has final say over rules developed by state agencies under his control.

The court rejected that argument, saying such an interpretation “ignores the fundamental principle that our state Constitution is a limitation upon, rather than a grant of, power.”

Trippe said he believes even with the ruling, the governor, who has hiring and firing authority over agency heads, still can voice his opinion on rules proposed by agencies. He just can’t add a formal OK to the administrative process of rule approval.

Chief Justice Charles Canady and Justice Ricky Polston disagreed with the majority.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, a Scott supporter, described the court’s opinion as “bizarre,” questioning why justices would decline to quash the executive order but expect the governor to not implement it.

“It proves how outcome driven the opinion is,” he said. “The court doesn’t like the governor’s policies.”

He also warned that the Legislature might give the governor more rule-making authority.

“When the court invites the Legislature to the dance on rule-making, they may not like the song that we pick,” he said. “The Legislature clearly has the intent of curbing the authority that each individual agency has to promulgate burdensome rules.”

In the 2011 session, lawmakers passed a law giving the governor’s Regulatory Review office authority to review existing rules, but not suspend pending rules.

So far, the office has analyzed more than 11,400 existing rules, and identified more than 1,600 for repeal. More than half of those are in the departments of Business and Professional Regulation and Environmental Protection, according to floridahasarighttoknow.com, which tracks the governor’s rule review.

House speaker designate Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said the GOP-led Legislature has no issue with Scott’s objective.

“We have a need for rules. But it got a little bit out of hand,” he said. “We recognize that the excessive rule-making is drowning businesses. Regardless of what the Supreme Court decision is, we are going to continue to scrutinize rules being made to make sure they’re helping our economy and not hurting it.”

Eric Draper, executive director of the Audubon Society, one of three groups that filed court briefs supporting Whiley, said the ruling serves the public well.

“There is no mechanism by which ordinary people can get into or even figure out what’s going on,” he said. “It substitutes for public participation the personal judgment of the governor, and, we think, the special interests the governor is listening to.” Scott has been named in nine lawsuits since he took office. This is the first where a court has ruled against him.

Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, earlier this year unsuccessfully sued the governor in the Supreme Court, saying he overstepped his authority when he killed a high-speed rail project approved by the Legislature.

She said Tuesday’s decision underscores the limits of Scott’s power in a government with three equal branches.

“He’s the governor, he’s not a king,” she said. “The court is saying, that’s it. You can’t run state government like a business. … You are the governor of Florida and you don’t have the authority to run every facet of state government.”

Title: Courts: Gov. Scott overstepped his authority: Case stemmed from a lawsuit filed by a blind Opa-locka woman who charged governor’s action was causing delays
Author: Janet Zink; Times/Herald staff writers Steve Bousquet and Michael Vasquez contributed to this report.
Source: Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
Date: August 16, 2011