Green
Party of Ohio Main Page
Newsletter Archive Index
--------------------------------------------------
Newsletter
of the Green Party of Ohio
Vol. II, No. 32 -- November 23, 2002
(This newsletter
distributed to 2,893)
--------------------------------------------------
***************************************************
FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE
***************************************************
1) JOIN THE GREEN PARTY:
88 JOIN IN LAST 6 WEEKS
2)
GREEN CANDIDATES IN OHIO GET 5.25% AND 3.04%
3)
15 STATE HOUSE SEATS WENT UNOPPOSED
4)
RIOS ADDRESS TO STATE PARTY CONVENTION
5)
A SPEECH FROM GRANNY D
6)
TRADE UNIONIST TARGET WAL-MART IN COLUMBUS
7)
COVERING THE UNINSURED: NO TIME TO WASTE
8)
IGNORED LOTTERY PRIZES FUND INDIGENT CARE
9)
SACRAMENTO TO HELP EMPLOYEES BUY INSURANCE
10) SENIORS & PRESCRIPTION DRUGS:
8-STATE SURVEY
11) MASSACHUSETTS CUTS HEALTH SERVICES
12) RISING HEALTH
COSTS REDUCE WORKERS' RAISES
13) IMMIGRANT CHILDREN FACE ECONOMIC HARDSHIP
14)
WORLD HEALTH REPORT 2002
15) MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
***************************************************
Join the Green Party of Ohio:
http://www.ohiogreens.org/membership/register.html
List of current Green Party members:
http://www.ohiogreens.org/membership/.
***************************************************
1) JOIN THE GREEN PARTY:
88 JOIN IN LAST 6 WEEKS
***************************************************
751
Ohio citizens have registered as members of the
Green Party of Ohio (GPO).
Of these, 88, or 11.7%,
have joined the party in the last six weeks.
Add
your name to the list at:
http://www.ohiogreens.org/membership/.
Join
the Green Party of Ohio today by completing the
form at:
http://www.ohiogreens.org/membership/register.html
***************************************************
2) GREEN CANDIDATES IN
OHIO GET 5.25% AND 3.04%
***************************************************
Frank
Doden, Green Party candidate for U.S. House,
District 17 covering all or parts
of Clark, Fair-
field, Fayette, Franklin, Greene, Perry, Pickaway and
Ross
Counties, received 8,628 votes, or 5.25%. Frank
has already vowed to run again
in 2004.
Alan Amstutz,
Green Party candidate for State Repre-
sentative, District 22 covering part
of Franklin
County, received 1,085 votes, or 3.04%.
***************************************************
3) 15 STATE HOUSE SEATS
WENT UNOPPOSED
***************************************************
There
were 15 state house races in Ohio that went
unopposed. Eleven of these races
were won by Repub-
licans and four by Democrats:
District
5 (Fairfield)
District 8 (Cuyahoga)
District 10 (Cuyahoga)
District 15
(Cuyahoga)
District 23 (Franklin)
District 35 (Hamilton, Warren)
District
44 (Summit)
District 55 (Butler)
District 66 (Clermont)
District 67 (Warren)
District
71 (Licking)
District 74 (Defiance, Fulton, Williams)
District 75 (Defiance,
Henry, Paulding, Putnam, Van Wert)
District 88 (Adams, Brown, Clermont)
District
94 (Coshocton, Muskingum)
***************************************************
4) RIOS ADDRESS TO STATE
PARTY CONVENTION
***************************************************
The
full text of the address made by Anita Rios,
state party delegate from Toledo
and co-chair of the
Green Party of the United States, to the Green Party
of
Ohio convention on Aug. 24, 2002, can now be read
on the party Web site at:
http://www.ohiogreens.org/features/rios.html
***************************************************
5) A SPEECH FROM GRANNY
D
***************************************************
If we Americans are
split into two meaningful camps,
it is not conservative versus liberal. The
two camps
are the politically awake and the hypnotized.
Read
Granny D's speech at:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14506
***************************************************
6) TRADE UNIONIST TARGET
WAL-MART IN COLUMBUS
***************************************************
Reported
by Evan Davis, Free Speech Radio News:
An
estimated 200 trade unionists, community activists
and representatives from
local faith organizations
targeted one of the Wal-Mart "supercenters"
in Columbus,
Ohio [Nov. 21] as part of a national day of action
aimed at
helping Wal-Mart workers unionize.
At
around 5:30 PM organizers with Jobs With Justice
took up positions in front
of the store with picket
signs and union hats and t-shirts and they were joined
soon
after by two chartered busses bringing rank and
file members of the United
Food and Commercial Workers
Local 1059. Many of the participants entered the
store
in pairs where they sought out Wal-Mart employees to
talk with candidly
about their working conditions,
wages and benefits.
Wal-Mart,
the world's largest retail operation has
garnered national criticism for its
low wages and puni-
tive personnel policies which many claim are part of a
deliberate
strategy to intimidate Wal-Mart workers and
dissuade them from seeking collective
representation.
Although
Wal-Mart managers asked the participants enter-
ing the store to leave their
signs and placards outside,
the union activists, Green Party members, clergy
and
students were allowed to navigate the aisles relatively
unfettered except
by an impressive number of yellow-
smocked "department managers"
with walkie-talkies offer-
ing gratuitous assistance in locating un-specified
pro-
ducts available for purchase. Frank Doden, a recent
Green Party congressional
candidate from Yellow Springs,
Ohio speculated that the store's general manager
must
have been "deputizing" entry level Wal-Mart "associates,"
as
their employees are called and raising their ranks
just for the duration of
the union action.
Michael
Kokonis, president of the local chapter of the
National Organization for Women
(NOW) was on hand and
cited Wal-Mart's employee promotion policies which NOW's
national
office has alleged are imbalanced favoring the
advancement of male employees
disproportionately while
equally qualified female employees are passed up.
Indeed
numerous participants in today's action observed that
nearly every
"department manager" who greeted them in
the store as well as the
store's upper level managers
were male.
Reverend
Alvin Hadley of Columbus' Metropolitan Area
Church Council emphasized that
[this] action was just
a first step. He hoped the coalition which sponsored
[the]
action would soon be calling for a meeting with
Wal-Mart's management, but
he speculated Wal-Mart would
reject that proposal. Sonya Huber, a local organizer
for
Jobs With Justice explained that the process of
introducing a pro-union perspective
to Wal-Mart
employees will be gradual and incremental. "What we
really
have to have", she said, "is a change of
culture in the stores."
***************************************************
7) COVERING THE UNINSURED:
NO TIME TO WASTE
***************************************************
The
number of Americans without insurance went up in
2001, and that increase shows
no sign of slowing.
It's not like anyone didn't see a rise coming in the
number
of uninsured, given that the figure was going
up even during the 1990s economic
boom. If there is
any suspense left in this subject, it centers on when
Congress
will enact the sensible changes that could
reverse this dismal trend. The newly
released U.S.
Census Bureau figure for the uninsured is 41.2 million
as
of the end of 2001, up 1.2 million, or 3.5%, from
the year before. A decade
ago, 33 million uninsured
was considered a national disgrace.
Read
what the AMA has to say about this:
http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/amn_02/edsa1104.htm
***************************************************
8) IGNORED LOTTERY PRIZES
FUND INDIGENT CARE
***************************************************
Texas
winners who don't claim their winnings are
helping to pay for health care for
the poor. During
the past three years, the University of Texas Medical
Branch
at Galveston has been able to take care of
nearly 25,000 indigent patients.
That's 8,300 more
people a year than they would be able to see other-
wise,
thanks to the folks who play lottery games but
don't collect their winnings.
Unclaimed lottery prizes
in Texas reached $57.2 million for the two-year period
that
began on Sept. 1, 2000, and ran through Aug. 31,
2002, with $40 million set
aside for UTMB -- the lar-
gest general hospital owned by the state that offers
tertiary
care.
More:
http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_02/prsb1104.htm
***************************************************
9) SACRAMENTO TO HELP EMPLOYEES
BUY INSURANCE
***************************************************
Sacramento
County, Calif., on Nov. 1 launched a
two-year program that uses tobacco settlement
funds
to subsidize health insurance premiums for small busi-
ness employees.
The program, called SacAdvantage,
targets low-income individuals employed at
businesses
in the county that have between two and 50 employees
and have
not offered employer-sponsored health coverage
for at least one year. California
is one of a few states
actually using tobacco settlement funds for health-
related
programs.
Under
the program, small business employees who have
annual incomes less than 300%
of the federal poverty
level -- about $53,000 for a family of four -- and do
not
qualify for other public or private health coverage
could receive a subsidy
based on their incomes. Subsidy
amounts will be based on an employee's earnings
relative
to the federal poverty level. The program will pay a set
percentage
of the premium for the least expensive plan
offered, and workers will have
the option of paying more
out of pocket for plans with additional benefits
or a
wider network of doctors and hospitals. The program will
pay 40% to
65% of the premium.
The
program, expected to cost about $1 million, will be
limited to 500 small business
employees and their
dependents. County officials predict that many indivi-
duals
who apply for SacAdvantage also might qualify for
Medi-Cal or Healthy Families,
the state's Medicaid and
CHIP programs, respectively. To keep the program running
after
the initial $1 million in tobacco funds is ex-
hausted, county officials intend
to make the program a
not-for-profit organization and solicit funding from
the
state and federal governments, as well as private
foundations. SacAdvantage
is the first program in the
state to use public funds to subsidize health benefits
at
private firms.
The
Healthcare Leadership Council extended its "Honor
Roll for Coverage Award"
to the program on Oct. 30.
The award recognizes exemplary community programs
that
provide access to health coverage for uninsured
Americans.
***************************************************
10)
SENIORS & PRESCRIPTION DRUGS: 8-STATE SURVEY
***************************************************
A
July 2002 study conducted by researchers at Tufts-
New England Medical Center,
the Henry J. Kaiser Family
Foundation, and the Commonwealth Fund, reports results
from
a 2001 survey of 10,927 noninstitutionalized
seniors in eight geographically
diverse states: Cali-
fornia, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio,
Pennsylvania,
and Texas. State-level data on drug cover-
age, medication use, out-of-pocket
costs, and cost-
related medication skipping among community-dwelling
seniors
are highlighted to examine how coverage and
experiences differ by state and
how well states have
been able to close the drug coverage gap for seniors.
The
study finds nearly one quarter of seniors (22%)
reported skipping medications
or not filling prescrip-
tions due to costs and a similar share (23%) reported
spending
at least $100 per month on their medications
in 2001. The survey also finds
that access and scope
of drug coverage depend substantially on where seniors
live.
Even in states with the highest rates of prescrip-
tion drug coverage, roughly
one in five seniors lacked
drug coverage.
More
information:
http://www.healthaffairs.org/WebExclusives/2105Safran.pdf
http://www.kff.org/content/2002/6049/Rev.%206049.pdf
***************************************************
11)
MASSACHUSETTS CUTS HEALTH SERVICES
***************************************************
Massachusetts
has eliminated health care services for
hundreds of thousands of residents
as a result of
more than $500 million in budget reductions for the
state's
human services programs over the past two
years, according to a Boston Globe
analysis released
Nov. 1. The Massachusetts Legislature and acting
Gov.
Jane Swift made four waves of reductions to the
state budget to cover a $3
billion deficit. In 2001,
the state eliminated $280 million in funds for human
service
programs, as well as $250 million for the
state's Medicaid program, which resulted
in a loss
of some benefits for about 530,000 beneficiaries.
The most sweeping
cut, scheduled to take effect in
April 2003, will eliminate 50,000 chronically
unem-
ployed residents from the state's Medicaid program.
In addition to
the Medicaid reductions, the state
eliminated funds for a tobacco cessation
program
that served about 25,000 state residents, health
centers statewide
that treated about 4,000 patients
with sexually transmitted diseases and vaccination
programs
for about 8,000 state residents at risk for
hepatitis B and about 211,000 at
risk for influenza.
Some
health care experts said that the budget reduc-
tions for the state's human
services programs will
leave Massachusetts hospitals and health centers over-
burdened.
Some advocacy groups also raised concerns
that low-income and uninsured state
residents will
bear the brunt of the budget reductions.
The
next governor will likely face a budget deficit
of $1.5 billion and may make
additional budget reduc-
tions to the state's human services programs. However,
some
in Massachusetts advocate other solutions to the
state's budget deficit, such
as new taxes, spreading
the cuts to the less vulnerable and consolidation of
state
agencies.
***************************************************
12)
RISING HEALTH COSTS REDUCE WORKERS' RAISES
***************************************************
Health
insurance premiums, which are increasing "at
their fastest clip in a decade,"
will "eat up" workers'
pay raises next year, USA Today reported Nov.
4.
Driven by higher demand for hospital services and
prescription drugs,
health insurance premiums are
expected to increase an average of 15.4% for
employers
next year. Some employers are shifting those increases
to their
employees, asking workers to pay 10% to 30%
more toward monthly premiums, increasing
deductibles
and establishing increased co-payments for office
visits, hospital
care and medications. According to
Hewitt Associates, workers' health costs
will increase
by an average of $342 to $1,753 next year. For a
worker who
earns $597 per week -- the national median
-- and receives a 4% raise, rising
health care costs
would constitute 28% of the pay increase.
***************************************************
13)
IMMIGRANT CHILDREN FACE ECONOMIC HARDSHIP
***************************************************
The
National Center for Children in Poverty reports
that many of the 30 million
immigrant children face
substantial economic hardship, because their families
are
likely to remain disadvantaged throughout their
working lives. Overall, immigrant
children are twice
as likely to be poor as native-born children-and immi-
grant
children in two-parent families are four times
as likely to be poor as their
native-born counterparts.
Two-thirds of first-generation poor children are
His-
panics, compared to only 14% of those of the third or
later generations.
In contrast, a larger number of
third- or later generation children in poverty
are
whites (46%) and blacks (37%).
More:
http://www.nccp.org
***************************************************
14)
WORLD HEALTH REPORT 2002
***************************************************
The
developing world carries the burden of most of
the major preventable health
risks today, and many
of those affected are children, according to the UN's
World
Health Organization's World Health Report 2002.
Childhood and maternal underweight
is the biggest
threat to health and life, with some 170 million
children
in poor countries underweight, mainly from
lack of food. This and other preventable
risks --
including sexually transmitted disease, high blood
pressure, tobacco,
alcohol, unsafe water and sanita-
tion, indoor smoke from solid fuels and obesity
--
account for about 40% of the 56 million deaths that
occur worldwide each
year. This could be reduced
through use of the cost-effective interventions
identified
in the report.
More
on the World Health Report:
http://www.who.int/whr/en/
***************************************************
15)
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
***************************************************
Broad
U.S. Wiretap Powers Upheld
Secret Court Lifts Bar on Terror Suspect Surveillance
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7720-2002Nov18.html
Pentagon
to Track American Consumer Purchases
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,71129,00.html
Groups
Say Parties Plan to Skirt Campaign Law
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/22/politics/campaigns/22DONA.html
Iraq
Invasion Will Trigger 'Human Catastrophe,' Report Warns
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1112-02.htm
Iraqi
Cancers, Birth Defects Blamed on U.S. Depleted Uranium
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/iraq2002/95178_du12.shtml
In
a First, a Lesbian Is Elected District Attorney in San Diego
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/13/national/13DIEG.html
***************************************************
The
views expressed in this newsletter are those
of the author or organization
noted and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the Green Party
of
Ohio.
***************************************************
To join the Green
Party of Ohio, complete the form at
http://www.ohiogreens.org/membership/register.html.
To
see the membership list of the GPO, see
http://www.ohiogreens.org/membership/.
***************************************************
Miss
an issue of our newsletter? You can now read
past newsletters of the Green
Party of Ohio by
visiting the newsletter archives at:
http://www.ohiogreens.org/newsletters/
***************************************************
We
publish this newsletter weekly (with some
exceptions) to keep you informed
about events,
activities, and news of interest to the Green Party
of Ohio
-- http://www.ohiogreens.org.
We
invite you to review our party Web site
after you've read this newsletter.
We welcome your
comments or suggestions about our site or party.
Send comments:
secretary@ohiogreens.org.
We
value our relationship with you. If at any time
you wish to leave our mailing
list and not receive
future newsletter mailings, reply to this message
with
"unsubscribe" in the subject field.
We
also encourage you to help us spread the word
about our newsletter and the
Green Party. Please
feel welcome to forward a copy of it to your friends.
They
can be added to our mailing list by submitting
the form at:
http://www.ohiogreens.org/newsletter/register.html.
Copyright
© 2002, Green Party of Ohio.
All rights reserved.
Paid for by the Green
Party of Ohio PAC (OH1066)
Gina Ficociello, Treasurer
1427 Northstar Rd.,
Columbus OH 43212
Contributions to the Green Party of Ohio are not
deductible
for federal tax purposes. This newsletter
is not authorized by any candidate
or candidate
authorized committee.
***************************************************
Green
Party of Ohio
PO Box 851, Kent OH 44240
Email: secretary@ohiogreens.org
Web:
http://www.ohiogreens.org