Following issues and politics in St. Louis area from the retired "Steelworker" view. Politics will be the main theme, but news of the group and Steelworkers will also be followed.
Updated at 12:45 a.m. Saturday: Police moved into the Occupy St. Louis protest at Kiener Plaza about 12:30 a.m. and took about 20 protesters into custody.
The arrests came about 15 minutes after officers warned protesters that anyone who refused to leave the downtown plaza would be arrested.
The crowd of Occupy St. Louis protesters had shrunk to about 100. Of them, about 25 indicated they were willing to be taken into custody.
"None of us are choosing to be arrested," said Brian Staack, one of the protesters, just before he was taken into custody. "We are choosing to maintain our occupation and our right to peaceably assemble."
There was shouting from the protesters as the arrests were made, but no signs of violence. Streets near the plaza were closed before the arrests were made.
--------- keep in mind: rally downtown at 3 pm this Thursday. I will be there for sure
also note: will not spend a dime holiday shopping downtown this holiday season. sorry St. Louis for sales tax loss, but carting away demonstrators stupid
Monday, 18 Apr 2011, 3:45 PM Make Corporations Pay - Kiener Plaza
600 Market Street St. Louis, MO 63101
Hosted by Cathy de la Aguilera
Description Join MORE, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment on this national day of action to make corporations pay their fair share! Enough is enough! On Tax Day, April 18, as millions of Americans pay their taxes, we will call on corporations and millionaires to pay their fair share. At thousands of events from coast to coast, people will present tax bills to corporate tax dodgers for the billions of dollars their legions of lobbyists helped them avoid. Join MORE, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, on this national day of action. We will present a tax bill to Bank of America and Peabody Coal. We invite frustrated taxpayers, underwater homeowners, vilified public servants, job-hunting students, and unemployed veterans—everyone facing cuts or cutbacks, a pink slip or a shrinking paycheck—to join in.
www.organizemo.org, Facebook: Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment
VOL. 74 No. 32 The nation’s largest official labor weekly since 1937 Thursday, March 10-16, 2011 VOL. 74 No. 32 The nation’s largest official labor weekly since 1937 Thursday, March 10-16, 2011 BE THERE
Workers rally this Friday, March 11 @ 4 p.m. downtown St. Louis
Missouri, Southern Illinois workers will have their voices heard: ‘We’re fed up and we’re not going to takeit anymore!’Bring family,friends, co-workers.Ride, Walk,Crawlifyou haveto,butcome toKienerPlaza
It’s time our voices are heard! The assault is a planned, programmed effort across This is an open call to all union
America. Wisconsin is the most vis- members, families and friends in Getting to theible fight where the very essence of both Missouri and Southern Illi
working families is a stake, as the nois to let the voices of working Rally, Parking Republicans want to strip workers of Americans be heard at a massive
the fundamental right of collective
l MetroLink: closest stop is 8th and
Working Families Rally to be held
bargaining.
Pine(oneblock);BuschStadium(3blocks).
at 4 p.m. this Friday, March 11
This Friday is your chance to
in Kiener Plaza in downtown St.
stand up and shout, “I won’t take Louis at 7th and Market Streets. it any more!” Ample parking is available at public lots only blocks While the rich in America continue to grab more, we away.the working folks, the middle class of America that has
There is a major assault on working families in Missouri made this nation what it is, are struggling for survival! with the proposed passage of anti-worker bills to strip This will be the first major rally for Missouri and minimum wage workers of the increases voted by the public Southern Illinois. repeal child labor laws, change workers’ compensation, Drive your car, take MetroLink or MetroBus, car pool, walk the potential of a right-to-work (for less) law to weaken if you have to, but come downtown and join the rally Friday. unions, and passage of law that would kill a union’s ability Do it for yourself, do it for your family, do it for America’s to stand up in the political area for workers everywhere. working families need to survive!
Getting to, parking at Kiener Plaza Missouri to parking garages
l From Interstate 70: Exit on Memorial which jogs onto 8th then jogs onto Stadium Drive in downtown. Make a right on Market Plazaaroundthestadium,eastoneitherWalnut Street, left onto Broadway to the Stadium or Market, south on Broadway, Stadium East East Garage.Garage is on the left.
l From Interstate 64: Exit at 6th St., left l From Interstate 55: Exit on the 2nd on Gratiot, left on 4th St, north four blocks Broadway exit. North on Broadway, becomes to Stadium East Garage (on left).4th St,. to Stadium East Garage. OR exit at
l From Interstate 44: Exit at 7th Street. MemorialDr.indowntown.LeftonMarketSt., Right off ramp, left on 7th. North on 7th left onto Broadway to Stadium East Garage.
Illinois to parking garages
l I-64/-55/70 (Poplar St. Bridge): Exit l Eads Bridge: Exit I-64 at 3rd St. in on Memorial Dr., turn left on Market St. East St. Louis. Follow the Casino Queen and go three blocks. Turn left on Broadway, signs toward the riverfront to the ramps Stadium East Garage is on left.up to the bridge. On St. Louis side, con-
l Martin Luther King Bridge: West tinue west to Broadway, turn left. South on Convention Plaza to Broadway, left on on Broadway, seven blocks to the Stadium Broadway,tenblockstoStadiumEastgarage. East Garage.
Sources: St. Louis and Charlotte In the Lead for 2012 DNC Convention FOX2's Charles Jaco reports that St. Louis and Charlotte, NC have risen to the top of the four finalist cities for the 2012 DNC Convention.
This is an event that I will miss, I shall be at the saloon. Have fun those going to attend: --------------------------- Please purchase your tickets today and forward this invitation to friends.
Senator Claire McCaskill
Invites you to join
President Barack Obama
with special guest, Missouri's Own, Neal E. Boyd, winner of 2008's America's Got Talent
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Presidential Dinner - 6:15 PM
or
Grassroots Reception - 6:30 PM
Renaissance Grand Hotel
800 Washington Avenue
St. Louis, Missouri
RSVP Required
To learn more visit: http://www.claireonline.com/potusevent
For more information on this event to benefit Senator McCaskill and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee please contact:
Anna Jinkerson at (314) 592-2238 or showmestatevictoryfund@gmail.com
or Remy Onstad at (202) 314-3234 or onstad@dscc.org
---------note there is a charge for standing room only. I prefer to sit and sit I shall--on a bar stool not too far from this event.
Alas, I did not make the H-Can demonstration on healthcare yesterday (twisted foot doing my version of the Winter Olympics); but the teabaggers and the media did make it.
The vid below is confrontation of Teabagger and Chanles Jaco:
------------- Alas, some of the teabaggers are upset with the term teabagging.
----------------------------- This is a snip of Jaco show talking about some of the right wing folks in Missouri politics showing up a teabagger rally:
---------- Charles Jaco has excellent record of reporting on Fox news in St. Louis and on KTRS 550 AM in St. Louis, Missouri. Personally he does the finest job of covering healthcare and issues in the gateway metro area
Last week, Melanie Shouse died. She was a pro healthcare change activist and major Obama supporter in St. Louis, Missouri.
She died of cancer and had limited insurance. Alas, that is common enough story in Missouri where the state house hopes the sick die and die quickly if they do not have money. So sad is the fact that in the St. Louis area, St. Louis has some of the best, most modern tech and best doctors/hospitals in the world.
She will be missed.
------------ from labor vision
-----------------
--------------- From St. Louis Post Dispatch:
Melanie Shouse fought to her death for health care reform BY MICHAEL D. SORKIN Thursday, Feb. 04 2010
When Melanie Shouse began feeling ill, eventually finding a lump in her breast, she couldn't afford a doctor. She and her partner had just used their savings to open a business.
A year later, doctors told her she had terminal, stage four breast cancer.
She spent the next 4½ years fighting for health care reform that she didn't live to see pass.
Ms. Shouse died Saturday (Jan. 30, 2010) at her home in Overland. She was 41.
In addition to advocating affordable health care for everyone, she was an activist for clean energy, economic reform and public transportation.
She took the bus to and from her chemotherapy appointments in the Central West End. Then she'd pick up a sign or banner and walk a picket line.
"This was an extraordinary woman, who never gave up hope that she could make a difference," said Rabbi Susan Talve of Central Reform Congregation.
Ms. Shouse grew up in Indiana, graduated from high school in Plano, Texas, and then from Texas A&M University with a major in biology.
She moved to San Francisco, where she met her future partner, Steve Hart, on a picket line. They were together for 20 years.
They moved to St. Louis and opened Sweet Meat Stix in St. Ann, selling meat from humanely raised beef.
She set goals for surviving her cancer. She campaigned for Barack Obama for president, telling herself she had to make it through the primaries, then Election Day and, later, the inaugural.
In a speech in November at the Arch grounds, she spoke about the need to "take on the Big Insurance Monopoly and liberate American families from the slavery of skyrocketing insurance premiums and canceled coverage, which leave millions of us in a state of perpetual fear and insecurity ..."
Using herself as an example, Ms. Shouse said she had put off going to a doctor because her health insurance policy had a $5,000 deductible. She called it "'hit by a bus' kind of insurance."
When the insurance company wouldn't pay for a treatment that Ms. Shouse believed would help her, friends protested at the company.
Insurance officials refused to accept their petition and called police, recalled a friend, Kathy Geldbach. One of the police officers took the petition, "marched up the company's steps and strongly encouraged those men to look at the petition," Geldbach said.
U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro of Connecticut called Ms. Shouse a week ago in a final, unsuccessful effort to get the insurance company to approve the treatment.
Ms. Shouse did extensive research trying to help herself and others, said her oncologist, Dr. Cynthia Ma.
"She was a very special person; I wish that we had been able to do more," Ma said.
Ms. Shouse requested that her body be cremated wearing her Obama T-shirt.
Friends and family plan a celebration of her life at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 14 at Central Reform Congregation, 5020 Waterman Avenue.
In addition to her partner, among the survivors are her parents, Marianne and Carl Shouse of Prairie Village, Kan.; two sisters, Maria Duda of Tampa, Fla., and Michele Macready of Vancouver, British Columbia; and her grandmother, Kay Holtzman of Overland Park, Kan.
Memorial contributions can be made to Women's Voices Raised for Social Justice, 412 Greenleaf Drive, Kirkwood, Mo. 63122; Susan G. Komen for the Cure, St. Louis affiliate, P.O. Box 790129, Dept. SK, St. Louis, Mo. 63179-0129; or St. Louis Jobs with Justice, 2725 Clifton Street, St. Louis, Mo. 63139.
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-------------------------- The post below has a map for those needing it and some explination of events.
This is from Post Dispatch. Several of the members of Soar 11-3 will show up. Many "big shots" of politics, unions and some corperate folks are expected. All are invited, expect a good time and they will have snacks; something important to your vice president. Event starts at 6pm til 8PM downtown. Map is on previous article :
-----------------
05.07.2009 3:13 pm “Made in America” auto tour will start in St. Louis By: David Nicklaus
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis will be one of the starting points next Monday for a 34-city “Keep it Made in America” bus tour that’s meant to drum up support for the U.S. auto industry. The organizers, led by the United Steelworkers and the Alliance for American Manufacturing, say they’ll fill buses with auto-parts workers, car dealers, elected leaders and others, and hit the road in hopes of getting some positive press. Some of the same folks will reconvene on May 19 for an automotive “teach-in” in Washington.
One bus will leave St. Louis — which just found out it’s losing a Chrysler plant — and head for Arlington, Texas. One of its stops is in Shreveport, where a General Motors plant reportedly is on the endangered list. Perhaps the most interesting of the four bus routes is one that starts in Indianapolis and ends in Fairfield, Ala. It passes through a couple of GM assembly sites — Bowling Green, Ky., and Spring Hill, Tenn. — but winds up in a state that’s home to three foreign-owned auto plants (Mercedes, Hyundai and Honda). It passes through the home turf of Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., both of whom have been outspoken opponents of bailouts for GM and Chrysler.
Welcome to my blog. As a member of the St. Louis chapter of the Retired Steelworkers and a member of the Alliance for Retired Americans, I can say without a doubt groups are busy in the St. Louis area. This blog is a modest effort to inform members and the general public of some of our activities and concerns. I will also "soapbox" areas and issues.
We see the solution to many of the woes of the St. Louis area as economic and political. St. Louis has a myrid of problems, but a strong economy with responsible leaders would help greatly in the solution to these woes. Alas, such is lacking on several levels with many of the "civil leaders" squabbling like children or worse, taking care of special interests instead of the public. Business leaders? get real, many of these so called leaders shame the term "Captains of Industry".
Once the St. Louis area was a leader in many areas. Now, some of the area can be compared to Third world areas with no problems what so ever.
That is unacceptable.
I take full responsibily for contents of this blog
