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  <atom:title type="html">KFTC Blog</atom:title>
  <atom:subtitle></atom:subtitle>

  <atom:updated>2010-03-15T20:38:08-04:00</atom:updated>

  <atom:link href="http://www.kftc.org/blog" rel="alternate"
             type="text/html"/>

  

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    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>EPA asked to rescind Kentucky NPDES Authority</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
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      <atom:id>e276340f286447baefaf9d34b46c1acd</atom:id>
      

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          <![CDATA[
          &lt;p&gt;KFTC along with the &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://kentucky.sierraclub.org/"&gt;Sierra Club&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.publicjustice.net/"&gt;Public Justice&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.appalachian-center.org/"&gt;Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment&lt;/a&gt; asked the U.S. EPA today to rescind the state of Kentucky's authority to enforce the pollution discharge permitting program under the Clean Water Act.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The request was based on the state's widespread failure to protect the waters of the commonwealth, especially in coal mining areas.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“Citizens know when the companies violate the law here, but
they’ve stopped reporting it because they know the agency won’t do 
anything to
enforce the law,” 
said
Rick Handshoe, a Floyd County resident and KFTC member. "It feels like the
state has lost control of what happens here. It’s the coal companies 
that run
the law of the land around here, not the Kentucky Division of Water (DOW)."&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is a growing preponderance of data that shows the poor quality of Kentucky's waterways:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;nearly 2,500 miles of streams already fail to meet water quality 
standards;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;coal mining is the identified or "suspected" pollution 
source for much of this;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;numerous additional miles of streams are being 
polluted
as a result of DOW’s lax or sometimes non-existent water standards and
pollution permit requirements;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;the DOW has regularly issued permits that fail to address
key pollutants associated with coal mining and known to be harmful. 
such as
toxic selenium and aluminum. In most cases DOW requires almost no 
water
testing to actually determine whether or not the water is being 
contaminated. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The cumulative pollution level in a stream is currently not
considered when setting limits for specific mining 
operations. As
a result the toxicity of downstream waters in recent testing was between
 3 and
55 times higher than state standards.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“The problem is much more widespread and more 
serious than
the state admits. We found high conductivity downstream from almost 
every mine
site we tested," said Tim Guilfoile, deputy director of the Sierra 
Club's
Water Sentinels program, which has done extensive water testing in 
Kentucky.
High conductivity is an indicator of badly polluted water. Water with 
elevated
conductivity may not support aquatic life.&lt;img class="image-right" src="http://www.kftc.org/blog/linked-documents/EPA-WET-test.jpg/image_preview" alt="EPA WET test Ky" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The state also is giving inadequate emphasis to water quality programs, as evidenced by the chronic underfunding of the Division of Water. For example, only four permit
writers develop and review more than 2,300 permits.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The petition asks the EPA to take over primary responsibility for enforcing the permitting program, known as the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). The state currently has authority, granted to it by EPA, for enforcing this program – one of the key components of the federal Clean Water Act. But Kentucky’s water program has completely failed to prevent the widespread
contamination of state waters by coal mining.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A copy of the petition is &lt;a title="NPDES Petition to EPA" class="internal-link" href="../../../../linked-documents/KY%20NPDES%20PETITION.pdf"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>jerry</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-15T18:35:44-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-15T20:38:08-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Ally Event"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Canary Project"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="featured"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="MTR"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Eastern Kentucky"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Federal Voting Rights Legislation Hearing Tomorrow</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/03/15/federal-voting-rights-legislation-hearing-tomorrow">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>6dc23415510c77ea3c1d9cb7b896d62e</atom:id>
      

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          <![CDATA[
          
&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;a title="DSC_0100 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4407861182/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/4407861182_13028ec387_m.jpg" alt="DSC_0100" height="160" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;House Bill 70 is the strongest vehicle we have in Kentucky right now to 
push to restore voting rights to most former felons in the state. But &lt;a class="external-link" href="../archive/2009/08/02/democracy-restoration-act-of-2009/"&gt;KFTC
 also has supported federal legislation since it was filed in August&lt;/a&gt; that would represent a big step forward.&amp;nbsp; The bill finally seems to be 
moving!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://judiciary.house.gov/about/subconstitution.html"&gt;U.S. House 
Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil 
Liberties&lt;/a&gt; will hold a hearing on H.R. 3335, the &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3335:"&gt;Democracy 
Restoration Act of 2009&lt;/a&gt;, on Tuesday, March 16 at 2 p.m.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Democracy Restoration Act of 2009 would restore federal voting 
rights to millions of Americans with past felony convictions. An 
estimated 5.3 million citizens cannot vote as a result of felony 
convictions, and nearly 4 million of these individuals are living and 
working in their communities. Under H.R. 3335, anyone who is not 
incarcerated would be eligible to vote in federal elections, even if 
barred from voting in state elections.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hearing witnesses include:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; * Roger Clegg (President, General Counsel, Center for Equal 
Opportunity)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; * Andres Idarraga (an impacted person currently in his last year at 
Yale Law School).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; * Burt Neuborne (Legal Director, Brennan Center for Justice)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; * Ion Sancho (Supervisor of Elections, Leon County, Florida)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; * Hilary Shelton (Director, Washington office, NAACP)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; * Hans von Spakovsky (Attorney, former member, Federal Election 
Commission)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; * Carl Wicklund (Executive Director, American Probation and Parole 
Association)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
You can &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://judiciary.house.gov/about/subconstitution.html"&gt;visit the 
pages of members of the committee&lt;/a&gt; and email them or call their 
offices to ask them to support H.R.3335.&amp;nbsp; None of the committee members
 are from Kentucky, but if you know people in these districts it would 
be great if you asked them to call in.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
KFTC will also be contacting our members in these districts today.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
Thanks to our allies at &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.sentencingproject.org/"&gt;The Sentencing Project&lt;/a&gt; who 
provided an email notice that this blog post was derived from.&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Dave Newton</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-15T15:31:20-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-15T17:23:09-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Restoration of Voting Rights"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>US Census Forms Arrive In The Mail: What To Expect</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/03/15/us-census-forms-arrive-in-the-mail-what-to-expec">
        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>803f854538c392f4e578ef374c9d26b9</atom:id>
      

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&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;img class="image-inline" src="../Members/dave/2010censushand.png/image_preview" alt="CensusHand2010" height="175" width="151" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Let the count begin.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;More than 120 million U.S. census forms 
begin arriving Monday in mailboxes around the country, in the 
government's once-a-decade population count that will be used to divvy 
up congressional seats and more than $400 billion in federal aid. 
Fast-growing states in the South and the West could stand to lose the 
most because of lower-than-average mail participation rates in 2000 and 
higher shares of Hispanics and young adults, who are among the least 
likely to mail in their forms.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Did those $2.5 million Super Bowl 
ads work? Stay tuned.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;"When you receive your 2010 census, please 
fill it out and mail it back," said Census Bureau director Robert 
Groves, who was set to kick off the national mail-in campaign Monday in 
Phoenix, Ariz., a state which could gain up to two U.S. House seats 
because of rapid immigrant growth in the last decade.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Groves is 
urging cities and states to promote the census and improve upon rates in
 2000, when about 72 percent of U.S. households returned their forms. If
 everyone who receives a census form mails it back, the government would
 save an estimated $1.5 billion in follow-up visits...&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124684142"&gt;For the complete AP story released today, click here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;img class="image-inline" src="../Members/dave/4_CENSUS_COUNT.jpg/image_preview" alt="USCensusMap" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Dave Newton</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-15T10:09:03-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-15T10:12:38-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Voter Empowerment"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>House Budget plays with Kentucky's future</atom:title>

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                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/03/13/house-budget-plays-with-kentuckys-future">
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      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>42a3e4f3399551eae3725462b8520513</atom:id>
      

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&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;Now that the House budget proposal has been out for a few
days, we’re starting to see the extent to which the House contorted numbers and
ideas to avoid having to support real reforms.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The budget does a couple of things that are not bad. It puts
some much needed money into community health centers and services like Meals on
Wheels, and starts to fund the Boni Bill, a bill that passed in 2007 to
increase the protections of social service workers.&amp;nbsp; This funding is good and necessary.&amp;nbsp; But in addition to the cuts to higher ed, adult education, the school year and teacher pay, and services that we need, the budget does many things that
show a lack of leadership by playing with our future instead of solving our problems of today.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img class="image-right image-inline" src="../../../../../images-1/shellgame.jpg/image_mini" alt="shell game" height="187" width="184" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The budget includes $74 million dollars that is the result
of moving the one paycheck for state workers back one day, from June 30, 2012
to July 1, 2012.&amp;nbsp; This way, the $74
million dollars is technically part of the 2012-2014 budget cycle.&amp;nbsp; This little nugget was slipped in to the
238&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; page of the House budget proposal.&amp;nbsp; It didn’t make any headlines, but was embedded in a
&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.kentucky.com/2010/03/12/1178515/budget-would-nearly-cut-in-half.html"&gt;Herald-Leader article&lt;/a&gt; about the House’s proposal to halve the salary of
Economic Development Secretary Larry Hayes.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It’s an important little nugget, though, because it shows
the acrobatics that legislators were willing to perform to avoid taking up real
solutions.&amp;nbsp; A budget that’s
“balanced” because it pays state workers the day after the budget cycle?&amp;nbsp; It doesn’t inspire confidence, does it?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This shell game is also exactly the kind of game that jeopardizes
Kentucky’s credit rating.&amp;nbsp; Kentucky
is already on the watch list of some of these credit rating agencies, both
because of our policy makers’ failure to pass sustainable revenue reforms, and
because of our dependence on a manufacturing economy.&amp;nbsp; Moody’s is one such agency.&amp;nbsp; When their analysts look at Kentucky, they don’t see a credible
borrower.&amp;nbsp; According to a memo from the Legislative Research Commission in September of&amp;nbsp; 2009, Kentucky's leadership should be very concerned about what credit ranking agencies are seeing when they look at Kentucky. Here are the pieces of
evidence they see:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img class="image-left" src="../../../../../images-1/copy_of_smoke.jpg/image_thumb" alt="smoke and mirrors" /&gt; Our lack of leadership predates the
recession.&amp;nbsp; The LRC ehoes credit agencies' concern that Kentucky depends on one-shot, nonrecurring revenue sources to fund services and programs that we rely on
every year.&amp;nbsp; Eventually, the smoke
and mirrors aren’t going to be able to hide the ever-worsening real-world gap
between the revenue the state brings in and the cost of the services that we
need.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img class="image-right" src="../../../../../images-1/general/oldmachinery.jpg/image_thumb" alt="old machinery" height="116" width="155" /&gt;Kentucky is still bending over backwards to
bring in manufacturing, which is not as good of an investment as it was fifty years ago, as we
move toward a technology and knowledge-based economy.&amp;nbsp; This dependence, according to credit agencies, jeopardizes our standing as a worthwhile investment.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="image-left"&gt;&lt;img class="image-left image-inline" src="../../../../../images-1/brokenpiggybank.jpg/image_thumb" alt="broken piggy bank" height="96" width="111" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Credit agencies and analysts maintain that states should evince some good faith effort toward keeping themselves financially secure.&amp;nbsp; Part of that effort is having a Rainy Day Fund, money reserved for emergencies.&amp;nbsp; Here, too, Kentucky falls short.&amp;nbsp; Leaders haven't adequately funded our Rainy Day Fund since 2001.&amp;nbsp; Our Rainy Day Fund is
supposed to be between 3 and 5 percent of our General Fund revenue.&amp;nbsp; Kentucky’s is 0%.&amp;nbsp; We have no Rainy Day Fund.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;These pieces of evidence aren’t
good, and they've caused Kentucky's rating to slip from stable to negative. It's true that many states are in uncertain times.&amp;nbsp; But it's also true that &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&amp;amp;id=3108&amp;amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cbpp%2FfYJq+%28Center+on+Budget+and+Policy+Priorities%29"&gt;thirty-three states have done something &lt;/a&gt;to raise the revenue they need to pull themselves through.&amp;nbsp; Oregon, for example, just passed a tax increase on income above $125,000.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Kentucky, on the other hand, is going in the wrong direction.&amp;nbsp; The House budget would make
Kentucky even more vulnerable.&amp;nbsp; If
the debt in that budget passes—the debt that replaces the real revenue reforms that
Kentucky needs—the credit rating agencies will also see these pieces of
evidence:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;!--[if !supportLists]--&gt;Kentucky will have taken on $2380 in debt for
every man, woman, and child in our commonwealth, according to the Legislative Research Commission. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;According to the LRC, Kentucky’s debt as a percentage of our revenue
will shoot up to 7.43%.&amp;nbsp; It’s
supposed to stay below 6%.&amp;nbsp; When it
gets too high, it sends another message to credit agencies that we’re not putting
forth a “good faith effort” to generate revenue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;img class="image-right image-inline" src="../../../../../images-1/copy_of_dollarsintoair.jpg/image_mini" alt="dollars into air" height="126" width="167" /&gt;Why does this matter?&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Because when Kentucky doesn’t look credible to lenders, we pay higher
interest rates. Those higher rates cost taxpayer dollars, dollars that most
folks would rather see put toward smaller class sizes and clean water.&amp;nbsp; Kentucky's budget has had nine rounds of budget cuts since early 2008 for most public services, and these on top of chronic underfunding of these services and programs.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We can't afford the borrowing in the House budget, but we can't afford the cuts, either.&amp;nbsp; Cutting school days from the calendar and adult education resources doesn't put Kentucky in a position to move forward.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The House had a choice.&amp;nbsp; It could have chosen to invest in Kentucky's people by sending money back to the pockets of working families who are struggling with a state EITC, and by raising the revenue that we need.&amp;nbsp; Instead, it chose to play games with our future.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Take Action&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Write a letter to the editor supporting tax and revenue reforms that fix our broken system.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt; You'll find helpful tips and links to lots of local papers &lt;a class="external-link" href="../../02/03/write-a-letter-to-the-editor"&gt;here, on an earlier blog entry&lt;/a&gt;. Writing these letters is valuable and easy!&amp;nbsp; Feel free to post your letter in the comments section so others can see your letter here.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Call House and Senate Leadership, Senator Leeper, and your legislators and leave a message in support of a budget with fair and adequate reforms.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Call the Legislative Message Line, &lt;strong&gt;1-800-372-7181&lt;/strong&gt;
(7am-11pm M-F of this week) and ask to leave a message for House and Senate Leadership and your own legislators (if you don't know their names, the
operator can look them up for you). Leave a simple message like &lt;em&gt;"This budget process is taking Kentucky in the wrong direction.&amp;nbsp; I support the fair and adequate tax reforms in HB 13 as solutions that will move Kentucky forward.”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Contact Governor Beshear in support of a budget with fair and
adequate reforms.&lt;/strong&gt; Call him at &lt;span id="_ctl0_MaincontentPlaceHolder_ContactFormPlaceholderControl1"&gt;(502) 564-2611, or email him through &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://governor.ky.gov/contact/contact.htm"&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;You can use the same message: &lt;em&gt;"This budget process is taking Kentucky in the wrong direction.&amp;nbsp; I
support the fair and adequate tax reforms in HB 13 as solutions that
will move Kentucky forward.”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And feel free to share your thoughts about the House budget below!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Jessica Hays</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-13T00:01:58-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-13T10:11:58-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Economic Justice"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Take Action"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="General Assembly"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Using Facebook to Lobby Thayer</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/03/10/using-facebook-to-lobby-thayer">
        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>8956efab690c3812191ca9093801a876</atom:id>
      

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          <![CDATA[
          
&lt;p&gt;The social networking site &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.facebook.com"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt; has been a key way to mobilize members and allies of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth for a few years now - for events, legislative call-in actions, etc.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But today may have been the first big (albeit fairly spontaneous) instance of lots of KFTC members and allies using Facebook to both organize and directly contact a legislator to demonstrate support for a bill.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Senator Damon Thayer has been preventing HB 70, our bill to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society, from being voted on in his committee.&amp;nbsp; He also uses Facebook to organize his own supporters.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Today, over &lt;strong&gt;80&lt;/strong&gt; KFTC members and allies contacted Thayer by leaving public messages on &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Damon-Thayer/57678579628"&gt;his Facebook page&lt;/a&gt;, all asking him to support and/or allow HB 70 to come to a vote in his committee.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;img class="image-inline" src="../Members/dave/Thayerwallsimple.JPG/image_large" alt="Thayerwallsimple" height="453" width="453" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You can see the full list of comments and leave your own (polite but firm) encouragement to Thayer to allow his committee to vote on HB 70 at &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Damon-Thayer/57678579628"&gt;Damon Thayer's Facebook Page HERE.&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp; Maybe we can top 100 comments.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This has also proven to be a great way to get people to write down how they feel about an issue so they can use that same content in a &lt;a class="external-link" href="archive/2010/02/03/write-a-letter-to-the-editor"&gt;letter to the editor.&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp; At least two of the people who have posted to Thayer's Facebook wall have already submitted the same letter to their local newspaper.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We even got a little local blog attention from the folks over at &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://barefootandprogressive.blogspot.com/2010/03/damon-thayer-thwarting-voting-rights.html"&gt;Barefoot and Progressive.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Kudos for the idea of posting the requests on Thayer's wall. I hope it is wildly successful. And just as an aside, it is so encouraging to see all of the comments. Nothing against calling the message line, but this action gives you a real visual of solidarity on this issue." - Hillary Bullock, after she left a note on Thayer's wall.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We'll see how Senator Damon Thayer responds.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And either way, we'll keep calling, writing, holding events, going door-to-door, and building leaders until we win this one.&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Dave Newton</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-10T22:02:09-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-11T08:04:15-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Restoration of Voting Rights"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="General Assembly"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Scott County"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Voter Empowerment"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Restore Voting Rights - Letter to the Editor</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
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&lt;div id="story_text_top"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our own Janet Tucker had a letter published in the Herald-Leader about Voting Rights today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.kentucky.com/2010/03/10/1175179/31010-letters-frankfort.html"&gt;Restore ex-felon rights&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When 186,000 Kentuckians have lost the right to vote, how can we call ourselves a democracy?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This
is how many of our fellow citizens have lost the right to vote due to a
felony conviction in their past. Who among us has not made a mistake
that they are not proud of? Why does Kentucky take away someone's right
to vote due to a mistake?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div id="assets_ad"&gt;
&lt;div id="ad_center6" class="advertisement"&gt;

&lt;script type="text/javascript"&gt;
if(miyahoo.ads[mi_live_or_preview].dart.enabled){ // 'live' or 'preview' is set during page build
_krdDartInc++;
document.write('&amp;lt;script type="text/javascript" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/kentucky.news/letters;c2=editorial;c3=letters;c4=letters_homepage;!category=letters;template=article;pos=center6;group=rectangle;sz=300x250;tile='+_krdDartInc+';ord='+_krdDartOrd+'?"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;\/script&amp;gt;');
}
&lt;/script&gt;

&lt;noscript&gt;&amp;lt;a
href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/kentucky.news/letters;c2=editorial;c3=letters;c4=letters_homepage;!category=letters;template=article;pos=center6;group=rectangle;sz=300x250;ord='+_krdDartOrd+'?"
target="_blank"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;img
src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/kentucky.news/letters;c2=editorial;c3=letters;c4=letters_homepage;!category=letters;template=article;pos=center6;group=rectangle;sz=300x250;ord='+_krdDartOrd+'?"
border="0" &amp;gt;&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/noscript&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;!-- start similar --&gt;





&lt;!-- end similar --&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
House Bill 70, sponsored by Rep. Jesse Crenshaw, is a step toward
changing this injustice in our Constitution. It passed through the
House with a vote of 83-16, and is now in the Senate. This bill also
enjoys broad support in the Senate but is being held up by Sen. Damon
Thayer, refusing to call it for a vote in his committee. We must call
on our senators to uphold democracy and support HB 70.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Janet Tucker&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is still time for YOU to &lt;a class="external-link" href="archive/2010/02/03/write-a-letter-to-the-editor"&gt;write a letter to the editor&lt;/a&gt; about voting rights or some other issue and to have it get out in time to make an impact in the General Assembly in Frankfort.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Dave Newton</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-10T21:16:27-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-10T21:16:27-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Restoration of Voting Rights"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Op-ed\LTE"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Voter Empowerment"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Is House Bill 3 The Best It Can Be?</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
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        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>fe6d3b2868f9bc4fdb8cbc9eba5a6364</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>In the 2010 General Assembly House Bills 3 and 408 each represent a comprehensive approach to addressing Kentucky’s long-term energy needs, but with distinctly different methods and outcomes. </atom:summary>

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&lt;p&gt;Members of KFTC under the banner of The Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance (KySEA) have been enthusiastically supporting &lt;strong&gt;HB 408&lt;/strong&gt;, legislation introduced by Rep. Harry Moberly (&lt;a class="external-link" href="archive/2010/02/09/clean-energy-bill-filed-in-house-hb-408/"&gt;see blog post 2.9.10&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;img class="image-right" src="links/408.jpg" alt="null" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On the last day that new bills could be introduced Rep. Rocky Adkins filed&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;House Bill 3&lt;/strong&gt; as a "clean energy bill." Although HB 3 includes new supports for energy efficiency and renewable energy by setting mandatory standards, at heart it is more of an extension of HB 1, "The Peabody Bill".&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/10RS/HB3.htm"&gt;House Bill 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; does this by creating a new category of energy called "low carbon" and extends previously created tax incentives under HB 1 to include low carbon energy. Though not labeled as such, low carbon energy could also include nuclear energy.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;These two bills represent two different visions for Kentucky's future.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In general, HB
3 focuses more on centralized power generation and increasing the efficiency of
the generation and distribution infrastructure, with little support for the end
user, especially low-income households.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;HB
408, on the other hand, makes energy efficiency Kentucky’s top energy priority.&amp;nbsp; It assists the elderly and the
poor.&amp;nbsp; It seeks to make efficiency
and renewables available to all.&amp;nbsp;
HB 408 is similar to legislation already enacted in Ohio, Illinois,
Missouri and North Carolina. And while both bills strive to create new jobs, HB
3 will likely concentrate those jobs.&amp;nbsp;
HB 408 will make more jobs statewide.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Both bills are currently in the House Natural Resources Committee, and while HB 408 has yet to be called up for discussion by Chairman Gooch, HB 3 is likely to be heard and passed on Thursday, March 11.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For more information on how the two bills compare, visit the KySEA website: &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.kysea.org/blog/is-house-bill-3-the-best-it-can-be"&gt;http://www.kysea.org/blog/is-house-bill-3-the-best-it-can-be.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Call
or write your Legislator and ask that Kentucky pass energy legislation that makes
energy efficiency, including low-income Kentuckians, a priority and makes
energy efficiency, renewable energy and the jobs they create available to all
Kentuckians.&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Martin Richards</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-09T22:02:11-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-10T12:04:58-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="HB 408"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Energy"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="HB 3"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>House budget shows little interest in moving Kentucky forward.</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/03/09/house-budget-shows-little-interest-in-moving-kentucky-forward">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>7744bd6efc19f42f7fc278b2dcef97f5</atom:id>
      

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          <![CDATA[
          
&lt;p&gt;The House budget proposal is getting its hearing today, to be sent to the House floor for a vote later in the week.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class="sidebar"&gt;Kentucky’s unemployment rate averaged 10.5% in 2009, the highest it's been since 1983.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Economists say that budget cuts to public services make state economies worse by eroding safety nets and costing jobs.&amp;nbsp; More info available &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&amp;amp;id=1032"&gt;on CBPP's website.&lt;/a&gt; &amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Written versions of the proposal *still* haven't been released, but here's what it does, as far as we know:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Cuts higher education 2.5% over the next two years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Cuts adult education. Non-traditional students have already taken hits with previous cuts to the community colleges, and cuts that limited GED testing sites and programs and access.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Cuts two days from the school year for elementary kids, which also cuts pay for teachers and staff.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Cuts the health plan for state workers.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Cuts funding for contracts with private companies. (What does this mean? The example offered at one Frankfort hearing was the Poison Control Hotline.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Depends on $256 million in federal Medicaid funding that might or might not materialize.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Includes about $371 in revenue from HB 530, which passed the House last week. HB 530 would cap some tax breaks that the legislature passed last summer, suspend tax breaks for businesses that aren't making a profit, and have businesses pay the sales taxes they owe sooner rather than later. There were no revenue reforms. And this bill is unlikely to pass the Senate intact.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So there is $627 million in assumed funding.&amp;nbsp; That means that there's almost $900 million in cuts.&amp;nbsp; And yet, somehow this proposed budget includes a $10 million increase in funding for the Boni Bill (a bill that passed in 2007 to protect social service workers, but has never been fully funded), a host of projects to "reward" some legislators who voted for HB 530, and money to chip away at the waiting lists for Meals on Wheels.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;(Edit: Oh! So that's how they did it! They borrowed about $2.2 billion--quite a hefty debt. For more information, &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2010/03/09/10946/"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;'s the Herald-Leader article, and &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100309/NEWS01/3090345/House+budget+trims+education++adds+$2+billion+for+projects"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;'s the Courier-Journal article.&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But after chronic underfunding of health services, education, environmental protection, and public safety, the House doesn't have much to be proud of.&amp;nbsp; They had better choices that would have allowed stronger investments in Kentuckians, better opportunities, and a more balanced and fair tax structure.&amp;nbsp; More details are expected to be released this evening, and a written version is expected to finally be released later this week.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, a report was released that says that out of every 100 Kentucky 9th-graders, only 44 will start college the fall after they graduate, and only six of those will finish in four years.&amp;nbsp; If this is all by choice, fine and good. But with tuition rates rising an average of 10% a year for the last decade, we suspect it isn't by choice.&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Jessica Hays</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-09T17:26:11-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-09T23:14:17-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Economic Justice"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Bake Sale for the Budget: Rowan County Style!</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/03/09/bake-sale-for-the-budget-rowan-county-style">
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      <atom:id>85f26ed12a6bd1b4f202079253e87433</atom:id>
      <atom:summary> </atom:summary>

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          &lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;img src="../images-1/IMG_0539.JPG/image_preview" alt="Students signing postcards" height="299" width="399" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Rowan County members held a Bake Sale for the Budget on the campus of Morehead State University yesterday.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It was great!&amp;nbsp; We got about 80 people to sign on in support of
adequate budgets and fair taxes, had lots of good conversations about
the tax/budget/tuition relationship, and raised about $70 for the state
budget that we'll deliver to the Governor's office.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="image-left"&gt;&lt;img src="../images-1/IMG_0535.JPG/image_preview" alt="Bake Sale volunteers" height="263" width="349" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Rowan County members' baking abilities are legendary, and they sure didn't disappoint yesterday!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Five members baked up plates of brownies, buckeyes, blondies, cookies, and lemon bars.&amp;nbsp; Another group of six came out to talk with folks about the implications of letting our budget needs fester, and the real solutions in HB 13.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The President of MSU even stopped by to talk about the effects of the budget cuts on Morehead.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thanks to everyone who pitched in!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="../images-1/IMG_0537.JPG/image_preview" alt="MSU president" height="185" width="247" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Jessica Hays</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-09T15:44:46-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-09T15:54:21-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Economic Justice"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Rowan County"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington Report #2</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/03/09/end-mountaintop-removal-week-in-washington-report-2">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>29189ada0177cd9dd0b5931356d5c2ac</atom:id>
      

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          &lt;p&gt;The ring from a bell means so much during Week in Washington...it means
that another legislator has stood up to big coal and decided to
co-sponsor the Clean Water Protection Act&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We just got another co-sponsor !&amp;nbsp; We are now up to 166!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;object height="267" width="475"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /&gt;&lt;param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10042640&amp;amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;amp;show_title=1&amp;amp;show_byline=0&amp;amp;show_portrait=1&amp;amp;color=CA6A28&amp;amp;fullscreen=1" /&gt;&lt;embed width="475" height="267" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10042640&amp;amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;amp;show_title=1&amp;amp;show_byline=0&amp;amp;show_portrait=1&amp;amp;color=CA6A28&amp;amp;fullscreen=1"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://vimeo.com/10042640"&gt;Week in Washington Bell Ringing&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;a href="http://vimeo.com/kftc"&gt;Kentuckians For The Commonwealth&lt;/a&gt; on &lt;a href="http://vimeo.com"&gt;Vimeo&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Tim Buckingham</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-09T15:05:58-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-11T15:26:22-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="MTR"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Canary Project"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="DC"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington Report #1</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
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      <atom:id>b996e1f9bf07826a97115e8e72c4d87c</atom:id>
      

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&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;More than 20 KFTC members and staff have traveled to
Washington, D.C. to participate in the End Mountaintop Removal Week in
Washington sponsored by Appalachian Voices and the Alliance For
Appalachia.&amp;nbsp; In D.C. we are joined
with more than 200 other community activists and coalfield residents
representing 27 different states.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="image-left"&gt;&lt;a title="Tracy Jo Ingram rings the bell for signing another cosponsor to the Clean Water Protection Act by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4420225182/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2718/4420225182_d986679e4e_m.jpg" alt="Tracy Jo Ingram rings the bell for signing another cosponsor to the Clean Water Protection Act" height="159" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We traveled to Washington to lobby for H.R. 1310, the Clean
Water Protection Act and S.696, the Appalachia Restoration Act. Starting today
through Thursday, March 11 we will be meeting with Representatives and Senators
to help educate them about both pieces of legislation, and to also gain as
many more cosponsors as possible.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Just partially through day one we have already gained two new
cosponsors.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Members will continue to meet and lobby with legislators and
different governmental agencies over the next few days.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Tim Buckingham</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-09T10:36:10-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-11T09:59:09-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="MTR"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Ally Event"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Energy"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="DC"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="New Power"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Canary Project"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Eastern Kentucky"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Meeting"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Today is a national call-in day to end mountaintop removal</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/03/09/today-is-a-national-call-in-day-to-end-mountaintop-removal">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>c7483c6c700fa7b41ebf9b338dd5ce80</atom:id>
      

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          <![CDATA[
          &lt;table class="photo-right"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmemorialforthemountains/4414941384/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4042/4414941384_5e817314d7_m.jpg" alt="Members from KFTC and other member groups in the Alliance for Appalachia lobbying in DC this week" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
Members from KFTC and other member groups in the Alliance for Appalachia lobbying in DC this week
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;
We need your help to bring an end to mountaintop removal coal mining.  Join us today as part of a national day of action to end mountaintop removal coal mining. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt; 

This week, nearly 200 citizens from Appalachia and across the US are gathering in our nation's capital as part of the 5th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington – and hundreds more will show support by making a simple phone call. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
Mountaintop removal coal mining is one of the most egregious environmental and social justice disasters in America today -- more than 500 mountains and 1.5 million acres of land have already been destroyed by this practice.  Residents and supporters from across the US are asking for an end to mountaintop removal and an investment in sustainable economic alternatives for Appalachia.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;
This issue is urgent and the coal industry is working overtime to block the passage of this bill.  That's why we need people like you to take a stand for the mountains.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;

 &lt;p&gt;

Please take a moment to visit &lt;a href="http://www.ilovemountains.org/call-your-rep"&gt;www.ilovemountains.org/call-your-rep&lt;/a&gt; -- we have a special call-in tool there that will allow you to make a phone call to your Representative - if you've never called your Congressperson before - this is the easiest way to do it! We'll walk you through the steps and help you know exactly what to say. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;

Thanks for taking action - because of people like you, we're as close as we ever have been to ending mountaintop removal.


&lt;/p&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Erik Hungerbuhler</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-09T00:08:56-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-09T00:08:56-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="MTR"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Canary Project"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Take Action"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="DC"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Voting Rights - Next Moves</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/03/07/voting-rights-next-moves">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>58ccb351ebe9c46efe27c563ed92e913</atom:id>
      

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          <![CDATA[
          
&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;a title="DSC_0117 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4408056598/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2707/4408056598_4de26b4a5e_m.jpg" alt="DSC_0117" height="161" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At this juncture, we’re quite sure we have a little more than 60% support in the Kentucky Senate that we need to pass HB 70 - our proposed constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We also have nine votes in the Senate State and Local government committee that the bill is presently in.&amp;nbsp; That’s two more votes than we need in the committee of 12 people.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But just because we have the votes we need, it doesn’t mean that we’re sure we’ll win. &lt;br /&gt;Incredibly, State and Local Government Committee Chairman Senator Damon Thayer (presumably backed up by Senate President David Williams) will still not allow the bill to come up for a vote.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The campaign is now focused overwhelmingly on just two targets - convincing Thayer and Williams to allow the vote to be heard.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One of the most-effective things that you can do is to &lt;a class="external-link" href="archive/2010/02/03/write-a-letter-to-the-editor/"&gt;write a letter to the editor&lt;/a&gt; today.&amp;nbsp; It's faster and easier than you think (maybe even just 15 minutes)&amp;nbsp; and can make a real impact.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For maximum effect, send your letters to the &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.kentucky.com/369"&gt;Herald-Leader&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=999980212021"&gt;Courier Journal&lt;/a&gt;, or the &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.news-graphic.com/forms/letters/"&gt;Georgetown News-Graphic&lt;/a&gt; (Thayer's hometown newspaper).&amp;nbsp; Click on the name of the paper to go to a simple online form to send your letter.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Possible points or themes to use, but just pick one and keep it simple:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- Allow the Voting Rights bill to come to a vote in committee.&amp;nbsp; We have the votes to pass it and it's an obstruction of basic democracy for Thayer to block the vote.&amp;nbsp; Let the people decide!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- Kentucky is one of just two states that doesn't automatically restore voting rights to any former felons once they've served their time.&amp;nbsp; Once someone has served their debt, it's only fair.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- Tell a short&amp;nbsp; personal story about why this issue is important to you.&amp;nbsp; That's usually the most powerful thing to communicate.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You can also take a moment to contact these two key legislators personally to ask them to allow HB 70 to be heard – or &lt;a class="external-link" href="archive/2010/02/10/call-in-to-support-voting-rights"&gt;contact your own senator&lt;/a&gt; to help put pressure on them.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;img class="image-inline" src="../Members/dave/Senate16.jpg/image_preview" alt="DavidWilliams" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.lrc.ky.gov/legislator/S016.htm"&gt;Senator David Williams&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.lrc.ky.gov/gis/Senate%20simple/S016s.pdf"&gt;Senate District 16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Clinton, Cumberland, McCreary, Monroe, Wayne, and Whitley counties&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Mailform/S016.htm"&gt;Email Form&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mailing Address&lt;br /&gt;PO Box 666&lt;br /&gt;Burkesville KY 42717&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Frankfort Address&lt;br /&gt;702 Capitol Ave&lt;br /&gt;Annex Room 236&lt;br /&gt;Frankfort KY 40601&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Phone Numbers&lt;br /&gt;Home: (270) 433-7777&lt;br /&gt;Frankfort: (502) 564-3120&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;img class="image-inline" src="../Members/dave/Senate17.jpg/image_preview" alt="DamonThayer" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.lrc.ky.gov/legislator/S017.htm"&gt;Senator Damon Thayer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.lrc.ky.gov/gis/Senate%20simple/S017s.pdf"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Senate District 17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Grant, southern Kenton (southern), Owen, and Scott Counties&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Mailform/S017.htm"&gt;Thayer's Email Form&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Damon-Thayer/57678579628"&gt;Thayer's Facebook Page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mailing Address&lt;br /&gt;102 Grayson Way&lt;br /&gt;Georgetown KY 40324&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Frankfort Address&lt;br /&gt;702 Capitol Ave&lt;br /&gt;Annex Room 209&lt;br /&gt;Frankfort KY 40601&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Phone Numbers&lt;br /&gt;Home: (859) 621-6956&lt;br /&gt;Frankfort: (502) 564-8100 Ext. 644 &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Dave Newton</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-07T13:47:39-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-07T14:22:23-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Take Action"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Scott County"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Op-ed\LTE"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="featured"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Restoration of Voting Rights"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Voter Empowerment"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Voting Rights Lobby Day Brings Out Crowds and Moves us Forward!</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/03/05/voting-rights-lobby-day-brings-out-crowds-and-moves-us-forward">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>40d35f279bd83b4f17472c99c120eb76</atom:id>
      

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          <![CDATA[
          
&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;a title="Voting Rights Rally.JPG by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4407282649/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4069/4407282649_ef897cc194_m.jpg" alt="Voting Rights Rally.JPG" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, KFTC members and allies filled the halls of Frankfort for our major lobby day to support HB 70, our proposed constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Three hundred of us were there, breaking most of us into small lobby teams to talk to senators about House Bill 70.&amp;nbsp; We met with more than twenty senators total (of only 38), including many key meetings with leaders and committee chairs.&amp;nbsp; We built more and more support among legislators, slightly moving many of them in the right direction.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At this point, we have the votes we need to pass the bill both in the Senate committee and the 60% we need to pass the full Senate.&amp;nbsp; The primary obstacle to a victory is allowing the bill to be voted on in the Senate State and Local Government Committee, chaired by Senator Damon Thayer.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;a title="DSC_0155 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4407323523/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4020/4407323523_a2cffc3c7e_m.jpg" alt="DSC_0155" height="161" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We met with Thayer with 13 people including 9 from his district, 2 religious leaders, 2 law students, and others with powerful personal stories.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They made strong arguments rooted in values like fairness, democracy, faith, and crime prevention - and rooted in real life experiences.&amp;nbsp; When Thayer dismissed HB 70 by claiming we have a process to restore rights already, Charlie House stepped in to let him know that he's tried to get his rights back four times and has never succeeded.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mostly, Thayer didn't make a reasoned argument at all, instead simply saying "no" without&amp;nbsp; rationale.&amp;nbsp; He explained to members that this is a Republic, not a Democracy, and he is elected to make decisions for the people using his own best judgment. &amp;nbsp; Furthermore, he told us that as committee chair, he has the ability to decide which bills are allowed to be voted on and he has never allowed anything to come to a vote that he didn't agree with.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our campaign is now strongly focused on just that point - putting pressure on Senator Damon Thayer to allow the bill to come to a vote - and also to put pressure on Senate President David Williams.&amp;nbsp; We had a meeting in Thayer's hometown in Georgetown last night after the lobby day to focus on what we can do there.&amp;nbsp; More on this in another blog post soon.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our Voting Rights lobby day culminated in a powerful rally and included a lot of people who brought their personal stories about why we should restore voting rights:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tayna Fogle – Former felon, Lexington&lt;br /&gt;Charlie House – Former felon, Henderson&lt;br /&gt;Jerry Moody – Brother of a former felon, Lexington&lt;br /&gt;Rep Jesse Crenshaw – Kentucky Representative, Lexington&lt;br /&gt;Gail Ray – Mother of a former felon, Georgetown&lt;br /&gt;Maria Houghton – Former felon from Lexington – singing America the Beautiful&lt;br /&gt;Carl Shoupe – Father of a former felon, Harlan County&lt;br /&gt;Janssen Willhoit - Former felon, Lexington&lt;/p&gt;
Here are some great pictures of the day:&amp;nbsp;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;a title="Voting Rights Rally.JPG by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4407282907/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4060/4407282907_d9fa5fee84_m.jpg" alt="Voting Rights Rally.JPG" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a title="Voting Rights Rally.JPG by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4407282807/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4407282807_497fffc5c5_m.jpg" alt="Voting Rights Rally.JPG" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a title="DSC_0091 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4407267439/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/4407267439_d8d2dbabe8_m.jpg" alt="DSC_0091" height="161" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a title="DSC_0100 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4407274459/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4407274459_9f6730b05a_m.jpg" alt="DSC_0100" height="161" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a title="DSC_0091 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4407860266/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2679/4407860266_b987b22525_m.jpg" alt="DSC_0091" height="160" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a title="gIMG_3357 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4406681561/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2791/4406681561_32bf32a985_m.jpg" alt="gIMG_3357" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a title="Voting Rights Rally.JPG by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4407289989/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2716/4407289989_2e3673d255_m.jpg" alt="Voting Rights Rally.JPG" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a title="gIMG_3340 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4406679607/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4031/4406679607_88b315026d_m.jpg" alt="gIMG_3340" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a title="Voting Rights Rally.JPG by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4407282727/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4044/4407282727_4a43b1d747_m.jpg" alt="Voting Rights Rally.JPG" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a title="gIMG_3302 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4407438314/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/4407438314_5ce862d507_m.jpg" alt="gIMG_3302" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a title="DSC_0209 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4407370410/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4054/4407370410_9dbb0caec8_m.jpg" alt="DSC_0209" height="160" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a title="DSC_0176 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4407356194/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4031/4407356194_ed8c4e4bc7_m.jpg" alt="DSC_0176" height="160" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We'll have some video from the event soon in the next few days.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Some local media pieces on the event:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.dailyindependent.com/local/kentuckystatehouse_story_063191527.html"&gt;Ashland Daily Independent Story&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.wtvq.com/news/2522-former-felons-rally-for-right-to-vote"&gt;WTVQ Story&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=12087157"&gt;Wave 3 Story&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Look for another blog post soon about some next-steps.&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Dave Newton</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-05T14:43:34-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-09T11:41:41-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Ally Event"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Restoration of Voting Rights"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="General Assembly"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Voter Empowerment"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Voting Rights Lobby Day in Frankfort Tomorrow!</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/03/03/voting-rights-lobby-day-in-frankfort-tomorrow">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>ebd924355b97aee1d578c8bfd81aa30e</atom:id>
      

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          <![CDATA[
          
&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0414 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/2307635889/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2116/2307635889_a9109ef722_m.jpg" alt="IMG_0414" height="135" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our big Voting Rights Rally and Lobby Day is Tomorrow (Thursday) in Frankfort!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We're working to help restore voting rights to 186,000 former felons in Kentucky once they've served their debt to society.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Several hundred of us will be in Frankfort from 9am to 2:30pm with a powerful rally in the rotunda from 1pm to 2pm.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="../calendar/event/voting-rights-rally-and-lobby-day/view"&gt;For more details on the day, visit here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To learn more about the issue and find other ways to take action from home, including calling or writing legislators, &lt;a class="external-link" href="../our-work/general-assembly/rovr/rovr"&gt;click Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="../../our-work/general-assembly/rovr/rovr" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Dave Newton</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-03-03T01:22:12-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-03-03T01:22:12-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Ally Event"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Restoration of Voting Rights"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="General Assembly"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Voter Empowerment"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  

</atom:feed>
