|
VOICE Working to Halt Evictions - Gov. Northam's Announcement
|
|
NORTHERN VIRGINIA – After months of hard-fought work to prevent mass evictions in Virginia during the COVID-19 pandemic, VOICE is reacting with cautious optimism to Gov. Northam’s announcement on August 14th, 2020 about action he plans to take on evictions during the August special session.
According Rev. Dr. Keith Savage, Senior Servant at First Baptist Church Manassas and VOICE Co-Chair, “VOICE is encouraged by the news that Gov. Northam is focusing on a long-term eviction moratorium and a robust rental relief program. We are glad he is hearing the cries of the hundreds of thousands of people in the Commonwealth who stand on the brink of homelessness. We know that nothing is certain in politics until the ink is dry on the bill. VOICE is working this weekend and over the next 10 days to send 25,000 prayer letters to the Governor and General Assembly to create the political space for the strongest bill possible coupled with $200 million for the Governor’s rental relief program.”
|
|
|
CONECT Wins Police Accountability
|
|
On June 2nd, 153 CONECT leaders gathered for a night of prayer, reflection & dialogue after the murder of George Floyd. By June 15th, 453 leaders gathered for a virtual Assembly to take action for racial and economic justice with our federal and state legislators. A key item on the agenda at that virtual Assembly was leaders of our Criminal Justice team for a substantive police reform and accountability bill to be taken up and passed in the legislature's July special session. The Connecticut Senate President, Senate Majority Leader, and House and Senate co-chairs of the Judiciary Committee all committed to CONECT to do just that.
On July 17th, the Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the proposed bill via zoom. Fr. Jim Manship, a key leader in CONECT, testified about the fruitless and frustrating experience of seeking help from state police and prosecutors in the face of a corrupt, abusive, and racist police department in East Haven and endorsed the bill's plan for an independent Inspector General to investigate police use of force and abuse cases.
|
|
|
GCC Launches COVID-19 Testing Campaign and Finds Major Pharmacies Redlining Access to Testing
|
|
Walgreens and Rite Aid offer testing at only one store each in the city of Cleveland while CVS offers none.
Greater Cleveland Congregations (GCC), the largest community power organization in Northeast Ohio, has called out CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens on their failure to provide broader COVID-19 testing within the city of Cleveland.
GCC members visited their local neighborhood drugstores to assess the availability of COVID-19 testing within their communities. “We visited ten Rite-Aid stores in Greater Cleveland and discovered it is offering only one testing site within the city of Cleveland while offering several testing sites in suburbs surrounding Cleveland,” says DeAnna DeForest, member of Elizabeth Baptist Church. GCC visited nine Walgreens stores in Cleveland and surrounding suburbs and found it only offered testing in one store within Cleveland.
“We visited 27 CVS sites in the Greater Cleveland area and were dismayed to have discovered that while CVS offers testing in several suburbs, it is not offering any testing site within the Cleveland city limits,” says DeForest.
|
|
|
NCCLO Leaders Hold Governor & Atty General Accountable
|
|
The North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, and the Attorney General Josh Stein provided an accountability report to close to 1,000 Latinos on the promises made as candidates in 2016 [Article Spanish] before reacting to the NC Congress of Latino Organizations Priority Agenda that was developed with input of over 3,500 Latinos who participated in listening sessions this year.
Governor Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein announced they kept their promises
to:
Governor:
- Improve access to health care for Latino families by holding insurance companies accountable for delivering culturally and linguistically appropriate services as part of the $30 billion medicaid transformation.
- The Governor shared he vetoed harmful legislation that would deputize all Sheriffs across the state to act as ICE agents.
Attorney General:
- Participated in the successful legal action in defense of DACA
- Represented hundreds of Latino families living at mobile home parks in negotiations with abusive landlords.
|
|
|
|
|
