Author Archives: Rennie Sawade

Posted inLive Coverage, Party Politics

Snohomish County’s 5th District PCOs meet to choose nominees to succeed Dave Somers

by Rennie Sawade

Good morn­ing, and wel­come to NPI’s live cov­er­age of the spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus to fill the coun­cil vacan­cy cre­at­ed by the elec­tion of Dave Somers as Sno­homish Coun­ty Exec­u­tive. This spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus has been called by the Sno­homish Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee in accor­dance with state par­ty rules, to select three nom­i­nees to present […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Live Coverage

#NN15: Ending Inequality For All

by Rennie Sawade

This pan­el, led by Charles Cham­ber­lain, is a dis­cus­sion on the issues of inequal­i­ty in the work­place and how pro­gres­sives can tack­le these issues. Pan­elists include: Elba Diaz, Rep. Don­na Edwards, Rep. Kei­th Elli­son, Analil­ia Mejia, Aman­da Mon­roe The coun­try has turned a crit­i­cal eye toward the his­toric gap between the 1 per­cent and the rest of […]

Posted inElections, Live Coverage

A new fifty state strategy: Reversing the Democratic collapse in the states

by Rennie Sawade

Wel­come to our con­tin­u­ing live cov­er­age of Net­roots Nation in Phoenix, Ari­zona. This after­noon, NPI Pres­i­dent Robert Cruick­shank is lead­ing a pan­el dis­cus­sion about the col­lapse of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty in the states and the need for a new fifty-state strat­e­gy to rebuild the par­ty’s strength in state­hous­es from Alas­ka to Flori­da. Here’s the premise […]

Posted inLive Coverage, Technology, World Commmunity

NN15 Panel: People Power: Energy, Electricity, & Climate Justice

by Rennie Sawade

Dirty fos­sil fuel util­i­ties are oppos­ing pro­gres­sive change, rais­ing rates and killing the plan­et, but peo­ple across the coun­try, led by youth and First Nations activism, are tak­ing back pow­er. Cli­mate hawks and eco­nom­ic jus­tice activists are work­ing togeth­er to make our pow­er grid and pol­i­tics clean­er, and fight­ing for more afford­able and equi­table energy […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Economic Security, Education, Live Coverage

Netroots Nation Panel: Student Debt Crisis

by Rennie Sawade

This pan­el dis­cuss­es the issues around stu­dent debt. The pan­elists are Robert Cruick­shank, Natalia Abrams, Melis­sa Byrne, Angela Peo­ples and Kay­la Wing­ber­muehle. Some of the main issues: Wealth trans­fer prob­lem. Wealthy stu­dents can afford col­lege, not go into debt, and not have to work a part-time job, so they can con­cen­trate more in class­es, do better, […]

Posted inEvents, Live Coverage

Vice President Biden visits Renton Technical College with Senators Murray, Cantwell

by Rennie Sawade

Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden spoke at Ren­ton Tech­ni­cal Col­lege today late in the morn­ing. He spoke on the state of the mid­dle class and the need for skilled work­ers in the com­ing years. He plugged com­mu­ni­ty col­leges as the most flex­i­ble edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions in the unit­ed states. Biden said that we are no longer talking […]

Posted inEvents, Live Coverage

LIVE from Detroit: NSA Surveillance Reform: Pitfalls and Opportunities

by Rennie Sawade

Pan­el descrip­tion: A recent­ly launched cam­paign in Europe calls on indi­vid­u­als to “vote for [their] dig­i­tal rights.” How­ev­er, no such move­ment has caught on in the Unit­ed States, despite the upcom­ing elec­tion cycle. Ral­lies and events—including the Ral­ly to End Mass Sur­veil­lance and the Day We Fight Back—have demon­strat­ed wide sup­port for sur­veil­lance reform. By […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Economic Security, Education, Events, Live Coverage

LIVE from Detroit: Turn on the water! Panel addresses city’s unconscionable shutoffs

by Rennie Sawade

Peter Ham­mer, a law pro­fes­sor from Wayne State Uni­ver­si­ty opens the dis­cus­sion. He began by intro­duc­ing the con­cept of the “three R’s of Detroit” which include “Race, Region­al­ism, and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion.” He spoke most about “Spa­cial Racism” and demon­strat­ed by show­ing a map of Detroit areas col­or cod­ed to indi­cate vary­ing lev­el of eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties. Areas […]

Posted inEvents, Live Coverage

LIVE from Detroit: Keynote with Debbie Stabenow, Mark Schauer

by Rennie Sawade

Good Morn­ing from Detroit! This is the last day of the con­fer­ence and we are begin­ning the day with keynotes from Mark Schauer, can­di­date to replace Sny­der as gov­er­nor of Michi­gan, and Sen­a­tor Deb­bie Stabenow. Lisa Brown is Schauer’s run­n­ing-mate. Schauer promis­es to repeal “Right-To-Work-For-Less” and to sup­port unions. Schauer promis­es equal pay for equal […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Events, Live Coverage

Live from Detroit: Detroit, Rocked City: How the Bankruptcy Led to Retirement Attacks that Could Spread Nationwide

by Rennie Sawade

This pan­el is mod­er­at­ed by David Siro­ta. Pan­elists include Gwen­dolyn Beasley, Reesa Kos­soff, and Diane Oak­ley. Pub­lic pen­sion attacks are hap­pen­ing nation­al­ly and are being dri­ven by the Koch Broth­ers. 401k plans have not proven to save tax pay­er mon­ey over a Defined Ben­e­fit plan, in fact there are cas­es where state lia­bil­i­ty has increased. […]

Posted inEvents, Media & Culture, Technology

LIVE from Detroit: Why Net Neutrality is a Social Justice Issue

by Rennie Sawade

This pan­el is mod­er­at­ed by Maris­sa Valeri who is Com­mon Cause’s dig­i­tal strate­gies man­ag­er. Pan­elists include Kim Lehmkuhl, Lau­ren Wil­son, and Andi Zeisler. From the pan­el descrip­tion: Ear­li­er this year, a court over­turned the Fed­er­al Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Commission’s (FCC) com­mon sense net neu­tral­i­ty rules, which guar­an­teed the right of users to con­nect to the web­sites, blogs, […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Events, Live Coverage

LIVE from Detroit: The Rise of Janet Yellen: Why the Fed Matters

by Rennie Sawade

The Fed­er­al Reserve wields great eco­nom­ic pow­er; it is often said that the Chair­man of the Fed­er­al Reserve is the sec­ond most pow­er­ful per­son in Amer­i­ca. In 2013, a rag­tag coali­tion came togeth­er to fight for eco­nom­ic jus­tice and work on an unprece­dent­ed cam­paign: to influ­ence who would become the Chair of the Fed­er­al Reserve. […]

Posted inEvents, Live Coverage

LIVE from Detroit: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden addresses Netroots Nation 2014

by Rennie Sawade

Wel­come to our con­tin­u­ing cov­er­age of Net­roots Nation 2014 in Detroit, Michi­gan. This after­noon, for the first time in the his­to­ry of the con­ven­tion (which began in 2006), the Vice Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States will be speak­ing to the thou­sands of activists who reunite every year to coor­di­nate the build­ing of a stronger progressive […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Events, Live Coverage

LIVE from Detroit: Corporate Welfare and Tax Loopholes vs. Public Services: Who’s Winning?

by Rennie Sawade

This ses­sion is mod­er­at­ed by Mesha Williams, social media coor­di­na­tor for the Inter­na­tion­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Fire Fight­ers. Panelist/speaker is Greg LeRoy from Good Jobs First. About $70 Bil­lion is spent per year on sub­si­diz­ing busi­ness devel­op­ment. Tax­es amount to only about 2% of the cost of doing busi­ness on aver­age, so tax breaks have min­i­mal effect […]