Tag: Netroots Nation

Net­roots Nation is an annu­al con­fer­ence that pro­vides train­ings, resources and con­nec­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties to help pro­gres­sive activists cre­ate a more pro­gres­sive and just world. It draws up to 4,000 atten­dees from around the coun­try and beyond. The North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute sends a del­e­ga­tion of staff to par­tic­i­pate in Net­roots Nation each sum­mer. This is an archive of our cov­er­age from all of the years the con­ven­tion has been held, from 2006 to the present.

Posted inCivil Liberties, Live Coverage

Voting rights are for everyone: returning citizen disenfranchisement and expanding democracy

by Patrick Stickney

We start­ed the last day of Net­roots Nation at “Vot­er Rights Restora­tion and the Move Toward a Grow­ing Democ­ra­cy: How We Get There”. It was a packed pan­el table, appar­ent­ly because it was a merg­er of two pan­els to talk about restor­ing vot­ing rights for pre­vi­ous­ly incar­cer­at­ed indi­vid­u­als and grow­ing democ­ra­cy for every­one. We started, […]

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 inEvents, Live Coverage

How the progressive Arizona of the 1900s morphed into Tea Party Arizona: A history

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Good morn­ing from Phoenix! Our live cov­er­age of Net­roots Nation con­tin­ues all day today, the mid­dle day of the con­ven­tion. The first activ­i­ties today are break­out ses­sions, and I’ve decid­ed to attend How Pro­gres­sive Ari­zona Became Tea Par­ty Ari­zona. The syn­op­sis of this pan­el is as fol­lows: Ari­zona entered the Union in 1912 as a […]

Posted inEvents, Live Coverage

Netroots Nation 2016 to be held in St. Louis, Missouri from July 14th-17th

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

The eleventh gath­er­ing of Net­roots Nation, tak­ing place ten years after the very first Year­lyKos, will be held July 14th-17th in St. Louis, Mis­souri, the con­ven­tion’s exec­u­tive direc­tor Raven Brooks announced a few min­utes ago. NN 2016 will hap­pen just a few days ahead of the Repub­li­can Nation­al Con­ven­tion in Cleve­land, Ohio, which runs from July […]

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

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. […]