Saturday, May 17, turned out to be a beautiful morning for a race, and all members of Team UA Progressive Action enjoyed being part of the 40,000-plus men, women, children, and (yes!) dogs walking and running for the cure for breast cancer.

After the team's two 5K runners (Pat Hadler and Jamie McLuckie) took off at 8:30 a.m., the rest of the team participating that morning (Barb Falkenberg, Susan Otte, Jody Scarbrough, and UAPA co-founder and breast cancer survivor Susan Truitt) gathered for the 5K walkers' 8:45 start. As Governor Ted Strickland started the race and the crowd began to move, we felt a surge of supportive spirit from the thousands gathered for the race. At the finish an hour or so later, we all agreed that it was a morning well spent.

UAPA would like to thank all who donated to the Race for the Cure by registering for Team UA Progressive Action. In addition to those named above were Jan Davis, Carole Depaola, George Hadler, Bill Hadler, Kathy Panning, Diane Reichwein, and Marty Stinehart, who were unable to participate that morning.

We are already looking forward to next year's race and hope more of you can join us, whether in body or spirit. We look forward to adding your name to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure's Team UA Progressive Action in May 2009!

Senator John McCain continues to promote the Bush agenda for Iraq and beyond.

McCain is ramping up his Tough Guy rhetoric by claiming that any contact with the leaders of our enemies is
dangerous to the US. He amplifies his statements in an attempt to attack Barack Obama's willingness to seek diplomatic solutions to world problems, especially in the Middle East.

A hawk to the end, McCain's record gives voters a clear picture of his approach to diplomacy -- the big stick without speaking softly. What is his defiinition of "enemy" these days? China? Russia? Iran? Palestine?

Regency Centers, owners of Kingsdale Shopping Center, have a new proposal for redeveloping the aged mall at the heart of Upper Arlington.

The new plan, submitted to UA City Council in an April 28 letter, does not include a Target store. Instead, according to the May 15, 2008, UA This Week, a new Giant Eagle would be built on Northwest Boulevard.

Regency is offering 5 acres of the site to the city, including the current Giant Eagle building and the former medical office on Zollinger. Company officials suggest the purchase would allow UA to seek its own proposals for office development, a mixed-use called for in the Master Plan.

What do we mean when we say soldiers deserve a hero’s welcome? Many troops wounded in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have traumatic brain injuries, yet the number of uninsured veterans increased by 290,000 between 2000 and 2004.

This weekend, Americans will remember our loved ones who have been lost -- some in war, some through illness, some through injury. Some have been lost because they cannot get the help they need to overcome the trauma in their lives.

State Rep. Ted Celeste was shocked to learn that insurers in Ohio can deny coverage to men, women and children needing therapy to recover from war, sexual abuse, physical abuse or mass violence. He responded by sponsoring House Bill 249. It would require private insurers to extend mental health coverage to veterans and all others suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The Ohio Senate approved tough new regulations on Ohio’s payday lenders, bringing the state very close to ending the payday industry as it currently exists.

The approval of these new regulations in both the Ohio House and Senate is a direct result of a coordinated progressive grassroots effort. 245 non-profit, religious and civic organizations joined together in the Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending to change public policy and educate the public and media about the impact of the 391% interest rates charged to many of Ohio poorest citizens.

Steve Stivers: for 391% interest rates before he was against them

Interestingly, Ohio State Senator Steve Stivers, former bank lobbyist and Republican running against Mary Jo Kilroy for Congress, was for 391% interest rates before he was against them. Only a few months ago, Stivers was repeating payday lending industry talking points.

Columbus Dispatch editorial [screenshot]:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2008/02/21/butpro21.ART_ART_02-21-08_A9_7P9DN9R.html?sid=101

Yes: Giving sick workers time off improves the workplace and society

Thursday, February 21, 2008 3:21 AM
By Dale Butland

In 145 countries, including every other industrialized nation and the world's 20 most-competitive economies, people can occasionally miss a day of work because of illness and not lose a day's pay. But not in America.

In Ohio, the free market has left 2.2 million people (42 percent of the state's private-sector work force and more than 33 percent of middle-class earners) without a single paid sick day. More than 1 million more don't get paid if they stay home to care for a sick child. For them, illness means choosing between their paychecks and taking care of their families.

Fortunately, a bill before the General Assembly would change all that. The Ohio Healthy Families Act would let full-time workers at companies employing 25 or more people earn seven paid sick days per year and would allow part-time workers to earn a pro-rated number. Polls show that more than 70 percent of Ohioans approve of this legislation, and nearly 270,000 voters representing all 88 counties signed petitions supporting its passage. It's easy to see why.

• Paid sick days are fair. Illness is a fact of life, and no one should lose a job or a paycheck because they or a family member gets sick. If executives and politicians have paid sick days, surely ordinary people should be able to earn them, too. That's why 12 other states and the District of Columbia are considering paid-sick-day legislation this year.

• Paid sick days are reasonable. Doctors say that preventive care, including annual physicals and routine screenings for diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease, is the most important action people can take to improve outcomes and dramatically cut health-care costs. But because most doctors' offices are open only during regular business hours, people are far more likely to seek preventive care if they aren't penalized with lost wages.

  What about workers who take sick days when they're not really sick? Even though studies show that those who have paid sick days don't abuse them (more than 50 percent don't miss a single day of work in a typical year) the legislation being considered in Ohio provides reasonable protections against the few who might be tempted to cheat. And the rest of us would have paid sick days available if and when we need them.

• Paid sick days are cost-effective. Although opponents claim paid sick days would be costly and injurious to Ohio's business climate, every independent study to date has found otherwise. A 2004 study in the Harvard Business Review, for example, found that it costs businesses more to have workers come in sick than to have them stay home. More-recent studies by the Institute for Women's Policy Research and Policy Matters Ohio similarly found that paid sick days would result in a net savings for Ohio businesses, mostly because of lower productivity losses, faster recuperation times and reduced spread of illness in the workplace.

  And if, as is likely, better preventive care ends up reducing employer-paid insurance premiums, Ohio's business climate would actually improve relative to other states.

• Paid sick days are important to public health. About 670,000 Ohioans without paid sick days hold jobs that require extensive contact with the public. When retail clerks and restaurant workers, for example, come to work sick, their customers are exposed to and often infected with a variety of illnesses.
• Paid sick days would reflect Ohio's commitment to family values. Children would be more likely to get the regular visits to doctors and dentists. Parents would not feel forced to send their kids to school sick or leave them home alone because they can't afford to miss work in order to care for them. And elderly Ohioans in nursing homes no longer would need fear contracting respiratory or gastrointestinal illnesses from caregivers who can't afford to stay home.

The Healthy Families Act can make Ohio one of the healthiest and most family-friendly states in America. Since receiving the bill in early January, however, House and Senate leaders have bobbed and weaved, stalled and stonewalled. They themselves have paid sick days at the public's expense. Isn't it time they enacted it for the rest of us?

Dale Butland is communications director for Ohioans for Healthy Families, a nonprofit statewide coalition of 190 organizations fighting for paid sick days.

butlands@wowway.com

John McCain has turned his back on working families.

He does not have a plan to address the issues that are affecting our state like foreclosures, trade and unprecedented job loss. Take a moment to view a short PowerPoint presentation here that reveals his dismal record of protecting American and Ohio jobs and working families.