heiderose1's blog

Duke Energy is seeking an 18.6% rate hike for residential electricity customers. That’s after an 8% increase since January 2010, and this September’s 5% increase in fuel surcharges – over 30% rise in residential rates! And Duke says it wants another rate hike next year.

AND both Duke and Progress Energy plan to push for an ANNUAL RATE HIKE BILL next year to force customers to pre-pay for risky new nuclear plants that are not needed. ALL NC electricity customers are at risk. The utilities’ business path would double our power bills.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Let NC Utilities Commission members know what you think! Attend the Public Hearings:
In DURHAM: Wednesday, November 2nd at 7:00 PM
Durham City Hall Council Chambers
101 City Hall Plaza

In RALEIGH: Monday, November 28th at 1:00 PM
NC Utilities Commission
Dobbs Building, 430 N. Salisbury St.

2) Send comments to NC Utilities Commission Chair, Ed Finley: finley@ncuc.net

Yes, people can win against big corporations.

In 2008 several environmental organizations sued Duke Energy over the company’s Cliffside coal plant’s addition of Unit 6, an 800-megawatt expansion. The suit charged that the company skipped some steps in the plant’s approval process and that it should have to comply with the Clean Air Act and utilize Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT).

The good guys won.

From the makers of "The Story of Stuff" comes an animated short film, an exploration of the inordinate power that corporations exercise in our democracy and what we can do about it.

Neighborhood schools sound pretty innocuous to many people. I have been asked by many well-meaning parents what is so bad about kids not having to get up so early to catch a bus halfway across the county in order to arrive at some magic number made up by statisticians. Where's the harm in having your kids go to school closer to home, they ask. Doesn't that make more sense?

FINE ARTS THEATRE in ASHEVILLE NC
GALAXY CINEMA in CARY NC
PARK TERRACE 6 in CHARLOTTE NC
CAROLINA 3 in DURHAM NC
CAMEO ART HOUSE THEATRE in FAYETTEVILLE NC
COLONY CINEMA 2 in RALEIGH NC
APERTURE CINEMA in WINSTON-SALEM NC

This is a must-see film by Academy Award® nominated filmmaker, Charles Ferguson. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, INSIDE JOB traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia.
Watch trailer here: www.sonyclassics.com/insidejob/

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

On October 2, 2010, tens of thousands of people representing labor, civil rights, faith communities and a myriad of progressive organizations will march in solidarity at the Nation's Capitol in order to protect our jobs, our education and our economy. Many of these marchers will come from North Carolina. Won't you join us?

Sign up to become part of One Nation Working Together NC below. If you need bus information for your area, please include your request at the end of the pledge.

If you cannot come with us, please consider donating a scholarship so someone else can go!

TAKE THE PLEDGE

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dE5JTkV0dWx5bmVadmdudVp...

Buses are leaving from Asheville, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Durham, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Raleigh, Winston-Salem Wilmington, and many more (see below for a partial list). We will be publishing more bus information as it becomes available. Please check www.progressivedemocratsnc.org for updates.

Despite Burr's big money advantage, this seat is in play. And if the prevailing mood among voters remains anti-incumbent in November, NC might have two Democrats in the Senate!

We need to do everything we can to get out the vote!

This just in from Tom Jensen PPP

http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, May 19, 2010
More Bad Poll Numbers for Burr

The Civitas Institute, a Republican think tank in North Carolina, released new polls this week in two GOP leaning state senate districts that found Richard Burr with approval numbers way under water.

In SD-45, which ranks an R+10 on the organization's Partisan Index (similar to Charlie Cook's PVI), Burr's approval is only 33% with 43% of voters disapproving of him. In SD-50, which is an R+6, Burr's numbers are similarly bad at 29% approving and 39% disapproving.

These polls were conducted by SurveyUSA. If they're finding Burr's poll numbers to be that bad in Republican friendly parts of the state I can only imagine how poor they would look statewide.

Senator Leahy has introduced an amendment to the Wall Street Reform Bill S.3217 that would repeal the anti-trust exemption that the private health insurance industry has. It's up for a vote today or tomorrow.

Please call Senator Hagan and ask her to support the Leahy Antitrust Exemption Amendment!

Amendment number -Leahy #3823 (health insurance antitrust enforcement)

(202) 224-6342 Sen. Hagan's office
OR
(202) 224-3121 switchboard

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/press_releases/release/?id=827caf11-ce71-4...

PS:
Franken's amendment #3991 passed 64-35 on credit ratings issue

Chris Bowers (Open Left) writes:

cross-posted from DailyKos

The same day North Carolinian William Gheen, president of the virulently anti-immigrant organization ALIPAC, called on Congress to abandon the Constitution and subvert the 2010 Census data to crack down on undocumented immigrants in his relentless crusade against "the alien invasion," four courageous young immigrant students were making their way through North Carolina on their 1,500 mile walk from Miami, Florida, to Washington, D.C.

Felipe Matos, 23, Gaby Pacheco, 25, Carlos Roa, 22, and Juan Rodriguez, 20, decided that life in the shadows without a chance for a meaningful future was no longer tolerable. They saw their friends and schoolmates lose hope, drop out of school, sink into depression and turn to self-destructive behavior, including suicide. How can these young people believe in themselves if the country they call home does not believe in them or their future? So the four students decided that they had to break the silence and come out of the shadows themselves, risking detention and deportation, to raise awareness about the unbearable plight of undocumented youth in our nation. Thus the Trail of Dreams was born.

About mid-day on Saturday, October 25, One–Stop Voting in NC reached one million ballots cast. With another week of One-Stop Early Voting still to go, NC has already surpassed the early voting turn-out for the 2004 Presidential election by well over 300,000 ballots.