PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

From the open publishing newswire, Stephen Donahue writes:

Those who are neither Democrats nor Republicans are being asked to flock to the polls on May 17 because Pennsylvania law makers have got a couple of questions put on the ballot that day.

One ballot question is called Growing Greener II and it asks us if we want to let, "the commonwealth borrow up to $625 million for the maintenance and protection of the environment, open space and farmland preservation, watershed protection, abandoned mine remediation, and other environmental initiatives?"

The other ballot question is called "Row Office Reform." Row Office Reform is being touted as a sort of cure all by its proponents. First of all they call it "reform." Just what is "reform" anyhow?

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On Saturday, May 7th, the Thomas Merton Center will hold its annual "New Person Awards" to honor peace and justice activists in Southwestern Pennsylvania. This year's ceremony will honor people and organizations that demonstrate labor and community solidarity in their work for social change. Some of this year's awardees include Save our Transit, which has fought to secure funding for public transit; United Steelworkers' Dan Kovalik, a lead attorney in the case against Coca Cola's human rights abuses; and the Mon Valley Unemployed Committee, which helps unemployed and low-income people gain access to unemployment and other benefits. In years' past, the New Person Awards themes have ranged from faith-based activism, to high school youth activists and activism through art honoring such local organizers as Pittsburgh North Anti-Racism Coalition's Mary Sheehan, high school student network organizer Claire Schoyer, and Pittsburgh's Radical Cheerleaders and progressive performance poets, among others.

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Candidates for the upcoming Pittsburgh mayoral election discussed issues related to design & quality of life in Pittsburgh at a recent forum hosted by the Pittsburgh Civic Design Coalition.

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Also, at a forum hosted by the African-American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania, the candidates were asked if they would compel police officers to testify before Pittsburgh's Citizen Police Review Board about alleged police misconduct. Mayor Tom Murphy does not require officers to testify. The board was created by citywide referendum in 1997 after cases of police brutality in Pittsburgh brought the department under federal scrutiny. The review board has been largely powerless since.

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On Tuesday, April 26, thirteen members of Pittsburgh Organizing Group disrupted two Army recruiters tabling at the Carnegie Mellon's University Center. The group, which included several CMU students, surrounded the recruiters and held up a large banner that read, "Resistance is Fertile," effectively blocking the view of the recruiters from passersby. The action kicks off Pittsburgh Organizing Group's counter-recruitment campaign.

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The Pennsylvania legislature is moving closer and closer toward a plan that would swap out school property taxes with a 5% tax on food, clothing and most all other items presently exempt from the state sales tax. Proponents say that this will give needed relief to property owners while others call such a tax regressive and unfairly swapping the tax burden from the rich to the poor.

The passage of the bill, scheduled to be introduced to the floor of the House and Senate in June, is by no means certain. Similar proposals have been floated in the past without success, and the governor would be likely to veto any bill if it did pass.

Sixteen states have a state-wide sales tax on food. Four of those sixteen tax food at a lower rate than other goods, and 5 provide a special tax credit for low-income families to offset the sales tax. Three more allow local sales tax on food. More

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