JOIN THE BUS TODAY - STOP AVON FROM MAKING A TERRIBLE DECISION!

Bus For Progress:

As you know, each of our beach communities are racing to rebuild their Sandy ravaged boardwalks in time for summer. Numerous contractors have submitted bids to each town to do the construction, using a variety of wood and composite materials. Several contractors offered to use a wood called ipe. Towns like Avon and Belmar moved forward to approve ipe contracts.Luckily, our friends at the Rainforest Relief had been monitoring these activities and immediately stepped in to educate these towns. Ipe is actually a tropical hardwood, harvested (often illegally) from rainforests around the world that are rapidly disappearing. Here are some facts:

• Logging is the primary factor leading to deforestation.
• On average, loggers in the Amazon kill 28 trees for every high value tree cut, destroying about half the canopy.
• The US is the single largest importer of tropical hardwoods.
• Rainforests are the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet. Many rainforest plants and animals are rapidly becoming extinct, many of them were unknown by science.
• Deforestation is responsible for 25 - 30% of human caused greenhouse gases.
• For more info, click here.

When confronted with the truth, Belmar sought to rebuild their boardwalk with Trex (a composite material made in part from recycled fiber and plastic). Avon, however, has refused to reconsider. Even with growing pressure from environmental groups and citizens, Avon ordered their ipe, and is awaiting the start of construction.

Avon ordered 58,200 square feet of ipe boards. Calculations show that 766 acres of rainforest were logged to produce this much wood. Avon itself is just 347 acres! In addition, Avon has sought funds from FEMA to help pay for this construction, using our Federal Tax Dollars!

What can we do about it?

First, sign the petition to Mayor Robert Mahon, and forward it to others.

On Saturday evening (March 23rd), Avon is holding a fundraising party called "Bucks for Boards". At a recent town hall meeting, the organizer stated that most of the money raised would go to build a new playground on the beach. Irregardless, join the Bus for Progress, Rainforest Relief, The Monmouth County Green Party, and other environmental groups to hold a "teaching demonstration" outside the Avon Municipal Building to educate folks entering the party. We'll ask them to speak to their Mayor and Commissioners about reversing their decision. Avon could be the only town in Monmouth County that will use rainforest hardwood to build their boardwalk!

It is hard to believe that Avon can not, even at this late date, switch to an environmentally sound building material. And it is unconscionable to think that Avon would choose to rebuild from Hurricane Sandy using a material that makes another hurricane even more likely!

Join the Bus for Progress at 5:30 PM on 301 Main Street in Avon. Our action will last till 7 PM.
Come spare 90 minutes to help rebuild the Jersey Shore for the future! Spread the word to neighbors and friends. Make a sign to kindly educate the residents of Avon. Young folks will make a special impression. We have invited media to cover the event. We hope to see you Saturday!
Email us at info@BusForProgress.org with any questions.

GREEN PARTY TO HOST REGIONAL CONFERENCE ON HEALTHCARE AND LABOR

Asbury Park, NJ - The Green Party of Monmouth County and the Green Party of New Jersey (GPNJ) will host a conference addressing healthcare and labor issues on Sunday, February 27, 12:30-4:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel, 1401 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ. The event, which will be held at the Dauphin Grille within the hotel, includes a full buffet lunch and live music by singer-songwriters Jeff Saxon and special guest Tom Neilson.

Registration is $50 per person, with subsidies available to those who require a discount. Contact registrar David Petrovich at njdgreen@aol.com or 732-571-9464. The event home page can be accessed at: http://tinyurl.com/6x848w6.

Keynote speakers include Baltimore pediatrician Margaret Flowers, M.D., Congressional Fellow for Physicians for a National Health Program; Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor of New York State in 2010; and Hugh Giordano, a labor organizer with the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 152, in Philadelphia;.

"Sooner or later the country is going to have to reduce the wastefully high cost of corporate for-profit health insurance," said Steve Welzer, a member of the Green Party's state executive committee. "A single-payer system (Medicare for All) would eliminate the corporate insurance middle-man, cut the price of coverage, and assure that every American enjoys guaranteed quality health care. A goal of the Feb. 27 conference will be to educate the public about the real issues in order to counter the propaganda that dominated the debate last year."

"The Green Party message on healthcare is eminently reasonable," added Lynn Petrovich, C.P.A., who will present a "Rip-off Report" on hospital accounting at the event. "Our health care system, which places profits before people can no longer be tolerated and it is up to Americans to demand change."

Synergy and mutual support among labor activists, healthcare reformers, and those committed to the building of a green economy will be a common theme throughout the conference presentations.

Media Contact: David Petrovich, njdgreen@aol.com; 732-571-9464

States, the system drives 700,000 families to bankruptcy from medical bills (the majority of whom have medical

"The Green Party is no longer the alternative, the Green Party is the imperative"

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www.MonmouthGreens.org

Green Party To Rally In Solidarity In Trenton With Wisconsin Workers Friday

Greens will meet at new Trenton HQ

Look for The Green Party Banner!

Friday, February 25, 12pm noon at the State House, Trenton

Wisconsin workers have been fighting on the front lines against Governor Scott Walker's assault on working families and collective bargaining rights. At the Trenton State House on Friday, February 25, 2011, at 12:00 noon, a group of Wisconsin workers will be welcomed by the New Jersey State AFL-CIO, national AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, hundreds of our union brothers and sisters and community partners.

At this rally, we will stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity and speak out against the attacks on working families and assaults on collective bargaining rights which are taking place in Wisconsin and other states around the country. We will also send a message to Governor Christie that he bargain in good faith and not balance the budget on the backs of middle class families. We urge all affiliates and community allies to join us at the Trenton State House on Friday and to hear first-hand about the events that are taking place in Wisconsin. Wisconsin workers are depending on strong demonstrations of solidarity in states across the nation to help them sustain their efforts back home.

The attacks in Wisconsin are not just isolated to one state or one sector of our labor movement. These are overt attacks on collective bargaining that are relevant to all working people. What we need now in these difficult times, is to work collectively as one labor movement and understand that we need to improve the quality of life for all workers and not dismantle it.

We look forward to standing in unity with you at the State House.

In Solidarity,

Charles Wowkanech, President, NJ AFL-CIO
Laurel Brennan, Secretary-Treasurer, NJ AFL-CIO

Greens, Labor, and Healthcare Conference To Be Held 2/27/11.

By guest blogger David Petrovich

For almost 30 years (the last 12 as executive director for a non profit consumer advocacy) I've worked closely with families who are at-risk of mortgage foreclosure, bankruptcy, and loss of homeownership. Though each situation has its own unique set of hardships, the most common of hardship which precipitate foreclosure and bankruptcy include loss of, or reduction in employment, loss of health insurance, and out of pocket medical expenses. Intangible hardships include the trauma or stress of losing one's job, the inability to pay bills as they become due and then past due, the uncertainty/fear of losing the roof overhead, and the physical and emotional toll these hardships exact upon our health.

Appealing to mortgage lenders who act with arrogance and impunity is a circuitous, inneffective game I call Foreclosure Relief Roulette. Frankly, mortgage foreclosure is a (toxic) symptom of a larger, systemic problem. To curb foreclosure, we need to look at the larger picture.

Our war economy has ten million folks who face foreclosure, 20% unemployment, one in seven who live in poverty, and millions of stressed out folks without healthcare. However, Healthcare industry profits have never been higher, Wall Street bonuses have never been as outrageous, and "too big to fail" banks have never had it so good. What's wrong with this picture?

We need jobs. We need affordable healthcare. In my view, replacing our for-profit healthcare delivery system with a sensible, cost effective single payer system would provide unfettered access to improved healthcare for all citizens (working, unemployed, retired, youth, sick, or healthy) while saving (NJ) taxpayers about three billion dollars in its first year. A single payers system would all but eliminate our fifty seven billion dollar pension funding deficit for health benefits, reduce the costs for homeowners insurance, auto insurance, and workman's comp insurance. Do you hear that Governor Christie?

Implementing a single payer system would jumpstart our economy by enabling small and mid size businesses to operate without the staggering costs of healthcare, and through job creation.

When President Obama used his State of the Union address to tell people to "let him know" if there's a better approach that "will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare and stop insurance company abuses," the Labor Campaign for Single Payer (LCSP), a network of local and statewide union leaders, responded with a letter stating that single-payer system "would be far more cost effective than any of the proposed current reforms based on the continuation of for-profit, market-based insurance."

So what happened? Our corporate-lapdog government, intent on protecting corporate profits for HMOs, and Big Pharma, outlawed single payer thru 2019.

Vermont is seeking a waiver so it can be the first state to implement an improved Medicare for All.

What do labor unions, 18,000 physicians from across the USA, and Vermonters know that we don't?

You sure won't learn much by watching or reading corporate owned media. Except single payer is anti-American, Socialistic, Communistic or whatever the pejorative "ism" du jour.

Get the facts. Attend "Greens, Labor and Healthcare Conference" at the Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel on Sunday, February 27th. It promises to be a fact filled, entertaining luncheon with national speakers, top flight live music, and good food.

Register and you'll also receive, "Sticker Shock: Non Profit Hospital Accounting Practices - A Rip Off Report" an indictment of what's wrong with the business of healthcare delivery.

Email me for details (njdGreen@aol.com) or visit the conference's home page: http://tinyurl.com/6x848w6