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I just got a copy of "USW@WORK" and read about the first ever AFL-CIO Young Workers Summit that was held this summer in Washington DC, where more than 400 participated developing a plan for the future of young workers. At the Summit, young workers focused on making sure young union leaders and activists are taken seriously and their ideas are heard at all levels of the union movement. Student activists, young workers and others generated ideas on the best ways to reach younger workers and build the movement. Sessions like this help to remind us that the labor movement is alive.

Federal data shows that "one of every 6 workers aged 45 to 64 is a union member. Only one of every 20 young people is in a union. Yet a survey last year conducted by the AFL-CIO found that only 31 percent of 18-35 year-olds earn enough money to cover their bills and put some aside. Almost a third is uninsured and one in three still lives at home with their parents". The Economic Policy Institute released a study this past spring showing the "challenges facing jobless young workers who lack a safety net and often don't qualify for unemployment benefits".

From my August 27 press release: Martha Abbott, the Progressive Party nominee for Governor, has declined the nomination, explaining that Progressives have decided not to run in the Governor’s race this year.

Dubie is a pale copy of Jim Douglas, likely to continue 95% of the Douglas policies with 95% of the Douglas advisors.

We need a new approach. The Douglas/Dubie administration had a pitiful record on job creation, much as they liked to give the impression that they were strong on that issue. We need some economic stimulus: building housing, building roads, building solar farms and windmill farms and biomass generating facilities. Our farmers can grow the biomass crops; we can bring back some manufacturing jobs to build the renewable energy facilities, and we can emerge with a whole new economy based on producing renewable energy components for the rest of the country once they wake up and realize the folly and the impossible costs of coal and oil and nuclear.

Despite the lack of cooperation by Democrats in 2008, when Gaye Symington entered the Governor’s race months after Anthony Pollina was already running, we feel it is important to do everything we can to ensure that Dubie is not elected. I am looking forward instead to spending the next four months working for Progressives running across the state for House and Senate seats.

As a candidate in the Democratic primary for Washington County State Senate, I am running with support of Democrats and Progressives working together to win because they know the debates over health care reform and Entergy are far from over. And, because they want to change they way we think about our state budget.

I believe our family budgets are just as important as the state's.

So, I want a state budget that works for us; no tax increases for the middle class, no pushing state expenses onto local towns and property taxpayers and no closed-door meetings when making decisions about how to raise and spend our money. Just cutting services when the need is great and laying people off when so many are unemployed makes no sense. Unemployed people don't generate taxes or help the economy. I want the state budget balanced, but not at the expense of our family budgets.

We need to put more money — not less — in people's pockets, to pay our bills, care for our families and support local businesses. We need to save where we waste the most; health care and corrections; reform our tax system, close loopholes for the wealthy and bond for investments that bring good jobs. It's investing in Main Street not Wall Street. Here are some specifics:

Over the past few years security at the state capitol has increased. Across the country heightened security at state capitols has meant a fresh look at ethics in government and the regulations in the different states regarding badges for lobbyists. Some states require lobbyists to wear badges that identify themselves as lobbyists; some encourage, but do not require lobbyists to wear an identification badge; and other states have no provisions but offer guidelines or states such as Vermont have no provisions.

Fourteen state require lobbyists to wear badges, in four states badges are available but not required. Badge makeup varies from state to state, with some badges containing a photo of the lobbyist with badges provided by a designated vendor. In at least one state, wearing a badge allow lobbyists to bypass capitol security screening. Cost of the badges in some states are born by the lobbyist even when they must produce their own. In one state the official badge is issued by the secretary of state but lobbyists may make a "reasonable reproduction" of the badge.

Vermont has no requirement. What do you think, should Vermont require lobbyists to wear a badge that identifies themselves as lobbyists?