PortlandWiki Calendar 2011 4 18

== Key vote TODAY on state bank bill -- what you can do to help ==
from:	Karla Starr, Oregonians for a State Bank
date:	Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 9:50 AM
subject:	Key vote TODAY on state bank bill -- what you can do to help
Dear fellow activists--
Today, a key State Senate committee will take a critical vote to advance our "virtual" state bank bill--or to kill it.
It’s also Tax Day. It’s time to put Oregon’s tax money to work for us, creating jobs in Oregon, instead of letting Wall Street banks get their hands on it.
Today, April 18th: join us in Salem!
We need your help right away. Please sign our petition for a state bank, and we’ll share your signatures with our legislators in Salem. With your help, we’ve already surpassed 2000 signatures - can you help us hit 2500 today?
Click here to sign our petition now.
If you’re in the Salem area, you can join in on the action in person today: first in the Capitol Building, and then in the streets. We need to let the powers that be know what we think about the fact that while we ordinary Oregonians are paying our taxes today, some of the nation’s biggest and most powerful banks -- like Bank of America -- aren’t paying a cent. If you can take the time today, I hope you’ll show up and help keep the momentum going. Here are the details:
1PM TODAY
:Senate Committee to vote on ‘virtual’ state bank proposal (SB899)
:State Capitol, Hearing Room B
4PM TODAY
:Rally with MoveOn.org and US Uncut
:Bank of America on 390 High St NE at Center
:Downtown Salem
:(Steve Hughes, state director of the Oregon Working Families Party, will be speaking at the rally about our campaign for a state bank to put our money to work in Oregon.)
Just two weeks ago, over 100 supporters joined us for the hearings on the Oregon State Bank bills! They were such a success that the legislation is continuing to move forward and is scheduled for a vote today.
We need your help to remind the Senate Committee on General Government, Consumer and Small Business Protection that we're serious about improving the economic climate for Oregon's family farmers, small businesses and community banks. And we’re serious about creating jobs and getting our economy moving again.
You can help send the message by signing our petition and passing it along:
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1306/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=847
And even better, if you can, please join us for the vote in person. If our supporters are in front of the committee, in the room while they vote, we’ll be able to make sure our State Senators are listening to Oregonian taxpayers, not Wall Street banks and their lobbyists.
Afterwards, in celebration of Tax Day, we're going to meet at Bank of America in downtown Salem with MoveOn.org and US Uncut to protest the fact that Bank of America--which is sitting on billions of dollars in deposits from Oregonians, and has only made two small business loans in Oregon this year--paid no taxes in 2010.
If you can, help us deliver a 1-2 punch to Wall Street TODAY, April 18th: first, in the Senate work session; then, we take it to the streets. I hope to see you there. If you can't make it, help spread the word and pass this along!
:- Karla Starr, Oregonians for a State Bank
Category:Street Protests, Rallies, Demonstrations