Action Alerts – Week of June 4th – CNY Solidarity Coalition

CNY Solidarity members and supporters:
Please find below the weekly ACTION ALERTS from Indivisible NY24 and our legislative action teams.

Three preliminary notes:

Nominations for the Coordinating Committee are due by June 6th. Please consider nominating yourself or another member of the Coalition to this important role. Forward nominations to becky.howard1@gmail.com, el.al@verizon.net, dcurryrose@gmail.com. Elections will be held at our next meeting on June 20th.
Applications are now open for Citizens Academy, a weekly class on local government that runs every Fall (this year, from 9/5 through 10/31). Click here to apply. Topics include community and economic vitality; environmental stewardship; schools; public safety; planning, land use, and transportation; and local government budget and finance. Applications due by July 31.
The New York Immigration Coalition is organizing a community-based effort to provide information to the Census Bureau for its Local Update of Census Addresses. The purpose is to establish where to count by identifying all the addresses where people could live. The census address list contains the residential addresses that form “where to count”. A complete and accurate address list ensures that all households are included in the census in the correct location. There will be a webinar training on Mon. 6/11. The address counts will be on the weekends of 6/16 & 6/17, 6/23 & 6/24, and 6/30 & 7/1. Participants are asked to help do the count for at least 5 hours per weekend. Please contact <fortiz@nyic.org>

And now, on to the action alerts. Highlights this week include a local candidate forum in Syracuse tonight.

Today (June 4)

Join the Poor People’s Campaign in Albany

Theme this week is Ecological Devastation and the Right to Health. Carpooling from Syracuse will leave about 7:30am from University United Methodist Church Parking lot (University Ave. and E. Genesee St. Register at bit.ly/nyppcweek4

Local Candidate Forum

Organized by Uplift Syracuse (and cohosted by CNY Solidarity), featuring local candidates for state Senate (50^th and 53^rd districts), Syracuse city court judge, and County Sheriff. 6-7:30pm at Bishop Harrison Center. More details here.

Tuesday (June 5)

One phone call today, plus a statewide day of action in Albany

Support Community Solar

VDER (the Value of Distributed Energy Resources) is a PSC policy that took community solar off net metering and threw a wrench into the works all but stopping community solar in NYS. It has thwarted community solar projects since Winter 2017. Now is a crucial time for us to demonstrate that equitable solar policy in the form of Bill A.10474/S.8273 has strong support across New York State. The bill passed the NYS Assembly Energy Committee on May 30, and the next step is for the NYS Senate to bring it to a vote in their Energy and Telecommunications Committee. The next meeting of the committee is June 6, and we are asking people to call the offices of Senator Griffo, thanking him for his support of Bill S.8273, telling him how important it is for NYS to have community solar back on track (jobs, saving some farms from bankruptcy, equitability in access to solar for renters and low-moderate income households and the homes & businesses that do not have rooftops appropriate for solar), and asking him to bring the bill up for a vote in the NYS Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee. Sen. Griffo’s numbers are (518) 455-3334 and (315) 793-9072.

Albany – Statewide Day of Action for the New York Health Act
There is still room on the bus from Syracuse which will be leaving from the Destiny USA parking lot at 7am. Please sign up ASAP to reserve your spot! Donations are accepted to cover the cost of the bus. $25 is the suggested donation. To learn more about the details of what will happen on June 5 in Albany, here are materials from last week’s Virtual Training. Note that plans for a related action at today’s meeting of the Onondaga County Legislature have been postponed.

Wednesday (June 6)

Syracuse – Birddogging Election Tactics Training: How to win the world we want in 2018

“Birddogging” is the activist tactic of putting a policy maker on the spot, in public, and hopefully on camera, with inescapable questions that win the room. All that is necessary is to pose a question directly to the person who has the power to give us what we’re asking for. For this training, we will be joined by Paul Davies of the Center for Popular Democracy. 6-8pm at Bishop Harrison in Syracuse. Please RSVPand help spread the word via Facebook.

Background: Housing Works and the Center for Popular Democracy formed a nationwide network of birddoggers who played a definitive role in stopping the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and are now going on the offensive. Join us so we can apply these tactics to any local Members of Congress who voted to take away healthcare in order to pay for tax cuts for millionaires.

Thursday (June 7)

One phone call today

Support NY AG Barbara Underwood’s resistance to Trump agenda

From our state legislative action team (SLAT): There has been collaboration between Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the New York State Attorney General’s Office, about which we have no details. Part of the purpose was to coordinate prosecutions of Trump and his circle when there have been violations of NYS law, because the president can only pardon people charged with or convicted of federal crimes. But when a person has been convicted of a federal crime that is essentially the same in content as a NYS law, NYS is prohibited from pursuing those prosecutions because of the principle of double jeopardy. There is apparently an increased risk that Trump will pardon his circle for many federal offenses that are largely the same as specific offenses against NYS law, which could eliminate the possibility of convicting these individuals in NYS court. Please call NYS Attorney General Barbara Underwood at 800-771-7755 to support her issuing indictments against Trump’s inner circle now if her office has clear evidence of violations of NYS law. And thank her for her service defending NYS residents against inappropriate actions by the Trump/Pence/Sessions/Ryan/McConnell regime.

Friday (June 8)

Meeting with Assembly Member Stirpe

From our state legislative action team (SLAT): The whole focus of the meeting will be the Green Light legislation to produce drivers licenses for undocumented individuals. Please join us if you are his constituent. Meeting is at 3:30pm; please arrive by 3:20pm at his district office: 7293 Buckley Rd #201, North Syracuse, NY 13212.

Saturday (June 9)

Weekly “Say No to Katko” protest

11:00-12:00, on the sidewalk outside Wegmans Dewitt, near the traffic light, across from Talbots. We’ve had 10-30 people out every week for the past several months. As the weather improves, we’d like to make these even bigger, so please join us. This week, we’ll have a big sign reminding people to vote on June 26.More details here.

Sunday (June 10)

NY-24 Candidate Debate Postponed

Syracuse Students for Change (a group of local high school student activists that emerged out of the March for Our Lives movement) had organized a primary debate featuring Dana Balter and Juanita Perez Williams for today, but it has been rescheduled for next week. More details as we have them. In the meantime, this link includes an RSVP form and a form for submitting recommended questions for the candidates.

Poor People’s Campaign “Watch Party”

6-8pm at University United Methodist Church (1085 E. Genesee St., Syracuse) – refreshments, a live stream of a Poor People’s Campaign Rally in Washington DC, and local speakers.

Save the date for these upcoming events:

Mon., Jun. 11: Join the Poor People’s Campaign in Albany. Theme this week is Systemic Poverty, Jobs, Income & Housing—Everybody’s Got the Right to Live. Carpooling from Syracuse will leave about 7:30 am from University United Methodist Church Parking lot (University Ave. and E. Genesee St. For more info: <pastoraliciawood@gmail.com>. Register at bit.ly/nyppcweek5

Tue., Jun. 12: Today, the 2^nd anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting, high school students nationwide are organizing a National Die-In Day to protest continued government inaction on gun control laws. Syracuse Students for Change has organized one at Rep. Katko’s office, 440 Warren St. in Syracuse. Rally at 10:30; die in at noon.

Tue., Jun. 12: SCSD and the Syracuse Citizen Review Board are hosting a Know Your Rights discussion, in which members of the CRB will answer questions about what to do if you are stopped, questioned, arrested, or injured in an encounter with the police, and how to file a complaint. 5:30-7pm, Syracuse Community Connections, 401 South Ave.

Tue., Jun. 12: Syracuse Common Council’s Transportation Committee is holding a fact-finding meeting on I-81 redevelopment, which will include a public comment period. 5:30-7pm, Syracuse City Hall.
Sat., Jun. 16, 11:00-12:00: Weekly “Say No to Katko” protest, on the sidewalk outside Wegmans Dewitt, near the traffic light, across from Talbots. More details here.

Sat., Jun. 16, 7 p.m. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence will be speaking on Yemen at All Saints Church, 1340 Lancaster Avenue. Sponsored by CNY Solidarity’s Beyond War and Militarism committee. To learn more, contact Ed or Ann at (315) 478-4571.

Sun., Jun. 17: The NY-24 Congressional Primary Debate, organized by Syracuse Students for Change and originally scheduled for June 10, has been rescheduled for today. Time and location to be confirmed. More details here, including an RSVP form and a form for submitting recommended questions for the candidates.

Jun. 17, 6-8pm: Poor People’s Campaign “Watch Party” at University United Methodist Church (1085 E. Genesee St., Syracuse) – refreshments, a live stream of a Poor People’s Campaign Rally in Washington DC, and local speakers.

Mon., Jun. 18: Join the Poor People’s Campaign in Albany. Theme this week is Challenging the Nation’s Distorted Moral Narrative—A New and Unsettling Force. Carpooling from Syracuse will leave about 7:30 am from University United Methodist Church Parking lot (University Ave. and E. Genesee St. For more info: <craigfrench@twcny.rr.com>. Register at bit.ly/nyppcweek6

Jun. 19: Deadline to request absentee ballot by mail for NY24 congressional primary. Application form available here.

Jun. 20, 7-8:30pm: CNY Solidarity meeting, Park Central Presbyterian Church, 504 E. Fayette St. in Syracuse (corner of Fayette and Townsend). Enter on the Fayette St. side. Note that for June, July, and August, we will meet on one Sunday afternoon and one weeknight per month.

Sat., Jun. 23, 11:00-12:00: Weekly “Say No to Katko” protest, on the sidewalk outside Wegmans Dewitt, near the traffic light, across from Talbots. Last one before primary day! More details here.

Tue., Jun. 26: Election day (NY24 congressional primary).

July 11, 7-8:30pm: CNY Solidarity meeting, Bishop Harrison.

July 29, 3-5pm: CNY Solidarity meeting, Northside Learning Center.

Aug. 19: NYS voter registration deadline for state primary.

Sept. 6: Deadline to request absentee ballot by mail for state primary.

Thur., Sept. 13: Election day (primaries for state offices). Note the date change; and yes, it’s a Thursday.

Oct. 12: NYS voter registration deadline for general election.

Oct. 30: Deadline to request absentee ballot by mail for general election.

Tue., Nov. 6: Election day (general election for all offices). Click here to add it to your FB calendar.

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