NO COST QUALITY MEDICAL CARE FOR CHILDREN

A Screening Clinic will be held to identify children from birth to 18 years of age

for possible treatment at a Shriners Hospital.

Children needing help with:

• • • birth defects

    • orthopedic problems

    • cerebral palsy

    • cleft palate

    • burns & burn scars

    • juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

    • back injuries

    • scoliosis

These, and many other conditions are treated at the

Shriners Hospitals

for Children

with no expense to the family

All applications will be kept strictly confidential.

9 am - 12 pm, Saturday on May 29, 2010

at the Masonic Center, 611 E. 65th Street, Davenport IA .

Sponsored by the Kaaba Shriners.

For questions please call our Office:

563-386-2526

1-800-670-5222

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, praised today's National Mediation Board decision to provide fair labor elections for rail and aviation workers.  The updated regulations were published in this morning's Federal Register.

Current election procedures treat rail and aviation workers differently from workers in other industries and U.S. citizens voting for government officials.  In order to gain union representation, a majority of all eligible rail and aviation workers must cast a vote for the union to prevail.  Workers who do not vote are counted as "no" votes against unionization.  Non-voters in elections held outside the rail and aviation industries are counted as abstentions, meaning that a simple majority of votes cast is all that is required. 

The updated regulations will allow a majority of those voting to choose union representation, putting rail and aviation workers on par with other workers.

"These regulations will ensure that aviation and rail workers have the same right to join a union as other workers in our country," Senator Harkin said. "I applaud the NMB's decision to amend its election procedures and bring basic fairness to workers in these critical industries.  NMB's long overdue rule change ensures that all American workers will have a voice in the workplace and a right to fair wages and work conditions."

In December of 2009, Harkin, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Chairman of the Appropriations Committee and Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WY), Chairman of the Commerce Committee were joined by Senators Akaka (D-HI), Boxer (D-CA), Brown (D-OH), Burris (D-IL), Byrd (D-WV), Cantwell (D-WA), Cardin (D-MD), Casey (D-PA), Dodd (D-CT), Durbin (D-IL), Feingold (D-WI), Franken (D-MN), Gillibrand (D-NY), Johnson (D-SD), Kaufman (D-DE), Kerry (D-MA), Kirk (D-MA), Klobuchar (D-MN), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Leahy (D-VT), Levin (D-MI), McCaskill (D-MO), Menendez (D-NJ), Merkley (D-OR), Mikulski (D-MD), Murray (D-WA), Reed (D-RI), Sanders (I-VT), Schumer (D-NY), Shaheen (D-NH), Specter (D-PA), Stabenow (D-MI), Tester (D-MT), Tom Udall (D-NM), Whitehouse (D-RI) and Wyden (D-OR) in sending a letter to the National Mediation Board advocating for this change.  Click here to access the full text of the letter: http://harkin.senate.gov/press/release.cfm?i=320577.

On Wednesday May 26th at 8:30am, some Jordan Catholic School eighth graders will receive the Presidential Academic Award. The invitation that went to parents is attached below. Criteria for the award:

Students must have a grade point average of 90% or a 3.5 GPA.

Along with one of the following 2 criterias:

1. 85% or higher in math and/or reading on the Iowa Basic Skills test

2. Teacher plus one other staff member's recommendation

Q&A with Senator Chuck Grassley

Oversight of Government Bailout

Friday, May 7, 2010

Q: How exactly is the claim made that General Motors paid back a multi-billion dollar taxpayer-supported government bailout loan "in full, with interest, ahead of schedule, because more customers are buying vehicles."

A: Here's what's happened and, unfortunately, the reality doesn't match the rhetoric.  As part of the government bailout of the automakers, the taxpayers had loaned GM around $20 billion by May 2009.  After GM declared bankruptcy in June, the Treasury Department loaned GM another $30 billion.  Then, to help GM emerge from bankruptcy, the Treasury Department struck a deal with GM that contained three components -- a $7 billion loan, $2 billion in preferred stock and 61 percent of GM's common stock -- in exchange for the original $50 billion in loans.  The deal translated into the taxpayers paying roughly $41 billion for the GM common stock.  Today, when GM says it paid its loan "in full," it's talking only about the newer $7 billion loan, not the original $50 billion in taxpayer loans.  And, the repayment money came from a $17 billion escrow account that was created with the $41 billion in tax dollars used to buy GM common stock.  The escrow was for expenses, and GM needed permission from the Treasury Department to use the money.  The way that GM repaid the newer $7 billion loan was with the TARP money in that escrow account, not earnings.

The taxpayer bailout of GM still stands at around $40 billion.  Taxpayers won't get back that money unless GM's stock price goes up enough to repay the $40 billion.  Will that happen?  No one knows, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in March that, in the end, taxpayers will lose around $30 billion on GM.

Another question is why the Treasury Department allowed GM to repay the $7 billion, seven-percent loan out of escrow and gave permission to take the final $6.6 billion out of escrow free and clear, but did not require that a $2.5 billion, nine-percent loan that GM owes to the union health plan be repaid?  You'd think the higher interest rate loan would be paid first.  And, with $6.6 billion left over in the escrow, GM could have paid both loans.  When I asked the Treasury Secretary during a Senate hearing, he didn't have a good answer.

Q: What can be done about it?

A: I hope one lesson that's been learned by the Treasury Department is to tell it like it is.  Overall, the effort to collect the bailout funds is speculative at best.  So far, since coming out of bankruptcy, GM has lost billions.  Beyond that, the way the agreement was set up with the Treasury Department, GM now has access to the remaining $6.6 billion in the escrow account without any strings attached.  GM said publicly that it didn't need the escrow money.  If that's the case, then the extra $6.6 billion should be returned to the taxpayers right now.  The most important lesson from all of this is that it doesn't make sense for the federal government to own private businesses.