updates & calls to action

You can make a difference

We had a very productive meeting last week–lots of great ideas and action suggestions as we move forward. We divided up into groups so everyone could give us input as we plan immediate and long term actions. 
Save the dates for our next meetings:
Thursday, Jan. 9 at the Merrillville Library
Thursday, Feb. 6 at the Portage Library
Look for additional calls to action and info on our Facebook page, email, our webpage, and on BlueSky. 

Indivisible’s Truth Brigade which helps combat misinformation and teaches us to do the same has a year end  webinar: Big Truths: Community Gathering Dec. 11, 6:30 ET / 3:30 PT/ 5:30 central time.  We all know that what lies ahead is…well, lies. Our best defense is what it’s always been: Critical thinking, common values, civility — and community. In their last call of 2024, they’ll rekindle our hope through pragmatic planning. share and cheer on our accomplishments, get to know one another in small groups, and launch their holiday message campaign. Register here.

NWI Democrats are hosting an Immigration Asylum Clinic onSunday, December 15 at 2:30 p.m. in East Chicago. They have an attorney, Laura DeBolt, who will be providing expertise in how we can best help the immigrant community in Northwest Indiana (and surrounding areas). They are looking for volunteers to help the families fill the forms out correctly. No experience needed. If you are bilingual, that is a plus, but not a requirement. They will also have an area for the kids to color and play games while the parents fill out paperwork. 
There are 1000 Venezuelan children in the East Chicago school system. We want to protect them from deportation raids. If they can fill out their immigration paperwork that will protect them from immediate deportation as they await their court hearings. 
If you would like to assist, please contact Carolyn Jacobs at cjacobs@bigsplashpr.com. This will likely be the first of several clinics.

IYG is opening a new facility here in NWI on Route 30.
IYG (formerly Indiana Youth Group) is the oldest continuously operating organization for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults in North America. The mission of IYG is to create safer spaces for LGBTQ+ youth and their allies, foster community, Empower LGBTQ+ youth, and Magnify the voices of LGBTQ+ youth.
IYG serves LGBTQ+ youth and their allies ages 12–24. All of their programs and services are free.
They welcome skill-based volunteers to help them expand their reach and sustainability. Learn more at https://www.iyg.org/. You can contribute needed items by ordering from their wish list on Amazon here.

CALLS TO ACTION
Find your representative and senators and their contact information here:  https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials
For those of us in the 1st District, Congressman Mrvan is your rep: https://mrvan.house.gov/contact and/or (202) 225-2461
Senator Young is our current Indiana senator. Jim Banks will become the junior senator from Indiana in January. You can call Senator Young at (202) 224-5623 and email him at https://www.young.senate.gov/contact/email-todd/

Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host is being scrutinized as we speak. We know that his nomination as the Secretary of Defense would be disastrous. He is facing opposition from some in his own party, so now is the time to speak out.
Also- Tulsi Gabbard would be a traitorous disaster as head of Intelligence!
Other Indivisible groups are going into action and calling their members of Congress to urge them to say NO to BOTH!!
Contact Senator Todd Young to urge him to vote no. We have been told that he is hesitant to do so. Now is the time to contact him. Indiana Senator Todd Young:
Email form at: https://www.young.senate.gov
202.224.5623 or 317.226.6700

Take action with Climate Action Now to urge our representatives and senators to keep the Inflation Reduction Act in place. Trump and republicans have threatened to repeal it. It is landmark legislation that helps consumers and companies invest in clean energy and it has already resulted in many projects and jobs, including right here in Indiana. It also is saving us health care costs—especially drug costs for seniors. And it provided money to the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats that has already brought in millions of dollars.
Read more at the Environmental Defense Fund. Read what Biden Administration legislation is already bringing the Indiana.
In particular republicans object to the climate saving parts of this landmark legislation. A lot has already been accomplished because of the IRA, but much more can be done if it stays the law of the land. For example, The Inflation Reduction Act has caused solar panel manufacturing capacity to quintuple, revived domestic cell production, and sparked a surge in deployments. In fact, 2024 was an absolutely MASSIVE year for solar production. 

Call Senator Schumer in his capacity as Majority Leader and ask him to bring the PRESS Act up for a vote.  (212) 486-4430 or (518) 431-4070 or (202) 224-6542 or (914) 734-1532.
Say:
My name is ____ and I’m calling the Senator in his capacity as Majority Leader to ask him to bring the PRESS Act, S. 2074, up for a vote ASAP. This is the most important press freedom bill in modern history. It passed the House unanimously in January and has been waiting all year for Senate action. It is urgent for the Senate to pass it this year! Please bring this bill up for a vote now! Thanks.
Schumer’s comment page does accept comments from out of state, too. But calls are ideal.

PASS THE ERA NOW! Contact President Biden and Congress and demand this now!
President Biden can stop Project 2025 from rolling back women’s rights, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ rights by publishing the fully ratified Equal Rights Amendment in the US Constitution before he leaves office. Please reach out to President Biden and your Congresspersons daily, and ask your friends to do so as well. 
Email:https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/share/
Phone: 202-456-1111 (Tuesday through Thursday only)
Text: (302) 404-0880 (You will get a reply back that you need to enroll, then you can write whenever you want)
Social media: @ POTUS

President Biden, please instruct the US Archivist to certify and publish the ERA in the Constitution before you leave office. It’s an easy way to protect women and LGBTQIA+ people from Project 2025 and the Trump agenda. Thanks.
You can also sign this petition saying more or less the same from the League of Women Voters.

Let your senators and representative know what you think and how you want them to vote:  
 “With Donald Trump’s return to the White House and Republicans taking full control of Congress in 2025, the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion is back on the chopping block.
More than 3 million adults in nine states would be at immediate risk of losing their health coverage should the GOP reduce the extra federal Medicaid funding that’s enabled states to widen eligibility, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News, and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. That’s because the states have trigger laws that would swiftly end their Medicaid expansions if federal funding falls.
The states are Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah and Virginia.” (ABC)

The tragic and horrific shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, as well as the public’s mostly gleeful reaction to it, contain a sobering lesson. Americans have had it with the injustice and cruelty of our current healthcare system. Their rage has hit a boiling point. I abhor violence; it is never, ever justified. But it is clear that something has to change.
The author Joyce Carol Oates wrote yesterday that the outpouring of negativity “is better described as cries from the heart of a deeply wounded & betrayed country; hundreds of thousands of Americans shamelessly exploited by health-care insurers reacting to a single act of violence against just one of their multimillionaire executives.”
She’s not wrong. Americans are really, really hurting. We’re angry. We’re fed up.
The solution to this terrible situation, in which millions of U.S. citizens are being saddled with staggering amounts of debt, going bankrupt, or even dying because of our utterly broken healthcare system, is some form of single-payer healthcare. There is no other way.
Will it be easy? No. Will it be perfect? Definitely not. But can we afford to keep going down the deadly road of healthcare-for-profit? I think it’s clear we can’t.
Please co-sponsor and support S. 1655 / H.R. 3421 The Medicare For All Act. The time for change has come. We can do this if Congress has the will. It must. Because we, the people, surely do. Thank you.

Indivisible NWI is now on BlueSky. Download the app and follow us, along with Indivisible (national)

Congress

The ethics report on Matt Gaetz is unlikely to ever be released. All but one Republican voted to kill democratic resolutions to release the report by referral back to the Ethics Committee: On Motion to Refer: H RES 1608 and On Motion to Refer: H.Res. 1609.

It’s always possible it could be leaked; Gaetz has a lot of enemies in the House. But most likely, it’ll never see the light of day and Ethics will simply end the investigation with the end of the Congress on Jan. 3.” (GovTrack.us)

The House and Senate were both in session this week. The Senate continued to confirm judges. The House passed some bills; mostly about post offices and mostly by voice vote. But there’s a few items worth mentioning in particular. (GovTrack.us

“Major differences are emerging between Senate and House Republicans as they gear up for next year’s negotiations to extend Trump’s signature legislation, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports budget hawks in the House are already starting to put the brakes on elements of Trump’s tax package, worried that a massive increase in the deficit will fall flat with voters.” (The Hill) 

To find and contact your Members of Congress:  https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials 

In other news

“California will step in and provide rebates to eligible residents who buy electric vehicles if Trump ends the $7,500 federal EV tax credit, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Monday. The Golden State is gearing up for protracted battles with the incoming administration. Trump is expected to try once again to block California’s authority to set auto emissions limits that are stricter than federal standards.” (The Hill)
 
“More than 72 million Americans can expect to see a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment increase in their Social Security and Supplemental Security monthly payments beginning in 2025, government officials have announced.” (NewsNation)
 
Pro Publica has created an online tool that will format a letter to your US health insurance company demanding the records behind a claim denial, which the insurance is then legally required to provide in most cases. 
 
POTUS elect
“Trump’s transition team is putting together a wide-ranging energy package to roll out within days of his taking office that would approve export permits for new liquefied natural gas projects and increase oil drilling off the U.S. coast and on federal lands. He will also seek to roll back tax credits for electric vehicles and clean power plant standards and replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.” (Reuters)
“Trump “announced plans to hike tariffs by 25 percent on products from Canada and Mexico on Jan. 20, and perhaps 10 percent on goods from China, igniting controversy about U.S. economic policy and the risk of higher prices for consumers.” (The Hill)
 
“During Trump’s first term, a trade war over tariffs with China impacted key American crops, like soybeans and corn. The USDA said the dispute led to more than $27 billion in U.S. agricultural losses.” (NewsNation)
 
Criminal cases
“The dismissal Monday of a major felony case against Trump did not exonerate the former president. The Justice Department said it had no choice because its policy bars prosecution of a sitting president and compelled it to seek to dismiss two major cases in which Trump has argued he was a victim of political attacks. 
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith on Monday folded his cards and a federal judge hours later granted Smith’s motions for the dismissal of the criminal election interference case against the president-elect.”  (The Hill)
 
“Meanwhile, Smith won in a Texas case in which a judge rejected Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request for a court order to force Smith to preserve all of the records from his Trump investigation. Republican members of Congress also have issued calls for the Justice Department records to be preserved. (Federal law already requires that the records be preserved.)
The only criminal evidence heard in court against Trump this year was in Manhattan, where he was indicted by a jury on 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records to mask hush money payments to a porn star in 2016, during Trump’s first presidential campaign. 
The hush money case in Manhattan is in limbo (The Hill). New York Judge Juan Merchan has set deadlines of Dec. 2 for Trump to file a motion to dismiss the case, and Dec. 9, for the prosecutor’s response.” (The Hill)
“A federal judge has dismissed a major case against Donald Trump that alleged he illegally sought to overturn the 2020 election.
Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who brought the criminal case against Trump, had asked to have the charges dropped, citing a Justice Department policy that bans the prosecution of a sitting president.
Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed the case “without prejudice”, meaning the charges could be refiled after Trump finishes his second term.
Smith has also asked to have his case charging Trump with improperly storing classified documents dismissed…[Smith]   in the Monday filing that the documents appeal would continue for two other defendants in the classified documents case, Trump employees Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.” (BBC)
 
“The only criminal evidence heard in court against Trump this year was in Manhattan, where he was indicted by a jury on 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records to mask hush money payments to a porn star in 2016, during Trump’s first presidential campaign. 
The hush money case in Manhattan is in limbo (The Hill). New York Judge Juan Merchan has set deadlines of Dec. 2 for Trump to file a motion to dismiss the case, and Dec. 9, for the prosecutor’s response.” (The Hill)

Indiana

The state has been awarded a $196 million loan from the EPA to improve drinking water and wastewater systems statewide. This funding will help address the demands of a growing population. The loan is provided through EPA’s State Infrastructure Financing Authority Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (SWIFIA) program
“The State of Indiana intends to use this loan to finance drinking water and wastewater infrastructure improvement projects to better serve Indiana communities. This investment will help address aging infrastructure and expand services in communities experiencing growing needs. Projects that will receive funding are located throughout the state and are expected to benefit 134,000 Indiana residents.” (Indiana Capital Chronicle)
 
“A recently formed group representing Indiana’s growing public charter school sector says it’ll push lawmakers to make traditional public schools share local property tax revenue.
Charters are public schools, but they’re not run by school districts. Instead, they’re headed by nonprofit boards and are overseen by their independent authorizers.
They can control their own curriculum, staffing, organization, and budget but have to meet academic, financial and other standards. They’re still required to give students yearly state exams and they receive state ratings. They’re subject to state public records and open door laws.” (Indiana Capital Chronicle)
 
Far right groups have lied about an influx of migrants to Logansport, with charges similar to those made about legal immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.
Governor Holcomb, a Republican, appeared to bristle at the accusations…
“This is a country that was built on — literally founded and fought for — by immigrants,” Holcomb continued. “… When I look at the increase in Logansport itself, and you recognize the legal status of these immigrants that the light has been shown on, this is what the community has said: that we need and want more people to work and to grow our population.” (Indiana Capital Chronicle)
 
“Included in the Indiana secretary of state’s new budget requests are hundreds of thousands of extra dollars for IT-related needs and expansions. But recent vendor contracts awarded by the agency show millions have already been quietly spent on those services, absent any competitive bidding to find the most cost-effective providers for the projects…Around the time contracts were initially signed, top brass at  both CleanSlate Technology and MTX made donations — totaling tens of thousands of dollars — to Secretary of State Diego Morales’ reelection campaign.” Donations were also made to other candidates—including Rokita and Braun. (Indiana Capital Chronicle)
 
“A shortfall of $2.4 billion. That’s how much more analysts estimate Indiana would need annually to eliminate poorly rated local roads and bridges across the state over the next ten years.” (Indiana Capital Chronicle)

To find and contact your Indiana legislators: http://iga.in.gov/legislative/find-legislators/