The Gang’s rock-solid unity is already fueling anger from conservatives and critics. | AP Photo

We continue to pray for the swift passage of immigration reform that is just, fair and compassionate. The radicals that would have there be no progress will not win!

The Senate Gang of Eight has largely controlled the Senate Judiciary Committee’s immigration markup, and the group’s next step: shielding a painstakingly negotiated agreement for a new guest worker program.

This week, the gang will have to fend off amendments from both the right and left to fiddle with the program, either to appease businesses or insert stronger protections for labor. Much as they did with border security measures last week, the four members of the gang on the Judiciary Committee, who brokered the immigration deal will aim to band together and defeat changes that could prove fatal to the overall bill.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/gang-of-eight-immigration-guest-worker-plan-91303.html#ixzz2TLAzDLgi

President Obama is turning back to the jobs issue, launching a series of “Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tours” starting Thursday with an appearance in Texas.

Obama will visit growing areas “to learn what has helped them become successful and use these models of growth to encourage Congress to act,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

On Thursday, the president opens the new effort with a tour in Austin, where he will visit a high school, and speak with leaders of the city’s high-tech industries.

Earnest said the president will also speak with “workers who are working hard to get into and stay in the middle class to discuss his vision for ensuring that hard work leads to a decent living.”

The tours — no other stops have been announced — seem similar to the “White House to Main Street” events that Obama conducted during his first term.

This time around, Obama will seek to push Congress on a second-term agenda that includes a major immigration bill and a new debt reduction plan that includes higher taxes on the wealthy.

Read the full story here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/05/06/obama-jobs-tour-austin-texas/2138195/

image from thinkprogress.org

On the front cover of USA Today is the shameful proclamation: “Worker pay is flat even as stocks and corporate profits set new records.” Wage increases will strengthen the overall economy by leaps and bounds, as the article below lays out. But we can’t sit by and expect corporations and the wealthiest who are getting more wealthy each day to do the right thing for hard-working Americans and the economy as a whole…we must demand a fair minimum wage that grows with inflation consistently, and we will see all wages go up to a more fair amount. President Obama has called for this – Democrats are behind it…even some moderate Republicans. So why aren’t we seeing change? The same reason why the sequester cuts are still in place, the same reason we don’t have background checks, and the list goes on…far Right Republicans, who make up the majority now of the party and are obstructionists to progress.

Profits don’t flow through to wages

Stock markets and corporate profits are breaking records. The economy suddenly looks brighter after the government’s surprising report Friday that employers added 635,000 jobs the past three months.

But instead of celebrating, many working Americans are borrowing a line from the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire: “Show me the money.”

Hourly wages ticked up 4 cents in April to an average $23.87, rising at about the same tepid 2% annual pace since the recovery began in mid-2009.

But taking inflation into account, they’re virtually flat. Workers who rely on paychecks for their income have been running in place, financially speaking. Adjusting for inflation, an average worker who was paid $49,650 at the end of 2009 is making about $545 less now — and that’s before taxes and deductions.

Stagnant wages aren’t only tough on workers — the American economy is paying a price, too. Living standards aren’t rising. Consumer spending, which is 70% of the economy, is more restrained. And the recovery advances at a slower pace.

Read the full article here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/05/05/wages-job-growth/2134207/

Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

We invite you to join us on the National Day of Prayer for a focused and united prayer for the populations of vulnerable, low income and those in poverty who are suffering because of harsh budget cuts. As always on this day, we will be joining in prayer for all our elected officials as well. Go to Facebook and click “GOING” to commit that you are joining in prayer with us on the National Day of Prayer!

Also sign our petition: “Stop putting the needs of the powerful ahead of the vulnerable” > http://www.change.org/petitions/congress-and-the-white-house-stop-putting-the-needs-of-the-powerful-ahead-of-the-vulnerable

We are holding Congress and the President responsible to be leaders for the people, the majority of the people, and that includes the vulnerable populations who do not have a rich lobby representing them. From the sequester injustice to the proposed Medicaid and Social Security cuts, tell our elected leaders that we ARE that voice – and we are watching, and will remember in 2014. http://www.change.org/petitions/congress-and-the-white-house-stop-putting-the-needs-of-the-powerful-ahead-of-the-vulnerable

Proverbs 17:5 “He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their maker; whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.”

Proverbs 21:13 “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.”

Proverbs 22:16 “He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.

Luke 11:40-42 “You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you. Woe to you pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.”

From USA Today editorial:

These “bad air days,” as the New York Post dubbed them, began on Sunday, a slow travel day, and grew worse. On Wednesday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, about 3,000 flights were delayed, 863 of them because of furloughs.

The staffing-related delays affected only about 3% of all flights, but they were galling for the passengers affected. Almost as galling were the reactions from some members of Congress who savaged the FAA for making the cuts, as if Congress had nothing to do with this mess.

“The FAA’s management of sequestration is quickly going from bad to worse,” said Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “What else are you planning to do that you haven’t told us about?” Rep. Hal Rogers, head of the House Appropriations Committee, demanded of FAA chief Michael Huerta.

Rogers’ surprise seemed about as genuine as that of Capt. Renault in Casablanca, who announces at Rick’s that he is “shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here,” moments before he accepts a pile of chips.

No members of Congress should be surprised at the havoc wrought by the sequester. After all, they caused it, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood repeatedly warned them about its consequences.

As long as the cuts affected relatively powerless constituencies, few lawmakers seemed to care. This week, though, it hit well-heeled executives who travel, the powerful airline industry, and two unions that represent FAA workers. Angry calls poured into the offices of lawmakers, who in turn started blaming everyone but themselves.

Truth is, the reason the nation is facing dumb, indiscriminate cuts is the inability of Congress and the White House to head off the sequester with a comprehensive budget deal. Now that the cuts are kicking in, whining about them is the height of hypocrisy.

The FAA insists that the sequester forces across-the-board cuts and that the agency has done everything possible to avoid delays. Republicans say that’s not true. It’s tough to sort out who’s right. This much is clear: Delays have affected 20% to 25% of daily flights this week, according to FlightAware.com, up from the typical 15%. Particularly hard hit have been Los Angeles International and the three New York area airports.

The solution to the sequester’s meat-axe approach is what it has always been: sensible, flexible cuts in domestic programs, accompanied by tax simplification and changes in the big benefit programs driving the nation’s deficits.

That doesn’t seem to be in the cards. On Friday, Congress approved a quick fix to end the controller furloughs. That will be a relief to harried fliers, but using gimmicks to patch problems as they arise is no way to run a railroad, an airline system or a government.

Image from pushbuffalo.org

We are just beginning to feel the effects from this ridiculous sequester on everyday life and the economy. It will only worsen if Congress will not work with the President on a compromise that won’t cut on the backs of the lowest income brackets. So far, those at the bottom have already suffered, and now the rest of America is starting to see and feel the impact. Here’s a graphic that gives a run-down of current and projected impact for Federal Agencies: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/sequestration-federal-agency-impact/.

“Flight delays are just the latest example of how the sequester is damaging the economy and hurting families across the country.” - Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.)

Flights are delayed at major East Coast airports as sequester-related furloughs begin

By Ashley Halsey III and Luz Lazo, Published: April 22

Read the full story here.

^{Psalm 112: 4} Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,

We wanted to share this prayer with you that is posted on the Sojourners website today – may God give you the strength to pray this prayer together as we also pray for the victims and their families, and the ongoing investigation of this horrible act of violence in Boston.

Today, We Pray for Our Enemies

It is in times and tragedies like those that happened in Boston that our call to pray for our enemies is most difficult. May we be faithful to pray for them despite our circumstances.

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy on me, a sinner. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, on all of us, sinners.

Father, we don’t know who was behind the tragedies in Boston, but we do know that they were human. And we know we are to pray for our enemies.

In Jesus we see humanities true identity as ones who are to be agents of life, not death. Jesus, as first of New Creation, invites all humanity to reflect and participate in New Creation.

Despite humanity’s sacred identity, evil often reveals itself through humanity. We must return to what we were created to be. May those behind this event return to who they were created to be.

We pray specifically that those involved in this violence return to their shared humanity as they confront the violence brought on fellow humans as a result of their actions. We pray that we don’t lose ours in the midst of it all.

May we embrace our vocation as peacemakers who are to be agents of restoration and reconciliation rather than divisiveness, enmity, and violence.

We pray for a collective grieving that fuels our ability to live with compassion, generosity, and wholeness.

We plead for your justice to reign as we announce and promote your Kingdom reign through our words and deeds.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.

Preaching Citizenship: A changing attitude in evangelical congregations like the First Baptist Church of Orlando, Fla., could help sway lawmakers as they consider immigration reform.

Praise God that on this issue the Body of Christ is coming together finally, and embracing what the Word of God says about the stranger in our land. This is a good report!

ORLANDO, Fla. — In the pews of the First Baptist Church of Orlando, where thousands of evangelical Christians gather on Sundays to worship and sing, a change of heart is happening on the once toxic issue of immigration.

Two years ago, national evangelical leaders began to speak out in favor of legislation to give legal status to immigrants in the United States illegally. Now, as Congress is about to start a debate on overhauling the immigration system, conservative Christians, once inclined to take a hard line on immigrants they viewed as lawbreakers, are consulting their Bibles and coming around to the pastors’ view.

“I feel I would be representative of a typical longtime Baptist, one who grew up in the Baptist Church, who was raised in an evangelical family, and I would identify myself as a conservative Republican,” said Jay Crenshaw, 36, a lawyer in Orlando who attended a service at the megachurch last Sunday. “And I can tell you how much my views have changed.”

Read the full story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/us/evangelical-christians-increasingly-favor-pathway-to-legal-status-for-immigrants.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130414&_r=1&

 Senate votes 68-31 to cut off gun filibuster

The Senate on Thursday voted 68-31 to move forward and start the most comprehensive debate on reducing gun violence in 19 years.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, said the process of amending the gun legislation will begin — and there are several proposed changes that will be introduced. (more here)

Our Congress is held hostage by a radical minority and is dysfunctional if we can’t even get a vote on an issue of this importance, of this popularity. Even John McCain this said weekend, “I don’t understand it. The purpose of the United States senate is to debate and to vote and to let the people know where we stand…What are we afraid of?” We need to remember who is holding back our democracy from working in 2014.

White House, Reid Criticize GOP Filibuster Threat on Guns

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday slammed Senate Republicans for threatening to block debate on legislation designed to address gun violence.

Thirteen Republicans signed a letter to Reid saying they “intend to oppose any legislation that would infringe on the American people’s constitutional right to bear arms, or on their ability to exercise this right without being subjected to government surveillance.”

They later specifically targeted the motion to proceed to the bill (S 649). Reid made that motion after the Senate resumed work Monday afternoon, but then he turned to morning business.

“I’ve said every idea should be debated and every issue should get a vote, from better mental health treatment, more secure schools, stronger background checks, banning assault weapons, the size of magazines or clips, and other issues should get a vote,” Reid said.

“There are strong feelings and deep disagreements about some of these measures, but everyone of these measures deserves a vote, a yes or a no,” Reid continued. “No hiding, no running from an issue that has captivated America.”

Read the full article here: http://www.rollcall.com/news/white_house_reid_criticize_gop_filibuster_threat_on_gun_bill-223792-1.html?pos=htmbtxt

These workers do not make even close to a livable wage within New York City or anywhere else in the country. Just as Walmart keeps their employees on a “barely able to survive day-by-day” wage, this industry is turning in billions in profit and is a prime example of the grossly unjust wage gap in our country. We need more workers rallying together and we as Christians should be the first to stand with them against the full-time working person’s life of poverty.

Fast-food restaurants were a little bit slower Thursday in New York City. Hundreds of workers staged a one-day strike in what organizers are calling the biggest job action ever in that industry. It’s a growing segment of the economy, but workers complain that fast-food jobs don’t pay enough to survive in New York City.

The current minimum wage in New York is $7.25. That’s what many fast-food workers in the city earn, including Joseph Barrera, who works at a KFC restaurant in Brooklyn. He thinks fast-food companies can afford to treat their employees better.

“We help them earn those billions of dollars that give them the lifestyle that the CEOs get. They earn million-dollar paychecks, so why can’t they give us something that we can live on?” says Barrera.

This is the second time workers at fast-food restaurants around the city have walked off the job in the past six months.

Jonathan Westin is a campaign manager for Fast Food Forward, the group that organized both strikes. It’s calling for fast food restaurants to pay a so-called living wage of $15 an hour.

“It’s not teenagers working after-school jobs,” says Westin. “It’s adults with families that are trying to take care of their kids and can’t put food on the table. They can work here for 10, 15 years and still be making the same wages as when they started.”

Read the full story here.