ANOTHER CHAMPION FOR NEVADA IN THE U.S. HOUSE: Susie Lee is a nonprofit leader and education advocate who has dedicated her career to helping her fellow Nevadans lead better, safer, and healthier lives. She is running for reelection to Congress to continue her life’s work of bringing people together to find and implement innovative solutions to the toughest problems facing Nevada’s working families.

Susie grew up the sixth of eight children in a working-class community. Susie got her first newspaper route at the age of eight, and began babysitting and lifeguarding as soon as she was old enough. With the help of Pell Grants, student loans, and scholarships, she paid her way through college; working in the cafeteria, the library, the copy room, and teaching aerobics while also competing on the swim team. Lee  graduated with honors from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, earning a master’s degree in public management.  Susie found mentors who gave her the affirmation and encouragement she needed to succeed as a young woman. This experience inspired her work as a nonprofit leader and education advocate, working tirelessly to ensure that Nevada’s most vulnerable children can turn to their school communities for support when they don’t have resources at home.

 After college, she worked in Massachusetts at an environmental and economic consulting firm that specialized in water resource issues. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1993, where she then worked as a campaign policy advisor to Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones and founded a homeless shelter for parents and children in need. In 2010, she became the president of the board of Communities In Schools of Nevada (CIS), a program that seeks to lower high school dropout rates. Lee has served on several other boards and committees in the Las Vegas area.

 Recognizing that many Nevada families struggle with housing insecurity, food insecurity, and other challenges, she helped launch a site coordinator program to give the most vulnerable students a dedicated advocate ensuring their needs are met inside and outside of school. Susie has proudly called southern Nevada home for over two decades.

Susie is focused on making a tangible positive impact on the lives of southern Nevada’s working families, and she worked tirelessly to help pass the American Rescue Plan. “This relief package is just the kind of big, bold action we need to build back southern Nevada’s economy, which has been absolutely devastated by this pandemic,” Susie has said. “We secured direct payments to working families, along with relief for unemployed workers, schools, small businesses, vaccine distribution, child care and unemployment tax relief, and more. And, at long last, we were able to secure over $4 billion in direct aid for Nevada, something our state desperately needs to provide critical services and prevent layoffs of teachers, law enforcement officers, and first responders. I’m also proud that legislation I supported to prevent surprise tax bills for unemployed Nevadans made it into this final package. This legislation will remove taxes on the first $10,200 of unemployment payments – a measure that will go a long way in providing relief to Nevada families who are struggling to make ends meet. With this relief, we’ll be able to crush this virus, get shots in arms, Nevadans back to work, our kids back in school, and our businesses open and thriving.” Well before the COVID-19 crisis, health care has long been a deeply personal issue for Susie. When she was a freshman in college, her father was laid off from his steel manufacturing job and never had another shot at economic security. Her parents couldn’t afford health insurance because of common preexisting conditions, and when her mother had a heart attack one month before reaching Medicare eligibility, the hospital bill was so large they risked losing their house. Susie understands that access to quality health care is a right, not a privilege, and she will continue to be a powerful advocate for all southern Nevadans.

Susie successfully fought to keep this swing seat blue when Senator Jacky Rosen vacated it in 2018, and she successfully defended it in 2020 in a narrow win that was one of the last to be called in the country. We cannot take anything for granted in this swing district, as Republicans do everything in their power to retake this seat — and the majority in the Senate. With so much of our progress at stake, let’s show Susie our full support and keep this champion for Nevada working families in the House and  the Democrats majority in the U.S. Senate.

SOURCE:  Emily’s List

“We ignite change by getting Democratic pro-choice women elected to office.”

UP NEXT:  A  NEVADA CHAMPION FOR THE  U.S.  SENATE

Tina Kotek is Oregon’s proven progressive fighter. The first openly lesbian Speaker of any State House in the country, Tina raised the minimum wage, passed paid family leave, and voted to put Oregon on a path to 100% clean electricity. Now she’s running for Governor to continue building a future of opportunity and justice for every Oregonian.

Kotek describes her background and experience in her own words.  "My grandparents came from Eastern Europe in the early part of the last century to find opportunity and a better life. My parents were proud first-generation Americans. They were able to provide me and my siblings with a stable and supportive upbringing because my dad had the benefit of a college degree he had earned by going to night school courtesy of the GI Bill, making him the first person in his family to go to college. My parents believed in hard work, being informed citizens, and encouraging their children to follow their dreams."

"I moved to Oregon from the East Coast in 1987, and found a place where I could truly be myself. I fell in love with the beauty of the state and the openness of the people. I eventually finished my undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon, graduating without student debt because of a Pell grant, work study assistance, and affordable tuition."

"When I returned to Oregon after graduation, I took a job at the Oregon Food Bank. I was attracted to their mission to end hunger, not just feed people. And because I was raised as a person of faith with a belief in the inherent value of everyone, I knew I had found my calling as an advocate for others. I listened and learned and fought for ways to reduce food insecurity – like a strong minimum wage, housing assistance, and access to health insurance. I continued my advocacy for children when I joined Children First for Oregon as their policy director."

"My experience working at nonprofits on behalf of Oregon’s most vulnerable led me to run for public office and serve in the Oregon Legislature. In my first term, I rewrote the state’s poverty program for low-income families while also playing a key role in making historic progress for the LGBTQ+ community by passing statewide protections and access to benefits."

"In 2013, I was honored to be elected by my peers to be the Speaker of the House. In nearly a decade leading the Oregon House, I am proud of the progress we have made together. From expanding economic security for more families, combating climate change, and working hard to get us through an unprecedented pandemic, my time in the legislature has been dedicated to fighting for Oregonians."

"Together, we have changed Oregon for the better.  But it will take real leadership to confront the challenges we now face — from the pandemic to the homelessness crisis to climate change."

"I will be a leader who puts people first, who prioritizes justice and equity, who brings people together, and inspires all of us to reach for a better future."

What lies does he tell to conn his constituents when he leads the battle AGAINST bills that could make their lives better?

Stephanie Ortoleva is an accomplished human rights lawyer and prominent feminist leader, scholar and activist, and herself a woman with a disability, who established Women Enabled International (WEI), in 2012 the first and still only international organization dedicated to advancing human rights at the intersection of gender and disability.

Prior to founding WEI in 2012, Stephanie served as an attorney and human rights officer at the U.S. Department of State, where she was honored with the prestigious Franklin Award in 2009 in recognition of her outstanding achievements. Additional awards for her prolific contributions to civil rights and social justice include Hofstra University School of Law ‘Outstanding Women in Law’ awardee in 2017, and Women’s E-News recognition in 2016 as a leader for women’s rights for the 21st Century.

Stephanie is the former founding Co-Chair of the American Society of International Law’s International Disability Rights Interest Group, served on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights, is a member of the Board of Directors of Disability Rights International and the U.S. International Council on Disability. She graduated from Hofstra University School of Law with outstanding honors.

Her ground-breaking research and writings framed the core intersectional human rights issues that define WEI’s ongoing work and have influenced scholars and activists around the world to explore gender and disability and related intersections. Those prominent papers addressed issues such as violence against women with disabilities, access to justice, women with disabilities in conflict and humanitarian settings and peacebuilding processes.

The following is the introduction to an interview of Ortoleva by Mekiya Walters for ABILITY Magazine.  The interview is well worth reading. See for yourself at   https://abilitymagazine.com/stephanie-ortoleva/

With a resume spanning decades, Stephanie Ortoleva, Esq. has founded, headed or sat on the boards of more groups and organizations than one could hope to shake the proverbial stick at. A civil rights attorney and scholar by training, she served in the US Department of State from 2004 to 2009 as a Human Rights Officer and as the Disability Coordinator. During that time, she represented the US government at the negotiations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), worked in partnership with the UN and the Organization of American States, and advanced the participation of women and persons with disabilities in areas including peace-building and post-conflict resolution, economic development, violence prevention, environmental preservation and fighting infectious disease. In 2009, she received the prestigious Franklin Award for her work on human rights and was the State Department’s featured employee for Women’s History Month. And yet, as far as Stephanie was concerned, she was only getting started. Frustrated by the absence of intersectional initiatives for women with disabilities, she founded her own organization.  Women Enabled International (WEI), incorporated in 2011, partners with grassroots organizations around the world to provide support and resources to women with disabilities and arm them with international expertise and legal tools. After serving for 10 years as WEI’s executive director and heading up projects around the globe, in 2021 Stephanie decided the time had come to pass the torch to the next generation.  ABILITY Magazine’s Mekiya Walters spoke with her about making the world a little bit better for women with disabilities than it was the day before.

stephanieortoleva.com

The Supreme Court’s recent assault on our rights has gone far beyond Roe and Dobbs. The Supreme Court quietly issued a 6-3 ruling recently on Shinn v. Martinez Ramirez, siding against two Arizonans on death row who sought to challenge their convictions in federal court after receiving shoddy legal support. The majority’s rationale, which was based on a 1996 federal law, was that state sovereignty and legal expediency must be protected at all costs.

Unfortunately, those costs are clear. The Court’s ruling slashed Americans’ constitutional right to effective counsel by eviscerating the life-saving accountability mechanism that allows people to appeal unjust rulings. The six conservative justices have plainly prioritized the legal system’s power to convict and kill over our human right to live.

What is less clear is why, in a nation where folks will literally risk children’s lives to maintain their Second Amendment rights, Americans seem perfectly happy to hand over their Sixth Amendment rights with hardly a thought. The silence on social media and in our public discourse about this ruling is alarming — we should be very scared and very, very angry.

As the executive director and founder of a nonprofit that works to help low-income Americans navigate the complexities of the legal system by bolstering public defense resources, I know all too well that for many, this case — which is shrouded in the deliberately-exclusionary language of legal discourse — feels more like a remote technicality than an assault on basic rights.

But let me assure you: If you’re worried about your Constitutional rights as a citizen, you should recognize that this is one of the most egregious governmental oversteps of our lifetime, right in line with the current oppressive theme of the Roberts Court.

People’s lives have been irrevocably changed by the recent Dobbs opinion that overturned Roe, stripping away what protection of our bodily autonomy remained in Constitutional law. The Supreme Court declined to issue any opinions the week after the Uvalde shooting, and those were right who guessed that it was because their ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruenwould have looked especially ghoulish in the wake of the massacres in Buffalo, Orange County, and Uvalde — as well as the 12 more mass shootings that took place over Memorial Day Weekend.

The decision in Shinn, though, is no less ghoulish: It tells every American citizen, yet again, in yet another context, that the rights and protections to which we thought we were entitled will no longer protect us from bad government.

And don’t be fooled — not committing crimes won’t keep you safe on this one.

We live in a world where innocent people are prosecuted every day. This ruling erodes protections for any American who might — at any time — be perceived guilty of any sort of wrongdoing. Whether it be the person in the midst of a miscarriage who is accused of committing an abortion in a red state, or the person who rented a car to visit family and was accused of stealing it despite a complete lack of evidence. It truly could be any of us at any time. All it takes is running into the wrong cop or prosecutor at the wrong time. And after Dobbs, it might take as little as a bad pregnancy outcome, whatever the cause.

Of course, it’s most likely to be those of us who happen to be Black or Brown or poor. It’s critical to acknowledge that the system disproportionately accuses Black and Brown Americans of wrongdoing, with Black Americans being incarcerated at nearly five times and Hispanics being incarcerated 1.3 times the rate of whites. But when the law no longer protects American life, liberty and property against legal incompetence with lifetime stakes, no individual can consider themselves outside the zone of harm.

The police and prosecutors we are relying on to arbitrate justice are often wildly ineffective and sometimes operating with ulterior motives. These are the folks who booked a man on charges of possessing methamphetamine because the donut he was eating in his car left a white glaze on the floorboard. I myself have witnessed prosecutors bring cases to court that have no business being there — ranging from felony accusations with no basis and alibi witnesses to baseless drug cases based on the word of a disgraced police officer. Even DNA evidence, so often considered the gold standard of proof, is subject to error and incompetence, resulting in horrifying miscarriages of justice.

This smattering of examples points to the fact that wrongful convictions are a widespread fixture of the criminal legal system. Some groups estimate that as many as one out of every 100 people charged with a crime are completely innocent. My experience as a public defender leads me to believe that the real number may, in fact, be higher — when you consider people whose behavior may have been flawed but whose prosecutions alleged ludicrously stretched versions of the truth.

The people best situated to stand between ordinary folks and the nightmare of wrongful conviction are public defenders, who serve around 80 percent of accused people and have the confidential access needed to build an intimate understanding of their cases. Public defenders are the last bulwark between the individual and the life-altering consequences of criminal punishment, designated as an upstream, automatic resource for the vast majority of individuals.

Though these jobs are not glamorous, defender gigs can be some of the most competitive to attain in the legal field, as more young lawyers choose the righteous path of championing liberty and equity, resulting in a next generation of superb counsel.

But even the best lawyer cannot do their best work under impossible circumstances, and continual under-resourcing of defense agencies while prosecutions skyrocket can force the citizenry to endure poor counsel. Though governments across the country are beginning to realize the stunning potential defenders hold as an engine of opportunity and safety, that does not absolve our government of the responsibility to ensure that the rights it has conferred on its citizens are realized. If the state shoulders the role of prosecution, it must ensure an accordant protection against its own errors, and that means resourcing and supporting public defense.

The Supreme Court’s ruling on Shinn v. Martinez Ramirez has sentenced Americans — particularly low-income Americans of color — to irreversible life and even death sentences. It sets forth a principle I cannot imagine any American actually believes: that the government’s efficiency in killing its own citizens is more important than the citizen’s right to protest their innocence… that greasing the machinery of death is more important than ensuring the government hasn’t got it wrong.

It’s a gruesome conclusion from a court that seems bent on increasing the suffering of the American people.

BY EMILY GALVIN-ALMANZA, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 06/29/22 2:30 PM ET
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

Emily Galvin-Almanza is the co-founder and Executive Director of Partners for Justice, a new model of collaborative public defense designed to empower public defenders nationwide. Prior to founding PFJ, Emily worked as a public defender in both California and New York. Follow her on Twitter @GalvinAlmanza

Photo by Tingery Injury Law Firm.