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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Labor Launches Nationwide Drive for Quality Health Care

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Friday, August 31, 2007   

Sioux Falls SD – Union workers from across the country are launching a nationwide effort this Labor Day weekend to secure high quality health care for all Americans by 2009. Mark Anderson, with the South Dakota State Federation of Labor, says the AFL-CIO and its retirees hope to make health care a major topic in next year’s elections. He says it’s a huge issue in a state like South Dakota where 45,000 people are uninsured, including 16,000 children. Anderson says out-of-control health care costs are making it difficult for American companies to compete with foreign rivals, and he says universal coverage is the answer.

"Right now in South Dakota, the average cost to insure an employee through work is about $10,000, with the employer picking up two-thirds of that. The Wisconsin state senate has passed a plan that would bring those costs down to around $6,000, total, for family coverage."

Anderson is hopeful that political candidates from all parties come ready to debate health care issues prior to next year’s elections.

"If we’re going to have good jobs in South Dakota, at the rate that they’ve been going overseas, we’ve got to do something with health care. The effort to fix the issue began in 1992 and it got pushed off to the side. We can’t put it off any longer. Union members across the country are going to make the issue a priority during the 2008 political year."

Anderson says unions helped build the middle class, but of late they’re taking a beating. He says, one thing the middle class has had, and intends to hang onto, is quality health care.






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