Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Newsline and Local Numbers



 NEWSLINE

Overview

Would you like a newspaper with your morning cup of coffee? NFB-NEWSLINE® is well over 300 publications AND it's still growing. Four Spanish-language newspapers are available to all subscribers.  The service handles thousands of phone calls each day for individuals across the country who now access daily newspapers and magazines as never before. The toll-free centralized call-in center provides service on demand to any subscriber. This also enables those who cannot read conventional print to have access to all content offered on NFB-NEWSLINE® when traveling throughout the United States twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Every day, a subscriber can choose that day's, the previous day's, or the previous Sunday's issue of any newspaper in the service. On NFB-NEWSLINE®, the user can easily choose which newspaper, section, and article to read using a standard touch-tone telephone. The menu provided allows the user to change the speed and voice settings, spell out words, or search for a particular word or subject.
NFB-NEWSLINE® now offers more choices than ever, including special local channels to distribute announcements of specific interest to the blind.
Over 35 magazines, ranging from the Arts, Science, Health and Fitness, Pop Culture and National and International news are available on NFB-NEWSLINE®. Just press Option 7.
Please select one of the links below to learn more about 

NFB-NEWSLINE®.

How To Sign Up

How to use NFB-NEWSLINE

Find an NFB-NEWSLINE local access phone number in your area

Participating Newspapers and Magazines

Download Documents and Audio Files

Receive Newspapers in your e-mail inbox

Get your local TV Listings on the phone or web

Who Can Benefit?

Anyone who cannot read conventional newsprint could qualify for this free service. Many seniors have lost enough vision that reading the daily newspaper is no longer possible. They will enjoy being able once again to participate actively in community affairs. Blind children are now able to research their own civics assignments and do their homework independently. NFB-NEWSLINE® is the only service that makes so much information available to these eligible people twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Partners Needed

To be included in the service, each state must be funded. Members of the National Federation of the Blind across the country are working to find NFB-NEWSLINE®sponsors as quickly as possible from interested organizations, agencies, and individuals. We are also seeking new newspapers and magazines to add to the service. Would you like to help? Please contact us to find out how to help.

Now the Blind Have Access to Newspaper Information

Lifetime learning, including detailed awareness of current events, is part of what makes a good citizen, a successful employee or employer, and a valuable participant in community life. Without ready access to information, none of us can reach his or her full potential. Until 1995, the nation's blind did not have the promise of ready access to a fundamental source of such information--the daily newspaper. But now the National Federation of the Blind has created NFB-NEWSLINE®.

NFB-NEWSLINE® is at last making it possible for blind individuals to gain access to the information in newspapers at the same time as their sighted colleagues, friends, and family members. Blind professionals, for example, can now converse on relevant topics, no longer being under informed about information critical to their professions or left out at social functions when the latest editorial is discussed. Beyond this, a wealth of information primarily found in newspapers is now available to the blind on an equal footing, making possible their participation in the life of the community on the basis of equality.

The Internet provides sighted individuals access to thousands of newspapers and magazines with just a quick search. NFB-NEWSLINE® is the only system that will bring the blind so much to choose from at the time when the subscriber wishes to read. More and more papers are beginning to understand that blind and visually impaired individuals, just as the sighted, need to have access to their local papers. The numbers of participating papers are steadily growing. If you wish to have your local paper on NFB-NEWSLINE®, or are connected with a newspaper which would like to provide the text of its paper to those who cannot read print, contact the National Federation of the Blind.

NFBCO Local Numbers

We want to thank all of our Newsline subscribers for your continuing use of our service. 

For both your and our convenience we have issued new local numbers for Newsline, so that you no longer have to use the 8 8 8 number. 

The use of these numbers will cost you nothing * and will save us valuable dollars in running the Newsline program.

Currently our annual bill is ten thousand dollars to run the phones, but if we use the below numbers this number should drop to two to three thousand dollars a year. 

This will free up funds for potentially adding new newspapers to the system and promoting Newsline. 

Please consider using these numbers, and if you have any issues or concerns please contact:

 Jessica Beecham
 303-778-1130 extension 223 

e-mail
jbeecham@nfbco.org

Please be sure to check your phone bill to ensure that the dialing of your related area number is indeed considered a local call for you. 

Additionally please remember that a call on a cell phone during peak minutes will still count as peak minutes regardless of the nature of the call. 

Pueblo: 719-404-3206
 
Colorado Springs: 719-302-2379

Northern Colorado: 970-372-1152

Denver and related area codes: 303-552-5797
 
Thank you for helping us keep our costs down.

More Goodwill Press Coverage

We have gotten more press coverage for our Goodwill Protests!  Check out this article in the Our Littleton News.  

http://www.ourcoloradonews.com/littleton/news/blind-students-picket-goodwill/article_a6f2156a-f14e-11e1-b8a8-0019bb2963f4.html


FUN IN THE SPRINGS!!! Colorado Springs Picnic Update


2012 Picnic Update -- NFB of Colorado Springs

The NFB of Colorado Springs annual picnic was held on Saturday, 8/11/2012, from 11am - 2pm -- and it was a fun and beautiful time. There were more than 30 adults and kids all having fun and making new friends.

We had everyone from blind seniors to some parents of blind children in attendance, as well as families that were part of this year's BELL Program in Colorado Springs.

You missed out if you weren't there, as much of the main courses were from Rudy's, and were donated by Worley Enterprises. We've served Rudy's at our picnics in years past, and most everyone seems to love it. Other dishes were brought by various members of the chapter as well.

We had a Tug-O-War contest 3 times, having good-sized teams each time. The last Tug-O-War had an even 18, with 9 people on each side. Great fun!

This year we had 6 pairs of adventurous souls racing in our 50-Yard, 3-Legged Race.
And though several of us talked the talk, when it came down to it, Rebekah & Anthony, both currently students at the Colorado Center for the Blind (CCB), walked the walk -- and won the 3-Legged Race.

While most of us were eating, a few shared some things coming up with the NFB of Colorado Springs chapter. Such as our chapter looking into starting a bowling night for blind bowlers in the Springs, and our upcoming NFB of Colorado State Convention in October, in Boulder. Also the reminder that our monthly chapter meetings, which are always open to the public, are held on the second Saturday of each month from 10:30am – 12:30pm, at the Garden Ranch YMCA on Academy & Montebello.

There was also mention of the $3500.00 Amazing Travel Raffle package, with tickets able to be bought online -- on this very Web site. It’s only $10 per ticket, or 3 tickets for $20.

Not bad at all, considering that with a $3500 travel voucher you can travel anywhere in the world at least once. You could stay at a Disney Resort (Disney Land, Disney World, or Euro Disney) for a couple of weeks in great luxury if you win. You could stay at a chalet in the French Alps, or make footprints in the black-sand beaches of Maui if you wanted to, if you win.

You may be able to fulfill your own travel dreams, all by simply helping us do even more great things for blind children & blind college students -- through the NFB of Colorado Scholarships we give out each year. That’s what the money raised by the Amazing Travel Raffle will go to.

You not only get to help, but for the price of about 3 Starbuck's coffees, you might win a $3500 travel voucher to spend however you care as you travel where you've thus far only dreamed of. Remember, you can order tickets right from this Web site (right now) -- for only $10 each or 3 for $20!  ;-)

Lastly, we held a small raffle among the picnic’s attendees, with the prize being a "4-Pack of Movie Tickets" ($40 gift card) to Cinemark Theaters on South Carefree Circle. So far Cinemark is the only movie theater in Colorado Springs offering at least 1 theater that has the MoPix Descriptive Video Service (DVS) accessible movie theater for the blind. Thank you, Cinemark, for making your movies accessible and enjoyable by the blind of Colorado Springs as well as everyone else.

That's it for this update. We hope you can come spend the afternoon with us at next year's NFB of Colorado Springs annual picnic. There's going to be even more fun & games & prizes in 2013! If you want more information, please call chapter President Jeanette Fortin at (719) 332-7529.

Blessings to You!

Monday, August 27, 2012

Successful Goodwill Protests


This weekend, National Federation of the blind of Colorado had two extremely successful Goodwill Protests!  One was held in Denver and the other in Colorado Springs.  Below you will find links to news coverage of both events. 

News 4 video



Colorado Springs Gazette Article

http://www.gazette.com/articles/wages-143721-goodwill-demanding.html

News Channel 5 video

http://www.koaa.com/videos/goodwill-protest/


Determiners of our success...

Lots of honks and waves

In both Denver and Colorado Springs, people were constantly honking and wavign at us as they passed.  It was obvious that we were getting the word out to passers by and that we had their support!



People get the message and change their minds!


In Denver one lady who was coming to the Broadway location to drop off goods was OUTRAGED hen she found out about the horrible practices of Goodwill.  She asked if the ARC and Salvation Army did the same thing.  We told her no so she said she was going to take her stuff somewhere else.


PRESS COVERAGE!!!


As you can see from the links above, there we got the attention of the press and our story made it far beyond the two Goodwill locations that we occupied on Saturday.


The other side is shshshshaking in their boots!!!


In Colorado Springs, the store management was soooo uncomfortable that they fabricated stories to get the police to come out.  They told police that we were blocking the doors and the entry ways.  This was not at all true unless you count Jennifer, who was standing on the sidewalk and reaching across to hand fliers to people who voluntarily opened their windows.


The other side tells lies lies lies to make you seem less credible!


Goodwill of Denver and Colorado Springs each handed out fliers which stated that they did not pay any employee less than 8.00 hourly!!!  This is a load o crap!!!


In every good protest you must be called a liberal, a socialist, or a democrat!!!



In Denver our crew were called liberal democrats and told they needed to mind their own business!  Yep... I think we can count that in our success points


In the comments below the Colorado Springs Gazette article, we were called socialists, liberals, and agitators!!!


Yep!!!  I think we can put this one down in the books as a very successful protest.  The only thing that could have been sweeter is if a couple of us would have gotten hauled off in the Patty Wagon!!!  We will do better next time (BIG SMILE)



Wednesday, August 22, 2012

ALL HANDS ON DECK AND GOODWILL PRESS RELEASE


Fellow Federationists:



Below and attached you will find the press release we are issuing this morning to Colorado media.  We need all hands on deck Saturday.  Please come to our Denver or Colorado springs locations to help protest.  We will have a bus leaving the Colorado Center for the Blind at 9:15 a.m. to take us down to the Springs site.  Please contact Jessica Beecham, jbeecham@cocenter.org or 303 778-1130, ext. 223, to let her know which location  you can attend.
See you Saturday!



Scott C. LaBarre, President



National Federation of the Blind of Colorado



**********



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



CONTACT:

Scott C. LaBarre

President

National Federation of the Blind of Colorado

(303) 504-5979 (office)

(303) 520-3584 (cell)




Coloradans with Disabilities to Protest Goodwill's payment of Subminimum Wages



Protesters to Urge Boycott, Demand Fair Wages



Denver, Colorado (August 22, 2012): The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), of Colorado, the state's oldest and largest organization of the blind, announced today that it, along with affiliates of the Federation all over the nation and other organizations of people with disabilities, will conduct over eighty coordinated nationwide protests in front of thrift stores operated by Goodwill Industries International, Inc., the nonprofit manufacturer and retailer.  NFB Colorado will conduct two informational protests in front of the Goodwill stores located at 21 S. Broadway, Denver and 2007 S. Circle Drive, Colorado Springs, on Saturday, August 25th from
11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  The informational protests will raise awareness of Goodwill's practice of paying subminimum wages to many of its workers with disabilities.  Freedom of information requests filed by the NFB confirmed that Goodwill Industries employees with disabilities have been paid as low as $0.22 an hour.  The NFB and nearly fifty other organizations of people with disabilities including the Colorado Cross Disability Coalition support legislation, the Fair Wages For Workers with Disabilities Act (H.R. 3086), which would phase out and then repeal the nearly seventy-five-year-old provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act that permits special certificate
holders to pay subminimum wages to workers with disabilities.   

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said:
"Goodwill Industries is one of the most well-known charitable organizations in the United States, but most members of the general public are unaware that Goodwill exploits people with disabilities.  We are conducting informational protests to make the public aware of this practice that, although sadly still legal, is unfair, discriminatory, and immoral.  Given its lucrative retail operations and the fact that it can lavish half-a-million dollars on the salary of its president and chief executive officer, Goodwill is certainly in a position to stop exploiting its workers with disabilities.  We are calling upon all Americans to refuse to do business with Goodwill Industries, to refuse to make donations to the subminimum-wage exploiter, and to refuse to shop in its retail stores until it exercises true leadership and sound moral judgment by fairly compensating all of its workers with disabilities."

"Locally, we have called upon Goodwill organizations in Colorado to abandon the unfair and immoral practice of paying subminimum wages but they refuse,"
said Scott LaBarre, President of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado.  In fact, both Goodwill organizations in Colorado have confirmed that over 100 of its workers with disabilities receive less than the minimum wage.  In contrast, the two chief executives of these organizations earn salaries and benefits of several hundred thousand dollars each.  "The CEO of the Denver based Goodwill, Jesse Wolf, has met with us and agreed to engage in a dialogue with the Federation to consider reforms to these antiquated wage practices, but the CEO of Goodwill based in Colorado Springs has shockingly and recklessly refused even to meet with us," commented LaBarre.



For a media conctact for the Denver protest, contact James Gashel, Secretary of the National Federation of the Blind, at  <mailto:jgashel@comcast.net> jgashel@comcast.net and 720 295-7401.  For a media contac at the Colorado Springs protest, contact Scott LaBarre at  <mailto:slabarre@labarrelaw.com> slabarre@labarrelaw.com and 303 520-3584.  For more background regarding this critically important issue, please visit <http://www.nfb.org/fair-wages> www.nfb.org/fair-wages and to learn about the Federation in Colorado, go to  <http://www.nfbco.org> www.nfbco.org.