All Blog Posts

Family Economic Security Paid Family Leave

02/05/13

2013 is the year that the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) turns 20. For 20 years, the FMLA has been used to provide job-protected, unpaid leave for people across the country to recover from a serious illness, care for a new child, or care for a seriously ill spouse, parent, or child. Send a Happy...

MomsRising Together

Ruth Martin

02/04/13

As a parent, one of your worst nightmares is not being able to provide for your children. Unfortunately, it’s a nightmare that’s come true for far too many North Carolina parents in recent years due to no fault of their own. With the fifth highest unemployment rate in the nation, tens of thousands...

MomsRising Together

Beth Messersmith

Gun Safety

02/04/13

When one mom I know turned on her TV and saw the breaking news about a gunman at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, she stood up and started shouting, “No!” and throwing pieces of laundry she had been folding at the TV screen. Another mom I know got straight into her car to bring her...

MomsRising Together

Gloria Pan

Paid Family Leave

02/04/13

The Department of Labor (DOL) has just released the results of two new surveys on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). These are the first surveys conducted by the DOL on the FMLA in over a decade. Released just in time for the 20th anniversary of the passage of the FMLA, the results give us...

MomsRising Together

Jodie Levin-Epstein

Immigration

02/04/13

This article first appeared in Crosscut.com . It’s game on for immigration reform in 2013 . Prospects for a real immigration bill this year took a big step forward last week as a bipartisan “Gang of Eight” Senators released its framework for an immigration bill , and President Obama staked out his...

MomsRising Together

Pramila Jayapal

Environmental Health Health Care

02/04/13

In 1990, when I lived in Los Angeles, my 4-year old son and I were both poisoned by the aerial spraying of malathion. The state had sprayed vast residential areas in an attempt to eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly—a devastating pest that threatened California’s multi-billion dollar agriculture...

MomsRising Together

Ruth Berlin

Immigration

02/03/13

What happens in Vegas shouldn't always stay in Vegas. Earlier this week, in a crammed high school basketball stadium in Las Vegas, I heard President Obama speak about the need to finally, truly fix our broken immigration system so that it's fair and also brings economic strength to our entire...

MomsRising Together

Mary Olivella

Immigration

02/02/13

A few years ago I saw a video that shocked me : Two young children crying, alone in a car, reaching out for their mother who'd been taken away by armed deputies wearing ski masks after being stopped for a minor traffic violation. The images haven't left me. A nightmare, right? Never in America?...

MomsRising Together

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

Childcare & Early Education

02/01/13

As a parent of a 21 month old, I have found myself thinking about childcare and school options a lot lately. Earlier this week, as I watched the inauguration of Barack Obama with my son, I thought about how great it would be if early childhood education was something that the administration could...

MomsRising Together

Diana Limongi

02/01/13

Editor's note from the Say Ahhh! blog: Happy Super Bowl Weekend! As diehard Say Ahhh! fans know, that means its time for our annual Super Blog-Off. This year, we’ve asked the blogging teams to face off on which state has done more to make the promise of the Affordable Care Act a reality for its...

MomsRising Together