Posted on May 06, 2008 at 01:45 PM THIS IS THE LAST WEEK TO RSVP for the annual Delta Grassroots Caucus in Washington, DC, June 3-5–the group hotel deadline is May 12, Monday, close of business. We will have 11 Members of Congress, national executive branch officials, leaders from all eight states, and spokespersons from the Presidential campaigns: Rep. Marion Berry (AR) will speak for Sen. Hillary Clinton, Rep. Artur Davis (AL) will speak for Sen. Barack Obama, and Rep. Chip Pickering will speak for Sen. John McCain. We have 105 participants at this point and the numbers continue to increase. Please RSVP to Lee Powell at LeePowell2@cs.com or by phone at (202) 360-6347. We are glad to have participation from Sen. Thad Cochran and Rep. Chip Pickering (MS), Sen. Mary Landrieu, Rep. Rodney Alexander, and Rep. Charles Melancon (LA), Rep. John Tanner (TN), Rep. Artur Davis (AL), and Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor and Congressmen Marion Berry and Mike Ross (AR). We are glad so many Members of Congress wanted to speak to the Delta delegation and we are delighted to have their attention in urging them to do more for our region's economic development. FINAL SESSION ON TRANSPORTATION AND USDA ISSUES–THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 8:30 A.M. TO 1 P.M., IS VERY IMPORTANT. This session will feature national leaders of US Dept. of Transportation and USDA, and other experts on these issues, and will take place at the USDA national headquarters South Building, in the meeting room adjacent to the cafeteria. We will have a luncheon there to end our group sessions at 1 p.m. on Thursday. June 5–Transportation issues–I-69, Great River Bridge, Delta Development Highway System and multi-modal network: The final session on Thursday morning will begin with a panel on transportation issues, including the DRA Delta Development Highway System, completion of Interstate 69 and the Great River Bridge, as well as the DRA's multi-modal plan. We will have US Dept. of Transportation Deputy Assistant Secretary Joel Szabat, the Hon. Rodney Slater, former US Secretary of Transportation, Bill Triplett of the DRA, Johnnie Bolin of the Arkansas Good Roads Transportation Council, and other transportation experts. Continue reading... Posted on April 29, 2008 at 05:38 PM The deadline for the group hotel of this year's Delta initiative is getting close–May 12. The Delta Grassroots Caucus conference on June 3-5 will feature a forum for the remaining Presidential campaigns, with Rep. Marion Berry (AR) speaking for Sen. Hillary Clinton, Rep. Artur Davis (AL) speaking for Sen. Barack Obama, and Rep. Chip Pickering (MS) speaking for Sen. John McCain. Other key sessions will feature Members of Congress addressing Congressional issues in the region, national executive branch officials, and grassroots leaders from all eight Delta states. The Presidential forum will take place on June 4, Wednesday morning, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. on Capitol Hill at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation, 212 East Capitol right behind the US Supreme Court. Rep. Marion Berry, Rep. Artur Davis and Rep. Chip Pickering are three very distinguished Members of Congress and we are delighted to have them explain why they believe their candidate would be the best leader for the Delta and America. We will not endorse any candidate but want to press all of them to devote more attention to the Delta's economic issues and take a stand on what they would do as President for the vast region extending from southern Illinois to New Orleans, Louisiana. We will especially emphasize asking Representatives Berry, Davis and Pickering to address what their candidate would do to revive the economy in the Delta. Additionally we want to hear from them about what they would do to reform FEMA, in light of that agency's inept responses to Hurricane Katrina and other flooding, storms and disasters in our region in recent years. Continue reading... Posted on April 18, 2008 at 12:17 PM We are very pleased that Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi will be joining other Members of Congress in taking part in the Delta Grassroots Caucus conference in Washington, DC on June 3-5, 2008, including Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, Rep. Marion Berry and Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, Rep. Chip Pickering of Mississippi, Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama, Rep. Charles Melancon of Louisiana, Rep. John Tanner of Tennessee, and others. In previous years Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA), Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (MO), Rep. Rodney Alexander (LA), Rep. Jerry Costello (IL), Rep. Ed Whitfield (KY) have participated, and we expect to have most or all of them as speakers again this year. We will have a dialogue with Members of Congress, several Bush administration appointees at USDA, DOT, and the Delta Regional Authority, and representatives of the Presidential campaigns in urging them to do much more for the economic development of our region. Rep. Artur Davis will speak at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation on June 4 in the morning on why he believes Sen. Obama would be the best President for the Delta region, Senator Clinton will have a prominent national figure explain why she would be the best President for the region, and similarly Rep. Chip Pickering of Mississippi will speak about why he believes Sen. John McCain would be the best President for our region. We will not endorse any candidate but want to pressure all of them to do more for our region. We are especially glad to have the participation of Senator Cochran of the great state of Mississippi, who is a powerful figure on the Senate Appropriations Committee and has many admirers in our region on both sides of the aisle. We have 83 RSVPs and the number increases each day. Please RSVP by email to LeePowell2@cs.com or (202) 360-6347 and sending in the registration fee check to the address listed below in this message. We would again like to thank our lead sponsor, Nucor Yamato Steel and Nucor Steel of Arkansas; our major co-sponsors, who are Heifer International, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship state organizations in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi and its national headquarters in Atlanta, the Housing Assistance Council in Washington, DC, Entergy, the Inspire Hope Institute based in Paragould, AR, and the many individuals and organizations who have contributed in the range of $85 to $200–those numerous contributions really add up in a hurry and are essential to our work for the Delta. Continue reading... Posted on April 17, 2008 at 06:47 PM We would like to send this message about expanding grassroots regional leadership development from Dr. Obadiah Simmons of Grambling State University, who is co-coordinator–along with Clifton Avant of Entergy–for the state of Louisiana for the Delta Grassroots Caucus. Dr. Simmons has been a prominent regional advocate for many years and we greatly appreciate his leadership for the Delta Grassroots Caucus. We are planning to add this to our Strategic Plan for Regional Economic Development, which is almost finished. It contains contributions from many grassroots leaders across the region and is about 70 pages. There is a page and a half executive summary, since we know most people do not have the time to read lengthy documents.–Lee Powell Expansion of Regional Leadership Development By Dr. Obadiah Simmons, Grambling State University, Co-Coordinator for Louisiana for the Delta Grassroots Caucus § Grassroots Involvement – by expanding the existing DRA Leadership Institute to include more individuals from true grassroots organizations such as: community-/faith-based organizations; community stakeholders and volunteers; teachers; medical staffers (i.e. nurses, physician assistants, etc.); clergy; and related entities will provide additional opportunities from citizens in isolated and remote parts of the Delta to become engaged with MDGC. § Expanding the Selection Process – MDGC's focus is on the entire eight (8)-state 240-county/parish DRA coverage area. The current selection process is perceived to be more of a "politically driven" (Gubernatorial appointments) rather than individuals from all sectors of society having an opportunity to participate in this leadership training. By expanding the application/selection process to include all sectors of the Delta will reflect a true representation of Delta citizens. §Collaboration – by expanding the DRA Leadership Institute may lead to greater collaboration by entities (i.e. community colleges, four-year institutions, etc.) responsible for providing the leadership development and/or training. This in itself will create more win-win opportunities for post-secondary institutions to collaborate in bringing about systemic change throughout the region. Continue reading... Posted on April 15, 2008 at 05:17 PM We would like to express our great appreciation to two areas of the Delta–southeast Arkansas and southern Illinois–that have been especially responsive to our requests to RSVP at an early date for the June 3-5 Delta Grassroots Caucus initiative in Washington, DC. We have a group of 24 people from southeast Arkansas led by Kenny Gober of McGehee, Desha County Judge Mark McElroy, many others from McGehee and Dumas, Lynette Graham and Linda Haddock of the Lake Village Economic Development Corporation and others from Lake Village and other southeast Arkansas communities. We also have a group of seven people from southern Illinois, which considering their small population is a good turnout from organizations such as the Southern Illinois Delta Empowerment Zone, Southern Illinois University, President Larry Peterson of Shawnee Community College, as well as Mayor Brad Cole of Carbondale, Illinois. The southeast Arkansas group has already sent in 24 registration fee checks and 28 memberships, which is tremendously helpful for our budget. While we now have 80 representatives from all of the eight states and we will get more from all areas of the region in the coming days and weeks, we would encourage northeast Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, western Tennessee, western Kentucky, Alabama, and southeast Missouri to follow the example of the southeast Arkansas and southern Illinois contingents and RSVP now for the June 3-5 Delta initiative in DC. If two local areas that are not heavily populated can send so many people, some of the more heavily populated parts of the region ought to send more as well. Continue reading... |
