"With more than $200 million a year at stake, the Travis County Commissioners Court is urging the Legislature to expand Medicaid coverage to more needy people in Texas, the state with highest rate of uninsured residents. The court spent time Tuesday tweaking the resolution that it passed last week to satisfy its lone Republican member, Gerald Daugherty. It was approved unanimously, 5-0. Austin Interfaith leader Oralia Garza Cortes called the bipartisan support "absolutely critical" and said that sister organizations of the advocacy group in Dallas and Bexar counties helped pass similar resolutions this month."

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"Groups seeking expansion of Texas' Medicaid program will plead their case outside the Bexar County Courthouse on Tuesday before Commissioners Court is set to take up a resolution supporting their position....Leading the 9:30 a.m. gathering Tuesday ... will be County Judge Nelson Wolff. Also expected are representatives of the county hospital system community organizations called COPS/Metro Alliance.

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"Valley Interfaith leader Rosalie Tristan gave two personal healthcare stories to highlight the need for expanding Medicaid. Tristan...spoke of her 55-year-old brother, David Contreras, a husband and father of two. He has a tumor on the back of his head the size of a melon. He has been told he has to come up with $10,000 in order to see a doctor. He does not have $10,000.

He has also been told he cannot go to the emergency room of his local hospital until the body tissue bursts. He earns too much to qualify for Medicaid...."

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'Nevadans for the Common Good' leaders Andrea Swanson and Camille Naaktgeboren testified before the Assembly and Senate judiciary committees for Assembly Bill 67.

"You take a domestic violence abuser, you take a rapist and you take a child abuser and you put them all in one and you have a pimp," said Andrea Swanson, who told a packed legislative hearing room about how her 18-year-old daugher was swept from her into a life of sex trafficking.

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"The Network of Texas Organizations, convened 200 leaders from various faith traditions on the steps of the Capitol to call on Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Legislature to expand Medicaid.

Religious leaders and clergy from throughout the state gathered at the north entrance the Capitol on Wednesday at noon to rally in support of Medicaid expansion..."

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"At the urging of Austin Interfaith, the Travis County Commissioners Court this week passed a resolution supporting expansion. Dallas County has approved a similar resolution, and Bexar County is expected to do the same next week....

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One LA leaders fought for and won "Community Partner Status" with the LA County Department of Health Services, granting it direct access to the county enrollment system. Now 50 leaders will train to become 'Certified Application Assisters', with the power to directly enroll people through the County computer system at 25 One LA mobile enrollment events at member institutions. They will be supported 30 leaders at each institution trained as 'healthcare experts,' who will educate and recruit people to attend their institiution's events. The goal is to enroll thousands of eligible LA residents.

Over President's Day Weekend 51 leaders took part in a three-day Spanish language training which included a track in English. Leaders are preparing for the founding of a new IAF effort in the Bay Area, set for June 2013.

Check out video about the training

David and his wife, Barbara Paulsen, are part of a group of about 40 volunteers flying and driving to the state capital, where they will lobby the Legislature to toughen the state's sex-trafficking laws. They want to make it easier to prosecute violent pimps and impose stiffer penalties while helping victims of the Las Vegas sex trade get treatment...

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"Mayor-President Kip Holden and the group Together Baton Rouge said Thursday that they have teamed up to try to find a solution to the problem of "food deserts" in East Baton Rouge Parish, which are areas defined by poverty and poor access to supermarkets and large grocery stores...."

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