TMO leaders held an accountability session with candidates for Sheriff Ron Hickman and Ed Gonzalez, and District Attorney candidate Kim Ogg. The candidates agreed to work with TMO to create a plan to reduce jail overcrowding, enhance deputy training, institute new bail reform measures, and oppose legislation forcing law enforcement officers to act as immigration agents.

Hundreds of Austin Interfaith leaders convened at Mt. Olive Baptist Church in East Austin to call on candidates for City Council districts 2, 4, 6, 7, and 10 to support an agenda for families.

Austin Interfaith Holds City Council Candidate Forum, Time Warner Cable

Starting with the question, "What happens to democracy if no one shows up?" leaders of Pima County Interfaith probed the long-term consequences of an increasingly common occurrence: incumbents and candidates simply turning down invitations to interact with the public.

Click below to read their Oped:

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150 leaders of Austin Interfaith gathered for an evening delegates assembly that soon transitioned into a nonpartisan accountability assembly with all primary candidates for Travis County Sheriff. Candidates were limited to timed responses to questions about the processing of undocumented immigrants and cooperation with ICE, workforce development for people before release and face-to-face visitation for prisoners. Most candidates responded yes to each of the questions.

Austin Interfaith Calls for Compassion in Sheriff's Race, Time Warner Cable

Invited as honored guests by Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, leaders of EPISO and Border Interfaith traveled to the US levee to celebrate mass with Pope Francis during his historic visit to Ciudad Juarez on the border. They were included in a "small contingency of the faithful" to greet him as he approached the river's edge from Ciudad Juarez to deliver a special blessing and prayer for the safety and security of immigrants in their search for a better life.

Before departing to the levee, leaders joined US Catholic Bishops and Cardinals for a special gathering in which they reported local action around immigration, including work around the recent increased presence of State Troopers in El Paso County.

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The night before early voting began, undecided voters from Valley Interfaith congregations held a nonpartisan accountability assembly with candidates for Cameron County judge and Commissioner positions in Precinct 1 and Precinct 4. Said Valley Interfaith leader Tina Ramirez-Tetecatl: "We selected questions through house meetings and talking about issues around the parishes."

Leaders asked candidates to respond yes or no to questions about investments in light posts, workforce development program VIDA, ambulance services into the colonias and the creation of a unified county drainage district. In order to pay for these requested expansions, Valley Interfaith asked candidates whether they would deny tax abatements to companies seeking to expand in Cameron.

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Backed by 300 leaders at a 'Nevadans for the Common Good' accountability assembly, Marsha Rodriguez told her story about the fragility of independence as a senior. 72 years old, Rodriguez described waiting 6 months to get into a Nevada Medicaid waiver program, the Home and Community Based Waiver, which helps pay for non-medical services that are essential for some aging seniors to continue living at home. After seven years of receiving non-medical care, she fears that privatization of Medicaid services would reduce access to those services and push her into a nursing home. NCG leader Barbara Paulsen noted that the cost of at-home services for six or seven people is about equal with the cost of covering one person in a nursing home.

State legislators in attendance carefully listened and soon followed up with a delegation of NCG leaders, promising that Medicaid privatization of services would NOT happen in 2016, and that the legislative proposal would move more slowly, transparently, and inclusively.

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Over 150 leaders gathered in Denver for the launch of a new Industrial Areas Foundation - Colorado Sponsoring Committee. Leaders came from a wide cross-section of institutions including the Professional Black Firefighters' Association, Colorado Education Association, Iliff School of Theology, and congregations from Jewish, Christian Methodist Episcopal, United Church of Christ and American Baptist denominations. Leaders celebrated the completion of 1,000 face-to-face relational meetings and pledged to work together to found a Colorado IAF organization.

According to Gloria Mora of COPS / Metro Alliance, "it is unacceptable that in a city where the unemployment rate is only 4.7%, a full 20 percent of our residents live under the federal poverty line." With that statement, COPS / Metro announced a general assembly to address the need for a San Antonio living wage. In that assembly, leaders aim to confront Bexar County Commissioners and San Antonio mayoral candidates to address financial issues impacting families including wages, wage theft and predatory lending.

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