Valley Interfaith is drawing a connection between stories of cancer-related deaths, three gas stations and a benzene plume moving through a neighborhood blocks from St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in McAllen. Leaders are in the midst of a research campaign with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), Texas state legislators and County Commissioners to get to the bottom of the benzene plume. Discovery of the toxic gas plume emerged from a listening campaign about the concerns of Rio Grande Valley residents.

West Texas Organizing Strategy stirred the pot in Lubbock by hosting a functional community dialogue about Lubbock Power & Light. Leaders invited the a representative from the utility, in addition to Lubbock City Councilman Hernandez and two candidates for Council District 3. Council candidates and the utility representative reported that they found the meeting a useful way to find out what is happening in the community. WTOS leader Edward George said that the meeting was a clear example of what the organization does, giving city residents a way to communicate directly and effectively with their elected representatives.

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COPS/Metro Alliance leaders & allies kicked off their Living Wage Campaign on Tuesday morning at the Bexar County Commissioners Court, asking elected officials to raise the county's minimum wage, currently set at the Federal Poverty Level. In response, Judge Wolff asked the County Manager to immediately begin a study of the wage scale and to meet with a COPS/Metro delegation within 7 days.

More photos here.

With the Del Rio Police Department currently operating at 63% (45 sworn officers out of the 71 for which the DRPD is funded), The Border Organization took the issue to the City Council. Leader Sandra Fuentes called for additional hiring of police officers, testifying that department efficiency must be balanced with the safety of local residents.

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Hundreds of Dallas Area Interfaith leaders poured into Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church to launch an immigration reform campaign to address local issues dealt with on a daily basis: wage theft, lack of water breaks and horrific apartment conditions.

Accompanied by Auxiliary Bishop Most Reverend J. Douglas Deshotel of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, DAI clergy urged parishioners and lay leaders to focus their energy on what can be solved at the local level, given the lack of reform options at the federal level.

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Less than one month after Capital IDEA-Houston won a $500 thousand Texas Innovative Adult Career Education (ACE) grant to train hundreds more community college students for living wage careers, leaders of The Metropolitan Organization of Houston leveraged an additional $500 thousand in local money after testifying at City Hall.

The money will come from two source of funding: $250 thousand from Community Development Block Grants and another $250 thousand from a City of Houston budget line-item, marking the first time Capital IDEA-Houston has been included in the City budget.

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Over two dozen Austin Interfaith leaders descended on an Austin Independent School District board work session to call for the adoption of federal Davis-Bacon wage standards, and to explain the benefits to workers, families, the school district and the economy at large. In photo, Minerva Camarena-Skeith explain how Davis Bacon wage standards would benefit construction workers.

Activistas Presionan A Distrito Escolar de Austin para Aumentar Salarios, Telemundo Austin

At an accountability meeting organized by The Border Organization (TBO), both Del Rio mayoral candidates committed to work for the creation of a groundwater conservation district (long fought for by local leaders), higher wages for police officers, matched with accountability measures to be put in place, equitable trash collection rates for both city and county residents, and the establishment of another walking trail on the city's south side.

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Leaders celebrated word that the labor market intermediary established by The Metropolitan Organization of Houston, Capital IDEA-Houston, won a Texas Innovative Adult Career Education (ACE) grant, giving it half a million dollars to train hundreds more community college students for living wage careers in Houston. TMO, with their sister organizations in the Texas IAF, helped establish the Texas Innovative Adult Career Education (ACE) grant to support projects that prepare low-income workers to attain degrees and certificates in high demand occupations including nursing and information technology. Texas State Representative John Zerwas (R-Richmond) highly praised Capital IDEA-Houston, declaring he "could not find a better use of $500K than to invest in Capital IDEA-Houston." Texas State Representative Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) chimed in adding "we should continue to invest $5 Million in these projects." The award will support about 250 students attending Houston Community College and Lone Star College.

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The same week Project ARRIBA celebrated its 1,000th graduate, leaders received word that the labor market intermediary won a Texas Innovative Adult Career Education (ACE) grant, giving it half a million dollars to train 300 more El Paso Community College students for living wage careers. EPISO and Border Interfaith, with their sister organizations in the Texas IAF, helped establish the Texas Innovative Adult Career Education grant to support projects that prepare low-income workers to attain degrees and certificates in high demand occupations including nursing and information technology.

According to a 2010 report prepared by the Institute for Policy and Economic Development at the University of Texas at El Paso, Project ARRIBA's work provides a $26 return for every dollar invested. Graduates of the labor market intermediary "contribute half a billion dollars to the El Paso economy," ARRIBA Executive Director Roman Ortiz said.

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