Panelists Included:
Senator Heath Mello
Douglas County Treasurer John Ewing Jr
Senator Brenda Council
Senator Gwen Howard
Legislative Candidate Sara Howard
Vice Chair of MCC Board of Governors Steve Brock

• We began 2011 with a visit from Mayor Jim Suttle, where he spoke about the efforts of the reckless recall going on and his achievements thus far as Mayor. Thankfully he eventually beat the recall and he will continue to serve Omaha.

• We hosted a Lobby Day Training as a group for Planned Parenthood. We then went to the capitol to partake in lobbying for PP.
• Like the past years, we continued our annual Tribute to the Fallen event, and put up 6,000+ flags honoring the men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both Honorable Chuck Hagel and Mayor Jim Suttle gave remarks.
• We went to Lincoln to canvass for their city elections
• At the beginning of the fall semester we took part in the club fair featuring our lovely Obama cutout!
• We held the political pups event where students got to play with puppies while raising money for the Golden Retriever Rescue Network
• In contrast to the anti-abortion rally on Dodge, we held our own pro-choice rally.
• We also held a Rally for Victims of Domestic Abuse in the student center

Please feel free to make this your Facebook or Twitter profile picture. This is an important election and we owe it to the Mayor to vote NO on January 25th. Please also visit http://www.forwardomaha.com/ for more information about voting early, voting absentee, and how you can help out the campaign.

We have new Chairs! No, not actual chairs! Congratulations to:

Jessica Jones, new Campus Outreach Chair

Alexandra Gilbert, new Community Outreach Chair

Sam Winner, new Technology Chair

Matt Blodgett, new Events Chair.

Congratulations, team! We look forward to working with you this year!

This semester we are tweaking our meeting time just a tad. Since we have switched our after-meeting location from Clancy’s to Brazenhead, and since Brazenhead’s happy hour doesn’t start until 10PM, we are moving our meeting back by half an hour. This way we won’t have to pay full price, and we won’t annoy our waitor/waitress by ordering only water until ten. So from now on our meetings will take place at 8:30, Monday nights in the Student Center. They’ll still be on the 3rd Floor in the Gallery Room.

Hope to see you there Monday!

Just a little update as to what will be happening in the upcoming week:

Mark Stoj, who is running for Nebraska State Treasurer, will be visiting us at our meeting on September 13th to talk about his campaign and why its important.

We also hope to see Zack Burgin from Planned Parenthood of the Heartland at our meeting. He will talk to us about volunteer/internship opportunities.

September 18th-19th will be the Student Organizing Conference in Lincoln. If you are interested in more information about this, please attend the next meeting or email Kate Dowd for more information.

September 20th we will be holding Chair Elections. Open offices include: Technology Chair, Directors of Fundraising and Recruitment (separate offices), Community Outreach Chair, and Campus Outreach Chair. Community/Campus chairs will work directly underneath Campus/Community Vice Presidents. Please email Kate for more information about chair positions.

Meetings are every Monday at 8PM in the Student Gallery, on the 3RD Floor in the Gallery Room.

See you there!

Great news! We have a brand new blog that is now up and ready for posting!

http://unocollegedemocrats.tumblr.com/

Please e-mail Kate Dowd at kdowd6@gmail.com if you are interested in posting (must be respectful and tactful) anything on our brand new blog!

Every year, the UNO College Democrats place flags in the UNO Pep Bowl to honor troops in Iraq and Afghanistan – one flag for every fallen soldier. The Pep Bowl transforms into a solemn memorial and a hush falls over the campus. This nonpartisan event reminds us that while we go about our days – speaking and thinking freely – American men and women are risking and losing their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan so that we may have the freedoms we enjoy.

This year’s event begins with flag-placing on Sunday, April 25th, beginning at 1pm. Monday, April 26th and Wednesday, April 28th are the days when volunteers read the names of the fallen soldiers from 10am to 5pm. Tuesday, April 27th is a day of silence.

The closing ceremonies take place on Wednesday at 5pm. After the National Anthem and a few opening words by Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle, Larry Bradley, veteran of the US Army and Commander of the American GI Forum-Omaha Chapter, will be delivering the keynote address. We will read the names of the fallen soldiers from Nebraska and place flowers next to their flags. There will also be an honor guard, thanks to the American GI Forum-Omaha Chapter.

Servicemen and servicewomen, veterans, families, and friends are invited to participate in flag-placing or name-reading, and to attend the closing ceremonies. If you have questions regarding volunteering for anything, please send Brittany Grabow a message.

Please also feel free to use the Tribute to the Fallen Firefox persona made by Jared Brower.