Please mark your calendars for our Annual Dinner on Sunday, November 19, and stay tuned for more details. We hope to offer an in-person gathering in two locations with online attendance as well.

Don’t forget to get your ballots in the mail by Tuesday, August 1. In this election cycle, we know that there are candidates and ballot issues that will make a significant difference in your local communities. For example, we know the positive impact the King County Veterans, Seniors, and Human Services Levy has made for hundreds of thousands of people, and it needs to be reauthorized through the primary ballot. All politics are local! We urge you to pay close attention to what is at stake in your communities and send in your ballot by August 1.

Speaking of local action, FAN organizers are working to find dates that work for geographical cluster gatherings across our state. These meetings provide a way to get to know your neighbors and talk about local concerns and responses to needs in your community, and perhaps create new collaborations. Stay tuned for invitations to the cluster meeting happening in your area.

Indigenous Tribes from the Northwest and beyond have been paddling their ancestral Salish Sea waterways this week in a celebration of heritage and culture, with many stops along the way. You can witness the canoes landing at Alki Beach in Seattle on Sunday, July 30, beginning at 10:30am. The Muckleshoot hosts are also offering live-stream coverage of the action and beauty of landing day. Follow the journey on social media at #CanoeJourney2023 and read more info here.

On Tuesday, August 1, at 11:30 am at the Federal Building in Seattle, 915 Second Avenue, Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action (PSARA) invites you to rally to demand that the takeover of Medicare by large private insurers and Wall Street corporations be halted. These companies are reaping enormous profits and threatening the very foundation of Medicare. A study released in June by the University of Southern California Schaffer Institute for Health Policy and Economics found that private insurers will be overcharging Medicare by $75 Billion in 2023 alone. Among many changes needed to Medicare, we will be specifically demanding that Congress and the President:

• Add benefits like vision, dental, and hearing to traditional public Medicare.
• Eliminate the unprecedented profits private insurers receive from the Medicare Trust Fund.

This rally will mark the 58th birthday of Medicare with a line-up of music and speakers, including Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Alex Lawson, executive director of the non-profit Social Security Works in Washington, DC. Visit PSARA's web site for more information. If you can’t make the event, you can send an email to your member of Congress.

Officials from Washington, DC, and multiple countries in the Asia-Pacific region will hold an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Seattle this weekend, July 29-30. They will meet for closed-door, invite-only talks on trade and the global economy. Join the Washington Fair Trade Coalition and others in calling for transparency, labor rights, environmental protection, and consumer privacy in ongoing trade negotiations. Peoples’ Summit events include a Trade Justice workshop, march, and town hall.

Monday, July 31, 12:30-2:30, in person, Kellogg Middle School Library, 800 Bunker Avenue, Kellogg, Idaho. Bunker Hill Superfund Site Meeting. Gather to help get the information out to affected citizens and stakeholders who oppose the toxic waste dump at the Mission that is continuing to spread tons of contamination downstream to the Coeur D’Alene River and on into the Spokane River in Washington State. E-mail the organizers to learn more.

Thursday, August 3, 5:30-7:00pm, online, A Prescription for Good Health: Taxes, presented by Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. Come and learn from Carolyn Brotherton, PhD, and Stephen Bezruchka, MD, MPH, why progressive taxation is essential for health and well-being. Register here.

Saturday-Monday, August 5-7, in person, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, 16159 Clear Creek Road NW, Poulsbo. Hiroshima Weekend of Action. Join 3 days of activities and actions at or outside the largest concentration of deployed nuclear weapons in the US. Organizers would love to see faith communities represented as advocates for peace at this memorial event. Learn more here.

Wednesday, August 9, 7:00-8:00pm, online, Building Bridges Between Oregon and Washington Healthcare Advocates, a part of Health Care for All Washington’s 2nd Wednesday Speaker Series. Leaders of healthcare advocacy groups in Oregon and Washington will discuss their progress in developing universal healthcare, as well as plans to move advocacy forward. Register here.

Saturday, August 12, 10:00am-4:00pm, in person, Riverfront Park, 507 N Howard Street, Spokane. Unity in the Community: Multi-Cultural Celebration. Come to the FAN table and meet our new Eastern Washington Organizer, Brianna Diltz! Learn more here.

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