6. Yarmuth's First Floor Speech; other matters

I received in today's email a notice concerning my new congressman. Tomorrow he is to deliver his first speech as a member of the 110th Congress. Below is the Press Release.

Congressman John Yarmuth
Representing Kentucky's 3rd District

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, January 9, 2007
MEDIA CONTACT
Stuart Perelmuter 202.225.5401

Congressman Yarmuth to Deliver First Floor Speech Tomorrow

Inaugural Remarks to House will Call for Passage of Legislation Raising the Minimum Wage

(Washington, DC) Still in his first seven days in the House of Representatives, Rep. John Yarmuth (KY-3) isn't wasting any time. Seizing his new position on the Education & Labor Committee, Rep. Yarmuth has thrust himself into the center of the new Congressional leadership's ambitious agenda. When the House votes Wednesday on whether or not to raise the minimum wage for the first time in nearly a decade, Yarmuth will be among the handful of members urging Congress to pass the bill.

Throughout his campaign, Yarmuth stressed the need to raise the minimum wage from $5.15/hr to $7.25/hr over a two year period. Legislation, which is nearly identical to Yarmuth's plan, will be put to a vote shortly after his speech and is expected to pass the House quickly. The Senate and President Bush have also indicated they will approve the measure.

"We have a unique opportunity and a moral obligation to dramatically increase the well-being of 13 million low wage workers and jump-start the economy in one stroke. I am proud to play a part in advancing this long overdue measure," Yarmuth said of the bill.

Due to receiving his committee preference as a member of the Education and Labor Committee, the Congressman will continue to play a prominent role in the 110th Congress. He will personally work on all workforce and education issues, allowing him to be a influential player on many of his top priorities from the 2006 campaign.

Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3)
United States House of Representatives
319 Cannon House Office Building * Washington, DC 20515
202.225-5401 phone * 202.225.5776 fax
Stuart Perelmuter Press Secretary

Hopefully we can all catch our new congressman in action on CSpan. Another matter of interest, at least to me, was an article in today's Washington Post addressing concerns about the Anacostia River, the former Eastern Branch of the Potomac, which runs generally through Washington DC from SW to SE then to NE, past RFK Stadium, and then up into Maryland as US50 crosses over it. One of my favorite places of an historic nature, and one I told Congressman Yarmuth to concern himself with should he have the opportunity, is the Congressional Cemetery, which borders the northern bank of the Anacostia River, near where Kentucky Avenue SE joins Pennsylvania Avenue SE and crosses the Anacostia. It is the scene of many plans, but also one still plagued by pollution, a word we do not here nearly as much as we did when I was growing up. Hopefully, the situation of the Anacostia can not only be addressed by the District, but by the Congress as well. Here is a link to learn more about plans for the Anacostia.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2007/01/09/GR2007010900142.html


In other news, today brings us another birthday. Being born on January 9th, at least in the 20th century, gives you a pretty neat birthdate, to wit: 1/9/62, for someone born in 1962. That particular someone with that particular birthdate is Janice Marie Platt McDowell, the first girl I fell for when I was in 8th grade. She wasn't a McDowell then, just a Platt. She is now principal at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Louisville and is married to another high school friend of mine, Mike McDowell. For the record, another friend, a political one, is also celebrating her birthday today, former State Representative and JCPS School Board member Dottie Priddy. Dottie is not in the best of health these days, so I hope today finds her in good spirits. Her son Jerry and I remain good friends.

If you haven't figured it out by now, birthdays fascinate me. I'm not sure why. I'm not even sure if it is the birthdays themselves or just the fact that numbers are involved. Someday I'll write more on numbers and numerology; numbers are the instruments which make up the music of mathematics. I believe, although I am not scholarly enough to know if this is true, that everything there is can be broken down into some chain of numbers. I'm sure there are theorists who do this for a living for some college somewhere. It is just a interesting fascination for me and one I promise to write on at a later date.