http://thomas.loc.gov/…

S.3487

Serve America Act (Introduced in Senate)

• (a) Findings- Congress finds the following:
  • (1) Engaging in service-learning and community service activities at a young age makes individuals more likely to continue to volunteer and engage in service throughout their lives.
  • (2) High-quality service-learning programs keep students engaged in school and increase the likelihood that they will graduate.
  • (3) Since its creation, the Learn and Serve America program has allowed over 15,000,000 students to take part in service-learning activities to improve their communities and schools.
  • (4) Most schools do not offer service-learning activities, but many students, particularly students at risk of dropping out, express an interest in service-learning.
• (b) Purposes- The purposes of this section are–
  • (1) to provide increased high-quality service-learning opportunities for in-school and out-of-school youth in high-need, low-income communities as a strategy to retain and re-engage youth likely to drop out and youth who have dropped out;
  • (2) to encourage more individuals to engage in lifetimes of service by teaching young people the value of service early in their lives; and
  • (3) to establish youth engagement zones with the goal of involving all secondary school students served by a local educational agency in service-learning to solve a specific community challenge, through a program that can serve as a model for other communities.

I’ve not read it yet but if you happen to get a chance and find anything of quality please point it out in the comments.

Here are the sponsors:
Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY] - 9/12/2008
Sen Cochran, Thad [MS] - 9/12/2008
Sen Dodd, Christopher J. [CT] - 9/12/2008
Sen Hatch, Orrin G. [UT] - 9/12/2008
Sen McCain, John [AZ] - 9/12/2008
Sen Obama, Barack [IL] - 9/12/2008

NEW YORK, August 27, 2008-The historic ServiceNation Summit will begin
the evening of Thursday, September 11, 2008 with a Presidential Forum
featuring Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. On September 12, New
York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will open the day-long summit with
welcoming remarks and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be
the keynote speaker and conclude the day.

The co-hosts of the summit are Caroline Kennedy, attorney, editor and
writer; Alma Powell, Chair, America’s Promise Alliance; Vartan
Gregorian, President, Carnegie Corporation; Bill Novelli, CEO, AARP, and
Richard Stengel, Managing Editor, TIME. Confirmed participants and
speakers include:

* Senator Hillary Clinton, New York
* Senator Chris Dodd, Connecticut
* Usher Raymond IV, Summit Youth Chair; Founder, New Look
Foundation
* Governor Charlie Crist, Florida
* Governor David Paterson, New York
* Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, The King Hussein Foundation
* Dr. Mehmet Oz, Founder and Chairman, HealthCorps
* Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Earth Institute at Columbia University
* Laurie Tisch, Philanthropist, Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund
* Robert Kennedy, Jr., President, Waterkeeper Alliance
* Kenneth Cole, Fashion Designer
* Martin Luther King III, CEO, Realizing The Dream
* Kelly Caffarelli, President, Home Depot Foundation
* Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO, Harlem Children’s Zone
* Laysha Ward, President, Target Foundation
* Dr. Amy Gutmann, President, University of Pennsylvania
* David Gergen, Professor, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of
Government
* Scott Cowen, President, Tulane University
* Jean Case, CEO, The Case Foundation
* Ray Chambers, Amelior Foundation
* Chancellor Joel Klein, New York City Schools
* Wendy Kopp, Founder and CEO, Teach For America

The ultimate vision of ServiceNation is an America in which, by 2020,
100 million citizens will volunteer time in schools, workplaces, and
faith-based and community institutions each and every year (up from 61
million today), and that increasing numbers of Americans annually will
commit a year of their lives to national service.

ServiceNation’s bipartisan Summit Leadership Council includes mayors,
governors, former senators and leaders from every sector of American
society (attached is complete list). Major supporters-in addition to
AARP, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Target and TIME-include the
Peter G. Peterson Foundation, The Home Depot Foundation, Bank Of
America, Case Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund, The Jenesis Group, the
Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund and Goldman Sachs.

At the bottom of the email are instructions on getting press credentials just like all other releases I’ve received. The difference in this latest one is the inclusion of “PLEASE NOTE: NYPD/U.S. STATE DEPT. CREDENTIALS REQUIRED!” I do not have a NYC press ID and according to the NYPD website it takes 3 to 4 weeks to acquire one… and that’s assuming they’d actually issue one to me. I’ve sent an email to the Service Nation media person concerning this as well as my fellow Manhattan Libertarian Party members. Worse case, I make up my own press ID and show up. Worst that could happen is I get arrested.

http://www.freedomworks.org/…

Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd’s 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill’s managers without debate this week, would require the nation’s payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

Call Congress and Tell Them to Oppose The eBay Reporting Provision in the Housing Bill: 1-866-928-3035

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: “This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay’s PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America’s small businesses are breathtaking.”

“Privacy groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and small business organizations like the NFIB sharply criticized this idea when it first appeared earlier this year. What is the federal government’s purpose with this kind of detailed data? How will this database be secured, and who will have access? Many small proprietors use their Social Security number as their tax ID. How will their privacy be protected? What compliance costs will this impose on businesses? Why is Sen. Chris Dodd putting this provision in a housing bailout bill? The bill also includes the creation of a new national fingerprint registry for mortgage brokers.

From the Senate Bill Summary:

Payment Card and Third Party Network Information Reporting. The proposal requires information reporting on payment card and third party network transactions. Payment settlement entities, including merchant acquiring banks and third party settlement organizations, or third party payment facilitators acting on their behalf, will be required to report the annual gross amount of reportable transactions to the IRS and to the participating payee. Reportable transactions include any payment card transaction and any third party network transaction. Participating payees include persons who accept a payment card as payment and third party networks who accept payment from a third party settlement organization in settlement of transactions. A payment card means any card issued pursuant to an agreement or arrangement which provides for standards and mechanisms for settling the transactions. Use of an account number or other indicia associated with a payment card will be treated in the same manner as a payment card. A de minimis exception for transactions of $10,000 or less and 200 transactions or less applies to payments by third party settlement organizations. The proposal applies to returns for calendar years beginning after December 31, 2010. Back-up withholding provisions apply to amounts paid after December 31, 2011. This proposal is estimated to raise $9.802 billion over ten years.

That third party exception appears to apply to places like Paypal but don’t many people use credit cards for their money source? Seems the government would end up getting that info anyway from the first party sources. Not to diminish how serious this proposal is but even if that isn’t the case having this on the books would just give them an incentive to expand on the idea later. I can see the reasoning now: “We need to make sure that terrorists aren’t laundering money through these payment proxies. Don’t worry… the data will be secure. We won’t use this for anything else. You’ve nothing to worry about if you’ve done nothing wrong. Right?”