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This MMPTV update includes powerful stories from people who would be impacted by Governor Corbett's proposal to eliminate the statewide General Assistance Program and to cut the General Assistance related health care. 65,000 Pennsylvanians risk losing their only source of income--$205 a month.  This represents the single biggest cut in the proposed state budget.

Considering that Pennsylvania spends an average of $42,339 per year on an inmate, versus $1,845 per year on a General Assistance recipient, we see this not as a matter of cost savings, but a matter of priorities.

37 families at the Riverdale Mobile Home Park in Jersey Shore, PA may lose their homes to make way for a water extraction plant that will supply natural gas drilling operations. The families have until June 1st to leave, and the compensation they are being offered does not cover the costs of relocating their trailers. The water extraction facility will be operated by Aqua PVR, a partnership of Aqua America and Penn Virginia Resources. They gathered on March 28th to speak out about how they will be affected.

This past Saturday, March 10, 2012, Media Mobilizing Project undertook its first Survey Day of its Put People First campaign.

On February 7th, Gov. Corbett will announce his plan for the next state budget.  A week later, on February 14 (Valentine's Day) students & parents from numerous Pennsylvania school districts are holding a rally for public education in the State Capitol. 

The purpose of the rally is to speak out about the devastating effects of last year's cuts to education, and to demand that equitable school funding be a priority in the next state budget.

“We have moved into an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society. We are still called upon to give aid to the beggar who finds himself in misery and agony on life’s highway. But one day, we must ask the question of whether an edifice which produces beggars must not be restructured and refurbished. That is where we are now.” 

- Dr. Martin Luther King, SCLC Retreat, South Carolina, May 1967

This Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2012, Media Mobilizing Project stands again with the Philadelphia Student Union and the Campaign for Nonviolent Schools (CNS) and will be documenting stories about successful restorative justice practices at the “Create Nonviolent Schools and Communities” event,1-4pm at Arch Street United Methodist Church, 55 N. Broad Street. Come join us!

On this month's show:

• Students, parents & teachers unite to form One Voice
• Students reflect on their defeat of school vouchers
• A third grader speaks about the school to prison pipeline
• The importance of art & music in school

Plus music & other news.

Hear more at our podcast: www.onblast.podomatic.com