User:Rdebellis321/sandbox

Intro: The Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (also known as MPIRG) describes itself as "a grassroots, non-partisan, nonprofit, student-directed organization that empowers and trains students and engages the community to take collective action in the public interest throughout the state of Minnesota." [1] It is one state affiliate of the larger U.S. PIRG, whose goal is to stands up to powerful special interests on behalf of the American public. This includes taking on the special interests on issues such as product safety, public health, campaign finance reform, tax and budget reform and consumer protection. [2]

Initiatives: MPIRG is currently working on three main initiatives, all of which contain specific projects. These three categories focus on improving corporate accountability, democracy, and environmental justice.

Corporate Accountability: -Sweatshop-free Procurement Policies: This project is focused on supporting worker's right in order to leverage the buying power of our cities and universities. The aim is to prohibit the use of materials produced under illegal working conditions. -Campaign Finance Reform: MPIRG is working to bring light the issue of money in politics through pro-democracy reforms at the State Capitol. They plan to organizing against undisclosed contributions to political campaigns, therefore acquiring the information necessary to hold elected officials accountable to the public interest. -The Toxic Free Kids Act [3]: Minnesota has always been a leader in banning toxic chemicals from children's products. MPIRG is now supporting the Toxic Free Kids Act of 2015, which hopes to requires children’s product manufacturers to publicly disclose if their product contains a chemical identified as a toxic, priority chemical by the Minnesota Department of Health. There are currently nine such chemicals that qualify as priority chemicals.

Democracy: -Get Out the Youth Vote: One of the largest initiative that MPIRG has is it's effort to register young people to vote. Voter turn out in the population of the electorate that is 18-29 is the lowest of all age groups, a mere 45% in 2012. [4] MPIRG hopes to increase the number of voters in that age group by organizing and mobilizing a strong student voting base, raising political awareness, and getting young people out to the polls. -Ex-Fellon Voter Re-enfranchisement: There are nearly 50,000 Minnesotans who are on parole or probation for past felony convictions and are unable to vote. MPIRG is working along side the Second Chance Coalition [5] in order to pass legislation that would help thousands of Minnesotans regain their fundamental rights. -Duluth Better Ballot Campaign: This initiative is focused on Duluth converting to Ranked Choice Voting. Minneapolis and St. Paul have already switched to RCV, and MPIRG has teamed up with FairVote Minnesota [6] in hopes that they can covert one of the largest Minnesota cities to a more fair voting system.

Environmental Justice: -Phasing out the Incinerator: The Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) [7] is located in Minneapolis and is a waste-to-energy facility that burns garbage to generate energy. It was approved in the 1980's and was assumed to be a short term solution to direct landfills. MPIRG aims to have policy makers reevaluate the necessity and efficiency of HERC, and urges them to consider more environmentally friendly ways or disposing of waste and generating energy. -Stopping Tar Sands Pipeline:

[2] http://www.uspirg.org/page/usp/about-us#sthash.sQ1NRcNr.dpuf [3] http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/hazardous/topics/toxfreekids/ [4] http://www.civicyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/CIRCLE_2013FS_outhVoting2012FINAL.pdf [5] http://www.mnsecondchancecoalition.org/ [6] http://fairvotemn.org/ [7] http://www.hennepin.us/your-government/facilities/hennepin-energy-recovery-center