{"id":548,"date":"2013-08-19T20:55:04","date_gmt":"2013-08-20T00:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=548"},"modified":"2013-08-19T20:55:04","modified_gmt":"2013-08-20T00:55:04","slug":"548","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=548","title":{"rendered":"Capito Stiff Arms 400 Citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been two months since 400 citizens of the second Congressional district of West Virginia petitioned their Congresswoman, Shelley Moore Capito.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Capito-Petition.pdf\">The petition<\/a> was delivered on June 26 to Capito&#8217;s Martinsburg office asking for Capito to meet with her constituents to discuss raising the minimum wage from the current $7.25 an hour to $10.50 an hour.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/giant-ketchup.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-546\" title=\"giant ketchup\" src=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/giant-ketchup-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The petition pointed out that adjusted for inflation since 1968, the federal minimum wage, now stagnant at $7.25 per hour, would be $10.67 per hour.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bg7VWcQ3-IY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The petition called on Capito \u201cto meet with us at a town meeting, during the August recess, at a convenient public space to discuss the legislative necessity of a $10.50 federal minimum wage for the working poor of our country who produce, serve and care for us each day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Capito responded with <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Capito-Letter.pdf\">a letter July 15<\/a> saying that she voted for the raise in the minimum wage in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>But in the letter, Capito ignored the request for a meeting.  Articles have been written in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.journal-news.net\/page\/content.detail\/id\/597043\/Citizens-call-for-wage-increase.html?nav=5002\">Martinsburg Journal <\/a>and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wvgazette.com\/Opinion\/OpEdCommentaries\/201308060164?page=1\">Charleston Gazette<\/a> calling on Capito to respond to the request for a meeting.<\/p>\n<p>To no avail.<\/p>\n<p>In an effort to get Capito&#8217;s attention, citizens in West Virginia, in coalition with Ralph Nader&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeforaraise.org\/\">timeforaraise.org <\/a>campaign, set up a contest promising a <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/CapitoKetchupBottle.pdf\">customized bottle of Heinz Ketchup<\/a> to anyone who can get Capito to respond to the petition for a meeting.<\/p>\n<p>The bottle reads: &#8220;Capito: Ketchup with 1968! Raise the Minimum Wage to $10.50.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Today, one of those bottles was delivered to Capito&#8217;s Martinsburg office.<\/p>\n<p>Capito staffer Chris Strovel at first resisted accepting the Heinz Ketchup bottle on Capito&#8217;s behalf, saying &#8220;it would be better to give it to a food bank or something.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No, Chris, we want it to go to Congresswoman Capito, so she knows about the Ketchup with 1968 Campaign and answers the petition from 400 of her constituents.<\/p>\n<p>And if the minimum wage is raised, Chris, then perhaps there will be fewer West Virginians in need of food banks, no?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been two months since 400 citizens of the second Congressional district of West Virginia petitioned their Congresswoman, Shelley Moore Capito. The petition was delivered on June 26 to Capito&#8217;s Martinsburg office asking for Capito to meet with her constituents &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=548\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}