Bob Sloan, a Kossack who for years has led the fight against the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC), mass incarceration in America, the Koch brothers and a host of other things has had some recent health problems (3 back surgeries with another on the way).
Bob has run and funded the Voters Legislative Transparency Project (http://vltp.net/) for 5 years and is no longer financially or physically able to continue this. The site is in danger of shutting down.
Bob Sloan also is blog founder and administrator of the American Legislative Transparency Project blog on Daily Kos.
I want to post an email I received from him this morning below.
To all my Daily Kos, VLTP followers, I have sadly had to make a decision concerning my www.vltp.net website. Due to a lack of funding and my personal inability to continue to sit at the puter and research as I’ve done for more than a decade now, I have to close the site down after five years. There have been no contributions or donations and I have been personally paying the fees to keep it up and running.
Due to three recent surgeries, lack of funding and the high deductible out of pocket policy my wife’s company offers, we are completely wiped out of our savings and retirement benefits now with more bills arriving daily and I have at least one more surgery to go.
Unfortunately my wife has had to be hospitalized due to all the stress and worry and again, here short term disability policy through Met Life continues to be denied so we are bereft of any income.
I set up a go fund me account for anyone wishing to help at go fund me. The link is below. If anyone wishes to take over the vltp site, please contact me soonest before I let the domain lapse next month.
I have so enjoyed working with all of you for the past decade on transparent legislation and reform of our prison industrial system which are stealing American jobs.
If you wish to help us out, it would be greatly appreciated.
The link is:
gofundme.com/ed44hk74
Sincerely,
Bob Sloan
Executive Director
Voters Legislative Transparency Project, Inc.
Bob received the following from Lisa Graves of CMD and ALEC Exposed:
Dear Bob:
I will pay the fees for the VLTP site so it can stay up because it is such a great set of work but I don't want to take it over from you. That is. I would pay them for you to keep the site and transfer it and hold them for you until you want them back or whatever you wish.
On the other front, I am so sorry to hear about the medical bills and challenges. I will definitely contribute on gofundme. Everyone is at risk of bankrupting medical expenses. It is so outrageous. But, I am so glad Jean is feeling better also!!
Lisa
If our community can help Bob and his wife Jean, I am sure Bob and Jean will greatly appreciate it. If someone can volunteer to take over the running of VLTP.net, Bob will be ecstatic. I would do it myself, but I am fully engaged running a small business and couldn't give it the attention it deserves.
A final note. Bob and a group of Cincinnati students and organized labor including manfromMiddletown, Bengali and others organized and executed the first demonstration against a national ALEC meeting in 2011, and no ALEC national event has not been demonstrated since that time. All Tips and Recs for this Diary go to Bob Sloan. Thank your for reading.