Why We're Headed to Chicago Next Week: Read more about the largest taxpayer mobilization in Chicago next week where thousands of Americans from 20 cities will converge on the American Bankers Association (ABA) conference to demand banks stop spending millions in taxpayer dollars to lobby against reforms that would protect Americans from the next economic crisis. Want to join us?

Krugman Reminds Us Why We're Fighting Those Guys in the First Place...While giant financial institutions are paying out record bonuses and salaries, they aren't lending to small businesses or helping families that are struggling with their mortgages. Read Paul Krugman's NY Times piece, which gives a sobering report on the state of banks.

Blog about it if you must....In a study by the Sunlight Foundation's Micah Sifry, SEIU.org was counted as the most referenced site in blog posts about healthcare policy. Read the score here.

Then on techPresident, Nancy Scola highlights SEIU's new online tool + Twitter + Ads campaign ("Take a ticket for healthcare equality") to help get the word out to would-be tweeters that's time to deliver on healthcare reform that ends discrimination against women by health insurers. The campaign has generated over 5,000 tweets since yesterday.

Senators Urge Extension of Unemployment Benefits: 7,000 people every day see their are seeing their jobless benefits expiring--and it's largely due to the petty obstructionism of two Senators who are blocking the needed extension of jobless benefits. Yesterday afternoon, 14 senators from across the country joined together to urge swift passage of a UI extension.

Former SEIU Member Crowned a Ugandan King: For years, Charles Wesley Mumbere worked as a CNA in Maryland and Pennsylvania and was a member of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania. Yesterday, Mumbere returned to his native Uganda and assumed the royal crown as king of his people, the 300,000-strong Rwenzururu Kingdom. Read more about his life from teenage leader of a rebel force to impoverished student, a CNA working in the U.S. and, finally, to king of his people. Photos of his crowning here.

"The Greatest Public Demonstration in Puerto Rican History:" Photos and recap from the Puerto Rican General Strike on October 15 on SEIU's Blog here. Stand up for the civil rights of Puerto Rico's citizens by contacting your member of Congress and asking him to hold hearings on Gov. Fortuño's anti-American actions.

SEIU's Rocio Saenz Joins International Unions to Urge Reform of Mexico's Broken Labor Laws: Joining a group of international labor leaders, SEIU Vice President and President of Local 615 Rocio Saenz spoke at a press conference in Mexico City on October 14 about the urgent need to reform broken Mexican labor laws that allow multinationals to exploit Mexican workers without recourse. "We cannot address the deeper causes of global poverty and forced economic migration unless we reach across international borders and ensure that all working people have the right to decent work and a job that will support their families," said Saenz.