“More than 150 people gathered at the front gate of the shut-down Arcelor-Mittal steel mill in Hennepin [in western Illinois] to hold a prayer rally Wednesday for the nearly 300 people who have been laid off from the plant and their families” — and to pray “that elected government leaders at all levels would be more attentive to this small village’s plight, and for the rest of the country as more people become unemployed,” the LaSalle News Tribune reports. (See last month’s Newstip on state subsidies received by the company.)

“The situation here is perhaps a bit different than a large company closing a plant as a way to remain fiscally solvent, as Arcelor officials have claimed.

“Instead, people at the rally say the plant has been one of the most profitable steel finishing plants in the United States and Arcelor — a leading global steelmaker with bases in Luxembourg and London — is refusing to sell the building as a way to drive up the price of steel and limit its global competition.

“’We are in a battle,’ said state Rep. Frank Mautino (D-Spring Valley). ‘This plant has always produced a profit even at 50 percent capacity. We’re trying to show Arcelor-Mittal you can’t profit by destroying American jobs.

“‘They are doing this in other places and transferring our assets to other countries.’”

Companies interested in buying the plant and saving local jobs have been “stonewalled by Arcelor,” the News Tribune reports.

Marca Bristo of Access Living and Karen Tamley, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, will be at the White House tomorrow as President Obama signs the UN Convention on Rights for Persons with Disabilities.

The UN adopted the convention in 2006, and well over a hundred countries have ratified it, said Gary Arnold of Access Living.  As president of the U.S. International Council on Disabilities, Bristo was a principle player in the movement toward the U.S. becoming a signatory to the convention.

The convention represents a major shift from approaching disability as a social welfare issue toward considering it a human rights issue, Arnold said.