Forty faith, labor and community activists prayed, sang and protested outside Manchester’s Norris Cotton Federal Building this afternoon to express outrage about recent actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in area homes and businesses.

Here's a look at some of the key battles in the states over the past week.

If New Hampshire’s lawmakers are “serious about encouraging New Hampshire's economic development, they will consider re-establishing the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation,” writes New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie in a column on SeaCoastOnline, a website for several state newspapers. 

In 2011, Republican legislators repealed the state’s minimum wage law. Rep. Carol McGuire (R) went so far as to suggest that there should be no wage floor at all and if an employer wanted to pay $5 an hour that was just fine with her.

It was no charming third time for former New Hampshire House Speaker William O’Brien (R) as the state House of Representatives decisively defeated (212-141) a "right to work" for less bill sponsored by O’Brien who no longer holds the speaker’s post.  

New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie called today’s vote “a strong rebuttal of ex-Speaker O'Brien's attacks on the middle class.” O’Brien championed the anti-worker measure in the past two sessions only to see it die both times.

Seniors and veterans showed up at a "Fix the Debt" event in New Hampshire to tell Honeywell CEO David Cote that if he really wants to fix the debt, he should have Honeywell pay its fair share of taxes. Cote is one of a number of wealthy corporate leaders in the "Fix the Debt" coalition, which advocates for cuts to benefits like Social Security and Medicare and is pushing for lower corporate taxes. Advocates for working families and their allies point out that many of the "Fix the Debt" companies engage in loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

While government in Washington, D.C., remains divided and marked by long-term gridlock, governments in the states are much less divided. Of the 50 states, 37 now feature state governments where the governor and majorities in both legislative houses are controlled by one party—24 of those are controlled by Republicans. Extreme, anti-working family Republicans have repeatedly assaulted the rights of people in recent years and, by all accounts, the trend looks to expand in 2013. Working families are mobilized and fought back in 2012 and will continue to fight in 2013.  The response to the "right to work" for less push in Michigan was so strong, that governors in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have since declared that they won't push for right to work in their states.

An unknown number of workers who are helping with the recovery after Superstorm Sandy may have difficulty casting their votes today because they are away from their home states. New Hampshire elections officials are doing what they can, as required by state law, to help make sure those workers can cast their ballots.

More than 100 New Hampshire union members joined Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for a get-out-the-vote Obama–Biden rally today outside Manchester’s Verizon Wireless Arena, where Mitt Romney is scheduled to speak tonight. Also at the rally were UAW President Bob King, New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).   

Union members and working people are mobilizing all over the country in labor walks, phone banks and leafletting, getting the word out about what's at stake this election. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler has been meeting with working people and joining labor walks from coast to coast this past week.

On Wednesday, Shuler helped kick off the first local chapter of  Young Emerging Labor Leaders (WA YELL) in Spokane, Wash.

Shuler thanked the young workers’ group for their activism on the Verizon and T-Mobile campaigns and encouraged the group to stay energized for Nov. 6. Shuler reminded the group that good jobs and college loans are on the line this November.

New Hampshire union member and labor advocate Matt Murray is the creator and writer for N.H. Labor News. He sends us "Scott Walker Headlines N.H. GOP Convention."

The New Hampshire GOP welcomes their self-proclaimed hero Scott Walker to New Hampshire this week.

Gov. Walker will be headlining Saturday’s GOP Convention at Pinkerton Academy.

Get a good look at him while he’s here. Find out what he stands for and who he stands with.  Remember, Walker is the role model for the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate: Ovide Lamontagne describes himself as “Scott Walker on steroids.”