Eclectic Electric Car in CR and IC

What goes 130 miles per hour, uses no oil and emits no carbon dioxide? The Tesla all-electric roadster which will make a stop in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City on a coast-to-coast journey this Tue. & Wed., July 21 & 22

Where: Kirkwood Community College, Auto Technology Building, Main campus from 7:00 –9:00 pm Tuesday, July 21

University of Iowa Madison Street Services Building (MSSB) in Iowa City, on the corner of South Madison and West Prentiss streets. from 8:00 – 9:00 am Wednesday, July 22

Both events are free and open to the public.

The Renew America Roadtrip™ is America’s first green coast-to-coast trip in an all-electric sports car. The event will help raise awareness of renewable, sustainable, and eco-friendly initiatives and features three electric cars, including the Tesla Roadster. The Tesla Roadster is a $100,000 all-electric sports car. The Roadster is a pure battery-electric vehicle with a range of 240 miles per charge, a 130 mph top speed, and goes from 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds. In addition to the Tesla roadster, the Renew America Roadtrip team includes Jerry Asher and his “Spirit of DC” plug-in-hybrid Prius and a beautiful new 2009 Nissan Altima hybrid support vehicle provided courtesy of Nissan USA. The stop is a chance to view the all-electric Tesla Roadster and talk with the crew of the Roadtrip project, which is demonstrating the advantages of all-electric vehicles. The team will be visiting the area and charging up the vehicle on their way cross-country from New York City to San Francisco.


For more details on RAR check out the Web site: http://www.renewamericaroadtrip.com.

For more information on the event, contact I-Renew
Mike Carberry
Executive Director
Iowa Renewable Energy Association (I-Renew)

PO Box 3405
Iowa City IA 52244

mobile: 319-594-6453
office: 319-338-1076

mike@irenew.org
www.irenew.org

I've Seen the Future and It Is Chicken Feathers

I would not advocate for petroleum-based plastics, whether they were biodegradable or not. However, if you had 4 billion pounds of chicken feathers to discard every year, in addition to eggs that don't meet USDA standards, it might not be bad to consider other uses--even biodegradable plastic bags, car fuel, and mulch made out of chicken feathers. This makes even more sense as the EPA reports, plastic packaging adds 29 million tons of non-biodegradable waste to landfills every year.

Enter Dr. Justin Barone of the Agricultural Research Service who, along with Walter Schmidt, have developed a process that uses only heat, pressure and water to dissolve the sulphur-sulphur bonds in the keratin of the feathers to create plastics. The production is much cheaper and easier than traditional petroleum-based plastic. Not only does the feather plastic reduce waste, but the plastic made from feathers and eggs are also biodegradeable.

While cloth bags for shopping are gaining acceptance, if a replacement for the oil-based plastic bag can be made inexpensively, perhaps this is a good use of science. If chickens can run our cars, this might answer the age old question: "which came first, the chicken or the egghead?"

(Gimme) Shelter House

After attending the very touching groundbreaking ceremony with about 110 concerned folks at the new Shelter House location yesterday afternoon, I feel the need to convey some information that you may not know. As a "truth in advertising" statement, I was a Shelter House Board member until this past month. My opinions to follow do not represent the views of the Shelter House or its board members.

No one appreciates the voice of dissent more than I do. I'm on the short end of the stick in many causes I have been associated with, but in the case of the Shelter House, too much misinformation has come from those fighting against it being built.

1) The Shelter House is not a facility for pedophiles or any other kind of sexual predator to live, as it serves the needs of homeless men, women, and children. The difference is that the shelter does have a mission of compassion for those in need, even if it does not provide shelter to all. That is to say, the Shelter House has programs for all homeless people including helping them to stabilize and find work. It has facilities for people to shower, change their clothes and launder. The new facility will likely train people in the culinary arts and other vocations, in addition to housing them. At present, volunteers bring in dinners for the homeless to the shelter.

2) The 30 or so people who were picketing the site are the worst kind of fearmongerers, as the shelter does more to prevent sexual predators from using its facilities than most rental property managers do. A scan of the Iowa Sexual Offenders Registry site will show you examples of that. In addition, the sexual predator rate in Iowa is much lower than the national average something like 1 in 1000 people are convicted sexual predators and most of that number involve acquaintances and/or family members.

3) Though the Hilltop owners and the Waterfront Neighborhood Association would like you to believe that they are just trying to protect kids, it should be noted that this same group has been using every conceivable legal and public relations maneuver to stop the shelter from being built including numerous nuisance lawsuits after the state Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision.

4) The Shelter House has been planning an enlarged shelter for roughly seven years. Ernie Lehman was the mayor when the original plans were rolled out at a public meeting. Locating an acceptable location has been extremely difficult. As you may imagine, no one is rolling out the red carpet for a homeless shelter. More importantly, we had some very specific requirements for a new location. We wanted it to be on a bus line, in closer proximity to other low income support services, and on land affordable for the shelter to be built to the scale that meets the demand.
It is true that we received ideas for possible locations from Joyce Barker and others, the board's new building and/or executive committees vetted each one. However the location on Southgate and Waterfront best met the needs for the shelter.

5) While city,county, and federal government officials have been great and the funds have been very helpful to the success of running Shelter House and it's services, donations by people like you and me keep the shelter going and are sorely needed to complete the new shelter. At this time, about half the money to build the new shelter has been raised. If you are in Iowa City tomorrow (Friday, July 3) night, you can help by coming to Dawn's Coffeehouse at Dawn's Bead and Hideaway (310 Washington St.) anytime between 5 and 8 pm. For a donation you can listen to Saxophonist Saul Lubaroff and support the building of the new shelter. If you can't come, consider making a donation this way.

Michael Jackson, Inc. Lives!

Last night, as tributes to the late performer Michael Jackson covered mainstream media, I observed that the "man" was not the point of any talking heads' discussions. Michael Jackson the "brand" was. As a phenomenon, there are very few that can parallel Michael Jackson. He was arguably the most successful artist of his generation. In terms of record sales, Pepsi and other product endorsements, and ownership of song rights, he truly was the "King of Pop."

He was an industry unto himself. Rag media, legal eagles, and paparazzi were fueled by the insatiable thirst that the public has for celebrity and the cashing in thereof. And Jackson himself was quite savvy about his brand recognition, including planting stories such as sleeping in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and purchasing the Elephant Man's bones, and performing at the half-time show of the Super Bowl for 137 million captivated people at the game and at home. His artistic temperament and business acumen combined with his necessarily reclusive lifestyle created demand for all things Michael Jackson. For him, it also must have created a dissonance between Michael Jackson the personality and the person.

Whoever Michael Jackson was is gone now. Philanthropist or pedophile-- angel or devil--saint or sinner? We will never really know the rest of the story. We can be assured that his life will be picked apart by those buzzards who stand to profit from telling his tale.

Michael Jackson, Inc. is open for business and family members, former employees, and biographers will cash in on his likeness. The media will rewrite and reinvent his legacy for a public whose fickle nature embraces both scorn and redemption in equal parts. Like all icons before him, he will be reborn-- "new and improved."

As for me, I will genuinely miss the ambassador of goodwill that Michael Jackson represented to those living in poverty, hunger, and with HIV/AIDS. I will miss his showmanship and creativity. He was a person who lived like his famous moonwalk dance, giving the impression he was ahead of us and, at the same time, letting us know his time was cemented in the past.

Kresowik: We Need ACES and Truth from Critics

From University of Iowa Student President and current Sierra Club staffer Mark Kresowik:

Friends, tomorrow a remarkable bill will be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives. It's called the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), was drafted by Congressmen Waxman and Markey, with some excellent work by our own Congressman Braley, and would be the first time our U.S. Congress made a serious effort to deal with global warming. I wasn't going to write anything until after the vote, but the misrepresentations being spouted by MidAmerican Energy in Iowa, and then the RNCC and electric cooperatives going after Congressman Braley this week, really got to me.

I have put a lot of time into analyzing the bill and the modeling done by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Congressional Budget Office. I have tracked this bill from its draft form through committee and now tomorrow, to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

I can tell you that MidAmerican, Iowa's electric cooperatives, and the GOP are full of crap. And then Congressman Boswell bought their nonsense hook, line, and sinker. So we need to contact our Congressional officials and make sure they know we're not buying what MidAm is trying to sell, and that the ACES bill needs to go forward to the Senate.

Congressman Loebsack's number - (202) 225-6576
Thank Congressman Braley for his hard work - (202) 225-2911
Congressman Boswell's number - : (202) 225-3806

First, MidAmerican and Iowa's other utilities had the very stupid idea to build a very dirty coal plant in Council Bluffs a few years ago. Their bad management decisions shouldn't be taken out on this legislation or ratepayers. They may want to whine about it, but they should bear some of the cost of their bad decisions (sound familiar?).

Second, this bill is not going to cause the rate increases these utilities are claiming. We're already giving these utilities more than 50% of their pollution for free, and even if they had to pay for all the extra pollution beyond those allowances rates would increase less than half what MidAmerican is claiming. And why is that a bad thing? It gives them an incentive to actually reduce pollution, imagine that. With the strong energy efficiency provisions, energy use in the country will be held flat - even as the economy rebounds - through 2020. Which means those of you who take advantage of efficiency opportunities may ultimately be paying less than you would if this bill doesn't pass.

Finally, that doesn't count all of the jobs Iowa stands to get from investing in clean, renewable energy or the payments to farmers to practice better soil conservation and stewardship to reduce pollution. Iowa is a leader in a lot of those areas, and this bill recognizes and rewards that.

ACES would be a huge boon to the state of Iowa, to our economy, and to the environment. MidAmerican's crap shouldn't be left unopposed.

If you do one thing today or Friday, please call Congressmen Loebsack, Braley, and Boswell.

Congressman Loebsack's number - (202) 225-6576
Thank Congressman Braley for his hard work - (202) 225-2911
Congressman Boswell's number - : (202) 225-3806

If you want more information about what MidAm is saying and why it is so blatantly wrong, send me an email. I'm happy to run you through the economics and impacts of the bill. I'm not saying it is perfect, but it should pass on to the Senate. We need it.

Thank you very much,

Mark
kresowik@gmail.com
319-621-7393

P.S. I'm not writing this as a staff member of the Sierra Club. The lies being tossed around Iowa right now hit me personally. I've spent way too much time on these issues to watch MidAmerican and the electric cooperatives misrepresent the impacts of this bill on people who are already struggling to pay their electric bills. Their statements don't serve their ratepayers. This bill does an enormous amount, possibly even too much, to cushion electric utilities and ratepayers. And it will certainly be good for Iowa. Even if you don't agree with the bill, stand up for truth in advertising!

One more thing. According to the EPA's latest modeling results, released this morning, average household electricity expenditures go DOWN through 2015 by 3.5% with ACES compared to business as usual. If you needed any more evidence that MidAmerican is full of crap, there is it is.

Iran So Far Away (From Democracy)

Sitting here in Iowa, even without knowing what is the unvarnished truth concerning the outcome of the Iranian presidential election, it is still hard not to speak about the obvious horrors going on within the borders of Iran. There are some points of clarity that can be seen even half a world away:

- Brave people of conviction are marching by the thousands in Tehran, other Iranian cities, and in solidarity in other world cities to protest the outcome of an election that Iranians find faulty and are communicating to the rest of the listening world to the best of their ability.
- The "supreme" leadership, those clerics who choose the candidates, are in serious trouble if they have indeed rigged the election.
- While the elected President is not the supreme leader of the country, he is the mouthpiece that the world press looks toward in reporting the news. If one of the candidates is thrown under the bus, and it really doesn't matter whom it is, what matters is how it looks through the eyes of the media.
- Other countries, the US included, can not step in and declare a winner, but should let the Iranian people know diplomatically that we support their choice.
- More Iranians are likely to die today and that, in the long run, will perversely lead to a more democratic Iran tomorrow.

History teaches us that tyranny does not hold in the final appraisal. The Supreme Leader and his Guardian Council can not hope to survive, even if they command the armed forces, if the people it rules does not believe that they are infallable. By the mere suspicion of wrongdoing, the clerics are weakened.

Sadly, because of each sacrifice of life offered by the protestors, Iran draws closer to either full martial law or a collapse of a system that has failed its people. The question is not really one of which will prevail, but when a functional government will rule.

To those in Iran who are struggling, know that in the land of the "Western Devil", there is a person who enjoins you in your protest and wishes you As-Salāmu `Alaykum (السلام عليكم).

Universal Health Care Now!

I've been taking some time away from blogging because, let's face it, problems never really go away and everyone needs a chance to chill out. In my absence, the national health care debate rages on. Many people actually thought there was a national health care bill ready to go when President Obama was elected. Certainly his plan was shopped publicly when he was running for the office. But apparently there is not a "shovel-ready" health care bill or enough money to pay for the bill, depending on who you ask.

This is my solution. No holidays for Congress until a bill is forwarded for the President's signature that makes sure that 100% of Americans have access to affordable health care. At this point I don't care if it is a single-payer or gazillion-payer model, just that it is universal and affordable to all.

As for those Congressional leaders who line up he pieces on the chess board who need to get this done, lock down Capitol Hill and take your fellow public servants off the grid. This means no lobbyists, cell phones, or computers (except in the capable hands of the recorders who will write up the final bill). No tweeting, crackberry texting, facebooking, etc. Clearly this bunch is overly distracted and needs time to focus. If necessary, cut off the air conditioning (think of it as reliving the Continental Congress).

The point is that health care is the one thing that is needed by every worker and the thing that American industry claims keeps it from being competitive globally. If we really want to rev up the economic recovery machine, make sure everyone has the opportunity to be healthy--even corporate personages.

Trial lawyers, unions, big biz, doctors, and insurers beware, you can not dictate the discourse on this issue any more. You had your chance. If you are found within 100 miles of the halls of Congress, you should expect to be deported to Palau (we should at least get our money's worth out of that deal). We know you have been assailing us with your ideas of what is best for us, but really, it is always about what is best for you.

We the people are sick of being sick because the pursuit of profits are involved. We want health care as a fundamental right--after all what is the pursuit of happiness if you can't get out of bed to pursue it?

So listen up Congress--drop everything else you are doing and get this legislation done. If it isn't perfect coming out of the gate, don't worry about it--we'll make you keep working on it until it is or elect people who can. Congressmen Braley, Loebsack, Boswell, Latham, and King and Senators Grassley and Harkin, this means you.

How Much Does It Cost To Ease a Nation's Conscience?

Apparently $11,764,705.88 per prisoner is the going rate for not allowing trials for Guantanamo prisoners to occur. Since the US Senate said "no" to housing detainees in the United States, the US plans to banish 17 Chinese Muslim captives from the Guantanamo Bay prison to the remote North Pacific archipelago of Palau (Palau comprises of a number of scattered islands over 500 miles east of the Philippines with a population less than 20,000 people).

The US decided to transfer the Uighur detainees to the small pacific island nation after inking an accord with the president of Palau, Johnson Toribiong, on Tuesday in exchange for a $200 million long-term aid package.

Toribiong said he “agreed to accommodate the United States of America's request” to “temporarily resettle” the Guantanamo prisoners and called his country's bid a “humanitarian gesture,” adding that he was “honored and proud” to close the deal.

Sandra Pierantozzi, Palau's minister of state, in an interview with VOA, says her nation is glad to have the Uighurs.

"If they want to settle in Palau we would welcome them," Pierantozzi said. "This is very much in line with the culture of Palau, where people who drift in and who needs settlement and place are welcome to our shores and our tradition will take care of them and insert them into our society."

The Uighurs are from China's western Xinjiang province. Beijing has accused the Uighurs, who dominate the province, as separatists who want to create an independent "East Turkestan." Washington is refusing to send the Uighurs back to China, fearing they would be persecuted.

sources: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-10-voa7.cfm
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=97655§ionid=3510203

Glad That We Aren't New York

What do you get when you take one criminally-indicted Democrat, one under ethics investigation and 30 power-hungry Republican state senators? A majority. This makes Texas politics look sane.

HUD Funds Flood Iowa

From Rebuild Iowa Office RIO:

Governor Chet Culver, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Congressman Dave Loebsack (IA-2) yesterday announced that Iowa will receive $516.7 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for disaster recovery. This brings Iowa’s funding from HUD’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program to nearly $800 million to date. The funding will be administered by the state under an agreement to follow modified rules of the CDBG program, a flexible program that provides communities with resources to address a wide range of unique community development needs such as home buyouts, public infrastructure projects, and assistance to businesses, economic revitalization and flood mitigation.

“Iowa has come so far in the past year – rebuilding piece by piece and block by block with every dollar of assistance that has come into our state. But there are still significant areas that still show signs of devastation and have a very damaged local economy,” said Senator Harkin. “You need only walk through downtown Cedar Rapids to see empty window fronts and padlocked doors that once represented a thriving economy. Iowa suffered one of the five largest natural disasters on record of any state, and we are far from full recovery. These funds will help in that effort.”

“Nearly one year after the floods of last summer devastated Iowa, we are still rebuilding. These funds will aid Iowa’s long term recovery and rebuilding efforts,” said Congressman Loebsack. “As our families struggle to move forward, it is essential that we distribute these funds to communities based on unmet and long term recovery needs. One of the communities that will benefit significantly from these funds is Linn County, whose citizens are still coping with severe damage to their homes, businesses, and infrastructure. Just days after the flood waters hit Iowa, the Iowa Delegation was fighting for Iowans. As we continue in our recovery efforts, I will continue to make sure that the voices of Eastern Iowa are heard in Washington.”

“We continue to make great progress with our recovery efforts in Iowa thanks to strong partnerships, not only between federal, state and local governments, but with thousands of Iowans who have hope and confidence in the communities they call home. This commitment by President Obama and Secretary Donovan means that, as of today, more than $3 billion in federal and state funds have been committed to rebuilding our great state after the historic floods and storms of 2008,” said Governor Culver. “This $517 million in additional CDBG funds will give Cedar Rapids and communities throughout the state more resources to rebuild from past disasters and help prevent future disasters. In the end, these funds allow us to keep rebuilding Iowa, even better and stronger than before.”

There is $6.1 billion for CDBG from the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance and Continuing Appropriations Act that passed on September 30, 2008. Today’s funding announcement allocates that funding. One third of it had been preliminarily allocated under a provision Senator Harkin wrote that required that a portion of the money would come to the states more quickly, to have the funds allocated within 60 days. But, the entire amount uses the formula that is being announced today.

Harkin, Loebsack and Culver have worked with Secretary Donovan as well as a number of members of the White House staff to have a formula that fairly allocated the funds among the states that suffered from 2008 disasters. A key part of that discussion was the need to properly consider the need to consider economic revitalization which is far more necessary in larger disasters, particularly those involving large cities.

The total federal assistance allocated to Iowa now is over $3 billion, approximately half of which has been administered through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA.)

Repurpose Roosevelt for Learning Center for K to 5

Given that the Iowa City Consolidated School District board of directors have elected to close Roosevelt school, here is a suggestion. Reopen it as an alternative learning center for those kids who are behind the learning curve. Educational research shows that kids who are behind by the third grade seldom catch up. If the children in the primary grades in the ICCSD who are falling behind had an alternative learning center where they could be taught in more intimate surroundings with state-of-the-art methods, perhaps they could succeed in the long run. In fact this would be a great opportunity for the Grant Wood AEA to step forward and showcase their expertise or for a separate charter school to be established.

Think it over, there is no hurry now that a new school will be built, another enlarged, and the same students will still need the help.

School Board to Vote on Roosevelt's Future Tonight

Despite the amount of time and effort that supporters for keeping Roosevelt School open have put into presenting a counter-argument, the alternative options that have been presented appear much more complicated than cracking open a fresh piece of ground and building a new, state-of-the-art school. From the school board's viewpoint, the benefits are numerous and include:
- less disruption to students at multiple schools;
- they are living up to the board's policy to create educational equity;
- putting new schools where growth is occurring and likely to occur;
- replacing infrastructure that does not meet their model of adequate teaching
environment;
- and the promise to repurpose Roosevelt in the future addresses the neighborhood's
chief concerns, despite the unknown, but relatively small costs of maintaining the
school shell.

Said differently, this is the path of least resistance. For a board that is incremental in nature, this would be deemed a victory; that is, making the least amount of people unhappy.

From the Roosevelt supporters point-of-view, the loss could be devastating for a corner of the community anchored by a living school. In discussing what will happen to Roosevelt, supporters are wise to be wary of any "promises" made in the heat of achieving the school board's intended goals. The school board can always declare a mea culpa because of budget concerns and all good faith agreements disappear.

Have the arguments for keeping Roosevelt open really been heard? Listening to the board members as they justify their decision tonight will be the best way of knowing the answer to this. With a school board election around the corner, it wouldn't be surprising for a member or two of the board to vote against the plan. So even the perception that Roosevelt supporters have received a fair hearing will likely be questioned.

In the final assessment, looming in the distance is a really important discussion that has not taken place. How to redistrict the district so that all schools remain relevant rather than closing old ones down to make room for sprawling new schools. The school district is not in a position to build new school after new school without making class sizes increase dramatically. Getting the most mileage out of existing schools has got to be predicated on the boundary lines of the schools flexing over time. For parents to be okay with this, each school will need to perform at similar levels and that is more difficult to govern.

The longer term solution to policy issues will need to come from reforming the board. If board members were elected in a district format like the city council, there would likely be more vigorous debate among board members about budget decisions and the growth within the district. With only two weeks before the deadline to put this on the ballot, it may not happen this election, but, if the fire is still lit by those disenchanted with the board's process, it could happen in the next election cycle.

MoveOn This If You Want Wind and Solar Power

MoveOn asked that bloggers like myself post this request:

It's 2009. Democrats have ample majorities in both houses of Congress. President Obama campaigned on the promise to tackle climate change and boost our economy by investing in clean energy.

So why on earth is Congress considering an energy bill that:


- Would weaken current law, repealing President Obama's authority to crack down on dirty power plants, and
- Doesn't actually require the creation of new solar or wind power? (The Union of Concerned Scientists has concluded that the clean energy standards won't make power companies produce more clean energy than is already in the works.)

Why? Because Big Oil and Coal have teamed up with conservatives in both parties, and they've been successful in weakening the bill.

These are major flaws, but the bill has a lot of really good provisions, too. The key thing is that Congress can still strengthen it—if there's a public outcry. But we don't have much time: Congress is expected to vote on this bill in less than three weeks.

Can you sign this petition to Representative Dave Loebsack today? Eighty thousand MoveOn members have already signed. We need to double the number of signatures by Wednesday—that means we need 41 more signatures in Iowa City. MoveOn members will personally deliver this petition to many congressional offices the next day. Click here to add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/cleanenergy/o.pl?id=16315-6809943-.UfG2ax&t=4

The petition says: "We need a stronger energy bill to fulfill Obama's vision of a clean energy economy. Congress should strengthen the clean energy standards and restore Obama's authority to crack down on dirty coal plants."

Congress must change the energy bill to require power companies to produce more clean energy for America. Wind and solar create more than twice as many jobs as coal and oil.3 And Congress needs to hold polluters accountable by restoring President Obama's current authority through the EPA to crack down on global warming pollution from power plants.

The Union of Concerned Scientists analysis finds that the current version of the clean energy standard "won't require utilities to use any more renewable electricity than...would be generated as a result of state renewable electricity standards already in place and the recently enacted stimulus package."4


If we just sit back, we'll miss our chance to go big with wind and solar—and we'll lose the jobs those industries would create. Big Oil and Coal will keep getting billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies. And President Obama will be powerless to stop more than 100 new dirty coal plants, which will crowd out the clean energy growth we need to boost our economy.5

There are some good parts of the bill, but these are significant problems. As the Sierra Club's Carl Pope writes, the bill establishes strong long-term goals for cutting carbon pollution and very strong energy-efficiency investments, "but in its present form, it won't do all that's needed. The oil, coal, and dirty-utility interests...were able to prevent enactment of President Obama's much bolder vision...Yes, they will try to kill the green-jobs recovery in its cradle, and yes, they will try to block our clean-energy future."6

Please urge Rep. Loebsack to fight for a stronger energy bill. Clicking here will add your name to the petition:

http://pol.moveon.org/cleanenergy/o.pl?id=16315-6809943-.UfG2ax&t=5


Thanks for all you do.

–Anna, Michael, Joan, Noah and the rest of the team

Sources:
1. "Bill Needs Strengthening to Guarantee Necessary Carbon Reductions, New Green Jobs and Consumer Benefits, Science Group Says," Union of Concerned Scientists, May 14, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51475&id=16315-6809943-.UfG2ax&t=6


2. "EPA urged to act on climate, not wait for Congress," Associated Press, May 18, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51479&id=16315-6809943-.UfG2ax&t=7


"American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009," Library of Congress, May 15, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51482&id=16315-6809943-.UfG2ax&t=8


3. "Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy," Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, September 2008
http://www.peri.umass.edu/green_recovery/

4. "Bill Needs Strengthening to Guarantee Necessary Carbon Reductions, New Green Jobs and Consumer Benefits, Science Group Says," Union of Concerned Scientists, May 14, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51475&id=16315-6809943-.UfG2ax&t=9

5. "Stopping the Coal Rush," Sierra Club
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51483&id=16315-6809943-.UfG2ax&t=10


6. "So How Good Is This Climate Bill, Anyhow?" Sierra Club, May 22, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51478&id=16315-6809943-.UfG2ax&t=11

Art For Artist's Sake

The upcoming Iowa Arts Festival in Iowa City reminds me that during the Great Depression, artists were brought together to produce some of the greatest art of this or any century through the Works Projects Administration (WPA). Grant Woods' murals in the Iowa State University Parks Library stands magnificently, as do Edgar Britton's in Waterloo's public library. As I learn more of schools and universities cutting back on arts programs or facilities, I question if people really understand the value of the arts to a society?

In Iowa, legislation that was passed in the last session allocated the Department of Cultural Affairs a total budget that is a 9.46% decrease from the FY09 budget.

Iowa Arts Council Budget: The FY10 appropriation reduces by 9.79% the FY09 budget as appropriated last July 1. This appropriation provides the primary funding for Iowa Arts Councils grant programs, workshops and conferences, rosters, administrative costs, and technical assistance for the arts in Iowa.

Cultural Grants Program: The FY10 Cultural Grants appropriation was cut by 6.7% from the FY09 appropriation. This appropriation supports a portion of both the Iowa Community Cultural Grant program and the Cultural Leadership Partners program.

Gaming Funds: The gaming funds allocated to DCA for operating support to cultural organizations were cut by 12.9% for FY10. These gaming funds support our Cultural Leadership Partners, the Iowa Community Cultural Grants, and Small Operating Support grants.

Cultural Trust: The annual allocated deposit to the Iowa Cultural Trust took a slight cut, with a reduction from $1 million to $900,000 for FY10. The Cultural Trust board will meet in May to determine how to move ahead with grant-making from the Trust.

As for my fair city, whether the city's public art program would be eliminated at a savings of $18,208 also on the block. Council members said they would like to maintain some kind of city support for public art, but perhaps not in its current form.

It is true that the arts are not food for the hungry or homes for the homeless, but neither are they tax cuts for the wealthy. The arts do feed the soul and give a home to those creative souls that are made to write, sing, dance, paint, sculpt, act, and on and on. We would live on a subdued pallet of color were there not artists.

As it stands, there are many more "artistic" people than their are artistic jobs. The arts professiona are one of few that truly rely on a patronage system--unfortunately sometimes that system is more patronizing than supporting. When given the choice between a future Rembrandt or captain of industry, can't we make room for both?

Cool: Refrigeration Without Electricty

So imagine you have a vaccine that needs to be refrigerated and you are in a place without electricity like sub-Saharan Africa. Check this out from Adam Grosser at TED.

Iowa City: Sanctuary City?

Iowa City has been a nuclear free zone, a free speech city, and hopefully a sanctuary city (if Father Rudy Juarez and other compassionate people have their way) where immigrant workers will not be hounded by the local police to do the work that ICE is responsible for to enforce antiquated federal law. As it stands, most of these workers are not taking jobs from hardworking Americans, but taking the jobs that most American workers are unwilling to do for the wages and conditions offered by employers.

If anything, immigrant workers willingly accept lower than fair wages to do mostly menial labor, in addition to living in fear of being turned in if they do not work off the clock if ordered, complain about job safety concerns, or don't turn the other cheek if harrassed by their employers.

When I lived in Corpus Christi, Texas I became intimately familiar with the practices of a large grocery chain that hired a large number of non-documented workers. Some of the stories of mistreatment I heard broke my heart, but it also gave me a sense of the decency of the people who were willing to take these jobs and thrive despite the challenges they experienced. A worker who was a highly trained engineer from Argentina and was working on his graduate degree at the local university there worked over 40 hours a week and received no benefits, vacation, or even sick days. Because his English skills were limited, he worked on an assembly line. He also repaired the line if it ever broke down. He did this for a wage that was under $6 an hour and felt lucky because he had started the job for less than $4 an hour in 1997.

What is a "Sanctuary City" and why isn't Iowa City one already? According to the Wikipedia, "a sanctuary city is a term given to a city in the United States that follows certain practices that protect illegal immigrants. These practices can be by law (de jure) or they can be by habit (de facto). The term generally applies to cities that do not allow municipal funds or resources to be used to enforce federal immigration laws, usually by not allowing police or municipal employees to inquire about one's immigration status. The designation has no legal meaning."

This is sort of an international good neighbor policy. If the person is living within the law in all other ways, the community is willing to look the other way about residency-status. This is a good thing as the law and fairness are not always intertwined. Some 31 American cities are sanctuary cities including Washington, D.C.; New York City; Los Angeles; Chicago; San Francisco; Santa Ana; San Diego; Salt Lake City; Phoenix; Dallas; Houston; Austin; Detroit; Jersey City; Minneapolis; Miami; Denver; Baltimore; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; New Haven, Connecticut; and Portland, Maine. They have adopted "sanctuary" ordinances banning city employees and police officers from asking people about their immigration status.

I will not argue for a minute that all guest workers are the salt of the earth. Certainly persons who commit serious crimes should not be allowed to be free here. But I do believe that people should have the right to take care of themselves and their families and that, for the most part, this is who the immigrant workers are.

There is a need for the federal government to revisit the policies and come up with some sort of common sense approach that allows these workers to come out of the shadows and gain legal status whether as guest workers or as residents. Until such approaches clear hurdles in the House and Senate and are signed into law, the fairest thing that we can do is to act locally to protect our fellow human beings from the injustice that comes from our broken system.

Food for Thought

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner exposes the "highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA."

According to Kenner, "Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults."

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

See the trailer:

Bipartisanship: Credit Card Protection and Concealed Weapons

In an act of "bipartisanship," Congress approved the Credit Cardholder's Bill of Rights Act of 2009, a bill that will lessen the power of credit card providers to raise rates and to change terms, and potentially made national parks less safe for families.

The good news:

- The bill extends the grace period from 30 to 60 days before credit card companies could increase the interest rate on the consumer's balance. That effectively bans "universal default," the practice of raising interest rates after a customer is 30 days late. If the customer pays on time after the 60 days for six months, the credit card company must revert back to the old interest rate.

- Customers must be given 45 days notice before implementing the new rate, if the credit card company increases the interest rate on its customers universally.

- The bill also freezes the initial interest rate of the cardholder for the first year they have the card and prohibits credit card companies from charging cardholders a penalty fee when they exceed their credit limit (unless specifically agreed to in writing).

Additionally, the bill protects the credit rating of younger Americans. Americans under 21 years of age must have a co-signer who can vouch that the minor has means to pay the credit card bill or agree to be equally responsible for payment.

- Under the new law, credit card companies must provide a clear detailed billing statement that does away with hidden fees and discloses any changes made in billing by the company.

The Bad News:

However to get this bill through, the House and the Senate pasted on an amendment to allow persons with concealed gun permits to carry them in national parks. As a poison pill amendment, the defeat would have caused the whole deal to be scrapped. Sam Farr (D-CA) vehemently spoke out against the gun portion of the bill, saying that it was "dumb amendment and Congress should be embarrassed we have to vote on it." The bill passed 279 to 147 (Boswell, King, Latham, yea; Loebsack, nay; Braley, No vote) in the House and passed last week in the Senate 67 to 29 (Harkin, nay, Grassley, yea).

As reported on the Huffington Post, John Waterman, president, U.S. Park Rangers Lodge, Fraternal Order of Police: "One should ask, what do guns have to do with credit cards? We are disappointed that congress chose to disregard the safety of U.S. Park Rangers, the most assaulted federal officer, and forgo the environmental process set up by them to assure the protection of our national parks. If signed by Obama, this will clearly be a change in the president's rhetoric towards taking better care of our environment and protecting federal employees."

Iowa City Council Race to the Center?

In a little over six months, current council members Connie Champion, Mike O'Donnell and Amy Correia's seats will be up for grabs. However, so far Iowa City council candidates are a little shy coming out of the gate. At present business people Susan Mims (a former school board member)and Terry Dickens (a central-district business owner) have formally announced their candidacy for the two at-large seats (one of which will be vacated by Correia). The question is will any more progressively minded folks step forward to address issues that the current council has been slow to act on, like an affordable housing agenda which may include inclusionary zoning.

When the current council was elected, it was widely thought that there would be movement toward addressing housing needs for moderate and low-income workers. To date, that has not born fruit, in part because of the flooding in 2008, but also the inability for this council to prioritize their agenda so as to accomplish the task. With a need to reinvigorate the tax-base, it seems unlikely that the council will move ahead, even with city staff seeking input on the next City Steps plan (at the ICPL Thursday night at 7 pm).

For Iowa City's future, it is hoped that a more diverse candidate pool arises.

Repurposing Roosevelt, Changing School Bells, and Staff Cuts, Oh My!

No one said being a school board director was a glamorous job. The pay is non-existent, you make unpopular decisions; but one qualification for it must be the ability to meet late into the evening. Last night was no exception. In a meeting that went until 11:30 pm, the school board managed to make West High Principal Jerry Argenbright, elementary school librarians, teachers, district parents, and students upset. At the regular meeting, they voted to reduce elementary school librarians and media center assistant positions to save $168,000 out of a proposed $6 million dollar deficit (which will mostly be made up by using the overage from prior year budgets). They refused to reconsider a change to the school bell schedule that will make it likely that teachers will have less time to meet with students after-school at West High School. In an especially heated exchange between a concerned parent and the board in the open discussion period over the funding of projects at Mann and Longfellow elementary schools, Toni Cilek chose not to answer the parent's question saying that the purpose was to receive input and that her concern had been addressed in previous meetings. Patti Fields much later in the meeting did discuss capital items that totaled approximately $153,000 for the two schools.

Former board member Lauren Reese sympathized with her former colleagues, and challenged them to consider the boundary issues around the schools as part of their decision process about Roosevelt. Charles Stanier presented information about energy consumption at the schools and encouraged the school board to consider lowering energy costs at all schools which could save them $275,000 per year.

As for the work session, where the board discusses business without public comment, which started after 10 pm, board members listened to the district superintendent Lane Plugge's recommendation to build a new elementary at the Crossings and his new view that Roosevelt should not be closed, but should be "repurposed" without elaborating his vision of how. After his presentation, the six members present did not have any questions for him, but vigorously defended their process in front of the remaining audience of about 20 people and made assertions that the opposition to the tentative plan had been dishonest in discussing the facts before tentatively laying out their likely votes to support superintendent Lane Plugge's recommendation. At the end of the evening, the board decided to calendar the vote for approving the plan for June 9th when all members are scheduled to be on hand.

The sleep deprived reporter Gregg Hennigan from the Gazette "Live Blogged" the meeting (go here for more details).

The Bloom Is Off Roosevelt?

According to the Daily Iowan, School Board President Toni Cilek said the board is hoping to make a decision on Roosevelt by the end of the month. “We have gathered a lot of information and feedback over the past few months, and there is a lot of dialogue we will be discussing this week,” she said. “We should come to a decision by our following meeting or the meeting after that.”

Despite efforts by Roosevelt parents, community members, and interested others, it is likely that the school board will elect to close Roosevelt Elementary. The reasons are many, but the simplest one is because it is the easiest choice. With a budget that is $6 million in the red, a growable elementary school in near proximity, land to open a larger and more geographically desirable school, and the strong likelihood that Roosevelt can be used in other ways which could include taking it off the school district's hands, the positives outweigh the negative impact of angry parents and avoid the more serious problem of boundary issues and their affect on educational equity.

Although the turnout of pro-Roosevelt forces is expected to be high this evening, much of the discussion of Roosevelt's future will occur in a work session, which means that the public can witness, but not comment on the proceedings. No decisions will be reached this evening, but the clock is ticking on the future of this westside institution.

Single Payer Protest in Senate Chambers

You don't want nurses to turn their backs on you, but that is what happened when Sen. Max Baucus spoke.

The Mathematics of War

If you don't know about TED, a global network of highly connected individuals whose work covers a wide gamut in the Technology, Entertainment, Design, and other fields. This particular TED talk by physicist Sean Gourley is interesting as it shows the pattern of war and how wars can be elongated or ended.

Roosevelt Rally: A Cry in the Wilderness?

On Friday evening, several parents and some supportive others, my wife and I included, rallied across from Roosevelt Elementary under a threatening sky. With news reporters from KGAN, KCRG, and the Press-Citizen present, a handful of hopeful leaders of the Save Roosevelt group, the Roosevelt PTO, and We Love Our Neighborhood Schools encouraged the public to go to the school board meeting Tuesday night at 7 pm wearing green (Roosevelt's school color) to show support for not closing Roosevelt.

While a number of motorists honked their horns in support, the turnout from Roosevelt parents and students was relatively small, however there was a Read America program going on at the school at the time and perhaps that is exactly what should be the focus. What will be sad is if those parents do not make their voices heard to the Board of Directors on S. Dubuque St., which not coincidentally, is the site of a now closed public school. Hopefully the stormy Friday night eally was not foreshadowing of things to come.

Single Payer Health Care: No Seat at the Table

I'm not sure if a single-payer health care system is the best model, but you'd think that our Senators would at least want to hear the case for one. Apparently not.



Here is a list of all Senators on the Finance Committee,
including at least a couple who you might have considered to be
"liberals". Where are their voices? Is there not a single one of them
who will stand up and say, "No wait a minute, we need to hear what
the single payer advocates have to say." So especially if one of
these is one of YOUR personal Senator, they especially need to hear
from you now.

Max BAUCUS, MT, John D. ROCKEFELLER IV, WV, Kent CONRAD, ND, Jeff
BINGAMAN, NM, John F. KERRY, MA, Blance L. LINCOLN, AR, Ron WYDEN,
OR, Charles E. SCHUMER, NY, Debbie STABENOW, MI, Maria CANTWELL, WA,
Bill NELSON, FL, Robert MENENDEZ, NJ, Thomas CARPER, DE, Chuck
GRASSLEY, IA, Orrin G. HATCH, UT, Olympia J. SNOWE, ME, Jon KYL, AZ,
Jim BUNNING, KY, Mike CRAPO, ID, Pat ROBERTS, KS, John ENSIGN, NV,
Mike ENZI, WY, John CORNYN, TX,

Political Will or Won't?

The LOST referendum is still up in the air and both sides are claiming victory, but saying "no" to defeat. In Iowa City and Coralville, there are votes to recount--with paltry 7 and 8 vote margins between the 1 cent 4 year sales tax. The county reported that the turnout of registered voters was around 15% for Iowa City and just over 17% in Coralville. Regardless of how it all turns out, Iowa City and Coralville voters lost and non-voters won.

Non-voters did not take time out of their day to vote, I mean it took 3 or 4 minutes at the highly congested precinct 17 where I was one of three people voting at 7:45 in the morning. Non-voters won because they did not expend fuel in cars, on bikes, or on foot to make their voices heard on an issue that one group said would be a 17% hike in their sales taxes. Non-voters won because they can contentedly continue to grouse about how taxes are wasted without the nagging feeling that comes from actually making a actual statement of what you believe was the best choice.

But, do you know who really won big? Small town voters. All 655 "yes" voters cashed in on casting their vote. You see, they actually stand to be big winners from sharing the sales tax revenue from Iowa City. It was kind of like winning the lottery for their communities where people spend a lot of dough out of town.

But back to the lack of voting in the larger communities; was this simple laziness? No, its likely that the incredibly wearing Iowa Caucuses and equally taxing presidential campaign tuckered people out so badly that they couldn't work up the the juice to vote. Heck, there were barely yard signs on this issue--you'd have thought it was a school board election or something.

I understand that the county will likely recount this miserable excuse of "the will of the people" and once again the non-voters win. They can feel good about griping about the high cost of elections and how this is yet another waste of their money--and shoot, a recount in this case seems hardly worth it,unless you live in Tiffin, Solon, University Heights, Oxford, Swisher, etc.

We Are Roosevelt and We Are In Need of a Serious Discussion

I wrote an op-ed piece that appeared into today's Press-Citizen. Jeff Charis-Carlson was faithful in editing and publishing it, but minor vanity suggests that I really do need a newer picture--I have lost a good deal of weight since the photo next to the op-ed was taken. But be that as it may, a more important point that I did not address was ongoing the boundary issues that plague the school district.

Even though I could only cover so much ground in 600 or so words, rightfully I was called to task for not addressing it. So to that point, the school boundary lines need to be redrawn to reflect the most equitable way to allow kids to go the least amount of distance to receive a top-notch education. This is such a local hot potato, but needs attention from the public and the board to accomplish real school equity. Without doing this, we will forever be placing band-aids on the schools and hving the appearance that we have intentionally segregated schools. Said differently, unless we are going to put the schools on rollers and move them around to meet the changing needs of the community, parents will need to become open to their child going to school where it best makes sense and the school district make the necessary accomodations to all schools to make them all at a par.

I hope others will continue to lead on the issue of boundaries. If you are interested, the COPE group (Citizens for Outstanding Public Education in Iowa)has more information for you to consider.

LOST In Johnson County: Part 2

In the last several days I have been approached by a number of people who are wondering how I'm voting on the local option sales tax. On Saturday I spoke with Congressman Dave Loebsack who supports the measure in part because it allows federal and local funds to be used for the mitigation of flooding. He said that some folks who are against the tax point to the stimulus money and say it is all that is needed. He pointed out that the stimulus money works as a match to local funds and that folks against the tax are mistaken to think that federal dollars will do it all.

Also on Saturday I had a similar conversation with county supervisor Rod Sullivan who is supporting the tax, but who told me that those who say that the sales tax is shared by "out of towners" are correct, but so too are property taxes as our area has many out of town property owners. I did say to him that renters actually end up paying those taxes, so it isn't exactly an apples to apples argument. But his point is still taken.

Friday I briefly spoke to multi-time candidate for city council, Brandon Ross who is against the sales tax because it is unfair to make poor people pay for Dubuque Road being raised. And it is true that the poor would pay a share of the tax, but on the other hand, two area trailer parks were flooded out last year and the poor were affected adversely too.

A local environmentalist and two-time county supervisor candidate, Tom Carsner, who is not supporting the tax, believes that all sales taxes are regressive and that even though this one has a sunset of four years to it, it still should be voted down. Strange coming from a Environmental Advocate.

As for me, I have been conflicted on which way to vote. Generally, I agree that sales taxes are the most regressive form of taxation, but when a natural disaster occurs, do you hold a general principle up over what is better for the public good?

And what is the public good? Clearly flooding is not in the public good or poor infrastructure. If you are concerned about the environment, the poor, commerce, and/or appropriate use of tax monies, this vote benefits many people. The plans were jointly devised in consultation with some of the best hydrologists in the world. As was explained to me, the problem last summer was backflow. That the water couldn't move fast enough downstream as to keep water from backing up and flooding Cedar Rapids, Coralville and so on.

One key point of backup was at the Park Road Bridge. I listened as city engineer Rick Fosse, whose job prior to working for the city was flood mitigation, explained to a group of us how the raising of the bridge would have allowed water to flow downstream better and could have conceivably reduced the amount of flooding both in Coralville and the Normandy Drive and Foster Road areas.

Another thing that is not in the public interest is to have raw sewage flowing into the Iowa River, which is already one of the most polluted waterways in the Midwest. When the "north" treatment plant was flooded out, the sewage did wash into the river.

Lastly, it is not in our best interest to have of freshwater wells contaminated. While all the wells did not get contaminated, reinforcing those wells will be a very good use of public monies.

At the end of the day, we have limited choices about how to fund these $86 million projects. Right now we have the leverage of FEMA and stimulus package funds being available to us. If the tax is voted down, it will mean that either other capital projects go nowhere and the projects are paid for that way over a much longer period of time or, more likely, in raised water bills and/or property taxes. This way at least there is a time limit and we all share the burden. It isn't an ideal situation, but pragmatically, it is what is best for the most.

That's Just Ignorant

With the H1N1 flu stories fast and furious, why does it not surprise me that some would choose to use it to push other agendas? Check this out from Media Matters.



The Daily Show has a better take.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Snoutbreak '09 - What to Call Swine Flu
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis First 100 Days

Johnson County Livable Community for Successful Aging Initiative Website Up and Running

Johnson County Livable Community:

The Livable Community for Successful Aging Initiative is publicly launching our website for growing up and growing older in Johnson County. The event will be held this Monday, May 4th, at 2:00 PM at the Iowa City Public Library, Meeting Room A.

The website, at www.livablecommunity.org, is the culmination of a cooperative effort of area governments, non-profits, and elder services organizations. The site is aimed at helping residents, potential residents, and their caregivers access current and comprehensive information about facilities and services in Johnson County for older adults. At livablecommunity.org you will find an up-to-date database of service provider listings that includes critical information like eligibility requirements, photos, an interactive map with directions, and cost of services.

Please join us for the kickoff on May 4 at 2:00 pm, at the Iowa City Public Library, Meeting Room A.

Two reported cases of H1N1 Flu in Iowa

To be clear, this is not one of the cases, nor should you engage in this activity. However, as you've likely heard, the University Hygienic Laboratory has identified two probable cases of H1N1 influenza (sometimes referred to as "swine flu") within the state, both involving southeast Iowa residents or visitors. One person who may have been infected with the flu attended a conference in Coralville.

According to the UI Critical Management Team:

Neither person has required hospitalization, and the Johnson County Department of Public Health is not recommending post-exposure prophylaxis (preventive treatment with antiviral medications) for people who may have come in contact with the Coralville visitor.

University officials, working closely with local and state health authorities, continue to monitor developments in keeping with the University's Pandemic Influenza Response Plan, available here:

Common-sense precautions remain the best way of reducing the threat from flu and other infections:

* First and foremost, if you are sick, stay home and limit contact with others until 24 hours after your symptoms go away.
* Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue or your sleeve when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue away.
* Cough into your elbow instead of your hand if you don't have a tissue.
* Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after coughing or sneezing. Use alcohol-based hand cleaners, too.
* Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
* Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
* If you are sick and need to see a doctor, call the doctor's office first for any special instructions.

Obama Hits A Home Run

It is hard not to praise Barack Obama for his press conference last night, particularly when you compare him to his immediate predecessor. The difference in the level of candor he showed in addressing his presidency's first 100 days were markedly different than President Bush. In discussing the state of the economy, his views on abortion, whether "enhanced interrogation techniques" qualified as torture, concerns about the Taliban in Pakistan and on and on, Obama spoke openly and directly.

When a NY Times' journalist asked him to address the things that surprised him, troubled him, enchanted him, and humbled him, President Obama carefully wrote the request down and thoughtfully addressed each point.

Surprised: Obama professed surprise, and not a little dismay, by "the number of critical issues that appear to be coming to a head all at the same time." Most presidents he said deal with 2 or 3 things and his administration was dealing with 7 or 8 things.

Troubled: Obama said he was "sobered by,"The fact that change in Washington comes slow. That there is still a certain quotient of political posturing and bickering that takes place even when we're in the middle of really big crises." He added, "I would like to think that everybody would say, you know what, let's take a timeout on some of the political games, focus our attention for at least this year, and then we can start running for something next year. And that hasn't happened as much as I would have liked."

Enchanted: He and the press corp laughed at the word choice, but said he was "profoundly impressed and grateful" when he thought of his interactions with the men and women wearing the military uniform of this country from the "top brass to the lowliest private."

Humbled: He said his sense of imposed humility comes from the fact that the presidency, in all its glory, is only "part of a much broader tapestry" in a nation with many different centers of power. "And so I can't just press a button and suddenly have the bankers do exactly what I want, or, you know, turn on a switch and suddenly, you know, Congress falls in line."

For his critics who say that he wants the government to interfere with business he made the point around the government's current role with the automakers that he hoped to help them be competitive and said he really didn't want to be in that position for long because "I've got two wars I've got to run already." He went on to say that the government shouldn't micro-manage these companies it essentially owned, pointing out that he himself is not an auto engineer.

Finally, in summarizing he said "the ship of state is an ocean liner; it's not a speedboat." That he would work as hard in the next hundred days and all the hundreds of days to follow to put the country back on course.

WHO Not Fluing Around-- Pandemic Probability Raised to Second Highest Level

The following are compilations form from numerous news agencies:

The World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert to 5, its second-highest level Wednesday, indicating the outbreak of the H1N1 virus flu that originated in Mexico is nearing widespread human infection.

According to the WHO, "while most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short."

The annoucement came as the number of people infected with the flu increased rapidly across the world, and health officials scrambled to get more information about the virus and has no vaccine. About 30 U.S. Marines in southern California on the biggest military base in the United States have been quarantined after one of them was confirmed to have contracted the swine flu virus, the Marine Corps said on Wednesday.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan declared the phase 5 alert after consulting with flu experts from around the world. The decision could lead the global body to recommend additional measures to combat the outbreak, including asking vaccine manufacturers to switch production from seasonal flu vaccines to a pandemic vaccine.

"All countries should immediately now activate their pandemic preparedness plans," Chan told reporters in Geneva. "It really is all of humanity that is under threat in a pandemic."

"It's a virus that we've never seen before," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"There's no background immunity in the population, and it is spreading from human to human, all of which has the potential for a pandemic."

The virus has been reported in 10 states, and the number of people infected with the 2009 H1N1 influenza strain grew to 91 in the U.S., the CDC said Wednesday. That number includes the first U.S. swine flu fatality: a 22-month-old child from Mexico who died of the illness Monday at a Houston, Texas, hospital.

Swine flu’s symptoms are similar to those of the regular flu: fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people also may have a runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

“If you experience any of these symptoms accompanied with fever over 100 degrees with a cough or sore throat, contact your health professional or doctor,” said registered nurse Susie Petro.

For FAQ's about safeguards, go here.

The Greening of Greensburg

From the tragedy that crises can bring, good things can happen. At 9:45 pm on May 4th, 2007 an EF5 tornado leveled the rural town of Greensburg, Kansas. The 1,400 folks in Greensburg decided that the tornado gave them the chance to reinvent their home town. Perhaps Greensburg's web site summarizes their vision best. It reads, "Greensburg: Better, Stronger, Greener!"

Led by Executive Director Daniel Wallach, residents started Greensburg GreenTown just days after the storm. The community came together and decided to rebuild sustainably, striving to become a model green town for the future. A grassroot organization, Greensburg GreenTown has worked side-by-side with city and county officials, business owners and local residents to incorporate sustainable principles into their rebuilding process.

They serve as an educational resource for the community, a conduit through which donations can be distributed, and a representative to those outside the community who are interested in the Green Initiative.

"This town is definitely an example for the rest of the world. We have people from around the world coming out of their way to come to Greensburg," Wallach has said. "So it's a great place for people to come and have an emerging experience with what a town of the future looks like and feels like."

According to CNN, "city leaders are using solar and wind technologies to harness power and geothermal heat. They're also conserving energy by building with solid concrete, using more natural light, and installing better insulation and state-of-the-art windows."

The first green home is being built, a silo-shaped building that will feature ground-source heating and cooling, solar hot water and even a vegetable garden on its roof. A study from the Department of Energy shows that versus conventional “stick” building are on average 15% less to build. But the more importantly, green homes can cost up to 70% less to operate. Over the life of a 30 year mortgage the savings, even at today’s energy rates (which are probably not going to last) an average sized home could save $30,000-$50,000. More here.

Greensburg GreenTown is building 12 more green houses with energy-efficient features. Wallach wants these to be "living laboratories" for educating people about energy-efficient construction.

"We want it to be fun and interesting for folks to come see and experience, and again both demystify and de-politicize going green," he said. "And once you experience it, you understand it in a way that simplifies it and in a lot of cases inspires people to want to do it themselves."

As Iowa considers how to come back from the floods of 2008, we might tear a page out of the Greensburg playbook and see how green can save us green in the long run. Who knows we might want to invite Daniel Wallach up for a visit?

Civil Marriage Applicants Treated Mostly with Civility

More than 380 same-sex couples applied for marriage licenses in Iowa yesterday in 47 of the 99 counties. In Johnson County, 52 couples were issued civil marriage licenses at the County Recorder's office yesterday. Kim Painter, the County Recorder personally issued the licenses.

Protests were relatively minimal as officials around the state reported that those protesting same-sex marriage Monday were almost exclusively comprised of Iowans who simply dropped off petitions at county offices then quietly left without confronting gay couples.

A man prayed using rosary beads outside the courthouse in Council Bluffs.

In Orange City, a dozen opponents of gay marriage shivered on the steps of the Sioux County Courthouse.

One of the biggest groups of protesters was in Wayne County, with about 60 people. The group of mostly middle-aged residents gathered in a circle, prayed out loud, and sang a verse of "Amazing Grace" and entered the recorder's office to pray for her.

Wayne County Recorder Angela Horton objects to gay marriage. "There are recorders out there, like me, that think this goes against their beliefs," she said. "But we have to follow the code."

Iowa Rivers Get a Partial Reprieve From Factory Farms

In response to the Iowa House amending SF 432, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement released the following:

The Iowa House passed the "no manure on frozen and snow-covered ground" bill (SF 432) with strong amendments on Friday -- this happened thanks to your persistent pressure and that of other environmental groups from all across the state.

House members received thousands of messages from Iowans concerned about water quality and strong input from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which forced them to review the original proposed bill to expand the scope of regulation and close major loopholes.

This bill will ban the application of factory farm liquid manure on snow-covered ground during the winter months and part of spring (from Dec. 21 through April 1) and application on frozen ground between Feb. 1 and April 1.

We have been calling for tough regulation of manure application on frozen and snow-covered ground for a long time. The legislature picked up this issue because of our original pressure on the Environmental Protection Commission and Department of Natural Resources to construct a strong rule, and we weren't about to let a bill to pass that would continue to allow factory farms to pollute our waterways with this practice.

While amendments to SF 432 made the bill significantly stronger, we still have a long way to go. This regulation of factory farm manure application is a step in the right direction to protect our water quality, but Iowa must continue to stand up against corporate pressure and put people's health and our environment before polluters.

In the past few years, Iowa has nearly doubled the number of waterways on the impaired waterways list and a recent report from the United States Geological Survey pointed to Iowa as one of the leading contributors to the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico. In these urgent times, we need to continue to call on decision makers to put people first.

Hats off to the organizers that made this change possible.

Robert Reich Explains Why We Should Be Mad About the Bail Out

A new video from Robert Greenwald narrated by former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich lays out the poor management that banks and corporations have demonstrated during our financial crisis.

Counting Down to a Flu Pandemic?

A very serious story that is playing out today is the flu outbreak that has officials across North America, Spain, France, Hong Kong, and New Zealand on high alert.

Reuters reports that a virologist at the University of Hong Kong who helped to fight SARS and bird flu, Guan Yi, said a flu-like pandemic looked inevitable. "I think the spread of this virus in humans cannot possibly be contained within a short time ... We are counting down to a pandemic." This as 149 people in Mexico have died as a result of the flu and Mexican officials closing down schools and other public places. The threat level or phase of the disease, with confirmed cases reported by the World Health Organization in Mexico, the United States, Canada and Spain, is at a high level: phase 4 out of 6.

The WHO defines Phase 4 as "characterized by verified human-to-human transmission of an animal or human-animal influenza reassortant virus able to cause “community-level outbreaks.” The ability to cause sustained disease outbreaks in a community marks a significant upwards shift in the risk for a pandemic. Any country that suspects or has verified such an event should urgently consult with WHO so that the situation can be jointly assessed and a decision made by the affected country if implementation of a rapid pandemic containment operation is warranted. Phase 4 indicates a significant increase in risk of a pandemic but does not necessarily mean that a pandemic is a forgone conclusion."

The next phase is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Dr. Richard Besser was quoted as saying, "We are seeing rates of respiratory infections among contacts. This virus is acting like a flu virus and flu viruses spread from person to person." This means it is highly contagious and can spread relatively quickly.

Reuters also reports that the CDC had taken a sample of the virus causing the disease, produced a vaccine virus strain and was now growing it in eggs, the first stage in a vaccine production process.

"We certainly know that the work has begun to produce a vaccine," Gregory Hartl of the CDC said, adding that it would typically be 5-6 months from this initial development before a vaccine was commercially available.

Licensed to Wed, But Still Not Equal

Today is the first day that same-sex couples can go to their local courthouse and apply for a marriage license.

Lambda Legal provides these details of what constitutes marriage in Iowa as of today:

_Marriage requirements: Two people, over 18, not already legally married, not closely related and legally competent to enter into a civil contract.

_License: Applicants must show proof of identity, pay $35 fee, and have a witness sign the application. Three-day waiting period before wedding may be performed, although this may be waived by judge.

_Ceremony: Must be in Iowa, with both parties, an officiate (judge or leader of a religious faith) and two witnesses present.

_If a same-sex couple have been legally married elsewhere, their marriage is valid in Iowa as of Monday. It is not yet clear if civil unions from another state or registered domestic partnerships will be recognized in Iowa.

_For a divorce, one party must have been a resident of Iowa for at least one year.

Despite the movement to change Iowa's constitution, same-sex couples still will not have the same rights as other married couples because the Defense of Marriage Act signed by Bill Clinton and approved by Senators Harkin and Grassley in 1996.

DOMA states:
1) No state (or other political subdivision within the United States) needs to treat a relationship between persons of the same sex as a marriage, even if the relationship is considered a marriage in another state.
2) The federal government may not treat same-sex relationships as marriages for any purpose, even if concluded or recognized by one of the states.

As a result, same-sex couples who are wed in a civil ceremony in Iowa do not have the same rights where taxes, benefits and other privileges if the federal government or other states' laws are involved. The Des Moines Register has this story.

Pulling Out the Stops

Grafton state senator Merlin Bartz is using the the state Towa Senate Republican Caucus website to encourage voters to petition county recorders to "appeal directly to you, our county recorder, to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples on April 27th, 2009, and every day after, until such conflict between the Supreme Court’s opinion and the law is addressed by a VOTE OF THE PEOPLE OF
IOWA." On the website supporters are asked to distribute the petition to "anybody you feel who would be inclined to help in this endeavor" and to "send a copy for accountability purposes to the Iowa Family Policy Center, 1100 N. Hickory, Ste. 107, Pleasant Hill, IA 50327."

In response, former State Representative Ed Fallon and his wife Lynn's group I'm for Iowa "plan to deliver to Secretary of the Senate Mike Marshall at 11:15 this morning their formal ethics complaint against Senator Merlin Bartz for encouraging county recorders to break the law by refusing to grant marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples."

"For a state senator to use his office and public resources to encourage other elected officials to disobey a unanimous ruling of the Iowa Supreme Court is unconscionable, and possibly a violation of state law,” said Ed Fallon. “Thus, Lynn and I have filed a complaint with the chair of the Senate Ethics Committee, Senator Jack Kibbie, inquiring as to whether Senator Bartz’s action is a violation of his oath of office.”

Meanwhile likely gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats will have a press conference at 11:30 today to pressure governor Chet Culver to use an executive order to stay Iowa county recorders from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples beginning next Monday.

Culver in Iowa City For Jumpstart Bill Signing

According to the a press release from the governor's office via RIO (Rebuiding Iowa Office) Governor Chet Culver signed legislation today in iowa City to help homeowners affected by last year’s flood. Senate File 289 reduces the amount of time, from 10 years to 5 years, state-funded Jumpstart Iowa recipients must stay in their homes before their entire Jumpstart loan is forgiven.

“Last fall, when so many Iowans were struggling to recover from the floods and storms of 2008, state government took steps to help rebuild our state by creating the Jumpstart Iowa program, which included millions of dollars to help homeowners get back on their feet,” said Governor Culver. “With my signature, we are easing the administrative process on families and homeowners – to make this program more user-friendly, and to reduce the burdens loan recipients face. This is one of many steps we’ve collectively taken to rebuild Iowa and to help our state come out of the disaster of 2008 safer, stronger, and better.

In September, Governor Culver created the Jumpstart Program to help home and business owners affected by last year’s flooding and severe weather. One of the first major steps the State took to help homeowners and small businesses hurt by last year’s floods was to create the Jumpstart Business and Housing Initiative. Among Iowa’s small businesses, a total of 1,064 have applied for the program. 856 have been approved for Jumpstart assistance, and 677 have already received a check.

The second component – the Jumpstart Housing Program – provided homeowners 10 year forgivable loans for repairing their damaged structure or purchasing a new house; to date, a total of 2,471 homeowners have been approved for help. Jumpstart has obligated a total of $42.7 million, with an average award of $17,263 to Iowa homeowners. Under SF 289, Governor Culver and the legislature are helping homeowners by reducing the terms of these forgivable loans to 5 years. The legislation was passed unanimously by the House and Senate

Why Not Develop a River Authority System?

With the local efforts to pass a temporary sales tax to address the effects of last year's flooding, one has to wonder, why doesn't Iowa have a river authority system? Clearly there are benefits of managing the waterways that create the best outcomes for the most. For instance flood remediation plans could be done in coordination with other communities.

However, in looking at the individual plans for Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, Coralville, and Iowa City, it is clear that folks downstream (like in ravaged Columbus Junction) will be the recipients of a lot of fast moving, heavy flowing water (with little ability to pay for infrastructure to keep it flowing downstream). This is an example of community NIMBY-ism at its worst and a reason that a river authority system is logical.

The best model for a river authority would include a voting membership from the municipalities and/or counties in the areas where the rivers and other tributaries run through, in addition to an advisory made up of concerned citizens, experts and advocates. In areas where it is the purview of the state to appoint members to the authorities, there have been problems, not the least of which is the potential for corruption (as this classic example shows.

Ultimately, given that forming an authority would take significant time, given the politics involved. Voters are left with the untenable decision to do something today with federal and state assistance (with the knowledge that others may be affected) or hold off and hope it doesn't flood again before a better solution can be proposed and funded at a cost that we would have to bear in full.