The Oregon Supreme Court announced this Friday, March 5, 2010 that it has placed on its calendar a hearing of Case SO 58025: Wendy Siporen, Ivend Holen and Medford Citizens for Responsible Development v. City of Medford and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to be held at North Medford High School on May 18, 2010 at 9 AM.

New York City is not broke. There are plenty of financial resources that are being hoarded by the elite.

The NTIA just sent out an official press release announcing that the infrastructure part of the broadband proposal submitted by a coalition of the two cities and the University is going to receive $22.5 million in federal funds for a fiber-optic infrastructure rollout.

Note that the SBA (Sustainable Broadband Adoption) and PCC (Public Computing Centers) parts of the proposal were rejected for Round 1 funding, so this increases the importance of submitting a strong application for those components for Round 2, in order that the infrastructure being contructed can be successfully utilized by the citizenry. The cities have 30 days to decide whether to accept the award.

Project description from the NTIA press release below:

Now that it's $2.25 and rising, there's a pretty penny to be made from 585,000 new fares, not to mention planned cuts to Access-A-Rides for the disabled, at least 1,100 layoffs of MTA workers, and maybe another fare hike for good measure. It's all about "gap closing," as the MTA's 2010 Budget coins its program of deficit reduction via service reduction. Yet there are other gaps, other deficits that recent events have brought to the attention of the public (and they implicate the City and the State as much as the MTA).

Democrat Joyce Segers will announce her candidacy for Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District at 11 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 22 at the headquarters of the Jackson County Democratic party, 40 S. Central Ave., in Medford.
Segers will be running against Republican incumbent Greg Walden.

Fourteen Philly residents — ranging in age from 24 to 72 and including several grandparents and two members of the clergy, public school teachers, and life-long Philadelphians — lined the entrance to the SugarHouse construction site on the Delaware River last fall and refused to move. They were promptly arrested and held for more than 12 hours. On the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010, these individuals will stand before a judge and defend their First Amendment rights.

According to low level Metro workers, new rules are due to go into effect in March requiring photo ID with use of reduced fare passes.
Currently, if you are on Medicare (as are all people on social security,ssd,and ssi) you can use a reduced fare pass if you also show your medicare card to the ticket-checker on the subway. The new rule states that when you do this you must also show photo ID.

NFTA Customer Care Dept. Confirms:

read more

Once again at the start of the year's legislative session in St. Paul, the Minnesota Historical Society is whitewashing history while seeking funds for the reconstruction of its flagship tourist attraction, Fort Snelling.  The Fort is located at the site of both the genesis and genocide of the Dakota people, overlooking the site of a concentration camp with hundreds of Dakota women died following the War of 1862.  The MNHS only reluctantly acknowledges this history in its patriotic displays venerating the men like Alexander Ramsey and Henry Sibley who vowed to exterminate the Dakota.

The MNHS has long wished to invest more money in Fort Snelling to repair crumbling 19th-century buildings and remodel its visitors' center.  It has met with grassroots opposition from pro-indigenous and pro-environment groups who advocate taking down the fort - or just refusing to invest more money in it and letting nature do the work.

Related: New Robert Erickson Tea Party Trailer--Columbus Go Home: Take Down the Fort

The Panel for Education Policy’s decision to close 19 public schools across the city has ignited a widespread revolt against mayoral control of education. The panel, where the majority of its members are handpicked by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, voted 9-4 to close the schools January 26 even after hundreds of testimonies against the closings and protests leading up to the Panel for Education Policy hearing.

The tensions that arose at the hearing were the product of long-simmering grievances directed at Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein’s running of the education system, writes Indypendent reporter John Tarleton.

Texas has the opportunity to be a leader, instead of a polluter and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is leading the way by proposing new ozone standards for the state that would make sure we have clean air to breathe. Right now the EPA is accepting public comments, and we need you at this hearing to show public support!

The Coal and Oil industries are going to come out with a vengeance. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and Governor Perry have threatened to sue the EPA over this proposed ruling on ozone standards. We know Texans deserve standards that protect our families. For too long TCEQ has been issuing illegal air permits which got us into this air quality mess in the first place. There are TWELVE NEW coal plants proposed in Texas, and we already have 17 coal plants up and running (some of the dirtiest in the country). We deserve better. [read full article]

Related: EPA wants stricter smog pollution rules to protect public health

The Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), a collective providing cannabis under California's 1996 Compassionate Use Act (Prop. 215), along with the city and county of Santa Cruz, have reached a settlement in their unprecedented lawsuit against the federal government. WAMM's case was prompted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration's raid of their medicinal garden in Davenport on September 5, 2002, in which armed agents terrorized residents and patients, and seized more than 160 cannabis plants.

"That a state government agency would foster such a puerile, violent form of entertainment is morally unacceptable, and the logic behind it is nonsense. No one has undertaken a scientific study on the effects of the random killing of coyotes. In fact, as coyotes flee human threat, they regroup and reproduce, without the natural selection and competition of a large community of coyotes."

Beginning this weekend, hunters in southeast Oregon will host a killing derby, where "as many coyotes as possible" will be killed for prizes such as rifles, binoculars and scopes.

According to a 13 January Big Game Hunt notice, the derby will run from 16 January through the 17th throughout Lake, Malheur, Harney, and Klamath counties. The event will be headquartered in Silver Lake, Oregon, where the final winners will be determined.

Take Action Now to Stop the LNG Fast Track Bill!
Work Session for "LC 85" Scheduled for Next Week

In the last Oregon legislative session we worked hard to successfully defeat House Bill 3058, the LNG Fast-track bill. That bill that would have undermined property rights and threatened natural resources by allowing pipeline and utility companies to get permits to fill wetlands on private lands without landowner permission, thereby hastening the permitting process for LNG-related pipelines. Now, Senator Metsger is proposing the same bill for the February Special Session and we need to tell our elected leaders that this is not acceptable!

Ashland, Oregon Albertsons charges an Oregon mom tax for using coupons and paying with food stamps.

The extra charges happened randomly and never added up to much, but fifty cents here and a dollar there eventually started nagging at her conscience. Why was an Oregon mom charged a "tax" at Albertsons when she used coupons and paid with food stamps? She tested several theories and finally concluded that this "tax" was charged only at the Ashland, Oregon store when she used manufacturer coupons and Catalina coupons.

In Houston, Annise Parker became the Mayor of the nations 4th largest city. The openly gay Parker took her oath today in front of a thousand supporters – her long-time partner held the bible upon which she swore. Outside, a handful of protestors from the Westboro Baptist Church held hate filled signs and were met by about 40 counter protestors who held a dance party in celebration – Chuck Jackson was among them.

“Most of us there know that the Westboro Baptist Church’s message of hate is ridiculous and it’s pointless, but we didn’t want the mainstream media to show up and film them without a visible critique of their presence. Our music and our dancing was a kind of joyful expression of inclusion designed to counter their dourness and hostility.”

Voters in Texas have outlawed gay marriage and a Houston city referendum on granting benefits to same-sex partners of city employees failed [article and link to audio]. Counter protesters responded to calls for a Big Happy Dance Party and pumped up the jams till the Westboro Baptists went back to Kansas. [see photos from the protest]