What Americans Can Learn From Gypsy Culture

Wilderness House Literary Review announces a one hour lecture by noted Gypsy (Roma) scholar Sonia Meyer at 7:00 P. M. on October 14, 2009 at the Out of the Blue Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Tickets are $5.00 at the door. Topic is "What Americans can learn from the Gypsies."

Littleton, Massachusetts (PRWEB) September 6, 2009 -- Wilderness House Literary Review is pleased to announce a one hour lecture by noted Gypsy (Roma) scholar Sonia Meyer at 7:00 P. M. on October 14, 2009 at the Out of the Blue Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Tickets are $5.00 at the door.

Sonia Meyer will speak about the Roma (Gypsy) culture and what we can learn from them in this high tech, money-worshipping society. She hopes the audience will look inside the Gypsies self-exiled world, and come to realize that their freedom is available to all of us.

Sonia Meyer was born in Cologne, Germany in 1938 and spent her formative years living in the woods among partisan and Gypsy fighters during WWII. She has been fascinated by Gypsies, or the Roma people ever since becoming a self-educated scholar of Roma (Gypsy) culture.

Meyer, who may indeed be part Gypsy herself has been intrigued by the freedom, the art, and the celebration of magic and mysticism of the Roma people. She encountered them throughout her travels in Europe, and struck up fascinating conversations with these enigmatic vagabonds. She lived much of her life like a Gypsy, moving from city to city across Europe, and eventually landing in the states. In Geneva she worked with Jewish refugees, she spent time with the Bedouins in the Negev desert, eventually moving to the States.

In the narrow and winding stacks of the Widener Library at Harvard she discovered a translation by Matteo Maximoff, Russian Gypsy, which concerned Russian nomadic Gypsies. She visited him, and traveled to Macedonia to visit the so-called "Queen of the Gypsies," and lived with a family in the Gypsy section of Skopje where the Gypsies were well off.

She is the author of a novel to be published in the Summer of 2010. "Dosha" is about a Gypsy girl. The novel spans her childhood spent with Russian partisans in Polish forests to her defection during Khrushchev's visit to Helsinki on June 6, 1957. "Dosha" will be published by Wilderness House Press (www.wildernesshousepress.com) and will be excerpted in the spring issue of Wilderness House Literary Review (www.whlreview.com ). For further information see www.soniameyer.com.

For further information contact Steve Glines, 978-800-1625 - Industrial Myth & Magic (www.industrialmyth.com ) is a public relations firm specializing in literary persona and events.
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Djangofest Colorado Brings Gypsy Jazz to MT. Crested Butte

DjangoFest Colorado Brings Gypsy Jazz to Mt. Crested Butte Concerts & workshops slated for Labor Day weekend, September 5 - 6

GUNNISON-CRESTED BUTTE, CO - DjangoFest Colorado celebrates the tradition and spirit of Django Reinhardt, the great French/Belgian gypsy guitarist, and returns to Mt. Crested Butte for the second consecutive year over Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 5 - 6. The two-day festival provides an opportunity for gypsy jazz musicians and music lovers from around the globe to attend and participate in concerts and workshops by internationally renowned players.


Don't be surprised when impromptu “djam" sessions pop up wherever one turns, as the Mt. Crested Butte Town Center gets into the swing of things. In addition to the concerts and workshops mentioned below, Jason Anick will be accompanied by Kevin Nolan at a performance at Django's small plate restaurant and wine bar on September 6 from 5 - 7PM.


Concerts, Lodge at Mountaineer Square Conference Center
Saturday, Sept. 5, 8:00PM: Hot Club Sandwich
Kruno with Kevin Nolan & Simon Planting; Cost: $32


Sunday, Sept. 6, 3:00PM: Deco Django
Alfonso Ponticelli & Swing Gitan; Cost: $28


Sunday, Sept. 6, 8:00PM: Mango Fan Django
Andreas Oberg with special guest Kruno; Jason Anick with Kevin Nolan & Simon Planting; Cost: $32


Workshops, Grand Lodge Crested Butte
Several two-hour workshops will be offered on Sept. 5 and 6 for both novice and experienced musicians, giving them the opportunity to learn from Kevin Nolan, Kruno, Simon Planting, Alfonso Ponticelli, Tony Ballog, Juliano Milo, Beau Sample, Andreas Oberg and Jason Anick. Guitar, violin, accordion and slap bass seminars will be offered.


For times and specific details about workshops, go to www.djangofestcolorado.com. The cost is $40 per session.


Tickets, Lodging & Information
DjangoFest Colorado is sponsored by the Mt. Crested Butte Town Center Community Association. Visit www.djangofestcolorado.com for artist bios, tickets and more.


Stay right at the heart of the festival at the Lodge at Mountaineer Square in Mt. Crested Butte and also get tickets to all three performances for just $199 per person. Package price is based on double occupancy and can be reserved by calling Crested Butte Vacations at (888) 280-5721or visiting www.skicb.com.


Visitor Information & Personalized Vacation Packages
To find out about Gunnison-Crested Butte events and attractions or to book personalized vacation packages, call the Gunnison-Crested Butte Tourism Association's official reservations center at (800) 814-8893 or visit www.GunnisonCrestedButte.com. During the summer and fall, air access to the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport is provided by United Airlines.


About Gunnison-Crested Butte, Colorado
Gunnison-Crested Butte is nestled among almost two million acres of pristine wilderness in southwest Colorado. Winter sports enthusiasts know the area for its world-class alpine skiing and snowboarding at Crested Butte Mountain Resort, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and ice fishing. Gunnison-Crested Butte is also a haven for outdoor summer activities. In the warmer months, visitors can choose from recreational activities such as hiking, climbing, mountain biking, boating, whitewater rafting, kayaking, fly-fishing, camping and horseback riding. Year-round visitors enjoy distinctive restaurants, unique shops and stimulating cultural opportunities, and have a wide range of lodging options - from rustic inns to guest cabins and bed-and-breakfasts to full-service resort hotels.


Recognized as the “Official Wildflower Capital of Colorado" by the Colorado Legislature and one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's “Dozen Distinctive Destinations" in 2008, Crested Butte is the site of rich mining, ranching and skiing heritage and home to the Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. Only three miles up the road is the resort village of Mt. Crested Butte, home to the ski area, an active base area, the areas conference center, and outstanding hiking and biking trails.


Gunnison, a real western town located 28 miles from Crested Butte, is home to the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport, Gunnison Whitewater Park, Gunnison Valley Observatory, Pioneer Museum and Western State College, a four-year institution offering majors in the liberal arts and sciences and professional fields. Both Crested Butte and Gunnison have thriving historic central business districts packed with shopping and dining opportunities.


In Gunnison County, visitors will find the Curecanti National Recreation Area, where dinosaur fossils were recently discovered; the Blue Mesa Reservoir, Colorados largest body of water and home to the largest Kokanee salmon fishery in the United States; and The Black Canyon of the Gunnison, one of our countrys newest national parks. Gunnison County includes the quaint and historic towns of Pitkin, Gothic, Tin Cup, Marble, Powderhorn, Almont and Crystal, plus the better-known communities of Gunnison, Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte. Gunnison County is part of the West Elk Loop and Silver Thread Scenic & Historic Byways.

Old News — The Gypsies will get you

By Sharon Cummins

July 23, 2009 6:00 AM

Gypsies who visited coastal York County every summer starting in the 1880s repeatedly stole blue-eyed children and money from the locals. Or did they?

In 1887, Kennebunkport's summer newspaper "The Wave," reported as fact "A band of Gypsies that passed through here last week had with them a little blue-eyed child that did not in the least resemble his dusty companions. Suspicion was aroused that he might have been stolen and such proves to have been the case. It was the son of James Welch of Nashua, N.H. Pursuit is now being made for the rascals and the little child will undoubtedly be rescued." After the band of Gypsies was followed up the coast by police for a more than a week, a Bath Times reporter wrote that the frantic Gypsy mother of the blue-eyed child finally presented her son's authentic birth certificate to Justice Henry Ragot of Brunswick and the judge declared her innocent of kidnapping. The Gypsies performed in Brunswick that day with their dancing bear and offered Justice Ragot all the money they collected in gratitude for his fairness. The judge refused their gift.

In 1902, Harry Clark of Beverly, Mass., scolded his four-year-old son for standing dangerously close to the kicking feet of his horse. When the father looked for him again he was gone. Immediately, Gypsies were accused of stealing the child €¦ any Gypsies. Many seaside vacationers reported seeing the captive child in Ogunquit and Kennebunk. After fruitlessly searching every Gypsy encampment in Maine and New Hampshire, the press suggested, without a shred of evidence, that it was probably the Indians who had carried little Wilbur Clark away.

To keep them close to home, children were warned, "the Gypsies will get you and turn you into a beggar," but no such case was ever proved. The King of the Stanley Gypsies was asked about this in the 1930s. He said, "Don't you think we have enough of our own children to feed? Why would we want yours?"

Gypsies traveled from Maine seaside resort to resort staying at each until they were chased away. They usually camped on the outskirts of town near fresh water brooks in elaborately painted wagons and tents. Their pet monkeys and bears entertained vacationers at the fairgrounds and along the beach roads. Gypsy women knocked on doors to tell fortunes for money and the men bred and traded some of the finest horses available. Gypsies occasionally used their bad reputation to their own benefit. Attractive fair-skinned young Gypsy girls would trick tourists out of their money by claiming to have been kidnapped and in need of money to get home to their pure, white families. Some Gypsies did cheat and steal to survive, but often they admitted to crimes they had not committed, just to be left alone.

Two Gypsy women appeared at Mrs. Waterhouse's Kennebunk Landing door in the spring of 1931 and offered to tell her fortune. The lady of the house refused to let them in. She later discovered that $20 was missing from her pocketbook and called the police.

Deputies Roland D. Parsons of Kennebunk, Orrison Davis of Biddeford, Irving S. Boothby of Saco, and George L. Simard of Biddeford located the fortune-tellers at a farm the Gypsies owned at Oak Ridge. The two women denied stealing any money but when the police threatened to take the whole band to court, the Gypsies gave them $20.

Tracing the origin of a non-literate culture like the Gypsies' presents obvious challenges. By analyzing words common to the many Gypsy dialects, linguists have traced this unique race of people to India. An Indian origin for the Romani people, as they call themselves, is also supported by recent DNA studies. Early Gypsies led semi-nomadic lives because they were not allowed to own land. Their role in the Indian caste system was to travel from town to town entertaining the upper classes. After being driven out of India around the year 1000 they were widely scattered.

Some tribes eventually established themselves in the southern Balkan countries before 1300. There, they were enslaved. Many Romani bands came to the United States in the late 1800s from Serbia when their nomadic existence was outlawed. Others immigrated after escaping Nazi Germany where half a million Gypsies were put to death during World War II.

When enforcement of zoning ordinances made a nomadic existence impractical in the United States, Gypsies gravitated toward large cities where they could more easily get lost in the crowd. Today, the descendants of the Gypsies who camped along the Maine coast are finding each other on the Internet and learning about their hidden heritage through DNA testing.

Old News columnist, Sharon Cummins, is a historical research professional in southern Maine. She can be reached by e-mail at sharonlynn@roadrunner.com

Time running out for Gypsy church

FORT LAUDERDALE - In the eight years Dan Tennis has had a church, he has helped countless people through donations, food drives, and something money can't buy: faith. Today he says faith and prayer are the only things that can save the site of his Christian Romany Church from being taken by the county.

After a four-year legal battle and a court-ordered extension that allowed the church to remain where it is, time is running out. The extension ends Aug. 31. Broward County wants to build a replacement facility for the Broward Addiction and Recovery Center and its Sexual Assault Treatment Center on the church site.

But the city of Fort Lauderdale and nearby residents want the county to find another spot. Three weeks ago, the city commission approved a resolution urging the county to pursue the development of the new rehabilitation facility elsewhere.

"The church is doing something good for the community ... and we want to preserve it as much as possible," said Commissioner Romney Rogers.

The site has been zoned for a church for half a century and the city commission would have to approve the rezoning of the site for the rehabilitation and sexual assault center. But city officials are concerned that the new facility is at the bottom of the county's budget list and Broward won't have the funds to operate it.

For the past three years this has been resident Cliff Iacino's ultimate nightmare.

"Could there be anything conceivably worse than a church being put on the street," said Iacino, president of the Edgewood Civic Association. "If they're not ready to go, then why kick them out? ...They're paying $4,000 a month and maintaining the property."

The county's plans call for expanding the rehabilitation center, currently located in Sailboat Bend, from 34 beds to 50 beds in a new 38,500-square-foot facility and making the new sexual assault center large enough to accommodate the clients and staff who use it, said Mike Elwell, director of the detox center. Money for the almost $30 million project was set aside years earlier, and Elwell said both facilities still will operate within their existing budgets -- about $14 million for the detox center and $2.8 for the sexual assault center.

The funds to run the centers is included in the county's proposed budget, but the Broward commission won't give final approval on what stays and what goes until September.

In the meantime, the church's attorney says he'll ask the court for another extension. But if it's not granted, Tennis and his wife are concerned that they'll have no place to move the church to. The couple has been looking for alternate properties but have found nothing affordable.

Even with a hefty deposit, banks are not lending money.

"To get another church they have to get another mortgage and I think everyone knows that it is very difficult to get a mortgage in this economy," said Brian Patchen, the church's attorney. "It is even more difficult to find a bank that would give a loan to a church."

And losing the church, said parishioner Robert Mitchell, means losing more than just a place of worship – they would also be losing a place where they pass on the Gypsy traditions and language.

"By taking away the church they're taking a piece of our culture," he said.

U.S. FBI helps Hungary on Gypsy killings

BUDAPEST, Hungary, May 4 (UPI) -- U.S. FBI agents are helping Hungarian police investigate a recent series of killings involving Gypsies.

The head of Hungary's police Jozsef Bencze said FBI agents analyze evidence they receive from Hungarian police officers and help produce psychological profiles of killers, the Hungarian news agency MTI said Monday.

About 100 Hungarian police officers work on some 18 cases which are linked with the killings of Gypsies in northeastern Hungary, Bencze said.

The Romany community has about 600,000 members and is the largest ethnic minority in Hungary.

Last week, Bencze said he suspects the killings could be blamed on the same group of extremists.

Two Gypsies were killed in the town of Nagycsecs in November. A Gypsy father and his 5-year-old son were killed in Tatarszentgyorgy in February and a 54-year-old Gypsy man was shot dead in Tiszalok April 22.

A recent public opinion survey found 82 percent of Hungarians hold negative feelings toward members of the Romany minority, MTI said. The survey was carried out among 2,500 adult Hungarians from March 23 to April 7, MTI said.

Ban the Gas Chamber for Animals in Michigan!

Target: Michigan House
Sponsored by: American Humane Association


Michigan House Bill 4263, the Humane Euthanasia of Shelter Animals Act, would ensure that when the state's unwanted, sick or unadoptable shelter animals have to be euthanized, the procedure will only be done by injection of sodium pentobarbital. This method is called euthanasia by injection.

The American Humane Association considers euthanasia by injection to be the only acceptable and humane means of euthanasia for animals in animal shelters.

Even though a majority of the shelters in the state use euthanasia by injection, 12 still use outdated, inhumane gas chambers. Shelter workers overwhelmingly wish to hold and comfort a frightened animal in its final moments of life. That act may be the only kindness the animal has ever known.

In contrast, even with vigilant oversight, euthanizing any animal by means of a carbon monoxide or dioxide gas chamber is both severely inhumane to medium and large animals, and demoralizing to the workers who have to euthanize. Such outdated practices also create public outcry and demean the purpose of an animal shelter.


HB 4263 is sponsored by Rep. Rick Jones and was drafted by American Humane and the State Bar of Michigan Animal Law Section. Please sign today to support this bill.

Roma (Gypsy) Lecture

Apr 1, 2009, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Location: Taylor Auditorium - Marsh Hall

This lecture will highlight various types of art (painting & music) of the Roma (Gypsies) in Europe.

The first half of this Lecture/Demonstration, Lorely French will give a brief overview of the Roma (Gypsies) in Central Europe and a brief introduction to Ceija Stojka's life and artworks that are being exhibited in the Cawein Gallery. Mark Ferguson, along with Stephanie Sánchez & Paul Brady, will talk briefly about the history of Gypsies in Spain and the music, flamenco, for which the Calé (Spanish Gypsies) are renowned. The LecDem on will take place on Wednesday, April 1st from 7pm to 8:30pm in Taylor Auditorium in Marsh Hall.

Posted by Mark Ferguson (mferguson@pacificu.edu) on Mar 24, 2009 at 10:44 AM

Help Save Polar Bears

Polar bears are dying and will soon be wiped out entirely if we don't take immediate action to curb global warming. One of George W. Bush's 11th-hour decisions greatly weakened protections for the polar bear and other species under the Endangered Species Act by issuing regulations reducing protections for the polar bear and exempting greenhouse gas emissions -- the number-one threat to the bear -- from regulation.

Congress, however, has passed special legislation granting President Barack Obama's Interior Secretary Ken Salazar 60 days to revoke the damaging Bush regulations with the stroke of a pen.

Please sign the petition at www.savethepolarbear.org and pass it on to a friend today.

With your help, we'll reach our goal to get 50,000 signatures and convince Interior Secretary Salazar to revoke the Bush regulations before the May 9, 2009 deadline.

Horse-slaughter bill gallops through state Senate

By MIKE DENNISON
Gazette State Bureau

HELENA - The bill to encourage construction of a horse-slaughtering plant in Montana won endorsement from the state Senate Thursday, putting it one step away from the governor's desk for signature into law.

The Senate endorsed House Bill 418 on a 27-23 vote, setting up a final vote today before the measure advances to Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who hasn't taken a position on it.

HB418 expressly allows private horse-slaughter plants to be built in Montana and offers them legal protections from those who might challenge a plant's license.

Supporters have said a slaughter plant not only would bring needed investment and jobs to Montana, but also would provide a place for people to dispose of unwanted horses, which most Montanans consider livestock.

(MORE)

Review: Los Farruco at Royce Hall

6:30 PM, March 4, 2009

Raw and riveting, Los Farruco -- the famed Seville-based Gypsy flamenco family descended from legendary dancer El Farruco (Antonio Montoya Flores), who died in 1997 -- came to Royce Hall on Tuesday night and all but shredded the stage. The patriarch’s lusty daughter La Farruca is a study in stealthy abandon. Her son, Farruco (right), matinee-idol-ready at 21, enthralls with his pounding feet. Then there’s La Faraona, also an El Farruco daughter, and her son, Barullo, who at 19 is the baby -- and bullish to boot.

It must also be said that the clan’s latest superstar (and El Farruco’s oldest grandson), 26-year-old El Farruquito, was, alas, not dancing. Credited with conceiving and directing the show, this performer who’s dazzled audiences since childhood recently served time in a Spanish prison for a hit-and-run killing.

But what would flamenco be without a little drama? Not to worry. Los Farruco, backed by two extraordinary guitarists and four scorching singers, offered more drama than a telenovela in a nearly two-hour intermissionless performance that throbbed with heart, soul and filigreed footwork. From the opening “Alegrías” to the final “Jaleos,” the hotblooded dynasty turned Royce into an intimate tablao.

The cousins, ramrod straight and moving in unison, immediately captivated. Tossing off a jump here, a whipping turn there, they were soon joined by La Farruca, whose rapid stomping accelerated to seismic proportions. Dipping, swirling and swaying, she radiated majesty, her curling fingers irresistible.

In his solo, “Seguiriya,” Barullo skittered about, accenting his machine-gun tapping with fist-pumping and ending with a flourish of dizzying spins.

If anatomy is destiny, La Faraona, with her barrel-shaped body, is fated to be the family’s plus-size clown. Thrusting her chest out and hopping in jagged spurts, she performed a “Bulerias” as a duel with the statuesque singer Mara Rey. Unfortunately, despite beguiling wrist-flicking, La Faraona lost.

Flamboyant, haughty and decidedly swoon-worthy, Farruco let it rip in “Soleá,” proffering an astonishing array of beats. Even when he was tapping unaccompanied with one foot, the sound filled the hall like a monster percussionist’s. Moving as if possessed, shaking his long hair free from its ponytail, Farruco became a quivering, ecstatic pillar of rhythmic marvels. But his drum-rolling footwork proved only a prelude to his tearing across the floor like a bullet train.

In her solo, “Romance,” La Farruca, a slave to passion and pain, did a slow burn before scooting and sashaying as if her life depended on it. Her artistry was matched throughout by the musicians: Guitarists El Tuto and Antonio Rey provided electrifying licks in addition to backup, and the mournful wailings of El Rubio de Pruna, Antonio Zúñiga and Pedro el Granaíno cut to the bone.

In this era of high-tech everything, it’s comforting to know that a handful of performers can still transport an audience to an emotional wonderland where awe and joy -- and fabulous hair -- abound.

-- Victoria Looseleaf

Woodland Cemetery

Propeller
Nick Iannarino - Propeller Editor
February 20, 2009

Beyond the Romanesque chapel and wrought-iron gateway which rest at the end of Woodland Avenue like a deserted fortress breathes a hidden trove of history, nature, art and architecture.

Founded in 1841, Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is 200 acres of green hills, glacial boulders and floral oasis which would easily remind visitors of the eternal beauty of life if, well, they weren't surrounded by dead people. Over 105,000 to be exact.

Before rushing to prepare UD for a massive zombie invasion, take a second to consider the educational value and serenity a place like this can provide. Many of the people buried at Woodland helped shape a young nation and a developing community.

Some were inventors and entrepreneurs like James Ritty, owner of the Pony House Saloon & Restaurant and creator of the first "incorruptible cash register." Others were combat veterans and government officials like Major David Zeigler, who fought in the Revolutionary and early Indian wars and served as the first mayor of Cincinnati. Still more created modern name brands like Huffy Bikes (George Huffman) and Mead Paper Company (Daniel Mead). Even a handful, like Daniel C. Cooper, actually founded this fair city.

Among the cemetery's 3,000 woody plants are 165 types of trees, some of which are over 200 years old. Nine of the largest trees of their species in Ohio reside here as well.

"This place is so special because of the historical value it provides

to the Dayton community," Woodland Customer Service Manager Debra Mescher said. "It would be tough to find a more beautiful, peaceful area of the city."

The next time a funeral procession passes by, perhaps led by a horse-drawn hearse or hundreds of members of the Dayton Outlaws motorcycle gang, know that a new chapter's being added to the legend of a silent community.
Top 5 Graves of Fame

1. The Little Boy & Dog Johnny Morehouse (1855-1860)

One of the more sentimental monuments at Woodland is dedicated to the memory of a cobbler's 5-year-old son who drowned in a canal. It's rumored that the boy's dog also perished while trying to rescue him. The detailed sculpture portrays a sleeping child being protected by his canine friend. Also visible are little Johnny's toy top, ball, mouth harp and cap. Current visitors still decorate the monument with plastic toys fit for a little boy - racecars and action figures of The Incredible Hulk, Mr. Incredible and SpongeBob Squarepants. For almost 150 years, this heartfelt monument has symbolized the brief life of Johnny Morehouse, provided comfort to grieving parents and served as a cautionary tale to children.

2. The Boulder Erma Bombeck (1927-1996)

It might be difficult for first-time visitors to locate the UD alum and famed humorist's final resting place. Situated across from the Mausoleum and behind a sculpture of the Wright Brothers' workbench, Bombeck's lot has no traditional headstone markings. Instead, a distinctly foreign 29,000 pound rock was chosen as a unique monument for her grave. Bombeck's renowned books and nationally-syndicated newspaper column often analyzed suburban life with a comedic bent. Her family is still active in the UD community.

3. The Gypsy Queen Queen Matilda Stanley (1878)

One of the coolest aspects of Woodland's extensive history was its importance to local Gypsy clans. Gypsies were a group of nomads whose ancestors are said to have originated in Eastern Europe. Guided by King Owen Stanley and his wife, Queen Harriet, many large Gypsy camps, most of English ancestry, prospered as agriculturalists in the Dayton community during the mid- to late-1800s and early-1900s. Because Owen and Harriet were eventually buried in Woodland, common practice suggested that the Gypsies always bring their deceased to Dayton for burial, no matter where their deaths occurred.

When a later queen, Matilda, was mourned in 1878, an international audience of 25,000 converged upon Woodland. Allegedly, 1,000 additional carriages were turned away at the gate. So many people gathered around the gravesite that the minister had to deliver his sermon while standing on a wooden plank resting across the open grave.

Woodland houses a total of three Gypsy kings and two queens. As a result, the cemetery is one of the few places in the U.S. proclaimed by Gypsy tribes to be hallowed ground.

4. The Weeping Willow Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906)

The son of former slaves, Dunbar overcame poverty and racial barriers to become one of the first and most beloved black poets in American history. Growing up in Dayton, Dunbar was the only black student in his graduating class at Central High School. His measured use of Southern Negro dialect to convey everyday life in verse is still studied and deeply appreciated. Taking a cue from Dunbar's famous poem "The Death Song," his grave - marked with a granite boulder and bronze plaque cast by Tiffany Studios in New York - is flanked by a weeping willow tree.

The opening stanzas are etched onto the plaque:

Lay me down beneaf de willers in de grass,

Whah de branch'll go a-singin' as it pass

An' w'en I's a-layin' low,

I kin heah it as it go

Singin' "Sleep, my honey, tek yo' res' at las."

5. The First In Flight Wilbur and Orville Wright (1867-1912, 1871-1948)

The Wright family gravesite is marked by a modest platform which rests beneath three flags representing America, Ohio and the 100-year anniversary of the birth of aviation. A thin stone path borders a rectangular dirt plot sprinkled with small plants and headstones. Wilbur and Orville's mother, father and younger sister Katherine are buried along with them.

Other note-worthy graves

The Seated Man, Adam Schantz Jr. (1868-1921)

Real estate developer and community leader. The famous sculpture also represents his father (1839-1903), a brewer and for many years the largest holder of real estate in the city - most of it downtown and in Oakwood. Also developed land in Daytona, Fla.

The McMillan Angel, Asa McMillan (1797-1855)

Famously beautiful Italian marble angel standing before a large granite cross. The book is blank to signify a new beginning in death.

The Ultimate Obelisk, John Alexander Collins

Woodland is littered with obelisks - tall, tapered, four-sided shafts of stone whose pyramid tops point toward Heaven. shape was used in ancient Egypt and during the 19th century to mark the grave of a hero or important person. Collins was an engineer who built the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad, which eventually became part of the famed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The granite figure is the tallest monument in Woodland at 46 feet.

The Patterson Family Arch

Granite monument dedicated to the Patterson family, whose names are etched along the inside. John H. Patterson (1844-1922), the grandson of a Revolutionary War veteran, founded National Cash Register (NCR) in 1884. During the devastating floods of 1913, Patterson's company served as the focal point for rescue teams and built boats for victims.

James M. Cox (1870-1957)

Founded Dayton Daily News, along with other newspapers and television and radio stations. Served three terms as governor of Ohio. With Franklin Dd. Roosevelt as his running mate, he campaigned against Warren Harding for U.S. President in 1920, but lost in a landslide. His concession speech took place at Dayton Fairgrounds.

Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958)

Famous inventor of the electric automobile self-starter and ignition system, which replaced unsafe and inconvenient manual cranks. Kettering also developed other inventions and improvements for General Motors, founded Dayton Engineering Laboratories (DELCO) with friend and fellow Woodland resident Edward Deeds (1874-1960) and was a noted philanthropist. His remains are located in the Mausoleum.

Dr. Joseph E. Lowes (1848-1905)

Former Surgeon General of Ohio and founder of Dayton Electric Light Company. Built and owned many traction and trolley lines throughout the state of and Dayton.

Harry C. Kiefaber (1852-1928)

Vice President of Dayton's Savings Bank and Director of Dayton Power & Light Company. Along with his brother, William, opened a popular grocery store on Third Street.

Robert W. Steele (1819-1891)

Lawyer and educator who inspired name of Steele High School. Large lion sculpture which currently guards entrance of Dayton Art Institute originally stood in front of school until razed in 1955.

Over 600 Civil War and 18 Revolutionary War veterans

Woodland features an entire section devoted to Union and Confederate soldiers. The Civil War deeply divided the Dayton community. Many poor laborers and farmers actually switched sides along the way for extra enlistment bonuses and better pay.

Athletes

At least one Harlem Globetrotter ("Slick" Al Tucker Sr.), NBA professional ("Twiggy" Tucker Jr.), legendary UD basketball coach (Tom Blackburn) and an early pioneer of auto racing (Earl "The Little Dayton Demon" Kiser).

Gypsy movie shown in Fremont Saturday

Feb 18, 2009

FREMONT — The second film of a four-part Foreign Film Series will show 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Dogwood Center in Fremont.

"The Crazy Stranger," directed by Tony Gatlif, spins a story of a wandering hero and includes scene after scene of Gypsy music, dance, and the carefree and spirited zest for life that permeates the Romany culture. Filmed in the Romany language, with English subtitles, this 97-minute film contains adult content and language.

Tickets are $7.50 per person, which includes the Apres Film social gathering in the Dogwood lobby after the film. Tickets are available from the Dogwood box office or at the door.

Budapest orchestra shows fiery brilliance in lightish program

The Adrienne Arsht Center was effectively converted into a cafe on the bank of the Danube Wednesday night with Tokay flowing freely, paprikash and palacsinta served, and Hungarian musicians providing an al fresco serenade.

The Budapest Festival Orchestra made its Miami debut at the Knight Concert Hall with an intriguing if strange program that displayed the ensemble’s corporate excellence and tonal gleam, but rather belatedly and to too little an extent. The event was presented by the Concert Association of Florida.

Founded in 1983, the Hungarian orchestra remains one of Europe’s finest, with whipcrack brilliance, rich string tone and refined woodwinds. And while enjoyable enough on its own terms, there was a musical lightness of being in the first half, which concentrated on gypsy-inspired fiddle music and showpieces.

Music director Ivan Fischer was an engaging host with his low-key verbal notes, charting the pungent influence of gypsy music on composers such as Brahms and Liszt, and introducing cimbalom player Oszkar Okros and father-and-son violinists, Jozsef Lendvay, Sr. and Jr.

The evening began with Fischer and Okros alone on stage. Following a brief Cliff Notes guide on the cimbalom’s history, Okras performed a solo improvisation that segued from evocative melancholy to virtuosic brilliance, a beaming Fischer looking on.

With the full orchestra on board, Josef Lendvay, Sr., schooled in the Hungarian folk tradition, came out for a concertante retooling of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 3, interpolating a rustic gypsy solo cadenza. Brahms’ Hungarian Dances Nos. 15 and 1 were performed, the latter in what Fischer claimed was a spontaneous Magyar jam session with Lendvay and Okras adding solo lines on top of the orchestra, stylishly and with idiomatic zigeneur spirit.

Jozsef Lendvay the younger entered, looking like a Central European rock musician. Unlike his father, Lendvay Jr., is classically trained and displayed staggering virtuosity in a take-no-prisoners account of Sarasate’s uber-gypsy fiddle showpiece, Zigeunerweisen.

Lendvay, pere et fils, joined forces for a duo-violin revamp on yet another Brahms Hungarian Dance, No. 11; Fischer indicated this would be the first time father and son performed together, which seems unlikely since they’ve already done this program elsewhere on tour. Both violinists conveyed the music’s more dolce expression but it made an odd choice to end the first half.

More substantial Brahms closed the evening with the German composer’s Symphony No. 1. The sterling qualities of the Hungarian ensemble were finally in the spotlight rather than as backup band: a rich but refined sonority, polished corporate musicianship, and hair-trigger volatility.

Fischer’s take on the mighty C-minor symphony lacked nothing in intensity with an exhilarating coda and the drama of the long opening movement, proceeding in a seamless arc. Yet most striking were the refinement and elegance of the performance, qualities rarely on display in this repertoire.

Fischer’s direction was never idiosyncratic but full of inspired touches as with the pre-Allegro foreboding of the outer movements, his majestic drawing out of the climactic horn theme, and graceful attacca turn into the finale’s openig bars. Perhaps most notable was the serenity of the slow movement, with silken strings and bucolic woodwinds that were chracterful yet perfectly integrated into the musical texture. It’s too bad that there were not more opportunities Wednesday for this wonderful orchestra to shine.

Ivan Fisher's orchestra fuses unlikely union of music styles

by Bradley Bambarger/The Star-Ledger
Thursday January 22, 2009, 3:10 PM
___________________________________________________

Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. When and where: 8 p.m. Friday, State Theatre, New Brunswick; 8 p.m. Saturday, Carnegie Hall, New York. How much: $30-$75 in New Brunswick. Call (732) 246-7469 or visit statetheatrenj.org. $27-$81 in New York. Call (212) 247-7800 or visit carnegiehall.org.
___________________________________________________

In the 19th century, the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian empire was the nearest faraway place for those looking east from Vienna -- not exactly foreign, but exotic. In particular, composers loved the freedom and fire of the Gypsy music they heard there.

Brahms, a German-born Vienna resident, picked up cheap sheet music of traditional Gypsy tunes and wove inventive arrangements around them for a popular set of "Hungarian Dances." Liszt, born in Hungary but the epitome of the Western European cosmopolitan, used Gypsy melodies and rhythms as jumping off points for his own nostalgic "Hungarian Rhapsodies."

There is no better ensemble to embody this East-meets-West, structure-plus-spice ideal than the Budapest Festival Orchestra. The group was founded 25 years ago -- by conductor Ivan Fischer, among others -- on a manifesto of individual energy, creative risk and fun. Even putting the "festival" in its name was about suggesting celebration over stuffiness.

Fischer and company open Carnegie Hall's two-week, multi-artist "Celebrating Hungary" festival Saturday after they give concertgoers a preview Friday in New Brunswick. The program is special in that it replicates the Budapest orchestra's mold-breaking recordings of Brahms' and Liszt's Hungarian-themed works, featuring Gypsy musicians for the ultimate in native zest -- the Lendvay father-and-son fiddle duo and cimbalom player Oszkar Ökrös.

"I think Brahms would've loved the way we perform this music with these players," says Fischer from Budapest. "He wanted to incorporate the Gypsies' folk art into his classical world -- their imagination and improvisation, their richly ornamented style of playing. These artists challenge us to bring more to the music than just what is on the page."

The younger Lendvay, the classically trained Jozsef Jr., will also solo in Pablo De Sarasate's Old World showpiece "Zigeunerweisen" ("Gypsy Airs"). To cap the night, Fischer will lead the orchestra in Brahms' drama-filled Symphony No. 1 -- not a work with Gypsy themes, of course, but one that may profit from the night's improvisatory atmosphere.

"It will be fascinating to see how people hear the Brahms' First after all the Gypsy music," Fischer says. "We will all be affected. I think the orchestra will perform with a subtle but noticeable spice -- playing the rhythms with more rubato, reacting to each other more in the moment."

Hungary produced some of the 20th century's greatest conductors: Georg Solti, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Fritz Reiner, Antal Dorati, Ferenc Fricsay. Fischer, who turned 58 this week, is in that line of artistry, but his mellow charm and individualist sensibility are worlds away from the my-way-or-the-highway method of Szell and Reiner. Characteristically, though, Fischer is generous and mindful of history, as he points out that "it was a different world for them -- raising an orchestra in Cleveland to world-class status as Szell did took unyielding standards."

But Fischer does wonder what Szell or Reiner would think of his Gypsy-bolstered way with the Brahms and Liszt pieces: "Their generation was concerned with fidelity to the letter of their scores. They were modern in their day, reacting against a Romantic tradition that perhaps allowed itself too many liberties. As with everything, music goes in cycles. We have plenty of orchestral skill and discipline now. Like many conductors of my generation, I am more interested in the source and style of the music, the spirit of the score."

American Gypsies

A Hawk and a Hacksaw does Eastern Europe with an American accent
By Amre Klimchak

JEREMY BARNES HAS no greater passion, at least from a musical standpoint, than Eastern European folk. During our conversation, Barnes uses the word “love” more than half a dozen times to describe the intensity of his feeling for the region’s fervent, dizzyingly passionate sounds.

But Barnes (who made his name originally as the drummer for one of indie folk’s most lauded bands, Neutral Milk Hotel, and brings his duo A Hawk and a Hacksaw to town this week) became an ardent fan long before his fellow lovers of socalled gypsy music in Beirut, Gogol Bordello and Devotchka gained a following. Barnes first heard Bulgarian women’s choirs while driving through West Texas in 1996 on a tour when he was 19, and he was hooked. He moved to Hungary two years ago to live among and learn from some of the area’s masters but has always sought to interpret traditional styles through the contemporary lens of his American background.

“We’re really into music from Eastern Europe and from Turkey, and that is a huge influence, but we have to keep in mind that we’re not a cover band and it’s not our intention to recreate music from that region,” Barnes says from Chicago, where he is finishing the mix of the group’s fourth fulllength album, due out in the spring. “We have to bring something of ourselves into it in order for it to be fulfilling.”

And like their gypsy inspiration, Barnes, who sings, plays accordion and handles percussion, and his cohort Heather Trost, whose primary instrument is violin, have lead a largely a nomadic lifestyle, following their hearts.The couple met in Albuquerque where they subsequently encountered Beirut’s Zach Condon, whose musical aesthetic matched their own.They later contributed to the first Beirut record, and Condon, in turn, to A Hawk and Hacksaw’s albums. But they relocated to Budapest in 2006 to plunge themselves into a thriving international folk scene with Hungarian, Romanian, Serbian and Bulgarian elements.

Their chemistry with a particular group of musicians led to the formation of the Hun Hangár Ensemble with whom A Hawk and a Hacksaw recorded a sweeping, sophisticated EP that bears the unmistakable marks of the duo’s cultural immersion. Barnes and Trost sound both incredibly well versed in the musical idioms of their surroundings and confident in their ability to maneuver among the accompanying sonic ambiguities.

“Whenever we do traditional music, we try to put it in a different setting or adapt it somehow so that it’s not just a song that we love,” Barnes says. “It’s kind of like half and half—like a folk song has inspired us to write a melody and then we combine the two.” The duo returned to Albuquerque in October, partly because they wanted to vote (and were thrilled with Obama’s win) and to finish recording their latest album, but also to reconnect with their roots, their families, their American friends and their homeland.


“In our lyrics we’re usually commenting on things that are happening here. That’s part of what I mean about bringing in our own identities into this music,” Barnes says. “In the end it’s not Eastern European music that we’re playing, even though we’re influenced by it.We’re Americans and we have to present that as where we’re from.” And the new album, which was partly recorded in Hungary, partly in Albuquerque, is a distillation of what they’ve learned after completely steeping themselves in music that holds an unending allure, Barnes says. “I feel like it’s an obvious progression from what we were doing previously. I do think it’s a lot stronger than any of our other releases,” Barnes says. “It’s still focusing on what we love. And I think we’ll always be doing that, whether or not it’s trendy or fashionable, we’re still going to be doing it… In a way, we’re just a little bit lost in it, I guess. And I can’t really do anything else.”

> A Hawk and a Hacksaw

Jan. 10, Mercury Lounge, 217 E. Houston St. (at Essex St.), 212-260-4700; 7, $13/$15.

Also Jan. 11 at Union Hall.

Child Maid Trafficking Spreads From Africa to U.S.

Child Slaves: Trafficking in Underage Maids Reaches U.S. From Africa, Where It Is Widespread

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI Associated Press Writer
IRVINE, Calif. December 28, 2008 (AP) The Associated Press

Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door. They watched through their window as the child rinsed plates under the open faucet. She wasn't much taller than the counter and the soapy water swallowed her slender arms.

To put the dishes away, she climbed on a chair.

But she was not the daughter of the couple next door doing chores. She was their maid.

Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family's crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. She had no breaks during the day and no days off.

The trafficking of children for domestic labor in the U.S. is an extension of an illegal but common practice in Africa. Families in remote villages send their daughters to work in cities for extra money and the opportunity to escape a dead-end life. Some girls work for free on the understanding that they will at least be better fed in the home of their employer.

The custom has led to the spread of trafficking, as well-to-do Africans accustomed to employing children immigrate to the U.S. Around one-third of the estimated 10,000 forced laborers in the United States are servants trapped behind the curtains of suburban homes, according to a study by the National Human Rights Center at the University of California at Berkeley and Free the Slaves, a nonprofit group. No one can say how many are children, especially since their work can so easily be masked as chores.

(MORE)

Sex slavery: Living the American nightmare

By Alex Johnson and Cesar Rodriguez
Reporters
msnbc.com and Telemundo
updated 8:07 a.m. ET, Mon., Dec. 22, 2008

When FBI and immigration agents arrested a 28-year-old Guatemalan woman three months ago in Los Angeles, they announced that they had shut down one of the most elaborate sex trafficking rings in the country. It was also the family business.

The woman, Maribel Rodriguez Vasquez, was the sixth member of her family to be rounded up in the two-year multi-agency investigation. Vasquez, five of her relatives and three other Guatemalan nationals were charged with 50 counts, alleging that they lured at least a dozen young women — including five minors as young as 13 years old — to the United States with promises of good jobs, only to put them to work as prostitutes. All remain in custody as investigators attempt to unravel the complex case.

Vasquez — quickly dubbed the “L.A. Madam” — attracted attention because she had been featured on the fugitive-hunting television program “America’s Most Wanted.” But it was one of only a few such cases to be spotlighted by national media, contributing to the false impression that cases of immigrant sex trafficking are isolated incidents, law enforcement officials and advocates for immigrants say.

(MORE)

Bush administration takes parting shot at endangered wildlife

Last minute Endangered Species Act regulations put nation's wildlife at risk of extinction

WASHINGTON—Rushing to put in place changes it failed to secure in the past eight years, the Bush administration has finalized new Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulations today, cutting huge holes in the safety net that protects animals and plants in danger of becoming extinct.

First proposed by the Department of the Interior a little over three months ago, the new regulations will eliminate the requirement that agencies seek advice from expert biologists with federal wildlife agencies in decisions about whether dams, towers, highways and other projects will likely harm imperiled species.

"This administration’s disdain for wildlife and the environment has never been more clear than it is today," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive vice president of Defenders of Wildlife and former director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. "For 35 years, the Endangered Species Act has helped save and recover imperiled wildlife on the brink of extinction. Now, with this administration facing its last days, they are doing everything they can to cement their anti-environmental legacy before the Obama administration takes office."

The Bush administration’s last minute rulemaking has drawn heavy criticism from the public, lawmakers, conservation groups and newspaper editorialists around the country. More than 250,000 comments opposing the changes were submitted to the Interior Department in the 60 days it allowed for the public to respond to the changes.

But the massive public outcry seems to have fallen on deaf ears. In its push to finalize the rules before President-elect Barack Obama takes office, the department had only 15 people spend only 32 hours reading the comments, averaging mere seconds in reviewing each of the more than 250,000 comments. Department officials then ignored the major concerns raised by the comments, making only cosmetic changes to the original proposals.

Both President-elect Obama and key Democratic leaders have signaled that they will oppose the ESA changes. In addition, Defenders intends to take immediate legal action to stop these regulations.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has argued that the new regulations are needed to keep the ESA from being used to limit emissions from coal power plants and other polluting sources that contribute to global warming. This continues the Bush administration’s failed approach of ignoring the problem.

"Global warming presents the greatest threat this generation has seen to ourselves, our wildlife and our environment, and yet the Bush administration has dragged its feet on addressing the impacts of a warming planet for its entire time in office," Clark said. "While the ESA by itself certainly can't provide a comprehensive solution to global warming, its protections will be essential in helping at-risk species survive a changing climate. If allowed to stand, these regulations will deprive the Obama administration of a powerful tool to protect wildlife and ecosystems from the effects of global warming."

Many of the ESA regulation changes finalized today were tried before in a failed legislative effort by former Representative Richard Pombo (R-CA), whose anti-environmental record and repeated attacks on the ESA contributed to his defeat in the 2006 elections.

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service are the keepers of the flame for our threatened and endangered wildlife. They are equipped to make decisions based on looking at the whole picture for a species, on what’s happening to their habitat, their health and other significant impacts," Clark said. "It seems that the Bush administration has prioritized the interests of its industry allies over its responsibility to the public for protecting our nation’s imperiled wildlife. We will work in the courts, with Congress, and with the Obama administration to overturn these damaging regulations, so that we can begin to address the environmental neglect and damage that has been done over the last eight years."

###

Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities. With more than 1 million members and activists, Defenders of Wildlife is a leading advocate for innovative solutions to safeguard our wildlife heritage for generations to come. For more information, visit www.defenders.org .

Death Sentence Looms for Prairie Dogs, Ferrets

Officials in Logan County, Kansas want to invade land owned by wildlife-friendly ranchers to poison the state's largest prairie dog town!

This isn't only bad news for the prairie dogs -- but also the highly endangered black-footed ferrets that depend on them.

I just wrote to Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, urging her to do all she can to stop the poisoning -- you can, too. Just go to this website to help:

http://action.defenders.org/saveprairiedogs

Prairie dogs play an important role in the health and balance of the American plains. Hawks, burrowing owls, swift fox and other wildlife -- especially the highly endangered black-footed ferret -- depend on prairie dogs for burrows and a food source.

But after decades of poisonings, prairie dog populations -- and the health of the grasslands they support -- have declined. In fact, just days ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that they will consider prairie dogs for protections under the Endangered Species Act.

We can't let county commissioners poison the Kansas prairie -- and end recovery of one of North America's most endangered animals in the state.

Take action today to help save these animals -- the poisonings could start as early as Monday, December 15th:
http://action.defenders.org/saveprairiedogs


Thanks!

Gitane: Sexy, sophisticated gypsy food. Really.

By Molly Freedenberg

To take a page from Dani Leone's book, I have a new favorite restaurant. It's Gitane, opened by the same people who brought us Cafe Claude, and it's fantastic. Of course, I might be a bit biased. The name "Gitane" means "gypsy woman," and indeed, the restaurant's interior and menu was designed with gypsy culture in mind. Having been told my whole life that I'm descended from gypsies and horse thieves (on Mom's side, from the Slavias), I felt a kinship with this place before I'd set foot inside the deceptively small building. Plus, in a town brimming with neuvo Californian, Asian fusion, Pan-American, and upscale Southern cuisines, there was simply something refreshing about someone doing something I'd never heard of before.

So several weeks after the eatery's grand opening, I scooped up a friend with a sophisticated palate and a sense of adventure and headed downtown. We knew not to expect some kitschy regurgitation of gypsy stereotypes, but we had no idea we'd find a place so eclectic, classy, interesting, and sexy. We fell in love with the bar area, a narrow corridor with dark patterned walls and reflective ceiling, giving the illusion of great amounts of space without sacrificing a sense of intimacy and warmth. Our bartender was fantastically helpful and friendly (not to mention cute cute cute), and seemed to be a true lover of cocktails. The bar's signature drink, The Gypsy, was a delightful twist on the St. Germain's elderflower trend - a light, subtly sweet, complex concoction with an herb-y finish and easy drinkability. My companion ordered the 1862, named for the year of the Cinco de Mayo massacre after its primary ingredient (tequila) and made ambitiously interesting by the addition of Campari. It was suggested as an apperitif, and though it was far too bitter and biting for both of us, would probably delight dedicated Campari fans.

(MORE)

Pilots fly doomed dogs to better life

By Sharon L. Peters, Special for USA TODAY

Puppy love is reaching new heights.

Pilots are donating their time, planes and fuel to transport dozens of dogs a month from overcrowded shelters where they face almost certain death to rescue groups and shelters several states away that are committed to finding them homes.

The mission-of-mercy relocations are flown by general aviation pilots who have signed on with the recently formed Pilots N Paws, a Web-based message board where pilots can access information about animals in need.

Once the electronic connection is made, dogs plucked by rescuers from death row — mostly in the South where sterilization rates are low and pet overpopulation is rampant — are loaded onto small planes and flown one, two or six at a time to rescue groups and shelters that have available space.

"These are wonderful dogs that simply had the bad luck of winding up in a place where there are too many pets in shelters," says Pilots N Paws co-founder Jon Wehrenberg of Knoxville, Tenn. The retired manufacturing executive and weekend pilot has flown scores of dogs from high-kill shelters this year. Earlier this month, his mission involved six small mixed-breed dogs from Knoxville's Young-Williams Animal Center.

The happy half-dozen enjoyed a smooth-sailing, 90-minute flight to Greensboro, N.C., where they were met by radio station executive Jennifer Hart, head of Animal Rescue & Foster Program, who had arranged foster care. One dog has been adopted; the others are receiving additional attention, socialization and training and should be ready for new homes soon after Thanksgiving.

Beginning of the journey

"Pilots N Paws has given about 20 of our animals a second chance," says Tim Adams, executive director of the Young-Williams shelter, which euthanizes 70% of the animals that land there. "We take in 17,000 animals a year, and Knoxville simply isn't big enough… to get new homes for them here. Twenty animals saved may not sound like much, but every one of them matters."

Pilots N Paws started operating in February soon after Wehrenberg offered to fly a Doberman in Florida to his pal Debi Boies of Landrum, S.C., who is a retired nurse, horse breeder and long-time rescuer. He began asking questions about the rescue world and learned about the passionate underground railroad of animal lovers who orchestrate days-long road journeys to save some of the 4 million to 6 million animals destined for euthanasia in U.S. shelters annually.

(MORE)

Music note: Black knights and seductive Gypsies romp in St. Paul

By Rebecca Collins , TC Daily Planet
September 25, 2008

The turnout on Tuesday night at the Ordway for the Minnesota Opera’s staging of Verdi’s Il trovatore (The Troubadour) was impressive. A bustling lobby and long line at the box office translated into a full house. And people do dress for the occasion—rumors of Minnesotans wearing jeans to the opera proved to be mostly false. It’s good to know there is a place in the Twin Cities to don one’s Oscar de la Renta stiletto heels or, in the case of one elderly gentleman, one’s kimono.

Il Trovatore, an opera with music by Giuseppe Verdi and libretto by Leone
Emanuele Bardare and Salvatore Cammarano; directed by Kevin Newbury. Presented by the Minnesota Opera through September 28 at the Ordway Center, 345 Washington St., St. Paul. For tickets ($65-$150) and information, see mnopera.org.

There was good reason for the high attendance. More happens in Il trovatore, a romantic tragedy set in Spain during the Renaissance, than on a whole season of Flavor of Love.

First, the dramatic back story. A young boy is bewitched by a Gypsy and falls ill. The Gypsy is hunted down and burned at the stake. As she is dying, she orders her daughter, Azucena (Olga Savona), to avenge her death. Azucena kidnaps the boy and prepares to throw him into the still-smoldering ashes of the pyre. But—oops!—in her grief she accidentally incinerates her own son instead. She decides to keep the kidnapped boy and raise him as her own.

(MORE)

'Droma Gypsy Festival 2008'

Date/Time: Every week Tuesday, Sunday from Sun., September 28 until Tue., September 30, 8:00pm, Every week Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday from Wed., September 24 until Fri., October 3, 9:00pm

Price: $13-$17

By Kandia Crazy Horse

This year's installment of the New York DROMA Gypsy Festival runs through October 3rd. These nine days of sonic delight span Roma culture from across the globe, from locals like Zlatne Uste Brass Band to France's Watcha Clan (pictured here). If a nation's so celebrated at the forefront that Madonna's jumping the bandwagon, you may be leery. However, run don't walk to these performances. And don't forget your tambourines and joie-de-vivre.

Classical dance bridges culture gap

Friday, Sep. 12, 2008
By Michelle Isham- For the CDT

In the hills of Kathirkama in Sri Lanka, a beautiful princess named Atmavalli falls in love with Kathirkama Kandan, the lord who resides in a temple in the forest. Atmavalli pines for Lord Kandan until a kurati, or gypsy, arrives and assures her that Lord Kandan will marry her.

So goes the dance drama “The Gypsy and The Princess,” based on a style of South Indian storytelling that is hundreds of years old.

“It’s a very typical and traditional story,” dance instructor Teja Rao said.

Rao’s dance troupe, from the Natyam School of Classical Indian Dance in Buffalo, N.Y., will perform the story at Mount Nittany Middle School this weekend. The performance will benefit the State College chapter of the Association for India Development, which funds long-term social and educational development projects in that country. The group hosts events throughout the year to raise funds to support its programs and to promote a greater understanding of Indian culture.

“We really wanted to reach to non-Indians to give them the cultural awareness and create a bridge between the east and west cultures,” said Vikas Argod, an AID member and one of the coordinators of the event.

“State College has a very enthusiastic dance culture. The missing piece of the puzzle was Indian dance,” said fellow AID member and event coordinator Amit Arora.

(MORE)

Sex, drugs, gifts uncovered in government oil probe

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. government employees received improper gifts from energy industry representatives, and engaged with them in illegal drug use and inappropriate sexual relations, according to a report issued Wednesday.

The report was issued by the Interior Department's inspector general after a $5.3 million investigation "uncovered recreational marijuana and cocaine use" by "a handful" of Interior Department staff, and found two federal employees "engaged in brief sexual relationships with representatives from companies doing business" with the department.

Two Interior Department employees "received combined gifts and gratuities on at least 135 occasions from four major oil and gas companies with whom they were doing business -- a textbook example of improperly receiving gifts from prohibited sources," Inspector General Earl Devaney says in a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne accompanying the report.

(MORE)

White House Proposes to Butcher Endangered Species Act

This Monday, just months before the curtains close on the Bush administration, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced a proposal for the biggest overhaul of the Endangered Species Act since 1986. Kempthorne's proposed rules would excuse thousands of federal activities, including all greenhouse gas emissions, from review under the Act, letting federal agencies decide for themselves whether projects potentially devastating to the environment would indeed harm endangered plants and animals. The rules would codify Kempthorne's previously announced plan to green-light activities that add to climate change -- without inspecting their impacts on protected species like the polar bear.

History has shown that letting agencies babysit themselves regarding their own projects -- instead of consulting with government scientists, as is now required -- just doesn't work. When agencies were allowed to self-consult on logging activities in 2005, it turned out that 62 percent of those projects violated the Endangered Species Act. "These [new] regulations are a recipe for disaster for the extinction of endangered species," said Center for Biological Diversity science director Noah Greenwald. "It's a classic example of letting the fox guard the henhouse."

(MORE)

Tracking Animal Cruelty Crimes Act (S. 2439)

Please visit the Compassion Index - AWI's Legislative Action Center to find your federal legislators and see how much compassion they show on important animal protection measures currently
before Congress. The CI also allows you to contact your legislators on these issues.

The FBI tracks the incidence and pattern of crimes committed in the United States. The data provided by such crime-tracking enable law enforcement agencies to target their crime fighting resources and implement better prevention and prosecution. However, there is currently no separate
reporting category for animal cruelty crimes. The Tracking Animal Cruelty Crimes Act (S. 2439), introduced by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), would change this.

Why is it important to track animal cruelty crimes?

• Animal cruelty is a heinous offense in and of itself, causing terrible suffering for so many sentient creatures. It is a crime in all 50 states and certain egregious acts are felonies in 43 states and the District of Columbia.
  
• Animal cruelty also often coincides with domestic and child abuse. Moreover, a clear and recognized link exists between animal abuse and other forms of violence in society. Ironically, the FBI was one of the first to establish this link, yet the agency has yet to track
  animal cruelty crimes as a separate category.
  
• The FBI’s programs for collecting and disseminating crime statistics are invaluable tools for guiding law enforcement operations, crime prevention programs, and research and planning
  efforts. Assigning the crime of animal cruelty to its own reporting classification, as required under S. 2439, would enable law enforcement, social service agencies, researchers, and others to track trends at the state and national level and to determine the demographic characteristics and other factors associated with animal abuse. Significantly, the National District Attorneys Association supports the legislation.
  
• Having the improved information about animal cruelty crimes that S. 2439 would generate would lead to much greater understanding of—and more effective responses to—both animal abuse and other offenses. Animal cruelty—including animal fighting—would be regarded as serious crimes against society, thereby bringing greater investigative and prosecutorial resources to the problem at the state and federal level.

This small change would yield significant benefits for efforts to prevent and intervene in the cycle of violence that victimizes so many animals and people.

Help Impeach him...

Like or hate Kucinich - he makes a good case for impeaching the President:

URGENT: need your help - Impeachment Petition Deadline Midnight Wednesday

Dear Friends,

Because of your vigilance and support for democracy, last Friday was a day of singular importance in Washington. The House Judiciary Committee met to discuss the Bush Administration's abuse of executive power and for the first time the case for Impeachment was discussed in front of a Congressional committee, in depth, at length and with authority.

Twenty members of the Judiciary Committee attended the six-hour hearing, during which twelve witnesses, including myself and four members of Congress testified. In this hearing I called for the Impeachment of the President for misrepresenting a case for war.

This week I will present members of Congress with Impeachment petitions submitted by those of you who have signed the on-line impeachment form.

I need your help. In the next few days we must redouble our efforts to get more signatures on the online petition at kucinich. us. I'm asking each of you to please contact at least ten of your friends to go to http://kucinich.us/now and sign the Impeachment petition that will be delivered by me. Wednesday night is the deadline.

Please send out an email to all your friends and family, post this link, http://kucinich.us/ to your blogs and make this effort count as this is the only petition that I will deliver.

Sign the petition. Thank you so very much.

Signature - Dennis J Kucinich

Dennis

Paid for by the Re-Elect Congressman Kucinich Committee

PO Box 110475 Cleveland OH 44111 216-252-9000

Congress Takes Horse Cruelty Head On!

For seven years now, you have helped us fight hard to protect America’s horses from the cruel and preventable practice of horse slaughter. Sadly, the few individuals profiting from this industry have spent vast sums of money to mislead some in the horse industry and US Congress. They have turned a serious animal cruelty issue into a political game. Despite all of this, support continues to grow for a ban because no false stories or fabricated tales of “unwanted horses” can derail the simple truth – horse slaughter is cruel.

As of today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN) have taken up the reins of this cause and committed themselves to ending horse slaughter by sponsoring H.R. 6598, the Conyers-Burton "Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act". This bill directly addresses the cruelty of horse slaughter – a consequence of the industry that even opponents of ending horse slaughter admit exists. This legislation is not new, as the original bill introduced in 2002 to end horse slaughter included enforcement language from Title 18 of the US Criminal Code for those found guilty of breaking the law. Chairman Conyers has simply removed the unnecessary language from the earlier versions to specifically target those causing the cruelty to horses.

Every five minutes, an American horse is brutally slaughtered for human consumption in plants in Mexico and Canada. Ironically, industry lobbyists admit to Congress that the foreign horse slaughter plants are cruel, yet the companies the lobbyists represent also own and operate these very plants across the border! Despite unsubstantiated claims of “unwanted” and “abandoned” horses, these foreign-owned plants and their killer-buyers continue to buy horses from all over America at an alarming rate to meet the demand for the animals’ flesh in fancy European restaurants.

Horse slaughter is a brutal process from beginning to end. Killer-buyers have no regard for the horses’ welfare; they just need to find as many of the animals as possible in order to fill a quota. Because the horses’ final destination is slaughter, no concern is paid to their treatment when they are collected, during transport, or in the slaughterhouse. A former equine investigator for the Pennsylvania state police summed this industry up perfectly when she said, “… horses were deprived of food and water because they were going to slaughter anyway. My conclusion is that the slaughter option encourages neglect…Money is the only objective of selling horses to slaughter. Those of us in the trenches have seen enough.”

Constituents concerned about the welfare of America’s horses must use this opportunity to speak up to their Members of Congress. The slaughterhouses, their lobbyists and the few pro-horse slaughter groups will be on Capitol Hill screaming loudly because they know support for ending horse slaughter is already strong. They know that if this issue is given a fair hearing and a fair vote, horse slaughter will end immediately.

Even though this fight has gone on for years, we must never forget that until Congress acts and passes a federal ban, horses are being hauled across the United States before being sent to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered under even worse conditions. The slaughterhouses and their supporters hope to wear down horse advocates by stalling the political process. We must send a message that we will not stop until ALL horses are protected from slaughter.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please call, write or email your Representative today, urging him or her to support H.R. 6598, the Conyers-Burton "Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act". Chairman Conyers and Congressman Burton intend to do everything in their power to move this measure through Congress as soon as possible. Be sure to mention the facts above and those found here.

Many Members of Congress have already supported a similar measure, so this is not a new proposal; click here to see if your legislator cosponsored the original bill. If your Representative is on the Judiciary Committee, please urge him or her to attend any upcoming hearing and speak out on this important legislation as well.

To find your Representative and learn his or her stance on horse slaughter, please visit www.compassionindex.org. You can contact your legislators directly through the Compassion Index as well.

Write to:

The Honorable (name of US Representative)
US House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Please note: HR 6598, the Conyers-Burton "Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act" is NOT the same as H.R. 503/S. 311, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (AHSPA), but it will do the same thing – end horse slaughter. Many members already support the AHSPA, so garnering support should be straightforward.

Rescues/Organizations: The list of organizations and rescues supporting a ban on horse slaughter is tremendous, and we want to make sure your voice is heard on Capitol Hill, too. If you represent a rescue or organization, please take a minute to draft a letter of support for H.R. 6598, the Conyers-Burton "Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act" for us to share with the bill's sponsors and other Members of Congress. Give personal experiences, include photos and share your work with us. Opponents of horse slaughter are not working every day with horses -- you are. Please email your letters and some pictures to chris@awionline.org or fax them without a cover to (888) 260-2271. We will ensure that Congress hears your support!

No matter how you contact your legislator, please be sure to provide him or her with your name and mailing address, and as a constituent, request a response on this issue. Please also share our “Dear Humanitarian” eAlert with family, friends and co-workers, and encourage them to contact their legislators, too. As always, thank you very much for your help.

Sincerely,

Cathy Liss
President
www.awionline.org
www.compassionindex.org

Congress Asks: Fat Cats or Polar Bears?

Wealthy speculators are driving up gas prices and fueling calls for harmful new drilling off our coasts and in pristine places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

It’s a classic match-up: Wall Street fat cats versus American families and the natural treasures we leave to our children. And in the next two weeks, Congress will vote to see who wins.

Help protect our polar bears from profit-hungry speculators and Big Oil. Urge Congress to pass legislation to address high gas prices by restoring accountability and transparency in the oil markets.

Speculation in the oil markets is a major factor in high gas prices.

Here’s how it works: Weak oversight and accountability in the oil market allows wealthy investors from around the world to drive up the price we pay for gas by purchasing oil that they have no intention of using.

According to Michael Masters of Masters Capital Management, who testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in June, “with greater regulation [of speculation], oil prices could drop to $65 or $70 a barrel within about 30 days.”[1]

Ask your Senators and Representative to pass legislation to address high gas prices and protect our polar bears and other wildlife from the oil speculators and Big Oil’s disastrous drilling plans.

Officials within the Bush Administration’s own Energy Information Agency estimate that oil from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge wouldn’t hit the market for several years and would only reduce gas by a few pennies. Similarly, the agency has said that offshore drilling would not significantly impact domestic production or prices before 2030.

But this drilling would come at a terrible cost to our wildlife and the environment. Arctic drilling activities would disturb the most important onshore denning habitat for America’s threatened polar bears -- potentially causing polar bear mothers to abandon their cubs.

Offshore drilling has its own problems: Each platform produces toxic discharges that can poison and kill marine wildlife and dumps tons of air pollutants into our atmosphere.

Please take a stand against irresponsible policies that hurt our families and put our wildlife at risk. Send your message now!

More drilling may benefit wealthy investors, Big Oil companies and their allies in Congress, but it won’t lower prices at the pump or end America’s oil addiction.

Respectfully,
Rodger Schlickeisen
President
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund

Stop Plan to Kill America's Wild Horses

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior that administers America's public lands, including the animals who call this land home.

As part of its wild horse management program, the BLM has spent the past several years rounding up wild horses and keeping them in private, long-term holding facilities—which is expensive. Now, the agency wants to euthanize thousands of healthy horses, claiming it is too costly to feed and care for them.

The ASPCA encourages the BLM to explore other solutions, including but not limited to reopening additional land for the horses and increasing certain contraception programs that have already proven safe and effective.

What You Can Do

Please visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center to email a letter to your legislators in the U.S. Congress urging them to oppose the BLM’s plan to kill thousands of healthy wild horses.Thank you for taking action for America's animals.

Balkan folk, Romanian Gypsy, klezmer and more!

Contributed by: Laura McGaughey on 7/14/2008

On Friday, July 25 at 8 p.m., Swallow Hill is thrilled to present three amazing and diverse world fusion bands as they share one stage for an evening of unique music traversing the globe: Luminiscent Orchestrii, Los Lantzmun and Fishtank Ensemble.

The sounds of Luminescent Orchestrii range from Romanian Gypsy melodies, punk-inspired frenzy, salty tangos, hard-rocking klezmer, haunting Balkan harmony, hip hop beats, and Appalachian fiddle, all eaten and spit out by two violins, resophonic guitar, bullhorn harmonica, and bass. The members of the Orchestrii come from different scenes in New York City yet come together through their love of Balkan and Gypsy music. Sxip Shirey is an international circus composer, Sarah Alden is an old-time fiddle player, Rima Fand is an experimental theater composer and Benjy Fox-Rosen is a free-jazz bassist.

The band formed in 2002 as a quintet, and since that time, they have toured the East Coast of the U.S., England, Scotland, and Germany, as well as traveled to Romania, Macedonia, Turkey, and Serbia for inspiration. They've performed at international festivals from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (UK), to The Blue Note (Germany) and The Lake Eden Arts Festival (USA). The Skinny Magazine (UK) writes: "The music makes your skin tingle and your eyes water, and never before have metallers, hippies and divas enjoyed the same gig so equally."

Los Lantzmun describes their music as Jewish World Fusion, with songs derived from Eastern European, Sephardi, and Middle Eastern sources, performed in a contemporary style with a driving percussive backbeat. They sing in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), performing a fusion of material reflecting Jewish culture and history, from joyous klezmer tunes to haunting Spanish ballads and rhythmic Israeli and Yemenite melodies. The name, Los Lantzmun, is derived from a Yiddish word meaning "someone from your town," or "kinsman." The members of Los Lantzmun all hail from Colorado.

Fishtank Ensemble's cross-polinated Gypsy music offers a unique blend of Gypsy, Balkan, flamenco, klezmer and original tunes. With surprising arrangements and an assortment of tools and flavors: violin, accordion, gypsy jazz guitar, shamisen, bass, saw, voice and more, they evoke the spirit of a past age with the sounds of tomorrow. The LA Weekly says of them, "...we have a young band that is one of the most thrilling live acts on the planet."

A series of chance occurrences caused the members of what would become Fishtank Ensemble to meet in an Oakland, Calif. performance space called "The Fishtank" in the spring of 2005. The band formed around their star fiddler, Fabrice Martinez. Originally from France, he has spent the last seven years traveling around Europe in a mule-drawn caravan learning and playing folk music with the ensemble Croque Mule. Much of that time was spent living in Romania, often in Romani (Gypsy) villages.

Three weeks into their formation, they recorded their debut album, Super Raoul ("raoul" is a gypsy slang term for "cool"). The album was recorded live at "The Fishtank" and at The Cayuga Vault in Santa Cruz, and it showcases the band's diverse range of styles and influences. After a successful first tour that took them up and down the West Coast of the U.S. from Freight and Salvage in Berkeley to The Fiddlehaus in Seattle, the two band members who lived in Europe agreed to relocate to the States to focus on establishing the band as a unique force in the folk and world music scenes.

For tickets visit www.swallowhillmusic.org or call (303) 777-1003 x2. Discounts are available for Swallow Hill members. Buy in advance and save! Swallow Hill Music Association is located at 71 East Yale Avenue (just off Broadway) in Denver.

In need of Romani-English interpreters

With permission I am posting an email I received last night:

Hello Allie,

I saw your contact information on your website and thought that it might be a good idea to contact you. I am a recruiter for Lionbridge Federal and we are currently recruiting Romani-English interpreters in the United States. Lionbridge provides freelance interpretation for two federal contracts with the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.

There are a number of Romani speakers (55 cases) in the system waiting for their fair day in court. One respondent in the system has been waiting for his day in court since November 2006. Unfortunately, I am unable to help them until we are able to offer Romani interpreters.

In other cases, there are detainees who have been waiting for their trial since March and August of 2007. There exist numerous other instances and we are working extremely hard to provide detainees their right to a fair trial. We hope to be able to help EVERY person receive a fair trial when there day in court is upon them.

The are two preliminary requirements for becoming a Romani-English interpreter. The person must be a U.S. citizen or resident and lived in the US for 3 of the past 5 years. The interpreter must take a 30 minute over the phone language assessment and pass a basic background check.

We have waived the judicial interpreting experience for Romani speakers since its such a rare language. The hourly rates per case is $25 (depending on experience). Freelance interpreters work on a part-time need basis. If anyone is interested they should e-mail me at karina.martinez [at] lionbridge.com

Thanks in advance,
Karina Martinez
Recruiter
www.lionbridge.com

Keep guns out of national parks!

The Bush administration has proposed a rule that would allow
visitors to carry loaded firearms in every one of our national
parks, posing a grave threat to our nation's wildlife.

Please go to
http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
today and tell the Bush administration to reject this outrageous
proposal.

Under pressure from a group of senators, the Bush administration
would weaken the current rule, which requires that firearms be
unloaded and stored to prevent their ready use. This
long-standing precaution has been crucial in controlling
poachers within our nation's national parks and protecting
certain species from extinction -- in particular, Yellowstone's
grizzly bear population.

If passed, the new rule would likely increase poaching of
imperiled species, such as Greater Yellowstone's grizzlies and
wolves. In Wyoming -- where state officials have already begun
gunning down wolves -- the wolf population is especially
vulnerable.

Allowing visitors to carry loaded weapons would also pose a
safety risk to millions of Americans who use our national parks
every year.

Our national parks should be a safe haven for all wildlife and
citizens. Please go to
http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
right away and tell the Bush administration you won't stand for
loaded guns in our national parks!

Thank you again for taking action on behalf of our parks and
wildlife.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

FOR SALE: America’s Heritage

This urgent petition asks Congress to take immediate action to prevent private development within our national parks.

For the past few years Congress and the Administration have steadily reduced the amount of money available for national parks from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is one key way the National Park Service acts to protect our national parks from private development—by acquiring land within park boundaries from willing private sellers.

Did you know more than 50 of our national parks are incomplete and have private land within park boundaries?

If we don't acquire these lands soon, there is very little we citizens will be able to do to prevent homes or commercial development from being built—right in the middle of our national parks!

Please sign this petition to Congress now — to tell them to step up and fund these critical land purchases!

National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) is America's foremost advocate for national parks. And our parks are one of our most important national commitments to the preservation of the environment.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund was established in 1965 with its own dedicated funding source. But over the years Congress and the Administration have diverted more and more of those funds to other uses. As a result, funding for Park Service land acquisition has been cut 70% just since 1999!

Earlier this month the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee doubled the Administration's request for LCWF funding to $48 million. And the ten national park examples highlighted on NPCA's map can be purchased for less than $50 million.

Congress could allocate the funds and time they want to, and we could act to protect and preserve many of our most at-risk national parks.

They just need to know that Americans care!

Do we want schoolchildren to experience wildlife and national treasures in our parks—or McMansions and other private developments?

Protecting our national parks is up to all of us!

Please sign the petition to Congress today. See the map for yourself. Share the map and petition with your friends, and ask them to take action!

Sincerely,
Thomas C. Kiernan
President

P.S. NPCA has just prepared a report called "America's Heritage: For Sale," and distributed it to Members of Congress. Now they need to hear from voters like you!

Farm Bill Blurb By The Dollar Stretcher

I've been a long subscriber to The Dollar Stretcher (http://www.stretcher.com/index.cfm) and I have to agree 200% with what the editor, Gary Foreman, has to say about the idiots in DC.

Introduction
by Gary Foreman

Hello to all my Frugal Friends!

It's fairly obvious to anyone who's not sleepwalking that
higher food and fuel prices are really hurting most Americans.
Everyday I get emails from folks who are struggling with these
two bills. For many people, it's a real serious problem.

Maybe I'm just an optimist, but I figured that our elected
representatives would recognize the problem and try to do
something about it. Boy, was I wrong. Not only did they ignore
the food price inflation, but they actually found a way to
make it worse! They just don't seem to understand what it's
like for you and me to work to support our families. Last week
provided an excellent example. On May 14th, the House passed a
$307 Billion farm bill.

Now, I like farmers as much as anyone. In fact, Foremans were
Wisconsin dairy farmers. I was raised in the city, but spent a
lot of time visiting relatives who made their living on small
family farms. So I have the utmost respect for someone who
plants something and nurtures it as it grows bigger. And, I
want to help those people wherever I can. But, this bill
doesn't do that. It assumes that you and I are too stupid to
go beyond the name "farm bill." We must be too dumb to
recognize that it's not the small farmer who's being
protected. It's the large agri-business corporation and others
who have little (or nothing) to do with farming as you and I
would think of it.

First, look at the cutoff. A couple with a yearly income of
$1.5 million can receive farm subsidies. Call me Scrooge, but
I'd say that families making more than, oh, say $500,000 per
year probably don't need subsidies paid for by you and me. One
group reports that only 8% of the producers will get 78% of
the money: http://www.forbes.com/

Still think it could be a good piece of legislation? Take a
look at your grocery bill. You'll find that bread, milk and
meat have all increased in price. Dramatically. Why? In large
part because ethanol is consuming grains that normally would
go to feed us. Higher prices indicate that there's more demand
for corn than we can produce. Now you might think that
Washington would get the idea that their ethanol mandates
should be relaxed until the supply of corn can catch up with
the demand. Guess again. So why is the government subsidizing
ethanol production? Seems a little like pouring gas on the
fire of higher food prices.

Then you have the old Congressional shell game. That's where
they include spending that has nothing to do with the main
bill. After all, who wants to be against the family farm? So
let's throw in some money for horse racing and timber
interests. Those dummies back home will never know the
difference!

Rational people might have said that this was a good time to
limit a farm bill to helping those family farmers who truly
need help. "Farm net income is up 56% in the last 2 years"
(source: NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/opinion/20brooks.html?_r=1&ref=opinion) There's "$40 billion in subsidies to
commodity farmers who already enjoy record prices." (source:
SF Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/14/MNIJ10M871.DTL&type=politics) We could have had a farm bill that took care of the small
family farm without causing additional grocery inflation. But,
that wouldn't have pleased all the special interests.

Guess I'm just mad. You and I are dealing with higher energy
and food prices. Instead of doing something to help, our
elected representatives (from both parties) are busy spending
our money buying favors for themselves. Adding "earmarks" to
every bill in sight. I really believe that it's time to put
Washington on a budget. And, force them to keep it. Whoever
said that they should be allowed to "earmark" anything? I
don't recall voting on it.

Much of the economic trouble that you and I face today is due
to the clowns (and I use the term intentionally) in Washington
that we call elected representatives. They set us up for this
fall. And, unless a camera is present, they really don't seem
to care too much about how much it hurts us. After all, things
are booming in the beltway. No recession there!

I was raised to respect the people who led our country. But,
it's really hard to respect someone when you know that their
back pockets are filled with money that at best was unearned
and, at worst, could be called bribe money. Maybe it's time to
let them know how little respect they've earned.

So the next time your elected representative says they're
against special interests ask them how they voted on the farm
bill. There were 318 yes votes (and only 106 no's) in the
House. The Senate voted 85-15. This isn't a partisan
Democrat/Republican issue. This is a question whether we can
trust the crazies on the Potomac not to bankrupt both the
government and you and me. If they voted "yes" on this bill,
it's probably time to vote "no" on their re-election this
November.

If you want to comment on the farm bill visit: http://community.stretcher.com/blogs/stretcher/archive/2008/05/19/congress-likes-higher-food-prices.aspx


Keep on Stretching Those Dollars!
Gary

Help protect Glacier National Park

Two proposed mining schemes could despoil the Canadian
headwaters of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park -- one
of the wildest places in North America and part of our Greater
Rockies BioGem.

We need your urgent action to block these disastrous proposals,
which would pollute the pristine Flathead River with
contaminated waste and threaten the outstanding fish and
wildlife of Montana's Glacier National Park.

Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
and urge the Canadian government to prohibit industrial mining
activities and coalfield developments in the headwaters of
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

Cline Mining Corporation is proposing to put an open-pit
coalmine just 25 miles upstream of Glacier National Park. The
mine would remove a mountaintop to create an open pit mine,
settling ponds and waste dumps in a pristine valley.

Meanwhile, BP Energy Corporation has proposed a massive coalbed
methane project (over 125,000 acres) that would require miles of
pipelines and wells producing hundreds of millions of gallons of
toxic wastewater. A dense network of roads would destroy prime
habitat for grizzly bears and other wildlife.

The Flathead River, which originates in British Columbia and
flows south into Montana where it forms the western boundary of
Glacier National Park, is one of the most wild, biologically
rich places in the world.

The Flathead valley and river form the heart of the Crown of the
Continent ecosystem, which is home to wolves, grizzly bears,
wolverines and lynx.

Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
and tell the Canadian government to protect Waterton-Glacier
International Peace Park from damaging industrialization.

Thank you for helping to save one of North America's most
valuable wildlife habitats.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

Operation Climate Vote!

The Senate is set to vote on landmark global warming legislation in early June. We need your help to urge your Senators to seize this historic opportunity to cap and reduce America's global warming pollution.

Email your Senators our list of the top 5 reasons why they must act now.

Here's our list:

1. Every year we wait equals extra effort. If we delay this bill by just two years, we will have to make twice the annual cuts in carbon emissions to hit the same cumulative reductions by 2020.

2. The science is unforgiving. As the Earth warms, we approach a "tipping point," after which large destructive climate changes become inevitable.

3. The political opportunity is ripe. 78% of Americans want Congress to act on global warming. We need to take advantage of the tremendous momentum that exists today.

4. Someone is going to win the global race to reinvent energy. It should be us. Renewable energy promises to become one of the world's most profitable industries. But advances in renewable energy technologies will not be fully realized without a national cap on global warming pollution. The sooner we act, the sooner these new industries will start to flourish.

5. What legacy will the 110th Congress leave? When future generations look back at this moment, they will either praise the Senate for starting us down the path to solving the global warming crisis, or blame the Senate for squandering this opportunity.


You and I - and everyone we know - need to make sure that the Senate gets the message now.

With your support, we're keeping up constant pressure to make sure the Senate seizes this historic opportunity. As the Climate Security Act makes its way to the Senate floor for a vote next month, we must hammer these urgent points home.

Please email your Senators our top 5 list now.

Thank you for all that you do.

Sincerely,

The Global Warming Team at Environmental Defense Action Fund

Polar Bear Breakthrough - SOS

Alaska's polar bears have moved one big step closer to receiving protection under the Endangered Species Act.

A federal judge just ordered the Bush Administration to stop dragging its feet and decide by May 15 whether it will safeguard America's polar bears from the threat of extinction due to rising temperatures and rapidly melting sea ice.

It took a lawsuit by NRDC, the Center for Biological Diversity and Greenpeace to force this latest breakthrough. The court ruled that the Bush Administration had violated the law by missing its January deadline and then proceeding to delay for months more.

While the Administration stalled for time, it rammed through oil and gas leases in some of the polar bear's most important Arctic habitat.

By ordering a May 15 deadline for this decision, the federal courts have thrown polar bears an important lifeline.

That's because the Endangered Species Act requires this momentous decision to be made solely on the best available science -- not politics -- and the science is absolutely clear that the polar bear urgently needs protection from the impacts of global warming.

With reports of polar bears starving and drowning...snowy dens collapsing on mother bears and their newborn cubs...and populations in decline, there is no longer any doubt that the climate crisis is taking a terrible toll on these magnificent creatures.

But despite the iron-clad evidence, there is no assurance that the Bush Administration will do the right thing on May 15. Given President Bush's pro-polluter agenda and relentless attacks on wildlife, it is still possible that the Interior Department will deny protection for the polar bear.

In that case, we'll be fully prepared to drag the Bush Administration back to court and fight in the legal arena until polar bears win the protection they so urgently need.

I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as we get word of the Administration’s decision. In the meantime, if you haven't done so already, please take a moment to tell your senators to stop oil development in Alaska's prime polar bear habitat.

With Alaska's polar bears under siege, I am so grateful to have you working by our side to help ensure their survival.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

New Report Spotlights Ten Wild Places at Risk

Wild...For How Long? Ten Treasures in Trouble, looks at ten special wild areas from coast to coast, vulnerable today to mining, drilling, roadbuilding, logging, development and off-road vehicle abuse.

The report, issued by the Campaign for America's Wilderness, spotlights wild land at risk, but also those that are poised for wilderness designation, in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The report also celebrates some of the local heroes working to protect these places they love. View the report [1] (5.8 MB).

Friends of the Earth Blasts Bush Admin Railroad Routing Regs

For Immediate Release

For more information contact:
Nick Berning, 202-222-0748

Contact:
Fred Millar, 703-979-9191
Nick Berning, 202-222-0748


WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Bush administration published new regulations today that allow U.S. railroads to unilaterally select dangerous routes through or around major cities for chemical railcars that the federal agencies call “Weapons of Mass Destruction.”

Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder had the following response:

“These regulations are part of President Bush’s failed homeland security legacy. This rerouting policy leaves our cities vulnerable to attacks on trains carrying hazardous rail cargoes. It is an abdication of government responsibility in the face of corporate power that endangers millions of Americans.”

Fred Millar, rail security consultant for Friends of the Earth, said:

"Cities and states will need to protest these new regulations vigorously, and once again Congress will need to re-address the rail routing issue. This Bush administration pretense of regulation must be replaced with real protections for target cities."

OVERVIEW OF THE NEW RULE: SAME AS THE BUSH ADMINSTRATION’S LAST FAILED ATTEMPT

The new rule is nearly identical to the one Bush administration proposed December 21, 2006, and which Congress subsequently found inadequate. The previous rule and the new one allow railroads to pick hazardous materials routes using assumptions and calculations that are kept secret from the public. They also allow virtually no role for state and local officials in these selections and preempt state and local rerouting legislation. Eleven major U.S. target cities, beginning in 2005 with Washington D.C., and including St. Louis, Buffalo and Chicago, and two states (New York and Tennessee) have introduced new rerouting legislation, and many major media reports have shown the easy accessibility to dangerous railcars in cities and railyards.

The new rule utilizes the same flawed regulatory techniques as the last one, ensuring that virtually no protective rerouting will occur:

1. It puts individual railroads (including the 300 or so relatively new shortline railroads which often link major rail lines and the chemical company shippers or final customers for the dangerous rail cargoes) in charge of analyzing their own current routes and alternatives to these “over which they have authority to operate.” The Department of Transportation appeals in the regulation to the “good faith” of the railroads—a flawed approach.

2. Individual railroads are allowed to make the critical decision to “weight” the 27 new “factors” they must consider (in Appendix D) —DOT declines even to rank order the factors.

3. Railroads are told they should “work with” state and local officials, but the latter have no role in any of the important route analyses or selections.

4. The information on analyses and route selections must be “restricted” to those with “a need to know,” and specifically are not to be shared with the public.

5. The federal agencies will not approve route selections, nor set up any kind of new oversight, but leave it to the current cadre of overburdened inspectors.

6. The agency suggests that rerouting will entail increased safety risks and economic costs that will override potential terrorist risks. The example DOT uses for calculating the value of the rule is the accidental release of one railcar of chlorine in the tiny town of Graniteville, S.C.—much larger disasters are possible.

7. Even if a railroad identifies an alternative route as safer and more secure, it may continue to use the one through the target city by implementing some unspecified “remediation and mitigation” measures [p. 20762].

8. The interim final rule is not effective until June 1, 2008, and gives the railroads another full year (until Sept 1, 2009) to implement route analyses and selections.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

As CSXT suggested already in the federal docket, since 9/11 the public has reconsidered what is an acceptable risk:

“The support of the public, and of many policy makers, has greatly eroded since 9/11. Now the railroads are harshly criticized for transporting these [TIH, or “ Toxic by Inhalation” poison gas cargoes] …Our company’s reputation has been assailed…[and] vilified in the media. TIH cannot simply continue to move by railroad indefinitely…Even if the potential for ruinous liability were somehow erased, the widespread social disapproval of TIH transport by rail would remain.” http://dmses.dot.gov/docimages/pdf101/456287_web.pdf

In response to public concern, Congress enacted, and President Bush signed on August 3, 2007 a new toxics rail re-routing law that embodies this new bipartisan national consensus: we should protect our target cities by re-routing, wherever possible, the through railcar chemical “security sensitive” cargoes to go around "high consequence areas" onto non-target routes. [See H.R. 1, “The 9/11 Commission Act,” Section 1551,]:

"The Secretary of Transportation shall ensure that the final regulation requires each railroad carrier transporting security-sensitive materials in commerce to annually review and select the practicable route posing the least overall safety and security risk …." The new Bush Administration routing rule, on the other hand, provides the railroads an astonishing total of 27 new “factors” to consider in their routing decisions, and with only minimal federal oversight “in the most extreme cases.” Most of these factors are so entirely non-related to terrorism prevention [such as “safety” and “commercial practicability”] that they are clearly 27 ways NOT to re-route.

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Friends of the Earth (www.foe.org) is the U.S. voice of the world’s largest grassroots environmental network, with member groups in 70 countries. Since 1969, Friends of the Earth has been at the forefront of high-profile efforts to create a more healthy, just world.


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Oppose Sham Global Warming Bill

Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) proposed legislation that would allow global warming pollution to increase for decades.

If you think global warming is a hoax, this is your bill.

Email your Senators today to oppose Senator Voinovich's sham global warming proposal.

The Senate has scheduled time the first week of June to debate and vote on global warming legislation, and this proposal may be debated then.

We need the Senate to seize this opportunity to cap and reduce America's global warming pollution with a meaningful bill, not waste precious time on delaying and denying the reality of global warming.

The Voinovich bill is dressed up as a way to take action, but in fact is a detailed prescription for doing nothing.

It would postpone meaningful action on global warming pollution for at least twenty years. It calls for weak, non-binding emissions reduction benchmarks – current levels in 2020 and 1990 levels in 2030 – while providing taxpayer-funded subsidies for favored technologies.

The Environmental Protection Agency could establish a cap and trade system to reduce emissions – but it could be suspended the cap on a whim, and it would come with an astonishingly low $5 per ton "safety valve" – an artificial price control on emissions reductions.

In the meantime, the proposal would take away state authority – confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA – to control global warming pollution. Dozens of states across the country, including California, Florida, and the Northeast members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, have set ambitious emissions reduction targets.

We need to do everything we can to defeat Senator Voinovich's sham bill.

Take action today: Email your Senators to urge them to oppose the Voinovich proposal.

Thank you for helping keep the pressure on for real global warming action this year.

-- The Global Warming Team at Environmental Defense Action Fund

Gas leasing review could undercut protection for the Wyoming Range

With 126,000 new oil and gas wells projected to be built across our western public lands over the next 20 years, it's up to us to ensure that areas rich in wilderness and wildlife are protected.

The Wilderness Society has been working locally and with WildAlert members like you to curtail drilling plans in areas with special wildlife and wilderness values. The Wyoming Range is just such a place - click here to help protect it!

A rugged chain of mountains in the western part of the state, the Wyoming Range is prime habitat for moose, deer and elk. It's a beloved spot for blue-ribbon fishing and other recreation. This place is so special that Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso has introduced legislation to protect it from leasing.

But the Forest Service is considering whether to lease these public lands to oil and gas drilling before Congress can act to protect them. Please take action today and ask the agency to withdraw the proposed leases in the Wyoming Range.

Thank you!
Kathy Kilmer
The Wilderness Society

Poaching Plague Hits U.S. Bears

Many bears are killed just for their gallbladders, which are used in traditional Asian medicines to treat a variety of illnesses. Although accepted alternatives exist in traditional medicines, demand for bear parts is soaring.

As Asian bear populations have fallen, poachers are turning to bears in the U.S. to satisfy a flourishing black market. Each year, 30,000 or more bears are killed illegally in the U.S.

I just asked my Representative to sign on as a cosponsor to the Bear Protection Act (H.R. 5534) -- bipartisan legislation that would help end this poaching plague. You can, too. Just visit the web site below:

http://action.defenders.org/endbearpoaching

Poachers target hibernating bears in their dens and even track radio-collared bears that are part of scientific studies. And law enforcement agents report grisly findings: bear carcasses left in the woods with only the gallbladder and other parts removed.

Visit http://action.defenders.org/endbearpoaching and help save our bears!

Thanks!

Earth Day Action: Jaguars, Polar Bears Threatened by Inaction

Tuesday is Earth Day, and while millions of Americans will do what they can to enjoy and protect America’s natural treasures, there’s one man who should be doing a lot more: President Bush’s Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne.

Take Action for Earth Day! Urge Congress to hold hearings on Secretary Kempthorne’s abysmal track record on protecting America’s wildlife.

As Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne is supposed to be looking out for America’s natural treasures. He’s supposed to be concerned about the future we’ll leave for our children.But since being appointed almost two years ago, Secretary Kempthorne hasn’t listed a single new species under the Endangered Species Act -- even though federal biologists warn that at least 280 native species could disappear forever without such protections.

Urge Congress to hold Secretary Kempthorne accountable for his failure to act for wildlife by holding Congressional hearings...

Jaguars: Despite the presence of jaguars in the United States and the existence of large swaths of prime jaguar habitat, Kempthorne’s department has refused to create a recovery plan for these endangered cats, claiming that this big cat is a “foreign” species. But under this flawed argument, the U.S. would have had no obligation to protect bald eagles, wolves, grizzlies or other native species -- so long as they existed somewhere outside the lower 48 states!

Polar Bears: Secretary Kempthorne has repeatedly delayed listing the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act and in February approved harmful offshore drilling in the Chukchi Sea -- essential habitat for one of the two remaining U.S. polar bear populations. Last fall, federal scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey reported that polar bears could be extinct in Alaska by 2050. Other Species: Under Kempthorne, the Interior Department has even denied vital protections for wolverines, red knots and right whales -- all species in serious decline and dangerously close to extinction.

Urge your Representative to hold Kempthorne accountable in Congressional hearings for not doing more to protect polar bears, jaguars and other wildlife...

It’s the Secretary of Interior’s job to protect our wildlife and wild places. And it’s Congress’ job to hold the Secretary accountable when he fails to do his job.

This Earth Day, please take a moment out of your day to speak out for responsible management of our precious wildlife.

Sincerely,
Rodger Schlickeisen
President
Defenders of Wildlife

P.S. To celebrate Earth Day, Defenders’ DC staff will be volunteering at Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland. To help wildlife in your community this Earth Day, please take our Earth Day Pledge and check out our events page to find special Earth Day celebrations with our outreach representatives in Colorado, California and New Mexico.

Celebrate Earth Day, April 22

At NRDC, Earth Day isn't just another Tuesday in April. Seeing the outpouring of support for the environment, from all parts of the country, inspires us to keep working to make our planet a better place to live. How do you plan to mark this special day? Our special package of Earth Day resources can help you find ways to celebrate, large and small.

See our Earth Day toolkit

The NRDC FAQ
Find the answers to NRDC's most frequently asked environmental questions.

Recycling 101
Our revamped recycling guide covers the basics and tells you how to take your recycling game to the next level.

For Kids: The Green Squad
How kids can make their schools greener and healthier.

Yellowstone Bison Slaughter Tops 1,100

Bison once numbered in the tens of millions across the Great Plains until a wholesale slaughter nearly wiped them out.

Now some of America's last free-roaming wild bison are being slaughtered on a scale not seen since the 1800s. And hundreds more could to be killed.

Take action now! Write the Montana Promotion Division -- the state's tourism officials -- and speak out for sensible wildlife management of these American icons!

Each winter, Yellowstone National Park bison migrate from snow-covered highlands to lower elevations outside the park’s boundaries in search of food.

But because of an unfounded fear that bison will transmit a disease called brucellosis to domestic cattle, bison face a grim fate -- even though there has never been a documented case of a wild bison transmitting the disease to cattle.

Once these majestic animals cross park boundaries, federal and Montana state officials chase bison back into the park where food is scarce -- or they are shipped off to slaughter.

This year alone, more than 1,100 bison have been killed -- nearly a quarter of the wild population. This is no way to manage one of the most beloved icons of the American West.

Write Montana tourism officials today and tell them that you want Montana to stop killing America’s bison.

The Montana Promotion Division -- the state’s tourism department -- is our best ally in Montana to press state officials to stop the shameful bison slaughter.

Together we can help ensure that America’s wild bison will continue to roam the American West.

Thanks for all you do to protect wildlife and the places it lives.

Sincerely,

Mike Leahy
Rocky Mountain Region Director
Defenders of Wildlife

Tell the Park Service to Save Yellowstone's Buffalo, Not Slaughter Them!

Yellowstone's wild, free-roaming buffalo herd is under siege.

The Bush Administration is turning the herd's birthing ground into a killing ground for hundreds of mighty bison -- better known as American buffalo.

We must speak out against this cold-blooded cruelty NOW -- because every week, more of these noble creatures are being herded into cattle trucks to be slaughtered.

This winter alone, more than 1,200 wild bison have been brutally killed -- or shipped to slaughterhouses -- by the Montana Department of Livestock, with the cooperation and approval of the National Park Service.

And come May, newborn calves are just as likely to be killed as their mothers.

We cannot stand by and let this massacre continue: Send a protest message now.

Right now, it's still winter in Yellowstone, and these unsuspecting buffalo are following historic migratory routes in search of food at lower elevations where there is less snow.

When the buffalo venture near or beyond the park's boundary, they will continue to be rounded up and killed -- unless we start a national outcry.

What makes this sacrifice so senseless is that it's all to protect roughly 200 domestic cows and steers that graze near the park from the theoretical risk of a disease -- brucellosis -- that has never been transmitted from bison to cattle in a natural setting.

Even more tragic, newborn calves and their mothers will be rounded up this spring in their birthing ground of Horse Butte, Montana -- a completely cattle-free zone -- which means they are being killed for absolutely no reason.

Please speak out and stop the slaughter. Yellowstone's buffalo are a national treasure: America's last, free-roaming herd. The National Park Service should be their guardian, not an accomplice to their execution.

Already, more than 90,000 Americans have submitted protest messages demanding that the National Park Service call a halt to the killing.

But now with so many newborn buffalo about to be killed -- we need to do more. Please submit your protest message and help us stop the spring massacre.

Together, we must speak out to spare the lives of Yellowstone's surviving buffalo so that they can again roam wild and free.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President

Tim's Salamander and Your Action Today

Meet Tim Koopman. This California rancher might have a very different relationship with the endangered wildlife that lives on his land if he hadn’t enlisted in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) about eight years ago.

Now the California tiger salamanders, western pond turtles, western bluebirds and other wildlife on his land have become a regular part of Tim's land -- and important part of his operations.

Help support wildlife-friendly ranchers and farmers like Tim. Urge your Senators and Representative to support wildlife-friendly agriculture and adequately fund conservation programs in the federal Farm Bill.

Will farmers like Tim lose access to the incentives that help enable them to protect wildlife on their lands? And will Congress strip the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) of its power to restrict toxic pesticides in the Farm Bill’s conservation programs?

It’s up to your elected officials -- and you.

Please take action now to protect conservation funding in the farm bill and stop a provision that would bar incentives to reduce the use of pesticides that can harm wildlife, pollute our water and sicken our families.

More than half of all agricultural streams have pesticide contamination that threatens aquatic life, according to the federal National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. About 10 percent of these streams do not meet human health standards.

Such contamination harms our wildlife and our families, but that hasn’t stopped Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte from pushing his outrageous eleventh-hour amendment to the House version of the Farm Bill that strips USDA of its power to restrict toxic pesticides in its conservation programs.

Help us stop the Goodlatte Amendment and ensure that wildlife, water quality and farmers like Tim all get a fair shake in the Farm Bill.

Congress is expected to vote on the Farm Bill in the next few weeks, so it’s extremely important that we make our voices heard now. Please take action today and let your Senators know that you…

SUPPORT increased conservation funding in the Federal Farm Bill to help private landowners protect threatened and endangered species.

OPPOSE the Goodlatte Pesticides Amendment

Defenders of Wildlife is doing all we can to ensure that Congress passes a wildlife-friendly Farm Bill. I hope you’ll help.

Sincerely,

Rodger Schlickeisen
President
Defenders of Wildlife

Senate to Vote on Critical Bill- Don't Wait!

Any day now, the Senate could vote on a package of public lands bills that will greatly benefit our national parks and public lands. Some of NPCA's top priorities-- reauthorization of the Park Service's Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program, the Cesar Chavez Study Act, and the Acadia National Park Improvement Act to name a few--are all in the mix. These bills have strong bi-partisan support, and yet they’ve been held up for more than a year.

It's about time the Senate take action on these bills to protect and interpret our national heritage.

TAKE ACTION: Americans care about our national parks and public lands. The House of Representatives has already passed these bills--and its time for the Senate to do the same. Write your Senators and urge them to vote in favor of S. 2739. Write your Senator today!

Thanks for all you do.

Dionna Humphrey, Associate Director of Advocacy

Sign our Petition: Save the Giant Sequoias

I have good news and I have bad news.

The good news is that thanks to the support of our Sierra Club members and supporters we were able to block a staggering 5,000-acre timber sale in the Giant Sequoia National Monument.

But the bad news is our fight to protect the majestic Giant Sequoias is not over. More than half of the remaining groves — located in Giant Sequoia National Monument — are in jeopardy because, despite being rebuked by the federal courts, the Bush Administration is refusing to back off its plan to log this irreplaceable ancient forest. That’s why we are asking you to act now and sign our petition to Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell, asking her to implement the strongest possible protections for Giant Sequoia National Monument.

Without these protections, loggers would be permitted to cut down trees of any species 30” in diameter or larger — a size that normally takes two centuries or more to grow. In addition, timber companies would be entitled to take 7.5 million board feet of lumber from Giant Sequoia National Monument each year — enough trees to fill 2,500 logging trucks — that’s a truck almost every three hours!

Your signed petition to Abigail Kimbell will put the U.S. Forest Service on notice that the American people won’t stand by as commercial logging damages this fragile ecosystem and threatens our remaining Giant Sequoia groves. And with your backing we will work to extend permanent protections to these magnificent and imperiled trees — by transferring management of the Giant Sequoia National Monument to the National Park Service.

The future of our cherished Giant Sequoia National Monument is hanging in the balance — please sign our petition today - and help preserve these awe-inspiring trees for generations to come.

Sincerely,
Greg Haegele
Director of Conservation

PS. Some Sequoia trees have lived as long as 3,500 years — but they are facing their biggest threats yet during the Bush Administration’s two terms — please act now.

Sierra Club
85 Second Street, 2nd Fl.
San Francisco, CA 94105
membership.services@sierraclub.org
(415) 977-5653
http://www.sierraclub.org/

Help Save Polar Bears and Other Arctic Wildlife

The news for polar bears is bleak -- polar bears could disappear entirely from Alaska within 50 short years due to a drastic decline in Arctic sea ice.

But Big Oil and their allies in Congress are willing to sell out our vanishing polar bears for a few barrels of oil. Well, I'm doing something to protect Arctic wildlife and our polar bear's last stand -- and I hope you will, too.

It's easy to get involved -- Just take action online at the website below:

http://action.defenders.org/arcticwilderness

Polar bears and other Arctic wildlife are facing a double-barreled threat from Congress and the Bush/Cheney Administration.

President Bush is calling for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling in his budget. And Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have introduced legislation to link drilling plans to gas prices -- despite federal estimates that such drilling would do next to nothing to reduce gas prices.

Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would, however, threaten the most important land-based habitat that America's vanishing polar bears have left.

Please urge your Senators to reject the latest Arctic Refuge drilling plans and permanently safeguard this special place by designating portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as federally protected wilderness -- take action online now at:

http://action.defenders.org/arcticwilderness

Thanks for your help...

Yellowstone Buffalo Headed to Slaughterhouse. Save Them Now.

Yellowstone's wild, free-roaming buffalo herd is under siege.

The Bush Administration is turning America's greatest national park into a killing ground for hundreds of mighty bison -- better known as American buffalo.

We must speak out against this cold-blooded cruelty NOW -- because every week, more of these noble creatures are being herded into cattle trucks to be slaughtered.

This winter alone, more than 1,000 wild bison have been brutally killed by the National Park Service and the Montana Department of Livestock -- or shipped to slaughterhouses.

And come May, newborn calves are just as likely to be killed as their mothers.

We cannot stand by and let this massacre continue: Send a protest message now.

Right now, it's still winter in Yellowstone, and these unsuspecting buffalo are following historic migratory routes in search of food at lower elevations where there is less snow.

When the buffalo venture near or beyond the park's boundary, they will continue to be rounded up and killed -- unless we start a national outcry.

What makes this sacrifice so senseless is that it's all to protect 12 to 16 domestic cows and steers that graze near the park from the theoretical risk of a disease -- brucellosis -- that has never been transmitted from bison to cattle in a natural setting.

Yes, you read those numbers right: 1,000 wild bison slaughtered to protect a little more than a dozen cows outside the park that have most likely been vaccinated against the disease, or easily could be.

Please speak out and stop the slaughter. Yellowstone's buffalo are a national treasure: America's last, free-roaming herd. The National Park Service should be their guardian, not their executioner.

Our goal this week is to create a virtual "stampede" of 50,000 protest messages that will convince the National Park Service to call a halt to the killing.

Together, we must speak out to spare the lives of Yellowstone's surviving buffalo so that they can again roam wild and free.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
NRDC Action Fund

'Student Gypsy' Opens at Eureka Theater on 03/29

by BWW News Desk

42nd Street Moon continues its fifteenth season of Uncommon Musicals in Concert with Alameda native Rick Besoyan’s riotously funny The Student Gypsy (or “The Prince of Liederkranz”), the 1963 follow-up to his smash-hit operetta-spoof, Little Mary Sunshine. Maureen McVerry, who made her highly-acclaimed company debut last year in Pardon My English, returns to play the role of gypsy queen Zampa Allescu. The show previews on March 27 & 28, opens on March 29 at 6 pm, and runs through April 13, with a special family matinee on Saturday April 5 @ 1 pm.

A wacky hybrid, like a Romberg operetta crossed with a zany Marx Brothers farce, The Student Gypsy is set in turn-of-the-century Singspielia, where Merry May Glockenspiel, a charming but myopic young woman, takes up with a band of gypsies in her search for romance. Her mentor, Zampa the Gypsy Queen, has a dark secret involving the true identity of the Prince of neighboring Liederkranz. The show opened to good reviews, but a newspaper strike kept much of the public from reading opinions such as the NY Daily News that hailed it as “fresh, delightfully tuneful, and achingly funny.” Songs include Romance, Seventh Heaven Waltz, and the show’s hit, the daffy bell-ringing number Ting-a-Ling Dearie.

Maureen McVerry, winner of five Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle Awards and two Drama-Logue Awards, has appeared with such Bay Area theater companies as A.C.T., TheatreWorks, and San Jose Rep., and was most recently featured in the Aurora Theatre’s Sex. Since 1994 she has performed her evolving one-woman cabaret show, Verry McVerry. Film and television credits include Nine Months, True Believer, Big Business, The Ox and the Eye, and Full House.

The Student Gypsy will be directed by 42nd Street Moon’s Founding Artistic Director, Greg McKellan. Dave Dobrusky is Music Director and Staci Arriaga will choreograph. Rena Wilson, recently featured in the Willows Production of Cats, stars with McVerry as Merry May Glockenspiel, the role originated by Eileen Brennan. Recent New York transplant Gabriel Grilli is Rudolph Von Schlump and Tony Panighetti takes Dom DeLuise’s old role as medicine show entertainer, Muffin T. Ragamuffin. Papa Glockenspiel is played by Richard Pardini, with Tyler Kent as Col. Helmut Blunderbuss. Juliet Heller as Ginger Glockenspiel, Jarrod Quon as Zampa’s son, the evil Gryphon Allescu, and Buzz Halsing as King Osgood the Good. Other cast members are Brandon Finch, Lillian Askew, Molly Coogan, Samantha Bartholomew, Erin Hoffman and Christopher Nelson.

Moon at 15! continues with the André Previn/Alan Jay Lerner tribute to the fascinating world of Parisian fashion, Coco (1968). Cabaret and concert star Andrea Marcovicci brings her captivating high style to the role of the mercurial fashion doyenne Coco Chanel. Coco will be presented April 24 – May 11, 2008.

Tickets ranging from $22 - $38 are available through the 42nd Street Moon Box Office at 415/255-8207 (Open Tues. – Fri. from noon to 5 p.m.), or through the website www.42ndstmoon.org . All performances are presented at San Francisco’s intimate Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson St. in San Francisco.

Wolf Opponent for McCain's Vice President?

With last week’s primary wins in Texas and Ohio, Senator John McCain is the last Republican presidential candidate standing.

Unfortunately, one name being circulated as a possible pick for his Vice President is someone who has made the slaughter of wolves a personal goal... first-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Wildlife conservation is not a partisan issue. Tell Governor Palin that you believe that no one should support her in a bid for the Vice Presidency or any office until she cleans up her act.

This is the same Sarah Palin who…

-Introduced legislation that could deny more than 50,000 Alaskans the right to vote on aerial killing of wolves and bears.

-Has condoned a $400,000 state-funded propaganda campaign to convince Alaskans to support the state’s shooting of wolves and bears from airplanes -- even though wildlife biologists from around the world say that it is scientifically unfounded.

-Nominated her high school basketball coach a man with no wildlife management experience to sit on the state’s powerful Board of Game.

-Proposed a $150 bounty to spur wolf killing in specified management zones.

Sign our petition and help us turn the national spotlight on Governor Palin’s shameful record.

As the last eight years have demonstrated, leadership counts. Please sign our petition today and let Governor Palin know that dedicated conservationists across America expect better from our elected leaders.

For the Wildlife!
Rodger Schlickeisen
President
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund

Vt. Towns Approve Bush 'Indictment'

Another reason to LOVE VT:)

By JOHN CURRAN Associated Press
Writer
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. Mar 4, 2008 (AP)

Voters in two Vermont towns approved measures Tuesday calling for the indictment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for what they consider violations of the Constitution.

More symbolic than anything, the items sought to have police arrest Bush and Cheney if they ever visit Brattleboro or nearby Marlboro or to extradite them for prosecution elsewhere — if they're not impeached first.

In Brattleboro, the vote was 2,012-1,795. In Marlboro, which held a town meeting on the issue, it was 43-25 with three abstentions.

"I hope the one thing that people take from this is, 'Hey, it can be done,'" said Kurt Daims, 54, who organized the petition drive that led to the Brattleboro vote.

(MORE)

Huge Failure at Mining Safety Agency - Take Action

Many of us watched in horror last summer as miners lost their lives in the Crandall Canyon mine collapse in Utah, and before that, the disasters at Sago, Darby and Aracoma mines.

You’d think that after all that, the government would make mine safety a top priority. Think again. Recent reports uncovered a huge failure at the federal agency in charge of mine safety >>

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) failed to fine more than 4,000 safety health violations over the last six years when mines broke regulations!

This is an affront to workers who put their lives at risk every day. Sign the petition telling the mine safety agency to do its job >>

Assistant Secretary Richard Stickler, the man responsible for mine safety in this country, used to be a coal mining executive. The mines he managed had injury rates that were double the national average.

Sign the petition telling Mr. Stickler how he can improve mine safety >>

Thank you for standing up for workers everywhere.

Urgent: Greater Yellowstone Wolves Delisted - Act Now!

It happened today - the Bush administration has just eliminated federal protections for hundreds of endangered wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies.

Please protest this decision now - it will only take a minute to send your message in support of protecting these wolves!

This decision leaves wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies at the mercy of outrageous state management plans that allow for the killing of as many as 1,200 wolves - 80% of all the region's wild wolves!

Idaho officials want to use aerial gunning to kill wolves in their state. Wyoming agencies have left the door open to the use of traps and poison to eliminate wolves. And officials in both states - and Montana - have proposed wolf hunts.

That's not responsible wildlife management. It's a recipe for disaster.

Please make your voice heard today and demand continued protections for wolves!

Thank you for your urgent action today!

No Fully-Loaded Weapons in National Parks!

You won't believe this. Senator Coburn (R-OK) has introduced a bill that would allow anyone to carry loaded guns into our national parks. I need you to join me in keeping loaded concealed weapons out of our national parks! Please write your U.S. Senators today and urge them to vote "no" on Senator Coburn's bill on loaded guns in parks.

Let's keep our national parks SAFE for visitors and wildlife.

NPCA isn't opposed to individual gun ownership. But we agree with the National Park Service that our national parks are no place for loaded deadly weapons.

Senator Coburn brokered a deal with the Senate to allow him to introduce five amendments to a package of public lands bills, after he had been blocking those bills for nearly a year. However, despite attempts to keep this senseless amendment from seeing the light of day, Coburn introduced his amendment as a free-standing bill. Senator Coburn clearly has an agenda-- and it's not the safety of park visitors he's thinking about. Like the original amendment, this bill would prohibit Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne from enforcing current weapons restrictions.

Under current regulations, it is perfectly legal to transport firearms through national parks, as long as they are unloaded and safely stored. Asking Secretary Kempthorne to stop enforcing this reasonable rule (which dates back to the Reagan Administration) and start allowing people to carry loaded weapons in our parks would put park visitors, endangered wildlife, and iconic national treasures in jeopardy.

It is urgent that you join me in writing your U.S. Senators and telling them to vote "no" on the Coburn "loaded guns in parks" bill, S. 2619.

Let them know that passing the Coburn bill would:

-Create new safety hazards for families and children visiting our parks

-Make it more difficult for underfunded and understaffed park rangers to protect our parks

-Create confusion over gun laws in parks that straddle multiple states

-Allow loaded guns in crowded public park areas like the St. Louis Arch and the Jefferson Memorial

-Increase opportunities for illegal hunting and vandalism

-Park rangers are struggling to stay ahead of poachers and vandals. With poaching already threatening a number of species in our national parks throughout the country, allowing loaded guns in our parks could make the situation ten times worse!

I know this is hard to believe, but it's true-- and it's happening right now. Please take action today to oppose S. 2619, the Coburn "loaded guns in parks" bill. Tell your Senators you support the reasonable restrictions already on the books that allow unloaded, stored guns in our parks. It's a rule that respects the rights of gun owners --and protects the safety of families and wildlife.

Sincerely,
Thomas C. Kiernan
President

P.S. The Senate could take this bill up any day, so please don't wait. Write your Senators now and urge them to vote "no" on the Coburn bill. Tell them our national parks are a place for loaded cameras--not loaded guns. Thank you.

Barker's gift launches animal ethics course at Drury

Steve Koehler
News-Leader

A $1 million endowment from game-show legend Bob Barker will establish the country's first undergraduate course on animal ethics at Drury University.

Before a standing-room-only crowd of students and faculty — as well as several dozen dogs and a few cats — Barker handed over a check to Drury President Todd Parnell on Monday.

"I'm flattered beyond words for so many of you to be here," said Barker, a Drury alum and longtime host of "The Price is Right." He spoke to the audience packed into a large room in the Trustee Science Building in the middle of Monday's ice storm.

The money, Parnell said, will give Drury students "the means to an education dominated by the most prestigious universities in the country."

Several law schools, including those at Harvard and Stanford, have also received gifts from Barker to fund the study of animal rights.

"It's going to be so interesting for you," Barker told students. "My hope is that the model is duplicated across the country."

The semester-long course will begin in either the fall of 2009 or the spring of 2010. It's an interdisciplinary class that will examine animal rights through various areas including religion, the environment, criminology, philosophy and biology.

Wendy Anderson, associate professor of biology, said her portion of the course will explore several areas, including the environmental impact of confined animal feeding operations; the impact of exotic animals becoming pets or being placed in zoos; what happens when pets are released into the ecosystem; and the impact on vegetation and other animals.

Other parts of the course will look at laws protecting animals, how animals are regarded in religion and advances that have been made to minimize animal testing.

"It's very exciting. It's something that's uniquely Drury," Anderson said. "I plan on going to the classes every day myself. I'm only teaching for two weeks, and I want to see what the other (faculty) are teaching."

The enthusiasm of the faculty impressed Barker.

"I had high hopes for this course and after visiting with the faculty, my hopes are boundless now," Barker said. "It's going to be known as a wonderful, wonderful course."

The idea for the course came from Patricia McEachern, associate professor of French at Drury and an animal-rights advocate. She talked with Barker while he was on campus to deliver Drury's commencement address in May.

"Bob Barker is a personal hero to me. He's done more for animals than any human being on the planet. He is a modern-day St. Francis of Assisi," she said.

McEachern said Barker called her office this fall and left a message asking her to call him at home.

"I couldn't do that," she initially thought. But she eventually called and the two spoke often as they developed the course that would include classroom work, appearances by special speakers and conferences on the subject.

"We hope that whatever area we go into, we develop an empathy for animals and animal rights," she said.

McEachern admitted Monday that she was so excited after dropping Barker off at his hotel room Sunday night that she forgot to take the check. Thankfully, Barker reminded her to take it.

She kept the check on her nightstand and gave it to Parnell Monday at the press conference.

Jessica Kleekamp, a junior studying English, will likely graduate before the course is available. But she showed her support Monday by carrying a sign that resembled the podium contestants stand behind on Barker's game show.

It read: "1,000,000. Animal Rights" and on the other side it read: "Have Your Pet (Spayed) or Neutered."

"I've watched Bob since I was a little kid," Kleekamp said. "I like him as both (animal rights advocate and game show host). I knew him first as a game show host, but I think he's really great at animal rights, too."

Protect Yellowstone and the Greater Rockies

Facing its final year in office, the Bush administration is intensifying its push to open the wildest parts of America's national forests to destructive logging, roadbuilding and development. As part of this scheme, the U.S. Forest Service has proposed to weaken -- and in some areas completely eliminate -- existing protections for 4.4 million acres of Colorado's wild forests. These wildlands provide crucial habitat for the Canada lynx, the greenback cutthroat trout and other imperiled wildlife. They also serve as the watersheds for much of Colorado's drinking water. The Forest Service proposal threatens some of the state's most outstanding recreation spots, like Herman Gulch, a wild escape within short driving distance of Denver, and the Pagoda Peak area, the summer range for part of the largest elk herd in North America.

Please speak out now and help us block this attack on America's last wild national forests.

http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/

Urge your senators to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty

Urge your senators to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty

The Senate could soon consider whether the United States should
sign on to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,
also known simply as the Law of the Sea Treaty. The Law of the
Sea will help expand protections for our planet's oceans, and
becoming a party to the treaty would permit the United States to
more effectively influence major upcoming international debates
concerning ocean activities.

The treaty's environmental provisions cover all aspects of the
marine environment, including fishing, pollution, offshore
mining and oil and gas exploration; such activities are having
major impacts that require urgent action. For example, with
rapidly accelerating summer melting of Arctic sea ice, new
proposals for shipping, oil and gas exploration and other
harmful activities are multiplying. Ratifying the Law of the Sea
treaty would give the United States a seat at the table in
discussions surrounding the future of the Arctic and protection
of its marine and coastal wildlife.

One hundred fifty-five nations have already ratified the Law of
the Sea, including every major industrialized nation other than
the United States. These countries are making decisions that
affect ocean health and key economic and national security
interests, but the United States will not gain access to these
discussions unless it signs on to the treaty as well.

A few vocal groups who are fundamentally opposed to U.S.
involvement in international collaborations have used false
arguments to pressure senators to reject the Law of the Sea, and
have turned what should be an easy decision into a contentious
one. Senate Majority Leader Reid will not bring the treaty to a
vote until he is certain it has the two-thirds support (67
votes) needed to pass, and right now that margin is very close.
To counter the opposition, senators need to hear that this
treaty is crucial to maintaining healthy oceans and protecting
economic and security interests.

== What to do ==
Send a message urging your senators to ratify the Law of the Sea
Treaty.

== Contact information ==
You can send a message to your senators directly from NRDC's
Action Center at
http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_013008

If you prefer to call your senators, the Capitol switchboard
number is 202-224-3121.

Run This Ad, Save Wolves from Slaughter

The Bush Administration has just handed down its long-awaited "License to Kill" rule. It's the equivalent of a death sentence for hundreds of endangered gray wolves in Greater Yellowstone and across the Northern Rockies.

We can still force the White House to call off the guns -- before any shots are fired -- but we must move quickly.

All we need is your help.

We've produced a powerful ad that is ready to run and spark nationwide opposition. But we must raise $150,000 to place it in the national edition of The New York Times, where it will alert both the public and Congress in time to stop the slaughter.

You can make it happen. If just 6,000 supporters like you donate $25 each, we can make sure this ad sounds the alarm within the next few critical days.

Click here to read the full text of the ad -- and help us run it.

Millions of Americans have no idea that the Bush Administration is planning to spend our tax dollars to slaughter hundreds of wolves -- while they are still protected under the Endangered Species Act!

But with your help, millions of Americans will know within a matter of days.

And thousands of them will go online and urge their members of Congress to unite in opposition to this outrageous attack on an endangered species.

At the very same time, our partner organization -- the Natural Resources Defense Council – will be challenging the Bush Administration's cold-blooded plan in federal court.

Together, we can block the slaughter -- before it starts -- but only if we act swiftly.

Planes and helicopters, capable of killing entire packs of wolves in seconds, are waiting for the Open Fire order that could come at any time.

So please, read the full ad right now and make an emergency online contribution.

Help us give America's wolves a fighting chance.

Thank you.

Polar Bear Protection Delayed. Oil Drilling Okayed.

This letter urges concerned Americans to come to the rescue of the Alaskan polar bear, which is facing extinction due to global warming and is now threatened by the more immediate danger of oil development being rushed through by the Bush Administration.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dear Friend,

By speaking out today, you can help save Alaska's polar bears from the threat of toxic oil spills.

The Bush Administration is trying to rush through the sale of oil and gas leases in prime polar bear habitat -- the Chukchi Sea off of Alaska -- before the polar bear can win protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Please join us in supporting legislation -- the Markey bill -- that would reverse the go-ahead for this dangerous sale. Otherwise, the Alaskan polar bear, which is already facing extinction as global warming melts its sea ice habitat, would face the more immediate threat of a toxic oil spill.

There is no proven method of cleaning up oil spills in the Arctic's icy waters -- and there is virtually no way for oil-covered polar bears to survive.

Please speak out now to put polar bear protection ahead of oil and gas development.

Go to http://www.PolarBearSOS.org/takeaction_polar_bears

Thank you for speaking out at this critical time.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

What Are They Waiting For?

Major political reporters have been actively ignoring the issue of global warming when interviewing presidential candidates. They have only mentioned the words GLOBAL WARMING in 3 questions ALL YEAR! Hosts like Tim Russert, George Stephanopoulos and Wolf Blitzer have instead asked ridiculous questions about UFOs, baseball and even Chuck Norris!

Check out www.whataretheywaitingfor.com to learn more and urge these hosts to stop covering the horse race and get back to the human race.

Global warming needs to be a priority issue in the election. Act today.

Gypsy Clans Feud Over Fortunetelling Biz

By GILLIAN FLACCUS

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A dispute between two Gypsy clans over control of the fortunetelling trade in this Southern California city has spilled into court, offering a rare glimpse of an insular culture that has long settled scores according to its own Old World rules of honor.

The turf war in well-to-do Orange County has unfolded like a gangster movie, with allegations of death threats, a graveside scuffle, and nicknames like "White Bob" and "Black Bob" — details revealed in a police report and requests for restraining orders.

"The older Gypsies are pulling out their hair, not wanting the courts in our business because they'll find out too much about us," said Tom Merino, who is distantly related to one of the clans but has spurned his heritage. "Ignorance is the Gypsies' weapon against the outside world."

The Stevens and Merino clans, like other Gypsy families, have run numerous fortunetelling businesses in Southern California for decades.

The trouble started two years ago when Edward Merino and his wife, Sonia, opened fortunetelling parlors in two trendy resort sections of Newport Beach, not far from where the Stevenses did business.

Members of the Stevens clan promptly broke in, stole a credit card machine and threatened to kill the Merinos if they didn't shut the places down, the Merinos claim in court papers. Since then, the bad blood has only gotten worse.

The Stevenses "are very territorial," Merino attorney Tom Quinn said. "This is crazy stuff."

(MORE)

Help to stop an endless occupation in Iraq

Hi,

Have you seen the news? President Bush is negotiating a deal with Iraq to keep our troops there indefinitely--it could include permanent bases and a massive military presence for years! Bush is trying to tie the hands of the next president.

Congress can stop him from setting up permanent bases in Iraq and block an indefinite occupation--but they need to hear a groundswell of pressure from us immediately and loudly so they act on this quickly.

I just signed a petition demanding that Congress stop the president from committing to a massive military presence in Iraq for decades. Can you join me?

http://pol.moveon.org/endless/?r_by=11723-7456724-dorgQY&rc=comment_paste


Thanks!
Allie :)

Help Protect Sierra National Forest

The Sierra National Forest is an outdoor lover's paradise with
stunning mountain scenery, abundant fish and wildlife, and a
wealth of recreational opportunities. The forest encompasses 1.3
million acres of rolling, oak-covered foothills, heavily
forested slopes, and starkly beautiful alpine landscapes. This
forest is nothing short of spectacular, and deserves our highest
protection.

The Sierra National Forest is considering designating trails for
motorized use in several Roadless Areas. This action would
threaten the most pristine areas of the forest with off-road
vehicles (ORV) use. Unrestricted motor vehicle use on the forest
has resulted in hundreds of miles of unplanned roads and trails
that cause erosion, watershed and habitat degradation, as well
as long-term detrimental impacts to wildlife and cultural
resources. ORVs rank among the most serious human-made threats
to safety and health on public lands. Allowing ORVs in Roadless
Areas will result in the harassment of critical wildlife and the
disruption of quiet backcountry recreation, including hiking,
camping, hunting, fishing, and horseback riding.

Help us stop this plan: Tell the Forest Service not to build
more roads for ORVs that will endanger this national treasure.

Click below to take action.
http://action.wilderness.org/campaign/sierra_forest

I Don’t Want To Be a Gypsy Anymore

By Ella Veres

Many Eastern European immigrants carry over to the USA their racism and homophobia. This is an account of two incidents that i had to go thru in NYC as a part-Gypsy writer.

A racist incident occurred at my show and I don't know what to do about it. I hope you can tell me a way of dealing with it.

This fall I produced off-off Broadway my dramatic collage, Three Eco-Friendly Self-Propelled Clowns, in an attempt to make American audiences aware of the homophobia and racism that still exist in Romania, my place of birth. My intention was and still is to take the show back there to try to improve the situation.

Some of the text is based on actual words said by real Romanian people, and it was traumatic just translating their words. See, they talk about turning Gypsy people into soap, and I am partly Gypsy. Gypsy people are not hippies that have a romantic life style. They are Europe’s people of color and face situations similar to those that African American here faced before the sixties.

I didn’t know I was Gypsy until I was in my mid-twenties, when I was a student in American Studies and I came home to work on my genealogical tree for an exam. We were in the kitchen and my mom whispered our grandpa, the blacksmith, was a Gypsy, but we shouldn’t dream of saying anything to our father! Can you imagine a life like that? When I gave birth to my son, the first thing she asked was not if the baby was a boy or a girl, but if his skin was dark!
I came to America not to pursue a life of prosperity but to lead a free, authentic life, yes, to celebrate who I am and make sure my son is proud of his heritage and doesn’t face discrimination. I came here believing what JFK in his 1963 Address on Civil Rights said, that is “…every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated.”

Based on the facts I describe below, I fear it is not so.

1. Last week I had the director of the Romanian Cultural Center, a non-profit put together by anti-communist immigrants in the '70s, disrupted the show during an anti-racism/pro-Gypsy monologue. The gentleman heckled the actress and then when I asked him to keep his comments for after the show, he left in a huff, disparaging the show and saying to his companion, but loud enough for my crew to overhear it, “Who the fuck gives a shit about the Gypsies?!”

Earlier, when I told this same gentleman over the phone (he had called to make reservations as a result of my mailing out the show press release) that I am myself part Gypsy, he remarked that I for sure was a temperamental woman and he was eager to meet me. Then over coffee he asked me to read his palm. I didn't tell him to fuck off with his stereotypical, racist remarks because I was taken by surprise. It was the first time that I’d made it publicly known to Romanians that I am part Gypsy, and because I respected his anti-communist activities and we were looking for a sponsor to go with the show to Romania, I didn’t want to make waves. But it offended me.

2. In an attempt to reconnect with the local Romanian arts community I attended a Romanian production at la Mama Theater sponsored by the Romanian Cultural Institute, a state agency. The play, about a lesbian nun who was killed during an exorcism in a monastery in Romania in 2005, was based on a book of interviews, so we got a realistic depiction of Romanian day-by-day life and speech. That is, from beginning to end we heard homophobic, racist/anti-Gypsy, and anti-Semitic discourse going on in Romanian on stage and translated accurately in supra-titles. The anti-Semitic remarks, however, were not translated. The play’s racism was not addressed either in the Q&A session or in the playbill. The homophobia was slightly touched upon, but all that we really heard was how fantastic the director was. The intention of the creator was not clear: Was he attempting to portray Romanian reality in order to make us react against it, or he was unaware of its homophobia and racism? If he was going for reaction, then why didn't he translate the anti-Semitic remarks too?

Could it be that he is well aware that in America, in NYC, the Jewish community would have been highly offended and likely to react negatively to his enterprise, whereas he knows that as Edward Said remarked, “Gypsies are the only group about which anything could be said without challenge or demurral”?

It hurts me that such shows get applauded in NYC, today. I left a racist society, and here it is again in my face, in my hometown.

It is sickening what's going on in Europe. People, journalists, even the Foreign Minister say incredibly racist things and they go unchecked. Examples, “Gypsy people are monkeys, scumbags, sub-humans, thieves, and born criminals.” “Too bad Hitler didn't exterminate them.” “We should relocate the Gypsies in the Sahara Desert.” This was the Romanian Foreign Minister during his visit to Egypt commenting on Roma immigrants being expelled from Italy.
Also, as I was reading the supra-tiles I realized it is so weird, all nation names are written in English with capital letter. But Gypsy is always lower case… Basic respect denied.

I would like to do something about it, but I don't know how and what. I hoped there was a mechanism that concerned citizens could use, but wherever I called in NYC, they told me we have freedom of speech here and everybody can say whatever they want, so the only thing I can do is raise awareness thru the media.

I got in touch with the Roma writer of the pro-tolerance/Gypsy monologue and he said this situation is explosive and he’d raise hell in Romania. Well, I am torn about raising hell. I don’t want my incidents to create more conflict, but to make all parties involved that racism is unacceptable. Also, I asked him if it was safe for my parents and sister who are unprotected back home. He said I shouldn't worry and nothing will happen to them. Well, I do worry. Gypsy villages do get burnt down in Romania!

I hope you advise me on what to do, or connect me with some organizations that might take interest in the issue.

On my part, I’m writing letters to all people I’ve mentioned above, asking them to explain and rectify their positions and to be aware of the impact their racism has.

This experience was depressing. Whoever’s idea it was for me to come out of the closet publicly as a Gypsy should go to hell. Were it up to me, I wouldn't want to be a Gypsy anymore.

People are so busy with their Christmas shopping, they don't hear you. Gypsies? Who? What? I think it’s everybody’s issue, but it seems that American people have forgotten their own past, both with its horrors and victories. Again, as JFK said, “This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”
Someone, can you help, please?

Happy holidays.

Ella Veres is a writer/performer/image maker living in NYC, hailing from Transylvania.

By Ella Veres http://www.ellaveres.com

Olberman Special Comment - MSNBC

http://onegoodmovemedia.org/movies/0711/ko110507specialcomment.mov

Rules May Limit Health Program Aiding Children

From NY Times

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: August 21, 2007

The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, has adopted new standards that would make it much more difficult for New York, California and others to extend coverage to children in middle-income families.

Administration officials outlined the new standards in a letter sent to state health officials on Friday evening, in the middle of a monthlong Congressional recess. In interviews, they said the changes were intended to return the Children’s Health Insurance Program to its original focus on low-income children and to make sure the program did not become a substitute for private health coverage.

After learning of the new policy, some state officials said yesterday that it could cripple their efforts to cover more children and would impose standards that could not be met.

“We are horrified at the new federal policy,” said Ann Clemency Kohler, deputy commissioner of human services in New Jersey. “It will cause havoc with our program and could jeopardize coverage for thousands of children.”

Stan Rosenstein, the Medicaid director in California, said the new policy was “highly restrictive, much more restrictive than what we want to do.”

The poverty level for a family of four is set by the federal government at $20,650 in annual income. Many states have received federal permission to cover children with family incomes exceeding twice the poverty level — $41,300 for a family of four. In New York, which covers children up to 250 percent of the poverty level, the Legislature has passed a bill that would raise the limit to 400 percent— $82,600 for a family of four — but the change is subject to federal approval.

California wants to increase its income limit to 300 percent of the poverty level, from 250 percent. Pennsylvania recently raised its limit to 300 percent, from 200 percent. New Jersey has had a limit of 350 percent for more than five years.

As with issues like immigration, the White House is taking action on its own to advance policies that have not been embraced by Congress.

In his budget in February, President Bush proposed strict limits on family income for the child health program. Both houses of Congress voted this month to renew the program for five years, but neither chamber accepted that proposal. Legal authority for the program expires on Sept. 30.

The administration’s new policy is explained in a letter that was sent about 7:30 p.m. on Friday to state health officials from Dennis G. Smith, the director of the federal Center for Medicaid and State Operations. The policy would continue indefinitely, though Democrats in Congress could try to override it.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program has strong support from governors of both parties, including Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Sonny Perdue of Georgia. When the Senate passed a bill to expand the program this month, 18 Republican senators voted for it, in defiance of a veto threat from Mr. Bush. The House passed a more expansive bill and will try to work out differences with the Senate when Congress reconvenes next month.

In his letter, Mr. Smith set a high standard for states that want to raise eligibility for the child health program above 250 percent of the poverty level.

Before making such a change, Mr. Smith wrote, states must demonstrate that they have “enrolled at least 95 percent of children in the state below 200 percent of the federal poverty level” who are eligible for either Medicaid or the child health program.

Deborah S. Bachrach, a deputy commissioner in the New York State Health Department, said, “No state in the nation has a participation rate of 95 percent.”

And Cindy Mann, a research professor at the Health Policy Institute of Georgetown University, said, “No state would ever achieve that level of participation under the president’s budget proposals.”

The Congressional Budget Office has said that the president’s budget, which seeks $30 billion for the program from 2008 to 2012, is not enough to pay for current levels of enrollment, much less to cover children who are eligible but not enrolled.

When Congress created the Children’s Health Insurance Program in 1997, it said the purpose was to cover “uninsured low-income children.” Under the law, states are supposed to make sure public coverage “does not substitute for coverage under group health plans.”

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Smith said, “The program was always meant for children in lower-income families.” As a state increases its income limits, he said, “it’s more likely to substitute for private coverage.”

To minimize the risk of such substitution, Mr. Smith said in his letter, states should charge co-payments or premiums that approximate the cost of private coverage and should impose “waiting periods” to make sure middle-income children do not go directly from a private health plan to a public program.

If a state wants to set its income limit above 250 percent of the poverty level — $51,625 for a family of four — Mr. Smith said, “the state must establish a minimum of a one-year period of uninsurance for individuals” before they can receive public coverage.

That is considerably stricter than past requirements. In February, for example, the Bush administration allowed Pennsylvania to increase its income limit to 300 percent of the poverty level after the state agreed to a six-month waiting period for children who were 2 and older with family incomes exceeding 200 percent of the poverty level.

As another precaution, Mr. Smith said, states that want to cover children above 250 percent of the poverty level must show that “the number of children in the target population insured through private employers has not decreased by more than two percentage points over the prior five-year period.”

In New Jersey, which has a three-month waiting period, Ms. Kohler said, “we have no evidence of a decline in employer-sponsored coverage resulting from the Children’s Health Insurance Program.”

In the Senate debate this month, several Republicans offered a proposal similar to the new Bush administration policy. They wanted to require states to cover 95 percent of low-income children before allowing states to expand eligibility.

Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who is chairman of the Finance Committee, argued against the proposal, saying: “No state can meet 95 percent. No state currently meets 95 percent.”

In his letter, Mr. Smith said the new standards would apply to states that previously received federal approval to cover children with family incomes over 250 percent of the poverty level. Such states should amend their state plans to meet federal expectations within 12 months, or the Bush administration “may pursue corrective action,” Mr. Smith said.

Two Republican senators, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Pat Roberts of Kansas, urged the Bush administration last week to deny New York’s request to cover children with family incomes up to four times the poverty level. The proposal, they said, violates the original intent of Congress.

But Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York said that, “contrary to the senators’ objections,” federal law allows states to set higher income limits. “Granting this expansion,” Mr. Spitzer said, “is essential to the health and well-being of New York’s children.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/washington/21health.html?pagewanted=all

GOP misses chance to reshape environmental laws

By Bettina Boxall, Times Staff Writer
December 15, 2006

If ever there was a Congress in which Republicans were positioned to remake the nation's environmental laws, it was the 109th. But by the time the session ended last week, the GOP's environmental agenda had been largely thwarted.

Whether it was rewriting the Endangered Species Act, opening up most of the nation's coastline to oil and gas drilling, or selling off public lands in the West, Republicans failed to enact a range of ambitious proposals.

"It was the best chance for Republican-shaped initiatives for as long we can remember," said Daniel Kemmis, senior fellow at the Center for the Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana.

Republicans began the session with majorities in both chambers, a sympathetic president, and a tough-talking property rights champion in charge of a key environmental committee.

That they went home empty-handed, Kemmis and others say, is testament to a changing, greening West; the pitfalls of overreaching; and an emerging alliance between environmentalists and a traditional GOP base, hunters and anglers.

"The so-called hook-and-bullet constituency has become more concerned about protecting public lands, protecting open space in general. I don't think that's going to change," he said.

Though Republicans came close to opening up Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, the goal eluded them.

(MORE)