I’ve been spending my Tuesdays and Fridays picking strawberries, arugula, and salad greens at Jones Valley Urban Farm. Crawling out of bed around 8:30 is tough for the unemployed, but when I get there it’s all worth it. For one, the coolest farmer (and the only regular to attend my yoga classes) works there, Charley. We’ve shared a few laughs and waxed philosophical over strawberry sorting many a time. His company softens the blow that I really have no one expecting me to be anywhere at anytime. He’s pictured above with his super hip and cool girlfriend, Julia. Aren’t they the perfect picture of today’s young farmers? I’m thrilled to call such forward thinkers my friends.

During our last conversation over the strawberry bed, Charley happened to drop the word: Jam. I think that’s all he said, but it got the wheels in my head turning. Picking and sorting strawberries into the “goods” (to be sold to local B-ham restaurants) and the “bads” (too soft, too wholly, too green), I got to thinking “what’s going to happen to them? I took a bag of rescues home, saving them from the compost pile.

First came sorting.Then boiling and bottling.

2lbs strawberries (about four cups)

4 cups sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

I found the recipe quite sweet and might cut back on the sugar next time. Basically, boil for a looong time. My thermometer was broken (I later found out) so I boiled much longer than 20 mins. You want the mixture to come to 220 degree. I don’t think it’s possible to burn (comment if I’m wrong) just be sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom by stirring every so often. Since most people seem to under cook their jam and it comes out more like soup, I’d ere on the side of overcooking rather than under.

And what’s strawberry jam without homemade biscuits. These tasted great the day they came out of the oven, but by day two kinda sucked. I’m still perfecting my recipe, so I’ll get back to you on it. They did photograph well though.

However, our country still has a long way to go in overcoming racial prejudice, according to people interviewed for a recent article in the New York Times.

In workplaces across the country, people are more open to talking about race, an often taboo and contentious subject. Some blacks interviewed for the story said they noticed more civility and friendless between them, their non-black colleagues, friends and even strangers passing by on the street:

Samuel Sallis, a 69-year old black man from Milwaukee, said: “Since President Obama started campaigning, if I go almost anywhere, it’s: ‘Hi! Hello, how are you, sir?’ I’m talking about strangers. Calling me ‘sir.’ ”

He added: “It makes you feel different, like, hey — maybe we are all equals. I’m no different than before. It’s just that other people seem to be realizing these things all around me.”

White Americans also said they felt a change.

“I feel a lot more comfortable starting up a conversation with people of other races on the streets now than I did before,” said Mitch Hansch, 29, who is white and works as a waiter in New York City. “Since Obama was elected, racial tensions seem a little lower. I think it’s fantastic.”

The ayruvedic diet seemed doable on paper, but things quickly went south. Eating the same thing everyday (bitter foods as defined by my dosha) for a week is simply impossible for someone who loves dining as I do. I jumped ship in Atlanta. Mussles, fries, and Champagne at A Pied a Cochon. My French meal filled me with a decidely French perspective on the whole idea of a diet– not even zee smidgen of guilt. Oui, Oui.

Well it wasn’t that bad, but after the first tequila shot came a complete disregard for my cleanse status. I followed it with handfuls of pistachios, pita and salsa, and my favorite Terra chips. It wasn’t pretty. I went to bed guilt ridden and bloated. This morning, woke and vowed to do better. I started with quinoa kitchari with broccoli, then this lovely green juice mid-morning. It’s chard, broccoli, apple and pea sprout. My body hasn’t taken in so many veggies in a while and is right now rebelling with a constant craving for Sweet Tart jelly beans. Nearly as pretty as the juice above and much, much tastier. Sigh.

Woke before dawn to start day one of the cleanse. I sat and waited for the sun to peak sipping the advised hot lemon water. I contemplated hitting the yoga mat but instead opted for my pillow and crashed until 8:30. Not the best start, but I did work through my practice around 2:30 and soaked in the lovely afternoon sun. Afterward, gorged on the beautiful salad above. It’s full of earthy goodness: jicama, tomato, arugla, endive, cilantro. I drank the lemon olive oil dressing that pooled at the bottom then lay on my bed and took a nap with a full, round belly.

Three hours later couldn’t resist a shot of tequila before heading to the Wilco concert at Sloss Furnace

Wondering how tequilla suits my dosha . . .

I’ve embarked on Birmingham Yoga’s Teacher Training Program. After 16 hours of yoga asanas and philosophy this weekend, I’ve come away with a pulled shoulder and a realization that after 5 years of off-and-on practice, what I know could fit in my outstretched pinky toe. As such, I’m determined to eat, sleep, drink yoga for the next couple of months–which explains the above photo.

Tomorrow, begins day 1 of a 15-day auyrvedic cleanse from my favorite cleanse book by Adina Niemerow. After identifying my dosha, (I’m a Pitta marked by my competitive nature and hearty appetitite) I’ll eat veggies and grains to bring myself into balance and avoid foods that aggrevate my dosha. The theory is that when our bodies are in balance, we naturally crave foods that are good for us. Weight gain, eating too fast, not eating enough, etc. are supposed to all be solvable through ayurveda.

There are three doshas: Vatta ( Creative types, have a hard time gaining weight) Pitta, and Kapha (Grounded, gain weight easily). If you’re curious about yours, the Yoga Journal has a great quiz.

More than a diet, this cleanse is a lifestyle change. I’ll be challenged to rise and eat with the sun to better connect and ground me to my environment. I’ll be calling on the Hindu God Balrama, Hindu God for strength, and protector from desires (chocolate) to get me through this.

Namaste

Nothing get’s the heart pitter-pattering like delicate sprouts peeping up from the soil after a long and unforgivable winter. Granted, south of the Mason-Dixon “winter” is just one really long, barren Spring. My spirits soared upon discovering these tender buds on a weekend trip to Oak Mountain. Thought I’d share them with ya’ll. I’m not sure what they are. If you do, please comment. 

It would seem hard to imagine a place where children attend more funerals than weddings. A place where a mother—almost certain her children would not reach adulthood—pays $80 a month for burial insurance, even though they have barely reached adolescence.  But this is the case for Lafayette and Pharaoh Rivers, their mother LaJoe and almost everyone else in their family. Alex Kotlowitz’s “There Are No Children Here” details two years in the lives of the Rivers boys, humanizing the problem of urban poverty by portraying its most helpless victims—the children who are forced to live in it.

Long before Hurricane Katrina had U.S. politicians decrying the problem of urban poverty and lamenting about “Two Americas,” Alex Kotlowitz wrote about Lafayette and Pharaoh Rivers, two brothers living in the Henry Horner housing project on Chicago’s West Side. Kotlowitz first met the two boys in the summer of 1985, when he was writing the text for a friend’s photo essay on children living in poverty. Kotlowitz returned to Horner two years later to write on a similar topic for the Wall Street Journal. It was then he asked LaJoe, the boys’ mother, to chronicle the lives of her sons.

With his meticulous reporting and apparent empathy, Kotlowitz portrays the struggles of 12-year-old Lafayette and his 9-year-old brother, Pharaoh. The boys live in an apartment with cinder block walls, a tub with a perpetually leaky faucet, and a bathroom toilet whose putrid smells may be the result of at-home abortions performed by the previous tenants. Shootings, between rival gangs and by the police, are part of the reality for Lafayette and Pharaoh. Throughout the book, the boys lose friends and family to gun violence, drugs and prison.

Despite the depression that surrounds them, Lafayette and Pharaoh maintain some of their innocence. They play on railroad tracks and believe they’ll find leprechauns and a pot of gold after they see a rainbow. Though the boys know many people who go to prison, during a school spelling bee Pharaoh is unable to spell the word cellblock, an irony that shows he is still a child and can’t fully comprehend what could await him in the future.

Kotlowitz does a stellar job of linking the problems in Horner to bad public policy and neglect by Chicago city officials. The Chicago Housing Authority had lost control of its housing complexes to street gangs and seemed to have long forgotten about its residents or improving their living conditions. Some of the police responded to violence in Horner and other projects by treating many of the residents like possible criminals.  As Kotlowitz puts it, “white opposition on the Chicago City Council gummed up most efforts by the administration to do much of anything” to change the city’s public housing.

Throughout the book, it becomes apparent Kotlowitz may have become too involved in the lives of his subjects. He doesn’t impose the same standard of accountability on the residents of public housing or examine why they made certain choices, sometimes even pardoning their mistakes as the inevitable consequences of being black and poor. While some kids did get lost to the neighborhood, as Kotlowitz says, one has to wonder where LaJoe Rivers was when Lafayette and Pharaoh were out late at night watching cars at the Chicago Bears Stadium. Why did LaJoe allow her grown daughter, her three children, her daughter’s boyfriend and his brother, none of whom paid bills, to move into her already cramped apartment? No one is blaming her and other Horner residents for living in poverty, but it seemed as though they were resigned to their fate.

“There Are No Children Here” is timeless in its portrayal of urban poverty. Chicago’s Plan for Transformation has changed Henry Horner into mixed-income, low-rise housing, but that change may be more structural than substantive. Many of the problems that plagued Lafayette and Pharaoh still exist today. No one has created a solution to dealing with persistent poverty in this country, but the answer may start with the children who live in it. Kotlowitz implies it is society’s communal responsibility to give these kids a fighting chance. Educating them and giving them the same opportunities as middle class kids in the suburbs is a starting point. Unlike Lafayette, those children don’t have to worry about what they’ll become if they grow up. For them, as it should be for all children, growing up is never a question of if, but of when.

Emerging-Market Stocks Surge on Improved Outlook for Demand (Bloomberg): Emerging-market stocks gained the most in two months on speculation government and central-bank efforts to boost currencies and lending will help revive growth in the world’s most vulnerable economies.

EMERGING MARKETS-Grim U.S. jobs data prompts rescue plan rally (Reuters): The shock waves of the grim U.S. jobs report on Friday were felt throughout emerging markets but the impact lifted asset prices rather than smash them down as investors bet the U.S. would pass a massive economic stimulus plan.

UAE regulator demands greater transparency(Financial Times): The market regulator of the United Arab Emirates called on Thursday for increased disclosure ahead of the companies reporting season, asking for extra information on companies’ real estate and financial positions.

Emerging-market telecom buyers get picky (MarketWatch): As international telecommunications operators shelve expansion plans to preserve cash and the myth collapses that emerging-market economies are independent from their western counterparts, the face of dealmaking in telecom is changing rapidly.

Emerging markets face capital squeeze, action needed: IIF (Reuters): Private capital flows to emerging markets are set to drop by nearly two thirds in 2009 as the global economy makes its most extreme downturn since World War Two, the Institute of International Finance said on Tuesday.

The IIF is an association of financial services firms with 400 members worldwide.

Chinese Shares in U.S. Fall to 2-Month Low on Growth Concern(Bloomberg): Chinese stocks trading in the U.S. fell to the lowest in two months, led by commodity producers, after the world’s third-largest economy grew at the slowest pace in seven years.

The nation’s leaders “will do anything” to maintain an economic expansion of about 8 percent, the government’s target for creating jobs, said Huang Yiping, Asia economist at Citigroup Inc. in Hong Kong. The economy grew 9 percent for all of 2008 after a 13 percent expansion in 2007.

China Is ‘Manipulating’ Yuan, Geithner Tells Congress (Bloomberg): Timothy Geithner, President Barack Obama’s nominee for Treasury secretary, said the new U.S. administration believes China is “manipulating” its currency.

From Geithner’s confirmation hearing…

I do believe it is a significant issue. As I said earlier, I believe it is important for the United States and the global economy that our major trading partners operate with a flexible exchange rate system and that market forces determine the level of those exchange rates. I think that’s very important, and …when I have some time to think through how best to achieve that objective look forward to a chance to work with you and your colleagues on the committee on how we do that.

On Thursday, Geithner submitted written answers to the Senate Finance Committee.

Obama believes China manipulating yuan: Geithner(Reuters): President Barack Obama believes China is “manipulating” its currency, his choice to head the U.S. Treasury said on Thursday using a term the Bush administration had deliberately avoided for years to describe Beijing’s foreign exchange practices.

Under U.S. law, labeling China as a currency manipulator would require the Treasury Department to begin “expedited” negotiations with Beijing — either bilaterally or through the International Monetary Fund — to reduce China’s huge trade surplus with the United States and eliminate any “unfair” currency advantage.

 

Comments from Andrew Busch, global currency strategist with BMO Capital Markets in Chicago…

Rookies make rookie mistakes. Our new President is not immune to this disease.
This is a situation where the US has known for a very long period of time that China has managed it’s currency. The US chooses not to name China as a manipulator for two reasons. One, China doesn’t meet the Treasury’s narrowly defined criteria. Two, China owns a lot of US Treasury, Agency, and overall debt securities. To engage in any action that would lead the Chinese to misunderstand actions by the US and therefore sell these holdings would be dangerous. But rookies do what rookies do: they make mistakes.
If this is indeed the new tactic being taken by the Obama administration, they will generate a weaker US currency and higher US bond yields. Not exactly what they should be doing in their first 100 days in office. This is the Obama’s first brush with the markets and they will quickly learn to exercise discretion in the future.

Short View: Currency interventions(John Authers with the Financial Times): See Authers’ report on the global currency situation.

During his trip to China in December, Henry Paulson handled this issue with care while making the U.S. interests felt among Chinese leaders. Geithner has pushed the envelope. Nothing may come of this as both countries are stuck in an economic recession. The concern that China will sell its Treasury portfolio may be exaggerated. Who would they sell to and what would they buy?

Civil unrest biggest threat to emerging markets (Financial Times): Civil unrest could be one of the biggest risks facing the emerging markets sector in the next 12 months, according to Franklin Templeton’s Mark Mobius.

He said Brazil, China and Turkey were very attractive markets in the current environment, as these economies stood to gain from monetary changes. “In Turkey, exports have been impacted by what’s happened in Europe, but they have quite a vibrant domestic economy and tourism,” he explained. “The key factor is the global decline in inflation and interest rates – Turkey has suffered from high interest rates in the past,” he said. “This decline is very good news for Turkey, which is one of the reasons why we’re pretty bullish.”

 

Pemex Oil Output Declines at Fastest Rate Since World War II(Bloomberg): Petroleos Mexicanos, Mexico’s state oil company, will probably report its fastest drop in production since 1942, eroding revenue as plunging crude prices limit the amount of cash available to drill for new reserves.

Brazil Stocks Drop on Economic Growth Concerns; Bolsa Tumbles (Bloomberg): Brazilian stocks dropped the most in a week, wiping out this year’s gains, as materials companies and banks slid on concern a global economic slowdown is worsening.

Ruble Drops to Pre-1998 Crisis Low on 6th Devaluation This Year (Bloomberg): The ruble fell below the weakest level during the 1998 Russian crisis after the central bank devalued the currency for the sixth time in seven days to protect reserves.

Deripaska, Potanin Propose Russian Metals Merger (Bloomberg): Billionaires Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Potanin proposed merging OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel with five other Russian metals producers including Evraz Group SA to create the world’s second-largest mining company.

Shanghai glistens in the gloom (Reuters): Shanghai was the only bright spot in a gloomy week for Asia-Pacific equities as sentiment improved amid growing bank loans and hopes for a stimulus plan for China’s machinery makers.

Satyam executives arrested (Financial Times): The Chief Financial Officer of India’s Satyam Computer Services was arrested, Hyderabad police said on Saturday, as authorities seek to unravel India’s biggest corporate scandal.

Satyam’s Raju Faces Charges as Government Reconstitutes Board (Bloomberg): Satyam Computer Services Ltd. founder Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama faced charges of criminal conspiracy and breach of trust in an alleged $1 billion fraud as the government assembled a new company board.

Satyam saga jolts Sensex (Economic Times): The Satyam financial fiasco has dragged down the Indian stock market to its fifth biggest fall in percentage terms in the last 14 years, a SundayET analysis. Even the recent Mumbai terror attack (26/11), attack on America’s World Trade Centre (9/11), and dot com bubble burst had lesser impact on Dalal Street.

The Sensex fell as much as 7.25% on January 7, 2009, after Satyam Computer Services’ erstwhile chairman B Ramalinga Raju confessed to an accounting fraud. The analysis captures how the Indian equity market behaved in the face of major events in Indian history. For the calculation, closing index figures have been considered since 1995.”

They’re getting shorter generation after generation, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey concluded that black women born in the 1980’s were more than a half an inch shorter than those born in the 1960’s.

Some experts argue that socioeconomic factors are reasons for this disparity.

“Height is a very good overall indicator of how well the human organism thrives in its socioeconomic environment,” said John Komlos, an economist and historian quoted in a Chicago Tribune article about the height gap.

One interesting finding is that black women who have more dough in their wallets also have a few inches on lower and middle-income black women.

“While the heights of low- and middle-income black women are plummeting, upper-income black women are growing taller and rapidly closing the gap with their white counterparts,” according to the study.

Taller and richer? Life is so unfair.

Emerging Markets – Economic stimulus plans aid stocks, bonds (Reuters): Emerging market stocks, bonds and currencies rose on Monday on expectations of interest rate cuts in the new year and a major U.S. economic stimulus package that would help lift the global economy out of its doldrums.

Brace yourself: Political-market risks in 2009 (Reuters): There are a number of macro risks that will continue to grab headlines in 2009, including the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, cross-border tensions and state instability in Pakistan, and Iran’s ongoing quest to develop advanced nuclear technologies.

Chinese companies go abroad (Seking Alpha): Just as a good China strategy is increasingly important to the continued growth and competitiveness of MNCs worldwide, expansion overseas is a top priority for many of China’s leading firms.

By Shaun Rein with China Market Research Group.

Boom, Bust, Repeat (NYT book review): For the past two decades, Michael Lewis, the most charming and one of the shrewdest guides to America’s raucous money culture, has displayed a knack for being at the right place at the right time. He was a young trader on the Salomon Brothers bond desk during the 1987 crash; the experience led to “Liar’s Poker.” His boss at Salomon, John Meriwether, a decade later became a central figure in the downfall of the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management. Lewis spent a chunk of the 1990s in Silicon Valley, where he profiled the serial entrepreneur Jim Clarkin “The New New Thing” and happened on to his next great subject, the Oakland A’s (“Moneyball”). Now, just in time for the Great Credit Debacle of 2008, Lewis has curated “Panic,” a prose exhibition on the past 20 years of monetary madness.

Michael’s most recent article in Portfolio is a fantastic profile of an investor who bet on the housing bust and is traumatized by how awfully right he was. It’s quite amazing how he’s still able to milk the story of his job 20 years ago for profits.

Mobius Says Emerging Markets Are Bottoming, Will Jump (Bloomberg): Emerging-market stocks are “bottoming” and will begin a new bull market next year as interest-rate cuts spur economic growth in developing nations, investor Mark Mobius said.

Be careful with advice that is not supported with evidence. Mobius sounds confident that the low interest rates will be enough to bounce stock prices off their bottom. Low interest rates spur BUBBLES not organic demand. There may be bargains, but this may not be the bottom. In the same article, Arnab Dasof Dresdner Kleinwort said emerging markets may not recover next year.

“Possibly the whole year will be a very difficult year for the entire global economy, especially emerging markets,” Das, the global head of emerging-markets research at Dresdner Kleinwort.”

Talking Business How India Avoided a Crisis (NYT): “What has taken a number of us by surprise is the lack of adequate supervision and regulation,” Rana Kapoor was saying the other day. “This was despite the fact that Enron had happened and you passed Sarbanes-Oxley. We don’t understand it. Maybe it’s because we sit in a more controlled economy but ….” He smiled sweetly as his voice trailed off, as if to take the sting off his comments. But they stung nonetheless.

India has avoided direct exposure to the credit crisis with a cultural aversion toward credit and with an anti-inflation, anti-Greenspan central banker, Y.V. Reddy.

China to the Rescue? Not! (NYT): I had no idea that many of those oil paintings that hang in hotel rooms and starter homes across America are actually produced by just one Chinese village, Dafen, north of Hong Kong. And I had no idea that Dafen’s artist colony — the world’s leading center for mass-produced artwork and knockoffs of masterpieces — had been devastated by the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble. I should have, though.

We’re going to have to get out of this crisis the old-fashioned way: by digging inside ourselves and getting back to basics — improving U.S. productivity, saving more, studying harder and inventing more stuff to export. The days of phony prosperity — I borrow cheap money from China to build a house and then borrow on that house to buy cheap paintings from China to decorate my walls and everybody is a winner — are over.”

Thank you Mr. Friedman.

Emerging Market Stocks to Outperform, Garner Says: Chart of Day (Bloomberg): Emerging-market stocks are a better buy than those of more developed regions because their economies will rebound more quickly from the global slowdown, according to Jonathan Garner, a strategist at Morgan Stanley.

Since October, emerging stocks have begun to close the gap on developed-market stocks, a trend that will continue next year, Garner says. But where? And how will the relationship with oil affect these stocks?

Looking Ahead: Emerging markets remain attractive (The Economic Times): Given the steep market decline, investors have begun to shift their focus to the increasingly attractive valuations in emerging markets. Many markets are trading at single-digit price-to-earnings ratios, with many companies trading at below their net asset value. Stock prices rebounded in December, as investors sought to benefit from the attractive investment opportunities in the asset class.

Dr. Joseph Mark Mobius and Garner both say the emerging markets are undervalued, but so is oil right now. These guys don’t even mention oil or other commodities for that matter. Obviously some countries aren’t relying on oil (China and India) and will benefit from the low prices. But do we need an equilibrium before stocks rebound?

EMERGING MARKETS-Bond advance narrows spreads, stocks sink(Reuters): Investors dipped deeper into their cash horde on Friday, buying selectively in emerging market sovereign bonds but stopped short when it came to stocks and currencies in thin pre-Christmas holiday trade.

Brazil Bank Estimates Cut at Goldman Sachs on Rates (Bloomberg): Brazilian banks had their 2009 and 2010 earnings forecasts cut by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which said a drop in lending rates will lower profits while an economic slowdown curbs loan growth.

Oil’s Crash Stirs Unrest in Russia as Slump Hits Home (WSJ): Russia’s oil-fired economic miracle is unraveling as industry shrinks and job losses mount. Now the first stirrings of social unrest have the Kremlin groping for a response.

Exhibit A: The emphasis on oil here is clear. If oil prices remain depressed, then it is difficult to justify Garner’s and Mobius’ thesis.

The Florida Classic, an annual college football game between Bethune Cookman College and Florida A&M University, was held this weekend in Orlando.

Some people didn’t attend the actual game, but came to the City Beautiful to party the entire weekend.

One of the biggest gatherings was at BB King’s at Pointe Orlando. More than 700 people were packed like sardines in the blues club.

Probably the weirdest moment of the entire evening came when the DJ screamed for everyone to put their O’s in the air. O’s for Obama, that is.

As a journalist, it was pretty awkward to be asked to give a presidential endorsement while I was trying to shake my tailfeather, but I stayed true to what I learned in journalism ethics 101: No spoken political affiliation of any kind, even if it met dancing with my arms at my side while everyone else was waving their hands in the air.

I can’t remember exactly when the “O” request came, but it may have been when the DJ was playing Young Jeezy’s “My President is Black.”

If you haven’t heard the song, all I can say is that the lyrics are about as shallow as a kiddie pool. Here’s a sampling:

My president is black, my Lambo’s blue
And I’ll be goddamned if my rims ain’t too
My momma ain’t at home, and daddy’s still in jail
Tryna make a plate, anybody seen the scale?
My president is black, my Lambo’s blue
And I’ll be goddamned if my rims ain’t too
My money’s light green and my Jordans light grey
And they love to see white, now how much you tryna pay?
Let’s go!

Young Jeezy isn’t the only rapper trying to make paper off the first black president.

Ron Brows has released a remix of the song “Pop Champagne,” featuring Juelz Santana Jim Jones and Busta Rhymes.

The remix, called “Pop Champagne for Barack,” includes such notable lines as “We pop champagne for Barack’s campaign” and “No disrespect to McCain and Palin.”

There’s also the Lil’ Wayne “A Milli” Obama remix, which features lyrics like:

His health care plan is so immaculate
So even if you broke you can afford to take a doc trip
You’ll be feelin’ much better not sick
And he’s ok but his wife’s sick
And her back’s thick and her walk’s sick
She’s a fly chick
Might hit

Despite that bit of misogyny to describe the next first lady, most hip-hop artists have produced music that admires the Obamas, rather than admonishes them.

A recent Washington Post article, discussed the many hip-hop artists–from Nas to Will.I.Am and Common–who have gotten behind the mic to write lyrics that mix cultural pride with lyrical artistry.

What all this means for presidential politics in the 21st century is unclear. Who knows if these rappers actually practiced what they preached, and hit the voting booth for Obama on November 4th. Their outspoken support of the candidate probably didn’t translate to gains in the electoral college or popular, nationwide support for his presidency.

Though music featured prominently throughout Obama’s 21-month campaign, ( Steve Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” played at campaign rallies and Obama admitted to listening to Jay-Z on his iPod) the backing of celeb rappers has probably done nothing more than to add a sense of modern, presidential coolness to a candidate that was already considered hip by many.

From which Cabinet appointments the 44th president will make, to what food the Obamas love and what puppy should grace the halls of the White House.

No to mention, entire photo galleries and montages have been devoted to the fashion choices of the future first lady, Michelle Obama.(according to Essence.com, she’s a “political fashionista”)

Even before Obama steps foot in the Oval Office, there’s an article from the Chicago Tribune about how he’ll rake in the big bucks after he leaves the White House.

There have even been articles on the fitness habits of the country’s 47-year-old president-elect.

Perhaps no subject has loomed larger than the one about what Obama’s presidency means for black America. Here are some notable ones:

-Obama Lifts Ceiling of Dreams for Black Men

-The Significance of Obama’s Victory for African-Americans

-In Poll, African-Americans Say Election Victory a ‘Dream Come True’

-Obama Election: A Turning Point in the Perception of Blacks?

Many of the voters interviewed worried that their votes wouldn’t count. They were weary of early voting, saying they heard rumors that those votes would probably be thrown out.

Others, such as 27-year old Monica Albertie, were worried about mishaps on election day:

“I worry about getting there and all of a sudden the electricity doesn’t work. Anything can happen. I know that sounds silly, but these are real concerns. We have a record of getting excited, then being disappointed. You get paranoid. What if the bus system shuts down that day?”

In recent weeks, other publications have written articles about the nagging fears that some African-Americans harbor about voter disenfranchisement. The demographic, which polls have shown overwhelming support Senator Barack Obama, worries that they may see a Democratic defeat on election day. A Time magazine piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Randall Kennedy’s article in the Washington Post explore how black voters may react on November 5 if Senator Obama doesn’t become President Obama.

Hoping I hear more than my echo back on that one. It’s been awhile and I’ve been posting to a new site, Tales from the Road. I’m working as a travel writer through the end of the year at Southern Living. From there, I’m hoping to land something full time and dedicate a bit more time to this site. Until then, I’ll keep you updated on my goings on.

Cheers!

Kelsey

I originally created this site as a blog, focused on student First Amendment issues, for a New Media class at the Medill School of Journalism. I’m in the process of paring the site down, so please forgive me if you find things in a bit of a mess.

For now, I’m enjoying a sweltering summer in Washington D.C., where I’m reporting on youth and politics for the Medill News Service. I’ll receive my master’s degree in September. If you’re interested, I’d appreciate it if you’d click on the “Written work” tab at the top of this page. There you’ll find samples of my enterprise, spot news and feature reporting, as well as links to some photography, graphic design and other multimedia.

I plan to post my resume soon, but if you have any questions for me in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can reach me at w-mcferron@northwestern.edu or at 202-661-0111.

Thanks for your interest.

Kippis! 

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Even before the recent campaign surrogate skirmishes, everyone from political pundits to mainstream media outlets were dissecting the Democratic race, grouping supporters into categories based exclusively on race and gender.

Will white men vote for Obama? Does Hillary have a lock on white female voters? Will Latino voters go for the black candidate instead of the white female candidate? How much of the black vote will ensure Obama victories in Southern states?

It also seems the race about race has also become an argument over which group is more oppressed, white women or black men? Gloria Steinem’s article in the New York Times posed that question.

CNN video

During a campaign rally in Milwaukee before the Wisconsin primary last week, Michelle Obama said : ““Hope is making a comeback and, let me tell you, for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change.”

Some people are deeming Mrs. Obama’s comments unpatriotic. Just days later, some people were also questioning Senator Obama’s patriotism, saying the Senator did not wear a flag pin and properly pledge allegiance to the flag. 

Michelle Malkin, a blogger for Townhall.com, said Mrs. Obama comments are an affront to the many accomplishments America has achieved:

“Every naturalization ceremony I’ve attended, where hundreds of new Americans raised their hands to swear an oath of allegiance to this land of liberty, has been a moment of pride for me. So have the awesome displays of American compassion at home and around the world. When millions of Americans rallied to help victims of the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia — including members of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group that sped from Hong Kong to assist survivors — my heart filled with pride. It did again when the citizens of Houston opened their arms to Hurricane Katrina victims and folks across the country rushed to their churches, and Salvation Army and Red Cross offices to volunteer. ”

Even Cindy McCain, the wife of Senator John McCain, felt it necessary to respond to Obama’s comments, saying during a campaign rally that she’s always been very proud of her country. But not everyone agrees with McCain and Malkin’s response to Michelle Obama’s statements.

On the Seminal blog, one blogger wrote that Mrs. Obama is justified in her feelings:

“Michelle Obama is an African American female, and based on that alone her relationship to her country is a more complex one. Without a doubt, the roots of Michelle’s comment went far beyond the government’s treatment of African Americans, but that alone would be grounds for righteous indignation. Should she be incessantly and automatically proud of a government that only in the last 40 years has begun to move towards the self-evident truth that all men are created equal?”

Since its inception in 1975, the National Organization of Concern Black Men has been dealing with issues of concern to black youth. Leroy Hughes, director of operations for Concerned Black Men, talked to me about the issues that should concern all black men in America.

Download Leroy Hughes Interview

Transcript of Interview

1. What are the issues Concerned Black Men is currently working on and what issues should be of concern to black men in this country?

LH: We primarily focus on youth related issues as well as issues affecting men. That involves a focus on male reproductive health, mentoring, tutoring. We concentrate on abstinence projects, teen pregnancy prevention, AIDS prevention, adult literacy and fatherhood initiatives. We work with young men to improve their parenting skills, job readiness. We try to develop best practice programs to strengthen the community and we try to create best practice programs that target youth in our community so that they can become productive citizens to society and develop the skill sets to become the foundation for their community now and in the future. We try to promote and develop programs for parents so that they can employ skills to help those very same kids to be the best that they can be and to try to encourage and maintain the family unit.

2. What are some of the issues, locally and nationally, that are particular to black youth?

We are extremely concerned about the achievement gap, especially among young boys; the fact that African-American boys are really lagging behind their peers. We are concerned about truancy; we are concerned about high school dropouts. One of our primary goals is to increase the academic performance of youth and try to develop programs that’ll keep them in school. Right now we are heading up a project called “The Boys of Color: 2025 Initiative.” As part of our young males of color achievement initiative, we try to identify best practice programs across the country that assist young boys and try to close the achievement gap and keep them in school. [We] try to figure out how we can infuse those best practices into local school systems and get dollars from foundations and maybe the federal government to help support programs to deal with this achievement gap issue. We all know about the dilemma affecting African-American youth, boys in particular.

3. Do you think the government is doing enough to address these things?

We can appreciate some of the initiatives the government is trying to promote to boost the achievement gap, but more really needs to be done. We’re talking about more funds to support afterschool projects, mentoring and tutoring projects. We encourage and try to work with other community-based organizations to create awareness for the need for the federal government to intervene. In concert with the federal government, it’s the responsibility of every community-based organization to develop programs and plans locally to address whatever dilemmas their communities are going through. Each community really needs to identify on what is the pressing issue of the day that they should focus on, and then form partnerships to deal with that. Then community-based organizations are in the best position to deal with the federal government and make their demands.

4. With the Jena 6 and Genarlow Wilson cases, is your organization talking more about criminal justice issues or are the young people you mentor more concerned about those issues?

We’ve been focusing on those issues for quite some time, since our inception in 1975. What we’re trying to do more so than ever before is really focus on the issue of parent education. We really feel that if parents are educated about their rights and responsibility as citizens– and what they can do and what they are empowered to do–they really could have been in a better position to deal with this issue before it got to this point. We really believe that education is the key. Educating kids and parents about their rights is really the key and best solution for dealing with racism and hate crimes. If we can apply that type of approach, then we’re really in the best possible to position to change policy.

5. The organization was started in 1975 to fill the void in positive male black role models. Do you think that void still exists to the extent it did in 1975?

It still exists. We all know about the significant number of African-American youth who are either incarcerated or did not complete high school. We know that our work is not done. In fact, we have a great deal more to do. We would like to think that we have made an impact because the organization has grown. We started in Philadelphia with about five police officers. Now we have 31 chapters across the country. But even since the organization has grown, the issues still persist. Even though we’re in the 21^st century, too many of our young men are in jail; too many of them are dropping out of high school; too many of them are engaged in truancy. That tells us that we are still in a state of emergency and there’s still much work to be done. Yes, to that extent the void stills exists. We’ve still got work to do and as long as there’s work to be done the organization will be here to try to meet that need.

6. Do you think another organized civil rights movement is necessary? Do you think it needs to be a massive effort?

It needs to only be a massive effort in the sense the each person has the responsibility to do their part. Back in the day, in the 1960’s because the country was galvanized because of so many issues that great leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King carried on their shoulders. Today, we have made gains as a race. More of us, more so than ever before in history, are empowered to do things individually whereby collectively we can make a difference. We all have an individual responsibility to take on the role of leadership. The one obstacle we have within our race is that we’re still looking for that one person, when really it should be each individual doing their part.

It’s important, given our stature economically, intellectually, that we can do it. By doing that, you almost engage in another civil rights effort.

7. Nooses have been reappearing all over the country, something that was common during the civil rights movement and before then. How do you as a concerned black man explain the reappearance of nooses in 2007 to your children and the kids you mentor?

When I speak to my own children, I have to remind them that we as human beings, even though we have great qualities, we also have idiosyncrasies. They’re still a lot of people who don’t understand, or perhaps don’t want to understand, the difference we have as individuals as opposed to embracing diversity. Because we’ll always have those types of individuals who have a problem with embracing diversity and celebrating differences, you have to be prepared to deal with that.

Offline activities include conferences and events held by organizations like the NAACP and National Urban League. Many universities also have black student unions and other organizations that hold multicultural events and conferences. Dr. Ausetkmt also said her group has organized events to raise awareness about the crisis in Darfur, showing a movie about the genocide at a local theater in Michigan.

Although these activities exist offline, some of the people I spoke to, like Horace Coleman, said there needs to be more conferences and meetings on black-oriented topics and issues. Jason Green echoed these sentiments, saying blacks need to be engaged in more discussion, especially on the Web.

“Marketing of the information they’re[ black websites] providing is not as efficient as the mainstream, like CNN, MSNBC,” Green said. “A lot of black people aren’t even aware of BlackNews.com.”

“When it comes to discussion and not just reading, that’s where the problem is,” Green said.

Ausetkmt said her group is able to spread information more efficiently than even some large media organizations. They frequently communicate with each other via text message.

“We use cell phones,” Ausetkmt said. “You get about 140 characters in cell phone message. Any major news story can be condensed to 140 characters and blasted out to the globe. I sent a news blast to someone in Canada, someone in Jamaica, someone in England and someone in France. Within two hours it came back to me from Switzerland, Belgium and Holland, all from black people. ”

Ausetkmt referred to this network as the electronic village, a termed coined by Minister Louis Farrakhan in 1995. She said groups like Club Black Web wouldn’t exist without the Internet.

“Praise the Lord for bloggers and cell phones,” Ausetkmt said. “Yes I am a new disciple of the Church of the Internet.”

A December report by the Child Care Bureau shows that money matched under the Child Care and Development Block Grant helped approximately 53,200 additional children last year.

In the 2006 fiscal year, states received an additional $200 million in federal matching funds, according to the Center for Law and Social Policy.

That means the average monthly number of children served increased from $1.75 million in 2005 to $1.80 million in 2006.

To see how your state fared, check out the State-by-State Child Care Spending and Participation in 2005 website, and click on your state in the picture like the map below.

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Source: Coloradoan.com

Hundreds of low-income families could get help paying for child care when eligibility standards change in one Colorado town next year.

The Larimer County commissioners last week agreed to raise the income ceiling for eligibility in the Child Care Assistance Program, or CCAP, from 150 percent of the federal poverty level to 185 percent.

Here’s how the Coloradoan.com broke down the effect of the increase:

As of Jan. 1 Larimer County will increase income ceilings for eligibility in the Child Care Assistance Program from 150 percent of the federal poverty level to 185 percent. The following shows family size, followed by 150 percent of poverty, followed by 185 percent of poverty:

• Two: $1,712/month; $2,111/month
• Three: $2,146/month; $2,647/month
• Four: $2,581/month; 3,184/month
• Five: $3,016/month; $3,720/month

The change is expected to help more than 350 children.

According to a FIRE press release,

 75 percent of schools surveyed maintain policies that clearly restrict speech that–outside the borders of campus–is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

FIRE issued the report after surveying nearly 350 college and universities nationwide, from Sept. 2006 to Sept. 2007.

Examples of speech restrictions the organization found include “maintaining unconstitutional speech codes,” punishing student journalists for the content they produce and regulating students’ online speech.

To read the full report, click here.

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Student activities director MaryAnne Lustgraaf told Ottaway Newspapers (Seacost Online) that

the request was rejected because it was proposed for a “free speech area.” It would be inappropriate in the public lobby, she said, citing the building’s mission to make students feel “safe and respected and comfortable.” She said other religious icons, such as a cross or nativity scene, would be rejected for the same reasons.

Jessica Rubinstein, co-chairwoman of the school’s chapter of Hillel, the organization that made the request for the menorah, told Seacost Online that the organization had held several events in the building, including a Hanukkah celebration last week. Hillel also has an office on the first floor of the building.

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Related:

• ACLU accuses Chapman University of violating Jewish fraternity’s First Amendment rights 

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According to The Associated Press, LA police arrested student Carlos Huerta for:

posting a message that he would shoot and kill as many people as possible on campus before being killed himself by police, authorities said. The threat appeared on Juicycampus.com, a chat board that describes itself as having the “simple mission of enabling online anonymous free speech on college campuses.”

The threat of violence at LMU seems to be just one of many lately, and police and school administrators walk a fine line between protecting students and allowing them freedom of expression. If you’re interested in reading more, The First Amendment Center wrote a rather extensive article late last month in part about the legalities of reining in threatening student speech. Or you could check out this link to an editorial on student speech in a “Post Virginia Tech World.”

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Related:

• Gossip Web site creates uproar at Duke
• Federal court: School can suspend Texas student for violent story
• Police arrest Wisconsin teacher for anonymous blog threat

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(Significant portions taken from the Kansas City Star, which I never do, but this was a fantastic story. )

Dawn and Brad Palmer had never ventured outside the United States until a trip last year to Brazil.

But rather than a trek through the Amazon River basin, their itinerary took them to Santa Cruz Hospital in the southern Brazilian metropolis of Curitiba.

That’s where they underwent obesity surgeries that were not covered by their health insurance policies. Their total tab, including medical costs, drugs, airfare and hotel bills: $24,000.

If they would have had the surgeries in this country, the combined medical costs alone would have totaled at least $140,000, Dawn Palmer said.

Besides saving more than $100,000, the Palmers have lost more than 290 pounds and feel better than they have in years.

“I’d tell people not to give up hope if there’s a procedure they want or need and their insurance won’t cover it, or they can’t get the care they’re looking for here in the United States,” Dawn Palmer said. “Just be open to the idea that you can find wonderful medical care from people in other countries.”

Growing legions of American patients — by one estimate, 150,000 last year — are following in the Palmers’ footsteps and traveling to countries such as India, Thailand, Brazil and Mexico for medical care. And while earlier waves of medical tourists sought mostly cosmetic procedures, more and more Americans are going abroad to get their hearts fixed, joints replaced and stomachs stapled.

“From a health-care competition and policy perspective, it’s significant,” said Gregg Laiben, president of the Metropolitan Medical Society of Greater Kansas City. “We are no longer operating on just a local or regional level. Once these other countries come into play, they become another marketplace that competes with U.S. health care.”

Most consumers who take the medical tourism plunge do it to save money. The cost difference between medical procedures in the United States and foreign countries can be huge. According to information presented at a hearing last year before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, the typical cost of a coronary bypass in the United States ranged from $55,000 to $86,000, compared with $7,000 to $7,500 in India and $15,612 to $16,913 in Thailand.

“It’s primarily a signal of the growing unaffordability, relative to American income, of health care,” said Arnold Milstein, chief physician for Mercer Health & Benefits in San Francisco. “For tens of millions of Americans, this is probably the only avenue to elective, non-emergency procedures.”

Experts attribute those whopping price differentials to lower earnings by most health-care personnel in developing countries. In addition, malpractice insurance premiums are non-existent in most foreign countries, and global health-care product suppliers sell to developing countries at cheaper prices.

American patients also are drawn to medical tourism by the high-quality reputations of many overseas health providers.

“Ninety percent of the doctors I recommend are U.S.-trained or board-certified, and they’re working in hospitals that are palatial and state of the art,” said Rudy Rupak, president of PlanetHospital, a California company that sets up overseas medical care.

Foreign hospitals that treat large numbers of English-speaking patients recruit U.S. surgeons. American doctors who make the trek typically are paid the same fees they earn in the United States, but enjoy the lower cost of living and lack of malpractice insurance premiums in the countries they move to, Rupak said.

Presidential candidates take note: We’ll just go overseas if you don’t fix the health-care industry.

As the candidates themselves steadily worked toward the primaries in Iowa last week, their most important surrogates worked the South Carolina ground.

Along with Oprah Winfrey (which a whole different news story), former President Bill Clinton was in the state, stumping for wife Hillary’s health care plan, according to a report by The New York Times.

He said her plan would insure the 672,000 people in South Carolina who have no health coverage, including 99,000 children, and would save families thousands of dollars a year. Hillary Clinton has cared about health care for at least the nearly four decades her husband has known her, he said, and improving health care is “at the heart of” what she wants to do for the country.

He did not compare her health plan to those of her rivals, nor did he mention those rivals except to say that he was excited about the campaign because it featured not only a woman but “a really good African-American” and an Hispanic-American governor. He went on to note that women have been elected to head India, Pakistan, Germany, Argentina and Chile, and “America shouldn’t be behind anybody.”

Which is true if you think about it. When Middle Eastern countries are ahead of you in women’s rights, you’ve got a problem.

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) this week presented a new plan that he says will stop health-insurance companies from abusing customers, according to an article on his Web site.

“Right now, even families that have health insurance are often unprotected from catastrophic events, as insurers reject legitimate claims, impose coverage caps, and look for technicalities to cancel policies,” he said.

“The truth is, the American health care system is broken because wealthy health insurance corporations and their lobbyists have rigged the system against the American people,” Edwards said. “I have spent my entire life fighting and beating those same special interest groups to protect the rights of regular Americans, and that’s exactly what I’ll do as President.”

Edwards is the only candidate who has not taken campaign money from health-industry lobbyists, the article says (and which I think is true, but could not be independently verified).

“Under the Edwards plan, insurance companies will be required to sell insurance to everyone, regardless of their pre-existing conditions, and prevented from denying coverage after a condition develops,” the article reads. “Edwards will put a stop to the practice of charging more to individuals with certain occupations or with pre-existing conditions, and will set national accounting standards requiring insurers to spend at least 85 percent of their premiums on patient care. Edwards will empower consumers by forcing insurance companies to be more honest and transparent about what they will ultimately cover and making sure all insurers guarantee comprehensive benefits. Edwards also called for an updated bill of rights for patients and providers.”

Health care and Iraq are “essentially tied” as voters’ No. 1 concern, according to an Associated Press/Pew Research Center for People and the Press survey released last week.

The survey, which researchers conducted by telephone between Nov. 7 and Nov. 25, included responses from 460 likely Democratic voters in Iowa, 594 in New Hampshire and 373 in South Carolina, according to the Kaiser Daily Health Report.
According to the survey, 41% of respondents in Iowa cited Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as the Democratic presidential candidate most trusted to improve the health care system, about double the percentage of respondents who cited Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.).

The survey found that Clinton “boasts even wider leads” in New Hampshire and South Carolina as the Democratic presidential candidate most trusted to improve the health care system. Overall, a plurality of respondents in New Hampshire and South Carolina favored Clinton over other the other Democratic presidential candidates, while she and Obama were “essentially tied” in Iowa, the survey found.

One student told WSLS-10, a local NBC affiliate, that the pair did it for the shock value, but also to make a statement.

“The thing is, everybody’s making a big stink about Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech was 32 deaths out of the 26 thousand that happen in America everyday. That’s the problem with college students. They all live in an ivory tower of privilege. They don’t understand, when it all boils down to it, it’s someone wearing a costume.”

Penn State issued a statement condemning the students’ costumes:

“Just because something is within the bounds of the Constitution and free speech, does not mean it should be undertaken. We certainly condemn these ugly and senseless actions. Most Penn Staters are as offended by this as anyone from Virginia Tech would be– and rightfully so. These two people do not represent 90,000 Penn State students. They represent themselves.”

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Related:

• Facebook controversy: Virginia Tech Halloween costumes
• PSU students mock VT tragedy on Facebook
• Penn State students dress as Virginia Tech victims

On this site:

• Blog post: Interesting editorial about student speech in “Post-Virginia Tech World”
• School bans political Halloween costumes

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A blog by Maureen Lane on DMI Blog has an accurate and understandable synopsis of an ongoing concern for parents on welfare: payments going back to the state.

As I reported in November, a new study by the Institute for Research on Poverty, Public Affairs and Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that:

“Child-support payments for children on welfare are being used in almost every state to recoup state and federal welfare expenses. When Congress created the child-support system 30 years ago, recouping welfare costs by siphoning off collected child-support payments was an explicit goal. Yet close to half the states pass along none of the collected child-support while most others pay only $50 per child, even when a non-custodial parent pays several hundred more.”

In other words, when a custodial parent gets both welfare assistance and child support, many state governments collect the child support to make up the difference.

As a forward-thinking state, Wisconsin officials enacted waiver that allowed the state to forward all money collected to families. As a result, more non-custodial parents came forward and paid more of the money they owed, making families less reliant on aid and making up for any short-term loss of government revenue spent on welfare, according DMI blog.

However, the Bush administration did not renew the waiver, perhaps reflecting a greater emphasis on foreign affairs, rather than low-income economic issues.

According to their motto, DMI Blog covers “Politics, Policy and the American Dream.” At least one of these is missing when it comes to child support and welfare policies.

In the season that celebrates giving, one Indianapolis apartment agency may be returning welfare aid for alleged illegal actions.

WRTV-TV reports the Indiana Housing Authority is calling for the owners of the Phoenix Apartments to repay $300,000.

Officials said the complex failed to disclose required information to qualify for the payments.

Bud Myers, of the Indianapolis Housing Authority, said RCM Phoenix Partners, which owns the Phoenix apartments, supplied incorrect information to the agency to get federal aid. Myers also said there are other problems, WRTV-TV reports.

The apartment complex recently drew local and national attention as the location where a 3-year-old was tortured and beaten to death by her parents.

Federal rules require welfare landlords to disclose troubled business deals and legal problems. RCM has until Dec. 14 to repay the money or challenge the order.

• Read the Indiana Housing Authority HOME/Development Fund Guidelines

Fictitious families received more than $105,654 over five years according to prosecutors in a case against a Georgia woman accused of stealing money from the welfare office she worked at. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Gayla Owens, 43, a 15-year veteran of the state Division of Family and Children Services, pleaded guilty to stealing the money.

Fulton County Assistant District Attorney Kellie Hill said of the workers used the money to pay off gambling debts, she said. Hill said these workers have the responsibility to use tax dollars to help needy families.

None of the workers is still employed by DFCS.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville Owens to 15 years of probation and said she must avoid employment that allows her access to public funds.
Related: Welfare worked pleads guilty to bilking agency of $105,654

The Women’s Bureau has been doing the work to make sure women have jobs since the 1920s.

As part of their venture, the bureau sponsors Working Women in Transition . The multi-regional demonstration project, co-sponsored by the U. S. Department of Labor, is designed to assist women who have arrived at a significant transition in their work lives.

Hands.net, a news wire on human service events, detailed the latest graduation from at Working Women in Transition initiative in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Arkansas-based Hope Center, a faith-based organization, conducted the graduation ceremony for current and past recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) who completed the program.

The transition program currently has initiatives in 11 states.

For more information on how to start an initiative in your area, contact the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau.

The Center for Governmental Research– a non-partisan, independent think thank based in Rochester, NY — released a report this fall documenting a nearly 40 percent decline in children receiving subsidies since 2001–from 13,575 children served in an average month in 2001 to 8,400 children served on average during the first four months of 2007.

According to the report, over 12,000 children in Monroe County are living in families that are potentially eligible for child care assistance and are not receiving it.

Many of those families also receiving TANF, or welfare aid, but still are not receiving extra child assistance.

The report details several policy changes at the county and state levels have contributed to the decline in children receiving assistance:

• Since 2002, income eligibility for child care subsidies in Monroe County has fallen from 200 percent of poverty to 165 percent.
• While fewer families are income-eligible for assistance, more parents seeking child care subsidies are being denied. The rate of applicant denial increased from 11 percent in 2001 to 50 percent in 2006. A contributing factor to this increase in denials was failure of applicants to comply with a 2004 New York State law that requires applicants to seek child support payment as a condition of receiving child care assistance. (Federal law does not require parents to seek child support from a non-custodial parent in order to obtain a child care subsidy although several states have this requirement.)
• Finally, the county has decreased spending on child care in recent years, contributing to an accumulation of approximately $5 million in unspent child care funds.

The report was unable to conclude why a large number of TANF child care cases were of a short duration or why few families transitioned to the income-eligible child care assistance program.

Parent fills out paperwork at the Sacramento County Department of Human Services on Friday. SOURCE: Sacbee.com

California is under pressure to get more parents off welfare, and working for their income.

The state’s welfare-to-work program — the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids, or CalWORKS — must meet federal guidelines or face fines.

The Sacramento Bee reports, if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can’t get 28,000 low-income parents off welfare soon, then the state could face a $150 million annual penalty and force the state to spend an additional $180 million.

According to the Sac Bee, a draft report released in September suggested two proposals:

• Give $50 more in food stamps to former CalWORKS recipients who make the transition out of the program. Such a move would cost the state $25 million and allow the state to claim credit for successfully moving those people into the work force.

• Establish a state-only welfare assistance program for recipients who have a harder time finding jobs. An elaborate shift of existing state resources is being proposed for funding such a program.

Gov. Schwarzenegger was supposed to turn in a state report detailing a plan to the California legislature Oct. 1.

As of Dec. 4, government and social service leaders were still waiting.

According to a federal report released this week, more than $40 million Americans say they cannot afford health care.

“There has been important progress made in many areas of health such as increased life expectancy and decreases in deaths from leading killers such as heart disease and cancer,” Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement.

“But this report shows that access to health care is still an issue where we need improvement.”

The report, summarized by a Reuters article, contained an analysis of data from 2005, whereas now, nearly three years later, Americans’ health circumstances may have changed. And we know from polls that health care is the No. 1 most important domestic issue to voters and presidential candidates have responded, with nearly all of them presenting detailed health plans as a part of their campaigns.

Other details from the article and report:

• The report found about one third of all children living below the poverty level had not visited a dentist in 2005, compared with fewer than one-fifth of children from wealthier families.

• “The United States spends more on health per capita than any other country, and health spending continues to increase,” the report said.

• “In 2005, national health care expenditures in the United States totaled $2 trillion, a 7 percent increase from 2004. Hospital spending, which accounts for 31 percent of national health expenditures, increased by 8 percent in 2005.”

• Private insurance plans paid for 36 percent of total personal health care expenditures in 2005, while the federal government paid 34 percent, state and local governments paid 11 percent, and patients paid for 15 percent out of pocket.

• Prescription drugs accounted for 10 percent of national health expenditure in 2005.

• Some good news: life expectancy was up to 77.8 years for a baby born in 2004 — three years more than in 1990. “Mortality from heart disease, stroke, and cancer has continued to decline in recent years,” the report said.

“Back in 1997 the Senate took the sensible position that the U.S. should not adopt any climate treaty that would either harm the economy or that didn’t include meaningful participation by major developing countries,” said H. Sterling Burnett, senior fellow at the NCPA. “Now, with an election year fast approaching, many of the same Senators are rushing to adopt a unilateral bill that violates both of those principles. The good news is this proposal has little chance of becoming law.”

The bill, titled “America’s Climate Security Act,” would restrict greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, petroleum refiners, major manufacturers and natural gas supplied to both residential and commercial buildings under what is called a “cap and trade” mechanism. Under a cap and trade system, government establishes a cap on total emissions, and then auctions or gives allowances to the affected industries, allowing them to emit carbon dioxide at certain levels. Companies are also allowed to trade their emission allowances among themselves, so that companies that can cost effectively cut emissions more than their allowed amount can sell their excess emission credits to others. Over time, the annual emissions limits would decline.

Burnett noted that an analysis of cap and trade proposals in general by the Congressional Budget Office estimated costs to the economy in tens of billions and perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars annually and concluded that the poor would bear the brunt of resulting higher energy prices.

“These costs could be quite high since the technologies don’t exist at the present to meet the emission reduction goals,” said Burnett. “There is no telling if and when we can separate economic growth from growth in energy use or at least from growth in fossil fuel use.”

Increasingly scientists are advocating geo-engineering approaches, as more immediate, cost-effective ways to reduce warming. And politicians and analysts world wide are coming to embrace the need for adapting to future warming.

The NCPA is an internationally known nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute with offices in Dallas and Washington, D. C. that advocates private solutions to public policy problems. We depend on the contributions of individuals, corporations and foundations that share our mission. The NCPA accepts no government grants.

One Chicago blogger wrote on Nov. 8:

The tallest building in North America is officially going green, along with a few of its Windy City counterparts. At a green building expo in Chicago yesterday, former President Bill Clinton and eterna-Mayor Richard Daley announced a partnership to retrofit landmarks including the Sears Tower and the Merchandise Mart, the nation’s largest commercial center. Using features like wind turbines and green roofs, the endeavor will seek to save energy, fight climate change, and — perhaps most important — show other communities and countries around the world that environment and economy do mix. Green building and other climate fixes represent “a staggering economic opportunity,” Clinton said. “I think this is the greatest opportunity our country has had to generate prosperity since we mobilized for World War I.” Daley, who first took office in 1914, nodded sagely.

‘E- The Environmental Magazine’ gives some holiday hints to going green.

Brita Beli from TODAY at msnbc.com highlights the magazine’s most helpful hints. Here’s her two cents:

Putting more green into your holidays means more than leaving less impact on the planet. It’s about choosing gifts that are made with durable, quality, non-toxic materials. Luckily, this often leads to quirky, one-of-a-kind items that say as much about your creative leanings as your Earth-friendliness. Giving green can mean everything from reusing gift wrap and gift bags (or do-it-yourself stenciled paper bags or comics pages), to putting all-natural lotions and beeswax candles in stockings and solar-powered electronics and vintage jewelry under the tree. Of course, if you choose to actually give green — as in plants! — that’s OK, too. (In that case, we recommend philodendron, Boston fern, peace lily and English ivy, all of which are known for their air-cleaning qualities.)

-For the gadget geek: The eco hard drive
-For children: Non-toxic toys and games
-For the outdoors enthusiast: Sustainable skis and snowboards
-For the chief household officer: Creative kitchenware
-For the hipster/fashionista: Reclaimed bags and accessories
-For the eco-economic (under $25): The waterproof wallet

Check out the new merchandise page online to see their t-shirts and bumper stickers. The t-shirts are 100% US made organic cotton that’s locally hand silk-screened with non-toxic inks and the stickers are the perfect stocking stuffer for all your bio-buddies.

There are other ways to support Chicago Biofuels in your holiday giving…consider making a donation in someone’s name…and nothing says I love you (and the earth) like a gift membership. Remember to order early to be sure your gift arrives in time for whichever holiday you choose to celebrate this season (they suggest ordering by Dec. 14th if said holiday involves a fat man in a red suit).

James Buss, a teacher at Oak Creek High School, reportedly made the comments on the conservative Wisconsin political blog BootsandSabers.com. According to a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Buss posted anonymously under the pseudonym “The Observer,” writing:

“Looking at those teacher salary numbers in West Bend made me sick. … Weve (sic) got to get in back of the kids who have had enough of lazy, no good teachers and are fighting back. Kids like Eric Harris and Dylen Klebold (sic) members of the Young Republicans club at Columbine. They knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs. One shot at a time! Too bad the liberls (sic) rip them; they were heros (sic) and should be remembered that way.”

Some have argued that Buss, a former president of his district’s teachers’ union, made the comments sarcastically.

Larry Dupuis, legal director of The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, told The Associated Press:

“At worst, it was somebody expressing admiration for somebody who did something reprehensible. But the more reasonable explanation is this is somebody who is trying to mock the conservative view of teacher salaries.”

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Related:

• Daily Kos: Disturbing Wisconsin arrest for blogging
• Committee to Protect Bloggers: Wisconsin teacher (US) arrested for comment on blog
• Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression: Free speech or threat? Teacher arrested for Columbine posting
• Phawker: Teacher arrested for pro-Columbine “comment”

On this site:

• Federal court: School can suspend Texas student for violent story
• Blog post: Interesting editorial about student speech in “Post-Virginia Tech World”

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After attending a series of workshops on food, farms and community health in New York, Yang learned some lessons that Chicagoans need to hear.

Lesson 1:

Eating organic produce translates to eating an extra serving of fruits and vegetables due to all the antioxidants and nutrients it has compared to nonorganic produce.

Lesson 2:

Vitamin content in nonorganic fruits and vegetables has decreased by 10 to 40 percent over the years.

Lesson 3:

Irradiated food—food exposed to radiation to kill off bacteria—does not have to be labeled as such, even if it’s sold in restaurants, schools, and hospitals. This is disturbing, as irradiation destroys vitamins, protein, and essential fatty acids, and produces chemicals that have been linked to DNA damage in human cells.

For more lessons and information about what Yang learned, read her article in the Columbia Spectator.

Click on the video above to find out how you can write as you think.

Think you have to be 18 to rock the vote? Sure, voting is a liberty important to having you voice heard.

But so is your right to write your local representative.

I’m going to show you how.

• Step one, log on to www.projectvotesmart.org.
• Next, in the left-hand search bar, enter the name of your representative from either the candidate or representative in the House or Senate. According to GovTrack.us, U.S. citizens in the 50 states have three representatives in the U.S. Congress: two senators and one representative. Each state elects two senators for six-year terms. The 435 representatives have two-year terms.
• If you don’t know your rep’s last name, enter your 9-digit ZIP code. To find those last four digits, click on the “Don’t Know Your 9-Digit ZIP?’ enter your address, then return to Project Vote Smart.
• Step three, scroll down your list of results, and choose from current elections, officials, or candidates. I’ll pick Julia Carson, my Congresswoman from the house7th district.
• Then, Scroll down the page to view a biography, work history, and most importantly legislative history of your representative
• Step five, copy down the address of the your rep and get ready to pen democratic prose.

Despite the fact that many anti-immigration activists say illegal immigrants are a burden to U.S. health-care programs, a new study by researchers at the University of California’s School of Public Health found that illegal Latinos are no more burden to our health-care system than legal or American-born Latinos.

The study, based on a 2003 telephone survey of thousands of California residents, specifically found that although such immigrants tend not to have a regular doctor or other health-care provider, they do not visit emergency rooms – often a last resort in such cases – with any more frequency than Latinos born in the United States, according to a report by Reuters.

The makeup of the studied group:

• 1,317 undocumented Mexicans
• 2,851 citizens with Mexican immigrant parents
• 271 undocumented Latinos from countries other than Mexico
• 852 non-Mexican Latinos born in the United States

What researchers said:

“One recurrent theme in the debate over immigration has been the use of public services, including health care,” wrote lead researcher Richard Ortega and his team in the report, which was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine (pdf).

“Proponents of restrictive policies have argued that immigrants overuse services, placing an unreasonable burden on the public. Despite a scarcity of well-designed research … use of resources continues to be a part of the public debate,” they said.

• Illegal Mexican immigrants had 1.6 fewer visits to doctors than people born to Mexican immigrants
•  Other undocumented Latinos had 2.1 fewer physician visits than their U.S.-born counterparts

Conclusion?

Perhaps critics shouldn’t worry so much about illegal immigrants draining resources meant for Americans.

“Low rates of use of health-care services by Mexican immigrants and similar trends among other Latinos do not support public concern about immigrants’ overuse of the health care system,” the researchers wrote.

“Undocumented individuals demonstrate less use of health care than U.S.-born citizens and have more negative experiences with the health care that they have received.”

Then again, illegal Latinos may have had fewer doctors’ visits than others, but they still had some, and in my opinion, any unauthorized use of social services meant for Americans is illegal and should be stopped.

Picture Source: Sally Ryan for The New York Times

Against a doctor’s advice, Karla Hart, a mother of four, took a part-time job at a day care center in Milwaukee to help pay her bills.

She’s the face of a Dec. 1 story in the The New York Times on a state policy that blocks child support payments for parents on welfare.

The Times pulled a clipping from her monthly child-support statement to show why she puts her health on the line to pay her bills:

• Paid by the father: $229.40
• Amount deducted to repay federal costs of welfare: $132.18

According to the NYT, close to half the states pass along none of collected child support to families on welfare, while most others pay only $50 a month to a custodial parent, usually the mother, even though the father may be paying hundreds of dollars each month.

Critics say using child support to repay welfare costs harms children instead of helping them, contradicting the national goal of strengthening families, and is a flaw in the generally lauded national campaign to increase collections.

In an Oct. “fare them well” report, “Families benefit from ex-offender jobs,” a story from Indiana supported this notion. The entry highlighted a program in Indianapolis focused on giving recent ex-offenders jobs in order establish an income that could help pay child support as well as court fees.

Work Force Inc.’s mantra is one reason many welfare advocates are pushing for a bill introduced in the house last Feb., which if approved, would allow $50 from a non-custodial paycheck to immediately pass-through to a child, instead of being automatically extracted as restitution to the state for welfare costs.

It’s an outstanding journalistic example of the rising wave of voices speaking out against the prevent of pass-through.

If you’re a regular reader, you may remember a post I did in October about a dean at Central Michigan University who slapped a student’s video camera while he taped himself giving her a Freedom of Information Act request.

FOIA requests don’t usually become that violent (you’ll understand after you watch the accompanying video in the above link), but they can cause controversy. Also, submitting FOIA requests can sometimes be confusing, especially for beginning journalists. Therefore, I made the above video instruction. Hopefully, it will help you out.

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The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that the teacher, who had left Tukwila, Wash.’s Foster High School with about 125 student protesters Nov. 16, has now returned to work. The P-I also reported that:

Students who brought notes from parents to participate in the walkout were excused, but others were not and could be considered truant or tardy.

However, political organization Socialist Alternative wrote that the school is investigating the actions of six teachers, and that the school’s principle

“threatened to suspend one student simply for talking about the threat their teachers are facing.”

Socialist Alternative also alleges that school administrators tore down students’ posters and brought in police Nov. 28 to “to disperse and break up a peaceful student meeting.”

—–

Related:

• Listen to an ACLU interview about Illinois high school students who were suspended for their Iraq war protest
• Students suspended, face expulsion for cafeteria anti-war protest
• Months after “Don’t tase me, bro!”, UF students arrested at Alberto Gonzales speech

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During a visit to Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire this week, Rep. Dennis Kucinich [D-Ohio] was approached by a man whose wife’s cancer treatment costs are so high that the couple are struggling to make ends meet.

“I need your help in Congress to look into the cost of drugs that are being prescribed,” the man, Fred Anderson, told Kucinich, according to an article on SeacoastOnline.

In response, Kucinich told the group assembled at the academy that he is advocating for not-for-profit health care.

“Under my plan, the prescription drugs are free, the long-term care is covered. Anyone who has cancer is covered for all their treatments,” Kucinich said, citing the hundreds of thousands of dollars it can cost to treat the disease. “[Health coverage] should be a basic right in a democratic society, not a privilege based on your ability to pay.”

In an article published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, social medicine and health policy expert Jonathan Oberlander critiqued the health-care plans of the leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates.

Oberlander’s findings on the Dems:

• The three front-runners – Sen. Hillary Clinton [D-NY], Sen. Barack Obama [D-Ill.] and former Sen. John Edwards [D-NC] – all have very similar plans. Their goal is to provide coverage for all or nearly all of the 47 million currently uninsured Americans.
• The Democratic plans all rely on a “play-or-pay” employer mandate to move toward universal coverage, requiring businesses to either offer workers insurance or pay a tax.
  • “Employer-sponsored insurance has been a cornerstone of the U.S. health care system since the 1940s and now covers about 160 million nonelderly Americans. Play-or-pay models enable reformers to finance universal coverage mainly through employer payments rather than creating a publicly funded system that would require new broad-based taxes.”
• Medicare would be retained, and Medicaid and SCHIP would be expanded to cover more low-income Americans. In addition, the Clinton, Edwards, and Obama plans all create a new public insurance plan that would be available alongside private options.
• The top three candidates avoid any explicit budgeting of health care spending or centralized cost controls, instead offering a politically friendlier assortment of cost-saving measures, including electronic medical records and a focus on prevention and disease management. These measures may be good health policy, but their capacity to generate large savings is uncertain, and they are unlikely to restrain health care spending for long.
• The Democratic plans are financed largely by rolling back tax cuts adopted by the Bush administration for families making more than $200,000 (Edwards) or $250,000 (Clinton and Obama) annually.
  • “Democratic presidential candidates are, in essence, betting that the public would rather spend federal money on covering the uninsured (and making coverage for the already-insured more secure and affordable) than on extending tax cuts for the wealthy.”
• All of them contain provisions designed to reassure insured Americans that they can keep their current coverage if they want to.

Oberlander’s findings on the Republicans:

• None of the top three candidates – former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain [R-Ariz.] – has introduced a health plan as detailed or comprehensive as any of the Democrats’.
• The leaders generally favor incremental expansions of insurance coverage and changes in tax policy to improve access and control costs.
• Giuliani and McCain would offer tax credits to Americans purchasing their own insurance. The aim is to shift enrollment from employer-sponsored into the private market. Romney, on the other hand, would have the federal government work with the states to form a health solution, and his tax credits would also allow individuals to purchase private insurance.
• All the Republican plans call for deregulation of insurance markets, investments in health information technology, medical malpractice reform, and expansion of health savings accounts (tax-preferred accounts that can be used to pay for medical expenses in conjunction with high-deductible health insurance).
• “Without more details, it is difficult to assess the plans’ potential impact, but their incremental measures are unlikely to substantially increase health insurance coverage or effectively control costs.”

Sen. Hillary Clinton’s [D-NY] campaign called on Friday for fellow Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obmama [Ill.] to pull one of his campaign television commercials, which asserts that his health-care plan covers all Americans.

Clinton’s campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, told reporters on a conference call that Obama’s suggestion that his health-care plan will cover all Americans is “demonstrably false” and that the ad is misleading.

According to an article in Friday’s Boston Globe, Solis Doyle even sent a letter to Obama’s campain manager asking him to stop running the ad.

“On an issue of this magnitude, Americans are looking for more than a nice ad or a good speech. It’s not enough for Sen. Obama to say he covers everyone, especially when that is inaccurate,” Solis Doyle wrote. “Until the time comes when Sen. Obama has a plan that will cover everyone, you should stop running this false advertisement. The American people deserve an honest debate about health care.”

Obama’s response:

The campaign does not plan to pull the ad, which has been running for about a month in Iowa. It just began airing in New Hampshire this week.

The polls show a tight race in both states between Clinton, Obama and former Sen. John Edwards [D-NC], which Obama’s manager referred to in a response to Clinton’s criticism.

“The Clinton campaign didn’t say a word when this ad was released a month ago, and the only thing that’s changed since then is the poll numbers,” Obama spokesman Reid Cherlin said in a statement.

“Rather than spending their time attacking Barack Obama, the Clinton campaign should explain how exactly they plan to force every American to buy health insurance even if they can’t afford it,” he said.
Is the ad truly misleading?

It depends on how you look at it. If you read into it that Obama’s plan will provide health coverage for all Americans, then yes, it is misleading.

Let’s take a look at Obama’s proposed health plan (pdf):

• The plan will make available a new national health program that will allow (not force) individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health care similar to that available to federal employees.
• It will not turn anyone away or charge more due to illness or pre-existing conditions.
• It would require insurance companies to accept all applicants.
• It would require employers to make a “meaningful” contribution to the health coverage of their employees.
• The plan would require hospitals to collect and report health-care cost and quality data.
• Drug costs would be lowered by allowing importation of pharmaceuticals from other countries.
• The only sect of society that would be required to have coverage is children.
  

Quinnipiac officials made the threat after Jason Braff, editor of The Chronicle, wrote an editorial about the publication’s required online policy and gave an interview about it to a local newspaper, The New York Times reported Dec. 2. According to the Times,

The policy was established the previous school year, after the paper reported a story, about an off-the-court incident involving players on the men’s basketball team, first online.

Braff had argued publicly that the policy restricted the newspaper’s ability to report breaking news. But school administrators claimed the policy was meant to “reduce the potential for serious error in light of a student’s enthusiasm to release ‘breaking news.’”

Braff told the Times that he received a letter Nov. 2 from the school’s vice president and dean of students, Manuel C. Carreiro, threatening his job. The letter reportedly read in part:

“Please understand that any disregard for university or Student Center policies, or any public statement by you expressing disagreement with such policies, will seriously place your position and organization at risk with the university.”

If fired, Braff would likely lose an $8,000 stipend, or scholarship, he receives for his position on the paper.

Margarita E. Diaz, faculty adviser to The Chronicle, told the Times:

“Any attempt by the university to control the statements by any student leader, whether it is about university policies, or anything else going on on campus, I see as an attack on freedom of speech on campus.”

—-

Related blog articles:

• Free speech, press battle at Quinnipiac U
• Higher Education ought to foster minds, not dumb them down at a high (ok, exorbitant) price.
• Wheat from the Braff
• Waterbury paper stays on top of QU free speech chill

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For further reading, check out last month’s post about the non-profit organzation creating new beginnings for women in Chicago.

The event starts at 5:30 p.m. with a cocktail reception, followed by the 6:15 presentation. Admission is $9, which includes drinks (wine, beer and soft drinks) and light appetizers. A book signing will follow the presentation. Click here to register online. 

To celebrate the move, the restaurant is serving free breakfast tomorrow from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Bring it on.

One woman and one man did - Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon.

Their book - Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally - documents the entire year-long experience.

Here’s a synposis:

Like many great adventures, the 100-mile diet began with a memorable feast. Stranded in their off-the-grid summer cottage in the Canadian wilderness with unexpected guests, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon turned to the land around them. They caught a trout, picked mushrooms, and mulled apples from an abandoned orchard with rose hips in wine. The meal was truly satisfying; every ingredient had a story, a direct line they could trace from the soil to their forks. The experience raised a question: Was it possible to eat this way in their everyday lives?

Back in the city, they began to research the origins of the items that stocked the shelves of their local supermarket. They were shocked to discover that a typical ingredient in a North American meal travels roughly the distance between Boulder, Colorado, and New York City before it reaches the plate. Like so many people, Smith and MacKinnon were trying to live more lightly on the planet; meanwhile, their “SUV diet” was producing greenhouse gases and smog at an unparalleled rate. So they decided on an experiment: For one year they would eat only food produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver home.

It wouldn’t be easy. Stepping outside the industrial food system, Smith and MacKinnon found themselves relying on World War II era cookbooks and maverick farmers who refused to play by the rules of a global economy. What began as a struggle slowly transformed into one of the deepest pleasures of their lives. For the first time they felt connected to the people and the places that sustain them.

For Smith and MacKinnon, the 100-mile diet became a journey whose destination was, simply, home. From the satisfaction of pulling their own crop of garlic out of the earth to pitched battles over canning tomatoes, Plenty is about eating locally and thinking globally.

The authors’ food-focused experiment questions globalization, monoculture, the oil economy, environmental collapse, and the tattering threads of community. Thought-provoking and inspiring, Plenty offers more than a way of eating. In the end, it’s a new way of looking at the world.

The two authors will be speakers at the Tri State Locally Grown Conference.

Just in case you’re not sold quite yet, here’s a review:

“This very human and often humorous adventure about two people eating food grown within a short distance of their home is surprising, delightful, and even shocking. If you’ve only talked about eating locally but never given yourself definitions — especially strict ones — to follow, I assure you that your farmers’ market will never again look the same. Nothing you eat will look the same! This inspiring and enlightening book will give you plenty to chew on.” Deborah Madison, author of Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets

Despite the fact that most political polls describe health care as the No. 1 domestic issue, Wednesday’s CNN/YouTube debate for Republican presidential candidates did not contain any mention of the topic.

What the candidates did talk about:

• Illegal immigration
• Abortion rights (or lack thereof, as it were)
•  Gun control
• Fiscal responsibility
• Imported toys containing lead
• Crime and capital punishment
• (And, of course) Iraq

Where to get coverage of the debate if you missed it:

• Read the transcript (Parts one and two)
• View the recap and individual questions on YouTube

What the bloggers are saying:

• “When CNN airs a YouTube debate for Republican presidential hopefuls, you might think they’d select questions about the most important concerns Americans have,” wrote Buzz Flash blogger Joe Brewer. “After all, the questions were taken from everyday citizens with a video camera and access to the Web. But health care wasn’t mentioned.”
• “I waited. And waited. And kept waiting,” wrote “nyceve” of the Daily Kos blog. But a single question about the plight of 47 million uninsured Americans, or the rest of us who have to wage an unending true holy war against the for-profit insurance industry, just didn’t make the CNN cut.”

Perhaps someone should have looked at the polls before selecting the questions. . .

WHO: Experts from Illinois, Iowa and Missouri (including Land Connection founder Terra Brockman) will share their research and experiences. Keynote speakers are Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, and Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, co-authors of Plenty, and originators of the 100-Mile Diet.

WHAT TO DO: Register at http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/adamsbrown/ (Click on Locally Grown Conference) Registration is $25 per person, with a lunch featuring local foods included

WHEN: Registration deadline is Nov. 21.

For more information about Terra Brockman and how she started the Land Connection in Evanston, read how she challenges Chicagoans to dig in and eat local.

Direct Energy, one of the largest North American providers of energy and energy-related services, is offering consumers tips on trimming their holiday energy usage, which can spike significantly during this festive time of year.

Direct Energy is recommending these measures to reduce usage and maximize efficiency during the holidays:

– Turn down the heat a few degrees. Doing so could save 10 percent on
heating bills. Reducing the heat before guests arrive makes sense, too,
because all their extra body heat will soon warm up the room.

— Dim the lights and have memorable holiday meals by candlelight. You
could even “go organic” and try soy candles.

— Decorate using LED bulbs, which have a rated life of 50,000 hours,
representing nearly 20 years of normal usage. That’s a bargain,
especially when compared with incandescent lights, which last just 600
to 1,000 hours.

— Wrap gifts with conservation in mind. If everyone wrapped just three
gifts in reused paper or fabric gift bags, it would save enough paper
to cover 45,000 ice hockey rinks.

— Don’t open the oven door to peek at what’s cooking. It can lower oven
temperatures as much as 25 degrees, which increases cooking time and
gobbles energy. Use the oven light and window instead.

— Remember your other cooking appliances when preparing a holiday meal.
Great for cooking or for heating up holiday dinner leftovers,
microwaves use about 50 percent less energy than conventional ovens.

— Use your dishwasher for cleanup. A dishwasher requires 37 percent less
water than washing dishes by hand.

— Buy miniature decorative lights, which use about 70 percent less energy
and last much longer than bigger bulbs. Connect them to an automatic
timer to reduce the chance of leaving your holiday lights burning all
night or while you’re away.

The Windy City announced plans to green its 2,000 miles of alleyways by installing permeable ground coverings that will allow rainwater to seep back into the ground and replenish groundwater supplies.

The plan is called the Green Alley Initiative and could possibly be the most ambitious street makeover in U.S. history.

Susan Saulny summarizes the new system:

In a green alley, water is allowed to penetrate the soil through the pavement itself, which consists of the relatively new but little-used technology of permeable concrete or porous asphalt. Then the water, filtered through stone beds under the permeable surface layer, recharges the underground water table instead of ending up as polluted runoff in rivers and streams.

Revamping the way the city paves could help preserve one of Chicago’s most valued natural resources - Lake Michigan. But some people are skeptical of the refurbished alleyways in a city where people hardly recycle.

City officials say the city will have completed 46 green alleys by the end of the year.

Read the New York Times article for more coverage on the confident and skeptical people affected by the alleyway makeover.

I have to admit I harbor a bit of a “business crush” on Google, what with its oodles of on-hand cash, investment in global servers and by all account, kick-ass offices. But my crush has more to do with the fact that Google’s business platform model, based on openness and accessibility, is an approach that nudges other forward-thinking tech folks to enter, perhaps master, a new arena. Rumor is Google plans to make “open” cellphone software, which would allow others to develop software control applications and interactions with hardware, according to the wsj.com. Some highlights of Google’s cell phone foray, details of which could be released as soon as today (Nov. 5, 2007):

• Internet access that feels more like a Web experience, with links to location-specific restaurants, maps and instant photo-sharing
• Pages that display more personal, customized content
• Software developers say the open source approach will allow phones to handle more content

Doesn’t look like Google plans to make phones, just create an open platform to allow software developers to go crazy making next-generation phones. And hey, if this approach works, some evolution from this technology one day could arguably become a component of a true competitor to the iPhone. And choices are good!

Source: wsj.com

SNL with Brian Williams was pretty good Saturday night, but for me the highlight was this hysterical commercial which illustrates the way most men use the iPhone. I kid, I kid. But the humorous spot is generating buzz and logged more than 800 YouTube views within 12 hours. But it’s also generating glee among phone-tech geeks everywhere. You see, they say (or shout, really) that the phone’s been jailbroken, and perhaps also unlocked, so it could be running on a carrier other than AT&T. Oh no they didn’t! Apple’s death-grip on anything iPhone-related makes brings some sweet ironic humor to this whole spot, as evidenced in this YouTube comment:

THAT IPHONE IS JAILBROKEN….LIKE MINE :) ….i bet apple is pissed…and the carrier logo doesnt [sic] look like at&t…so its also unlocked(like mine ) or he switched the carrier image with customize

Nothing like kicking the king.

You know, I love my dishwasher, as I no longer have to wash (many) dishes by hand. I love my washer and dryer, they which rock by cleaning my clothes for me. Granted, the technology needed for these appliances isn’t new, but these are inventions that changed the way we live. These machines free up time so people can do other things. Good stuff. But the absurd can’t be far behind. So behold: the miniature 1970s-looking vacuum that will have no technological impact on your life whatsoever. But hey — it’s powered through a USB! And it looks like a useful domestic appliance! For you know, all that, um, lint that piles up around your PC. God, this thing looks like it belongs with Dwight on The Office. Who is the audience for this? Is there a poor schlub out there who be be on the recipient end of this oddity at this year’s office holiday swap party??

Source: Whateverworks

Ten Chicago Shell gas stations are part of a pilot program that allows gas-getters to swipe their finger to pay at the pump. While this Pay By Touch technology isn’t new, it is a first for gas stations. To be honest, I’m not sure how the technology works, but the Shell’s Chris Suess, manager of global refueling innovations (not kidding), promises it’ is effifient and secure. Hmmm, fingerprint payment. Kinda weird. Secure? Well, perhaps, for the purchase. But now your local gas station has a permanent, and arguably court-admissible, record of you. Hmmm. Wonder if fed or your local DAs could subpoena fingerprint records from Shell stations? And how long would Shell keep the records? Could they sell them? Frankly, my debit card is enough of a trail of my comings and goings, my tastes, my hangouts, etc. ; I consider myself pretty well tracked. Looks like some customers at Sunflower Market, a Chicago grocery store, might agree with me. From Yahoo!News:

About 2 percent of its customers signed up for the payment option, said the store’s manager, Debbie Britton.

“I think it scares people,” Britton said. “They’re more confused about the whole system. Some of them say, ‘Well, now the FBI can find me.’

And since they can’t find anyone on their own, it’s probably not a leap to assume they’ll lean on private enterprise to do their investigating for them.

Source: Yahoo News, Popsci.com

I’m a huge Detroit Tigers fan. Being from Michigan, I’ve been a fan of Detroit’s storied baseball team since I was a little girl. And while this season wasn’t great, as a fan you know the Tigs will roar again, and you watch the World Series anyway because, well, it’s the World Series. Little did I know that online technology has already infiltrated America’s pastime, and in a very cool way. This past weekend, my boyfriend and I were listening to Game 3 of the Red Sox vs. the Colorado Rockies on the radio while making dinner, and of course a laptop is nearby for any split- second Googling we might need to do to settle an argument. (Sadly, I’m not kidding.) A batter waited on a particularly tough pitch, and Greg went straight to the laptop to see where the ball crossed the plate. He’s an avid user of MLB GameDay, this fabulous online feature from MLB.com. It’s got a bunch of different real time features — one of which will graph the path of the pitch. So, there we were in our Chicago kitchen watching exactly where the ball flew over a tiny plate in a ballfield in Colorado mere seconds ago, all while the radio announcer yapped away about the batter regrouping for the second pitch. It was kinda surreal.

Greg tells me MLB GameDay is also handy for those days when you can’t watch or listen to the game (i.e. when you are at work in a tiny cubicle). Just have GameDay up on your browser and you get the game live on your laptop. And suddenly, work doesn’t suck as much.

Forget silver spoons, today’s kids are born with cellphones in their tiny little hands, and more and more often, a username and password. Okay, in reality they probably won’t type until they’re say, the ripe old age of 2. But it’s no secret that today teens are online, all the time, and harboring addictions to social networks sites like Facebook. It’s natural this group is comfortable with technology. But their comfort level is so high, and their life experience so low, they often do not realize how vulnerable they can be online. This story from USA Today examines that comfort level, and points out that teens (via social networking sites) are comfortable sharing just about everything, that is until that drunken party pic gets posted and Jane Athlete gets kicked off the high school soccer team. One teen admits he even posts his real home address online. But most think they know the parameters of online privacy. I don’t buy it. I’ve never had my identity stolen, but my eBay and PayPal accounts have been hacked. I’m quite fearful that being online somehow negates my privacy rights. And that makes me soooo 2006.

I have to confess: I recently purchased my first iPod. I realize this implies that 1) I am not into technology and 2) I’m not into music. Neither could be further from the truth. My reasons for staying away from the iPod were also twofold: 1) I wanted to wait until Apple cycled through several generations so I wouldn’t get one with a plagued with kinks and 2) all of my friends have one so I’m never really starved for good music. So I was pretty excited to buy the 80GB video iPod that my most excellent new media professor/guru at Northwestern requires for class. I was psyched to finally get my own. I researched its features online. I read consumer reviews. I planned a day to go downtown, and thought ahead about all the extra stuff I’d need (car charger, wall charger, etc.). I’d never been to an Apple store, so when I got there I was relieved I knew exactly what I wanted. The place was teeming with tourists, and I’m not a huge fan of crowded stores, or really tourists for that matter. (There was even one guy directing foot traffic right at the entrance.) I was thrilled to finally make the purchase and was absolutely thrilled that the silver color iPod was in stock. No either/or black/white for me — I have a “unique” iPod! But my enthusiasm has been effectively snuffed out. In my excitement, I wanted to show everyone my new gadget. The response has invariably been the same: “Why didn’t you get the touch screen?”

Here’s why I didn’t get the touch screen: I clearly want to disappoint you.

Okay, here’s the real reason didn’t get the iTouch: I didn’t know it existed, okay? And now that I know more about it, I’m heartened that even if I had known I wouldn’t have bought it anyway, as it lacks the storage space I need for my new media class. But the whole incident has been a reminder that with technology, only the gadgets that are 5 seconds off the production floor are “cool.” Everything else is stale, barely worthy of a half-hearted compliment, let alone a few seconds of oogling.

So, I’m coping with the anticlimactic iPod purchase that is impressive to no one but me. I will survive. But I must say I at least find some amusement in the fact that my sleek, cool-lookin’ powerful iPod relies on a cassette tape do-dad to play through my car stereo. Ah, today’s technology needs yesterday’s technology to play through yesteryear technology. And still no one wants to look at it.

Approximately 127 million adults in the U.S. are overweight, 60 million are obese and 9 million are extremely obese, according to the The Endocrine Society, which also hosts obesityinamerica.org, an educational site that aims to curb obesity in America. Currently, an estimated 65 percent of U.S. adults age 20 years and older and 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight and 30 percent are obese. The fact that we’re fat isn’t surprising. And the fact that some huge conglomerate wants to make money off that problem isn’t surprising either. Healthcare giant Abbott Laboratories in a northern Chicago issued a press release this week announcing its foray into “nutritionals,” or those bland “meals” that are supposed pack the nutrition of a Thanksgiving Day meal in a 5 oz. bar. So, the company hired someone to take a look at how often we Americans eat-on-the-go, and — wait for it — it happens. A lot. We’d prefer to fiddle with our PDAs than sit down for a meal. Behold the precious announcement:

ZonePerfect® Survey Finds Americans Are Overfed on Technology, Underfed at the Dinner Table

These authors clearly haven’t seen a family of four at an IHOP.

Technology has transformed the workplace, and gadgets like cell phones and PDAs mean we’re never far from an opportunity to add thousands of little tasks to each and every day. So it’s interesting to note this study found those who are multitasking can’t focus or concentrate as well as those who, you know, aren’t. And those who multitask share much in common with the world’s stoners: a lower IQ. In fact, some cheeky British researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s college London in 2005 got the Internets a-buzzin’ with the news that e-mail might do more damage to your brain than smoking pot. From Discover Magazine.com: “Of course, a closer examination of the study is less startling but still fascinating. Researchers asked two sets of subjects to take IQ tests. One group had to check e-mail and respond to instant messages while taking the test. The second group just sat down and did the test without distractions. Surprise, surprise, the distracted group didn’t do as well on the test—10 points worse than the control group. In similar testing conditions, people intoxicated by marijuana had scores 8 points lower. So researchers drew attention to their study by noting that multitasking is worse for your ability to concentrate than getting stoned.”

For what it’s worth, I don’t think the boss is going to take, “But it’s like I’m stoned…” as any kind of excuse for why you didn’t answer your cell while you were participating in an Webinar while texting a client and faxing that final contract during a global conference call.

Buro Vormkriigers has created this neon-looking overpriced table lamp, and I’m befuddled as to the audience for this thing. My guess is those who love lava lamps will love the Mary Louise, which is made of acrylic sheets cut to look like, well, a lamp. So, we’ve narrowed the audience to the nation’s middle-aged former club-goers and to teens who swear they’re not stoned, just “tired.” Only the first group has the cash to actually buy this hideous thing, which costs $999 for the one that looks like a kid’s Christmas tree cutout (thank you “Oh Gizmo!”). The uber-etched out one on the right will run you another $300. It’s illuminated with a 14-watt fluorescent bulb that can glow in several different colors, including amber, yellow, orange, purple, blue, pink, red and green. Run to Generate to snap this bulb-that-is-a-lamp. And then think about why you have too much money.