Green Pages

I have been invited to become a member of the Green Pages Editorial Board. This came after I was asked to write a feature for the summer issue of the Green Pages, which I did – read the unedited version here.
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Global Warming Film in SLC

I was scheduled to see the film “An Inconvenient Truth” featuring Al Gore last night, but had to miss it due to the arduous task of moving my school (which is taking longer than I imagined, involving long strenuous hours to accomplish). I hope to be able to see the film sometime over the next week after my moving responsibilities are completed.

Jen’s Green Journal has an account of the movie and discussion following.

I am fortunate to be on the Green Party of the United States’ Eco Action Committee, as secretary, members of which are diligently working on position statements for the GPUS and for candidates around the nation in efforts to address the seriousness of the effects of global warming on our planet and its life.

Today in history

(Sources: Peace Buttons, War Resisters League, and the Peace Center.)

June 15

1215
King John signs the Magna Carta at Runnymede, limiting the power of the English monarchy

1907
44 nations meet in 2nd Hague Peace Conference

1943

CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) was founded in Chicago.

1970

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled (U. S. v. Sisson) that conscientious objectors need not base their moral beliefs on an organized religion.

visit the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors

 


Nuclear Waste plan attracts thousands of comments

Today’s Deseret News has an article on all the comments that have flooded the BLM’s office regarding the Private Fuel Storage (PFS) plan to store nuclear waste on the Goshute reservation. More than 7,000 comments were received.

The BLM’s public comment period ended May 8 on two competing proposals to get radioactive fuel from a rail line to the Goshute Indian reservation, where PFS wants to build the storage plant. The proposals are to build a railroad spur or to construct an intermodal facility where huge protective casks would be lifted from train cars and loaded onto trucks for the 26-mile drive to the reservation.

Go us! Keep up the pressure.

Some bloggers that attended the Utah Bloggers Conference last night have put up posts about the event:

  • utahbloggers.com with a cute photo here. Utahbloggers has also added a conference review site.
  • Tim Stay of Know More Media
  • Phil Burns
  • Phil Windley of Technometria
  • Scott Lemon of Tablet PC Thoughts
  • Kalyn Denny of Kaylyn’s Kitchen
  • Gary Thornock of Gary Thornock’s Weblog
  • Charley Foster of The State of the Beehive
  • Janet, Newspapergirl
  • Today in history

    June 14

    1816

    The Society for the Promotion of Universal and Permanent Peace, often known as the London Peace Society, was founded. Nearly all of the members of the Society came from Protestant denominations, and Quaker influence was strong.

    International Peace Society

    1943

    The U.S. Supreme Court decided a West Virginia case, Barnette v. Board of Education, upholding the constitutional right of children in public schools to refuse to salute the American flag. A group of Jehovah’s Witnesses had objected to the mandatory salute as a violation of the third commandment (Exodus 20:4) which prohibits worshipping a graven image.

    School children, in this undated Library of Congress photo, are saluting the flag during the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. This type of salute was changed to the “hand over the heart” salute in the Flag Code of 1942. This change came about because of the similarity of this salute with the Nazi salute

    1946
    In “Taylor v. Mississippi”, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that school children need not salute the U.S. flag if it is against their religion to do so (1946)

    1964

    Members of Women Against the Bomb called for complete nuclear disarmament during a visit to Moscow, U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)

    1968

    Dr. Spock, the pediatrician, author and peace activist, was found guilty of aiding draft resisters during the Vietnam War. A Federal District Court jury in Boston convicted Dr. Benjamin Spock and three others, including Yale University Chaplain William Sloane Coffin, Jr., of conspiring to “aid, abet, and counsel draft registrants to violate the Selective Service Act.”

    read A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority

    co-authored by Dr. Spock (1967)

    1986

    60,000 marched to Central Park demanding economic sanctions against South Africa for their apartheid regime.



    Utah Bloggers Conference

    About 100-150 people attended the first semi-annual Utah Bloggers Conference tonight. Thanks to utahbloggers.com for organizing this.

    After about a half hour of gathering a panel discussion was held on blogging in Utah. The discussion was mostly oriented towards business. 4 of the 5 panelists were business bloggers and one was political.

    Panelists included:

  • Cyndie Tetro
  • Phil Burns
  • Phil Windley
  • Tim Stay
  • Pete Ashdown

    Following the panel was a Q & A. Since I noticed the glaring disparity in gender on the panel, and in the room (about 4:1 men), and the fact that only men were asking questions, I asked the question of the panelists if the gender balance on the panel was representative of the percentage of women bloggers in Utah. This evoked a series of responses from panelists and audience memberes alike – women and men – with no clear cut answer being offered, but recognition that this is the way things are in Utah. I did learn, as a reult of the responses, of Blogher, a site that lists women bloggers and that there will be a Blogher Conference in San Diego July 28 and 29.

    Overall the conference was interesting and very informal and comfortable. The organizers are planning another one in 6 months, details to be announced at a later date.

    I met Rob Miller, of The Utah Amicus. It’s so great to meet bloggers in person!

    Here are photos of the event:
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  • New blog carnival – for those affected by HIV/AIDS

    Ron of Science and Politics has organized a new blog carnival for those affected by HIV/AIDS:

    “I am pleased to announce the initiation of the first International Carnival of Pozitivities, a blog carnival for and by people who are living with HIV/AIDS or their physicians/caregivers. For those not familiar with a blog carnival, it is similar to a roving magazine. People write articles on their own blogs and then submit them to a central location for publication. The host of the carnival changes from month to month and therefore, the location of the “magazine” moves from blog to blog.

    The main page for this particular blog carnival is at http://internationalcarnivalofpozitivities.blogspot.com/ and includes a link for submitting any articles you might wish to submit and a sign-up sheet for hosting as well. Since I am initiating this carnival, I will also host the first edition at my own blog, http://www.ronhudson.blogspot.com/ in July.”

    Medicaid

    The first meeting of the Medicaid Interim Committee of the Utah Legislature is Wednesday, June 14, 8 a.m., in Room W135 in the House building. The Medicaid funding for indigent dental care, was not approved in the recent special session.
    Read background materials


    Here is the proposed agenda:

    8:00      1.     Committee Business

    •Call to order

    8:05      2.     Medicaid Program Overview (Tab A)

                                        Background Materials

                                              Briefing paper: “Understanding Medicaid: A Policymaker’s Introduction”

                                              Slide presentation: “Making Your Way Through the Medicaid Maze: A Policymaker’s Introduction”

                                        Staff Presentation

                                              Mr. Mark Andrews, Policy Analyst

    9:053.Medicaid Programs and Funding (Tab B)

                                        Background Materials

    “Ten-year Appropriations History – Health”

                                              “Medicaid Enrollment and Spending Trends”

                                              “State Medicaid Fact Sheets”

                                              2006 Appropriations Summaries: Health and Human Services, and Commerce and Revenue

                                              “A New Medicaid”

                                        Staff Presentation

                                              Mr. Bill Greer, Analyst

     

    First Utah Bloggers Conference

    I will be attending the first ever face-to-face Utah bloggers conference tonight, June 13, 6:30 to 9 p.m., at the Larry Miller Center Innovation Center at 9750 S 300 W, in Sandy Utah.

    Specifically, the conference will be held in the Conference Center in the Main Building, which is the closest one to 300 West.  More specifically, the KGMC Building, rooms 150 C, D, E, & F.

    Anyone can attend. You can be a blogger, a reader of blogs or just want to know more about blogging.

    The admission is free and there will be food and networking. There will also be a panel of Utah bloggers from 7-7:45. For more information visit www.utahbloggers.com.  Thank you to these folks for organizing this!