April 5
1972
The Harrisburg Seven case ended in mistrial after 11 weeks. The Seven were charged with plotting to kidnap Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, among other alleged crimes. Only Phil Berrigan and Sister Elizabeth McAllister were declared guilty — of smuggling letters in and out of prison. They later married, co-founding Baltimore’s venerable Jonah House.
1982
Nuclear free zone declared by Dublin City Council.
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Tracy Medley has an interesting post entitled Where My Girls At? (on New West – Front Page.)
Tracy writes about the lack of women’s presence in politics in Utah and analyzes the reasons for this.
Quite an interesting read. Thanks, Tracy.
As I think more about recycling and the need for improved recycling services and for residents to buy into recycling, I find myself pondering over how these things can be made to happen.
My brother used to live in Oswego, NY. Oswego, as in many other towns and cities in the U.S. , requires clear garbage bags for garbage and recycling. Recycling is also mandatory. If garbage is found in the recycling bags, and vice-versa, the residents are fined.
When I lived in Maryland (where I grew up and lived until 9 years ago), I was required to sort all my recycling to be able to participate in the curbside recycling program. It wasn’t a big deal, really, and became part of what Imy regular daily routine as a homeowner and a resident. I had all my paper bags lined up under my laundry table – aluminum, cardboard, general recycling (paper, etc.), glass, plastic. The recycling truck that came by each week was compartmentalized so that the person picking up the items simply deposited the different sorted bags into the appropirate compartment. It’s also important to note that this town was/is a small one – about 5,000 people.
While this concept is a good one (getting people to sort their recycling), on the other hand, having the recycling sorted at the site creates more jobs. But then the issue is – do the sorters take their time and truly make sure all recyclable materials are indeed recycled? It would be interesting to spend a day following the truck that picks up all the curbside recyclables.
What would be best to get citizens to be more adamant about recycling?
The first campaign disclosure report for my campaign is due tomorrow. I have completed the forms and am awaiting a couple of minor details before submitting the papers.
Since filing in March I have received $249.93 in donations ($153.23 was for my filing fees and is documented as a loan from me). I have incurred $182.63 in expenses – for filing fees and setting up the required campaign bank account.
One of the things I do not like about completing this report is that if one does not have the capacity to complete acrobat files online, you have to print it and either mail it in or take it in, which wastes resources (paper, stamps, gas, etc.)
The state of Utah is way ahead in that game – candidates can complete and submite their forms online.
There’s another small, albeit important, issue for my platform. Get more online resources available for Salt Lake County candidates and citizens when conducting county government business.
This week in Washington, D.C. the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability’s “DC Days” attracted anti-nuclear activists from around the nation. Representatives from Utah included Vanessa Pierce from HEAL Utah and Mike Fife, a member of HEAL.
The Deseret News reports:
Pierce met with Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell on Tuesday, who expressed the same disinterest in PFS that Bodman did with Hatch.
The two Utahns also met with Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and staff members of the rest of the delegation to talk about the PFS project and other nuclear matters.
Pierce’s main goal was to encourage Utah’s senators to support an existing bill that would expand a federal program designed to compensate those ill from radiation exposure to government testing to northern Utah.
The compensation program has been around for almost two decades but only includes the 10 most southern counties in Utah, she said.
Pierce and Fife also wanted the delegation, particularly Bennett who has a seat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that writes the energy spending bill, to reject funding for the Energy Department’s new nuclear power proposals.
The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) is pushing for the building of more nuclear power plants to be built in the U.S. The “bait” is that fuel can be reused. But, according to Pierce, nothing could be further from the truth.
It can actually create more waste and not much of the reprocessed fuel can be used again safely.
“It delays the day of reckoning and just create a bigger price tag,” she said.
Pierce fears that if Private Fuel Storage (PFS) moves forward and reprocessing becomes a reality Utah will become “a nuclear waste version of California’s Silicon Valley” with companies popping up that would want to reprocess waste stored at PFS or more types of waste going to EnergySolutions.
Other nuclear waste storage issues were discussed at the conference and are mentioned in the article.
This morning’s Deseret News has published an article reporting that 93% of schools in Utah earn U-PASS grades.
U-PASS stands for Utah Performance Assessment System for Students and the reported results are for 2004-2005.
Schools that passed had either 75 percent or more of their students proficient in language arts, math and science or had a substantial number of students (who were not proficient) making considerable progress toward proficiency. “These first-year results give meaning and context to the U-PASS testing system,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patti Harrington. “What we especially like about U-PASS is that it gives students and teachers credit for growth in their learning.”
Under No Child Left Behind, if one group of students misses the mark on test scores or participation rates, the whole school fails to make adequate yearly progress. That’s because federal law aims to shine a bright light on areas where children might be falling behind to compel schools to address problems.
But U-PASS judgments are more holistic.
“They give you credit for growth that (NCLB reports) do not,” said Mark Peterson, spokesman for the State Office of Education. “(NCLB reports) are strictly status where as U-PASS is status and growth.”
Read more here.
This is good news for our schools which often are under criticsm and scrutiny. Our educators work hard given the large class sizes and low amount of money (relatively speaking) with which to work.
Jen’s Green Journal is focusing on “green” issues during April, the month of the celebrated Earth Day. Jen reviews “good green” and “bad green” issues, personally and otherwise.
Recently I was an organizer for a Peace and Justice Community Market in Salt Lake. The Peace Community had been the beneficiaries of an estate. While many of our organizations hold rummage sales each year, this one was huge and way more involved than a typical rummage sale. We brought in a lot of many that benefitted each organization.
One of the downsides of holding such sales is the work it takes and usually it’s a relatively small group of people that does all the work.
So the Green Party of Utah is currently holding a discussion and will vote by the end of this week on a proposal whereby a portion of all the “stuff” we collect during the year will be auctioned on ebay. This will provide ongoing income and reduce the amount of work involved in transporting rummage sale items.
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April 4
1958
4,000 begin first of what would become eleven consecutive annual Easter protest marches from London to Aldermaston AWRE spy base in England. (1958)
1967
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in a speech at the Riverside Church in New York City, called for common cause between the civil rights and peace movements. The Nobel Peace Prize winner proposed the United States stop all bombing of North and South Vietnam; declare a unilateral truce in the hope that it would lead to peace talks; set a date for withdrawal of all troops from Vietnam; and give the National Liberation Front a role in negotiations.
“…this war is a blasphemy against all that America stands for….”
I found out after posting my piece on Park City this morning that yesterday’s Salt Lake Tribune published an article on SL Mayor Peter Caroon’s executive order to have Salt Lake County to develop more environmentally repsonsible practices.
Caroon’s order states that each department must “incorporate environmentally sustainable practices in their day-to-day operations.”
Here are “green” things that SL County already has done:
About the Wind Power program, Mayor Carroon says, “….while wind power costs more, Corroon said, “the payback is what we do to help our environment.”
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 