Courtesy Alternet:

As 2009 closes out, the dominant issues in the world of food could be lumped into two competing paradigms that have framed much of the decade. In one corner we have Big Food: factory farms, fast food restaurants, mystery meat, biotechnology and other examples of when the economics of scale are applied to how we feed ourselves. In the other corner is Small Food, whose players include farmers’ markets, ecology-based agriculture and seasonal diets of minimally processed food.

In a victory for small food, 2009 will perhaps be remembered as the year gardening returned to mainstream consciousness. Much credit goes to First Lady Michelle Obama, thanks to the organic veggie patchshe planted on the White House lawn. The symbolic gesture created an instant buzz, and many other politicos around the world have followed suit. There are now gardens on the grounds of city halls, governors’ mansions, and other houses of leadership around the world, providing countless opportunities to educate and discuss why gardens are good.

According to the National Gardening Association the number of households with gardens rose from 36 million in 2008 to 43 million in 2009. Michelle Obama’s garden certainly deserves some credit, but so does the recession, which inspired many people to stick their hands in the dirt, not only to save on grocery bills, but to find economical ways to enjoy their leisure time.

-Article continues @ Source.

In case anyone missed Bob’s conversation with John Walthen last night, here it is, in 4 parts, for your listening and learning leisure.

Part 1

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Part 2

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Part 3

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Part 4

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Here are some pictures Bob Kincaid passed along from today’s protest at Marsh Fork Elementary. For the full details on the events of the day, you can grab Bob’s archive for June 23, 2009 at The White Rose Society!

When Bob passed along the first picture, I became curious as to which existed first – the school or the mining operation. Bob replied: “School was there first. Then came the plant. Then came the law. The plant was “grandfathered in.” Then came the MTR job above.” Remember the ‘Country Roads’ Parody video, where in the lyrics Bob penned he stated “We lose more by law here, than if they used a gun”? This is what he was talking about.

Here’s the sniper on the school’s roof, as Bob noted.

The H.O.R.N.’s favorite intern, Ferg, protesting the destruction of his home.

H.O.R.N. intern Ferg taking video of the performers, who were no doubt singing about the evils of mountain removal.

H.O.R.N. den mother Agnes, and intern Ferg, take time to participate in an interview.

This is the one who shouted the whole time. (I can smell him from here. Oh — am I being an “Outside Agitator” Mr. Big Mouth? Tough!) That audio will be available as soon as it’s processed.

Here are the hogs the fiends of coal rode in on, and revved the entire time. In fact, a lot of their behavior can be related to barnyard animals.

Here’s one now – Moooooo! (Love ya! – The Outside Agitator)

Banjo player Morgan O’Kane (pictured below with singer/producer Jen Osha) is the fellow Bob told us about, that had an air horn blasted right in his ear by a fiend of coal. To check out or purchase the benefit CD they participated in to raise money for the fight against mountain removal, please visit http://www.auroralights.org/journey. You’ll be glad you did!

Dr. James Hansen, arrested today, tried to warn us years ago.

Reverend Jim Lewis had to shout a prayer over the sound of motorcycle engines being gunned.

This is Matt Sherman. You simply must listen to Bob’s archive to get all the details about his speech!

Awww, does someone need a hug? (Love ya! – The Outside Agitator)

Uncle Sam doesn’t like mountain removal. Apparently his stilts were a security threat.

Let’s not forget why people gathered here today. It’s to ensure the students at Marsh Fork Elementary School have a safe and clean environment to learn in. In a matter of weeks, children will be sent inside a building that is only yards away from BILLIONS of gallons of deadly coal sludge, that sit in a measly earthen dam. If that dam breaks, those children will be killed.

So, how clear is your conscience?

YouTube Link

Updates at Mountain Justice.

Courtesy Desmogblog:

 

A Virginia-based public relations firm called theHawthorn Group sent out a newsletter to their “friends and family” outlining the work they did on behalf of a coal industry lobby group called theAmerican Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.The newletter outlines in quite a bit of detail about how Hawthorn spindoctored coal during the Presidential election.

The newsletter starts:

“We thought the most fixated of the political and communications “junkies” might find interesting some highlights of a recent grassroots campaign Hawthorn created and managed for the American Coalition of Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE).”

Hawthorn celebrates the fact that their coal-is-clean campaign was a success:

“In September 2007, on the key measurement question—Do you support/oppose the use of coal to generate electricity?—we found 46 percent support and 50 percent oppose. In a 2008 year-end survey that result had shifted to 72 percent support and 22 percent oppose. Not only did we see significantly increased support, opposition was cut by more than half. Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain addresses a crowd wearing “Clean Coal hats” in Pennsylvania.”

Instead of actually demostrating that somehow coal is clean, Hawthorn used age-old PR tactics to create the image instead:

-View Complete Article @ Sourced Site.

Courtesy The Christian Science Monitor:

The billion-gallon wave of toxic coal-ash sludge that burst from a power-plant retention pond and buried 300 acres of rural Tennessee hints at a far larger problem: hundreds of similar threats nationwide.

More than 1,300 coal-ash waste sites are dotted across the United States, about half of them actively used, federal data show. Some are landfills. The rest are “surface impoundments” (storage lagoons), which, like the one in Tennessee, mix ash with water.

Coal ash has some beneficial uses. It can be mixed with concrete to make roads, for example. But storing coal ash in a retention pond – common at coal-fired power plants nationwide – can be a threat to the environment and humans as well: The ash contains many toxic metals, including arsenic, lead, and chromium.

At least 67 coal-ash sites have been found to be damaging drinking-water supplies in communities across 23 states, the US Environmental Protection Agency reported last year. But those EPA-identified sites grossly understate the threat, environmentalists say.

EPA study finds only 13 ’safe’ coal-ash waste dumps

Among an additional 155 landfill and surface-impoundment sites in 36 states reviewed by the EPA in 2007, all but 13 had no liner or an inadequate clay liner. Most – two-thirds of them – had no liner at all. (An impermeable liner is needed to keep toxic metals from leaching from the ash into groundwater supplies.)

This concerns Kevin Madonna, who, with his law-firm partner, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,  keeps a close eye on water-pollution issues. Using last year’s EPA data, Mr. Madonna cross-checked coal-ash lagoons and landfills that had either a clay liner or no liner to see which ones were close to human populations and waterways.

One-third are close to human populations

Of the 155 waste sites, more than one-third were close or very close to significant human populations; two-thirds were near or very near key waterways, Madonna found. About half of the sites were coal-ash surface impoundments (lagoons).

“You have toxic wastes leaking into water bodies from probably every single one of these lagoons,” Madonna says. “It’s a huge mess.”

Little is known about coal-ash storage sites, which are lightly regulated by states and exempt from federal hazardous-waste regulations. Many are decades old, which increases the potential for leakage and containment failure, experts and environmentalists say.

Lisa Evans, an attorney for Earthjustice, an environmental group, says the EPA underestimates the problem. “Most impoundments are not monitored at all,” she says. “The list of sites identified by the EPA in 2007 is far from comprehensive.”

-Article Continues @ Sourced Site.

Courtesy Business Week:

 

Starbucks (SBUX), once the undisputed leader in premium-price caffeine fixes, has long cultivated a corporate image for social responsibility, environmental awareness, and sensitivity to workers’ rights. Now that carefully crafted reputation is under assault, thanks to a messy legal dispute with a group called the Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) (part of the Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW), which started recruiting employees in 2004 and now claims 300 members.

The National Labor Relations Board found on Dec. 23 thatStarbucks had illegally fired three New York City baristas as it tried to squelch the union organizing effort. The 88-page ruling also says the company broke the law by giving negative job evaluations to other union supporters and prohibiting employees from discussing union issues at work. The judge ordered that the three baristas be reinstated and receive back wages. The judge also called on Starbucks to end discriminatory treatment of other pro-union workers at four Manhattan locations named in the case. The decision marks the end of an 18-month trial in New York City that pitted the ubiquitous multinational corporation against a group of twentysomething baristas who are part of the Industrial Workers of the World.

The timing isn’t ideal for Starbucks, which faces lower demand from the recession, an overall loss of panache for the brand, and a sliding stock price. “[The ruling] is a real thumb in the eye—a real gotcha moment with potential for heartache,” says Eric Dezenhall, chief executive officer of Dezenhall Resources, a crisis management public relations firm in Washington D.C. “I don’t think it’s a crisis, but it hovers between [being] a nuisance and a problem.”

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Starbucks intends to appeal the decision. The company maintained during the trial that the baristas were fired for perfectly legal reasons, such as disrupting business in its stores or threatening a manager. “This is an issue with particular employees,” says Tara Darrow, a Starbucks spokeswoman. “We felt we handled it consistently and fairly. In this particular situation the NLRB disagreed. We’re disappointed with that.”

The ruling comes at a time when Starbucks is trying to get its groove back in a very grim economy. The company’s shares more than halved in value in 2008, now trading just above $9, while Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s (MCD) continued to grab market share among coffee drinkers. As the recession deepens, Starbucks recently said it may end or trim contributions to workers’ 401(k) accounts in 2009.

While the New York case marks the first that has gone to trial, Starbucks has been the target of numerous National Labor Relations Board complaints over unlawful violations of workers’ rights. Starbucks settled another case in New York concerning illegal firings for union activity without admitting guilt in March 2006, paying $2,000 to former employees and offering their jobs back. In early October 2008, Starbucks settled the case of barista Erik Forman, who was fired for talking with co-workers about managers’ apparent efforts to fire him for union organizing at a Minneapolis location. Starbucks ultimately invited Forman back to work. A similar case is getting under way in Grand Rapids, Mich.; the trial is expected to begin Jan. 7.

 

Courtesy NYTimes:

That figure — repeated on television and in newspapers as the average pay of a Big Three autoworker — has become a big symbol in the fight over what should happen to Detroit. To critics, it is a neat encapsulation of everything that’s wrong with bloated car companies and their entitled workers.

To the Big Three’s defenders, meanwhile, the number has become proof positive that autoworkers are being unfairly blamed for Detroit’s decline. “We’ve heard this garbage about 73 bucks an hour,” Senator Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said last week. “It’s a total lie. I think some people have perpetrated that deliberately, in a calculated way, to mislead the American people about what we’re doing here.”

So what is the reality behind the number? Detroit’s defenders are right that the number is basically wrong. Big Three workers aren’t making anything close to $73 an hour (which would translate to about $150,000 a year).

But the defenders are not right to suggest, as many have, that Detroit has solved its wage problem. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler workers make significantly more than their counterparts at Toyota, Honda and Nissan plants in this country. Last year’s concessions by the United Automobile Workers, which mostly apply to new workers, will not change that anytime soon.

And yet the main problem facing Detroit, overwhelmingly, is not the pay gap. That’s unfortunate because fixing the pay gap would be fairly straightforward.

The real problem is that many people don’t want to buy the cars that Detroit makes. Fixing this problem won’t be nearly so easy.

The success of any bailout is probably going to come down to Washington’s willingness to acknowledge as much.

Let’s start with the numbers. The $73-an-hour figure comes from the car companies themselves. As part of their public relations strategy during labor negotiations, the companies put out various charts and reports explaining what they paid their workers. Wall Street analysts have done similar calculations.

The calculations show, accurately enough, that for every hour a unionized worker puts in, one of the Big Three really does spend about $73 on compensation. So the number isn’t made up. But it is the combination of three very different categories.

-Article Continues @ Sourced Site.

Courtesy CBS.

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Dozens of former employees of Republic Windows and Doors continued to remain at the shuttered North Side plant late Friday, saying they’re being cheated.

The ex-workers say they found out only three days before Friday’s closing that they would be without a job. Some of them also learned they would not get the vacation they’ve earned to date or the insurance coverage they were promised. 

More than 200 union workers staged a sit-in of sorts until they they got what they say is legally owed to them. 

 

 

The union says company officials told employees they were closing shop because Bank of America would no longer extend Republic its line of credit. Bank of America wouldn’t confirm that due to confidentiality issues. Workers say the fact that Bank of America received $25 billion in the federal bailout makes this even more unacceptable. 

“More than 300 people are working here, and what are we going to do now?” employee Vicente Rangel said. “We don’t get any single benefit. They even telling us they are not guarantee our payment for the week we just worked.” 

-Article Continues @ Sourced Site.

We’ll get to Bob’s letter, that’s in response to a local newspaper article in a minute. But first, you need to look at the picture below. It’s a photo H.O.R.N. friend, Kid_A, took of Kayford Mountain, or what’s left of it, in West Virginia. This picture would never have been possible, and you would not have been able to see the sun setting that low in the sky from this vantage point, had the wonderful coal companies not blown the mountains the hell out of the way first. How “friendly” does that sound? Bob titles this picture “Sunset In Hell.”

And now, on to Bob’s letter….

It’s so nice to see that the Friends of Coal are “giving back to the community” this Christmas season! It’s the least they can do. Really. The very, very least, since these “friends” spend the rest of the year taking from West Virginians.

Mountaintop removal coal takes away our health and well-being, our homes, our communities, our children’s future and even the bare necessities of life like clean air and water. While they give toys and trinkets during the holiday season, the “Friends” of Coal give three million pounds of high explosives “back to the community” every day of the rest of the year. They “give back to the community” the mercury that accounts for IQ deficits in our babies. They “give back to the community” the asthma that has made rescue inhalers a commonplace in our children’s pockets. They “give back to the community” selenium and arsenic and aluminum and a whole host of other poisons in the water we use to bathe and baptize our children. They “give back to the community” the clouds of ghastly pollution visible from space that choke the very wind, some of it from West Virginia coal they sell to China. The West Virginia coal burned in China powers the production of the poisons in babies’ formula, poison in our toothpaste, poison in our pets’ food and even the often-toxic toys these “friends” will “give back to the community” to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace.

Early European arrivals to this continent “gave” the Indians blankets laced with smallpox and called it “charity.” The Register-Herald article claims the “Friends” of Coal are “giving” to the community, too. What they’re giving, however, wasn’t printed.

(The article Bob is replying to can be found here.)