KDKA - Pittsburgh's Source for Breaking News, Weather and Sports: PA House Speaker Mum On Pay Raise Debate PA House Speaker Mum On Pay Raise Debate
Oct 12, 2005 8:02 pm US/Eastern
Beechview (KDKA) The uproar over big pay raises for state lawmakers can still be heard.
The man who spearheaded the pay raise was in Pittsburgh...
Xinhua - EnglishShenzhou-6 lands safely, astronauts in good shape
The re-entry capsule of the Shenzhou-6 spacecraft, carrying taikonauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng, landed on earth safely at 4:33 a.m. Monday, marking a 'complete success' of China's second manned space mission after it put the first Chinese national in space two years ago. Both taikonauts are 'in fine conditions,' doctors said after giving them a checkup upon landing.
People all over the world are discovering that large-scale corporate factory agriculture, the kind that continues to cause the bankrupty of smaller, more diversified, often family-owned farming, does not always have in mind the health and happiness of those who increasingly have no choice but to buy their food from the factory-farm system.
As in other sectors of the economy, production, processing, and distribution of food has come to be increasingly concentrated in fewer hands. Because making money in the business world so often seems to necessitate closing one's heart as to destructive effects of one's business decisions, the most "successful" (that is, the ones who have accumulated the most money) are often the most hard-hearted.
Take fossil fuels such as oil, the gasoline that's made from it, and natural gas. It's now commonly understood that these things are: in limited supply; subject to increasing demand; and have numerous environmental side effects. The agricultural system - as presently structured - needs huge amounts of water, land, and fossil fuels to make fertilizer and provide transportation. Small organic food gardens and farms need less water and space to grow a certain amount of food. But large agribusinesses have used their increased lobbying power to structure our laws so that the taxpayer subsidizes cheaper (and lower quality) food. This is why "organic" has become associated with "high-muckety-muck"; people think only elites can afford the better quality. But the fact is, we're all paying for the mass-produced food that is lower quality - through our taxes.
Now that the price of gas has hit the fan, and as the predicted drastic increase in natural gas price also looms, it's time to start taking seriously those enviro "Chicken Littles" who knew these problems were coming and who know that the price of food - being connected to the price of fossil fuels - is also going to go through the roof. There is no sane reason to ship such a large part of our food such great distances. There is a place for food transportation, but not where we can more easily grow higher -quality food right here in the Pittsburgh region. We need much more locally grown food, much more organic food, and changes in our laws that have queered the situation so dangerously that large numbers of Americans are coming to find themselves short of money for necessities - food or rent, for instance.
The belief in chemical fertilizers and pesticides has come from overly focused points-of-view which externalize the side effects. Profit at the expense of your own health or you neighbors' is not a very good long-term investment. Sure, you might get a better yield on that particular crop this year if you sock the soil with nitrogen made from natural gas and pesticides synthesized from oil. But what about next year, when your garden's predator/prey balance is weakened and you, your family, and your neighbors' health is compromised by those toxins and your food's nutrient ratios are lower. And do you really want to escalate
our increasingly violent competition with other countries for the fossil resources to grow food that way?
The soil is not a machine. It is a vast living community which is harmed when we humans go to pot-shotting at the bugs while overdosing the soil with the major nutrients - nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous - ignoring all those micro-nutrients and enzymes and tiny living things - molds, bacteria, bugs, worms, etc. - that are vital to soil fertility. And the larger life forms - frogs, toads, "weeds", "groundhogs" (formerly called woodchucks in a less competitive time), minks, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, deer, bears, cougars, snakes, newts, salamanders - are also part of the soil (and which used to be abundant in what is now the Pittsburgh region).
A food security project is gearing up in the Garfield area. Effort is being made to secure land from the increasingly predatory real estate situation which is being exacerbated by the city's budget problems. What the Healcrest Urban Community Farm is starting should be a template for what happens county-wide.
The choice will be made whether to demonize the poor - and so rationalize their abandonment and allow the system failures to treat them more and more badly - or to recognize ourselves, our own family in those without the power to avoid direct consequences of the increasingly brutal business climate that is developing. Please look into what food security advocates such as these people are doing, and see that - just as we need the lowly earthworm and so-called "ugly" bugs and critters too small to see without a microscope - we also need those who we who may be a little better off have found it easier to marginalize.
The Healcrest Urban Community Farm is devoted to sustainable urban farming, is organizing gardens and gardeners to supply farmstands, and owns 1.7 acres near Penn Ave. at the corner of Shamrock Way, Hillcrest Street, and Pacific Ave. Their events are available via 412/362-1982, mothermoonbeam@aol.com, or http://www.thomasmertoncenter.org/calendar. The next is October 20th - an exploration of types of composting around the world - 6 to 8 p.m. at the Farm. Some of their other meeting are at the most interesting used-book shop I've ever seen, owned by one of the Farm's founders - Ricardo Robinson.
He had the unique idea to either sell or lend (for free) books, and specializes in what he judges to be "good" literature. The place has the nice laid-back come-on-in-and-talk atmosphere that could do something economic-development-wise for Hazelwood. It's called Yard Sale Books, and is at 5165 Penn (near Pacific.)
PennLive.com: NewsFlash - Pa. slot parlor hopefuls pour cash into PACs, candidate funds: "Pa. slot parlor hopefuls pour cash into PACs, candidate funds
10/15/2005, 12:37 p.m. ET By MARC LEVY, The Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) � Entrepreneurs vying for licenses to run gambling halls in Pennsylvania have contributed at least $330,000 to political candidates and causes since the state legalized slot machines 14 months ago, campaign finance records show.
The recipients included the five men, Gov. Ed Rendell and the four top Republican and Democrat leaders in the Legislature, who appointed the members of the state board that will award the slots licenses.
About $171,000 was contributed to the governor and the four legislative leaders and PACs that those lawmakers control.
Here, now, the PG does NOT stand for Post-Gazette. Rather, Project Gutenberg. FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER.A pleasing land of drowsy head it was,
Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye;
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass,
Forever flushing round a summer sky.
CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.
IN the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market town or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is more generally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town. This name was given, we are told, in former days, by the good housewives of the adjacent country, from the inveterate propensity of their husbands to linger about the village tavern on market days. Be that as it may, I do not vouch for the fact, but merely advert to it, for the sake of being precise and authentic. Not far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail or tapping of a woodpecker is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity.
I recollect that, when a stripling, my first exploit in squirrel-shooting was in a grove of tall walnut-trees that shades one side of the valley. I had wandered into it at noontime, when all nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of my own gun, as it broke the Sabbath stillness around and was prolonged and reverberated by the angry echoes. If ever I should wish for a retreat whither I might steal from the world and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little valley.
From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere.
Working Together for Pittsburgh's Future
What does your neighborhood need to succeed? Please join the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development, and Southwestern PA LISC for a Town Hall Meeting for Pittsburgh's Future. The meeting will be held Thursday, October 20th from 2:30 to 8 pm at The Circuit Center, 5 Hot Metal Street in the South SIde. To RSVP, call Jennifer Fox at the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh at 412-391-4144 or email jfox@cdcp.org For more information, visit www.ppnd.org
The Pitt News - City to vote on panhandling bill The proposed extensions include expanding the definition of panhandling to incorporate all types of solicitation, including religious groups and community service organizations that ask for money. The new bill also lists stricter regulations on when and where individuals are allowed to panhandle.
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