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Sunday, October 23
HOGS, HOGS, HOGS AGAIN
by
Molly Regan
on Sun 23 Oct 2005 11:00 AM CDT
 Hogs, Hogs, Hogs Again
A
public health emergency needs to be issued for the state of Iowa.
Industrial-strength hog lot confinements are getting a strangle hold on
our air.
If you live in one of the medium to large cities in IOWA and step
outside one snowy morning and are slapped in the face with the stench
of HYDROGEN SULFIDE or AMMONIA, it's too late for you. The time
will have passed for you to do anything. So get educated now
because the request for new and expanding hog confinements is exploding.
According to a September 19th article by Perry Beeman of the Des Moines
Register, "Construction permits for new livestock operations through
August - 137 - already were up 59 percent over last year's
record. For the third straight year, IOWA - the nation's top hog
producer - has issued a record number of permits for new livestock
operations, MOST OF THEM CONFINEMENTS FOR MORE THAN 2,500 HOGS."….
"…'People need to be greatly vigilant about what is going on in their
neighborhoods,' said Hugh Espey of IOWA Citizens for Community
Improvement, which opposes large-scale hog confinements. 'We
think IOWA has too many factory farms as it is. There are bound
to be problems.'"
"The risks are documented. Studies by the University of IOWA, the
University of North Carolina, Duke University, the state of Utah and
others have associated hog confinements with neighbors' complaints of
nausea, respiratory problems, headaches, depression and diarrhea.
The University of IOWA estimated HOG CONFINEMENTS EMIT MORE THAN 100
CHEMICALS AND COMPOUNDS, INCLUDING HYDROGEN SULFIDE AND AMMONIA.
"Manure applied as fertilizer to crop fields sometimes runs into
streams, killing fish, and into lakes, which is one reason state park
swimming areas are unsafe at times.
"Espey's group successfully pushed for tighter controls on hog
operations, but IT STILL IS PUSHING FOR A MORATORIUM ON CONSTRUCTION.
The group also wants the state to give local authorities control over
the construction. As it is, county boards of supervisors can only
ask for a state hearing and rate confinement proposals on a state
checklist intended to promote operations that pollute less and cause
fewer area disruptions…."
For the entire article go to www.desmoinesregister.com
We must all honestly take a look at what we do to contribute to the big
demand for pork. Have you asked at a restaurant if the meat they
serve is free range or confined? Do you think the average server
knows or cares? So, ask next time and ask at the grocery
store. Find restaurants that use local growers. Then also
watch the IOWA Department of Natural Resources website www.iowadnr.com
or call their office to see whether anyone has requested an animal
confinement construction permit recently in your area.
Just a reminder: CRP - CONSERVE/RECYCLE/PARTICIPATE
Monday, October 17
Last Week in Media by Iowa's Arron Wings
by
Trish Nelson
on Mon 17 Oct 2005 11:00 AM CDT
 Last Week in Media
by Arron Wings
There are major issues surfacing in the regulation and future of media this fall.
The FCC is reviewing and rewriting the “ownership rules” they got wrong in 2003 and are now before them again.
Broadcast licenses for all TV and radio stations in Iowa
are up for renewal this winter. The deadline for stations to
request renewal is October 1, 2005, and the deadline for public comment
and participation is January 1, 2006.
But there are also other issues that will have long-term consequences for us the public.
The
Truth in Broadcasting Act of 2005 (S. 967) currently before the Senate
Commerce Committee
will mandate the identification of all pre-packaged “news releases”
(VNRs) created by the government and broadcast on our airwaves.
The need for this action arose when both the Justice Department and the
FCC failed to protect consumers from products that the Government
Accounting Office has said violate a prohibition on “covert
propaganda.” The Justice Department has said an unattributed VNR
is not covert propaganda as long as it is fact-based, and the FCC does
not require disclosure unless the VNR is on a political or
controversial topic.
The Act
attempts to eliminate the ambiguity created by those two departments
and mandates that all VNRs produced by or for a branch of government is
identified as such. It requires that “Produced by the U.S.
Government” or similar language is displayed on all VNRs regardless of
topic or content.
Click here for more information or to join the fight against government propaganda.
Arron Wings lives in Iowa City and is a member of Iowans for Better Local TV.
Unwatchable TV
by
Trish Nelson
on Mon 17 Oct 2005 04:00 AM CDT
 Unwatchable TV
The following appeared as a guest opinion in the Iowa City
Press-Citizen
By Charles Miller
“This is the single most important discussion any American
citizen can be a part of.” With those words media critic John Nichols began Iowa
City’s Wednesday meeting with FCC officials. In a
packed auditorium, Iowans expressed their concerns about the state of our
broadcast media. It was a triumph of direct citizen engagement with Washington,
the latter actually coming to listen to the former.
But it also was very troubling. We learned about a
critically sick media. Sick to the point that television news is packaged as
entertainment and entertainment is packaged as news. Sick to the point that the
most popular political affairs show for right-leaning people is one in which
the host bullies his guests, and the most popular political show for
left-leaning people is a comedy. Sick to the point that the third-largest
source of TV revenue is political commercials, so that only millionaires run
for office and use attack ads that “work” because they destroy their opponents.
We go to war, we waste resources, we lack basic health care,
we slouch to a “service” economy, while our media divide and trivialize.
The media’s demise did not occur overnight, but across 25
years of deregulation. Since the 1930s, the FCC saw a strong public good in
regulating radio and, later, TV. It established that, as users of a valuable
and limited public resource — the airwaves — stations may profit from them in
exchange for also serving “the public interest.”
At his inauguration, Ronald Reagan said, “government is not
the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” and his FCC
proclaimed, “the perception of broadcasters as community trustees should be
replaced by a view of broadcasters as marketplace participants.” Not only did [Reagan] veto the Fairness Doctrine, but he also abolished limits on commercials,
eliminated community-affairs program requirements and trivialized the renewal
of broadcast licenses.
Deregulators promised much: better shows, diversity, lower
cable prices, etc., as the free market would magically deliver a gem. But the
airwaves are anything but a free market and deregulation and mergers profit
only the extremely wealthy while returning unwatchable TV.
(click here to read the entire article)
Charles Miller is a research scientist at the University
of Iowa and a member of Iowans for
Better Local Television
Click here to learn more about:
Monday, October 10
FCC Town Meeting in Iowa City a HUGE Success!
by
Trish Nelson
on Mon 10 Oct 2005 11:00 AM CDT
 FCC Town Meeting in Iowa City a HUGE Success!
Iowa City, Iowa
Update: Town Meeting a huge success…more than 500 people packed the Pomerantz
Center at the University of Iowa to participate in a forum
on media ownership. – Free Press
“FCC official warns against media consolidation” – Des Moines Register
“400 Attend FCC Forum” – Iowa City
Press-Citizen
"Residents air media complaints; FCC officials listen to
criticism, ideas" - Cedar Rapids Gazette
“Forum Criticizes Big Media" – Daily Iowan
"Iowans irate with media," says Adelstein, Broadcasting & Cable, October 6
Wow! Is the only word
to describe it. The FCC Town Hall
Meeting on the Future of the Media was a phenomenal success! 500
people packed the University
of Iowa’s Pomerantz
Center Wednesday night. One-hundred people gave 2-minute testimony
before Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps’ aide Jordan Goldstein,
describing how our media is failing our communities.
The FCC Town Meeting in Iowa City, Iowa, on October 5, 2005, was a
smashing success. From left to right: John Nichols of The Nation; Mark
Smith, President, Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO; Nicholas
Johnson, Professor, University of Iowa College of Law, former FCC
Commissioner; and Amy Johnson Boyle, former KGAN anchor, currently
Marketing & Communications Director, Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of
Commerce. Photo courtesy of Dennis Roseman.
People came from across Iowa to make sure their voices were heard.
The Quad Cities’ group, Progressive Action for the Common Good, was
there in force as were Johnson County DFA’ers and of course Iowans for Better
Local TV. All three groups were
co-sponsors of the event.
Other
co-sponsoring organizations were:
University of Iowa Lecture
Committee, FAIR!, Iowa City Federation of Labor, SEIU Local
199, Iowa Civil Rights Commission, Iowa Civil Liberties Union, Linn County
InterReligious Council, American Federation of Teachers Local 716, AFSCME Local
12, League of Rural Voters, Iowa City GLBT Pride Committee, Quad Cities
Interfaith, Iowa City Public Access Television, Iowa Federation of Labor,
AFL-CIO, Johnson County League of Women Voters and ICAN.
Special thanks to Amanda Ballantyne of FreePress for the
incredible job she did organizing her first ownership meeting.
Adelstein and Jordan
Goldstein, Copps' senior legal adviser, listened attentively until nearly midnight, as more than 100 concerned citizens
each offered two minutes of testimony. All testimony was recorded and will be
submitted to the FCC and Iowa's
congressional delegation.
FCC commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein made the following
statement after the hearing:
"We learned last night that people in the heartland see
many good reasons to oppose further media concentration. We heard a lot of
solid evidence that the area's media may be failing to address key issues of
local concern. People decried the lack of serious coverage of the problems
faced in their communities. They pleaded with us not to let it get any worse.
"The verdict was unanimous - from elected leaders,
teachers, workers, minorities, nurses, parents and grandparents - people are
dissatisfied their with local media outlets. The message I will take back to Washington
is that we had better address the very real issues raised by concerned citizens
of Iowa before we consider
further media consolidation."
To read more about the Town Meeting on the Future of the
Media, click here.
Click here to learn more about:
Sunday, October 9
Nothing Patriotic About It
by
Trish Nelson
on Sun 09 Oct 2005 04:00 AM CDT
 Nothing Patriotic About It
The following appeared as a Guest Opinion in the Iowa City Press-Citizen
by David Leshtz
The U.S.
Congress will soon act to reauthorize expiring sections of the Patriot
Act, the law passed just days after 9/11. At the time, few Americans
were aware of the unprecedented expansion of the federal government's
secret search and surveillance powers.
A
conference committee is about to meet to reconcile two competing bills
in Congress. The bill passed by the Senate takes important steps to
restore checks and balances in our democratic process. It would help
the courts have the facts necessary to prevent secret investigations of
law-abiding Americans based on their beliefs. In contrast, the House
bill would do little to correct the threats to our civil liberties
found in the hastily passed Patriot Act.
For
example, under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the FBI can get an order
from a secret court to collect personal information about American
citizens without providing any facts linking us individually to a
suspected foreign terrorist. This includes our medical records, hotel
receipts, gun ownership records and the Web sites we visit.
The
Senate bill, unlike the House bill, requires investigators to provide a
statement of facts and some link between the person whose records are
sought and a suspected terrorist. It gives businesses a more meaningful
opportunity to challenge a records request, compared with the House
bill. It also requires the FBI director to personally approve requests
for library and bookstore records, medical histories and gun ownership
records.
Reforms
to Section 215 are especially necessary because the law contains a
permanent gag order preventing the recipient from saying anything to
anyone about the request for sensitive personal records.
The
Patriot Act also allows for "sneak and peak" warrants, which allow
investigators to get a court order to secretly search your home or
business, download your computer files and seize your property without
telling you for months or longer. Sneak and peak warrants are not
limited to terrorism cases. The Justice Department recently admitted
that since 9/11, 88 percent of sneak and peak searches conducted under
this provision had nothing to do with terrorism.
The
Senate bill limits to seven days the amount of time investigators can
delay in telling you they searched your home or business. The House
bill allows investigators to delay notification for six months, with
extensions permitted.
As a
member of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, I am deeply worried.
History demonstrates that unchecked law enforcement powers inevitably
are used against those who are in the minority. FBI agents monitored
civil rights leaders like the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and
thousands of other Americans before laws were reformed to try to
protect citizens from being spied upon for exercising their First
Amendment freedoms.
One
way this protection was enforced was to require the government to show
to a court specific facts warranting surveillance. The Patriot Act
stripped away this requirement for searches of personal records.
Members
of Congress from both parties are currently circulating "Dear Conferee"
letters asking lawmakers on the conference committee to support the
reforms in the Senate bill, rather than the House bill which makes the
Patriot Act worse.
Liberty and security
Voters
in the 2nd District who care about our freedoms should urge Rep. Jim
Leach to sign the Dear Conferee letter and support the gains made for
our liberty and security in the Senate bill. Our congressman's
leadership could help repair a piece of legislation that affects us all.
The
checks and balances in our Constitution were designed to ensure that
our government does not infringe on our fundamental freedoms. The
Patriot Act seriously weakened these structural protections. We need to
act now if we are to correct its worst excesses.
David Leshtz, a resident of Iowa City, has served on the Iowa Civil Rights Commission since 1999.
(source)
Saturday, October 8
John Kerry to be in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City
by
Trish Nelson
on Sat 08 Oct 2005 11:00 AM CDT
 John Kerry to be in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City
JohnKerry.com
I know your commitment to our country and to Iowa's proud tradition of grassroots activism.
Today,
we need Iowa Democrats like you more than ever. Washington Republicans
have set this country on a failed course. The only way we can reverse
it is to elect more Democrats in 2005 and 2006. And that is where you
come in.
This
Sunday, October 9th I hope you will join me as I travel to Des Moines,
Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City in support of Democratic candidates, local
Democratic parties and leading progressive organizations.
Our
first stop will be in Des Moines on Sunday morning for a coffee with
two groups who are dedicated to electing more Iowa Democratic women
across the state. We will gather at 10:00 AM at the A'Dong Restaurant
to raise awareness and funds to support their great work.
If you haven't already, click here for more information and to RSVP
We will
then travel to Cedar Rapids to support my friend Justin Shields, a
candidate for Cedar Rapids City Council. Justin's election is just a
month away and we want to do everything we can to get out the word out
about his impressive record as a community leader. Bring your family
down to the Veterans Memorial Stadium Picnic Pavilion and join Justin
and me at 1:30 PM for a neighborhood gathering. There will be food and
fun for everyone.
If you haven't already, click here for more information and to RSVP
Our last
stop will be in Iowa City for an important organizational meeting of
the Johnson County Democratic Party. They are already hard at work in
Johnson County, preparing for elections in 2006 and building an
impressive grassroots network that will hold Republicans accountable.
Please join me and Johnson County Chair Sarah Swisher at the Elizabeth
Tate High School Library on Sunday.
If you haven't already, click here for more information and to RSVP
I am
inspired by the grassroots energy among Iowa Democrats as the 2005 and
2006 elections approach. I hope you can join me on Sunday to provide
support for these important causes.
Thank you for all you have done and all you will do in the future.
Sincerely,
John Kerry
Monday, October 3
Vote Early for Johnson County Progressives!
by
Trish Nelson
on Mon 03 Oct 2005 01:34 PM CDT
 Vote Early for Johnson County Progressives!
...Taking our country back one local office at a time.
contributed by Ellen Ballas and Robin Roseman
Johnson County Democracy for America
recently voted unanimously to endorse two local progressive candidates Amy Correia
and Garry Klein for the Iowa City Council at-large primary election to be held
October 11.
Voting followed a candidate forum co-sponsored by JCDFA and
two other local progressive groups, FAIR and “The 49”, held last Thursday. The three groups partnered in writing
candidate questionnaires which were considered for the endorsement.
Early voting is now available for the October 11 City Council Primary at the Iowa
City Public Library on Saturday, October 8, from 10 a.m. to 6
p.m. and on Monday October 10 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Early voting is also available at the auditor's office at the Johnson County
Administration Bldg., 913 S. Dubuque St., Iowa
City, 8:00 am - 6:00
pm, Mon-Fri, first floor.
Click here
to learn more about:
Sunday, October 2
KBOL Radio's Motto: Engage, Enlighten, Empower
by
Trish Nelson
on Sun 02 Oct 2005 04:00 AM CDT
 KBOL Radio's Motto: Engage, Enlighten, Empower
KBOLRadio.com
Today on Blog for Iowa’s “Focus on the Media” week, we are
highlighting the work of one of our panelists for the upcoming FCC
Town Meeting, Michael Muhammad, President/CEO of KBOL Radio in
Waterloo. Mr. Muhammad and Telisa Burt are co-founders of KBOL.
KBOL
Radio is a new community-based Low Power FM radio station operating in
Waterloo. Located at 100.1 FM, KBOL Radio works to Engage,
Enlighten and Empower the greater community through interactive
multi-media. At KBOL, social capital, not financial
revenue is the main focus.
Not
bound by musical constraints of most commercial stations,
KBOL Radio can expose its listening audience to both
popular and non-traditional genres of music including local and
independent artists, reggae, Latin and hip
hop. In the truest spirit of ‘edu-tainment’, KBOL Radio
also uses the draw of quality music and celebrity appeal to promote
civic and social responsibility to its listening audience.
The Beginning.
KBOL is
a subsidiary of Community Educational Outreach, Incorporated, initially
developed by Michael Muhammad in 1998 to address the needs of at-risk
youth in the Cedar Valley community. In an attempt to explore
unconventional methods of reaching a disenfranchised segment of young
people, CEO, Inc. employed strategies originally modeled by youth
street workers circa 1960.
By
approaching and connecting with young people where they were,
individuals, community leaders and mentors were able to interact with
at-risk teens in their surroundings. Through mutual
respect, they proved that positive relationships and influence
could be obtained in even the most unorthodox and informal settings.
Responding
to calls and concerns regarding the offerings of local radio stations,
Michael Muhammad and co-founder Telisa Burt formed an alliance. Up against an FCC imposed deadline
of one year, the pair worked diligently to get the station up and
running. On February 4, 2004, KBOL Radio breathed fresh life into
Cedar Valley's airwaves.
Additionally, KBOL Radio reaches a
national audience through its on-line broadcast and electronic
newsletter.
No corporate giant is going to care
this much about your town's kids. For their community spirit,
Blog for Iowa salutes Michael Muhammad and Telisa Burt.
(Click here to read more about KBOL)
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