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Tuesday, March 31
Health Care Reform Update: Quad Cities Event Brings Together Health Care Consumers and Providers
by
Alta Price
on Tue 31 Mar 2009 05:00 AM CDT
Health Care Reform Update: Quad Cities Event Brings Together Health Care Consumers and Providers
 by Alta L. Price, M.D.
[Update: Take a look at the front page of today's Quad-City Times for some nice local coverage of this event: Health-Care Forum Elevates Q-C Voices ]
One of our events for Cover the Uninsured Week was a bi-state forum held on Saturday, March 28 at Augustana College – Quad Cities Coming Together: What We Need in Health Care Reform. A small group of hard-working activists formed the steering committee, recruited twenty-eight cosponsoring organizations, an excellent moderator, Professor Aaron Buchko of Bradley University, thirteen small group facilitators, and student volunteers from Augustana to make this event happen. We had excellent press coverage both before the event and on the day of the event. About half of the roughly eighty participants were from Iowa and half from Illinois. The group included almost equal numbers of health care providers and consumers. (I guess the Medical Societies took it to heart when I said I would appreciate not being the only doctor there!) This online article from the Dispatch-Argus lists some of the concerns that came out of the small group discussions:
“How can employers afford to provide affordable health care? How can you make it so retirees can afford health care? How can you encourage people to have a primary-care physician? How can you ensure those with pre-existing conditions have access to health care? How can you rein in the costs for physicians and hospital care? How can you improve mental-health coverage? How can you lower the cost of medications? How can you make people accountable for personal responsibility?”
Each of the thirteen small groups also addressed the kinds of changes they would like to see in the health care system to address the concerns they identified, and suggested ways to make those changes happen. The steering committee will need to summarize the information from the small groups before presenting it to our members of Congress and the Obama Administration. We also collected an individual survey from the participants, which will need to be condensed into a final report. It will be interesting to see if any kind of a community consensus emerges from this process. We hope to have a final report in about two weeks.
Alta
Price is a physician practicing Pathology in Davenport, Iowa. One of
the original Deaniacs, she stays involved with Democracy for America,
Iowa, and the Quad Cities. She advocates for quality, affordable health
care for all, primarily as a volunteer with Progressive Action for the
Common Good (Health Care Reform Issue Forum). Watch for Dr. Price's Health Care Reform Update every Tuesday here on Blog for Iowa. E-Mail Alta Price
Monday, March 30
SF 432 Update: Fighting To Keep Manure Out Of Iowa's Water Supply
by
Trish Nelson
on Mon 30 Mar 2009 05:00 AM CDT
SF 432 Update: Fighting To Keep Manure Out Of Iowa's Water Supply
 You would think that politically, this would be the easiest thing in the world.
As you know, our
legislators caved in to corporate big-moneyed pressure with the passage
of SF 432 through the Senate with a vote of 43-6 [scroll down for previous posts on this topic....but first, the votes.]
THE GOOD SIX SENATORS: The only Nay votes to this terrible bill - Joe Bolkcom, Johnson Co.; William Dotzler, Black Hawk; Jack Hatch, Polk; Pam Jochum, Dubuque; Matt McCoy, Polk; Herman Quirmbach, Story. All Democrats. Call and thank them. But what is wrong with the rest of the Senate Democrats? (Or the Republicans for that matter, but we seem to expect so little from them anymore...)
THE BAD FORTY-THREE SENATORS: Voted YES! to manure run-off into our drinking water source - this would be everybody else in the Senate, unfortunately...if your senator's name is not on the "GOOD SENATOR" list, you need to contact them and find out why. Write down what they tell you and send it to us at Blog for Iowa, blog3@democracyforiowa.com. Put "Why My Senator Wants Manure In My Drinking Water" in the Subject line. Maybe you can get them to explain why you should want them to continue holding public office if you can't even count on them for this one small thing. Once we gather a few of the senatorial reasons, we'll start posting them right here on this blog.
Take action NOW
1.
Join with us for a critical press conference and lobby day at the State
Capitol TODAY, March 30 at 10:45 am.
Following
the press conference, we will lobby our legislators and deliver letters
to key leaders to make sure our message is heard loud and clear.
2. Contact key leaders
at the Statehouse. We need you to tell Governor Culver, House
leadership Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Speaker Pat Murphy and
your House representative to tell them to stop kowtowing to corporate
ag special interests and stand up for our water quality and the common
good. Call on them to protect everyday Iowans and to stand in
opposition to SF 432. Follow this link to send them an email, or you can give them a call.
Gov. Culver: 515-281-5211
Rep. McCarthy: 515-281-3054
Rep. Murphy: 515-281-5566
House switchboard: 515-281-3221
Sunday, March 29
Iowans Are Mad As Hell And Aren't Going To Take It Anymore
by
Trish Nelson
on Sun 29 Mar 2009 05:00 AM CDT
Iowans Are Mad As Hell And Aren't Going To Take It Anymore
Monday may be the last opportunity to stand against terrible CAFO practices that will pollute Iowa's air and waterways. Iowans are already fighting back by hitting their local opinion pages. BFIA took an online virtual tour of Iowa newspapers' opinion pages, and this is what we discovered: Across the state, pro-environment views can be found in every paper large enough to have an opinon section. Below we've posted a small sampling.
~~~
CAFOs Create Toxic Waste Byproducts
Dee Ann Simmons Lehn expressed concern that a hog CAFO proposed near her home would threaten her quality of life and adversely affect the health of family members suffering from asthma and emphysema (March 18 letter). Her concerns are well founded.
Research by the University of Iowa found that children attending school near a CAFO had a 24.6 percent asthma rate, compared to 11.7 percent for a control school. The research also found that children raised on hog farms had a 44.1 percent asthma rate, and children raised on hog farms where antibiotics were fed subtherapeutically had a 55.8 percent asthma rate.
Other studies have found that neighbors living near a CAFO suffer from health problems, including respiratory problems, headaches, runny nose, sore throat, coughing, diarrhea, burning eyes, tension, depression, anger and fatigue.
It is not hog manure itself that causes the problems. CAFO hog manure is stored liquefied in a pit where it undergoes radical transformation. The manure begins to decompose, but because oxygen is limited in the liquid environment, decomposition is arrested, causing the manure to putrefy. During this anaerobic putrefaction of manure, over 300 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are produced, many of which are highly toxic. If a CAFO ventilation system fails, the animals and CAFO workers can die of asphyxiation quickly. It is those same toxic VOCs that are vented to the outdoors that cause health problems for neighbors.
Living near a CAFO is not the same as visiting the county fair, or living near a farm where manure is piled and composted, or where animals deposit their manure in pastures. Manure that decomposes in the open air does not putrefy; it decomposes into carbon dioxide and humus — odorless and nontoxic end products.
I agree with Dee Ann that “If CAFOs must be built, they must be built in remote areas far away from all families and homesteads.”
We need to recognize that CAFOs are not like regular farms; they are industrial production facilities that create toxic waste byproducts which are hazardous to human health.
Francis Thicke, Fairfield, Ottumwa CourierManure carries a big cost, too
I
would like to thank the Register for a good March 10 editorial. Manure
might smell like money to farmers, but to the rest of Iowa it means more impaired waterways, more fish kills and more bacteria in the water.
Poor
water hygiene increases the diversity of bacteria, and virulent strains
like drug-resistant bacteria become more common. It is an
evolutionary arms race in action. We need to come to terms with nature,
less we face its wrath. We inject antibiotics into food, spread the waste on farm fields and then risk the manure/bacteria getting into waterways.
Neil Daniels, Coralville, The Des Moines Register
Protect Iowa's waterways
WALL LAKE, Iowa - It is spring again here in Iowa. Along with the arrival of the robins and other signs of spring I hope we do not experience the record-breaking levels of ammonia and other pollutants in our state waterways as happened last spring.
A major contributor to this type of runoff pollution is the application of liquid manure on frozen and snow-covered ground. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has been working for almost a year on a rule that would restrict this practice. They considered input from livestock producers, concerned citizens and environmental groups to come up with a workable rule. Now the Iowa Legislature has effectively begun a process to undercut the DNR rule with their own legislation. The Senate and House both passed bills out of committee that would negate the DNR rule and replace it with a toothless and spineless piece of work apparently crafted by corporate agribusiness interests.
When over 400 bodies of water in our state are considered impaired, we need to address this issue in a meaningful way. Tell our legislative leaders to not allow this bill to reach the floor.
Rosie Partridge, Sioux City Journal
We loved this one, even though it isn't exactly about CAFOs.
He's a knockin'
The problem with locating whatever in the flood plain of the Mississippi seems to me to be the fact that those residents on its banks do not hold title to this river area. Ol' Man River holds this deed. Every once in a while, unannounced, he comes to inspect his property. We term this a flood. Any object squatting on his land will either move or get wet. He'll be back another day. Can't say when. Can't ya hear him knockin'?
Dallas Tuck, Keokuk, The Burlington Hawkeye
BFIA would like to
thank everyone who takes the time to write a letter to the Op-Ed
section of your local paper. It is the voice of the people.
Scroll Down for Action
Saturday, March 28
Stand Up For Clean Water in Iowa
by
Trish Nelson
on Sat 28 Mar 2009 05:00 AM CDT
Stand Up For Clean Water In Iowa
 Citizens for Community Improvement
Our legislators caved in to corporate big-moneyed pressure with the passage of SF 432 through the Senate with a vote of 43-6. This bad, last-minute regulation of manure application on frozen ground undercuts the DNR's authority and is a slap in the face to thousands of everyday Iowans who are fighting for clean water.
We need to stand together for our water quality and the health of all Iowans!
Take URGENT action NOW:
1. Join with us for a critical press conference and lobby day at the State Capitol Monday, March 30 at 10:45 am. We need you there to have a strong presence to show our legislators that Iowans are appalled by this decision and blatant disregard for our quality of life.
Following the press conference, we will lobby our legislators and deliver letters to key leaders to make sure our message is heard loud and clear.
2. Contact key leaders at the Statehouse. We need you to tell Governor Culver, House leadership Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Speaker Pat Murphy and your House representative to tell them to stop kowtowing to corporate ag special interests and stand up for our water quality and the common good. Call on them to protect everyday Iowans and to stand in opposition to SF 432. Follow this link to send them an email, or you can give them a call.
Gov. Culver: 515-281-5211
Rep. McCarthy: 515-281-3054
Rep. Murphy: 515-281-5566
House switchboard: 515-281-3221
In addition to Iowa CCI - the Iowa DNR, Sierra Club, Iowa Environmental Council, Farmer's Union, and Des Moines Water Works have all voiced strong opposition to this legislation.
Being at the State Capitol to stand up for clean water is vital now. By taking a few hours on Monday, March 30, you can ensure these legislators know that everyday folks want our elected officials to put people before polluters!
Tell our legislators:
Stop any bill that is weaker than regulation by the DNR!
Stop undercutting the DNR's authority!
Stop giving in to big money pressure by Corporate Ag!
Iowa suffers some of the worst water quality in the nation. High levels of ammonia pollution in the spring all across Iowa have been traced back to manure application on frozen and snow-covered ground. This is an irresponsible practice that harms our environment and puts our drinking water at risk. We must enact strong and enforceable restrictions of this practice for the well-being of all Iowans.
Senate File 432 would, for all intents and purposes, leave the door wide open for factory farms to apply manure on frozen or snow-covered ground.
As is, the DNR rule is still complicated and may be difficult for the DNR to enforce, but it is comprehensive, well researched, and still in the process of public comment.
We support the DNR's efforts to pass this rule as a step in the right direction and encourage our legislators to allow the DNR to continue the rulemaking process and NOT pass SF 432.
STAND UP AGAINST THIS LEGISLATION NOW! We need you to take bold action to put people before politics, profits and polluters. Join us March 30 and contact leadership today!
Friday, March 27
Iowa Senate Votes 43-6 For Polluted Waterways
by
Trish Nelson
on Fri 27 Mar 2009 04:53 AM AKDT
Iowa Senate Votes 43-6 For Polluted Waterways
BFIA Action Alert
contributed by Molly Regan
Unfortunately, the IOWA Senate voted to allow manure to be spread on frozen ground. This is appauling! Please contact your Representative to insist they vote this down. It may come to the floor Friday, March 28 or next week. It will only contribute to the already heavily polluted waterways in IOWA. There are other ways of handling this. And we need to tell our Representatives to vote NO to manure on frozen ground....NO manure of any kind, liquid or dry, makes no difference...both are bad.
Bill Senate File 432 has now gone from the Senate (were it passed as amended 43-6) to the House of Representatives.
Click here to find your IOWA Representative & how to contact them...via email or phone
Click here to view the amended bill
Iowa Citizen Action Network (YES I CAN!) Celebrates 30 Years
by
Trish Nelson
on Fri 27 Mar 2009 05:00 AM CDT
Iowa Citizen Action Network (YES I CAN!) Celebrates 30 Years
 Iowa Citizen Action Network 30th Anniversary Award Celebration
Hilton Garden Inn
8600 Northport Drive
Johnston, IA
Saturday March 28
5:30 - 7:00
Hors d'oeuvres and cash bar
2009 ICAN Award Recipients
Legislative Leadership: Bruce Braley
presented by William McNary
Grassroots Leadership: PCCI - Progressive Coalition of Central Iowa
presented by Mayor Frank Cownie
Political Strategist: Brad Lint
presented by Mike Lux
Individual tickets $30
Platinum $3000
Gold $900
Silver $300
Bronze $90
For more information email Sue Dinsdale
Thursday, March 26
Howard Dean: Public Option Or No Health Care Reform Bill
by
Trish Nelson
on Thu 26 Mar 2009 01:00 AM CDT
Howard Dean: Public Option Or No Health Care Reform Bill
 Democracyforamerica.com
Howard Dean is back with Democracy for America and in typical Dean fashion, is already working hard to pass the Obama health care plan. Speaking on a conference call last night to over 1,400 DFA activists (that was the number when I signed onto the call a few minutes late) Dr. Dean said the most important message to get out about Obama's health care plan is (memorize this) - if you like what you have you can keep it.
On the call, Dr. Dean stated that if we do not pass a health care reform bill with a public option, we should not pass anything because it will not be worth the money.
"We
are losing jobs because we have a health care system that doesn't make
sense....We're losing jobs to Canada because of our health care system.... We want full consumer choice. We don't want that choice limited by ideology.... [Opponents of Obama's plan] will try and kill the public option because they know if you don't have that it's not real reform."
Dr. Dean took questions from people on the call. One question: Do we need a single payer system to achieve universal coverage?
Answer: "The nice
thing about the president's plan is you don't have to make that
choice.... Let the American people choose. If you can't get insurance in
the private sector, you can choose the public option. Leave it up to
the American consumer to decide how much private health insurance there
is."
Another question: How
can we get more progressives in congress?
Dean: "DFA is doing a great job, keep
finding great candidates in districts where you might not think they
can win but it's worth a try - keep doing what you're doing - don't
ever believe that you can't win because you can if you knock on enough
doors."
Dean closed with these words:
"Thanks for all of your support, you really have changed the country and the way things are done.
You really do have the power!
DFA has launched a new website, standwithdrdean.com where you will find this statement by Dr. Dean:
"If Barack Obama's healthcare plan gets changed to exclude a public option like Medicare, then it is not healthcare reform. Legislation rises and falls on whether the American public is allowed to choose a universally available public option or not."
Please head over there now and sign the petition to pass Obama's health care plan. They would like 10,000 petitioners by Friday.
DFA is also launching local action teams to write letters, make phone calls, canvass, and host house parties in support of Obama's plan. While you're there signing the petition, you can also sign up to volunteer.
To the man who should have been President, thank you, Dr. Dean, for standing up for what you believe in. We will do our part and hope that our fellow/sister Democrats in Congress show the same resolve.
Wednesday, March 25
Bail Out Journalism Before It's Too Late
by
Arron Wings
on Wed 25 Mar 2009 05:00 AM CDT
Bail Out Journalism Before It's Too Late
 Heros of the modern media reform movement Bob McChesney and John Nichols have a must read in the current issue of The Nation.
In it they provide a unique perspective on the current state of
American media and a revolutionary concept for building a strong
journalistic presence in the future. Their answer? Government
Intervention. Before you dismiss it out of hand, as many will, take a
look at the whole article. Here are some of their suggestions for actions our
government can take to secure a strong media future. ~
Communities across America are suffering through a crisis that could leave a dramatically diminished version of democracy in its wake. It is not the economic meltdown, although the crisis is related to the broader day of reckoning that appears to have arrived. The crisis of which we speak involves more than mere economics. Journalism is collapsing, and with it comes the most serious threat in our lifetimes to self-government and the rule of law as it has been understood here in the United States.
Let's begin with the crisis. In a nutshell, media corporations, after running journalism into the ground, have determined that news gathering and reporting are not profit-making propositions. So they're jumping ship. The country's great regional dailies--the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer--are in bankruptcy. Denver's Rocky Mountain News recently closed down, ending daily newspaper competition in that city.
Whole newspaper chains--such as Lee Enterprises, the owner of large and medium-size publications that for decades have defined debates in Montana, Iowa and Wisconsin--are struggling as the value of stock shares falls below the price of a single daily paper.
Time's
Walter Isaacson concludes, "It is now possible to contemplate a time in
the near future when major towns will no longer have a newspaper.."
Even Doonesbury's Rick Redfern has been laid off from his job at the Washington Post.
Unless we rethink alternatives and reforms, the media will continue to flail until journalism is all but extinguished.
Mired in debt and facing massive losses, the managers of corporate newspaper firms seek to right the sinking ship by cutting costs, leading remaining newspaper readers to ask why they are bothering to pay for publications that are pale shadows of themselves. It is the daily newspaper death dance-cum-funeral march.
But it is not just newspapers that are in crisis; it is the institution of journalism itself. By any measure, journalism is missing from most commercial radio. TV news operations have become celebrity- and weather-obsessed "profit centers" rather than the journalistic icons of the Murrow and Cronkite eras. Cable channels "fill the gap" with numberless pundits and "business reporters," who got everything about the last decade wrong but now complain that the government doesn't know how to set things right.
Cable news is defensible only because of the occasional newspaper reporter moonlighting as a talking head. But what happens when the last reporter stops collecting a newspaper paycheck and goes into PR or lobbying? She'll leave cable an empty vessel and take the public's right to know anything more than a rhetorical flourish with her.
The Internet and blogosphere, too, depend in large part on "old media" to do original journalism. Web links still refer readers mostly to stories that first appeared in print. Even in more optimistic scenarios, no one has a business model to sustain digital journalism beyond a small number of self-supporting services. The attempts of newspapers to shift their operations online have been commercial failures, as they trade old media dollars for new media pennies.
Such a crisis demands solutions equal to the task. So what are they?
We begin with the notion that journalism is a public good, that it has broad social benefits far beyond that between buyer and seller. Like all public goods, we need the resources to get it produced. This is the role of the state and public policy. It will require a subsidy and should be regarded as similar to the education system or the military in that regard. Only a nihilist would consider it sufficient to rely on profit-seeking commercial interests or philanthropy to educate our youth or defend the nation from attack. With the collapse of the commercial news system, the same logic applies. Just as there came a moment when policy-makers recognized the necessity of investing tax dollars to create a public education system to teach our children, so a moment has arrived at which we must recognize the need to invest tax dollars to create and maintain news gathering, reporting and writing with the purpose of informing all our citizens.
So, if we can accept the need for government intervention to save American journalism, what form should it take? In the near term, we need to think about an immediate journalism economic stimulus, to be revisited after three years, and we need to think big. Let's eliminate postal rates for periodicals that garner less than 20 percent of their revenues from advertising. This keeps alive all sorts of magazines and journals of opinion that are being devastated by distribution costs. It is these publications that often do investigative, cutting-edge, politically provocative journalism.
What to do about newspapers? Let's give all Americans an annual tax credit for the first $200 they spend on daily newspapers. The newspapers would have to publish at least five times per week and maintain a substantial "news hole," say at least twenty-four broad pages each day, with less than 50 percent advertising. In effect, this means the government will pay for every citizen who so desires to get a free daily newspaper subscription, but the taxpayer gets to pick the newspaper--this is an indirect subsidy, because the government does not control who gets the money. This will buy time for our old media newsrooms--and for us citizens--to develop a plan to establish journalism in the digital era. We could see this evolving into a system to provide tax credits for online subscriptions as well.
If we are going to address the crisis in journalism, we have to come up with solutions that provide us with hard-hitting reporting that monitors people in power, that engages all our people, not just the classes attractive to advertisers, and that seeks to draw all Americans into public life. Going backward is not an option; nor is it desirable. The old corporate media system choked on its own excess. We should not seek to restore or re-create it. We have to move forward to a system that creates a journalism far superior to that of the recent past.
We can do exactly that - but only if we recognize and embrace the necessity of government intervention.
The founders regarded the establishment of a press system, the Fourth Estate, as the first duty of the state. Jefferson and Madison devoted considerable energy to explaining the necessity of the press to a vibrant democracy. The government implemented extraordinary postal subsidies for the distribution of newspapers. It also instituted massive newspaper subsidies through printing contracts and the paid publication of government notices, all with the intent of expanding the number and variety of newspapers. When Tocqueville visited the United States in the 1830s he was struck by the quantity and quality of newspapers and periodicals compared with France, Canada and Britain.
It was not an accident. It had little to do with "free markets." It was the result of public policy.The truth is that government policies and subsidies already define our press system. The only question is whether they will be enlightened and democratic, as in the early Republic, or corrupt and corrosive to democracy, as has been the case in recent decades. (click here to read the entire article)
John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney were the founders, with Josh Silver, of Free Press, which has launched a campaign to save the news. Their book, Saving Journalism: The Soul of Democracy, will be published by New Press in the fall.
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