9/23/11

Charlie Furman, 612-245-3394, cfurman@fwwlocal.org

Harrisburg Calls on Senator Casey to Support Fair Farm Rules as Part of Statewide Day of Action, Sept. 27

As part of a Food & Water Watch Statewide Day of Action on Tuesday, Sept. 27, activists in Harrisburg will be calling on Senator Bob Casey to demand that he supports Fair Farm Rules that level the playing field for independent family farmers.

The REAL FRACKASAURUS COLORING BOOK

Ben Price, CELDF

On November 15, 2010, South Fayette Township in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania passed a zoning ordinance regulating the location of oil and gas extraction activities in the municipality. The ordinance was drafted by the Township and cleared by its Zoning Board in an attempt to protect from fracking as much of the community as possible through the land-use regulatory authority delegated to the Township by the State in the Municipalities Planning Code (MPC). What the Board of Commissioners adopted is an ordinance they cleared as to legality with their municipal Solicitor. They played it safe. They colored inside the lines.

 Penn State’s University Office of Global Programs (UOGP) is pleased to announce its third annual breakfast in celebration of International Women’s Day, to be held Tuesday, March 16 at 8:30 a.m. in Heritage Hall of the HUB. Featured speaker this year is Ann Tickamyer, professor of rural sociology and head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology.   Her scholarship focuses on rural poverty and development, gender and work, and social welfare provision in the U.S., Indonesia, and Southeast Asia.  She will speak on the timely subject of “Women in Disaster Relief and Recovery.” 

A community breakfast event:

How Do We Fix Our Healthcare Problems?

A Community Discussion on Federal, State and Local Remedies 
organized by Citizens for Healthcare Reform on March 20th, Saturday, 
8:30-10:30AM at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel in Innovation 
Park. 

The event will be co-sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist 
Fellowship of Centre County (Social Action Committee) and Voices of 
Central PA (local independent newspaper).  Suzan Erem, Managing 
Editor of Voices of Central PA, has been asked to serve as moderator.

We are planning on representatives of the nursing, pharmacy and 
physician professions to present a 5-7 minute sharing with us of 
their concerns and ideas about their professions and then Chris 
Calkins, Director of Penn State Outreach Health Initiatives, and 
Sajay Samuel, Professor of Accounting and STS, Smeal College of 
Business will join the presenters for a question and answer session 
with attendees.  We are inviting our state legislators to also be our 
guests as state healthcare legislation is now pending in PA State and 
House Committees.
 
Health Care 4 Central Pa

There will be a healthful buffet breakfast at 8:30AM (coffee. tea, 
yogurt.

        Defense spending is by far the largest expenditure of our federal government, and it's increasing every year. The Defense budget represents about half of all U.S. discretionary spending. Our Defense appropriations exceed the total amount of defense spending by all other nations in the world -- combined!  Defense spending is one of the largest contributors to our huge deficits.
        We are embroiled in two wars, racking up deficits, and Americans are not willing to pay for them by having their taxes increased. We can't have it both ways; either we pay for our wars, or we incur further deficits.
        The U.S. no longer can be the world's sole policeman. It will take the combined efforts of all civilized nations to help stamp out terrorism throughout the world.
        The Defense Budget is a 'sacred cow' that few legislators seem willing to trim because they will almost certainly be labeled as being soft on defense -- or even worse, 'unpatriotic'.
        There is always fat and waste that can be trimmed in any budget. Defense Department budgets should receive the same scrutiny as any other department of our government and should not be immune from legitimate cuts in unnecessary, wasteful spending.
        
 
Paul G. Jaehnert
 

Regarding the Ahimsa Village article in this section:
http://voicesweb.org/archive/08apr/08apr-community-lifestyles.pdf

Dear Editors,

I appreciate your fine article on Ahimsa Village Community near Julian. However, I recommend a couple of corrections, if you run them. Barbara Anderson (not Andersen) founded O-An Zendo, which is a meditation center, not a mediation center.

Regards,
Hazel Hunley
Pennsylvania Furnace, PA 16865