Iowan who made 17,000 calls for Obama gets backstage photo opp

Davenport, Ia. – The first person to get his photo taken backstage with President Barack Obama this morning was a volunteer who has made more than 17,000 telephone calls for his re-election campaign.

Davenport retiree Jim Murphy said Obama thanked him, then posed for some snapshots shortly before taking the stage at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds for a 10 a.m. campaign rally.

Murphy said Obama had called him on Aug. 6, back when he’d made only 10,000 phone calls.

“I sure hope it makes a difference,” Murphy said. “It’s hard to get volunteers. I don’t know why. They all want to get him elected but nobody wants to help.”

Murphy calls Iowans to remind them to vote and to persuade them to vote for the Democratic candidate. He spends about four to six hours a day, five days a week on the phones at either the Bettendorf or Davenport Obama campaign offices.

For more on this story, visit: Iowan who made 17,000 calls for Obama gets backstage photo opp | Des Moines Register Staff Blogs.

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Moving away from the churches in Switzerland | The Swiss Review

By Matthias Herren

Chapel near Vrin in the canton of Grisons

 

The Swiss people’s relationship with religion is undergoing significant change. There are twenty times more Swiss with no religious affiliation today than forty years ago. Faith also plays a less significant part in the everyday lives of most churchgoers. Yet, religion is an issue that receives widespread coverage in the media. However, the focus there is more on differentiation from Islam than on Switzerland’s own tradition.

… A study carried out by Jörg Stolz, a Lausanne-based sociologist of religion, and his colleague Edmée Ballif shows that the major factor in the development concerns social megatrends rather than the approach adopted by the churches. The megatrends are global processes of social change over which the churches have little influence. They are quite simply part of the prevailing circumstances with which the churches will have to contend in future.

For more on this story, visit: SWISS REVIEW – FOCUS.

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Carnaval del Dia de los Muertos • Day of the Dead Parade 4-11 p.m. Sat., Oct. 27, 2012

Saturday, October 27, 2012
4:00pm until 11:00pm

Bregamos Community Theater, 491 Blatchley Ave, New Haven
Come one come all to the parade and party!
Wear a costume, bring an instrument to play, decorate your bike, or just come!
There will be giant puppets, live salsa & cumbia music, Latin American food & hot chocolate.
Donations accepted at the door.

Vengan todos al desfile y la fiesta!
Lleva un disfraz, lleva un instrumento para tocar, adorna tu bicicleta.
Habrá títeres gigantes y cirqueros, música en vivo, comida latinoamericana y chocolate.
Evento gratuito. Se aceptan donaciones.

Rain date / fecha en caso de que llueva: November 3

For more info or to volunteer / Para mayor información o para ser voluntario en el Carnaval
(203) 479-2959 (203) 606-3484

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Democracy Now! Hosts 2-Hour Third-Party Presidential Debate After Obama, Romney debate

Just hours after President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney face-off in a secretly negotiated town-hall debate, Democracy Now! breaks the sound barrier by hosting a live two-hour debate between three additional presidential candidates: Jill Stein of the Green Party; Virgil Goode of the Constitution Party; and Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party. An invitation was extended to Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party, but his campaign declined.

For more on this story, visit: Democracy Now!: Democracy Now! Hosts 2-Hour Third Party Presidential Debate After Obama and Romney Battle at Hofstra University.

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A photo essay on seed diversity: a global route to food security?

Many farmers’ livelihoods depend on the ability to save seed varieties. ‘Farmers breed for resilience,’ says Dr Vandana Shiva, who is leading a campaign supported by the Gaia Foundation to protect seed diversity and promote food security. ‘They don’t breed one crop. They know they must have many crops because the climate changes … and because nutritional needs are diverse’

Watch the Seeds of Freedom film

For more on this story, visit: Seed diversity: a global route to food security? – in pictures | Global development | guardian.co.uk.

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Murphy says McMahon afraid of losing votes by publicizing her policies before election

“You have an obligation as a candidate to tell people where you stand, even if that wins you some votes and loses you other votes,” he told reporters after the debate. “I thought it was great that Linda McMahon finally admitted that the reason that she’s not telling her positions on issues that she’s worried that people will vote against her.”

For more on this story, visit: Murphy, McMahon square off in fourth debate – THE MYSTIC RIVER PRESS: Mystic River Press: News.

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How to Start a Child Survival Epidemic | Doctors Without Borders

I thought this was an inspiring story about the survival of children and I particularly liked this quote:

Nutrition and health are inextricably linked: children are more prone to sickness and death if they are malnourished, and vice versa.

… Niger is a land-locked country that straddles the Sahara Desert and the savannah just to the south, known as the Sahel. For most Nigeriens, daily life presents many challenges and struggles. The country has been through three food emergencies in the past six years, and this in a country where the vast majority of its 16 million people work the land to make a living. In 2010, almost half the country’s population received some type of short-term economic support in the form of food distribution or cash transfer, and this year the same help is going to about one quarter of all Nigerians.

… But among all this hardship, Nigerien politicians and health professionals are making remarkable progress in child survival. Despite being ranked near the bottom of the UN Development Index, child mortality rates in Niger are in free-fall and dropping twice as fast as its bigger, wealthier neighbor Nigeria. Even with serious economic woes, child malnutrition rates are actually improving. This flies directly in the face of the conventional wisdom that suggests improvement in health indicators only follows economic growth.

… If Nigerien leaders and the numerous international and national nongovernmental actors are up to the task, who knows how fast this child survival epidemic can pick up speed.

Dr. Susan Shepherd is a pediatrician from Butte, Montana. She has worked for MSF for the last six years and coordinates work in nutrition. She has worked in Uganda, Chad, Niger, Kenya, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, and Ghana.

For more on this story, visit: Op-Eds & Articles: Op-Ed: How to Start a Child Survival Epidemic | Doctors Without Borders.

For more on this story, visit: Op-Eds & Articles: Op-Ed: How to Start a Child Survival Epidemic | Doctors Without Borders.

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Ever wonder what happened to this guy? George, Shellie Zimmerman attorneys back in court Wednesday

SANFORD – George Zimmerman’s murder trial in the death of Trayvon Martin was set for June 10 during a hearing in court this morning.

From the Daily Beast:

George Zimmerman’s trial for the second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin will begin on June 10, a Florida judge ruled on Wednesday morning. Attorneys in the case estimated it would last about three weeks. Zimmerman confessed to shooting and killing the 17-year-old in March, claiming he was using Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law to defend himself against the black teenager. The lack of immediate charges against Zimmerman—who is Hispanic—led to a national outcry both in support and against him, and authorities eventually charged Zimmerman, 29, with second-degree murder. His wife, Shellie Zimmerman, 25, has been charged with perjury.

For more on this story, visit: George Zimmerman court: George, Shellie Zimmerman attorneys back in court Wednesday – OrlandoSentinel.com.

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Isaac Canady’s Ballpoint of View | Chris Arnott, Daily Nutmeg

“I tend not to like galleries,” Isaac Canady confesses. But he’s created one anyway. His exhibition space, not to mention the art studio where he draws and creates his singular and spiritual pen-and-ink works, is the sidewalks and coffee shops of New Haven.

Canady’s a familiar face to countless downtown pedestrians. Now he’s also attracting attention while on breaks from his job at Elm City Market in the 360 State Street complex, where he works from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the bakery section. During those breaks, Canady finds a seat in the dining section over by the market’s hot bar and salad bar.

For more on this story, visit: Ballpoint of View | Daily Nutmeg.

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Panelists champion careers in social good

For all Yale students considering investment banking, Doug Hausladen ’04 has a message for you: Do not go to the dark side.

The undergraduate organization Net Impact hosted an event to launch its organization on Tuesday that aimed to inspire Yale students to explore the field of social enterprise — or socially-conscious entrepreneurship. The panel included Hausladen, Ward 7 Alderman and the co-founder of ActualFood; Barry Nalebuff, co-founder of Honest Tea and professor at the Yale School of Management; Maxim Thorne LAW ‘92, former vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Cary Krosinsky, senior vice president of TruCost; and Kate Cooney, an SOM professor. At the talk, the speakers explored their definitions of social enterprise and suggested an alternative to traditional careers in business or non-profits.

For more on this story, visit: Panelists champion careers in social good | Yale Daily News.

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Big Electric Companies Behind ‘Grassroots’ Ad Campaign in Florida | Mother Jones

The dark money group Defend my Dividend is more Astroturf than grassroots.

By Theodoric Meyer, ProPublica

This story first appeared on the ProPublica website.

Since August, a dark money group called Defend My Dividend has spent nearly $90,000 running ads on South Florida TV stations warning seniors about a looming increase in the tax rate on dividends.

“You worked hard, saved for retirement, and dividends are a big part of it,” says one of the ads, which Defend My Dividend has posted on YouTube. “But if President Obama and Congress don’t act this year, tax rates on dividends will spike, almost tripling in some cases.” Time is running out, the ad intones, as phone numbers for Obama and Congress appear on the screen.

For more on this story, visit: Big Electric Companies Behind ‘Grassroots’ Ad Campaign in Florida | Mother Jones.

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Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett and legislature shows complete disregard toward human health and the planet

The state’s latest grab for Marcellus Shale money could turn some colleges into industrial zones.

—By Sydney Brownstone

Last year, when Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett suggested offsetting college tuition fees by leasing parts of state-owned college campuses to natural gas drillers, more than a few Pennsylvanians were left blinking and rubbing their eyes. But it was no idle threat: After quietly moving through the state Senate and House, this week the governor signed into law a bill that opens up 14 of the state’s public universities to fracking, oil drilling, and coal mining on campus.

For more on this story, visit: Pennsylvania Fracking Law Opens Up Drilling on College Campuses | Mother Jones.

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Greenpeace slams EPEAT after green label granted to Apple MacBook Pro | BusinessGreen

Greenpeace has accused the US green IT labelling scheme EPEAT of “caving in” to pressure from leading manufacturers and approving a number of “ultra-thin” notebooks that will prove difficult to recycle.

EPEAT announced last week that it had undertaken a thorough review of five different “ultra-thin” notebooks from Apple, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba, including the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display, and concluded they could remain on the EPEAT registry.

For more on this story, visit: Greenpeace slams EPEAT after green label granted to Apple MacBook Pro – 15 Oct 2012 – News from BusinessGreen.

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Thousands of bloggers, blog for good, on one day | blogactionday.org

Today, October 15, is Blog Action Day, and the international community of bloggers is blogging about this year’s theme, The Power of We.

Are you going to contribute to this topic in honor of the multitudes who work together to make a difference in the world through whatever you do? What is it? Let us know!

Founded in 2007, Blog Action Day brings together bloggers from different countries, interests and languages to blog about one important global topic on the same day. Past topics have included water, climate change, poverty and food with thousands of blogs, big and small, taking part.

For more on this story, visit: blogactionday.org | Thousands of bloggers, blog for good, on one day..

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