Democracy & Civics

"Transition Towns" Tackle Climate Change

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Transition towns — part of a grassroots movement to help communities adopt carbon-neutral lifestyles — are slowly spreading from England, where they number in the scores, to America, New Zealand and elsewhere. The Christian Science Monitor reports that the “transition movement” helps equip communities with tools for living in a world of climate change and declining oil reserves. The concept was born three years ago when permaculture professor Rob Hopkins and his students came up with a plan for community-wide sustainable living in his hometown of Totnes, United Kingdom. Since then more than 100 communities worldwide have joined in, three of which are in the United States: Boulder, Co., and Sandpoint and Ketchum, Idaho. A few of the towns in England even use their own currency, the article reports, to “stimulate the local economy and help insulate it from the vagaries of the national and global markets.’

Democracy & Civics

The State Claims Your Raindrops

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Rainwater harvesting for domestic use or irrigation is a sustainable practice that may be against the law in the state of Washington. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, rainwater is a “resource of the state, which regulates the use of public waters through an allocation process that can take years to navigate.” So far Washington allows individuals and small farms to harvest modest amounts of rainwater permit-free, but the Department of Ecology’s water resource section are concerned people will collect too much if clear limits aren’t set. City developers harvest rainwater for irrigation and to flush toilets, and use greywater diverted from sinks to conserve drinking water in urban areas. These are practices that can prevent sewer overflows, and have inspired Seattle to legalize rainwater harvesting for most of the city.

Democracy & Civics

Sidebar: Swaying Voters at $2 a Word

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• Main Article: “Invasion of the Policy Pushers”
Here are the most lopsided campaigns in the fall 2008 San Francisco voter information pamphlet, with a well organized group on one side dominating the paid argument pages. Measure A: funding construction and renovations at San Francisco General Hospital
FOR: 39 arguments, submitted mostly by Whitehurst Campaigns
AGAINST: 2
Measure H: promoting public power and alternative energy
FOR: 9 arguments
AGAINST: 30, submitted by a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. campaign committee and Citizens for a Better San Francisco, an affiliate of the San Francisco Republican Party
Measure L: establishing a special court to handle petty crimes
FOR: 17 arguments, submitted mostly by Storefront Political Media, run by a San Francisco mayoral aide
AGAINST: none
Here are the most evenly matched campaigns:
Measure B: establishing a public fund for affordable housing
FOR: 7 arguments
AGAINST: 9
Measure K: decriminalizing prostitution
FOR: 9 arguments
AGAINST: 10
Measure V: reverse a policy to phase out JROTC, military training program in public schools
FOR: 10 arguments
AGAINST: 8
–Matthew Hirsch

Democracy & Civics

In South America, Land Rights go Native

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[UPDATE: A December 15, 2008, court ruling found in favor of the indigenous plaintiffs.]
A group of new reports finds that land-rights battles in South America may be tipping in favor of indigenous peoples. In Brazil, the Supreme Court is deciding on the right of Amazon natives to live in their ancestral homelands. Inter Press Service, a left-leaning advocacy news outlet, reports that the 11-member court has asked for more time to investigate whether a 1.7-million hectare reserve allotted to natives in the Amazon region was taken illegally by wealthy rice farmers. Already one judge voted in favor of the natives, describing the farmers’ residency as “an unlawful possession.” The remaining judges will decide by the end of the year, but conflict over land ownership is ongoing and in some cases has turned violent.

Democracy & Civics

San Francisco's 'Black Exodus' Gathers Steam

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A new study has found that African Americans are abandoning San Francisco in droves, faster than any other U.S. city. The black population has decreased from 13.4 percent in 1970 to 10.9 percent in 1990 and comprises 6.5 percent of San Francisco’s population in 2005 — the latest year figures were available. The task force also projects the numbers to fall still further, to 4.6 percent by 2050. Speakers at a hearing in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood said that the findings are just the latest in a series of reports dating back to the 1970s, and validated their fears about an “black exodus” that could almost eliminate the city’s African American population. Critics blamed the problem on a dearth of economic opportunity and African-American culture, combined with skyrocketing housing prices driven by gentrification.

Democracy & Civics

India's Recipe for school success? Add three eggs

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In India, there apparently is such a thing as a free lunch. The World Press Review reports that the government has mandated the world’s largest lunch program to keep 140 million public school students in the classroom. An estimated 2.1 million Indian children die before age 5 each year, and malnutrition is also blamed as one of the causes of India’s high dropout rate. Yet since the hot-lunch program debuted, the dropout rate for students 14 or younger has decreased from 32 million in 2001 to 7.6 million today, while overall enrollment figures and nutrition levels have increased. A government official said the program helped lower the elementary school dropout rate from 12 percent to two percent between 2002 and 2007.

Democracy & Civics

Businesses Decry Paid Sick Leave Push in California, Ohio

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A bill working its way through the state legislature would make California the first state to mandate paid sick leave for employees. In Ohio, citizens will take the matter into their own hands with a vote on the Healthy Families Act, a public referendum on the November ballot that would require businesses with 25 or more employees to provide at least seven days of paid sick leave for employees. California’s AB 2716 would affect more than 5.4 million workers who don’t receive sick leave from their job, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, and was inspired by an ordinance passed by the city’s board of supervisors that took effect in February 2007. If passed, the bill would provide one day of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, the Sacramento Bee reported, and the state’s department of industrial relations would enforce it at a cost of about $600,000 per year. Small businesses do get a small break — firms with fewer than 10 employees would only have to grant employees five day of paid sick leave per year, while businesses with more employees are required to provide as many as nine days.

Democracy & Civics

World's Youngest Republic Swears in Maoist Prime Minister

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Following years of turbulence and the end of its traditional monarchy, the newly minted Republic of Nepal swore its first prime minister into office on August 18 in Kathmandu. The Times of India reports that former Maoist rebel Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known popularly as Prachanda, took his oath of office “in the name of the people” rather than “in the name of God” — a break from tradition that acknowledges his communist leanings. In his mid-fifties, Prachanda was once a guerilla fighter that led the Maoists’ decade-long insurgency to abolish the monarchy. His Communist Party of Nepal won a majority in the nation’s Constituent Assembly in April, and his swearing-in ceremony brought dignitaries from the United Kingdom and the United States. Both countries formerly supported Nepal’s monarchy in the fight against Prachanda’s Maoists.

Democracy & Civics

Australia Breaks Ground on Gay Retirement Home

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Australia is breaking new ground with plans to build its first retirement village for gays in Ballan, Victoria. The Moorabool Leader, a newspaper in nearby Melbourne, says the multimillion-dollar facility will feature 120 units, with construction beginning spring 2009. The village, Linton Estate, is the first of its kind in Australia. Developer Peter Dickson said Linton will be marketed “to the gay community but it will be a facility that is tolerant of all people, if they are tolerant of others.” It will feature typical retirement home facilities, including a pool, tennis courts, open-air theater, and spa.

Democracy & Civics

FBI Apology Spurs Further Questions

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The FBI has apologized for monitoring the telephone records of Washington Post and New York Times journalists in 2004 — but exactly why the phones records were monitored, and nature of the “exigent” letters used to gain that information — remain unanswered. Reporters Without Borders said in an Aug. 13 statement they want an explanation why the FBI deemed it necessary to catalog incoming and outgoing calls at the newspapers’ Indonesian bureaus. At the time, the reporters in question were working in southeast Asia on stories about Islamic terrorism. In 2007, the Justice Department’s Inspector General unearthed thousands of cases in which the FBI improperly issued national security letters — a type of administrative subpoena that bypasses the court system, and which imposes a gag order preventing recipients from disclosing the letter’s existence — to gain access to phone records in terrorism investigations.