tagged w/ municipal
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For a good part of its rich history, residents of unincorporated Allensworth, the first African American colony west of the Mississippi, have gone without a reliable supply of safe drinking water.
This is still the case today, where the Tulare County community’s wells – which provide water to the neighboring Colonel Allensworth State Historical Park that commemorates the area’s legacy – exceed federal levels for arsenic.
Arsenic is naturally occurring in the area, and consumption of the semi-metal can cause nausea and skin discoloration. It has also been associated with various cancers.
Residents of Allensworth and neighboring Alpaugh – both rural, unincorporated communities in Tulare County whose water has elevated arsenic levels – have advanced a novel proposal to resolve the water issues in their communities. Under the plan, the Allensworth and Alpaugh Community Services Districts would combine with the Angiola Water District, which sells water for irrigation, to deliver drinking water to residents. Late last week, Allensworth and Alpaugh’s proposal received nearly $420,000 in state grants [PDF] to research its feasibility.
Safe drinking water is a "necessity for healthy living and economic growth and opportunity for the community,” Denise Kadara, president of the Allensworth Progressive Association, said at a recent meeting of the Strategic Growth Council, a cabinet-level committee that coordinates activities related to issues such as water quality and public health among five state agencies. “Rural communities like Allensworth face huge barriers to clean drinking water and we need innovative solutions to overcome these barriers.”
Consolidation of water districts – there are more than 8,000 public systems in California – has become increasingly appealing to rural communities. “It’s become harder and harder for a very small water system to provide safe water and to keep the rates affordable,” said Laurel Firestone, the co-executive director of the Community Water Center in Visalia. “There’s an overall trend of water systems looking for collaborative solutions to help cut costs.”
The Allensworth-Alpaugh proposal is unique because it involves a consolidation between remote rural community water districts and an irrigation water district. The arrangement could serve as a model for other rural communities, water policy experts say.
“A lot of dispersed communities face similar challenges, and what is learned here could be pretty influential in the rural West,” said Tony Rossmann, an attorney who has handled some of the state’s most significant water cases.
The proposal had the support of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors, which submitted the application to the state Strategic Growth Council. “We know that in Tulare County, we have clean water issues in our unincorporated communities,” said Allen Ishida, a county supervisor. “We are not going to be able to solve these issues without consolidation because it’s too expensive.”
Ishida said the funding for the feasibility study is a step toward “finally, after all these years, getting acceptable and potable clean water” to unincorporated communities “so that residents can enjoy the health benefits and lessen the financial burden of having to buy bottled water.”
According to surveys conducted by advocacy organizations like California Rural Legal Assistance, residents of low-income, unincorporated communities spend up to 10 percent of their income on water.
California law states that residents have a “right to pure and safe drinking water,” but while the state Department of Public Health is charged with monitoring public water systems, there are few enforcement mechanisms, said Camille Pannu of the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, who helped draft the Allensworth-Alpaugh proposal.
“The gap between rights on the books and rights on the ground is particularly stark in the (Central) Valley,” Pannu wrote in a recent issue of the California Law Review.
The Allensworth-Alpaugh proposal also included an additional $450,000 funds to study the extension of sewer service from the city of Tulare to the unincorporated community of Matheny Tract.
As California Watch has previously reported, Matheny Tract, on the outskirts of Tulare, is located just a few miles – and downwind – from the municipal wastewater treatment plant, but residents currently can’t connect to it. Residents rely instead on aging septic tanks.
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Numerous Central Valley communities face similar conditions with water quality, access and delivery. A report by the environmental research organization Pacific Institute found that between 2005 and 2008, about 1.3 million San Joaquin Valley residents drank water with unhealthy levels of nitrates, which can lead to severe illness and even death among infants.
According to Oakland think tank PolicyLink, an estimated 1.8 million Californians live in low-income, unincorporated communities like Allensworth and Alpaugh, and many lack potable drinking water or other basic infrastructure. In the Tulare Lake Basin area, there are at least 370 of these communities.
More at the linkFor a good part of its rich history, residents of unincorporated Allensworth, the... more
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Beginning in August, the local utility company, DTE, started repossessing Highland Park’s street lights as a settlement for its $4M overdue electric bill, the result of almost a decade of partial payments. This leaves the small, blighted city’s 16,000 residents almost totally in the dark.Beginning in August, the local utility company, DTE, started repossessing Highland... more
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THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF A LIST OF THE PEOPLE'S DEMANDS, WHICH WILL FORMALLY BE PRESENTED TO THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DURING THE MAY 5TH NATIONAL DAY OF WORK STOPPAGE, AND MILLION PLUS PERSON MARCH ON WASHINGTON D. C..
When the government does not function and operate according to the principle's of the constitution, and does not respond to the will of the people, and only the people, and does not completely free itself of it's addiction to the influence of money other than from the people, then it deserves to be dissolved. I assert this most dispassionately. Because in such circumstances, it is no longer a government of the people, and is no longer constitutionally mandated. Therefore, and in the event that government continues to collaborate to oppress, deprive and financially rape the people, "Every American citizen needs to know they have the right (which was declared in the Declaration of Independence) to peacefully take control of their country from their government, in order to establish a new and better government. They also need to know they have a formal process (DDT/EDT) so they can exercise that right. Serious problems in serious times, demand serious solutions."
Declaration of Dissolution and Termination
"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for the people to dissolve and terminate the political bands which have connected them to their government. They have a duty and the right to assume and reassert their supreme power over themselves and government. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel the separation by means of Dissolution and Termination."
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these United States, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present government of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, thwarting the will of the people and their ability to pursue life, liberty and happiness guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence. To this, let facts be submitted to a candid world."
"The present system of government is fundamentally flawed and responsible for numerous offenses against the people and the world at large. At its very core resides a resident fraud and because of this fraud, almost every action and resolve put forth by the government is a mockery of Justice, Democracy, and the Pursuit of Happiness. The government of the United States is for sale to the highest bidder. That goes for its policies, both foreign and domestic, that can be bought by both foreign and domestic interests alike."
Therefore, we are herein compiling a list of all individual grievances and reform demands to be cited on the list being presented to government, and we ask all who can articulate a demand to remedy a grievance of the people, to list them hereafter.
Included are:
To dissolve any government affiliation with, and support of, The Federal Reserve, which has facilitated the financial rape and pillage of this nation and it's people, by the privately owned banking systems of this country.
Further, we require the institution of a national public bank, owned exclusively by the people, for the exclusive benefit of the people, which will afford the people an alternative to doing business with private banks.
Further, we require Federal support for the instituting of state public banks, in every state which desires to institute public banks.
Further, we require the reinstitution of the "Fairness Doctrine", with staunch penalties for willfully and knowingly publishing false, misleading and untruthful information.
Further, we require a completely independent and entirely publicly supported media, to include radio, t.v. and internet. This is to have entitlement funding not subject to any change of governing administration. As this media is the people's media, at the people's expense, we require that there be no central facility for muting or shutting down the communicating and distribution channels of our media.
Further, we require complete and total "Net Neutrality", applicable to those internet channels that will coexist with the people's own internet.
Further, to insure that every citizen has access to the minimum healthcare necessary to maintain optimal health, we require universal provision of that minimal healthcare.
Further, to insure that our government will always be responsive and accountable to the people of the United States, we require that fixed and equal public funding, and exclusively public funding, be given to every federal candidate running for public office, who meets threshold qualifying criteria.
Further, to insure equal means for each federal office candidate to present their views, positions and virtues to the public, we forbid any corporate, business, foreign or personal money to be utilized in any way, in any candidate's campaign process. Any violation of these laws are considered a treasonous attack upon the people and the integrity of the people's government, and subject to the harshest penalties of the land. These laws also apply to all state and municipal elections. However, the federal government will not have the right to determine the amount of campaign funding for state and municipal candidates.
Further, as corporations do not substantively share in the rights, obligations and characteristics of individual citizens of the United States, such as having the right to an individual vote in elections, the right to public education, subject to call to military service, subject to jury duty and so many more distinctions between the two, we deny and disallow the concept of "corporate personhood". Any instance of any form of business, attempting to bribe, seduce or induce congressional votes, is considered an attack upon the sovereignty of the people and the government of the people, and will be judged as treason against the people.
This DDT/EDT is to serve as an outline, to be modified and improved upon by all of those who choose to participate in the process.
This is a beginning of the list, which we invite and encourage all to contribute to. Please do, at your earliest convenience.
The quoted text herein is courtesy of Revolution 2.0, which while may not present the perfect solution, offers many useful and valid points. There are many individual approaches, such as one Schnookums referenced: http://www.foavc.org/ calling for an Article V convention, which we are best served by threading together in this united effort. Please contribute your thoughts.THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF A LIST OF THE PEOPLE'S DEMANDS, WHICH WILL FORMALLY BE... more
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This is an except from an article I wrote on Examiner.com:
Announcing the Reorganization of Minnesota Judicial Reform and Accountability TEA Party.
Don Mashak, the leader of Minnesota Judicial Reform and Accountability TEA Party has announced a name change and reorganization of said group. (Don Mashak is also the author of this article)
The groups name will change to "TEA PArty Transparency, Accountability and Reform" or Tea Party TAR for short. It also will appear as #TPTAR on Twitter.
The group will be organized around issues rather than localities, as most other TEA Party groups are.
The primary issues of the group will be:
1) Judicial Transparency, Accountability and Reform
2) Fiscal Transparency
3) Public Education reform
To read the rest of the Article, Please visit Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-minneapolis/reorganization-of-minnesota-judicial-reform-and-accountability-tea-party
Those were my thoughts.
Don Mashak
The Cynical Patriot
http://twitter.com/dmashakThis is an except from an article I wrote on Examiner.com:
Announcing the... more
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This is an except from an article I wrote on Examiner.com:
Announcing the Reorganization of Minnesota Judicial Reform and Accountability TEA Party.
Don Mashak, the leader of Minnesota Judicial Reform and Accountability TEA Party has announced a name change and reorganization of said group. (Don Mashak is also the author of this article)
The groups name will change to "TEA PArty Transparency, Accountability and Reform" or Tea Party TAR for short. It also will appear as #TPTAR on Twitter.
The group will be organized around issues rather than localities, as most other TEA Party groups are.
The primary issues of the group will be:
1) Judicial Transparency, Accountability and Reform
2) Fiscal Transparency
3) Public Education reform
To read the rest of the Article, Please visit Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-minneapolis/reorganization-of-minnesota-judicial-reform-and-accountability-tea-party
Those were my thoughts.
Don Mashak
The Cynical Patriot
http://twitter.com/dmashakThis is an except from an article I wrote on Examiner.com:
Announcing the... more
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Sometimes people decide to call things FAILs, when they aren’t really that FAIL. I try to find the glimmer of goodness in everything, so this is another edition of some FAILs that I don’t think are really FAILs.
I'm not very familiar with Sailor Moon, but how could this costume be a FAIL, if I recognized that he was dressed as Sailor Moon? The costume clearly is effective, so it is a WIN.
Yeah right. How could having fun with the WHOLE family possibly be a FAIL?
This person didn't FAIL at locking their wi-fi signal, they WIN at figuring out how to name their network. Nobody can use my signal without a password, but it's still called LINKSYS, and creativity is what counts in this world.
Yeah I get it, they spelled "your" AND "for" wrong, but they spelled 1/5th of the words correctly!
The cat always asks if he can haz cheeseburger. What does he do when he finally gets it? He takes a bite, and then goes back to eating cat food. C'mon bro, that's a waste of $1.25. FAIL.
I'm not a building inspector, so I'm not concerned that those thermoses over the counter don't adhere to municipal standards. Big whoop maybe, but FAIL definitely not.
The wrath of Venom is something that Spider Man might fear, but why should we? Perhaps this is only a FAIL because this person hasn't made the switch from VHS to DVD. Consider that DVD itself is a dead format though, maybe he streams video through NetFlix. Duh.
I know what you're thinking. This is a FAIL, because the architect is invoking ideas from Ionic temple design, while implementing columns from the Corinthian period. Well first off, we aren't all Greek architectural scholars, bro. And secondly, it's not totally inconceivable that early Corinthian architecture might use Ionic structure, as that was the previously dominant style.
Check out the previous editions:
Some FAILs that I don't think are FAILs #1
Some FAILs that I don't think are FAILs #2Sometimes people decide to call things FAILs, when they aren’t really that FAIL.... more
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The next Ottawa municipal election will be held on Monday, October 25, 2010. Giving citizens the opportunity to vote for the next Mayor of Ottawa, City Councillors and School Board Trustees. Municipal nomination started January 4th 2010The next Ottawa municipal election will be held on Monday, October 25, 2010. Giving... more
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Discretionary zoning and deal-making with developers have become the norm and municipalities are increasingly using money tucked away in special funds to avoid going to taxpayers for borrowing approval.Discretionary zoning and deal-making with developers have become the norm and... more
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