Why Young People Have Deserted Obama
by Randy Shaw‚
Jun. 18‚ 2013
According to a new CNN poll, President Obama’s support among young people has fallen a whopping 17% in the past month. And while a single poll taken as college students are in finals or preparing to graduate has limitations, it’s hard to dispute that a constituency that twice voted for Obama in record numbers is disillusioned and demoralized over the President’s performance. GOP obstructionism is certainly a factor; Obama's base would be happier if Congress had enacted his campaign agenda.
But there’s a deeper problem. People have lost faith in Obama’s willingness to take a gloves off approach to political adversaries. That's why even when Obama directly addresses young people--- as in the president’s recent speeches about reducing student loan debt---he is not seen as going to the mat for the cause. Obama could regain young people’s support by lowering student loan rates, enacting immigration reform and rejecting the Keystone XL Pipeline, but time---and his political capital—is running out.
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Will IDEO's school meal experience fly?
by Dana Woldow‚
Jun. 18‚ 2013
I spent an hour recently at the offices of IDEO, the design firm hired by the Sara and Evan Williams Family Foundation to lead an initiative to reform the school meal experience in San Francisco. Those working on the project are spending the spring and early summer talking to a variety of stakeholder groups - students, parents, school staff, cafeteria workers, school meal experts - to get their input. The IDEO folks asked me not to leak any of their ideas before the initiative is finalized later this summer; that's an easy promise to keep, as my time with them was spent sharing my thoughts, not listening to theirs.
I wish I could say that my ideas are as cutting edge and innovative (or, as entrepreneurs like to say, "disruptive") as IDEO's are expected to be, but their ideas come out of a novel process they call "focused chaos", whereas mine spring from the more humdrum "see a need and fix it." Due to barriers posed by government meal program rules and lack of funds, many of my ideas have been getting stale waiting for someone to figure out how to implement them. I've written about most of them previously, sometimes repeatedly. Let's revisit some of those ideas. [more]->
Why Our Schools Are Broke: Five Years of Corporate State Tax Avoidance
by Paul Buchheit‚
Jun. 18‚ 2013
We hear a lot about corporations avoiding federal taxes. Less well known is their non-payment of state taxes, which along with local taxes make up 90% of U.S. education funding. Pay Up Now just completed a review of 2011-12 tax data from the SEC filings of 155 of the largest U.S. corporations. The results show that the total cost of K-12 educational cutbacks in recent years is approximately equal to the amount of state taxes left unpaid by these companies.
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22 Arrested in New Wave of Resistance to Keystone XL Pipeline
by Jeff Schuhrke‚
Jun. 18‚ 2013
Twenty-two people were arrested the morning of June 17 after staging a sit-in at the U.S. State Department’s Chicago office to protest the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline. The action in President Obama’s hometown is the first of a series of planned acts of civil disobedience this summer calling on the administration to reject the controversial pipeline. All 22 demonstrators have since been released.
Proposed by the Canadian energy corporation TransCanada, the multi-billion-dollar pipeline would transport Alberta's tar sands oil to refineries on the Gulf Coast, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Opponents say the pipeline’s environmental impact would be disastrous. Because the KXL would cross the U.S.-Canada border, Obama’s State Department has the last word on whether the megaproject is approved.
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Can Supes Break SF’s Better Market Street Logjam?
by Randy Shaw‚
Jun. 17‚ 2013
When I wrote last week that San Francisco’s Mid-Market Street had “turned a corner” ---and the last remaining troubled site at the former Hollywood Billiards was reported sold the next day ---I did not address the lack of progress in the transit/public space/streetscape proposals for the area. These are incorporated in the remarkably ambitious, $250 million plus Better Market Street Plan to improve biking, walking, and transit on Market. The Plan was originally set to begin in 2013, but has been pushed back to 2017--- at the earliest. The Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee holds a hearing on the Plan today, and activists will be testifying about ways to break the logjam and jump start the Plan's implementation. The hearing's timing is perfect. With much of Market Street under renovation, the time is now to take several incremental actions. The Board has waited long enough for the Better Market Street process to right itself, and should take greater leadership in both ensuring immediate implementations and in formulating the broader Plan strategy.
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Elizabeth Warren’s QE for Students: Populist Demagoguery or Economic Breakthrough?
by Ellen Brown‚
Jun. 17‚ 2013
On July 1, interest rates will double for millions of students – from 3.4% to 6.8% – unless Congress acts; and the legislative fixes on the table are largely just compromises. Only one proposal promises real relief – Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s “Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act.” This bill has been dismissed out of hand as “shameless populist demagoguery” and “a cheap political gimmick,” but is it? Or could Warren’s outside-the-box bill represent the sort of game-changing thinking sorely needed to turn the economy around?
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Talking Spirituality: SF Reiki Center
by Natalie Grigson‚
Jun. 17‚ 2013
I was just heading home, the bus stop in sight, when I decided at the last moment to stop into this coffee shop. It wasn’t the smell dark, roasting coffee beans wafting out the door that drew me in—in fact, the outside of this particular establishment smelled more like cigarettes and something sour—something that I didn’t want to put my finger on, literally or figuratively.
No, it was the need to sit down and write about the experience I just had, before even a moment of it faded from memory. So here I am, sipping a hot chocolate that tastes more like milk and playdough than anything else, simply buzzing with energy, trying not to bounce around in my seat as I type away. [more]->
The Demise of Labor Papers is a Crisis—Is It Also an Opportunity?
by Roger Bybee‚
Jun. 17‚ 2013
The Milwaukee Labor Press has become the latest labor newspaper to fall victim to major declines in union membership, ending publication after 73 years as the tribune of working people in what had been, until recently, a massive labor community. The paper’s circulation had fallen from a peak of 150,000 in the mid-'50’s to 44,000 subscribers for the last issue, with the impact from Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s Act 10 restricting public-sector unions likely to drive it down to 38,000, according to former editor Dominique Noth.
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In California Cities, Drivers Want More Bike Lanes. Here’s Why.
by Tanya Snyder‚
Jun. 14‚ 2013
Whenever street space is allocated for bicycling, someone will inevitably level the accusation that the city is waging a “war on cars.” But it turns out the people in those cars want separate space for bicycles too, according to surveys conducted in two major California metropolitan areas. Bike lanes make everyone feel safer — even drivers. Rebecca Sanders is a doctoral candidate in transportation planning and urban design at the University of California-Berkeley. She’s spent a lot of time asking people — drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians — what kinds of street treatments would make them feel safer, giving them a list of safety improvements to choose from. Most drivers said their top priority was bike lanes. (In the Los Angeles area, the top choice was for improved pedestrian crossings, but bike lanes were a close second.)
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WHAM BANG!-- THIS IS A SUBLIME POLITICAL PLAY BY CARYL CHURCHILL.
by Buzzin' Lee Hartgrave‚
Jun. 14‚ 2013
June 19, 2013
