BBQ Chef Extraordinaire Greg Williams (standing), with his father LeMaud "Hot Sauce" Williams and a satisfied customer

I'm excited to see the Plain Dealer picked up the story of development of an MMJ BBQ Sauce by Greg Williams, of Cleveland's Hot Sauce Williams, and OrganaLabs, of Colorado. As was posted to Cleveland.com, today - Pot Sauce Williams, aiming to be the Heinz of medical marijuana BBQ sauces - great coverage by Evelyn Theiss and Diane Suchetka, who interviewed me for their story - some highlights: "We hope to make it the Heinz of medical marijuana sauces," said Norm Roulet, a Cleveland business consultant who got the idea off the ground - Heidi Morgan, co-owner with her husband, Ralph, of OrganaLabs in Denver, confirmed that the company developed and tested a recipe for Pot Sauce Williams - "There is a huge market for this," she said. "People are sick and tired of brownies - Especially, she said, people who have illnesses like MS, HIV, or other autoimmune disorders -- "They'll say, 'I don't want 100 milligrams of sugar when I eat this'"- So what's Pot Sauce Williams like? - Kohn, who has a referral for medical marijuana, loves it - "It packed just about the right size wallop you wanted," he said. "It made you merry. It gave you positive body sensations, good tingles, it was as good or better as any edible product I've tried - and I've tried a lot. It's da bomb" - "Their model is to have a number of sauces out, and they are looking at even doing some of their bakery products," Roulet said. "They have a sweet potato pie and a pecan pie - "One of the things they are looking at is creating some products to appeal to the urban marketplace" - "They are being innovative."

Martin Juredine, from his Facebook Profile

My favorite bar, music club and local hang-out in Northeast Ohio (perhaps the world!!!) has always been The Barking Spider, because the owner Martin was always so friendly and cool, making his the coolest place in town. Musicians loved to perform there and be part of the vibe, which was generated by as diverse a crowd as any meeting place could attract - multiracial, diverse, and all ages, including kids. Some of my favorite local musicians played there regularly. I use the past tense, as I was saddened to learn Martin passed on yesterday, February 2, 2011, after a long illness. Even as The Spider lives on, it will never be the same. All those great tunes and times.

Open Meeting!

Cleveland NORML will be meeting at Sidetracks Cafe on February 5th from 4 to 6pm to host our open meeting. We welcome members and non-members alike!

Join us in our fight to reform marijuana laws in Ohio and advocate for safe, compassionate access to marijuana for all patients.

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The EPA Environmental Justice grants announced below would fit nicely with lead poisoning eradication needs and objectives in Northeast Ohio, as funded by HUD. The Federal Government wants to attack environmental injustice at the core, through collaboration among Federal agencies, like HUD and EPA, with environmental justice organizations in local communities, like in the overly-lead-burdened Cleveland, so proposals to build EPA environmental justice programming to leverage impact of HUD Lead Eradication funding would make sense and likely appeal to grant review committees. Unfortunately, a community must recognize it is victim of ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE to apply for this grant money, and Cleveland has not yet made that recognition. We're the Green City by the Blue Lake.

Let's see if any local Environmental Justice organizations (are there any?) apply for and receive funding from this Federal EPA program for environmental justice, developing programs addressing lead poisoning here, in leverage of the $4.5 million just provided by HUD for lead poisoning eradication, as Obama has determined is a priority here. Let's see if anyone admits we have any environmental injustice here and applies at all.

From the EPA:

Environmental Justice Mailing List

EPA Seeks Applicants for $1.2 Million in Environmental Justice Grants to Address Local Health and Environmental Issues

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting grant applications for $1.2 million in funding to support projects designed to research, educate, empower and enable communities to understand and address local health and environmental issues. Eligible applicants from non-profit, faith-based and tribal organizations working in the community of the proposed project are encouraged to apply.

I'm pleased to see the Cleveland Plain Dealer giving coverage to HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims presenting a $4.5 million Federal Grant to Cuyahoga County to Protect Citizens from Lead Poisoning... on Cleveland.com, at least. Here is their advance story... Cuyahoga County gets $4.5 million to curb lead in homes. Especially insightful, from this coverage: "HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims is traveling to Cleveland on Friday not only to present the grant to Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald but also to formally announce the nearly $127 million HUD will spend for the communities nationwide with the highest rates of lead poisoning. Cuyahoga County and the city of Cincinnati received the largest of six grants awarded in Ohio. The city of Lorain is getting $2.1 million."

Most alarming, in coverage on Cleveland.com, is the feedback of trolls and readers registered there. As the parent of lead poisoned children, I now know what it is like to be a rape victim blamed for being raped. I have corrected some of the misinformation of truly despicable posters there - at least until Cleveland.com for some reason FROZE MY ACCOUNT.

I will say, for any poor behavior on realNEO - at the user and Admin level - it does not begin to compare with the wretchedness of life on Cleveland.com. I've posted below the comments up until I was blocked access, to protect them and save me the effort of rewriting my thoughts for you... I guess they own my voice and words on Cleveland.com now, and they don't want the world to know the truth about lead poisoning in their fair city.

And that is why there is such serious lead poisoning in their fair city...

 jmsullivan  January 27, 2011 at 11:06PM

I don't care about being an ignoramus about lead paint. I will venture to guess that over 90% of us were raised in homes built prior to 1978 which means they had lead based paint in them. My mom did not allow me to chew on the window sills, the house was meticiulously maintained and I have never known one person, not one, have any problems with lead poisoning. This is about common sense. For those that think we are ignorant, have you paid $13,000 on your personal dwelling to eliminate lead paint. If not, then why are you expecting us to spend our money on something that we thing is just plain STUPID and a WASTE

Google Analytics of weekly realNEO visits and pageviews from December 01, 2008 to January 26, 2011

As I've reported over the past year, while sharing realNEO site statistics with members - most recently, in November, marking our 7th year - realNEO traffic demonstrates very consistent month-to-month and year-to-year growth for visitors, visits and pages viewed. Where there are dips, like each Christmas holiday season, there is year-to-year growth - we've always had strong, consistent, steady performance as illustrated above, since December 2008 (the first month we had reliable Google analytics).

Enjoying a view from the Eastern ridgeline overlooking the Pearl Road Bridge and all that is underneath it.... 

More parts of the Master Plan for the 2020 Vision of Cleveland.....

Under construction....

Is this a historical renovation, demolition, or standstill project in Cleveland, Ohio?

Extraordinary Architecture.

Uncountable FEDERALLY FUNDED PROGRAMS are administered locally by social service and community development organizations on behalf of the low income, disabled, and demographically disadvantaged folks. On the West Side of Cleveland, the industry of PHILANTHROPY rakes in approximately $2 Billion Dollars per year. How many folks understand how this "DEMOGRAPHIC DATA" fuels this local economy and why the leaders don't want to change their formats or accept responsibility for their actions to "ALLEGEDLY" empower the people? 

The Greater Cleveland Health Homes Advisory Council (formerly the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council) has announced a press conference, January 28, 2011, at 1:30 PM, at Cleveland State University Levin College Atrium, where HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims will present a $4.5 million federal HUD grant to Cuyahoga County to "conduct a wide range of activities intended to protect children and families from potentially dangerous lead-based paint and other home health and safety hazards". The press release states the "grant funding will clean up lead and other health hazards in hundreds of homes, train workers in lead safety methods, and increase public awareness about childhood lead poisoning.  Lead is a known toxin that can impair children’s development and have effects lasting into adulthood."

The obvious objective of this press conference is to encourage the MAINSTREAM MEDIA OF NORTHEAST OHIO to provide better information about lead poisoning prevention to the people of Northeast Ohio, to protect public health and improve our community. Encourage your favorite Media representatives (and politicians) to attend and serve the region better.

Also expected to attend will be Congresswoman Marcia Fudge,  Congressman Dennis Kucinich, and various other elected and appointed officials.

Celebrate Lunar New Year 2011 (Year of the Rabbit)

FYI, more events will be available shortly and we will have it distributed,
here are some events happening in town to Celebrate Year of the Rabbit (2011):

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Thanks for respecting the flag! Thanks to the citizens who spoke up about the tattered flag above a school....Thanks for making a difference! The new flag is still flying a few feet low...but we are very proud of it! 

It is funny how things work out.

I went to the Hemp Industry Association conference looking for hemp-based energy solutions, to help address our pollution crisis in Northeast Ohio, and I found a delicious, healthful hemp dessert, too - Hemp I Scream.

As I learned more about the inventor of Hemp I Scream - the founder of Hemp Sources, Inc. - Agua Das, I discovered he is a world leader in hemp innovation, including for energy - "Agua was the first person to make hemp bio-diesel fuel in the modern hemp era in 1993; made from virgin hemp oil he pressed himself."

As I got to know Das better, I learned he studied engineering at Case, and still has good feelings for the school and Northeast Ohio. He lived on Hessler, and was involved in starting up the Street Fair, in the beginning... we know some of the same people still there, from way back.

So the expert with the energy solutions we need in Northeast Ohio studied engineering in Northeast Ohio... and makes awesome desserts, too. Nice coincidences.

Nicole Foss will be speaking on A Century of Challenges: Building Local Resilience in an Era of Economic Turmoil & Resource Depletion.  She writes at www.TheAutomaticEarth.blogspot.com under the pseudonym Stoneleigh.  The talk will be held at First Church in Oberlin,106 N.

This article will be updated very soon....

Protocol for use of EJSEAT in circumstances in which it will have
an impact on current and future allocation of resources

Nationally Consistent Environmental Justice Screening Approaches - text included below, without Appendices - download full 5 MB /PDF Report here

A Report of Advice and Recommendations of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council - A Federal Advisory Committee to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - MAY 2010

CHN Joins Detroit Shoreway & City of Cleveland to Host HUD Press Event Third Round of NSP Grants Announced On September 9, 2010 CHN, Detroit Shoreway and the City of Cleveland welcomed Assistant Secretary Mercedes Marquez of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Marquez announced a $6.8 million award to the City of Cleveland for the third round of funding through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). NSP was established for the purpose of stabilizing communities that have suffered from foreclosures and abandonment.

CLEVELAND – Gray’s Auctioneers kicks off 2011 with an eclectic Furniture, Paintings and Decorative Arts Auction on Jan. 25. This auction features paintings and drawings from the 17th century to the 20th century, furniture from Charles II to Mid-Century Modern, antique rugs, and many delightful decorative lots including a collection of Chinese and Japanese bronzes and porcelains.

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Just felt like venting below....watching the annihilation of our city has traumatized my life, violated our people, and decimated our American Spirit...But I shall continue to have faith that the corrupt jerks who have destroyed our world will be held accountable before our lifetime is over. May they all enjoy the shame that comes with being exposed for their poor choices...and that jail time that should come with convictions... We the people have been imprisoned for all too long in our community and it's time to be set free! 

The Cleveland Public Library is pleased to present the Chelsea Duo on January 29th, 2011 at 2pm in the Fine Arts Department on the 3rd floor of Main Library (325 Superior Ave., Cleveland, Ohio, 44114). The Chelsea Duo, consisting of Annie Fullard, violin (from Cavani String Quartet) and Marcia Ferritto, viola, will perform a program entitled "A Bohemian Sampler" with music by Béla Bartók and Bohuslav Martinů. This concert is FREE and open to all ages. For more information call 216-623-2848 or visit http://cpl.org/musicatmain. Please join us for this informal, intimate and entertaining concert.

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Environmental Justice leader/victim Barbara Miller speaking to panel at First White House Forum on Environmental Justice

In what I consider the most important positive environmental development in America in the 21st Century, on December 15, 2010, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley convened the First White House Environmental Justice Forum, where leadership of the recently-reconvened Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJ IWG) met with over 100 environmental justice leaders (typically long-suffering EJ victims), in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, at the White House complex, to develop new federal interagency strategies and interactions with citizens to right current EJ wrongs in America, in anticipation of worse to come as results of climate change.

This Forum was the public interface, and culmination of a year of expansive activity in the White House, throughout the Obama Administration, and nationwide, to advance EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s priority to “expand the conversation on environmentalism and work for environmental justice” in America, in clear recognition of harm caused disadvantaged citizens by current Environmental Injustice (aka Environmental Racism... Environmental Genocide... from the mouths of victims), and showing clear US government concern over "Climate Gaps" (e.g. in Heat Islands), and over those worsening, causing more environmental injustices, to be exacerbated by future Climate Change and resulting Climate Injustices that will harm life on Earth, in this age of human-caused global warming.

On December 13th and 14th the PD story "what kind of leader do we need" and editorial "..disappointing departure" already prime Cleveland to a march down the so old path looking for our next Moses to pick up a nicely polished but incomplete plan to transform education in Cleveland.

Attention first needs to focus on the incompleteness of the plan. 

One good aspect of what proceeded the roll out of the transformation plan was an objective look at schools and teachers.

Missing was the same objective look at administration and governance.