I watch the BBC 11 PM World News, rather than the local Northeast Ohio news, because I want an international perspective on affairs in America and world-wide. To learn what is happening in Northeast Ohio, I use the Plain Dealer as one frame of reference but depend on personal research, involvement in the community and connectedness through networks and alternative media, increasingly found through the Internet, to know what is happening in the region.  The main reason I find it necessary to look outside the US mainstream for news is well documented by a project out of Sonoma State University called Project Censored, "which tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters. From these, Project Censored compiles an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country's major national news media."  Below is their list of stories over-looked and/or self-censored by the country's major national news media in 2007 - how does this fit with your observations on the world as reported by mainstream media in NEO and America?

 About three weeks ago, I received the first "Letter to the Editor" in the history of REALNEO. Lots of people send me press releases and event info and tips on cool content, but never has someone sent an opinion editorial to be posted for them (probably because REALNEO is open for anyone to create an account and post content and comments themselves). The letter to the editor was titled "Lead Paint - You Are Idiots" and was received from someone named Kim Falk (he authorized publication of his name) and the email address was from Sherwin Williams. A little googling and I learned he is an employee there - a very enthusiastic and loyal one, to be sure... he was responsible for Sherwin-Williams donating paint to help in the repair of the Pentagon after 9/11. So I was not surprised to read he is protective of his company in defense of them being sued over lead. Still, I was intrigued by the language he uses in his editorial, published below.

Just in case you missed the international headlines on the subject..  lets break it down for you.  But first some local background... Out in Aurora, accross from Geauga Lake, Walmart built its store on class 1,2,and 3 wetlands in some of the most protected wetlands in our state.  All it takes is money, right?  The developer "Heritage Development" had environmental reserves of 7M$ and only paid a fine of 1.2M$  What a bargin.  Nature Bats Last.   But go look at nature fighting back.  See the cracking pavement sidewalks from the hydric soils... HA HAA.  Take note of the isolated pocket of forest in the middle of the parking llot, it was a concession!    Then last week I read about the walmart atop cityview landfill.  Sky high levels of vinyl chloride, illness clusters covered in a recent free times or scene.     With that frame in mind....now onto the latest scoop that is NOT from YOUR back yard:

Attend this lecture, the Distinguished Law and Technology Lecture, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, in person or through WEBCAST LIVE. Robert P. George, Princeton University, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director, James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton University is a memeber of the President's Council on Bioethics. He previously served as a presidential appointee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and as a Judicial Fellow at the U.S. Supreme Court, where he received the Justice Tom C. Clark Award. Professor George is author of Making Men Moral: civil Liberties and Public Morality (1993) and In Defense of Natural Law (1999). His most recent books are The Meaning of Marriage, edited with Jean Berthke Elshtain and The Clash of Orthodoxies. Professor George's articles and review essays have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the Review of Politics, the Review of Metaphysics, and the American Journal of Juriprudence. He has received numerous awards, including the 2005 Bradley Prize for Intellectual and Civic Achievement. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on several boards of directors.In addition, he is of council to the law firm of Robinson & McElwee.

Location

Three articles in the Sunday, January 14, 2007, Cleveland Plain Dealer really caught my attention. 1. "Power shifts, and a fast-track bill is derailed"; 2. "Gloomy forecast" and 3. "Lost confidence in Bush? So has he"  - especially the last one, where Elizabeth Auster writes, about President Bush, that "he now seems shaken by the prospect that his vision of a free and stable Iraq may be fading along with his power to achieve much else." Because of this, despite "Gloomy forecast", I expect most important aspects of the Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, Ohio, US and global economy to improve dramatically over the next 2, 4 and 10 years. In fact, I can't think of an area where there won't be significant improvements. Think of the growth I expect like when an economy is freed from a dictatorship and people are allowed to be free and thrive - markets open up - that is America, now that Bush has been replaced by democracy.

What a great rebirth for Ohio. Sunday night, Ohio swore in our new Governor, Ted Strickland, and within 24 hours he vetoed the corporate and lobbyist planted, corrupt, anti-consumer, anti-American substitute bill 117, which was made to order for scam businesses to harm citizens. As Strickland states, " I will not allow this legislation in its current form, which drastically undermines current consumer protections, to go into effect during my administration." A Plain Dealer article on the veto reports " Strickland also said the curb on suits against manufacturers "prevents cities from being able to seek justice on behalf of their citizens."" "Our new Attorney General Marc Dann, who, like Strickland, is a Democrat, said he would "vigorously" defend the governor's veto." The PD article highlights the fact that the Republican lawmakers who were responsible for the corrupt SB117 are acting as lawyers and judges now, and that they plan to waste Ohio taxpayer money fighting our Governor... " State Sen. Tim Grendell, a Chester Township Republican who voted for the bill, also said the veto is void because the governor acted outside his authority. He said members of the legislature and trade groups were likely to sue over the veto." Go for it... concerned citizens are certain to defend Governor Strcikland, and those legislators who think they can keep acting corruptly under our new leadership will quickly be eliminated from office, as suggested in a previous article on SB117 by Plain Dealer columnist Sheryl Harris, which provides "a list of the Northeast Ohio legislators who voted to curtail your consumer rights". In the new Ohio, such corruption will not be tolerated. Read more about the veto below.

Would'a, could'a, should'a... that may be the best tag-line for Cleveland today. We would'a been a city very comparable to Chicago, but we should'a had different leadership, who could'a... what? Well, to quote Conscious Choice, about Chicago: "The epic renaissance the city has undergone in the 17 years that Daley has been mayor is nothing short of a miracle." We could'a done that! How now? There are answers to be learned from Daley's success and present state of mind. Props to George Nemeth for posting on Brewed Fresh Daily a link to this fantastic Conscious Choice interview with mayor who stole away our Eco-Czar (can't blame him)... the "Green Mayor"... the "Great Green Augustus"...  prefaced by "When all is said and done, Daley’s greatest legacy will be how he revitalized Chicago, making it the ideal place to live, work and play. And behind each great act, is a great idea and a conscious intent. Here, we explore Mayor Daley’s eco-consciousness, philosophy of government and the path that led him to become America’s “green mayor.”" Read a few words from Daley, below, and click through to the full interview, and imagine a city thinking like this, striving to be an ideal place to live, work and play. Then, demand more in Cleveland and of NEO.

 

Outline Proposal for Integration of Aquaculture (hydroponic /soil based organic vegetable <--> fish farm setup)

Introduction

 

In a fascinating article in the NYTimes.com today, we learn “The environment is begging for the Wal-Mart business model”... describing "the environmental movement’s dream: America’s biggest company, legendary for its salesmanship and influence with suppliers, encouraging 200 million shoppers to save energy." That Wal-Mart, in October, announced it would pressure suppliers to stop using three chemicals, including the insecticide permethrin, used in pesticides, awoke my attention to good activism by this company that I have not historically liked, but that now Wal-Mart Stores, the giant discount retailer, is determined to push compact fluorescent lamps into at least 100 million homes is truly revolutionary.

Source: Environmental Health Watch 

In a link on Brewed Fresh Daily today (which has really stepped up to create awareness about lead poisoning in our region), I found an interesting article on former Plain Dealer Cincinnati Reporter Bill Sloat's blog "The Daily Bellweather" titled "U.S. EPA Wants to Fine Midwest Landlord $$$$ Over Lead Paint", which illustrates one of the important steps essential to the eradication of lead poisoning in our region - ENFORCEMENT. In "The Daily Bellweather" report, regarding the EPA, we see "Earlier this month, the agency's Midwestern regional office moved to slap a $52,724 penalty on a landlord for failing to warn tenants and buyers that homes and apartments may contain health hazards from lead-based paint."

Thank you again, Ohio Republican legislature, for bringing a second city into litigation against Sherwin-Williams and the paint industry in a single day, December 27, 2006, as Canton has joined Cincinnati demanding that those who created the public nuisance of lead poisoning now clean up their mess, that has harmed 1,000s in these communities. From the Canton Repository: "In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Stark County Common Pleas Court, the city says the paint industry knew lead was toxic as early as 1900 but continued to add the metal to paint and even promoted the product as having health benefits. The city wants the companies to pay for the removal of lead paint and for public education about its dangers, as well as reimbursement for money the city has spent dealing with lead-related hazards."

 

If we have anything to thank Ohio Republican legislators for, and especially Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican,  it is that their cloak-of-night passage of Substitute Senate Bill 117, which seeks to outlaw cities suing polluters for public nuisances they cause, and legislate-away other consumer rights for Ohioans, has driven our state capital of Columbus and now huge Ohio city Cincinnati to storm their courthouses to sue Sherwin-Williams and other paint companies over the public nuisance of lead poisoning in their communities, which is a legal position proved valid in the courts of the State of Rhode Island. In Columbus, the Mayor has said it was the action of these Republicans that forced them to sue. Of course, Ohioans' greatest appreciation goes to Mayor Brewer, of East Cleveland, who was the man who brought such public nuisance lead litigation to Ohio to protect his residents, the most effected by lead poisoning in the state, and so he is protecting all citizens of Ohio.

On Sunday, December 24, 2006, Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Sheryl Harris wrote a column I thought to write myself, titled "My holiday gift to you: A list of Ohio politicians who sold you out", "a list of the Northeast Ohio legislators who voted to curtail your consumer rights" by passing lobbyist, lawyer and industry-benefiting Amended Substitute Senate Bill Number 117, allowing significant corporate entitlements to soar through the Ohio legislature without community debate. The amendments are most significantly designed "to prohibit the use of enterprise theories of liability against manufacturers in product liability claims, and to include public nuisance claims under the definition of product liability claims", meaning to protect the paint industry here from liability for the public nuisance they have caused by selling lead based paint nearly a century after it was known to harm humans, as proved in their loss to the State of Rhode Island earlier this year. The amendments also protect car dealers, scam loan sharks, manufacturers, etc. from real accountability for harming the public. The legislators who are guilty of this abuse of their offices were listed in the PD article with the suggestion that is "a keepsake you could clip and save." Local blogger Jill Miller Zimon repeated the list on her excellent blog, "Writes like she talks", and I repeat it here, so it may be as present in cyberspace and available to the world as possible. We will need this list over the next many years, until all of these anti-Ohioan men and women are driven from public "service", as they have shown they do not protect public interests. By having this information in as many public places as possible, I hope we the people will be more successful protecting the public than has our legislature under current rule. The list of sell outs and further harms they cause the public is as follows, from Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Sheryl Harris:

 

Since late June, 2006, a growing team of innovative community leaders has been working together with Lamond Williams, the owner of Hot Sauce Williams BBQ, and East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer and Community Development Director Tim Goler, and government leadership in Cleveland, to determine how best to redevelop the historic Hough Bakery Complex, formerly the Star Bakery, which Lamond also owns. The objective is to use that redevelopment as a catalyst for transformation of the neighborhoods surrounding that significant property, located on Lakeview, partially in both Cleveland and East Cleveland. On the map above, the Star Complex is in magenta, and the green circle marks a 1/2 mile radius surrounding that - the other colored areas are key neighborhoods and assets within that radius.

One might think when the capital of our state sues one of the biggest companies in our state, Sherwin-Williams, which is based in the Plain Dealer's home town of Cleveland, and is defended by one of the world's most powerful law firms, also based in our hometown, seeking over $1 billion, that story would rank a few real column inches in the local paper... perhaps hit Section One, or Metro. Not in the Sherwin-Williams Plain Dealer...

I saw some Forestry Stewardship Certified (FSC) timber products at Home Depot.  2 years ago they pledged to sell 40% FSC certified timber products.  Last year 60%.  The word on the street is that there is not even enough supply on the street yo.

 

In a fascinating greenwash article coming out in the Plain Dealer today, readers are offered an in-depth look into the lobbying efforts of industry to influence legislation impacting our environment, with a key example being action against the environment at the Ohio statehouse. The article, "Fertilizer companies battle environmental concerns", addresses the impact on the rest of the world of Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. in Marysville, Ohio, and Lesco Inc. in Cleveland,  the leading sellers of fertilizer for homeowners and lawn care professionals. The issue is their products harm the environment... the spin is discussion about how "America’s lawn-care industry is fighting back, liberally spreading its own green-sounding message." "The industry’s front-line tool: a lobbying group with a green-sounding name — Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment, or RISE."

Nothing like seeing a good old lynching by newspaper editor to make people "Believe in Cleveland" and Northeast Ohio. In an editorial today from the power-brokering "We" of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the "editors" make a move everyone in the know has expected from them since September 29th, 2006, when the City of East Cleveland sued "dear friend" of the Plain Dealer Sherwin Williams for making East Cleveland "perhaps Ohio's most troubled city" by creating a public nuisance and economic and health crisis by selling lead-based paint long after it was well known and proved to cause permanent physical harm to humans. In a strong retaliation against the mayor who brought lead litigation to the State of Ohio, Eric Brewer, the Plain Dealer is creating dubious scuttlebutt about a situation in which the editors acknowledge "We don't know where the truth lies." To the Plain Dealer editors, this is personal... from their editorial: "as we've stated repeatedly, we do know Brewer can be rash, reckless and extraordinarily vindictive." The logical observation is that one of the world's most powerful and troubled companies, Sherwin Williams, and one of the world's most vicious law firms, Jones Day, (which have sued East Cleveland for suing Sherwin Williams) have partnered with the region's most powerful media outlet, to which Sherwin Williams certainly pays $ millions for advertising, and they are all attacking the mayor of East Cleveland in as "rash, reckless and extraordinarily vindictive" ways as they may. Is it the duty of a newspaper to focus on facts, and allow due process, even when the publishers fear that bites the hands that feed them? No, the only purpose of a newspaper is to make the owners money. Read the opinion of the editors of the Plain Dealer here and imagine being the PD's next victim, if you ever hurt their feelings or threaten their bottom line:

Bill MacDermott forwarded to me the following insight on a problem most of us are aware of, but which must stay ever-present in our minds: "We need to change our ways and stop treating the Great Lakes like a toilet,"... this is a multi-billion-dollar issue we as a region must address.

TORONTO (AP) - The untreated urban sewage and effluents that flow into the Great Lakes each year are threatening a critical ecosystem that supplies water to millions of people, according to a study by a Canadian environmental group.

Even though municipalities in the Great Lakes region have spent vast sums of money in recent decades upgrading their wastewater plants, the situation remains appalling, said the Sierra Legal Defense Fund.

In a striking change of direction the USEPA has decided to regulate an ever growing part of consumer culture....  pesticides built into our products.

As you may have noticed you can get just about anything these days in "antibacterial" form.  Windex, socks, deodorant, zebart tidycar antibacterial car wash, hell even my keen sandals have "no odor footbeds" impregnated with what Ray Anderson CEO of Interface calls " Microbial Inhibitors".  Dont be fooled fellow citizens for the fancy terms used in place of the regulatoraly defined word pesticide.  That word, with all this organic food fan fair can cause negitive vibrations.... rightly so, maufacturers are shying away.

 As an excellent sign of the times, on November 13, 2006 it was announced "Carbon Neutral" is the Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Year. Unlike what is typically defined here as underpinnings of sustainability, being Business as Agents of World Benefit, I see this trend toward individual social responsibility reflects the real world, being Individuals as the Agents of World Benefit, and, in fact, I believe it is only through individuals as agents that businesses act as agents of anything, and so the rising of Carbon Neutral as the word of the year is very hopeful for the future of the world... this reflects social consciousness becoming mainstream.

I was very pleased to be joined by the new Director of Development for East Cleveland, Tim Goler, last Monday, November 13, 2006, at the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council (GCLAC) Steering Committee meeting. Tim has an undergraduate degree in early child development, and has taught kindergarten and 4th grade, and he has a master's degree in urban planning from Cleveland State University, and has been active in that field, nationwide, including working in environmentalism in NEO. So, he is an excellent addition to the team in East Cleveland, and to the war against lead poisoning in our region. Short story, he has assured me East Cleveland is not intimidated by Sherwin-Williams suing them for suing the paint industry over the public nuisance of lead poisoning in that community, nor efforts of State Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, who hopes to tweak previously passed legislation that would prevent cities or anybody else from using the state’s public nuisance law to sue the lead pigment manufacturers - Tim Goler is in step with East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer and their law department in pursuing due process and justice and they will drive an aggressive battle against lead poisoning in this region.

EPA is soliciting grant proposals from eligible entities to conduct activities to reduce incidences of childhood lead poisoning in vulnerable populations, including projects to: (1) Reduce lead poisoning in areas with high incidences of elevated blood-lead levels; (2) identify and reduce lead poisoning in under-studied areas with high potential for undocumented elevated blood-lead levels; and (3) develop tools to address unique and challenging issues in lead  poisoning prevention, especially tools that are replicable and scalable for other areas. Activities eligible for funding include outreach and public education, data gathering, monitoring, training, inspections and assessments, and demonstrations of new and innovative approaches for identifying or reducing lead poisoning. EPA is awarding grants which
will total approximately $3,000,000. The Agency anticipates awarding individual grants of $25,000 to $100,000.
http://epa.gov/lead/pubs/nofa2006.pdf
The closing date for applicants to submit proposals under this announcement is January 12, 2007.

In an article that makes one wonder whether the mayor of Akron is perhape lead poisoned, the Cleveland Plain Dealer today gleefully reports " The City of Akron has dropped its lawsuit against Sherwin-Williams Co. (NYSE: SHW) and other former manufacturers of lead pigment, but it’s not saying exactly why"  and "Motley Rice partner Jack McConnell said it’s his understanding that (Akron Mayor) Plusquellic wanted the suit dismissed for the time being, but that when the outside lawyers working with the city wanted to meet with the mayor to discuss his intention he refused." I'll point out that in the term of this mayor it is safe to say more people in his domain have been lead poisoned than died in 9/11, and than the Americans who have died in Iraq, and if it is not the fault of Sherwin-Williams it is Mayor Plusquellic's fault, and he should be subject to litigation. He has been mayor for five terms and, as Wikipedia reports: "He is widely praised and criticized by both sides of the aisle--and some affiliated with neither Parties. In 2006, it was announced by an independent watchdog group that the city was 1.1 billion USD in debt, more per capita then any other city of its size in Ohio. The public school system has suffered due to a very strong tax abatement structure Plusquellic employed to bring new development to downtown Akron. Some complain that the City does not run like a municipal body but a business, complete with press releases and news conferences." More to follow on this shift of responsibility for lead poisoning to the Mayor of Akron.