Sarah Newman
Take Part/Participant Media
July 2, 2009

What is more emblematic of this country’s deep rooted commitment to rebelling against the status quo than the impending July 4th holiday? It’s a holiday which celebrates the collective commitment to individual liberties, freedom and democracy. As part of our individualistic spirit, how often do you seem to hear lately about people removing themselves from “grids.” I’m referring to energy grids, food grids, education grids and any other behemoth industrial structure that stagnates our growth, individual freedom and ability to operate outside of the confines of our sometimes restrictive corporate or government structures. While this should be a day that we each take the time to read the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights and celebrate heroes like Paul Revere, we usually instead we opt to take to our backyards to grill, baby, grill.

DAMIEN CAVE
The New York Times
July 1, 2009

MIAMI — Seeking to inject their views into the revived debate over immigration overhaul, several big-city police chiefs urged Congress on Wednesday to draft a new policy that improves public safety by bringing illegal immigrants out of the shadows.

The chiefs — updating recommendations made in 2006 by the leaders of more than 50 urban police departments — called for an overhaul that would integrate immigrants into the legal system, possibly with driver’s licenses, and separate the local police from immigration enforcement.

“We’re in the business of delivering a police service whether the person has had a car accident, been a victim of a crime, or been a witness to a crime,” said Chief John Timoney of the Miami Police Department.

He added that immigrants needed to come forward without fearing “that they are going to wind up being reported to federal authorities and deported.”

Benjamin Jealous
The Nation
July 1, 2009

This week, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether to hear the request for a writ of habeas corpus in Davis's case in September hopefully signaling a more careful review of his motion. The reality, though, is that the last time the Justices granted such a motion was 1925 and should the Supreme Court decline the request, the countdown to Davis's execution will begin. It is even more imperative that the Chatham County District Attorney, Larry Chisolm, act now to do the right thing, and move to reopen the case.

The case must be reopened for several reasons: Davis's conviction was based on the word of eyewitnesses. However, since 2001, seven of the nine witnesses recanted or contradicted their original testimony. Several said they were coerced by the police. No physical evidence was ever produced that tied Davis to the murder of Mark Allen MacPhail, a white off-duty Savannah police officer who was killed as he tried to break up a street fight. The gun used in the shooting was never found.

By email from Piedmont Environmental Council

I wanted to let you know about several upcoming meetings on proposed changes to Virginia's stormwater regulations. This is your chance to comment on the proposed regulations that could assist in protecting our local waters and ultimately restoring the Chesapeake Bay. Attend a meeting this month or submit comments by August 21.

Submit your comments on proposed stormwater regulations--or attend an upcoming meeting in July!

Proposed Changes
The EPA is increasing enforcement of the Clean Water Act within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The proposed changes to the existing regulations are a step in the right direction and would affect two main areas of the existing regulations.
The first would make changes to Parts 1-3 creating an equitable process by requiring developers to join the agricultural community, industry and local governments in taking steps to reduce pollution in streams and rivers.

The second would make changes to Part 13, the fee structure associated with the program, ensuring the program would pay for itself.

Reed Abelson
The New York Times
June 30, 2009

Health insurance is supposed to offer protection — both medically and financially. But as it turns out, an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured.

And so, even as Washington tries to cover the tens of millions of Americans without medical insurance, many health policy experts say simply giving everyone an insurance card will not be enough to fix what is wrong with the system.

Too many other people already have coverage so meager that a medical crisis means financial calamity.

One of them is Lawrence Yurdin, a 64-year-old computer security specialist. Although the brochure on his Aetna policy seemed to indicate it covered up to $150,000 a year in hospital care, the fine print excluded nearly all of the treatment he received at an Austin, Tex., hospital.

He and his wife, Claire, filed for bankruptcy last December, as his unpaid medical bills approached $200,000.

Brian Roa, TruthOut.org
Posted July 1, 2009 at Alternet

In Chicago, there's a push to replace public schools with military academies. This model may soon spread to the rest of the country.

For the past four years, I have observed the military occupation of the high school where I teach science. Currently, Chicago's Senn High School houses Rickover Naval Academy (RNA). I use the term "occupation" because part of our building was taken away despite student, parent, teacher and community opposition to RNA's opening.

E.J. Dionne
Truthdig
Jun 28, 2009

Every general studies the mistakes of the last war, and President Obama’s style has been much influenced by the difficulties of Bill Clinton’s presidency.

In particular, Obama has shied away from handing Congress his own plans on “stone tablets,” a phrase much loved by senior adviser David Axelrod, and instead allowed it room to legislate.

The president has won a lot, including a decent stimulus bill and laws on children’s health coverage, tobacco regulation and employment discrimination that, in less exciting times, would have been seen as landmarks. But the stimulus bill was neither as good nor as large as it might have been, and there was a legislative train wreck on Obama’s effort to close Guantanamo prison.

And then there’s his centerpiece campaign to reform the health care system.

Obama’s initial approach of laying out principles and giving Congress latitude was the right response to Clinton’s mistake of offering an immensely detailed proposal, only to see it mocked and rejected.

FRANK RICH
The New York Times
June 27, 2009

LIKE all students caught up in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, I was riveted by the violent confrontations between the police and protestors in Selma, 1965, and Chicago, 1968. But I never heard about the several days of riots that rocked Greenwich Village after the police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in the wee hours of June 28, 1969 — 40 years ago today.

Then again, I didn’t know a single person, student or teacher, male or female, in my entire Ivy League university who was openly identified as gay. And though my friends and I were obsessed with every iteration of the era’s political tumult, we somehow missed the Stonewall story. Not hard to do, really. The Times — which would not even permit the use of the word gay until 1987 — covered the riots in tiny, bowdlerized articles, one of them but three paragraphs long, buried successively on pages 33, 22 and 19.

Rebekah and Stephen Hren, Chelsea Green Publishing
Posted June 27, 2009 at Alternet

You think that's rain you feel on your shoulders? Nope. That's actually money falling right from the sky.
It's been a rainy, rainy June on the east coast. Sun has peeked out for maybe an hour here and there, but otherwise it's been gray, dismal, and all around not summery. It's a drag, no question about it! But despair no more -- there happens to be one exception to this depressingly soggy month. For those residing in the wet areas, you can save actually money by saving your water. You think that's rain you feel on your shoulders? Nope. That's actually cash money falling right from the sky. And for the sake of making lemonade out of June's lemons -- I invite you to save money this rainy month by collecting your rainwater, for drier days to come. Start by creating a simple rain barrel.

JOHN NICHOLS
The Nation
06/25/2009

This is a big world, with many remote corners where America is known only as a distant and different land. But Michael Jackson touched almost all of them.

The music star's death Thursday, at age 50 after suffering an apparent cardiac arrest is an international event. And we ought to recognize why that is so.

For all the eccentric – and ultimately unsettling – behavior that would see the "king of pop" ridiculed as the "king of weird" –-or worse-- Jackson was for a significant part of the 1980s and 1990s as much or more the face of America as Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush or Bill Clinton.

"He brought human beings together across the barriers of race and class and gender," explained Michael Eric Dyson, the author and commentator who is a professor of sociology at Georgetown University. "He projected into the world (the genius and strength) of African-American culture."