Easy way to submit your CFPB Arbitration Comments Now LIVE!

• Tell @CFPB to ban the #RipoffClause! The comment period is now open - add your voice here: noripoffclause.com
• #CFPB needs your support for their new #RipoffClause rule! Add your voice at noripoffclause.com
• #ForcedArbitration lets corporations off the hook for breaking the law - tell @CFPB to ban the #RipoffClause at noripoffclause.com!

The site is owned and maintained by Americans for Financial Reform and Public Citizen, but groups are welcome to share it with their members, or pull language from it for their own outreach.

The Sprawl Lobby Wants to Build One of the Biggest Things in Oregon On Top of Soils that Will Do This

The Bridgasaurus Boondogglus is the $500 million (liars budget -- total would be over $1B) monstrosity "3rd Bridge" designed to enrich developers and impoverish ordinary folks in Salem. There's so much wrong with the absurd idea -- it would be one of the biggest elevated structures in Oregon, for example -- but perhaps most absurd is that the planning has settled on a route that takes it over a section of the Willamette where the soils will liquefy in an earthquake.

Watch the video to see what liquefied soil looks like.

And ask yourself -- are you willing to pay

1. TOLLS across every bridge in Salem, and
2. LOCAL GAS TAX, and
3. HIGHER CAR TABS FEE, and
4. MORE PROPERTY TAX

(That's right, the BB "funding memo" -- which is itself a pathetically far cry from the required funding plan that the National Environmental Policy Act requires be in place before this can be submitted to the feds -- shows that this sucker is so outrageously expensive that EVERY local option tax would have to get a YUUUUUUUGE increase -- so it's not one or the other, it's ALL FOUR.)

And that's just so that developers can get you to build them an unnecessary piece of highway sprawl over a section of river that will turn into a milkshake when the Big 9.0+ Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake comes (1 in 3 chance of arrival in next 50 years)? 

Not to mention -- the tolls needed to fund this monster are so big that they would, by themselves, radically drop the number of trips across the bridge, making any construction unnecessary. In other words, all that is needed is to toll the Willamette River crossings in Salem now, and presto, problem solved. With a little bit of creative thinking, we could use the funds raised to provide 7-day bus service from 6 a.m. to midnight with heavier runs to and from West Salem during commuter hours.

THE party of May - this Saturday night!

With great regret, the LOVESalem crew is going to miss this,

 

http://www.salemharvest.org/index.php

 because we'll be at the beach celebrating our 32nd Anniversary - man, time flies like an arrow (fruit flies like a banana) ...

But anyone in town Saturday night should make a point to go and support this outstanding homegrown nonprofit, which sets the bar for compassion and environmental responsibility and has been doing amazing work for quite a few years now (another example of how time flies!). A generous matching donor will match all funds raised up to $10,000.

Help us by coming to the Bands & Brews for Trucks fundraising event at Vagabond Brewing on Saturday, May 21. 

Bring friends and family! Doors open at 7:00 PM and live music starts at 7:30; enter with a donation of $5. A portion of all beer purchases goes to Salem Harvest. We will also be selling newly-designed Salem Harvest t-shirts ($15), mystery growlers with gift cards from local tap-houses ($20), plus special raffle baskets and auction items, with all proceeds going toward the truck. 

Check out our events page to learn even more about the evening's details. https://www.facebook.com/events/1729835010597232/ 

SO GO and have a great time and help Salem Harvest become even better.
And if you're like us and won't be able to make it, then head over to the Salem Harvest website and hit the donate button. 

http://www.salemharvest.org/index.php

Funds donated on our site will also be matched from now through the 21st. 

Better than Election Results Reminder: Tuesday night

 

 The primary election results will no doubt be announced after the film.

Salem Progressive Film Series

Bikes vs Cars

Tuesday, May 17, 2016
BIKES vs CARS depicts a global crisis that we all deep down know we need to talk about: Climate, earth’s resources, cities where the entire surface is consumed by the car. An ever-growing, dirty, noisy traffic chaos. The bike is a great tool for change, but the powerful interests who gain from the private car invest billions each year on lobbying and advertising to protect their business. In the film we meet activists and thinkers who are fighting for better cities, who refuse to stop riding despite the increasing number killed in traffic.

Yes -- Is organic agriculture really better for the environment?

Is organic agriculture really better for the environment?

washingtonpost.com - Today's Highlights

Original Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/is-organic-agriculture-really-better-for-the-environment/2016/05/14/e9996dce-17be-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html

GIF that shows global warming is 'spiraling' out of control - CSMonitor.com

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0511/GIF-that-shows-global-warming-is-spiraling-out-of-control

A must-read: Thomas Frank on How Democrats Went From Being the ‘Party of the People’ to the Party of Rich Elites

http://inthesetimes.com/features/listen-liberal-thomas-frank-democratic-party-elites-inequality.html

What Salem-Keizer Transport Planning Agency should be doing with the MILLIONS it is blowing on the Bridgasaurus Boondogglus -- Meet the Nation's First 'Vitality Fellow,' Making Cities Livable for Everyone

$60,000 a month could provide 8-80 innovators for every city and town in the SKATS region.

http://www.governing.com/topics/urban/gov-vitality-fellow-st-paul.html

A pill for PTSD treatment? The Cure For Fear | New Republic

> https://newrepublic.com/article/133008/cure-fear