Here's the Kickstarter for Salem . . . a cheesemaker's factory in Independence!

These are great people with a great product.  Let's help them get re-established so they can continue to supply awesome cheese for us in Salem (go to Lifesource or Cascade Baking Co. to find it if you haven't tried it).

The Mrs. and I met at the University of Wisconsin
(state motto: "Come and Freeze in the Land of Cheese"), so we tend to feel like we know good cheese. And anyone who looks at me immediately can tell that I still have a thing for great cheese.

And the Full Circle Creamery cheese is EXTRAORDINARY.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/633809969/full-circle-creamery-builds-independence-creamery

Oregon Public Empowerment News (Oregon PEN) - New Newspaper Launched!

Subscribe at OregonPEN.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just in time for the announcement to be obliterated by the ex-Gov's stepping down, Oregon PEN launched on Oregon's 156th Birthday!

The publisher is Oregon Public Empowerment Network LLC, one of those new-fangled "B" Companies -- private companies, but formed specially to be able to take account of the public interest rather than acting solely for profit. 

The OPEN LLC mission is to publish Oregon PEN, a weekly all-digital online newspaper to empower and engage Oregonians in making Oregon better. 

Oregon PEN will be an "all signal, no noise" newspaper, sifting through the flood of information competing for your attention and helping you spot the most significant issues and meaningful trends, and giving you the information you need to make your voice heard on those issues.

All proceeds above expenses will be go to support organizations and entities that provide for critical needs, such as Legal Aid Services of Oregon, or that make Oregon better for everyone. 

OregonPEN.org. Weekly email Oregon issues/legal newspaper.
All signal, no noise, fluff or filler. Seriousness without solemnity.

Salem Creative Network -- Pop Up Shop

Five days of Holiday Cheer are coming your way at Pop Up in Salem Center, December 10-14 next to Ross Dress for Less on Center St NE. Our favorite Mid-Valley Makers will be serving up local art, music, food and drink from 12:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily. Plenty of holiday gift ideas and libations will be on tap to make your shopping easier and more fun. Santiam Brewing, Salem Ale Works, Vivacity Spirits, 2 Towns Cider House, Lewman Vineyards and surprise guests are pouring. A Salem Creative Network creation.

Gardeners Wanted I: New Community Garden Leadership Team Meeting

Marion-Polk Food Share is helping coordinate launch of a new, as-yet-unnamed community garden in Northeast Salem, not too far from the Safeway at Center St.

The plan is to convert a small abandoned lot on which a house burned down some years ago and where the newer zoning laws make rebuilding difficult or impossible.  The landowner is eager to see a garden go in and has offered use of the property for essentially nothing.

Best of all, there is water already available to the lot, it's graded flat, and it gets abundant sunshine!  The local neighborhood association (Northeast Neighbors) is enthusiastic, and MPFS is trying to organize other groups as well, to ensure that there is a solid core of supporters to help keep the project going smoothly.

If you want to get in on the ground floor -- to plant the first seeds, if you will -- and help bring about this small bit of rejuvenation in the city, some to the Straub Environmental Learning Center this coming Thursday, January 9, at 5:30 p.m.  Come join with your neighbors in doing well by doing good.  Map showing SELC (marked with the big red A) below.  The garden spot is also somewhere on the map too -- want to know where?  Come and help Thursday night!

A great way to teach kids how to overcome obstacles

(Thanks to generous donors in this area, Chess for Success started up in Salem this year at Washington Elementary.
Click on the link to add your support.)

Dear Chess Supporters,

I am writing you today with great news!  Thanks to you, this year Chess for Success was able to expand to 75 schools and is changing the lives of over 3,100 children.  Your donations allow us to help children who are living in poverty develop the skills that they need to be successful and rise above their circumstances.  By teaching children critical thinking, determination, strategy and patience we are giving them the tools they need to tackle any obstacle.  Chess teaches these skills, chess gives children living in poverty the power to dream big.  Don’t just take my word for it; listen to what one of our coaches says:

 “Knowing how to play a “smart” game boosts their confidence.  Many get a chance to use logic, planning, etc., and become more complex thinkers.  I love when they work out their own strategies and find success.” –CFS Coach

Thank you for recognizing the importance of education and the power of chess.  You are helping us achieve our mission and we could not do it without you. 

This holiday season we ask that you help us give the gift of chess to a child in need. Donate today and change a life forever.

A $10 donation buys a chess set for a child
A $25 donation provides a month of chess instruction
A $50 donation provides 3 chess books to the school library
A $150 donation sponsors a child for an entire year

DONATE LINK

Thank you for helping children succeed!

Warmly,

Julie Young
Executive Director

Great letter re: Bridgeasaurus Boondogglus

 If the Bridgeasaurus Boondogglus "Oversight Team" weren't doing so much dealing from the bottom of the deck, these kinds of comments would not be necessary, but thank goodness someone submitted them. The "Oversight Team" should be focused on ensuring that the "Edifice Complex" doesn't result in a gargantuan waste of resources in the name of a passing auto-dominated era, instead of being focused on how to package and sell a still-evolving proposal that's typical of the worst thinking of that era. But the Oversight Team was and remains stacked with unabashed Bridgasaurus boosters, pols who are firmly committed to a retrograde vision of more auto infrastructure (more is better).

*Comments to Oversight Team on the Salem Alternative for the Salem River Crossing *
 
I urge the Oversight Team to keep in mind the Purpose and Need for the DEIS that you have developed.In summary, the project will attempt to reduce congestion levels at the existing bridgeheads and remediate safety and operational deficiencies in the existing bridges and in the
study area (DEIS, ES-2). The federal regulations point out that the focus of the alternatives analysis in the EIS is "to serve as the means of assessing the environmental impact of proposed agency actions, rather than justifying decisions already made" (40 CRF Sec. 1502.2(g)). The purpose of this expensive study process is NOT to justify building a new bridge over the river on the outskirts of Salem.As the Federal Highway Administration points out:

"The decision-making process should first consider those alternatives which meet the purpose and need for the project at an acceptable cost and level of environmental impact relative to the benefits which will be derived from the project" (U.S. FHWA memorandum, 9/18/90).

Please consider the following comments and observations as you continue to review the alternatives in the Salem River Crossing DEIS:

*1.**The Oversight Team must do a thorough traffic comparison of the Salem Alternative with all of the other alternatives in the DEIS.*

The information available to date on the new Salem Alternative does not adequately compare the new hybrid alternative with other reasonable alternatives in the DEIS. The information available from the Oversight Team's October meeting compares the Salem alternative only with alternative 4D and a "no build" alternative. That is not consistent with NEPA requirements.

The Salem Alternative was proposed by the Salem City Council as an alternative to Alternative 4D, which was recommended by the Oversight Committee.Alternative 4D was never selected as the"preferred alternative." That process requires the concurrence of the cities of Salem and Keizer, Polk and Marion Counties, SKATS MPO and ODOT.Then FHWA ultimately selects the preferred alternative.That process has not yet happened.

Therefore, in order to determine if the Salem Alternative is truly the best alternative, it must go through the same process as the other alternatives in the DEIS. The alternatives analysis is the heart of the environmental impact statement.It should present the environmental impacts of the proposal and the alternatives in comparative form, thus sharply defining the issues and providing a clear basis for choice among options by the decision maker and the public (40 CFR, Sec. 1502.14).

The Oversight Team is required to "rigorously explore and objectively evaluate all reasonable alternatives, and for alternatives which were eliminated from detailed study, briefly discuss the reasons for their having been eliminated."

Before you make a new recommendation to the decision makers,the Salem Alternative must go through the same analysis as the prior recommendation did.If the other alternatives are being discarded, you should explain why.For example, the hand out from the November Oversight
Team Meeting contained traffic comparisons of the Salem Alternative with Alternative 4D and the No Build Alternative but none of the other alternatives...

...It is clear that the biggest impact of the Salem Alternative is the increase in congestion for several intersections in north Salem. Liberty and Pine, Liberty and Hickoryand Commercial and Pine do not benefit from the Salem Alternative.(The numbers for Commercial St. and Hickory Street are somewhat of an anomaly it appears.)Traffic between downtown Salem and Keizer would suffer. In addition, for the most part the Salem Alternative increases congestion at the Commercial/ Marion and Marion/Liberty Street intersections as compared to Alternative 2A.

2.***The Oversight Team should be sure that the traffic study done for the Salem Alternative uses the same assumptions that were usedto analyze all of the DEIS alternatives.*

The traffic analysis for all of the alternatives needs to take into account current data reflecting travel behaviors.Traffic levels are already well below the estimate in the DEIS.Studies find that Americans
continue to drive less than they did several years ago, and it is not related to the recession.(See Statesman Journal article, December 5, 2013.)

3.*The Salem Alternative is clearly not designed to be an "expressway" as was anticipated by the Keizer city council.*
 
Expressways do not have bicycle/pedestrian facilities, and the v/c ratio for Salem should be .85 or less, according to the Oregon Highway Plan. Keizer's interest in a free-flowing thoroughfare from I-5 and Keizer Station to Polk County would be thwarted by the number of on-grade intersections proposed in the Salem Alternative.From what I can tell from the drawings and description, twonew intersections on the east side of the river and six on the west side would slow traffic considerably. At
least some of those intersections presumably would have traffic lights.The Oversight Team must compare the travel times of the Salem Alternative with the other alternatives, as done in Table 3.1- 35 in the DEIS.

4.***The true cost of the Salem Alternative should take into account the cost of a new interchange on Highway 22.*

The proposed Salem Alternative eliminates the west bound access to Rosemont in West Salem.That traffic is supposed to use Wallace Road or Edgewater, decreasing the usefulness of the new facility for those residents headed for the west end of West Salem. The Salem Alternative requires another new, expensive project to fix that access problem, and kicks the can down the road for many West Salem residents.

5.***The Salem Alternative will require goal exceptions on the west side, and maybe an extension of the urban growth boundary.*

Those exceptions will be difficult to justify when some of the alternatives, particularly 2A, are reasonable and do not require any exceptions.Any analysis needs to evaluate minor revisions to 2A that do not require exceptions.There may be refinements to 2A that would reduce congestion (such as the full extension of Marine Drive,further reduction of private access onto Wallace Road[1] , and signage to channel traffic into the correct lanes before getting on the bridge from the east.) Other refinements would include retro-fitting to make the existing bridges more earthquake proof; and emergency vehicle access to the bicycle/pedestrian bridge from the west.
 
6.***The Oversight Team should urge that Salem move forward with the construction of Marine Drive, which is already in the Salem Area TSP.*

That project can be built independently of any alternative in the DEIS.Marine Drive would take a considerable amount of pressure off of Wallace Road, which would greatly relieve the back up onto Marion Street Bridge.Salem could re-evaluate the congestion at the bridge heads after
the new Marine Drive is built to see if a new, expensive bridge can still be justified.

Thank you for your consideration.

Kathy Lincoln

------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [1]  I recently counted 8 private approaches on to Wallace Road on *each *side of the road,between Edgewater and Glen Creek. Many businesses have more than one driveway to Wallace Road and also have alternative access to the side or rear of the property. Closing those accesses would go a long way toward alleviating congestion on Wallace Road.

November Best Bet - "A Fierce Green Fire" - Salem Progressive Film Series, Nov. 14 7 p.m.

Thursday, November 14, 2013   7 p.m.   Grand Theatre

A FIERCE GREEN FIRE: The Battle for a Living Planet is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement – grassroots and global activism spanning fifty years from conservation to climate change. 

Directed and written by Mark Kitchell, Academy Award-nominated director of Berkeley in the Sixties, and narrated by Robert Redford, Ashley Judd, Van Jones, Isabel Allende and Meryl Streep, the film premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2012, has won acclaim at festivals around the world, and in 2013 begins theatrical release as well as educational distribution and use by environmental groups and grassroots activists.

Inspired by the book of the same name by Philip Shabecoff and informed by advisors like Edward O. Wilson, A FIERCE GREEN FIRE chronicles the largest movement of the 20th century and one of the keys to the 21st. It brings together all the major parts of environmentalism and connects them. It focuses on activism, people fighting to save their homes, their lives, the future – and succeeding against all odds.
The film unfolds in five acts, each with a central story and character:

1. David Brower and the Sierra Club’s battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon
   
2. Lois Gibbs and Love Canal residents’ struggle against 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals
   
3. Paul Watson and Greenpeace’s campaigns to save whales and baby harp seals
   
4. Chico Mendes and Brazilian rubbertappers’ fight to save the Amazon rainforest
   
5. Bill McKibben and the 25-year effort to address the impossible issue – climate change

Surrounding these main stories are strands like environmental justice, going back to the land, and movements of the global south such as Chipko in India and Wangari Maathai in Kenya. Vivid archival film brings it all back and insightful interviews shed light on the events and what they mean. The film offers a deeper view of environmentalism as civilizational change, bringing our industrial society into sustainable balance with nature.
• Website

Speakers
	Mark Kitchell | Producer, Writer, Director Mark Kitchell is best known for Berkeley in the Sixties, which won the Sundance Audience Award in 1990, was nominated for an Academy Award, and won other top honors. It has become a well-loved classic, one of the defining documentaries about the protest movements of the 1960s. Kitchell went to NYU film school, where he made The Godfather Comes to Sixth St., a cinema verite look at his neighbors caught up in filming The Godfather II - for which he received another (student) Academy Award nomination.
	Laura Stevens | Organizing Representative for the Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign Laura Stevens, Organizing Representative for the Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign in Oregon and Southwest Washington, works with concerned citizens to stop coal export projects and towards a coal-free northwest. Laura, a native Oregonian, obtained her B.A. from DePauw University, and has spent the past six years organizing for a number of environmental, human rights, and labor groups. After Laura launched and led the Sierra Club Campuses Beyond Coal campaign at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC made a commitment to move their on- campus coal-fired power plant off of mountain-top removal mined coal immediately, and set a date to move the plant off of coal entirely. For more information on how you can help stop coal exports in Oregon, contact Laura at laura.stevens@sierraclub.org or visit www.coalfreeoregon.org.

Weird calendar, but many great offerings anyway

One of the saddest things in Salem is that we have shrinking, underfunded library services, with far too few hours, and no service at all on Mondays.  Which is reflected on the calendar below.

Still, the library does great things with the scant resources they're given, many of which show up on this calendar.  Just be sure not to overlook the bizarre, Monday-less calendar and go on the wrong day.

Of special note in the upcoming weeks:

THURSDAY, NOV 7. - 
Ursula K. Le Guin @ Hudson Hall on the Willamette U. campus  This is a special benefit put on by the Salem Public Library Foundation, bringing one of the best writers in America (and native Oregonian) to Salem.

WEDNESDAY, NOV 13 -

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Salem Public Library’s Loucks Hall

Lecture Series
Cascade Summer:  Following the Ghost of John Waldo on Oregon’s Pacific Crest Trail with Bob Welch

Learn about Oregonians helped lead efforts to preserve the natural wonder in Oregon, despite being much less wealthy than we are today.

FRIDAY, NOV 15 (weirdly mis-classified and hidden away as a children's event):

Family Festival of the ArtsCelloBop with Gideon Freudmann
7:00 pm  - Loucks Auditorium

Gideon plays the Electric Cello and moves effortlessly from one style to another: folk, rock, classical, and funny songs. Everyone in the family will be asking for more! Doors will open at 6:45 p.m. and seating will be on a first-come, first-seated basis.  All shows are free and open to the public thanks to the support of the Friends of the Salem Public Library. 

Grains growing again in Willamette Valley

A beautiful day in the Valley today, especially in Shedd, where the 2013 "Stock Your Pantry" event brought many local farmers together to sell direct to happy people like us, who took home a wonderful box of Fuji apples, 20# of terrific organic rolled oats from Greenwillow Grains, 5# of locally grown wild rice from Running Wild, and two giant blocks of the always-amazing and delicious cheese from Full Circle Creamery (nice story about them here).

We are still fully stocked up on wheat berries and flour, so we didn't need to buy anything from this fascinating farm family below, a nice lady and her husband, who was a professor of ecology and natural resources who retired from Rice University and returned to farm on 12 lovely acres in Albany.  We're eager to try their stuff as soon as we next need flour.  Note their great vision for their small holding:  To participate in the 21st-Century reinvention of small-scale agriculture, building on the perspective (and limitations) of our age and experience to create a sustainable subsistence farm.

Affordable Permaculture Class in Salem! Starts 10-22-13

Brighid's Circle, LLC is offering a Permaculture Design Certification Course, right here in Salem. See details below-

A Permaculture Design Course teaches how to design ethical, self sustaining food growing, water, housing, and energy systems of any size. Create a design to feed your family or work as a consultant for others.

Full Permaculture Design Certificate Course offered for donation of only $10-$20 per class.

1 class per week. 24 weeks. Call for more information or to reserve your seat, 503-449-8077.

Presented by Brighid's Circle, LLC.

Instructor L. June studied permaculture with world renowned permaculture designer & instructor, Geoff Lawton, of PRI, Australia.

Permaculture is "Earth Care, People Care, and Return of Surplus," creating systems that are not only sustainable, but also enriching to the soil and all life.


 Classes begin:
In Salem, October 22nd, 6:30-9:30pm, @ 5090 Center Street NE, Salem, OR 97317

For more info visit:
facebook.com/brighidscircle
brighidscircle.wordpress.com

At Brighid's Circle we believe people need permaculture, not just to create a sustainable future, but also to feed our families and communities now. We offer permaculture design courses on a sliding scale at a fraction of the usual course prices.

Great Amtrak News: Coming soon, Salem->Eugene and back on Amtrak Cascades trains, same day!

http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/COMM/pages/talgohome.aspx

Oct. 9, 7 p.m. @ Salem Public Library's Loucks Auditorium: FOOD CORPS

October's Lecture:
FoodCorps with
Curt Ellis, Co-Founder and Executive Director

Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Salem Public Library Loucks Hall
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

When Curt Ellis left Iowa after creating the Peabody-winning documentary King Corn, something didn't sit right––and it wasn't just the home-brewed high-fructose corn syrup he'd consumed. Join Curt for a lively multimedia presentation as he shares the journey that led him to leave filmmaking and launch FoodCorps: a nationwide "Peace Corps" for healthy and sustainable school food.

A little more about FoodCorps:

Mission:  Through the hands and minds of emerging leaders, FoodCorps strives to give all youth an enduring relationship with healthy food.

We envision a nation of well-nourished children: children who know what healthy food is, how it grows and where it comes from, and who have access to it every day. These children, having grown up in a healthy food environment will learn better, live longer and liberate their generation from diet-related disease.

Join us after the lecture to meet Curt and enjoy some healthy refreshments provided by LifeSource Natural Foods.

* The Lecture Series is free of charge to those attending, however, if you like what you hear, we encourage you to contribute a $5 donation so that we might continue to offer these top-notch presenters on vital issues to our community and world.

Crucial & free film at Salem Public Library -- on the American Gulag -- 8/21, 6:30 p.m.

The House I Live In

The Partnership for Safety and Justice proudly invites you to a free film screening of "The House I Live In." This documentary has received critical recognition for the scope it provides in America's failed war on drugs.

The film takes a comprehensive look at drug abuse as public health matter while investigating public policies, law enforcement and individual lives affected by the so-called "War on Drugs."

You can watch the film trailer online by clicking here.

We hope you can take a summer evening to join PSJ staff, members and supporters to watch this documentary with us. Seats are limited, so please let me know by phone or email if you can join us to one of the following film screenings:

Wed., Aug. 21st: 6:30 pm @ Louck's Auditorium located at Salem Public Library. 585 Liberty Ave., Salem, OR

I'm looking forward to seeing you there,

Cassandra Villanueva
Director of Organizing and Advocacy
Office: (503) 335-8449
www.safetyandjustice.org


PSJ is a membership organization. We rely on the support of our members so we can advocate for programs and policies that create community safety without sacrificing justice. Please make a contribution today to renew your membership.

Free chances to learn both vital & fascinating things

A local massage instructor has broadened her range to add teaching others how to grow food for the future; she has licensed some fascinating films and will be showing them in both Salem and Oregon City to kick off a series of classes (offered on a sliding scale) on the most vital topic of all:  how we can grow more food with fewer inputs.

Solar Works in Salem!

As of 2 p.m. today, June 2, 2013, LOVESalem HQ has generated 10 MegaWatt-Hours (since December 10, 2010).

Nice job on why "We're Not Buying It!" -- the $700 million Consultant's Alternative

PowToon : Traffic Relief w/o 3rd Bridge

Outstanding Encore for Salem Progressive Film Series Season: David Cay Johnston and "American Winter"

Like many a great performance, Salem Progressive Film Series saves the very best for an encore round, and the 2012-13 SPFS season is no different.

They are bringing the outstanding journalist and author David Cay Johnston to Salem along with the powerful, penetrating film "American Winter," a visual "How the Other Half Lives" for the 21st Century.

THURSDAY, June 13, 7 pm,
at Salem's outstanding community venue, the Grand Theatre, 191 High St NE.

Choice opportunity tomorrow, 2/23, at Saturday Public Market on Rural St.

My very talented neighbor Marnie has a booth at Salem Public Market tomorrow.  She sent me some pictures of her stuff, which I have also seen at the old city hall in Keizer, and it's terrific.  I lost the pictures, but still wanted to alert you to the opportunity.

 Marnie and Dave at the Market

This Saturday, Feb 23, from 8 am until 2 pm, come to the Saturday Public Market and see Marnie and Dave Jeffers.  Marnie will demonstrate her techniques for making small clay figures and animals. Just in time for Easter, you will find a variety of ceramics, including heart pocket vases and pendants, decorative containers, colorful stars, bird ornaments, miniature clay bunnies and ducks, handmade note cards and small watercolors for sale at reasonable prices. 

The Saturday Public Market is located in South Salem, on Rural St. between 12th and 13th  in a barn red building. It’s open every Saturday year round and features all kinds of crafts, produce, treats and specialty food items.

I guess Marnie's husband Dave will be there too, bless his heart.

Nice looking free intro to permaculture talk ----> @ 6 p.m. Wed 1/23 @ Lifesource Community Room

Two beautiful posts from 1000 Friends of Oregon

The group that the Sprawl Lobby likes to call "1000 Fiends" has two fantastic pieces on their website -- one about the bogus growth projections that are being used to sell a gigantic "Bridgeasaurus Boondogglus" for Salem (top), and then another great piece on the underlying issue, how sprawl costs everybody money and demands a constant feeding of new money, depriving us in every other area of life (bottom).

Take a gander at these great pieces, and then think about joining Friends of Marion County (see below -- FOMC is not very websavvy -- could you help with that?) and making gifts to support 1000 Friends.

Remember, all that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.  Don't sit idly by and let the Sprawl Lobby rob you and your family of hundreds of millions that you'd rather spend on yourself or on providing a better community.

Click on each picture to take you to the actual page, both of which have good links from there:

Friends of Marion County generally meets at 7:00 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month in the Salem Public Library Anderson Room. Board meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month. If you are interested in helping the Friends of Marion County, please E-mail: rkaye@OregonVOS.net. The Friends of Marion County does not share its mailing list with other organizations or individuals.

Our mailing address is:

Friends of Marion County

P.O. Box 3274

Salem, OR 97302

The annual dues are:

Friend $35

Family Friend $50

Hall of Fame Friend $100

Corporate Friend $250

Other Friend $________

Board of Directors

Roger Kaye, President
mailto: rkaye@oregonVOS.net
Joe Kuehn, Vice-President
mailto: kuehn20@comcast.net

Richard van Pelt, Secretary

mailto: rvanpelt@comcast.net

Susan Watkins, Treasurer
mailto: susanwat@open.org
Board Members are the above officers plus:

Linda Peterson

mailto: joylin@open.org

JoAn Power

mailto: jobilp@aol.com

Kasia Quillinan

mailto: qe2@open.org

Carla Mikkelson
mailto: carlamikke@yahoo.com
Laurel Hines
mailto: laurelhines@att.net