Slate
"We are ashamed to benefit from white supremacy while our black family and friends suffer. We are ashamed of the monument." Read the full story
STRONG Salem is for everyone who wants to help and participate in getting Salem, Oregon, to quit chasing Growth Ponzi Scheme plans and instead become a resilient, fiscally responsible place that lives by the wisdom that "Communities exist for the health and enjoyment of those who live in them, not for the convenience of those who drive through them, fly over them, or exploit their real estate for profit."
Slate
"We are ashamed to benefit from white supremacy while our black family and friends suffer. We are ashamed of the monument." Read the full story
"We have a lot of complex problems in this country," Beletsky said. "Without really addressing all of those physical, emotional, and mental health problems, just focusing on the opioid supply makes no sense — because people still have those problems."
Some places have put such ideas into policy. Iceland built an anti-drug plan that focuses largely on providing kids and adolescents with after-school activities, from music and the arts to sports like soccer and indoor skating to many other clubs and activities. Iceland coupled this approach with other policies — setting drinking and smoking ages, banning alcohol and tobacco advertising, enforcing curfews for teenagers, and getting parents more involved in their kids' schools — to further discourage and fight drug use.
Researcher Harvey Milkman told journalist Emma Young, who profiled Iceland's experiment, that it's "a social movement around natural highs: around people getting high on their own brain chemistry … without the deleterious effects of drugs."
As a result, Iceland, which had one of the worst drug problems in Europe, has seen adolescent consumption fall. The number of 15- and 16-year-olds who got drunk in the previous month fell from 42 percent in 1998 to just 5 percent in 2016, and the number who ever smoked marijuana dropped from 17 percent to 7 percent in the same time frame. In a similar time period, from 1997 to 2012, the percentage of 15- and 16-year-olds who participated in sports at least four times a week almost doubled — from 24 to 42 percent — and the number of kids who said they often or almost always spent time with their parents on weekdays doubled, from 23 to 46 percent.
By Damian Carrington
4 August 2017(The Guardian) – Cars must be driven out of cities to tackle the UK's air pollution crisis, not just replaced with electric vehicles, according to the UK government's top adviser.
Prof Frank Kelly said that while electric vehicles emit no exhaust fumes, they still produce large amounts of tiny pollution particles from brake and tyre dust, for which the government already accepts there is no safe limit.
Toxic air causes 40,000 early deaths a year in the UK, and the environment secretary, Michael Gove, recently announced that the sale of new diesel and petrol cars will be banned from 2040, with only electric vehicles available after that. But faced with rising anger from some motorists, the plan made the use of charges to deter dirty diesel cars from polluted areas a measure of last resort only.
Kelly's intervention heightens the government's dilemma between protecting public health and avoiding politically difficult charges or bans on urban motorists. "The government's plan does not go nearly far enough," said Kelly, professor of environmental health at King's College London and chair of the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants, official expert advisers to the government. "Our cities need fewer cars, not just cleaner cars."
Ministers were forced to produce an air pollution plan after being sued twice in the courts over illegal levels, but it was criticised as "woefully inadequate" and "lacking urgency" by city leaders and "inexcusable" by leading doctors. The government's own research showed the fastest and most cost-effective measure to cut the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution largely caused by diesel engines is to charge dirty cars to enter urban areas.
Electric vehicles emit no NO2 but do produce small particle pollution from the wear on brake discs and tyres and by throwing up dust from roads. A recent European commission research paper found that about half of all particulate matter comes from these sources. [more]
Electric cars are not the answer to air pollution, says top UK adviser
Several months ago, Salem Cinema was forced by the film industry to convert from 35mm film projection to fully digital state-of-the-art equipment in all three of our auditoriums. Studios ceased to strike 35mm film prints and in order to keep our doors open, we had to upgrade. This required a huge investment, part of which was met by taking out a sizable loan totaling almost $150,000 on top of our own nearly $50,000 commitment. While corporate multiplexes were subsidized by studios in their upgrades, requiring them to only cover about 25% of the total cost, this was not the case for small, independent cinemas who had to pay 100% of their total upgrades.
Switch to digital projectors imperils some theaters by Judy Keen, USA TODAY
It's now time for us to reach out to our loyal patrons and film lovers and ask that you please share some of this cost.
It means the world to us to know that your lives have been enriched by Salem Cinema over the years and there is nothing we'd love more than to continue to bring outstanding and unique film to our community. In order to do that, we need your help. We have scrimped and scraped and managed to repay the cost of one of the three projectors, but it's been a long, hard road to reach that point.
We've set our immediate goal for $97,560 which is the combined cost of the other two projectors. With this amount, we would be able to pay off the balance of the loan without accruing more interest. Your contribution won't go unappreciated! Not only will we be able to keep doing what we do best, but we have some remarkable rewards to thank you for your incredibly important and always appreciated support... without you, we are nothing!
While we've set some contribution and reward levels, know that you aren't restricted to those dollar amounts...feel free to give any amount. Please remember that with Kickstarter, it's an all-or-nothing challenge. If we don't reach our goal, we won't see a penny.
Please go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/salemcinema/salem-cinemas-digital-projection-upgrade-challenge to donate today!
Several months ago, Salem Cinema was forced by the film industry to convert from 35mm film projection to fully digital state-of-the-art equipment in all three of our auditoriums. Studios ceased to strike 35mm film prints and in order to keep our doors open, we had to upgrade. This required a huge investment, part of which was met by taking out a sizable loan totaling almost $150,000 on top of our own nearly $50,000 commitment. While corporate multiplexes were subsidized by studios in their upgrades, requiring them to only cover about 25% of the total cost, this was not the case for small, independent cinemas who had to pay 100% of their total upgrades.Switch to digital projectors imperils some theaters by Judy Keen, USA TODAYIt's now time for us to reach out to our loyal patrons and film lovers and ask that you please share some of this cost.It means the world to us to know that your lives have been enriched by Salem Cinema over the years and there is nothing we'd love more than to continue to bring outstanding and unique film to our community. In order to do that, we need your help. We have scrimped and scraped and managed to repay the cost of one of the three projectors, but it's been a long, hard road to reach that point.We've set our immediate goal for $97,560 which is the combined cost of the other two projectors. With this amount, we would be able to pay off the balance of theloan without accruing more interest. Your contribution won't go unappreciated! Not only will we be able to keep doing what we do best, but we have some remarkable rewards to thank you for your incredibly important and always appreciated support... without you, we are nothing!
While we've set some contribution and reward levels, know that you aren't restricted to those dollar amounts...feel free to give any amount. Please remember that with Kickstarter, it's an all-or-nothing challenge. If we don't reach our goal, we won't see a penny.Please go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/salemcinema/salem-cinemas-digital-projection-upgrade-challenge to donate today!
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Jan 19, 2008: LOVESalem reaches the web, bringing a vitally needed message to Oregon's capital city: We must Oregon-ize to put the needs of people before the needs of cars. This requires that we live our environmental values -- that we LOVE (Live Our Values Environmentally) Salem -- by working to stop the Sprawl Machine.
The Sprawl Machine is a ravenous beast that feeds on green space, close-in neighborhoods, and property taxes and that excretes monstrous, ugly road projects that pollute the air, increase mortality and morbidity, promote climate change, weaken families and neighborhoods, and help weaken the social fabric and civic participation.
The Sprawl Machine works by constantly luring its prey with promises that the problems created by cars can be addressed by doing more of the same -- building more lanes, more bridges, consuming ever more money. In other words, the Sprawl Machine promises that we can keep doing the same thing over and over, while expecting a different result this time.
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