NEN recovers from laying an egg last year, endorses Henkeeping for Salem

At tonight's meeting the NEN Board voted 10-2, with 2 abstentions, to support the C.I.T.Y. proposal to allow chickens within the Salem city limits.

Alan Scott, Chair
NEN

One Fair World -- opening Sundays

Have you signed up for the $250 shopping spree drawing? Just click the link, complete the entry, and list "One Fair World" as your participating fair trade dealer.

While you're doing that, go here to sign up for the One Fair World email list here, too. A new announcement from One Fair World today:

We will now be open on Sundays 12-4pm (except for major holidays).

Stop in for leisurely shopping.

Bring in this email and receive a 10% discount on a single, regular-price item of your choice. See you soon.

Serious threat: Spotted Wing Fruit Flies

Yikes.

Recent news reports have indicated that this foreign (previously locally unknown) pest has the potential for turning both commercial and residential fruits (trees and berries) to mush in a very short time.

Early control is important. There have been local reports of entire
orchards (peaches in one case) becoming infested and all the fruit being ruined completely.

If you have fruit trees (apples, peaches, pears for certain -- probably others) and/or berries (raspberries, blackberries) in your yard and want to have them around to harvest this season, these sessions are at no charge and come highly recommended.

The OSU Extension Service will host two workshops on Spotted Wing Drosophila fruit fly to assist homeowners and growers of fruit crops with identification and management of this new insect pest. The dates, times and locations for the workshops are:

April 26th, 7-8:30pm. Salem Electric meeting room, 633 7th Street NW, Salem, OR

May 12th, 7-8:30pm, Academy Building Room 212, 182 SW Academy Street, Dallas, OR.

The workshops are free and open to the public. For more information, call the OSU Polk County Extension office at 503-623-8395.

Local Hero

Local hero of local profiled locally.

UPDATE: Speaking of enjoying local food, here's an encouraging story about a way to keep the sprawl monster contained and keep land in use for growing food.

A painful must-read - available through Salem Public Library

This is a hugely important, sobering book, especially when you realize that there hasn't been a single mention of climate disruption in the ongoing mayoral election here in Salem, even as we should be madly preparing for more intense heatwaves, water disruptions, and new (to us) diseases.

Publisher Comments:

Why should we care about climate chaos and global warming? Because, among other risky outcomes, they may seriously harm our health! Scientists around the world are in agreement that global warming, more aptly named climate change, is occurring and human activity is the primary cause. The debate now is in the scientific and policy worlds about just how harmful climate change will be and what are the best ways to stop it. One of those scientists is author Cindy Parker, who believes climate change is the most health-damaging problem humanity has ever faced. Parker has thus immersed herself during the past ten years in educating the public and health professionals about how climate change will affect our well-being. Here, she and husband, Steve Shapiro, a psychologist and former journalist, describe what we can expect if climate change continues unabated. The authors explain our possible physical and mental responses to such climate change factors as heat stress, poor air quality, insufficient water resources, and the rise of infectious diseases fueled by even minor increases in temperature. They also show how other changes that may result from climate change-including sea level rise, extreme weather events, and altered food supplies can harm human health. Parker and Shapiro have found, however, that just talking about the problem is not enough. Actions that can prevent or reduce climate change's harm are presented in each chapter. To illustrate how much global warming will affect our lives, Parker and Shapiro begin their book with a chapter showing the worst-case scenario if climate change continues without intervention, and end the book with the best case scenario if we act now. Their eye-opening work will appeal to everyone who wants to remain healthy as we challenge this world-altering problem of our own making . While written for a lay audience in a manner that limits technical terminology, the book will also appeal to students and professionals of public health, medicine, environmental psychology, and science who will find the focus on health and the extensive referencing useful.

Book News Annotation:

Parker (global sustainability and health, Johns Hopkins U.) and Shapiro, a clinical psychologist at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center's Community Psychiatry Program, explain how climate change can affect the health of humans and outline steps to take to prevent or reduce the health consequences of changes to temperature, air, water, food supply, and ecosystems. They also examine the effects of cataclysmic events, infectious disease, and human behavior. The book is aimed at general readers and students and professionals in public health, medicine, environmental psychology, and science. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Review:

Finally, a book that spells out in compelling detail what true health--personal and planetary--means in a 21st century dominated by global warming. If you read only one book about the climate crisis this year, this is the book. Mike Tidwell, Author, The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities.

Review:

"Powerful, well-documented, and necessary. Global warming will do more to affect public health than any other force this century, and if you read this book you will understand both why, and how to help." - Bill McKibben, Founder of 350.org Author The End of Nature

Review:

Healthy planet, healthy people. Desire for good health is one more reason to kick our fossil fuel addiction and stop global warming. -- Jim Hansen, Director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Synopsis:

As the debate over global warming continues, scientists around the world are studying subtle changes in human health across recent decades that coincide with climate changes. One of those scientists is author Cindy Parker, who has been immersed in a five-year study funded by the U.S. government. Here, she and husband Steve Shapiro, a psychologist and former journalist, describe what science is showing have been the effects of climate change on our health. The authors explain how both physical and mental health respond to factors including heat stress, poor air quality, poor water quality, and the rise of infectious diseases fueled by even minor increases in temperature. They also show how other changes that may result from global warming--sea level increases, extreme weather events, and altered food supplies, for example--can also harm human health. Actions to prevent or reduce harm from all of these changes are presented in each chapter. Why should we care about climate chaos and global warming? Parker and Shapiro begin their book with a chapter showing the worst case scenario if global warming continues, and the best case scenario if we act now. This eye-opening work will appeal to general readers and to students of public health, medicine, environmental psychology, and science.

About the Author

CINDY L. PARKER, MD, MPH, is Co-Director of the Program on Global Sustainability and Health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also a Fellow of the American College of Preventative Medicine. She has been working on a 5-year study of the effects of climate change on human health, funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control. Parker began her career as a family practice physician, then recognized she could help people more by focusing on preventing health problems before they started. Climate change is, in her view, the most health-damaging problem humanity has ever faced.

STEVEN M. SHAPIRO, PhD, is Clinical Supervisor and Counseling Psychologist at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Community Psychiatry Program, which provides community-based services to indigent children and families in the Baltimore area. A former health and social issues journalist, who worked in that role for the American Medical Association and publications including Science Digest magazine, Shapiro focused in his writings on ways to communicate that motivate people to healthy behaviors. His many awards in journalism include the American College of Emergency Physicians Award of Excellence, the American Heart Association Howard W. Blakeslee Journalism Award, and the National Headliner Award for Outstanding News Reporting.

Hark! Community Radio Stirring in Salem! (KMUZ)

Image by Foxtrot74 via Flickr

Progress is happening! Head on over and register to stay informed about what's happening @ KMUZ

Reader Participation Post: Send link to this post to your Legislators

Pretty covers, but lacks a lot in the way of consumer protections. Image via Wikipedia

Sometimes I emerge from LOVESalem HQ and head over to Legal Aid to volunteer in the ELVIS program (Elder Law Volunteers in Service . . . cute, no?). And one thing I've learned as a result is that Oregon has really, really, really weak consumer protection laws, and very few chances for a regular person to hold their own against the corporate bullies.

One of the worst scams I've seen is people who fall for the "teaser" rates offered in service contracts --- such as for cell phones, home alarm systems, gym memberships, etc. The way the scam works is that smiling, blow-dried young person gets unsophisticated older person to sign on the dotted line by hiding the total cost of the package. Nowhere is the mark (the sucker) ever told what they're actually going to pay each month and they are never, ever told how much they'll have to pay in total to avoid the harsh penalties for trying to wriggle off the hook once it's been set.

Thus, a proposal: A new section in the Oregon Revised Statutes chapter on Trade Practices (ORS 646) --- a proposal to require full-cost disclosure in any consumer service contract, meaning that the seller has to actually tell you

(a) the full cost, with all taxes and fees, that you'll have to pay every month;

(b) the total you'll have to pay over time to avoid any penalty for early cancellation;

(c) the total remaining each month that you'll have to pay to avoid a penalty, and the amount of the penalty.

In other words, this is simply a straight disclosure law that would be easy for any reputable business to satisfy. Here's a first shot at the text, but that's subject to change.

YOUR PART: Send a link to this post to your state senator and representative and ask them to introduce a bill to put this statute into the books ASAP.

Here's the link! Just copy it into an email and send it to your Legislators with a short note explaining that you live in their districts and want better consumer protections for Oregonians:
http://lovesalem.blogspot.com/2010/04/reader-participation-post-send-link-to.html

Chapter 646 — Trade Practices and Antitrust Regulation

646.190 Full-Cost Disclosure on Service Contracts.

1. No consumer services contract may impose any fee, charge, or penalty (including loss of otherwise-available discount) against the buyer for early service termination unless, when the contract was signed, the offeror disclosed and the buyer acknowledged in writing a disclosure the same or substantially the same as follows, with the specific amounts included:

   “OREGON FULL-COST INITIAL DISCLOSURE: This contract includes a penalty provision for early termination of $________. The total of payments, including taxes and incidental charges required to avoid any early termination fee or penalty under this offer is $________.”

2. Every invoice under such a service contract must include updated information to advise the consumer any remaining amount owed under the contract to avoid a fee, charge, or penalty and the amount of the fee, charge, or penalty that would be imposed if the service contract was cancelled before the invoice is paid.

“OREGON FULL-COST BILLING DISCLOSURE: As of the date of this statement, the total of payments, including taxes and incidental charges, required to avoid any early termination fee or penalty under this contract is $________.” The penalty for early termination as of the date of this statement is $________.

3. Any person or entity that offers a service contract or issues an invoice on a service contract without properly and accurately disclosing the remaining total of payments needed to avoid a penalty and the amount of the penalty shall not be allowed to collect any penalties under those contracts or to retain any penalties, fees, or charges collected in violation of this section.


4. The Attorney General or any consumer who enters into a service agreement but who is not given the required Oregon full-cost disclosure or who receives an invoice without an accurate Oregon full-cost billing disclosure shall have standing to bring a civil action to recover court costs, attorney fees, and the greater of $500 or treble the amount of the penalty improperly imposed or not properly disclosed.

To the Oregon GOP: More like this, please

Image via Wikipedia

The Oregon GOP has suffered from such a severe case of advanced delusional paranoia for so long now that it's teetering on the edge of total irrelevancy, which isn't really a good thing.

At LOVESalem HQ, we're no fans of the "two party system" -- we'd all be much better off with a healthy system of MANY parties, but that's not going to happen as long as we are afflicted with the winner-take-all rules that the two major parties have written into law to abet their takeover and to exclude any alternatives to the duopoly.

But, given what we're stuck with for now, it would be helpful if the GOP would stay on the good side of the sane/insane divide and offer more candidates like this more often.

(And Hall of Shame nomination for the SJ headline writer who casts Castillo and Maurer as "foes" -- two candidates running for the same office aren't necessarily or even usually "foes" or even opponents ... sometimes they're just two people who are seeking a job that only one gets.)

Tell the Candidates: Fix the Kicker, Build a Rainy Day Fund

Go here to sign the petition.

WATER IN OREGON: Not a Drop to Waste (LWV Study Report)

Image via Wikipedia

Water in Oregon: Not a Drop to Waste