High Country News is always a treat, one of the best publications out there.  Hat tip to HCN for this pointer:

http://www.hcn.org/articles/library-of-congress-photogrammer/

Depression era photos from your hometown

 

Between 1935 and 1944, a group of photographers fanned out to document life across America. The initiative was a public relations move to bolster support for programs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's contentious Farm Security Administration, which sought to help those hardest hit by the Great Depression. When it was over, some 175,000 photographs were transferred to the Library of Congress and eventually placed online, but they remained hard for the wider public to access.

Now, a team from Yale University has made it much easier to explore the photos snapped by legends like Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Arthur Rothstein, using an interactive web-based map and archive called Photogrammar. The map allows you to view images county-by-county, some of which appear here. "Nobody has seen them all," says Laura Wexler, an American Studies professor at Yale and co-director the project. The photographers who headed West featured plenty of farmers and ranchers. But they also documented female factory workers in Washington, a man stacking magnesium bullion in Nevada, and a New Mexico woman cradling a wall of chili peppers. In every image, says Wexler, there's a story to be told.

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Friends Fall Book Sale -- always a great bargain, with something for everyone.

The Friends of the Salem Public Library will hold their Fall Book Sale, October 16-19 at a special off-site location this year:

1555 12th Street SE.
The site is next to Fitts Seafood and offers free parking. 

Hours and special features include:

4-8:30 p.m. Thursday, October 16
Friends Night–Members only
Memberships available at the door

10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Friday, October 17 & Saturday, October 18

1-5 p.m.
Sunday, October 19
$4 Bag Day!

Cash and checks only will be accepted for purchases.

A wide variety of materials will be available for sale. Prices are: hardback books at $1.25 each; teen and paperback books at 75 cents each; children’s books at 50 cents each; and audio-visual items at 50 cents-$1 each. Specialty and collectible books will also be available for sale at individual prices.

The Fall Book Sale is sponsored by Trader Joe’s and Roth’s.
More information is available at www.salemfriends.org, SPLFriends@peak.org, or 503-362-1755.

Should the City add ANOTHER developer to our Planning Commission?

The CANDO neighborhood association chair does us all a service laying out the issue as concisely and clearly as possible.  

May all citizens and other neighborhoods join with this sentiment and fend off this destructive, unnecessary proposal that should be called "How to load the dice even further in favor of the sprawl builders trying to bankrupt Salem to line their own pockets."

From: michaellivingston1@msn.com
To: candoboard@googlegroups.com
Subject: FW: Public Hearing Notice - Case No. CA14-06 -proposed amendment to SRC Chapter 6 to amend certain Planning Commission membership requirements
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 10:49:43 -0700

FELLOW BOARD MEMBERS:

    I'm forwarding this to you for possible action by the CANDO Board by October 7.

    This is a notice of public hearing on proposed amendments to the Salem Revised Code that would increase from one to two the number of members of the city's 7 member Planning Commission of who are engaged in real estate sales or development.  The amendment also would increase from one to two the number of members of the Commission who are engaged in the same trade, business or profession.

    The notice does not identify ANY problem that these proposed amendments would resolve.  The stated reason for the change is that a state statute permits up to two members of the same profession on a city planning commission and most other cities the size Salem allow two, but, Salem restricts it to one.  In other words, Salem's current code complies with state law.  Here's what the applicable state statute says:    

227.030 Membership. (1) Not more than two members of a city planning commission may be city officers, who shall serve as ex officio nonvoting members.

      (2) A member of such a commission may be removed by the appointing authority, after hearing, for misconduct or nonperformance of duty.

      (3) Any vacancy in such a commission shall be filled by the appointing authority for the unexpired term of the predecessor in the office.

      (4) No more than two voting members of the commission may engage principally in the buying, selling or developing of real estate for profit as individuals, or be members of any partnership, or officers or employees of any corporation, that engages principally in the buying, selling or developing of real estate for profit. No more than two members shall be engaged in the same kind of occupation, business, trade or profession.

The Planning Commission has broad powers, and diversity of viewpoints is important, particularly on a 7-member Commission.  An increase from one to two of the Commission members who are engaged in the same profession substantially reduces that diversity.  Given that fact, the problem I have with the proposed amendment is -- as I point out above -- there's no identified problem that it seeks to address.   

     The public hearing on the proposed amendment is October 7.   Based solely on the information in this notice, I think that the CANDO Board should take a position in opposition to the proposed amendment.   However, the "staff report" on the proposed amendment has not been issued yet and will come out next week.  I will forward that to you when I get it, and, we can decide then whether to take a position or not. 

MICHAEL LIVINGSTON
Chair  

The Obvious Relationship Between Climate and Family Planning—and Why We Don’t Talk About

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tarico20140926


"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

We’ll Become ISIS [feedly]

The People's History of the US Military taught me some things, such as how the "scary vet" meme was actually not a Vietnam-era creation, but was present after the Civil War and ever since.

http://www.powells.com/biblio/9781595586285

James Howard Kunstler is a writer and critic of some renown. He has written several times about his guess that we are creating a class of discarded men, veterans, who are going to eventually get fed up and put their training to use here at home to secure themselves some status.

This would be easier to dismiss if Dmitry Orlov, who observed the collapse of the USSR and the chaos that followed, didn't make the same warnings.

http://www.powells.com/biblio/9780865716063

My guess is that they will shift their attention and activity from the mind-slavery of the current Potemkin economy to the very monster we find ourselves fighting overseas: a domestic ISIS-style explosion of wrath wrapped in an extreme ideology of one kind or another replete with savagery and vengeance-seeking. The most dangerous thing that any society can do is invalidate young men. When the explosion of youthful male wrath occurs in the USA, it will come along at exactly the same time as all the other benchmarks of order become unmoored — especially the ones in money and politics — which will shatter the faith of the non-young and the non-male, too. Also, just imagine for a moment the numbers of young men America has trained with military skills the past 20 years. Not all of them will be disabled with PTSD, or mollified with rinky-dink jobs at the Wal-Mart, or lost in the transports of heroin and methedrine.

----
We'll Become ISIS

Another "Don't Miss" at Salem Cinema

This is always provocative and memorable, often haunting and beautiful.  A true "world" festival, right here in Salem.  Three days only!  I've enjoyed this every year since it started here in Salem, and it just cements Salem Cinema's status as the best cultural venue in Salem, by a nautical mile.

http://www.salemcinema.com/manhattanshort.html

Salem Cinema : Salem, Oregon

17th Annual Manhattan Short Film Festival
ONE WORLD • ONE WEEK • ONE FESTIVAL

SALEM CINEMA has once again been chosen as one of the only Oregon venues to participate in the MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival, one of our most anticipated events each year!

September 28th & 29th at 12:30pm & 7:45pm
September 30th at 7:45pm

ADVANCE TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW
at our box office during regular business hours
or online at boxofficetickets.com!

All Seats $9 • no passes, Cinebucks or gift certs accepted for special events

MANHATTAN SHORT is an instantaneous celebration that occurs simultaneously across the globe, bringing great films to great venues and allowing the audiences to select their favorites. If the Film Festival experience truly is about getting great works in front of as many eyes as possible, MANHATTAN SHORT offers the ultimate platform -- one that sees its films screened in Sydney, Mumbai, Moscow, Kathmandu, Vienna, Cape Town to cinemas in all fifty states of the United States and beyond!

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Tax Avgas Like The Poison It Is

Tax Fairness Oregon points out an important reason Salem's Corporate Welfare Playground (aka airport) costs us ordinary folks (who only see private planes on TV) so much money:

Aviation Funding

Unlike highways and roads, airports in Oregon have been relying on public funding rather than user funding for a hunk of the cost of maintenance and improvements. This public funding at the expense of education and human services isn't necessary, because Oregon's aviation fuel taxes are among the lowest in the country. While Oregon road users pay 30 cents a gallon in fuel taxes, Oregon taxes jet fuel at only 1 cent a gallon, and avgas at only 9 cents a gallon. Talk about everyone else supporting the 1%—clearly a fix is in order! 

This doesn't even address the fact that people flying small planes using "avgas" poison you and your kids by spreading a potent, persistent neurotoxin throughout Salem: lead. 

That's right, avgas is still leaded gas. That's the stuff that caused untold billions of dollars of damage and ruined lives by damaging the brainstorm of people who wound up in prison as a result. 

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/01/lead-and-crime-assessing-evidence

So not only are Salem's businesses and richest folks getting a hugely public-subsidized playground for their toys, they're willing to share one thing with the rest of us whether we want it or not: a crippling toxin that especially damages the human brain in development stages (infants and toddlers)

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Mark your calendar for a good cause,10/17, 7:30 p.m.

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

"Songs of Civil Disobedience . . . and Hope" : 7:30 pm Friday, October 17,
2014, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church 1444 Liberty Road SE.

The concert is free, donations accepted at the door, with proceeds going to

Congregations Helping People.

The program features local musicians performing songs by
Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Malvina Reynolds, Woodie Guthrie - and
more! Audience will be invited to sing along with many of the songs. Please
join us for a very fun evening of music and community in the Pete Seeger
style and support this important program.

www.chpsalem.org

Advice

http://digg.com/video/some-depressing-albeit-extremely-useful-advice


"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Celebrate the Freedom to Read, Sept 21-28

Banned Books Week is an annual event, observed nationally, that celebrates the right to read.

Anyone who has read “The Hunger Games”, “Gone with the Wind”, “The Great Gatsby”, or even “The Adventures of Captain Underpants”, has read a book that has been challenged or banned at a library or in a classroom somewhere in the United States.

According to the American Library Association’s website, “Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community - librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types - in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.”

This year’s Banned Books Week takes place September 21-28.

At Salem Public Library, there will be a display of books that have been challenged or banned, booklists, and also an interactive activity designed to test participants’ knowledge of well-known, but sometimes controversial, books. 

Those who can identify any one of six banned books from the evidence presented will be awarded an “I Read Banned Books” pin.  Intrigued?  Stop by the Information desk at Salem Public Library’s Main branch to learn more.

For more information on Banned Books Week visit Salem Public Library’s website at www.salemlibrary.org, or call 503-588-6052.