Morning Papers - Its Origins

The Rooster
"Okeydoke"

Earth Hour

Xanterra Parks & Resorts (click here)
Bringing carbon dioxide Savings to National and State Parks
Xanterra Parks & Resorts operates lodges, restaurants, and other concessions at 18 national and state parks. As the first hospitality company with an absolute greenhouse gas reduction target, Xanterra aims to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 10% below 2000 levels by 2015. By 2004, Xanterra was already nearly halfway to reaching its goal with emissions 4.75% below 2000 levels. In 2006, Xanterra is using 6,011,723 kilowatt hours of renewable wind, solar, or geothermal energy, totaling more than 7% of total energy use at its operations nationwide. This prevents 2,300 tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted. Wind power provides 50% of Xanterra's electricity at Crater Lake and Zion, and a third at Mount Rushmore. In addition to renewable energy, Xanterra is reducing emissions through fuel switching (from heating fuel oil to propane), strategic conservation programs, energy control systems in rooms and facilities, and efficiency upgrades including 27,000 lighting retrofits. Xanterra is one of only a few hospitality companies to construct buildings that have achieved the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED green building rating system certification (one at Yellowstone and another being built at Crater Lake National Park). Last year the company designated its own company-wide CAFE standard of 35 miles per gallon for all company vehicles purchased.

WWF (click here)

Removing the Death Penalty. What does that do to incarceration and the courts?

House Votes to Repeal Capital Punishment (click title to entry - thank you)
By Dan Gorenstein on Wednesday, March 25, 2009.
New Hampshire House lawmakers shocked many today when they voted to repeal the state’s death penalty.
The measure passed by 19 votes, one-hundred ninety-three to one-hundred seventy-four.
This comes after a jury sentenced Michael Addison to death last fall for the murder of Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein reports.
This year death penalty opponents had their hopes on a bill to study the issue.
That measure sailed through the House.
Nobody, really, thought the bill to repeal the death penalty had a chance.
In fact, many members left their seats, or chatted as the first few Representatives spoke in favor of the legislation.
But then....
TAPE: the chair recognizes the member from Hampton, Representative Cushing....Thank you Madame Speaker, members of the House....
....Democrat Renny Cushing started talking about how his dad was murdered.
TAPE: my father was sitting at the kitchen table reading Foster’s Daily Democrat, and my mother was on the couch watching the Boston Celtics playoff game...There was a knock on the front door....my dad got up to open it...and two shotgun blasts rang out, turned his chest into hamburger and he died in front of my mother in the home they lived in for 35 years and raised their seven years.
On hearing such intimate details, House members grew quiet and leaned forward.
Cushing went on.
TAPE: an old friend came up to me and he said, ‘you know Renny, I hope they fry the bastards. I hope they fry the bastards so your mother, and you and your family can get some piece.”
But he says he didn’t have the “normal” reaction to his father’s murder.
On principle, Cushing had always opposed to the death penalty.
And he said, if he changed his opinion in the wake of the murder, he would only give his father’s murderer more power.
TAPE: because not only would my father be taken from me. But so would my values. And it’s the same for society as it is for individuals. If we let those who kill, make us into killers, than evil triumphs. And we all lose.
SFX: That was amazing, honey. That was amazing.
After the vote, teary eyed lawmakers greeted Cushing, people patted his back, others just gave long knowing looks....

Federal shield law moves out of House committee

U.S. · March 25, 2009

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a federal shield bill that aims to protect journalists from compelled disclosure of their confidential sources, in language identical to that of a 2007 bill that overwhelmingly passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The new bill heads next to the floor for a new, full House vote.
The Free Flow of Information Act of 2009, or H.R. 985, would offer a qualified privilege for journalists, meaning they could not be compelled to identify sources or hand over confidential material except under several scenarios: If doing so would prevent harm to national security, or death or bodily harm; if it were essential to the investigation, prosecution or defense of a crime; if it were deemed "critical to the successful completion" of a legal, non-criminal issue. Also, a reporter could be pressed for confidential information if it were necessary for pinpointing who leaked trade secrets, certain health data or classified national security information.
The bill defines a journalist as someone who "regularly" reports and writes "for a substantial portion of the person's livelihood or for substantial financial gain."...

Former McCain Adviser Endorses Same Sex Marriage

Steve Schmidt and John McCain
Photo: AP
7/23/08 at 10:30 AM
Holly Bailey
Steve Schmidt, who was John McCain’s chief political strategist during the campaign, has largely stayed out of sight since the election. He went back to California, where he lives with his wife and kids, and went back to work as a consultant, though he no longer formally advises political candidates. During the campaign, Schmidt made no secret of the fact that his personal views often ran far to the left of his party. In an interview this week with the Washington Blade, Schmidt, whose only sister is gay, came out in favor of marriage rights for same-sex couples and called for the Republican Party to be more inclusive of gays and lesbians. “I am personally supportive of (marriage) equality for gay couples, and I believe it will happen over time,” Schmidt said. “I think that more and more Americans are insistent that, at a minimum, gay couples should be treated with respect and when they see a political party trying to stigmatize a group of people who are hardworking, who play by the rules, who raise decent families, they’re troubled by it.” The former McCain strategist told the paper that he voted against Proposition 8, which ended same-sex marriage in California....


Thursday, March 26, 2009
Last updated 2:52 p.m. PT
House committee approves expanded rights for domestic partners (click here)
State Senate had previously OK'd same-sex domestic parnership rights
By CHRIS GRYGIEL
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
A state House committee on Thursday approved a measure that would give same-sex domestic partners all of the rights married people in the state get.
Senate Bill 5688 passed out of the House Judiciary Committee by a seven to four vote. Rep. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, said he expects the bill will now be referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. Pedersen, a long-time supporter of expanded rights for gay couples, said he's confident the measure will ultimately pass.
Earlier this month SB 5688 passed out of the state Senate by a 30-18 vote.
The bill adds domestic partners to all remaining areas of state law where now only married couples are addressed, statutes ranging from employment to pensions....



Same-sex marriage wins by 7 votes (click here)
After hours of debate, bill sent on to Senate
By DANIEL BARRICK
Monitor staff
KEN WILLIAMS / Monitor staff University of New Hampshire students (from left) Morgan O’Neil, Erin Thesing, Rebecca Romanoski and Jenelle DeVits react to a first vote shooting down same-sex marriage. The House then refused to table or kill the bill, and it passed on a second try.
It took a while to make up its mind, but the New Hampshire House voted yesterday to allow same-sex couples to marry.
The bill, which will now head to the Senate, passed by a seven-vote margin. Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, has said he opposes same-sex marriage, but he has not said whether he would veto a bill allowing it. He supported legislation two years ago that legalized civil unions for same-sex couples, and a spokesman for Lynch indicated yesterday that the governor was satisfied with the status quo.
"The civil unions bill he signed into law prevents discrimination and provides the same legal protections to all New Hampshire families to the extent that is possible under federal law," said Colin Manning, Lynch's press secretary.
Yesterday's House vote of 186-179 was cheered by gay-rights activists and others who watched from the House gallery. But the result came after hours of debate and several roll call votes that failed to achieve a majority for any course of action....

How much does your President love you? As Chief Executive to the Country, how could food contamination have been tolerated?

Who was 'safeguarding' the country for eight years? No one? It would seem as though 'belief principles' replaced science and monitoring at a time when National Security needed to address in every aspect the protections of our food system.

I haven't yet 'counted' the number of infringments of human rights existing in the USA under the Bush administration, but, it has to be a record setter.

DEREGULATION, budget cutting and downsizing government in vital areas of National Security is NOT an option.

In a country that is supposed to value 'health' and 'access' would find it more prudent to prevent disease than treat it. A country that has NO vested interest in the cost of health care would find it better to defer 'survival' to those that could find access and treatment through wealth while removing all safeguards in the way of government regulation. Dereglation 'at any cost' provides profit to companies that want to squeeze every cent or fraction there of out of their products.

What occurred in the eight years of the Bush Administration that actually facilitated a $14,000 DOW?

Planter: ‘It’s safe to eat peanuts’ (click here)
Mississippi man comes to Georgia to talk up the peanut, which is still suffering from the salmonella scare.
By Mark Davis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Don Self has come from Hamilton, Miss., to Atlanta this weekend to spread the word: You need Arachis hypogaea.
That’s what scientists call that gooey stuff in the jar, the bag of edibles you get at the Braves games. We call them peanuts.
“We’re trying to let the public know that it’s safe to eat peanuts,” said Self, handing out free stuff at the Health & Fitness Expo on Friday at the Georgia Dome. The festival continues today....


Judge: Bush White House Wanted Right-to-Lifers on FDA's Contraception Panel (click title to entry - thank you)
By Jim Edwards
March 24th, 2009 @ 12:01 pm
A federal court ruling on Teva’s Plan B “morning after” contraceptive reveals how the Bush White House corrupted the internal operations of the FDA, encouraged decisions not based on science, and led to months-long delays in approvals process.
Judge Edward Korman’s ruling makes Plan B (pictured) available over-the-counter instead of behind-the-counter, ending a long and wasteful drama over Teva/Barr’s contraceptive.
The ruling describes in juicy detail how the Bush Administration twisted the FDA in knots in order to appease right-to-life constituents who were opposed to young women getting contraceptives. The office of the commissioner even proposed right-to-life campaigners be added to an advisory committee on Plan B.
The judge wrote that “These political considerations, delays, and implausible justifications for decision-making are not the only evidence of a lack of good faith and reasoned agency decision-making.”...

There are many Malawi children needing a home. I am not surprised Madonna would seek another to love.

...Malawi Children's Village (click title to entry - thank you) is a home based orphan and other vulnerable children support program in Mangochi, Malawi. It now supports over 2000 orphans in 37 villages whose parent(s) have died of HIV/AIDS...