From: Bloomington Alternative <editor@bloomingtonalternative.com>
Date: Sun, May 15, 2011 at 7:45 AM
Subject: The Bloomington Alternative - May 15, 2011
To: landrightsnfarming.seamom89@gmail.com
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The Bloomington Alternative Online
Committed to progressive social change and independent journalism
May 15, 2011
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http://www.BloomingtonAlternative.com
editor@BloomingtonAlternative.com
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POLITICS | INTERSTATE 69
MPO says 'No Interstate 69 in Bloomington'
by Linda Greene
May 14, 2011
Opponents of Interstate 69 erupted in cheers and applause when Mayor Mark Kruzan and the Bloomington/Monroe County Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Committee (MPO) on May 13 voted to exclude I-69 in its Transportation Improvement Program for fiscal years 2012–15.
The 8-to-3 vote followed several hours of intense testimony from the public in opposition to I-69. The move includes section 4, which would bisect Monroe County.
"There comes a time when you stand up to a bully," City Council member Andy Ruff said. "It is time to stand up for ourselves. It is time to stop the bully from adding I-69 to his political trophy case."
Full story: The Bloomington Alternative
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PEACE | COMMENTARY | MEDIA | POLITICS | WAR
MEDIAlternative: Same as it ever was
by Kevin Howley
May 14, 2011
Change is in the air. Some of this is welcome change: the grassroots democracy movement across the Middle East and North Africa comes to mind. As does the worker uprising in Madison, Wis., and cities and towns across these United States.
More often than not, however, this change has been catastrophic. Weather-related disasters of historic proportions are wreaking havoc on the people and the land across the American South. Overseas, the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant continues to threaten public health and safety in northeast Japan and beyond.
Full story: The Bloomington Alternative
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SOCIETY | ENVIRONMENT | COMMENTARY
Life expectancy a 'reversal of fortunes'?
by Steven Higgs
May 13, 2011
For a variety of reasons -- among them a 60th birthday and news that three more significant figures from my life didn't reach that milestone -- I've been contemplating that most foreboding of subjects: life expectancy.
My curiosity is driven by events and informed by an observation made several years ago in a story by a student journalist. An IU Health Center source said her generation -- the student's -- due to lifestyle and environmental factors, would be the first in American history to live shorter lives than their parents.
Full story: The Bloomington Alternative
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POLITICS | HEALTH CARE
Planned Parenthood extends care to Medicaid patients
News Release
Planned Parenthood of Indiana
May 13, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS – Planned Parenthood of Indiana (PPIN) will cover the costs of care to its Medicaid patients around the state through at least Saturday, May 21. There will be some limitations, including no new Medicaid-eligible patients will be taken, and some services will be scheduled later to give the court time to issue a ruling on the injunction being sought by PPIN.
The extension is possible due to the extraordinary outpouring of support from donors across the country. PPIN will monitor as gifts continue to come in the door and hopes to be able to extend services beyond May 21.
Full story: The Bloomington Alternative
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POLITICS | INTERSTATE 69 | ENVIRONMENT
I-69 opposition not finished yet
by Linda Greene
April 30, 2011
You've heard it before: "I-69 is not a done deal." A panel of five activists presented ample evidence bolstering that statement at Green Drinks at the Upland Brewery banquet hall on April 27.
Chris Doran, from the I-69 Accountability Project, moderated. The panel was made up of Jody Madeira, whom Doran introduced as a "pissed-off" homeowner and IU law professor; Christine Glaser, an environmental economist; Tim Maloney, from the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC); Tom Tokarski, from Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads (CARR); and Sam Allison, Monroe County council member.
Full story: The Bloomington Alternative
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POLITICS | MEDIA | COMMENTARY
MEDIAlternative: Movin' on, MoveOn
by Kevin Howley
April 30, 2011
Maybe it's all the yard signs that have sprouted up in Bloomington these past few weeks. Perhaps it's the news media's incessant handicapping of potential candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Or it could be the tsunami of unsolicited mail Democratic Party operatives have unleashed lately. In any case, it's clear that campaign season has sprung up like so many dandelions after a thundershower.
In the past week alone, I've received bulk e-mail from political strategist and Clinton acolyte James Carville, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org.
Full story: The Bloomington Alternative
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MEDIA | HEALTH CARE | ENVIRONMENT | COMMENTARY | AUTISM | 'AUTISM AND THE INDIANA ENVIRONMENT BLOG'
Media, the environment, vaccines and autism
by Steven Higgs
April 30, 2011
After an involuntary hiatus, it's always invigorating to re-engage the with the "real work" (Beat poet Gary Snyder's words), especially when the initial reconnect is celebratory in nature. Especially when the celebration involves an institution at the heart of the mission, in this case journalism.
And so, with a bow to journalist Robert MacNeil, I begin this summer's phase of my investigation into the twin epidemics of autism and developmental disabilities. His investigative report Autism Now, which aired on the PBS NewsHour in April, reacquainted me with the issues I'm exploring in the Ohio River Valley, where the rain is toxic and data show the kids just aren't quite right, developmentally speaking. Three years' into this project, I've not found a more honest or enlightened media report.
Full story: The Bloomington Alternative
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SOCIAL JUSTICE | POLITICS | LABOR | HEALTH CARE | ENVIRONMENT | ECONOMIC JUSTICE
Cancer in blue-collar workers
by Linda Greene
April 29, 2011
"Justice delayed is justice denied." -- William E. Gladstone, British statesman and prime minister, 1809-1898
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About 1 million women, according to the Cancer Prevention Coalition (preventcancer.com), work in industries that expose them to more than 50 carcinogens linked to breast cancer. But it doesn't have to be that way. In a large number of cases, cancer is preventable. This fact applies especially to carcinogenic (cancer-causing) chemicals in the workplace.
"At least one in every 10 cancers - and probably many more - is the result of preventable, predictable workplace exposures," according to Occupational Cancer/Zero Cancer: Union Guide to Prevention.
Full story: The Bloomington Alternative
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BOOKS | ARTS
Liberation from the animals' point of view
by Linda Greene
April 25, 2011
Fear of the Animal Planet: The Hidden History of Animal Resistance is a book about the power struggle between humans and nonhuman animals in captivity. Only when humans succeed in dominating the animals totally - sometimes by killing them -- does this struggle end.
But according to Jason Hribal, author of the book, the animals fight back.
"[T]rough my research," Hribal writes, "the resistance became ever more evident. Captive animals escaped their cages. They attacked their keepers. They refused to perform. They refused to reproduce. The resistance itself could be organized."
Full story: The Bloomington Alternative
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SUPPORT THE ALTERNATIVE
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Alternative Books
· Twenty Years of Crimes Against Democracy: A Grassroots History of the I-69/NAFTA Highway, by Steven Higgs, New World Digital, 2009
· Another Way: Poems by Thomas Tokarski, hand-made, self-published, 2009
· Eternal Vigilance: Nine Tales of Environmental Heroism Indiana, by Steven Higgs, Indiana University Press,1995
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ONLINE FEATURES
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Autism and the Indiana Environment Blog
· Media, the environment, vaccines and autism
· 15 years later, even Finns' sperm is in decline
· Student journalists; the autism epidemic is your generation's story to tell
· It rains mercury in Mitch Daniels' America
· Cause of autism a cause for concern
· Autism Waiver cuts spell catastrophe in Indiana
· Family gets millions for vaccine-induced autism
· Is Eli Lilly pursuing the presidency?
· Senate hearing emphasizes environment-autism links
· The first autistic kid in school
· Poisoned slowly in the 'Polluted Triangle'
· Autism's generation gap, a lesson re-learned
· Deep in the heart of toxic valley
· Simplifying the definition of autism
· 'Poisoned for Profit' -- the truth and nothing but
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Columnists
· MEDIAlternative by Kevin Howley
· OUT IN BLOOMINGTON by Helen Harrell with Carol Fischer
· STATE OF THE UNION by Tom Szymanski
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The Bloomington Alternative is a biweekly journal of news and commentary published by journalist Steven Higgs. Access is free, but readers are asked to subscribe to help underwrite the costs associated with the Alternative's production. Please see our subscription rates at www.BloomingtonAlternative.com.
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Copyright 2011 by Higgs Communications LLC. All rights reserved.
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