Pricele$$ Documentary At Basics

Rock County Progressives present: Pricele$$, a non-partisan documentary that examines citizens efforts to eliminate a root cause of countless social and environmental problems - the inordinate influence of special interest money in government. From the film makers who brought you Empty Oceans, Empty Nets and Farming the Seas.

Tuesday, February 22
Reception 6:00 pm
Film 6:30-7:30 pm
Basics food cooperative
1711 Lodge Dr Janesville, Wisconsin

rockcountyprogressives@gmail.com

Feb. 10 Meeting - Factory farm

The next meeting of Friends of Rock Prairie (yes, we have a name now!) is scheduled for this coming Thursday evening at 6:30 PM, February 10, at:

Clinton Senior Center
508 Front Street
(Corner of Hwy 140 & Front)

We are starting to gain traction: A lot of folks sent comments responding to the DNRs Environmental Analysis of the dairy proposal, and our attorney filed a strong statement. (I will attach it.) We had a good meeting with the Rock County Health Department this past Friday, and I think they could be a strong ally.

Now we need to think of ways to influence public opinion and influence the decision-makers who will either enable or prevent the CAFO from becoming reality. Come to the next meeting with your specific ideas on how we can do this! It's not sufficient to be "with us in spirit." I've never known a "spirit" to win a political battle, particularly against big money. It takes bodies and minds and determination and creativity and leadership.

Let's become a strong force for change to preserve and protect our community!

Hope to see you Thursday. Bring a neighbor or friend.

Sincerely,

Tom Boswell
608/882-0758
tomboswell2002@yahoo.com

Feb. 3rd Meeting Factory farm

Dear Folks,

We scheduled our next meeting on the factory farm for this coming Thursday, February 3, at 6:30 pm. The meeting will be at:

Clinton Senior Center
508 Front Street, Clinton
(corner of Hwy 140 S & Front St.
by the car wash)

Thanks to Norbert Larson for setting this up.

At last Wednesday's meeting, we took more nominations for a name for our group. We tabled the voting until the next meeting. Here are the nominations so far:

Save Rock Prairie
Citizens for the Land
Good Neighbors Unite
Preserve the Land

If you have an idea for a name for our group, please email it to me and/or the whole group by Wednesday. We will choose a name when we meet on Thursday.

We have arranged a meeting with leaders of the Rock County Health Department. It will be held next Friday at 10 am. We have six people committed to participate. If you would like to attend, or have ideas for the agenda, please get in touch with me.

There are also two people who stepped forward to arrange to talk to Bradford Township about passing an ordinance outlawing central pivots (as Johnstown Township did recently). Contact Tim Bliss and Tammy Van Pamel if you want to be part of this effort.

Remember: we have a February 4th deadline to respond to the environmental assessment on the mega-dairy. We will discuss this at the meeting. Here is the link once again:

http://www.dnr.wi.gov/org/es/science/eis/eis.htm

A number of people have suggested that we need to do stream monitoring and test wells in the area now so that we have baseline data in case the factory farm does go in. We added another team at our last meeting. I think Tammy is the only person to volunteer for the water monitoring team so far. We need more recruits!

Here is a suggested agenda for Thursday's meeting. Please let me know if there are other items that should be included that don't fall under these categories.

Draft Meeting Agenda

1) Introductions 6:30 pm

2) Updates 6:40

3) Choose a Name 7:00

4) Response to Environmental Assessment 7:10

5) Landowner spreading contracts 7:30

6) Public Events ??? 7:45

7) Teams: break out to discuss action/strategy 8:00

8) Report back 8:15

9) Adjourn 8:30


Hope to see you on Thursday. You can forward this message on to friends or neighbors that might be interested, but it's better to give them a phone call instead. We have about 40 people on our email list now, but try to call folks that you know don't use email and have come to previous meetings (or may be interested in doing so.)

Sincerely,

Tom Boswell
608/882-0758
tomboswell2002@yahoo.com

Action Alert! - Factory Farm Meeting

Action Alert:

What: CAFO meeting (huge factory dairy just east of Janesville)
When: Wednesday, January 26th, 6:30 PM
Where: Janesville Senior Center, 69 South Water Street, Janesville

For more information on this meeting, please contact Dwight Brass, retired Environmental Engineer at janicen@ticon.net

"When People lead, the Leaders will Follow"

Dear Fellow Factory Farm Fighters:

This will be a lengthy notice because things are happening so fast, but I’ll try to mention the most important items first.

One: Date & Place of next meeting changed! We were not able to reserve the Janesville Library for next Thursday (or next Wednesday) so I reserved a meeting room at the Janesville Senior Center. We also wanted our attorney from Midwest Environmental Advocates to be present, and she cannot attend on a Thursday evening. Here’s the scoop:

Wednesday – January 26 – 6:30 – 8 pm
Janesville Senior Center
69 South Water Street

This is more “downtown” than the library, near the Court House. You can park behind their building, in the parking lot, and enter through the back door. We are meeting in the upstairs conference room. They are charging us $30 for an hour and a half, so please bring a couple bucks to help defray the cost. (We will look into other, free, alternatives to the library. I will check out local churches, which are usually free and more comfortable.)

Please bring two other people with you to the meeting. (Supporters, not those sitting on the fence.) If you can’t make the meeting, please recruit three other people to take your place!

Two: The EA is out!
Dr. Margaret Pulera alerted us Friday that the DNR has released an Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Tuls project. We have until February 4th at 4:30 pm to comment on it! Go to the link below to review it. There is a press release, the 20-page EA, and 12 pages of attachments.

http://www.dnr.wi.gov/org/es/science/eis/eis.htm

Three: Attorney Assistance As mentioned above, Miriam Ostrov, an attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates, a public interest law firm in Madison, will join us for the meeting. For those of you who are not already aware of this, Midwest Environmental Advocates has hired an expert to review the WPDES permit application. They can also help us:

write our own comments on the permit
help us find grants to support a water-monitoring program
assist with a PR campaign against the cow factory.

I also had a conversation Friday with Peter McKeever, an attorney with Ed Garvey’s firm in Madison. They assist community groups around the state on environmental issues and have worked on the Magnolia Township factory farm case. (Peter used to be the State Director for The Nature Conservancy.)

Peter stressed that the nutrient management plan for the dairy is a crucial issue to focus on. We need to find experts to assist us with issues like: the nature of soils on the Rock Prairie, characteristics of the groundwater table, and proximity to wetlands and other water. We should learn all we can about the potential impact on streams in the area. Here is a link Peter sent to a new report on “Management practices to mitigate hazardous animal emissions.”

http://dnr.wi.gov/air/agWasteBMPs.html


Four: Outside experts knocking on our door
Karen Hudson, a national leader in the fight against CAFOs, also contacted us Friday. Karen lives near Peoria, with two CAFOs in her backyard. (Not literally.) She leads a number of groups, including the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project and Illinois Citizens for Clean Air and Water. Her and her cohorts can connect us with other experts and they have money to travel – to come consult with us, speak at public events, etc. John Ikerd, the agricultural economist and factory farm expert from Missouri, is on their board of directors. We are going to be arranging a conference call with them.

We also have the women who came to our last meeting, fighting the factory farm in Galena, to consult with us.

Five: Leadership teams As you can see, we now have plenty of help, but we need to take the lead to win this battle for self-determination! It is up to each of us. We made a great start at our last meeting. Attached is the list of all those who signed up for the Steering Committee or one of the three teams. Please look this over and let me know if I missed anyone. Let me know if you were not at the last meeting and want to volunteer for one of these teams.

It is not too soon to get started. It would be best if one of you from each team can take the initiative and contact the others and arrange a time to meet, either in person or by phone. If not, you can choose a time to meet on Wednesday evening.

I’d like to suggest that the Steering Committee meet at 5:30 pm Wednesday at the Senior Center. If this is not possible, please let me know and we can make other arrangements.

Six: How about a name?
I’d also like to suggest we choose a name for our group. Please note I’m not suggesting we incorporate, write by-laws, elect officers, hire a lobbyist, etc. But I do think we need a name. If nothing else, it will make it easier to reserve a room for a meeting if we are an actual entity.

My suggestion is we call ourselves: Citizens for _____ ________ __________. You fill in the blanks. (It’s always best to say we’re for something rather than against.) How about if you email your ideas in and/or bring them to the meeting? We can have a quick election, and keep the name as long as we feel it still suits us.

Seven: Public Action
The last thing I want to mention is that I feel we need to take some public action in the near future. This could be any number of things – meetings with public agencies or public officials, a large public event where we explain our position and gain support, etc. The idea is to get public visibility, focus the issue, and energize people.

One thought is to ask John Ikerd to come speak in Janesville. He will be in Rockford on March 28, and I think in Peoria about the same time. We could also have Karen Hudson and/or others make a public presentation. Karen mentioned two books they have been involved in producing – Animal Factory and CAFO Reader – that we could utilize. (This event should be a fundraiser too.)

Of course, we need to take some action before March 28. We must spend some time strategizing about meetings with public officials. Why not meetings in the next three weeks with the DNR, County Board members/committees, the county conservationist, and the Rock County Health Department? The latter three are potential allies, and we will need allies. Remember, we can accomplish some things as individuals, but we will be much more powerful as a group.

With all this in mind, I will attach a suggested agenda for the next meeting, which the Steering Committee can refine.

One more thing: Please consider writing a letter to the editor, and ask your friends and neighbors to do the same. There is the Janesville Gazette, Beloit Daily News, and Clinton Topper, depending on where you live. There may be other small weekly papers I’m not aware of. It’s best to focus on one specific aspect of the broader issue: water, clean air, property values, public health, economic issues, etc. Pick the one you feel most strongly about.

Don’t do what I did and try to cover everything in one piece. I wrote a 1,200- word piece and asked the Gazette to publish it as a guest editorial. They wanted me to chop it down to 500 words. (No exceptions!) I took many attempts at editing it down, and did a lot of haggling with the editor. I pared it down to about 600 words and gave up. There didn’t seem to be much left of my original argument! I will attach the original piece in case you might like to read it.

Hope to see you on Wednesday.

Sincerely,

Tom Boswell

Two Events - Move To Amend

You are invited to two events this Friday evening to mark the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. In the Citizens United case the Supreme Court decided that corporate spending on elections could not be limited under the First Amendment, because corporations are "persons" and money is their "speech".

So, please join us on Friday for the following two events co-hosted by South Central Wisconsin Move to Amend (www.scwmta.org) and Liberty Tree (www.libertytreefdr.org). First, come take a stand for democracy at the:

CITIZENS UNITED ANNIVERSARY RALLY
5:30 PM, Friday, January 21
On the Steps of Capitol Building (State Street Entrance)
Speakers: John Nichols, Trish O'Neill, Mindy Preston, Kaja Rebane, Ben Manski (MC)

Immediately following the rally, join us for a merry Irish-style wake for our good friend Democracy. We will celebrate her life, raise a glass to her accomplishments, and discuss ways to revive her:

WAKE FOR DEMOCRACY
6:00-10:00 PM, Friday, January 21
Brocach Irish Pub (Upstairs), 7 W. Main Street
Featuring: The Raging Grannies, Good Food and Drink, and Great Company!

If you are on Facebook, you can RSVP to these events here:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=133864826675933

Please feel free to forward this invitation to others who may be interested in attending either of these events. Thanks!

Kaja Rebane
Co-Chair, South Central WI Move to Amend

Mega-Dairy Meeting At Hedberg Library

In case you may have missed the meeting last week, there is another this Thursday.

Where: Hedberg Library
316 S. Main St., Janesville, WI

When: Thursday, January 20, 2011
Beginning at 6:30 PM
The meeting will run for one hour.

The meeting will be hosted by Dwight S. Brass. Mr. Brass holds a degree in engineering as well as an MBA. His work has included two distinct areas, environmental engineering (Illinois EPA), and business (U of Wisconsin Stevens Point, Financial analyst). As a life-long "environmentalist", he has a strong interest in projects that have the potential to wreak havoc on the environment.

In addition, he is interested in our economy, that desperately needs jobs. A mega-dairy such as this 5,000 cow facility, is likely to be more "efficient", which means fewer jobs for a given amount of milk produced. Since we don't necessarily have a shortage of milk (we actually have a glut), this additional production capacity will force other dairies, likely smaller family farm operations, out of business. The Nebraskan indicated that he may buy the needed dairy cows in Wisconsin. This could be from family dairy farms forced out of business.

MLK Commemoration AT BTC

Friends,
Please share this information with others. The Martin Luther King Commemoration event is this Saturday, January 8, 2011, 3pm – 5pm, at Blackhawk Tech, on Martin Luther King Rd, between Beloit and Janesville.

Thanks very much.
Rob

GSAFE Presents Screening And Discussion On Bullies

GSAFE presents public screening of Bullied: A Student, a School, and a Case That Made History

Milton Public Library on Wednesday, December 15 at 6:00 p.m. Admission is free.

The library is located at 430 East High Street. For directions/more information, call 608-661-4141 or email brianj@gsaforsafeschools.org.

Volunteers are needed to bring treats/refreshments and the “talkback” portion of the event, email or call Brian J.

"BULLIED" TAKES AIM AT ANTI-GAY BULLYING AND HATE RELATED VIOLENCE

Free Documentary Screening to Spark Conversation about Bullying-Related Suicide and Hate Crimes.

MILTON, Wisconsin – (December 7, 2010) Bullied: A Student, a School, and a Case That Made History, a documentary film that chronicles one Wisconsin student’s ordeal at the hands of anti-gay bullies, will be screened at the Milton Public Library at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 15, 2010. This free public screening, which will be followed by discussion and a brief presentation, is part of a state-wide effort by the Gay Straight Alliance for Safe Schools (GSAFE) to raise awareness about the broad impact of anti-gay bullying and hate-motivated violence.

“With the rash of gay teen suicides this fall and the recent reports of hate-motivated violence, it’s critically important to have an honest discussion about bullying in our schools,” said Brian Juchems, Program Director for GSAFE. “Bullied provides a perfect opportunity for the community to engage in a serious conversation about what’s happening in our schools and communities and how we can make it better for all students.”

Bullied, released this fall by Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, chronicles the story of Jamie Nabozny. Nabozny, a student from Ashland, WI, became the target of anti-gay bullying starting in middle school. The bullying grew worse as he reached high school, culminating in a physical attack by classmates which sent Nabozny to the hospital and caused him to drop out of school. He eventually sued his district for failure to protect him on the basis of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

"The main thing that I want people to know is that it does get better. However it doesn't get better unless people make it better. This is a chance for us to do that," said Robert Alexander, Milton 2009 graduate and chair of South Central Fair Wisconsin Action Network.

Former president of the Milton High School Gay-Straight Alliance, Alexander noted that he would regularly hear anti-gay slurs throughout the school day. While some staff and teachers would tell students to stop it, this didn't always happen. "My hope is that all district staff, as well as community leaders, walk away from this event motivated to take steps to stop the use of slurs."

Anti-gay bullying doesn't just impact gay and lesbian students. Research done by the National Education Association, which has endorsed Bullied, shows that four out of five students who are the targets of anti-gay bullying are actually straight. "Anti-gay bullying isn't just a gay issue. It impacts all students in our schools and communities." said Juchems.

A 2009 Wisconsin School Climate survey found that the majority of WI youth experience verbal harassment due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. The same survey, conducted by GSAFE, found that nearly three-fourths of Wisconsin youth hear comments like "that's so gay" frequently or often. A quarter of Wisconsin gay youth have been physically harassed because of their sexual orientation.

"It's not a question of if anti-gay harassment is happening in our schools. It's a matter of where and when." said Juchems. "When we let verbal bullying go unchecked, we give tacit permission for the bullying to escalate to something physical. The less we talk about it, the worse it gets. I'm pleased that Milton and surrounding communities are interested in having this conversation."

This public screening of Bullied: A Student, a School, and a Case That Made History takes place at the Milton Public Library on Wednesday, December 15 at 6:00 p.m. Admission is free. The library is located at 430 East High Street. For directions/more information, call 608-661-4141 or email brianj@gsaforsafeschools.org

Rock The Pantry

Scott Walker’s inauguration is fast approaching and he’s using the occasion to rake in campaign cash. On January 3rd he will be sworn into office, and unlike Democratic Governor Doyle, who donated his inaugural proceeds to charity, all the money raised at Walker's inaugural events will go to the Republican Party or Walker's campaign account.

So rather than filling Walker's campaign coffers, come to One Wisconsin Now's alternative inaugural event January 3rd and together you and I can help families in need and “Rock the Pantry!”

All of the proceeds from tickets sold for “Rock the Pantry” will go directly to charity. Come celebrate with live music, a live DJ and terrific speakers as we “Rock the Pantry” at our OWN inauguration.

Tickets are $10 a piece and can be purchased at:
One Wisconsin

Democratic Governor Jim Doyle used proceeds from his inaugural events to donate over $500,000 to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Wisconsin. Scott Walker is giving all his proceeds to the GOP. We need do our part to help needy Wisconsinites Walker is leaving out in the cold. All proceeds from tickets sold to “Rock the Pantry" will go directly to charities assisting those hit hardest by the economic collapse. Let’s show Scott Walker what it means to help those in need!

“Rock the Pantry” will be held at the Majestic Theater on King Street in Madison from 7-10p.m. The event will include progressive speakers, DJ Andrew Larson from Saturn’s 8 and live music. A full entertainment line-up will be announced later this month so mark your calendars and keep your ear to the wall.

Demand is high so order your tickets in advance to make at: One Wisconsin.

Tickets bought online are available for $10 each, or $5 dollars for students or for those with limited income.

It’s time to demonstrate that we haven’t all become scrooges like Scott Walker and still have the generous spirit of the season. I hope to see you there!

Happy Holidays,
Scot

P.S.: Scott Walker already cost us 13,000 jobs and high speed rail. Send him a message and help the needy all at the same time by buying a ticket for “Rock the Pantry.” Wanna make Walker even more crazy? Buy five tickets.

Rock County Progressives December Meeting

In light of the recent elections, it's even more clear that progressives need to do a better job of informing and educating the public about the critical issues facing us...

What's next for progressives in Rock County? Push for campaign finance reform? Other issues?

Should we have a film series? Speakers?

Our next meeting is on Wednesday, December 8, 6:30 PM-8 PM, Milton Public Library

430 East High Street; #100
Milton, Wisconsin

After entering the building, turn left then right, the room is at the end of the hall.

Hope to see everyone there,

Contact: rockcountyprogressives@gmail.com