Wednesday, November 6th, 2013
ELIZABETH WEISE, - USA TODAY
Stephan: It is clear that with enough money for disinformation and propaganda you can convince people to eat poison.
Washington state voters on Tuesday rejected an initiative that would have required foods containing genetically engineered ingredients to be labeled.
The vote was 54.8% opposed to labeling and 45.2% in favor of it.
Had it passed, Initiative 522 would have made the state the first in the nation to require such labeling.
The initiative was the most expensive in state history, though it was largely fought by out-of-state interests.
The No on 522 campaign set a record for fundraising, bringing in $22 million in donations according to The Seattle Times. Just $550 came from Washington residents, according to the newspaper. The top five contributors were the Grocery Manufacturers Association, Monsanto, DuPont Pioneer, Dow AgroSciences and Bayer CropScience.
The largest donor to the pro-labeling campaign were California-based Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps and the Center for Food Safety in Washington, D.C. However the initiative garnered almost 30% of its funding from individuals in Washington state, the Times reported.
Food industry ads claimed that the initiative would raise food prices. Labels would mislead consumers into thinking that products that contain genetically engineered ingredients are ‘somehow different, unsafe or unhealthy,’ said Brian Kennedy of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a food industry group based in Washington, D.C.
The Yes on 522 campaigns […]
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Tuesday, November 5th, 2013
Stephan: Yet another aspect of how the poor are used simply as a way for a few individuals and corporations to tap the public treasury. The demise of free government run non-profit public education in many municipalities, and its replacement by profit making schools is yet another sign of how we are failing the next generation of Americans.
Click through to see the many hotlinks that take you to sources documenting this situation.
Just 10 days into a new academic year, classes were abruptly over at one North Carolina charter school this year.
In September, parents who had enrolled their children in Kinston Charter Academy received a letter from the principal directing them to take their children someplace else.
According to a local news report, a mere two days prior to those letters being received, the local board met in an emergency session to close the school after ‘low performance and disciplinary challenges made the enrollment numbers dwindle.
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Tuesday, November 5th, 2013
BRYCE COVERT, Economic Policy Editor - Think Progress
Stephan: We are destroying American society, by destroying families and making childhood for millions of Americans a misery; it's just that simple. The Theocratic Right, and the Teabaggers that are its political expression, as I have said again and again, are an evil toxic force in the country. Every other industrialized country in the world understands the importance of childcare, child nutrition, and healthcare, recognizing that it is in a society's collective interest to care for children that are its future, and to see that children get a decent start. A big portion of America, however, doesn't believe this, and our policies reflect this disdain for the next generation.
Families paid more for childcare in 2012 than in 2011, with the costs of center care rising by 2.7 percent for an infant and 2.6 percent for a four-year-old, according to a new report from Child Care Aware of America. They rose even faster for care in a family’s home, which went up 3.7 percent for an infant and 4.8 percent for a four-year-old. While the average annual cost of full-time center care ranges state by state, it is now as much as $16,430 in Massachusetts for an infant and $12,355 in New York for a four-year-old. For both children, it can be as much as $28,606.
This cost eats up a huge amount of families’ budgets. Putting two children in full-time center care represents the biggest single expense for a household in the Northeast, Midwest, and South, and it is only exceeded by the cost of housing in the West. It is more than annual median rent in every state and more than mortgage payments in 19 states and DC. The cost of putting an infant in a childcare center is more than what the average family spends on food in every region in the country. It can even be […]
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Tuesday, November 5th, 2013
CRYSTAL SHEPEARD, - Truthout
Stephan: We have become a country of peasants and princes. No other industrialized nation treats children like this.
Homelessness is defined as not having a regular permanent residence. This doesn’t necessarily mean living in the streets or in their vehicles – though many do. A large portion of homeless split their times between hotels, homeless shelters or crowding in with friends and families. For many students, when they go to school each morning, they may have no idea where they will be sleeping that night.
The Department of Education released its latest report on homeless students last month and the numbers are startling. More than 1.2 million K-12 students for the 2011-12 school year were homeless. This staggering number is considered underreported, since many kids take great measures to hide their homelessness due to embarrassment, and parents do their best to stay under the radar for fear of losing their children.
Most states saw a year to year increase in the number of homeless students. The nearly 75 percent increase nationwide since the recession began is a sign that whatever improvements are happening in the economy, it has not reached the poorest families.
These families are often working. However, what they are earning is not enough to cover the cost of housing. The Census Bureau reports that during the […]
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Tuesday, November 5th, 2013
MARISOL BELLO, - USA TODAY
Stephan: Every other week, Ronlyn bakes dozens of organic healthy treats for a citizen organization Whidbey Island Nourishes that feeds homeless and low income children here on the island. She is one of about 20 women who participate in this project to see that the children have healthy meals, and it has made me very sensitive to the issue of child nutrition. Today at the Post Office I ran into two of the women who founded WIN and learned from them about the increased demand for food as poverty increases on our island.
I believe the Theocratic Teabagger drive to cut food assistance in the U.S. is one of the most shameful things done by this country to itself. It is evil as I understand that word, and ironically about as un-Christian an act as a 'Christian' could do. It tells you that whatever the religious beliefs of the Teabaggers, they have nothing to do with Jesus and his teachings, except the misuse of his name.
If you have an extra dollar or two please donate it to your local food bank. It can make the difference between a child going to bed with an empty belly or having something to eat. And write your Representative and Senators and tell them how you feel about food assistance. I would take it as a personal favor if you would do this.
Food banks across the country, stretched thin in the aftermath of the recession, are bracing for more people coming through their doors in the wake of cuts to the federal food stamp program.
Food stamp benefits to 47 million Americans were cut starting Friday as a temporary boost to the federal program comes to an end without new funding from a deadlocked Congress.
Under the program, known formally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, a family of four that gets $668 per month in benefits will find that amount cut by $36.
‘It may not sound like a lot but to a person like me, it is,’ says Annie Crisp, 30, a single mother of two girls in Lancaster, Ohio. ‘It’s not just a number.’
She says she received a little less than $550 a month in food stamps and now will receive $497. Crisp, a babysitter who brings home about $830 a month, says the food stamps help her buy her family fresh fruits, vegetables and meat.
Crisp worries now that she may end up trying to supplement her family’s groceries by going to a food bank or cutting into her electric or gas money for the month. The cut, she says, […]
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