In Nigeria, B4E has teamed with the non-profit Teachers Without Borders, a global alliance that supports teacher leaders worldwide, with professional development opportunities and support so that teachers may play a more vital role in their communities. In collaboration with Teachers without Borders, B4E will hold a six-day train-the-trainer program for roughly 150 teachers from across Nigeria. During their month-long stay in the country, the B4E team will also lead three-day courses at national universities and high schools.

To support this effort, B4E has developed a 100-page Teacher Training Resource Guide for its constituencies. This teaching manual will eventually be made available through e-learning, to teachers across the world who are interested in bringing a more holistic approach to education, attending to the heart as well as the mind of students.

To help teachers extend mindful awareness to students, B4E has also developed curriculum for its Mindful Ambassador Council initiative (M.A.C.) for high school-age students. This 17-session program offers the core of B4E educational content, with reflective practices, teaching stories, discussion topics, and journal exercises. Along with its teacher training, the B4E team of eight teachers will also focus on launching M.A.C. initiatives throughout Africa and the Middle East.

Founder, Theo Koffler, said of this next phase, “Educators and healthcare providers are really at the heart of our societies, and encouraging them to recognize their voices as capable for social change is a powerful message to convey. We are honored to partner with Teachers Without Borders and others, in offering our programs to support this purpose in Africa and beyond.”

The work of B4E is to support a world where people share the awareness of our common destiny, and whose vision of the world is based on compassion, social justice, equanimity and peace. Each one of us has the power to “be the change” we want to see in the world.

"On the part of the students, to whom the future of our nation and the world belongs, B4E mindfulness skills and practices have developed a new standard of behavioral excellence. Our students have hopes to become agents of social change and role models to their peers, to their colleagues in other schools, to their parents at home and members of their immediate communities." –  Emmanuel Ivorgba, founder of Creative Minds International Academy in Jos, Nigeria

“The extraordinary work of Between4Eyes to bring mindfulness and positive character development to conflict and post-conflict communities is inspiring and so important in our world today where the capacity to cultivate compassion in our daily lives can help to bring about a more peaceful world.” – Richard Davidson, Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry

"To create a truly livable world, free from the kind of conflict and war we see today, understanding our emotions is essential. I see the launching of Between Four Eyes' programs in Africa and the Middle East as a very healthy, and needed, step toward this goal." – Paul Ekman, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California Medical School, author of Emotions Revealed, and co-author (with the Dalai Lama) of Emotional Awareness.

For more information, contact:

Veronica Wilson

veronicaw(at)btwn4eyes.org

www.betweenfoureyes.org

Between Four Eyes is a project of Tides, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 23, 2009

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals for key administration posts: Philip Mudd, Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, Department of Homeland Security; Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, State Department; Eric P. Schwartz, Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration, State Department; and Edward M. Avalos, Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, United States Department of Agriculture.

President Obama said, "As we work to solve the problems our nation faces, my administration will be strengthened by the addition of these dedicated individuals. I am confident that they will meet the expectations the American people demand and deserve of their public servants."

...

Eric P. Schwartz, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration, State Department

Eric P. Schwartz is Executive Director of the Connect U.S. Fund, a foundation/NGO initiative focused on foreign and international affairs, and Visiting Lecturer of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.  Between 2005 and 2007, he served as UN Deputy Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, working to promote coordination, accountability to donors and beneficiaries, and best practices in the recovery effort.  Prior to that, he served as lead expert on conflict prevention and reconstruction for the Congressionally mandated Task Force on United Nations Reform, and as a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.  Between 1993 and 2001, Schwartz served at the National Security Council, ultimately as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs.  For eight years, he was the NSC official responsible for refugee issues, and managed Administration policy responses on the rescue of Kurdish refugees from Northern Iraq, the resettlement of Vietnamese boat people, and safe haven for Haitian refugees and Kosovars.  Prior to that, he served at the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, where he  was responsible for most of the Committee's work on Asian refugee issues, including Vietnamese boat people, Laotian refugees and the U.S. immigration issues relating to the transfer of sovereignty in Hong Kong.

> Click here to read the full release.

A recent letter to the editor penned by The Center for Environment and Population (CEP), a Tides project, on The Benefits of Family Planning for the Environment was published in the New York Times.

This outreach is part of CEP's nationwide campaign to gain support for international family planning, reproductive health, and other population issues specifically using the environmental rationale. As part of this effort, CEP is talking to the White House (Office of Science and Technology, CEQ, and U.S. AID), the UN, UN Foundation, PPFA, NGOs, scientists, scholars, policymakers, and others so that cross-sectoral expertise can be represented on the policy issues. CEP wants environment experts at the family planning table and population experts at environment and climate change tables. It all reflects a growing interest on the part of the U.S. government, policymakers, and the public on the science-based linkages between population and the environment. 

> Click here to read the full letter on the New York Times' website.

For more information on Tides project The Center for Environment and Population, see www.cepnet.org.

The Alliance was formed in direct response to a groundbreaking report released in the spring of 2008 by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which concluded that America's eldercare workforce is dangerously understaffed and unprepared to care for the rapidly growing number of older adults in the U.S.

The IOM report, Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce, explained that by 2030, the number of Americans 65 or older will nearly double to 77 million, and roughly 20 percent of these adults will have five or more chronic health problems. At the same time, there are serious anticipated shortfalls across the eldercare workforce of professionals and direct care workers.

"Eldercare is projected to be the fastest-growing employment sector in the healthcare industry, and strengthening these caregiving fields is essential to quality of care for older adults in America and may also drive long-term employment and economic growth," said Alice H. Hedt, who was named EWA Project Director during the Alliance's D.C. meeting.

Further limiting older Americans' access to quality of care, both direct-care workers and the family caregivers who provide countless hours of care are inadequately trained and prepared, according to the IOM report.

In immediate response to the eldercare workforce crisis, the Alliance is proposing to:

• Strengthen the direct-care workforce through better training, supervision and improved compensation;
• Address clinician and faculty shortages, through incentives such as loan         forgiveness, increased public funding for training, and better compensation;
• Ensure a competent workforce by encouraging agencies and organizations         that certify and regulate the eldercare workforce to require demonstrated and continued competence; and
• Redesign health care delivery by adopting cost-effective care coordination models.

"EWA's goal is to develop practical solutions that will build a caring and competent workforce providing high-quality, culturally sensitive, person-directed, and family-focused care for America's elders," said Ms. Hedt, who has more than 25 years of experience designing, advocating for, and implementing innovative eldercare programs. Most recently she was the Executive Director of NCCNHR: The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care.

The Alliance will be partnering with older adults and their family members as well as national organizations to work with the Obama Administration and Congress to effect changes that improve health care and care for America's elders. The Atlantic Philanthropies and the John A. Hartford Foundation provided funds for the development of the Alliance, and Atlantic has committed one million dollars for Alliance activities.

To highlight the importance of strengthening both the professional health care workforce and the direct-care workforce, EWA has appointed Steven L. Dawson, president of PHI, and Nancy Lundebjerg, Chief Operating Officer of the American Geriatrics Society, co-conveners of the Alliance. PHI is a national nonprofit working to improve the quality of eldercare and disability services by supporting quality jobs for direct-care workers. The American Geriatrics Society is a national nonprofit that brings together health professionals devoted to improving the health, independence and quality of life of all older people.

About the Eldercare Workforce Alliance

The Eldercare Workforce Alliance is a group of 25 national organizations, joined together to address the immediate and future workforce crisis in caring for an aging America. The Alliance is a Project of the Tides Center and the Tides Advocacy Fund. Alliance members believe that:

• An essential step in addressing our fragmented health and long-term care system is to adopt care models that provide well-coordinated, person-directed and family-focused services across settings.
• All unpaid caregivers -- including family, friends and other caregivers--should be supported and have opportunities to acquire the needed skills, knowledge, and information to care appropriately for older adults.
• Resolving the workforce crisis requires addressing recruitment, retention, training and compensation issues across the direct-care and professional health care workforce -- which is essential to improve the quality of care and quality of life for older adults.

About The Atlantic Philanthropies

The Atlantic Philanthropies are dedicated to bringing about lasting changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people. Atlantic focuses on four critical social problems: Aging, Disadvantaged Children & Youth, Population Health, and Reconciliation & Human Rights. Programs funded by Atlantic operate in Australia, Bermuda, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United States and Viet Nam. To learn more, please visit: www.atlanticphilanthropies.org.

About the John A. Hartford Foundation

Founded in 1929, the John A. Hartford Foundation is a committed champion of training, research and service system innovations that promote the health and independence of America's older adults. Through its grantmaking, the Foundation seeks to strengthen the nation's capacity to provide effective, affordable care to this rapidly increasing older population by educating "aging-prepared" health professionals (physicians, nurses, social workers), and developing innovations that improve and better integrate health and supportive services. The Foundation was established by John A. Hartford. Mr. Hartford and his brother, George L. Hartford, both former chief executives of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, left the bulk of their estates to the Foundation upon their deaths in the 1950s. Additional information about the Foundation and it programs is available on our Web site www.jhartfound.org.

MEMBERS OF THE ELDERCARE WORKFORCE ALLIANCE

• AARP
• Alzheimer's Association
• American Academy of Nursing
• American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
• American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
• American Geriatrics Society
• American Medical Association
• American Medical Directors Association
• American Nurses Association
• American Psychological Association
• American Society of Consultant Pharmacists
• American Society on Aging
• Coalition of Geriatric Nursing Organizations
• Council on Social Work Education
• Direct Care Alliance
• Family Caregiver Alliance
• Gerontological Society of America
• National Alliance for Caregiving
• National Council on Aging
• National Hispanic Council on Aging
• NCCNHR: The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-term Care
• NCB Capital Impact/THE GREEN HOUSE(R) Project
• New York Academy of Medicine/Social Work Leadership Institute
• PHI
• Visiting Nurse Associations of America

The resolutions have been submitted to leading Internet service providers (ISPs) in the U.S., including AT&T (NYSE:T); Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR); CenturyTel, Inc. (NYSE: CTL); Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA); EarthLink Inc. (NASDAQ:ELNK); Embarq Corporation (NYSE:EQ); Knology Inc. (NASDAQ:KNOL); Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S); Qwest Communications International (NYSE:Q); and Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ).   Resolutions may be filed with additional ISPs.

The investor coalition includes the New York City Pension Funds and leading socially responsible investment firms Trillium Asset Management Corp., Boston Common Asset Management, Calvert Asset Management Company, Domini Social Investments, Harrington Investments and the As You Sow Foundation.  The coalition will seek support from additional shareholders in voting for the resolutions.  The New York City Pension Funds collectively hold more than 10.5 million shares in the six ISPs where they are the lead filer.

The coalition has been organized by the Open Media and Information Companies Initiative - Open MIC (www.openmic.org) - a non-profit media policy group that works to foster a diverse media environment through market based solutions.  

The resolutions highlight the vital role played by ISPs in providing Internet access to more than 211 million Americans - or 70% of the U.S. population - who use the Internet daily.   They point out that ISPs are managing traffic, insuring communication, and forging rules that shape, enable and limit the public's Internet use.  

Noting that ISP network management practices have come under public scrutiny by consumer and civil liberties groups, regulatory authorities and shareholders, the resolutions assert that "Internet network management is a significant public policy issue; failure to fully and publicly address this issue poses potential competitive, legal and reputational harm" to each of the companies.

The resolutions, which are intended for consideration at the companies' 2009 annual shareholder meetings, call on the board of each ISP to issue a report examining the effects of the company's Internet network management practices on the public's expectations of privacy and freedom of expression on the Internet.

"With greater numbers of people using the Internet for everything from shopping to healthcare, Internet network management and its effect on the user have become significant public policy concerns," said New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., in announcing resolutions filed on behalf of the New York City Pension Funds. "These ISPs are among the biggest in the world and if the network management practices are having an effect on how the public perceives the companies, we as shareholders have a right to know what that effect may be."

Farnum Brown of Trillium Asset Management, which has filed resolutions with several of the ISPs, said: "These companies have responded to the challenges of managing the Internet in a patchwork, ad hoc fashion.  In so doing they've failed to notice the profound social policy issues they've unwittingly engaged.  Americans are concerned about how their use of the Internet is monitored.  They're concerned about whether their privacy and freedom of expression are respected by the companies that manage the Internet.  We as shareholders believe it is in these companies' best business interests to respond to those concerns."

Michael Connor, Executive Director of Open MIC, noted recent Congressional scrutiny of ISPs' use of so-called "deep packet inspection" technology, which can provide individual personal data based on a user's Internet traffic.   In another case, the Federal Communications Commission voted in August to punish Comcast Corp. for its surreptitious interference with subscribers' use of peer-to-peer software applications.

At the time, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Comcast's network management amounted to "looking inside its subscribers' communications, blocking that communication when it uses a particular application regardless of whether there is congestion on the network, hiding what it is doing by making consumers think the problem is their own, and lying about it to the public..."

"There are multiple examples that raise concerns regarding Internet management practices," said Connor.  "As the growth of digital media accelerates - with new electronic devices, new forms of delivery, and increased demand for Internet bandwidth - privacy and freedom of expression will increasingly be front-page issues, commanding shareholder attention."

About Open MIC

The Open Media and Information Companies Initiative -- Open MIC -- is a non-profit organization working to promote a vibrant, diverse media ecosystem through market-based solutions. Founded in late 2006, Open MIC is a project of the Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

For more information, contact:

Michael Connor

Executive Director. Open MIC

212.537.9401

mconnor(at)openmic.org

www.openmic.org

BY ADAM BROWNING
Greentech Media

What was inauguration weekend like?  Kind of like Mardi Gras, but with more clothes.

There were millions of people in town, and every one of them in a great mood. The commonality of purpose brought out the kind of camaraderie usually only seen during national calamities — strangers talked to strangers on the Metro, in restaurants, on the streets.

For the enviro and cleantech community, a celebratory highlight came the night before the inauguration, at the Green Ball.  Vote Solar was on the host committee.

To walk the walk, I tried to dress appropriately.  My tuxedo, for example, was definitely recycled.  It clearly had been to several proms before.

The party was a lot like one of Vote Solar’s parties, except it was held in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian instead of a nightclub, and there were a lot more famous people.  Al Gore, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Van Jones preached to the largely converted.  If you are unfamiliar with Van Jones, you should crawl out from under that rock you call home, and read this profile in the recent New Yorker.  I was actually at the meeting Elizabeth Kolbert recounts — while I was reduced to squinting stinkeyes at the fatuous few who hijacked the agenda, Van was somehow able to turn the tables and walk out of there with Speaker Pelosi, fist in the air, chanting “Clean Energy Jobs Now” in front of TV cameras. It was really rather amazing.

...

> Click here to access the full article on the Greentech Media blog.

For more information on Tides Center project Vote Solar, see www.votesolar.org.

by CASEY CATHERWOOD
The Stranger

Kevin Erickson recently moved to Seattle from Anacortes, where he was the resident do-it-all for the Department of Safety, to take a job as coordinator and interim codirector of the All-Ages Movement Project, an organization founded by all-ages superadvocate Shannon Stewart of the Vera Project.

"Every kid deserves a place like Seattle's Vera Project," says Erickson, "and AMP is trying to eliminate the barriers set up to prevent that from happening." In his new role, Erickson will help AMP continue to execute its vision of providing an all-inclusive organization for open communication and interaction between successful and fledgling all-ages spaces across the country. "So if someone in Buffalo doesn't know what licenses they need or how to talk to the city," he says, "AMP can directly support and provide guidance from someone who knows.

...

> Click here to access the full article on The Stranger website.http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/01/iraqi_refugee_stories.html/

For more information on Tides Center project All-Ages Movement Project, see www.allagesmovementproject.org.

By GARLAND MCLAURIN
American News Project

As the nation awaits the inauguration of Barack Obama, the legacy of Lincoln is taking center stage. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. sits down with the American News Project to discuss why, even after all these years, misconceptions remain about the 16th president and his views on race.

> Click here to watch the commentary on the Colorado Independent website.

For more information on Tides Center project American News Project, see http://americannewsproject.com.

BY BILL THEOBALD
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - Environmentalists fear that next month's switch to digital television broadcasting could cause a flood of old televisions, and the toxins they contain, to be tossed in the trash.

But electronics industry officials counter that these fears are overblown and that there are plenty of ways for people to continue to use their old TVs or to properly recycle them.

Both sides agree that the issue of electronic waste is likely to get more attention as the Feb. 17 switchover approaches and that federal legislation is needed to deal with the growing problem, of which televisions are just a small part.

"There is a tsunami of e-waste that is going to be created," said Barbara Kyle, national coordinator of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, which includes environmental groups. "This is the largest government-sponsored planned obsolescence event in history."

Kyle said tube televisions are a particular problem because they contain between 4 to 8 pounds of lead, which is difficult to extract because much of it is in glass.

Besides lead, federal health officials warn that televisions also contain cadmium, beryllium and other dangerous substances. Exposure to high levels of lead can damage the nervous system and other organs.

...

> Click here to access the full article on The Coloradoan website.

For more information on Tides Center project Electronics TakeBack Coalition, see www.computertakeback.com.

By DENNIS MCMILLAN
San Francisco Bay Times

Since their inception in the late 1970’s, Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights (BAPHR) has granted money to many LGBT community service groups. As of their last granting cycle in November 2008, they have distributed more than $1 million to Bay Area organizations. A grant distribution ceremony was held at Davies Medical Center Gazebo on Jan. 9 where 12 organizations received funds.

“This is a big milestone for the BAPHR Foundation,” said BAPHR Board Chair Kent Sack. He explained that BAPHR was founded in 1977 by a group of gay doctors, and the Foundation, composed of a committee of physicians, was developed in 1983. The Foundation began giving grants in 1986 with a total of 242 through 2008, reaching a grand total of $1,003,539. BAPHR played a very significant role in the early epidemic of AIDS as the only organized gay physicians group in the nation. They were involved politically, socially, and also personally with their patients as they lost all their resources.

Many of the BAPHR members fell to the epidemic as well. Currently BAPHR focuses on nine Bay Area counties: San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Napa, Sonoma, and Marin. They have three open slots on the board, and welcome people to join. Dr. Sack noted that during these times of extreme economic struggle, government funding is all but gone, and philanthropic organizations such as BAPHR depend on donors and bequests from estates. “The twelve agencies receiving funds tonight are probably the heart and soul of community services in the LGBT community,” Sack said. The following are the recipients:

“AIDS Legal Referral Panel started just over 25 years ago by a group of gay attorneys who noticed that a lot of their colleagues were dying very young from AIDS,” explained ALRP Executive Director Bill Hirsch. The Association of Gay & Lesbian Psychiatrists began in the late 1960s, when lesbian and gay members of the American Psychiatric Association met during its annual conferences. Following the APA’s declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973, the Caucus was officially founded. A primary function of the organization is to advocate to the APA on LGBT mental health issues. The Caucus changed its name to AGLP in 1985.

...

> Click here to access the full article on the San Francisco Bay Times website.

For more information on Tides Center project Lavender Seniors, see www.lavenderseniors.org.

Though Jesus spoke the words of the beatitudes thousands of years ago, people throughout our society are continuing to adjust their way of modern living in the hopes of changing the world around them. With her experience both as an Episcopal priest and as executive director of The Beatitudes Society, Howard meets these people around the world and shares their inspiring stories.

Throughout the book, Howard asks the questions, “What would the beatitudes look like today?” and “is it possible to live a beatitudes life in today’s world?” Through nine remarkable stories of ordinary people, we are introduced to a world where the beatitudes are not an unreachable moral standard but a simple set of guidelines by which we should live our lives. Howard reminds us that “these are not impossible hero stories; these are simply people of commitment and conviction and courage who invite us to join them in their daily practice.”

These stories are presented as new parables for practicing the life-giving values expressed in the beatitudes. Howard invites us to meet these emerging leaders and enter their stories in the hope that we will recognize something of our own journey in theirs.

“In troubled times, hope often seems elusive, a vague promise of the future. But Anne Howard transforms hope into a tangible practice of faith by sharing the stories of young adults who take Jesus’ beatitudes both literally and seriously. Read Claiming the Beatitudes and glimpse a transformational wisdom for church that grounds life in God’s beauty, truth, and goodness.”

—Diana Butler Bass, author, Christianity for the Rest of Us and A People’s History of Christianity

Anne Sutherland Howard is executive director of The Beatitudes Society, a project of Tides and a new organization building a national network for progressive Christian seminarians. Before coming to The Beatitudes Society in September 2006, she served as associate rector at Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, California, a church well known for its prophetic social justice teaching, preaching, and action. A seasoned and accomplished preacher, she is now preacher-in-residence at Trinity.

For further information about Claiming the Beatitudes, to request review copies, or to arrange an interview with the author, please contact David Pratt at 800-486-1318, ext. 220, or via email at dpratt(at)alban.org.

If you review or include Claiming the Beatitudes in your publication, please forward two tearsheets to: David Pratt, The Alban Institute, 2121 Cooperative Way, Suite 100, Herndon, VA 20171.

Claiming the Beatitudes

By Anne Sutherland Howard

5.5” x 8.5” • 150 pp. • 2009 • paperback • $17.00 • ISBN 978-1-56699-384-5

About Alban Publishing

Since 1974, the Alban Institute has published research-based information and practical advice on topics such as spirituality, worship, growth, and strategic planning for congregational leaders. As the twenty-first century moves forward, our books continue to encourage ministry in a changing world.

Contact

David Pratt: 800-486-1318 x220 or dpratt@alban.org

By AVA TABB
Crain's Detroit Business

While the typical 20-something often flees the industrial city for the sparkling metropolis, Sarah Szurpicki, 27, and Abby Wilson, 29, have sunk their heels into the grit of the Rust Belt to plan a renaissance.

Just over a year ago, the best friends founded the Great Lakes Urban Exchange, or GLUE, a network of people dedicated to revitalizing the Great Lakes region.

The group's Web site, gluespace.org, connects 1,500 members across the country. The group has about 100 members in Detroit.

GLUE is linked by industrial cities plagued with population decline and the subsequent loss of tax base, racial segregation, inadequate public transportation and under-performing schools.

“Fortunately, our cities also have communities of people who see the possibility of a Rust Belt renaissance and who are working incredibly hard in a variety of ways to make these places better,” said Royal Oak resident Szurpicki, GLUE's director.

...

> Click here to access the full article on the Crain's Detroit Business website.

For more information on Tides Center project GLUE, see www.gluespace.org.

Center for American Progress

• Report: Operation Safe Haven Iraq 2009: An Action Plan for Airlifting Endangered Iraqis Linked to the United States
• Video: An Iraqi Refugee Story
• Note: All names have been changed to protect the identity of these Iraqis.
• Stuck in Iraq: A marked man hiding in Iraq
• No way out: Fleeing to Jordan and ultimate return to Iraq
• A story of successful U.S. resettlement: The contribution and sacrifice of two young Iraqi sisters

Stuck in Iraq: A marked man hiding in Iraq

Yousif and his family have lived in fear since his nephew was killed and his daughter was abducted over one year ago. Yousif has worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army since 2003, and he and his family have been harassed, stalked, and shot at because of this affiliation. To make matters worse, Yousif has been stuck in the middle of the sectarian and ethnic cleansing in Iraq because he is a Christian.

Yousif is a man in his early fifties, and his story is one of sacrifice and tragedy. Soon after he began his work as an interpreter for the U.S. Army in 2003, a local mosque named him as a collaborator and he became a marked man. Yousif continued to work with the U.S. military despite staggering personal sacrifices. The lethal consequences of his affiliation began with the assassination of his nephew in September 2004. Yousif’s house was shot in January 2008 while he and his family hid inside. Yousif and his family are continually forced to move from neighborhood to neighborhood in Iraq, yet the militias find them each time.

Yousif’s daughter Alia was abducted on her way to class in December 2007 and has not been found or returned. The only information Yousif has managed to find out is that she was smuggled out of Iraq to Syria and sold to traffickers. The insurgents have demanded $50,000 in exchange for his daughter’s return, yet Yousif can’t be sure that they even know where Alia is anymore. He is frightened that speaking to anyone about the abduction will get her killed. Yousif continues to receive phone messages and letters threatening his life and the lives of his wife and son. This tragedy stems from his association with the United States, and yet he is still stuck in Iraq.

Yousif was at a loss for how to navigate the complicated process of applying for resettlement, and the American military had misplaced the paperwork he initially submitted. Yousif was rapidly losing hope. However, in June 2008, Yousif contacted the List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies. The List Project and one of their partnering law firms, Proskauer Rose LLP, began working on his case. The majority of the Iraqis on the List have extensive documentation and are able to produce badges that are only issued after security checks. But the process remains slow. His paperwork was finally gathered and submitted in September 2008 after weeks of persistent work by the law firm. It will likely take at least one year before Yousif makes it to safety in America.

...

> Click here to access the full article on the Center for American Progress website.

For more information on Tides Center project The List, see www.thelistproject.org.

At DuPont Circle Park at 12:45 pm, human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, The Center for Constitutional Rights, and September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, will call for an end to the Bush policies, justice for the detainees, and accountability for possible U.S. crimes. 150 demonstrators wearing orange jumpsuits and hoods will have a prisoner procession to dramatize the plight of the detainees still at Guantanamo.

"I am fasting," says Malachy Kilbride of the Washington Peace Center, "to symbolically join the prisoners, who are starved for justice."

"Obama's statements," explains Matthew Daloisio of Witness Against Torture, "bring hope that Guantanamo will close. But parts of the military and the Congress are already working to prevent Obama's plans."

"We need justice, not more politics of fear," adds Valerie Lucznikowska of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows."This is the promise Obama represents, and we will hold his administration to it."

The fast will be broken on January 20, when anti-torture activists will join the inauguration-day crowd. The event is part of Witness Against Torture's 100 Days Campaign to Close Guantanamo and End Torture. Participants include The National Religious Campaign Against Torture, the Torture Abolition Survivors Support Coalition, and the American Friends Service Committee.

Event: Fast and Rally Calling on Obama to Close Guantanamo and End Torture
Date and Time: Sunday, January 11; 12:45 pm
Location: DuPont Circle Park, Washington, D.C., NW

David Swanson is the author of the upcoming book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press and of the introduction to "The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush" published by Feral House and available at Amazon.com. Swanson holds a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including press secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, media coordinator for
the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as
communications coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson is Co-Founder of AfterDowningStreet.org, creator of ConvictBushCheney.org and Washington Director of Democrats.com, a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, the Backbone Campaign, and Voters for Peace, a member of the legislative working group of United for Peace and Justice, and convener of the accountability and prosecution working group of United for Peace and Justice.

Contact:

David Swanson - http://afterdowningstreet.org

###

Almost before the echoes of Barack Obama's Grant Park victory speech had died, away pundits and the blogosphere began to keep score about the effectiveness of his transition. In a way, a presidential transition is like a political spring training that gives the incoming manager and his team a chance to prepare and set the tone for what amounts to a four-year long regular season. Every transition presents opportunities for an incoming Administration to put together a game plan to deliver hardball policy ideas to give the new team an early lead in the beginning of the regular season. One danger the new team faces during the transitional pre-season is being suckered by the other side into playing for keeps before opening day. With President-elect Obama's Cabinet and White House policy team largely in place, and the maneuvering over various economic bailout options mostly behind us, it's time for some preseason analysis of the management decisions the Obama team has made.

This upcoming season is a particularly important one to get ready for because the new president is taking office during a political realignment. Realignments are rare events in U.S. politics, occurring only about once every four decades; the 2008 realignment is only the sixth in American electoral history. During and after a realignment, the old political truths-and the standards for judging presidential transitions-that appeared axiomatic during the preceding era no longer apply and the President-elect has to manage the process with an acute sensitivity to what the times demand.

As we indicated in our book, Millennial Makeover: MySpace, You Tube and the Future of American Politics, all political realignments are produced by the coming of age of a large, dynamic generation and the emergence of a new communication technology that effectively mobilizes the rising generation. All realignments give American politics an extreme makeover. However, because they are caused by different types of generations, either "idealist" or "civic," not all realignments are the same. Consequently, the standards for judging the success or failure of a presidential transition vary from one type of realignment to another.

Idealist generations, like the Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), whose coming-of-age produced a realignment centered on Richard Nixon's "law and order" campaign of 1968, try to impose their own personal morality on the country through the political process. Political debate in eras dominated by idealist generations often tends to focus on social or moral issues, not economic or foreign policy concerns. Because idealist generations are highly divided, ideological, and uncompromising, during these types of realignments, the most successful transitions are those that advance the ideological goals of the new president and his winning team.

...

> Click here to access the full article on HuffingtonPost.com.

For more information on Tides Center project New Policy Institute, see www.newpolicyinstitute.org.

For more information on Tides Center project Adolescent Health Working Group, see http://www.ahwg.net.

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By MATTHEW HAY BROWN
Baltimore Sun

WASHINGTON - After a stranger snapped her photograph as she entered the Green Zone, Tina Raad's family begged her to get out of Iraq.

At first, she resisted. The Iraqi woman had sought work with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Baghdad because she wanted to join in the reconstruction of her country.

But in the eyes of Iraqi insurgents, such collaboration made her a traitor. Changing her dress, varying the route she took to work and altering her hours had not stopped their threats. When her mother and three siblings fled Iraq, she relented.

Among those Iraqis targeted for working with the Americans, the 29-year-old Raad is one of the lucky few to make it to the United States. Now, as a coordinator for the List Project To Resettle Iraqi Allies, she is helping others to follow her path.

"Iraq now is not a place for human beings," Raad says at a Starbucks in downtown Washington. Many of her former colleagues remain in Syria or Jordan, where some continue to face threats.

...

> Click here to access the full article on the Baltimore Sun website.http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/01/iraqi_refugee_stories.html/

For more information on Tides Center project The List, see www.thelistproject.org.

By REBECCA ADAMSON
Indian Country Today

Atlas Greenspan shrugged, recognizing a possible flaw in his market ideology. To say finally that hard rains must fall on everyone just won’t do.

Comparisons drawn from the natural world cannot describe the last gasp of Western free market capitalism. This was a philosophy and an enforcing apparatus that separated human endeavor from any natural order, including the natural order of animal presence and household and community provisioning. Just as we’ve stopped taking account of the four-leggeds and winged beings and fish who can offer companionship and guidance to our otherwise isolated human species, what has happened in today’s market is that it’s stopped taking account of human nature. But unlike poor marginalized animals, it is more human nature to fight back.

The fight that compels me here is populist backlash. If tens upon tens of millions of decent, middle-income citizens figure out that they’ve been duped by bail-out taxes that still have left them penniless, jobless, homeless, healthless and half-educated – anything could happen. That is why the first item on President Obama’s Native agenda should be a serious, sonorous, respectful and seemly apology. This is a great country built on the richness of diverse cultures. When they choose to hold governments accountable, they will find that the honor of this nation remains in a mutual relationship with the indigenous Nations. Middle-class America is just waking up to the special interests that run government, the same interests we’ve all seen grab our resources in the past. Well governments set precedents, good and bad.

In the past year, Canada apologized for drafting Native children into boarding schools; the Australian prime minister apologized to the “Stolen Generation” of Aborigines; Malaysia granted its first-ever recognition of indigenous land rights; Guatemala formally recognized indigenous peoples, including the Mayans; and in a development some of us thought we’d never see, given Japan’s long denial of ethnicity on its islands, the Japanese Diet passed a resolution recognizing the indigenous Ainu and calling for their support. The U.S. can get in step with these developments through an apology to its first peoples.

...

> Click here to access the full article on the Indian Country Today website.http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/01/iraqi_refugee_stories.html/

For more information on Tides Center project First Peoples Worldwide, see www.firstpeoplesworldwide.org.

Contact:
Maria Woltjen
Director, Immigrant Child Advocacy Center
773.702.0349

info(at)ImmigrantChildAdvocacy.org
www.ImmigrantChildAdvocacy.org

"Unfortunately, Piven's case is not that unusual," said Michael Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project. "Our report shares stories of people who each ate enough tuna or other store-bought fish to suffer mercury's effects, according to their physicians. From New Jersey to Wisconsin to California, these stories show that seafood contamination is a very real problem that should not be ignored."

Yet late last week it was learned that FDA is currently contemplating removing mercury consumption warnings for all seafood -- including swordfish, shark and tuna -- stating benefits from eating seafood far outweigh the risks of mercury poisoning.

In 2004, the FDA joined EPA in releasing advice to restrict the species and amounts of fish eaten by women of childbearing age and children due to exposure risks to mercury. Last Friday, in a draft report submitted to the Bush White House, the FDA indicated plans to not only rescind that advice, but recommend that sensitive populations eat more mercury-contaminated fish.

"We've known for years that mercury is toxic to the brain and other organs in varying amounts depending on the individual's status. For FDA to suddenly change the equation to say that benefits outweigh risks is like once-again declaring the earth is flat after discovering it was round," concluded Dr. Jane Hightower. "Simply stated, FDA's proposed recommendation to eat more fish is likely based on flawed science."

Symptoms of mercury poisoning can include the following: impairment of the peripheral vision; disturbances in sensations ("pins and needles" feelings, numbness) usually in the hands feet and sometimes around the mouth; lack of coordination of movements, such as writing; impairment of speech, hearing, walking; muscle weakness; skin rashes; mood swings; memory loss; and mental disturbance.

Exposure and toxic effects in adults and children are well-documented. Dr. Hightower's new book, Diagnosis: Mercury: Money, Politics and Poison, catalogues her patients' mercury poisoning case histories.

"Patients in my private medical practice, as well as at other doctor's offices around the country, have been diagnosed with mercury toxicity from eating too much fish. Ignoring the presence of a known neurotoxin in one's diet is simply asking for trouble," said Dr. Jane Hightower.

More information:

• See Mercury Policy Project's new report, "Over the Limit," released on patient histories related to mercury poisoning, at www.mercurypolicy.org
• See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/18/jeremy-piven-quits-broadw_n_151987.html
• See Dr. Jane Hightower's book, Diagnosis: Mercury: Money, Politics and Poison at: www.Diagnosismercury.org
• Web site: http://www.mercurypolicy.org

###

by BRUCE SCHIMMEL
Philadelphia City Paper

Bummed by consumerism? Can't find a single Earth-friendly thing to buy? You're not alone in your misery, and I've got just the video to turn your seasonal blues into an absolute downer.

Not interested? OK. I've also got a surefire gift on which you can spend as little or as much as you want, and which is guaranteed to do good for both people and planet.

But first, some inspiration, in the form of a charming but devastating little video called The Story of Stuff (storyofstuff.com). This 20-minute flick, which debuted last year, has all the makings of a new Christmas classic, only with Scrooge rebranded as a green hero.

Annie Leonard, who details the sordid story of our wasteful ways with the innocent charm of a kindergarten teacher, hosts the video. In 20 minutes, writes one admirer, you'll learn more about economics than you will from 95 percent of media talking heads, and 100 percent of the GOP.

It's a familiar tale, but as the real holiday story, it's worth the retelling.

Leonard shows how each step that goes into making most of our stuff — our clothing, furnishings and especially our electronics — lays waste to both people and planet. From extraction, to manufacturing, to its selling and trashing — our stuff stinks.

Leonard's little video is a multimedia masterpiece. It's even funny at times, despite the stark message that Americans are a deluded and dirty people, misled by a corrupt government.

...

> Click here to access the full article on the Philadelphia City Paper website.http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/01/iraqi_refugee_stories.html/

For more information on Tides Center project The Story of Stuff, see www.storyofstuff.org.

Seven groups will receive grants of $50,000 in support of their efforts to address critical social and economic issues facing New Yorkers. Recipients include the Disabilities Network of New York City, which works to create coalitions to build community, shape policy, and expand opportunity for New Yorkers with physical, visual, and hearing disabilities, and Youth Represent, which provides comprehensive criminal and civil legal representation and social services to youth 24 or younger.

In addition, ten organizations will receive Union Square Arts Awards and a $35,000 grant in recognition of their work with youth and families in low-income communities. Recipients include Girls Write Now, which offers New York City public schoolgirls a safe environment that fosters their creativity and independent voices, and Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders, which works to celebrate Mexican culture in the United States and promote understanding of Mexican traditions among immigrants, artists, educators, and the public.

"With minimal resources, these organizations are making extraordinary contributions to local neighborhoods," said Union Square Awards executive director Iris Morales. "Given the current economic situation, their work is vital to New York City."

For a complete list of award recipients, visit the Union Square Awards Web site.

###

In 1982, Jones returned to San Francisco to work in the district office of State Assembly member Art Agnos. He was elected to three terms on the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee and served on local and state commissions for juvenile justice and delinquency prevention and the Mission Mental Health Community Advisory Board. One of the first to recognize the threat of AIDS, Cleve co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in 1983.

Jones conceived the idea of the AIDS Memorial Quilt at a candlelight memorial for Milk in 1985 and created the first quilt panel in honor of his close friend Marvin Feldman in 1987. Since then, the AIDS Memorial Quilt has grown to become the world's largest community arts project, memorializing the lives of over 85,000 Americans killed by AIDS. Independent affiliates of the NAMES Project are currently operating in 50 countries around the world, including Canada, South Africa, France, Holland, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Australia, Taiwan and Russia.

A dynamic and inspiring public speaker, Jones travels extensively throughout the United States and around the world, lecturing at high schools, colleges and universities. He has met with heads of state, including Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton and former South African President Nelson Mandela. In 1989, Jones was awarded Honorary Doctorates from Haverford College and the Starr King School for the Ministry. He has also received numerous awards from AIDS and gay rights organizations, religious conferences, state and national health associations and the state legislatures of California, Indiana and Massachusetts.

On Dec. 1, 1999, Jones was a keynote speaker at the opening of the Parliament of World Religions in Cape Town, South Africa, where AIDS Memorial Quilt panels from South Africa, Europe and the United States were displayed. In 2000, Jones helped organize an eight-city U.S. tour of the South African AIDS Memorial Quilt with the support of the Congressional Black Caucus and Ms. Coretta Scott King.

Jones has served as a member of the International Advisory Board of the Harvard AIDS Institute, the National Board of Governors of Project Inform and the Board of Directors of the Foundation for AIDS and Immune Research. His best-selling memoir, Stitching a Revolution, was published by HarperCollins in April 2000. Jones' work has been featured in the Academy Award-winning documentary, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt and on “60 Minutes,” “Nightline,” “Charlie Rose,” “Good Morning America,” “Oprah,” National Public Radio, “Frontline” and many other television and radio programs.

Jones currently lives in Palm Springs and works as a community organizer for the Hotel Workers Rising campaign of UNITE HERE, the international union representing textile, hotel and restaurant workers.

He also served as historical consultant to Milk, the recently released Gus Van Sant film about Harvey Milk.

###

"With the present economic downturn, this donation is an incredible message of support," stated DRF's Director Diana Samarasan. "It underscores the commitment of the British government to a rights-based approach to disability."

Utilizing the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CPRD), DRF supports the human rights advocacy of DPOs in the Global South and Eastern Europe/former Soviet Union. Through its unique governance structure, the Fund is a partnership between donors and the worldwide disability community. A global advisory panel provides recommendations on grantmaking strategies; and panel representatives also serve on the Fund's grantmaking decision body together with donors. Panel members come from five continents and reflect a broad cross-section of the disability community,

DFID representatives stated, "it is essential that efforts like the Disability Rights Fund continue their support of communities often unreached by more conventional development efforts. DRF represents a unique model of supporting community-led efforts to institute rights." 

DRF's first grants decisions, announced in November 2008, resulted in a total of $800,000 in grants to 33 organizations in seven countries. Grantees include a Ugandan organization of lawyers with disabilities, an emergent Peruvian group of people with psycho-social disabilities, and a grassroots network in Bangladesh of women-led disabled persons' organizations. For a full list of grantees and more information about DRF, see www.disabilityrightsfund.org.

Other donors to DRF include: an anonymous founding donor, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Open Society Institute, and the American Jewish World Service.

###

Contact:
Diana Samarasan
Director, Disability Rights Fund
617-261-4593, ext. 111
dsamarasan(at)disabilityrightsfund.org
www.disabilityrightsfund.org

By ANITA B. HOFSCHNEIDER
The Harvard Crimson

The international community’s multilateral approach has slowed the fight against the AIDS epidemic, said Stephen H. Lewis, co-director of AIDS-Free World, an international advocacy organization, last night.

In addition, he said, the failure to address sexual violence against women adequately has hastened the spread of HIV.

The talk was hosted by the Harvard Global Health and AIDS Coalition and the Anthropology 1825 Speaker Series in connection with World AIDS Day.

“I’ve always believed in multilateralism,” said Lewis, who is also a former United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and deputy director of UNICEF. “But some dreadful things have been done through the negligence and inertia of the multilateral system.”

He cited the World Health Organization’s 3 by 5 Initiative, which many countries criticized, as an example of an intervention that brought out the “damnably rivalrous” nature of international assemblies.

...

> Click here to access the full article on The Harvard Crimson website.

For more information on Tides Center project AIDS-Free World, see www.aids-freeworld.org.

by TYCHE HENDRICKS
San Francisco Chronicle

Bundled up against the chilly fog of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, a couple of hundred people gathered today among the redwood trees of the National AIDS Memorial Grove to commemorate World AIDS Day.

Many of them are veterans of the 25-year battle to gain medical treatment and public acceptance for people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, a campaign with deep roots in San Francisco.

They celebrated successes - especially the medical breakthroughs that now allow HIV-positive people to live healthier lives. But they also urged extending those advances to other parts of the country and the rest of the world, where people with AIDS still struggle.

Berkeley Rev. Jim Mitulski described a visit to an orphanage in Zimbabwe for children who lost their parents to AIDS. Most of the children were themselves infected with the virus, and all were familiar with the frequent funerals in the cemetery, where small white crosses marked the graves of infants and children.

"These children have all died of a disease we have medication for, medication we fought in the streets for," said Mitulski, who was pastor of San Francisco's gay-friendly Metropolitan Community Church from 1985 to 2000. "These children are dying needlessly because nobody can figure out how to make a profit off their bodies."

...

> Click here to access the full article on the San Francisco Chronicle website.http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/01/iraqi_refugee_stories.html/

For more information on Tides Center project National AIDS Memorial Grove, see www.aidsmemorial.org.

By JAYNE JACOVA FELD
SJ Magazine

...Another effort in Woodbury called Girls Circle was designed specifically to address the needs of girls, promoting healthy self-esteem, girl friendships and positive self-concept - all antidotes to bullying. Sharon Cardwell, a Woodbury social worker, is among staff members trained to meet with small groups of girls over several months to discuss confidential issues. The groups typically include girls from different social cliques who otherwise may not have gotten to know and respect each other, says Cardwell.

"The power of the group is the girls feel their voices are being heard," says Cardwell, who trained with the California-based nonprofit Girls Circle. "They can share their experiences with other girls and, hearing that other girls are having similar experiences, makes them feel more connected to girls their age."

...

> Click here to access the full article on the SJ Magazine website.http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/01/iraqi_refugee_stories.html/

For more information on Tides Center project Girls Circle, see www.girlscircle.com.

Your Administration will confront challenges and opportunities in an interconnected world, in which our security and prosperity are tied to the security and prosperity of others, problems cannot be managed in isolation, and addressing critical national security concerns will require that we advance shared global interests. To consider these challenges, over 215 foreign policy leaders, experts and practitioners, who work across the country and are affiliated with non-governmental organizations representing millions of Americans, have come together to identify principles and policy priorities that we believe are critical to re-establishing U.S. global leadership in the first six months of your term. Our unprecedented collaboration reflects our understanding of the unprecedented challenges that we face.

We recognize that in the first months of your administration, you will face urgent foreign policy challenges, which include ending the war in Iraq, promoting security and stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan, addressing the global financial crisis, and dealing effectively with nuclear weapons development in Iran and North Korea. These urgent problems will impose formidable demands on your time and attention, but they must not prevent you from addressing broader and systemic challenges to U.S. leadership worldwide. In particular, the ability of the United States to achieve key national security objectives has eroded over the past eight years, as the war in Iraq has diverted attention and resources from other vital needs, the civilian instruments of U.S. power – both development and diplomacy – have been neglected, and our capacity to lead effectively has been undermined through unilateral actions in disregard of the views and interests of key friends and allies.

For these reasons, our capacity to address both urgent crises and long term challenges will require that your Administration articulate – and quickly signal to the American public and the world – a renewed commitment to international cooperation.  This includes a willingness to practice at home the standards we encourage others to follow overseas, to recognize and respond to the concerns of our friends, allies and other major stakeholders on global issues that are critical to our common long term well-being, and to strengthen the capacity of international institutions to address key global challenges.

During the first six months of your Administration, action on the following measures will be critically important to signal this new commitment and new course for U.S. foreign policy.  Moreover, it will lay the groundwork for progress on the full range of foreign policy priorities you have identified.  We appreciate that progress on these measures will require close consultation with the Congress, and we are hopeful that both branches of government will proceed in a new spirit of bipartisan cooperation on these issues.

We urge that you take action in the following areas:

Repair U.S. credibility and influence on international human rights and humanitarian law:

• Issue an executive order that reaffirms an absolute prohibition on torture and ensures that all detainees within the custody of the United States are treated consistent with standards articulated in the U.S. Army Field Manual and international legal instruments; that halts the practice of secret detention; that ends rendition to torture and that directs a review of all legal opinions and policy guidance relating to treatment of detainees.
• Announce your intention to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center promptly and to treat all detainees in U.S. custody in a manner consistent with international obligations and domestic law.
• Re-engage in a positive way with international human rights institutions, such as by supporting the work of the ICC to investigate and prosecute individuals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

[Read more detailed proposals from the Connect U.S. community on international human rights and humanitarian law]

Establish U.S. leadership on international efforts to address climate change:

• Commit to binding caps on carbon emissions that would reduce greenhouse gases by at least 80% by 2050, and thereby effectively contribute to worldwide efforts to limit the average world temperature increase to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels; to funding and mechanisms to assist developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change, access clean energy technology and avoid deforestation and degradation; and to legislation that promotes domestic green jobs and renewable energy.
• Quickly put in place a U.S. negotiating team led by a senior White House official, to work with Congress and civil society to formulate key elements of the U.S. position prior to climate negotiations scheduled for June in Bonn.

[Read more detailed proposals from the Connect U.S. community on addressing climate change]

Reduce the threat of nuclear war and weapons proliferation:

• Resume talks with Russia on a new, legally-binding, and verifiable agreement that would, by the end of 2012, achieve significantly deeper and irreversible reductions than currently planned in deployed and reserve U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles and delivery systems, and that would extend or strengthen key verification and monitoring provisions of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
• Outlaw nuclear weapons testing: undertake bipartisan efforts to win prompt Senate approval of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and actively support ongoing diplomatic efforts to bring on board other states whose ratifications are required for the treaty to enter into force.
• In order to reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism, commit to the goal of securing and retrieving vulnerable nuclear weapons usable materials worldwide within four years.

[Read more detailed proposals from the Connect U.S. communityon nuclear war and weapons proliferation]

Ensure a safer and more secure world by dramatically strengthening U.S. programs to promote diplomacy and development:

• Transmit to Congress with the FY2010 budget a separate national security and international affairs budget that includes funding for Foreign Operations, Homeland Security, and Defense. The justification for this separate budget should highlight how the four agencies that support national security (DOD, Homeland Security, USAID, and the State Department) complement one another to make America and the world more safe.
• Include in the FY2010 budget substantially increased resources for civilian agencies engaged in development, diplomacy and efforts to assist fragile states.
• Elevate the development functions within government:  promptly name a highly respected development professional to lead U.S. development programs and ensure that that the National Security Council staff includes a senior staff position dedicated to development.
• Work with Congress to create a coherent, effective, U.S. development strategy that affirms the Millennium Development Goals, as well as the use of all key tools to achieve them (such as increased and reformed foreign aid, expanded debt relief and trade reform), and that guides a rewrite of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
• Request that Congress ensure that the appropriation for the International Affairs Budget for fiscal year 2009 is at least at the level requested by the current Administration.
• Ensure that international deliberations on the global financial crisis include representatives of developing countries, and that decisions on managing the crisis do not unduly impact critical international development priorities.

[Read more detailed proposals from the Connect U.S. community on diplomacy and development]

While this listing of policy priorities is not exhaustive, it does include measures that represent crucial indicators of a new direction for U.S. policy that will enhance your capacity to lead effectively on the full range of national security challenges. They will signal a commitment to respect for human dignity and for the values, interests and concerns of other governments and their people on key global issues; an appreciation of the importance of cooperative engagement and decision-making; and an understanding of the need to consider longer term challenges even as we seek to address pressing crises. We commit to working with your Administration to engage both the Congress and the American people in a national dialogue on these critical concerns.

SIGNATORIES (147)

(Organizations for identification purposes only.)

All Signatories

Select Former Government Officials

Individuals Affiliated with Peace and Security Organizations

Individuals Affiliated with Environmental & Energy Organizations

Individuals Affiliated with Development & Poverty Alleviation Organizations

Individuals Affiliated with Human Rights Organizations

Individuals Affiliated with Multi-issue and Other NGOs Focused on Global Engagement

Individuals Affiliated with Faith-Based Organizations

Individuals Affiliated with Academic Institutions

Other signatories

 

Steering Committee Members

Participants in Community Consultations, Blogging Series and an NGO Community Survey

###

By MARCIA COYLE
The National Law Journal

The isolated, subsistence existence of the Naso Teribe of Panama -- the last monarchy in the Western Hemisphere -- is far removed from the now hectic, high-stakes, life of a big firm bankruptcy lawyer and complex construction litigator.

But an expanded pro bono effort at their firm has thrust both lawyers into a strange old world to wage a new-world land-claim battle on an international stage in the face of government resistance and impending energy development.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld hired Steven H. Schulman in 2006 as the firm's first, full-time pro bono partner, and with that move transformed the firm's pro bono effort, said firm members. Although the firm continues a strong pro bono tradition of assistance to local groups in need, having a full-time, pro bono coordinator has helped to expand the effort to high-profile international cases.

The firm's lawyers today are doing work in Bolivia and advising the president of Liberia on educational matters. But it was a call for help from the Montana-based Environmental Defender Law Center, which helps individuals and communities in developing countries who are fighting against harm to their environment, that led bankruptcy lawyer Patrick Ivie, counsel in Los Angeles, and construction associate C. Keanin Loomis in Washington, on an odyssey into the land of the Naso indigenous people and the property rights law and politics of Panama.

The roughly 3,500 Naso people live in 11 communities along the Teribe River in a remote, mountainous and pristine jungle region rich in ecological biodiversity. What the Nasos want and hope the Akin Gump lawyers will get them is a "comarca" -- a reservation recognizing the Naso claim to its land.

Unlike many countries in Latin America, Panama has not created a legal mechanism by which indigenous groups can obtain title to their land. Instead, the government has passed laws creating comarcas for some groups, but not others.

"The government doesn't want to grant any more comarcas," said Loomis, who is coordinating litigation strategy, while Ivie coordinates lobbying efforts. The government justifies its resistance by citing the Naso's small population and large amount of land sought.

...

> Click here to access the full article on The National Law Journal website.

For more information on Tides Center project Environmental Defender Law Center, see www.edlc.org.

This year’s guest speakers are members of the Stirling Family, four of five whom are HIV-positive. The Stirlings will speak about their family’s struggle with HIV-AIDS, their “coming out” and how these realities have changed their lives, including their adoption of an Ethiopian orphan who was also HIV positive. The family has been featured on Good Morning America and in the cover story of POZ Magazine this past January.

With respect to the Stirlings, Gina Gatta, 2008 World AIDS Day co-chair and NAMG board member said, “The Stirlings’ story is that of Ryan White’s challenges times four. Their story is powerful and inspiring for anyone facing challenging health care issues.”

In addition to Gina, co-chairs this year include Thom Weyand, NAMG board member, and 13 year-old Annie Wilson, the first teenager to ever co-chair the Memorial’s World AIDS Day.

This program will commence with a moment of coming together, led by Reverend Jim Litulski, pastor of the New Spirit Church in Berkley, followed by a musical interlude performed by the Hamlin School Choir. The observance will include a brief period at the end of the ceremony when visitors will be invited to move to the Circle of Friends, where the recently engraved names of those honored in the Circle will be read aloud.

The National AIDS Memorial is a seven-acre dell in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, a living tribute to all those whose lives have been touched by AIDS and where people gather to heal, hope and remember. Passage of the National AIDS Memorial Grove Act in 1996 bestowed national significance upon the memorial, which began as a grassroots effort by local residents searching for a positive way to express grief in a community devastated by AIDS. The Grove is the only federally designated AIDS Memorial in the United States.

For more information about the Grove Award and World AIDS Day at the National AIDS Memorial, please call (415) 765-0497 or visit www.aidsmemorial.org.

Contact:

Gary Pike, APR
415-585-2100
www.aidsmemorial.org

###

• Afghanistan_Ending_Failed_Military_Strategy_3 (PDF)
  
• Click Here to Download a One-Page/Two-Sided FLYER on the Primer (PDF)
  

November 2008 - Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, many in the US initially supported the war in Afghanistan because they believed that it would reduce the threat of another attack on US soil, and that it would enable the US to bring to justice Osama bin Laden and others responsible for the attacks. Once the Taliban fell, the war was touted as a success. However, while public attention shifted to the war in Iraq, the conflict in Afghanistan entered a new phase of violence and decay.

Concerns about the increased violence and lack of stability in Afghanistan have led many – including President-elect Obama – to call for an increased presence of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. However, the idea that more US troops are the answer to Afghanistan’s woes is misguided. Rather than a military escalation, what is needed is a shift away from militarism, toward diplomacy, aid and reconstruction.

Today, as calls grow louder for the US military to send more troops to Afghanistan, it is up to the US peace movement to address the realities and counter the misconceptions surrounding the war and occupation. We must educate our own communities about the true consequences of US foreign policy in Afghanistan, connect with Afghan peacemakers and grassroots movements that are calling for alternatives to military action, and devise strategies for joining together to build a lasting peace.

This primer outlines ten reasons the US should end the occupation in Afghanistan. We call instead for a drastically revamped US policy focused on diplomacy, negotiation, aid, reconstruction and international cooperation. We hope that this information will help our colleagues in the US peace movement unite to call for a new strategy in Afghanistan.

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“This program will systematically address a significant gap in the educational community,” said Diana Mitsu Klos, senior project director for the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), one of several major journalism groups to endorse the News Literacy Project. It has the “potential to strengthen the ranks of the next generation of Americans who can recognize and demand quality journalism.”

The project is spearheaded by Alan C. Miller, a former reporter at the Los Angeles Times and winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. It was initiated in early 2008 with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and recently received a two-year grant from the Ford Foundation. More than 30 prominent journalists have already volunteered to serve as fellows, and the project plans to recruit hundreds of additional journalists nationwide.

Even as young people increasingly participate in the national discussion through such media as text messages and blogs, news literacy is not widely taught in America’s public schools. In a world of the 24-hour news cycle and the explosion of information continuously available online, today’s students have access to unprecedented amounts of information. Yet they are also confronted with the daunting task of determining the reliability of myriad sources of “news.” And surveys show young people are increasingly uninterested in information with a civic purpose.

The primary aim of the News Literacy Project is to give middle and high school students the tools to be smarter and more frequent consumers and creators of credible information across all media and platforms. Students will be taught how to distinguish verified information from raw messages, spin, gossip and opinion and encouraged to seek information that will make them well-informed citizens and voters.

The project will create partnerships between active and retired journalists and English, social studies and history teachers, along with after-school media clubs. The journalists and teachers will devise units focusing on why news matters to young people, what the First Amendment and a free media mean in a democracy and how students can determine the veracity of what they read, see and hear.

Material will be presented through games, hands-on exercises and the journalists’ own compelling stories. The curriculum will also address new media tools, such as Google and Wikipedia.

“Ultimately, this project aims to equip the next generation of news consumers with the ability to judge for themselves what is credible and what is not, increasing their awareness of the value of free press and their demand for news in the public interest,” said Eric Newton, vice president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
 “Without the critical capacity to distinguish between what’s journalistic, what’s partisan, what’s entertainment and what’s fabrication, people are bound to make uninformed choices in a digital age of limitless information,” said Calvin Sims, Ford Foundation Program Officer for News Media. “The Ford Foundation is proud to support efforts like the News Literacy Project, which seeks to equip young people with the skills needed to be informed consumers of news.”
The first pilots are expected to be started in early 2009 in schools in New York City and Montgomery County, Md. Additional sites will be added in the next year.

The board is chaired by Vivian Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of NYTimes.com. John Carroll, former editor of the Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun and the Lexington Herald-Leader, is vice chairman.  Also participating as board members are Soledad O’Brien, CNN anchor and special correspondent for the network’s Special Investigations Unit, and Chuck Lewis, a distinguished journalist-in-residence at American University and founder of the Center for Public Integrity.

Its other members are Neil Budde, a national pioneer in online news media and the president and chief product officer of DailyMe.com; Mary M. Chambers, a management, public affairs and strategic communications consultant with a strong background in education and non-profit work; John S. Gomperts, a leader in promoting civic engagement as president of Civic Ventures and CEO of Experience Corps; Paul S. Mason, a senior vice president at ABC News, and Howard Schneider, a former editor of Newsday who is the founding dean of the School of Journalism at Stony Brook University and executive director of the Center for News Literacy.  The project is an activity of the Tides Center.

The News Literacy Project has been endorsed by the National Association of Black Journalists and the Asian American Journalists Association as well as ASNE and has the support of Investigative Reporters and Editors. The initial diverse and distinguished group of journalist fellows includes Pulitzer Prize winners, book authors, newspaper foreign bureau chiefs and network television correspondents. Both active and retired journalists are encouraged to participate and can sign on to do so through a form on the website.

The website features a directory of participating journalists, each with his or her biography, photo and resume. Participating teachers will be able to request assistance from journalists in their regions whose expertise fits their curriculum. A social studies teacher might seek a political reporter for a government class; a colleague focusing on Latin America might request a Mexico City correspondent. Journalists will address classes through videoconferencing as well as in person and will be trained by the project.

The idea for the project arose from Alan Miller’s experience talking about his work as a reporter and the importance of journalism to 175 sixth graders at his daughter’s middle school in Bethesda, Md.  He left the Los Angeles Times in March 2008 after 21 years, the last 14 as an investigative reporter in the Washington bureau, to commit himself to this new mission. His decision prompted this statement by the media blog FishbowlLA (www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlLA): “It’s a rare reporter who leaves daily news to try to make journalism a better institution.”

Contact:
Alan C. Miller
Phone: (301) 651-7499
alanmiller(at)thenewsliteracyproject.org       

September 10, 2008 - Members of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization founded by family members of those killed, who have united to turn their grief into action for peace, lend their support to a global campaign working to ban cluster bombs. They will join with international campaigners at an event in New York on Friday, September 12th to raise awareness about the campaign.

"I have seen very young children in Afghanistan with artificial arms and legs from having picked up cluster submunitions that are brightly colored and attract children who think they are toys," said Adele Welty, a member of Peaceful Tomorrows whose fire fighter son died in the 9/11 attacks. "No one in this country is aware of the constant danger to people in many countries, most of them children, from thousands of these explosive devices still buried and live, waiting in deadly traps under the earth."

Campaigners say signing the cluster bomb treaty will re-establish America's standing in the world and improve its foreign relations. They are appealing to all presidential candidates to consider the treaty as an initial step in a new and better foreign policy.

"If the US wants to promote security at home and abroad it should be signing international treaties that protect civilians during and after armed conflict," said Lora Lumpe, Coordinator of the US Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs. "Banning cluster munitions would be a strong message to the world that the US is a force for peace, not aggression."

Cluster munitions are outdated and indiscriminate weapons that kill too many civilians at the time of use and for years after when they fail to explode on impact.

"Cluster bombs are an inappropriate weapon for the type of war we fight today, when you're fighting for the people, amongst the people," said Simon Conway, former soldier and a Cluster Munition Coalition spokesperson. "If you are fighting for the hearts and minds of the people, you're not going to achieve that with indiscriminate killers like cluster bombs."

Since the 9/11 attacks, the US has used cluster bombs in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 and in Iraq in 2003, causing hundreds of civilians casualties.

The Bush Administration has been a staunch opponent to the treaty, which was formally adopted by 107 nations in Dublin on 30 May 2008. The negotiations were attended by Senator Patrick Leahy who, with Senator Dianne Feinstein, championed a measure signed into law that prohibits the export of cluster bombs.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions will be signed by the majority of the world's governments in Norway, on 3 December 2008. It will immediately ban the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster bombs and ensure medical, socio-economic and psychological support is given to victims, including clearance of contaminated land.

What are cluster bombs?

Cluster munitions are large weapons which are deployed from the air and from the ground and release up to hundreds of smaller submunitions. Submunitions released by airdropped cluster bombs are most often called "bomblets," while those delivered from the ground by artillery or rockets are usually referred to as "grenades."

What's the problem with this weapon?

Air-dropped or ground-launched, they cause two major humanitarian problems and risks to civilians. First, their widespread dispersal means they cannot distinguish between military targets and civilians so the humanitarian impact can be extreme, especially when the weapon is used in or near populated areas. Many submunitions fail to detonate on impact and become de facto antipersonnel mines killing and maiming people long after the conflict has ended. These duds are more lethal than antipersonnel mines; incidents involving submunition duds are much more likely to cause death than injury.

Who has used cluster munitions?

At least 14 countries have used cluster munitions: Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Israel, Morocco, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia (USSR), Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, UK, US, and FR Yugoslavia. A small number of non-state armed groups have used the weapon (such as Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006). Billions of submunitions are stockpiled by some 76 countries. A total of 34 states are known to have produced over 210 different types cluster munitions. More than two dozen countries have been affected by the use of cluster munitions including Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Croatia, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Grenada, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Montenegro, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Uganda, and Vietnam, as well as Chechnya, Falkland/Malvinas, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Western Sahara.

Why is a ban on cluster munitions necessary?

Simply put, cluster munitions kill and injure too many civilians. The weapon caused more civilian casualties in Iraq in 2003 and Kosovo in 1999 than any other weapon system. Cluster munitions stand out as the weapon that poses the gravest dangers to civilians since antipersonnel mines, which were banned in 1997. Yet there is currently no provision in international law to specifically address problems caused by cluster munitions. Israel's massive use of the weapon in Lebanon in August 2006 resulted in more than 200 civilian casualties in the year following the ceasefire and served as the catalyst that has propelled governments to attempt to secure a legally-binding international instrument tackling cluster munitions in 2008.

States that adopted the Convention on Cluster Munitions (107):

Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Holy See, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Lesotho, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia (FYR), Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Uganda, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela and Zambia.

Contact:
September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
office(at)peacefultomorrows.org
Phone: 212.598.0970

Nearly seven years ago, a group of family members of those killed on Sept. 11 united to advocate for a nonviolent response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Since then, members of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows have traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan and other conflict areas to meet with the victims of the Bush administration’s so-called war on terror. We speak to Terry Rockefeller, who has just returned from her second trip to Iraq. Terry’s sister Laura died on 9/11 at the World Trade Center.

> Click here to access the full interview on the Democracy Now! website.

For more information on Tides Center project September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, see www.peacefultomorrows.org.

WATERVILLE - The Kennebec/Somerset Chapter of A Call to Men recently received a grant of $4,700 from the Rural Grants Fund of the Maine Community Foundation to support its mission of ending men's violence against women.

The grant will fund the creation of a Web site and brochure and cover the cost of trainings, enabling the chapter to communicate more effectively to more members of the communities.

Chairperson Chris Wright said, "Our goal is to challenge those perspectives, attitudes and behaviors which boys and men unknowingly absorb from society that contribute to men's violence against women and children."

Wright, a strong advocate for men, said, "It is crucial to understand that many of the cultural messages that guys get about being 'real men' affect us negatively because they pressure us away from being ourselves."

A Call to Men is made up of "well-meaning men," meaning those who do not act out violently toward women, but who have decided to become involved in ending the violence.

...

> Click here to access the full article on the SunJournal.com website.

For more information on Tides Center project A Call to Men, see www.acalltomen.com.

By Truc Thanh Nguyen

This past weekend, during breakfast with some friends, the topic of genetics popped up in conversation. That happens a lot these days as people ask me what it is that I do. The short of it is that I get to think about and organize around racial justice implications of genetic technologies. Before I say more about the implications of the expansion of DNA databases for communities of color, my new acquaintance interjects a personal story.

After her car was broken into, an acquaintance expressed anger and frustration that the police would not run DNA evidence left in her car (an unknown person's hairs on a hair tie) through the her state's DNA database. The (inaccurate) reason given to her was that the DNA database was too small.

"Get all their DNA," she added, her white face becoming paler and eyes glazing over as she retold the story. The conversation immediately shut down, along with her ability to hear how checking DNA would not necessarily give her the justice she was seeking.

I can relate to that feeling of privacy invasion, wrongness of things stolen from you and frustration with not being served by the criminal justice system. The difference is that I think about these things on both the individual level and larger societal level as a person of color.

This is at the heart of the debate on the expansion of DNA databases. How do we, as people, work through our emotional response to the feeling of injustice that blinds us from wanting to understand the real implications of unregulated technology and policy that lacks a critical race analysis?

...

> Click here to access the full article on the Generations Ahead website.

For more information on Tides Center project Generations Ahead, see www.generations-ahead.org.

A new report released today, "U.S. Population, Energy & Climate Change", shows how the nation's high per-capita energy use and its sizable, expanding population are combining to have a profound affect both on American's daily lives and on a broader scale, the world's climate. The report highlights the scientific evidence of how the nation's energy and demographic trends, together, are emerging as a new "twin-set" of major policy issues for the country. The science-based report was produced by the Center for Environment and Population (CEP), an independent non-profit research and policy organization.

"We all know that less 'unsustainable' energy use in America will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil and slow climate change. Yet, we haven't seriously considered the biggest overlooked 'climate change factor' – that is, population", said Vicky Markham, author of the report. "In the climate change equation, population is the 'big multiplier' - particularly when linked with American's unique high per-capita energy use and resource consumption - because it intensifies the rate, scale, and scope of both the root causes and effects of climate change in the U.S. and worldwide. Because of this, America's biggest 'population' issue today is its connection to energy use and climate change."

The new report documents how major U.S. demographic factors – including growth along the U.S. coasts, metropolitan areas, and in the West; increase in high-energy consuming households and per-capita vehicle use, and; widespread land development to accommodate the growth – are all inextricably linked to the causes and effects of climate change.

"Population factors simply aren't taken seriously as part of the energy and climate change equation, and must be, if we are to be effective in balancing our energy needs with the ability to sustain a growing U.S. and global population", said Ms. Markham. "If we don't, any gains made on energy or climate change will be undermined because of our growth in numbers of people, coupled with our high per-person energy use. In the U.S., we need to look at climate change and population as two sides of the same coin - that's not how it's been done up to now." 

This means "making population and demography a core part of the energy and climate change national debate, policy, and action, including considerations of where the U.S. growth is occurring (metro areas, coasts, South and West); how we live (vehicle use, land development, household energy use); every American's choices made regarding energy use, environmental sustainability, and family size, and; youth as a key audience", according to the report.

Other report highlights include:

• There is growing evidence that population, linked to energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, is a key factor in climate change. In the U.S., population is related to the causes of climate change mainly through high per-capita energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Population factors exacerbate climate change's effects in the nation when there is population pressure on the natural resource base at specific sites, for example, when there is high population density and continued rapid growth in coastal, urban, suburban or ecologically vulnerable areas in the U.S.

• In the global context of these issues, the U.S. stands out:  it has by far the largest population amongst other industrialized nations worldwide, the only sizable one with significant population growth, <u>and;</u> it uses more energy than any other nation and is the largest carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gas emitter of industrialized nations in the world. This has major implications for global climate change because the American population's energy consumption habits are so disproportionate to the rest of the worlds'. The U.S. represents 5% of the world population, consumes 25% of the world's energy, and generates five times the world average of C02 emissions (the main greenhouse gas contributing to climate change).

• With 8,000 people added each day in the U.S. and 3 million people added each year, there’s real potential to reach 1 billion high-energy consuming Americans by 2100. Meeting the energy demands of this large and rapidly growing population that consumes elevated levels of resources and energy - while at the same time reducing the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change - will prove daunting in the coming decades.

• U.S. "households" are a key demographic in the rise of per-capita energy use. The U.S. residential sector is the largest such energy use sector worldwide, with household appliances the fastest growing energy consumers nationwide, after vehicles.

• The South and West are  U.S. "population-climate change" hot spots, because they are the fastest growing, most heavily populated U.S. regions, <u>and</u> especially vulnerable to climate change impacts of sea level rise, increased incidence of severe storms and hurricanes, and severe droughts.

• Evidence shows that more American youth - a total demographic of over half of the U.S. population - are now beginning to make decisions about energy use and even family size based on new rationales that for the first time include "environmental sustainability" and "climate change".

To see the Report online, go to www.cepnet.org.

The "U.S. Population, Energy & Climate Change" report is produced by the Center for Environment and Population (CEP), a project of the Tides Center.  For more information see www.cepnet.org.

Contact:
Vicky Markham
Phone: 203-966-3425
Email: vmarkham(at)cepnet.org

By GARY FEUERBERG
Epoch Times

…Dr. Ferris was joined in the panel discussion on the Iraqi displacement crisis by Kirk Johnson, founder and director of The List: Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies. Johnson befriended many Iraqis working for the Americans when he worked in 2005 on the reconstruction of Iraq for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Baghdad and Fallujah.

 The nearly 70,000 Iraqis who worked alongside U.S. forces are directly targeted for violence. For these Iraqis, the only safe solution is to leave Iraq.

 In 2005, an Iraqi translator found his dog beheaded and a letter that threatened the same for him. The man and his wife fled the Gulf and asked Johnson for help in getting admitted to the U.S. In the course of helping this translator, many other Iraqis contacted him who were in the same boat. Even the Iraqi government doesn’t want to hire these people because they helped us, said Johnson.

...

> Click here to access the full article on the Epoch Times website.

For more information on Tides Center project The List: Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies, see www.thelistproject.org.

Democracy Now!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged it has drastically underestimated the number of people becoming infected with AIDS in the United States. The CDC had been reporting 40,000 people get infected each year, but now the agency estimates the figure is 56,000—an increase of 40 percent. The CDC reportedly knew about the increased number of cases since last year but waited to make the announcement until the opening of the International AIDS Conference in Mexico. We speak with Stephen Lewis, the former UN envoy on AIDS in Africa and and co-director of AIDS-Free World, who is taking part in the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.

Stephen Lewis, Former Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa; chair of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which funds community-based AIDS initiatives in Africa; and co-director of AIDS-Free World, a new international AIDS advocacy organization based in Boston.

> Click here to access the full interview on Democracy Now! website.

For more information about Tides Center project AIDS-Free World, see www.aids-freeworld.org.