Dear nancy, Good Afternoon!
Wow, there is lots going on and this is jamb packed edition! Lots in this week's newsletter on climate change and lots of folks working on saving the planet in North Texas - they need you to get involved!
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Thanks,
Nancy Cunningham
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Dallas County declares state of emergency due to West Nile | 
DALLAS - Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins declared a public health emergency in Dallas County Thursday due to the West Nile virus epidemic in the area.Jenkins instructed the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department to file a local disaster declaration with the state. read on
West Nile linked to Climate change |
Al Gore to Lead Current TV's Convention Coverage | 
Al Gore is heading back on the campaign trail -- albeit as a media figure this time. Wednesday afternoon Current TV announced that the network's founder, former Vice President Al Gore, will host the channel's coverage of both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. THR / The Live Feed Current TV personalities Jennifer Granholm (the former Michigan governor), Eliot Spitzer (the former New York governor and Keith Olbermann replacement) and Young Turks host Cenk Uygur will join Gore during a nightly roundtable. California lieutenant governor Gavin Newsom will join the panel for the RNC coverage. Also, David Shuster and Michael Shure will report from both conventions and new Current TV hosts Joy Behar and John Fugelsang will contribute. |
Democracy Now | 
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is facing new scrutiny over revelations he founded the private equity firm Bain Capital with investments from Central American elites linked to 1980s death squads in El Salvador. We're joined by Huffington Post reporter Ryan Grim, who connects the dots in his latest story, "Mitt Romney Started Bain Capital With Money From Families Tied To Death Squads."
Watch/Listen/Read Last night, Texas executed 54-year-old Marvin Wilson, despite evidence that he was mentally disabled, which might have saved him from execution under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Wilson is the second prisoner in Texas to be executed by a new lethal injection method involving a single drug. We speak with Democracy Now! producer Renée Feltz, who has long reported on the death penalty. Feltz reads from a statement by the son of legendary author John Steinbeck condemning Texas for using Steinbeck's fictional character, Lennie Small, from "Of Mice and Men," as a "benchmark to identify whether defendants with intellectual disability should live or die."
Watch/Listen/Read The Wisconsin shooting came just more than two weeks after 12 people were killed and 58 wounded at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. We discuss the state of U.S. gun control with Colin Goddard, a survivor of the the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and now a campaigner with Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence; and with John Nichols of The Nation magazine, who is based in Wisconsin.
Watch/Listen/Read |
Commit to saving the American Right to Retire | 
10 AM Tuesday, August 14 Verizon store, 2222 McKinney (at Pearl) Downtown Dallas On the 77th anniversary of Social Security, Verizon employees, Verizon retirees, Texas Alliance for Retired Americans, and Jobs with Justice will speak up for the American Right to Retire. Everybody invited! Funds Needed! Jobs with Justice is raising money to get low-paid Wal-Mart employees a ticket to the Dallas AFL-CIO Labor Day Breakfast in Mesquite on September 3. All on-line donations received in August will go to that cause.KNON fund drive will extend through August 15. Donate at www.knon.org. If you don't mind, put "Workers Beat" as your favorite program so that your donation will go toward keeping the workers' program on the air.Join and/or donate to North Texas Jobs with Justice. North Texas Jobs with Justice /P.O. Box 225822 Dallas, TX 75222 Phone: (214) 942-4236 labordallas@sbcglobal.net |
ACLU Announces Settlement in "Highway Robbery" Cases in Texas | 
Consent Decree Reforms Egregious Asset Forfeiture Practices and Rampant Racial Profiling by Police NEW YORK - Police in an East Texas city will no longer enrich their coffers by seizing assets from innocent Black and Latino drivers and threatening them with baseless criminal charges, under a settlement reached today with the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU settled a class-action suit, pending court approval, against officials in Tenaha and Shelby County, where it is estimated police seized $3 million between 2006 and 2008 in at least 140 cases. Police officers routinely pulled over motorists in the vicinity of Tenaha without any legal justification, asked if they were carrying cash and, if they were, ordered them to sign over the cash to the city or face charges of money laundering or other serious crimes. read on |
North Texas Progressive Calendar | 
Monday, August 13: - Metrocrest Democrats conversation and dutch-treat supper at 6:30 pm, program 7:00 pm, New New Buffet, 3822 Belt Line Rd., Addison
Tuesday, August 14: - PVL - A New Era 6:30 PM, Thurgood Marshall Rec Center, 5150 Mark Trail, Dallas
- Dallas County Young Democrats 6:30 PM, Zubar, 2012 Greenville Ave., Dallas)
- Dallas Drinking Liberally Meetup Please RSVP on Meetup. 7:30 PM, Uptown Pub, 3605 McKinney Avenue, Dallas
· Tarrant County Young Democrats August Social Event 7:00pm at Fox and Hound Sundance Square Wednesday, August 15: - Garland Democratic Woman's Club 11:30 AM, Siciliano's Taste of Italy, 2210 W. Buckingham, Garland
Thursday, August 16: - Drinking Liberally Addison will meet Thursday August 16th at 6pm til ? at The Quarter in Addison
Friday, August 17: - Random Happy Hour @ Bryan Street Tavern-Dallas Drinking Liberally Group 7:00 PMBryan Street Tavern 4315 Bryan Street Dallas, TX 75204
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| Get the Election Protection Smartphone App | 
All you need to know about voting in the palm of your hand! Need to find out how to register? Not sure where to vote? Does your state require photo ID at the polls? Find the answers to these questions and many more by downloading the brand new Election Protection Smartphone App. We want you to use this app to learn about the voting process in your state. It equips you with tools to educate your friends and family about important voting information. You can also go out into your community and empower others to take the steps necessary to vote in November. Here's what you can do with the app: * Register to vote and verify your registration; * Look up your polling place; * Review key voting rules and regulations for your state; * See what type of machine you will vote on; and * Contact Election Protection via phone or email to report a problem or get answers to your voting questions. get it now |
Texas Democratic Party Rural Summit - East Texas Edition - Tyler, TX | 
Saturday, August 18, 2012- 2012 East Texas Summit Saturday, August 18 /10 a.m. - 4 p.m. /$20 per person, lunch included. A good Democrat once told me his grandmother used to say that when things got tough, it was time to stand up on his hind legs and fight. There's no tougher time for the Democratic Party in Texas than right now. If we're going to fight, we need to get into shape to win! Put on your thinking cap, lace up your walking shoes, sharpen your pencil, and plug in your laptop. Let's get ourselves ready for the upcoming campaign, which may be one of the most important ones of our lifetime. Seriously. We need to win this one. This Summit is planned to facilitate more work in less time (unless you can spend a night to relax in Tyler). Texas Democratic Party staff will be on hand to provide training in: Progressive Messaging /Campaign & Field Planning /Voter File Database /Using Social Media. Speakers Include Statewide Candidates: Michele Petty (Texas Supreme Court), Keith Hampton (Texas Court of Criminal Appeals) Location: Holiday Inn - Tyler /5701 South Broadway, Tyler, TX 75703 /Direct # 903-561-5800 - Reservations 800-315-2621 /Rooms from $89 per night - mention "Democrats" when making a reservation Your RSVP is requested before August 15 to insure appropriate room setup & catering. You may bring Cash or Check (payable to East Texas Democratic Caucus) when registering at the door (Opens at 9 a.m. prior to the event). For assistance, contact Smith County Democratic Party, 903-593-7061 or party@smithdems.org |
Hey Texas, Climate Change Denial Isn't Funny Anymore | 
It's not funny anymore. It's depressing and scary. I'm talking about the almost-gleeful denial of climate change by Texas leaders, even as its effects become increasingly evident. Look around the planet. Arctic sea ice is melting faster this summer than at any other time. In the U.S., the last 12 months were the hottest on record. March temperatures nationwide were 8.6 degrees above the average, and in some places 20 to 40 degrees above average. More than 15,000 warm temperature records were broken across the country that month. Massive wildfires in Colorado. Withering crops in farm states. A wild "super derecho" storm that rolled across the Midwest into Washington, D.C. Last year, Texas burned and sweated through the hottest summer ever recorded in U.S. history. It was pretty dry too. Not all these extreme weather events are caused, or even worsened, by climate change. But scientists are increasingly confident that a warming planet raises the probability of extreme, record-breaking weather events. (The metaphor du jour is of a steroidal slugger breaking record after record.) read on |
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| Ryan's Ayn Rand obsession Everything you ever wanted to know about the objectivist author who inspired Romney's V.P. pick | 
| "The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand." That's freshly minted GOP vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan talking - statements he would eventually recant - at a party celebrating what would have been the prolific author's 100th birthday. Rand's books are a big driver in the long-term right-wing campaign to delude millions of people into believing that there's no such thing as society - that everyone must look out only for themselves. Lately, Rand's work has enjoyed a major revival of interest. Besides Ryan, she's inspired yoga-wear company Lululemon to publish her quotations on its products, and she's even made inroads into the North American semi-socialist enclave of Canada.
read on Salon
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George P. Bush takes a leading role in Texas GOP | 
FORT WORTH, Texas - George P. Bush has signed on to serve as deputy finance chairman for the Republican Party of Texas. The nephew of former President George W. Bush and son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the 36-year-old Bush -- long considered by some as the future leader of the Republican Party -- has been closely watched from his days at law school to his deployment to Afghanistan as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve. "I am excited about this opportunity to help the Republican Party here in Texas," he told the Star-Telegram in a written statement. "We have excellent candidates running for office who, once elected, will continue the tradition of making Texas the greatest State in the Union." Read more here
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August 16th hearing Downwinders at Risk | 
August 16th Hearing on Cement rules which are critical to what happens in Midlothian and emissions coming over Dallas. Below are the links from Downwinders. Jim said there are no speakers between noon and 7 pm. Please sign up if you can. See his message below. This is the only hearing in the entire nation on this rollback. As of today, there are no speakers after lunch all the way to 7pm. We really need help in filling those slots. Some of you might have already seen the alert Downwinders sent out about a last-minute August 16th EPA hearing on a rollback of the cement plant rules we've all fought so hard to implement for about 20 years now. More info: www.downwindersatrisk.org More from Earth Justice (formally the SC legal Defense Fund) Here
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Progressive Volunteer Opportunity | 
The children of The Family Place need your help to start the school year with the supplies they need. As the back to school shopping season begins, please keep in mind the families who do not have the resources to shop for the supplies on their school supply list. The Family Place will be providing backpacks filled with school supplies to 400 children from our shelter, transitional housing and outreach programs. We also have a few students who are served through our outreach programs in need of uniforms. Your cash contributions will enable us to shop for the right sizes.
How You Can Help:
Make a Donation
Don't have time to shop? Make a donation through our website earmarked for school supplies and we'll do the shopping for you. http://www.familyplace.org/
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Like It or Not, Energy Efficiency is Coming to Your Home: Sooner Than You Think |  Dallas Alternative Energy Meetup Group Saturday, August 18, 2012 10:30 AM / REI, Dallas 4515 LBJ Frwy, Dallas TX located between Midway and Welch on the north access road to I-635 between Guitar Center and Haverty's. Dallas, TX 75244
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