Because People Matter

Maybe we just shouldn’t eat high fructose corn syrup

By Jacqueline Diaz

In January 2009 Environmental Health published findings concluding that a process often used in the production of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) creates a mercury presence in foods http://www.ehjournal.net/content/8/1/2. The study also found that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had found similar levels of mercury in HFCS samples in 2004 but apparently didn’t think it was important to share with the public.

Since January, the HFCS industry has been countering the study with their own facts and “studies”–because those should be unbiased right? Their own “expert” assessments have found “flaws” in the study conducted by eight reputable researchers including a neuroscientist and chemist. They’d prefer to stick to the “facts” produced by studies funded by big Ag groups and “independent” panels that profess HFCS as safe and equal to table sugar.

Arne Duncan , Kevin Johnson and Cheerleaders for Education "Reform"

By Duane Campbell

I was fortunate  to catch Bill Moyer’s Journal on PBS on Sunday, Sept.13.  Among his guests were Dr. Jim Young Kim.  Born in the U.S. and raised in Iowa, he has spent the last twenty-five years delivering health care to some the world’s poorest people including those of Haiti, Africa, and Asia.  He will now take a position as President of Dartmouth University.

His discussion pointed out that improving health care delivery required the participation of the doctors, nurses, and medical workers, and community members in their communities—it does not come from the hospital/health care industry.   His talk reminded me of the arguments  often made before about school reform.

Controlling Human Population: A Challenge We Must Face

by Jack D. Forbes

All over the Earth human beings are multiplying at staggering rates, threatening the human future as well as that of all other forms of life. Our struggles against global warming, against environmental degradation, and against terrorism stemming from poverty and hopelessness, are all doomed to failure unless we stabilize population and even reduce it where we can.

Unfortunately, some countries are still committed to population growth or are unwilling to

Action Alert: Don't let Senator Steinberg rush a bad decision on water!

by Dan Bacher

Below is an urgent action alert from Friends of the River to make phone calls and emails to Senator Darrell Steinberg to urge him not rush into the kind of potential policy disaster that created California’s unsuccessful and costly experiment in energy deregulation! The link is: https://secure2.convio.net/fotr/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=225

After you make your phone call and emails, please sign the petition against the peripheral canal on the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) Website at www.calsport.org.

Please send this to everybody that you know! We must stop Steinberg's attempt to fast track water legislation that will lead to the construction of a peripheral canal or tunnel, a government boondoggle costing $23 billion to $ 53.8 billion.

Students Rally against more fees, fewer classes

By Duane Campbell

 

  Over  400 students, faculty and staff of the California State University –Sacramento  rallied against increasing fees and cuts to their classes today, Sept.2,2009.  Across the CSU students returned to find the 2009/10 academic year offers fewer class days as faculty are furloughed, much greater difficulty  getting classes, and more limited services even as their fees have risen by one-third. 

 In response to state budget cuts to the universities,  on July 21, the California State University Board of Trustees approved a fee increase requiring undergraduate students  to pay $4,026 a year, an increase of about $1,000 over the previous year .  In the last 7 years, during the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger,  student fees at the CSU  have increased 170 %.