“The Department of Health is infested with bed bugs.” No, not a discarded lyric from an Alanis Morrissette tune—a real life occurrence happening right now!

Reports of the pests have surfaced over the past several weeks, and lo and behold, “live bug colonies” were found on the Long Island City building’s 11th floor, the Daily News reports. Though the colonies themselves are centralized on one floor, the tiny beasts have been found on at least three floors.

via Bedbugs Found In City’s Department Of Health Building: Gothamist.

environment, urban farm

New Survey Shows Food Hubs Poised for Further Growth – NSAC

September 20, 2013 nedhamson

Financial health and impacts on sustainable agriculture

In addition to examining what food hubs do and how they’re structured, the survey looked at their financial health and the impacts they are having on local communities, including ways food hubs influence producers in their production methods. Among the positive findings:

A majority of the food hubs surveyed were on solid financial footing, with operating costs matching revenue.

Most food hubs were able to operate independently of grants or other outside sources of funding. Two thirds of food hubs reported not receiving any funding from outside sources.

While most food hubs are small, with annual sales of $500,000 or less, they work with a broad range of producers. Most of the food hubs surveyed work with 30 or more different producers, providing local consumers with access to a broad range of products from local farms and ranches. Those producers were somewhat more likely to be women or people of color than the national averages for primary operators of farms.

On average, 60 percent of a food hub’s total gross sales came from small and mid-sized farms, while 76 percent of food hubs indicated that all or most of their producers fit this small to mid-sized farm category.

Most food hubs indicated that they have an impact on their producers, including influencing them to diversify their product offerings or adopt more sustainable production methods.

via New Survey Shows Food Hubs Poised for Further Growth – NSAC.

Uncategorized

Aid Organizations Confront Child Slavery in India – SPIEGEL ONLINE

September 20, 2013 nedhamson

Anne Backhaus/ DER SPIEGEL

Millions of Indian children work as slaves in factories, brothels or in the homes of families. Out of poverty and desperation, parents sell their daughters, and human traffickers wait at train stations for runaways and scour for orphans in monsoon-ravaged villages.

On the day that Durga Mala was rescued, she lay crying on the stone floor, where she was attempting to cool her back. She was 11 years old and her skin was covered with blisters, from her shoulder blades to her buttocks. A few days earlier, her owners had poured hot oil over her because they thought she was working too slowly.

via Aid Organizations Confront Child Slavery in India – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Uncategorized

Lawmakers “Representing” Most of the Hungriest Counties Voted to Cut SNAP | Environmental Working Group

September 20, 2013 nedhamson

Lawmakers “Representing” Most of the Hungriest Counties Voted to Cut SNAP

By: Mary Ellen Kustin, Legislative/Policy Analyst

Friday, September 20, 2013

If you live in one of America’s 100 hungriest counties, there is a one-in-three chance that you rely on food stamps.

There is also a pretty good chance that your member of Congress just voted to kick you off food stamps.

And, if you live in Haywood County, Tennessee, or Shannon County, South Dakota, you can be sure your representative not only voted to kick you off food stamps but also voted to give him- or herself more farm subsidies.

Sadly, two-thirds of the 39 legislators who represent America’s 100 hungriest counties voted yesterday to cut funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, by $40 billion over the next ten years.

What’s more, the same legislators voted last month to increase unlimited subsidies for the largest farm businesses at a time of record farm income.

Two of the members with the hungriest counties in their districts not only voted to increase farm subsidies for their wealthy neighbors. They also voted to increase subsidies for themselves.

As EWG has reported, at least 15 members of Congress or their spouses received a total of $237,921 in farm subsidies in 2012. Ten of the 11 representatives who personally received farm subsidies voted yesterday (Sept. 19) to cut food stamps after voting to extend farm subsidies earlier this summer.

Members of Congress with one or more of the 100 hungriest counties in their districts

Vote on “SNAP only” H.R. 3102

(passed 217-210)

Vote on “farm only” H.R. 2642

(passed 216-208)

Vote on crop insurance reform amendment to H.R. 1947

(failed 208-217)

Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.)

Nay

Rep. Sanford Bishop, Jr. (D-Ga.)

Nay

Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.)

Yea

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.)

Yea

no vote

Yea

Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.)

Nay

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.)

Nay

Yea

Nay

Rep. William “Lacy” Clay, Jr. (D-Mo.)

Nay

Yea

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.)

Nay

Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas)

Nay

Rep. Steve Daines (R-Mont.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. William Enyart (D-Ill.)

Nay

Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.)

Yea

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.)

Nay

Yea

Nay

Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Texas)

Nay

Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.)

Nay

Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-Texas)

Nay

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.)

Nay

Rep. Ben Lujan (D-N.M.)

Nay

Yea

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.V.)

Nay

Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.)

Nay

Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.)

Yea

Nay

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.)

Nay

Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas)

Nay

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska)

Nay

Yea

Nay

via Lawmakers “Representing” Most of the Hungriest Counties Voted to Cut SNAP | Environmental Working Group.

Frankenfood, human rights, racism

Off the Charts Blog | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | Who Receives SNAP, and How Would the House Cuts Affect Them?

September 20, 2013 nedhamson

In Mississippi, over 40 percent of the state’s children rely on SNAP each day to put food on the table.

via Off the Charts Blog | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | Who Receives SNAP, and How Would the House Cuts Affect Them?.

Can you guess how Mississippi’s Representatives voted – they voted to cut SNAP that feeds their kids!

http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2013/09/lawmakers-representing-most-hungriest-counties-voted-cut-snap?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ewg_alltopics+%28EWG%3A+All+Topics%29

human rights, Profiteering, racism

Slavery in Modern india – Delhi’s missing children forced into farm labor | Globalization | DW.DE | 20.09.2013

September 20, 2013 nedhamson

Deepak Kumar was on his way back from a playground near the Tughlaqabad railway station in Delhi when he was abducted. It was the evening of March 8, 2011. He was 15 then.

“It was already dark. I was feeling cold and realized I should go back home. Just then I saw four people coming towards my direction on a bike. Before I could understand anything, they forced me on the pillion, sandwiching me between them. They covered my mouth with a thick cloth when I started crying. All I can remember is that I was on the bike. When I woke up, it was morning. The men took me to a Ram Kumar’s house in Khindaria village, Muzaffarnagar district,” Deepak recounted.

Khindaria village lies north-east of Muzaffarnagar district in the sugar belt region of Uttar Pradesh. The region is covered with sugarcane plantations that flourish all year round.

The next morning, Deepak was briefed about his job at Ram Kumar’s place. He was to look after the buffaloes, clean their sheds, and peel and clean sugarcane. Meanwhile, back home in Badarpur, his parents had frantically started looking for him. His father Bhajan Sahu went to the nearest police station in Sarga Khwaja to register the missing person. “They refused to file a case, saying that my son was a drug addict. Finally, after a lot of requests a case was registered but they did nothing,” says Sahu.

via Delhi’s missing children forced into farm labor | Globalization | DW.DE | 20.09.2013.

Gun-violence

Chicago Murder, Homicide & Crime 2013 Stats | Chicago Murder, Crime & Mayhem | HeyJackass!

September 20, 2013 nedhamson

September to Date

Shot & Killed: 20

Shot & Wounded: 101

Total Homicides*: 24

Chicago Murder, Homicide & Crime 2013 Stats Shortlink

This Week (Sun – Sat)

Shot & Killed: 5

Shot & Wounded: 26

Total Homicides*: 5

Chicago Murder, Homicide & Crime 2013 Stats Shortlink

Year to Date Totals

Shot & Killed: 272

Shot & Wounded: 1400

Total Homicides*: 327

Chicago Murder, Homicide & Crime 2013 Stats Shortlink

via Chicago Murder, Homicide & Crime 2013 Stats | Chicago Murder, Crime & Mayhem | HeyJackass!.

Gun-violence

The Gun Report: September 20, 2013 – NYTimes.com

September 20, 2013 nedhamson

According to Slate’s gun-death tracker, an estimated 8,310 people have died as a result of gun violence in America since the Newtown massacre on December 14, 2012.

via The Gun Report: September 20, 2013 – NYTimes.com.

Uncategorized

13 people, including 3-year-old, shot at South Side park – chicagotribune.com

September 20, 2013 nedhamson 2 Comments

Relatives said the boys uncle, Jerome Wood, was fatally shot in the Woodlawn neighborhood over the Labor Day weekend. The Rev. Corey Brooks, who presided over Woods funeral, urged the shooter or shooters to surrender or face justice on the streets.There are people who know exactly who the shooter is,” he said, standing next to Nunn. “And Im sure he will not be safe shooting 13 people.”

via 13 people, including 3-year-old, shot at South Side park – chicagotribune.com.

human rights, Palestine, peace, racism, terrorism

Israeli forces manhandle EU diplomats, seize West Bank aid | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

September 20, 2013 nedhamson

Israeli soldiers manhandled European diplomats on Friday and seized a truck full of tents and emergency aid they had been trying to deliver to Palestinians whose homes were demolished this week.

A Reuters reporter saw soldiers throw sound grenades at a group of diplomats, aid workers and locals in the occupied West Bank, and yank a French diplomat out of the truck before driving away with its contents.

“They dragged me out of the truck and forced me to the ground with no regard for my diplomatic immunity,” French diplomat Marion Castaing said.

“This is how international law is being respected here,” she said, covered with dust.

The Israeli army and police declined to comment.

Locals said Khirbet Al-Makhul was home to about 120 people. The army demolished their ramshackle houses, stables and a kindergarten on Monday after Israel’s high court ruled that they did not have proper building permits.

Despite losing their property, the inhabitants have refused to leave the land, where, they say, their families have lived for generations along with their flocks of sheep.

Israeli soldiers stopped the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delivering emergency aid on Tuesday and on Wednesday IRCS staff managed to put up some tents but the army forced them to take the shelters down.

via Israeli forces manhandle EU diplomats, seize West Bank aid | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.