Hot off the Press: Waking up to climate change edition

Holy shit. This is a damn awesome and well crafted post on a NYT blog called "Happy Days" (I should add it to my Junk Drawer links). Read it: http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/the-referendum/. I'm writing about the same sentiments in the giant essay I've worked on all year, and am happy to see others feel the same way I do about the decisions we make and the futures we either bless or doom ourselves to.

A proposal to ban smoking in New York City's parks and beaches has people raising interesting questions about civil liberties: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/nyregion/16smoking.html. I hate cigarette smoke and think smokers deserve the horrific effects of their habit, but people do have a right to kill themselves. Do they have a right to kill themselves in public? Force me to breathe their poison as I walk past or behind them, as I had to do yesterday when I walked behind a smoker on my way home from the bus stop? It's interesting.

The unemployment rate in California has risen to 12.2 percent: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-california-jobless19-2009sep19,0,1171726.story. Isn't a consumer-based economy wonderful?

The unemployment rate in Iowa now sits at 6.8 percent: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090918/BUSINESS/90918012. Regardless, I'm returning to the heartland next year no matter what.

Here's one for the "What the Fuck?" department. A La Quinta man confessed to throwing up to 3,000 golf balls into the Joshua Tree National Park over the past two years because he wanted to pay "tribute to dead golfers": http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-golf-balls18-2009sep18,0,1155524.story.

To stave off the stigmata of economic blight, city officials in Palm Springs are poised to adopt a plan to requires owners of vacant business space to liven storefronts with art so they don't look so down: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-palm-springs18-2009sep18,0,5234940.story.

"Arrested in O.C.? A DNA sample could buy freedom. Guilty or not, people arrested can avoid the hassle of court if they give their DNA sample to the district attorney. The program raises privacy and equity concerns among legal scholars": http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oc-dna17-2009sep17,0,7594003.story.

The UC Regents plan to raise student fees despite protests from students and staff: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-uc17-2009sep17,0,2973034.story. The chick getting arrested in the photo is kind of cute, but that's beside the point. When people don't want to pitch in together for education services (via taxes), those who use the service get bent over.

Another story in the NYT's series on water pollution. This one looks at farm runoff: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18dairy.html?ref=us.

Religious liberty is at the center of a trial against an Amerindian who killed a bald eagle: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-eagle-feather21-2009sep21,0,7225203.story. The amazing thing, to me, is that there's a repository for dead eagles.

Due to the budget cuts and funding shortages that have eliminated teacher and staff jobs, some California classrooms are so overcrowded students sit on the floor or stand against walls: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ed-cuts20-2009sep20,0,2312077.story.

LAT editorial regarding the innovative, untested, and regressive (surprise surprise) tax plan a state commissions has proposed: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-schrag21-2009sep21,0,6267313.story.

Cool, but somewhat unfocused, story about an Amish newspaper and its non-Amish staff's effort to try transitioning to an online publication, a big no-no if you know the Amish: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/technology/internet/21link.html.

With an Iowa family as an example, this LAT article is about how American's new frugalness may cast a shadow over the economy: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-econ-consumer21-2009sep21,0,3030995,full.story. Apparently, I'm the only person in this country who didn't spend everything I made before the recession.

"Shake and bake" meth has reached Iowa: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090921/NEWS01/909210322. Not only is meth extremely nasty shit (the article lists household chemicals and lawn fertilizer as ingredients), but it's also an environmental scourge. Those mixing meth in two-liter bottles discard the bottle and toxic residue along roadsides.

A story about a small town on the Texas panhandle and its obsession with high school football: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/sports/22canadian.html?_r=1.

A Johnson County farmer is trying his hand at growing organic hops: http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20090922/NEWS01/909220323/1079. Maybe that's what I should do when I move back to Iowa next year.

A development of luxury condos is on hold in Dubuque because the land is the site of a since forgotten Catholic cemetery: http://gazetteonline.com/local-news/featured-local-news/2009/09/22/forgotten-iowa-graveyard-stops-condo-development. I hope those condos never get built. Don't Californicate Iowa! (One of the Urban Dictionary definitions of "Californicate" is "To fuck up or make like California." Bingo.)