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Posts Tagged ‘Wisconsin’

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Japanese Electronics Giants Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba announced plans to participate in a massive electronics program last week. The corporations will be joining forces with Manufacturers Recycling Management LLC in creating a national recycling infrastructure for their products via a 50 state rollout of recycling centers by January of 2009. The first phase of the program will start of this month in California, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin expanding to the rest of the nation throughout next year.

This is a very important program to eliminate the industrial waste of components within our electronic items. Landfills and conventional recycling programs across the country simply do not have the resources of know how to properly handle the complicated components in our laptops, stereos, televisions and boom boxes. Worse yet, many programs which advertise that they will in fact “recycle” these items, actually ship them to impoverished countries for disadvantaged people to try and salvage small amounts of gold and other substances out of them by hand, an unsafe practice which is causing a human health crisis around the world.

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Map of w:red states and blue states in the U.S...

While it remains my dream that problems with voter registration, pollworker training, and statewide voter databases be eliminated in every state, I must admit that I’d most prefer that they first be dealt with in swing states. I know, I know swing states get all the attention. The red state voter in Kansas and the blue state voter in California are no less important than the swing state voter in Ohio. And electoral reform should be done for its own sake, not just when it’s convenient for our candidate, right? Right.

Yet, the worst outcome of a troubled electoral process would be if the will of the people was subverted and the aforementioned problems thwarted voter intent. Which is why we ought to pay special attention to problems in the states where the vote will be close.

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Wendy Cohen June 10, 2008 | 7:55 pm EST
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Gays Mills, Wis. was hit with flash floods this weekend. Just 10 months after the village of 625 people was hit with another devastating flood.

I heard about this awful flood from KCRW on my way to work. It is awful but doesn’t surprise me. I’m prepared to hear news of another storm or tornado and earthquake each day. This extreme weather is our new weather pattern.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Don’t miss these excellent posts on some very engaging and thoughtful topics - from going green at the office to Julian Beever to dystopian film telling us to take action now. Check out our most popular articles of the week on a variety of subjects, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

Katoucha’s Body Found: Model Helped African Women Escape Mutiliation

Julian Beever Brings Art to New Orleans Sidewalks

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Nicole:

Heath Ledger Nick Drake Video for “Black Eyed Dog” Hits Web

Top 10 Ways to Go Green in the Office

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Giulia:

Crate & Barrel Goes Green

The Black Comedy Project

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Gina:

Top 10 Dystopian Future Films Telling Us to Take Action Now

Going to “The Edge of Heaven” with Fatih Akin

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Kerry:

Sustainable Songstrees Sue West’s Rural Revival

No Impact Home A Hit At Ecobuild Exhibition

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suewest1.jpgI’m not sure what to call this musical genre: green bluegrass? Low carbon country? Whatever it is, I love it, and I think a lot of other people would embrace Wisconsin singer Sue West’s green-tinged, gospel-flavored folk music, too; it’s an authentic, timeless kind of music that hugs you back. As one fan wrote in an open note to Sue on CD Baby: “Listening to your music is like being rocked by strong arms.”

No doubt West’s own arms are pretty strong, since she makes her living as a sustainable farmer. When she’s not busy picking her guitar you might find her picking berries, particularly the wild ones for which her website, Wild Fruit Folk Music, is named, as is her first CD, Wild Fruit, of which she wrote:

I enjoy writing and recording songs about life here in rural Wisconsin. You may know me as the “Egg Lady.” Life on the Rush River with my hens and my dawgs is full of poetic moments. I have captured many of them in the songs that I share through my performing and my cds. If you have any curiosity at all about what fills the thoughts of your local organic egg producer, look no further.  

West’s a stellar example of a locally oriented eco-entrepreneur/artist, making a living by sharing the fruits of her labor, literally and figuratively. Her website offers such sustainably produced products as homemade beeswax hand balm and her own home-roasted coffee made from certified organic, fair trade Mexican Altura Chiapas. She sells the coffee “handground”in re-used recyclable bioplastic produce containers,” or, if you prefer to grind your own, the “whole bean is sold in homemade cloth bags made from “rescued” shirts.”

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