** CFF Activities
-- CFF Annual "Deep Pockets" Yard Sale 9/14
** Florence Area
-- Health Care Ballot Measure Meeting in Florence
-- Water District Insists on Cooperation
** Other Info
-- Privatizing Water?
-- Hood River Fights Wal-Mart
-- Farmers, 1000 Friends, Question Gas Pipeline
-- Green Buildings Surge
-- Big Boxes Are Unwise Investments
-- Video Explores TMDLs - Keep Waters Clean
** Links of Interest
-- Anti-WalMart Links
** Upcoming Events
-- CFF Meetings
** Activism Via the Net
- - - -

** CFF ACTIVITIES **

-- CFF ANNUAL 'DEEP POCKETS' YARD SALE - Sept 14 and 15 - Donations of good used "stuff" are needed for CFF's annual yard sale.  This fundraiser brings in enough money to run our regular projects all year: videotapes of city council meetings to library and  local cable tv, CFF web page, CFF informational mailings and research.  We also need volunteers to help with the yard sale (cashiers, run errands, general moral support).  Saturday, September 14 and 15, at the corner of 19th and Pine Street.  If you have items to donate, call 997-2680 and ask for intructions on where to drop off your donations.

** FLORENCE AREA **

-- HEALTH CARE BALLOT MEASURE PUBLIC MEETING IN FLORENCE -- Health Care Ballot Measure to be Discussed at Public Meeting - Measure 23 - 7:00 pm, Thursday, Sept. 12.  The measure will be on the ballot in November under the title, “Oregon Comprehensive Healthcare Finance Act”.  According to meeting sponsors, volunteers gathered over 96,000 signatures to offer a grassroots alternative to the present state of health insurance. The objective of the iniatitive is to create a completely new health care system that  would cover all Oregonians, including the 437,000 residents (70,000 of them children) who currently have no health insurance. The plan would cover medically necessary health services as determined and provided by any state licensed, certified or registered health care practitioner.  Coverage would include the full range of preventive, inpatient, outpatient, mental health, dental, vision, prescription medication and long-term care services.

Health Care For All Oregon says that Oregon already spends enough money on health care to cover everyone. Studies have found that the plan is financially sound, and will be funded primarily by drastically reducing the 25 percent of health care expenditures currently spent for insurance companies’ advertising, paperwork, shareholder profits, CEO saleries, etc. as well as providers’ burdensome paperwork. Additional funding will come from money that federal, state, and local goverments now spend on health care as well as a progressive payroll tax (taking the place of current health insurance premiums) and a progressive tax on taxable income, paid by Oregonians with incomes above 150 pencent of the federal poverty level. A publicly accountable, nonprofit, independent Health Care Finance Board woud administer the system.

-- WATER DISTRICT INSISTS ON COOPERATION - Heceta Water District has told the City of Florence they  intend to object to some recently approved annexations at the Lane County Boundary Commission unless there  is an intergovernmental agreement between the District and the City for orderly provision of water to the annexed land.
 http://www.citizensforflorence.com/News/arch-0208.html

** OTHER INFO **

-- PRIVATIZING WATER? -- According to Jim Hightower,  "... the White House and Congress are ratcheting up  their privatization push here at home with a sneak attack called the Water Investment Act of 2002. Despite its boring title, S.1961 contains a stick of dynamite in Section 103(J)(1)(b).  This proviso says that a local water project in your city cannot get federal financing unless the local government "has considered" privatizing your water system. Upgrading and expanding water systems is hugely expensive, and cities must have federal support to do the job -- but S.1961 would make this funding conditional on whether cities consider turning over their water to private corporations."
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/policy/s1961/

-- HOOD RIVER FIGHTS WAL-MART -- More than 200 residents of Hood River, linked arms to form a giant circle around their downtown one Friday afternoon a few months ago in May. Organized by the Hood River Citizens for Responsible Growth (CRG), the "Arms Around Our  Town" event was designed to demonstrate community support for locally owned businesses, and to  illustrate just how large a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter would be and how many local stores would  be threatened. Earlier this year, both the town and county of Hood River enacted ordinances limiting new retail stores to no more than 50,000 square feet and establishing a special review process for commercial development between 25,000 and 50,000 square feet.  The county's new size limit does not apply to a proposed 185,000-square-foot Wal-Mart supercenter slated for land just outside the town limits, because the developer submitted an application for the project before the ordinance was adopted.  Nevertheless, the county should still reject the development based on its comprehensive plan, contends CRG.
http://www.hoodriversfuture.org

--FARMERS, 1000 FRIENDS QUESTION PIPELINE ACROSS FARMLAND -- The state Office of Energy has given Northwest Natural Gas Co. a preliminary green light to build a 62-mile transmission pipeline across mostly farmland in Washington, Clackamas and Marion counties. The estimated $90 million project, stretching from northern Washington County to west of Molalla, is the largest ever to be reviewed by the state office.  "We believe our land is being stolen from us by this  utility," said Dave Vanasche, who farms about 2,000 acres in Washington County and estimates that a combined two miles of his land will be affected.  1000 Friends has testified that the pipeline should use the existing road right-of-way rather than cutting across farmland.  http://www.oregonlive.com/metrosouthwest/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/
html_standard.xsl?/base/metro_southwest_news/1027425411132293.xml
http://www.oregonlive.com/metrosouthwest/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/
html_standard.xsl?/base/metro_southwest_news/1029326207185980.xml
(these links may have to be reentered into your browser)

-- GREEN BUILDINGS SURGE - Around the country, green buildings are multiplying as more and more property owners seek to conserve energy and reduce heating and cooling costs.  Today, an estimated 400 buildings are seeking certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), which has established a four-level scale for what it terms "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design." The Environmental Protection Agency reports that commercial and residential buildings use roughly 66 percent of the country's electricity. By 2010, an estimated 38 million buildings will be added to the 76 million that already exist. http://www.usgbc.org/  http://www.sustainableportland.org/

-- BIG BOXES ARE UNWISE INVESTMENTS -- PricewaterhouseCoopers and Lend Lease Real Estate Investments Inc. have released their annual guide for  real estate investors. For several years, the guide has advised investors to shun big box retail.  "Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2002" continues this advice. "America is overstored---too many formats cannibalize each other," the report notes. "Dead and dying malls litter the nation's suburbs... Most power centers [i.e., big box developments] are risky   propositions... The only sure thing is that owners will be challenged to re-lease empty boxes abandoned by the losers... It's just more of the same retailer merry-go-round: rob Peter to pay Paul."  For failing malls and shopping strips, there are "no exit strategies." The same might be said for communities that hitch their  futures to  absentee-owned sprawl. The report says traditional small-scale, mixed-use neighborhoods are the way to go: "[Investors] have come to realize that properties  in better-planned, growth-constrained markets hold value better in downmarkets and appreciate more in upcycles. Areas with sensible zoning (integrating commercial, retail, and residential), parks, and street grids with sidewalks will age better than places oriented to disconnected cul-de-sac subdivisions and shopping strips, navigable only by car."
Read the report at http://www.lendleaserei.com

-- NEW VIDEO EXPLORES HOW TMDLS KEEP OUR WATERS CLEAN -- “By combining science and technology with education and community involvement, TMDLs are making a difference around the country.”  These facts, quoted by narrator Ed Berliner, are brought to life in a new video targeted at the public, politicians, and local  decision makers. For the complete article, visit  www.epa.gov/owow/info/NewsNotes

**LINKS OF INTEREST**
 

-- Anti-Wal-Mart Links: http://www.bit-net.com/~dka/Resources/Best%20Links.html

 ** ACTIVISM VIA THE NET **

CFF provides these links for your convenience only, and recommends you research any issues carefully before participating.
 

-- ANOTHER CHANCE TO SPEAK OUT FOR OREGON MARINE RESERVES
http://www.governor.state.or.us/governor/mail/mailform.html
For additional information, visit Audubon Society of Portland’s website,
www.audubonportland.org/cons/marine.html

-- BUSH PLANS TO ROLL BACK ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTOINS - Under the guise of fighting forest fires, President Bush wants to "streamline" or more accurately rollback the backbone of environmental protections,  the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which was signed into law in 1970 by President Nixon. You can take action on this at:  http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/healthy_forests/ws3sxi4q78xie7

                      or
Communicate with your two Oregon Senators:                       http://www.capitolconnect.com/audubon/contact/default.asp?subject=61

** UPCOMING EVENTS **

-- CFF's UPDATE Calendar