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Monday Mailing

Year 19 • Issue 39 24 June 2013 1. 'Saboteurs' Destroy GM Sugar Beets 2. America Feeds the Rich 3. Video Festival for Amateur or First-Time Filmmakers: Growing Community from the Ground Up 4. State Board Clears University of Oregon Police to Have Guns 5. 15 Innovative Policies Any City Would be Wise to Steal 6. Highway Expansion Encourages More Than Just Driving 7. The Dutch Prize Their Pedal Power, but a Sea of Bikes Swamps Their Capital 8. Oregon's Workforce: Fewer People are Carrying the Load 9. JPL Releases Billion Pixel-Panorama of Mars: Take a Tour 10. Jail's Organic Garden Cultivates Change 11. Funding Opportunities 1. 'Saboteurs' Destroy GM Sugar Beets Saboteurs damaged two fields of genetically modified sugar beets in southern Oregon earlier June, according to the FBI. The FBI considers the incidents, which occurred during the nights of June 8 and June 11 in Jackson County, to be crimes of "economic sabotage" that violate federal law.

About 1,000 sugar beet plants were destroyed during the first incident and another 5,500 were destroyed during the second, both in fields leased by the biotech developer Syngenta.

Quote of the Week: "People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be." ~Abraham Lincoln Oregon Fast Fact #555: The northern Oregon Coast Range can receive up to 200 inches of precipitation per year, versus as little as 8 inches in the eastern deserts.

Also, the Willamette Valley typically receives between 30 and 50 inches of precipitation yearly, while the Cascade Range can get well over 100 inches of total precipitation, which includes snowmelt.

Beth Anne Steele, a spokesperson for the FBI, said the agency wasn't disclosing how the plants were destroyed.

"We're not revealing how it happened because we don't want to encourage copy cats," she said.

Steele said the FBI was notified of the incidents by Syngenta and isn't familiar with similar sabotage of biotech crops in Oregon, but is inquiring whether such damage has occurred elsewhere in the U.S. To access the full story, click here.

2.

America Feeds the Rich The Farm Bill that is expected to pass the U.S. House this week explains income inequality in America.

The Republican-sponsored proposal slashes food stamps for poor children and pads farm subsidies for wealthy agri-businessmen.

This comes just a week after Senate Republicans refused to protect the poorest students from doubled college loan interest rates because that required closing tax loopholes that benefit big corporations. It comes just weeks after a new study showed the Walmart heirs, among the richest

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people in the world, pay their workers so little that taxpayers fork over billions to subsidize Walmart’s payroll through programs like – food stamps.

To access the full story, click here.

3. Video Festival for Amateur or First-Time Filmmakers: Growing Community from the Ground Up-Submission deadline: July 8, 2013 At urban gardens and farms, people come together to grow and share food, tell stories, and exchange knowledge. Growing Community from the Ground Up is a celebration of this rich experience through video storytelling.

Storytellers of all ages are invited to submit short (3-minute) videos that tell their personal tales about community gardens, urban farms, and other community food projects.

Kids and young adults are especially encouraged to submit videos. The best video camera is the one that you already have—the one that you find on your Smart Phone or the one that you borrow from your neighbor.

We encourage film submissions that . . .

Document the rich fabric of people’s experience in community gardens and urban agriculture.

Celebrate the sense of possibility that community gardens and innovative new food projects have brought to people’s lives from past to present.

Inspire current and new gardeners to share their experiences.

Empower community gardeners and urban farmers to communicate about their stories.

Invite connection with community gardeners from around the country. Selected participants will have their videos screened at the ACGA 2013 Conference in Seattle.

Selected participants will have their videos screened at the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) 2013 Conference in Seattle, WA. For more information, click here.

4. State Board Clears University of Oregon Police to Have Guns Armed police officers will be on the University of Oregon campus when students return to Eugene in the fall.

The State Board of Higher Education voted unanimously late last week to allow officers with the newly formed University of Oregon Police Department to carry guns.

University President Mike Gottfredson said armed officers are needed to ensure the safety and security of students and employees. The panel agreed, but board member Jim Francesconi warned that Portland has been divided by several controversial police shootings in the past decade.

If such an incident happens on campus, "it is going to be incredibly traumatic," said Francesconi, a former Portland city commissioner.

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University officers now carry batons, pepper spray and restraints, and call city of Eugene police if more powerful weapons are needed.

To access the full story, click here.

5. 15 Innovative Policies Any City Would be Wise to Steal A new report prepared to inspire NYC's next mayor examines 15 'game-changing reforms' that have been implemented in cities around the world, and could be adapted to help solve New York's most pressing challenges.

"Over the last six months, researchers at the Center for an Urban Future and NYU Wagner interviewed nearly 200 policy experts in cities across the country and around the globe, looking for game-changing reforms that have proven effective in other cities, that are scalable in New York and that the next mayor could implement. This report, “Innovation and the City” presents 15 of the most promising reforms—from San Francisco’s bold plan to establish a $50 college savings account for every kindergartener in public school, to Boston’s pioneering approach to remaking the 311 system for today’s smartphone age and London’s ambitious experiment with crowdfunding for public infrastructure projects."

To access the full story, click here.

6.

Highway Expansion Encourages More Than Just Driving Driving to Boulder from here offers a spectacular mountain panorama, but the nearer view is anything but impressive. U.S. 36, the unlovely highway that connects the cities, is crowded and often painfully slow, dotted with malls, fast-food restaurants and other commercial flotsam.

It is, in other words, an average highway. But not for long. Work has begun on an upgrade for U.S. 36 that will incorporate a special fast lane for high-occupancy vehicles, bus rapid transit service, an electronic toll system for single-occupant cars and a bike path.

It is, in other words, a highway designed to encourage people to drive less.

Plenty of highway upgrades around the country now include some of these features — highoccupancy-vehicle lanes are widespread, and bike lanes are popping up here and there. In cities like Birmingham, Ala., Seattle, and Ann Arbor, Mich., the Obama administration is using federal money to help develop roadway projects that combine several ways of getting around.

To access the full story, click here.

7. The Dutch Prize Their Pedal Power, but a Sea of Bikes Swamps Their Capital About 6:30 weekday mornings, throngs of bicycles, with a smattering of motor scooters and pedestrians, pour off the ferries that carry bikers and other passengers free of charge across the IJ (pronounced “eye”) harbor, clogging the streets and causing traffic jams down behind Amsterdam’s main train station.

“In the afternoon it’s even more,” moaned Erwin Schoof, a metalworker in his 20s who lives in the canal-laced center of town and battles the chaos daily to cross to his job.

Willem van Heijningen, a railway official responsible for bikes around the station, said, “It’s not a war zone, but it’s the next thing to it.”

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This clogged stream of cyclists is just one of many in a city as renowned for bikes as Los Angeles is for automobiles or Venice for gondolas. Cyclists young and old pedal through narrow lanes and along canals. Mothers and fathers balance toddlers in spacious wooden boxes affixed to their bikes, ferrying them to school or day care. Carpenters carry tools and supplies in similar contraptions and electricians their cables. Few wear helmets. Increasingly, some are saying what was simply unthinkable just a few years ago: There are too many bikes.

To access the full story, click here.

8.

Oregon's Workforce: Fewer People are Carrying the Load The following are excerpts from Oregon’s Falling Labor Force Participation: A Story of Baby Boomers, Youth, and the Great Recession.

Oregon’s labor force declined by more than 12,000 persons (-0.6%) between 2011 and 2012. This was the largest annual decline the state has ever experienced.

A reduction in the state’s labor force is an unusual event. Prior to 2012, Oregon’s labor force contracted only twice in the history of the series, which began in 1976. The first time was in the depths of the recession of the early 1980s: from 1981 to 1982, Oregon’s labor force contracted by more than 3,100 persons, or 0.2 percent. The second time was a small decline between 2004 and 2005 (300 persons).

To access the full story, click here.

9. JPL Releases Billion Pixel-Panorama of Mars: Take a Tour Sit back, relax, and get ready to explore the red planet in incredible clarity. JPL has just released a billion pixel panorama view of the surface of Mars, and it is awesome.

Nearly 900 images were stitched together to create the panorama view--all of them taken by a suite of cameras aboard the Mars Curiosity Rover.

The images were taken at Rocknest--a windblown, rocky area of Mars where Curioisty did its first digging in the sand just a few months after it landed on the planet. Off in the distance--five miles away--you will see Mt. Sharp, which is where the rover is headed next.

To access the full story, click here.

10. Jail's Organic Garden Cultivates Change Caren Sargent plucks a carrot from the soil of a raised garden bed and chomps away.

“This is the best inmate food I’ve ever had,” she says.

Sargent is one of the lucky few inmates at Multnomah County’s Inverness Jail allowed to perform work duty at the jail’s new organic garden.

The pilot project —12 raised beds planted just outside the jail walls near the lower parking lot — is one of many endeavors in Multnomah County’s Sustainable Jail Project, launched a couple years ago.

With an average jail stay of just two weeks, most inmates won’t remain long enough at Inverness to see the plants grow from seed to food on the table. However, some 40 percent of them are subject to county supervision for probation, parole or other terms after their release. Jailers and staff from the Page 4 of 6

county Office of Sustainability hope they are “planting a seed� among those who participate in the garden project.

To access the full story, click here.

11. Funding Opportunities Multi-Arts Production Fund Invites Letters of Inquiry for Performance Work Embodying Spirit of Exploration <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRu4bpB8ixfdB8zVxMAACSSkUH/rfpb18> The MAP Fund will provide grants of up to $45,000 to nonprofit arts organizations working on projects that examine notions of cultural difference and include a live performance.... Deadline: October 4, 2013 (Letters of Inquiry) Headwaters Foundation Seek Applications for Native-American Social Justice Projects <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRu4bpB8ixfdB8zVxMAACSSkUH/rfpb19> - The fund will provide grants of up to $10,000 to Native organizations in Minnesota and Wisconsin for programs that address issues of racial, social, economic, and environmental justice.... Deadline: August 1, 2013 Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children Invites Letters of Intent for 2014 Access to Care Grants <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRu4bpB8ixfdB8zVxMAACSSkUH/rfpb21> - Matching grants of up to $20,000 will be awarded in support of community-based initiatives that provide quality oral health care to underserved children.... Deadline: August 1, 2013 Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation Seeks Applications for Mental Health Research <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRu4bpB8ixfdB8zVxMAACSSkUH/rfpb13> - Grants of up to $20,000 will be awarded to support research on interventions designed to prevent or ameliorate major social, psychological, behavioral, or public health problems affecting children, adults, couples, families, or communities.... Deadline: November 1, 2013 Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation Invites Will Fund Projects That Improve Quality of Life for People With Paralysis <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRu4bpB8ixfdB8zVxMAACSSkUH/rfpb12> - The foundation will award grants to organizations working to help disabled individuals and their families and caregivers in ways that give them increased independence and opportunities.... Deadline: September 3, 2013 Small Business Innovation Research Program - Phase I <http://www.nifa.usda.gov/funding/rfas/sbir_rfa.html> Grant, Funding Opportunity Number: USDA-NIFA-SBIR-004332 - Deadline: Sep 26, 2013 Funds may be awarded up to $100,000 for Phase I and up to $450,000 for Phase II. Success rates for applicants have been about 14% for Phase I and 50-60% for Phase II. Projects dealing with agriculturally related manufacturing and alternative and renewable energy technologies are encouraged across all 2014 SBIR topic areas. USDA SBIR's flexible research areas ensure innovative projects consistent with USDA's vision of a healthy and productive nation in harmony with the land, air, and water. USDA SBIR has awarded over 2000 research and development projects since 1983, allowing hundreds of small businesses to explore their technological potential, and providing an incentive to profit from the commercialization of innovative ideas.

The Office of Economic Adjustment within the Department of Defense has announced a federal funding opportunity (FFO) to obtain funding for community planning assistance and economic diversification in response to reductions or cancellations in DoD spending. Assistance may be granted if the reduction has a direct and significant adverse impact on a community or its residents.

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Through a notice in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s FEDERAL REGISTER <http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-201306-17/pdf/2013-14300.pdf>, OEA outlines the proposal submission requirements and instructions, and eligibility and selection criteria that will be used to evaluate proposals from state or local governments. OEA assistance awards to a state or local government may result from proposals submitted under this notice, subject to available appropriations.

Proposals will be considered for funding on a continuing basis, subject to available appropriations.

OEA will evaluate all proposals and provide a response to a respondent within 30 business days of OEA's receipt of a final, complete application.

AMA Foundation Healthy Living Grant (Formerly Fund for Better Health) <http://www.raconline.org/funding/2187/?utm_source=health&utm_medium=email&utm_campa ign=update061313> - Application deadline: Jul 16, 2013 Provides healthy lifestyles seed grants for grassroots public health programs. This year's grants are supporting projects in the area of Prescription Drug Safety.

Rural Veterans Coordination Pilot <http://www.raconline.org/funding/3209/?utm_source=health&utm_medium=email&utm_campa ign=update061313> - Application deadline: Jul 19, 2013 Funding for organizations that will assist veterans and their families who are transitioning from military service to civilian life in rural or underserved communities.

Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH) <http://www.raconline.org/funding/3210/?utm_source=health&utm_medium=email&utm_campa ign=update061313> - Letter of Intent (Required): Jul 6, 2013; Application deadline: Aug 6, 2013.

Offers grants for new or continued Native American Research Centers for Health, which support research and research training to meet the needs of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities.

Rural Health Fellows Program <http://www.raconline.org/funding/1628/?utm_source=health&utm_medium=email&utm_campa ign=update061313> - Application deadline: Aug 31, 2013. A year-long, intensive program designed to develop a community of rural health leaders.

Bureau of Primary Health Care Loan Guarantee Program <http://www.raconline.org/funding/1593/?utm_source=health&utm_medium=email&utm_campa ign=update061313> - Application deadline: Applications accepted on an ongoing basis.

Loan program to Section 330 health centers to obtain a loan guarantee for the financing of a medical facility construction, renovation and modernization.

HUD Section 242: Hospital Mortgage Insurance Program <http://www.raconline.org/funding/95/?utm_source=health&utm_medium=email&utm_campaig n=update061313> - Application deadline: Applications accepted on an ongoing basis.

Loan program to help hospitals finance new construction, refinancing, and modernization or to purchase major movable equipment such as hospital beds, wheeled equipment, and office machines.

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