Monday Mailing
Year 19 • Issue 22 25 February 2013 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food Understanding Tree Risk: A Webinar for Municipal Officials 2012 Small Business Profiles for States and Territories Complete Organic Gardening Course in Corvallis! Oregon Once Again Considers Move to Abolish Electoral College -but Senate President Remains Opposed Columbia Cascades Trail Skills College in Cascade Locks Why We Love Beautiful Things Tree on the Corner May Be Worth More Than Your House Natural Hazards Center Recommended Web Resources Funding Opportunities Galore
1. The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food On the evening of April 8, 1999, a long line of Town Cars and taxis pulled up to the Minneapolis headquarters of Pillsbury and discharged 11 men who controlled America’s largest food companies. Nestlé was in attendance, as were Kraft and Nabisco, General Mills and Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Mars. Rivals any other day, the C.E.O.’s and company presidents had come together for a rare, private meeting. On the agenda was one item: the emerging obesity epidemic and how to deal with it. While the atmosphere was cordial, the men assembled were hardly friends. Their stature was defined by their skill in fighting one another for what they called “stomach share” — the amount of digestive space that any one company’s brand can grab from the competition. Quote of the Week:
“I must follow the people. Am I not their leader? ~ Benjamin Disraeli Oregon Fast Fact #12:
At 8,000 feet deep Hells Canyon is the deepest river gorge in North America.
James Behnke, a 55-year-old executive at Pillsbury, greeted the men as they arrived. He was anxious but also hopeful about the plan that he and a few other food-company executives had devised to engage the C.E.O.’s on America’s growing weight problem. “We were very concerned, and rightfully so, that obesity was becoming a major issue,” Behnke recalled. “People were starting to talk about sugar taxes, and there was a lot of pressure on food companies.” Getting the company chiefs in the same room to talk about anything, much less a sensitive issue like this, was a tricky business, so Behnke and his fellow organizers had scripted the meeting carefully, honing the message to its barest essentials. “C.E.O.’s in the food industry are typically not technical guys, and they’re uncomfortable going to meetings where technical people talk in technical terms about technical things,” Behnke said. “They don’t want to be embarrassed. They don’t want to make commitments. They want to maintain their aloofness and autonomy.” To access the full story, click here.
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2. Understanding Tree Risk: A Webinar for Municipal Officials March 19, 2013 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PDT If a tree falls in your city and there is someone around, does it make a lawsuit? The trees in our cities provide us with many benefits, but they also come with a risk. Left unmanaged or unmonitored, the trees in our parks and along our streets can turn from assets into liabilities. Join us for a FREE one hour webinar to explore tree risk and how cities can successfully manage that risk. This webinar is offered by the state urban forestry programs of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Designed for Mayors, City Councilors, City Managers and City Attorneys, presenters Paul Ries and Jerry Mason will cover information that community leaders need to know about tree risk, city responsibilities, best management practices, and more. To register for this webinar, click here. 3. 2012 Small Business Profiles for States and Territories The Office of Advocacy’s Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories supply data on small businesses in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The publication also provides national-level data and limited data on the U.S. territories. The usefulness of the publication is the great detail it provides about small businesses at the state level. The following topics are covered: the number of firms, demographics of business ownership, small business income, banking, business turnover, industry composition, and employment gains and losses by size of business. Detailed historical data may be found in the Small Business Economy. To access Oregon’s Small Business Profile, click here. 4. Complete Organic Gardening Course in Corvallis! Developed by the Edible Corvallis Initiative in cooperation with Oregon Tilth and OSU Extension, our new Complete Organic Gardening Course teaches you what you need to know to grow your own food. Hands-on gardening practicums (Saturdays 9a.m-1p.m) and evening discussion sections (Wednesdays 5:30-7:30pm) cover building healthy soil, garden design and preparation, plant propagation, home-scale vegetable and fruit production, integrated pest management and more! Tuition: $250 + $25 materials fee. For more information contact sage@corvallisenvironmentalcenter.org or call 541-753-9211 5. Oregon Once Again Considers Move to Abolish Electoral College -- but Senate President Remains Opposed The effort to abolish the electoral college in presidential elections once again appears to have pretty strong support in the Oregon Legislature. A bill that would require Oregon to join an interstate compact pledging its electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote was introduced Thursday with the support of 32 House members and 13 senators. But one very important senator remains opposed: Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem. "I just don't like it," Courtney said in an interview Thursday, explaining that he fears that abolishing the electoral college would lead presidential candidates to focus solely on the big population centers - and pretty much ignore relatively small states like Oregon.
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Courtney's opposition was also felt in 2009 when a similar bill passed the House but died in a Senate committee. To access the full story, click here. 6. Columbia Cascades Trail Skills College in Cascade Locks April 16 – 21 The 5th Annual Columbia Cascades Trail Skills College is here! The Trail Skills College is a place to learn all you ever wanted to know about building and maintaining trails. Choose from a variety of classes from trail tread construction to crew leadership. By learning trail stewardship you can enhance your trails experience, leading to healthier and happier trails throughout the Northwest. There are a large variety of classes being offered from introduction to trail maintenance to advanced crew leadership. Attendees have the opportunity to take one class per day (except for the Intro to Trail Maintenance which is a two-day course). Classes fill up quickly so register early! The event will be held at the Cascade Locks Marine Park in Oregon. The park will serve as headquarters and campground for this event. Classes will take place on local trails that are within a short vehicle commute. To learn more about this event, click here. 7. Why We Love Beautiful Things GREAT design, the management expert Gary Hamel once said, is like Justice Potter Stewart’s famous definition of pornography — you know it when you see it. You want it, too: brain scan studies reveal that the sight of an attractive product can trigger the part of the motor cerebellum that governs hand movement. Instinctively, we reach out for attractive things; beauty literally moves us. Yet, while we are drawn to good design, as Mr. Hamel points out, we’re not quite sure why. This is starting to change. A revolution in the science of design is already under way, and most people, including designers, aren’t even aware of it. Take color. Last year, German researchers found that just glancing at shades of green can boost creativity and motivation. It’s not hard to guess why: we associate verdant colors with food-bearing vegetation — hues that promise nourishment. To access the full story, click here. 8. Tree on the Corner May Be Worth More Than Your House In 2005, Pittsburgh had 31,000 trees on 900 miles of streets. Which may seem like a decent amount, until you realize the ideal number of street trees for a city that size is 60,000. This was a problem — one of many faced by the cash-strapped city — and so Pittsburgh decided to consider its trees like it would any other asset: By measuring their benefits in terms of cold, hard cash. At a time when cities across the nation are slashing street tree funding in order to balance strained budgets, Pittsburgh’s turn to monetizing the urban forest has become increasingly relevant. Trees in an urban setting, whether in sidewalks, medians, yards or parks, have benefits beyond giving shade.
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And these benefits translate into dollars and cents: Trees filter air and water, sequester carbon, offer habitat and shade, reduce the urban heat-island effect, boost property values, buffer storms, and even provide a source of energy through waste wood and mulch, among other services. To calculate the value of Pittsburgh’s street trees, a non-profit called Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest (now Tree Pittsburgh) turned to a modeling program called i-Tree, released in 2006 by the U.S. Forest Service in partnership with Davey Tree company. Now in its fifth iteration, the free program allows cities and other users to describe the benefits of trees in language clear enough for those who can’t tell an ash from an aspen. Recently, the Forest Service released a mobile version of the program. To access the full story, click here. 9. Natural Hazards Center Recommended Web Resources Solve the Outbreak Whether it’s thinking back to who might have given you the flu or noting symptoms of sick coworkers, everyone play disease detective sometimes. Now you can put your sick-solving skills to the test. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have created a fun little app that lets you step into the role of contagion killer. Learn how diseases start, quarantine villages, and interview the sick—your actions can stop illness from spreading, so think quickly and download it today. The Cochrane Library Resources for Earthquakes Disease sleuthing games aside, healthcare professionals in real-life disaster situations can find a wealth of information at the Cochrane Library, a collection of six evidence-based databases. The library has recently made a selection of resources available to assist healthcare official after an earthquake. The free-access articles cover topics such as diarrhea prevention and treatment, wound management, fracture management, physical trauma, and anesthesia. Evacuteer.org Evacuteer isn’t exactly a new resource, but its singular mission makes it a site worth revisiting. The organization, which trains about 500 people each year to help with disaster efforts, is charged with helping people leave Louisiana if they’re forced to evacuate. But that’s not all. The group has a bevy of projects it maintains including preparedness research, social media campaigns, and even public art installations (which will double as evacuation pick up points). Evacuteer hopes to one day take their concept nationwide, so stop by the Web site and see what might work for your community. Emergency 2.0 Wiki Don’t let the name fool you—Emergency 2.0 is so much more than just another pretty wiki. This Web site aims to give the emergency management community a resource to integrate social media and other technologies into their emergency repertoire, and hopefully build more resilient communities while doing so. In addition to the Wiki—arranged in a handy pre-, during, and postdisaster format—visitors to the site will find tips, guides, apps, mapping tools, and videos. 10. Funding Opportunities Galore Crowd Funding – one such website is http://www.kickstarter.com/, which is a crowd funding service for those seeking startup capital for ventures, including social enterprises. Note: No endorsement is implied or given. Rural Training Track Technical Assistance Demonstration Program <http://www.raconline.org/funding/details.php?funding_id=2351&utm_source=health&utm_medi um=email&utm_campaign=update022113>, Application deadline: Mar 18, 2013 Funding to form a Page 4 of 6
consortium of organizations that support Rural Training Track (RTT) residency program sites by providing technical assistance, increasing medical student interest in RTT residency programs, and expanding the number of RTT programs. Grants to Expand Care Coordination through the Use of Technology-Assisted Care in Targeted Areas of Need <http://www.raconline.org/funding/details.php?funding_id=2609&utm_source=health&utm_medi um=email&utm_campaign=update022113>, Application deadline: Apr 10, 2013 Grants for the use of technology, including web-based services, smart phones, and behavioral health electronic applications (e-apps), to expand and/or enhance the ability of providers to care for patients in treatment. Rural Health Information Technology (HIT) Workforce Program <http://www.raconline.org/funding/details.php?funding_id=3118&utm_source=health&utm_medi um=email&utm_campaign=update022113>, Application deadline: Apr 15, 2013 Supports rural health networks that focus on activities relating to the recruitment, education, training, and retention of HIT specialists. National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program <http://www.raconline.org/funding/details.php?funding_id=312&utm_source=health&utm_mediu m=email&utm_campaign=update022113>, Application deadline: Apr 16, 2013 Provides loan repayment funding to primary health care professionals who agree to serve in Health Professional Shortage areas of the U.S. Community Impact Grants Program <http://www.raconline.org/funding/details.php?funding_id=2585&utm_source=health&utm_medi um=email&utm_campaign=update022113>, Application deadline: Aug 13, 2013 Funding for nonprofit organizations, public schools, and public service agencies in the United States that are using the power of volunteers to improve the physical health of their communities. Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program for Repayment of Health Professions Educational Loans <http://www.raconline.org/funding/details.php?funding_id=373&utm_source=health&utm_mediu m=email&utm_campaign=update022113>, Application deadline: Aug 16, 2013 Provides loan repayment programs for health professions educational loans in return for full-time clinical service in Indian health programs. National Health Service Corps Recruitment and Retention Assistance <http://www.raconline.org/funding/details.php?funding_id=839&utm_source=health&utm_mediu m=email&utm_campaign=update022113>, Application deadline: Applications accepted on an ongoing basis. Assistance for qualifying practice sites in recruiting and retaining communityresponsive, culturally competent primary care clinicians. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pioneer Portfolio Unsolicited Proposals <http://www.raconline.org/funding/details.php?funding_id=832&utm_source=health&utm_mediu m=email&utm_campaign=update022113>, Application deadline: Applications accepted on an ongoing basis. Grants to address health care workforce, innovative health care solutions, and health care to vulnerable populations.
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Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Guarantee Program <http://www.raconline.org/funding/details.php?funding_id=438&utm_source=health&utm_mediu m=email&utm_campaign=update022113> - Application deadline: Applications accepted on an ongoing basis. This program furnishes loans and loan guarantees to provide funds for the costs of construction, improvement, or acquisition of facilities and equipment needed to provide service at the broadband lending speed in eligible rural areas. Institute of International Education Invites At-Risk Scholars to Apply for Fellowships <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRHqICB8ixfdB8w5naAACSSkKe/rfpb20> - The IIE's Scholar Rescue Fund provides fellowships for established professors, researchers, and public intellectuals whose lives or careers are threatened in their home countries.... Deadline: Open American Honda Foundation Invites Applications for STEM Programs <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRHqICB8ixfdB8w5naAACSSkKe/rfpb18> - Grants of up to $75,000 will be awarded to nonprofits and schools for programs that support science, technology, engineering, and math in youth education.... Deadline: Rolling Deadline Extended for Innovations to Stop Unsustainable Fishing Award <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRHqICB8ixfdB8w5naAACSSkKe/rfpb21> - The prize is designed to promote creative solutions with respect to the monitoring, surveillance, and control of both small and large-scale fisheries.... Deadline: March 31, 2013 (Extended) eWomenNetwork Foundation Announces Grants for Small Organizations <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRHqICB8ixfdB8w5naAACSSkKe/rfpb13> - The foundation awards grants of $6,000 to small entrepreneurial organizations working to address the health, wellness, and/or safety of underprivileged women and/or children.... Deadline: March 31, 2013
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