We're BAAAAACK!

Ok, it's been a while (like THREE YEARS) since the last post on this blog. There is so much going on now, I felt the need to turn it on again. So, here's a schedule of important events coming up next week. Please attend if you can! I've included links to specific websites for more information. Please educate yourself about these very important issues! 

Please check back often for updates and new information on important issues like the Badger-Coulee high voltage power line, unsafe rail cars, frack sand mining, the Sierra Club's Coulee Region Goes Solar campaign, Community Solar Gardens, energy efficiency opportunities, political campaigns, and much more!

Every Sunday, I will try to post a calendar of upcoming events of interest to the progressive community. If you have events, please email couleeprogressive@hotmail.com. Also, if you'd like to post on this blog, please email.

MONDAY, JULY 7 at 4 p.m. at the County Administrative Building (room 3220), the County's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee will consider a piece of legislation that would fund a railroad safety analysis. With increasing traffic of larger, longer, and less safe trains (and the possibility that a second rail line will be constructed through sensitive areas), the proposal would study whether current infrastructure - rail crossings, bridges, etc. - are safe or might require upgrading or repair. If you wish to make a comment in support of this proposal, please attend! 

TUESDAY, JULY 8 at 7 p.m. at the Cartwright Center, UW-L, CRUE (Coulee Region United Educators) will host a screening of CITIZEN KOCH. "A searing exposé on the state of American democracy and the fracturing of the Republican Party, CITIZEN KOCH investigates the money behind the Tea Party and traces the impact of unlimited election spending by corporations and billionaires. Alternately terrifying and funny, CITIZEN KOCH is an essential and powerful portrait of our political times." One of the teachers featured in the film will be on hand after the screening for questions. 

[NOTE: A second screening is being planned for late July or early August through TUGG. Details have not yet been finalized. Check back next week for ticket information.] 

TUESDAY, JULY 8 at 7:15 p.m. at the La Crosse Democratic Party Headquarters, 126 Fifth Avenue South (Suite 102), there will be a rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Mary Burke. Read more here. 

THURSDAY, JULY 10 at noon at the corner of Losey and Green Bay, CARS (Citizens Advocating for Rail Safety) will hold an event commemorating the one year anniversary of the deaths of 47 people killed when a Canadian Pacific train carrying tar sands crude oil exploded in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Canada. (Hear a good story about this event, including a La Crosse connection, here). 

CARS has been working in La Crosse to alert people of the increased risk of derailments, toxic spills, and explosions as more and more trains, carrying more and more unsafe cars full of explosive crude oil pass through the middle of our community. About 25% of citizens live and/or work within 1/2 mile of the tracks - the danger zone for an exploded train car. Heavier and more frequent loads are causing damage to houses and reducing quality of life for families living near the rails. Parked trains are blocking utilities workers and may pose danger for residents who live in neighborhoods with limited access roads that could be  blocked by parked trains. In addition, the oil is dirty and enviromentally devastating, For more info on the oil train issue, check out the comprehensive DOT Reader. 

Remember, there is a primary election coming up on August 12! If you need to register to vote, get more information about your polling place or early voting, or request an absentee ballot, please visit MYVOTE, a Wisconsin voter information site and portal. 

I'm off Facebook because of all their shenanigans, but if you use FB, pleases share this link.

And now for something completely different . . .

GASLAND is a new film about the process of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing of rocks to recover natural gas.

THERE WILL BE A SCREENING OF THIS IMPORTANT ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATED DOCUMENTARY ON SUNDAY, APRIL 17 EVENING (exact time and location TBA - watch this space!) The event will be FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Please SIGN UP to attend this film and see a trailer. Sign the petition to demand that Congress pass the anti-fracking bilL.

Fracking is touted as a way to increase US energy independence, but the process of injecting high pressure chemicals, sand, liquids has resulted in water contamination, noise and shaking making life unbearable for those living near drilling sites, and a host of other complaints including demands to know exactly what chemicals are being used.

You may remember that Scott Walker clone, Governor John Kasich of Ohio, has recently recommended that Ohio public lands - including parks - be opened up for oil and gas development, including fracking.

Fracking is already taking place in Wisconsin, with many urging a hold until more is known about consequences. Those of us who use natural gas for heating, cooking and/or transportation should know what are the real costs, environmental and human, of this "clean" fuel.

Please attend and drag your friends to this FREE screening. This is important!

"The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of 'fracking' or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a 'Saudia Arabia of natural gas' just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown."

The 7.5 point solution

JD has laid out a clear five point plan for progressives to fight back (I've added a few, so now it's the 7.5 point plan!):

1. Elect Kloppenburg - check (we hope) If you can help observe the recount, please call Julie at 920 904-2005.

2a. File recall signatures against Kapanke - check

2b. Help with other recall efforts if you can

3. Get Steve Doyle elected to the 94th Assembly seat. - in progress! Contact Laura Hundt to volunteer (608 345-2372) Verrrry important, because the big (rotten) guns will be out in this one!

4. Attend BUDGET HEARINGS (see below)

5. Elect an intelligent caring human being (not a heartless, brainless Walker robot) to the seat held currently by Kapanke

6. Recall Scott Walker later this year (have you registered yet to help with this effort? Do it, NOW!)

7. Flip the Assembly in November 2012

7.5 Pledge to sponsor (educate, help register and bring to polls) FIVE NEW VOTERS starting with the Kapanke recall this summer.

Budget Hearings planned

The Joint Finance Committee has announced only four three hearings in pretty out of the way places. The closest to us has been cancelled (Arcadia on Wednesday, April 13).

The legislative Dems are holding more hearings around the state. In La Crosse, on April 25 from 1 to 7 p.m. in UW-L's Cartwright Center.

You can go and just register and/or you can speak. You may also bring written comments for the committee (if you can, bring 20 copies).

See a summary and read the full budget here.

VOTE KLOPPENBURG

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think all these pundits saying 20% turnout is the best we can hope for on Tuesday are totally not getting it. I mean 100,000 people turning out on a cold wet day to protest was not peanuts. DemocracyNow said it was the largest protest EVER in our state.

I think there will be a huge turnout on Tuesday and that Prosser will go down down down. I think this is the start of people paying attention. But maybe I am living in a bubble. After all, in my first political campaign (canvassing for McGovern in '72) I was convinced that my candidate could not lose! Hahahahaha.

Anyway, this time I hope I'm right.

Forward into April!

The signatures are in, but there's lots more to do.

Monday at 5 p.m. Rally for Working Families sponsored by the Central Labor Council. Let's remember, on this 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., that he was in Memphis helping African American sanitation workers organize a union. Meet at the Workers Memorial monument, Green Island Park, 2312 7th Street South (by Green Island Ice Arena).

Tuesday (ELECTION DAY) A National Teach-In on Workers’ Rights, Students’ Rights, Corporate Greed ... and MOBILIZING FOR CHANGE! 12:45 p.m. Welcome, 1:00 Live webcast from New York City moderated by Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Frances Fox Priven. 2:30 p.m. Local teach-in. Valhalla, Cartwright Center, UW-L (1741 State Street) FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!