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7 Things I Wish Every City Would Do to Make Urban Living Even Greener

Though it sometimes might not seem so, living in cities is a pretty green thing to do. Two prime reasons being that average home sizes are smaller and transportation distances are generally shorter, both leading to lower levels of resource consumption and energy usage. But that doesn’t mean that every city is a green oasis. Lots could use some sprucing up, even if all the basic amenities are taken care of. Here are some of the top programs I wish every city would do to make urban living even greener:

1. Make More Pedestrian-Friendly Areas
2. Make Entire Zones Car-Free
3. More Light Rail & Trolleys, Plus More Varied Transport Options
4. Community Solar Power
6. Good Covered Farmers Markets
7. Great Community Gardens & Green Spaces

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Read Full Article at NPR
by Martin Kaste

A federal judge in San Francisco has thrown out more than 30 lawsuits against AT&T and other phone companies. The suits claimed the telecoms illegally cooperated with the Bush administration’s anti-terrorist surveillance program. But the same judge kept alive similar lawsuits against the government.

When the wiretapping program was first outed in 2005, it spawned dozens of lawsuits across the country. To keep things manageable, they were all brought to U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

“We need to be able to trust them,” says Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which sued the phone companies. “The only way we can have trust in them is if there’s accountability when they violate our privacy rights.”

Last summer, Congress rewrote the rules for wiretapping, and also granted retroactive immunity to the phone companies. As a result, cases against the telecoms have been dismissed. Cases against the government are still alive, and one in particular leads the pack.

“It has been an amazing case,” says Paul Schwartz, a Berkeley law professor. “It has had more twists and turns here than a Hollywood thriller.”

Schwartz is talking about the case known as Al-Haramain v. Bush — or, these days, Al Haramain v. Obama. The lawyers for a now-defunct Islamic charity sued after they saw a secret government document that apparently proved their phones had been monitored.

Memorial Day in America is a day when we’re supposed to honor the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform. A day when we look back at all that was done by our ancestors, and all that is done by our armed forces, police officers, firemen, etc. which make the American Dream possible.

This year, it also sets the stage for what may or may not be the next test of those men and women Memorial Day is supposed to honor.

North Korea chose this day to make a statement to the world, by conducting a nuclear test. A test which, as one might expect, was met with much international condemnation.

This isn’t the first time North Korea has conducted a nuclear test, but one has to wonder… why conduct another test now? Jack Kim from Reuters offers some insights below…

Q+A: Why did North Korea rush to a nuclear test?
By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea’s nuclear test on Monday sparked international condemnation. Following are some questions and answers about why the North went ahead with the test and why it came sooner than analysts had expected.

WHY DID NORTH KOREA CHOOSE TO TEST NOW?

North Korea likely concluded that no concessions would flow from U.S. President Barack Obama, especially after his strongly worded response to Pyongyang’s rocket launch last month that regional powers say was a long-range missile test. To North Korea, this probably signaled Washington was in no mood for direct negotiations, something long sought by Pyongyang.

The North may have also felt it needed to boost its leverage by conducting a follow-up nuclear test after its only other test nearly three years ago was considered just a partial success.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, perhaps pressured by an ailing economy and questions about succession, may be trying to lure Washington into making a quick deal that would boost his standing at home.

Monday was the Memorial Day holiday in the United States, and the test follows a pattern of Pyongyang’s provocations timed for U.S. national holidays. The 2006 test of North Korea’s long-range Taepodong-2 missile came on the U.S. Independence Day holiday.

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Welcome to the new system everyone!

As you can plainly see, I’m in the process of setting up the new JREGrassroots.org which will hopefully only take a short time to get up and running. The real fun will come after we have a working model to build the new and improved JREGrassroots and hopefully bring together the JREG Family once again for some great discussions on politics, the world, etc.

Be sure you’re subscribed to the RSS feed as I’ll be posting updates as I get things accomplished in the background.