Anti-TPP events, Mardi Gras, Solarize the Triangle, Bob Sheldon Day, and other events in February

Taxes and NC’s Nongame and endangered wildlife fund:

When you do your North Carolina tax, consider donating to the Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Fund ( www.ncwildlife.org/News/NewsArticle/tabid/416/indexID/10300/Default.aspx ).  I think donation doesn’t effect your tax bill, but I might be thinking of a similar Federal fund.  Unfortunately North Carolina’s Fund is the main non-Federal funding for programs to study and conserve non-game species, such as sea turtles, threatened bats, and freshwater mussels.  Freshwater mussels are very diverse in this region, but many species are threatened or have already been killed off.  Mussels filter the water and were once so abundant that they were a valuable resource in places.  The Fund probably helps research and manage the Federal and State endangered dwarf wedgemussel, or Alasmidonta heterodon (pictures at www.ncwildlife.org/Learning/Species/Mollusks/DwarfWedgemussel.aspx ).  Populations in Wake County could be harmed by Raleigh’s I-540 Outer Loop, if it is built along the Orange Route, but that seems to be the most popular route, and the government might try to mitigate the impact and do captive breeding, rather than avoid harming the mussels altogether.   

North Carolina’s primary election is March 15^th:

Local Bernie Sanders events (there are 95 phone banking meetings scheduled so far within 50 miles of Durham) can be found at: go.berniesanders.com/page/event/search_simple

[Another Family Supporting a Duke Faculty Union

Support Faculty Forward (ourduke.org) by ordering a sign through the Durham People's Alliance:  https://durhampa.nationbuilder.com/union_signs ]

 

Oppose the Trans Pacific Partnership:

2/2 Teach-in

From an activist calendar:  “The Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in American History:  Teach-in on Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Panel includes Dr. Don Nonini, UNC Dept of Anthropology; MaryBe McMillan, NC AFL-CIO Secretary/Treasurer; Renée Maas, Food and Water Watch; Laura Parsons, UNC Student Action with Workers (SAW) [and Robert Corriher of the NC AFL-CIO]. 6-8 PM, Tue, Feb 2, UNC's Stone Center Multipurpose Room, [150] South Rd next to Bell Tower (parking in Bell Tower deck [or most places on Campus at night]). Co-sponsored by Triangle TPP Working Group and SAW. www.tppteachin.web.unc.edu, https://www.citizen.org/tpp. 919-370-4114.”

2/3 Press conference in Durham

Press release:

As White House Signs Trans Pacific Trade Partnership, Activists Call on Reps. Butterfield, Price and Other North Carolina Representatives to Reject It

Durham, N.C. — On February 3, 2016, Food & Water Watch, Communication Workers of America, North Carolina AFL-CIO, Black Workers for Justice and A. Philip Randolph Institute will hold a press conference outside Rep. Butterfield’s office at Legacy Tower plaza highlighting how prior trade deals have harmed the people of North Carolina. The broad-based coalition will urge Representative Butterfield and the entire North Carolina congressional delegation to reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a controversial trade agreement among 12 nations that has garnered widespread, bipartisan public opposition. The TPP is due to be signed by trade officials in New Zealand that day. 

Speakers:

·      Yvonne Kinston, Member and Call Center Employee, Communication Workers of America

·      Robert Corriher, Campaign Manager, NC AFL-CIO

·      Ajamu Dillahunt, Founding Member, Black Workers for Justice

·      Melvin Montford, Executive Director, A. Philip Randolph Institute

·      Renée Maas, Food & Water Watch, Senior Southern Region Organizer 

 What: Press conference highlighting how past trade deals have hurt the people of North Carolina.

Where: Plaza in front of Legacy Tower (Former NC Mutual Building) 411 W. Chapel Hill St., Durham, N.C.

When: Wednesday, February 3, 10:00 a.m.

Why: The TPP will cost American jobs, exacerbate income and wealth inequality and threaten U.S. environmental, public health and food safety laws and regulations. North Carolina has lost more than 138,000 jobs from the NAFTA and China trade deals alone, according to the Economic Policy Institute. These lost jobs provided economic security for working families, and the TPP includes lower wage countries with histories of labor and human rights abuses like Malaysia and Vietnam. The TPP has tougher language than prior trade deals, making it easier to attack and overturn commonsense regulatory safeguards. The TPP will predominantly benefit major corporations — workers, consumers and smaller, independent businesses will all lose under the TPP. 

[Protesting the NC connection to torture

Stop Torture Now is holding vigils in Raleigh Monday, February 15th, to demand that the major gubernatorial candidates investigate the "torture taxis" operating out of North Carolina and hold people accountable, and provide restitution to the victims.  The first vigil will be 9-9:30 am at the NC Department of Justice (114 West Edenton Street, at the intersection with Salisbury), followed by a march to the Governor's Mansion (200 North Blount Street, at the intersection with Jones Street), with a vigil there until 10, ending with speeches and media presence at 10:30.  The announced speakers are Allyson Caison of STN, Manzoor Cheema of the Movement to End Racism & Islamophobia (MERI, www.merinc.org), Jennifer Copeland of the NC Council of Churches, and Deborah Weissman of the UNC School of Law. 

For background, see this editorial from STN:  http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article10194092.html .  Apparently Governor McCrory refuses to meet with STN, Attorney General Cooper met with them but won't take any actions, while another Democratic candidate, Ken Spaulding, spoke about principles on WUNC recently.

Several years ago STN adopted Swift Creek Road, which passes by the home of Aero Contractors, the CIA front company for rendition flights, and there will be a trash clean-up March 19th.  It will start at 10am, from the Johnston County Airport parking lot.  Equipment will be provided, but participants should watch the DOT safety video at www.dot.gov/doh/operations/dp_chief_eng/roadside/Beautification/highway/safety.html beforehand.

MERI at BAJ and Progressive Issues Forum

Manzoor Cheema, co-founder of MERI, founder of Muslims for Social Justice, advocating a liberation theology recipient of the Human Rights Coalition of NC's 2014 International Human Rights Award, and a well-known videographer in the area who produced Independent Voices, will be the featured speaker at this month's Balance & Accuracy in Journalism meeting, Wednesday, February 10th at 7:30 at the Community Church of Chapel Hill (106 Purefoy Road). 

He will also be speaking at the Durham People's Alliance Progressive Issue Forum, February 16th at 6:30-8:30pm, location TBA.  RSVP by going to www.durhampa.org and look under the Events tab.] 
 

National March on Washington to Support Palestine:

Al Awda -  the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition - and the ANSWER Coalition are sponsoring a National March on Washington, DC to Support Palestine Sunday, March 20th, rallying in front of the White House and then marching to the DC Convention Center, where the Zionist lobby AIPAC is meeting (see http://www.answercoalition.org/new_national_march_on_washington_d_c_to_support_palestine )

[PCCUSA First Congress

The Party of Communists USA is holding its first congress April 1st to 3rd in New York.  See http://www.partyofcommunistsusa.org/1st-congress.html for registration.] 

 

Environmental events:

Birds and window collisions presentation

The New Hope Audubon Society has speakers at its monthly meetings, and at the meeting Thursday, February 4^th Natalia Ocampo-Penuela and Scott Winston, graduate students at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment will talk about the effect collisions with windows have on birds (for example, it is estimated that a billion birds a year are killed by buildings in the US).  Duke students and faculty have documented this on their campus and persuaded the administration to take steps to fix the problem at Duke’s most deadly building.  The first time I saw a black-throated blue warbler, it was a boldly colored male that must have died hitting UNC’s Student Union as it flew north in the spring.  In Raleigh steps have recently been taken to reduce the number of birds that die hitting lit-up skyscrapers, but that might be the only such program in North Carolina.  NHAS meetings are free and open to the public and are held in the NC Botanical Garden’s visitor center, starting at 7pm (see www.newhopeaudubon.org).

Residential stormwater control

Northeast Creek Stream Watch (www.northeastcreek.org) is hosting Michael Dupree of the Durham Soil and Water Conservation District for a presentation on how residents can reduce the amount of runoff from their yard, reducing flooding and pollution problems for neighbors downstream and conserving their own water and topsoil.   The meeting will be February 4^th at 7pm in a meeting room at the South Regional Library in Durham.     

Durham Creek Week and Arbor Day

Durham's annual waterway festival Creek Week will be March 12-16th (closer to March, see keepdurhambeautiful.org for event listings).  Keep Durham Beautiful is also organizing Durham's Arbor Day Celebration, scheduled for Sunday, March 15th from 1 to 3pm outside Greystone Baptist Church (2601 Hillsborough Road).  The winners of the tree contest I mentioned last year will be announced.  I hope they say something about the arrival of the non-native emerald ash borer in Durham last year, but cankerworms seem to be the noisier issue, though all these native inchworms or geometers seem to do is hang down on silken threads and walk about on people

Solarize your home

This is from an activist calendar.  There might be a solarize event coming up in Durham this spring, but it is TBA.  Solar installation costs are falling and there is a 30% Federal tax credit for the installation cost, though there is no longer a State tax credit.    

“Harness the Sun:  Author Phillip Warburg shows how solar energy has won support across the political spectrum and yet solar energy has its downsides and detractors too, those who worry about the impact on wildlife, on open spaces, and farmland [see some letters in the News & Observer last month] as he discusses his book. 7 PM, Mon, Feb 8, Regulator Bookshop, 720 Ninth St, Durham. 919-286-2700.

Solarize the Triangle Session in Raleigh:  Free public information session about grassroots program available to homeowners and businesses anywhere in the Triangle that offers a discount and discount increases the more people participate. Thu, Feb 18, 7-9 PM, Community United Church of Christ, 814 Dixie Trail (corner of Wade Ave), Raleigh. Project of NC WARN and NextClimate. More information: solarize-nc.org/events, 919-416-5077. 

Solarize the Triangle Session in Chatham:  Free public information session about grassroots program available to homeowners and businesses anywhere in the Triangle that offers a discount and discount increases the more people participate. Thu, Feb 25, 7-9 PM, Chatham Community Library, 197 NC Hwy 87 N, Pittsboro.. Project of NC WARN and NextClimate. More information: solarize-nc.org/events, 919-416-5077.”

[Water Quality Workshop

Their announcement:

"Water Quality Workshop

Eno River State Park

April 16, 2016, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

 

Join veteran educators Holly Denham, Laura Webb Smith, and Liz Stabenow for a hands-on, feet-wet, workshop. Who should come? Educators, volunteers, and anyone who wants to take others into the creek for education and/or citizen science. You’ll learn about chemical, physical, and biological water quality parameters, including benthic macroinvertebrates.

 

Workshop is free; however, deposit is required. Checks from no-shows will become a donation to the non-profit Eno River Association. To register, send a $10 check made out to Eno River Association to  Holly Denham, Division of Water Resources, NC Department of Environmental Quality, 1611 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1611. For more information, contact Holly at 919-707-9009 or holly [dot] Denham [at] ncdenr [dot] gov or Laura at the contact info below.

Sponsored by NCDEQ Division of Water Resources, City of Durham Stormwater & GIS Services, and Eno River Association."

 

4/22 Earth Day

 

Earth Day is coming up in April and there should be events in Durham and elsewhere.  An event is planned April 9, 1-9pm at Greensboro's Kathleen Clay Library, and they are seeking tablers.

 

 Other local events in February:

Durham Mardi Gras ( www.durhammardigras.com )

There will be a parade and live music Tuesday, February 9th, starting at 6pm at the CCB Plaza downtown and going until midnight.  This is mainly a social event, but community groups are participating in the parade, so there is a small political component.  See their calendar for some additional events.       

10th Anniversary Historic Thousands on Jones Street

The annual Mass Moral March on Raleigh and Historic Thousands on Jones Street demonstration will be in Raleigh on February 13th, rallying at 9am and marching at 10 (see www.hkonj.com/ ).  There will be buses and/or carpools from other cities.  To get on the NAACP’s bus from Chapel Hill, see https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-NXZ09aesu0YedkR_YwtCQppBJYxArsJo9n-2Icpogk/viewform .  This is part of the Forward Together Moral Movement that has been holding regular and large Moral Monday rallies against the State government's reactionary agenda. 

A press conference on the Moral March on Raleigh had been scheduled for today (February 1^st), but closing arguments are expected this afternoon in the lawsuit to overturn the voter ID law, so people are instead invited to attend at the Federal Courthouse in Winston-Salem, 251 North Main Street, starting at 9:30am.    

2/13 Protest at Republican debate

The NC Green Party is organizing buses that will leave from downtown Raleigh after HKonJ to protest the way third parties are shut out of the political process in this country (see ncgreenparty.nationbuilder.com/protest_the_two_pro_business_parties ).

2/21 Bob Sheldon Day

At Internationalist Books in the afternoon on Sunday, February 21^st there will be a remembrance of Bob Sheldon (details TBA), the founder of the bookstore in 1981 (see www.internationalistbooks.org).  His vision of the Internationalist was: “We are dedicated to the position that we have no country: we do not support mindless patriotic pleas for ‘national unity,’ nor are we interested in keeping America number one. We support the unity and liberation of oppressed people worldwide and are working toward the day when all oppression and inequality will be removed from the earth.”  He was shot to death the evening of February 21, 1991, and the case has never been solved.  He was an important local opponent of the first US-Iraq war, and one theory is that this was a political murder.

[4/16 Beyond the Bars conference

See their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/NCBTB for details and registration.]
 

From an activist calendar:

“Dar He: The Story of Emmett Till:  Documentary theatre portrays murder, trial, and confession of men accused of a lynching. Mike Wiley, NC actor and playwright, acts and leads discussion following. 5 PM, Fri, Feb 5, UNC's Stone Center Auditorium, South Rd next to Bell Tower (parking in Bell Tower deck). Co-sponsored by Black Student Movement, Carolina Woman’s Center, and Campus Y.

[BROTHER TOWNS: Documentary tells story of two towns linked by immigration, family, and work: Jacaltenango, a highland Maya town in Guatemala; and Jupiter, a coastal resort town where many Jacaltecos have settled in Florida.  The story includes local and international controversy. 1:15 p.m., Monday, February 8, Carol Woods assembly hall, 750 Weaver Dairy Rd, Chapel Hill. Information: http://brothertowns.com/. Sponsored by Elders for Peace. judybellin [at] gmail [dot] com.

CANDIDATES FORUM FOR ORANGE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS: District 1: Jamezetta Bedford, Mark Dorosin, Gary Kahn, Penny Rich; District 2:  Bonnie Hauser, Renee Price; At-Large: Andy Cagle, Matt Hughes, Mark Marcoplos. 7-9 p.m., Wednesday, February 10, OWASA Community Room, 400 Jones Ferry Rd, Carrboro. Moderator: Diane Robertson. Sponsored by Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP.  919-219-1600. ]

Achieving Equity and Excellence in our Schools: Challenges and Opportunities: Community Forum II for open community discussion for all to hear and participate. Rescheduled to 1-4 PM, Sat, Feb 20, United Church of Chapel Hill, 1321 MLK Blvd. Cosponsored by Chapel Hill/Carrboro NAACP and other local organizations. gmcleensr [at] gmail [dot] com .

Blue Sky:  Play, funny and troubling, by British playwright Clare Morley about government torture and U.S. rendition program. Produced by Burning Coal Theatre Company and Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh (CAM). Thu, Jan 28 - Sun, Feb 14, Contemporary Art Museum (CAM), 409 W. Martin St (between S West and S Harrington Sts), Raleigh. Surveillance State: Special discussion with Robin Kirk and Christina Cowger, 6 PM, Sat, Feb 6, CAM/Raleigh. Tickets and more details: http://burningcoal.org/blue-sky/, To carpool from Chapel Hill/Carrboro, call 919-942-2535.
.
Ongoing vigils for justice and peace: Raleigh: Stop the Arms Race and Build a Culture of Peace Vigil, 1st Wednesday of every month, Noon to 1 PM, Century Post Office on Fayetteville St (919-782-0667); Raleigh: End the death penalty (PFADP, AI-USA, NC-ACLU), 5 - 6 PM, Mondays, Central Prison, corner of Hunt Dr and Western Blvd (919-779-1912); Chapel Hill: 4:30 - 5:30 PM EST [5-6 PM EDT], Fridays, corner of Elliott Rd and East Franklin St; bring your sign(s) to show your concern or take one from collection (919-942-2535).”