By Yee Huang , Center for Progressive Reform
Posted on April 13, 2009, Printed on April 17, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/136477/
A recent article in the Los Angeles Times described the latest absurdity in the never-ending search to quench the thirst for water: ownership of rainwater and, more precisely, the illegality of rainwater harvesting. Residents and communities in parts of Colorado are turning to this ancient practice of collecting and storing rain to fulfill their domestic water needs, including flushing toilets and watering lawns. Using this “grey” water, as it is called, relieves pressure on water resources and can be extremely efficient.
Many long-time water users, however, object to the practice.
These so-called water buffaloes argue that people who collect rainwater are taking away from their water by collecting the water before it has a chance to flow into a river from which they obtain water. Effectively, they argue, the rainwater belongs to them – they own the rain that falls from the sky as part of their water allocation, even though 97 percent of the rainfall that falls on soil does not reach a river. The bad news? The law in Colorado stands behind those water buffaloes.
Like most states west of the one-hundredth meridian, Colorado follows the doctrine of prior appropriation to allocate water. For all water uses that are non-domestic, a person must have a water right. Water rights are assigned a priority date, which is the date that the water use was initiated.
Under prior appropriation, these senior water users – many of whom have rights dating back to the 1800’s – have priority in times of water shortages based on the date of their initiation. Their water allocation is fulfilled before any junior users, who are often left with a nominal amount of water. People who harvest rainwater are “interfering” with the priority system by jumping ahead of all the senior users, who have the first right to use the water.
This dogmatic adherence to temporal priority blocks efforts to acquire water rights for newer or more efficient uses, such as in-stream conservation and recreation. These uses, initiated relatively recently, will always be subordinate to older, more consumptive uses.
Ownership of water has always been a tenuous proposition. Water and water rights linger on the perimeter of traditional property rights, eluding the solid “property” categorization of items like land or salad bowls. Individual water molecules cannot be marked or identified, and water is in constant motion, swirling below, above, and around the earth in the global hydrologic cycle. More significantly, water is survival for the vast array of living creatures on this planet, so privatizing the world’s most precious liquid would necessarily create a divide between haves and have-nots.
Whether or not water is definitively property has great legal implications for constitutional and civil claims, and courts have not given clear or consistent guidance. If, for example, water is considered a property right and the government required reduced water delivery to irrigators under the Endangered Species Act, those irrigators might have a valid claim for compensation under a Fifth Amendment takings claim. CPR Member Scholar Dan Tarlock blogged about this specific issue here. Categorizing water as a private property right also facilitates the commodification of water, which often ignores the common public interest in water quantity, quality, and viability.
Many water rights are colored by the public trust doctrine, which holds that certain natural resources cannot be privately owned and instead must be held in trust by the government for the use and benefit of the public. This doctrine, an inherent component of a water right, tends to support the argument that water is not a matter of private property. As inexpensive supplies of water dwindle, how water is viewed as a private property will become increasingly important to water allocation and priorities.
In other parts of the West, states are exploring the idea of rainwater harvesting. Santa Fe, New Mexico, became the first city to require by ordinance rainwater harvesting on all new residential or commercial structures of a certain size. Tucson, Arizona, became the first city to require rainwater harvesting to provide 50 percent of landscape-irrigation needs. Even Colorado has reconsidered its position, recently passing a bill that permits extremely limited instances of rainwater harvesting. It remains illegal for most individual residents to harvest rainwater.
Given an increase in population and per capita consumption, coupled with water needs to restore and maintain aquatic ecosystems, perhaps those water buffaloes need to lower their horns and let other creatures sip from the limited watering holes in the West.
Yee Huang, J.D., L.L.M, joined the Center for Progressive Reform as a Policy Analyst in December 2008. Her public interest experience includes internships with the Department of State in Vienna, Austria, and Windhoek, Namibia.
© 2009 Center for Progressive Reform All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/136477/
Friday, April 17, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Jury: Colorado school wrongly fired professor
By IVAN MORENO, Associated Press Writer Ivan Moreno, Associated Press Writer 46 mins ago
DENVER – A jury ruled Thursday that the University of Colorado wrongly fired the professor who compared some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi, a verdict that gives the professor $1 and a chance to get his job back. "What was asked for and what was delivered was justice," Ward Churchill said outside the courtroom.
Then-Gov. Bill Owens was among the officials who had called on the university to fire Churchill after his essay touched off a national firestorm, but the tenured professor of ethnic studies was ultimately terminated on charges of research misconduct.
Churchill said claims including plagiarism were just a cover and that he never would have been fired if it weren't for the essay in which he called World Trade Center victims "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi leader who helped orchestrate the Holocaust. Jurors agreed.
When the verdict was read, Churchill hugged his attorney, David Lane, and his wife, Natsu Saito.
"I can't tell you how significant this is," Lane said. "There are few defining moments that give the First Amendment this kind of light."
A judge will decide whether Churchill gets his job back. Lane said a reinstatement motion would be filed within 30 days and a hearing would likely be scheduled in June.
"What's next for me? Reinstatement, of course," Churchill said. "That's what I asked for. I didn't ask for money."
University spokesman Ken McConnellogue said the university will review its options before deciding whether to appeal.
"(The verdict) doesn't change the fact that more than 20 of his faculty peers found that he engaged in plagiarism and other academic misconduct," McConnellogue said.
He said the jury's $1 damage award sends a message about the merits of Churchill's civil claims.
Lane said the university will also be liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in Churchill's legal bills.
Churchill's essay was written in 2001 but attracted little attention until 2005, when critics publicized it after Churchill was invited to speak at Hamilton College in upstate New York.
Churchill testified last week that he didn't mean his comments to be hurtful to Sept. 11 victims. He said he was arguing that "if you make it a practice of killing other people's babies for personal gain ... eventually they're going to give you a taste of the same thing."
Betsy Hoffman, who was president of the university at the time, had testified that Owens pressured her to fire Churchill and said he would "unleash my plan" when she told him she couldn't.
In his testimony, Owens denied threatening the university.
University officials concluded that Churchill couldn't be fired over the essay because of his First Amendment rights, but they launched an investigation of his academic research.
That investigation, which didn't include the Sept. 11 essay, concluded he had plagiarized, fabricated evidence and committed other misconduct. He was fired on those allegations in 2007.
The university has maintained that the firing was justified.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090403/ap_on_re_us/embattled_professor_lawsuit
DENVER – A jury ruled Thursday that the University of Colorado wrongly fired the professor who compared some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi, a verdict that gives the professor $1 and a chance to get his job back. "What was asked for and what was delivered was justice," Ward Churchill said outside the courtroom.
Then-Gov. Bill Owens was among the officials who had called on the university to fire Churchill after his essay touched off a national firestorm, but the tenured professor of ethnic studies was ultimately terminated on charges of research misconduct.
Churchill said claims including plagiarism were just a cover and that he never would have been fired if it weren't for the essay in which he called World Trade Center victims "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi leader who helped orchestrate the Holocaust. Jurors agreed.
When the verdict was read, Churchill hugged his attorney, David Lane, and his wife, Natsu Saito.
"I can't tell you how significant this is," Lane said. "There are few defining moments that give the First Amendment this kind of light."
A judge will decide whether Churchill gets his job back. Lane said a reinstatement motion would be filed within 30 days and a hearing would likely be scheduled in June.
"What's next for me? Reinstatement, of course," Churchill said. "That's what I asked for. I didn't ask for money."
University spokesman Ken McConnellogue said the university will review its options before deciding whether to appeal.
"(The verdict) doesn't change the fact that more than 20 of his faculty peers found that he engaged in plagiarism and other academic misconduct," McConnellogue said.
He said the jury's $1 damage award sends a message about the merits of Churchill's civil claims.
Lane said the university will also be liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in Churchill's legal bills.
Churchill's essay was written in 2001 but attracted little attention until 2005, when critics publicized it after Churchill was invited to speak at Hamilton College in upstate New York.
Churchill testified last week that he didn't mean his comments to be hurtful to Sept. 11 victims. He said he was arguing that "if you make it a practice of killing other people's babies for personal gain ... eventually they're going to give you a taste of the same thing."
Betsy Hoffman, who was president of the university at the time, had testified that Owens pressured her to fire Churchill and said he would "unleash my plan" when she told him she couldn't.
In his testimony, Owens denied threatening the university.
University officials concluded that Churchill couldn't be fired over the essay because of his First Amendment rights, but they launched an investigation of his academic research.
That investigation, which didn't include the Sept. 11 essay, concluded he had plagiarized, fabricated evidence and committed other misconduct. He was fired on those allegations in 2007.
The university has maintained that the firing was justified.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090403/ap_on_re_us/embattled_professor_lawsuit
8 Ways to Join the Local Food Movement
By Sarah van Gelder, YES! Magazine
Posted on April 1, 2009, Printed on April 2, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/134329/
1. From Lawn to Lunch
To convert your sunny lawn to a lunch box, remove turf in long, 18-inch strips. Cut the edges of each strip with a sharp-bladed edging tool. While one partner rolls up the grass like a jellyroll, another slices through grass roots with the edging tool. Remove about an inch of rooty soil with the top growth. When the roll gets heavy, slice it off and load it in a wheelbarrow.
To compost the strips, layer green sides together, then brown sides together, ending brown-side-up. Cover the stack with soil and mulch (straw, chopped leaves, or shredded bark) and let stand for 10-12 months.
Make beds 10 to 20 feet long and six to eight feet wide (so you can reach the center from each side). Mulch three to four-foot wide paths between beds (grass left in the path will infiltrate your beds) to accommodate a wheelbarrow. Now fork over the soil strips and remove as many roots as possible. Aerate beds with a garden fork, sinking it as evenly and deeply as possible.
Spread on two or three inches of compost, then set plants about six inches apart, in staggered rows. Top with a mulch containing corn gluten, a high-nitrogen protein that prevents weed seeds from germinating.
-- Ann Lovejoy is author of Ann Lovejoy's Organic Garden Design School (A Rodale Organic Gardening Book, 2004) and many other books.
www.YesMagazine.org/lawn
Look who wants to TransFarm the White House lawn…
2. Eat Your Vegetables
Some 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by meat production. The USDA attributes 14 percent of all deaths in the U.S. to poor diets and/or sedentary lifestyles. You can improve your health and the health of the planet by following food columnist Michael Pollan's simple rule: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
3. Party with Your Preserves
Ten quarts of pumpkin puree in the pantry, and not a jar of tomato sauce left? Throw a canning swap party. Here are some tips and recommendations from foodroutes.org:
Plan ahead.
Gauge interest with your friends early on. Then remind them throughout the planting, growing, and harvesting season to set aside extras for canning and swapping.
Don't be afraid to grow a lot of something.
If you're a budding salsa artist, plant that extra row of tomatoes. Or if you see a good deal on a box of local pears -- get them.
Try new recipes on your swappers.
Bust out that crazy 5-alarm salsa verde recipe you've always been scared to try. Make sure to can extra so you can pop a jar open for samples.
Be aware of what constitutes a "fair" trade.
This is simple. You're all friends and canners who know how time-consuming canning can be. Be open and ask what your neighbor feels comfortable receiving in exchange for one jar of Grandma Edie's apricot chutney.
Think outside the Ball Jar.
Not everything at the canning swap party has to be pressure-canned or boiled in a hot water bath. Dried items, homemade baked goods, candies, and homebrewed beer are all eligible. You'll be amazed by what can be preserved from the season's bounty.
4. Glean Those Fields Clean
A lot of perfectly good food is left to rot in farm fields and under fruit and nut trees. With a bit of work, you can gather a group to "glean" this free food, providing fresh, nutritious food to your community.
To glean in your area, talk to farmers, gardeners, and orchard owners. Explain your purpose, share a copy of federal "Good Samaritan" law, which protects them from liability, and ask for written permission to glean.
Recruit gleaners. Family, friends, students, and members of your faith community are potential volunteers. You can also put a notice on craigslist, bulletin boards, at farmers markets, or in the local paper.
Contact food banks, shelters, and other facilities to check on their needs, and to arrange delivery times.
On gleaning day, bring collection baskets and buckets, snacks, water, and other necessities that will ensure a successful expedition.
As the day ends, gather your freshly harvested food, thank the landowner, distribute something to each gleaner, and leave the land in better condition than you found it.
-- Kim Nochi
Source: University of Maine Cooperative Extension
5. Shop Outside of Supermarkets
It's easy to see, taste, and feel the benefit of locally produced food, but for many of us it's a hassle to locate alternative food sources. Local foods are not nearly as well-advertised or visible as chain supermarket foods, so even those who want to give locally harvested food a try may not know where to get it. Here are some ways you can find local food sources in your area.
Get the lay of the land; consider what types of agriculture are natural to your environment. Does your area have a history of blueberry farming or cod fishing? Are there traditional foods that have been neglected in the fast-food age?
Talk to old timers, ask around at farmers markets, look for road-side food stands and U-pick places. Watch for hand-painted signs. You may find a wide variety of freshly harvested foods and get to know new communities and regional traditions at the same time.
Visit localharvest.org, sustainabletable.org, and eatwellguide.org to find sources of affordable and environmentally friendly food.
-- Heather Purser
6. Start a Community Garden
Start by calling a meeting (or better yet, a potluck) to decide what kind of garden you want, what locations might work, and how to manage plots.
Identify possible sites. Look for land that gets plenty of sunlight, has a water source, is convenient to get to, and is free of soil contamination. You could consider combining back yards if several neighbors are involved.
Identify the owner of the land and negotiate a lease long enough to make it worth building the soil and the community involvement. Invite immediate neighbors to join.
Test the soil for nutrient levels and contaminants. Clean the site, mark plots with gardeners' names, and, if possible, include on-site storage for tools and equipment. Also designate a spot for compost.
When the first planting season comes around, consider hiring someone to turn the earth, or throw a work party to build raised beds.
Meet now and then with your fellow gardeners to swap seeds and seedlings, advice, and produce, and to resolve any difficulties. Have potlucks to enjoy the harvest.
For more ideas, including sample bylaws and insurance policies, go to communitygarden.org
7. Plant a Row for the Hungry
As unemployment rises, more people are wondering how they will put food on their table. How can you boost food security at home …
* Skip the so-called convenience foods; processed foods almost always cost more for what you get.
* Form a buying club to get healthy food in bulk at discount prices.
* Grow your own -- start a community garden, or transform your lawn or parking strip (see #1 and #6).
* Buy in season, or harvest and preserve it yourself.
* Study (and/or teach) the art of cooking and preserving tasty, nutritious food on a budget.
… and in your community:
* Contribute something from every shopping trip to local food banks.
* Glean (see #4 above).
* Plant a row for the hungry and donate the produce to a shelter, day care center, neighbor, or food bank.
* Start a food bank out of a faith center or community center if there are no similar programs nearby (see www.yesmagazine.org/pantry).
8. Share Your Table
The best antidote to fast-food culture is as simple as your table. Invite friends and a few strangers to a local-foods potluck. In good weather, eat outside. Share an evening of conversation and enjoy the good life.
www.YesMagazine.org/sundaydinner
Meet Jim Haynes, the man who invites the world to dinner.
Sarah van Gelder, Anne Lovejoy, Kim Nochi, and Heather Purser wrote pieces for this article as part of Food for Everyone, the Spring 2009 issue of YES! Magazine. Sarah is the Executive Editor of YES! Magazine.
© 2009 YES! Magazine All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/134329/
Posted on April 1, 2009, Printed on April 2, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/134329/
1. From Lawn to Lunch
To convert your sunny lawn to a lunch box, remove turf in long, 18-inch strips. Cut the edges of each strip with a sharp-bladed edging tool. While one partner rolls up the grass like a jellyroll, another slices through grass roots with the edging tool. Remove about an inch of rooty soil with the top growth. When the roll gets heavy, slice it off and load it in a wheelbarrow.
To compost the strips, layer green sides together, then brown sides together, ending brown-side-up. Cover the stack with soil and mulch (straw, chopped leaves, or shredded bark) and let stand for 10-12 months.
Make beds 10 to 20 feet long and six to eight feet wide (so you can reach the center from each side). Mulch three to four-foot wide paths between beds (grass left in the path will infiltrate your beds) to accommodate a wheelbarrow. Now fork over the soil strips and remove as many roots as possible. Aerate beds with a garden fork, sinking it as evenly and deeply as possible.
Spread on two or three inches of compost, then set plants about six inches apart, in staggered rows. Top with a mulch containing corn gluten, a high-nitrogen protein that prevents weed seeds from germinating.
-- Ann Lovejoy is author of Ann Lovejoy's Organic Garden Design School (A Rodale Organic Gardening Book, 2004) and many other books.
www.YesMagazine.org/lawn
Look who wants to TransFarm the White House lawn…
2. Eat Your Vegetables
Some 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by meat production. The USDA attributes 14 percent of all deaths in the U.S. to poor diets and/or sedentary lifestyles. You can improve your health and the health of the planet by following food columnist Michael Pollan's simple rule: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
3. Party with Your Preserves
Ten quarts of pumpkin puree in the pantry, and not a jar of tomato sauce left? Throw a canning swap party. Here are some tips and recommendations from foodroutes.org:
Plan ahead.
Gauge interest with your friends early on. Then remind them throughout the planting, growing, and harvesting season to set aside extras for canning and swapping.
Don't be afraid to grow a lot of something.
If you're a budding salsa artist, plant that extra row of tomatoes. Or if you see a good deal on a box of local pears -- get them.
Try new recipes on your swappers.
Bust out that crazy 5-alarm salsa verde recipe you've always been scared to try. Make sure to can extra so you can pop a jar open for samples.
Be aware of what constitutes a "fair" trade.
This is simple. You're all friends and canners who know how time-consuming canning can be. Be open and ask what your neighbor feels comfortable receiving in exchange for one jar of Grandma Edie's apricot chutney.
Think outside the Ball Jar.
Not everything at the canning swap party has to be pressure-canned or boiled in a hot water bath. Dried items, homemade baked goods, candies, and homebrewed beer are all eligible. You'll be amazed by what can be preserved from the season's bounty.
4. Glean Those Fields Clean
A lot of perfectly good food is left to rot in farm fields and under fruit and nut trees. With a bit of work, you can gather a group to "glean" this free food, providing fresh, nutritious food to your community.
To glean in your area, talk to farmers, gardeners, and orchard owners. Explain your purpose, share a copy of federal "Good Samaritan" law, which protects them from liability, and ask for written permission to glean.
Recruit gleaners. Family, friends, students, and members of your faith community are potential volunteers. You can also put a notice on craigslist, bulletin boards, at farmers markets, or in the local paper.
Contact food banks, shelters, and other facilities to check on their needs, and to arrange delivery times.
On gleaning day, bring collection baskets and buckets, snacks, water, and other necessities that will ensure a successful expedition.
As the day ends, gather your freshly harvested food, thank the landowner, distribute something to each gleaner, and leave the land in better condition than you found it.
-- Kim Nochi
Source: University of Maine Cooperative Extension
5. Shop Outside of Supermarkets
It's easy to see, taste, and feel the benefit of locally produced food, but for many of us it's a hassle to locate alternative food sources. Local foods are not nearly as well-advertised or visible as chain supermarket foods, so even those who want to give locally harvested food a try may not know where to get it. Here are some ways you can find local food sources in your area.
Get the lay of the land; consider what types of agriculture are natural to your environment. Does your area have a history of blueberry farming or cod fishing? Are there traditional foods that have been neglected in the fast-food age?
Talk to old timers, ask around at farmers markets, look for road-side food stands and U-pick places. Watch for hand-painted signs. You may find a wide variety of freshly harvested foods and get to know new communities and regional traditions at the same time.
Visit localharvest.org, sustainabletable.org, and eatwellguide.org to find sources of affordable and environmentally friendly food.
-- Heather Purser
6. Start a Community Garden
Start by calling a meeting (or better yet, a potluck) to decide what kind of garden you want, what locations might work, and how to manage plots.
Identify possible sites. Look for land that gets plenty of sunlight, has a water source, is convenient to get to, and is free of soil contamination. You could consider combining back yards if several neighbors are involved.
Identify the owner of the land and negotiate a lease long enough to make it worth building the soil and the community involvement. Invite immediate neighbors to join.
Test the soil for nutrient levels and contaminants. Clean the site, mark plots with gardeners' names, and, if possible, include on-site storage for tools and equipment. Also designate a spot for compost.
When the first planting season comes around, consider hiring someone to turn the earth, or throw a work party to build raised beds.
Meet now and then with your fellow gardeners to swap seeds and seedlings, advice, and produce, and to resolve any difficulties. Have potlucks to enjoy the harvest.
For more ideas, including sample bylaws and insurance policies, go to communitygarden.org
7. Plant a Row for the Hungry
As unemployment rises, more people are wondering how they will put food on their table. How can you boost food security at home …
* Skip the so-called convenience foods; processed foods almost always cost more for what you get.
* Form a buying club to get healthy food in bulk at discount prices.
* Grow your own -- start a community garden, or transform your lawn or parking strip (see #1 and #6).
* Buy in season, or harvest and preserve it yourself.
* Study (and/or teach) the art of cooking and preserving tasty, nutritious food on a budget.
… and in your community:
* Contribute something from every shopping trip to local food banks.
* Glean (see #4 above).
* Plant a row for the hungry and donate the produce to a shelter, day care center, neighbor, or food bank.
* Start a food bank out of a faith center or community center if there are no similar programs nearby (see www.yesmagazine.org/pantry).
8. Share Your Table
The best antidote to fast-food culture is as simple as your table. Invite friends and a few strangers to a local-foods potluck. In good weather, eat outside. Share an evening of conversation and enjoy the good life.
www.YesMagazine.org/sundaydinner
Meet Jim Haynes, the man who invites the world to dinner.
Sarah van Gelder, Anne Lovejoy, Kim Nochi, and Heather Purser wrote pieces for this article as part of Food for Everyone, the Spring 2009 issue of YES! Magazine. Sarah is the Executive Editor of YES! Magazine.
© 2009 YES! Magazine All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/134329/
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