UEPI News and Commentary

Farm Fresh Food at Hospitals

UEPI's Center for Food and Justice joins Health Care Without Harm to present the Southern California Healthy Hospital Food Roundtable Meeting on February 23, 2007. Hospitals and other interested parties are invited to learn about purchasing sustainable and local foods for their institution's food service and nutrition programs. Also at the event, California hospitals with healthy food program will talk about what they are doing to improve food at their institutions.

 

The Roundtable will be held at the California Endowment's Center for Healthy Communities, in the Redwood Room. The center is located in Downtown Los Angeles at 1000 N. Alameda Street, Los Angeles, California, 90012. (Directions)

 

To recieve more information or to reserve your spot, contact Moira Beery at the Center for Food & Justice. Moira can be reached by phone at (323) 341-5099 or by e-mail to beery@oxy.edu. 

For more information about healthy and sustainable food in health care visit Health Care Without Harm and/or check out our Farm to Hospital paper.

What Should the Dems Do Now?

Since November 7, there's been much discussion about what the Democrats should be doing now that they have majorities in both houses of Congress. There are disagreements within the party -- and among key constitutency groups -- on some key questions of strategy and policy. The Dems will control the committees, control the flow of legislation, decide what issues should be subjects of public hearings, decide what investigations to initiate, decide which of Bush's nominees for judgeships and Cabinet posts to accept or reject, and decide when to compromise with the President on legislation and when to allow Bush to veto, and Congressional Republicans to register votes opposed to, Democratic-sponsored bills.  The key question: how can progressives help the Democratics turn their recent victory into a more stable long-term reallignment of American politics in order to fashion the next New Deal?

Here is some food for thought on these strategic and policy questions:

Milton Friedman is NOT dead

To the LA Times Editor:

Milton Friedman is NOT dead

(November 17)

The LA Times story on the front page of  Friday's Business section examined the business community's reaction to the City Council's recent vote to require hotels near LAX to pay its employees a living wage of at least $10.64 an hour.  In fact, only one business leader was quoted in the article. It also quoted one elected official. What's troubling is that the article quotes four "experts" -- economists and economics consultants -- none of whom have anything positive to say about the living wage ordinance. If you were using these four experts as sources because they represent a pro-business perspective, that should have been made clear. Otherwise, it appears that "experts" share a negative view of such laws. In fact, there are plenty of economists, economic development consultants, and other experts whose views about minimum wage and living wage laws are more positive. This article is thus incredibly one-sided in terms of the people whose views were solicited and quoted.

Voters want minimum wage hike

As John Atlas and I write in the American Prospect this week, and as Barbara Ehrenreich observes in a column for AlterNet, one of the most impressive outcomes of last Tuesday's election was the overwhelming support that voters showed for raising the minimum wage. This is a huge victory for economic justice.

ACORN, unions, and church groups played key roles in mounting these grassroots campaigns that not only won victories for low-wage workers but also increased voter turnout sufficiently to help elect Democrats Claire McCaskill and John Tester to the U.S. Senate in Missouri and Montana, respectively -- thus giving the Dems a majority in the Senate.

In six states - Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado -- voters passed ballot measures to hike the minimum wage. Each of these included an annual cost-of-living adjustment. That brings to 28 the number of states that now have minimum wages higher than the federal level; and brings to 10 the number of states with minimum wage laws incorporating an annual adjustment to keep pace with inflation.

Public opinion surveys show that over 80% of Americans, and almost three-quarters of Republican, want Congress to boost the minimum wage over $7 an hour. But last Tuesday's election should give the Democrats the ammunition and backbone they need to push for something more a federal minimum wage hike that includes an annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).

Members of Congress already have a COLA themselves, as seniors have for Social Security, and many unions have in their contracts. Corporate CEOs get compensation raises that far exceed inflation, so why shouldn't the working poor at least get a rise to keep up with the increasing cost of gas, rent,food, clothing, and other necessities?

Enrique Penalosa

One of the groups UEPI is part of, the Alliance for a Livable Los Angeles, is co-hosting this exciting event.

Lessons Learned from Livable Cities:
An Evening with Enrique Peñalosa
Former Mayor of Bogota, Colombia

Monday, November 13, 2006
MTA Boardroom
One Gateway Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Union Station Metro Stop

As Mayor of Bogotá, Peñalosa built the world’s premiere
Bus Rapid Transit system and hundreds of kilometers of sidewalks,
bicycle paths, pedestrian streets, greenways, and parks.

Who should attend: neighborhood residents, business owners, policy-makers,
students, advocates fighting childhood obesity, and anyone else who wants a
more livable Los Angeles!

Read the October 28 L.A. Times article
"Colombia city makes a U-turn" featuring Peñalosa.

Watch a short video of Enrique Penalosa discussing New York City, compliments of NYC Streets Renaissance.

Meyerson's eulogy for the progressive LA Weekly

Friends,

I am sending you two important pieces by journalist Harold Meyerson. The first -- linked here -- is his final "Powerlines" column in the LA Weekly, a retrospective on LA politics and the LA Weekly's role as a progressive voice in our community, during his almost two decades at the paper. It is his final column because the new owners of the Weekly let Harold go. Don't mourn for Harold. He's doing fine from his pundit perch in DC. He was recently promoted to editor of the American Prospect and will continue as a regular columnist for the Washington Post.  But mourn for LA, which will miss Harold's strong reporting and commentary on LA politics and movements for justice.