Grab and Keel

Last week amendment S4980-4984, a bill submitted to prevent mortgage foreclosures and enhance mortgage credit availability, was defeated by this cast of characters. Senator Barbara Boxer had this to say:

Mortgage Modification Amendment Would Have Helped 385,000 California Homeowners Facing Foreclosure

Thursday, April 30, 2009

[Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today spoke on the Senate floor in favor of an amendment that would have helped millions of at-risk homeowners avoid foreclosure by allowing bankruptcy judges to modify mortgage terms for primary residences.

Currently, bankruptcy judges are able to modify terms on loans for vacation homes, automobiles and other assets.  The measure, sponsored by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), failed by a vote of 45 to 51…]

http://boxer.senate.gov/news/releases/record.cfm?id=312331

So much for the loss of our homes. At the same time, despite our recent rain, we in California are muddling though drought and the determining the extent of statewide water restrictions this year. In my neighborhood, State Senator Lois Wolk   has cosponsored  SB 460.

Everything about water rights in the west is difficult and prickly. That’s no less true in the Klamath Valley. It’s not a done deal, but there is hope:

KLAMATH DAM PROTESTERS RETURN TO BERKSHIRE MEETING

Written by JOSH FUNK

For the Native American Times

[OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A group representing American Indian tribes and commercial fishermen from California and Oregon that has protested at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholder meetings in the past are back again this year.

But this time the group will be praising Berkshire, led by billionaire investor Warren Buffett. They are in Omaha to show their support for the decision by the company’s utility unit to back a preliminary agreement to remove four dams on the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border. ….]

http://nativetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1627&Itemid=32

Elsewhere on the environmental front, the pushback is in progress. In the midst of one of her worst long running droughts ever, Australia is looking for other ways to keep her economic engine afloat:

 Australia delays carbon trade plan

 Australia has among the highest carbon emissions per capita in the world [GALLO/GETTY]

[Australia is to delay a plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions because of the impact of the global economic slowdown.

Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister, said the carbon-emissions trading scheme due to start in 2010 will be pushed back by 12 months to reduce the burden for businesses with the country’s economy teetering on the brink of recession….]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/05/20095451819961617.html

You may have already seen this report. If not, be sure and read it. It will be a useful checklist in the days ahead.

Obama’s First 100 Days — The Black Agenda Report Card

 by BAR Managing Editor Bruce A. Dixon

Why a Report Card At All?

[The hundred day report card is an enduring tradition in American journalism for a very good reason. It’s journalism’s job to help citizens make sense of the world, to seek the truth and tell it without fear or favor no matter where it lead…]

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obamas-first-100-days-black-agenda-report-card

Finally, while we worry over the fate of newspapers, journalism, and the fate of journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, Japan has lent her voice to the concern over Roxana Saberi’s treatment in Iran. Recently it seems an awful lot of detained journalists are women. Why is that? More women in journalism? Younger women doing the field work and earning their “chops”? Some sort of  communication disconnect? Or something else more basically violent and sexist? it might be an interesting research project. Or better stated, maybe more information could facilitate avoidance and coping stratagies. 

Japan urges Iran to show more transparency in Saberi case

Japan Herald

Sunday 3rd May, 2009 

(IANS)

[Japan called on Iran to have more transparency in the case of jailed Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, whose mother is Japanese, informed sources in Tehran said Sunday….]

http://story.japanherald.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/c4f2dd8ca8c78044/id/497136/cs/1/