Bringing back the Jobs

I happened to watch on Rock Center (with Brian Williams on ABC) a program about a small town furniture company 'bringing back' jobs it had once offshored to China. In a nutshell this was the story -

Lincolnton, NC - Williams began with "We are just starting to see the first glimmer of evidence that some of the jobs that were offshored to China are coming back. A factory owner who years back closed his furniture making business and sent it to China, has brought his factory back home. Lincolntown, NC, is home to Lincolnton Furniture once again."

Apparently Bruce Cochran had sold the long time family furniture business 25 yrs ago when he could no longer compete with the Chinese market. The company was offshored to China. Over the last two decades, seeing what was happening in america, stagnant wages, losses of jobs, due to shipping american companies and jobs overseas (North Carolina has lost tens of thousands of furniture making jobs in the last ten years) Bruce Cochran began to realize he was a big part of the problem. He came out of retirement and reopened his factory in the very same warehouse it once was housed. He says "it's about the people" and it has weighed heavy on his mind. The new factory has created 130 new jobs, some of the employees worked for the original company 25 years ago.

Hal Sircum is a senior partner at Boston Consulting and he sees Bruce as part of "a new and dramatic shift". Sircum says gone are the days of China having a "cost advantage" over american made products, that China is not the bargain it used to be. He states the average chinese worker is about 1/4 as productive as the average US worker. That wages in China have gone up, shipping charges have more than doubled. The days of China so often having a cost advantage over U.S. producers is about to come to an end. "We're looking at the tipping point right now and by as early as 2015 many expect we'll be at the same level as the chinese cost wise. This encompasses varied products, televisions, computers, electronics in general, and industrial good like rubber and machinery. And that would mean millions of new american jobs in the next few years."

When asked how big an impact this will have on the US, Sirkin says its going to be huge, when you take the mfg jobs and the service jobs that will be created. We will add two to three million jobs to the workforce. And that is no small thing. Bruce Cochran feels personal redemption in his actions, a living parable about people and profits and priorities.

Apparently Cochran faced an uphill battle getting the financing he needed for the new factory. He had startup capitol but needed operating capitol. He went up and down the east coast, to all the major banks in the south, couldn't find any that would lend him the money, give him the financing he needed...until he went to the small bank in his hometown.

Gives me hope :).

"A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B." ~"Fats" Domino

HOMEMADE YOGURT

I recently came across an article in the latest edition of Sunset magazine on making ones own yogurt. SO many times over the years I've contemplated trying this, even checked out small electric yogurt machines but just never got around to it, though I am a true yogurt fan and eat it regularly. However the recipe looked super simple and the pictures delectable so as I still had a little Greek Yogurt left in the frig (purchased from Costco), I decided to give it a try. One needs active culture (much like when making sourdough bread, you need to keep "starter" on hand) to get started.

One simply boils milk, lets it cool to 110 degrees F, adds some yogurt culture, then wraps the jars used to hold it in kitchen towels and set in a small cooler (or large, depending on how much you make) for 8 - 12 hrs. The results were wonderful. The consistency is somewhat different than "store bought", softer and "lighter", but then it doesn't have the added gelatin or preservatives commonly found in store bought brands. To make a thicker, "greek" style yogurt one has only to strain the finished yogurt in cheesecloth till desired consistency, you can even strain it long enough (and in the frig) a day or two (with a little added salt) to get a yogurt "cheese" which is similar to cream cheese but without the heavier calories.

Heres the recipe and directions: 1 qt milk (full/low/or non fat), 2 tbsp plain live culture regular yogurt (or greek style, full fat , low fat, or nonfat)
Bring the milk to a full boil (foaming on top) in a heavy pot, stirring often. Remove from heat, pour into a bowl and put the bowl in a sink of cold water. Cool the milk to 110 degrees F.

Whisk 1/4 cup 110 degrees milk with the yogurt in a smaller bowl before whisking into the larger bowl of milk. Pour into 2 large glass jars, wrap the jars n towels and place in a cooler. Add another jar filled with hot water to the cooler to keep the milk warm. Cover the jars of milk. Cover the cooler in a blanket and set aside for 8 - 12 hrs to set the yogurt. Yogurt keeps in the frig up to 1 week.

Serve with fresh fruit or a spoonful of any jam, honey or agave syrup if preferred. Homemade yogurt is very economical vs store bought, and the pro-biotics are extremely beneficial to your digestive processes. Homemade yogurt contains no sugar and there is no packaging waste. AND you can use this batch of yogurt as your culture for your next batch and so on and so forth.

How milk was first cultured to make yogurt is a mystery, but I read one gentleman's comments stating when he was a little boy in postwar Denmark, they couldn't just "buy" pre-cultured yogurt, & that his grandfather would simply spit in the milk to "culture" it...hmmm...not especially appetizing. I haven't found anything to confirm that would work, but personally wouldn't recommend it.

I was watching Morning Joe earlier this morning, there was a segment about the Food Network, and the various shows that basically tout unhealthy foods to viewers. Paula Deen was targeted, her high caloric, fat laden recipes, and the fact that she kept her own diabetes diagnoses hidden (she remained "a closet diabetic" for 3 yrs before coming" clean" to her viewers), and is an actual SPOKESPERSON for a Diabetes medication! I have to say I myself, once a fairly regular viewer of her cooking show, was incredulous and disappointed and no longer include her program when I TIVO. Trillions of dollars will be spent on obesity issues BY TAXPAYERS yet too many continue to profit on the ongoing causes of the disease. Paula, to her credit, does say to eat (her foods) in moderation, but still, to me, this remains an overall problem, that the food networks profit from pushing high fat, unhealthy foods to viewers.

It seems recently in the news even Jamie Olivers latest cookbook was ranked one of 2011's "most unhealthy" cookbooks out there! I was SO disappointed ot hear this, having followed Jamie's efforts to get the LA schools to serve healthier foods in their school cafeterias. The hypocrisy is everywhere it seems. Seems its ALWAYS about the $$$.

All in all it comes down to we must ALL take personal responsibility for our own, and our family's health. There is enough information available through books (free libraries), magazines, and online, that there is really no excuse to not do that with minimal effort. Sadly it seems bad food is now "cheaper" food, that its become less expensive to fill our bellies with cheap, fast food, and over processed packaged foods, than it is natural, healthier foods. Coupled with the fact we are living in troubled, tough, economic times, people are being forced to make choices they might not make under other circumstances.

"In order to change we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired". ~Author Unknown

MY LETTER TO THE WARDEN

January 17, 2010

Warden M. Benov
C.I. Taft
P.O. Box 7001
Taft, Ca 93268

Warden Benov,
My name is Linda xxxxxx (last name) and my son Corey, is an inmate at the minimum security satellite camp at Taft. I write to you today because there have recently been various changes instituted at Camp visitation that concern me and perhaps you can answer my questions. My son has not asked I write you, quite the contrary, but my husband and I both have felt the impact of the changes, to the atmosphere in particular, at visitation since the beginning of the new year and therein lies my reason for writing.

Every 3 months we see a new cycle of guards oversee Camp Visitation. My husband and I have been visiting our son at this Camp for the past 5 years and it is only with this latest, newest changing of the guards that we have seen, surprisingly, stricter measures brought into play and we wonder why the escalation of security.

Often, over the years we have contended, and adjusted to, each new set of guards implementing their own "interpretation" of the visitation rules/policies, which many times do not coincide with the written policies of the BOP. Generally its how the clothing rules are interpreted, one month we may see visitors allowed to wear scarves, next cycle no scarves are allowed. Or open toe'd shoes, allowed for months, then suddenly not allowed. One must always be sure to carry extra clothing items with them to avoid having to drive the 20 mile return trip to Kmart should a particular guard have a different opinion on a particular rule and you risk being turned away. However, I'm not writing to complain about such routine ongoings, we've just adapted and been better prepared going forward.

However, the recent escalation in rules and "security measures" in the visitation room we do find concerning, as it does affect the atmosphere in the room, and all the families as well as the inmates are affected by it. My husband and I find it is now an atmosphere of intimidation, unbefitting the need at this minimum security Camp, and we wish to state our objection to guards from the higher-security, adjacent facility coming over for temporary duty at this Minimum Security Camp and implementing rules not formerly in place, rules that impact the formerly comfortable atmosphere, and the reason for all of us to be visiting in the first place, to increase moral and family unity for our loved one serving within the confines of the camp.

The BOP's own policies set forth regarding Visitation (Program Statement 5000 Series, Inmate and Custody Management, Policy No. 5267.08) read:

Statement 5267.08
#1. All inmates will be permitted visits by family, friends, and community groups consistent with the security and orderly running of the institution.

#9. The Warden shall have the visiting room arranged so as to provide adequate supervision, adapted to the degree of security required by the type of institution.

As described in the policy, the rules should be "adapted" to fit the security of the institution. Taft Camp is a Minimum Security Camp, the men are not even restricted by walls or wire fences, yet the new visiting rules set in place, by one new guard who has, seemingly taken it upon himself to enhance, are inappropriate and the added feeling of "control" are being suffered by all, inmate and visitors alike.

A few of the changes we have seen are the men (inmates) were not being allowed to use the Inmate Bathroom in the Visitation Room going into this month. We witnessed them being told they must ask permission to use the facilities. They are then taken to the small bathroom outside the Visitation Room. Why would such a rule now be put in place? It is demeaning to not just the inmate but to his family to observe. This is a rule enforced in higher security facilities, not appropriate to a minimum security camp visitation room.

The inmates are now currently restricted from not only getting up and walking about the room, but from coming anywhere near the vending machines openly set out in the visitation room. The rules up to this month allowed them to approach the 3 vending machines in the middle of the south wall of the room and to come to just outside the small vending machine room, with their visitor, so as to at least be able to have some input into what food choices would be made. Now the men are not allowed to get up and move about the room at all, let alone get anywhere near the vending machines.

The restriction on inmates movements within the room has added, in more than one way, to the more stressful atmosphere. The Facility by and large seems to have a hard time regulating the temperature in the visitation room to begin with, but in the past we have had the ability to sit at our table as long as we could take the below-normal temperatures (overly-cold air forced from an overhead vent), or at times the higher than normal temperatures in mid summer, and we've been able to walk outside (or back inside) to cool down or warm up, as the case may be. Not only that, but the fact that if we come at 8 am for a full days visit that is 7 hrs we and our "inmate" are required to sit at a table. Everyone, yourself included I'm sure, gets a little uncomfortable after 3 or 4 hrs hours sitting, especially in rigid, hard plastic chairs. But now thats been taken away as well. The inmates are not being allowed to get up and walk about the room, to simply stretch their muscles.

To begin with this is of courses aggravated by the Camp's very points system, with points being charged by the full day rather than by the hour. If you don't stay the full day you lose out on valuable time with your loved one. And many visitors travel from long distances and must make the most of the full day of visitation. Our son transferred from the adjacent Low Security (when it became an INS prison) at Taft 5 yrs ago, and points there were charged by the HOUR, we could come and visit for 3 or 4 hrs and end the visit, and only use the points for the hours we used. However your Camp rules make it necessary, if we wish to use all the precious, alotted time allowed with our loved one, to stay the full day, because 20 points are all that are allotted, and depending on the day you visit, use up 4 or 6 pt per visit, no matter how long the visit. I only go into such detail in hopes of helping you understand why we stay all day, and why staying all day, and not being 'allowed" to move about the room have become an issue. There WAS no issue prior to the new guards on current "cycle" adding to and changing what was previoulsy in place.

Another change just this month, with the new cycle of guards, is that visitor seating is now being assigned. Up until just this month, visitors were able to come in, and choose their own seating. If the room started filling up the guard often asked visitors to move to different tables befitting the size of the parties, or even to terminate visits as necessary. No one to my knowledge has ever had any objection to this and all always willingly comply. We appreciate the time we get to spend with our loved one more than you can imagine. To support their morale and sense of well being. I suppose to you the assigning of seating is a minor issue, but now having to await the guards assigning us a seat only adds another level of stress where it is simply not needed. Why after all these years? Why with just these new guards?

I bring up these issues because the very atmosphere that is now prevalent in the visitation room, one of intimidation and restriction caused by these heightened and stricter rules (not formerly in place, and seemingly only now in place because of the whims of one or two short-term guards at visitation rotation) have had a definite impact on the quality of our visits with our son, and they are contradictory to the BOP's stated objective of maintaining the morale of the inmate and to develop closer relationships between the inmate and family members or others in the community. We look forwad to your response in hopes you'll affect some changes, if only returning the rules to those that were in place prior to this new cyle of guards overseeing this first qtr of 2012.

Thank you for your time.

(I'll post any response IF I get one)

NO ONE HAS EVER DIED FROM SMOKING MARIJUANA, BUT....

My friend and correspondent, Marc Emery, sent me this article written by Tony Newman from DPA (the Drug Policy Alliance). Marc is a Canadian businessman and political activist who owned and operated Cannabis Culture Magazine, Pot-TV, the BC Marijuana Party, and Marc Emery's Cannabis Culture Headquarters (previously the BCMP Bookstore, and HEMP BC before that.)

He was also the world's most famous marijuana seed retailer and the biggest financial supporter of the marijuana movement world-wide until the US Drug Enforcement Administration and Canadian law enforcement arrested him in Canada and shut down Marc Emery Direct Seeds in July 2005. Marc is currently imprisoned in Yazoo City medium-security prison in Yazoo City, Mississippi after being extradited on May 20th, 2010 by the Canadian government. He was sentenced on September 10th in Seattle federal court to 5 years in prison for "distribution of marijuana" seeds, though the US Drug Enforcement Administration admitted it was actually for his political activism and financing the marijuana movement.

I became acquainted with Marc about a year or so ago, although I'd followed his story in the news the two or three years prior to his arrest and extradiction to the US. Being a Canadian Citizen, and having a son convicted of selling marijuana who is currenlty serving a lengthy prison sentence here in California, I suppose it was fitting Marc and I would ultimately come to know each other. After he had been designated and sent to D Ray James prison in Georgia I wrote him, asking how he was doing. I understand how important receiving mail and correspondence is to prisoners and I believed Marc was more a political prisoner than anything. The US DEA wanted to make an example of Marc. Our friendship started at that letter and we correspond regularly.

I am fully aware of the types of shenanigans our DEA is involved in, and the countless victims who have suffered under the US's failed War on Drugs, but this article he sent me today, published in The Huffington Post, was one I wanted to share:

No one has ever died from smoking marijuana. But getting busted with a small amount of marijuana has led to countless tragic deaths.

This week, Shelley Hilliard, a 19-year-old woman from Detroit, was killed after working as a police informant. On October 20, Hilliard was arrested for a small amount of marijuana. The police offered her a way out: She could set up a drug deal. She called a drug dealer and said she had someone who wanted to buy $335 of cocaine and marijuana. When the dealer showed up he was arrested. The dealer was released, and three days later Hilliard was found dead in the streets. The dealer has been charged with murder.

Hilliard tragic death brings back memories of Rachel Hoffman, the 23-year-old, Florida State graduate from Tallahassee who also worked as an informant after she was busted with a small amount of marijuana and Ecstasy. Hoffman was sent alone on a "buy and bust" and was given $13,000 to buy Ecstasy, cocaine and a gun. The men shot Hoffman five times, stole her car and credit card, and dumped her body into a ditch. This week Tallahassee approved a $2.6 million settlement with Rachel's parents.

These two women should still be with us on this earth, but were instead pawns in an unwinnable drug war that led to their violent deaths.

There are so many sick aspects of the failed drug war, but law enforcement's forcing people with a drug arrest to choose between draconian prison sentences or becoming an informant is one of the most nauseating. My friend and colleague, Anthony Papa, was sentenced to 15-years-to-life after a bowling buddy convinced him to drop off an envelope of cocaine in exchange for $500. The bowling buddy had been busted for drugs and the police said he was facing a long mandatory minimum drug sentence unless he could help them bust more people. The more people he helped them set up, the less prison time he would get. So he ruined his friend Papa's life (and many others) by setting him up in a drug sting.

There are more than 1.6 million drug arrests in the U.S. every year - the vast majority for mere possession. So many deaths and so many people are behind bars because police use people who get caught with small amounts of drugs to set up family, friends and strangers.

Tony Newman is the director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance (www.drugpolicy.org)

In war, truth is the first casualty. ~Aeschylus

FUN IN CARLSBAD
Rod had a business meeting in San Diego on tuesday, so after visiting Corey at the camp until 2 pm (monday, the day after New Years Day) we drove on down. I had found us a hotel in Carlsbad this trip, so it would be closer to where Rod had to drive tuesday morning, and it turned out this Ramada was just mere blocks from where my friend Susie lives. We'd been in touch prior to our heading down and had made plans for her to come by around 10 am to pick me up, after her morning spin class. It was good to see her again, I can always count on a relaxing, and interesting day when Susie and I get together. She keeps a blog on all things San Diego - great tips, places to see, restaurents, recipes, and also posts personal stories, check it out at www.susiesays-susie.blogspot.com







After a quick stop at her house so I could meet Pepper, her new 18 month old Schnoodle, who she and Ron rescued from the shelter, we headed over to the Self Realization Fellowship Hermitage & Meditation Gardens. It is actually located oceanside at Encinitas, the community just south of Carlsbad. Admission is free and these amazing gardens are open to the public. It's beauty took my breath away, and after wandering around, exploring koi pounds, amazing twisted trees and every possible kind of exotic plant and succulent, everyone talking in a whispered hush, we left feeling lighter in spirit, and refreshed from, I'm sure, breathing in all that pure oxygen generated by so many plants in a relatively small space.



Our next stop was Pipes Cafe, a few blocks away for piled high, egg salad (Susie) and turkey avocado (me) sandwiches and a fabulous frothy orange drink concoction similar to an orange julius. The days weather could not have been more perfect, sunny, clear, temperatures mid 70's. We enjoyed our lunch on the outside patio, streetside, catching up on our lives, what had transpired in the last month or more since we last saw each other. Everytime I see Susie we just pick up from our last conversation it seems, there is always so much to talk about and always too little time. Her husband Ron had spent 18 months at the Taft Camp, which is how Susie and I met, through another mutual friend who would visit her husband Michael there as well. Ron has been home now for several months and adapting, adjusting to being back in society, along with dealing daily with demands from the justice system, and all the obstacles they cement firmly in place making, for just one example, finding a job next to impossible. Something has recently opened up however and he has every reason to believe his job search may be over, at last, and this has given him renewed optomism and greater sense of well being.

After our lunch Susie and I hit the beach for a vigorous stroll. I'd heard on the prior evening's news the surf was supposed to be fantastic today, and everywhere I looked I could see groups of surfers waiting to catch, or actually riding, that perfect wave. The vast, mostly empty, beach spread out before us as we strolled and took in the magnificent views and salty air. How I love southern California beaches!

All too soon the afternoon had come to an end and Susie took her leave, while I settled in a poolside lounger to await my husbands return.