"The Bloomington Alternative - 2015 Mayoral Edition Interviews" will play back-to-back-to back at the following times on The Library Channel (Comcast Channel 3). Each candidate for the Democratic nomination for Mayor in the May 5 Primary -- Darryl Neher, John Hamilton and John Linnemeir -- participated.

Linnemeier has dropped out of the race, throwing his support to City Councilman Darryl Neher. His name will still appear on the ballot.

The interviews feature each candidate's responses to the same questions about homelessness/housing, downtown development, police and deer. They run between 50 minutes and an hour, more or less.

Each candidate was also asked to define the term progressive.

The interviews will run in their entirety.

• Thursday, April 30: 7:35 p.m.  (Neher, Hamilton, Linnemeier)
• Friday, May 1: 7:30 p.m. (Hamilton, Neher, Linnemeier)
• Saturday, May 2: 12:30 p.m. (Neher, Hamilton, Linnemeier)
• Sunday, May 3: 6 p.m. (Linnemeier, Hamilton, Neher)

Post-production work was provided by Bloomington's Community Access Television Services.

The interviews will be posted to YouTube and The Bloomington Alternative website.

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John Linnemeier is the only one of the three candidates in the May 5 Democratic Primary to even mention the term deer on his website, where he predicts the others would “kick the can down the road one more time.” He offers a “novel approach” to the issue of urban deer: sedating and sterilizing them.

“The situation continues to deteriorate as the deer population increases,” he says. “It should be obvious that any action in the future will be more traumatic and expensive as a result of this continued procrastination.”

An Aug. 23 segment on NPR's Morning Edition about the 2012 drought touched my sentimental side when a Kentucky farmer's voice quivered while he spoke to correspondent David Schaper. "My wife and I just look at each other every night, and we look at our children's faces before they go to sleep, and we wonder, will this be one of the last days?" he said. The piece was titled "Drought Extends Reach, Some Farmers Ready to Quit." I've spent a lot of time in Kentucky and writing about the place. I've met guys like this one.

Sadly but predictably, nowhere in the story did Schaper mention the drought's relation to climate change. Neither did the one that preceded it – "How Smokey the Bear Effect Led to Raging Wildfires" – nor any other segment on that morning's story list. Indeed, a search for "climate change" on the NPR website shows no Morning Edition stories the entire month of August. Talk of the Nation, yes. All things Considered, yes. But Morning Edition, no.

While I do sympathize with this family, especially the children, I'd have to advise the Logan County cattle farmer featured in the piece to look in the mirror. He's a victim of manmade climate change. And as a Kentuckian, he bears as much or more responsibility for his fate as anyone in the world. He and his bluegrass neighors, along with all the rest of us, brought the climate-induced 2012 tragedies of drought and wildfires upon ourselves. Payback is indeed a bitch. And we've only begun to pay.

The Greene Report is a compilation of environmental stories written by Linda Greene. This week's edition includes:

• Great Lakes action on nuclear reactor risks
• Activists halt operations at mountaintop removal coal mine
• Dow requests approval for GE soy resistant to 2,4-D
• EPA stalling on bee die-offs
• Pennsylvania to shut down one of biggest U.S. coal ash ponds
• Establishment of the Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge
• U.S. clean-up of Agent Orange-contaminated Vietnam
• Hazards of “green” household cleaners
• Nigerian oil spill near Exxon operations
• Ukrainian environmentalist murdered

News Release
Valley Watch

Last week, headlines in this region showed that Kentucky placed first and Indiana fourth in the release of toxic chemicals to our air from coal plants, according to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

None of the stories looked at the cross border figures like the region considered the “tri-state” of Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. Therefore Valley Watch decided to take this ominous study a step further and did its own analysis of those coal-fired power plants that currently operate within a 100 kilometer radius (62 miles) of Vanderburgh County.

Our analysis of EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory and EPA’s eGrid power plant data base reaffirms the shocking problem we have in this area which sports the largest concentration of coal plants in North America, if not the world, at 15,113 megawatt total capacity.

The federal panel charged with allocating funds for autism research has squandered hundreds of millions in taxpayer money on ideological, nonscientific priorities. Its decisions have been financially irresponsible and practically ineffective. Its chairman should be fired and many board members replaced.

So says the Brooklyn-based Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy (EBCALA) in a stinging critique of autism policy under the Bush and Obama administrations titled "A Critical Review of the Performance of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee" (IACC).

"From the controversial appointment or retention of committee representatives, to the troublesome history of committee members themselves, to the lack of accountability for the few advances made in autism research, to the questionable direction of the Strategic Plan, it is fair to state that the IACC is not living up to Congress’ and the public’s expectations," the July 10, 2012, report says.

The Greene Report is a compilation of environmental stories written by Linda Greene. This week's edition includes:

• ArcelorMittal agrees to clean up contaminated Lake Michigan site
• Latinos’ attitudes toward the environment
• Rainforest havens at risk
• Fracking: who’s in control?
• Texans poisoned by oil and gas facilities
• Utilities spend millions on attacking EPA action while deaths accumulate
• Murder of environmental activists
• Oil company threatens 284 remaining beluga whales
• Oil dispersants disrupt the ocean food chain

In his state of the city address on Feb. 16, 2010, Bill Schmitt, mayor of the southern Indiana city of Jasper, addressed the topic of what to do with the city’s idle coal-fired power plant. One option, he said, according to the Dubois County Herald, would be to convert the plant to a “green-energy-producing facility.”

Little did anyone realize at the time that his comment would turn out to be an early salvo in what has become a bitter, protracted battle between the people of Jasper and their local government.

The Greene Report is a compilation of environmental stories written by Linda Greene. This week's edition includes:

• Push for high-speed rail in Indiana
• Earth First! temporarily halts fracking operation
• Fossil fuels draining water supply in middle of drought
• Four environmental victories in two weeks
• Victory for baby sea turtles in Puerto Rico
• Critical fight to save Alaska’s Bristol Bay wilderness
• Problem at California nuclear power plant is worse than originally thought
• Dirty Dozen, Clean 15 produce
• Big polluters opposing EPA’s regulations on soot
• Bureau of Land Management to safeguard public lands from fracking, with public pressure

Peace & Justice News is a collection of news items collected by Bloomington Alternative contributor Linda Greene. Today's edition includes:

• 2012 likely to be journalists’ deadliest year so far
• Protestors charged with third-degree riot for defending house from foreclosure
• Aid for Haitian earthquake victims goes to build hotels
• Facts about inequality in the U.S.
• Community-labor alliance spurs unionization effort
• War Resister confined to sanctuary of Canadian church
• Military recruiting troops through motorsports marketing
• Texas Wal-Mart becomes nation’s largest single-story library
• Chinese Apple workers undergoing superexploitation
• Torture in CIA 'black site' secret prison in Poland