The BP oil disaster may have faded from the headlines, but it hasn’t faded from the Gulf Coast beaches. The Coast Guard sends out clean-up crews on a regular basis to remove tar balls- clumps of oil- that have washed up on the beaches near New Orleans. This is a clean-up detail on Port Fourchon Beach shot by Petty Officer 3rd Class Anthony Soto and Petty Officer 1st Class Susan Blake.
While attending the 2010 Community Food Security conference, The UpTake spoke with New Orleans Video Voice Collective director Michele Burton-Oatis about engaging communities through video and about how the BP oil spill, and Hurricane Katrina, have impacted community food systems in and around New Orleans.
Those who were honored with 2010 Food Sovereignty Prizes at this year’s Community Food Security conference in New Orleans — John Kinsman and Ruth Simpson of Family Farm Defenders, Cathleen Kneen of Food Secure Canada, Dawn Morrison of The Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Christiana Schiavoni of WhyHunger and Aba Ifeoma of Detroit Black Community Food Security Network — spoke on a panel discussion about building a global food sovereignty movement. (Djibo Bagna of ROPPA — The Network of West African Peasant and Agricultural Producers’ Organizations — was absent from this panel).
Authors of the book “Food Justice,” Robert Gottlieb and Anupama Joshi, facilitated a discussion with food justice leaders at last week’s 2010 Community Food Security Conference in New Orleans — in an effort to situate and define food justice as a crucial part of the struggles to change the food system.
The UpTake will post videos throughout the week that we recorded at the 2010 Community Food Security Conference in New Orleans.
For related links, see this story on the BP oil spill, and industrial pollution’s effects on Gulf Coast food systems, and a discussion of food sovereignty as a civil right.
At the 2010 Community Food Security Conference in New Orleans last week, members of the global farmers’ rights organization Via Campesina and participants in this summer’s U.S. Social Forum in Detroit gathered to discuss food sovereignty and how food access relates to social justice.
The UpTake will post videos throughout the week that we recorded at the 2010 Community Food Security Conference in New Orleans.
Matt Rota, Director of Water Resources at the Gulf Restoration Network, and Harvey Reed, Executive Director of the Louisiana Association of Cooperatives, which works with farmers and fishermen throughout the Gulf Coast, spoke at the 2010 Community Food Security Conference in New Orleans last week about how environmental pollution — in particular the BP oil spill this spring — affect local food systems.
The UpTake will post videos throughout the week that we recorded last week at the 2010 Community Food Security Conference in New Orleans.
Coast Guard, New Orleans Port Authority and Homeland Security units provide an escort as the blowout preventer of the Deepwater Horizon is transported on the Mississippi River into New Orleans, Sept. 11, 2010.
The blowout preventer will be used to help the joint Bureau of Ocean Energy Management/US Coast Guard investigation determine the circumstances surrounding the explosion, fire, pollution, and sinking of the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Deepwater Horizon.
U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Stephen Lehmann.
Helicopter crews remove boom from marshes northwest of Grand Isle, Louisiana on Sept. 4, 2010. The helicopter eliminates the need for ground crews to enter the marshes and retrieve the boom, which could possibly damage the sensitive areas.
U.S. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 2nd Class Etta Smith.
Investigators are now examining the device that failed creating the worlds worst oil spill. On Saturday the a damaged Blow Out Preventer (BOP), along with the Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) Cap, were removed from the Gulf of Mexico.
The BOP is considered evidentiary material, and is now under the supervision of the Deepwater Horizon Criminal Investigation Team and FBI Evidence Recovery Team.
(Photo & Video by PO1 Thomas Blue, U.S. Coast Guard)
Unlike the BP oil rig and explosion that led to the world’s largest oil spill, the fire at the Vermillion 380 rig did not have an oil leak. All 13 crew members aboard the rig escaped into the water and were rescued after about two hours. The fire was extinguished a short time later.
Officials with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) are investigating the cause of the fire.
Video from the US Coast Guard.
The federal government and 49 state attorneys general have reached a landmark $25 billion agreement with the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers to address mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure abuses.
President Obama announces ten states have agreed to implement bold reforms around standards and accountability will receive flexibility from the most burdensome mandates of the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind.
The President meets an 8th grader named Joey from Phoenix, AZ at the White House Science Fair and the two launch a marshmallow across the state dining room with Joey’s science project – an air cannon.
The housing crisis has been the single largest drag on America’s economic recovery. President Obama wants to fix that fairly for homeowners who have been responsible, but not the ones who took out huge mortgages or bought multiple homes.
Netflix’s top lawyer tries to convince a US Senate committee that laws need to be changed so it can offer a video sharing app on Facebook. A University of Minnesota Law Professor says that’s not so.
A bill recently passed in the US House could make it easier for video companies to disclose viewer information. Who should know what you’re watching? Senator Al Franken leads a hearing.
“One senator gumming up the works for the whole country is certainly not what our founding fathers envisioned.”— President Obama about Utah Senator Mike Lee in his weekly address
President Obama unveils his proposal to keep college costs lower and provide students with enough financial aid so they can attend. He speaks at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
President Obama is on a five state tour promoting the economic proposals he made in his State of The Union address. He started in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at Conveyer Engineering and then into Arizona to an Intel plant. Thursday he want to Las Vegas and Denver.
Representative Giffords recently resigned from congress to focus on her recovery from an assassination attempt last year.
More than 300 Minnesotans gathered at the State Capitol and at Wells Fargo Place in downtown Saint Paul to raise their voices in opposition to the proposed photo ID amendment.
Governor Dayton announced he is vetoing a set of Republican authored bills aimed at making it harder to sue in court. Legislative leaders react to the Governor’s veto.
Joe Webb wants his mentally ill son to live closer to home. But cuts made last year in Minnesota’s mental health budget are preventing that.
Senator Barb Goodwin raises objections to H.F. 1467 Defense of Dwelling and Person Act.
She says it should have another hearing since a New York Times article showed that Minnesota has problems with felons easily getting back their firearms once they are released from prison.
Senator Julianne Ortman’s bill to shorten Minnesota’s statute of limitations passes despite her saying some of the issues in it could go back to the Judiciary committee
Hear what DFL caucus goers are concerned and optimistic about.
Vouchers for college? Minnesota’s Higher Education Director Larry Pogemiller says he’s open to the idea.
TakeAction Minnesota releases a report outlining Minnesota-based financial interests behind efforts to secure a photo ID amendment on the state’s November 2012 ballot.
It’s not often that a half dozen religious leaders come calling with a cadre of television cameras in tow to Senate Majority Leader David Senjem’s office.
Religious leaders of various faiths hold a press conference at the Minnesota State Capitol voicing their opposition to the proposed constitutional amendment requiring a photo ID for the purpose of voting.
The Northside Economic Opportunity Network works with small businesses and micro-businesses in North Minneapolis to help them achieve success.
As we’ve been reporting for the past six months, many tornado victims who need help still haven’t gotten it.
Occupy MN is occupying Monique White’s house at 3310 N. 6th St. in the city’s downtrodden North Minneapolis neighborhood. In doing so, Occupy MN instantly made itself more diverse, and more relevant.
When administrators revealed a plan last spring to shut down North High School — one of only two public schools on Minneapolis’ embattled north side — MN Neighborhoods Organizing for Change and other activists answered the call.
North Minneapolis food entrepreneurs use Kindred Kitchen to learn about starting their own business, making their food safely and legally in a commercial kitchen, and marketing it within the community.
Voters should pick their politicians, not the other way around. That’s the thought behind Draw The Line Minnesota, a citizen group that is working to draw the maps for congressional and legislative districts.
This year’s FLOW art crawl was all about recognizing thousands of volunteers that helped with the clean-up and recovery efforts after the May 22nd tornado. Leaders hope the positive can-do attitude of the cleanup can power a rebirth of the Northside.
After their home in North Minneapolis was destroyed by the May 22 tornado, Dennis and Deborah were forced to seek refuge in the local Armory and at the North Commons Recreation Center. For weeks, they and their five children slept on cots on the floor of a gymnasium.
Her home destroyed and now condemned, north Minneapolis tornado victim Joyce Chineth feels abandoned by the system.
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