This letter is being sent to governor, senators, state reps and congress person in the state of Illinois

Dear insert name here,

I am working on a documentary film about DCFS. I have had two of my children in the system, so I have experienced the system up close and personal. I have seen the squander of taxpayer’s dollars. DCFS pays out to Catholic Charities close to 250 million dollars each year (these are estimated based on figures obtained under the FOIA from DCFS and are compiled in a loose manner from 2009-2010). This is just a small percentage of the wasted monies that the state should be investigating. With more than Catholic Charities billing the state, there are thousands of agencies with their hands in the pocket of Illinois. The recent problems with the former director should be bewildering enough to want to overhaul the system, yet it seems to be business as usual for Illinois.

That sound that you hear of cameras running, is really the sound of your career dissipation meter running.

As part of Urbana Public Television’s day-long salute to the legacy of Dr. King on Monday, January 16th, there will be several opportunities to view this year’s Champaign Countywide Celebration (held 1/13/12). The program will air Monday at midnight and again at 8:01 am, 2 pm, 5pm, 8 pm and 11 pm on UPTV (Comcast Channel 6 / ATT U-Verse Channel 99).

Other programs of related interest will also be seen throughout the day on UPTV, including documentaries on Dr. King and the civil rights movement, and archival broadcasts of past Countywide Celebrations from recent years.

UPTV is the television service of the City of Urbana, providing governmental, educational and public access television to, and by, the local community. It is available on Comcast Channel 6 to over 40,000 homes in Urbana, Champaign, Savoy, Bondville, Philo, Ogden and St. Joseph, as well as in Springfield, Decatur and Danville on ATT U-Verse Channel 99. The complete program schedule is at www.urbanaillinois.us/uptv. Membership is free and entitles volunteers to free video and editing training and equipment use. For more information, contact UPTV at 217-384-2452 or at uptv@urbanaillinois.us.

This week Urbana Public Television presents this lecture by food systems analyst Ken Meter. It airs Tuesday 1/10 @ 7:30 pm, Wednesday 1/11 @ 4:00 pm, and Saturday 1/14 @ 7:30 pm.

Ken Meter is president of the Crossroads Resource Center in Minnesota, a non-profit organization working with communities and their allies to foster democracy and local self-determination. His work integrates market analysis, business development, systems thinking, and social concerns. Mr. Meter's lecture was sponsored by Urbana's Common Ground Food Co-op, and was recorded there by UPTV in September of 2011.

UPTV is the television service of the City of Urbana, providing governmental, educational and public access television for, and by, the local community. It is available on Comcast Channel 6 to over 40,000 homes in Urbana, Champaign, Savoy, Bondville, Philo, Ogden and St. Joseph, as well as in Springfield, Decatur and Danville on ATT U-Verse Channel 99. The complete program schedule is at www.urbanaillinois.us/uptv. Membership is free and entitles volunteers to free video and editing training and equipment use. For more information, contact UPTV at 217-384-2452 or at uptv@urbanaillinois.us.

by Rethinking Schools Editorial

“Every man in my family has been locked up. Most days I feel like it doesn’t matter what I do, how hard I try—that’s my fate, too.” —11th-grade African American student, Berkeley, Calif. [ Seth Tobacman)]

This young man isn’t being cynical or melodramatic; he’s articulating a terrifying reality for many of the children and youth sitting in our classrooms—a reality that is often invisible or misunderstood. Some have seen the growing numbers of security guards and police in our schools as unfortunate but necessary responses to the behavior of children from poor, crime-ridden neighborhoods. But what if something more ominous is happening? What if many of our students—particularly our African American, Latina/o, Native American, and Southeast Asian children—are being channeled toward prison and a lifetime of second-class status?

Please join us this Friday, January 6th at the Champaign Public Library, Room C, Robeson Pavilion, from 6 to 9 p.m. for the first meeting of 2012!
This meeting is open to the public and all are welcome. Come and see what Occupy is all about!

For more information see also:
https://www.facebook.com/events/299796190056209/?context=create

At War with Ourselves

Local Police Stockpile High-Tech, Combat-Ready Gear
by Andrew Becker and G.W. Schulz

If terrorists ever target Fargo, N.D., the local police will be ready.

In recent years, they have bought bomb-detection robots, digital communications equipment and Kevlar helmets, like those used by soldiers in foreign wars. For local siege situations requiring real firepower, police there can use a new $256,643 armored truck, complete with a rotating turret. Until that day, however, the menacing truck is mostly used for training runs and appearances at the annual Fargo picnic, where it’s been displayed near a children’s bounce house.

“Most people are so fascinated by it, because nothing happens here,” said Carol Archbold, a Fargo resident and criminal justice professor at North Dakota State University. “There’s no terrorism here.”

Fargo, like thousands of other communities in every state, has been on a gear-buying spree with the aid of more than $34 billion in federal government grants since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Remember this? Julia Rietz husban. Barney Fife never lost his gun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYfmfuTdrFU