Monthly Archives: January 2009

Monday's Quick Hits

19 Monday Jan 2009

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A New York Times article reprinted in the Sunday Post-Dispatch was headlined: Banks aren’t using federal bailout money to make more loans. The writers hammered that point home with example after example:

Speaking at the FBR Capital Markets conference in New York in December, Walter M. Pressey, president of Boston Private Wealth Management, a healthy bank with a mostly affluent clientele, said there were no immediate plans to do much with the $154 million it received from the Treasury.

“With that capital in hand, not only do we feel comfortable that we can ride out the recession,” he said, “but we also feel that we’ll be in a position to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves once this recession is sorted out.”

Last Thanksgiving, St. Louis ACORN activists made the same point as the Times article when they gave Wachovia the Turkey of the Year Award for not using bailout money to slow the mortgage crisis. Might I just point out the obvious: If none of the banks are willing to lend, then they won’t have a recession to get through; they’ll have a depression. And the luxury cruise ships of our economy, like Wachovia and Boston Private Wealth Management, will sink along with a lot of rowboats with peeling paint.

How does it happen that one of the most active Democratic organizations in the state is in Springfield, the buckle on the Bible Belt? Springfield has Missouri State University, but it also has Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Baptist Bible Graduate School, Central Bible College, and Evangel College. Tell you what else it has: an office building that is the Democratic headquarters in Springfield with a full time executive director. St. Louis should be so lucky.

The Greene County Democratic Party Chairman has been Craig Hosmer. But he was recently elected chairman of the state party’s central committee, so his position as county chairman is being taken over by Art Kessler, a thirty year member of the local carpenters’ union.  Kessler is just one of those working stiffs stepping up for the party. Here’s hoping he can maintain the terrific organization Hosmer leaves behind. And here’s further hoping that Hosmer is just as successful as central party chair as he has been in Springfield.

Former state senator Maida Coleman (SD 5 in St. Louis City) is mailing out from her former office in Jeff City a good-bye to her constituents–a twelve page color newsletter. She hopes to run as an independent, most likely against Francis Slay, in the April 7th mayoral election.

More MLK Day Blogging: Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford's Sermon Yesterday

19 Monday Jan 2009

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Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford (D-MO) is not only one of the better state representatives serving in our legislature, she also happens to be an ordained minister. Below the fold, I’ve copied the sermon she delivered at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Webster Groves on Sunday.

First Congregational UCC, Webster Groves, MO; Jan. 18, 2009

Biblical Texts: Isaiah 58; I Corinthians 11: 17-34

     I was born in 1954 in the rural southeast tip of Illinois on the Ohio River. Jan Barnes (a minister at First Congregational) figured out where I was from in about two minutes when we met on the first day of classes at Eden Theological Seminary in August, 1986. I was baffled when this stranger walked up to me at the reception after opening convocation and asked me “Where in southern IL are you from?” When I said “Cave-in-Rock, IL” I learned that she had often visited her grandmother there as a child. (Apparently we have a distinctive accent in the deep south of IL.)

     My mom and dad were salt of the Earth people. The kind of folks who always went out of their way to help others, like bringing food when there was a death in the family. I don’t know how many times my dad answered a knock on the door in the middle of the night and rose to take his tractor or truck and a logging chain to pull a car out of a ditch on the wash-boardy gravel roads of Shawnee Holler and Job Catt Mountain where we lived.

     Mom and Dad brought me up in the Christian faith at Keeling Hill General Baptist Church. I memorized whole chapters of the Bible and went to church at least four times a week – Wednesday night, Saturday night, Sunday morning, and Sunday night – and often other nights of the week too when one of my Uncle Dean’s tent revivals was nearby.

     Yet there was something else that my mom and dad taught me. They passed on the racist messages that their parents, schools, churches, and other trusted persons and institutions had passed on to them. One of the earliest lessons was “if you are walking down the road and see a black man, run and hide in the woods. He might hurt you.” Another lesson was the mixed message, “Black people are just the same as us in the eyes of God, but we’re all meant to stay in our own places.” Later they refused to let me bring an African American classmate home for a visit, so apparently “our places” didn’t include visiting each others houses.

     I’ll confess that “black people” might not have been the word they used. At that time, the polite term my parents had learned was “Negroes,” and they sometimes used the very offensive “N-word” as well. Jokes told in Black dialect happened at our family gatherings, perhaps recycled from minstrel shows that were often performed by churches, including here in St. Louis. And speaking of St. Louis, I was often warned never to visit here because I would get on the wrong street, and the Black people would kill me, according to my parents and countless other residents of Hardin County, IL.

     It is important to me that you not assume that my parents were simply “bad people.” They were wonderful people, and I am so thankful to have had them as my parents. My parents were taught the racist language and attitudes that they reflected, and they sometimes rose above it. The segregation of the region in which we lived – virtually an all-white area – that left them without information that would cause them to challenge what they had been taught. It is through repeated positive interactions with the object of our prejudice that the lies, stereotypes, and distortions break down, and my parents did not readily have that opportunity or hear a suggestion that they should make up for this deficit.

     Thankfully as a child, I also started to receive some information to cause me to question what I was being taught about the inferiority of other races and my own superiority. Television helped in this process – my family purchased a TV in 1961 when I was seven. In the 1960’s, on news programs I saw African Americans attacked by German shepherd dogs and rolled down the street by the force of water cannons. I saw eggs broken of the heads of neatly dressed black men in suits sitting at lunch counters, and yes, I saw Dr. Martin Luther King make many speeches, including the “I Have a Dream” speech. My father sat watching with me and was moved to tears, and being the General Baptist deacon he was, often uttered a “Bless him, Lord” when Dr. King expressed his faith that God would deliver his people to freedom. As I watched the violence and cruelty and courage and determination on that 19-inch screen, it was clear to me where the moral superiority was, and it was not usually wrapped in a white skin.

     I watched Fannie Lou Hamer and members of the Mississippi Freedom Party challenge the all-white delegates seated at the 1964 Democratic convention, and I watched Congresswoman Barbara Jordan’s remarkable speech in support of the impeachment of Richard Nixon.

     Fortunately for me, this journey of learning and new awareness continued as I attended colleges and seminary with people from many ethnicities. And in 1996 I had a particularly transformative experience at a six-day Dismantling Racism Institute conducted by the National Conference for Community and Justice. I now recognize that I, like all children, was born without prejudice, but that my development as a young child was full of oppressive messages about all the characteristics that make human beings different – skin color, eye shape, gender identity and sexual orientation, income level, religion, physical and mental abilities, and on and on. I was a child and could not protect myself from these messages. Now as an adult, I can examine what I was taught and make decisions about how to live responsibly in the present and in the future, with my newfound awareness of the sins of oppression.

     Many of you also lived through the pain and glory of Dr. Martin Luther King’s leadership in the Civil Rights Movement as well as witnessing the courage and determination of Fannie Lou Hamer, Barbara Jordan, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Bayard Rustin, and countless others who helped overturn the race-based legal discrimination that had been part of our national fabric since the founding of the United States. Like me, you are surely celebrating the historical marker of the upcoming inauguration of the first Man of Color to become President of the United States.

     It was State Senator Robin Wright Jones who called to my awareness that Obama’s inauguration comes 40 years after Dr. King’s death. Sen. Wright Jones said at the King Day celebration in Jefferson City this past Tuesday night, “We have been wandering in the wilderness for the past forty years, and now it feels like we are stepping into the Promised Land.”

     Yet the inauguration of Barack Obama is not the end of our national journey toward social justice, as important and as encouraging as it is. We have a long way to go to realize what Dr. King called “the beloved community.” We still live in a nation deeply segregated by race and class, as our local school systems demonstrate. As Dr. King pointed out, laws can bring about desegregation, but integration requires more. It requires a change in attitudes. It involves personal and social relationships that are created by love —- and these cannot be legislated.

     Dr. King said, “We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.” And that is also the message of today’s biblical readings.

     In Isaiah 58, the prophet condemns worship that is done for show while workers are oppressed and the needy are ignored. In a beautiful series of “If/Then” statements the prophet connects the dots between the hungry and homeless and the health and happiness of the wealthiest members of society.

     If you share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your own homes, then your light shall break forth like the dawn.

     If you provide coats and blankets for those who shiver in the cold and refuse to hide yourself from your kin – and biblically speaking we are ALL kin – then when you call for help, God will say “Here I am.”

     St. Paul gets at this same principle in the 11th chapter of First Corinthians. Paul addresses a house church that is probably meeting at the estate of one of the wealthier members in order to have needed space and resources. But all is not well. The wealthier members are eating and drinking all the food and wine before those who need the meal most have arrived. “What?!” Paul rages. “Do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?!”

     When we fail to discern that we are all part of one body, St. Paul says, some get sick and some even die. I think of this passage often when I read the statistics on the number of uninsured in our state and nation. Over 800,000 of the approximately six million residents of Missouri are presently uninsured. Woe to us if we do not discern either the pain and suffering of our neighbor or the ripple effect that this has on our own healthcare costs and quality.

     On this very special Dr. Martin Luther King Day, on the eve of this very special presidential inauguration, let us pledge to march on “’til victory is won”, in the words of James Weldon Johnson’s magnificent poem, set to music by his brother – the hymn we are about to sing*. In doing so we must face the reality of our “gloomy past,” having tread our path “through the blood of the slaughtered.” We stand “full of the hope that the present has brought us.” But we also acknowledge the dangers that come if we allow ourselves to be “drunk on the wine of the world”, including the racist, sexist, and heterosexist messages that have mutated over the years, plaguing us like a national cancer.

     Dr. King understood non-violence resistance to be the path to the beloved community. Let us recommit ourselves to live in justice and in peace, even eliminating the pointing of the finger and the speaking of evil that often plant the seeds that grow into physical violence. Then we will earn those lovely titles spoken of in Isaiah 58 – “repairers of the breach” and “restorers of streets fit to live in.” May it be so! Amen!

*Note to readers: The lyrics of James Weldon Johnson’s poem/hymn “Lift Every Voice And Sing” may be found below. It is sometimes called “The Black National Anthem.”

Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;

Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered;

Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last

Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,

Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;

Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.

Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.

Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,

True to our God, true to our native land.

A day of service

19 Monday Jan 2009

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The “Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service” logo on t-shirts issued to volunteers.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from the Obama presidential campaign:

…In your neighborhood and in thousands of communities across the country, Americans are answering President-elect Obama’s call to service.

Tomorrow, January 19th, our nation will come together in a shared spirit of community. And I wanted to make sure you know how to participate.

Monday is not only the eve of an inauguration that brings all of us so much hope, it’s also Martin Luther King Jr. Day — when we recognize the power of one man to bring about change by serving his country.

Help kick off an ongoing commitment to serve our communities by taking part in this extraordinary day of service….

I went to the web site and found an event in my locale. The marshaling area for the volunteers was on the university campus – this early in the morning on a day off from school.

Over fifty students showed up for the early morning orientation and subsequent assignment into volunteer groups to work all day at tasks for a number of local non-profit community groups.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service is an annual volunteer activity which has begun to take off:

…In 1994 Congress passed the King Holiday and Service Act, designating the King Holiday as a national day of volunteer service. Instead of a day off from work or school, Congress asked Americans of all backgrounds and ages to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy by turning community concerns into citizen action. The King Day of Service brings together people who might not ordinarily meet, breaks down barriers that have divided us in the past, leads to better understanding and ongoing relationships, and is an opportunity to recruit new volunteers for your ongoing work.

Participation in the King Day of Service has grown steadily over the past decade, with hundreds of thousands of Americans each year engaging in projects such as tutoring and mentoring children, painting schools and senior centers, delivering meals, building homes, and reflecting on Dr. King’s life and teachings. Many of the projects started on King Day continue to engage volunteers beyond the holiday and impact the community year-round.

Although the scope of the event grows every year, many people still are not aware of the service component of the holiday. By encouraging the participation of as many organizations as possible, we hope to make next year’s King Day of Service the biggest and best ever, engaging more people in service that honors Dr. King’s life and teachings…

Student volunteers signing in early in the morning.

From the local volunteer organizers:

…Tiffany Bumpers, a UCM Americorps volunteer, is coordinating the “A Day On, Not a Day Off” day of service on Jan. 19, 2009. The goal of this day is to give the community something they can’t get off a shelf, carrying Dr. King’s message that “everybody can be great because everybody can serve.” Bumpers and her team of volunteers and group leaders hope to leave a lasting impact on the community…

…”The purpose of this day is to give back to the people of Warrensburg,” Bumpers said. “The day of service has been a success in many other cities such as Philadelphia and Washington D.C., and we want it to be a success here too…”

A volunteer team gets their bearings before leaving for their assignment.

Random Observations of Progress on MLK Day

19 Monday Jan 2009

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Here’s Martin Luther King, Jr’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech in full on YouTube:

When I was a child, my uncle asked me to find the full text of this speech and copy it for him, as he had recently joined the Toastmasters and wanted copies of famous speeches. I was only a kid without walkable access to the library, so I did what I could: I copied the excerpt that everybody is familiar with out of the “Martin Luther King, Jr.” entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica (we had a six year old set at the time), and typed it up on the screen of our Commodore 64. Twenty five years later, I can watch the full speech any time I have access to a computer, which is 90% of my day.

Forty-six years after Martin Luther King, Jr made that historic address at the Lincoln Memorial, back when it was still legal to bar a white woman from marrying a black man and de facto legal to stop black people from voting, we’ve elected a black man to be our president, with unprecented popularity and support for a president-elect. At the same time, on the YouTube page of King’s speech, comments had to be turned off because of all the hateful racist slurs directed against him, one of the most intelligent and gifted orators in our history. We still have a long way to go.

My hope is that the changes in my experience, from growing up without direct access to information to having it at my fingertips, will continue to help us along in the path toward King’s dream. It might be hoping too much, but then again, even a year ago prominent voices told me that Obama could not be elected president because of his race. It’s human to hope, and I’m not giving that up.

Obama's People

19 Monday Jan 2009

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The New York Times Magazine did a photo shoot of over fifty individuals titled “Obama’s People”. Senator Claire McCaskill is the subject in the thirty-ninth photo, between Robert M. Gates and John D. Podesta. As far as I can tell there is no particular importance implied by the placement of the portraits in this photo gallery.

The images were shot with a white background.

A Plane, a Business, a Representative, and a Lobbyist, part 2

19 Monday Jan 2009

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Our previous coverage of the business relationship between Representative Steve Tilley (r – 106), the republican Majority Floor Leader in the Missouri House, and lobbyist Travis Brown:

A Plane, a Business, a Representative, and a Lobbyist

Today’s Republican Floor Leader co-owns plane with Lobbyist story is [RBH]

The Missouri Ethics Commission has a convenient online place to look through fillings like a “Lobbyist Monthly Expenditure Report”:

MISSOURI ETHICS COMMISSION

LOBBYIST MONTHLY EXPENDITURE REPORT

Report of activities for the month of February 2008…

…Electronically submitted by Travis Brown, on 3/10/2008 1:11:25 PM…

…INDIVIDUAL EXPENDITURES

Expenditures made by the lobbyist or principal on behalf of public officials, their staff, employees, spouse or dependent children…

…COOPER, SHANNON – Representative

      02/19/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $80.00

JETTON, ROD – Representative

      02/19/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $80.00…

…GROUP EXPENDITURES

Expenditures made by the lobbyist or principal on behalf of a group of public officials, their staff, employees, spouse or dependent children, on any single occasion…

RULES, STANDING   02/20/2008

Meals, Food, & Beverage

$530.00…

…PRINCIPAL EXPENDITURES

All persons, business entities, governmental entities, religious organizations, non-profit corporations, or associations by whom the lobbyist is employed or retained, from whom the lobbyist receive any expenses or compensation or in whose interest the lobbyist appears…

…PELOPIDAS, LLC

912 EAST BROADWAY, SUITE 207

COLUMBIA  MO   65201

XXX-XXX-XXXX $160.00

[emphasis added]

All of the reports from 2008 now include this:

…BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS

Direct business relationships, association or partnership with any public official during the reporting period.

Public Official Description Time Period Relationship Existed

Rep. Steve Tilley Co-owner, Mid Missouri Aviation, LLC, general purpose: general aviation, private travel Since 12/12/2006…

It’s a long slog, but we’ll go through the monthly reports.

MISSOURI ETHICS COMMISSION

LOBBYIST MONTHLY EXPENDITURE REPORT

Report of activities for the month of March 2008…

…Electronically submitted by Travis Brown, on 4/10/2008 12:45:41 PM…

…INDIVIDUAL EXPENDITURES

Expenditures made by the lobbyist or principal on behalf of public officials, their staff, employees, spouse or dependent children…

…RICHARD, RON – Representative

      03/03/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $48.04

Aaron Willard – Employee or Staff

     JETTON, ROD – Representative 03/05/2008

    Entertainment

  $240.00…

…GROUP EXPENDITURES

Expenditures made by the lobbyist or principal on behalf of a group of public officials, their staff, employees, spouse or dependent children, on any single occasion…

EDUCATION 03/05/2008

Meals, Food, & Beverage

$449.46

…PRINCIPAL EXPENDITURES

All persons, business entities, governmental entities, religious organizations, non-profit corporations, or associations by whom the lobbyist is employed or retained, from whom the lobbyist receive any expenses or compensation or in whose interest the lobbyist appears.

…PELOPIDAS, LLC

912 EAST BROADWAY, SUITE 207

COLUMBIA  MO   65201

XXX-XXX-XXXX $400.04

REX AND JEANNE SINQUEFIELD

XXXXX

ST. LOUIS  MO   63108

XXX-XXX-XXXX $449.46

[emphasis added]

Representative Ron Richard is the current Speaker of the Missouri House.

MISSOURI ETHICS COMMISSION

LOBBYIST MONTHLY EXPENDITURE REPORT

Report of activities for the month of April 2008…

…Electronically submitted by Travis Brown, on 5/10/2008 2:03:15 PM…

…INDIVIDUAL EXPENDITURES

Expenditures made by the lobbyist or principal on behalf of public officials, their staff, employees, spouse or dependent children…

…DEMPSEY, TOM – Senator

      04/18/2008

    Travel

  $206.25

JONES, KENNY – Representative

      04/18/2008

    Travel

  $137.50

COOPER, SHANNON – Representative

      04/19/2008

    Travel

  $96.25

DEMPSEY, TOM – Senator

      04/19/2008

    Travel

  $165.00

JONES, KENNY – Representative

      04/19/2008

    Travel

  $96.25…

…PRINCIPAL EXPENDITURES

All persons, business entities, governmental entities, religious organizations, non-profit corporations, or associations by whom the lobbyist is employed or retained, from whom the lobbyist receive any expenses or compensation or in whose interest the lobbyist appears…

… PELOPIDAS, LLC

912 EAST BROADWAY, SUITE 207

COLUMBIA  MO   65201

XXX-XXX-XXXX $1,201.97…

Four people traveled somewhere on April 19th (and one on April 18th). How did the get to where they were going? Just asking. I don’t know.

MISSOURI ETHICS COMMISSION

LOBBYIST MONTHLY EXPENDITURE REPORT

Report of activities for the month of May 2008…

…Electronically submitted by Travis Brown, on 6/10/2008 3:41:23 PM…

…GROUP EXPENDITURES

Expenditures made by the lobbyist or principal on behalf of a group of public officials, their staff, employees, spouse or dependent children, on any single occasion…

…ENTIRE MISSOURI SENATE 05/05/2008

Meals, Food, & Beverage

$200.00

ENTIRE MISSOURI SENATE 05/15/2008

Meals, Food, & Beverage

$192.59…

…PRINCIPAL EXPENDITURES

All persons, business entities, governmental entities, religious organizations, non-profit corporations, or associations by whom the lobbyist is employed or retained, from whom the lobbyist receive any expenses or compensation or in whose interest the lobbyist appears…

PELOPIDAS, LLC

912 EAST BROADWAY, SUITE 207

COLUMBIA  MO   65201

573-256-1322 $392.59…

[emphasis added]

MISSOURI ETHICS COMMISSION

LOBBYIST MONTHLY EXPENDITURE REPORT

Report of activities for the month of November 2008…

…Electronically submitted by Travis Brown, on 12/9/2008 7:56:18 PM…

INDIVIDUAL EXPENDITURES

Expenditures made by the lobbyist or principal on behalf of public officials, their staff, employees, spouse or dependent children.

Name and Title or Relationship of Recipient

Cassie Jetton
– Spouse or Child

     JETTON, ROD – Representative 11/07/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $162.13

ICET, ALLEN – Representative

      11/07/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $162.13

ICET, ALLEN – Representative

      11/07/2008

    Other

  $239.30

JETTON, ROD – Representative

      11/07/2008

    Gift

  $150.00

JETTON, ROD – Representative

      11/07/2008

    Other

  $239.30

JETTON, ROD – Representative

      11/07/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $162.13

Joncee Nodler – Spouse or Child

     NODLER, GARY – Senator 11/07/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $162.13

MAYER, ROBERT (ROB) – Senator

      11/07/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $162.13

MAYER, ROBERT (ROB) – Senator

      11/07/2008

    Other

  $239.30

Nancy Mayer – Spouse or Child

     MAYER, ROBERT (ROB) – Senator 11/07/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $162.13

NODLER, GARY – Senator

      11/07/2008

    Other

  $239.30

NODLER, GARY – Senator

      11/07/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $162.13

Patty Richard – Spouse or Child

     RICHARD, RON – Representative 11/07/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $162.13

RICHARD, RON – Representative

      11/07/2008

    Other

  $239.30

RICHARD, RON – Representative

      11/07/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $162.13

SUTHERLAND, MIKE – Representative

      11/07/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $162.13

TILLEY, STEVEN – Representative

      11/07/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $162.13

TILLEY, STEVEN – Representative

      11/07/2008

    Other

  $239.30

cassie jetton – Spouse or Child

     JETTON, ROD – Representative 11/08/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $25.63

ICET, ALLEN – Representative

      11/08/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $25.63

JETTON, ROD – Representative

      11/08/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $25.63

joncee nodler – Spouse or Child

     NODLER, GARY – Senator 11/08/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $286.21

MAYER, ROBERT (ROB) – Senator

      11/08/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $286.21

nancy mayer – Spouse or Child

     MAYER, ROBERT (ROB) – Senator 11/08/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $286.21

NODLER, GARY – Senator

      11/08/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $286.21

patty richard – Spouse or Child

     RICHARD, RON – Representative 11/08/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $25.63

RICHARD, RON – Representative

      11/08/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $25.63

SUTHERLAND, MIKE – Representative

      11/08/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $25.63

TILLEY, STEVEN – Representative

      11/08/2008

    Travel

  $88.00

TILLEY, STEVEN – Representative

      11/08/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $25.63

WASSON, JAY – Representative

      11/08/2008

    Meals, Food, & Beverage

  $25.63…

…PRINCIPAL EXPENDITURES

All persons, business entities, governmental entities, religious organizations, non-profit corporations, or associations by whom the lobbyist is employed or retained, from whom the lobbyist receive any expenses or compensation or in whose interest the lobbyist appears…

…PELOPIDAS, LLC

912 EAST BROADWAY, SUITE 207

COLUMBIA  MO   65201

573-256-1322 $88.00

REX AND JEANNE SINQUEFIELD

XXXXX

ST. LOUIS  MO   63108

XXX-XXX-XXXX $4,569.11

THE BROWN LOBBY FIRM, LLC

912 EAST BROADWAY, SUITE 208

COLUMBIA  MO   65201

XXX-XXX-XXXX $150.00

[emphasis added]

I wonder where and how that November 8, 2008 travel happened? Just asking. I have no idea.

Pelopidas, LLC has a charitable fundraising story up on their web site:

…The event, which was held Thursday, December 11, at the Chase-Park Plaza Hotel was hosted by Missouri-focused philanthropists Rex Sinquefield and his wife, Dr. Jeanne Sinquefield, Travis Brown and Rachel Keller Brown of Pelopidas, LLC, an advocacy management company and Laura Slay, president of Slay & Associates, Inc., a marketing and public relations firm…

Is it just me, or does everyone else involved in Missouri politics appear to know everyone else?

St. Louis activist events for Jan 19-24

18 Sunday Jan 2009

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This is going to be an exciting week:

Monday, January 19: All the cool people say that MLK Day “should be a day on, not a day off” and there are plenty of opportunities today to do just that.   The best bet for sorting through all of the possibilities is probably to go to this link sent out from moveon.org.

Also Monday, one of my favorite traditions in St. Louis is the annual MLK Day march that starts at the Old Courthouse in downtown.  The official ceremony starts at 10 AM and the march usually gets started around 11 AM at Kiener Plaza.  If you want a more specific way to get involved the Instead of War Coalition will be marching for justice and peace, here and in Gaza and you can check out their facebook group here.

Tuesday, Jan. 20: It’s inauguration day and there are lots of parties!  A few of the cool ones I’ve seen:  

(1) The Young Dems are partying at the Moolah  

(2) the Royale is having a big bash as well

(3) and the WashU Co-op is hosting an inaugural ball.  

Of course, most of the local universities are hosting their own watch parties as well.

Wednesday, Jan 21: The Regional Arts Commission is showing the movie “Philadelphia” as part of the “Bias and Bigotry Film Festival.”  The movie starts at 7 PM at 6128 Delmar and details are at this link.

Thursday, Jan. 22: Join the Freedom of Choice Council as they celebrate the 36th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.  Tickets are $30 (10 for students and limited income) and the event starts at 6 PM at the Ethical Society on 9001 Clayton Avenue.  Go to this page to RSVP.

Friday, Jan 23.  Come out and show support for Obama’s economic stimulus plan at the Rally for Jobs and Economic Recovery Now!  Obama’s plan will put people to work, make badly needed improvements to our nation’s infrastructure, and help move our country to a sustainable energy future.  The rally is at 3101 Chouteau from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 a.m, and you can RSVP here.

Also Friday, join Promo for a panel discussion at WashU of insights and issues relevant to LGBT people in the workplace.  The event is in the Danforth University Center, room 276 from 3 to 5, and you can RSVP at this link.

Saturday, Jan 24.  Webster University Hosts “Still I Rise: Great Speeches by African Americans” from 7 to 10 p.m at the University Center Commons.  RSVP here.

Water too shallow to be clean

18 Sunday Jan 2009

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Perhaps you didn’t realize that every stream and river in the country supports healthy aquatic life and is safe for recreation in and on the water. The reason I know our streams are unpolluted is that the Clean Water Act mandated that states would achieve that goal by 1983. We’re 26 years–count ’em t-w-e-n-t-y–s-i-x years–beyond the due date for this particular baby. Surely it couldn’t still be gestating.

Heh. Picture a Jon Stewart deadpan at this point in my logic. Because our streams aren’t all clean and you damn well know it.

The Missouri Clean Water Commission and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources have skillfully tap danced around the EPA mandate. For example:

It’s almost cute how the DNR gets around the law that says all our streams should be clean: some streams, like the Current River and the Big Piney, are “classified” and others, like the River Des Peres in St. Louis (pictured at left), are “unclassified”. The classified streams have to meet the standards of the Clean Water Act, but an unclassified stream can be toxic enough to dispatch a T Rex with a single sip. What’s in those streams is irrelevant because we choose not to pay attention to them, says the DNR. Nifty solution, huh?

That’s a–to use a tautology–straightforward dodge. But the MDNR and MCWC also know how to twist your brain matter into a pretzel. Try following their tortured logic on the “where attainable” issue:

The Clean Water Act–section 101–requires that ALL waters in the U.S. be healthy enough that you could dunk your whole body in any of them and suffer no ill consequences. It’s referred to as Whole Body Contact or WBC. The Act says this must be accomplished “where attainable.” Oh, those two little words.

A couple of years ago, the Coalition for the Environment won a lawsuit requiring the DNR and CWC to designate all waters in the state as places where they would achieve water clean enough for “whole body contact”.

As a result, all the classified streams are on the “Whole Body Contact” list, but in some places, the DNR decided, that was not “attainable” because the streams were too shallow for anybody to get his whole body into it. Ergo, if they were too shallow for WBC, clean water was not necessary. And unless a stream had one or more pools at least a meter deep–as measured in mid-August of a drought year, no doubt–then it was “too shallow” for whole body contact.

Excuse me. You might need 39.4 inches of water for John Goodman to get his whole body wet, but a five year old can and probably will do it if he’s got six inches.

So municipal wastewater treatment plants get to continue saving millions of dollars by dumping their shit into our small streams. And  interestingly, anybody can do a Use Attainability Analysis to determine whether a stream is too shallow to be designated WBC. Indeed, many sewage treatment facilities have done their own UAAs and concluded that the water where they discharge sewage was too shallow to matter.

Enough already, the Missouri Sierra Club decided, and it has sent a Petition for Agency Action on this issue to the EPA, Area 7. The petition has been bucked up the line to EPA headquarters in D.C. The unofficial word is that scientists there agree that the one meter standard is too deep but that positive action would be more likely (by a few magnitudes probably!) if it were delayed for a few months. (You know what’s been happening at the EPA for eight years now. Figure it out.) And the Sierra Club urged the EPA people to take their time and do a good job.

A Plane, a Business, a Representative, and a Lobbyist

18 Sunday Jan 2009

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A “Lobbyist Monthly Expenditure Report” for November 2008 which was “Electronically submitted by Travis Brown, on 12/9/2008 7:56:18 PM” with the Missouri Ethics Commission:

…Lobbyist Name: Travis Brown

Address: 912 East Broadway, Suite 207

Columbia,  MO   65201…

…BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS

Direct business relationships, association or partnership with any public official during the reporting period.

Public Official Description Time Period Relationship Existed

Rep. Steve Tilley Co-owner, Mid-Missouri Aviation, LLC, general purpose: general aviation, private travel Since 12/12/2006…

…PRINCIPAL EXPENDITURES

All persons, business entities, governmental entities, religious organizations, non-profit corporations, or associations by whom the lobbyist is employed or retained, from whom the lobbyist receive any expenses or compensation or in whose interest the lobbyist appears.

Principal Name, Address and Phone Number Amount

PELOPIDAS, LLC

912 EAST BROADWAY, SUITE 207

COLUMBIA  MO   65201

XXX-XXX-XXXX $88.00

REX AND JEANNE SINQUEFIELD

XXXXX

ST. LOUIS  MO   63108

XXX-XXX-XXXX $4,569.11

THE BROWN LOBBY FIRM, LLC

912 EAST BROADWAY, SUITE 208

COLUMBIA  MO   65201

XXX-XXX-XXXX $150.00

Note the mailing addresses of the first and third entities.

Let’s take a look at a few businesses registered in Missouri:

Name   Name Type

Pelopidas, L.L.C. Legal

Limited Liability Company – Domestic – Information

Charter Number: LC0819091

Status: Active

Entity Creation Date: 5/25/2007 7:22:47 AM

Expiration Date: Perpetual

Registered Agent

Agent Name: Creach, Erick S.

Office Address: 1103 East Broadway

Columbia MO 65201

Mailing Address:

Organizers

Name: Erick S. Creach

Address: 1103 East Broadway

Columbia MO 65201

Name   Name Type

The Brown Lobby Firm, L.L.C. Legal

Limited Liability Company – Domestic – Information

Charter Number: LC0772785

Status: Active

Entity Creation Date: 10/24/2006

Expiration Date: 12/31/2099

Registered Agent

Agent Name: Creach, Erick S.

Office Address: 1103 East Broadway, Suite 101

Columbia MO 65201

Mailing Address:

Organizers

Name: Erick S. Creach

Address: 1103 East Broadway, Suite 101

Columbia 65201

Name Name Type

Mid-Missouri Aviation, L.L.C. Legal

Limited Liability Company – Domestic – Information

Charter Number: LC0780453

Status: Active

Entity Creation Date: 12/5/2006

Expiration Date: 12/31/2099

Registered Agent

Agent Name: Creach, Erick S.

Office Address: 1103 East Broadway, Suite 101

Columbia MO 65201

Mailing Address:

Organizers

Name: Erick S. Creach

Address: 1103 East Broadway, Suite 101

Columbia 65201

And that plane, owned by Mid Missouri Aviation, LLC?:

FAA Registry

N-Number Inquiry Results

N355PM is Assigned

Aircraft Description

Serial Number   4697071           Type Registration   Corporation

Manufacturer Name PIPER Certificate Issue Date 04/08/2008

Model PA46-500TP Status Valid

Type Aircraft Fixed Wing Single-Engine Type Engine Turbo-Prop

Pending Number Change None Dealer No

Date Change Authorized None Mode S Code 50774261

MFR Year 2001 Fractional Owner NO

Registered Owner

Name     MID MISSOURI AVIATION LLC

Street 12600 S RT N

City COLUMBIA State MISSOURI   Zip Code    65203

County BOONE

Country UNITED STATES

Airworthiness

Engine Manufacturer   P&W   Classification Standard

Engine Model   PT6A SER   Category Normal

        A/W Date 06/12/2001…

…Other Owner Names

None

Temporary Certificate

None

Fuel Modifications

None

A Piper Meridian PA46-500TP. A six seat single engine turbo prop built in 2001. I wonder what they go for? New, right now:

STANDARD EQUIPPED LIST PRICE   $1,896,500

A 2001 model? Depending on the hours, $850,000 to over a million.

What does this particular aircraft look like? Thanks to a plane spotter, you can see a photo of the actual aircraft.

Spinning the wheel of misfortune to decide on cuts

18 Sunday Jan 2009

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Kansas City comes up to spin, and…

A budget shortfall may lead to fire and police cuts, according to the initial 2009 budget proposal being considered by Kansas City, Missouri, to help deal with an $85 million budget gap, and public safety officials say that could hurt their department’s ability to keep Kansas Citians safe.

The State of Kansas comes up to spin and…

Republican legislative leaders on Friday pushed for an across-the-board cut in this year’s state budget, including public school funding, but were getting pushed back by Democrats and some members of their own party.

(…)

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, has proposed budgets for both years that rely on targeted cuts, including a 7 percent reduction for higher education, the diversion of funds that were supposed to go to local governments, and stopping the phase-out of some tax cuts.

Around and round it goes, let’s see what happens when Missouri addresses a projected budget shortfall.