This *Thursday, June 26 at 6:00pm come to the Pine St Community Garden*, 67
Pine St to talk to experienced gardeners about any issues/questions you
have about your vegetable garden.
This *Saturday, June 28 from 1:00-5:00 pm meet at the Laurel Ave Community
Garden*, 128 Laurel Ave, Binghamton to go on a Wild Foods Foraging Walk!
See attached flyers and please spread the word!
Here are the remainder of our workshops from July on! Please see our
website for more information and to register! www.vinesgardens.org
Lemonade in the Garden: Wed, July 16 @ 6:00pm, Gregory Lane Community
Garden, 9 Gregory Lane, Binghamton.
Season Extension– Sat, August 16, 2014 @ 10:30am, Mather St Community
Garden, 26 Mather St.
Freezing Vegetables—Wed. August 20, 2014 @ 6:00pm, United Presbyterian
Church, 42 Chenango St, Binghamton
Lemonade in the Garden: Corbett Ave. — Wed. August 27, 6:30, 26 Corbett
Avenue, Binghamton
Canning Tomatoes— Wednesday, September 3rd @ 6:00pm, United Presbyterian
Church, 42 Chenango St, Binghamton
Composting and Soil Health— Saturday, Sept 20, 2014 from 1:30-3:30pm, Lee
Barta Community Center, 108 Liberty St, Binghamton
Are you positive you’re negative? Family Planning of South Central New York, Inc. will mark National HIV Testing Day by offering free confidential rapid HIV testing and counseling on Friday, June 27th from 9:00a.m. to 4:00p.m. at these health centers:
Despite the downright cold weather, Southsiders turned out for a Southside Festival and the Dept of Public Art was there, encouraging children to paint. The event was competing with Juneteenth Celebration and Pride Palooza, to name just a few events in "nothing to do" Binghamton. The DPA is looking for volunteers to help paint in the Boscov's Water St. Parking Ramp this summer. See more photos in Image Galleries local.
Almasa Talovic of Chenango Valley High School and Krysta Shannon of Chenango Forks High School won the third annual Stu Naismith Memorial Peacemaker Awards. The two $350 scholarships were given on June 9 and 11, 2014, jointly by the Binghamton Community Friends Meeting (Quaker) and by the Stu Naismith Chapter of Veterans for Peace, in memory of Stuart Naismith (1927-2011), a World War II veteran and tireless campaigner for peace, who taught in both school districts.
Almasa and Krysta earned the awards by working for peace in everyday life, preparing for further education, and writing essays on peacemaking. The picture shows Jim Clune of Veterans for Peace, Krysta Shannon, Peggy Naismith, and Joyce Thomas. To support the scholarships in future years, contributions can be sent to the Binghamton Community Friends Meeting with the notation Peacemaker Award, in care of Alexa Héder, 9 Hickory Road, Binghamton 13905-1347.
Behind closed doors, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board Members are reacting to solutions prepared by IMF staff aimed at preventing global and regional financial crises. Part of the focus stems from G20 concern over extreme predatory behavior on global finance and the precedent set in the related pending Supreme Court case of Argentina vs NML Capital.
It was the 9th Binghamton Pride Flag Raising and a long list of local notables affirmed diversity and LGBTQ people, but Mayor Rich David stole the show, just by showing up. There was some concern that the Republican administration would not be inclusive of the gay community and would decline to continue the tradition of raising the rainbow flag at City Hall. But David's opening remarks spoke of equality, anti-bullying, and an inclusive Binghamton. Across the street from the presentation was a demonstration by local Catholics, in full ritual garb, protesting gay marriage and a lone protester who was taunting the Mayor.
Officials from Kirsten Gillibrand and Gov Cuomo to Assemblywoman Lupardo and City Council members piled on to support the gay community. Donna Lupardo brought people's attention to a bill in the NYS Legislature that would challenge "conversion therapy" where therapists try to convert LGBTQ people to a straight orientation. Lauren Hering, owner of Merlin's, was the most eloquent in explaining why we need gay pride. The speech is reproduced in the Carousel newspaper and well worth the read.
Additionally, those that sent letters of support or spoke included: Letters from Sen Gillibrand and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli read by Sean Massey; Letter from Gov Cuomo read by Barbara Fiala, DMV Commissioner, and former Broome Co Exec; letter from Eric Schneiderman, read by Ass't AG Aaron Marcus. Two County legislators, Jason Garnar and Tony Fiala spoke, as did two City Councilwomen, Teri Rennia and Leah Webb. Also, Dara Silberstein, Human Rights Commissioner, and organizer of the event and next week's Pride Palooza (June 14th 12-8 pm), Chris Waters.
To see more images of the event, see the photo gallery on this site (see image galleries tab: "local progressive politics")
In front of Hazlitt Building, 203 Lake Street Elmira
There will be a rally and press conference in front of the Hazlitt Building at 203 Lake Street in Elmira against a proposed plan to vastly increase the yearly tonnage accepted at the Chemung County Landfill .
Ariel Gold, an organizer with Friends of Sabeel North America and the
coordinator for the Ithaca chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace and the We
Divest Coalition will be the featured speaker on Wednesday, June 11th,
following the monthly board meeting of Broome County Peace Action. This
David Cobb speaks about the need to amend the U.S. Constitution.
David Cobb is National Projects Director of Democracy Unlimited. He is a lawyer and political activist. David has sued corporate polluters, lobbied elected officials, run for political office himself, and has been arrested for non-violent civil disobedience. He truly believes we must use ALL the tools in the toolbox to effect the systemic social change we so desperately need. www.movetoamend.org
Last night at the 2014 Working Families Party (WFP) convention, the WFP State Committee voted to endorse current Governor Andrew Cuomo and Lieutenant Governor candidate Kathy Hochul for 2014.
The air was tense at the convention as the impending evening votes were approaching. On the line to be nominated were State Comptroller Tom Dinapoli, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and the widely watched decision of whether to endorse Cuomo or Zephyr Teachout. As recently as last week, the party was moving toward nominating Zephyr Teachout, Associate Law Professor at Fordham University and activist against corruption. She had a strong prescence at the WFP Convention, and supporters of Teachout were visible.
Cuomo's deal with the WFP is to promote a more progressive agenda for the next four years - including pushing the Women's Agenda, decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana, among other issues, and ultimately support and money toward making the New York State Senate have a Democratic majority to pass all the progressive issues that WFP works around. Cuomo made a video and called in in lieu of a physical presence, while Teachout stood before the convention and spoke about how New York can be a leader in progressive issues. There were boos and shouting at the beginning of the video and phone call, while there were cheers when Teachout walked up to the podium. Zephyr Teachout was followed by a line of supporters with signs.
The vote was close. Roughly 58% of state committee members voted for the Cuomo-Hochul ticket, and 41% for Zephyr Teachout. Although who some may call the 'true progressive' did not get the nomination, Teachout was an inspiring potential candidate that inspired WFP members to fight for her nomination. It is too soon to tell how the future will unfold regarding this decision, but it was a healthy debate and a clear sign that the Working Families Party is still strong and kicking.