Shemuses's Journal

At least 10 B.C. residents have required serious medical attention, possibly after snorting cocaine contaminated with an antibiotic used to treat worm infestations in animals. Public health officials in B.C. are warning doctors, social service agencies and drug users of the tainted coke after receiving reports of people becoming seriously ill after using drugs likely mixed with levamisole.

With cheers and chants that echoed President-elect Barack Obama's campaign of change, jubilant workers agreed to a $1.75 million settlement that ends their six-day occupation of a shuttered Chicago factory that became a symbol of the plight of labor nationwide. Republic Windows & Doors, union leaders and Bank of America reached the deal Wednesday evening. Each former Republic employee will get eight weeks' salary, all accrued vacation pay and two months' paid health care, said U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who helped broker the deal. He said it works out to about $7,000 apiece.

When Green For All founder and green jobs advocate Van Jones started writing The Green Collar Economy, it was a book about how to get green solutions to poor people. But by the time he was done and the book was released this fall, its scope had grown: Global warming had become common parlance, and the economy was on everyone's mind, regardless of class.

The green jobs advocate has just received the prestigious Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. Here's a look at the best of his 2008 work.

The greatest political epic of the year, of course, was the ongoing daily drama of the presidential race. Marked by more thrilling twists than a Steven Spielberg film, Election 2008 proved that Will Smith isn't the only big-eared guy with a wide grin who can captivate millions - and that we should never underestimate the cinematic magnetism of a gun-toting former beauty queen. There were, however, a large number of finely crafted political films that managed to entertain, amuse and educate audiences this year, with movies about a gay activist, President George W. Bush, a Cuban revolutionary and other real-life figures making our list of this year's Top 10 Political Films.

Roosevelt's Thanksgiving Proclamations, poetic in character, epic in scope, addressed an anguished people - offering recognition of their difficulties, understanding of their fears and, above all, hope for the better day that might be forged through common cause Fully recognizing the power of his bully pulpit, the 32rd president went to the heart of the matter 75 years ago, in his first Thanksgiving Proclamation...

Negative media sensationalism and how it affected this so-called "radical" group of community organizers. "It is these wackos... these anti American Afrocentric Black Liberation theologists working with ACORN... they have been training young black kids to hate-hate-hate this country... It was a movement, it was a Bill Ayers anti-capitalist anti-American educational movement, ACORN is how it was implemented right under our noses!... It has been a movement, it has been a religion." - Rush Limbaugh

I recently attended a public forum and a press conference organized by the Olympic Resistance Network, a coalition of organizations committed "to limiting the impacts of 2010 and to using the Olympics as a catalyst for stronger social movements." The banner the coalition's member groups work under is "No 2010 Olympics on Stolen Native Land." The concerns expressed by representatives of each of the groups are, in my view, valid and deserve more attention and action from government than they receive now. I find it difficult to argue with the activists' passionate demands for social, environmental and economic justice and greater police accountability.

We can't afford not to tackle our health care crisis. Many have speculated that the health care reform promised during the election will have to be put off in the face of our severe economic crisis. Others warned that comprehensive reform will be impossible given the budget gaps and believe piece-meal reform is the most we can hope for. Still others believe the new president will not be able to tackle comprehensive health care reform in his first year for political reasons.

'We're more traditional,' says North Shore's CEO. Are you listening Wall Street? "We're more traditional," Catliff says. "Our capital base is retained earnings, so it's at book value, and very secure. No one trades our shares on a stock market or can short them, forcing our capital base lower." What about RRSPs? "Those held by credit unions are essentially savings accounts or term deposits," Smith says. "They're covered by deposit insurance, so there is no risk of losing the principal investment or the accumulated interest."