giving cycling and cyclist a bad name since 2005
Updated: 8 hours 57 min ago
Jimmy Johns Labor Troubles Deepen as Boisterous Bicycle Picket Puts Brakes on Business at Calhoun Square Location
From IWWSubmitted by intexile on Sun, 09/05/2010 - 2:02pm.Jimmy Johns Workers Union (Industrial Workers of the World) - Contact: Jake Foucault, 612-508-4310.
Spirited Sandwich Workers Roll Out Innovative Tactic to Move Mulligans to Meet
MINNEAPOLIS: Uptown echoed with union chants and singing Saturday night as Jimmy Johns workers arrived with a surprise bicycle picket at Calhoun Square, bringing business at the store to a near halt. The job action comes two days after Jimmy Johns workers at all nine Minneapolis franchise locations announced the formation of a union and demanded talks wit owners Mike and Rob Mulligan over labor conditions at the chain. So far, the Mulligan have refused to meet with their employees.
"All we're asking is for the Mulligans to meet with us. If they're going to disrespect us by refusing to even talk to us, then they're in for a bumpy ride. The pressure won't stop until they meet our demands for more than minimum wage, sick days, and basic fairness," said Jake Foucault, a delivery driver at Jimmy Johns.
In response to the Mulligan's refusal to meet, the IWW Jimmy Johns Workers Union announced on Friday that the chain will face a National Week of Action beginning Labor Day, with leafleting and picketing planned in 32 of 39 states in which the company operates.
In Minneapolis, the Union plans a major Labor Day rally at 3pm at University and Pleasant in Dinkytown featuring hip hop icons I Self Divine and Guante.
The Jimmy Johns Workers Union, open to employees at the company nationwide, is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people.
Spirited Sandwich Workers Roll Out Innovative Tactic to Move Mulligans to MeetMINNEAPOLIS: Uptown echoed with union chants and singing Saturday night as Jimmy Johns workers arrived with a surprise bicycle picket at Calhoun Square, bringing business at the store to a near halt. The job action comes two days after Jimmy Johns workers at all nine Minneapolis franchise locations announced the formation of a union and demanded talks wit owners Mike and Rob Mulligan over labor conditions at the chain. So far, the Mulligan have refused to meet with their employees.
"All we're asking is for the Mulligans to meet with us. If they're going to disrespect us by refusing to even talk to us, then they're in for a bumpy ride. The pressure won't stop until they meet our demands for more than minimum wage, sick days, and basic fairness," said Jake Foucault, a delivery driver at Jimmy Johns.
In response to the Mulligan's refusal to meet, the IWW Jimmy Johns Workers Union announced on Friday that the chain will face a National Week of Action beginning Labor Day, with leafleting and picketing planned in 32 of 39 states in which the company operates.
In Minneapolis, the Union plans a major Labor Day rally at 3pm at University and Pleasant in Dinkytown featuring hip hop icons I Self Divine and Guante.
The Jimmy Johns Workers Union, open to employees at the company nationwide, is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people.
Categories: Culture
Climate Skeptic Lomborg’s New Tune?
Do you think Huntsville a place so tied into motorized vehicles will listen? Well if cancer,obesity or their daily commute doesn't why would this.
The U.K.’s Guardian reports today that the world’s most prominent climate skeptic, Bjorn Lomborg, has taken an “apparent U-turn” and is now calling for addressing human-induced climate change on a massive scale. Lomborg spoke recently with On Point, in a show about summer heat waves and their relation to climate change. (Listen back to the full show - Lomborg is in the final segment.)Whether or not Lomborg is indeed singing a totally new tune is sure to be debated, despite blogosphere headlines already trumpeting the “U-turn.” (Huffington Post: “Now I’m a Believer.”)
Courtesy of Randomhouse.comLomborg says climate change is “undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today” and “a challenge humanity must confront,” theGuardian reports. For his part, Lomborg denies that his latest comments represent a total about-face. However, he now reportedly advocates spending perhaps $100 billion a year to address the problem — and that figure is sure to raise eyebrows.
read more or listen here
The U.K.’s Guardian reports today that the world’s most prominent climate skeptic, Bjorn Lomborg, has taken an “apparent U-turn” and is now calling for addressing human-induced climate change on a massive scale. Lomborg spoke recently with On Point, in a show about summer heat waves and their relation to climate change. (Listen back to the full show - Lomborg is in the final segment.)Whether or not Lomborg is indeed singing a totally new tune is sure to be debated, despite blogosphere headlines already trumpeting the “U-turn.” (Huffington Post: “Now I’m a Believer.”)
Courtesy of Randomhouse.comLomborg says climate change is “undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today” and “a challenge humanity must confront,” theGuardian reports. For his part, Lomborg denies that his latest comments represent a total about-face. However, he now reportedly advocates spending perhaps $100 billion a year to address the problem — and that figure is sure to raise eyebrows.read more or listen here
Categories: Culture
Unite Bike
Now in it’s 3rd official year Unite Bike 2010 is going global!The idea behind Unite Bike is simple. It is about promoting and supporting a community of individual people who make the choice everyday to participate in an activity that is good for their health, good for the environment, and helps create a better society at large.Unite Bike is a test of whether our generation really believes in one another and the world we are struggling to create. This fall we can show the best of ourselves, and in the process help create the kind of society we all aspire to, even if only for the brief moment of time it takes to create a photograph.Biking is an individual and often solitary activity. So as a group of thoughtful, committed individual riders lets band together to Unite… Bike… and take a group photo to show the world what it means to make things better 2 wheels at a time. Let us join together to celebrate and confirm our humanity.Sign up for the Unite Bike 2010 group photo in your city under the RSVP tab to find out the final location information.
Categories: Culture
High crimes: Military towns are among the country's most dangerous
I was wondering why Huntsville is so full of fear and suspicion. It also seems to ber extremely violent. Now is seems clear.
"The second-ranked neighborhood, thePatton Roadarea near Alabama's Redstone Arsenal, has an estimated property crime rate of 691 per 1,000 residents."
From the Daily Finance
Military bases and the neighborhoods surrounding them often seem like the ultimate refuge of middle-American values. Run with military efficiency and discipline, the well-trimmed yards, cleanly-paved roads and orderly layouts convey an ideal image of life as it should be: safe, peaceful and friendly.
However, as the horrific shootings in Fort Hood demonstrate, this perception of structure and normalcy may be deceptive. According to a study byNeighborhoodScout, which offers neighborhood-by-neighborhood crime analyses, some of America's military towns have crime levels that place them among the country's most dangerous neighborhoods. While the danger in these areas is much more heavily skewed toward property crimes like vandalism and theft than violent crimes like murder or rape, the statistics are startling.
See full article from DailyFinance:http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/most-dangerous-military-towns/19235164/?icid=sphere_copyright
"The second-ranked neighborhood, thePatton Roadarea near Alabama's Redstone Arsenal, has an estimated property crime rate of 691 per 1,000 residents."
From the Daily Finance
Military bases and the neighborhoods surrounding them often seem like the ultimate refuge of middle-American values. Run with military efficiency and discipline, the well-trimmed yards, cleanly-paved roads and orderly layouts convey an ideal image of life as it should be: safe, peaceful and friendly.
However, as the horrific shootings in Fort Hood demonstrate, this perception of structure and normalcy may be deceptive. According to a study byNeighborhoodScout, which offers neighborhood-by-neighborhood crime analyses, some of America's military towns have crime levels that place them among the country's most dangerous neighborhoods. While the danger in these areas is much more heavily skewed toward property crimes like vandalism and theft than violent crimes like murder or rape, the statistics are startling.
See full article from DailyFinance:http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/most-dangerous-military-towns/19235164/?icid=sphere_copyright
Categories: Culture
Turn On (MP3s), Tune In and Ride
From the N Y Times
Christian Hansen for The New York TimesA Joyride through Manhattan. Organized by Liz Sherman, the rides plug participants into the same soundtrack.By MELENA RYZIKPublished: August 19, 2010BIKE riders in New York have a secret, a communal understanding about the pleasures of navigating the urban landscape, flowing through traffic and observing the city in a way that pedestrians and drivers can’t. That secret is often expressed in a smile or a nod to another rider while passing on a bridge or stopped at a light, a conspiratorial acknowledgment of a shared moment with strangers in a city that can seem impervious to them.Related
Christian Hansen for The New York TimesJan Peterson and his parrot, Raymond, took part in one of Liz Sherman’s Joyrides.Now there is a new piece of interactive theater to take advantage of that feeling. Joyride is a group bike ride with a shared route and a common soundtrack. Riders equipped with MP3 players and headphones set off from the same point, pushing “play” simultaneously. They travel individually or in a pack, but each knows what the others are hearing. Gliding through the city on two wheels can already feel like being in a long tracking shot in a very personal movie, especially if you do it while listening to music. Joyride gives that experience an added dimension — an audience of participants.“I like riding my bike and listening to music, and I thought it would be great to do that with other people,” said Liz Sherman, the theater director who came up with the project. “I thought it would be theatrical without needing to have a narrative or actors.” The sights and scenes of the city — what Ms. Sherman called “the ephemeral of the everyday” — provide the set, and sometimes the drama.Joyrides have proved a natural match for Summer Streets, the city program that shuts Park Avenue and connecting streets to car traffic, from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, mitigating the potential danger of riding while listening to music. (Legally, riders are supposed to wear only one earphone.) Ms. Sherman limits participation to 50 people; most spots for the ride on Saturday, the last day of Summer Streets, are spoken for, but there are cancellations, and she reserves 15 places for people who e-mail her throughjoyrideo.com with a good argument about why they should be let in. (Hint: mentioning the avant-garde French director Ariane Mnouchkine of Théâtre du Soleil, whose work inspired Ms. Sherman, doesn’t hurt.)read more here
Christian Hansen for The New York TimesA Joyride through Manhattan. Organized by Liz Sherman, the rides plug participants into the same soundtrack.By MELENA RYZIKPublished: August 19, 2010BIKE riders in New York have a secret, a communal understanding about the pleasures of navigating the urban landscape, flowing through traffic and observing the city in a way that pedestrians and drivers can’t. That secret is often expressed in a smile or a nod to another rider while passing on a bridge or stopped at a light, a conspiratorial acknowledgment of a shared moment with strangers in a city that can seem impervious to them.Related- Room for Debate: Why Teenagers Can't Hear You (August 18, 2010)
Christian Hansen for The New York TimesJan Peterson and his parrot, Raymond, took part in one of Liz Sherman’s Joyrides.Now there is a new piece of interactive theater to take advantage of that feeling. Joyride is a group bike ride with a shared route and a common soundtrack. Riders equipped with MP3 players and headphones set off from the same point, pushing “play” simultaneously. They travel individually or in a pack, but each knows what the others are hearing. Gliding through the city on two wheels can already feel like being in a long tracking shot in a very personal movie, especially if you do it while listening to music. Joyride gives that experience an added dimension — an audience of participants.“I like riding my bike and listening to music, and I thought it would be great to do that with other people,” said Liz Sherman, the theater director who came up with the project. “I thought it would be theatrical without needing to have a narrative or actors.” The sights and scenes of the city — what Ms. Sherman called “the ephemeral of the everyday” — provide the set, and sometimes the drama.Joyrides have proved a natural match for Summer Streets, the city program that shuts Park Avenue and connecting streets to car traffic, from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, mitigating the potential danger of riding while listening to music. (Legally, riders are supposed to wear only one earphone.) Ms. Sherman limits participation to 50 people; most spots for the ride on Saturday, the last day of Summer Streets, are spoken for, but there are cancellations, and she reserves 15 places for people who e-mail her throughjoyrideo.com with a good argument about why they should be let in. (Hint: mentioning the avant-garde French director Ariane Mnouchkine of Théâtre du Soleil, whose work inspired Ms. Sherman, doesn’t hurt.)read more here
Categories: Culture
Spokes | Cities Engage in Vast Biking Conspiracy (Shh!)
More from the party of crazy crackers! We won't have to worry about that here because in 50 years Huntsville will have some bike lanes.
From NYTimes
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesStealth troops of a new world order? New York State’s first lady, Michelle Paige Paterson, left, and fellow travelers along the West Side Highway bike path in June.Could bicycling around the city for fun and transport have a more insidious purpose? Could it be that all these networked bike lanes, spreading across the nation’s cities like falling dominoes, are actually part of a vast conspiracy by the United Nations to take over America’s urban spaces, and in the process, take away our “freedom”?The notion of such a nefarious bike plot, floated by one Republican running for governor of Colorado, has drawn puzzled reactions from cyclists in New York and beyond.“First, Summer Streets, then, the world!” Bicycle Habitat, the Soho bike shop,posted to its Twitter account, referring to the annual event, which closes selected New York streets on consecutive Saturdays each August. (This year’s events begin this week.)“Phase 1: collect underpants,” posted Matthew Hill, a Seattle cyclist.Nevertheless, bikes became an issue in the race for governor of Colorado after comments made by Dan Maes, one of three Republican candidates.Mr. Maes accused the Democratic front-runner, Mayor John Hickenlooper of Denver, of instituting bicycle policies that turn the city into “a United Nations community.”“This is all very well disguised, but it will be exposed,” Mr. Maes told supporters, and The Denver Post reported. Denver recently began a large-scale bicycle share program, known as B-Cycle; it is one of several cities around the country to do so in the last year. (New York’s own program remains in the planning stages.)“These aren’t just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor,” Mr. Maes said. “These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to,” he said, referring to Denver’s membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.“When we heard the story, we all got a good chuckle,” said Martin J. Chavez, executive director of the organization and the former mayor of Albuquerque. “The next thought in the back of your mind is, ‘Gosh, I hope no one will actually believe that.’ ”The organization, which is not part of the United Nations, has 605 member cities in the United States, including New York, and more than 1,200 worldwide, providing consulting and other guidance on sustainability.“Maybe it’s a bit of Rocky Mountain high,” Mr. Chavez said.A spokesman defended the Denver mayor’s efforts to encourage cycling, noting that the state of Colorado is among the least obese in the nation. “But equating our support of cycling in all its forms — road, mountain, commuting — with an international bike conspiracy is just ridiculous.”Nate Strauch, a spokesman for Mr. Maes, stood by the candidate’s comments Wednesday, adding, “Something is wrong when cities and states and nations begin to cede their autonomy to extreme environmental organizations like Iclei.”Mr. Maes is far from the first to lump cycling in with Volvos, universal health care and the World Cup as part of a plot to transform the United States into a Scandinavian socialist utopia. Indeed, the connection is an old one.To take one example, in 1980, when New York was in the process of removing its new bike lanes amid protest, the conservative writer R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.railed against “New York’s powerful cycling lobby,” accusing Mayor Edward I. Koch, who had implemented a bike lane the previous summer, of having become enamored with “crowds of smiling Maomen pedaling the streets” during a visit to China.Mr. Tyrrell, the current editor in chief of The American Spectator, saw bikes as not only anticar but also anticorporation. In 2007, he came up with another possible alternative mode of transportation that is certain never to displace the car, or be associated with any devious international plot: the pogo stick.As for bike programs taking away freedoms, advocates like Caroline Samponaro at Transportation Alternatives saw a logical disconnect: “Bicycle transportation in cities epitomizes freedom,” she wrote, adding that the bike and pedestrian advocacy organization would rather keep its distance from Colorado politics, and from conspiracy theories.Follow Spokes on Twitter, @SpokesNYT.
From NYTimes
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesStealth troops of a new world order? New York State’s first lady, Michelle Paige Paterson, left, and fellow travelers along the West Side Highway bike path in June.Could bicycling around the city for fun and transport have a more insidious purpose? Could it be that all these networked bike lanes, spreading across the nation’s cities like falling dominoes, are actually part of a vast conspiracy by the United Nations to take over America’s urban spaces, and in the process, take away our “freedom”?The notion of such a nefarious bike plot, floated by one Republican running for governor of Colorado, has drawn puzzled reactions from cyclists in New York and beyond.“First, Summer Streets, then, the world!” Bicycle Habitat, the Soho bike shop,posted to its Twitter account, referring to the annual event, which closes selected New York streets on consecutive Saturdays each August. (This year’s events begin this week.)“Phase 1: collect underpants,” posted Matthew Hill, a Seattle cyclist.Nevertheless, bikes became an issue in the race for governor of Colorado after comments made by Dan Maes, one of three Republican candidates.Mr. Maes accused the Democratic front-runner, Mayor John Hickenlooper of Denver, of instituting bicycle policies that turn the city into “a United Nations community.”“This is all very well disguised, but it will be exposed,” Mr. Maes told supporters, and The Denver Post reported. Denver recently began a large-scale bicycle share program, known as B-Cycle; it is one of several cities around the country to do so in the last year. (New York’s own program remains in the planning stages.)“These aren’t just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor,” Mr. Maes said. “These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to,” he said, referring to Denver’s membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.“When we heard the story, we all got a good chuckle,” said Martin J. Chavez, executive director of the organization and the former mayor of Albuquerque. “The next thought in the back of your mind is, ‘Gosh, I hope no one will actually believe that.’ ”The organization, which is not part of the United Nations, has 605 member cities in the United States, including New York, and more than 1,200 worldwide, providing consulting and other guidance on sustainability.“Maybe it’s a bit of Rocky Mountain high,” Mr. Chavez said.A spokesman defended the Denver mayor’s efforts to encourage cycling, noting that the state of Colorado is among the least obese in the nation. “But equating our support of cycling in all its forms — road, mountain, commuting — with an international bike conspiracy is just ridiculous.”Nate Strauch, a spokesman for Mr. Maes, stood by the candidate’s comments Wednesday, adding, “Something is wrong when cities and states and nations begin to cede their autonomy to extreme environmental organizations like Iclei.”Mr. Maes is far from the first to lump cycling in with Volvos, universal health care and the World Cup as part of a plot to transform the United States into a Scandinavian socialist utopia. Indeed, the connection is an old one.To take one example, in 1980, when New York was in the process of removing its new bike lanes amid protest, the conservative writer R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.railed against “New York’s powerful cycling lobby,” accusing Mayor Edward I. Koch, who had implemented a bike lane the previous summer, of having become enamored with “crowds of smiling Maomen pedaling the streets” during a visit to China.Mr. Tyrrell, the current editor in chief of The American Spectator, saw bikes as not only anticar but also anticorporation. In 2007, he came up with another possible alternative mode of transportation that is certain never to displace the car, or be associated with any devious international plot: the pogo stick.As for bike programs taking away freedoms, advocates like Caroline Samponaro at Transportation Alternatives saw a logical disconnect: “Bicycle transportation in cities epitomizes freedom,” she wrote, adding that the bike and pedestrian advocacy organization would rather keep its distance from Colorado politics, and from conspiracy theories.Follow Spokes on Twitter, @SpokesNYT.
Categories: Culture
Saturday Tomato Festival Ride
Meet Jacqy at the Red Bridge in Big Spring Park @ 8:45am and ride to the Farmers Market on Cook Avenue for the Tomato Festival!
- come celebrate everyone's favorite ambiguous fruit. Free delicious tomato sandwiches - made with local tomatoes.
- oh and if you read the huntsville times - they're wrong ( terrible reporting)- fest is SATURDAY not friday!- if you can't make the ride come by the Market from 7:30 Till 2pm
Helen Keller's Ukelele will be playing music too (don't forget to tip) - it will be a fun time!
Buy Local - Support your local farmers at the Madison County Farmers' Market. Fresh local produce, pesticide free and sustainable products, and some homemade goodies.
Bici Gardens Presents:
maple nut granola
peach tarts
raw power bars (organic nuts+fruit+local honey)
organic oatmeal molasses rolls
parmesan herb crackers (herbs from the garden of course)
organic almond biscotti
Tomato Jam (a perfect combination of sweet and savory)
Pomodoro Sauce (for your pasta of course)
all our products are produced as sustainably and locally as possible - and it's brought to you by bike.
Categories: Culture