Neighbors of National Cemetery object to rezoning that will allow large buildings next to Fayetteville National Cemetery

Veteran speaks about threat of big buildings and dense population near Fayetteville National Cemetery

Planning Commission passes the sale-barn rezoning to the City Council at June 27 meeting despite comments of neighbors and veterans

Congressman Rick Crawford's vote for subsidizing biomass farming panned on Pat Lynch radio show

Climate-action forum Friday week: See information and map below

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Doug Tallamy tells us about 'Bringing Nature Home' to provide habitat for wildlife

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Education Channel agreement between Fayetteville public-school system and Fayetteville city government moving toward final form

Invitation to attend Earth Day 2011 at World Peace Wetland Prairie and share your information on environmental and natural-resource conservation

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of Donna Stjerna and Kelly Mullholan's poster for Earth Day 2011 at World Peace Wetland Prairie.

World Peace Wetland Prairie EARTH DAY 2010 VIDEO
 Flickr collection of sets of photos from World Peace Wetland Prairie
World Peace Wetland Prairie blog
World Peace Wetland Prairie.com
Aubrey's photos at flickr.com



2000-2005 archive of stories and photos related to creation of WPWP: www.aubunique.com

Please use link below the map to see larger view of the WPWP area, which also allows a person to travel the world by 'Google AIR' by simply using the cursor to move in any direction or search for other addresses.

View World Peace Wetland Prairie in a larger map

Carbon Nation free viewing twice today at Global Campus of UA in Fayetteville, Arkansas

Peter Byck, director and producer, is coming to Fayetteville to screen his latest documentary, Carbon Nation, on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 7:00 pm at the University of Arkansas’ Global Campus on the square in Fayetteville.   A second screening has been scheduled for 2:00 pm, same location.  Fayetteville will be among the first cities in the nation to screen this  film featuring climate change solutions.  This event is FREE and open to the public.

Click here to see a trailer of the film:  www.carbonnation.tv.     Click here to reserve your ticket:  https://secure.sceao.uark.edu/EventCalendar/default.aspx

Brought  to you by the UA Applied Sustainability Center, UA Global Campus, Osher  Lifelong Learning Institute, the Arkansas Chapter of the Sierra Club,  the League of Women Voters of Washington County, and Arkansas Interfaith  Power & Light.

Managing Director

Applied Sustainability Center

University of Arkansas

Fayetteville, AR  72701

479.575.3044 (O)   479.200.8262 (C)  www.asc.uark.edu

Make your personal sustainability pledge:  www.ecologicalcommunities.org

Set up your personal dashboard:  www.earthaid.net

Arkansas Earth Day Festival 2011 invites all to attend and volunteer for the April 23 event

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EARTH DAY 2011 Saturday April 23rd North Little Rock Riverfront Park 10am - 3pm FREE RAIN OR SHINE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chris Haynes  Chair      Nao Ueda Secretary Patrick Wright Treasurer Lisa Barrett Brian Evans Leah Hennings Jennifer Holman Mikel Lolley Jacob Peck John Pennington ADVISORY BOARD  Jody Hardin Mayor Patrick Hays Kelly Ross Rep. Kathy Webb Brad Williams CO-DIRECTORS Shelley Green Sally Mengel   QUICK LINKS   FESTIVAL LINKS Apply for a Booth Sell Your Food Become a Sponsor    Sign Up to Volunteer  Join Us for the Arkansas Dear Arkansas Earth Day supporter,  We would like to cordially invite you to celebrate the 2011 Arkansas Earth Day Festival! Arkansas' largest environmental festival features exhibits and workshops on living responsibly and promoting a clean environment.  Come enjoy live music, festival food, and kids' activities of all kinds. Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 23rd from 10am-3pm at the Northshore Riverwalk, North Little Rock.  Join us and live green Arkansas!   Be Part of the Festival  Do you want to be part of the festival? Could the attention of thousands of environmentally-minded Arkansans impact your business or organization? If so, we invite you to be involved in the 2011 Arkansas Earth Day Festival.  Applications for Sponsors, Booths, Food Vendors, Volunteers and Performers are at www.ArkansasEarthDay.org.  ALL are welcome to apply and our application deadline is March 28th.   Volunteer with Us KEEP LITTLE ROCK BEAUTIFUL CITYWIDE CLEAN UP Saturday, March 12th 8am-Noon Be part of the largest clean up in Little Rock.  We will be helping with various cleanup activities around Little Rock. Please email info@arkansasearthday.org if you would like to volunteer.  Volunteer at the Earth Day Festival ...And get a free T-Shirt!  We are seeking volunteers for the day of the festival to assist in a number of ways.  Go to www.ArkansasEarthDay.org to apply. If you are interested in becoming more involved, supporting our vision, or just finding more information about us and our events, check out our website at www.ArkansasEarthDay.org or attend one of our upcoming meetings!  Thank You for Supporting Us!  Remember, Every Day is Earth Day!  The Arkansas Earth Day Foundation (AEDF) is a non-profit coalition engaging Arkansans, growing awareness, and encouraging action for a clean, healthy, and sustainable Natural State  through an annual festival and year-round community initiatives. ARKANSAS EARTH DAY FOUNDATION 1423 South Main St, Office D (in The Green Corner Store) Little Rock, AR 72202 501.247.2953 www.arkansasearthday.org info@arkansasearthay.org

Protect Social Security and your own future

Either House Majority Leader Eric Cantor doesn't understand how Social Security works or he doesn't care.

Just hours after President Obama said that Social Security cuts and privatization are off the table, Cantor said that Social Security had to be cut to balance the budget. But here's the thing: Social Security does not and never has added a single dime to the federal deficit.

Let me try to explain this to Mr. Cantor. Social Security is paid for through the payroll tax. Currently, the payroll tax raises way more money than Social Security pays out and things are projected to keep going this way for another couple of decades.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? They add to the deficit. Tax breaks for billionaires? They add to the deficit. Subsidies for big oil? They add to the deficit. Bailing out Mr. Cantor's friends on Wall Street when they make a bunch of shady deals, cause a financial crisis and almost ruin the world economy? That adds a lot to the deficit.

Simply put, Social Security will run a surplus for decades. The rest of the budget runs a deficit. So, why are we even talking about Social Security?

Here's why: Eric Cantor and his right-wing friends want to destroy the program. That's the only reason we're having this conversation. Join me now and let's send Eric Cantor and other members of Congress a message -- Keep Social Security safe, stable and secure.

Please sign the petition now.

Eric Cantor's comments aren't anything new. Right-wing Republicans have been trying to tear down Social Security for generations. It's the holy grail of the right-wing.

Now Republicans are playing with fire -- they're threatening to shut down the government. They're holding the debt ceiling hostage. They'll do whatever it takes to put cutting Social Security on the table.

But America is a community. We stand up for one another -- including our seniors. That's why DFA has launched it's biggest campaign ever to push back against the right-wing lies and spin and to push a real solution to keep Social Security safe, stable and secure forever.

See, right now people like Mitch McConnell and Sarah Palin don't pay the same percentage of their income into Social Security that most Americans do -- and big surprise -- neither does Eric Cantor. That's because the tax is capped at $106,800, but most Americans don't know it. All we need to do is scrap the cap and make the payroll tax fair and equal for everyone to keep Social Security safe, stable and secure.

Join the movement to beat back the right-wing and keep Social Security safe, stable and secure.

When we stand up for our values of community, security and liberty, America wins.

-Arshad

Arshad Hasan, Executive Director
Democracy for America

Democracy for America relies on you and the people-power of more than one million members to fund the grassroots organizing and training that delivers progressive change on the issues that matter. Please Contribute Today and support our mission.

Arkansas Gazette and its role in the 1957 crisis in Little Rock subject of Feb. 11, 2011, symposium in Conway

 

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS 

COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS AND COMMUNICATION 

January 25, 2011 

CONTACT: Donna Lampkin Stephens, (501) 852-2599; (501) 450-5605; donnals@uca.edu 

SYMPOSIUM ON GAZETTE’S ROLE IN 1957 CRISIS 

SET FOR UCA’S BLACK HISTORY MONTH SCHEDULE 

CONWAY — The University of Central Arkansas will host a symposium, Who Will Build Arkansas if Her Own People Do Not: A Historical Perspective, on the role of the Arkansas Gazette in the Central High Crisis, on Friday, Feb. 11. 

The day’s activities, in celebration of Black History Month, will include a keynote address by Minnijean Brown Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine, at 3 p.m., and a panel discussion from 3:30-5 p.m. in the College of Business Auditorium. At 7:30 p.m. in the Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall, two 30-minute documentary films will be screened: Woodruff: A Lesson of Non-Violence; and The Crisis Mr. Faubus Made: The Role of the Arkansas Gazette in the Central High Crisis. 

All events are free and open to the public. 

The symposium’s title echoes the headline of a 1957 editorial that ran in the late Arkansas Gazette. Under the leadership of owner J.N. Heiskell, who served as editor for 70 years until he died at age 100, the Gazette became the first newspaper to win two Pulitzer Prizes in the same year for its coverage of the integration of Little Rock Central High School in 1957 as Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering the school. 

The newspaper won the Pulitzer for Meritorious Public Service, and its executive editor, Harry S. Ashmore, won the prize for editorial writing. The Gazette’s stance for law and order served as a voice of reason during those tumultuous months, according to the Pulitzer citation. 

“Important history was made in Little Rock through all that surrounded the Little Rock Nine, Mr. Faubus, President Eisenhower, and the Gazette,” said Dr. Rollin Potter, dean of UCA’s College of Fine Arts and Communication. “Black History Month is an appropriate time to revisit this time and also to discuss where we are now and what our future is.” 

The panel discussion, to be moderated by Ernest Dumas, long-time Arkansas Gazette reporter and editorial writer, will include Trickey, Jerry Dhonau and Bill Lewis, Gazette reporters who covered the Central High Crisis; and Wadie Moore, who graduated from the segregated Horace Mann High School in 1968 and went on to become the first black newsroom employee at the Arkansas Gazette, where he was a sportswriter and editor until the paper closed. 

“The Faubus symposium activities, along with those that are already scheduled for Black History Month, move us one step closer to making certain our students are culturally competent,” said Ronnie Williams, vice president of Student Services at UCA. 

Both Woodruff and Mr. Faubus were screened at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in October and will be screened in March at the Ozark Foothills Film Festival in Batesville. 

Woodruff, produced and edited by Ron Blome, is a film by Ron Blome Productions for Arkansas WAND (Women’s Action for New Directions). It tells the story of the former Woodruff Elementary School (named, coincidentally, for the founder of the Gazette, William E. Woodruff), where a dedicated principal, counselor and staff took a stand against gang rivalries and school-house fighting by promoting conflict resolution while pushing up academic performance. 

The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation funded Mr. Faubus, by independent filmmaker Kevin Thomas Clark in collaboration with UCA. Donna Lampkin Stephens, assistant professor of journalism who worked as a sportswriter at the Gazette from 1984-91, was producer; Dr. Joseph Anderson, retired chair of the Department of Mass Communication and Theatre, was executive producer; and Mike Gunter, assistant professor of digital filmmaking, was director of photography. 

Mr. Faubus is the companion film to the 2006 feature-length documentary The Old Gray Lady: Arkansas’s First Newspaper, which tells the story of the Arkansas Gazette from its birth in 1819 until its death on Oct. 18, 1991, when the Gannett Corporation sold its assets to Walter Hussman, owner of the Arkansas Democrat. Hussman then changed the name of his publication to reflect his purchase. 

Academy Award-winning actress Mary Steenburgen, who grew up in North Little Rock, narrates the voice of the newspaper in both Gazette films. 

Clark, a UCA alumnus, came up with the idea for the original Gazette documentary. 

"The history of the Gazette essentially tells us the history of Arkansas as witnessed through the eyes of some of the nation's finest journalists,” he said. “I hope these films serve the history of the Gazette well and impart to our younger generations what can be accomplished when talent, integrity and perseverance come together in the face of adversity.” 

In 1974 the Trustees of Governor Winthrop Rockefeller’s Estate endowed the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation to continue the work of The Rockwin Fund. Governor Rockefeller set up The Rockwin Fund in 1954 and, on an annual basis from 1956 until his death in 1973, funded projects and programs he believed were important to improving the quality of life in Arkansas. 

The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation whose mission is to improve the lives of Arkansans by funding programs and projects that improve education, economic development and economic, racial and social justice. During the past 30 years the Foundation has awarded more than $85 million in grants. Additional information about the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation can be found on its Web site, www.wrfoundation.org. 

For further information about the UCA activities, contact Stephens at (501) 852-2599, (501) 450-5605 or donnals@uca.edu.

2007 Springfest and Earth Day video by Aubrey James Shepherd

Storm-water control left incomplete on building from July 2006 until late 2009: A sample video from September 18, 2006

June 2009 meeting of Town Branch Neighborhood Association with developers planning student apartment complex adjacent to Fayetteville National Cemetery

Jim Bemis speaks at Telecom Board meeting on December 16, 2010

GOVERNMENT CHANNEL SCHEDULE published Friday, December 17, 2010, the day following Telecom Board meeting, does not include Telecom Board meeting video to be run during week of 12/17/2010 through 12/12/2010. Bemis' comments, therefore, will not be shown on Cox Cable or AT&T U-verse until long after the Fayetteville City Council meeting at which the CAT contract will be voted on Tuesday, December 21, 2010.
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World Peace Wetland Prairie was once approved to be an apartment complex but Town Branch Neighborhood gathered friends to make it a city nature park

World Peace Wetland Prairie's Earth Day 2010 celebration video

Buy a federal duck stamp to provide habitat for waterfowl and many other species all over the continent

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Hunting season dates in Arkansas

December meeting of Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

Cox Cable changes of interest to viewers of Fayetteville's public channels

aubunique: Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Charleston, South Caro...

aubunique: Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Charleston, South Caro...: "The Home Depot Foundation Tackles Cities’ Sustainability Challenges with Innovative Program Two Cities Selected for $1 Million Invest..."

aubunique: Please fill out online survey of opinion of perfor...

aubunique: Please fill out online survey of opinion of perfor...: "Greetings Everyone! CAT Performance Survey 2010 As we reach the end of 2010, Community Access Television (CAT) requests the favor of yo..."

Cox Cable pulls surprise on city of Fayetteville, Arkansas, with plan to move public-access, government channel and educational channel to EXPENSIVE digital tier of channels: So much for open government when thousands of people will not be able to afford access to the public channels

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of Cox Cable advertisement in recent issue of The Northwest Arkansas Times.

For several years I have been able to turn away phone and online salesmen wanting me to take the satellite systems and later the Uverse TV system of AT&T.
But now Cox has set up a situation that will require me to drop their service and take the Uverse, which will automatically cut my cost because I have AT&T phone service already.
Cox has one thing the others don't have: The local public stations at minimal cost.
This is the time for the city administration to begin negotiating with COX. This is a draconian measure that will hurt COX in the long run.

aubunique: A few more words from David Whitaker on election e...

aubunique: A few more words from David Whitaker on election e...

Highway Commission vote could end mowing and dredging practices that cause erosion, loss of wildlife habitat and decrease beauty of roadsides in Arkansas

Please click on image to ENLARGE. Two hours after this photo was made on October 12, 2010, this area had been brushogged into oblivion. Sure, the swamp milkweed will sprout from its roots next summer. But these plants not only held pods offering hundreds of milkweed seeds but also were feeding milkweed caterpillars that could have made chrysalises and become final 2010 generation monarchs traveling to Mexico and with a chance to return in spring and find fresh milkweed on which a new generation of monarchs could have been raised to keep the cycle of life intact for this seriously threatened species of migrating butterfly. If you want to talk to your Northwest Arkansas representative on the Highway Commission, he is Dick Trammel.

Monarch caterpillars were still eating the foliage of these swamp milkweeds and the seed pods were almost mature when the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department Mowers came down the road and crushed and cut them off near the ground. Amazing hypocrisy for a state agency that touts its wildflower program. And possibly worse hypocrisy is touting its stormwater-protection work and then mowing and dredging ditches repeatedly every year.

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To learn more about the Arkansas Highway Commission,  please see AHC  link.