Love your Mother

Union Made in the New City

Dr Paul Song "corporate Democratic whores"

Union Made in the New City

Knoxville Community Dashboard on Homelessness

Interesting resources, view the progress

Knoxville Community Dashboard on Homelessness




Union Made in the New City

Another Deadly Building found in Knox County

South-Doyle High:

KNOXVILLE (WATE) – Knox County Schools said South Doyle High’s School’s library is closed for the rest of the school year after asbestos was identified in insulation between the ceiling and the roof.

According to Wikipedia, the school was opened in 1991. Long after the hazards of asbestos were well known.  Former South-Doyle teacher Mike LaSorsa died of mesothelioma in 2011, two months after filing a lawsuit against the school system.  The schools denied the presence of asbestos throughout the trial.  While the revamped school went into operation in 1991, other parts of the school, built as long ago as the 1960s, do have asbestos that the school system still refuses to remove.

UPDATE: The school system has no plans to check further for asbestos.

Union Made in the New City

Vote for Knoxville Permaculture Guild (KPG) Seeds of Change Grant

This is an important group doing important things for the sustainability of our community.   Please vote at the link below and share!

KPG has applied for a Seeds of Change Grant to pay for the remainder of the project. The 50 entries with the most votes will move on to the final judging phase. After that, the pool is narrowed to 24 awards. (4) $20,000 and (20) $10,000. The Seeds of Change grant could pay for the entire project and make a significant impact for the community who utilizes the garden and the East side.

Here is the link to vote. SEEED Community Garden

You can vote once a day until April 18th.

Union Made in the New City

Racism Still Lives in Nashville: Cory Batey Convicted of "Rape"

Vanderbilt Student Convicted Because of His Race

Cory Batey is one of four former Vanderbilt football players charged with aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery stemming from the June 2013 incident. It took jurors just over two hours to reach the verdict.

The strategy was keep prosecuting until a Black Man is convicted.  Looks like they succeeded.

Union Made in the New City

HUD Recognizes the Racism of Landlords

The General Council for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development has finally recognized that prison is racist. Therefore prison records are racist and landlords who discriminate (PDF) on the basis of criminal records are in for trouble.

Specifically, this guidance addresses how the discriminatory effects and disparate treatment methods of proof apply in Fair Housing Act cases in which a housing provider justifies an adverse housing action – such as a refusal to rent or renew a lease – based on an individual’s criminal history. 

More from the same guidance paper - Across the United States, African Americans and Hispanics are arrested, convicted and incarcerated at rates disproportionate to their share of the general population.8 Consequently, criminal records-based barriers to housing are likely to have a disproportionate impact on minority home seekers. While having a criminal record is not a protected characteristic under the Fair Housing Act, criminal history-based restrictions on housing opportunities violate the Act if, without justification, their burden falls more often on renters or other housing market participants of one race or national origin over another (i.e., discriminatory effects liability). 9 Additionally, intentional discrimination in violation of the Act occurs if a housing provider treats individuals with comparable criminal history differently because of their race, national origin or other protected characteristic (i.e., disparate treatment liability).

Progress, with a long way to go. There will be no solution until private property is eliminated.

Union Made in the New City