philadelphia

As an activist, writer (occasionally), and Drupal developer, it only makes sense that I'd spend a beautiful Saturday at the News Innovation conference.

The subject is the future of journalism. The print newspaper is dying. Newsrooms are being slashed. Meanwhile the social web is growing. How can we preserve the elements of journalism that are necessary for democracy? How can we take advantage of this shift to push those elements further? How can we have a more diverse, accurate, just and responsive media? What are the social and technological configurations that can get us there?

congrats to my friend Caryn who was selected as Philadelphia NOW's activist of the year!!!!

see below:

In the past decade, 13 hospitals in Philadelphia have either closed altogether or closed their maternity departments, because, they say, childbirth is unprofitable. We are now in danger of losing Northeastern Hospital. Nonetheless, the babies keep coming. According to the very excellent report "Insuring Healthy Births" by the Maternity Care Coalition, "pregnancy and childbirth now account for 25% of all hospitalizations in the United States". Yet pregnant women have an increasingly difficult time getting adequate, affordable insurance and access to the care they need. Philadelphia NOW will join Maternity Care Coalition in Harrisburg on May 4th to promote needed fixes to maternity care delivery in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia NOW Celebrates
Local Women Leaders

Philadelphia Ethical Society, 1906 Rittenhouse Square
Friday, May 1, 2009 - 5:30 to 7:30PM

Please join us as we honor
CARYN HUNT
for
HER LEADERSHIP FIGHTING CLOSING OF MATERNITY UNITS IN PHILA HOSPITALS

DEE JOHNSON
for
HER ADVOCACY FOR WOMEN IN PRISON

DORIS PRIDGEN
for
HER MANY CONTRIBUTIONS TO PHILA NOW AND PENNSYLVANIA NOW

Here is Jonathan Stein's (head attorney at CLS) letter to the Daily News that never got published in response to this. He says it better than I:

To the Daily News Editor,

If there's living proof that the Reagan era's legacy of unabashed subsidies for the wealthiest lives on, despite the biggest recession since the Depression, its the People's Paper zealous embrace of tax abatements for buyers of $7.7 million condos at Two Liberty Place. (Editorial of Apr. 6, 2009) Beyond your bold assertion of the necessity of this tax give-away, there's no convincing evidence that the private market place would not have developed these prime locations for mega-millionaire purchasers.

In recent months there has been a great deal of hand wringing in the national media around the global economic meltdown. We hear about the failure of banks, large payouts to executies, and the downward turn of the financial markets.

Locally, our media has focused on the city's budget gap with the only fix an increase of taxes on working people and making "touch choices" about city services.