Grimace-worthy
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers brought their “McDonald’s Truth Tour” to the Second and Broadway Mickey Ds to protest poor working conditions and low pay for Florida tomato workers. The workers — the same folks who successfully gave Taco Hell what-for over the last couple years — are on a quest to make every shitty fast-food restaurant in America cough up fair wages for farm workers. Based on their track record, McD’s may want to get with the program. More info at: http://www.ciw-online.org/
The circle of life
An Indiana rural electric co-op plans to build a power plant at the Clark-Floyd County Landfill. The plant would convert methane — a byproduct of garbage dumps — into electricity, which can be used to power homes and businesses, so Hoosiers can go out and buy more junk to eventually place in the landfill, where it will generate more energy for shopping, and so on, which is a process known as “being an American.” Some of the power generated by the plant may be used by U of L art students to fuel furnaces for glass blowing and pottery, a project that could eventually contend for best use of methane in the arts since the 1974 film masterpiece “Blazing Saddles.”
Leadership inaction
Those crazy cut-ups in Frankfort came up with a strategy to get work done in the waning days of the General Assembly: They combined practically every bill into one bill, which promptly brought all proceedings to a screeching halt. Among the detritus trapped in the superbill are safety measures pertaining to all-terrain-vehicles, seat-belts, lead paint, and newborn health; and a measure to allow more toxic air in Louisville by killing the STAR program. The whole mess would be funny if it weren’t so morbidly stupid. Well, maybe it was a little funny: the combined bill presented Sen. Dan Seum, who is both pro-pollution and anti-safety, with a Sophie’s Choice: a vote for pollution would also be a vote for safety. His brain frozen at the prospect, Seum packed up his 19th-century worldview into his industrial-age rucksack and stormed off.
The sound of silence
The House and Senate did agree on a graduated Kentucky driver’s license bill that restricts the number of passengers an under-18 driver can have in his or her car. Legislators hope such restrictions will mitigate teen shenanigans while driving, which will in turn reduce accidents and awful, secondhand music on our streets.
BY JIM WELP
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