Friday, July 17, 2009
Jim Lehrer to Interview President Barack Obama
President Barack Obama discusses healthcare and the economy
in an extended newsmaker interview with Jim Lehrer
Monday, July 20, 2009
Jim Lehrer will join President Barack Obama at the White House Monday, for an extended interview to discuss healthcare reform, the economy, and the war in Afghanistan. The interview will take place Monday afternoon and will air Monday, July 20, 2009 on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (check local listings.)
Guns-n-Bars a'la Colbert
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Difference Makers - Doug Jackson | ||||
| ||||
Lee Limbird's grassroots campaign
Attached is my note to the School Board about my interest in the District 9 Board seat; but for the COUNCIL to elect me to the vacated seat, they are asking to hear from you
Dear Friend:
THANK YOU to those who responded to my first email with a call or note note to their Council members.
Since I have been in Alaska with our daughter Jessica, who is awaiting the birth of her first baby, I have been trying to be available to Council members by phone. There are 8 candidates fnow seeking this seat, and many Council members with whom I talk are mentioning that they need to hear from their constituents, so I am writing to ask for you to contact your council representative and those At-Large members you know, too. Their contacts are at Nashville.gov/Metro Council
Also, I wanted to share with you my letter to the School Board, which was read at their last meeting, since I could not attend in person.
THANK YOU for your support. I VERY much want to serve our children, their families, and our city by working in behalf of excellent schools with an affirming environment for ALL children, with a future vision that makes them ready to enter their adult world confident and prepared to follow each of their individual dreams.
__________________________________
Dear Members of the School Board, Dr Register and MNPS representatives:
Thank you for letting me share my thoughts with you via these written comments as you learn about the different strengths among those of us who wish to occupy Alan Coverstone's resigned District 9 seat on this Board. I have had the privilege of meeting and interacting with most of you individually last summer and afterwards, when I was running against your former colleague, Alan, for this seat.
In order to be brief, I will not try to offer my particular point of view on all of the "hot topics" that you have been addressing in your meetings. Instead, let me tell you what I think I bring to the table. I am a person who has the experience of navigating present tense details while at the same time working toward transformative solutions for a distant future tense and building concensus enthusiasm. While our present issues are significant and of considerable importance, we must also be challenging MNPS leadership, teachers and staff to engage in ongoing discernment about the changes that are needed to prepare our students, ALL of our students, for a borderless society, one in which the USA will no longer be the largest English speaking nation ( China as lead English speaking nation will occur before current 6th graders leave high school), and one where already there are too many facts for anyone to know. All of this translates that we need strategies and structures that foster the self confidence and the ability of each child to learn on their own in their most productive fashion. The schools our students deserve and our society needs will not happen overnight.... we must blend a sense of urgency with a commitment to a longterm plan. As a Board, we need to set the bar high, and prepare for a sustained commitment to the changes necessary to achieve the best public education for each of our youth, society, and world.
I remain passionate about public education. Three examples affirm that. First, after coming in second to Alan Coverstone, I availed myself of the expertise of faculty in Schools of Education to get access to reading materials ( books and original articles) that opened my eyes to the diversity of teaching strategies that meet the needs of various types of learners. Second, I have brought together a group that is preparing to host a Symposium in Nashville to lift our level of conversation about public education to one that embraces both our current challenges as well as the steps forward toward a more appropriate future for our youth. Third, I have been engaged in strategic conversations about how we might gain access to infrastructure and realtime information tools of the armed services, health care or banking industries in behafl of MNPS. Such an infrastructure would provide our teachers with realtime insights into which students are learning on a daily basis ( without paperwork!!!), and thus help teachers and staff plan accordingly. All of this I mention so you know that my passion has not waivered in behalf of our youth, and our shared futures that public education will make possible.
As the first generation in our family to attend college, I know the impact that public education can have in raising a child's expectations for themselves, and opening their eyes to truly unknown ways to serve society. I hope to serve our students and Nashville as a member of this Board, and bring my considerable experience with leading large organizations, managing large budgets, and balancing present tense issues with a glimpse of a more excellent future to this important role in our community.
Thank you for listening.
Lee Limbird
________________________________________________
My earlier email to you, for reference:
Dear Friend:
I am writing to you as someone with whom I shared my vision and opinions concerning public education during my 2008 Campaign for School Board to represent District 9. I want you to know of my very strong interest in being selected by the Metro Council to serve District 9 on the Metro School Board, now that Alan Coverstone has resigned from the Board. The election by the Council will be July 21st; your council rep needs to hear from YOU before this Tuesday's Council meeting, July 7th!
Though I was disappointed when I came in 2nd last summer in this election, my commitment to public education has NOT wavered. In fact, I have been working in the background in our city to develop symposia and other mechanisms to elevate the level of our conversation in Nashville about public education.
As you will recall, I am a parent of two children who were in Nashville public schools throughout their education. This is not a political stepping stone for me, as education is my main focus. As a first generation college graduate, I know first hand how K-12 public education can provide unexpected opportunities. Professionally, I have been an educator since 1973, and someone who is committed to fostering opportunities for all youth. I am passionate about improving our public schools in Nashville so that they are worthy of the talents and gifts of each of our students. Now that my husband's and my children are grown ( 25 and 26) I can focus my advocacy on all of our children at all of our public schools.
I have attached a short bio, so you can learn more about me, and if you Google LEE LIMBIRD FOR SCHOOL BOARD, you can still find some articles about me and my thoughts during the time of my campaign for this seat last summer.
The selection of the District 9 School Board representative will be determined by a vote of the Metro Council, so your telephone call ( numbers at nashville.gov) to your Council representatives, or other Council members you know, would be very valuable for my candidacy.
I hope you will have time to place a call to your Metro Council Member BEFORE Tuesday July 7th- and thank you in advance for doing so!
Lee
Lee Limbird
Nashville home: 356-5394
Cell: 775-8979
llimbird@comcast.net
leelimbird@gmail.com
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Cooper Joins Call to Reduce Unintended Pregnancies among Foster Youth
Today, Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper(TN-05) joined child welfare advocates, foster youth, and teenagers from all over the country at a roundtable event sponsored by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) to explore strategies to reduce unintended pregnancies among foster youth. A member of the CCIA Advisory Board and an outspoken advocate of foster care reform, Cooper stressed the need for thinking outside the box on issues of foster care reform.
"I was once told a story by a social worker who witnessed the dropping off of a woman's tenth child to child protective services," Cooper shared with the group. "This – and the story of the rest of our children in foster care – is a national tragedy that we have to solve, and I'm thankful that these groups have come together today to help solve it."
Young teen mothers are 2.2 times more likely to have a child placed in foster care than older mothers. Teens in foster care, many of whom suffered abuse and neglect before leaving their homes, are more likely to experience pregnancy than their peers.
Peter Boogaard
Press Secretary
Congressman Jim Cooper (TN-05)
1536 Longworth House Office Building
Washington D.C. 20515
o. (202) 225-4311
c. (617) 775-0499
NWPC team suggests potential appointees to Metro boards and commissions
A Nashville Women's Political Caucus panel has announced potential appointees to
Vice Presidents on the NWPC Political Planning Team.
National Guard assists in chestnut tree restoration
National Guard's Volunteer Training Site in Milan.
In cooperation with the American Chestnut Foundation (TACF),
the Tennessee Army National Guard has established an experimental
American chestnut test orchard at its training site in Lavinia, Tenn.,
also known as Volunteer Training Site-Milan.
Over 500 chestnuts were planted April 18 at the orchard in Lavinia.
They have been selected for blight resistance over several generations
through an intensive back-crossbreeding program initiated by the
foundation over 20 years ago. The resulting trees will be used to
further select for resistance and to provide pollen and seeds to be used
in producing an even more highly resistant generation of trees.
The American chestnut was all but wiped out by an imported fungal
blight during the first half of the 20th century. Aside from a small
number of anomalous "mother trees," these chestnuts today exist in
the wild only as root sprouts and are killed by the blight long before
they reach reproductive age.
Prior to this devastating blight, the American chestnut was the
dominant timber species in the eastern portion of the United States, in
many areas comprising over 25% of the canopy trees in eastern forests.
American chestnut wood was fast growing, strong, rot resistant, and its
nutritious nuts provided a vital food source for wildlife, livestock and
humans alike.
In addition to the Lavinia orchard, the Tennessee National Guard has
established a back-cross nursery at its training facility in Catoosa
County, Georgia. About 760 seeds have been planted at these Guard sites
this year.
This project is funded by the Department of Defense Legacy Resource
Management Program, dedicated to preserving and enhancing the natural
and cultural heritage of DoD facilities while maintaining military
readiness.
Partnerships such as this between the National Guard and TACF are
making great strides in the effort to restore the species to its former
range. For additional information about this endeavor, persons may
contact the Tennessee Guard Natural Resources Office at 615-313-0603 or
Janie.Becker@tn.gov.
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