Voodoo Doughnut from Portlandia : Baked Goods = Commentary on Contemporary Culture?

Voodoo Doughnut’s co-owner Kenneth Pogson said the Bundy-themed baked good had been his idea.
“We're trying to avoid politics,” he told The Oregonian, “but this whole thing seemed like such a big deal -- with them taking public property, armed to the teeth, making a stand that they thought everyone would join. It was a debacle that was on everyone's mind, left or right.”
He added that the doughnut had been created as “more of a commentary on contemporary culture and the so-called patriot movement giving Oregon a bad name” than as a jibe to the militants themselves.
There was also no intention, he said, of diminishing the death of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, a spokesperson for the militants who died during a confrontation with law enforcement on Tuesday.
See and Read more >> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ammon-bundy-donut-voodoo-doughnut_us_56aafc9ae4b0010e80e9986d

Homeless > Much More To Do // Coalition > Events > Alliances > Action

The City of Mesa doesn't have to "re-invent the wheel" to deal with the homeless with the focus here recently when Mayor Giles was selected to pair-up and co-chair with Mayor Landrieu of New Orleans the National Mayors Conference Homeless Committee.While it might seen like an unlikely pairing of two cities with very different politics and demographics, keep an eye out how that diversity might produce innovative new strategies for the national agenda. Report is due out this Winter.

Right here at home next to City Council Chambers and less than a 100 yards from City Hall your MesaZona blogger took the time to notice this homeless person with a low profile. It is time we take notice - however overdue that may be.
Two other images of the homeless have been featured in posts on this blogsite as well as a previous post on Keeping The Promise [to vets] back on 02 Sept 2015.
Fortunately the high interest in vet issues for homelessness, healthcare, supportive services, and job training apply across the whole spectrum with women and children included.

City Manager Chris Brady and City Councilmember Chris Glover were on the local airwaves on December 29, 2015 in a 27:00 production by city-owned Mesa Channel 11 about the city's initiatives to end veteran homelessness that you can watch right here

  

It's only been viewed 171 times with 1 Like . . . it is featured here on this post for your 411.

 

Yesterday and today this event is taking place in Phoenix

The Arizona StandDown is an alliance of community-based organizations that come together to provide annual, one to three day events that bring together the State's homeless and at-risk military veterans, connecting them with services ranging  from  VA Mental  Health Services, Clothing, Meals, Emergency Shelter, Transitional and Permanent Housing, ID/ Drivers License's, Court Services and Legal Aide, Showers and Haircuts and myriad other services and resources.  Arizona StandDowns are held at various locations throughout the State with the largest, serving approximately 1,500 veterans, at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Maricopa County.

While its primary goal is helping homeless veterans access the resources needed, including housing, to regain their highest level of independence; its secondary goal is to bring our community and service providers together in a collaborative format that can build relationships throughout the year that positively benefit homeless veterans.  Ultimately, it is our hope that such events can bring forth the awareness, political/community will and consistent data necessary to assert the on-going resources it will take to end veteran homelessness once and for all.

http://www.arizonastanddown.org/

 

The Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness seeks the end of homelessness in Arizona, and will lead in this effort through advocacy, education and coordination with local communities.

Please help us in our mission by learning more about this issue through information on this site.  You'll find overview information about homelessness, solutions, and opportunities to help and donate as AZCEH is recognized as a charitable tax credit organization.

You can also learn about innovative community collaborations under our Special Initiatives section.

http://www.azceh.org/

 

 

 

Find-Out > Royal Neighbors Of America $200 Grants

Royal Neighbors of America Launches Difference Maker Fund

/EIN News/ -- MESA, Ariz., Jan. 28, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- It pays to be good. Royal Neighbors of America, one of the oldest, women-led life insurers in the U.S., announced the launch of its Difference Maker Fund, a new program that offers Royal Neighbors members* $200 in seed money to support a community project that aligns with the life insurer's mission

Dear readers, please note that fhis post is a near-straight feed from a newswire with some comments about how the recipients will be selected and judged. The offer comes from from an all-women professional group selling life insurance with a social cause tie-in.

Every February the life insurance industry has a campaign called Insure Your Love

Royal Neighbors is reaching out to members who have a vision to help their community and a crew of family along with friends who want to help make it happen. Our new program, the Difference Maker Fund, offers members $200 of seed money to support a community project that aligns with Royal Neighbors’ mission.

 

The focus is to improve the community and cover at least one of the following purposes:

• Support a charitable cause that specifically helps women and/or girls
• Support women who organize and complete community service projects
• Provide financial literacy opportunities for women, girls, or other community groups

General Guidelines:
Projects can be a fund-raiser, service activity, or educational event. All Royal Neighbors members are eligible to apply for one grant per year. Members are encouraged to form volunteer teams of friends, family, and people in their community to help with the project. Team members do not have to be Royal Neighbors members to participate. Only 60 grants will be awarded each quarter so apply soon!

Funds are limited to seed money to get new projects started. Grants will be awarded at the sole discretion of Royal Neighbors of America and a post-event report is required. Funds cannot be used as a direct monetary contribution (re-grant), nor can multiple members apply to receive grants for the same project or event.
An Added Bonus!
Be sure to complete a post-even report! Those projects with submitted reports and the highest number of “likes” and “shares” on the Royal Neighbors' Facebook page will win a $500 prize  towards the charitable organization helped by that project.
All remaining projects with qualified final reports will be entered into a drawing for a second $500 prize, also to be awarded to the cause served by the project.
Don’t wait. Act now
http://www.royalneighbors.org/community-connections/difference-maker-fund

Sunset Galaxy Mural > Time-Lapse + Fast-Forward

Really like this artist Jesse Perry's moves, creativity and energy!
He was featured in another post here some time ago doing one of the four Retro-Eccentric Neon-Inspired Murals on the west side of what used to be The O.S. Stanley Company.
Word on the street [yours truly talked with Jesse outside of Desert Eagle Brewery on Friday] is that he might be doing another work in the New Urban DTMesa . . . stay tuned

Mesa 11 Live Stream City Council Study Session Mon 25 Jan 2016

2 Police Officer-Involved Shooting Incidents in Mesa Attract Media Attention

[Lessons in Transparency??  See previous post here on 26 Jan, two days ago] Included there is this statement from one of two open data crime map resources
The open release of datasets like CAD/RMS, use of force, arrests, officer involved shootings, and complaints give the community an ‘inside’ look of day-to-day events within an agency.
This type of transparency introduces a constructive line of communication between the community and police agencies. Problems and red flags can be identified quickly and collaboratively.

• Cities like Seattle, DC, LA, and Portland have been releasing these kinds of datasets for years.
• Albuquerque, Detroit, and New Orleans recently began releasing this data.
• Baltimore added arrest and calls for service datasets to their open data portal around the time of the Freddie Gray protests.
• NYPD recently announced the new public version of CompStat (they’re calling it CompStat 2). 

Two recent incidents, one involving a pellet gun has been the subject of 91 articles, and another one about a notice of claim filed against the Mesa Policepartment two days ago has been the subject of at least 14 articles.

We all know that that there have been repercussions from mostly racial-based episodes in Missouri, South Carolina and Chicago based on how police departments and cities have tried to handle the news - not releasing real-time videos, conflicting witness and officer reports, and withholding the names of police officers involved. In one more shocking incident here last week of child abuse and sex trafficking [that's b een the focus of 194 articles] the Mesa Police Department took to the airwaves right away with full disclosure of the crime and their fast actions and response.

One of the officer-involved shootings that's resulted in a noticed of claim for a possible lawsuit was reported yesterday in the East Valley Tribune by Shelley Ridenour.  The family of man shot and killed by Mesa police last month has filed a claim against the city, the police department, the police chief and the two involved officers.Chandler attorney Troy Hendrickson filed the notice of claim on Monday, for the “wrongful death” of Ivan Krstic.

The report goes on to state:

• Three phone calls and two emails to the city of Mesa seeking comment for this story were not returned to the East Valley Tribune.
• No information about the incident is on the police department’s crime log.

The city has 60 days from the day the notice was served to respond to the claim. If it doesn’t respond in that time, a civil lawsuit may be filed against the city, Hendrickson said.

Hendrickson said the claim identifies Police Chief John Meza, but the two involved officers are referred to as unnamed officers . . .

He said the city has refused to release the names of the officers who were involved in Krstic’s death, despite repeated requests for that information.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/article_f5a2ffaa-c52e-11e5-8cda-3734663089a1.html

Do You Know What Time It Is??



The Doomsday Clock is an internationally recognized design that conveys how close we are to destroying our civilization with dangerous technologies of our own making. First and foremost among these are nuclear weapons, but the dangers include climate-changing technologies, emerging biotechnologies, and cybertechnology that could inflict irrevocable harm, whether by intention, miscalculation, or by accident, to our way of life and to the planet, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said Tuesday.

- See more at: http://thebulletin.org/overview#sthash.KioBn99r.dpuf

"It remains the closest it has been over the past 20 years," said Rachel Bronson, executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, during a press conference in the US capital.
Global warming, terrorism, nuclear tensions between the United States and Russia, concerns over North Korean weapons, tensions between Pakistan and India, and cyber threats remain destabilizing influences, said Lawrence Krauss, a cosmologist and professor at Arizona State University.

Doomsday Dashboard
SOME OF WHAT WE CONSIDER, WHEN WE SET THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK
http://thebulletin.org/doomsday-dashboard