Hi Jane, Thanks for a wonderful meeting last night! What a great bunch of folks & factory farms is a passion of mine. Frustrating to have to put so much on hold until I return from Nepal. My brother planned a 90th birthday party for my mother on Nov 8 & I will not be able to attend the Iowa Chapter Excom meeting. I'm just so excited about all the opportunities in Iowa & can't wait to jump in. We don't get cable out here so I no longer get CSPAN. Will make my call to Harkin & Grassley this morning on Tongass. I wonder of a coalition of all the environmental groups in Iowa working on ground water might get the word out. My in-laws belong to a group that deals specifically with Iowa environmental problems. I'll be contacting the UCC Church to stop their Heifer program & work on clean water in the world. Out in Washington there is an Earth Ministries organizations that is church oriented. I've often thought the church needs to be awakened to environmental justice instead of feed & clothe the poor--what feed them poison? Our Group in WA was so excited to have over 150 turn out to our Arctic National Wildlife Refuge slide show--but pretty slim when thousands turn out for sports events--I get very frustrated! If you have any reservations about me as an activist (The Snohomish Group had a terrible time with a man who claimed to have been a Sierra Club activist & embezzled $600 from our funds as treasurer & never did what he agreed to do leaving us picking up last minute pieces & talked so much others didn't have a change--etc! Please contact: Tina Schulstad Chair Cascade Chapter [log in to unmask] Kathleen Casey, Staff , Northwest Office Sierra Club [log in to unmask] Thanks again for all you do. Phyllis Mains ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]