June 7, 2006 Meeting Notes

Written by: Brenda Bayne on Jul 4, 2006 6:56 PM EDT

Submitted by Fred Sowder....thanks Fred!!
DFA Gainesville Meeting Notes - June 7, 2006


Welcome to Summer in Gainesville! We had 14 members at this month's linkup. Welcome to new member John Haswell, who has a private legal practice on NW 1st Street.


Wes has tickets for sale for the "We the People" BBQ at the Alachua County Fairgrounds on July 9th. They're $10 each. Also, interested people were invited to sign out groups of 10 tickets to sell them to friends, etc.


Democracy Fest is quickly approaching. This year's edition will be in San Diego over 3 days July 14-16. For more information, visit www.democracyfest.us.


DFA chapters across the country are "talking about Iraq" with a series of forums on the Iraq War. Fred will see if Dennis Jett would be interested in speaking at a DFA sponsored forum. Jim Desjardins suggested that the large meeting room in the Downtown Library would be an ideal situation. This can be coincided with our monthly linkup but would not have to be. Wes has tried to contact the intern in Burlington who is responsible for coordinating these forums, Ari Fertig, but has been unsuccessful in contacting him thus far.


Janet Woods announced the upcoming meeting to save Alachua General Hospital. Shands AGH is in danger of closing, leaving many East Gainesville residents without close access to health care. There will be a special meeting regarding AGH's preservation at the Savannah Grande on June 17th from 9:30am to 12:30pm. We need to pack the house with concerned citizens who want to save AGH! Many city and county commissioners will be in attendance, including Mayor Hanrahan, so please come by and show your support!


The Alachua County DEC will be holding a cleanup of their adopt-a-highway stretch of road, which is on NW 43rd Street between Newberry Road and 16th Avenue. We will be meeting in the parking lot on the NW corner of Newberry & 43rd this Saturday morning at 8:30 and should last about an hour. Please let Janet Messer know if you can volunteer ASAP at jzm@atlantic.net as she will have to get you an orange work vest from public works.


Alex Sink is running for Florida CFO and will be having a series of Porch Parties as a part of her "Running in Heels" campaign. On Saturday, June 25th at 4pm, Alex will speak with Porch Parties throughout the state in the first-of-its-kind, state-wide grassroots fundraising conference call. You can sign up at www.alexsinkforcfo.com and click on the "Porch Parties" link. For more information, contact David Salie at (202) 903-6813 or events@alexsinkforcfo.com .


Yesterday saw a series of primaries along with a few special elections across the country. A bright spot was DFA-List candidate Debra Bowen winning the Secretary of State election in California. Unfortunately, DFA-List candidate Francine Busby came up short in her bid for the seat formerly held by Duke Cunningham by 4% or about 5,000 votes. She lost her last congressional election by 22 points, so this was a significant improvement. Tom Hughes added, "If Democrats everywhere improve that much this November, we'll have a Democratic House and Senate!"

Tags:
Location: Gainesville, FL 32601