Single payer forum tonight

This evening at 6 pm, at the Bank of Romney Community Center on Main Street in Romney, Gloria Rickel will present the case for a single-payer national health care system in the US, along the lines of the Canadian model. Ms. Rickel will contrast the experiences of her Canadian relatives with those of American health care consumers. Her slide show program, "Health Care after Health Care Reform," will be followed by discussion. Sponsored by the Hampshire County Independent Network.

Fracking chemicals revealed

http://blogs.wvgazette.com/watchdog/2011/04/16/house-report-details-fracking-pollution/

Fracking pollutes more than coal

http://wvgazette.com/News/201104111235

Chris Hedges in Charleston

http://wvgazette.com/Opinion/Editorials/201104071176

Single-payer health event in Romney

On Monday, April 18th, at 6:30 pm, the Hampshire County Independent Network will sponsor a discussion of proposals for a single-payer health care program in the US, the only industrialized nation without a national health care system. The program will be presented by Gloria Rickel, who has prepared a slide show, "Health Care after Health Care Reform," comparing the US system to health care systems around the world, and the legislation passed last year to a single-payer system. Ms. Rickel has family living under other health care systems. The event will take place at the Bank of Romney Community Center on Main Street in Romney. --Windy Cutler

HCMC meeting

The Hampshire County Marcellus Committee (officially renamed as such at the last county commission meeting) will meet today at 12 noon at the Hampshire County Health Department in Augusta WV. The public is welcome to attend. Among the topics on today's agenda are a committee statement in support of the bipartisan group of Delegates (including Hampshire's Ruth Rowan) who are calling for a temporary moratorium on new gas drilling permits until regulations are strengthened; and the offer of a conference call with the committee from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, the authors of the Pittsburgh PA city council's ban on hydrofracking within the city limits.

Edit problem

Regular readers of the Independent amy have noticed some weirdness in the past few days--long absences, mysterious large blocks of text. The problem for me as neo-Luddite editor was that the "enter" function didn't work in the blogspot posting program. It worked fine on my computer. I'll know after posting this (I corrected the last post on a friend's computer) if the system is functioning correctly again. If so, I'll have new stuff up soon. If not, help! --Michael Hasty