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(Community Matters)

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(Community Matters) Hear, Hear!

(Community Matters)  It’s painful to hear that AISD leadership so badly failed the important step of community process, with at least many East Austin residents. Nevertheless, I do not condemn Superintendent Carstarphen.  Meria has been here just two years and has had to deal with the thorniest political issues in our lifetimes, many which we’ve been putting off for 20+ years.

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(Community Matters) after a minor fiasco (I thought our flight was at 4pm, it was at 7am), we made it to Hobart, Tasmania and the Henry Jones Art Hotel in Hobart.

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Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman first sighted what he thought was the tip of Terra Australis in November 24, 1642. Tasmania is now an Australian state. Hobart, the state capital, was established as a convict town in 1804. Today, the art, wine, food & eco tourism scenes are exploding in Tasmania. We’re here to explore

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(Community Matters) Surge of Lobbying Fuels Keystone XL Pipeline Project – OpenSecrets Blog | OpenSecrets

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio): “This [approving Keystone] is the right thing to do, the American people support it.”

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(Community Matters) back to Sydney yesterday afternoon, to the same hotel but 6th floor rather than 32nd.

6th floor view

dinner last night with Alan Waite at Ripples in Chowder Bay, after champagne on Balmoral Beach with Rose & Charlie. We’re off to Tasmania today

(Community Matters) on Sunday, Steven and I flew to Brisbane (in Queensland), then drove down to the most northern part of New South Wales to The Channon. Our friend Theron Beaudreau is interning at the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia; we wanted to know more about this hyper-sustainable form of agricultural production. Theron and Steven serve on the board of Wheatsville Coop.

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(Community Matters) a friend sent me the link to this article: Rebooting Philanthropy in Silicon Valley, with a note that we should spend more time thinking about this in Austin.

My response:

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(Community Matters) 21mm people in Australia and 25mm in Texas. Australia so much bigger than Texas. How do the fund their infrastructure, national healthcare and education systems so much better than Tx? Posted from my blackberry

(Community Matters) Dinner last night at Alan Waite’s, one of my oldest, dearest friends in the universe. Rosemary Hansen and Alan Mullaney also dearest friends from 20 years back. Their partners Charlie Kessler and Phillip Donaldson now friends as well. Loved, loved, loved the evening

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– and Alan Waite’s place in Piper’s Point doesn’t suck

We’re off today to Brisbane/Byron Bay to see Steven’s Wheatsville board colleague at the Permaculture Research Institute

(Community Matters) good for the SEC. Let’s hope we see more charges against those responsible for the 2008 economic collapse – ought to include claw backs.  SEC Charges Fannie, Freddie Executives With Fraud Over Risky Mortgages

(Community Matters) . . . and yesterday I was riding in a cab with an Iraqi driver. We laughed – it was his first day as a cab driver in Sydney and he was driving around an American.

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