Slowly, surely, I’ve been making my way through the emails that have piled up. I’m currently at around 1450 unread emails. Some, I can delete quickly, others require responses or mention things that I’d like to talk about here on the blog. Currently, there are several topics that I’d like to explore in detail, but probably won’t get a chance to write about, so here are a few summaries.

Jim Himes Raises More Than $350,000 in First Quarter of Congressional Race

Jim Himes, who is running for Congress in Fairfield County, sent out a press release today talking about raising over $350,000 in the first 10 1/2 weeks since he set up his committee. He has garnered the support of over 600 people as donors and volunteers. It is going to be a great campaign to follow. You can read the press release here.

John Edwards announces new proposal to protect America’s food supply and require Country of Origin Labeling

The focus here is on labeling what country our food is coming from. When I go to the store and see strawberries, it would be nice to know if they are from America or Mexico. A lot of people focus on this in terms of food safety after people have become sick from food imported from other countries. I don’t like the xenophobic aspects of this. Food raised in America can make us sick as well. However, I do believe that labeling where food comes from is a good idea.

For me, I want to be food that is grown as locally as possible and I would like to see ‘COOL’ expanded so that I know if the potatoes I’m buying come from Maine or Idaho. (Generally, potatoes are pretty well labeled, but how about where other food is coming from?) I search out locally grown food, and this would be a help. I’ve often talked about this in terms of seeking a ‘low carbon diet’.

Act Blue celebrates its Birthday

They’re trying to raise money to support their ongoing success.
http://www.actblue.com/page/happybirthday

A while ago, I got a call from a friend who works for a Republican U.S. Senate candidate. Yes, I do have friends on the other side of the aisle. He spoke about what a great advantage the Democrats have with ActBlue. It is a great advantage, and I hope people do a little to help out ActBlue.

Blogazoo pulls the plug

Shutting down Friday - July 13: Blogazoo, one of the early click exchanges, similar to BlogExplosion is shutting down. BlogExplosion was first of the breed and will likely survive. I never saw any competitive advantage that Blogazoo brought, but is sad to see them go. I think this comes back to some of my thoughts about the social aspects of social networks. If they had some focus on the group dynamics, they might have been able to come up with something new and survive.

Connecticut Free Shakespeare

I got an email today about the 2007 season of Connecticut Free Shakespeare. This year, they are performing Love’s Labour’s Lost, Set in the Early 1960s. It will be at the Beardsley Zoo from July 20th through August 4th, and then in Guilford from August 9th through 12th. Check the website for details.

Fusion expansion in Connecticut

People are talking about the pros and cons of SB 1311, which Gov. Rell signed last week. One feature is expanded fusion voting. It had been that minor parties in Connecticut could only cross endorse a candidate if they had already ran a candidate on the specific line. I don’t know the exact details of the new bill, but apparently the Working Family Party will be able to cross endorse in the Fourth CD, and I hope that they will cross endorse Jim Himes.

There are plenty of other things that I want to write about, but I’ll save them for other posts.