COASTAL BREEZE 

OOPS—Spell check doesn't catch wrong phone numbers or dates!  The Balboa Island Garage Sale—as was pointed out to me by several people—is the LAST Saturday in April—NOT the first!! Saturday April 26, 2014.  I hope this doesn't cause as much trauma as it has in prior years!! Thank You for your patience with this editor!

We have a new columnists this edition—Rudy Baron—Tax Tips.  Information  we all need to get ready for April 15th. Rudy’s column reflects his desire to help.  He will prepare your taxes with precision in a timely manner.    Welcome to a long time friend from Balboa Island. 

A little bit of information from my regular columnist—Dee Dawson.  Watch for a Hot Dog Place where the Sushi Restaurant was.  Word on the street is the hot dogs are ‘darn good’ and a welcome option for the locals.  Can’t wait to try them!  Watch for an interview with owner, Victoria in the April Coastal Breeze!!

TIP FOR THE DAY - Udemy has great options for learning - now 75% off.  How to create Blogs, Apps, Facebook Pages.  I am listening to one of my favorites Starr Hall on Udemy right now.  www.StarrHall.com

Have A FABULOUS, FUN FILLED  TUESDAY!!!

Newport Art Museum Joins 'Free for All' Day

Today is the 9th Annual  'Free For All' Day when museums in Los Angeles and Orange counties that focus on art, cultural heritage, natural history and science are open to the public for a free day.  A Great Day  to Enjoy a Museum you haven't had the time to visit before.

As Orange County Museum of art spokeswoman, Kirsten Schmidt, said the museum for years has joined SoCalMuseums to promote awareness of the arts, in addition to offering free general admission on the second Sunday of each month.

"there is a great benefit to museums working together to promote culture as a larger group," Schmidt said.

Admission is normally $12 for adults and $10 for students and seniors over 65.  Children under 12 and members are free.

https://www.ocma.net

Here is a list of participating museums:

Annenberg Space for Photography.

Armory Center for the Arts

The Autry National Center of the American West

California African American Museum

California Science Center

Fowler Museum at UCLA

The Getty Center

The Getty Villa 9 Times tickets are required - visit getty.edu

Hammer Museum

Japanese American National Museum

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

L.A. Fire Department Museum and Memorial  

The Museum of Contemporary Art.

Museum of Latin American Art

Orange County Museum of Art

The Paley Center for Media

Pasadena Museum of California Art

Santa Monica Museum of Art

Skirball Cultural Center

USC Pacific Asia Museum

More Information: SoCal-Museums.org

Source: SoCal Museums

Check Museum websites for Parking Fees, visiting hours and other information.

For a complete article and more information please go to Kendra Ablaza's Article in the Orange County Register - Friday January 24, 2014

PAY IT FORWARD

It is Christmas Time on Balboa Island and I am the recipient of one of the most fabulous gifts I have ever received.  From My Terrific, Fantastic, Wonderful Landlord.  

A Month's Free Rent!  When I opened the card yesterday I started crying!  

Life hasn't been easy since the 'Great Recession' - we had a lot of changes - went from owners to renters.  In some ways that is better - other ways not so great!   

I called my landlord and he told me, "We had a really good year this past year and we are spreading the joy around."  Amazing!

I told this story to one of the vendors on Marine.  She said that one year she went to pick out her Christmas Tree and were going to spend a little more than their budget.  When she went to the checkout the man said, "Your tree has been paid for."  Later she found out that every year a family comes to the tree lot and picks out random trees and pays for  them.  If you choose one of those trees - you get it for free!

Do you have a story like this?   E-mail me at CCarrComm@gmail.com and I will add it to this story.  
I too would like to spread a little Christmas Joy in the form of great stories and good feelings!

2014 is going to be a very Great Year!!  

Last month a new report by Friends of the Earth revealed that pesticides implicated in the global bee die-off may be lurking in our own backyards.

More than half of the “bee-friendly” home garden plants tested, sold at stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s, contained bee-killing pesticides called neonicotinoids (neonics) -- with no warning to consumers.

Our coalition and nearly 200,000 people have asked Home Depot and Lowe’s to stop selling “pre-poisoned” plants and off-the-shelf bee-killing pesticides. So far neither company has responded.

So now we’re upping the “buzz” to protect bees!

Join us today in a social media “swarm” on Facebook and Twitter to send Home Depot and Lowe’s an urgent demand:  "Stop selling bee-killing pesticides and pre-poisoned ‘bee-friendly’ plants!”

Step 1: Copy and add this message as a comment on Home Depot's Facebook page and as a post on Lowe’s Facebook page:

Home Depot/Lowe’s: Stop selling bee-killing pesticides and pre-poisoned bee-friendly plants!www.BeeAction.org

Step 2: Click on any of these tweets to tweet them at Home Depot and Lowe’s Twitter accounts:

.@homedepot @lowes: 2/3 of our food crops need bees! Stop selling bee-killing pesticides! #BeeAction @foe_us www.beeaction.org

Buzz kill: @HomeDepot @Lowes: stop selling bee-killing pesticides  #BeeAction @foe_us: www.beeaction.org

Don't have a Facebook or Twitter account? Give Home Depot and Lowe’s a call! 
Home Depot: 1-800-466-3337
Lowe’s: 1-800-445-6937

Step 3: Click this image to share it on your own Facebook page and get your friends involved.

Bees are essential to our food system and are dying at alarming rates. Neonic pesticides are a key part of the problem.  But we have the power to fix the problem, starting with our own backyards.

Here’s the thing. We know Home Depot and Lowe’s can do it! Europe has banned bee-harming pesticides and top retailers in the UK are refusing to sell them. Friends of the Earth is challenging top garden retailers to make the same commitment here in the US.

The bees have enough troubles -- our backyard gardens should be havens for bees -- not death traps.

Bee part of the solution! Join us today on Home Depot and Lowe’s Facebook pages to tell these home and garden giants to step up and protect bees.

For the bees and our future,Lisa Archer,Food and Technology program Director
Friends of the Earth

GMOs by Monsanto - Bringing you the illness, hidden DNA, and the Collapse of the Bee Colonies among other things.

Please see my article in the September's Coastal Breeze @www.balboa-island.com  for the first in a series of articles on Genetically Modified Organisms.  Education is the key to winning this battle!

The battle to label GMOs in Washington State is heating up with Monsanto donated $4.6 million last week to try and kill our efforts. They were joined by fellow biotech seed and chemical giant DuPont with a donation of $3.2 million. On top of this, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) has dumped in $2.2 million to try to hide the donations of the same junk food companies that helped defeat Prop 37 last year in California.

That brings Monsanto's total to $4.8 and DuPont to $3.4 million! And means that the opposition has more than $11 million on hand to fight your Right to Know. What are they trying to hide?

Already, the Yes on 522 campaign to labeling genetically engineered foods is looking like a rematch of last year. Not only are the same companies dumping in millions of dollars once again to keep us in the dark, but they've hired the same PR firm that created the deceptive and misleading ads in California. Earlier this week Monsanto, DuPont and the GMA’s negative ads went on the air to deceive Washington voters.

If you were outraged when we narrowly lost last year in California, then we need your help to make sure that we can get our pro-GMO labeling message out to Washington voters! Right now, we are in the heat of the battle to label GMOs in the U.S. and we need your help.

Donate right now so we can stop Monsanto’s propaganda machine cold in Washington State and help us win the fight for GMO labeling! It’s time that Americans have the right to know what Monsanto is feeding us! Every dollar counts!

http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/1024?t=7&akid=973.591163.hPjGXJ

While Monsanto, DuPont, Coke, Pepsi, Kraft and Kellogg's may have the money, we have the people on our side. Recent polling shows that more than 66 percent of likely voters are in favor of transparency in our food andstrongly support GMO labeling.

The other good news is that yesterday a group in Washington state sued the Grocery Manufacturers Association, claiming that the trade association is “laundering money" from their members, like Pepsi, Coke, Kraft, Kellogg's and General Mills to “illegally” hide their identities. Unlike last year, these same giant food manufacturers are refusing to donate in their own names because the growing GMO labeling movement has exposed their hypocrisy and the fact that they already label GMOs in 64 other countries.

The people in Washington are fighting back. Let's let them know that we have their back!

Farmers are growing in Washington are growing more concerned since last week a story broke nationally about a WA farmer’s crop being contamination by Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GMO alfalfa. They are rightfully concerned about the real impacts that the pending approvals of GMO apples, GMO wheat and GMO salmon could have on their livelihoods.

All we’re asking for is a simple label. It’s incredible that America’s leading chemical and junk food companies are fighting to hide the ingredients in our food, but with your help we can expose their lies and win the fight to label GMOs.

Each time they try, we need to be there to stop them - to trump corporate influence with people power, to expose their lies and propaganda for what it is, and show politicians that we will hold them accountable.

Please donate what you can today.

Thanks for participating in food democracy,

Adooptees - Finding Your Genetic Roots Through DNA

The following announcement was written by Search Quest America: Searching for birth relatives can be difficult in some states and impossible in others using standard adoption search methods but Genetic Genealogy Plus breaks down the barriers set up by closed records.Search Quest America (SQA), a leader in reuniting families, is excited to announce Genetic Genealogy Plus, a new service for adoptees. This new service uses DNA and traditional genealogy research to find the family of adoptees with sealed records. Genetic Genealogy Plus is offered by SQA through an affiliation with two leading DNA testing companies, Family Tree DNA and 23andMe.

via blog.eogn.com

Is America's Food Policy Completely For Sale

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE AND THE AMERICAN PUBLIC IS BEING BOUGHT BY BIG FOOD.  Think about it - if there was nothing wrong with GMOs then why is there a problem with putting that label on our food.  It is just another CHOICE in a FREE COUNTRY.  

The article below is by Max Goldberg - read it - it is very important!!  And also read the Mark Bittman Article in the New York Times.  You can Google it from anywhere!!

Have a wonderful day and think about your children and grandchildren!!  Don't let Big Food buy your vote!!

There are a few things that we know for sure when it comes to food policy in our country.

First, according to the Food & Water Watch, $572 million was spent on lobbying by the biotech and chemical industries from 1999-2010.

Two, when considering approving genetically-modified crops (GMOs) in the 1990s, scientists at the FDA were very, very concerned about the problems that GMOs would cause to human health – allergies, GI issues, etc. – and wanted longer-term research completed before granting approval.

These worries were quickly dismissed by Michael Taylor, the person at the FDA who recklessly approved GMOs 16 years ago and also happened to be a former lawyer for Monsanto.

(By the way, guess who President Obama recently appointed as the Food Safety Czar at the FDA and has made it his priority to crack down on small organic farmers selling raw milk? Yes, you got it – Michael Taylor.)

What is glaringly different about the two examples above and Proposition 37, the GMO-labeling initiative in California, is that Big Ag and the chemical companies can no longer influence policy behind closed doors. They must “buy” their policy in the public domain.

In today’s New York Times, I strongly suggest that you read Mark Bittman’s excellent column “Buying the Vote on GMOs” where he talks about this very issue in more depth.

To me, Proposition 37 isn’t just a vote on GMO-labeling.

It is the first step in taking back control of our food system from politicians and bureaucrats who have completely “sold out” the American consumer.