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Article filed under Independent Business | Written by admin | No Comments | Updated on Nov 9, 2004

Big-Box Ballot Initiatives: Wins & Losses

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/bigbox-ballot-initiatives-wins-losses/

Voters in Hudson, Ohio—a community of 23,000 people thirty miles southeast of Cleveland—overwhelmingly rejected a ballot initiative that would have opened the way for big-box stores and allowed developers to skirt the town’s development review process.

"We are ecstatic," said Liz Murphy, owner of the Learned Owl bookstore and member of Smart Growth Hudson, a citizens group that formed to defeat the initiative.

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Article filed under Independent Business | Written by admin | No Comments | Updated on Nov 9, 2004

California Lawmakers Seek to Drop Wal-Mart Stock from State Pension Fund

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/california-lawmakers-seek-drop-walmart-stock-state-pension-fund/

A group of California state lawmakers, led by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, are calling for the legislature to require that the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) sell its 18.8 million shares of Wal-Mart stock, valued at about $1 billion.

"The Legislature needs to take a close look at how we put our money behind our values," Lieber told the Associated Press. "Wal-Mart is making a big push to expand in many areas of our state.

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Article filed under Energy | Written by John Farrell | No Comments | Updated on Nov 4, 2004

Colorado Voters Approve Renewable Energy Ballot Initiative

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/colorado-voters-approve-renewable-energy-ballot-initiative/

Colorado voters have become the first in the nation to vote on and pass a renewable energy standard on as part of a statewide ballot question. By a 53%-47% margin, a majority of voters approved Amendment 37 on the November 2nd ballot; which requires an increasing amount of the electricity in Colorado to come from renewables energy sources such as wind and solar.

Colorado now joins 17 states with minimum clean energy standards as part of a growing trend of states taking the lead to fill the void of federal energy policy.

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Article filed under Independent Business | Written by admin | No Comments | Updated on Oct 29, 2004

Wal-Mart Hinders Poverty Reduction, Study Finds

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/walmart-hinders-poverty-reduction-study-finds/

Counties that gained Wal-Mart stores during the 1990s fared worse in terms of family poverty rates than those that did not, according to a new study by researchers at Penn State’s Center for Economic and Community Development.

Wal-Mart often characterizes its stores as beneficial to the working poor.

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Article filed under Energy | Written by John Farrell | No Comments | Updated on Oct 26, 2004

Federal Legislation Supports Distributed Energy Technologies

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/federal-legislation-supports-distributed-energy-technologies/

Two pieces of legislation have been passed recently by the U.S. Congress contain some provisions that will provide financial incentives for distributed energy technologies including biomass, wind, solar and geothermal. The Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004 [H.R. 1380] and the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act [H.R. 4520] have been signed into law by President Bush. Some of these incentives are new, some are extensions of incentives that have lapsed with the inability of Congress to pass a comprehensive energy bill in the past two years.

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Article filed under Independent Business | Written by admin | No Comments | Updated on Oct 21, 2004

Independent Businesses Produce Bigger Economic Benefits, Study Concludes

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/independent-businesses-produce-bigger-economic-benefits-study-concludes/

Chicago’s locally owned businesses generate 70 percent more local economic impact per square foot than chain stores, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by the firm Civic Economics, analyzed ten locally owned restaurants, retail stores, and service providers in the Andersonville neighborhood on Chicago’s north side and compared them with ten national chains competing in the same categories.

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Article filed under Energy | Written by John Farrell | No Comments | Updated on Oct 15, 2004

Internet Over Powerlines Takes Step Forward

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/internet-over-powerlines-takes-step-forward/

On October 14, 2004 the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released a joint statement related to new FCC rules to facilitate the widespread adoption of broadband internet access over electric power lines, known as Access BPL [Action by the Commission, October 14, 2004 by Report and Order (FCC 04-245)]. The BPL ruling will not only provide households with another option in broadband internet service but it is expected to lead utilties to provide more efficient management of their power supply system, and ensure increased operational reliability. Continue reading

Article filed under Independent Business | Written by Stacy Mitchell | No Comments | Updated on Oct 8, 2004

Austin Study Says City Pays Price for Big-Boxes

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/austin-study-says-city-pays-price-bigboxes/

A coalition of organizations in Austin, Texas, released a report this week that concludes that big-box retailers impose significant costs on the community. It recommends that the city scrutinize big-box projects more thoroughly and adopt a long-range plan to strengthen locally owned businesses.

The report reviews and refutes several of the findings of another big-box study commissioned by the city and released in June.

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Article filed under Independent Business | Written by Stacy Mitchell | No Comments | Updated on Oct 4, 2004

NYC’s Newsstands Fight Corporate Takeover

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/nycs-newsstands-fight-corporate-takeover/

Newsstand owners in New York City have filed a legal challenge to a new law that would transfer ownership of the city’s 300 independent newsstands to a single corporation.

Under the law, which was backed by the mayor and endorsed by all but three city councilors, the eclectic newsstands will be replaced by identical kiosks under central ownership. Five companies, including JCDecaux, which manages "street furniture" in 3,500 cities worldwide, are bidding for the contract.

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Article filed under Independent Business | Written by Stacy Mitchell | No Comments | Updated on Oct 1, 2004

New Report Finds Retail Development Costs Ohio Taxpayers

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/new-report-finds-retail-development-costs-ohio-taxpayers/

A new report prepared for the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission concludes that retail development costs cities more in public services than it generates in revenue.

The report, produced by Randall Gross of Development Economics in Washington, D.C., reviews and summarizes the findings of fiscal impact studies conducted in eight central Ohio communities between 1997 and 2003.

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