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MLK Day Freedom Train hurting for riders

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Monday will mark the 30th time the Freedom Train has carried people up the Peninsula to San Francisco to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. - but unless it attracts more riders, this may be the last trip.

Only 300 people have bought tickets for Monday's ride, organizers said Thursday. The train has been drawing several hundred fewer passengers in recent years than its 1,600 capacity, but this is the most drastic drop-off yet.

"There won't be a train next year if we can't pack the train on Monday," said Kathleen Flynn, president of the group that organizes the ride, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Santa Clara Valley. "We just can't keep running it with so few people."

Last year the train drew 1,200 passengers. It had been pulling full loads most years until the NAACP chapter in San Jose withdrew its support in 2010 in protest of the train group taking donations from San Jose police officers.

The chapter's president cited media reports alleging misconduct toward minorities by San Jose police, and told The Chronicle at the time, "You don't honor someone just because they give you money."

Some members of the NAACP continued to take the train anyway, but ridership hasn't fully recovered. The NAACP didn't issue any statement actively opposing the train this year, but is continuing to withhold its support - and this time, it is for a different reason.

The Rev. Jethroe Moore II, the chapter's president, said he's now unhappy with the train organization because it is too friendly with San Jose city leaders who are trying to cut public-safety employees' pensions. He'd also like to see it become more active on a wider range of civil rights concerns.

"I would love to see us all get on the page and fight for the citizenry of Santa Clara County," Moore said. "But I'll be very honest - the current board seems to be manipulated."

He added, "I would be sad to see this train end."

Flynn said the NAACP's concerns are misplaced and that she hoped the groups could work out their differences.

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MLK Day Freedom Train hurting for riders

Learn more about ’12 Years a Slave’ at Freedom Center

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With 12 Years a Slave getting nine Oscar nominations today, including movie of the year and winning best picture at the Golden Globe Awards Sunday the Freedom Center wants you to know about its self-guided tour to learn more about Solomon Northup, the main character in the film.

Northup was the free black man fromupstate New York who wasabducted and sold into slavery in 1841.

Freedom Center historians last fall created the self-guided tourand booklet with images from the movie. It guides visitors to sevenstationsinside the Freedom Center tolearn more aboutNorthup,and thehistorical context for what Northup might have experienced in his time in slavery, and the role of abolitionists in helping him to re-gain his freedom, according to the Freedom Center announcement today.

In addition to the tour, theFreedom Centers originaldocumentary,Journey to Freedom, plays hourly in the Harriet Tubman Theater. The 35-minute film isbasedon Northupsautobiography. The Freedom Center started working with his family and the publisher of his book about 18 months ago, after they heard about our own documentary on Solomon Northups life that was created through a partnership with the U.S. State Departmentsoffice to combat human trafficking, says Natalie Hastings, Freedom Center strategic communications director. Enquirer reporter Mark Curnutte wrote about the film in November 2012.

Important note: The self-guided tour will NOT be available when the Freedom Center is open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday on Martin Luther King Day, due to expected large crowds.

Hours are11 a.m.-5 p.m.Tuesday-Saturday at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 E. Freedom Way, downtown.

Heres a link to our story about todays Academy Award nominations. Heres the media advisory:

12 Years a Slave gets 9 Oscar Nominations

Freedom Center tour connects story to its collection including imagery from film

What: The Solomon Northup Tour. The Solomon Northup Tour, inspired by the Oscar-nominated film 12 Years A Slave, is a self-guided tour of the Freedom Center.

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Learn more about '12 Years a Slave' at Freedom Center

Freedom cited after moving chemical from Elk River site

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Par Industrial Park in Nitro is the home of Poca Blending, a subsidiary of Freedom Industries. Under orders from the state Department of Environmental Protection, Freedom used tanker trucks to transport all the remaining chemicals from their facility on the Elk River to Poca Blending, a drive of about 17 miles.

NITRO, W.Va. -- It smells like licorice in the Par Industrial Park in Nitro.

Par Industrial Park is the home of Poca Blending, a subsidiary of Freedom Industries. Under orders from the state Department of Environmental Protection, Freedom used tanker trucks to transport all the remaining chemicals from their facility on the Elk River to Poca Blending, a drive of about 17 miles.

Every one of those trucks went within about 100 feet of the Nitro Public Library. The library, which has been closed since the leak was discovered last week, sits about a quarter mile down the road from Poca Blending.

Lynn Godby, the library manager, was at work on Wednesday morning, beginning the process of flushing the building's pipes so they could reopen today.

She had no idea that the tanker trucks that had driven by contained 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol from Freedom Industries, or that the chemical was being stored so close by.

"It makes me a little uneasy," Godby said Wednesday. "You don't like to think they're just right down the road."

On Tuesday state regulators cited Freedom Industries for a broad variety of violations after an inspection of the Poca Blending site. The state Department of Environmental Protection issued five notices of violation, or NOVs, alleging improper storage of materials that could contaminate groundwater, failure to follow a DEP-issued stormwater permit, failure to provide required pollution discharge monitoring reports.

Interestingly, the DEP also cited Freedom's Nitro operation for not having the appropriate "secondary containment" for chemical spills -- a problem that regulators have said was a major cause of last Thursday's spill of "Crude MCHM" into the Elk River.

"Secondary containment within the facility was deteriorated or non-existent," the DEP said in an inspection report. "The plan indicates that the building itself acts a secondary containment, but holes exist at floor level in the building's walls.

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Freedom cited after moving chemical from Elk River site

2014 Freedom for Yuliya Tymoshenko Sing Up the Petition USA Help Please Maydan Ukraine revolution – Video

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2014 Freedom for Yuliya Tymoshenko Sing Up the Petition USA Help Please Maydan Ukraine revolution
Freedom for Yuliya Tymoshenko Sing Up the Petition Help Please Links is . i i . http://intv.ua/important/75271-na-sayt-blogo-domu...

By: Jon Wills

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2014 Freedom for Yuliya Tymoshenko Sing Up the Petition USA Help Please Maydan Ukraine revolution - Video

Live Event – When Pain Goes Up – and Using ICE for Freedom, January 14, 2014, with Lars Clausen – Video

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Live Event - When Pain Goes Up - and Using ICE for Freedom, January 14, 2014, with Lars Clausen
In this Live Event at http://www.myfibromyalgiarelief.com Lars Clausen discusses the following three subjects. 1. WHEN THE PAIN GOES UP INSTEAD OF DOWN. Thre...

By: Lars Clausen

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Live Event - When Pain Goes Up - and Using ICE for Freedom, January 14, 2014, with Lars Clausen - Video

Economic freedom in PH improves for third straight year

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by Cherrie Regalado Posted on 01/14/2014 2:45 PM |Updated 01/14/2014 4:18 PM

MODERATELY FREE. The country improves its ranking in the Economic Freedom Index. Screenshot from Hertiage Foundation.

MANILA, Philippines The Philippine economy is moderately free, improving its score for the third consecutive year, according to a Washington-based think tank that has been doing an index of countries for two decades.

The Heritage Foundation released on Tuesday, January 14, its 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, which shows the Philippines with a score of 60.1, improving its ranking by 8 places, from 97th in 2013 to 89th for 2014.

The foundation stressed that economic freedom exists in a country if every citizen is able to control his or her own labor and property. Economic freedom also means that each citizen is unconstrained by the state and able to freely work, consume, and invest.

The Philippines' score is 1.9 points higher than last years 58.2 due to the significant improvements in investment freedom, business freedom, monetary freedom, and the control of government spending.

The country has advanced by 5.1 points since the Index started 20 years ago. This is also the third consecutive year that Philippines overall score has improved.

With its third consecutive year of overall score improvement, the Philippines has risen back to 'moderately free' in the 2014 Index, the Heritage Foundation noted.

The Philippines ranked 16th out of 42 countries in the AsiaPacific region, but the countrys overall score is slightly below the world average of 60.3.

The government has pursued a series of legislative reforms to enhance the investment environment and incentivize broader-based private-sector job growth. Despite progress, lingering institutional challenges will not be overcome without a deeper commitment to reform. Although the perceived level of corruption has declined, more effective anti-corruption measures need to be firmly institutionalized, the Heritage Foundation said.

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Economic freedom in PH improves for third straight year


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