Alliance for a Healthier Generation's Go Healthy Month Inspires Kids to Take a Stand Against Childhood Obesity

(IOWA) Sept. 1, 2009 - The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, founded by the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation, is empowering youth to join the fight against childhood obesity and to celebrate September's Go Healthy Month.

Focusing efforts on preventing childhood obesity and creating healthier lifestyles for all children, the Alliance has designated the month of September as Go Healthy Month. Our empowerME movement - more than one million strong - will reach out this month to expand and inspire even more tweens and teens to eat better, move more and wipe out America's obesity epidemic. Tweens and teens are asked to join the empowerME movement and become leaders and advocates for healthy eating and physical activity in their communities. Through empowerME, healthy lifestyles become "cool" for tweens and teens.

"America's kids are facing unprecedented rates of obesity. By joining together to fight this epidemic, they are inspiring each other to live healthier," said Ginny Ehrlich, executive director of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. "Through Go Healthy Month and the empowerME Movement we hope to empower kids to make better choices now, to ensure an impact on their health and quality of life in the future."

"Go Healthy Month is the perfect time for us kids to make a commitment to be healthy," said David Sanchez, 17, Racine, Wisc., a member of the empowerME Movement's Youth Advisory Board. "By attending a Go Healthy Month event, joining the empowerME Movement and sharing our stories, we can motivate each other to make sure our generation will live longer, healthier lives."

To teach kids the basics of healthy eating and living active lifestyles, the Alliance also created a FREE, 8-session healthy living course - empowerME4Life. The course is age-appropriate, culturally relevant, targeted to kids ages 8-12; and can be facilitated by older youth or adult allies. When young people learn to make small changes in what they eat and how active they are, they can make a big difference in their health over time.

Youth are encouraged to visit www.empowerme2b.org to learn more about joining the empowerME Movement and the FREE EmowerME4Life program.

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UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION EXPOSES SHOCKING CRUELTY TO ANIMALS AT IOWA'S LARGEST HATCHERY

Hidden Camera Footage Reveals Chicks Being Thrown, Mutilated, and Ground-Up Alive - Group Calls for Warning Label on Grocery Egg Cartons

Davenport, Iowa - Hidden camera footage revealing shocking cruelty to animals at the Spencer facility of Iowa-based Hy-Line International, the world's largest hatchery for egg-laying breed chicks, will be released at a news conference tomorrow morning by Mercy For Animals (MFA), a national animal protection organization. The footage - covertly recorded by a hatchery employee earlier this year - reveals chicks being thrown, dumped, dropped, hung, mutilated without painkillers, injured and killed by the industrial equipment, left for days without access to food or water, and fully-conscious male chicks being ground-up alive.  Prompted by the findings of the investigation, tomorrow MFA will call on the nation's 50 largest grocery chains to require that all eggs sold in their stores bear a label reading, "Warning: Male chicks are ground-up alive by the egg industry."

Date: Tuesday, September 1^st

Time: 11 a.m.

Location: Radisson Hotel (Moline Room), 111 E 2^nd St., Davenport

The undercover footage was recorded between May and June 2009 at Hy-Line in Spencer, Iowa - where over 30 million chicks are killed annually. Abuses include :

• Male chicks being dropped into a grinding machine while still alive, where they were tossed around by a spinning auger before being torn to pieces by a high-pressure macerator.  These males are deemed useless to the egg industry because they do not lay eggs or grow large or fast enough to be raised profitably for meat.
• Employees and machines roughly throwing, swinging, and dropping the fragile animals - with little consideration for their welfare.
• Chicks being snapped by their fragile necks into a rotating machine, which used a laser to remove part of the birds' sensitive beaks without painkillers.
• Machinery injuring, killing, and scalding live chicks in wash cycles.

After viewing the footage, Dr. Nedim Buyukmihci, Emeritus Professor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, stated: "(T)he manner in which the chicks depicted in the videotape were treated subjected them to pain and substantial stress. It was cruel by any normal definition of the word."

On Tuesday, MFA will send letters to the nation's 50 largest grocery chains, including Wal-Mart, Kroger, and West Des Moines-based Hy-Vee, urging them to mandate that all eggs sold in their stores bear a label warning consumers of the gruesome method used to kill male chicks

"If hatchery employees threw, mutilated, or ground-up live puppies or kittens like they do to chicks, they could face imprisonment on grounds of cruelty to animals," says MFA's Executive Director Nathan Runkle. "In a civilized society, it is our moral obligation to protect all animal from needless suffering, including those raised for food."

Broadcast quality undercover footage of conditions at Hy-Line will be aired and distributed at the news conference.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today announced that Scott County has been awarded a $234,683 grant from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program.  Harkin has been a steadfast supporter of the grant program, which funds many drug fighting initiatives across the state.  Harkin is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"The people who put their lives on the line for us deserve our support and our gratitude," said Harkin. "This grant will help to keep them on the job, working to keep drugs off the street and our communities safe."

Details of the grant are as follows:

$234,683 to Scott County for the HIDE Unit, operating under the Quad Cities Metropolitan Enforcement Group (QCMEG). The county's goal is to reduce the amount of illegal narcotics available to the public and arrest those who distribute illegal narcotics.

The Byrne Grant Program, named after a police officer killed by a violent drug gang twenty years ago, is the only source of federal funding for multi-jurisdictional efforts to prevent and fight crime.  The program funds drug task forces that have been vital in reducing methamphetamine labs in Iowa and around the country. Byrne also helps pay for police, technology and crime prevention programs. The grants have resulted in major innovations in crime control, including drug courts, gang prevention strategies and prisoner reentry programs.

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Trees are hardy plants, and their roots fight back against man-made limits around them. In the urban and suburban landscape, tree roots often are forced to grow between buildings or under driveways and walkways. As roots grow, they will break walls, pipes and patios, causing damage to properties.

Plan before you plant
"Before you plant a new tree in your yard, you need to understand how a tree could damage your property and take appropriate measures to prevent that damage," advises Tchukki Andersen, staff arborist with the Tree Care Industry Association.

Woody tree roots thicken as they grow, gradually pushing shallow roots toward the surface. Since soil near the surface is best suited for root growth, most tree roots are just below the surface - putting them in conflict with man-made obstacles. Where the soil is covered by a solid driveway or patio, upward growing roots don't experience the normal signals (increased light and air) that they are reaching the surface. As a result, they often grow against the underside of pavement.

"Most damage is found six feet or less from the tree," notes Andersen, "since roots become smaller and less damaging the further they are from the trunk. Keep this in mind before you plant. That small sapling could become a large shade tree with roots spreading 30 or 40 feet outward from the trunk."

Fixing the problem
Some homeowners, masons and landscapers deal with intrusive roots by grinding down or removing them. This can be expensive and is very harmful to the tree. Wounding a tree's roots creates points of entry for pathogens, leaving a tree vulnerable to disease. Cutting major roots also reduces a tree's ability to take up nutrients and water, leaving it more susceptible to drought. Finally, reducing a tree's structural support from the roots increases the danger the tree will topple onto your house in high winds.

Keep these cautions in mind when dealing with a problem tree:

• The farther you cut from the trunk, the less threat to the tree's health, and the less danger of creating a hazard.
• Try not to cut roots greater than 2 inches in diameter.
• Roots recover better from being severed when you: cut them cleanly with a saw instead of breaking them with a backhoe; mulch and water well after pruning; and fertilize in early fall or spring.

In areas within 5 to 7 feet of a paved area or structure, plant trees that grow to a mature height of less than 30 feet. In areas within 7 to 10 feet of a paved area or structure, plant trees that grow to a mature height of less than 50 feet. Reserve trees that mature higher than 50 feet for areas with at least 12 feet of clearance. This allows adequate space for the roots. Also, before you plant check for overhead utility lines and leave adequate space for that tree to mature.

Find a professional
A professional arborist can assess your landscape and work with you to determine the best trees to plant. Contact the Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA), a 71-year-old public and professional resource on trees and arboriculture. It has more than 2,000 member companies who recognize stringent safety and performance standards and who are required to carry liability insurance. TCIA also has the nation's only Accreditation program that helps consumers find tree care companies that have been inspected and accredited based on: adherence to industry standards for quality and safety; maintenance of trained, professional staff; and dedication to ethics and quality in business practices. An easy way to find a tree care service provider in your area is to use the "Locate Your Local TCIA Member Companies" program. You can use this service by calling 1-800-733-2622 or by doing a ZIP code search at www.treecaretips.org.