LilSugar

Maria Shriver Gets Paid For Nothing From NBC

justingirl1989 — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:27:26 -0700

When Maria Shriver became the first lady of California, NBC decided that it was in their best interest to cut ties. The network is said to have paid Shriver between $100,000 and $1,000,000 over the last 3 years. And since she has only worked one time for NBC since 2004, this seems like a pretty good gig.

The money that Maria is receiving was part of an “exit agreement.” The newscaster was working on Dateline NBC when her husband Arnold Schwarzenegger became the Governor of California.

Daniel Zingale, Maria’s chief of staff has confirmed that yes indeed a deal was made, but did not give out specific amounts paid out by NBC. Either way it seems like a pretty sweet deal - getting paid for not working….sign me up!

source: bittenandbound.com

Media Ignores Women's Health Disparities in Shriver Report

stephley — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:45:14 -0700

The "battle of the sexes is over" claims the much-heralded Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything on American work and family life. Go ahead, take a victory lap.

Unless, of course, you're among the millions of women who still earn 23 percent less on average in wages, pay 38 percent more for gender-rated health insurance or fear losing their jobs while trying to juggle disproportionate family responsibilities without flexible work schedules and reasonable family-leave policies.

The year-long study initiated by California First Lady and former NBC News correspondent Maria Shriver and published by the Center for American Progress, has generated celebratory headlines in the media about women's advances in the workplace while ignoring the many stark realities in the report.

And what is all too true of complex and contradictory issues, the joint investigation is being whittled down to factoids lacking in context and emotional anecdotes by the media though many of the statistics packed into the 454-page report are hair-raising.

• Women spend 68 percent more on their health care than men during the prime childbearing years.

• Women who suffer domestic abuse spend 42 percent more on their health care than non-abused women.

• Employers lose $3-5 billion dollars annually from the lost worker productivity of domestic violence survivors, perpetrators and colleagues.

• One in five women delay seeking medical care because they can't get time off from work.

• 53 percent of college graduates breastfeed their babies, while only 29 percent of high school graduates do so.

One citation not likely to see the light of the day on your favorite morning show is the third rail of women's health issues - the effects of class and race discrimination on childbearing:

"Popular culture tends to blame women for “selfishly” focusing on their careers when they delay having children, but a complex set of incentives pressures white, affluent women to reproduce more and work less-among them the “opt-out” myth, the “mommy wars” debate, and the celebration of multiple births by white, married women-while pressuring low- and middle-income women and women of color to reproduce less and work more.
Women of color in particular are concentrated in low-wage occupations at the bottom end of the labor market that intensify the work-family tension. The low-skilled jobs most commonly occupied by women offer few benefits, irregular hours, and minimal time off, rendering them the least conducive for care giving."

Shriver gets credit for being willing to make such an unabashedly frank statement on an enormously controversial issue in the report. But that and its equally important findings on health disparities are undermined by several breezy and unsupported claims that "the gender war" is over and women's equality has magically been achieved merely by reaching 50 percent parity to the number of men in the workforce. A notion that is being happily parroted by a sound bite-driven news media to the exclusion of other relevant data.

That's not to say that there isn't good news in the study.

An exclusive public opinion poll conducted by TIME magazine and the Rockefeller Foundation offers an encouraging glimpse of historically more enlightened personal views on gender relations.

• 77 percent of Americans believe the rise of women in the workforce is a net positive for society

• Women who have children are just as committed to their jobs as women who do not have children. 83 percent of women and 73 percent of men agreed, respectively.

• 85 percent of women and 79 percent of men said that compared to previous generations, it is now more acceptable for men to be stay-at-home dads.

• 78 percent of women agreed that it is possible for a single woman to have a fulfilling life, while two-thirds of men said so.

• 89 percent of men and women are comfortable women earning more money than men in a household.

Unfortunately, few of these modern work-life perspectives have penetrated the private workplace and public institutions which continue to perpetuate unfair work practices, advance multitudes of other disparities that create barriers to true equality between men and women and seriously compromise women's health.

For all of the fanfare arising from Shriver's recent media blitz, starting with a plum appearance on the venerable political show, "Meet the Press" as part of NBC News' week-long series of feature stories, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the practical realities of transforming outdated workplace and public policies, especially on the hottest topic in the nation right now - health care reform.

The study details the usual workplace barriers to obtaining affordable health insurance, routine policies of charging women higher premium costs and rationing coverage, and chemical and toxic hazards in the workplace that can affect reproductive health, fertility and fetal development.

The American Association of University Women takes a stab at making a broad range of health care, workplace and educational policy suggestions to complement the report.

Of particular note are AAUW's calls to ban gender-rated health insurance premiums, increase Title X funding for reproductive health care, expand prescription drug coverage for contraception services and to end ineffective abstinence-only sex education programs.

But while the ongoing health insurance reform debate in Congress is at the forefront of the public's mind, the complete media blackout on women's health disparities in the report is troubling.

Print and broadcast news gleefully reported the enormously ignorant statements about maternal health, abortion funding and end-of-life care that nearly derailed the recent U.S. Senate discussion on health care reform.

But not one major news outlet has covered the Shriver Report's section on reproductive health disparities, since its Oct. 16 release, with the exception of TIME that made a passing mention in its most recent issue.

All the while, the American public remains in the dark about the stark new realities of health care - women, as a greater proportion of primary breadwinners, are have difficulty securing insurance, their workplace risks are largely unaddressed and their medical care is overtly politicized.

But one thing is certain, the remaining publicity tour over the course of this week will either elevate the Shriver Report as a critical tipping point in history to help pass needed health care reforms or, as Gloria Steinem notes in her essay [8] at the Women's Media Center, it will meet "the dusty fate of so many other reports and opinion polls."

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/10/20/media-ignores-womens-healt...

Michelle's Garden Cultivating a Movement

stephley — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:36:42 -0700

By Ari LeVaux (writes a syndicated weekly food column)
May 1, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/139206/

When Michelle Obama broke ground for her 1,100-square-foot garden on the White House lawn, the shock waves were felt around the world.

On her recent trip overseas, most of the press focused on the first lady's fashion statements. But world leaders, she said upon her return, wanted to discuss the statement her garden was making.

"Every single person from Prince Charles on down, they were excited we were planting this garden," Obama told the fifth-grade students who helped her seed it.

Reactions at home have run the gamut, from elation in foodie circles to Big Ag's revulsion at the garden's organic status. Meanwhile, the first garden has spurred a race among the gardening faithful to plant flags on other high-profile plots and lay claim to various other gardening firsts, like so many first ascents up mountaintops.

Jimmy Carter had his herb garden, and Hillary Rodham Clinton had a small rooftop garden planted in pots, but this is the first real vegetable garden planted at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt's victory garden inspired millions of Americans to start victory gardens of their own.

Obama's garden has already exerted a similarly inspirational ripple effect. Politicians and advocacy groups are jumping on the bandwagon here in the U.S., and admirers as far away as Australia have begun clamoring for gardens on the grounds of their own houses of leadership.

"I'm beyond satisfied," says Roger Doiron, founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International. In early 2008, Doiron organized an initiative, dubbed "Eat the View," to gather signatures encouraging the next first family to replace a section of the White House lawn with a vegetable garden. Worldwide, more than 100,000 people signed on.

In foodie circles, Doiron has been applauded as the dog that caught the car, but he wears his success lightly.

"I'm more the good food roadie," he says, "making sure the microphones are on, and amplifying the voice of the people."

While not certified organic, the first garden is billed as organic in practice -- and that's a dangerous precedent to be amplifying, according to the Mid America CropLife Association, which represents agribusinesses like Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences and DuPont Crop Protection.

Following the announcement of Obama's garden, MACA sent the first lady a letter expressing concern that no chemicals will be used to help the crops grow and fretting that consumers might get the wrong impression about "conventionally" grown food.

After sending the letter to Obama, MACA forwarded it to organization supporters, one of whom forwarded it Jill Richardson of the La Vida Locavore blog. The leaked letter came prefaced with the following introductory note:

"Did you hear the news? The White House is planning to have an "organic" garden on the grounds to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for the Obama's [sic] and their guests. While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator and I [Bonnie McCarvel] shudder."
There were probably more shudders in the big-chem corner when Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack celebrated Earth Day by announcing plans for a 1,300-square-foot organic garden -- USDA-certified, of course -- to be installed in the National Mall.

"The garden will help explain to the public how small things they can do at home, at their business or on their farm or ranch, can promote sustainability, conserve the nation's natural resources, and make America a leader in combating climate change," Vilsack said in a statement.

As the garden's ripples continue, plans for me-too governmental gardens are popping up like weeds. Maryland first lady Katie O'Malley is planning a garden at the governor's mansion in Annapolis. Maria Shriver, first lady of California, has plans for an organic garden in Sacramento's Capitol Park come May. A group of Vermont gardeners calling themselves the Association for the Planting of Edible Public Landscapes for Everyone (APPLE), not only has designs on the statehouse lawn in Montpelier, they're trying to beat Shriver to the punch.

APPLE members aren't hiding the fact that they're fast-tracking the initial planting of their 280-square-foot garden in an attempt to make their patch the nation's first statehouse vegetable garden.

"[We] tried to beat the Obamas to the punch, but second place is nothing to sneeze at!" wrote APPLE member Scott Sawyer on the Transition Vermont blog.

While this farms race is run, it's worth noting that several state leaders have had vegetable gardens at their official residences for years.

Maine Gov. John Baldacci has been tending a home garden at the governor's mansion for years.
Former Ohio first lady Hope Taft put in a garden at the governor's residence in 2001.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal inherited predecessor Kathleen Blanco's garden.
Also predating the Obamas' garden is the victory garden planted at San Francisco City Hall last summer.
While the vegetable garden in front of Baltimore's City Hall has yet to be planted, Mayor Sheila Dixon is quick to point out that the plot was being planned before the White House garden was announced.

"We are not copying!" she emphasized, pointing out that her garden, at 2,000 square feet, will be almost twice as large as the Obamas'.

Doiron, the widely acknowledged force behind the clamor for the White House garden, is now shifting gears. He doesn't plan to organize any more calls for gardens.

Now, he sees a growing need to support the many similar efforts now under way worldwide. He's excited to cheer them on, offer whatever advice he can and help publicize their efforts.

"There's a petition drive to get the government of Georgia to start a garden; there's a large garden going into the middle of Flint, Mich.'s municipal complex, could be as large as 3 acres; day before yesterday, a garden went in in front of the town hall in Kingston, N.Y. We've been contacted by groups in Texas, the United Kingdom, Australia…"

Once these gardens are put in, he says, they'll begin generating a different kind of buzz as the gardens are maintained and harvested.

Obama promised that her entire family will help with the weeding "whether they like it or not." If true, this promises to create more than photo ops the likes of which we've never seen.

Schwarzenegger Buys 25 Acres In Santa Barbara

justingirl1989 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:59:08 -0700

The governator and wife Maria Shriver have just bought some exclusive property on the California coastline.

Arnold is the proud owner of 25 acres in an exclusive coastal enclave in Santa Barbara County. And it only cost them $4.7 million! The land hasn't been built on yet, and has waterfalls and canyons on the property.

He's the latest to move up to Santa Barbara County, already home to Oprah and Michael Jackson

source: http://www.hollyscoop.com/arnold-schwarzenegger/schwarzenegger-buys-25-a...