The Hightower Report

A Blue-Green Victory for America

To paraphrase the well-known bumper sticker, "Stuff Happens." But sometimes, it's good stuff.

This story began with bad news. In December, a corporation called Republic Windows & Doors abruptly shut down its Chicago factory, giving the boot to 250 union workers. Republic officials said that Bank of America had yanked their financing, so, with only three days' notice, the workers were shown the door, their health coverage was canceled, and they were denied the severance and vacation pay they were owed.

Next came surprising news. The workers didn't go along with this raw deal. In fact, they didn't go at all. For six days, they protested by simply staying in the factory, refusing to leave until they were paid. Their defiant stand captured the public's imagination, generating widespread news coverage and support. Then, some good stuff happened. Bank of America, which had just taken a $34 billion bailout from us taxpayers, couldn't withstand the public outrage that its Chicago terminations generated – so it finally had to give in, shelling out nearly $2 million to cover the pay the bank had taken from these union workers.

That's good, but here comes the great stuff. In February, a California company called Serious Materials announced that it had bought the factory and would soon reopen it to make energy-efficient windows. It then reached an agreement with the union to rehire all of the terminated workers at their former levels of pay. The company, which manufactures sustainable green-building materials, says that it views the skilled, blue-collar workers in Chicago as terrific assets to help it and the country develop the emerging green economy that President Obama is advancing with the new economic stimulus plan.

So workers win, the environment wins, and the economy wins. What we have here is a blue-green victory for the red, white, and blue.

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The Milkman Delivers

The most amazing thing to me about Robert Holding, a milkman in Lancashire, England, is not that he was delivering little packets of marijuana to a few of his elderly customers along his milk route – but that the Brits can actually still get home delivery of milk!

Imagine. Our national Postal Service says it can't even keep delivering our mail to us six days a week, and here's a 72-year-old milkman still schlepping pints of cow juice door to door each day.

It was his little side business, however, that prompted British authorities to crack down on Holding. It seems that he would also drop off small bits of cannabis to 17 of his clients who requested the extra service. "They were old," he said, "and had aches and pains." The customers, who were pensioners ranging up to 92 years of age, would leave little notes on their stoops alongside their empty bottles, asking, "Can I have an ounce?"

Holding, who sold the stuff on the cheap side and apparently was not raking off much of a profit, felt he was doing a public service for the old folks. "They enjoyed it," he says. "They saved a lot of money while I was doing it, and I only did it for a short time."

Indeed, after only six months as a dealer, our Lancashire milkman was ratted out by someone. British Bobbies raided Holding's home, found 6 ounces of the dreaded weed, and arrested him. Alas, while England's marijuana laws are not quite as insane as ours, they're still unforgiving, so he was sentenced to 36 weeks in prison and given a stern lecture about the "harm" he had been doing by spreading marijuana to the old folks.

However, after the scolding, the judge noted that Holding's wife has Alzheimer's disease and that he visits her every day in the nursing home, thus the jail time was suspended – provided, of course, that he delivers nothing but milk.

Imagine the disappointment of his customers.

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For more information on Jim Hightower's work – and to subscribe to his award-winning monthly newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown – visit www.jimhightower.com. You can hear his radio commentaries on KOOP Radio, 91.7FM, weekdays at 10:58am and 12:58pm.