[From Arkansas Times ]

NLR rep is America’s highest ranking Green.

With his silver hair, sunglasses, and crisp black suit, Richard Carroll certainly looks the part of a state legislator. A resident of the Baring Cross neighborhood near Fort Roots in North Little Rock, Carroll was elected on the Green Party ticket to represent District 39 back in November, winning more than 80 percent of the vote. Currently, he’s the highest-ranking Green in the United States.

Though he cleans up well, his button-down work as a legislator is a far cry from what he really does for a living: a dirty, dangerous job as a boilermaker for the Union Pacific Railroad, Thanks to what he calls his very “civic minded” employer, Carroll has been allowed to work the night shift at the Union Pacific yards in North Little Rock part time so he can come to the legislature during the day. From 11 p.m. to around 3 in the morning, he helps rebuild locomotives that have been damaged in derailments and accidents. He catches a few catnaps before and after work, and sleeps a lot on weekends. “I get a couple hours sleep before I go in to the Capitol,” he said. “I may stay until 7 o’clock, go home, get a couple more hours sleep, then go to work.”
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[From The Orillia Packet & Times]

(Staff) The provincial and federal legs of the Simcoe North Green party held an annual general meeting yesterday at Abbott’s of Craighurst.

Valerie Powell, who will run for the Greens in the next federal election, said the party is pumped after its third-place finish in Simcoe North in the last provincial election “and in anticipation of an even more successful federal election.”

“We think we even had a mole from another party,” Powell noted. “He would not sign the attendance or tell us who he was.”

As well as celebrating the national party’s 25th anniversary, the group paid tribute to Midland’s Julie and Elliott Barker, who started the Simcoe North Green party. A Beausoleil First Nation artist presented Julie Barker with a painting and a porcupine quill. At the AGM yesterday, federal campaign managers Linda Babulik and Gord Ball unveiled the campaign team that met Feb. 28 to develop a campaign plan.

That plan will be shared with other Greens in ridings where a candidate is yet to be nominated, Powell told The Packet.

Powell is likely to get some prominent support in May, when national Green party Leader Elizabeth May is expected to visit the riding.

Pub nights are being planned for the second Thursday of the month at McCabe’s in Orillia, and similar meet-and-greet events in Midland are in the works. The point, Powell explained, is to “stay connected with volunteers and meet anyone interested in the Green party.”