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PROTEST ANOTHER BART MURDER!
Shut down the Murderous, Inept, Corrupt BART Police Department
Monday, July 11 at 4:30pm
Location: Civic Center BART - On the Platform
Last Sunday night, BART Police attacked and essentially executed a man so drunk he could barely stand! 2 BART Police officers responded to a call of a homeless man with an open container of alcohol described as stumbling and wobbling around civic center platform. Within 60 seconds of getting out of the train and onto the platform, these cops managed to shoot the man 3 times in the chest and kill him.
The BART police chief is... claiming he is 'comfortable' with this behavior. There is video that they are refusing to release. There are witnesses that contradict the police story (the lies they are using to try to cover this up). History does repeat itself, until we get angry enough to do something about it.
Join us to THIS MONDAY. ON THE CIVIC CENTER PLATFORM (yes, in the BART!). We will participate in a collective act of civil disobedience to demand:
1. The BART Board of Directors must shut down the corrupt, inept, disgraceful, and murderous BART police department, PERMANENTLY AND TOTALLY.
2. Both officers must be fired, and we demand an independent, PUBLIC investigation of this killing, and all applicable charges filed and prosecuted against the killers.
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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STOP BOMBING LIBYA!
Sat. July 9, 12 noon
Protest at Powell and Market Sts., SF
Please bring your friends, family members, neighbors and co-workers to the San Francisco protest on Saturday July 9, 2011, to demand "Stop the Bombing of Libya!" There will be a joint action that day in Washington, D.C. in front of the White House.
Contrary to the absurd argument that the bombing of Libya does not constitute a "hostility," this is fierce and illegal war aimed at carrying out regime change in the country that possesses the largest oil reserves in Africa and the ninth largest in the world.
Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Tripoli on June 17 against the U.S./NATO bombing and the terrible toll it has taken on the people, economy and infrastructure of Libya. Of course, you didn't see any coverage of this huge demonstration in the corporate media. That massive outpouring of humanity undoubtedly included many people who have grievances against the current Libyan government. But the people of Tripoli, like people everywhere, stand together against bombing by foreign powers in pursuit of an imperial agenda. Libyans want peace and they must be free to determine their own destiny.
The people of the United States are adding their voice of opposition on Saturday, July 9 in San Francisco and at the White House. By a margin of 2-to-1, the American people oppose this illegal and criminal war. There is no such thing as a "humanitarian" cruise missile. The U.S. government is spending $10 million a day bombing Libya while it bombs Afghanistan and still occupies Iraq with 47,000 troops.
In the name of "protecting civilians" NATO is killing civilians-and describing them as "legitimate military targets."
On June 20, for instance, NATO and the Pentagon pummeled the birthday party of a four-year-old boy with heavy missiles. They killed 16 civilians, including the four-year-old and his mom, as well as other children and their parents. The four-year-old was the grandson of Khweldi el-Hamedi, an associate of Colonel Gaddafi who participated in the 1969 coup that overthrew the old monarchy.
NATO is killing the civilian family members of the Libyan government in an attempt to break the will of those they have targeted for destruction and overthrow. The Pentagon used the same type of tactic in the 1991 Iraq war.
At a time when the U.S. government says that it is broke and that tens of thousands of teachers and nurses and other workers are being fired because of the "budget crisis," there seems to be limitless funds for war, bombing, invasion and occupation.
Please join us Saturday, July 9!
Three ways that you can help:
1. Endorse.
2. Download the flyer or poster and help spread the word.
3. Make a donation.
Call 415-821-6545 or visit www.ANSWERsf.org for more info or to volunteer.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org
http://www.AnswerSF.org
Answer@AnswerSF.org
2969 Mission St.
415-821-6545
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Cuba Caravan Send Off Party!!
-come help send the Cuba Caravan to Cuba
Saturday, July 9, 2011
4pm- snacks and music
5pm- program
6pm- Tamale dinner and more music
Eastside Arts Alliance,C
2277 International, Oakland ( AC #1 or 1R )
Donation requested to help support the Caravan (no one turned away)
Video- "People to People" about the Caravan
Speakers- Including Graduate from the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba
Come learn about the Caravan and help send it to Cuba.
For More Info: baypeace@baypeace.org 510-863-1737
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July 12-22
THE UNIMAGINABLE JOURNEY of S. Brian Willson an American Peacemaker
BAY AREA TOUR DATES:
TUESDAY JULY 12 • SANTA ROSA 7:15pm - Santa Rosa Friends House, 684 Benicia Dr.
WEDNESDAY JULY 13 • WALNUT CREEK 7:00pm - Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center, 55 Eckley Ln.
THURSDAY JULY 14 • SEBASTOPOL 7:00pm - Community Church of Sebastopol, 1000 Gravenstein Hwy North (sponsored by Copperfields)
FRIDAY JULY 15 • SAN RAFAEL 7:30pm - First United Methodist Church, 9 Ross Valley Dr. (at Third)
SUNDAY JULY 17 • SAN FRANCISCO 12:30pm - First Unitarian Church, 1187 Franklin St. (at Geary)
MONDAY JULY 18 • BERKELEY 6:00pm (talk begins at 7) - Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. (at Bonita)
TUESDAY JULY 19 • SAN JOSE 7:00pm - San Jose Peace AND Justice Center, 48 S. 7th St.
WEDNESDAY JULY 20 • CAPITOLA 7:30pm - Capitola Book Café, 1475 41st Ave., Capitola
FRIDAY JULY 22 • SEASIDE 5:00pm - Peace Resource Center, 1364 Fremont Blvd.
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS is available for purchase from your favorite bookseller or from PM Press: www.pmpress.org (ISBN 978-1-60486-421-2)• For more information: bloodonthetracks.info • "Like" the book page on Facebook!
Follow Brian's journey...from high school jock...to Viet Nam commander...to peace activist...seeking right livelihood...and now...cycling to your town with his new book!
SUMMER 2011 BOOK TOUR
SPONSORS
Global Exchange
Joanna Macy
Unitarian Universalists for Peace, San Francisco
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarians
Veterans For Peace San Francisco
Mt. Diablo Peace Center (Walnut Creek)
KPFA
ANSWER - SF Bay Area
Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition (BALASC)
Peaceworkers (San Francisco)
Marin Task Force on the Americas
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Buddhist Peace Fellowship (Marin County)
School of the Americas Watch West (SOAWW)
The Metta Center
Pace e Bene
San Francisco Friends Meeting - Peace Committee
American Friends Service Committee Pacific Mountain Region
Progressive Democrats of America- San Francisco (PDA-SF)
Western States Legal Foundation
Peninsula Peace and Justice Center (Palo Alto)
VFW Bill Motto Post 5888
Veterans For Peace Santa Cruz
People United for Peace of Santa Cruz County
Resource Center for Nonviolence
GI Rights Hotline, Santa Cruz Node
Ecumenical Peace Institute (Berkeley)
CODE PINK
Marin Friends Meeting
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Physicians for a National Health Program California is having our 2nd annual California Single-Payer Health Care Summer Conference at USC's Tutor Campus Center Ballroom on Saturday, July 16th, 2011 from 9am - 5pm.
Summer Conference 2011 is designed to teach attendees about just, guaranteed, comprehensive health care for ALL who live in California. We are gearing this conference toward professionals working in health, policy, advocacy, education, and organizing arenas.
This year's conference will feature Dr. Carmen Rita Nevarez, Immediate Past President, American Public Health Association as our keynote speaker, plus three Leadership Institutes that will help you develop your skills to build the movement through public speaking, coalition building or grassroots advocacy.
Ticket prices are on a sliding scale, and people who are "new to the movement" receive a discount.
For more information and to register, go to healthisahumanright.eventbrite.com. Please also download our flyer here. Please help us spread the word!
If your organization would like to sponsor this event, you can download our sponsorship form here.
Hope you can join us this summer in Los Angeles. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Thanks,
Molly Tavella, MPH
Shearer Student Fellow
Physicians for a National Health Program California
2344 6th Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
(510) 665-8523 office
(408) 892-1255 mobile
(510) 665-6027 fax
molly@pnhpcalifornia.org
www.cahpsa.org
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NATIONWIDE PROTEST AGAINST HYATT'S ANTI-WORKER ACTIONS!
July 21st, Thursday, 4:00pm
Grand Hyatt Hotel (Stockton and Sutter Streets)
San Francisco
PLEASE RSVP SO WE KNOW YOU'RE STANDING WITH HOTEL WORKERS ON THIS NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST, CLICK HERE:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFZqUEMtNGU2TndRcWZsUVNGaC0tb1E6MQ
On May 10th, Hyatt offered to sign the Hilton deal. However, for the previous 19 month since our contract expired, Hyatt had been insisting on ripping off our medical benefits, freezing our pension, eliminating the room service bussers, and keeping us in a recession with their cheap wage proposal.
Ever since our contract expired on August 2009, Hyatt joined with other Class A (bigger) hotels to refuse a new, fair Union Contract. Had it not been for the Hilton which took the lead in signing the deal, Hyatt would still be offering the garbage they were offering before the Hilton signed.
Hyatt is notorious nationally for its attacks on its immigrant work force.
In August 2009, Hyatt fired its entire housekeeping department in Boston. Women, mostly immigrants (many of whom had been working for Hyatt for more than 20 years) were fired and replaced by a subcontractor company which pays its workers close to minimum wage. Read more about the Boston housekeepers.
Hyatt has also distinguished itself as the company which loads more and more work on room cleaners, often resulting in high levels of worker injuries. Hyatt has been cited by the government for unsafe working conditions in housekeeping. Read more on housekeepers' injuries, click here.
Join us for a nationwide protest against Hyatt's anti-worker actions on July 21st, Thursday, 4:00pm in front of the Grand Hyatt hotel on Stockton and Sutter Streets, San Francisco.
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Millions March In Harlem
Against the Attack on African People
END
the Bombing of Libya
the Illegal Sanctions in Zimbabwe
Bloomberg's Destruction
of Education, Housing, Health Care, Jobs and more!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Pan Africanism Rising Against Imperialism!
Assemble at 10 AM
110th Street and Malcolm X Blvd
Harlem New York
Pan Africanism or Perish!
For more information and participation call (718) 398-1766
Forward to all your contacts and let us know how many will be attending!
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FREEDOM FROM VIOLENCE AND POLICE STATE TERROR
Saturday, August 20 at 2:00pm
Location: In front of SF City Hall, Polk Street side, between Grove & McAllister
On the 34th Birthday of Idriss Stelley, Killed by SFPD on 6-12-01 at the Sony Metreon Complex,
The event is meant to launch a citywide police accountability and transparency COLLECTIVE comprised of socially mindful grassroots entities , social/racial Justice activists, and "progressive "city officials, as well as mayoral candidates, HOLD THEM TO THEIR PROMISES!
Performances, music, spoken word, and speakers.
If you would like to speak or perform,
please contact Jeremy Miller at 415-595-2894, djasik87.9@gmail.com,
or mesha Monge-Irizarry at 415-595-8251
Please join our facebook group at
Idriss Stelley Foundation !
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Protest, March & Die-In on 10th Anniversary of Afghanistan War
Friday, Oct. 7, 2011, 4:30-6:30pm
New Federal Building, 7th & Mission Sts, SF
End All the Wars & Occupations-Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Haiti . . .
Money for Jobs, Healthcare & Schools-Not for the Pentagon
Friday, October 7, 2011 will be the exact 10th anniversary of the U.S./NATO war on the people of Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Afghani people have been killed, wounded and displaced, and thousands of U.S. and NATO forces killed and wounded. The war costs more than $126 billion per year at a time when social programs are being slashed.
The true and brutal character of the U.S. strategy to "win hearts and minds" of the Afghani population was described by a Marine officer, quoted in a recent ANSWER Coalition statement:
"You can't just convince them [Afghani people] through projects and goodwill," another Marine officer said. "You have to show up at their door with two companies of Marines and start killing people. That's how you start convincing them." (To read the entire ANSWER statement, click here)
Mark your calendar now and help organize for the October 7 march and die-in in downtown San Francisco. There are several things you can do:
1. Reply to this email to endorse the protest and die-in.
2. Spread the word and help organize in your community, union, workplace and campus.
3. Make a donation to help with organizing expenses.
Only the people can stop the war!
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org
http://www.AnswerSF.org
Answer@AnswerSF.org
2969 Mission St.
415-821-6545
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(Please forward widely)
Save the dates of October 6, 15 to protest wars; and May 15-22, 2012--Northern California UNAC will be discussing plans for solidarity actions around the Chicago G-8 here.
United National Antiwar Committee
UNACpeace@gmain.com or UNAC at P.O. Box 123, Delmar, NY 12054
518-227-6947
www.UNACpeace.org
UNITED NATIONAL ANTIWAR COMMITTEE (UNAC) CALLS FOR ACTIONS IN OCTOBER
TO MARK 10 YEARS OF WAR ON AFGHANISTAN
On June 22, the White House defied the majority of Americans who want an end to the war in Afghanistan. Instead of announcing the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops, contractors, bases, and war dollars, Obama committed to removing only one twentieth of the US forces on the ground in Afghanistan over the next eight months. Another 23,000 will supposedly be withdrawn just in time to influence the 2012 elections. Even if the President follows thru on this plan, nearly 170,000 US soldiers and contractors will remain in Afghanistan. All veterans and soldiers will be raising the question, "Who will be the last U.S. combatant to die in Afghanistan?"
In truth, the President's plan is not a plan to end the war in Afghanistan. It was, instead, an announcement that the U.S. was changing strategy. As the New York Times reported, the US will be replacing the "counterinsurgency strategy" adopted 18 months ago with the kind of campaign of drone attacks, assassinations, and covert actions that the US has employed in Pakistan.
At a meeting of the United National Antiwar Committee's National Coordinating Committee, held in NYC on June 18, representatives of 47 groups voted to endorse the nonviolent civil resistance activities beginning on October 6 in Washington, D.C. and to call for nationally coordinated local actions on October 15 to protest the tenth anniversary of the US war in Afghanistan. UNAC urges activists in as many cities as possible to hold marches, picket lines, teach-ins, and other events to say:
· Withdraw ALL US/NATO Military Forces, Contractors, and Bases out of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya NOW!
· End drone attacks on defenseless populations in Pakistan and Yemen!
· End US Aid to Israel! Hands Off Iran!
· Bring Our War Dollars Home Now! Money for Jobs and Education, Not for War and Incarceration!
Note these dates of upcoming significant events:
· November 11-13 UNAC National Conference - a gathering of all movement activists to learn, share, plan future actions.
· May 15-22, 2012 International Protest Actions against war criminals attending NATO meeting and G-8 summit in Chicago.
Challenge the NATO War Makers in Chicago May 15-22, 2012
NATO and the G8 are coming to Chicago - so are we!
The White House has just announced that the U.S. will host a major international meeting of NATO, the US-commanded and financed 28-nation military alliance, in Chicago from May 15 to May 22, 2012. It was further announced that at the same time and place, there will be a summit of the G-8 world powers. The meetings are expected to draw heads of state, generals and countless others.
At a day-long meeting in New York City on Saturday, June 18, the United National Antiwar Committee's national coordinating committee of 69 participants, representing, 47 organizations, unanimously passed a resolution to call for action at the upcoming NATO meeting.
UNAC is determined to mount a massive united outpouring in Chicago during the NATO gathering to put forth demands opposing endless wars and calling for billions spent on war and destruction be spent instead on people's needs for jobs, health care, housing and education.
CHALLENGE THE NATO WAR MAKERS
Whereas, the U.S. is the major and pre-eminent military, economic and political power behind NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), and
Whereas, the U.S. will be hosting a major NATO gathering in the spring of 2012, and
Whereas, U.S. and NATO-allied forces are actively engaged in the monstrous wars, occupations and military attacks on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, the Middle East and elsewhere,
Be it resolved that:
1) UNAC, in conjunction with a broad range of groups and organizations that share general agreement with the major demands adopted at our 2010 Albany, NY national conference, initiate a mass demonstration at the site of the NATO gathering, and
2) UNAC welcomes and encourages the participation of all groups interested in mobilizing against war and for social justice in planning a broad range of other NATO meeting protests including teach-ins, alternative conferences and activities organized on the basis of direct action/civil resistance, and
3) UNAC will seek to make the NATO conference the occasion for internationally coordinated protests, and
4) UNAC will convene a meeting of all of the above forces to discuss and prepare initial plans to begin work on this spring action.
Resolution passed unanimously by the National Coordinating Committee of UNAC on Saturday, June 18, 2011
click here to donate to UNAC:
https://nationalpeaceconference.org/Donate.html
Click here for the Facebook UNAC group.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_157059221012587&ap=1
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B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/ or bauaw.org ...bw]
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Food, Inc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVFKEWL6DVU
Documentary filmmaker Robert Kenner uses reports by FAST FOOD NATION author Eric Schlosser and THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA author Michael Pollan as a springboard to exploring where the food we purchase really comes from, and what it means for the health of future generations. By exposing the comfortable relationships between business and government, Kenner gradually shines light on the dark underbelly of the American food industry. The USDA and FDA are supposed to protect the public, so why is it that both government regulatory agencies have been complicit in allowing corporations to put profit ahead of consumer health, the American farmer, worker safety, and even the environment? As chicken breasts get bigger and tomatoes are genetically engineered not to go bad, 73,000 Americans fall ill from powerful new strains of E. coli every year, obesity levels are skyrocketing, and adult diabetes has reached epidemic proportions. Perhaps if the general public knew how corporations use exploited laws and subsidies to create powerful monopolies, the outrage would be enough to make us think more carefully about the food we put into our bodies.
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CPS takes custody of 6 kids living with parents in storage shed
http://www.khou.com/news/Storage-Shed-CPS-Fight-125041524.html
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Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class [Full Film]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6ZS91cqpa8
Narrated by Ed Asner
Based on the book by Pepi Leistyna, Class Dismissed navigates the steady stream of narrow working class representations from American television's beginnings to today's sitcoms, reality shows, police dramas, and daytime talk shows.
Featuring interviews with media analysts and cultural historians, this documentary examines the patterns inherent in TV's disturbing depictions of working class people as either clowns or social deviants -- stereotypical portrayals that reinforce the myth of meritocracy.
Class Dismissed breaks important new ground in exploring the ways in which race, gender, and sexuality intersect with class, offering a more complex reading of television's often one-dimensional representations. The video also links television portrayals to negative cultural attitudes and public policies that directly affect the lives of working class people.
Featuring interviews with Stanley Aronowitz, (City University of New York); Nickel and Dimed author, Barbara Ehrenreich; Herman Gray (University of California-Santa Cruz); Robin Kelley (Columbia University); Pepi Leistyna (University of Massachusetts-Boston) and Michael Zweig (State University of New York-Stony Brook). Also with Arlene Davila, Susan Douglas, Bambi Haggins, Lisa Henderson, and Andrea Press.
Sections: Class Matters | The American Dream Machine | From the Margins to the Middle | Women Have Class | Class Clowns | No Class | Class Action
http://www.mediaed.org
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Daily life in Fukushima: 'It was like visiting another universe'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY5cvod4Tiw&feature=player_embedded
Uploaded by RussiaToday on Jul 3, 2011
Jan Beranek, who is with a team of Greenpeace activists investigating the fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, says Japanese are encouraged to return to their normal lives unaware of the dangers they face in the contaminated area. "I personally find it very disturbing, because on the one hand you see the Japanese authorities forcing people and society to get back to normal... And yet at the same time there are still extremely high levels of radiation and the contamination of the soil, and also potentially in the food," the activist told RT. "This is just unbelievable because at those levels of exposure it certainly poses a risk to the lives and health of the people. If you draw a parallel to the Chernobyl disaster, then actually the Soviets decided to evacuate everyone living in the place, where radiation was three or four times lower than what we see in Fukushima City today," added Beranek, who personally visited the Chernobyl area after the 1986 disaster. Greenpeace is putting pressure on the Japanese government to gather and provide more information about the contamination in addition to doing its independent effort, Beranek said. "We've actually forced the government to, for example, extend the monitoring of the sea. And we also hear that the government is now revising at least some of the protective measures for children, which is definitely good to see. Yet the government is too slow and doing too little actually [compared to] what the situation would deserve," he said. The activist hopes the consequences of the Fukushima disaster will make Japan and other nations change their stance on nuclear energy and phase it out. There is such change already in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. "Nuclear power, as we have seen, is inherently unsafe. There is always an unpredictable combination of natural catastrophe, technological failure, human error that can result in a situation when a reactor gets out of control very fast. It's a question of a few hours before full meltdown happens. It's unsafe to take the bets and continue with nuclear power," Beranek believes.
RT on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RTnews
RT on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RT_com
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New Analysis of Unit 3 Fuel Pool Video Reveals Top of Fuel Bundle
http://fairewinds.com/content/new-analysis-unit-3-fuel-pool-video-reveals-top-fuel-bundle
New Analysis of Unit 3 Fuel Pool Video Reveals Top of Fuel Bundle from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.
A video first released by TEPCO in April has been re-analyzed by Ian Goddard and appears to reveal a handle found atop a single nuclear fuel bundle. This raises more questions about the condition of any fuel still remaining in the Unit 3 fuel pool.
Hi I'm Arnie Gundersen from Fairewinds.
If you have been watching the site lately, it has been about 3 weeks since we have updated a video. During that time, Maggie and I have been on the road making a couple of presentations in Massachusetts, a couple of TV shows and some radio and print. That will be on the site over the next couple of weeks to inform you of what we have been up to. But something happened last night that I really wanted to share with you right now.
I got an email last night from Ian Goddard. And Ian is a long time watcher of this site and has done some really great analysis in the past as well. He took a look at an old TEPCO video. And Tokyo Electric had gone into the Unit 3 fuel pool just once. You remember that Unit 3 is the reactor that is blown to smithereens. The video showed a lot of damage. But Ian Goddard was able to find one spot where there is clearly something that appears to be discernible. It looks like the handle of a BWR fuel bundle.
Ian compares that bundle to other bundles which were looked at over in Unit 4 and it is pretty clear to me and a couple of other nuclear engineers I have shown it to, that this might be a single nuclear fuel bundle in the Unit 3 fuel pool.
It raises more questions than it answers. First of all, there should be a lot of bundles there. Yet, obviously, there is only one in this picture. Where are the other bundles? The other part of the question is, this should be under about 25 feet of water. It is not, it is very near to the surface. So what has happened to that particular bundle, or to the water level in the pool that caused it to come in such close contact with atmosphere?
Like I said, it raises more questions than it answers, but I really do want to thank Ian Goddard for discovering this. If you have any comments or questions or thoughts on what you think it might be, please send in through the comments section on the website.
Thanks, we will get back to you soon.
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Arnie Gundersen Discusses Situation at flooded Ft. Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear Power Plants.
http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/gundersen-june-29-2011-video
Gundersen Discusses the Situation at the flooded Ft. Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear Power Plants. from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.
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Las Conchas fire, evening flames threatening Los Alamos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCYl7HFmCzE&feature=player_embedded
Uploaded by MichaelZeiler on Jun 29, 2011
On this fourth day of the devastating Las Conchas fire which is threatening Los Alamos, New Mexico, the night sky finally cleared enough to see the flames licking all around the labs and the city.
This time-lapse video is comprised of 113 photographs taken 30 seconds apart. Each photograph is shown for one second. My vantage point is from my home on a ridge just to the north of Santa Fe.
You can see quick changes in the fires, stars in the sky, and emergency vehicles making their way on fire duties. The brightest lights are the headquarters of the Los Alamos labs and other technical areas are to the left. To the right is the Los Alamos town site. Below the headquarters is the suburb of White Rock.
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Let's torture the truth out of suicide bombers says new CIA chief Petraeus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sm02UbKNCKQ
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Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant Main Building Underwater, 10 Mile Mandatory Evacuation Area
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zosA6pPH_E&feature=player_embedded
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Gundersen: Intake Structure that cools reactor and spent fuel pool is probably most vulnerable part of Ft. Calhoun nuke plan - Critical that it stays dry (VIDEO)
June 28th, 2011 at 06:26 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ESVDI2OQZ4&feature=player_embedded
Arnie Gundersen on Five O'clock Shadow with Robert Knight, WBAI, June 28, 2011 at 5:00 pm EDT:
* Intake structure probably the most vulnerable, not auxiliary and containment buildings...
* Intake structure draws in river water that cools reactor and spent fuel pool... critical that it stay dry...
* If gets water in it and emergency service water pumps fail then you've got a case where you're going to cause fuel damage...
* Probably the most vulnerable at Ft Calhoun...
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Black Agenda Report Morning Shot 6.21.2011: Defying The Tomb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LKj0RFjZ9Q&feature=player_embeddedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LKj0RFjZ9Q&feature=player_embedded
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Labor Beat: Give It Back!
http://blip.tv/labor-beat/give_it_back-5315509
The Executive Summit of CEOs and CFOs at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago on June 14, 2011 was the target of a broad coalition of community and labor organizations, put together by Stand Up! Chicago. Several thousand protesters successfully pulled off 3 coordinated feeder marches (housing, jobs, education) that transformed the hub of corporate Chicago at Michigan and Wacker into protest central. We begin with the small band of movement artists (teachers, students and activists) as they plan the visuals and create the huge puppets (Kings of Corporate Welfare) which became the visual rallying points of the Give It Back march and rally. We show the process of how the big march came together and how working people were able to appropriate Chicago's showplace of big business and convert it into a movement theatrical backdrop. The CEOs at the Hyatt went on with their meeting, and a city-wide movement gained confidence in its organizing skills. Rod Wilson of the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization observed: "This is definitely the beginning, not the end, not the culminating, but the beginning." Length - 18:33. Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit Google Video, YouTube, or blip.tv and search "Labor Beat". Labor Beat has regular cable slots in Chicago, Evanston, Rockford, Urbana, IL; St. Louis, MO; Philadelphia, PA; Princeton, NJ; and Rochester, NY. For more detailed information, send us a request at mail@laborbeat.org
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Japanese Anti-Nuc Song Gone Viral
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AylBxsiUSws&feature=related
Kazuyoshi Saito On Ustream 2011/04/08
Song and Lyrics: Kazuyoshi Saito
"You have been telling a lie"
When we walk around this country,
we can find 54 Nuke power plants
My text book and CM always told me,
"It's SAFE"
You have been telling a lie,
then your excuse is just "UNEXPECTED"
I remember the clear sky,
but now, it turns black rain
You've been telling a lie,
it was exposed after all, I know
Yeah, it was a lie, "Nuke is completely safe"
You've been telling a lie,
I just wanna eat such a delicious spinach once again.
Yeah, it was a lie,
You should have noticed this ball game
We can't stop the contaminated wind anymore
Do you accept if you find it about how many people would be exposed by the radiation?
How do you think? I'm asking you, Jap Gov.
When you leave this town,
Could you find delicious water?
Tell me, whatever, there's no way to hide
They are all suck, Tepco, Hepco, Chuden and Kanden
We never dream a dream anymore
But they are all suck
They still keep going
They are truely suck
I wanna take action, how could I handle this feeling?
They are telling a lie....
We are all suck....
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Flood Alert: Brownsville,NE Levee Breach- Cooper Nuclear Plant
Jun 20, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcIrqrKLIyM
Brownsville NE levee is breaching at Brownsville Bridge -
Brownsville is where the Cooper Nuclear Plant is located
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Dr Helen Caldicott - Fukushima Nuclear Disaster- You won't hear this on the Main Stream News.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4ITrXVJMKeQ
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Choosing a Profession
An old country preacher had a teenage son, and it was getting time the boy should give some thought to choosing a profession. Like many young Men his age, the boy didn't really know what he wanted to do, and he didn't seem too concerned about it. One day, while the boy was away at school, his father decided to try an experiment. He went into the boy's room and placed on his study table four objects...
1. A Bible.....?
2. A silver dollar.....?
3. A bottle of whisky......?
4. And a Playboy magazine.....?
'I'll just hide behind the door,' the old preacher said to himself. 'When he comes home from school today, I'll see which object he picks up.
If it's the Bible, he's going to be a preacher like me, and what a blessing that would be!
If he picks up the dollar, he's going to be a business man, and that would be okay, too.
But if he picks up the bottle, he's going to be a no-good drunken bum, and Lord, what a shame that would be.
And worst of all if he picks up that magazine he's going to be a
skirt-chasing womanizer.'
The old man waited anxiously, and soon heard his son's foot-steps as he entered the house whistling and headed for his room.
The boy tossed his books on the bed, and as he turned to leave the room he spotted the objects on the table..
With curiosity in his eye, he walked over to inspect them. Finally, he picked up the Bible and placed it under his arm. He picked up the silver dollar and dropped into his pocket. He uncorked the bottle and took a big drink, while he admired this month's centerfold.
'Lord have mercy,' the old preacher disgustedly whispered.
'He's gonna run for Congress.'
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Stop Police Brutality: Justice for Eric Radcliff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB8GpiXuSV4&NR=1
22 year old Eric Radcliff was shot and killed by police officers from the 35th district on the morning of Saturday May 21st, 2011. According to witnesses he was unarmed. The incident took place on the 5800 Block of Mascher Street in the 5th and Olney Section.
OUR COMMUNITY DEMANDS JUSTICE
WE THE FAMILIES AND FRIENDS OF ERIC RADCLIFF ARE CONCERNED THAT JUSTICE HAS NOT BEEN SERVED. WE BELIEVE THAT THE POLICE OFFICERS USED EXCESSIVE FORCE. ERIC DID NOT HAVE TO DIE.
OUR DEMANDS
1. Open An Investigation Into the May 21st Shooting Death of 22 year old Eric Radcliff by officers of the Philadelphia Police Department's 35th District.
2. End Police Brutality! Serve and Protect, Not Disrespect and Victimize!
3. LETS GET OUR HOUSE IN ORDER. Let's Unite for Real Security and To Build a Better Future for Ourselves
Please come Join in UNITY AND LOVE! God is Good, We ARE winning!
JusticeforEricRadcliff@gmail.com
215-954-2272 for more information
VIA Justice for Eric Radcliff
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Stop Police Brutality: Justice for Albert Pernell Jr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGyR9Y2LPss
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*High Alert* - Fire -Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant near Omaha Nebraska- Flooding Missouri River
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHZdub3n0mI&feature=player_embedded
\Five O'Clock Shadow" with Robert Knight and Arnie Gundersen from Fairewinds Associates
Fire knocks out spent fuel cooling pool at nuclear plant near Omaha - Operating under heightened alert level because of nearby flooding on Missouri River.
On June 6, 2011, the Fort Calhoun pressurized water nuclear reactor 20 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska entered emergency status due to imminent flooding from the Missouri River. A day later, there was an electrical fire requiring plant evacuation. Then, on June 8th, NRC event reports confirmed the fire resulted in the loss of cooling for the reactor's spent fuel pool.
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Empty Chairs
AFLCIONow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3juhx3GJQQ
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Hot Particles From Japan to Seattle Virtually Undetectable when Inhaled or Swallowed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBEipg81uLw&feature=player_embedded
Original estimates of xenon and krypton releases remain the same, but a TEPCO recalculation shows dramatic increases in the release of hot particles. This confirms the results of air filter monitoring by independent scientists. Fairewinds' Arnie Gundersen explains how hot particles may react in mammals while escaping traditional detection. Reports of a metallic taste in the mouth, such as those now being reported in Japan and on the west coast, are a telltale sign of radiation exposure.
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'Fukushima media cover-up - PR success, public health disaster'
June 11, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_rAX9TzY2A&feature=player_embedded
Residents of the Fukushima district, and those who lived near-by have not only faced radiation exposure but also social exclusion... That's according to Dr. Robert Jacobs, Professor of nuclear history, at the Hiroshima Peace Institute.
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QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us? is a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis from Taggart Siegel, director of THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN. Taking us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, this engaging and ultimately uplifting film weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva. Together they reveal both the problems and the solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature.
Official Film Website: http://www.queenofthesun.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekoeQodrVoM
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Autopsy Released in Police Shooting of Man Holding Nozzle
Douglas Zerby was shot 12 times, in the chest, arms and lower legs.
Watch Mary Beth McDade's report
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-long-beach-belmont-shore-shooting,0,2471345.story
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I Wanna Be A Pirate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppynM1lcst8
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Detained for photography in Baltimore Parts 1 and 2:
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iMr76atjUA
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JOFwbiI8fQ
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Arrested for Filming Police in MD?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18ew29IFVHw&NR=1
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Woman 'detained' for filming police search launches high court challenge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2MtGCp5scM&NR=1
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Adam Kokesh body slammed, choked, police brutality at Jefferson Memorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jUU3yCy3uI&feature=player_embedded#at=575
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Kim Ives & Dan Coughlin on WikiLeaks Cables that Reveal "Secret History" of U.S. Bullying in Haiti
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL0Dk21dC-M
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Operation Empire State Rebellion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJvBlQcaaaU&feature=player_embedded#at=10
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20 Facts About U.S. Inequality that Everyone Should Know
Click an image to learn more about a fact!
http://www.stanford.edu/group/scspi/cgi-bin/facts.php
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THE AUDACITY OF HOPE
ustogaza1's Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/ustogaza1
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Licensed to Kill Video
http://nirs.org/multimedia/video/l2k.htm
Gundersen Gives Testimony to NRC ACRS from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.
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Gundersen Gives Testimony to NRC ACRS
http://fairewinds.com/updates
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) held a special ACRS meeting Thursday May 26, 2011 on the current status of Fukushima. Arnie Gundersen was invited to speak for 5 minutes concerning the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident as it pertains to the 23 Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactors (BWR's) in the US and containment integrity. Mr. Gundersen was the first engineer to brief the NRC on the implication of Main Steam Isolation Valve (MSIV) Leakage in 1974, and he has been studying containment integrity since 1972. The NRC has constantly maintained in all of its calculations and reviews that there is zero probability of a containment leaking. For more than six years, in testimony and in correspondence with the NRC, Mr. Gundersen has disputed the NRC's stand that containment systems simply do not and cannot leak. The events at Fukushima have proven that Gundersen was correct. The explosions at Fukushima show that Mark 1 containments will lose their integrity and release huge amounts of radiation, as Mr. Gundersen has been telling the NRC for many years.
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Guy on wheelchair taken down by officers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdkJxw1mPoM
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Paradise Gray Speaks At Jordan Miles Emergency Rally 05/06/2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJOLz1EYDYE&feature=player_embedded
Police Reassigned While CAPA Student's Beatdown Investigated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK-6IsP3dUg&NR=1&feature=fvwp
Pittsburgh Student Claims Police Brutality; Shows Hospital Photos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_j_AVsTXZc&feature=relmfu
Justice For Jordan Miles
By jasiri x
http://justiceforjordanmiles.com/
Monday, May 9, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Even though Pittsburgh Police beat Jordan Miles until he looked like this: (Photo at website)
And even though Jordan Miles, an honor student who plays the viola, broke no laws and committed no crimes, the Federal Government decided not to prosecute the 3 undercover Pittsburgh Police officers who savagely beat him.
To add insult to injury, Pittsburgh's Mayor and Police Chief immediately reinstated the 3 officers without so much as a apology. An outraged Pittsburgh community called for an emergency protest to pressure the local District Attorney to prosecute these officers to the fullest extent of the law.
Below is my good friend, and fellow One Hood founding member Paradise Gray (also a founding member of the Blackwatch Movement and the legendary rap group X-Clan) passionately demanding Justice for Jordan Miles and speaking on the futility of a war of terror overseas while black men are terrorized in their own neighborhoods.
For more information on how you can help get Justice For Jordan Miles go to http://justiceforjordanmiles.com/
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Tier Systems Cripple Middle Class Dreams for Young Workers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09pQW6TW8m4&feature=youtu.be
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Epidemiologist, Dr. Steven Wing, Discusses Global Radiation Exposures and Consequences with Gundersen
Epidemiologist, Dr. Steven Wing and nuclear engineer, Arnie Gundersen, discuss the consequences of the Fukushima radioactive fallout on Japan, the USA, and the world. What are the long-term health effects? What should the government(s) do to protect citizens?
http://vimeo.com/22706805
Epidemiologist, Dr. Steven Wing, Discusses Global Radiation Exposures and Consequences with Gundersen from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.
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New Video - Lupe Fiasco ft. Skylar Grey - 'Words I Never Said'
Thu, Apr 28 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22l1sf5JZD0
Lupe Fiasco addresses some heavy issues in the latest video for his new single, 'Words I Never Said,' featuring Skylar Grey. In the 5 minute and 45 second dose of reality, Lupe tackles issues such as the war on terrorism, devastation, conspiracy theories, 9/11 and genocide. From the opening lyrics of "I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullsh*t", Lupe doesn't hold back as he voices his socio-political concerns.
"If you turn on TV all you see's a bunch of what the f-ks'
Dude is dating so and so blabbering bout such and such
And that ain't Jersey Shore, homie that's the news
And these the same people that supposed to be telling us the truth
Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn't say s-t
That's why I ain't vote for him, next one either
I'm a part of the problem, my problem is I'm peaceful."
Skylar Grey (who also lends her vocals to Dirty money's 'Coming Home' and Eminem's 'I Need A Doctor') does an excellent job of complementing the Alex Da Kid produced track.
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Union Town by Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ZT71DxLuM&feature=player_embedded
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BRADLEY MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!
"He broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be charged, let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the President to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with a crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!
Obama on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-Presidential remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at fundraiser. Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be
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W.E. A.L.L. B.E.: Miss. Medical Examiner Dr. Adel Shaker On Frederick Carter Hanging (4/19/2011)
http://blip.tv/file/5057532
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Max Romeo - Socialism Is Love
http://youtu.be/eTvUs4rY4to
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Cuba: The Accidental Eden
http://video.pbs.org/video/1598230084/
[This is a stunningly beautiful portrait of the Cuban natural environment as it is today. However, several times throughout, the narrator tends to imply that if it werent for the U.S. embargo against Cuba, Cuba's natural environment would be destroyed by the influx of tourism, ergo, the embargo is saving nature. But the Cuban scientists and naturalists tell a slightly different story. But I don't want to spoil the delightfully surprising ending. It's a beautiful film of a beautiful country full of beautiful, articulate and well-educated people....bw]
Watch the full episode. See more Nature.
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VIDEO: SWAT Team Evicts Grandmother
Take Back the Land- Rochester Eviction Defense March 28, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2axN1zsZno&feature=player_embedded
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B. D. S. [Boycott, Divest, Sanction against Israel]
(Jackson 5) Chicago Flashmob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4tXe2HKqqs&feature=player_embedded
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The Kill Team
How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses - and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon
Rolling Stone
March 27, 3011
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-kill-team-20110327
Afghans respond to "Kill Team"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3guxWIorhdA
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BP Oil Spill Scientist Bob Naman: Seafood Still Not Safe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3VdxvMnDls
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Exclusive: Flow Rate Scientist : How Much Oil Is Really Out There?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsHl3kn63ZA&NR=1
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WikiLeaks Mirrors
Wikileaks is currently under heavy attack.
In order to make it impossible to ever fully remove Wikileaks from the Internet, you will find below a list of mirrors of Wikileaks website and CableGate pages.
Go to
http://wikileaks.ch/Mirrors.html
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Labor Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand Jury Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse Sharkey, Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
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Oil Spill Commission Final Report: Catfish Responds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3ZRdsccMsM
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Domestic Espionage Alert - Houston PD to use surveillance drone in America!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpstrc15Ogg
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Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
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Coal Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
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Flashmob: Cape Town Opera say NO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wElyrFOnKPk
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"Don't F*** With Our Activists" - Mobilizing Against FBI Raid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyG3dIUGQvQ
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C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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LEONARD PELTIER NEEDS OUR HELP!
On June 27, Leonard Peltier was removed from the general population at USP-Lewisburg and thrown in the hole. Little else is known at this time. Due to his age and health status, please join us in demanding his immediate return to general population.
Thomas Kane, Acting Director
Federal Bureau of Prisons
E-Mail: info@bop.gov
Web Site: www.bop.gov
Phone: (202) 307-3198
Fax: (202) 514-6620
Address: 320 1st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20534
Launched into cyberspace by the
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
PO Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106
http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info
contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
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CAMPAIGN TO END THE DEATH PENALTY SPECIAL CIRCULAR: PELICAN BAY HUNGER STRIKE BEGINS JULY 1
(Please post widely)
CONTENTS:
-- Introduction
-- Campaign to End the Death Penalty Solidarity Statement
-- CEDP Statement of Solidarity with Pelican Bay Hunger Strikers
-- Solidarity Statement from Corcoran State Prisoners
-- Take Action!
INTRODUCTION
Prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) of California's Pelican Bay state prison have announced that they will begin an indefinite hunger strike on July 1. Although prison officials aim to keep prisoners silenced and divided, the hunger strike has shown solidarity across racial, ethnic and religious lines and demands improvements in cruel and inhumane prison conditions.
In his statement "Why Prisoners are Protesting", prisoner Mutop DuGuya states, "Effective July 1st we are initiating a peaceful protest by way of an indefinite hunger strike in which we will not eat until our core demands are met.....we have decided to put our fate in our own hands. Some of us have already suffered a slow, agonizing death in which the state has shown no compassion toward these dying prisoners. Rather than compassion they turn up their ruthlessness. No one wants to die. Yet under this current system of what amounts to intense torture, what choice do we have? If one is to die, it will be on our own terms."
Prisons in this country stand as silent tombs. Millions are warehoused in "correctional" facilities that serve only to punish and dehumanize. These prisoners in Pelican Bay are standing bravely against tortuous conditions and those of us on the outside must stand with them and shine a light into the dark cages that politicians want us to forget.
CAMPAIGN TO END THE DEATH PENALTY SOLIDARITY STATEMENT
The Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) stands in solidarity with the prisoners of Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) who will be engaged in a hunger strike on July 1 in protest of their deplorable conditions.
The prisoners at Pelican Bay prison in California live in a world in which collective punishment is common, sunlight is rare, and food is used as a tool of coercion. They live in a world that is so unlike the world that most of us take for granted that it strains our comprehension. The world of the prisoners has one goal, to create passive, compliant prisoners; prisoners who will not clamor for more; prisoners who will not rock the boat; prisoners who will not threaten to expose just how rotten the prison system is.
This world has failed. While these demands show us a world turned upside down, they also show us a prison population that is fighting back against their appalling conditions. The prisoners have stated that their hunger strike will be indefinite until their demands are met. This means they could face serious health issues or even death. For them, a fighting death is preferable to the hell they are living.
The Campaign to End the Death Penalty supports the Pelican Bay hunger strikers and stand with all prisoners who seek to better their lives. We stand in solidarity with these brave fighters in their quest for justice and humanity.
The demands of the prisoners clearly show the capricious and dehumanizing conditions in which they the prisoners are calling for:
1. Eliminate group punishments. Instead, practice individual accountability. When an individual prisoner breaks a rule, the prison often punishes a whole group of prisoners of the same race. This policy has been applied to keep prisoners in the SHU indefinitely and to make conditions increasingly harsh.
2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria.
Debriefing produces false information - wrongly landing other prisoners in SHU, and can endanger the lives of debriefing prisoners and their families.
3. End long-term solitary confinement. Segregation should be used as a last resort and prisoners require access to adequate healthcare and natural sunlight.
4. Provide wholesome, nutritious meals and access to vitamins.
5. Expand and provide constructive programming such as photos of loved ones, weekly phone calls, extension of visitation time, calendars, and radios, etc.
You can read the prisoner's full text of their demands here: http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/take-action/
SOLIDARITY STATEMENT FROM CORCORAN STATE PRISONERS
Statement of Solidarity with the Pelican Bay Collective Hunger Strike on July 1st.
From: the N.C.T.T. Corcoran SHU
Greetings to all who support freedom, justice, and equality. We here of the N.C.T.T. SHU stand in solidarity with, and in full support of the July 1st hunger strike and the 5 major action points and sub-points as laid out by the Pelican Bay Collective in the Policy Statements (See, "Archives", P.B.S.P.-SHU-D corridor hunger strike).
What many are unaware of is that facility 4B here in Corcoran SHU is designated to house validated prisoners in indefinite SHU confinement and have an identical ultra-super max isolation unit short corridor modeled after corridor D in Pelican Bay, complete with blacked out windows a mirror tinted glass on the towers so no one but the gun tower can see in [into our cells], and none of us can see out; flaps welded to the base of the doors and sandbags on the tiers to prevent "fishing" [a means of passing notes, etc. between cells using lengths of string]; IGI [Institutional Gang Investigators] transports us all to A.C.H. [?] medical appointments and we have no contact with any prisoners or staff outside of this section here in 4B/1C C Section the "short corridor" of the Corcoran SHU. All of the deprivations (save access to sunlight); outlines in the 5-point hunger strike statement are mirrored, and in some instances intensified here in the Corcoran SHU 4B/1C C Section isolation gang unit.
Medical care here, in a facility allegedly designed to house chronic care and prisoners with psychological problems, is so woefully inadequate that it borders on intentional disdain for the health of prisoners, especially where diabetics and cancer are an issue. Access to the law library is denied for the most mundane reasons, or, most often, no reason at all. Yet these things and more are outlined in the P.B.S.P.-SHU five core demands.
What is of note here, and something that should concern all U.S. citizens, is the increasing use of behavioral control (torture units) and human experimental techniques against prisoners not only in California but across the nation. Indefinite confinement, sensory deprivation, withholding food, constant illumination, use of unsubstantiated lies from informants are the psychological billy clubs being used in these torture units. The purpose of this "treatment" is to stop prisoners from standing in opposition to inhumane prison conditions and prevent them from exercising their basic human rights.
Many lawsuits have been filed in opposition to the conditions in these conditions ... [unreadable] yet the courts have repeatedly re-interpreted and misinterpreted their own constitutional law ... [unreadable] to support the state's continued use of these torture units. When approved means of protest and redress of rights are prove meaningless and are fully exhausted, then the pursuit of those ends through other means is necessary.
It is important for all to know the Pelican Bay Collective is not (emphasis in original) alone in this struggle and the broader the participation and support for this hunger strike, the other such efforts, the greater the potential that our sacrifice now will mean a more humane world for us in the future. We urge all who reads these words to support us in this effort with your participation or your voices call your local news agencies, notify your friends on social networks, contact your legislators, tell your fellow faithful at church, mosques, temple or synagogues. Decades before Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Pelican Bay and Corcoran SHUs were described by Congressman Ralph Metcalfe as "the control unit treatment program is long-term punishment under the guise of what is, in fact, pseudo-scientific experimentation."
Our indefinite isolation here is both inhumane and illegal and the proponents of the prison industrial complex are hoping that their campaign to dehumanize us has succeeded to the degree that you don't care and will allow the torture to continue in your name. It is our belief that they have woefully underestimated the decency, principles, and humanity of the people. Join us in opposing this injustice without end. Thank you for your time and support.
In Solidarity,
N.C.T.T. Corcoran - SHU
4B/1C - C Section
Super-max isolation Unit
TAKE ACTION!
Pelican Bay Prisoners Go On Hunger Strike to Protest Grave Conditions July 1, 2011
Lawyers, Advocates, Organizations Hold Press Conference, Voice Prisoner Demand
Press Contact: Isaac Ontiveros
Communications Director, Critical Resistance
Office: 510 444 0484; Cell: 510 517 6612
The Hunger Strikers need support from outside of prison bars. Here are a few things you can do:
Sign the Petition. http://www.change.org/petitions/support-prisoners-on-hunger-strike-at-pelican-bay-state-prison
Get the word out about the hunger strike and the prisoner's demands to your family, friends, church, community groups, and over social networking sites.
Attend protests in solidarity. Rallies planned in San Francisco, Eureka, CA, Montreal, Toronto and New York. Send protest info to: http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/take-action/ to be listed!
Stay informed. Check the blog regularly for updates http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/.
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Keep the Arboretum Free
Dear Arboretum Supporter,
It's been a few months since the Board of Supervisors extended the non-resident fee at the Arboretum until September 30th, 2013. Such policy and ongoing decisions are continuing to greatly impact our neighborhoods and city resources and out of this widespread concern a new coalition has formed - Take Back Our Parks. Community and park advocates have joined together from across the city, including representatives from Keep Arboretum Free, with the common goals of keeping parks and recreation facilities open and accessible to all, stopping privatization of public park properties, protecting the natural character of our parklands and ensuring inclusive community input in planning and decision-making.
This past week a key effort was made towards some of these goals when four City Supervisors placed a measure on the November ballot to put a moratorium on fees for park resources and the long-term leasing of club-houses to private organizations. The Parks For The Public measure can be an important step towards ending the loss of access and growing privatization that is a fallout of the Recreation and Park Department's strategy of using parks as a revenue source and which has imposed policies such as the Arboretum fee.
Please visit the TBOP website to learn more about the Parks For The Public ordinance available for voters on the ballot this fall: http://www.takebackourparks.org/
It is vital that the public have a chance to shape the issues regarding our parks. We encourage you to write to the four sponsoring Supervisors (Avalos, Campos, Mar and Mirkarimi) to thank them for introducing Parks For The Public and let them know that you support limiting the privatization and unwarranted commercialization of our parks.
Ross.Mirkarimi@sfgov.org
John.Avalos@sfgov.org
Eric.L.Mar@sfgov.org
David.Campos@sfgov.org
Please help spread the news about this measure to your community in the city and thank you very much for your continued support.
Sincerely,
The Campaign to Keep The Arboretum Free
www.keeparboretumfree.org
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Supporter of Leak Suspect Is Called Before Grand Jury
By SCOTT SHANE
June 15, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/us/politics/16brfs-Washington.html?ref=world
A supporter of Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, who is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks, was called before a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., on Wednesday, but he said he declined to answer any questions. The supporter, David M. House, a freelance computer scientist, said he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, because he believes the Justice Department is "creating a climate of fear around WikiLeaks and the Bradley Manning support network." The grand jury inquiry is separate from the military prosecution of Private Manning and is believed to be exploring whether the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, or others in the group violated the law by acquiring and publishing military and State Department documents.
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Justice for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace: Decades of isolation in Louisiana state prisons must end
Take Action -- Sign Petition Here:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/justice-for-albert-woodfox-and-herman-wallace
For nearly four decades, 64-year-old Albert Woodfox and 69-year-old Herman Wallace have been held in solitary confinement, mostly in the Louisiana State Penitentiary (known as Angola prison). Throughout their prolonged incarceration in Closed Cell Restriction (CCR) Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace have endured very restrictive conditions including 23 hour cellular confinement. They have limited access to books, newspapers and TV and throughout the years of imprisonment they have been deprived of opportunities for mental stimulation and access to work and education. Social interaction has been restricted to occasional visits from friends and family and limited telephone calls.
Louisiana prison authorities have over the course of 39 years failed to provide a meaningful review of the men's continued isolation as they continue to rubberstamp the original decision to confine the men in CCR. Decades of solitary confinement have had a clear psychological effect on the men. Lawyers report that they are both suffering from serious health problems caused or exacerbated by their years of close confinement.
After being held together in the same prison for nearly 40 years, the men are now held in seperate institutions where they continue to be subjected to conditions that can only be described as cruel, inhuman and degrading.
Take action now to demand that Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace be immediately removed from solitary confinement
Sign our petition which will be sent to the Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, calling on him to:
* take immediate steps to remove Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace from close confinement
* ensure that their treatment complies with the USA's obligations under international standards and the US Constitution.
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WITNESS GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
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Stop Coal Companies From Erasing Labor Union History
http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-coal-companies-from-erasing-labor-union-history
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One year after Bradley's detainment, we need your support more than ever.
Dear Friends,
One year ago, on May 26, 2010, the U.S. government quietly arrested a humble young American intelligence analyst in Iraq and imprisoned him in a military camp in Kuwait. Over the coming weeks, the facts of the arrest and charges against this shy soldier would come to light. And across the world, people like you and I would step forward to help defend him.
Bradley Manning, now 23 years old, has never been to court but has already served a year in prison- including 10 months in conditions of confinement that were clear violation of the international conventions against torture. Bradley has been informally charged with releasing to the world documents that have revealed corruption by world leaders, widespread civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. forces, the true face of Guantanamo, an unvarnished view of the U.S.'s imperialistic foreign negotiations, and the murder of two employees of Reuters News Agency by American soldiers. These documents released by WikiLeaks have spurred democratic revolutions across the Arab world and have changed the face of journalism forever.
For his act of courage, Bradley Manning now faces life in prison-or even death.
But you can help save him-and we've already seen our collective power. Working together with concerned citizens around the world, the Bradley Manning Support Network has helped raise worldwide awareness about Manning's torturous confinement conditions. Through the collective actions of well over a half million people and scores of organizations, we successfully pressured the U.S. government to end the tortuous conditions of pre-trial confinement that Bradley was subjected to at the Marine Base at Quantico, Virginia. Today, Bradley is being treated humanely at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. T hanks to your support, Bradley is given leeway to interact with other pre-trial prisoners, read books, write letters, and even has a window in his cell.
Of course we didn't mount this campaign to just improve Bradley's conditions in jail. Our goal is to ensure that he can receive a fair and open trial. Our goal is to win Bradley's freedom so that he can be reunited with his family and fulfill his dream of going to college. Today, to commemorate Bradley's one year anniversary in prison, will you join me in making a donation to help support Bradley's defense?
http://bradleymanning.org/donate
We'll be facing incredible challenges in the coming months, and your tax-deductible donation today will help pay for Bradley's civilian legal counsel and the growing international grassroots campaign on his behalf. The U.S. government has already spent a year building its case against Bradley, and is now calling its witnesses to Virginia to testify before a grand jury.
What happens to Bradley may ripple through history - he is already considered by many to be the single most important person of his generation. Please show your commitment to Bradley and your support for whistle-blowers and the truth by making a donation today.
With your help, I hope we will come to remember May 26th as a day to commemorate all those who risk their lives and freedom to promote informed democracy - and as the birth of a movement that successfully defended one courageous whistle-blower against the full fury of the U.S. government.
Donate now: bradleymanning.org/donate
In solidarity,
Jeff Paterson and Loraine Reitman,
On behalf of the Bradley Manning Support Network Steering Committee
www.bradleymanning.org
P.S. After you have donated, please help us by forwarding this email to your closest friends. Ask them to stand with you to support Bradley Manning, and the rights of all whistleblowers.
View the new 90 second "I am Bradley Manning" video:
I am Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-P3OXML00s
Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
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Drop the Charges Against Carlos Montes, Stop the FBI Attack on the Chicano and Immigrant Rights Movement, and Stop FBI Repression of Anti-War Activists NOW!Call Off the Expanding Grand Jury Witchhunt and FBI Repression of Anti-War Activists NOW!
Cancel the Subpoenas! Cancel the Grand Juries!
Condemn the FBI Raids and Harassment of Chicano, Immigrant Rights, Anti-War and International Solidarity Activists!
STOP THE FBI CAMPAIGN OF REPRESSION AGAINST CHICANO, IMMIGRANT RIGHTS, ANTI-WAR AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY ACTIVISTS NOW!
Initiated by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression stopfbi.net stopfbi@gmail.com
http://iacenter.org/stopfbi/
Contact the Committee to Stop FBI Repression
at stopfbi.net
stopfbi@gmail.com
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Mumia Wins Decision Against Re-Imposition Of Death Sentence, But...
The Battle Is Still On To
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610
www.laboractionmumia.org
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Abolish the Death Penalty Blog
http://www.ncadp.org/blog.cfm?postID=165
Abolish the Death Penalty is a blog dedicated to...well, you know. The purpose of Abolish is to tell the personal stories of crime victims and their loved ones, people on death row and their loved ones and those activists who are working toward abolition. You may, from time to time, see news articles or press releases here, but that is not the primary mission of Abolish the Death Penalty. Our mission is to put a human face on the debate over capital punishment.
You can also follow death penalty news by reading our News page and by following us on Facebook and Twitter.
1 Million Tweets for Troy!
Take Action! Tweet for Troy!
When in doubt, don't execute!! Sign the petition for #TroyDavis! www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
Too much doubt! Stop the execution! #TroyDavis needs us! www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
No room for doubt! Stop the execution of #TroyDavis . Retweet, sign petition www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
Case not "ironclad", yet Georgiacould execute #TroyDavis ! Not on our watch! Petition: www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
No murder weapon. No physical evidence. Stop the execution! #TroyDavis petition: www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
7 out of 9 eyewitnesses recanted. No physical evidence. Stop the execution of Troy Davis www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition #TroyDavis
Thanks!
Exonerated Death Row Survivors Urge Georgia to:
Stop the Execution of Troy Davis
Chairman James E. Donald
Georgia State Board of Pardons & Paroles
2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SE
Suite 458, Balcony Level, East Tower
Atlanta, GA 30334
May 1, 2011
Dear Chairperson Donald and Members of the Board:
We, the undersigned, are alive today because some individual or small group of individuals decided that our insistent and persistent proclamations of innocence warranted one more look before we were sent to our death by execution. We are among the 138 individuals who have been legally exonerated and released from death rows in the United States since 1973. We are alive because a few thoughtful persons-attorneys, journalists, judges, jurists, etc.-had lingering doubts about our cases that caused them to say "stop" at a critical moment and halt the march to the execution chamber. When our innocence was ultimately revealed, when our lives were saved, and when our freedom was won, we thanked God and those individuals of conscience who took actions that allowed the truth to eventually come to light.
We are America's exonerated death row survivors. We are living proof that a system operated by human beings is capable of making an irreversible mistake. And while we have had our wrongful convictions overturned and have been freed from death row, we know that we are extremely fortunate to have been able to establish our innocence. We also know that many innocent people who have been executed or who face execution have not been so fortunate. Not all those with innocence claims have had access to the kinds of physical evidence, like DNA, that our courts accept as most reliable. However, we strongly believe that the examples of our cases are reason enough for those with power over life and death to choose life. We also believe that those in authority have a unique moral consideration when encountering individuals with cases where doubt still lingers about innocence or guilt.
One such case is the case of Troy Anthony Davis, whose 1991 conviction for killing Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail rested almost solely on witness testimony. We know that today, 20 years later, witness evidence is considered much less reliable than it was then. This has meant that, even though most of the witnesses who testified against him have now recanted, Troy Davis has been unable to convince the courts to overturn his conviction, or even his death sentence.
Troy Davis has been able to raise serious doubts about his guilt, however. Several witnesses testified at the evidentiary hearing last summer that they had been coerced by police into making false statements against Troy Davis. This courtroom testimony reinforced previous statements in sworn affidavits. Also at this hearing, one witness testified for the first time that he saw an alternative suspect, and not Troy Davis, commit the crime. We don't know if Troy Davis is in fact innocent, but, as people who were wrongfully sentenced to death (and in some cases scheduled for execution), we believe it is vitally important that no execution go forward when there are doubts about guilt. It is absolutely essential to ensuring that the innocent are not executed.
When you issued a temporary stay for Troy Davis in 2007, you stated that the Board "will not allow an execution to proceed in this State unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused." This standard is a welcome development, and we urge you to apply it again now. Doubts persist in the case of Troy Davis, and commuting his sentence will reassure the people of Georgia that you will never permit an innocent person to be put to death in their name.
Freddie Lee Pitts, an exonerated death row survivor who faced execution by the state of Florida for a crime he didn't commit, once said, "You can release an innocent man from prison, but you can't release him from the grave."
Thank you for considering our request.
Respectfully,
Kirk Bloodsworth, Exonerated and freed from death row Maryland; Clarence Brandley, Exonerated and freed from death row in Texas; Dan Bright, Exonerated and freed from death row in Louisiana; Albert Burrell, Exonerated and freed from death row in Louisiana; Perry Cobb, Exonerated and freed from death row in Illinois; Gary Drinkard, Exonerated and freed from death row in Alabama; Nathson Fields, Exonerated and freed from death row in Illinois; Gary Gauger, Exonerated and freed from death row in Illinois; Michael Graham, Exonerated and freed from death row in Louisiana; Shujaa Graham, Exonerated and freed from death row in California; Paul House, Exonerated and freed from death row in Tennessee; Derrick Jamison, Exonerated and freed from death row in Ohio; Dale Johnston, Exonerated and freed from death row in Ohio; Ron Keine, Exonerated and freed from death row in New Mexico; Ron Kitchen, Exonerated and freed from death row in Illinois; Ray Krone, Exonerated and freed from death row in Arizona; Herman Lindsey, Exonerated and freed from death row in Florida; Juan Melendez, Exonerated and freed from death row in Florida; Randal Padgett, Exonerated and freed from death row in Alabama; Freddie Lee Pitts, Exonerated and freed from death row in Florida; Randy Steidl, Exonerated and freed from death row in Illinois; John Thompson, Exonerated and freed from death row in Louisiana; Delbert Tibbs, Exonerated and freed from death row in Florida; David Keaton, Exonerated and freed from death row in Florida; Greg Wilhoit, Exonerated and freed from death row in Oklahoma; Harold Wilson, Exonerated and freed from death row in Pennsylvania.
-Witness to Innocence, May 11, 2011
http://www.witnesstoinnocence.com/view_news.php?Exonerated-Death-Row-Survivors-Urge-George-to-Stop-the-Execution-of-Troy-Davis-181
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"A Fort Leavenworth mailing address has been released for Bradley Manning:
Bradley Manning 89289
830 Sabalu Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
The receptionist at the military barracks confirmed that if someone sends Bradley Manning a letter to that address, it will be delivered to him."
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/update-42811
This is also a Facebook event
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207100509321891#!/event.php?eid=207100509321891
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Committee to Stop FBI Repression
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY -- ANY DAY
to Fitzgerald, Holder and Obama
The Grand Jury is still on its witch hunt and the FBI is still
harassing activists. This must stop.
Please make these calls:
1. Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300 . Then dial 0
(zero) for operator and ask to leave a message with the Duty Clerk.
2. Call U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder 202-353-1555
3. Call President Obama at 202-456-1111
Suggested text: "My name is __________, I am from _______(city), in
______(state). I am calling _____ to demand he call off the Grand Jury
and stop FBI repression against the anti-war and Palestine solidarity
movements. I oppose U.S. government political repression and support
the right to free speech and the right to assembly of the 23 activists
subpoenaed. We will not be criminalized. Tell him to stop this
McCarthy-type witch hunt against international solidarity activists!"
If your call doesn't go through, try again later.
Update: 800 anti-war and international solidarity activists
participated in four regional conferences, in Chicago, IL; Oakland,
CA; Chapel Hill, NC and New York City to stop U.S. Attorney Patrick
Fitzgerald's Grand Jury repression.
Still, in the last few weeks, the FBI has continued to call and harass
anti-war organizers, repressing free speech and the right to organize.
However, all of their intimidation tactics are bringing a movement
closer together to stop war and demand peace.
We demand:
-- Call Off the Grand Jury Witch-hunt Against International Solidarity
Activists!
-- Support Free Speech!
-- Support the Right to Organize!
-- Stop FBI Repression!
-- International Solidarity Is Not a Crime!
-- Stop the Criminalization of Arab and Muslim Communities!
Background: Fitzgerald ordered FBI raids on anti-war and solidarity
activists' homes and subpoenaed fourteen activists in Chicago,
Minneapolis, and Michigan on September 24, 2010. All 14 refused to
speak before the Grand Jury in October. Then, 9 more Palestine
solidarity activists, most Arab-Americans, were subpoenaed to appear
at the Grand Jury on January 25, 2011, launching renewed protests.
There are now 23 who assert their right to not participate in
Fitzgerald's witch-hunt.
The Grand Jury is a secret and closed inquisition, with no judge, and
no press. The U.S. Attorney controls the entire proceedings and hand
picks the jurors, and the solidarity activists are not allowed a
lawyer. Even the date when the Grand Jury ends is a secret.
So please make these calls to those in charge of the repression aimed
against anti-war leaders and the growing Palestine solidarity
movement.
Email us to let us know your results. Send to info@StopFBI.net
**Please sign and circulate our 2011 petition at http://www.stopfbi.net/petition
In Struggle,
Tom Burke,
for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression
FFI: Visit www.StopFBI.net or email info@StopFBI.net or call
612-379-3585 .
Copyright (c) 2011 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights
reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55415
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Call for EMERGENCY RESPONSE Action if Assange Indicted,
Dear Friends:
We write in haste, trying to reach as many of you as possible although the holiday break has begun.......This plan for an urgent "The Day After" demonstration is one we hope you and many, many more organizations will take up as your own, and mobilize for. World Can't Wait asks you to do all you can to spread it through list serves, Facebook, twitter, holiday gatherings.
Our proposal is very very simple, and you can use the following announcement to mobilize - or write your own....
ANY DAY NOW . . . IN THE EVENT THAT THE U.S. INDICTS JULIAN ASSANGE
An emergency public demonstration THE DAY AFTER any U.S. criminal indictment is announced against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Spread the word and call people to come out, across the whole range of movements and groups: anti-war, human rights, freedom of information/freedom of the press, peace, anti-torture, environmental, students and youth, radicals and revolutionaries, religious, civil liberties, teachers and educators, journalists, anti-imperialists, anti-censorship, anti-police state......
At the Federal Building in San Francisco, we'll form ourselves into a human chain "surrounding" the government that meets the Wikileaked truth with repression and wants to imprison and silence leakers, whistleblowers and truthtellers - when, in fact, these people are heroes. We'll say:
HANDS OFF WIKILEAKS! FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!
Join the HUMAN CHAIN AROUND THE FEDERAL BUILDING!
New Federal Building, 7th and Mission, San Francisco (nearest BART: Civic Center)
4:00-6:00 PM on The Day FOLLOWING U.S. indictment of Assange
Bring all your friends - signs and banners - bullhorns.
Those who dare at great risk to themselves to put the truth in the hands of the people - and others who might at this moment be thinking about doing more of this themselves -- need to see how much they are supported, and that despite harsh repression from the government and total spin by the mainstream media, the people do want the truth told.
Brad Manning's Christmas Eve statement was just released by his lawyer: "Pvt. Bradley Manning, the lone soldier who stands accused of stealing millions of pages secret US government documents and handing them over to secrets outlet WikiLeaks, wants his supporters to know that they've meant a lot to him. 'I greatly appreciate everyone's support and well wishes during this time,' he said in a Christmas Eve statement released by his lawyer...." Read more here:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/mannings-message-christmas-eve-i-gr/
Demonstrations defending Wikileaks and Assange, and Brad Manning, have already been flowering around the world. Make it happen here too.
Especially here . . .
To join into this action plan, or with questions, contact World Can't Wait or whichever organization or listserve you received this message from.
World Can't Wait, SF Bay
415-864-5153
sf@worldcantwait.org
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DEFEND LYNNE STEWART!
http://lynnestewart.org/
Write to Lynne Stewart at:
Lynne Stewart #53504 - 054
Unit 2N
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TEXAS 76127
Visiting Lynne:
Visiting is very liberal but first she has to get people on her visiting list; wait til she or the lawyers let you know. The visits are FRI, SAT, SUN AND MON for 4 hours and on weekends 8 to 3. Bring clear plastic change purse with lots of change to buy from the machines. Brief Kiss upon arrival and departure, no touching or holding during visit (!!) On visiting forms it may be required that you knew me before I came to prison. Not a problem for most of you.
Commissary Money:
Commissary Money is always welcome It is how Lynne pay for the phone and for email. Also for a lot that prison doesn't supply in terms of food and "sundries" (pens!) (A very big list that includes Raisins, Salad Dressing, ankle sox, mozzarella (definitely not from Antonys--more like a white cheddar, Sanitas Corn Chips but no Salsa, etc. To add money, you do this by using Western Union and a credit card by phone or you can send a USPO money order or Business or Govt Check. The negotiable instruments (PAPER!) need to be sent to Federal Bureau of Prisons, 53504-054, Lynne Stewart, PO Box 474701, Des Moines Iowa 50947-001 (Payable to Lynne Stewart, 53504-054) They hold the mo or checks for 15 days. Western Union costs $10 but is within 2 hours. If you mail, your return address must be on the envelope. Unnecessarily complicated? Of course, it's the BOP !)
The address of her Defense Committee is:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216
For further information:
718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
Please make a generous contribution to her defense.
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In earnest support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange:
http://readersupportednews.org/julian-assange-petition
rsn:Petition
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle Editorial
Monday, December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's death row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
17 December 2010
Click here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
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Free the Children of Palestine!
Sign Petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41467.html
Published by Al-Awda, Palestine Right to Return Coalition on Dec 16, 2010
Category: Children's Rights
Region: GLOBAL
Target: President Obama
Web site: http://www.al-awda.org
Petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41467.html
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"Secret diplomacy is a necessary tool for a propertied minority, which is compelled to deceive the majority in order to subject it to its interests."..."Publishing State Secrets" By Leon Trotsky
Documents on Soviet Policy, Trotsky, iii, 2 p. 64
November 22, 1917
http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/foreign-relations/1917/November/22.htm
FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING! STOP THE FBI RAIDS NOW!
MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
To understand how much a trillion dollars is, consider looking at it in terms of time:
A million seconds would be about eleven-and-one-half days; a billion seconds would be 31 years; and a trillion seconds would be 31,000 years!
From the novel "A Dark Tide," by Andrew Gross
Now think of it in terms of U.S. war dollars and bankster bailouts!
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Courage to Resist needs your support
Please donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
"Soldiers sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning has been defending and supporting our Constitution."
-Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle-blower
Jeff Paterson
Project Director, Courage to Resist
First US military service member to refuse to fight in Iraq
Please donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
P.S. I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly becoming a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to make a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!
Please click here to forward this to a friend who might
also be interested in supporting GI resisters.
http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
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Add your name! We stand with Bradley Manning.
"We stand for truth, for government transparency, and for an end to our tax-dollars funding endless occupation abroad... We stand with accused whistle-blower US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning."
Dear All,
The Bradley Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist are launching a new campaign, and we wanted to give you a chance to be among the first to add your name to this international effort. If you sign the letter online, we'll print out and mail two letters to Army officials on your behalf. With your permission, we may also use your name on the online petition and in upcoming media ads.
Read the complete public letter and add your name at:
http://standwithbrad.org/
Courage to Resist (http://couragetoresist.org)
on behalf of the Bradley Manning Support Network (http://bradleymanning.org)
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Please make a donation today at stopfbi.net (PayPal) on the right side of your screen. Also you can write to:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
This is a critical time for us to stand together, defend free speech, and defend those who help to organize for peace and justice, both at home and abroad!
Thank you for your generosity! Tom Burke
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
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D. ARTICLES IN FULL (Unless otherwise noted)
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1) It Gets Even Worse
New York Times Editorial
July 3, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/opinion/04mon1.html?hp
2) Cairo Vendors and Protesters Set Off Clash in Tahrir Square
"Some of the protesters said the trouble began when they tried to move their tent city away from the tea vendors, whom they accused of being 'thugs' in the employ of security forces. Tea vendors brandishing knives then set fire to the tent city, said an activist, Karim el-Agamy, and pelted protesters with rocks and kerosene gas canisters. Another activist, Islam Ismail, said protesters identified two undercover police officers in the crowd and turned them over to the army."
By LIAM STACK
July 3, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/world/middleeast/04egypt.html?ref=world
3) Egypt's Revolution Disrupts Daily Life, Economy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 4, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/07/04/business/AP-ML-Egypt-Revolutions-Uncertainty.html?src=busln
4) International Labor Solidarity Committee of Doro-Chiba
H. Yamamoto
Doro-Chiba Earthquake report No. 28
Fukushima University Students Began
Fighting to Abolish Nuke Plants!
July 5, 2011
http://www.doro-chiba.org/english/english2.htm
5) French Boat Leaves Greek Waters, but Gaza May Prove Too Far
By SCOTT SAYARE
July 5, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/world/europe/06flotilla.html?ref=world
6) As Budgets Are Trimmed, Time in Class Is Shortened
By SAM DILLON
July 5, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/education/06time.html?ref=us
7) Debris and Heavy Flow of Water Hamper Cleanup of Oil in Yellowstone River
By JIM ROBBINS
July 4, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/us/05spill.html?ref=us
8) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-July 5th, 2011
Prisoners Across at Least 6 California Prisons Join Pelican Bay Hunger Strikers
Strike Could Involve Thousands of Prisoners
Press Contact: Isaac Ontiveros
Prison Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition
Office: 510 444 0484
Cell: 510 517 6612
9) Detroit's Dilemma: How to Share Gains with UAW
"Like thousands of newly hired unionized auto workers brought in at half the wages of existing hires, he and others like him are looking for new contracts between the United Auto Workers and the Detroit automakers to share the wealth."
By Bernie Woodall
Reuters
July 4, 2011
http://www.portfolio.com/business-news/reuters/2011/07/04/detroits-dilemma-how-to-share-gains-with-uaw#ixzz1RCpnU4hl
10) Since 2009, 88 Percent Of Income Growth Went To Corporate Profits, Just One Percent Went To Wages
By Sean Savett, Guest Blogger
Jun 30, 2011 at 3:15 pm
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/30/258388/corporate-profits-recovery/
11) Why Do the Police Have Tanks? The Strange and Dangerous Militarization of the US Police Force
By Rania Khalek, AlterNet
Posted on July 5, 2011, Printed on July 6, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151528/why_do_the_police_have_tanks_the_strange_and_dangerous_militarization_of_the_us_police_force
12) Acquittals of Ex-Officials Feed Anger Across Egypt
By LIAM STACK
July 5, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/world/africa/06egypt.html?ref=world
13) Japan Plans Safety Assessments of Nuclear Plants
By MARTIN FACKLER
July 6, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/world/asia/07japan.html?ref=world
14) A Safer Nuclear Crypt
"The fuel had just been moved into a capsule the size of a small silo, called a dry cask. Welded shut after it came out of the water, the cask was pumped full of inert gas, placed in an outer cask and moved outdoors to a concrete pad where it will sit until a disposal site is found. Spent fuel must be isolated from the environment for hundreds of thousands of years before it loses its potency."
By MATTHEW L. WALD
July 5, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/business/energy-environment/06cask.html?ref=world
15) CPS takes custody of 6 kids living with parents in storage shed
by Rucks Russell / KHOU 11 News
khou.com
Updated Tuesday, Jul 5 at 5:37 PM
http://www.khou.com/news/Storage-Shed-CPS-Fight-125041524.html
16) E.P.A. Sets New Standards for Coal-Burning Plants
By JOHN M. BRODER
July 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/science/earth/08epa.html?hp
17) WikiLeaks Memoir 'Postponed'
By JULIE BOSMAN
July 6, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/world/europe/07briefs-WIKILEAKSMEM_BRF.html?ref=world
18) First Study of Its Kind Shows Benefits of Providing Medical Insurance to Poor
"While the findings may seem obvious, health economists and policy makers have long questioned whether it would make any difference to provide health insurance to poor people. ...Some said that of course it would help to insure the uninsured. Others said maybe not. There was already a safety net: emergency rooms, charity care, free clinics and the option to go to a doctor and simply not pay the bill. ...The study found that those with insurance were 25 percent less likely to have an unpaid bill sent to a collection agency and were 40 percent less likely to borrow money or fail to pay other bills because they had to pay medical bills. ...Dr. Baicker interviewed people for Part 2 of the study and was impressed by what she heard.'Being uninsured is incredibly stressful from a financial perspective, a psychological perspective, a physical perspective,' she said. 'It is a huge relief to people not to have to worry about it day in and day out.'" [Thank God for MIT Economists and their study (I wonder how much the study cost?) or we would never have known these facts! And I wonder if the Economists ever thought of asking the poor whether or not THEY think having health insurance would make a difference to them???????...This is one of the dumbest articles I have ever read! ...bw]
By GINA KOLATA
July 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/health/policy/07medicaid.html?ref=us
19) Dirtier Air and Higher Costs Possible if Indian Point Closes, Report Says
By PATRICK McGEEHAN
July 6, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/nyregion/dirtier-air-and-higher-costs-may-follow-indian-point-closing.html?ref=nyregion
20) APNewsBreak: WikiLeaks Getting Credit Card Funds
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/07/07/business/AP-WikiLeaks.html?src=busln
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1) It Gets Even Worse
New York Times Editorial
July 3, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/opinion/04mon1.html?hp
If you thought the do-it-yourself anti-immigrant schemes couldn't get any more repellent, you were wrong. New laws in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina are following - and in some ways outdoing - Arizona's attempt to engineer the mass expulsion of the undocumented, no matter the damage to the Constitution, public safety, local economies and immigrant families.
The laws vary in their details but share a common strategy: to make it impossible for people without papers to live without fear.
They give new powers to local police untrained in immigration law. They force businesses to purge work forces and schools to check students' immigration status. And they greatly increase the danger of unreasonable searches, false arrests, racial profiling and other abuses, not just against immigrants, but anyone who may look like some officer's idea of an illegal immigrant.
The laws empower local police officers to demand the documents of people they meet, and to detain those they suspect are here illegally. That means they can make warrantless arrests for assumed civil immigration violations, a stunning abuse of power.
The laws also make it illegal to give a ride to the undocumented, so a son could land in jail for driving his mother to the supermarket, or a church volunteer for ferrying families to a soup kitchen. They require businesses to check employees against the error-plagued federal E-Verify database, and to fire those who are flagged as unauthorized. Once the purge takes hold in agriculture, there will be no one left to pick onions, peaches and cotton. The immigrant labor shortage is already being felt in Georgia, where crops are rotting and the governor has called for using jobless ex-convicts in the fields.
Alabama's law is the most extreme. It forces public school districts to determine the immigration status of students and their parents and report the data to the state. Alabama still can't bar them from enrolling, since the Supreme Court declared in Plyler v. Doe that all children are entitled to a public education. The state's law seems designed to challenge that ruling, as it turns school officials into de facto immigration agents and impels frightened parents to keep their children home.
It has long been clear that America is suffering for lack of a well-functioning immigration system that better protects workers and families, promotes lawfulness at the border and in the workplace, and gives hardworking people a path to legality.
Congress's inaction has let the states run amok with their own destructive ideas. Supporters insist they are only trying to enforce the law. But trying to catch and deport 11 million people is lunacy. The damage to this country - its citizens and its laws - is enormous.
Civil rights organizations are suing or threatening to sue to block these noxious state laws. So far federal courts have enjoined parts of bad local laws in Arizona, Georgia, Utah and Indiana. President Obama's Department of Justice has sued Arizona but not the other states. It needs to fight harder.
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2) Cairo Vendors and Protesters Set Off Clash in Tahrir Square
"Some of the protesters said the trouble began when they tried to move their tent city away from the tea vendors, whom they accused of being 'thugs' in the employ of security forces. Tea vendors brandishing knives then set fire to the tent city, said an activist, Karim el-Agamy, and pelted protesters with rocks and kerosene gas canisters. Another activist, Islam Ismail, said protesters identified two undercover police officers in the crowd and turned them over to the army."
By LIAM STACK
July 3, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/world/middleeast/04egypt.html?ref=world
CAIRO - Chaos erupted in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday night, as a dispute between protesters and tea vendors set off clashes among groups of young men armed with rocks, clubs and knives, and a tent city occupied by protesters was burned to the ground.
The clashes appeared to pit civilian against civilian, a departure from violence that flared in the square last Tuesday between protesters and the police, and pointed to lingering tensions in Egypt as the country negotiates a political transition under a provisional military government that has come under increasing criticism from the protesters.
Tahrir Square was the focal point of the 18-day uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February. Since then, protesters have reoccupied the square every few weeks to press the military council to follow through on revolutionary demands. Each reoccupation of Tahrir has ended in clashes - between protesters and security forces, or protesters and other civilians. As was the case Sunday night, it is not always clear which is which.
The clashes began around sunset and continued as darkness settled on downtown Cairo.
Some of the protesters said the trouble began when they tried to move their tent city away from the tea vendors, whom they accused of being "thugs" in the employ of security forces. Tea vendors brandishing knives then set fire to the tent city, said an activist, Karim el-Agamy, and pelted protesters with rocks and kerosene gas canisters. Another activist, Islam Ismail, said protesters identified two undercover police officers in the crowd and turned them over to the army.
It was not possible to verify these claims.
By 8 p.m., the protesters' tent city lay in smoldering ruins.
Over 1,000 young men, many armed with metal pipes and jagged wooden clubs, raced back and forth across the square in pursuit of enemies who seemed to rarely materialize. Despite the scuffles, traffic continued through the square, directed by civilians and swerving around protesters, some of whom threw the metal pots and pans of tea vendors into the street and under the wheels of passing cars.
Passers-by watched as young men scuffled in the square, dusty and scattered with bits of broken rock, running from one end to the next waving crude weapons and shouting "Thugs! Thugs!"
"If I had a weapon I would beat these boys myself," said Khaled Lotfy, a bystander who was passing through the square on his way back from the gym, carrying a tennis racket. "Egypt woke up, so enough already. Why do they keep doing this?"
Neither police officers nor armed forces were present, which contributed to an atmosphere of tension and chaos.
A line of ambulances treated the wounded, mainly young men with thick, bloody bandages wrapped around their heads. Egypt's Ministry of Health said that 47 were wounded, including 20 critically. Ambulances wailed across the square throughout the night.
The protesters have been camped in Tahrir Square since a protest on Friday that called for swifter prosecution of former government officials, including police officers, accused of using deadly force against protesters during the February uprising. More than 850 peaceful protesters were killed. So far, no one has been convicted of a single death, although the former president and his interior minister have been charged.
Mr. Mubarak has been deemed too ill to stand trial.
Dina Salah Amer contributed reporting.
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3) Egypt's Revolution Disrupts Daily Life, Economy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 4, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/07/04/business/AP-ML-Egypt-Revolutions-Uncertainty.html?src=busln
CAIRO (AP) - The quarrel on a bridge spanning the Nile went like this.
A driver stops to gawk at protesters crowding the sidewalks along the bridge. Traffic is snarled. Tempers flare and car horns blare. A well-dressed man jumps out of his car to berate the driver.
"Move! Move! I'm fed up with waiting for you to move!" he screams.
The driver gets out of his car and yells back some choice insults, repeatedly jabbing the first man in the chest. As a crowd forms and voices rise higher, the men are pulled apart. Shirts are straightened, shoulders patted in an attempt to soothe.
"If you want to watch, why don't you just park somewhere and join them," the first man yells. Then, as he hops back into his car, he barks - as much to the protesters as the other motorist: "Some of us are trying to work. We can't keep living like this."
Abdel-Meguid Omar, who helped break up the fight, looks around him, shrugs and sums up the scene with the sarcasm and humor for which Egyptians have long been famous: "So, this is democracy..."
The man's complaint over the continuing disruption of daily life reflects a growing frustration amid the optimism that was the soundtrack for Egypt's revolution since the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak in February.
Egyptians are now looking to a future in which they hope, for the first time in decades, to chart their own course. With the floodgates open, they are taking to the streets to press for long-pent-up demands - more housing, better pay, lower prices. Expectations are soaring, even as they tell themselves not everything can be solved at once.
But the turmoil, fueled in part by the continuing protests, is making it harder to address the demands. Revenue from tourism, worker remittances and foreign investment plunged sharply after the revolution, while manufacturing and productivity were hard hit. Many complain that their lives are worse off economically than under Mubarak, increasing the pressure for immediate change.
In a make-or-break year, Egypt's transitional government is trying to show it can make at least some tangible improvements. Officials have approved the new budget for fiscal 2011-2012, a populist behemoth of welfare and development programs. The cash-strapped government is relying on new aid from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United States and other countries who say they want to help Egypt make a transition to democracy.
But many worry even that won't be enough to meet the burgeoning hopes of the population. The need to see economic progress right now could swamp an already fragile boat, as Egypt also tries to work out its political turmoil.
"Everyone wants what they want now. No one is willing to wait," said clothing store clerk Mansour Hamed, sipping a coffee at a roadside cafe while others around him nodded in agreement. "That's not how to build a country."
The complaints are not lost on the current government and the country's military rulers.
Finance Minister Samir Radwan, who by virtue of his post has become one of the most visible figures in the transitional government, told reporters recently that the revolution had created a "new atmosphere" in the country and that, without doubt, "there are difficulties."
Weeks before the uprising, the old regime was touting economic growth projections of 5.8 percent for this fiscal year ending in June and 6 percent for the year after. Since then, GDP growth for this fiscal year has been slashed to as low as 1 percent by some estimates, with a government forecast of 3 percent next year.
The plunge in growth only worsens problems that long festered under Mubarak's rule.
In Mubarak's final years, almost half the population lived near or below a poverty line of $2 per day, according to the World Bank. Unemployment among youth, who make up the majority of the population, was at least double the official rate of about 10 percent. Food inflation stood at more than 15 percent per year, jobs were scarce, salaries barely adequate and affordable housing a distant dream.
In the four months since Mubarak ceded control to the military, those numbers have not improved.
The new budget, for the fiscal year starting July 1, aims to get the country through what Radwan recently described as a "bottleneck" by easing tensions long enough for the economy to get back on its feet.
It sets a new government sector minimum wage at 700 pounds ($110) per month, boosting salaries for several million people. Government spending on education, health and other social services eats up about 54 percent of the money. Wages for the public sector account for another $20 billion - a 23 percent increase over the current year's budget.
The overall price tag is $83 billion, while revenue is forecast at $59 billion.
Some of the shortfall is met by increasing taxes, including a new 10 percent tax on cigarettes. But Egypt is also depending on more than $20 billion in promises it has secured from various donors, including Gulf Arab states, the U.S., and the Group of Eight industrialized nations.
But to keep that aid coming in the future, Egypt must show progress on both the economic and political fronts. The overriding concern, both inside and outside the country, is that the growing power of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood will strain ties with the United States and the West.
Elections planned for September will be key.
"If the political hurdle for support is cleared, G8 and multilateral financial support will provide somewhat of an anchor for public finances," Citigroup said in a report in June. "If, on the other hand, relations between the West and the new Egyptian regime deteriorate, the fiscal trajectory becomes much more uncertain."
Egyptian officials are well aware of the risks. At least two U.S. business delegations have come to Egypt in the past few weeks, including one led by senators John McCain and John Kerry, both of whom praised the changes taking place in the country.
For Steven Farris, chief executive of the oil and gas producer Apache Corp., the first impression came from a local employee who met him at the airport, brimming with excited optimism.
"He sparkled," said Farris, who led one of the delegations. "You can feel the enthusiasm and you can feel the hope."
Egyptians do have hope - even if heavily tempered by caution.
An April survey by the U.S.-based International Republic Institute found that 89 percent of Egyptians polled said the country was moving in the right direction. But 81 percent rated the economy as poor, and 41 percent said they have trouble covering their basic needs and feeding their families.
Ratna Sahay, the IMF's deputy director for the Middle East and Central Asia, said there's no reason the economy can't get back on the track of higher growth.
"The fundamentals of the economy haven't changed," Sahay said. "But of course it depends on the political transition, which is hard to predict."
It is the uncertainty that weighs on everyone.
In their Cairo meetings, the delegation of American executives led by Apache's Farris, which included leaders from Exxon Mobil, Coca Cola and Citigroup, stressed their commitment to the country. Egyptian officials pitched them infrastructure projects, which some are considering. But so far, no new major investments have been announced by these firms.
Ahmed Samir, a 25-year-old Cairo pharmacist, has the same complicated mix of hope and worry that real change won't come, at least not fast enough to satisfy people.
"The real problem in this country is the mindset of the people," said Samir. "For 30 years, they've been trodden on, ignored and made to believe that they should be grateful for that."
"Now, we're like people who have been starving and see food for the first time. We want to eat and don't want to wait anymore."
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4) International Labor Solidarity Committee of Doro-Chiba
H. Yamamoto
Doro-Chiba Earthquake report No. 28
Fukushima University Students Began
Fighting to Abolish Nuke Plants!
July 5, 2011
http://www.doro-chiba.org/english/english2.htm
Dear our friends of the world,
Japanese government is urging the restart of the operation of the Genkai Nuclear Plant located in about 80 Km from "atomic bomb site Nagasaki" in Kyushu, which have been shut maintenance, in the midst of the world worst disaster ever in the history.
University students begin to express their burning anger against docile scholars and shameless propellers of nuclear policy bribed by government and capital. Revolts erupt from within campuses across the country.
Don't restart nuclear plants now shut for routine maintenance!
Abolish all nuclear plants by the power of international solidarity!
The united power of working class and people alone can create future!
In Struggle and Solidarity,
International Labor Solidarity Committee of Doro-Chiba
H. Yamamoto
http://www.doro-chiba.org/english/english2.htm
Doro-Chiba Earthquake report No. 28
Fukushima University Students Began
Fighting to Abolish Nuke Plants!
The Great Rally of Angry Fukushima on June 19 was attended by 1500 people from all over Japan and made a vigorous demonstration in the center of the city with warm welcome of Fukushima citizens. (Doro-Chiba Quake Report No.26)
Most remarkably, many students of Fukushima University participated in the rally. A student of first year grade made a passionate speech: "Speak out, and then we can change the situation. We can abolish nuclear plants. Let's stand up from Fukushima!"
Several Fukushima University students joined us while we were marching across Fukushima city. They shouted "Give back the ocean!" "Give back the field!", and we chanted these slogans in a heart with them.
"I'm from Niigata. On the occasion of the quake in 2007, all nuclear reactors in Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant automatically shut down and simultaneously a fire broke out. In spite of this bitter experience, we are now encountering a serious accident in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Such accident could not have happened if government had seriously thought over the risk of radiation and nuclear plants.
Now, government raised the reference level of exposed dose per year. It is urgent to take precautions since the magnitude of internal exposure have not been clarified. But government, media and professors are telling a pack of lies. Today's world is filled with absurdities. As an ordinary student I find the present situation totally unacceptable and ridiculous.
In Niigata, we succeeded to stop construction of new nuclear plants in Maki-machi by the local referendum. Just speak out, and we can change the world. We can abolish nuclear plants. Let's stand up from here Fukushima!"
Revolts erupt from within the Universities in Fukushima and Mie
On June 6, 12 associate professors of Fukushima University presented a document of request to the prefecture governor. Their demands are: "Prefecture should publicly acknowledge the existing danger of radiation and take necessary measures to lower the reference level of exposed dose" and proposed seven concrete agendas.
Thus they expressed their burning anger against docile scholars bribed by government and capital. The typical person is YAMASHITA Shunichi, professor of Nagasaki University, who was recently appointed to the Adviser of Fukushima prefecture on Health-risk Management from Nuclear Radiation.
After the appointment, he traveled to many places in Fukushima and preached: "Cancer-causing risk will not increase if exposure dose will not go beyond 100mSv/year" and "There is no immediate hazardous effect on health (under the present condition of Fukushima)" and so on.
He is a shameless advocator of government and TEPCO and abandons the life of people of Fukushima in the name of "atomic bomb site Nagasaki" and with authority of professor. Now a large number of people across Japan are voicing anger against YAMASHITA, calling him "Mr. Daijobu". ("Daijobu" means "No problem" in Japanese.)
In response to such rising, a new petition movement demanding displacement of YAMASHITA has been started. The essential organizers of this movement are the members of the "Fukushima network to protect children from radioactivity", who participated in June 5 rally of National Railway Struggle.
The struggles have started from within universities across the country. On May 11 in Mie University, faculty council of department of education rejected, the plan of opening a course "Energy and Environment", sponsored by Chubu Electric Power Company.
This attempt of sponsored course was planned to recover the setback in constructing new nuclear plants in South Mie by Chubu Electric Power Company (CEPCO), which had been driven into the cancellation by the protest movement of fishermen and residents for two times. CEPCO had tried rollback by purchasing the University for a large amount of donation of 300 million yen in ten years. It shows that we can stop and abolish nuclear plants by all means if we take action starting from University.
Let's start fresh struggle on campus now!
A large donation by the electric power companies is flowing every year in universities throughout the country and universities have been incorporated into the part of "the atomic village" until now. A university, which should be originally a place to open up the future for young people has been transformed into an organ to take away the future from children and youth.
However, through the accident of Fukushima, the fact has been revealed that the government and capital had distorted "study" and "education" 180-degree. And now, a fight with magnificent future has begun at last to overturn unbearable present conditions of university and education fundamentally. The key point is we students stand up on our own campus.
Tohoku (Northeastern Japan) University students' autonomous body calls for the great rally in the campus on July 8. We, Zengakuren (All Japan Federation of Students' Autonomous Bodies) will launch all-out struggle to rebuild a student autonomous body in every university and revitalize student movement in a huge scale.
The future is ours. In solidarity with the friends of all over the world, we will fight to abolish all nukes of the world!
July 5, 2011
Zengakuren (All Japan Federation of Students' Autonomous Bodies)
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5) French Boat Leaves Greek Waters, but Gaza May Prove Too Far
By SCOTT SAYARE
July 5, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/world/europe/06flotilla.html?ref=world
Defying a government order, a small French boat quietly left Greek waters early Tuesday and set course for the Gaza Strip, coordinators announced later in the day, when the craft had reached international waters. It was the first vessel aiming to be part of an international flotilla challenging Israel's naval blockade to successfully depart Greek territorial waters.
But organizers were undecided as to whether the vessel, carrying seven pro-Palestinian activists and a journalist, would indeed continue on course to Gaza. It was unclear that the boat had enough fuel to reach the Gaza coast.
"It's kind of in a holding pattern for the moment," said one organizer, Adam Shapiro. "We're trying to find out what is the next step."
Last week, Greece decreed that no ships would be permitted to sail from its territorial waters toward "the maritime area of Gaza," later citing safety concerns for the passengers of such ships. The Greek Coast Guard has turned back two flotilla boats, and the harbor authorities have held others in port for what they call administrative irregularities or seaworthiness issues.
Organizers had kept the location of the French boat a secret, and moored it in open water, not at a dock, so as to avoid alerting the Greek authorities to its presence.
Separately on Tuesday, a Greek court released the American captain of The Audacity of Hope, the United States-flagged boat that set out for Gaza from Athens last week but was almost immediately stopped by the coast guard and impounded. The captain, John Klusmire, was jailed on Saturday after a judge advanced initial charges of endangering the vessel's passengers, a felony, and disobeying an official directive. The charges have been dropped, said Mr. Shapiro, the organizer.
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6) As Budgets Are Trimmed, Time in Class Is Shortened
By SAM DILLON
July 5, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/education/06time.html?ref=us
After several years of state and local budget cuts, thousands of school districts across the nation are gutting summer-school programs, cramming classes into four-day weeks or lopping days off the school year, even though virtually everyone involved in education agrees that American students need more instructional time.
Los Angeles slashed its budget for summer classes to $3 million from $18 million last year, while Philadelphia, Milwaukee and half the school districts in North Carolina have eviscerated their programs or zeroed them out. A scattering of rural districts in New Mexico, Idaho and other states will be closed on Fridays or Mondays come September. And in California, where some 600 of the 1,100 local districts have shortened the calendar by up to five days over the past two years, lawmakers last week authorized them to cut seven days more if budgets get tighter.
"Instead of increasing school time, in a lot of cases we've been pushing back against efforts to shorten not just the school day but the week and year," said Justin Hamilton, a spokesman for the federal Department of Education. "We're trying to prevent what exists now from shrinking even further."
For two decades, advocates have been working to modernize the nation's traditional 180-day school calendar, saying that the languid summers evoked in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" have a pernicious underside: each fall, many students - especially those who are poor - return to school having forgotten much of what they learned the previous year. The Obama administration picked up the mantra: at his 2009 confirmation hearing, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan declared, "Our school day is too short, our school week is too short, our school year is too short," but its efforts in this realm have not been as successful as other initiatives.
"It feels like it's been pushed to the back burner a bit," said Jeff Smink, a vice president at the National Summer Learning Association in Baltimore.
The most ambitious federal program in this realm is part of a $4 billion effort to overhaul 1,150 failing schools, in which each is required to select an improvement model that includes a new schedule increasing learning time. In the Denver suburbs, for example, Fort Logan Elementary School has used the federal money to add four and a half hours of instruction per week.
But an interim report on the program in 10 states found several districts visited by federal inspectors were out of compliance. In Reno, Nev., for example, officials found that Smithridge Elementary School was using the 15 minutes it had added each morning for breakfast, not academics. District officials in San Francisco, the report said, "believed that Everett Middle School extended the school day by an hour six years ago and due to this reason was not required to implement any additional time."
In a separate report scheduled for release on Thursday, the National Center on Time and Learning, a Boston group that advocates expanding instruction time, acknowledges that an "untold number" of schools nationwide have reduced their hours and days, often by furloughing teachers. But the report also says more than 1,000 schools and districts have expanded their schedules, and highlights many examples.
In Pittsburgh, for example, $11 million in federal stimulus money is being used this summer to provide 5,300 students - more than twice the 2,400 enrolled last year - 23 additional days of math and reading instruction in a camplike atmosphere that converts some of the city's museums, recording studios and even bicycle-repair shops into classrooms.
In tiny Brandon, S.D., near Sioux Falls, some 65 teachers and principals plan to work without pay this summer to keep alive a summer school program that would have otherwise been canceled because of cuts in state aid.
"Our staff got together and said 'Let's do something to help our kids avoid that summer learning loss,' " said David Pappone, the superintendent.
And in Chicago, which has had one of the shortest school days of any major urban system, Mayor Rahm Emanuel won powers last month to impose a longer day and year. Mr. Emanuel is working with school authorities to add time for the fall term.
But each of these seems to have a counter-example.
Across Oregon, districts have been negotiating furlough days with teachers unions. In April, for instance, the local union agreed with the 17,000-student North Clackamas district, south of Portland, to six unpaid days off in 2011-12, leaving students with 168 days of class. Many of Oregon's 200 districts have cut similar deals. The average number of days teachers are scheduled to be with students next year fell to 165 from 167 this year, according to a survey by the Oregon School Boards Association.
Oregon sets minimum annual instructional hours - 990 hours for ninth grade, for example. Most states set minimum days, and several that do - including Arizona, California and Nevada - have lowered the bar amid belt tightening. Nevada's new law, signed in June, allows as few as 175 days, down from 180.
California made the same cut in 2009, but last week dropped the minimum to 168 for any district where revenues fall short of projections during the 2011-12 school year. Hawaii, mired in red ink, shortened its 180-day school year to 163 days in 2009, shuttering schools on many Fridays. But lawsuits and widespread protests last year persuaded lawmakers to restore the school year to 178 days.
Last month North Carolina lawmakers moved in the same direction, raising the state's minimum to 185 days of instruction, up from 180. But since the legislature provided no additional financing, some education officials there were less than thrilled.
The 2,800-student Balsz elementary district in Phoenix adopted a 200-day calendar starting in 2009-10, drawing on a local tax levy and a decade-old state law that increased financing by 5 percent for districts that meet that threshold. "Parents love it," said Jeffrey Smith, the superintendent. And Mr. Smith said the results were palpable: after one year of the new schedule, reading scores jumped 43 percent in grades 5 and 6 and 19 percent in grades 3 and 4.
And if many students groan at the notion of spending more time in class, some have warmed to it.
Rubi Morales, for instance, said that when she started six years ago at the Preuss charter school in San Diego, which has seven hours of class (instead of the typical six) 198 days of the year, she resented returning to her gritty neighborhood in the evenings to find all her friends roughhousing in the streets.
"They were doing fun stuff, and I'd be getting home and doing homework," recalled Ms. Morales, 18, who is headed to the University of California, Berkeley, this fall. "Now I see all those study hours paid off."
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7) Debris and Heavy Flow of Water Hamper Cleanup of Oil in Yellowstone River
By JIM ROBBINS
July 4, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/us/05spill.html?ref=us
LAUREL, Mont. - Specially trained crews streaming into this refinery town to clean up tens of thousands of gallons of oil that spilled into the Yellowstone River from a ruptured Exxon Mobil pipeline over the weekend have found their efforts hampered by a muddy, raging river filled with debris.
The Yellowstone River has its origins in the famous park and normally peaks in mid-June but is not expected to crest until the middle of July because of the heavy snows and late runoff. Crews that continue to arrive have had difficulty sopping up oil and putting oil booms around slicks because the river is so active.
"The situation is very challenging," said Gary Pruessing, president of the Exxon Mobil Pipeline Company, a division of Exxon Mobil, who added that the river was four times its usual flow for this time of year. "Because the river is outside its banks, it's flowing into areas that don't normally flood. Yesterday, we saw the tops of fence posts in the river, and we just can't wade into there and start working."
River banks are unstable, and there are snags, or large dead trees in the water. So cleanup workers, wearing orange life vests and hard hats, are working the mosquito-infested shoreline.
Investigators trying to determine the cause of the spill have not been able to get on boats or get close to where the leak occurred late Friday night.
The river is flooding people's yards and fields and carrying oil with it. The crew brought in by the oil company, which now numbers 125 or so, is using special large pads that repel water and soak up oil. Where the river has receded, it has left a deposit of oil that looks like a bathtub ring on the ground. There is an oily brown sheen on the water in places where the water is slack, and much of the grass has been stained black by escaped crude.
Along Thiel Road, which runs parallel to the swollen river and is less than a mile from the pipeline rupture, homeowners were concerned.
"We have old asparagus plants, apple trees and wild plums along the river, and there's oil all around them," said Carla Van Siclen, speaking of her four-acre property. "We're concerned about them dying out, and they are pretty good natural bank protection. I'm a little irritated we haven't gotten the full story, and I wish they would hold a public meeting."
A faint smell of diesel hung in the air as Ms. Van Siclen spoke. "It depends on which way the wind is blowing," she said.
Alan G. Jeffers, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil, said, "The testing we've done has not indicated any cause for concern for human health."
Air-quality monitoring showed no benzene and no hydrogen sulfide. A hot line set up has garnered about 75 calls - mostly residents reporting oil damage to property, or with questions.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard are part of the unified command here. Estimates put the leak at 750 to 1,000 barrels, which is as much as 42,000 gallons, and the river has carried it a long way.
The pipeline had passed an inspection in December and an audit of the pipeline's integrity management program by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in June. It had been briefly shut down in May but restarted when the company determined nothing was amiss.
"We feel this line was safe even with the high current," said Mr. Pruessing, who would not estimate a cost or a time frame for the cleanup. The cleanup has been split into four zones that total 241 miles. The first seven miles from where the spill occurred is where most of the oil is concentrated, and that is where the cleanup crew is most active. The second is 12 miles out, then 144 and 78.
"Our job is to contain the source of the leak and monitor the spread," said Frank Box, head of the rapid response team for Exxon Mobil. "We're following E.P.A.'s advice."
Mr. Box said his team had 32,000 feet of boom ready to be put out and 2,300 packs of large oil-absorbing pads. "We're still ramping up," he said.
The crews, expected to number 200 or more this week, are made up of people who work for Exxon Mobil around the country and are tasked with showing up quickly at emergencies.
Both the Audubon Society and International Bird Rescue are ready to help, but as of Monday evening, according to Mr. Pruessing, there had been only one report of a contaminated goose. Rescuers sent to find it could not locate it.
Exxon Mobil officials had noticed a significant reduction in pressure Saturday night and shut off the pipeline. Later a policeman reported smelling diesel fumes.
It is not known why the pipeline, a 12-inch line with a concrete coating buried 6 to 13 feet below the river back in 1991 , ruptured, although many speculate it is related to the surging river. The line was last tested with a "smart pig," a pipeline inspection gauge, that went through in 2009.
"We regret what happened and we need to apologize to everybody affected in Montana," Mr. Pruessing said. "We're here until the job is done."
Joanna Foster contributed reporting from New York.
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8) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-July 5th, 2011
Prisoners Across at Least 6 California Prisons Join Pelican Bay Hunger Strikers
Strike Could Involve Thousands of Prisoners
Press Contact: Isaac Ontiveros
Prison Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition
Office: 510 444 0484
Cell: 510 517 6612
Oakland- More than 100 hours into an indefinite hunger strike started at Pelican Bay State Prison's Security Housing Unit, prisoners in at least 6 state prisons have joined in, with participation potentially growing into the thousands. Hunger strikers at Pelican Bay and other prisoners participating are protesting the conditions in the Pelican Bay's Security Housing Unit (SHU).
Dozens of U.S.-based and international human rights organizations have condemned Security Housing Units as having cruel, inhumane, and torturous conditions. SHU prisoners are kept in windowless, 6 by 10 foot cells, 231/2 hours a day, for years at a time. The CDCR operates four Security Housing Units in its system at Corcoran, California Correctional Institution (CCI), Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW) as well as Pelican Bay.
As of Tuesday morning, advocates had confirmed hunger strike participants at Corcoran and CCI, as well as Folsom, Centinela, and Calipatria State Prisons. Despite the Hunger Strike spreading, the CDCR claimed in an LA Times article this past weekend that less than two dozen prisoners were on hunger strike.
"The CDCR is not following its own protocol around hunger strikes, but we have evidence that thousands of prisoners across in at least 6 prisons in California could be participating in the strike. We think that CRCR knows this and is purposefully withholding information," said Carol Strickman, staff attorney at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and legal team representative for Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity.
In a statement released from Corcoran Prison's SHU, prisoners said, "It is important for all to know Pelican Bay is not alone in this struggle and the broader the participation and support for this hunger strike and other such efforts, the greater the potential that our sacrifice now will mean a more humane world for us in the future."
A recent prisoner work strike in Georgia drew support from thousands of prisoner across at least 5 prisoners - the largest prisoner strike in US history. And at the Lucasville, OH State Prison this January, three hunger strikers won far-reaching changes to prison policy concerning conditions for prisoners on death row. "Given what's happening in California prisons themselves, its no surprise we're seeing organized action here too," said Taeva Shefler from Prison Activist Resource Center. "The US Supreme Court - not just liberal activists- has agreed that California prison conditions amount to cruel and unusual punishment. This growing Hunger Strike is the culmination of decades of abuse, neglect, foot-dragging, and incompetence by an unbroken sequence of CDCR administrations."
Actions in more than 12 cities are scheduled to happen throughout this week to show support for the Hunger Strike, and an end to indefinite Solitary Confinement, gang validation and inadequate food and medical care as administrative punishment.
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org Questions and comments may be sent to claude@freedomarchives.org
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9) Detroit's Dilemma: How to Share Gains with UAW
"Like thousands of newly hired unionized auto workers brought in at half the wages of existing hires, he and others like him are looking for new contracts between the United Auto Workers and the Detroit automakers to share the wealth."
By Bernie Woodall
Reuters
July 4, 2011
http://www.portfolio.com/business-news/reuters/2011/07/04/detroits-dilemma-how-to-share-gains-with-uaw#ixzz1RCpnU4hl
DETROIT (Reuters) - Over the past two years, Ford Motor Co has roared back from the brink of failure, won accolades for its gains in quality, posted its highest profits in a decade and rewarded patient investors with a 14-fold increase in its share price.
But Mike LeBeau, 23, who works at a Ford assembly plant in Chicago making around $15 per hour and lives at a bedroom in his parent's house, is not feeling the good times yet.
Like thousands of newly hired unionized auto workers brought in at half the wages of existing hires, he and others like him are looking for new contracts between the United Auto Workers and the Detroit automakers to share the wealth.
"I can make a car payment, and my student loan," said LeBeau, a recent graduate of Purdue University. But he doesn't have enough for a place of his own, he said.
UAW officials meet next week in Detroit to map out a final bargaining strategy for the first round of contract negotiations with Ford, General Motors Co, and Chrysler Group LLC since 2007.
They will square off against bargaining teams from GM, Ford and Fiat-controlled Chrysler who want to use this contract to break away from the industry's long-criticized practice of coming out of a boom with the kinds of higher fixed costs that contribute to the next crushing bust.
"The biggest question for me is will the UAW and the companies fall back into their old ways," said Tom Saybolt, a former Ford lawyer who now teaches at the University of Detroit-Mercy.
In the four years since the two sides last negotiated a labor contract, the Detroit automakers were pushed into crisis by collapsing vehicle demand and the financial convulsion of 2008. Both GM and Chrysler, now managed by Italy's Fiat SpA, were bailed out by the Obama administration.
The controversial federal bailout helped the UAW secure funding for retiree healthcare by giving a union trust fund an ownership stake in both GM and Chrysler at the same time that it barred the union from striking at those automakers.
It also set the stage for a different kind of labor negotiations that will play out in Detroit over the next several months for some 112,000 autoworkers.
The outcome of the talks will be watched as a key indicator of how much of the wrenching change intended to make the U.S. auto industry more competitive in recent years will stick as the crisis fades.
The U.S. automakers are ready to offer bonuses, including one-time signing bonuses, to UAW workers at the same time that they look to bring down overall payroll costs by pushing union workers to pay more for healthcare and bring them in line with workers in other industries, according to executives and analysts interviewed by Reuters.
UAW President Bob King, 64, now in his second year at the helm of the union, has promised a collaborative "UAW for the 21st Century" approach to negotiation aimed at making the U.S. automakers competitive and suggested he is open to bonus-type payments.
Jobs, jobs, jobs
For the UAW, whose membership has dropped 42 percent since 2004, the contract talks also represent a crucial opportunity to score commitments to keep factories open or to reopen shut assembly lines with new products like the Spring Hill, Tennessee plant, where GM launched the Saturn brand in 1985.
"For the UAW I think it will be jobs, jobs, jobs with a little bit in the background of 'We need a reward for what we did.' And for the companies, it's going to be 'We're not out of the woods yet. We need to be competitive,'" said Art Schwartz, a former GM labor negotiator and consultant.
The 2007 talks reworked retiree healthcare, created a controversial two-tier pay scale for workers and put UAW representatives that manage the retiree healthcare trust on the boards of directors of GM and Chrysler.
Now King and UAW leadership also face a grass-roots clamor from workers who say the union went too far in allowing the Detroit automakers to hire thousands of workers at a "second-tier" wage of about $30,000, compared with about $58,000 for established workers, before overtime.
For perspective, that means that LeBeau, who makes the Ford Explorer, a hot-selling SUV, cannot afford to buy the vehicle that he is making. The top-of-the-line Explorer prices out at almost $40,000.
UNION DISSIDENTS
Union dissidents say the second-tier wages have upended a basic tenet of the industry that dates to Henry Ford's decision to double the pay for his workers to $5 a day in 1914. Part of Ford's justification was to create a market for the Model T by paying workers enough to buy a new model on about four months of pay.
But hiring new workers at $15 per hour, the UAW has allowed GM, Ford and Chrysler to close the gap with Japanese competitors operating factories in the United States. That was a point that Republican critics of the bailout had insisted on early in the 2008 bailout debate. The Detroit automakers now have an average all- in labor cost of about $49 an hour for Chrysler, $58 per hour for Ford and a reported $60 for GM, compared with between $50 and $55 per hour for Toyota's U.S. plants.
Driving fixed labor costs down was probably the biggest gain made by the automakers in 2007. After those talks and the establishment of the retiree healthcare trust, hourly labor costs including benefits fell from around $75 per hour in 2007.
When President Barack Obama championed the success of the $80 billion bailout of the auto industry in 2009, he chose to do so at the Chrysler plant that makes the Jeep Grand Cherokee. That plant, known as Jefferson North, has the largest contingent of workers at the lower wage of any Chrysler plant.
But the two-tier system of wages is a continued sticking point with many UAW workers, who will be asked to ratify new contracts. Some say they doubt that the union leadership has their best interests in view, an unusual degree of rancor in a union that has prided itself on "solidarity" since its founding in 1935.
"We're not seeing eye-to-eye," said Rondo Turner, a 37- year-old GM worker who lost his job last month when GM closed its Indianapolis stamping plant. "The UAW will come out and say we will get your rights back. But from the way I see, they are setting up our negotiations so it's OK to have more second-tier workers."
UAW leader King wants permanent union representation on all of the company boards of directors, as is the case with many unions in Europe.
King, who earned a law degree from the University of Detroit-Mercy while working as an electrician's apprentice at Ford, says the "UAW for the 21st Century" is less adversarial with the companies while also protecting worker rights, work rules, wages and benefits.
King, who lives in the university town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, has refocused the UAW's view on wider social issues and human rights, and speaks without hint of irony about working for world peace.
"WITHOUT YOUR BATTLESHIP"
The cerebral King and his lieutenants at UAW have said that given the choice between higher wages and securing and creating jobs, they would take the jobs.
Analysts expect King and the UAW to remain pragmatic because the union has little choice. Ford is the strongest of the Detroit automakers and it would be the target for bargaining in a typical negotiating round. But this time, "a Ford strike would be messy," and the UAW has no way to force GM and Chrysler to accept the same terms without the ability to strike those companies, said Logan Robinson, a former auto executive who teaches at University of Detroit-Mercy.
"It's like showing up without your battleship," he said.
Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley who has been a confidant of King, said the UAW leadership understood that the new contract would have to keep Detroit's recovery on track, meaning any pay increase would probably be in the form of a bonus.
"Nobody is blind to the realities that are out there," he said.
(Editing by Kevin Krolicki)
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10) Since 2009, 88 Percent Of Income Growth Went To Corporate Profits, Just One Percent Went To Wages
By Sean Savett, Guest Blogger
Jun 30, 2011 at 3:15 pm
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/30/258388/corporate-profits-recovery/
After the longest recession since WWII, many Americans are still struggling while S&P 500 corporations are sitting on $800 billion in cash and making massive profits. Now, economists from Northeastern University have released a study that finds our sluggish economic recovery has almost solely benefited corporations. According to the study:
"Between the second quarter of 2009 and the fourth quarter of 2010, real national income in the U.S. increased by $528 billion. Pre-tax corporate profits by themselves had increased by $464 billion while aggregate real wages and salaries rose by only $7 billion or only .1%. Over this six quarter period, corporate profits captured 88% of the growth in real national income while aggregate wages and salaries accounted for only slightly more than 1% of the growth in real national income. ...The absence of any positive share of national income growth due to wages and salaries received by American workers during the current economic recovery is historically unprecedented."
The New York Times adds, "According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, average real hourly earnings for all employees actually declined by 1.1 percent from June 2009, when the recovery began, to May 2011, the month for which the most recent earnings numbers are available."
So as average wages fall, and nearly 14 million people remain unemployed, America's economic recovery has almost entirely benefited corporations. This development adds another chapter to the decline of the middle class, whose incomes are shrinking and wages are stagnating. Last year, top executives' salaries increased 27 percent, while workers' salaries increased only 2 percent. At the moment, income inequality in America is the worst it's been since the 1920s, as the richest 1 percent make nearly 25 percent of the country's income.
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11) Why Do the Police Have Tanks? The Strange and Dangerous Militarization of the US Police Force
By Rania Khalek, AlterNet
Posted on July 5, 2011, Printed on July 6, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151528/why_do_the_police_have_tanks_the_strange_and_dangerous_militarization_of_the_us_police_force?akid=7211.229473.BcqBpb&rd=1&t=3
Just after midnight on May 16, 2010, a SWAT team threw a flash-bang grenade through the window of a 25-year-old man while his 7-year-old daughter slept on the couch as her grandmother watched television. The grenade landed so close to the child that it burned her blanket. The SWAT team leader then burst into the house and fired a single shot which struck the child in the throat, killing her. The police were there to apprehend a man suspected of murdering a teenage boy days earlier. The man they were after lived in the unit above the girl's family.
The shooting death of Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanley-Jones sounds like it happened in a war zone. But the tragic SWAT team raid took place in Detroit.
Shockingly, paramilitary raids that mirror the tactics of US soldiers in combat are not uncommon in America. According to an investigation carried out by the Huffington Post's Radley Balko, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement over the last 30 years, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units for routine police work. In fact, the most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.
Some 40,000 of these raids take place every year, and are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they're sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. And as demonstrated by the case of Aiyana Mo'nay Stanley-Jones, these raids have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries.
How did we allow our law enforcement apparatus to descend into militaristic chaos? Traditionally, the role of civilian police has been to maintain the peace and safety of the community while upholding the civil liberties of residents in their respective jurisdiction. In stark contrast, the military soldier is an agent of war, trained to kill the enemy.
Clearly, the mission of the police officer is incompatible with that of a soldier, so why is it that local police departments are looking more and more like paramilitary units in a combat zone? The line between military and civilian law enforcement has been drawn for good reason, but following the drug war and more recently, the war on terror, that line is inconspicuously eroding, a trend that appears to be worsening by the decade.
The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 is a civil war-era law that prohibits the use of the military for civilian policing. For a long time, Posse Comitatus was considered the law of the land, forcing militarization advocates to come up with creative ways to get around it. In addition to assigning various law enforcement duties to the military, such as immigration control, over the years Congress has instituted policies that encourage law enforcement to emulate combat soldiers. Hence, the establishment of the SWAT team in the 1960s.
Originally called the Special Weapons Attack Team, the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) units were inspired by an incident in 1966, when an armed man climbed to the top of the 32-story clock tower at the University of Texas in Austin and fired randomly for 90 minutes, shooting 46 people and killing 15, until two police officers got to the top of the tower and killed him. This episode is said to have "shattered the last myth of safety Americans enjoyed [and] was the final impetus the chiefs of police needed" to form their own SWAT teams. Soon after, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) formed the country's first SWAT team, which acquired national prestige when used against the Black Panthers in 1969.
Use of these paramilitary units gradually increased throughout the 1970s, mostly in urban settings. The introduction of paramilitary units in America laid the foundation for the erosion of the barrier between police and military, a trend which accelerated in the 1980s under President Reagan, when the drug war was used as a pretext to make exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act.
In 1981, Congress passed the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Act, which amended Posse Comitatus by directing the military to give local, state and federal law enforcement access to military equipment, research and training for use in the drug war. Following the authorization of domestic police and military cooperation, the 1980s saw a series of additional congressional and presidential maneuvers that blurred the line between soldier and police officer, ultimately culminating in a memorandum of understanding in 1994 between the US Department of Justice and Department of Defense. The agreement authorized the transfer of federal military technology to local police forces, essentially flooding civilian law enforcement with surplus military gear previously reserved for use during wartime.
Between 1995 and 1997 the Department of Defense gave 1.2 million pieces of military hardware, including 3,800 M-16s, 2,185 M-14s, 73 grenade launchers and 112 armored personnel carriers to civilian police agencies across the country. But this was only the beginning.
In 1997, Congress, not yet satisfied with the flow of military hardware to local police, passed the National Defense Authorization Security Act which created the Law Enforcement Support Program, an agency tasked with accelerating the transfer of military equipment to civilian police departments. Between January 1997 and October 1999, the new agency facilitated the distribution of 3.4 million orders of Pentagon equipment to over 11,000 domestic police agencies in all 50 states.
By December 2005, that number increased to 17,000, with a purchase value of more than $727 million of equipment. Among the hand-me-downs were 253 aircraft (including six- and seven-passenger airplanes, and UH-60 Blackhawk and UH-1 Huey helicopters), 7,856 M-16 rifles, 181 grenade launchers, 8,131 bulletproof helmets, and 1,161 pairs of night-vision goggles.
The military surplus program and paramilitary units feed off one another in a cyclical loop that has caused an explosive growth in militarized crime control techniques. With all the new high-tech military toys the federal government has been funneling into local police departments, SWAT teams have inevitably multiplied and spread across American cities and towns in both volume and deployment frequency. Criminologist Peter Kraska found that the frequency of SWAT operations soared from just 3,000 annual deployments in the early 1980s to an astonishing 40,000 raids per year by 2001, 75-80 percent of which were used to deliver search warrants.
In 1997, Kraska observed that close to 90 percent of cities with populations exceeding 50,000 and at least 100 sworn officers had at least one paramilitary unit, twice as many as in the mid 1980s. Radley Basko correctly points out that the trends giving rise to SWAT proliferation in the 1990s have not disappeared, so it's safe to assume these numbers have continued to rise and are significantly higher today.
Then there are the effects of the war on terror, which sparked the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the introduction of DHS grants to local police departments. These grants are used to purchase policing equipment, although law enforcement is investing in more than just bullet-proof vests and walkie talkies. DHS grants have led to a booming law enforcement industry that specifically markets military-style weaponry to local police departments. If this sounds familiar, that's because it is law enforcement's version of the military-industrial-complex.
By instituting public policies that encouraged the collaboration of military and domestic policing, the US government handed a massive and highly profitable clientele to private suppliers of paramilitary gear. Following the breakdown of Posse Comitatus in the 1980s and '90s, Peter Cassidy writes in Covert Action Quarterly that "gun companies, perceiving a profitable trend, began aggressively marketing automatic weapons to local police departments, holding seminars, and sending out color brochures redolent with ninja-style imagery."
Private suppliers of military equipment advertise a glorified version of military-style policing attire to local police departments and SWAT teams. One such defense manufacturing company, Heckler and Koch, epitomized this aggressive marketing tactic with its slogan for the MP5 submachine gun, "From the Gulf War to the Drug War-Battle Proven."
Today's latest in paramilitary fashion sweeping through local police departments is the armored tank, which is making appearances all over the country at an increasingly alarming rate. The police department in Roanoke, Virginia paid Armet Armored Vehicles, a private company that specializes in military vehicles, $218,000 to assemble a 20,000-pound bulletproof tank with a $245,000 federal grant.
Not to feel left out, the Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) in Lancaster, Penn., was recently seen sporting the Lenco BearCat, a camouflage colored Humvee-styled tank that can knock down a wall, pull down a fence, withstand small-arms fire and deliver a dozen heavily armed police officers to a tense emergency scene. The BearCat was purchased a year and a half ago with a $226,224 grant from DHS, yet it has spent nearly two years sitting in a garage at the county's Public Safety Training Center.
The most widely used justification for the purchase of heavily armored war machines is that violence against police officers has increased exponentially, necessitating the tank for protection of the men and women who serve our communities. But examination of the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report, a database that tracks the number of law enforcement officers killed and assaulted each year, reveals that this is simply not true. According to the UCR, since 2000 an average yearly toll of about 50 police officers have been feloniously killed, the highest reaching 70 in 2001. So the notion that militarization is a necessary reaction to a growth in violence against police officers is absurd, considering that violent crime is trending downward.
Others argue these tanks are needed in case of a terrorist attack or a natural disaster. But on September 11, 2001, I do not recall the NYPD complaining that a lack of armored tanks was impeding its policing efforts. And during the catastrophic tornado that tore through Joplin, Missouri earlier this year, heavily armored vehicles weren't present nor were they needed to assist in the aftermath.
The majority of paramilitary drug raid proponents maintain that military-style law enforcement is required to reduce the risk of potential violence, injury and death to both police officers and innocents. The reality is that SWAT team raids actually escalate provocation, usually resulting in senseless violence in what would otherwise be a routine, nonviolent police procedure.
Just consider your reaction in the event of a SWAT team breaking down your door in the middle of night, possibly even blowing off the hinges with explosives, while you and your family are asleep. Imagine the terror of waking up to find complete strangers forcing their way into your home and detonating a flash-bang grenade, meant to disorient you. Assuming nobody is hurt, what thoughts might be raging in your mind while the police forcefully incapacitate you and your loved ones, most likely at gunpoint, while carrying out a search warrant of your home. Assuming you were able to contain the mix of fear and rage going through your body, consider how helpless you would feel to know that any perceived noncompliance would most certainly be met with lethal force.
Training and technology-sharing between the defense and civilian law enforcement seems responsible for the pervasive culture of militarism plaguing domestic law enforcement. In fact, an estimated 46 percent of paramilitary units were trained by "active-duty military experts in special operations." Lawrence Korb, a former official in the Reagan administration, famously said that soldiers are "trained to vaporize, not Mirandize." As police officers continue to emulate soldiers in their weaponry, language, tactics, uniform, and mindset, it won't be long before they vaporize instead of Mirandize as well.
We have created circumstances under which the American people are no longer individuals protected by the Bill of Rights, but rather "enemy combatants." The consequences of such a mindset have proven time and again to be lethal, as we now rely on military ideology and practice to respond to crime and justice. For some insight into the implications, one needn't look any further than minority communities, which have long been the victims of paramilitary forces posing as police officers. Black and Latino communities in the inner-cities of Washington DC, Detroit and Chicago have witnessed first-hand the deadly consequences of militarization on American soil. Military culture now permeates all aspects of our society. Does anyone really believe that heavily armed soldiers trained to kill are capable of maintaining an atmosphere of nonviolence?
It's important to remember that police officers are not responsible for instituting these policies. Over the last three decades local police departments supplied with military uniforms, weaponry, vehicles, and training, were told they were fighting a war on drugs, crime and terror. The politicians who instituted these policies are responsible for the militarization creeping into civilian law enforcement. What might the end result be if the distinction between police and military ceases to exist? The answer is a police state -- and certain segments of our society are already living in one.
Rania Khalek is a progressive activist. Check out her blog Missing Pieces or follow her on Twitter @Rania_ak. You can contact her at raniakhalek@gmail.com.
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12) Acquittals of Ex-Officials Feed Anger Across Egypt
By LIAM STACK
July 5, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/world/africa/06egypt.html?ref=world
CAIRO - An Egyptian criminal court on Tuesday acquitted three former government ministers of corruption while convicting a fourth in absentia, verdicts most likely to further inflame public anger over the pace of efforts to hold former officials accountable for killing more than 800 people during the country's 18-day revolution.
The acquittals were seen as especially provocative because they followed by one day a separate Cairo court decision to release on bail seven police officers charged with killing 17 protesters and wounding 350 in the city of Suez during the revolution. That decision set off a riot at the courthouse and led protesters to block a major highway for hours.
The decisions have aggravated growing anger at the military council now running the country. It has faced mounting criticism from protesters who say it is too slow to prosecute former officials, yet has moved quickly and aggressively to prosecute hundreds of civilians before military courts in connection with pro-democracy activities.
"People see more and more that nothing is changing," said Lilian Wagdy, who is helping to organize a large protest in Tahrir Square on Friday. "Those who have been robbing this country for 30 years get acquitted, while protesters are found guilty before military courts."
Egyptian officials have increasingly struggled to contain deep public anger and frustration. Those demanding political change are angry over alleged rights violations and unsatisfactory trials. Others are fed up with the post-revolutionary uncertainty and crippled economy. Their sentiments often erupt in violence, sometimes pitting policemen against protesters, and civilians against civilians.
A coalition of human rights groups sued the military council on Tuesday on behalf of a woman they said was tried before a military court in March, tortured and forced to submit to a "virginity test" within view and earshot of military prison workers.
Violence has also continued in the capital. On Saturday, 47 people were injured when protesters in Tahrir Square clashed with tea vendors they accused of being agents planted by the police.
So far, only one police officer has been convicted, in absentia, of killing protesters. The former interior minister, Habib el-Adly, was sentenced in May on corruption charges, but his trial over protester deaths was postponed. The former president, Hosni Mubarak, has also been charged in the deaths of protesters and is scheduled to have his first day in court Aug. 3.
"People, especially families of martyrs, have had enough," said Sarah Abdelrahman, an activist, referring to those killed in the uprising. "The more people continue to stall, the angrier people are getting."
Tuesday's acquittals involved a former finance minister, Yousef Boutros-Ghali, and a former information minister, Anas el-Feqy, over charges of misusing about $6 million in public funds on parliamentary and political campaigns. Mr. Boutros-Ghali, a nephew of the former United Nations secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali, has been abroad since February and was earlier sentenced to 30 years in absentia for misuse of office equipment. Mr. Feqy remained in prison on other charges.
The third official, Ahmed el-Maghraby, was found not guilty of profiteering from an improper sale of state-owned land when he was housing minister. He maintained throughout the trial that it happened before he took office.
In a fourth, separate case, the court convicted a former minister of trade and industry, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, of profiteering and the misuse of public funds totaling more than $2 million. He was also tried in absentia. Mr. Rachid, who was visiting Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, when the revolution began and has stayed there since, insisted on his innocence.
During President Mubarak's last years in power, he appointed a government that had the unpopular task of redesigning the economy, and often was the focus of public ire. Mr. Rachid championed Egypt's economic liberalization, which was marked by high growth rates but also a yawning gap between rich and poor. Mr. Boutros-Ghali, the former finance minister, also promoted that effort. Mr. Feqy, the chief propagandist and a friend of the Mubarak family, aggressively defended the regime on state-run media during the uprising.
"There is no doubt in the minds of most people in Egypt that these guys are guilty of something," said Samer Shehata, a professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University.
Mr. Maghraby's acquittal has been met with some surprise. The Housing Ministry was long seen as a clearinghouse for the illicit sale of publicly owned land through sweetheart deals, and Mr. Maghraby, already convicted in May over a separate land deal, is the subject of seven corruption investigations, said his lawyer, Hussein Abdelsalam el-Feki.
"Anyone who knows anything about Egyptian politics knows that the Housing Ministry is the center of corruption in Egyptian politics," said Mr. Shehata, who called illicit land sales under the Mubarak government "the rule, not the exception."
Mr. Feki said he expected the government to appeal the acquittals and accused prosecutors of "trying to appease sentiments in Tahrir."
"It is typical that the general prosecutor's office is trying to appease the feelings on the street," he said. "It is difficult for them to deal with the acquittal, even if the men are innocent, because they are on a witch hunt."
Dina Salah Amer and Lara el-Gibaly contributed reporting.
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13) Japan Plans Safety Assessments of Nuclear Plants
By MARTIN FACKLER
July 6, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/world/asia/07japan.html?ref=world
TOKYO - Japan will conduct new safety assessments of its nuclear plants, the nation's top energy official said on Wednesday, in a move aimed at persuading local communities to allow the restarting of idled nuclear reactors.
The official, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda, said the so-called stress tests would measure the plants' ability to withstand larger-than-expected earthquakes and tsunamis, like those that disabled the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March.
He said the analyses, which are modeled on those conducted by the European Union on its plants, were intended to give "a sense of assurance" to local residents.
The issue of local acceptance has come to the forefront in Japan as Tokyo tries to persuade regional leaders to allow the restart of dozens of reactors that were originally idled for regular maintenance, but that have not been turned on since the March disaster.
At present, 35 of Japan's 54 reactors are offline, some because of earthquake-related damage, but most because of the routine repairs. Under Japanese law, reactors must halt for repairs every 13 months.
Experts warn that if no reactors are turned back on, every reactor in Japan will be idle by April, possibly leading to power shortages.
However, the Fukushima accident has created a popular backlash against nuclear power. As a result, Tokyo faces an uphill battle trying to persuade regional leaders to give the necessary approval to restart their local reactors.
On Wednesday, the governor of southern Saga Prefecture, who will be the first decide whether to allow the restart of two idled reactors in his prefecture, said he would go to Tokyo to try to arrange a meeting with Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
The governor, Yasushi Furukawa, has said he wants Mr. Kan to explain the nation's energy policy and why the reactors must be turned back on. Mr. Furukawa has become the center of national attention as he is widely seen as the first governor who must decide whether to approve a restart.
In Parliament on Wednesday, Mr. Kan refused to say whether he would meet with Mr. Furukawa.
Mr. Furukawa also said Wednesday that he would await the results of the new stress assessments before deciding whether to allow the restart of the two reactors at the Genkai nuclear plant. As the analyses are expected to take time to arrange and conduct, local media reports said that could postpone his decision until at least August.
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14) A Safer Nuclear Crypt
"The fuel had just been moved into a capsule the size of a small silo, called a dry cask. Welded shut after it came out of the water, the cask was pumped full of inert gas, placed in an outer cask and moved outdoors to a concrete pad where it will sit until a disposal site is found. Spent fuel must be isolated from the environment for hundreds of thousands of years before it loses its potency."
By MATTHEW L. WALD
July 5, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/business/energy-environment/06cask.html?ref=world
MARSEILLES, Ill. - Watching intently as a huge white steel container surfaced from a 42-foot-deep canal, workers set upon it with long-handled tools, like sailors wrestling a flailing whale to the deck of a ship.
Yet this catch was far more menacing: 57,000 pounds of spent nuclear fuel at the LaSalle nuclear plant here, stored for decades in a pool and, if unshielded, powerful enough to deliver a lethal dose of radiation within seconds.
The fuel had just been moved into a capsule the size of a small silo, called a dry cask. Welded shut after it came out of the water, the cask was pumped full of inert gas, placed in an outer cask and moved outdoors to a concrete pad where it will sit until a disposal site is found. Spent fuel must be isolated from the environment for hundreds of thousands of years before it loses its potency.
The nuclear calamity at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant has refocused attention on the vulnerability of spent fuel pools at the 104 operating American nuclear plants.
The pools are generally far more packed than the damaged ones at Fukushima. Some scientists argue that the crowding raises the risk of a fire and makes the pools a tempting target for terrorists.
Several members of Congress are calling for the fuel to be moved from the pools into dry casks at a faster clip, noting that the casks are thought to be capable of withstanding an earthquake or a plane crash, they have no moving parts and they require no electricity.
"We should not wait for an American meltdown to beef up American nuclear safety measures," Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, who advocates greater reliance on casks, said after the accident in March in Japan. "We must heed the lessons to be learned from the nuclear meltdown in Japan and ensure nuclear safety here."
But transferring the fuel to dry casks involves risks of its own, some industry experts say. "It's a very complex discussion," said Neil Wilmshurst, a nuclear power expert and a vice president of the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit utility consortium. "Every time you move spent fuel, there's always a risk of human error. How much of this do you want to do if you don't need to do it?"
The discussion is unfolding amid a far broader and more divisive debate over nuclear waste disposal. A half-century after the American nuclear industry was born, the nation still lacks a dedicated repository for such waste because of maneuvering driven by not-in-my-backyard politics.
In 1987 Congress designated Yucca Mountain, a desolate volcanic ridge in the Nevada desert, as a national disposal site, ruling out sites in Texas and Washington State. But the political landscape shifted, and the Obama administration canceled the project in 2009 under pressure from Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, leader of the Senate's Democratic majority.
Then came the earthquake and tsunami at Fukushima, which cut off power to four reactors and caused three cores to melt. The melting fuel in the reactors released hydrogen gas that then exploded, throwing debris into the fuel pools, destroying a barrier that had prevented the release of radioactive materials to the outdoors and leaving the pools exposed to the rain.
Suddenly, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was under pressure to explain whether crowded American pools faced parallel risks.
Gregory B. Jaczko, chairman of the commission and a former aide to Senator Reid, contends that both fuel pools and dry cask storage are relatively safe, with any differences being fractional. "It's like the difference between buying one ticket in the Powerball lottery and 10 tickets," he said in an interview, referring to the odds that something will go wrong.
But Robert Alvarez, a former senior adviser to the secretary of energy and expert on nuclear power, points out that unlike the fuel pools, dry casks survived the tsunami at Fukushima unscathed. "They don't get much attention because they didn't fail," he said.
In addition to the United States and Japan, plenty of other countries make extensive use of casks, usually storing them at reactor sites. Germany has gone a step further, placing them in installations designed to protect the casks from airplane crashes.
After Japan's disaster, the Tennessee Valley Authority said it would study the possibility of moving more fuel to casks, but so far other American operators have not followed suit. Moving all of the nation's fuel once it has cooled in the pools for at least five years could cost $7 billion, Mr. Alvarez said.
Exelon Nuclear, operator of the twin-reactor LaSalle plant, says it pays about $1 million for each cask and that loading each one with fuel costs another $500,000. It has filled six casks so far, and the concrete pad on which they sit outdoors cost the company another $1 million.
The assumption is that the fuel will remain in the casks for "years, maybe decades," said Peter Karaba, the plant manager. The fuel that was loaded the other day dates from the mid-1980s, when Mr. Karaba, 42, was still in high school.
Back in the 1960s, when most of today's reactors were designed, the consensus was that fuel would emerge from the reactors, cool for a few years in the pools, and then go to a factory where it would be chopped up. That process would take the unused uranium and plutonium created during the reactor's operation, purify them and fashion them into new fuel.
Although France and Japan do some of that recycling, Presidents Ford and Carter banned the practice in the United States for fear of encouraging a global trade in plutonium, a bomb fuel.
So American utilities turned to casks, but only when fuel pools were close to capacity, as is the case at LaSalle. Some industry specialists say that that policy should continue, partly to limit the risks posed whenever spent fuel is moved.
Industry experts acknowledge that working with casks poses some radiation risks. That is why several workers who gathered around the cask emerging from the pool at LaSalle wielded long poles with probes and Geiger counters; when they find an area of contamination, another worker with a mop on a long pole cleans it up.
The dozen or so workers who move a cask receive a collective radiation dose of about 500 millirem, or one-quarter of the maximum annual radiation exposure that regulators allow for workers at any American nuclear plant.
Plant managers made a visiting reporter watch the procedure from a monitoring room filled with flat-panel displays until the cask had been scanned by radiation detectors. "We treat this as a significant activity" requiring caution, Mr. Karaba said.
Exelon has sought to minimize the risks in other ways, too. Workers avoid hoisting a cask directly over the fuel in the pools, so that if it does fall, it will not damage the fuel rods. Work stops during thunderstorms in case electric power is interrupted.
Some nuclear engineers argue that it would be far riskier to leave the fuel in the crowded pools. Noting that the utilities have converted the pools over the years to squeeze in more fuel, a 2003 study commissioned in response to the 9/11 attacks suggested that the new configurations raised the risk of fire. That research led Congress to ask for the National Academy of Sciences to study the pools' safety.
In 2005 the academy reported that terrorists could plausibly mount a successful attack on the pools and recommended that federal regulators evaluate whether more of the fuel should be moved to dry casks.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission adopted one recommendation from the study, ordering that the used fuel be shuffled inside the pools in a way that would even out the heat load, but it did not tell the utilities to remove any.
Mr. Alvarez contended that this precaution was not enough to prevent an accident. "A single reactor has five to 10 times more radioactive material in the pool than was released in the Chernobyl accident" in 1986, he said in a telephone news conference on the fuel pools in May.
Once the fuel enters a cask and has left the pool at the LaSalle plant, it joins others on a concrete pad a short walk from the reactor buildings. Maintenance is relatively simple. A worker checks twice a day to ensure that nothing is blocking the vents at the bottom of the outer cask so that air can circulate past the sealed steel capsule inside, carrying away the heat generated by the fuel.
Cask manufacturers anticipate decades of healthy demand for their product. "I joke my children will be doing my job," said Joy Russell, a corporate development director at the manufacturer Holtec International.
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15) CPS takes custody of 6 kids living with parents in storage shed
by Rucks Russell / KHOU 11 News
khou.com
Updated Tuesday, Jul 5 at 5:37 PM
http://www.khou.com/news/Storage-Shed-CPS-Fight-125041524.html
HOUSTON-Parents who thought their home was safe are battling with the state over the custody of their kids, and they believe they're being punished because they're poor._
"You shouldn't take our kids because we've fallen on hard times," said Prince Leonard, a married father of six whose family resides in a northeast Houston storage shed.
The Leonards moved in three years ago after the father, an unemployed welder, was hired as a maintenance worker._
The family had already lost an apartment and believed the homeless shelter wasn't safe enough.
"This is much more secure," said Charlomane Leonard. "Our children can play outside here."
Recently, a passerby spotted the children outside and reported them to Child Protective Services._
A caseworker investigated, and the state took custody of the kids._
According to CPS, the children were removed because the storage shed was a dangerous living environment.
The shed, which lacks running water, is about 12 feet wide and 25 feet long._
It has an air conditioner, a refrigerator and two personal computers. The Leonards said their kids were well cared for and happy there.
Now they're fighting to have their children returned._
"We just want them back where they belong," said Mr. Leonard.
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16) E.P.A. Sets New Standards for Coal-Burning Plants
By JOHN M. BRODER
July 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/science/earth/08epa.html?hp
WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday issued new standards for coal-burning power plants in 28 states that would sharply cut smokestack emissions that have polluted forests, farms, lakes and streams across the eastern United States for decades.
The agency said that the new regulations, which take effect beginning in 2012, would cut emissions of soot, smog and acid rain from hundreds of power plants by millions of tons at a cost to utilities of less than $1 billion a year. The E.P.A. said the cleaner air would prevent as many as 34,000 premature deaths, 15,000 nonfatal heart attacks and hundreds of thousands of cases of asthma and other respiratory ailments every year.
Lisa P. Jackson, the E.P.A. administrator, said the new rule would improve air quality for 240 million Americans living in states where the pollution is produced and downwind.
"No community should have to bear the burden of another community's polluters, or be powerless to prevent air pollution that leads to asthma, heart attacks and other harmful illnesses," she said. "This is a long-overdue step to protect the air we breathe."
The new regulation, known as the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, is essentially a rewrite of a rule issued by the administration of President George W. Bush that was invalidated by a federal judge in 2008. The regulation, known popularly as the transport rule because it involves emissions that are carried eastward by prevailing winds, is a significant toughening of an acid rain program that was part of the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act.
The agency said that utilities could meet the new standards at a modest cost using commonly available technology like smokestack scrubbers. Under some E.P.A. projections, the new rule would create jobs in pollution-control business and significantly improve labor productivity by reducing the number of workdays lost to respiratory and other illnesses.
The utility industry and many Republicans in Congress, however, contend that the new rule, along with other pending E.P.A. air quality regulations, will require the closing of dozens of aging coal plants and impose heavy financial burdens on power companies and their customers.
"The E.P.A. is ignoring the cumulative economic damage new regulations will cause," said Steve Miller, president of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a group of coal-burning utilities. "America's coal-fueled electric industry has been doing its part for the environment and the economy, but our industry needs adequate time to install clean coal technologies to comply with new regulations. Unfortunately, E.P.A. doesn't seem to care."
An industry-financed study found that new air pollution rules would cost tens of thousands of jobs and raise electricity rates by more than 20 percent in some parts of the country.
Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, called the new rule an impediment to economic growth and job creation.
"True environmental progress will not come from these costly, heavy-handed regulations that harm the very people E.P.A. claims to protect," Mr. Inhofe said in a statement. "Real progress on clean air is best achieved through common-sense multipollutant legislation that streamlines the Clean Air Act's many redundant and overlapping mandates."
"The bottom line," he added, "is that reducing emissions does not have to be this expensive - the Obama E.P.A. just wants it to be."
Supporters of the new rule said that any costs would be more than offset by health and other benefits. The E.P.A. estimates the annual benefits of the cross-state pollution rule at between $120 billion and $280 billion a year by 2014.
John F. Sheehan of the Adirondack Council, a nonprofit advocacy group, said that the finalization of the new air quality rule would help Adirondack Park in upstate New York, the nation's largest park outside Alaska, recover from exposure to decades of dangerous pollution produced far from its borders.
"This is the biggest leap forward in our long history of dealing with this problem," Mr. Sheehan said in a telephone interview. "This is a very deep cut on a very aggressive schedule and essentially enough to end chronic acidification of lakes and ponds in the Adirondacks."
He said that it would allow the regeneration of spruce and fir forests in the six-million-acre park while improving the habitat of dozens of species, from the Bicknell's Thrush at high elevations to brook trout in streams.
"This sets the stage for biological recovery and the return of species that once inhabited those lands and waters," he said.
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17) WikiLeaks Memoir 'Postponed'
By JULIE BOSMAN
July 6, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/world/europe/07briefs-WIKILEAKSMEM_BRF.html?ref=world
A book deal that Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, signed only six months ago has fallen through, according to a report in The Guardian on Wednesday, but Canongate, his publisher in Britain, said it was still expecting to publish the book. Canongate did not provide a date for its release, however. According to The Guardian report, Mr. Assange, left, had expressed concern that the memoir could be used against him by prosecutors in the United States. American officials have been weighing whether to try to charge Mr. Assange since WikiLeaks released a trove of State Department cables, but it is unclear where that effort stands. The book deal was announced in December; Mr. Assange said he expected to earn $1.7 million for the memoir, which was being ghostwritten by Andrew O'Hagan, a novelist. The memoir was originally scheduled for publication in April 2011 in Britain, although Mr. Assange's American publisher, Knopf, did not release a publication date. "With projects like these, you never know about delivery, and you never know about timetables," said Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for Knopf, part of Random House. "My understanding is that the book has been postponed."
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18) First Study of Its Kind Shows Benefits of Providing Medical Insurance to Poor
"While the findings may seem obvious, health economists and policy makers have long questioned whether it would make any difference to provide health insurance to poor people. ...Some said that of course it would help to insure the uninsured. Others said maybe not. There was already a safety net: emergency rooms, charity care, free clinics and the option to go to a doctor and simply not pay the bill. ...The study found that those with insurance were 25 percent less likely to have an unpaid bill sent to a collection agency and were 40 percent less likely to borrow money or fail to pay other bills because they had to pay medical bills. ...Dr. Baicker interviewed people for Part 2 of the study and was impressed by what she heard.'Being uninsured is incredibly stressful from a financial perspective, a psychological perspective, a physical perspective,' she said. 'It is a huge relief to people not to have to worry about it day in and day out.'" [Thank God for MIT Economists and their study (I wonder how much the study cost?) or we would never have known these facts! And I wonder if the Economists ever thought of asking the poor whether or not THEY think having health insurance would make a difference to them???????...This is one of the dumbest articles I have ever read! ...bw]
By GINA KOLATA
July 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/health/policy/07medicaid.html?ref=us
When poor people are given medical insurance, they not only find regular doctors and see doctors more often but they also feel better, are less depressed and are better able to maintain financial stability, according to a new, large-scale study that provides the first rigorously controlled assessment of the impact of Medicaid.
While the findings may seem obvious, health economists and policy makers have long questioned whether it would make any difference to provide health insurance to poor people.
It has become part of the debate on Medicaid, at a time when states are cutting back on this insurance program for the poor. In fact, the only reason the study could be done was that Oregon was running out of money and had to choose some people to get insurance and exclude others, providing groups for comparison.
Some said that of course it would help to insure the uninsured. Others said maybe not. There was already a safety net: emergency rooms, charity care, free clinics and the option to go to a doctor and simply not pay the bill. And in any case, the argument goes, if Medicaid coverage is expanded, people will still have trouble seeing a doctor because so few accept that insurance.
Until now, the arguments were pretty much irresolvable. Researchers compared people who happened to have insurance with those who did not have it. But those who do not have insurance tend to be different in many ways from people who have it. They tend to be less educated and to have worse health habits and lower incomes, said Dr. Alan M. Garber, an internist and health economist at Stanford. No matter how carefully researchers try to correct for the differences "they cannot be completely successful," Dr. Garber said. "There is always some doubt."
The new study, published Thursday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, avoided that problem. Its design is like that used to test new drugs. People were randomly selected to have Medicaid or not, and researchers then asked if the insurance made any difference.
Health economists and other researchers said the study was historic and would be cited for years to come, shaping health care debates.
"It's obviously a really important paper," said James Smith, an economist at the RAND Corporation. "It is going to be a classic."
Richard M. Suzman, director of the behavioral and social research program at the National Institute on Aging, a major source of financing for the research, said it was "one of the most important studies that our division has funded since I've been at the N.I.A.," a period of more than a quarter-century.
In its first year of data collection, the study found a long list of differences between the insured and uninsured, adding up to an extra 25 percent in medical expenditures for the insured.
Those with Medicaid were 35 percent more likely to go to a clinic or see a doctor, 15 percent more likely to use prescription drugs and 30 percent more likely to be admitted to a hospital. Researchers were unable to detect a change in emergency room use.
Women with insurance were 60 percent more likely to have mammograms, and those with insurance were 20 percent more likely to have their cholesterol checked. They were 70 percent more likely to have a particular clinic or office for medical care and 55 percent more likely to have a doctor whom they usually saw.
The insured also felt better: the likelihood that they said their health was good or excellent increased by 25 percent, and they were 40 percent less likely to say that their health had worsened in the past year than those without insurance.
The study is now in its next phase, an assessment of the health effects of having insurance. The researchers interviewed 12,000 people - 6,000 who received Medicaid and 6,000 who did not - and measured things like blood pressure, cholesterol and weight.
The study became possible because of an unusual situation in Oregon. In 2008, the state wanted to expand its Medicaid program to include more uninsured people but could afford to add only 10,000 to its rolls. Yet nearly 90,000 applied. Oregon decided to select the 10,000 by lottery.
Economists were electrified. Here was their chance to compare those who got insurance with those who were randomly assigned to go without it. No one had ever done anything like that before, in part because it would be considered unethical to devise a study that would explicitly deny some people coverage while giving it to others.
But this situation was perfect for assessing the impact of Medicaid, said Katherine Baicker, professor of health economics at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Baicker and Amy Finkelstein, professor of economics at M.I.T., are the principal investigators for the study.
"Amy and I stumbled across the lottery in Oregon and thought, 'This is an unbelievable opportunity to actually find out once and for all what expanding public health insurance does,' " Dr. Baicker said.
They had just a short window of time. Within two years, Oregon found the money to offer Medicaid to the nearly 80,000 who had been turned down in the lottery.
As an economist, Dr. Finkelstein was interested, among other things, in whether Medicaid did what all insurance - homeowner's, auto, health - is supposed to do: shield people from financial catastrophe. Almost no one had even tried to investigate that question, she said.
"It is shocking that it is not even in the discourse," Dr. Finkelstein said.
The study found that those with insurance were 25 percent less likely to have an unpaid bill sent to a collection agency and were 40 percent less likely to borrow money or fail to pay other bills because they had to pay medical bills.
Dr. Finkelstein said she had thought that the people were so poor to begin with that they just did not spend very much out of pocket on medical care when they did not have insurance. "Yet look at the results," she said.
Dr. Baicker interviewed people for Part 2 of the study and was impressed by what she heard.
"Being uninsured is incredibly stressful from a financial perspective, a psychological perspective, a physical perspective," she said. "It is a huge relief to people not to have to worry about it day in and day out."
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19) Dirtier Air and Higher Costs Possible if Indian Point Closes, Report Says
By PATRICK McGEEHAN
July 6, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/nyregion/dirtier-air-and-higher-costs-may-follow-indian-point-closing.html?ref=nyregion
Shutting down the Indian Point nuclear power plant would lead to significantly dirtier air and higher electric bills for New York City residents, according to a report commissioned by the city that is circulating among state officials in Albany.
The report, a copy of which was obtained on Tuesday by The New York Times, concludes that, for the next several years, there probably will not be enough new power generated to replace the 2,000 megawatts produced by the two reactors at Indian Point. That shortfall could leave the city with a less reliable supply of electricity and a greater risk of brownouts, the report finds.
Those findings buttress the stated views of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has said that Indian Point probably cannot be shut down "for the next four or five years." That position could leave him at odds with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has told executives of Indian Point's owner, Entergy, that he was determined to close the plant, which stands along the Hudson River about 35 miles north of Midtown.
The licenses for the plant's reactors are scheduled for renewal in 2013 and 2015. Together, the reactors produce as much as 25 percent of the power consumed in Consolidated Edison's service area, which includes New York City and Westchester County.
Asked for a response to the report, Josh Vlasto, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, indicated that it would not deter the governor. He reiterated a statement from last month that said that "the governor's longstanding position with respect to closing Indian Point has been clear, and this administration intends to follow through with implementing that policy."
Three projects are under way that could replace some of the power that would be lost if Indian Point closed. But even after the completion of all three - power plants in Astoria, Queens, and Bayonne, N.J., and a transmission cable from New Jersey to Manhattan - there would not be enough power to meet the standards for reliability required in the city, the report says.
When demand for electricity rises in the summer of 2016, the first peak period after the reactors could be retired, "given the current prospects for new capacity in New York, resource adequacy will fall below acceptable levels at that point," it says.
Last week, the mayor addressed that potential problem in a radio interview. "If you want to shut down Indian Point, you probably cannot do it for four or five years anyways because we don't have alternative power sources," Mr. Bloomberg said. "Now, there are plants being built and power lines bringing power from up north into the city, but it's four or five years before they get here."
The commissioner of the city's Department of Environmental Protection, Caswell F. Holloway, said the report was not intended to bolster an argument against closing Indian Point, but to explore the implications of a shutdown. It was produced by Charles River Associates, a research firm in Cambridge, Mass.
"This really provides a deep layer of backup to what the mayor said," Mr. Holloway said. "This analysis shows that any plan is going to require time to implement and tough decisions about the economic, reliability and environmental trade-offs that would be necessary to do it."
On another issue important to the mayor, the report says that a shutdown of Indian Point "would substantially reduce the possibility" of achieving the goals for reducing the city's carbon emissions that were laid out in Mr. Bloomberg's long-term plan known as PlaNYC. It estimates that the amount of carbon emissions and nitrogen oxides in the air in the city and state would increase by at least 5 percent to 10 percent because replacing Indian Point's output would require more fuel-burning plants. If none of the lost power was replaced by renewable sources of energy, like wind farms, the increase in carbon emissions could be as high as 15 percent, the report states.
A shutdown also would drive up the wholesale cost of electricity in the city and state by about 10 percent, or a total of $1.5 billion a year, it says. That would translate to a rise of 5 percent to 10 percent in the amount residential customers pay Con Edison for the electricity they consume. Those consumers also would most likely bear some of the costs of the subsidies that would be necessary to entice developers to build new power plants, the report says.
The New York League of Conservation Voters has not taken a stand on whether Indian Point should be shut down, said its president, Marcia Bystryn. But she said she found the report's analysis of the potential environmental effect convincing.
"Whatever other alternatives are put in place to generate that power that we'll lose, the air will inevitably be dirtier," she said.
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20) APNewsBreak: WikiLeaks Getting Credit Card Funds
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/07/07/business/AP-WikiLeaks.html?src=busln
LONDON (AP) - A company linked to WikiLeaks says the secret-busting site is getting money through Visa and MasterCard after a months-long financial embargo.
The chief executive of Icelandic payment processor DataCell has told The Associated Press the companies were again processing payments to WikiLeaks after a seven-month hiatus.
Both companies pulled the plug on Andreas Fink's service in early December, shortly after WikiLeaks began publishing about 250,000 U.S. State Department cables. But Fink said Thursday that card services had been restored.
The move could well be accidental.
Visa Europe spokesman Simon Kleine told AP that processing the payments was "not something that we've sanctioned" and that the company was investigating.
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