Flyby News
"News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era"
Warming Suit * Woody Appeal * Teeth&Rads
27 August 2005
1) Federal Judge OKs Global Warming Lawsuit- - US States Bypass Bush to Tackle Greenhouse Gas Emissions
2) CIA, Military Men Agree with Pat Robertson- - We're paying for this ugly mentality
- - Military laser brings 'Star Wars' reality closer
3) Justice for Woody Remains Open
4) Baby teeth sought for radiation study
5) Making Sense of the Senseless - Holler Political Guide
Editor's Notes:Okay, finally, an Issue with some good news.. of course, mixed with the bad.
To gain a perspective of how such bad things go on, seemingly, unnoticed, or distorted in the minds of much of the US general public, check out this cartoon link by
Tom Tomorrow: This Modern World ~ Averting their eyes In item 3 we have good news for family, friends, and fans of real justice, in the case of Robert "Woody" Woodward. I guess four witnesses in conflict with police reports was enough not to throw the case out. There is still a chance for justice.. Item 2 is ugly news, but exposes a killing mentality based on ego and brainwashed forces, and it is scary. Instead, patriotic US citizens owe President Chavez and the democratic country of Venezuela our appreciation for showing the US what a country of, by, and for the people is all about during these dangerous times.
Item 4 is on baby teeth and learning what is being absorbed in the human body from nuclear reactors. Item 5 is deep, but readers of Flyby News will appreciate this Holler Political Guide.
Thanks for all contributions and interest in news fit to transmit..
News Quotes: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
A federal judge here said environmental groups
and four U.S. cities can sue federal development
agencies on allegations the overseas projects
they financially back contribute to global warming.
America's north-eastern states are on the brink of
a declaration of environmental independence with the
introduction of mandatory controls on greenhouse gas
emissions of the kind rejected by the Bush administration.
"Chavez is a dangerous guy," retired Col. David Hunt
told Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" fill-in
host Steve Malzberg on Wednesday. "We helped to
elect the son of a gun [and] after 9/11 you don't
get to threaten us."
The issue of assassination "should be on the table,"
Hunt said. "I'm suggesting that we use it as a tool
to get those guys nervous."
A federal appeals court has ordered a judge to rethink
his reasons for throwing out a lawsuit against police in
the shooting death of Robert Woodward.
"The average Sr-90 levels found in these nine baby teeth
raises a little red flag," said Reynolds, and indicate
the need for further analysis
1) Federal Judge OKs Global Warming LawsuitPublished on August 25, 2005 by the Associated Press
Federal Judge OKs Global Warming Lawsuit
By David Kravets
A federal judge here said environmental groups and four U.S. cities can sue federal development agencies on allegations the overseas projects they financially back contribute to global warming.
The decision Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White is the first to say that groups alleging global warming have a right to sue.
"This is the first decision in the country to say that climate change causes sufficient injury to give a plaintiff standing, to open the courthouse door," said Ronald Shems, a Vermont attorney representing Friends of the Earth.
That group, in addition to Greenpeace and the cities of Boulder, Colo., Santa Monica, Oakland and Arcata, Calif., sued Overseas Private Investment Corp. and the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Those government agencies provide loans and insure billions of dollars of U.S. investors' money for development projects overseas. Many of the projects are power plants that emit greenhouses gases that the groups allege cause global warming.
The coalition argues that the National Environmental Policy Act, the law requiring environmental assessments of proposed development projects in the United States, should apply to the U.S.-backed projects overseas. The U.S. law should apply, they say, because those developments are contributing to the degradation of the U.S. environment via global warming.
The two government agencies claimed that U.S. environmental regulations do not apply to overseas projects, and that the courts have no right to intervene in those agencies' affairs.
Still, the judge's ruling was narrow. White did not rule whether those agencies must perform environmental assessments of projects they help fund, but simply said the groups have a right to sue. If White's decision stands, the issue of whether U.S. environmental rules apply to the projects backed by the agencies likely will be litigated, Shems said.
Shems noted that, even if he ultimately wins the case, that doesn't mean a given project would be blocked even if an environmental analysis is performed and highlights severe environmental damage it would cause.
"The first step in getting a handle on climate change is to find out what the sources are and get an inventory," he said.
The suit claims 8 percent of the world's greenhouse gases come from projects supported by the two agencies.
Linda Formella, a spokeswoman with Export-Import Bank, said the agency, which supported nearly $18 billion in exports last year, does not comment on pending litigation. The Overseas Private Investment Corp. did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
The case is Friends of the Earth v. Watson, 02-4106.
© 2005 Associated Press
Also posted:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0825-09.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US States Bypass Bush to Tackle Greenhouse Gas EmissionsPublished on August 25, 2005 by The Guardian / UK
US States Bypass Bush to Tackle Greenhouse Gas Emissions
By Julian Borger
America's north-eastern states are on the brink of a declaration of environmental independence with the introduction of mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions of the kind rejected by the Bush administration.
In the first regional agreement of its kind in the US, nine states are expected to announce a plan next month to freeze carbon dioxide emissions from big power stations by 2009 and then reduce them by 10% by 2020.
The region stretches from New Jersey to Maine and generates roughly the same volume of emissions as Germany.
Pennsylvania and Maryland have signed on as observers to the regional initiative and are considering joining it at a later date.
On the other side of the continent, California, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico and Arizona are exploring similar agreements, representing a clear break between state governments and Washington over global warming.
The outline of the north-eastern states' draft agreement was published yesterday in the New York Times, and its main features were confirmed by Dale Bryk, a lawyer at the Natural Resources Defence Council, who has been monitoring progress of the regional initiative. The 2009 freeze and the 10% reduction by 2020 were "a done deal", Ms Bryk said. "They plan to have a memorandum of understanding by the end of September."
She added: "It's huge. It's a drumbeat, and more and more states and regions are heading down this road. It's going to change the discussion at the federal level ... It's going to take the argument off the table [that] we can't do this because it's too expensive, there are too many obstacles."
The Bush administration withdrew from the Kyoto protocol on climate change in 2001, and restated its opposition at the G8 summit at Gleneagles in July, arguing that its mandatory emissions targets would devastate the US economy.
In July, Washington signed a separate pact with Australia, Japan, China, India and South Korea, which did not fix emissions targets but instead set out to encourage the private sector of green technologies and their transfer to industrialising countries.
"We welcome all efforts to help meet the president's goal for reducing greenhouse gas intensity by investing in new, more efficient technologies," Michele St Martin, a spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, told the Guardian.
"We believe it is a better approach than regulatory mandates that would increase already high energy bills for consumers, put people out of work or achieve reductions simply by buying more energy from, and shifting emissions to, other states and other countries."
The American response to global warming has split the Republican party. Two powerful Republican state governors, Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and George Pataki in New York, have played leading roles in the regional initiatives.
Andrew Rush, Mr Pataki's spokesman, said yesterday he could not comment on the nine-state agreement as it was still in draft form. But he added: "I know we've made a lot of progress and we're still working hard on it."
The regional greenhouse gas initiative, as the north-eastern plan is titled, will allow for emissions trading, so that power stations in one state with lower emissions than their mandatory ceiling could sell the rest of their allowance in other states. The same system, pioneered in sulphur dioxide control in the US, is currently being used to curb greenhouse gases in Europe.
The north-eastern pact is less ambitious than the Kyoto accord, which freezes emissions at the 1990 level and imposes a 7% reduction by 2012.
The plan will initially only apply to power stations with an output of more than 25 megawatts, of which there are about 600 across the region, but it could later be extended to large manufacturing plants. The states are New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island and Delaware. Some states will need to ratify the agreement in their state legislatures, but that is not expected to be a significant obstacle.
The scheme is expected initially to raise energy prices in the states involved.
In a separate initiative, the mayors of more than 130 cities, including New York and Los Angeles, agreed earlier this year to meet the emissions reductions envisaged in the Kyoto accord, independent of federal policy decided in Washington.
© 2005 Guardian Newspapers Ltd.###
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0825-06.htm
2) CIA, Military Men Agree with Pat Robertson- - We're paying for this ugly mentality
- - Military laser brings 'Star Wars' reality closer
CIA, Military Men Agree with Pat Robertson
Published Aug. 25, 2005 1:08 p.m. EDT
CIA, Military Men Agree with Pat Robertson
While televangelist Pat Robertson has apologized for suggesting that Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez be assassinated, a former military man and an ex-CIA operative have stepped forward to say that his concerns about Chavez aren't exactly unwarranted.
"Chavez is a dangerous guy," retired Col. David Hunt told Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" fill-in host Steve Malzberg on Wednesday. "We helped to elect the son of a gun [and] after 9/11 you don't get to threaten us."
The issue of assassination "should be on the table," Hunt said. "I'm suggesting that we use it as a tool to get those guys nervous."
Former CIA operative Wayne Simmons agreed, tellingFox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes," that Chavez has "threatened not only the United States and the west, but [has] armed himself with the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia, which is the oldest, most well-trained terrorist organization in Latin America."
"He should have been killed a long time ago," Simmons said.
This article was posted by NewsMax.com.
www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/8/25/131236.shtml?et=y= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
-- We're paying for this ugly mentality
Just the Iraq War alone has cost $11,000 per US Family- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Military laser brings 'Star Wars' reality closer
3) Justice for Woody Remains OpenWoodward case to get second look
By MIKE KALIL
Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO -- A federal appeals court has ordered a judge to rethink his reasons for throwing out a lawsuit against police in the shooting death of Robert Woodward.
A three-judge panel in New York City ruled that U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha discounted accounts by four eyewitnesses who claimed Woodward wasn't a threat to anyone but himself when police shot him in December 2001. The panel said Murtha's reasoning was "unconvincing."
"Here, four witnesses gave sworn statements that Woodward made no advances or threatening moves toward the officers or any bystanders before he was shot," the judges wrote. "The district court discounted these witnesses' accounts for unconvincing reasons."
Woodward, 37, of Bellows Falls, was shot to death by police in a West Brattleboro church on Dec. 2, 2001. He was armed with a 3 1/2-inch knife when he interrupted church services; he pulled out his knife, ranted of conspiracies and threatened to kill himself.
After responding to the disturbance, Brattleboro police officers Terrance Parker and Marshall Holbrook shot Woodward seven times. He was pronounced dead later that day at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. Parker remains on the police force and is Vernon's fire chief; Holbrook relocated out-of-state after the shooting.
Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell later said the shooting was a tragic, but justifiable homicide. This touched off an uproar among Woodward's family and friends who said his life was cut short without reason. His family then sued the town and the police, claiming officers used excessive force. The case has never gone to trial.
Judge Murtha dismissed the lawsuit July 1, 2004, saying there was no evidence that Woodward's rights were violated and no evidence that the officers weren't properly trained or that they used excessive force. Woodward's family quickly appealed the decision and asked the appeals court for a jury trial.
The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision was released Wednesday. The court said "some witnesses who claim to have seen Woodward advance" at the officers gave "conflicting statements at the time of the shooting." Therefore, the judges wrote, Murtha may have been "improvident" when he ignored the statements.
It's unclear how quickly Murtha will have to respond to the appeals ruling.
"It's a positive outcome and it's really the first positive outcome that's occurred in this case," said Stephen Monroe Tomczak of Wallingford, Conn., a longtime friend of Woodward's.
What happened in the moments before Woodward was shot is disputed. Police maintain that Woodward lunged toward police with the blade, giving them the right to use deadly force. Other witnesses said he did no such thing.
William F. Ellis, one of the Burlington lawyers representing the town and the officers, said he believes Judge Murtha will again dismiss the suit when given the chance to re-examine the case. He said he believes issuing a summary judgment in the case is still appropriate because the facts, as he sees them, are undisputed.
"We're confident that when Judge Murtha has the opportunity to clarify his reasoning that is based upon undisputed facts ... the same result will apply," he said.
Mary Rives, an Amherst, Mass., resident and one of Justice for Woody's founders, said she wanted the appeals court to grant a jury trial instead of throwing the case back to Murtha. She said she had "mixed feelings" about the ruling.
"At every turn, justice has been derailed up to this point, so the outcome of the (panel's) decision provides a glimmer of hope," she said.
She said the move gives Murtha a second chance to "do his homework and do it right." She encouraged him not to give in to political pressures and consider the testimony from the four witnesses.
"What we got was unacceptable to the federal judges, so he has a very important decision to make," she said. "And it needs to come from a well-informed place, rather than a political one."
Tomczak said he is being "cautiously optimistic" until the case is resolved. He said a jury trial is the best way to get the truth out.
Joel Faxon, a New Haven, Conn., lawyer representing the Woodward family did not return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday. Thomas Costello, a Brattleboro lawyer who is on the family's legal team, is on vacation until next week and could not be reached for comment. Brattleboro Police Chief John Martin is also on vacation.
www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102%257E8860%257E3025520,00.html- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For Flyby News archive links on this case, see:
Friend Shot Dead by Police
4) Baby teeth sought for radiation studyBy Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian
BRATTLEBORO — High levels of a cancer-causing radionuclide found in nine baby teeth collected from children who live near the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant have prompted anti-nuclear activists to seek at least 100 more teeth for further testing.
Preliminary findings of a study by the Radiation and Public Health Project show the average Strontium-90 (Sr-90) concentration in baby teeth collected from Windham County in Vermont and Cheshire County in New Hampshire to be 61 percent higher than 17 baby teeth from other counties in Vermont and New Hampshire, according to Agnes Reynolds, a nurse and RPHP volunteer from Hartford, CT. RHRP is a New York-based nonprofit group of scientists and medical professionals that examines links between low-level radiation and public health.
The teeth from counties surrounding Vermont Yankee showed an average of 4.2 picocuries per gram of calcium, compared to 2.65 picocuries in teeth from other areas in Vermont, Reynolds said at a press conference Tuesday in Brattleboro.
A spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that agency has no acceptable radiation levels for specific body parts. The NRC calculates radiation based on whole-body doses, he said.
Acknowledging that nine teeth is not a significant sampling, Reynolds said "100 teeth will produce meaningful results."
RPHP will focus their "Tooth Fairy Project" on the Vermont Yankee region because VY is the 11th oldest reactor in the country; it's owner, Entergy Corp., is seeking to increase power there by 20 percent; and boiling water reactors typically release higher levels of radioactivity than pressurized water reactors, according to a press release from the group.
The results of a several RPHP studies of more than 4,000 baby teeth, mostly from areas near seven nuclear power plants around the country, showed Strontium-90 levels 30-50 percent higher than average, Reynolds said. She added that the results have been published in four environmental and medical journals.
"There are different levels of scientific journals," said NRC Region I spokesman Neil Sheehan. He said the NRC monitors the radiation releases at all of the nation's nuclear power plants, and Vermont Yankee's levels consistently comply with NRC standards.
"We raise concerns about the methodologies used by the Tooth Fairy Project," said Sheehan. Among the agency's questions about the project, he said, are that the group has failed to establish control populations for their studies; they have not examined other risk factors such as background radiation levels; they have used small sample sizes to draw general conclusions and have not submitted the data for rigorous peer review."
Anti-nuclear activists on Tuesday acknowledged the shortcomings of their studies, and said they are hampered by the high cost of the lab work. It costs $72 to analyze each tooth, noted Sunny Miller, executive director of the Traprock Peace Center in Deerfield, MA.
"The average Sr-90 levels found in these nine baby teeth raises a little red flag," said Reynolds, and indicate the need for further analysis
Vermont State Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham County, who was present in the audience at the press conference, said she would look into the state's role in monitoring the levels through the Department of Health, which oversees both the radiation protection program and early childhood services.
Deb Katz, executive director of the Citizens Awareness Network based in Shelburne Falls, MA, said it's very difficult to get government agencies involved, noting that even after the Massachusetts Health Department agreed to conduct three studies to investigate high rates of cancer and other diseases around three nuclear power plants, state officials never pinpointed radiation from the reactors as the cause of the cancers.
"But you can ask the people suffering in nuclear communities whether the reactor has affected them and you will hear time and again that they believe it has," Katz said.
Those interested in collecting teeth or donating a baby tooth should contact the RPHP's outreach coordinator, Joseph Mangano, at (610) 666-2985 or Odiejoe@aol.com. Requests for envelopes or information on where to send teeth can be made by calling 800-582-3716 or by e-mail to bill@radiation.org.
http://www.vermontguardian.com/local/0105/BabyTeeth.shtml= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Radiation and Public Health Awareness -- The Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) was established by scientists and physicians dedicated to understanding the relationships between low-level, nuclear radiation and public health.
The RPHP "Tooth Fairy Project" "..grew out of the work of Dr. Jay Gould, Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project and author of The Enemy Within: The High Cost of Living Near Nuclear Reactors. By analyzing 50 years of US National Cancer Institute data, Dr. Gould proved that.of the 3,000-odd counties in the United States, women living in about 1,300 nuclear counties (located within 100 miles of a reactor) are at the greatest risk of dying of breast cancer.."
Back in the days of the pre-Cassini-Earth flyby,
a Letter of Concern by Dr. John W. Gofman provided ample evidence showing why there is
no safe dose for alpha particles emitted by the radioactive decay of plutonium..
This concern has also been realized by the impact from the use of
Depleted Uranium missile shells, which has caused much harm to soldiers and civilians, but especially to the young.
For more on these issues, actions, and campaigns, visit these web sites:
Nuclear Information and Resource Service,
New England Coalition,
Citizens Awareness Network,
Traprock Peace Center, and
The Radiation and Public Health Project
5) Making Sense of the Senseless - Holler Political GuideHOLLER POLITICAL GUIDE
Holler folk are generally shy of allowing any single political label attached their them. That doesn't mean they don't have an opinion, it's just that political labels are too damn confusing. And so, with the help of Harry, the Saponifying Boy Wonder at Vermont Soapworks, Here is a Handy Holler Guide to political labels:
Progressives want to go forward, to move things along. They want to Progress, and move into the future. But many Holler Folk consistently advocate for a step backwards to a smaller and more sustainable scale. This definitely makes them
Regressives.
Conservative should mean they want to conserve more. Conserve our ecological and financial resources. Be prudent and thoughtful in all actions. That would make them Regressives too. But Conservatives want to Liberalize the laws controlling big business and big government. That is why they are in fact,
Progressive Liberals.
Liberals think want to live out on their land and let everyone else live pretty much as they wish (no fighting no biting!), that makes them
Regressive Conservatives too. They want Government to make sure the playing field is level for everyone, whether you need it or not. This makes them
Socialists. But they also want less direct government control in their lives. This makes the
Right Wingers. Go Left enough, and you find a closet Righty.
Democrats imagine the represent the Sensible Middle Road (in the status quo). This makes the boring. Wake me up if they have an original thought. Democrats have an amazing way of promoting the same Globalization agenda as the Republicans. That makes them, well, Republicans.
Republicans used to represent Main Street America, Work hard, pay your taxes, help your neighbor. Now Republicanism just scares me. Unless you are White, Upper Middle Class, and believe that Christian America has a God given right to world domination and exploitation of the people and resources of our planet; What are you doing with these bums?
I just don't get how it is we only have two real political parties in this country. Since they are one with Corporate America now, that makes them
Businesscrats. Businesscrats want to eat up the world. That makes them
Eco-cancer.
Now neither my officially Democrat nor professed Republican friends consider themselves Eco-cancer. And yet, aren't all of us, this writer included part of the problem by participating in the Consumer Culture, and accepting current fashions of Excess Everything?
Larry Plesent is founder of Vermont Soapworks
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =