2010/02/05: WNPJ members sound off in letters to editor

WNPJ members are well-represented on the opinion pages of Wisconsin newspapers, both online and in print, with letters to the editor on a variety of topics. A recent sampling:

Lee Brown, Capital Times: Uphold the Constitution -- end the war

Jim Guilfoil, Wis. State Journal: Honor King’s ideal of nonviolence, too

2010/02/05: Capital Times: John LaForge: Think nuke power is safe? Think again

John LaForge, co-director of Nukewatch, a WNPJ member group, in an opinion column in the Capital Times: Wisconsin’s reactors at Point Beach and Kewaunee spew radiation like all the others. In fact Wisconsin’s reactors have a particularly unsafe record of operations, when compared to the other 101 reactors operating across the country.

Merrimac wants Army to clean up contamination

An update from Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, a WNPJ member group:  Merrimac board members unanimously passed a resolution Feb. 3 calling on the U.S. Army to clean up groundwater contamination that is affecting private drinking water wells and is discharging into the wetlands and surface water of LakeWisconsin at Weigand’s Bay.  

The action follows the release of a new Army study showing that concentrations of the carcinogenic explosive DNT exceed state groundwater standards and that low levels of solvents may have also migrated outside Badger Army Ammunition Plant. 

Latest problem undermines 'safe, clean' nuke sales job

In the midst of a big PR and lobbying campaign to try to sell nuclear power as a clean, safe solution to climate change, another problem pops up -- radioactive tritium leaking from plants, including (as the map shows) some incidents in Wisconsin. WNPJ Board member Bill Christofferson has more on the WNPJ Blog.

 

Wisconsin's Congressional War and Peace Scorecard

 

Which Wisconsin member of Congress has signed on to Representative Jim McGovern's bill requiring an "exit strategy" for Afghanistan? Who voted for war funding the last time it came to a vote? Which Wisconsin Congressional Representative is the closest approximation to the Gold Standard of anti-war members of Congress, Ohio's Dennis Kucinich?

Thanks to David Swanson at defundwar.org, we now have answers to these questions, and more, all compiled in an easy-to-read table.

Thank Representatives Baldwin and Moore for speaking out against Gaza blockade - and other WNPJ Action Alerts

More than 50 members of Congress have written a letter to President Obama about the humanitarian crisis caused by the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The letter states: "The blockade has severely impeded the ability of aid agencies to do their work to relieve suffering... has devastated livelihoods [and] entrenched a poverty rate of over 70%." The letter goes on to note that "the ban on building materials is preventing the reconstruction of thousands of innocent families' damaged homes." Two members of the Wisconsin Congressional delegation, Tammy Baldwin (202-225-2906) and Gwen Moore (202-225-4572), have signed on to the letter.

More WNPJ Action Alerts below...

WNPJ Blog: Why my son joined the Army


WNPJ member Frank Pauc recalls the moment when his son, Hans, told his peace-activist parents that he had joined the Army:

"It would be a gross understatement to say that we were surprised by his announcement. " Shock and awe " would better describe it. It took a while for it to sink in, and it took a number of long distance phone calls to understand why he had made this decision. Eventually, it started to make sense."  Read the rest...

At 'public' hearing, the view from the back of the bus

Most of the activists from WNPJ's Carbon Free Nuclear Free campaign, who attended a public hearing Jan. 27 to oppose the nuclear section of the Clean Energy Jobs Bill, waited more than eight hours to testify for four minutes in a nearly-empty room with almost all of the committee members gone.

2010/01/29: LaCrosse Tribune: Fort McCoy protesters get 14 days in jail

 LaCrosse Tribune reports:

MADISON — Two peace activists arrested for trespassing at Fort McCoy in 2008 were sentenced Thursday in federal court to 14 days in jail, a year after refusing to pay a $75 fine.

Brian Terrell (on the right in photo) of Maloy, Iowa, and Joshua Brollier of Chicago (left in photo) told Federal Magistrate Stephen Crocker they and others wouldn’t be deterred by a jail sentence and they didn’t believe their act of civil disobedience warranted punishment.

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