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News
Briefs: No Hemp | Speghetti
Bowl | Reluctant Martyr | Dalai
Lama on War | Pot Support Growing| Corrections
News:
Halfway to Yucca-- DOE has a Utah site in mind for "temporary"
nuke storage.
Happening
People: Joshua Skov.
NO
HEMP THIS YEAR
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| Persecuted
Oregon marijuana/hemp activist William Conde makes his new home
in sunny Belize. |
Well, it's that time of year again: Saturday Market,
garden parties with wine and beer, endless outside events. And before
you know it it's time for the Country Fair, the Barter Fair, and the
Hemp Festival ... wait a minute, no Hemp Fest this year. Bill Conde
is gone.
He vamoosed to Belize, Central America. He lives in
a village near Orange Walk Town with his wife, Ruby, and three children,
ages 9, 6, and 2. He has the newest and biggest house in town that
also doubles as a variety store, which he calls "Guaranteed Used."
They sell fine used clothing he buys from Goodwill or St. Vincent
de Paul. He also sells filtered water and filtered ice and that brings
in a good living.
Conde just bought the property next door to him, which
he says will be a youth hostel or a poor man's B&B. He loves the
lifestyle down there and asks, where else can his kids grow up with
all their cousins and grandparents within a two-mile area?
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Slant
A joint
public hearing on the West Eugene Parkway (WEP) was scheduled
for Wednesday, May 29, too late for us to cover in this issue
of EW. This hearing before the Eugene and Springfield
City Councils, Lane County Commission and Lane Transit district
Board concerns amendments to TransPlan, the West Eugene Wetlands
Plan, Metro Plan, and Lane Rural Comprehensive Plan. Officials
will vote on proposed plan amendments in June or July and pass
on their decisions to state and federal officials. We've said
it before and we'll say it again: Highway projects such as WEP
only make traffic and sprawl worse. Funding low-priority WEP
sucks money from high-priority transportation projects. The
plan would fill and pave protected wetlands and parklands. And
the 2001 advisory vote marginally in favor of WEP was no mandate,
but rather indicates a deeply divided community. Let's once
again quash this outdated and seriously flawed project.
We haven't
heard much from our readers on the Disclosure Project. Surely
someone in Eugene has had their life permanently altered by
close encounters with the X-Files of Steven Greer when he was
in Eugene. Or is it all silly nonsense based on overactive imaginations
and shaky conspiracy theories? What is the truth out there?
And speaking of X-Files, we read on www.commondreams.com that
Pentagon and GAO analysts admit that about one quarter of our
defense budget is "lost" to secret and unknown expenditures
— more than the annual federal budget for education. We
predict future investigations will uncover outrageous corruption
and waste going on today in our military-industrial complex.
Meanwhile, even Democrats are going along with Bush's push for
a nearly $400 billion defense budget.
The cost
of health care is outrageous and it's only going to get
worse. And despite the Oregon Health Plan, thousands of Oregon
families are without health insurance. What can we do about
it? We can get a single-payer health care initiative on the
November ballot and work to pass it. We hear 60,000 signatures
have been gathered, nearly half in Eugene, and 67,000 valid
signatures are needed to make the ballot. Let's sign the Health
Care For All-Oregon petition and put the medical community in
charge of our medical care instead of the paper shufflers! Call
484-6145 to help.
In April,
U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., was labeled "dangerous,
loony and irresponsible" by her colleagues after calling for
a congressional investigation into pre-Sept. 11 warnings to
the Bush administration. With the revelations of the past two
weeks, and more coming each day, McKinney's call now seems prescient.
Not that you'd know it from the mainstream press, however. If
you think she deserves an apology— or kudos for speaking
out during these jingoistic days — you can reach her at
(202) 225-1605 or through her website: www.house.gov/mckinney
No, your
eyesight has not gotten better. We've jacked up the type
size in our Letters section by a full point this week. Should
be much easier on the stiff old eyeballs among us. And yes,
our letters section is growing as well. Last year at this time
we were cranking about one page a week of letters, including
the cartoon. Thanks to growth in advertising and larger papers
we are now able to print half again more letters, and more guest
commentaries.
SLANT includes
short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes compiled by the EW
staff. Heard any good rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519,
editor@eugeneweekly.com
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Conde is a high-profile character in the community,
and as usual, is getting involved with charitable projects for the
local kids. He admits Belize is a third world country, but says he
loves the lack of pressure and laid-back attitude of the locals. He
and the secretary of agriculture have discussed the possibility of
industrial hemp farming as an exportable commodity. Sugar cane is
the lowest of all possible crops and most of Belizean agriculture
is sugar cane.
I have spent quite a bit of time down there and I
see the Belizean Islands are growing at a remarkable pace. Cancun
developers are buying land and building resorts farther out and north
of San Pedro. I met with them this New Year's Eve and it's apparent
what's going on. "The New Frontier" is cheap Caribbean property. This
is the second largest barrier reef on Earth and the tourists are coming
in droves, more from Europe than the U.S.
There are always trade-outs in life and nothing is
free. The summers down there are humid and the chances of high winds
in the fall are great. So please remember this song: "Summertime and
the living is easy, your ma is good looking and your daddy's" ...
well, alive and hiding in plain sight in Belize.
Conde asked me to say, "Who will step up to the plate
and have the guts to do the Hemp Festival this year?" Have a grand,
endless summer.
— Ira Shubert, uncle_ira@yahoo.com
SPAGHETTI
BOWL
Freeway interchange construction
plans to accommodate sprawl at the Interstate 5/Beltline intersection
are going before a public hearing Wednesday, June 5. The hearing before
the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration
will begin at 6:30 pm at the Doubletree hotel, 3280 Gateway, in Springfield.
"This project would reconstruct the existing interchange
into a giant Los Angeles-style spaghetti bowl," says local transportation
watchdog Mark Robinowitz. The project was officially budgeted at $53
million in TransPlan, but Robinowitz says more current estimates range
from $104 million to $122 million.
Robinowitz says ODOT options include widening Beltline
to 10 lanes west of I-5 (including ramps), making it one of the widest
highways in Oregon. The freeway itself could be widened to eight lanes
between Beltline and I-105.
"This boondoggle is a key part of the long-term effort
to relocate downtown Eugene to the Coburg Road and Gateway area,"
he says.
RELUCTANT
MARTYR
Environmental activist Jeffrey "Free"
Luers, sentenced last year to 22 years in Oregon State Prison on arson
charges, says he has become a reluctant martyr to some in the environmental
movement. Luers' sentence, which is being appealed, followed his arrest
in a Eugene car dealership fire case.
"This is not a role I chose to fill. It was forced
upon me," says Luers in a letter to Congressman Scott McInnis forwarded
to EW. "By giving me a sentence of 22 years, viewed by a majority
of people as overly harsh and extreme, the system has put me in the
spotlight, giving me international attention. I have been made to
be an example. However, that has only served to make me a political
prisoner and for some perhaps even a martyr."
Luers says if he had been given a "reasonable sentence"
he would have been forgotten by the public. "I would have been one
news story. I would have served my sentence and finished my BA. I
would have been released, reunited with my family and enjoyed the
rest of my life. Yes, I would have continued to be active in efforts
to protect the environment, but I would have avoided activities that
would lead me back to prison."
Luers says he is not "wasting away" in prison, but
rather actively pursuing his education.
Luers' letter to McInnis was in response to recent
congressional hearings where Luers' case was cited as an example of
"eco-terrorism." For more information on the hearings, visit www.protectcivilliberties.com
For more information on the Luers case, visit www.spiritoffreedom.org
— Ted Taylor
DALAI
LAMA ON WAR
The Dalai Lama says the best long-term
solution to the terrorist threat would be to concentrate on basic
human values rather than force.
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Web
Sitings
Back
Off, Ashcroft (#1),(
#2)
These two
sites have background info and action plans to fight Attorney
General John Ashcroft's persistent efforts to quash assisted
suicide in Oregon.
Human
Rights Watch
International
monitoring of human rights, frequent reports about the West
Bank. One of Kate Rogers Gessert's fav sites.
Planetary
Warfare
Daily news
and archives on planetary warfare, links to newspapers around
the world.
Occupied
Territories
Israeli Information
Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. Strong
background articles.
Lock
Us All Up
American
prison statistics compared with rest of world.
Marching
Moms
National
site for the big Million Mom March held on Mothers Day in Eugene.
Lots of facts and figures on gun violence.
Oregon
Coast Guide
Former EW
music writer Andre Hagestedt has revamped his Oregon Coast Alterna-Guide
into this new radio station site that examines in detail the
coast from Astoria to Florence. Lots of hidden beaches, trails
and tiny towns to explore.
More
Links:
WebSitings
Archive
WebSitings is a list of useful and sometimes
quirky web sites. Care to contribute to the list? Send suggested
sites and a short description to editor@eugeneweekly.com
|
Tibet's spiritual and political leader has consistently
called for a nonviolent approach to 9/11, and during his visit to
Australia last week, he warned the war on terrorism could backfire.
"The difficulty with violence is (that) once you commit
it, it's unpredictable," he is quoted by the Aussie media group AAP.
"At the beginning you may have certain intentions or certain aims
but once you've committed violence then there's always a danger (it
will get) out of control."
He said World War II and the Korean War could be considered
justified because one protected western democracy and the other protected
South Korea's prosperity and freedom.
"But then Vietnam War, originally, (had the) same
aim, the same motivation, but it completely failed," he said.
"(With) the Afghanistan scene, it seems as if the
majority of local people seem to welcome the new situation, so you
may have some justification."
POT
SUPPORT GROWING
An initiative to enhance the distribution
of medical marijuana to the seriously ill could be on the Oregon ballot
in 2004, according to a recent statement from the Marijuana Policy
Project in Washington, D.C.
Oregonians have consistently supported the right of
seriously ill people to use marijuana for medical purposes, but a
recent poll shows that support has grown since Oregon's medical marijuana
initiative passed in 1998.
According to the poll, administered to over 1,000
adults by the Lucas Organization, 76.5 percent of Oregon voters "strongly
support" or "somewhat support" the state law allowing "seriously ill
patients to use and grow their own medical marijuana with the approval
of their physicians." This is a big jump over the 55 percent of voters
who supported the initiative in 1998. The poll was conducted in three
other states with medical marijuana laws, which also show increased
levels of support since their laws were passed.
The poll results also indicate that Oregon voters
would favor expanding the law to allow medical marijuana distribution
by non- profit medical clinics (69.1 percent) or the state government
(64.4 percent).
"Oregonians have already taken the first step by providing
legal protection to people suffering from cancer, multiple sclerosis,
AIDS, and other terrible illnesses," says Kristin Oechslin of the
Marijuana Policy Projec. "Making sure sick people can easily obtain
their medicine is the logical next step."
For more information, Oechslin can be reached at Krissy@mpp.org
CORRECTIONS/CLARIFICATIONS
‚ The credit for last week's (5/23)
cover photo of the young man jumping into the Willamette River was
accidentally deleted, but goes to Kurt Jensen.
‚ And that's Congressman Dennis Kucinich, not
Gary as written in the caption, who's smiling in the 5/23 "Peaceful
Institutions" news story.
‚ Our story "Scooter Stylin'" last week failed to
mention how readers can find out more about the local motor scooter
scene. One source is Bob Moreno at 349-0555, www.scooterkingofeugene.com
Another site www.amerivespa.org gives info on a scooter event in Portland
this weekend.
‚ The Emerald Art Center's grand opening will be from
5:30 to 7 pm on June 6. The event was not listed in last week's Summer
Guide.
Back to Top
Halfway
to Yucca
DOE
has a Utah site in mind for "temporary" nuke storage.
By
J.A. Savage, Alternet
Utah's Skull Valley is already a busy place.
All around it, the Air Force makes practice blasts in its Hill Bombing
Range. Dugway Proving Grounds tests chemical and biological weapons.
There's a Safety Kleen hazardous waste incinerator and landfill. The
Deseret Chemical Depot stores weapons and the Tooele Chemical Demilitarization
Facility burns 'em.
|
Local
Action
Passing
through Oregon and Washington this week is a the Mock Nuclear
Waste Cask, part of a six-cask protest campaign to raise awareness
of the upcoming vote in the U.S. Senate on Yucca Mountain. The
scale version of the cask is 20 feet long and eight feet in
diameter at the ends. The Northwest cask left Reno May 27, arrived
in Ashland May 28 and was due to stop in Eugene May 29 before
heading to Corvallis and Salem May 30. Later stops include Seattle
and Portland in early June, and then the cask will head east
to Washington, D.C.
John Hadder
of Citizen Alert is speaking along the way and was scheduled
to talk in Eugene at Jefferson Middle School with County Commissioner
Pete Sorenson.
The Mock
Cask represents the kind of containers that will be traveling
Northwest roadways by truck carrying about two metric tons of
highly radioactive waste. Approval of the Yucca Mountain site
will "result in thousands of shipments over 24 years through
44 states and within one-half mile of 50 million Americans;"
says a statement from Citizen Alert and Eugene PeaceWorks.
The group
is calling on Congress to resolve technical issues at the proposed
storage site and review health and security issues surrounding
the transporting of radioactive waste.
For more
information, contact Eugene PeaceWorks at 343-8548 or e-mail
eugpeace@efn.org Citizens can also voice their concerns to Sens.
Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden by calling toll-free (888) 554-9256
between 9 am and 5 pm EST.
|
If the Department of Energy (DOE) gets its way, Skull
Valley will also be the home to so-called "temporary" high level radioactive
waste on its way to the permanent waste dump in Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
With the Senate set to vote June 5 to override Nevada's
veto of the Yucca Mountain facility — the House already voted
overwhelmingly to ignore Nevada's preference — the people who
live in Skull Valley are getting increasingly nervous.
The fate of Yucca Mountain has grabbed all the headlines.
The fate of Skull Valley is barely a blip on the national radar. No
matter whether you think the Nevada site is a good or bad place to
store waste, at least it has big plans to use the best technology
available, bury the waste deep underground and monitor it. Skull Valley
doesn't.
At Skull Valley, waste would be shipped by rail in
containers and set above ground next to the bombing range. The technology
would consist of some concrete and steel and a chain link fence. The
plan calls for the area to hold — for 20 years with a 20-year
extension — enough nuclear waste to accommodate all the spent
fuel for every reactor in the nation.
"If there's enough focus on Yucca, they can sneak
Skull Valley in there and buy Yucca 40 more years," said Sammy Blackbear,
a Goshute Indian opposing the storage site.
The only way the DOE could get a lease for this halfway-to-Yucca
storage site so quietly and efficiently is because it is owned by
Native Americans — the Goshute Tribe, whose Skull Valley members
number about 130. Of that, 70 are voting members with authority over
18,000 acres. Fifteen have filed litigation to stop the proposed radioactive
dump.
Native Americans' governments are sovereign unto themselves.
As such, they don't have all those pesky laws that the state of Nevada,
for instance, and even the DOE and Nuclear Regulatory Commission have
for environmental protection and public process. None of that applies
to the Goshutes.
The legal complaints allege federal support for a
Tribal Council of three whose chairman was recalled by the tribe,
but returned to power by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1994. The
chairman, Leon Bear, convenes an "illegitimate regime," according
to filings, which "remains in power through bribery and corruption."
However, when pressed for specifics, Blackbear said he couldn't release
the material due to the current court battle.
Tribal chairman Leon Bear cited in a statement the
potential flow of money from nuclear waste storage to the Goshute,
which everyone involved agrees is impoverished.
"For a long time the tribe has been pretty much distressed
over revenues that they don't have, lack of infrastructure of the
tribal government. And we were looking for economic benefits or development
for the tribe."
Those revenues would be provided by Private Fuel Storage,
a consortium of reactor-owning companies (Consolidate Edison Company
of New York; GPU Nuclear, New Jersey; Genoa FuelTech, Wisconsin; Florida
Power & Light; Indiana-Michigan Power, also known as American
Electric Power; Xcel, Minnesota; Southern California Edison; and Southern
Nuclear Operating Company, Alabama). Private Fuel Storage has applied
for a federal license to run the facility.
Private Fuel Storage is impatient about Yucca Mountain.
"There are nuclear plants that will run out of on-site
storage before Yucca Mountain could open. Those plants are faced with
the difficult decision to shut down their reactors prematurely, severely
limiting their ability to meet the electricity needs of their customers,"
noted the consortium.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering granting
a license for the facility. A Final Environmental Impact Statement
released by the NRC at the beginning of the year "concluded environmental
impacts would be small or small-to-moderate and that the proposed
Private Fuel Storage facility is the best alternative of those considered,"
according to the company.
It appears that no matter what happens with the Senate
vote to override the State of Nevada's Yucca Mountain veto, the potential
for a far less protected nuclear waste dump in the so-aptly named
Skull Valley will remain.
J.A. Savage is a senior correspondent for California
Energy Markets newsletter.
Back to Top
 Joshua
Skov
When he was 14 years old in Olympia, Wash.,
Joshua Skov read Paul Ehrlich's book The Population Bomb. "It
sparked an interest in population, the environment, and social equity,"
he notes. A grad student in economics at UC Berkeley (he's finishing
his Ph.D. project on agricultural development of the Brazilian Amazon),
Skov joined with his cousin Dag Hinrichs of L.A. and friend Joshua
Proudfoot of Eugene two years ago to launch Good Company, a Eugene-based
for-profit business doing research and consulting on sustainability.
GC's ultimate goal is to provide consumers with guidance in choosing
"good companies" - businesses that respect the environment, their
workers, and their communities. "We do sustainability assessments
for companies and colleges - everything from office needs to the buildings
you build and how you treat employees," Skov says. "The UO was one
of our first clients." Other clients include Reed and Vassar Colleges,
and the corporate campus of a global footwear company. "This is cutting-edge
stuff," says UO recycling coordinator Karyn Kaplan. "This group is
creating an amazing movement on college campus sustainability."
-- Photo by Paul Neevel
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