News

The Demand for a Global Take-Over at Fukushima Has Hit Critical Mass

More than 48,000 global citizens have now signed a petition at www.nukefree.org asking the United Nations and the world community to take charge of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. The petition was first linked at www.freepress.org. Another 35,000 have signed at www.rootsaction.org. An independent advisory group of scientists and engineers is also in formation. The signatures are pouring in from all over the world. By November, they will be delivered to the United Nations. The corporate media has blacked out meaningful coverage of the most critical threat to global health and safety in decades. The much-hyped “nuclear renaissance” has turned into a global rout. In the face of massive grassroots opposition and the falling price of renewable energy and natural gas, operating reactors are shutting and proposed new ones are being canceled. This lessens the radioactive burden on the planet. But it makes the aging reactor fleet ever more dangerous.

Cruz-ifying Ourselves on the Cross of Obamacare

It's 10:15 AM on September 25th, and Ted Cruz is still talking, and though in the process of watching him intermittently I have pantomimed or actually thrown things at the screen approximately 8 times (I was almost done with his ass after the “Everyone in this country has ancestors who know what it means to risk everything for freedom,” but sometimes having the abyss gaze back is fun), I have to say, he has the whole populism thing down. As he read tweets aloud on the Senate floor for the fourth time, asserting in the way that so many of those with no real understanding of people power do, that Twitter's “trending topic” algorithms determine the will of the American people, I was a tenth of the way toward believing him. But of course, the actual “will of the people” is impossible to determine in today's postmodern politics which function as a reality show/pyramid scheme, of which Ted Cruz is a perfect distillation. Obamacare loves insurance companies that's its f**kin' problem, though it also has many others of the more celibate variety. These problems are not apocalyptic, but they are real, and in a perverse way gratifying.

An open letter to Ohio Governor John Kasich, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director, James Zehringer, Representative Mark Romanchuk, and Senator Larry Obhof, et. al.

To Governor Kasich and Respected Leaders of the State of Ohio, On this momentous day, September 28th, 2013 as Ohio residents gather at the historic Malabar Farm State Park for the 37th Annual Heritage Days and the unveiling of the Big House renovations, it seems an appropriate time to reflect on the true value of Malabar Farm and the invaluable lessons that Louis Bromfield taught us decades ago and that still hold true today. The $500,000 in improvements were announced late last fall and came with a promise not only for cosmetic improvements but also a return to “healthier soil and water, two things that Bromfield always strived to maintain on his farm,” according to Director Zehringer in a news report published last fall. Ohio soil and water is under siege and gravely threatened by the introduction of flowback waste created by the process of hydraulic fracturing in the attempt to extract fossil fuel resources from deep shale deposits. Last year in Ohio, almost 600,000 gallons of toxic, radioactive liquid waste was injected into Ohio soil via Class 2 Injection wells. Approximately 60 percent of this fracking flowback waste came from outside Ohio.

Frack Free “Rapid Response” Team rises to the Challenge

As the sun rose over the hills surrounding Malabar Farm in Richland County, Ohio this past Saturday morning, chasing away thick fog, so too did Frack Free Ohio's action team, arriving just outside the entrance a little before 8am to hold a demonstration intended to engage the thousands of visitors to the park's 37th annual Heritage Days. Dubbed our “Rapid Response” team, the entire action was basically planned and initiated over a 48-hour period and team members were exuberant over the results. We literally engaged thousands of people entering the park, many who seemed to have never heard of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. And many others who had. It was also a re-dedication of Louis Bromfield's Big House and we hoped to catch the attention of Governor John Kasich, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director James Zehringer and Representative Mark Romanchuk as they arrived for the 10am ceremony. A steady stream of cars began a little after 9am and did not let up until much later in the day.

Endorsements for the upcoming Election

Early voting for the November 5th General Election starts on October 1st, so it is time for The Columbus Free Press to issue its recommendations on key contested elections and issues facing voters of Columbus. To frame our endorsements, let’s start by reiterating our Mission Statement (see below). If you agree with our mission, then we would ask that you consider following our political endorsements.

Military Sexual Trauma: Is this how we treat women in the military?

If there is one thing Democrats and Republicans in Congress can agree upon, it’s ending the epidemic of rape against female soldiers now. Sadly and painfully, it took the rape and murder of female soldiers from Ohio to finally convince Congress to act. But whether the rapes – along with sexual harassment and mysterious deaths – of female soldiers actually end, is left to be seen.

Minimizing Mandatory Minimums

In my last column, I panned the U.S. Justice Department’s memos that attempted to clarify its clarifications concerning marijuana enforcement in the states where the plant enjoys a legal framework. It seemed like business as usual. Arrest. Prosecution. Jail.


This column is a different matter. I laud Attorney General Eric Holder and the Obama Administration for steering the country in the right direction when it comes to mandatory minimum sentencing and consequent drug policy in general.


On August 12, 2013, AG Holder delivered remarks at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association, sounding more like Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance than the top U.S. cop. The speech concerned mandatory minimum sentencing laws that require binding prison terms of defined lengths for individuals convicted of certain federal and state crimes.

Nuclear Hits the Fan

ACTION ALERT:   
OCTOBER 15—CRITICAL “WASTE CONFIDENCE” MEETING IN TOLEDO AREA
 
 
If you want to do one thing to oppose nuclear power this year, this is it. In June of 2012, a critical win in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of groups including the Sierra Club and the DC Court of Appeals, overruled the “Waste Confidence” decision of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Since 1984, the NRC has maintained that it has “confidence” that a solution will be found for disposing of high-level radioactive waste -- defined as the used, irradiated fuel rods from nuclear power reactors. The NRC maintained that waste is a “generic” issue, so no entity could legally oppose a license or license extension based on the fact that waste could be a problem. Issues such as large amounts of waste accumulating on sites, or in overcrowded fuel pools, or in aged, deteriorated casks, or in areas prone to flood or earthquake -- could not be brought up.    
With the court ruling, the NRC has halted all license proceedings that rely on Waste Confidence.  This includes FirstEnergy’s application for a license extension at Davis-Besse.

The World Community Must Now Take Charge at Fukushima


We are now within two months of what may be humankind’s most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
 
 
There is no excuse for not acting. All the resources our species can muster must be focused on the fuel pool at Fukushima Unit 4.
 
 
Fukushima’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), says that within as few as 60 days it may begin trying to remove more than 1300 spent fuel rods from a badly damaged pool perched 100 feet in the air. The pool rests on a badly damaged building that is tilting, sinking and could easily come down in the next earthquake, if not on its own.
 
 
Some 400 tons of fuel in that pool could spew out more than 15,000 times as much radiation as was released at Hiroshima.
 
 
The one thing certain about this crisis is that Tepco does not have the scientific, engineering or financial resources to handle it. Nor does the Japanese government. The situation demands a coordinated worldwide effort of the best scientists and engineers our species can muster.
 
 
Why is this so serious?
 
 

Somali President visits Columbus & OSU

The President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, spoke to Columbus’ Somali community on Sunday, September 22, at the Polaris Hilton hotel and addressed Ohio State students on Monday, September 23. He was greeted by both enthusiastic supporters and protesters in both places. Mohamud is the first official president of Somalia since civil war broke out in 1991. The Federal Republic of Somalia, which formed in 2012 from a series of transitional governments, was officially recognized by the United States in January this year. His visit to Columbus follows a visit to Washington DC to meet with Secretary of State John Kerry and a series of trips around Europe seeking international aid. His trip will culminate at a conference in Brussels as he tries to gather support for his “New Deal for Somalia” conference.
 

Subscribe to News