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Two Norwegian MPs have put forward the whistleblower's name for one of the world's highest honors for "[contributing] to a more stable and peaceful world order" and speaking out against abuses of power. If President Obama, a man responsible for mass drone killings, can win the Peace Prize, then there's nothing barring the man who helped expose his unconstitutional overreach and threat to international transparency.
Please, join us in calling on the Norwegian Nobel Committee to listen to these MPs and put Snowden on the shortlist in March, helping him secure asylum in sympathetic nations and showing Obama he deserves to be pardoned.
PETITION TO NORWEGIAN NOBEL COMMITTEE: Put US whistleblower Edward Snowden on your shortlist for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
Please, join us in calling on the Norwegian Nobel Committee to listen to these MPs and put Snowden on the shortlist in March, helping him secure asylum in sympathetic nations and showing Obama he deserves to be pardoned.
PETITION TO NORWEGIAN NOBEL COMMITTEE: Put US whistleblower Edward Snowden on your shortlist for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
Ohio Soil Recycling, LLC (OSR), a Columbus, Ohio based business that uses microbes, algae, and bacteria to remediate contaminated soil, will NOT be receiving shale gas solid waste as previously reported. Drill cuttings will instead be sent to Ohio landfills
As reported in The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio Soil Recycling was authorized by the Ohio EPA to receive solid waste drill cuttings at the Alum Creek Integrity Drive facility. This was to be an alternate method of disposing of shale gas development waste (fracking). Shale gas drill cuttings would be processed, to rid them of drilling lubricants and used to cap the old Franklin County landfill along Alum Creek.
Radioactive Waste Alert, a Columbus area citizen action group, has concerns about the health risks associated with the processing and re-use of this soil. The OSR facility is located along the banks of Alum Creek, one of the Columbus area water supplies. Shale rock contains radioactive metals, including Radium 228, and 226. Carolyn Harding, organizer of RadioactiveWasteAlert.org warns, "These radioactive elements are water soluble and could contaminate our water supply."
As reported in The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio Soil Recycling was authorized by the Ohio EPA to receive solid waste drill cuttings at the Alum Creek Integrity Drive facility. This was to be an alternate method of disposing of shale gas development waste (fracking). Shale gas drill cuttings would be processed, to rid them of drilling lubricants and used to cap the old Franklin County landfill along Alum Creek.
Radioactive Waste Alert, a Columbus area citizen action group, has concerns about the health risks associated with the processing and re-use of this soil. The OSR facility is located along the banks of Alum Creek, one of the Columbus area water supplies. Shale rock contains radioactive metals, including Radium 228, and 226. Carolyn Harding, organizer of RadioactiveWasteAlert.org warns, "These radioactive elements are water soluble and could contaminate our water supply."
The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT) sent a letter to
Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen today requesting he "personally"
ensure "all Cambodian police, military and intelligence resources" are
investigating the unexplained disappearance on February 14 of Dave
Walker, a Canadian journalist and film-maker.
The letter is from "the professional membership" of the FCCT, FCCT a club that was established in Bangkok, Thailand, more than 50 years ago.
-- Dominic Faulder, Past President & Chair, FCCT Professional Committee -- signed the letter to Hun Sen.
-------------------
(Editors note: H.E. is His Excellency. Samdech is an honorific in Cambodia). Here below is the letter's text:
FCCT Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand
H.E. Samdech Hun Sen
Prime Minister
Phnom Penh
Kingdom of Cambodia
25 February 2014
Dear Samdech Hun Sen,
The letter is from "the professional membership" of the FCCT, FCCT a club that was established in Bangkok, Thailand, more than 50 years ago.
-- Dominic Faulder, Past President & Chair, FCCT Professional Committee -- signed the letter to Hun Sen.
-------------------
(Editors note: H.E. is His Excellency. Samdech is an honorific in Cambodia). Here below is the letter's text:
FCCT Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand
H.E. Samdech Hun Sen
Prime Minister
Phnom Penh
Kingdom of Cambodia
25 February 2014
Dear Samdech Hun Sen,
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New Albany High School graduate Peter Kobelt and Worthington Kilbourne graduate Kevin Metka walked away from high school tennis with impressive resumes. Kobelt won the 2009 Division I state singles championships and the 2007 Division II doubles title with Skyler Engel and placed second in Division I singles in 2008 and in Division II doubles with Ryan Dodd in 2007. Metka was the 2010 Division I singles champion and the 2009 Division I doubles championship with Jonny Price.
And yet, both had a hard time attracting much attention from collegiate tennis coaches. Kobelt only received offers from Ohio State and Michigan State. Metka, whose only other offer was from Toledo, ended up as a recruited walk-on for the Buckeyes.
“Actually I didn’t get many looks at all,” says Kobelt, now a senior at Ohio State. “I was fortunate that Ty (Tucker, the Buckeyes men’s coach) offered me a scholarship based on (what Kobelt accomplished by his junior year of high school). A lot of schools didn’t know about me.”
At the ITA Men’s Team Indoor National Championships, held Feb.14 -17 in Houston, the pair offered a quick refresher course for those coaches who overlooked them the first time around.
I've been asked to debate Danny Postel on the question of Syria, and so have read the op-ed he co-authored with Nader Hashemi, "Use Force to Save Starving Syrians." Excellent responses have been published by Coleen Rowley and Rob Prince and probably others. And my basic thinking on Syria has not changed fundamentally since I wrote down my top 10 reasons not to attack Syria and lots and lots of other writing on Syria over the years. But replying to Postel's op-ed might be helpful to people who've read it and found it convincing or at least disturbing. It might also allow Postel to most efficiently find out where I'm coming from prior to our debate.
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Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy movie won’t be in theaters until August, but the recent release of a trailer for the movie already has everyone talking about the superhero movie-slash-offbeat space comedy.
Guardians of the Galaxy, slated for an August 1, 2014 release, is a team movie, but the trailer makes it clear these guys are no Avengers. Token human Star-Lord is more Han Solo than Captain America. Gamora and Drax are alien muscle, one seeking to redeem herself and the other on a mission of vengeance. And then there’s Rocket Raccoon and Groot, a trigger-happy raccoon enhanced through alien experiments and his simple-minded tree creature sidekick. Considering the trailer highlights the team being captured by Marvel’s space police, the Nova Corps, and then violently breaking out of jail, it’s safe to say this team is firmly in the realm of anti-heroes.
The FBI may have you on a terrorist list. Have you been to see “Gasland” or attended a zoning meeting on fracking?
The Columbus Free Press obtained a July 23, 2013 FBI's Philadelphia Joint Terrorism Task Force report on “Environmental Extremists.” The FBI and the Pennsylvania State Patrol coauthored the report that lumps virtually all activists engaged in protests against fracking for natural gas together as potential violent terrorists. The report includes photos of protests and protestors in Ohio along with photos of low grade black powder pipe bombs found unarmed and undetonated near natural gas drilling operations in rural Pennsylvania.
Madeline ffitch, of Millfield, Ohio, was arrested for blockading an entrance way to a fracking wastewater injection well site on June 26, 2012. She was arrested while locked to two 50-gallon cement filled drums, effectively shutting down the well site. Despite engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience ffitch’s photo is displayed in the FBI report.
The Columbus Free Press obtained a July 23, 2013 FBI's Philadelphia Joint Terrorism Task Force report on “Environmental Extremists.” The FBI and the Pennsylvania State Patrol coauthored the report that lumps virtually all activists engaged in protests against fracking for natural gas together as potential violent terrorists. The report includes photos of protests and protestors in Ohio along with photos of low grade black powder pipe bombs found unarmed and undetonated near natural gas drilling operations in rural Pennsylvania.
Madeline ffitch, of Millfield, Ohio, was arrested for blockading an entrance way to a fracking wastewater injection well site on June 26, 2012. She was arrested while locked to two 50-gallon cement filled drums, effectively shutting down the well site. Despite engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience ffitch’s photo is displayed in the FBI report.
A stunning new report indicates the U.S. Navy knew that sailors from the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan took major radiation hits from the Fukushima atomic power plant after its meltdowns and explosions nearly three years ago.
If true, the revelations cast new light on the $1 billion lawsuit filed by the sailors against Tokyo Electric Power. Many of the sailors are already suffering devastating health impacts, but are being stonewalled by Tepco and the Navy.
The Reagan had joined several other U.S. ships in Operation Tomodachi (“Friendship”) to aid victims of the March 11, 2011 quake and tsunami. Photographic evidence and first-person testimony confirms that on March 12, 2011 the ship was within two miles of Fukushima Dai’ichi as the reactors there began to melt and explode.
The Reagan had joined several other U.S. ships in Operation Tomodachi (“Friendship”) to aid victims of the March 11, 2011 quake and tsunami. Photographic evidence and first-person testimony confirms that on March 12, 2011 the ship was within two miles of Fukushima Dai’ichi as the reactors there began to melt and explode.
Convicted felon Tom Noe, former Lucas County (Toledo) Republican Party chairman, stole $13.7 million in the so-called “Coingate” scandal during the Voinovich and Taft administrations. Major daily newspapers in Ohio like the Toledo Blade and the Columbus Dispatch are finally getting around to pondering: Why has there been no investigation and final report from the Ohio Inspector General’s office on this important scandal?
A Blade editorial asks the key question: “What is the state trying to cover up?”
Let us explain it to them.
Why there’s no report on the Coingate scandal is because it intersects with money –laundering into a presidential campaign and Voinovich’s ties to organized crime.
Tom Noe was northwest Ohio's “Mr. Republican” and a close Bush/Rove crony. He served two years for illegal money laundering into the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign. He is now serving an 18-year term in state prison for stealing from the state’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC).
As owner of Vintage Coins and Cards in Maumee, Ohio, Noe raised more than $100,000 to become a Bush Pioneer/Ranger. But Noe was more than a mere fundraiser.
A Blade editorial asks the key question: “What is the state trying to cover up?”
Let us explain it to them.
Why there’s no report on the Coingate scandal is because it intersects with money –laundering into a presidential campaign and Voinovich’s ties to organized crime.
Tom Noe was northwest Ohio's “Mr. Republican” and a close Bush/Rove crony. He served two years for illegal money laundering into the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign. He is now serving an 18-year term in state prison for stealing from the state’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC).
As owner of Vintage Coins and Cards in Maumee, Ohio, Noe raised more than $100,000 to become a Bush Pioneer/Ranger. But Noe was more than a mere fundraiser.
British university lecturers and teaching staff went on a nationwide strike for the fifth time in six months this week to protest against pay cuts and, more generally, against the increasing marketization of the country's higher education system. Members of the University and College Union (UCU) walked out on Thursday in the latest event from a lengthy struggle against the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government's finance-dominated restructuring of Britain's higher education system.
The vast majority of universities in Britain are still public institutions, but like many American universities there has been an ongoing restructuring of higher education that removes public funding and replaces it with either private cash, or austerity. The backdrop of this is that chancellors and wardens of universities are being given above-inflation pay rises (last year's averaged 5.1%) while teaching staff have suffered a 13% pay cut in real terms since October 2008, while arts and humanities departments have suffered job losses and closures after their funding was halved in 2010.
The vast majority of universities in Britain are still public institutions, but like many American universities there has been an ongoing restructuring of higher education that removes public funding and replaces it with either private cash, or austerity. The backdrop of this is that chancellors and wardens of universities are being given above-inflation pay rises (last year's averaged 5.1%) while teaching staff have suffered a 13% pay cut in real terms since October 2008, while arts and humanities departments have suffered job losses and closures after their funding was halved in 2010.