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Sierra Club and Franklin County reach agreement on keeping sewage out of waterways

After more than a year of negotiations, the Sierra Club and Franklin County have reached an agreement to settle the Club’s claims that Franklin County is violating the federal Clean Water Act.

In June of 2011, the Sierra Club filed a sixty-day notice of intent to sue Franklin County and seventeen townships in federal court for illegal discharges from private sewage systems within Franklin County. Failing septic tanks and aerators are responsible for this contamination. The discharges have been contaminating Franklin County waterways with human and other waste, posing an environmental and public health threat.

The Sierra Club believes the agreed upon measures will form an important beginning in improving the health of Franklin County’s waterways and its residents. Although this settlement won’t completely eliminate the problem of contamination from home sewage treatment systems, it is certainly an improvement and will go a long way toward establishing a county program to eliminate sewage pollution from our waterways.

An Incubator for Peace

You’re young and prone to trouble. You get triggered quickly. Someone tells you that you’ve screwed up and you’re about to lash back. Then, instead, you think:

1. Look at the other person.

2. Say “OK.”

3. Stay calm.

This is what you do. And nothing happens, except that the moment passes and life goes on. Got it?

This column is another dispatch from Chicago, murder capital of America. How many of the murders — 506 of them last year — were committed by people who had no grasp of this particular social skill (accepting criticism or a consequence), or any of the dozen or so others tacked to the bulletin board in the peace room at Fenger High School?

These skills, which address an array of very basic life situations — e.g., getting no for an answer, greeting others, getting the teacher’s attention, disagreeing appropriately, making an apology, accepting compliments, asking for help and many more — come from the Father Flanagan Boys Town Classroom Social Skills list. The instructions are simple and precise and without moralizing, the equivalent of “lather, rinse, repeat.”

Super Max Hunger Strike Suspended After 36 Days

Feb 15th, 2013, Youngstown Ohio-"I did break my hunger strike, with none of my issues satisfied" said Cornelius Harris, in a message to supporters sent on Monday. He says he "felt it was better to come off and do some ground work rather than risk my overall health". Mr Harris had been on hunger strike since January 4th, making him the longest known hunger striker at Ohio's super max prison, Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP).

While on hunger strike, Mr Harris also went to trial, defending himself against criminal charges stemming from incidents of violence with OSP correctional officers. He was facing 9 felony charges, including two counts of aggravated attempted murder. He represented himself, arguing that the fights were self-defense against guards who were systematically harassing him and regularly threatening his life. A jury found him not guilty of the most serious charges, but the judge sentenced him to 32 years for the remaining assault and weapons possession charges. The maximum sentence Judge Maureen Sweeny could have given Mr Harris was 36 years.

Our atomic dominoes are falling

Two more atomic dominoes have hit the deck.

At least a half-dozen more teeter on the brink, which would take the US reactor count under 100.

But can we bury them before the next Fukushima erupts?

And will we still laugh when Fox "News" says there's more sun in Germany than California?   

Wisconsin's fully licensed Kewaunee reactor will now shut because it can't compete in the marketplace.

Florida's Crystal River will die because its owners poked holes in the containment during a botched repair job.

UBS and other financial experts say Entergy is bleeding cash at Vermont Yankee.  After blacking out the SuperBowl, Entergy has no problem stiffing a state that has sued to shut its only reactor.

But in the face being crushed by renewables and gas, the money men may finally pull the plug.

The same could happen to New York's Fitzpatrick and Ginna reactors, as well as the two at Indian Point, which need water permits and more from an increasingly hostile state.  New Jersey's Oyster Creek, slammed by Hurricane Sandy, and Nebraska's Ft. Calhoun, recently flooded, are also on the brink.

48 leaders arrested in historic act of civil disobedience to stop Keystone XL pipeline

This morning, 48 environmental, civil rights and community leaders from across the country joined together for a historic display of civil disobedience at the White House where they demanded that President Obama deny the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and address the climate crisis.

This morning, 48 environmental, civil rights and community leaders from across the country joined together for a historic display of civil disobedience at the White House where they demanded that President Obama deny the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and address the climate crisis.

Among the notable leaders involved in the civil disobedience were Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club; Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org; Julian Bond, former president of the NAACP; Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., president of Waterkeeper Alliance; Danny Kennedy, CEO of Sungevity, and Daryl Hannah, actress.

After blocking a main thoroughfare in front of the White House, and refusing to move when asked by police, the activists were arrested and transported to Anacostia for processing by the U.S. Park Police Department.

What Obama Said -- and What He Meant -- About Climate Change, War and Civil Liberties

The words in President Obama’s “State of the Union” speech were often lofty, spinning through the air with the greatest of ease and emitting dog whistles as they flew.

Let’s decode the president’s smooth oratory in the realms of climate change, war and civil liberties.

“For the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change.”

We’ve done so little to combat climate change -- we must do more.

“I urge this Congress to get together, pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change…”

Climate change is an issue that can be very good for Wall Street. Folks who got the hang of “derivatives” and “credit default swaps” can learn how to handle “cap and trade.” The corporate environmental groups are on board, and maybe we can offer enough goodies to big corporations to make it worth their while to bring enough of Congress along.

“The natural gas boom has led to cleaner power and greater energy independence. We need to encourage that.”

NO Right to Work talk with AFL-CIO

All friends of labor, friends of the FREE PRESS & all progressives to come & have a good time, a good discussion with old & new friends.

Jessica Walters (AFL-CIO) will give a brief talk on the so-called ‘right to work’ (actually---‘NO rights at work’) bill the GOP has proposed here, & what we can all do to stop it.

PLEASE come by PAT’s on Thursday, 2/21, 5 PM & add a good time to your schedule!

SPONSORED by----‘LABOR CREATES ALL WEALTH’ Radio program

Patrick J’s, 2711 N High St, Columbus----one block north of Hudson

Neither Snow, Nor Rain

Broken democracy

Before you get overly excited about last week's Pew Charitable Trust study that indicated Ohio ranked 29th out of the 50 states in the quality of election administration, note that the data is from the years 2008 and 2010. The Columbus Dispatch put the story on the top of page A5 on February 7 with an accurate headline: "Flaws in U.S. elections widespread, Pew study shows." Readers should remember that Ohio's elections were administered by a reform-minded secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, in those years, not by the notorious Republican secretaries of state J. Kenneth Blackwell and Jon Husted. Both made practices out of disenfranchising young, elderly, poor and minority voters.

The Pew study used 15 criteria including unrecorded votes, waiting time, and uncounted absentee and provisional ballots.

Christian Kachin guerrillas are crippled in Myanmar

BANGKOK, Thailand -- In Myanmar, the regime's helicopter gunships, mortars and other weapons are successfully crippling a 52-year-long struggle for autonomy waged by mostly Christian, ethnic minority Kachin guerrillas along the northernmost border with China.

America befriended the Kachin (pronounced: "kuh-CHIN") during World War II when the tough, jungle-savvy men helped U.S. troops infiltrate and survive after Japan invaded and occupied mainland Southeast Asia's biggest country -- which was then known as Burma.

"In the Second World War, we the Kachin fought alongside the U.S. with the 101st [Airborne Division in the U.S. Army] against the Japanese...we want them to be with us in our time of need, when we are in struggle," said Kachin Youth Development Organization activist Hsai Zin on Friday (January 25) during a rally at the American Consulate in Thailand's northern Chiang Mai city.

During the past few days, Myanmar's superior forces steadily advanced against the Kachin rebels after fighting began at the end of December.

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