TAKOMA PARK, MD - December 2nd will mark 70 years since scientists achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, without knowing then, or now, what to do with the radioactive waste it would generate. That very first waste was generated by the Enrico Fermi team at the University of Chicago in 1942 as part of the Manhattan Project. Next month, a special nuclear waste conference of experts will be held at that same site, December 1, 2 and 3, both to observe the date and to deliver panels and plenaries that cover every aspect of the radioactive waste challenge, from uranium mining through nuclear weapons production, nuclear energy generation and the unsolved waste “disposal” problem. The conference is hosted by Nuclear Energy Information Service and Beyond Nuclear. (See details at end of press release).

Dear Editor:
Women’s rights are a quintessential part of political decisions,which could not have been more clear in the recent presidential election. Women all over the country voiced theiropinion in support of reproductive health care.

Why is it that Ohio politicians are interested in eliminating thisprogress? Each woman is capable of making her appropriate health care decisionand should not be limited by legislation from a large group of malepoliticians. The voters spoke, but too many of our representatives in Columbusare not listening. What will it take for our message to be heard?

I am an Ohio college student and I personallyrely on Planned Parenthood for my own reproductive health care. As an aspiring medical student I spend mytime in the classroom, the lab, and on campus studying, leaving no time for ajob on the side. Therefore, I rely onthe services provided at the local Planned Parenthood to maintain properhealth. In addition, I have many peers withsimilar lifestyles and share the same concerns regarding the defunding ofwomen’s health care.

We will not stand for politicians—too many ofwhom are men—dictating our

Two weeks have passed since the night of the Rove meltdown and Romney's electoral loss. Like the days after a major sports championship, everybody has an opinion on two things: why victory was achieved this time and how victory can be achieved the next time. However, political reality is quite different than sports. Democracy is more than a game. And if our current democracy is a game, the people lost in 2012.

America is at best a minimal democracy. It functionally has two parties, one more than a dictatorship. It allegedly grants one person one vote each election, although this is not constitutionally guaranteed. Our elections fail to meet even minimal standards by allowing the racist suppression of votes that we thought was outlawed in 1965. What this election has made clear is that more than a small minority seek to erase 140 years of struggle from Andrew Jackson to Lyndon Johnson to secure and defend these most basic tenets of democracy: the right to vote.

Israel's military has in recent days attacked the Gaza strip with drones and F-16s, and has apparently been preparing for a possible ground war. Israel is using weaponry provided by the United States at the expense to U.S. taxpayers of $3 billion per year. Veterans For Peace member Doug Rawlings adresses the following statement to members of the Israeli military:

"I have been to where you are going. From my heart, I beseech you not to join me. In 1969, I was sent to Vietnam as a reluctant soldier, a draftee, who did not have the courage of my convictions. I chose to follow the orders of my government rather than to follow the dictates of my conscience. It’s been over forty years now, and I still remember the faces of the Vietnamese people who were victimized by my lack of moral autonomy. I became one of Pharaoh’s army, and, to this day, I have been wading through the miasma of that murderous indecisiveness. Had I heeded Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. instead of General William Westmoreland, I would have refused to serve as a pawn in my government’s immoral invasion and occupation of Vietnam.