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Newsletter of the Green Party of Ohio
Vol. II, No. 14 -- April 27, 2002
(This newsletter distributed to 2,776)
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FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE
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1) GREEN PARTY IN
THE NEWS IN MINNESOTA
2) NEW YORK GREENS SEEK CELEBRITIES FOR VOTE
3) NJ GREEN MAKES SECOND RUN FOR CONGRESS
4) PARTY HAS JOB OPENING
FOR CONVENTION ORGANIZER
5) APATHY OPENS DOOR TO MINOR PARTIES IN ENGLAND
6) SENATE ERODES INCENTIVES FOR WIND, SOLAR POWER
7) GLOBAL WARMING:
2002 WARMEST FOR 1000 YEARS
8) SEPTEMBER 11TH ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOCRISY
9) U.S. AGENCY SENT $$$ TO ACTIVE FOES OF CHAVEZ
10) HOW IBM HELPED
AUTOMATE THE NAZI DEATH MACHINE
11) RADFEST 2002
12) DAVIS-BESSE FIX TO
TAKE TIME
13) 15 SAFE ENERGY GROUPS PETITION NRC
14) SCRIPPS COMPANY:
FREE AIRTIME FOR CANDIDATES
15) POCLAD ON THE AIR MAY 5
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Join the Green Party of Ohio:
http://www.ohiogreens.org/membership/register.html
List of current Green Party members:
http://www.ohiogreens.org/membership/.
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1) GREEN PARTY IN THE NEWS IN MINNESOTA
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Enthused by their capture of official major-party status
through Ralph Nader's
2000 presidential showing, the
Minnesota Green Party is on a mission to eclipse
Gov. Jesse
Ventura's Independence Party (IP) as the dominant "third
party" in the state.
http://www.ohiogreens.org/features/020427/minnesota2.html
Promising
to lead "a gentle revolution" for a cleaner
environment, universal
medical care and a healthier poli-
tical system, 41-year-old Ken Pentel on
April 19 announced
his second run for governor of Minnesota under the Green
Party label. A career activist from Minneapolis who has
fought against nuclear
waste storage, international free-
trade agreements and welfare cuts, Pentel
said his message
to Minnesotans will be that "we are no stronger than
the
neediest among us."
http://www.ohiogreens.org/features/020427/minnesota4.html
Andrew
Koebrick, a Web site manager for the Minnesota
Planning Agency, announced
Wednesday that he will seek
the Green Party's nomination for Secretary of
State in
Minnesota.
http://www.ohiogreens.org/features/020427/minnesota1.html
Two
Green Party members of the Minneapolis City Council
hope to challenge the
recent redistricting of ward boun-
daries, saying the new wards disenfranchise
minorities
and members of the Green Party.
http://www.ohiogreens.org/features/020427/minnesota3.html
With
Green Party activists loudly protesting their
party's exclusion, all five
of the major DFL and Repub-
lican gubernatorial candidates appeared at a University
of Minnesota forum [April 17], where they offered sympathy
and commitment
but few specific solutions for rising tui-
tion, a shortage of low-cost housing
and a tough job market.
Much of the excitement at the event, believed to be
one of
the first where all five were in attendance, was provided
by Greens
who held up the start of the forum for about 10
minutes, shouting, "What
about the Greens?" and "Let the
Greens debate." Eventually,
Ken Pentel, the Greens' 1998
gubernatorial candidate and a leader now in a
party that
officially enjoys major-party status, led the protesters
outside
for an "alternative debate."
http://www.ohiogreens.org/features/020427/minnesota5.html
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2) NEW YORK GREENS SEEK CELEBRITIES FOR VOTE
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The Green Party [of New York], passionate about clean-
ing the environment
and reforming the criminal justice
system, ran actor Al Lewis for governor
four years ago.
This year, the party has wooed rocker Patti Smith, best-
selling author and filmmaker Michael Moore and acclaimed
journalist Jimmy
Breslin to run for state government's
top job. The Greens have good reason
to seek out a
celebrity as their candidate. Political parties need
50,000
votes in the race for governor to win an auto-
matic ballot line for every
election during the next
four years. And the order in which the candidates
for
governor finish determines their parties' ballot position.
http://www.ohiogreens.org/features/020427/new_york.html
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3) NJ GREEN MAKES SECOND RUN FOR CONGRESS
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Yes, Montclair resident Joseph A. Fortunato wants to
improve public education.
Yes, he wants to lower pro-
perty taxes. Yes, he wants to help preserve open
space
in New Jersey, as befits the chairman of the Green
Party in the
state. But at the heart of why Fortunato
wants to become the federal representative
of the 8th
congressional district is because he hasn’t heard
much
talk about peace lately.
http://www.ohiogreens.org/features/020427/new_jersey.html
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4) PARTY HAS JOB OPENING FOR CONVENTION ORGANIZER
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The Green Party of the United States needs an organ-
izer on the ground in
Philadelphia prior to its con-
vention in late July (18-21). The position
will start
as part-time and increase to full-time in July as the
convention
approaches.
http://www.ohiogreens.org/features/020427/job.html
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5) APATHY OPENS DOOR TO MINOR PARTIES IN ENGLAND
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Up to 50 minor parties and single-issue groups are
contesting a record number
of seats in next week's
council elections to capitalize on the current dis-
illusionment with mainstream political parties. The
Green Party is putting
up 1,074 candidates, its high-
est number for a decade and nearly double the
number
fielded in 1995, when the popularity of the Greens
had nosedived.
http://www.ohiogreens.org/features/020427/england.html
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6) SENATE ERODES INCENTIVES FOR WIND, SOLAR POWER
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The Senate, moving toward passage of a broad energy
bill, further weakened
a requirement Wednesday in-
tended to get power companies to use more renewable
fuels such as wind and solar power in generating
electricity. On the motion
to table Nickles Amendment
3256, Ohio Senators DeWine and Voinovich voted
"no"
thus supporting the erosion of incentives for wind
and
solar power.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0425-02.htm
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7) GLOBAL WARMING: 2002 WARMEST FOR 1000 YEARS
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The first three months of this year were the warmest
globally since records
began in 1860 and probably for
1,000 years, scientists said [Thursday]. The
three
months were about 0.71C warmer than the average for
1961 to 1990,
itself the warmest period for 1,000
years according to ice-core analysis.
The record warm
period was the more remarkable because there was no
sign
of the cyclical El Nino in the tropics, which has
attended the succession
of record warmest years in the
past decade. The global record comes in the
wake of
observed changes in the British climate since 1900: a
lengthening
of the growing season for plants by one
month in central England, a temperature
increase of 1C,
and a 10 cm sea level rise.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0426-02.htm
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8) SEPTEMBER 11TH ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOCRISY
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Two key figures have resigned from the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency
(EPA) in the last month.
Both officials, the chief investigator for the EPA's
Ombudsman Office and the Ombudsman himself, stated in
their resignation letters
that the EPA has covered up
the existence of deadly pollution in the area
of the
destroyed World Trade Center towers in New York.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-26g.html
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9) U.S. AGENCY SENT $$$ TO ACTIVE FOES OF CHAVEZ
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In the past year, the United States channeled hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars
in grants to U.S. and
Venezuelan groups opposed to President Hugo Chavez,
including the labor group whose protests led to the
Venezuelan president's
brief ouster this month. The
funds were provided by the National Endowment
for
Democracy, a non-profit agency created and financed
by Congress. As
conditions deteriorated in Venezuela
and Chavez clashed with various business,
labor and
media groups, the endowment stepped up its assistance,
quadrupling
its budget for Venezuela to more than $877,000.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/67871_venezuela25.shtml
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10) HOW IBM HELPED AUTOMATE THE NAZI DEATH MACHINE
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When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, most of the
world saw a menace to
humanity. But IBM saw Nazi
Germany as a lucrative trading partner. Its president,
Thomas J. Watson, engineered a strategic business
alliance between IBM and
the Reich, beginning in the
first days of the Hitler regime and continuing
right
through World War II. This alliance catapulted Nazi
Germany to become
IBM's most important customer
outside the U.S. IBM and the Nazis jointly designed,
and IBM exclusively produced, technological solutions
that enabled Hitler
to accelerate and in many ways
automate key aspects of his persecution of
Jews,
homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others the Nazis
considered
enemies. Read the Cleveland Free Times article
of April 24 at:
http://www.freetimes.com/issues/1032/features-coverstory.php
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11) RADFEST 2002
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RadFest
2002, an annual weekend conference for pro-
gressive activists and academics
organized by the
A. E. Havens Center for the Study of Social Structure
and Social Change at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
will be held at
Aurora University, George Williams -
Lake Geneva Campus, Williams Bay, WI,
May 31-June 2, 2002.
The central goal of the conference is to provide an op-
portunity for progressive activists, organizers, and
intellectuals to come
together to discuss issues of
mutual interest and concern, strengthen networks,
and
devise strategies for progressive social, economic, and
political
change.
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/havenscenter/radfst02.htm
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12) DAVIS-BESSE FIX TO TAKE TIME
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FirstEnergy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
reported finding five more
microscopic radioactive
particles outside Davis-Besse. An improperly pro-
grammed radioactivity detector may have allowed a
total of seven people who
had worked in a highly
radioactive area of Davis-Besse to leave with micro-
scopic radioactive fuel particles sticking to them,
the utility and NRC reported.
The Akron utility Wed-
nesday reported finding radioactive particles on
three more people who worked under contract at Davis-
Besse and who have since
moved on to jobs in other states.
http://www.ohiocitizen.org/campaigns/electric/take_time.htm
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13) 15 SAFE ENERGY GROUPS PETITION NRC
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Fifteen Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and national
organizations Wednesday
formally petitioned the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to order First-
Energy to bring in an independent team of outside
consultants to verify safety
levels at the Davis-
Besse nuclear plant. Precedent for this action occurred
on August 14, 1996 when the NRC ordered the owner of
the Millstone nuclear
plant in Connecticut to bring
in such a team after very similar safety problems
were
discovered.
The
charter for an independent team of experts and
the justification for its activities
are detailed in
the "PETITION PURSUANT TO 10 CFR 2.206 REGARDING SAFETY
AT DAVIS-BESSE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT." (See
http://www.ohiogreens.org/features/020427/petition.pdf.)
The
independent team will not verify the propriety of
the proposed patch to the
damaged reactor vessel head.
Instead, the team will focus on other equipment
at the
plant that may also have been damaged by the long-time
leak of
borated water. The team will also examine how
FirstEnergy handled safety problems
occurring at Davis-
Besse in recent years to verify that there are no other
overlooked warning signs. The team will prepare a written
report on its efforts
and present its findings to the NRC
in a public meeting held near the plant.
The
petition was submitted to the NRC in accordance
with federal regulations that
allow the public to re-
quest enforcement action. In this case, the enforcement
action would be an order requiring FirstEnergy to bring
the independent team.
The following organizations
have signed on to this
petition: Safe Energy Communication Council, Ohio
Citizen Action, Citizen Power, Citizens Protecting
Ohio, Citizens' Resistance
at Fermi Two, Coalition
for a Nuclear Free Great Lakes, Earth Day Coalition,
Environmental Health Watch, Greenpeace, Nuclear Infor-
mation and Resource
Service, Ohio Environmental Council,
Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental
Safety
and Security, Toledo Coalition for Safe Energy, and
Union of Concerned
Scientists.
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14) SCRIPPS COMPANY: FREE AIRTIME FOR CANDIDATES
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Ballot Access News reported earlier this month that
the Scripps Company announced
Feb. 27 that its TV
stations will offer free airtime to candidates who
are on the ballot in its viewing areas (Baltimore,
Cincinnati, Cleveland,
Detroit, Kansas City, Phoenix,
Tampa, Tulsa and West Palm Beach).
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15) POCLAD ON THE AIR MAY 5
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"The Necessity of War and Other Corporate Myths," an
interview with
POCLADers Karen Coulter and Mary Zeper-
nick, will air Sun., May 5, 3-4 PM
EST on KLCC-FM,
Eugene OR. This will be simultaneously Web cast at:
http://www.klcc.org/programs/programinfo.html?catid=75
(Click on "Listen to KLCC"). The station may also
archive the interview
for access later.
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The views expressed in this newsletter are those
of the author or organization
noted and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the Green Party
of
Ohio.
***************************************************
To join the
Green Party of Ohio, complete the form at http://www.ohiogreens.org/membership/register.html.
To see the membership list of the GPO, see
http://www.ohiogreens.org/membership/.
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Copyright
© 2002, Green Party of Ohio.
All rights reserved.
Paid for by the
Green Party of Ohio PAC (OH1066)
Gina Ficociello, Treasurer
1427 Northstar
Rd., Columbus OH 43212
Contributions to the Green Party of Ohio are not
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Green Party of Ohio
PO Box 851, Kent OH 44240
Email: secretary@ohiogreens.org
Web: http://www.ohiogreens.org