underthebutton.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/w..

Washington’s Proposal to Legalize Marijuana and Sell It At State Run Liquor Stores

December 28, 2009 KOMO 4 News crooksandliars.com

Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, a Seattle Democrat who is sponsoring the legalization bill in Washington state, said that she “wanted to start a strong conversation about the pros and cons of legalizing marijuana.”

Under her bill, marijuana would be sold in Washington state’s 160 state-run liquor stores, and customers, 21 and older, would pay a tax of 15 percent per gram…

Video: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/cspanjunkie/washingtons-proposal-legalize-marijuan?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email

Related: About Two Dozen States Weigh Legalizing Marijuana

Related:  By: Rachel LaCorte  |  The Associated Press Dec. 27 2009

Washington is one of four states where measures to legalize and regulate marijuana have been introduced, and about two dozen other states are considering bills ranging from medical marijuana to decriminalizing possession of small amounts of the herb… http://www.truthout.org//topstories/122809vh6

Related: 10 Reasons the U.S. Military Should (Officially) Use Pot

By Penny Coleman, alternet.org Dec. 29, 2009

“There’s a lot of things I’m passionate about, but getting a prescription for my marijuana from the VA is probably at the top of my list. I’d be like a kid waiting up for Santa if I thought he might be bringing me one of those. Haha!”

On top of a 100 percent disability rating with PTSD, “Charlie” — who asked that his real name not be used — came home from Afghanistan with a traumatic brain injury, a back injury and gastrointestinal problems. The VA pulled every magic trick out of its bag to treat him. But nothing worked.

What did work was marijuana.

Shirak-e-Mazar, the milk of Mazar, is what got Charlie through his deployment in Afghanistan. Shirak-e-Mazar is what Afghanis call the paper-thin sheets of hashish that sell for about $1.50 an ounce. It’s a 5000-year-old recipe, perfected in the Mazar-e-Sharif region, for preparing the compressed resin glands of the marijuana plant, and unless things have changed since Charlie left Afghanistan in 2004, it’s available, well, just about everywhere…

http://www.alternet.org/world/144838/10_reasons_the_u.s._military_should_%28officially%29_use_pot/?page=entire

static.howstuffworks.com/gif/sinking-ship-1.jpg,

State EIS for Interisland Power Cable Omits Costs, Impacts, and is Illegally Segmented

By Larry Geller disappearednews.com Dec. 24, 2009

In an op-ed in Thursday’s Honolulu Advertiser, Undersea cable could cost millions more (12/24/2009), Henry Curtis points out that not only has the state’s environmental impact statement been illegally segmented, but that prior press coverage has omitted part of the cost and all of the blight.

Remember the opposition to stringing high-voltage cables across Manoa’s scenic ridges?

http://disappearednews.com/2009/12/superferry-iistate-eis-for-interisland.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DisappearedNews+%28Disappeared+News%29

Related: 12/28/09  http://thekonablog.wordpress.com/
Sandwich Isles Communications And Paniolo Cable Company Facing Possible Bankruptcy

.ucar.edu/news/releases/2008/images/11_states.jpg

Video: “Owning The Weather”; Exclusive Clip from New Documentary About Weather Modification

Central Pacific Bank Misses Two Required Dividends, Will Inouye Step in Again?

By Larry Geller Dec. 22, 2009 disappearednews.com

Sen. Daniel Inouye got dinged in the press after reports that an inquiry placed by his office resulted in an unusual bailout of the bank. Sen. Inouye is one of the founders of CPB and an investor(see snip below).

A Washington Post story now reports that the bank has now missed two required dividend payments to the US Treasury. The implication is that the bank is still in trouble, bailed out or not. In any case, Inouye’s action is back in the national spotlight….

http://disappearednews.com/2009/12/central-pacific-bank-misses-two.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DisappearedNews+%28Disappeared+News%29

PLEASE FORWARD  STATEWIDE to FRIENDS,  FAMILY AND OUTDOORS GROUPS

Aloha-

When the Open Lands and Public Access (OLAPA) group was formed,  we all agreed that one of  the most important things we could accomplish would be to open more trails.   The group agreed that we needed to reduce the liability for private property owners, as well as the State and County, so that they would be encouraged to allow people to use trails and easements on their properties.

THIS BILL WILL BE INTRODUCED IN JANUARY– please put this on the agenda for your next group meeting.

HOW YOU CAN HELP TO GET THIS BILL PASSED:

• At your next group meeting, would you like someone to attend to give you a quick synopsis of the process and the legislation?
• PLEASE Obtain a letter of support from your group. The letter should briefly state, who you are, the purpose of your group, contact person and contact information, how many members you represent and why you think the legislation is important.  A sample letter is available.
• Educate your members as to the legislation by email or newsletters.
• Talk to your state senators and representatives.
• Forward this information to conservation, environmental or outdoor enthusiasts, family and friends statewide and get their support. If the bill becomes law, it will benefit all of the islands!

WE WOULD LIKE YOUR COMMENTS and we NEED YOUR HELP!

• The attached legislation is the result of research, OLAPA discussion meetings and several revisions by OLAPA members and Representative Denny Coffman and his staff.
• This legislation should bring significant relief for public and private landowners and help to reduce the fear of liability towards recreational users.
• The  legislation has areas that are underlined and areas that are crossed out. The underlined areas are new additions to the existing legislation. The crossed out areas are parts of the existing legislation that are to be deleted.  The parts that have neither underlining nor strike-throughs are existing legislation that will remain unchanged.
• If your  group would like someone to attend a meeting to explain the draft bill, we would be happy to do that.  Please remember that the legislation will be introduced in January, so please make the request soon. Your individual and group support will make the difference, and it is important that you understand what the bill is proposing!

Please call or email with questions or comments.
Happy Holidays!
Debbie

-Debbie Hecht
P.O. Box 4148
Kailua-Kona, HI 96745
(808) 989-3222

Report Title: Landowners’ Liability

Description:

Expands protections found in Hawaii’s recreational use statute for private landowners by:  (1) Providing for waivers through a validly signed owner protection form or posted notice sign and limiting liability for “inherent risk”; (2) Allowing prevailing landowners to recover reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs; (3) Creating an exception for the collection of a nominal administrative fee from recreational users; and defining “willful or malicious” to offer guidance on the applicability of the chapter. Eliminates duty to warn of dangerous ocean conditions for lessees of public lands that provide coastal access.  Eliminates the duty to warn of dangerous conditions for lessees and owners of unimproved public lands.

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.

A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LANDOWNERS’ LIABILITY.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1.  Chapter 520, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding two new sections to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

“§520-A Owner’s protection forms; posted signs; inherent risk. (a) An owner may require recreational users of land to sign a waiver form for the owner’s protection.  The waiver form may require the signer to assume all risks, known and unknown, of all harms, including death; to waive and release all claims and suits that the signer may have because of harms occurring because of the recreational use of the land; and to pay all reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees of the owner in defending against any such claims and suits.  Parents and guardians may sign on behalf of their children and wards.  A validly signed owner protection form shall be binding and enforceable.

(b)  Notwithstanding subsection (a), an owner may place posted signs, in a form and manner prescribed by the board of land and natural resources, at access points onto the owner’s land, including roads and trails, which notify recreational users that:

(1) They assume all risks, known and unknown, of all harms, including death, to the recreational user; and

(2) By entering the land, they waive and release all claims and suits that may arise because of harms occurring because of the recreational use of the land and agree to pay all reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees, if the owner is not found liable under this statute.

(c)  An owner shall not be liable for damages for injuries to a recreational user resulting from inherent risks associated with the recreational purpose if the recreational user voluntarily signs a written owner’s protection form or if the owner has placed a posted sign on the land pursuant to this section and rules adopted there under.

As used in this subsection, an “inherent risk” is a danger that a reasonable person would understand to be associated with the very nature of the recreational activity engaged in.

(d)  No later than July 1, 2011, the board of land and natural resources shall adopt rules, pursuant to chapter 91, that prescribe procedures for form, manner, placement, and inspection of posted signs.

§520-B Attorneys’ fees. Reasonable attorneys’ fees, court costs, and other expenses of litigation shall be awarded to a prevailing owner found not liable under this statute.“

SECTION 2.  Section 520-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definition of “charge” to read as follows:

“’Charge’ means the admission price or fee asked in return for invitation or permission to enter or go upon the land.  For purposes of this chapter, “charge” shall not include a nominal fee assessed to cover the administrative costs of permitting, controlling, or restricting access for public recreational purposes.“

SECTION 3.  Section 520-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

“[[]§520-5[]] Exceptions to limitations. Nothing in this chapter limits in any way any liability which otherwise exists:

(1)              For wilful or malicious failure to guard or warn against a dangerous condition, use, or structure which the owner knowingly creates or perpetuates and for wilful or malicious failure to guard or warn against a dangerous activity which the owner knowingly pursues or perpetuates.  For the purposes of this paragraph, “wilful or malicious” means intentional, knowing, or voluntary action and with the intent to cause harm or injury.

(2)              For injury suffered in any case where the owner of land charges the person or persons who enter or go on the land for [the] recreational use [thereof,] a fee, other than a nominal fee as provided in section 520-2, except that in the case of land leased to the State or a political subdivision thereof, any consideration received by the owner for such lease shall not be deemed a charge within the meaning of this section.

(3)              For injuries suffered by a house guest while on the owner’s premises, even though the injuries were incurred by the house guest while engaged in one or more of the activities designated as a recreational purpose in section [[]520-2.[]]”

SECTION 4.  Section 663-1.56, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (e) to read as follows:

“(e)  [Neither the] The State, [nor a county] counties, or their lessees shall have [a] no duty to warn on beach accesses, coastal accesses, or in areas that are not public beach parks of dangerous natural conditions on the beach, the coastline or in the ocean.”

SECTION 5.  Act 82, Session Laws of Hawaii 2003, section 2, as amended by section 5 of Act 152, Session Laws of Hawaii 2007, as amended by section 3 of Act 81, Session Laws of Hawaii 2009, is amended by amending subsection (c) of section 663‑    to read as follows:

“(c)  The State [or a county], counties, or their lessees shall have no duty to warn of dangerous natural conditions on unimproved public lands.”

SECTION 6.  In codifying the new sections added by section 1 of this Act, the revisor of statutes shall substitute appropriate section numbers for the letters used in designating the new sections in this Act.

SECTION 7.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 8.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

I just tweeted this question, but need an answer…

@nateknox

I’m thinking about hosting a giveaway on Examiner http://bit.ly/7IiPth Any ideas? More importantly, is it even legal?

If you know the answer, tweet me back or send me an email…

.badidea.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/rat.jpg

Honolulu Chinatown Merchants Cover Up Windows, Hide Rats From Public

By Larry Geller Dec. 16, 2009 disappearednews.com

KITV and Keoki Kerr have stuck to the rat problem tenaciously. Last night they reported seeing fewer rats in Kekaulike Market, and that there will be classes, with translations into Chinese and Vietnamese, for the tenant vendors of that market.

They also report that the Department of Health has sent back a plan to attack the rat problem submitted by Gerell Management, which holds the master lease for the market that is owned by the City. The DOH wants more dates and specifics, KITV said.

More troubling was their video documentation that vendors are taping up newspaper and painting windows that were open to the public before.

Video: http://www.kitv.com/health/21984160/detail.html

It’s common in Chinatown for restaurants and shops to board up or otherwise obstruct their windows to prevent public view. Covering up conditions in Kekaulike Market is not progress, it its a step backward. If there are fewer rats, the windows would not need to be covered.

Also troubling is the closing statement of the newscast, that the state is not allowing any overtime. This means that the adjacent markets will not be inspected at night….

http://disappearednews.com/2009/12/honolulu-chinatown-merchants-cover-up.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DisappearedNews+%28Disappeared+News%29

Update:  By Larry Geller  disappearednews.com

This sounds like a very positive response—provided vendor participation can somehow be made mandatory. The Advertiser breaking news reports Chinese chamber, health department create task force to tackle rat problem.

Update 12/21/09 : By Larry Geller   Disappeared News
Department of Health refuses to inspect Chinatown markets—be warned

Update: By Larry Geller – 12/25/09 disappearednews.com

What happens when health inspectors don’t visit

…inspectors are being cut and there’s no plan to inspect the Chinatown markets other than Kekaulike Market.

ttp://disappearednews.com/2009/12/what-happens-when-health-inspectors.html

farm1.static.flickr.com/142/356972415_6117ef74e7.jpg..

Larsen’s Beach Public Access Could Be Denied

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/keep-larsens-beach-public-access

Currently, two permits are being considered which would effectively block the use of the long standing publicly used trail to Larsen’s Beach, leaving no usable alternative. The trail crosses private land owned by Waioli Corporation.  This is understood, and access should be provided by a public right of way trail which is said to be there.  State law requires public access, but in truth, the County-owned trail also appears to not be safely navigatable to the beach and is fenced off by another private landowner’s property. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/keep-larsens-beach-public-access

Related: surfrider.org

According to recent findings by the California Coastal Commission, less than three quarters of the mandated beach access points in Orange and San Diego Counties actually exist. The Commission discovered that many of the stairs, walkways, and viewing areas promised by developers have either not been built, or are closed to the public. “It looks like there is not enough access.” said Coastal Commissioner Richard Bloom.

White House Emails Case Nearing Settlement

Transparency advocates are poised to win a major victory in the two-year legal battle over millions of missing Bush-era emails.

By Nick Baumann Dec. 11, 2009 motherjones.com

The years-long legal battle over millions of missing White House emails from George W. Bush’s presidency may finally be drawing to a close. “We are very close to a final settlement,” Anne Weismann, chief counsel for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), tells Mother Jones. “We have been in negotiations with [the White House] for months, and I think they really want out from under all this.”

CREW and another nonprofit, the National Security Archive, first sued the Bush administration in September of 2007, hoping to force the White House to recover missing emails and implement an effective archiving system that would prevent important presidential records from being lost or misplaced in the future. But the litigation has been on hold since March 2009, when the Obama administration and the plaintiffs jointly agreed to pursue a settlement.

Details of the agreement are still being finalized, but Weismann says CREW expects to prevail in the three areas that are most important to her organization: “restoration of missing emails, assurances going forward that the White House has an appropriate and effective electronic record-keeping system, and information about what happened.” ….. http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/exclusive-white-house-emails-case-nearing-settlement

Update:  Mon Dec. 14, 2009

skrewtips.com/img/gmo-food-box.jpg

Bayer Verdict Shows Why GM Trials Must Be Stopped

$2 million US dollar verdict against Bayer confirms company’s liability for an uncontrollable technology

Greenpeace International, Dec. 7 2009
Bayer has admitted it has been unable to control the spread of its genetically-engineered organisms despite ‘the best practices [to stop contamination]‘(1). It shows that all outdoors field trials or commercial growing of GE crops must be stopped before our crops are irreversibly contaminated.

Greenpeace welcomes the United States federal jury ruling on 4 December 2009 that Bayer CropScience LP must pay $2 million US dollars to two Missouri farmers after their rice crop was contaminated with an experimental variety of rice that the company was testing in 2006.

This verdict confirms that the responsibility for the consequences of GE (genetic engineering) contamination rests with the company that releases GE crops.

Bayer has admitted it has been unable to control the spread of its genetically-engineered organisms despite ‘the best practices [to stop contamination]‘(1). It shows that all outdoors field trials or commercial growing of GE crops must be stopped before our crops are irreversibly contaminated.

A report prepared for Greenpeace International concluded that the total costs incurred throughout the world as a result of the contamination are estimated to range from $741 million to $1.285 billion US dollars.(2) The verdict indicates that Bayer is liable for what could turn out to be a large proportion of these costs, as it awards damages in the first two of more than 1,000 currently pending lawsuits. The decision must be used to support all claims for losses incurred by other US farmers whose crops have suffered from GE contamination….
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/11792-bayer-verdict-shows-gm-trials-must-be-stopped

Related: AP Investigation: Monsanto Seed Biz Role Revealed
By Christopher Leonard The Associated Press  Salt Lake Tribune

With Monsanto’s patented genes being inserted into roughly 95 percent of all soybeans and 80 percent of all corn grown in the U.S., the company also is using its wide reach to control the ability of new biotech firms to get wide distribution for their products, according to a review of several Monsanto licensing agreements and dozens of interviews with seed industry participants, agriculture and legal experts.

hoax-slayer.com/images/mexico-drug-money2.jpg

UN Advisor: Drug Money Propped Up Banks During Crisis

.renthawaiihome.com/bay/new%2007keei%20004.jpg

Kamehameha Schools, Landowner Seek To Block Keawaiki Access

By Erin Miller – West Hawaii Today emiller@westhawaiitoday.com

A Kamehameha Schools lessee is proposing a gate across Keawaiki Road to cut off vehicle access to the Keawaiki Beach Lots, according to a draft environmental assessment filed with the state. The request and proposed gate have raised questions, particularly from nearby landowners whose families have lived near Keei Beach for generations, about shoreline and historic trail access.

Kamehameha Schools is requiring Chuck and Diane Bundrant, the applicants for the environmental assessment, to install the gate, the couple claimed in the draft document. The gates would protect archaeological resources and curb unauthorized camping, off-road driving and vandalism of the archaeological sites, the draft assessment said…. westhawaiitoday.com

Gating of Access Roads in the Conservation District at Kahauloa

(DEA) Hawaii Island: District:

South Kona TMK:

(3^{rd) 8-3-05:01} Applicant:

Charles and Diane Bundrant, P.O. Box 550, Captain Cook, HI 96704. Ron Terry: 969-7090 Approving

Agency:

Dept of Land and Natural Resources, Office of Coastal and Conservation Lands, P.O. Box 621, Honolulu HI 96809. Sam Lemmo: 587-0377 Consultant:

Geometrician Associates, PO Box 396, Hilo HI 96721. Ron Terry, 969-7090 Comments:

DEA 30-day comment period starts from the date of this Notice. Address comments to the Applicant, with copies to the Approving Agency and Consultant Permits:

Plan Approval and Grubbing, Grading, Building; Special Management Area Permit; CDUPChuck and Diane Bundrant plan to erect two vehicular gates on existing access roads on the undeveloped property in Kahauloa they lease from Kamehameha Schools (KS), a condition of their lease. The purpose is to provide a secured access for the 17 properties at Keawaiki Beach Lots that take access from this access road, which does not provide access to any public resources such as the shoreline or parks. Currently, this private road through KS properties is also used by others as a vehicular shortcut to the village and beach at Keei, which has its own, separate access across the property that will not be affected. A number of sensitive archaeological sites are present on the property, and unsecured access has promoted unauthorized camping, off-road driving and vandalism of these sites, as well as security issues for the property owners. There are no archaeological features within the two areas planned for the placement of gates. The project would help protect historic sites. While the gates will limit vehicular traffic on Keawaiki Road, a special gate and cindered walkway will be established adjacent to the gate structures for pedestrians. Consultation with community members did not identify any specific resources such as gathering practices, ceremonial sites, or traditional cultural properties that would be impacted by the proposed construction of the gates. However, some felt that the gates would exclude community members from driving on a road that they have been accustomed to using for many years, a road that at some level substitutes for an ancient foot trail that was displaced by creation in the 1960s of the Keawaiki Beach Lots. Standard BMPs for construction would prevent erosion or runoff. The lava rock gate design will match the landscape of the area and will not adversely affect scenery.

Millions in U.S. Drink Dirty Water, Records Show

By Charles Duhigg nytimes.com Dec. 7, 2009

More than 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data.

Regulators were informed of each of those violations as they occurred. But regulatory records show that fewer than 6 percent of the water systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or federal officials, including those at the Environmental Protection Agency, which has ultimate responsibility for enforcing standards.

Studies indicate that drinking water contaminants are linked to millions of instances of illness within the United States each year.

In some instances, drinking water violations were one-time events, and probably posed little risk. But for hundreds of other systems, illegal contamination persisted for years, records show.

On Tuesday, the Senate Environment and Public Works committee will question a high-ranking E.P.A. official about the agency’s enforcement of drinking-water safety laws. The E.P.A. is expected to announce a new policy for how it polices the nation’s 54,700 water systems.

“This administration has made it clear that clean water is a top priority,” said an E.P.A. spokeswoman, Adora Andy, in response to questions regarding the agency’s drinking water enforcement. The E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, this year announced a wide-ranging overhaul of enforcement of the Clean Water Act, which regulates pollution into waterways.

“The previous eight years provide a perfect example of what happens when political leadership fails to act to protect our health and the environment,” Ms. Andy added….. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/energy-environment/08water.html

Related: Environmental Working Group/       ewg.org/tap-water/home?inlist=Y&utm_source=tapngip&utm_medium=email&utm_content=first-link&utm_campaign=toxics

Related:12/16/09 huffingtonpost.com/steven-solomon/obama-palin-copenhagen-th_b_393294.html
Steven Solomon: Obama, Palin, Copenhagen: The End Of Drinkable Water?

Tell Congress to Close the “Halliburton Loophole” to Protect Drinking Water from Contamination

The “Halliburton Loophole” exempts hydraulic fracturing, an oil and gas production method that has been linked to water contamination, from Safe Drinking Water Act regulations. Urge your senators and representative to co-sponsor legislation to repeal the Halliburton Loophole.
Learn more about this issue » https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1308

What’s In YOUR Water?

http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/whatsinyourwater/?zip5=96740&search=&x=Go

Drinking Water Quality Report

// HOME

http://adland.tv/content/forget-proposition-8-lets-make-divorce-illegal

2010 California Marriage Protection Act

Safeguarding marriage from the evils of divorce

By Judy Lin  prdailysun.com

http://www.prdailysun.com/news/Movement-under-way-in-California-to-ban-divorceVideo – http://rescuemarriage.org/2009/10/13/2010-california-marriage-protection-act-psas/comment-page-2/

Stanford scholars are among the first in the country to ponder the potential legal questions facing the emerging field of personal robotics.

The issues go beyond claims of personal injury and property damage, touching on criminal and civil rights laws as well.

Source:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/november23/robots-and-law-112309.html

EPA: Uranium From Polluted British Petroleum Mine Found In Nevada Water Wells

Scott Sonner AP 11/21/09

But she can look through the window from her kitchen table, just past her backyard with its swingset and pet llama, and see an ominous sign on a neighboring fence: “Danger: Uranium Mine.”

For almost a decade, people who make their homes in this rural community in the Mason Valley 65 miles southeast of Reno have blamed that enormous abandoned mine for the high levels of uranium in their water wells.

They say they have been met by a stone wall from state regulators, local politicians and the huge oil company that inherited the toxic site – BP PLC. Those interests have insisted uranium naturally occurs in the region’s soil and there’s no way to prove that a half-century of processing metals at the former Anaconda pit mine is responsible for the contamination.

That has changed. A new wave of testing by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that 79 percent of the wells tested north of the World War II-era copper mine have dangerous levels of uranium or arsenic or both that make the water unsafe to drink.

And, more importantly to the neighbors, that the source of the pollution is a groundwater plume that has slowly migrated from the 6-square-mile mine site.

The new samples likely never would have been taken if not for a whistleblower, a preacher’s wife, a tribal consultant and some stubborn government scientists who finally helped crack the toxic mystery that has plagued this rural mining and farming community for decades.

“They have completely ruined the groundwater out here,” said Pauly, the wife of a local pastor and mother of two girls who organized a community action group five years to seek the truth about the pollution….

*Related: Colorado River May Face Fight of its Life

Increased toxins likely as energy companies seek oil, gas, uranium

By Abrahm Lustgarten and David Hasemyer (propublica.org) Dec. 21, 2008

Now the life vein of the Southwest faces another threat: Energy companies are sucking up the Colorado’s water to support increased development of oil, natural gas and uranium deposits along the river’s basin. The mining and drilling will likely send more toxins into the waterway, which provides drinking water for one out of 12 Americans and nourishes 15 percent of the nation’s crops along its journey from Wyoming and Colorado to Mexico….

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2008/dec/21/1n21colorado211057-colorado-river-may-face-fight-i/

earthjustice.org/assets/subject/objects/m

Marine contamination, cultural sites at Makua at stake

November 19, 2009 http://www.earthjustice.org/news/press/2009/court-rules-army-must-give-community-meaningful-information-on-training-impacts.html

Honolulu, HI – Yesterday, U.S. District Chief Judge Susan Oki Mollway ruled that the Army is obliged to give the community meaningful information on how military training at Makua Military Reservation (“MMR”) on O’ahu could damage Native Hawaiian cultural sites and contaminate marine resources on which area residents rely for subsistence.

Malama Makua, represented by Earthjustice, had asked the court in August to set aside the Army’s environmental impact statement (EIS) for proposed military training at MMR until it completes key marine contamination studies and archaeological surveys.

“For years we’ve been insisting that the Army tell the community the truth about the threats that training at Makua poses to irreplaceable subsistence and cultural resources,” said Malama Makua president Sparky Rodrigues. “Now the court has told the Army that it can’t get away with junk science.”

Under an October 2001 settlement of Malama Makua’s earlier lawsuit, which challenged the Army’s failure to prepare an EIS for training at MMR, as well as a related settlement in January 2007, the Army was required to conduct comprehensive studies to determine the potential for training activities to contaminate fish, shellfish, limu and other marine resources at Mäkua that Wai’anae Coast residents gather for subsistence purposes. The Army was also required to prepare comprehensive subsurface archaeological surveys to identify cultural sites that could be damaged or destroyed by military training.

The Army filed a motion seeking to dismiss Malama Makua’s August complaint, arguing that, regardless of the scientific adequacy of its studies, it had met all its responsibilities under the settlement agreements.

In denying the Army’s motion, Judge Mollway wrote: “The Army has not demonstrated that the settlement agreement provided it with the sole right to determine what was meant by [an archaeological] ’survey.’ Taken to its logical conclusion, the Army’s argument would allow the Army to satisfy its burden by poking a stick into the ground and calling that action a ’survey’.”….

 

http://www.nctsdg.navy.mil/island.html

Stealing A Nation reveals the extraordinary story of the secret expulsion of the entire population of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean by successive British governments, so that the principal island, Diego Garcia, could be handed to the United States.

http://www.dmzhawaii.org/?p=4614

Stealing A Nation wins Britain’s most prestigious documentary honor, also top American award

Stealing A Nation reveals the extraordinary story of the secret expulsion of the entire population of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean by successive British governments, so that the principal island, Diego Garcia, could be handed to the United States as a major military base. It is from this base that American aircraft have attacked Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This is a shocking, almost incredible story. A government calling itself civilised tricked and expelled its most vulnerable citizens so that it could give their homeland to a foreign power…ministers and their officials then mounted a campaign of deception all the way up to the prime minister.” John Pilger

10/06/04: “ITV” — John Pilger’s documentary is an extraordinary film about the plight of people of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean – secretly and brutally expelled from their homeland by British governments in the late 1960s and early 1970s, to make way for an American military base. The base, on the main island of Diego Garcia, was a launch pad for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

A remarkable dossier of evidence has been put together by Pilger and producer Chris Martin, all from official files, charting one of the most shocking conspiracies of modern times, which continues today.

Diego Garcia is America’s biggest military base in the world, outside the US. There are more than 4,000 troops, two bomber runways, thirty warships and a satellite spy station. The Pentagon calls it an “indispensable platform” for policing the world.

Before the Americans came, more than 2,000 people lived on the islands, many with roots back to the late 18th century. There were thriving villages, a school, a hospital, a church, a railway and an undisturbed way of life. The islands were, and still are, a British crown colony.

In the 1960s, the government of Harold Wilson struck a secret deal with the United States to hand over Diego Garcia. The Americans demanded that the islands be “swept” and “sanitised”. Unknown to Parliament and to the US Congress, the British government plotted with Washington to expel the entire population – in secrecy and in breach of the United Nations Charter.

At first, they starved them of essential supplies; then rumours spread that the islands would be bombed; then the people watched their pets gassed to death before they were herded on to boats and dumped in the slums of Mauritius.
Rita, now in her 70s, lost her husband and three of her children following their deportation: “I am a British citizen and they threw us out of our homeland in the name of the Queen.”

Lizette, in her 70s, says: “My children died from sadness. When we were forced out, she died, the youngest fell ill and the doctor said to me, ‘I can’t treat sadness’. What they did to us was no different from the treatment of the slaves.”

Charlesia says: “What hurts most is that we were never told what they were doing with our islands. If it had been built for poor people to work, fine. But it’s a base for bombers – and the bombs that fell on Iraq came from our paradise.”

John Pilger and producer Christopher Martin have acquired hundreds of astonishing official documents which, in the words of officials and ministers, reveal how the conspiracy was hatched, then covered up.

“The documents show clearly that the conspiracy to expel the population rested on a big lie,” says John Pilger. “This claimed that the population were itinerant workers, when the government knew this was a population that went back generations. Most had never left the islands.

“One Foreign Office document is headed, ‘Maintaining the fiction’. Another says, ‘We propose to certify these people, more or less fraudulently, as belonging somewhere else.’ We have secret memos that propose how the government should lie to the world. I have never read anything like them.”

Pilger also reveals how the scandal continues today.

The director, writer and presenter John Pilger, has made more than 50 documentaries for ITV, including his famous exposes of Pol Pot’s killing fields in Cambodia and the genocide in East Timor. He has twice won Britain’s highest award for journalism, Journalist of the Year. He has been International Reporter of the year and holds the United Nations Media Peace Prize, the Richard Dimbleby Award given by Bafta and an American television academy award, an Emmy.

Related:

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State Will be Liable for Monetary Damages

After Hawaiian Homelands Trial

By Larry Geller Disappeared News

(see previous article for judge’s ruling)

The Hawaiian Homelands Trust is an obligation that Hawaii assumed as a condition of statehood. This trial covered a limited time period of 1959 (statehood) to 1988 and asked for compensation for losses resulting in delays in awarding homesteads.

The attorneys represented 2,700 beneficiaries, many of whom were young applicants but are now senior citizens. Over the 30 or more years since they may have applied for a homestead or for agricultural or pastoral land, some have passed away.

Members of the plaintiff class originally filed claims 1991 with an administrative panel charged with compensating them for their losses, but when that went nowhere and the state shut down the panel, the lawsuit was filed. It made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where the state argued that claims could not be brought against it.

The Supreme Court ruled that indeed claims could be brought, and sent it back down to the Circuit Court for trial. Judge Eden Elizabeth Hilo ruled yesterday that the state was liable for breaches of trust in failing to award homesteads promptly…

Read more, plus video: http://disappearednews.com/2009/11/state-will-be-liable-for-monetary.html

peswiki.com/images/2/2a/Radioactive_cheese_gr.

Consumer Goods Made With Radioactive Metals

Wednesday, November 04, 2009 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer

(NaturalNews) A lack of regulatory oversight has led to massive quantities of radioactive metal entering the U.S. raw materials supply, meaning that many consumer products may expose users to dangerous levels of radiation, a Scripps Howard News Service investigation has found.

In the past 11 years, scandals have emerged over radioactive metal in products including La-Z-Boy recliners, EKCO cheese graters, purses, tableware, fencing materials, shovel blades, elevators and airplanes. The cheese graters, laced with Cobalt-60, were giving off the equivalent of a chest X-ray’s worth of radiation every 36 hours.

According to the Scripps investigation, there are at least 500,000 radioactive metal objects outside of toxic waste dumps in the United States, and the amount of waste improperly disposed of may reach 20 million pounds…
read more: http://www.naturalnews.com/027391_consumer_goods_natural_health_renewable_energy.html

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By Stephanie Simon  online.wsj.com/

BOULDER, Colo. — This city has always taken pride in its liberal-to-the-point-of-loony reputation. But this Halloween, one of its wackiest traditions is under siege: the Naked Pumpkin Run.

For nearly a decade, naked pumpkin runners did their thing unmolested, stampeding through the frigid dark past crowds of admirers who hooted, hollered and tossed candy. But last year the run attracted more than 150 participants, and Police Chief Mark Beckner fears things are getting out of hand. “It’s a free-for-all,” he says.       So he intends to stop it.

He will station more than 40 officers on the traditional four-block route tonight, with two SWAT teams patrolling nearby. All have orders to arrest gourd-topped streakers as sex offenders.

Runners and their fans are outraged. This is not the free-spirited Boulder they know and love. “It kind of reminds me of what’s happening in Tehran,” says Andy Schmidt, a lawyer. “They’re pre-emptively outlawing a gathering.”

The American Civil Liberties Union has fired off a letter accusing the police of violating citizens’ constitutional rights to express whatever it is they’re expressing when they slip hollowed-out pumpkins over their heads and race buck naked down the Pearl Street pedestrian mall… more:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125693458626119361.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth

It’s funny what you can come across when browsing for something completely different, but then again, it shows what a good blog article title can do…

BLOGGERS BUSTED BY COURTS

The article on legalzoom.com (here’s the link), discusses the 2009 case of Liskula Cohen, a model, who was called some rather unpleasant things in several anonymous blog posts. She decided to sue. Since the poster was unknown, her attorney’s had to go after Google, owners of Blogger.com where the comments were made.

The case made it to the New York Supreme court where it was decided that the comments had been defamatory and Cohen had rights to claim compensation. More specifically, they quoted a similar Virginia case and stated that anyone suffering "damages" as a result of "tortious or other actionable communications on the Internet" should be able to "seek appropriate redress by preventing the wrongdoers from hiding behind an illusory shield of purported First Amendment rights."
Back in 1995, the US Supreme Court had ruled the opposite, citing that the First Amendment guarantees protection, is vital to any democracy and "Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority".

A quick Google search for “bloggers sued” brings up a host of results (add 2009 to the search for more current stories) from here and abroad. It that there isn’t a part of the world that doesn’t have a blog-related lawsuit in progress somewhere.

So, what does it all mean?

Well, other than I shouldn’t be so easily sidetracked, it goes to show that "anonymous" isn’t necessarily so. Of course, many of us already know that once we step foot into the Internet world, we’re about as anonymous as a polar bear at a penguin convention. Yet, that aside, it also goes to show that what you say really can matter online. What you say can come back to haunt you, whether it’s a comment you make on a personal level, or, I’m guessing, a professional one too. The "offense" may not have been intended, but that’s up to the "offended" party. There are, I’m sure, some very legitimate cases that deserve a look, but that has to be balanced by the First Amendment (or other freedom-of-speech laws around the world) and allowing people to say what they want to.

The legal lines are very shaky in this regard. Quite literally, the jury is out when it comes to what’s okay and what’s going to end someone up in court. As an enthusiastic blogger and writer myself, I hate the thought of censorship at any level, but such is the world we live in. It’s going to be interesting to see how it develops, but in the meantime…if it’s something I wouldn’t say I loud in a public forum, it might be worth keeping to myself…that makes sense to me.

Oh – and this blog is my opinion and is not intended to offend anyone…sigh.

I write about different marketing strategies and techniques, both traditional and non in my online newsletter Webby’s Updates which you can read at www.JDELtd.com and subscribe to if you so choose. You can download this and other articles from by Small Business GENetics site, www.sbgenetics.com

deprogramminghour.com/pol_pics_for_site/votin

The Hawaii State Spending Commission has announced its November 5th Workshop for 2010 prospective candidates.

If you are considering running, or if you plan to play a key campaign role, you need to attend.

Thursday, November 5, 2009Aupuni Center, Hilo 8am-6pm No pre-registration, no fee, public welcome

Aloha –  Please forward to family and friends who would be interested in attending and helping in this effort. Bring a friend to the meeting.

Olapa Meeting:  REDUCING LIABILITY FOR PROPERTY OWNERS AND THE COUNTY TO OPEN MORE TRAILS

Saturday, November 7th at the Waimea Library  from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm.

We will need the support of your organization and your help to get this legislation passed in the upcoming session.

Can you bring a snack to share? or a thermos of coffee?  We will have cups, plates etc. water and some coffee.

Mahalo!
Debbie Hecht
(808) 989-3222