8/19/2007 No Talking Heads

Local
Baird sees need for longer U.S. role in Iraq, The Olympian
Biodiesel plant stirs hopes in Grays Harbor, Seattle Times
Plans for cargo center collide with concerns about prairie; Maytown residents have misgivings about land’s future amid proposed freight facility, the Olympian

"They're pollution magnets," said Diane Sonntag, leader of the Friends of Rocky Prairie, a 500-member group formed to oppose the logistics center. "You have thousands of trucks coming in. When they come in, they sit there and idle. This area will be transformed into a huge air pollution problem."

Did the Ports of Olympia and Tacoma obtain this site without doing environmental impacts, hoping that they could PR/market their way out of the environmental impacts?
Olympian videos of discussion of issue; Friends of Rocky Prairie outline an alternative to proposed site - TransAlta site in Centralia.
LOTT ready to buy 1.9 acres for expansion, Olympian

National
U.S. to Expand Domestic Use Of Spy Satellites, Wall Street Journal via TJ
Padilla, 2 co-defendants convicted of helping Islamic extremists, plotting overseas attacks, Associated Press

International,
U.S. Signs $30 Billion Defense Aid Pact with Israel, NY Times

"Israel and the United States signed a deal on Thursday to give Israel $30 billion in military aid over the next decade in what officials called a long-term investment in peace."

8/12/2007 No Talking Heads

I've pre-produced my show this week. I recorded a great story about the end of summer written by Zoe's pre-school teacher, Sara Bear. That will air at the end of the month, hopefully.

This week's show:
1). Interview with Vince Brown, local poverty activist and musician (Red Brown & the Tune Stranglers) about redevelopment of downtown Vancouver, WA. After reading a series of articles on the Olympian about downtown redevelopment of 3 regional cities, Bremerton, Bellingham and Vancouver, WA, I wanted to get someone's perspective on how these redevelopment efforts affected the poor and homeless. The Olympian articles didn't talk about this angle at all.

2). Interview with Norman Solomon about the new film, War Made Easy. This was conducted by Dennis Bernstein of KPFA's Flashpoints which you can hear weekdays at 5pm on 94.1FM in the Bay Area or streaming here.

8/5/2007 No Talking Heads

(guests will be Janet Blanding, TJ Johnson, Harry Levine)
We'll be reviewing the new issue of Works in Progress

Local
Former Safeway site considered for Olympia City Hall, Olympian
- is the Olympia Food Coop out of the running? - we'll have Harry Levine from the food coop on to talk about it.

National
42.8% Efficiency: A New Record for Solar Cells, Treehugger Blog

International

7/29/2007 No Talking Heads

(guests will be TJ Johnson, Marco Rossaire Rossi, Geov Parrish)
(next week (8/5/2007), we'll be reviewing the new issue of Works in Progress)

Local

Ripple effect of warming could hit Sound hard, John Dodge, Olympian
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No Mass Memorials at Fort Lewis Base, AP via Forbes (I found this on the headlines of iGoogle!)
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Stormans ponders legal action over Plan B rule, Olympian

Pharmacists sue over WA emergency contraception rules, Seattle PI

"The plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Wednesday are pharmacists Rhonda Mesler and Margo Thelen, and Stormans Inc., the owners of Ralph's Thriftway in Olympia . . ."

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Olympia not ready to end free parking, Olympian
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"Tell me where she is and we won't kill you . . ."
- threat of death penalty makes killers confess or provide more info, according to this Olympian story.
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Do you all read Adam Wilson's blog on the Olympian website?
- he posted on Friday about what the Republican's may need to do to win back some power.

National

The Impeachment Imbroglio: Sheehan, Conyers, Pelosi, and Feingold, by Ruth Conniff in the Progressive
- nicely states why working on impeachment of Bush, Cheney is NOT a waste of time.
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F.B.I. Chief Gives Account at Odds With Gonzales’s, NY Times
- in a separate development, Senate Dem's call for independent counsel to investigate possible perjury by Attorney General.
- every time something comes out that seems like it will make the house fall down, it doesn't. Is this it? Probably not - but it's still pretty bad for Gonzalez.
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International

U.S. to Announce Nuclear Exception for India, NY Times
- Do as we say, not as we do.

"Under the arrangement that is to be announced by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Mr. Bush has agreed to go beyond the terms of the deal that Congress approved, promising to help India build a nuclear fuel repository and find alternative sources of nuclear fuel in the event of an American cutoff, skirting some of the provisions of the law."

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7/22/2007 No Talking Heads

(guests will be TJ Johnson, Marco Rossaire Rossi, Geov Parrish)
Local

Lakefair warships decline visit
- this has already been reported fairly widely.
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Olympia and Tumwater approve homeless camps hosted by churches, with rules.
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Judge dismisses charges against 5 from Olympia, Olympian.
- coverage from Washblog.

"The defendants whose cases were dismissed were Charles B. Bevis, Leah E. Coakley, Dennis H. Dutton (Tenzing Karma Wangchuk), Patrick A. Edelbacher, Somerset D. Fetter, Elizabeth (Liz) Rivera Goldstein, William (Wes) W. Hamilton, Thomas McCarthy, Phan Nguyen, Gloria (Sasha Crow) J. Norton, Matthew W. Reiss III, Jody L. Tiller, and Karen Weill." (Olympians in BOLD)

"Tacoma Municipal Court Judge Pro Tem Karl D. Haugh's ruling dropped to ten the number of still unresolved cases stemming from March 2007 port militarization resistance (PMR) protests during which police made a total of thirty-seven arrests."

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436 new state laws in effect today, the Olympian
- new domestic-partner registry in effect, available Monday, 7/23/2007
- "an added $10 fee to traffic citations begins today, which will be used to fund anti-car-theft programs statewide."
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Sunday articles on downtown Bremerton and downtown Olympia by Matt Batcheldor
- Lessons for Downtown
- Bremerton transforms empty lots to condos, conference center and more
- Leadership key to seeing urban cores come to life


National
Wildfire warning raised to top level, Seattle Times
- Mark Rey, former timber lobbyist, now leading the U.S. Forest Service and the administration's decisions about where and how to cut forests, under fire for their logging policies, Washington Post
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Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq, White House Website
- Guardian UK interprets Executive Order as new financial tool in "terrorism fight".
- or you could interpret it as applying to dissent at home, like this WTF?! post did or like this Russian news agency post which purports that Bush is planning a new 9-11 type attack on the U.S.:

". . . the Bush administration is preparing to orchestrate a staged terrorist attack in the United States, transform the country into a dictatorship and launch a war with Iran within a year."

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President Cheney: Bush to Have Colonoscopy at Camp David, Huffington Post
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White House SmackDown!: Judges Seek All Gitmo Detainee Evidence, Huffington Post

7/15/2007 No Talking Heads

(guests will be TJ Johnson, Geov Parrish)

Local

Update on Lakefair warships visit
- according to Lakefair, there is an offer from other jurisdictions, including Thurston County Sheriff's Office, to provide security (since Olympia won't provide it), but they need permission from the City of Olympia to cross their jurisdictional lines. Thurston County police cannot just come into the port, apparently, and provide security without approval of the City of Olympia.
- I invited Teri Chmielewski, current Lakefair President, on the show to talk about it.
- "Security issues may prevent ships' visit", the Olympian.
- Discussing on Olyblog.
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Camp Quixote moves to St. John's Episcopal Church in South Capitol Neighborhood
- map of location.
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City of Olympia and City of Tumwater to vote on ordinance concerning Camp Quixote.

National

WA Post Publishes Four Part Series on Dick Cheney (carried over from last week)

• Part One: Working in the Background
• Part Two: Wars and Interrogations
• Part Three: Dominating Budget Decisions
• Part Four: Environmental Policy

7/8/2007 No Talking Heads

(guests will be Phan Nguyen, Larry Mosqueda, Geov Parrish)

Larry Mosqeuda will speak to the visits of warships to Olympia during 2007 Lakefair later this month. Here's an article in the Olympian about it.
Phan Nguyen (host of "Bundle of Joy", 4-6pm, KAOS) will speak to his article in the latest Works in Progress about the victory of the Olympia 22 against the Port of Olympia. Phan will also speak to an article about the consequences of the militarization of the Port of Olympia and to his experience being subpoenaed for the next court marshal for Lt. Ehren Watada.

Local

Extremely Sensible Olympian Editorials (Mike Oakland must be on vacation)!
- "Bring Home US Troops" from July 4th, 2007
- "Justice was not served" from July 5th, 2007

National

WA Post Publishes Four Part Series on Dick Cheney

• Part One: Working in the Background
• Part Two: Wars and Interrogations
• Part Three: Dominating Budget Decisions
• Part Four: Environmental Policy

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Federal Court Dismisses Domestic Spying Lawsuit, AP coverage.
- 2 to 1 ruling sees judges rule that party that brought suit couldn't prove they were targeted by spying - even though finding out who was spied on is top-secret and they can't tell anyone; can you say "circular reasoning"?
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President Bush commutes Scooter Libby's sentence
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Commutation of Libby jail time presents some who will claim same argument.
- Bush Rationale on Libby Stirs Legal Debate, 7/4/2007, NY Times
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International

War Costs Soar by a Third; Total Could Top $1.4 Trillion, Wired Blogs

". . . average monthly obligations for contracts and pay is running about $12 billion per month, well above the $8.7 billion in FY2006 . . ."

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Private contractors outnumber U.S. troops in Iraq, LA Times, 7/4/2007
- by 20,000, 180K to 160K.
- largest contractor is a Turkish firm, Kulak Construction Co., used to hire labor.
- largest employer of Americans is KBR with 14,000 American workers.
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