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Take Action – Protect Health

Take Action – Protect Health

New Air Pollution Rules Threaten Public Health

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Disregarding and misrepresenting recommendations from their own scientists, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed new air pollution standards that do not sufficiently protect public health. The new rules apply to particulate matter pollution, sources of which include agricultural activity, vehicle exhaust, and emissions from coal-fired power plants. Over 2,000 recent studies have linked particulate matter exposure to heart disease, respiratory ailments, and premature death. The EPA needs to hear from you today. We have until April 17 to urge the EPA to listen to their scientists and create standards that will adequately protect our health and the health of our children.

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Pombo in Pocket

Pombo in Pocket

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Latest on Rep. Richard Pombo from Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund and Pombo’s in Their Pocket

If you’re getting ready to pay your taxes, you may feel like you need a break. But after you hear how Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) spent his vacation — and our tax dollars — you’d be right to demand that he is the person to give you one.

It was August of 2003 and Pombo, America’s #1 Wildlife Villain, wanted a vacation. So Pombo used our tax dollars to rent an RV for a two-week family vacation in some of our nation’s most scenic national parks – parks like the ones he’s since proposed selling off to the highest bidder.

Interestingly, Pombo just can’t seem to get his story straight about this trip. After the trip, Rep. Pombo wrote on the official House Resources Committee website:

“This August, my family and I rented an RV and set out to explore the West. We spent two weeks on vacation, stopping along the way to enjoy the splendor of many of our national parks.”
Now he says it “was not a personal trip” and, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, “insists that he spent virtually all day talking to the park superintendents and other officials.” But, in the words of his hometown newspaper, “officials from at least two parks Pombo says he visited have no recollection of him making an appearance.”

What’s most amazing about all of this is that Pombo has proposed selling off 15 national parks and requiring the Park Service to sell commercial advertising and the naming rights to visitors’ centers and trails. Now that he and his family have enjoyed the parks, he’s content to hand them and the vulnerable animals that call them home over to the clutches of his developer buddies.

Click here to email Richard Pombo and demand that he immediately cease trying to sell our national parks and return the money he took from taxpayers for his personal enjoyment.

Stop Forced Relocation Black Mesa AZ

Stop Forced Relocation Black Mesa AZ

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Oppose Senate Bill S.1003

Native people’s lives and livelihoods are on the line! Traditional Navajo (known in their language as Dineh) would be forcibly evicted and dispossessed of their homes under this bill. I support the right of these families, who are among the few remaining American Indians who still speak their traditional language and practice their traditional culture, to remain on their lands and strongly oppose Senate Bill 1003.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) “estimates that enacting S. 1003 would have no significant effect on direct spending or revenues.” In fact, the original Navajo Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974 forced 1000s of hardworking self-sustaining families into welfare dependency, despair and early death. This ill-conceived bill may actual force hardworking independent people into welfare dependency on the federal government and increase the cost to US taxpayers.The cost overruns and inadequate financing of the relocation program are not the fault of the Navajo and are entirely due to major miscalculations on the number of affected people and federal governmental incompetence. Adding insult to injury, the lands designated for relocation are contaminated by one of the worst uranium mine accidents in US history.

A Washington Post investigative article has uncovered massive fraud and collusion involving Peabody Coal company and a consortium of 23 Utility companies in the passage of the original relocation law, P.L. 93-531 that led to the forced relocation of over 15,000 Navajo in what experts call one of the “worst involuntary resettlements” worldwide in the modern era. To remove the remaining people based on amendments to this corrupt and fraudulent law is nothing less than environmental ethnic cleansing.

The Navajo tell us that it is no coincidence that the land from which the Navajo are being removed contains over $ 20 billion worth of coal. Jack Abramoff and his associates have been involved in lobbying for companies interested in the Navajo’s land and we support the request of the Navajo families for an investigation into any activities regarding Jack Abramoff and Senate Bill 1003. This bill comes at a time while Peabody Energy is in the process of acquiring a life-of-mine lease in the Black Mesa area even though the Black Mesa Mine is temporarily shut down.

Therefore, we support the Navajo families in opposing Senate Bill 1003 and respectfully request

  • That the Senate remove Senate Bill 1003 from consideration
  • That the Congress pass a resolution opposing forced relocation of Native Americans
  • That Congress help the communities already relocated rather than closing any federal offices that may be able to help them
  • That Congress work directly with affected families and communities to resolve any land issues and listen to them, not just Jack Abramoff or other high paid lobbyists.

More background

Send your letter today!

JWs in the News – Swindler Elder Lacks Empathy and…

JWs in the News – Swindler Elder Lacks Empathy and…

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Board denies parole for swindler
From the Associated Press / Billings Gazette, March 25 2006

The state Board of Pardons has denied parole to a former Jehovah’s Witness church elder who helped bilk an elderly woman out of a $7 million estate, including a family ranch. Dale A. Erickson, 56, of Missoula, was sentenced in 2003 to 25 years in prison with 10 suspended after pleading no contest to conspiracy, theft and securities fraud.

Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Attorney Chris Miller and Sheriff Scott Howard attended the hearing at the Cascade County regional jail, where Erickson is an inmate. After listening to the objections of Miller, Howard and members of the late Una Anderson’s family, the board rejected Erickson’s request, said Jeff Walter, senior administrative officer for the state Board of Pardons in Deer Lodge.

“Both Sheriff Howard and I were very pleased with the board’s decision to put Erickson over for three more years,” Miller said.

Miller said the parole board took into account Erickson’s refusal to accept responsibility for his actions or acknowledge that harm was done to Anderson, of Deer Lodge.

“The defendant and his family talked at length about what they had been through, but apparently were unconcerned about the impact of the crime on the victim,” Miller said. “I believe that his lack of empathy was a deciding factor.”

Erickson and co-defendant Darryl K. Willis, 66, of Helena, were ordered to pay $7.15 million in restitution, said Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Anez. Willis has paid $402.94, but Erickson has paid nothing, Anez said.

Prosecutors said Anderson, who died last year at 103, lost her life savings and a 6,400-acre family ranch near Jens in an elaborate befriend-and-betray scheme perpetrated by Erickson and Willis over a period of seven years. The men sold her ranch in 1999 for $4 million, less than its 1995 appraised value of $5.3 million. They didn’t tell her of the sale, paid themselves a commission and spent the money.

They used more than $2 million of her money to finance an effort to set up Montana’s first foreign capital depository, which would offer a place for the super-rich to stash their money similar to Swiss-style and offshore-type banks.

American Idiots

American Idiots

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It is an extraordinary time.

  • We borrow money from other countries so that rich people don’t have to pay taxes.
  • We borrow money from other countries and let private corporations steal it.

And somehow, the American people seem to be all right with that.

Speak up for our Biogems

Speak up for our Biogems

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I’ve been a "Biogems Defender" at the Natural Resources Defense Council for some time. I encourage you to join. You will get notices of pending environmental issues, complete with easy "speak up" tools. This environment is the only one we’ve got, and we’re losing ground fast.
BioGemses_laguna.jpg Their online news page is kept updated.

Here is the most recent alert in my inbox:

The Bush administration wants to escalate logging, oil exploration and grazing in our last unspoiled western wildlands by cutting the public out of the review process. We need your immediate action to help block this reckless proposal, which would have devastating impacts for the fragile Redrock Wilderness and other outstanding BioGem wildlands across the West.

Tell the Bureau of Land Management to abide by the law and let concerned citizens participate in the debate over the future of these natural treasures. And please send your message immediately. The BLM is taking comments only until this Friday!

Unbridled grazing and logging in this region and throughout our Yellowstone/Greater Rockies BioGem would take a disastrous toll, laying waste to streams and native forests. By silencing the public’s voice, the BLM would clear the way for 60,000- pound "thumper trucks" in search of oil and gas to crash through the Redrock desert, marring its delicate soils and destroying crucial habitat for pronghorns and bighorn sheep.

Please demand that the Bureau of Land Management cease this unlawful attack on our right to speak out for our nation’s most spectacular wildlands and wildlife. At the same time, urge the agency to extend the comment period for this important issue by another 30 days.
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