First the latest on my guest, Chris Wahnhoff:...
then the headlines we were forced by time to chase through:
In Calhoun County, Michigan— Pretrial motions will be heard by Calhoun County on Monday for the pending trial of pipeline protestor Chris Wahmhoff. This man, who skateboarded into the expansion project of Enbridge Line 6B in June 2013, now faces potentially two years in prison. The case had been dismissed two times by Calhoun County Judge Kingsley, however the Michigan Supreme Court has overturned the dismissal and recently refused to read an appeal from Wahmhoff’s attorney. Now with trial pending, the protestor’s legal team will be bringing motions for expert witnesses on climate change as a part of their defense.
2, The Jordan Cove Terminal is still on the table and the grease is swiftly congealing...Thursday, October 16th 2014: The Coos County Board of Commissioners Public Hearing on MASSIVE ORDINANCE CHANGES
What we need is citizens looking at all the proposed changes to the Coos County Zoning and Land Development Ordinance and writing up their issues and bringing them before the Coos County Commissioners on Oct 16th.
The Commissioners have only allowed 30 minutes for a hearing on the first section of Ordinance code changes for AM-14-10. We need to come out in force and make them extend the hearing to a later date where we are given sufficient time to review and comment on all these changes
3, From the Ohlone Billboard Improvement Project courtesy of the indybay media outlet: "Ohlone Land, Huchin Lives Buried, Return the Ancestors, #decolonizethebay" wheat pasted over 45 foot, 4 story billboard over the 580. A demonstration of continued resistance against genocidal colonization.
In the spirit of resistance we give voice to the people of the land. Universities and colleges collecting remains like debt collectors. Alive is the soul of the land. Humming bird is the first mother of the people from the creation story. Basket designs weaving the strength of the past.
4, Marius Mason is an anarchist and an environmental and animal rights prisoner serving nearly 22 years in federal prison for acts of sabotage carried out in defense of the planet. No one was injured in any of these actions. After being threatened with a life sentence in 2009, he pleaded guilty to charges of arson at a Michigan State University lab researching Genetically Modified Organisms for Monsanto, and admitted to 12 other acts of property damage. The sentencing judge applied a so-called “terrorism enhancement” to his term which added almost two more years than the maximum requested by the prosecution. This is the harshest punishment of anyone convicted of environmental sabotage to date. Just last week in the New York Times, a columnist who was attempting to answer the talk-show rhetoric that has been going around (that white folks don’t get the reason for the riots in Ferguson) – stated that it was in fact a natural outcome of the economic inequalities and police brutality that many folks encountered, not just in Ferguson but all over the country. As part of this discussion, the columnist also noted the disproportionate numbers of people of color in prison, as well as the growing economic disparity between races.
Clearly we have much work to do as a society on the issue of race, but at least the problem is being discussed publicly and honestly. ABC has contributed to this debate with integrity.
5, Statewide - On a media call this morning Citizen Action of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Democracy Campaign called into question relationship between large campaign donations and the rejection of federal funds for BadgerCare. When Governor Walker rejected federal funds for BadgerCare, an estimated 87,000 Wisconsin residents were forced to purchase private health insurance coverage from the health insurance marketplace. Tens of thousands fell into an entirely unnecessary coverage gap.
The new data shows that the insurance industry was the biggest beneficiary of the decision to reject the funds for BadgerCare, and have donated massively to the campaigns of Governor Walker and Legislators who pushed the policy through.
6, There is a 2,500 square mile methane hot spot — located near the Four Corners border of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah — is spewing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that is 20 times more effective at causing global warming than carbon dioxide. The methane is likely not from fracking, NASA said, since the data analyzed is from 2003 to 2008, before the fracking boom. Instead, the scientists hypothesize that the leaks are coming from coalbed methane extraction, a process of getting natural gas from underground coal beds.
7, A fiery CN train derailment in rural Saskatchewan has many people asking what could have happened if the accident occurred in a more populated area.
The 100-car freight train derailed Tuesday about 190 kilometres east of Saskatoon. Twenty-six cars left the track, including six carrying dangerous goods. Two cars containing petroleum distillate caught fire, sending 30-metre flames into the air. Several explosions were also confirmed.
- KBOO