Last week in Minneapolis the RNC-8 showed the world what Resistance looks like...simply by showing up. The Prosecution did the rest, choking on its own informant and generally looking world-class foolish. Judge Warner rejected the defense's motion to call FBI informant Andrew Darst, and with that the oral arguments of the probable cause hearing ended. Both sides will submit further written arguments and the judge will take the issues under advisement after July 14th, determining whether there is probable cause to charge the defendants at all. If she determines that there is not enough evidence to determine probable cause, the charges will be thrown out.
The hearing then turned to whether the 8 had standing to contest the evidence collected during the raids on the convergence space and several houses prior to the RNC. www.rnc8.orgCloser to home... the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission rejected Portland General Electric's plan to close its coal-fired power plant in Boardman by 2020. In the spirit of the dirty energy industry at its high-flying best, PGE said its plan was an attempt to balance the environmental impact of the plant with its economic benefits for ratepayers. In other words, PGE wants to pull as much revenue out of Boardman without retro-fitting the plant with expensive scrubbers before shutting the facility down.
And this from the Department of American Heros Who Hear Voices: Gary Brooks Faulkner is an American construction worker who claims God came to him in a dream and told him to sell his tools and go to Afghanistan’s remote Nuristan region to kill Osama bin Laden. Okay so far. Faulkner is currently detained by Pakistani security forces. But yesterday U.S. Embassy officials were able to meet with him. He was detained in a forest in northern Pakistan, where officials say he was found carrying several weapons, including a pistol and a sword, and night-vision equipment.
- KBOO