Ship of Zion: another solution being snuffed

The thing that makes this moment in history so breathtakingly
nightmarish is that we are watching the approach of suffering but continue to
make the automatic responses which brought on the situation.   A
transportation project which gets the increasing number of people who can't
afford a vehicle or even public transit to get to work is being dropped on
grounds that we can't afford it.
WE CAN'T AFFORD IT?   We can't afford NOT to help workers get to work,
or for that matter others who can't afford to get to other business
transactions, such as going to the store or doctor.   If the
decisionmakers want to improve the business climate and improve transportation
efficiency while slowing down climate change, they can make public
transportation free and start sharing their own vehicles.
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From Richard LeGrande legrande@shipofzion.org
"...Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC) funding for the SHIP OF ZION may
not be renewed by the Pennsylvania State Legislature before June 30,
when current funding runs out.

If funding is not renewed by June 30, we will be forced to SUSPEND
SERVICE

We hope the Legislature will act before June 30. We have told them how
important this service is to our customers.

If they do not act before June 30, but renew the funding later, we will
bring back the missing service to the greatest possible extent..."
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PA Senate:

Jim Ferlo
ferlo@pasenate.com
3519 Butler St.
Pittsburgh, PA
15201
412/621-3006

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PA House:

Jake Wheatley
jwheatley@pahouse.net
2015-2017 Centre Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
412/471-7760
fax - 412/471-8056

Dan Frankel
dfrankel@pahouse.net
4225 Murray Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15217
412/422-1774
fax - 412/420-2011
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Allegheny County Chief Executive:

Dan Onorato
executive@county.allegheny.pa.us
101 County Court House
436 Grant St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
412/350-6500

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Jim McCue
composter and biotech researcher
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http://participate.net/oilchange
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Here is some information that I received about a
proposed waste coal treatment plant in Clairton.
There is a meeting on July 5 related to it.  That is
also the night of our July Planning/Housing Committee
meeting.

Fran

> MEETING NOTICE: Coal-to-Liquid Plant in Clairton
>
> To Sierra Club members resident in SE Allegheny
> County:
>
> > The demand to reduce imports of foreign oil is
> spawning a number of plants to
> > produce diesel fuel from coal. Such a plant is
> proposed for Clairton, but
> > mainly using coal wastes from a dump in Jefferson
> Hills.
> > There are a number of issues associated with this
> proposal:  Truck traffic,
> > air pollution at the plant, water pollution,
> energy consumption and Green
> > House Gas emissions. Etc.
> >
> > On June 11 Jefferson Borough Council approved a 10
> year lease to allow the
> > local Buena Vista Energy company to sift waste
> coal from a one-million to
> > waste dump in Jefferson Hills.  Local residents
> are urging the Council to
> > rescind their June 11 decision.
> >
> > If you are concerned about the impact of mining
> the waste coal dump and about
> > the sitting of the proposed plant in Clairton
> (across the street from the US
> > Steel plant), then you are urged to attend the
> following.
>
>
> Jefferson Hills Council Meeting
> July 5, 2007, 7:30 PM
> Jefferson Hills Municipal Building
> 925 Old Clairton Road, Jefferson Hills, PA 15025..
>
> For more information, contact
> .
======
Europe hit by heat and flood
6/27/7
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=186336&Sn=WORL&IssueID=30099
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Institute of Science in Society
http://i-sis.org.uk
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China demands US cancel planned missile sale to Taiwan
3/2/7
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/070302/1/471a2.html
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Excerpt from
The High and the Mighty:
JFK, MPM, LSD and the CIA
by G. J. Krupey
http://www.serendipity.li/cia/cia_lsd.html
http://www.serendipity.li/recent.html
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http://envirovaluation.org

Read between the lines.

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http://alfatomega.com/20070404.html
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2006 re-mix of 1970's Living Theatre play
Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism
http://www.videoweekly.net/SMOPSM_eng.wmv
======
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/10/123103.php
http://the-brig.blogspot.com/
http://videoweekly.blogspot.com/
======
From:
Federation of American Scientists

November 30, 2006 2:01 PM

Pentagon Exaggerates China’s Nuclear Capability to Justify Buying New Generation of U.S. Weapons, Report Finds Urgent Steps Needed to Defuse Potential for U.S.-China Nuclear Face-Off

http://fas.org/main/content.jsp?formAction=297&contentId=568
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http://www.fas.org/blog/ssp/2006/11/new_article_where_the_bombs_ar.php
...nearly 10,000 nuclear warheads still in the U.S. arsenal, 15 years after the end of the Cold War...
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National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
http://nswbc.org
======
Northwest Earth Institute
http://nwei.org
======
http://e-livingwater.org
http://pittsburghrefugeecenter.org/links.htm
http://conservationmedicine.org
http://pittsblog.blogspot.com
http://pittsburgh-transit.blogspot.com
http://justicearts.org
http://worldpeace.org
http://greenercomputing.com
http://freedom4um.com
======
Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee
http://www.pittsburgh-psc.org
======
Democracy for Pittsburgh
http://pghdfa.org
======
Mass. town using own currency to support local businesses
New age town in U.S. embraces dollar alternative
http://reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0530157720070619
======
West Nile virus has profound effect on birds
by Don Hopey 5/17/7
http://post-gazette.com/pg/07137/786721-113.stm
======
http://post-gazette.com/healthscience/environment.asp
======

Suddenly, the bees are simply vanishing Scientists are at a loss to pinpoint the cause. The die-off in 35 states has crippled beekeepers and threatened many crops. By Jia-Rui Chong and Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writers June 10, 2007

http://rantsfromtherookery.blogspot.com/2007/06/excellent-article-in-los-angeles-times_14.html======
http://latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-bees10jun10,0,1027860.story?page=1
======
http://freepeoplesmovement.org/fpm/page.php?6
======
http://www.worldrefugeeday.us
http://usaforunhcr.org/usaforunhcr/dynamic.cfm?ID=75
======

finding solutions in problems

Our attitude decides whether we get stuck on problems or flow with solutions. This city built by immigrants learned to function as a unit to manufacture weaponry for the Civil War and World Wars 1 and 2. It's a continuing lesson in which we find we can make money together but not apart. Being blessed with the challenge of diversity of peoples and plants and animals has yielded a relatively stable and comfortable place to live in a world in which Nature and human relations are not that often peaceful.

Pittsburgh is in my mind associated with water, fire, manufacturing, order, transportation, and creativity. We humans gathered here for the water - it's ability to both nurture and carry life. A town where two rivers flowed together to become one bigger one became a center of manufacturing, research, education, and innovation. Our learning to work together - with all our differences - yielded the power to service the world's demands, from food to raw materials to the latest technology. I've always thought of Pittsburgh as a "make it" town. People say if you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere. Well, I've lived in that great city and it seems to me that Pittsburgh is really where new positive changes get tested out. Ideas get put through the fire here, so to speak, and if something that's positive and good makes it here it'll fly in all the other great cities. Our disagreements, honestly shared in an atmosphere of trust, result in a stronger bond, just as the tremendous heating of iron allows the formation of steel.
There is a reason this city has been looked down on as a place to leave as soon as you got old enough or made enough money. And that reason has nothing to do with Pittsburgh being a bad place. It has more to do with Truman's "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Pittsburgh makes things and it's hard. We work hard, it gets hot, and it's dangerous. In fact, creation is always dangerous. Old ways of looking at things must yield to new. The industrial revolution WAS a revolution, and a lot of people got hurt. Enmeshed as we are in another even more dramatic revolution, we don't enough objectivity to even see were in it. But look all around you. If you choose to allow fear to take ahold of you, there's plenty to panic about. Climate change, biological warfare, transit cutbacks, gas and food price increases, a government no longer responsive to the people, continuing loss of jobs as corporations pursue efficiency at the expense of their labor pools, a budget deficit into the trillions as war profiteers build privatized armies, the list goes on and on.

But if you choose rather to hold precious the opportunities and time we have and do those things which are the most fearlessly loving - for those close to you but also for the future - then all the unexpected difficulties arising become added reasons for action.

Here's a list of local news items which represent dangers but also opportunities:

The Ship of Zion transportation project (http://shipofzion.org), which is only getting off the ground with free transportation to enable people to get to work and other necessities with rides to and from Homestead, Hazelwood, South Side, and the Hill (and planning to expand service to the North Side)(and which was created in part as a statewide economic development template to help those increasing unable to afford transportation) may lose funding within a month.

Robot City - developing robotics for mining, the space program, pollution treatment, medical environments, and military applications - is being established in Hazelwood at the the site of the old coke mill.

Our biotech industry, also developing in the Hazelwood section of Pittsburgh, is coming up with solutions where many have yet to recognize there are problems. But, just as with robotics and the transportation crisis, our responses will determine whether what develops is good or bad. We can grow appropriate biotech compnies such as CytoCulture (http://cytoculture.com) for pollution treatment, alternative energies, and food production in an increasingly unstable world.

Or, we can participate in the race to the bottom with ever more destructive "advances" in warfare - using both robotics and biotechnology - which will profit us in the short but destroy us in the long run.

Westinghouse on welfare

======
From:
China, nuclear technology, and a US sale
by Mark Clayton, Christian Science Monitor 5/30/7
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070530/ts_csm/areactors_1
China has its heart set on buying a cutting-edge US design for a nuclear-power reactor, and the Bush administration has said it is willing to sell because the transaction will mean jobs for Americans and pave the way for a "nuclear [power] renaissance in the US."
But critics of the mammoth $5 billion-plus sale are raising concerns that China might not use the advanced technology strictly for peaceful purposes...Westinghouse Electric Co. is expected within weeks to apply for up to $5 billion in loans from the US Export-Import Bank to finance the sale of the reactors to China...
If approved, the deal would be the largest by far in the history of the bank, a taxpayer-supported entity charged with creating and sustaining jobs by financing sales of US goods to international buyers...
Should US taxpayers be financing a multibillion-dollar loan to China...?
What do the taxpayers, who by some estimates contributed at least $300 million to Westinghouse Electric's advanced reactor design, get out of the deal...?...
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Nonproliferation Policy Education Center
http://npec-web.org
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http://justvision.org
http://encounterpoint.com/who/index.php
======
Middle East Peace Forum of Pittsburgh
http://mepfp.org
======
Strengthening Domestic Fair Trade
by Sarah Rich 5/28/7
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006773.html
http://equalexchange.com
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Community Partners Institute
http://communitypartner.org
http://denyscandy.com
http://findtherivers.org/index2.htm
http://findtherivers.org/communitypartners/communitypartners.htm
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http://silentspring.org
http://demilitarizepittsburgh.org
http://pittsburghvetstour.org
http://akamat.wordpress.com/2007/04/07/911-coincidences-in-3-parts
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From:
Conferees soften contracting language in wartime funding bill
by Peter Cohn 4/19/7
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0407/041907cdpm1.htm
"...We got 126,000 contractors over there, some of them making more than the secretary of Defense. How in the hell do you justify that?"
~John Murtha
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http://blackwaterbook.com
http://gothinkblog.com
======
International Council on Clean Transportation
http://theicct.org/links_live.cfm
======
Big rise in deaths from "superbug"
http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/31/nmrsa31.xml
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We're running on grace.

This is alarming:
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http://www.marssim.com/MARSSIM_Definitions.htm
...ALARA (acronym for As Low As Reasonably Achievable): A basic concept of radiation protection which specifies that exposure to ionizing radiation and releases of radioactive materials should be managed to reduce collective doses as far below regulatory limits as is reasonably achievable considering economic, technological, and societal factors, among others. Reducing exposure at a site to ALARA strikes a balance between what is possible through additional planning and management, remediation, and the use of additional resources to achieve a lower collective dose level. A determination of ALARA is a site-specific analysis that is open to interpretation, because it depends on approaches or circumstances that may differ between regulatory agencies. An ALARA recommendation should not be interpreted as a set limit or level...
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This is encouraging:
Fungus Eats Radiation for Breakfast
http://shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/6954541
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http://opendemocracy.net/other_content/web_resources.jsp
http://quixote.org
======
Oppose the Theft of Iraq's Oil
http://avaaz.org/en/iraq_oil_law
http://nologo.org
======
Baghdad Burns, Calgary Booms
by Naomi Klein 5/31/7
http://mostlywater.org/node/23484
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http://vday.org
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Afghan MP and Women's Rights Activist Suspended by Canadian Supported Warlord Government
Canadian Peace Alliance 5/23/7
Michael Lessard
http://www.malalaijoya.com/index1024.htm
http://www.cmaq.net/en/node/27439?PHPSESSID=c7f8931493665c1574f5e0b4303bc26f
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http://del.icio.us/mikelittle/democracy
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com
http://www.andycolvin.com/wordpress/index.php?cat=1
http://keelynet.com
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Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu
======
http://justacitizen.com/JustaCitizen-Related_Links.htm
http://www.uncagedfilms.com/links.php
http://ombwatch.org
http://storiesthatmatter.org
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The CIA and Saudi Arabia, the Bushes and the Bin Ladens. Did their connections cause America to turn a blind eye to terrorism?...
by Greg Palast 11/6/1
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/newsnight/1645527.stm
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http://peoplejudgebush.org/links.shtml
http://www.holisticpittsburgh.com/index.php
http://www.ginawriter.com/links.htm
http://coasttocoastam.com
http://pittsburghgardenstories.blogspot.com
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http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Lawn/lawn3.html
...The growth boost provided by the recycling of nitrogen from the decomposing grass clippings more than makes up for the carbon being released...in most of the United States, lawns just aren’t natural...
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