Local newswire

by Charles Hallman
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 11/4/2009

Lax legislation leaves homeowners, renters ill equipped to fight banks

(from the open publishing newswire)

Dear Diary,

My, how this month has flown by! I have been so busy bringing the queer insurrection; I’ve hardly had time to write everything down. Where to begin…

When the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) held its annual Gala Dinner and Silent Auction Saturday, Sept, 12th, autonomous queerz Bash Back: Twin Cities, The Revolting Queers, and the Twin Cities Avengers were there to welcome them even though we had not been invited and had no intention of paying the $200 entrance fee.

The Minnesota Peace Team is proud to report that we successfully kept the streets, cops, and private property safe on the night of Halloween. We made sure no one was out exercising their rights that night!

Early in the day, we heard reports of people planning to be out in public wearing masks to cover their faces and costumes of a perverse nature to help disguise their identities. Extensive research revealed that people mask up on this day every year.

No one, progressive or conservative, would vote for or in any way support Private Insurance Control of the country's health proram if they knew just a bit more about the private insurance industry.

 Who's in charge here? Not we, the people.

FOURTEEN Reasons to Reject Corporate Options for Health Care

 1)  Private insurers are businesses that must grow.  Their inclusion in any national program guarantees endless cuts in service, and endless hikes in costs to the public. 

Paramilitary repression and police brutality continue unabated on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border three years after the assassinations of Lorenzo Sampablo Cervantes in Oaxaca, Mexico and Fong Lee in Minneapolis, MN

By Steven Renderos & Sylvia González, November 1, 2009

Two different people – different stories, different places, – separated by nearly 2,000 miles, were connected three years ago when their lives were cut short by gunfire. Fong Lee and Lorenzo Sampablo Cervantes suffered a death inflicted by the gunshots of police and paramilitary officials. For Cervantes, it was one gunshot wound to the chest; for Lee, three gunshot wounds in his back, and five more to the front. Cervantes died seeking justice during the popular movement in 2006 in Oaxaca, Mexico, while Fong Lee died as a result of deeply rooted racism and police brutality in communities of color across the United States.

Hennepin County is planning on terminating their contract with the Sexual Violence Center effective December 31st. This represents a loss of $45,000 for the agency for 2010. Their services include prevention, intervention, 24-hour crisis line, 24-hour emergency room advocacy and support, community education, one-on-one counseling, support groups for children at St. Josephs Home for Children and for adults on site at SVC, and systems change. SVC is the only rape crisis center in Minneapolis that provides emergency room advocacy and support from a trained sexual assault advocate.

Please help get a Twin Cities artist and activist out of jail!

Our friend, Raymond Merchant, aka AC, father of two, Hip Hop artist, and
community organizer in Minneapolis was recently wrongly arrested in
relation to a robbery in South Minneapolis to which he was no party.
Missing for several days, friends became worried when Raymond failed to
arrive to a show he was scheduled to perform at. After contacting his
family, it was confirmed he had been abducted by police just blocks from
his home while out for a walk.

The last remaining partners in the construction of the Big Stone II coal-fired power plant announced yesterday that they would not continue the project. They proposed a 500 to 600 megawatt expansion of an existing coal burning power plant located near Milbank, South Dakota. The expansion would have been built on the shores of Big Stone Lake, headwaters to the Minnesota River, near the Minnesota border.

“We are excited to see that the economic realities have finally been acknowledged,” said Darrell Gerber, Clean Water Action Program Coordinator. “Not only was this project bad for public health, the Minnesota River and the environment it would have been bad for the pocketbook of many rural communities.”

Partners in the $1.6 billion project were left scrambling to find investors after the project lead, Otter Tail Power, withdrew in September. This was preceded by the withdrawal of Great River Energy last year. The remaining partners, Montana-Dakota Utilities, Company Central Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, Heartland Consumers Power District and Missouri River Energy Services, announced yesterday the closure of the project.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued the first test orders for pesticide chemicals to be screened for their potential effects on the endocrine system. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interact with and disrupt the hormones produced or secreted by human and animal endocrine systems, which regulate growth, metabolism and reproduction.

These changes are in response to a growing grassroots movement to oppose toxic pesticides and raise the alarm about the health risks of endocrine disruptors, found in pesticides and other consumer products.