PETER BERGEL: The friendly voice you’re most likely to hear when you telephone OPW is that of our Office Manager, April Wynkoop. After almost two years with OPW, during which she made the office hum and handled all the details that make the difference between a smooth functioning organization and one that staggers along, April is leaving us.
Tom Hayden to Speak in Eugene March 5
TOM HAYDEN: The Lane Peace Center invites readers to this year’s peace symposium entitled “Confronting Militarism: Democracy vs. Empire.†The event will take place March 5 from 6-9 p.m. (doors open at 5:30 p.m.) in the Center for Meeting & Learning at Lane Community College.
Politicians Must Respond to Climate Tipping Points
TED GLICK: There’s a famous quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.†However, according to Wikipedia, it may be that this concept was first expressed by a U.S. labor leader, Nicholas Klein of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, in 1914.
Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life
NORMAN SOLOMON: When the U.S. military began a major offensive in southern Afghanistan over the Presidents’ Day weekend, the killing of children and other civilians was predictable. Lofty rhetoric aside, such deaths come with the territory of war and occupation.
USDA Establishes Strong Organic Standards for Pasture, Livestock
MARK KASTEL: After over 10 years of lobbying, family farmers across the country, who produce organic milk, are celebrating the release of strict new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations that establish distinct benchmarks requiring the grazing and pasturing of dairy cows and other livestock.
Nuclear Industry May Not Give Up on Yucca Mountain
STEVE TETREAULT: The nuclear industry’s trade group is signaling it might not go along with the Obama administration’s plan to withdraw from Yucca Mountain and make it difficult, if not impossible, to revive the proposed nuclear waste repository ever again.