NEWS......NEWS......NEWS......NEWS......NEWS......NEWS....NEWS...
ARCHIVE FOR NOVEMBER 1998
:NOV:28:1998.....REMEMBER TO RECYCLE THAT XMAS TREE THIS YEAR
Rather than bin your xmas tree this year after its done its job why not recycle it.North Lanarkshire
Council are again running this and will turn the trees into wood chippings for walkways and childrens
play areas.Phone 01236 302043 or 01698 302010.
:NOV:24:1998...... SCOTLAND GETS A MONOPOLY
Scotland is to get its own version of the world No 1 board game.The Scottish Monopoly will be out
in time for this christmas and has St Andrews square plus the forth road bridge as well.
:NOV:23:1998......VOTE ANY WAY YOU CAN
The new Hi Tech Scottish Parliament will give people the chance to vote on issues as they work and
shop.With voting places in the town centers ,libraries as well as pubs, schools and phone boxes.
:NOV:21:1998....42 HOUR PARTY FOR THE MILLENNIUM
The Scottish Office have cleared the way for pubs and clubs to stay open for up to 42 hours next
year at the millennium celebrations.With many work saying that they will stay closed from the
Christmas holidays to the 3rd or 4th it looks like they may even have to extend they hours.
:NOV:20:1998......60 Minutes," the *Globe,* and the Joseph Yandle Case
A few years ago, the TV program "60 Minutes" and the newspaper the *Boston
Globe* campaigned for the release of a convicted murderer from prison. The
murderer in question, Joseph Yandle, did indeed get released, thanks to the
efforts of the *Globe,* "60 Minutes," and a Vietnam veterans' organization.
This year, Joseph Yandle was put back in prison when it was discovered that
he had lied about his background. With echoes this case still resounding, it
would be useful to take a look at the role played by the media-the *Globe*
and "60 Minutes"-in the affair of Joseph Yandle.
In late August of 1998, the public learned that convicted murderer Joseph
Yandle, whose life sentence had been commuted in 1995, had been re-arrested,
and might have his commutation revoked, because he had lied to the
government. Specifically, he had forged genuine-looking documents which made
it look like he was a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War,
although he had actually never served in Vietnam-he'd been stationed in
Japan during that period.
The background to Yandle's release in 1995, and his re-imprisonment in 1998,
is as follows: Yandle had taken part in a Massachusetts liquor-store robbery
in 1972. His accomplice, Edward Fielding, had killed the store's clerk,
Joseph Reppucci, husband and father of two teenage boys.
Fielding and Yandle were tried and convicted of first-degree murder.
Yandle's conviction was based on the doctrine of felony murder, the concept
that someone who takes part in a serious felony is responsible for any
deaths that happen during the felony, just as surely as if he'd pulled the
trigger himself.
In 1991, the *Boston Globe* ran an article on Yandle ("Release bid raises
issue of justice," by Ross Gelbspan, *Globe,* March 3, 1991, pp. A29, A32).
Although there were unfavorable quotes about Yandle from the attorney for
the Reppucci family, the article was, overall, quite favorable to Yandle.
The article claimed that while in prison, Yandle had turned his life around
and done numerous good works; Yandle had founded a useful organization
called American Veterans in Prison; helped run a "Toys for Tots" program in
prison; started a program to help mentally-retarded children; given speeches
to young people on the importance of staying on the straight and narrow
path; and worked at a school for retarded children. Yandle attorney Joseph
Shea (who later stopped representing Yandle, allegedly because of Yandle's
lies about Vietnam), was quoted as saying that Yandle deserved another
chance. The *Globe* weighed in with a March 15, 1991 editorial ("A case for
rehabilitation") which urged that Yandle get "a second chance." This would
involve a recommendation of release by the Board of Pardons
(which in Massachusetts is just the Parole Board in another incarnation),
and a decision by the Governor and the Governor's Council (an elected body)
to grant a commutation of sentence.
The Board of Pardons recommended commutation in 1992 (by this time, the
Board had Yandle's fake documents in its files). Governor William Weld sat
on the recommendation for a couple of years. Then, in 1994, the CBS program
"60 Minutes" broadcast a report about the Yandle case ("The Getaway
Drivers," first broadcast on February 6, 1994, produced by Josh Howard,
reprinted in transcript of Feb. 6 broadcast of "60 Minutes," transcript by
Burrelle's
Information Services, pp. 7-13). The broadcast said that Yandle was a former
heroin addict. Interviewed on camera, Yandle said "I got involved with the
heroin as a way of deadening what was going on around me. It was the most
frightening experience of my life." "You mean Vietnam," chimed in
interviewer Mike Wallace. "Vietnam. Yeah." said Yandle. "And I really didn't
know how to cope with it. I didn't know how to deal with it. I started
snorting heroin. After four or five months, I started shooting it. I started
mainlining, and I just got completely addicted to it."
The report gave Yandle's account of the crime, and then claimed that, after
a few years in prison, he had cleaned himself up and shaken his drug habit.
Then, claimed the broadcast, Yandle turned over a new leaf and performed
good works in prison. *Boston Globe* reporter Kevin Cullen was interviewed
for the program, and Cullen called Yandle "the poster boy" whose continued
incarceration would not serve society's interests.
The broadcast implied that Governor William Weld was testicularly-challenged
for not releasing Yandle. Most important, the "60 Minutes" broadcast said,
Yandle's sentence-life in prison without possibility of parole-was grossly
disproportionate to the lenient sentence received by Katherine Power,
another Massachusetts prisoner who had taken part in a 1970 bank robbery in
which a policeman was killed. Power voluntarily turned herself in 1993.
Power had allegedly been motivated in her crime by opposition to the Vietnam
War; Yandle, by contrast, was said by Wallace to have received "a Bronze
Star for valor, two Purple hearts and...a heroin habit" while serving in
Vietnam.
James O'Brien, a member of the Governor's Council, saw the "60 Minutes"
broadcast and called for Yandle's release ("'60 Minutes' piece prompts
appeals to free Mass. Inmate," by Kevin Cullen, *Globe,* February 10, 1994).
O'Brien was so moved by Yandle's plight-and by Yandle himself-that he became
one of Yandle's attorneys after leaving the Governor's Council.
O'Brien then worked to persuade his former colleagues on the Council that
commutation of Yandle's sentence was the right thing to do ("For a reformed
killer, word is go," by Kevin Cullen, *Globe,* June 15, 1995, pp. B31, B45).
The organization Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), which lobbies on behalf
of what it considers to be the interests of Vietnam veterans, called on its
membership to get Governor Weld to endorse commutation.
Yandle spent three years in freedom-1995 to 1998-before it was discovered
that he had faked his Vietnam record. It wasn't the media, but a man named
B. G. Burkett, who checked the records and discovered that Yandle hadn't
been to Vietnam and hadn't been in combat. Burkett, a Vietnam veteran, has
just come out with a book arguing that Vietnam veterans are at least as
successful and stable as non-veterans, contrary to the media image of
Vietnam vets as disproportionately suffering from social pathologies like
drug addiction. Burkett has exposed numerous bogus Vietnam vets, including
Yandle, simply by filing FOIA requests for the military
records of such "veterans" ("Fake war record helped free convict," by Walter
V. Robinson, *Globe,* August 26, 1998, pp. A1, A16. See also Burkett, B. G.
and Glenna Whitley. *Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of
Its Heroes and Its History.* Dallas: Verity Press, 1998. Joseph Yandle is
discussed on pp. 553-558).
When Yandle's fakery was exposed in August 1998, the predictable
recriminations and defensiveness ensued. Yandle's wife said that he had
wanted to confess to his fabrications, but that his lawyer had urged him not
to ("Lives torn over lie," by Kristin Bloomer, *Globe,* August 28, 1998, pp.
B1, B6). Former Governor Weld (who has resigned the Governorship to take a
job as American Ambassador in Mexico) and acting Massachusetts Governor Paul
Celluci-- who had supported Yandle's commutation and who was now running for
Governor-- made statements which tried to put the best spin on the debacle
("Weld says Yandle commutation a joint decision," by Scot Lehigh, *Globe,*
September 2, 1998). On the locking-the-stable-door front, acting Governor
Celluci directed the Parole Board to reform its procedures so that in the
future it would verify a prisoner's claims of military service ("Parole
board ordered to tighten procedures," by Scot Lehigh, *Globe,* September 3,
1998).
THE GLOBE'S EXPLOITATION OF THE VETERAN ANGLE
*Globe* reporter Kevin Cullen wrote several pieces about Yandle. While
Cullen claims that "the focus of most of his reporting was not on Yandle's
Vietnam service, but on whether the fact that he was the getaway driver and
had rehabilitated himself merited consideration for commutation" ("Fake war
record helped free convict," by Walter V. Robinson, *Globe,* August 26,
1998, pp. A1, A16. Kevin Cullen has not yet responded to my request that he
give his version of events). Actually, Cullen exploited the Vietnam angle
more than he later implied.
Admittedly, Cullen wrote several articles covering the Yandle matter without
focusing much on the Vietnam issue. Also, when he appeared as a guest on the
"60 Minutes" broadcast, Cullen did not mention the Vietnam issue. But Cullen
did emphasize the Vietnam issue in some of his other
writing. In an article in 1994, written shortly after the "60 Minutes"
broadcast, Cullen said that "[t]he '60 Minutes' piece focuses on the
discrepancy in sentences given to Yandle, a decorated Vietnam veteran, and
Katherine Ann Power, the antiwar radical who was the getaway driver in a
1970 bank robbery," etc. Thus, in summarizing the program on which he was
himself a guest, Cullen focused on the veteran angle ("'60 Minutes' piece
prompts appeals to free Mass. inmate," by Kevin Cullen, *Globe,* February
10, 1994).
Cullen also wrote an article which appeared on May 30, 1994 ("Vets hope
politics can open lifer's cell door," *Globe,* pp. B13, B14). The article
opens as follows: "As Memorial Day and the 50th anniversary of D-Day
converge, veterans are on the front burner, something not lost on the
supporters of Joseph Yandle, a Vietnam veteran who has served 22 years in
prison" etc. The article continues in this not-very-subtle vein, pushing the
Vietnam-veteran angle for all it's worth. The article discusses the efforts
of the organization Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) to get Yandle
released. Yandle's lawyer is also quoted as saying that it would be "a
political benefit" for Governor Weld to release Yandle. The article also
includes material about Yandle's status as a "model inmate," but the focus
is clearly on the veteran issue (Kevin Cullen did not reply to my request to
give his version of events).
INFORMATION FROM THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT
Some problems in the news coverage of Yandle's case could have been
corrected if the media had simply looked up the report of the case in the
lawbooks. Yandle had been convicted in 1972, and Massachusetts' highest
court, the Supreme Judicial Court, had upheld the conviction in 1976. The
Court's decision (in *Commonwealth v. Fielding* and *Commonwealth v.
Yandle,* 371 Mass. 97) contains information which the public never learned
from the media; information which, had the media provided it, would have
cast some doubt on Yandle's credibility and perhaps led the public to be
more skeptical of his story.
An important piece of information not reported in the press has to do with
Yandle's confession. After the robbery in 1972, when Yandle learned that the
police wanted to speak with him, he drove to the police station (in the very
car which he had used in the robbery) and was arrested (see Commonwealth v.
Fielding, 371 Mass. 97, 107). He then confessed to the robbery (his
accomplice Fielding had already made a similar confession).
Yandle was brought to trial and tried to squirm out of his confession. He
said that he had been under such heavy heroin withdrawal symptoms during his
confession that his statements were not voluntary. In fact, maintained
Yandle, the withdrawal symptoms were so bad that he just confessed to
anything the police asked him to. Therefore, Yandle wanted his confession
excluded from evidence. The trial judge disbelieved Yandle's story and
declared his confession voluntary and admissible. The Supreme Judicial
Court, upholding Yandle's conviction, accepted the voluntariness of Yandle's
confession. The state high court said that believing Yandle's story
required "belief in improbabilities." In other words, Yandle had lied.
During the "60 Minutes" broadcast, there was a good deal of footage of
Yandle, who told his story to a sympathetic Wallace. At no point was the
viewer informed that Yandle was a court-certified liar who had previously
fabricated a story in a vain attempt to prevent the jury from seeing his
confession. Of course, it was the contention of the "60 Minutes" broadcast
that Yandle had reformed since 1972, so maybe the fact that he lied to the
court in 1972 was considered irrelevant. But since some of the evidence of
Yandle's reformation came in the form of on-camera statements from Yandle
himself, it would have been helpful for the viewers to know about Yandle's
history of being economical with the truth. Even more significantly: Yandle
told Mike Wallace and the nation that he (Yandle) had picked up his heroin
addiction in Vietnam. Viewers might have been more skeptical of this claim
if "60 Minutes" had deigned to
mention that Yandle had previously lied about his heroin addiction-by
exaggerating his withdrawal symptoms to the court in 1972. If viewers had
known that Yandle had lied about the heroin issue in 1972, maybe they would
have been more skeptical about Yandle's heroin story in 1994. Both Yandle's
1972 lie and his 1994 lie have this in common: both lies invoked heroin as
a reason for the system to give him lenient treatment. The difference is
that the system didn't buy his heroin story in 1972, but it bought his
equally fabricated heroin story in 1994 (I have written to Joseph Yandle's
prison address, asking him to share his version of events, or at least to
have his lawyer do so, but I have not received a reply to my request).
Just as "60 Minutes" overlooked information in the court record of Yandle's
case, the *Globe* overlooked that information as well. The only reference I
could find in the *Globe* to the Supreme Judicial Court's opinion gave false
information about that opinion. "Even the state Supreme Judicial Court, in a
1976 review of Yandle's conviction, took unquestioning note of
Yandle's claim to Vietnam service," said the *Globe* ("Fake war record
helped free convict," by Walter V. Robinson, August 26, 1998, p. A1, A16).
But I can find no reference to Yandle's supposed Vietnam service in the
Supreme Judicial Court's opinion. The closest mention was a footnote in
which the court said that "Yandle, aged twenty-three, had served with the
Marines" (371 Mass. 97, 112). But there was nothing about "Vietnam service."
THE FURLOUGH ISSUE
The "60 Minutes" piece made an interesting argument in favor of Yandle's
release. According to this argument, Yandle had been frequently allowed out
of prison after his conviction, and because of this, he should now be let
out of prison permanently.
As the whole world probably knows, Massachusetts used to have a furlough
program under which certain prisoners were allowed out of prison for brief
periods. Yandle was given twenty such furloughs through 1987. The furloughs
gave him the chance to spend time with his family; in fact, during one of
his furloughs, his wife conceived a child by him.
One would think, then, that "60 Minutes" would cite Yandle's furloughs as
evidence of the state's leniency toward him-evidence that maybe Yandle had
already had enough leniency from the state, if not too much leniency.
Instead, the furloughs were used as an additional argument in favor of
releasing Yandle outright. Mike Wallace, in the "60 Minutes" broadcast,
commented as follows: "Yandle has completed 20 furloughs without any
incident, and he'd been held in a minimum-security facility before the
Willie Horton episode. Now there are no more furloughs in Massachusetts, and
lifers are no longer allowed in minimum-security facilities, and politicians
are loath to do anything that makes them appear to be soft on crime." So the
fact that Yandle didn't commit crimes or otherwise misbehave while on
furlough is used as evidence of what a nice guy Yandle is. But Yandle had an
incentive not to misbehave while on furlough: If he had messed up, his
furlough privileges would have been terminated as a punishment. Of course
he'd be on his best behavior during his furloughs!
The best reply to the furlough argument was made by Thomas F. Reilly, the
District Attorney from the district where the crime occurred, who
unsuccessfully spoke against commuting Yandle's sentence in 1995: "The
Reppucci family thinks it's outrageous, and I think it's outrageous, that a
convicted murderer can be allowed to father children while on furlough,
then use it as a mitigating factor to win his release. Mr. Yandle wants what
he denied the Reppuccis- a family life" ("DA to argue against Yandle's
commutation," by Kevin Culllen, *Globe,* June 7, 1995, pp. B29, B32).
COMPARISON TO THE KATHERINE POWER CASE
One of the more powerful images in the media coverage in the Yandle
case-especially in the "60 Minutes" broadcast-was the comparison of his
sentence with the more lenient sentence handed out to Katherine Ann Power.
Power had helped rob a bank in 1970-purportedly to raise money to help
oppose the Vietnam war. One of Power's associates killed a policeman during
the bank robbery. Power then spent 23 years on the lam, much of it in Oregon
under a false identity. For whatever reason, Power got tired of her life in
hiding, so she got a lawyer, negotiated with authorities, surrendered, and,
in exchange for surrendering, got a light prison sentence. The title of the
"60 Minutes" report, "The Getaway Drivers," reflects the theme of the
broadcast: Yandle the Vietnam veteran got life without parole, while, for
the same kind of crime, Power the anti-Vietnam protester got a light sentence.
But the media made two errors in comparing the Yandle and Power cases.
First, the media exaggerated the discrepancy between the sentences offered
by the government in each case. Second, and most important, the media failed
to emphasize the legitimate reasons behind the discrepancy in sentences.
On the surface, the discrepancy in sentences looks bad. The crimes of Yandle
and Power were pretty much identical. Both Yandle and Power had provided the
car that was used in a robbery. Both Yandle and Power had a confederate who
killed someone. Both Yandle and Power drove
their accomplice(s) away from the scene of the crime. Yet Power got a much
lighter sentence than Yandle (my information about Power furnishing the
rental car which was used in the bank holdup is based on my September 30,
1998 interview with Walter Shea, who helped arrange the plea-bargain in the
Power case when he worked in the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.
I have written to Katherine Power's prison address, asking for her version
of events, but I have not yet received a reply).
The media failed to emphasize that Yandle's severe sentence-life without
parole-was partly the fault of Yandle himself. Yandle refused to plead
guilty to second-degree murder and testify against his confederate Fielding.
Had he done so (and if the prosecution had accepted the plea,
which seems likely in view of the value which Yandle's testimony would have
had in the Fielding trial) Yandle could well have been paroled after about
fifteen years. Yandle refused to consider a plea, tried to create doubts
about his guilt, got convicted, and he got a life sentence without parole
(which is the punishment for felony murder in Massachusetts).
But the *Globe,* when it mentioned Yandle's rejection of a plea, did so only
in order to make Yandle look like a victim. The public defender, according
to the *Globe,* urged Yandle to cop a plea to second-degree murder, but
Yandle refused, and chose to fire his public defender and
retain the same lawyer who represented Fielding. Yandle "complicated his own
case" by doing this, according to the *Globe's* paraphrase of unnamed
"supporters" of Yandle ("Inmate's bid raises issue of justice," by Ross
Gelbspan, *Globe,* March 3, 1991, pp. 29, 32). Not only did Yandle
complicate his case; he lost his last chance to help the public (and the
Reppucci family) by testifying against Fielding. With Fielding
convicted-without Yandle's help-it's too late for Yandle to try and get the
benefit of the favorable plea-bargain which he turned down. And the media
should have pointed out that Yandle bore partial responsibility for the
sentence he received.
With regard to the Power case, the *Globe* seems to have understated the
sentence that Power received. For pleading guilty to manslaughter and armed
robbery in the cop-killing case, Power's sentence was 8 to 12 years in
prison (the robbery of a federal armory got her another 5 years, to be
served concurrently with the state sentence). Power also got 20 years of
probation, during which she was forbidden to profit from her crime
("Ex-Fugitive in 1970 Slaying Gets Prison Term and Scorn," by Sara Rimer,
*New York Times,* October 3, 1993, pp. A1, B15, "Ex-Fugitive Gets 5 Years in
'70 Armory Theft," *New York Times,* November 25, 1993).
*Globe* reporter Kevin Cullen stated unequivocally in two articles that
Power would "spend less than five years in prison" (the identical phrasing
appears in "Vets hope politics can open lifer's cell door," by Kevin Cullen,
*Globe,* May 30, 1994, pp. B13, B14; and in "Release is backed," by Kevin
Cullen, *Globe,* May 4, 1995, pp. A1, A27). In each case, Cullen was
discussing the comparison between Yandle's sentence with Power's sentence.
Cullen didn't mention that Power's release was contingent on the action of
the Parole Board; he simply stated that Power would be out of prison in
under five years.
As it turns out, Cullen's prophecy that Power would be out in less than five
years has not come true. Power-thanks to earning good-time credits-did
indeed become eligible for parole earlier this year, and the Parole Board
held a hearing on her case. If she had gotten parole, Power would have been
entitled to release on May 7, 1998, less than five years after being
sentenced in late 1993. But in a surprise development, Power withdrew her
request for parole. She claimed that she had been moved by the relatives of
her victim, who opposed her early release. Other reasons may have been
involved: Power had previously thought about waiving a parole hearing
because she feared "that my request [for parole] would not be considered
seriously" ("Katherine Power drops parole request," by Tom Bates,
*Oregonian,* March 6, 1998). Power will be entitled to another parole
hearing in 1999, by which time she will have served more than five years in
prison, thus contradicting Cullen's prophecy (see "Katherine Ann Power halts
bid for parole," by Peter S. Cannellos, *Globe,* March 4, 1998). In other
words, although Power's sentence is certainly lenient, the *Globe*
exaggerated this leniency with its inaccurate prediction that Power would be
back on the streets in less than five years.
The fact remains that there are sentencing discrepancies between the Yandle
and Power cases. But the sentencing disparity has a reasonable explanation,
and that explanation doesn't benefit Yandle. Walter Shea, a prosecutor who
helped negotiate Powers' plea bargain, believes that Power "benefited
unfairly" from her fugitive status, as well as the staleness of the evidence
after twenty-three years (interview of September 30). The prosecutors
obviously thought that Katherine Power's willingness to surrender in return
for a light sentence was better than taking the risk of breaking off
negotiations and having Power escape again.
The "60 Minutes" piece acknowledged, in passing, the special circumstances
leading to Power's light sentence: Wallace noted briefly that Power only
turned herself in "after prosecutors had agreed to let her plead guilty to a
lesser charge." But this acknowledgment of reality did not stop "60 Minutes"
from playing on the sentencing discrepancy for all it was worth.
CONCLUSION
Walter Shea, the Suffolk County prosecutor who helped handle the Power case
(he's now a prosecutor in Massachusetts' Bristol County), had some general
remarks about the media's coverage of the criminal justice system (interview
of September 30, 1998). In Shea's view, the media "don't tend to cover
criminal cases well." Shea believes that there are important stories
to be found in the criminal justice system, stories which are neglected at
the expense of inaccurate and inflammatory reporting. If reporters spent
time covering the local court on a day-to-day basis, they would be able to
find out more about the day-to-day administration of justice, and would be
able to discover what needed to be improved.
I would think that Walter Shea's criticism is valid with respect to much,
although not all, of the media. There are certainly plenty of newspapers
with good reporters on the police beat, reporters who do in fact cover the
important criminal-justice in their communities. On the other extreme are
folks like Mike Wallace, who helicopter in to cover a particular criminal
case and, once they've settled on an angle, adopt a
don't-confuse-me-with-the facts attitude toward any evidence contradicting
their theories. Wallace types tend to have less-than-perfect knowledge of
the differing criminal justice systems in states throughout the country, and
this makes them vulnerable to special-interest lobbies (e.g., Vietnam
Veterans of America) who wish to put across their own spin on crime.
The "60 Minutes" piece was more consistent and explicit in its reliance on
the veteran angle; the *Globe* articles also used the veteran angle, but
focused more on the redeemed-prisoner angle. The combined pressure of the
"60 Minutes" piece, the *Globe* coverage and the VVA lobbying was enough to
induce the Governor and his Council to release Yandle in 1995. Now that
Yandle has been sent back to prison, let us not assume that everything is OK
again. Unless the media is more careful, and more attentive to details, it
could still use its great power to promote either undue harshness or undue
leniency in the criminal justice system.
Eric Longley is a freelance writer living in Durham, North Carolina, USA.
He can be reached at ericwl@mindspring.com
SENT by NEWSWATCH
NOV:15:1998 PL's TIMBER LICENSE REVOKED
H E A D W A T E R S . F O R E S T . U P D A T E
Weekly Update 11-11-98
1 -- Pacific Lumber's timber license revoked
2 -- 900 turn out for Oakland HCP Hearing
3 -- Ex-Maxxam VP Barry Munitz on the move
4 -- Celebrate Julia's one-year anniversary in Luna
See the adjoining ACTION ALERT for what YOU CAN DO.
------------------------------------------------------------
1
PACIFIC LUMBER'S TIMBER LICENSE REVOKED
The California Department of Forestry (CDF) suspended Pacific Lumber's
timber operator's permit Tuesday, November 10, based on the astonishing
number of violations of the state Forest Practice Rules the company has
racked up in the past three years.
Pacific Lumber had been operating with a conditional license since the
revocation of the company's permanent license at the end of 1997. The
company was notified of the suspension Tuesday morning, giving them 24
hours to halt logging. About half of PL's logging is done by independent
contractors, who will reportedly be able to continue operations.
Pacific Lumber has five days to appeal the CDF's decision.
The suspension comes on the heels of a long list of violations of the
Forest Practices Rules, including:
-- Racking up 16 violations of Forest Practice Rules since being issued a
conditional license in December 1997. The conditional license required no
that no new violations occur for 1998.
-- Willful violation of the terms of the conditional license by concealing
violations committed by Palco's subcontractors.
-- Destroying spotted owl nesting sites to build a landing.
-- Violating the Forest Practice Rules approximately 300 times since 1995.
-- Being issued Cleanup and Abatement orders by the Regional Water Quality
Control Board for destroying the domestic water sources of Elk River
residents.
-- Accumulating ten violations regarding the logging plan for the steep
hillside above the town of Stafford. A massive landslide originating in a
recent PL clearcut destroyed seven homes there in January of 1996.
-- Being cited with nine criminal misdemeanors since 1996 (including three
this year).
------------------------------------------------------------
2
900 TURN OUT FOR OAKLAND HCP HEARING
The Oakland HCP Hearing was a great success, with hundreds of people
showing up for the two sessions, held in the afternoon and evening on
November 5.
TV, radio, and three newspapers covered the pre-hearing press
conference. The rally was an inspiring piece of street theatre featuring a
beautiful walking seventeen-foot coho salmon covered in pick lace and a
huge Hurwitz doll clutching a salmon and a bag of cash with outstretched
arms. Dozens of people holding aloft cardboard murrelets, salmon, and
redwoods marched into the convention center to the door of the hearing.
Many thanks to the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters and Art+Revolution
Collective for spearheading the rally organizing.
------------------------------------------------------------
3
EX-UC CHANCELLOR AND MAXXAM VP BARRY MUNITZ
TO HEAD UP DAVIS TRANSITION TEAM
California Governor-Elect Gray Davis, after a campaign stressing his
commitment to environmental protection, has appointed former Maxxam
executive Barry Munitz to lead his administration's transition team.
During his stint with Charles Hurwitz and Co., Munitz also served as a
director of United Savings Association of Texas, the savings and loan that
is the subject of the federal government's current lawsuit against Hurwitz.
Specifically, Munitz was named in the civil suit brought by the Office of
Thrift Supervision filed in U.S. District Court in December of 1996
accusing Munitz, Hurwitz, and other executives of self-dealing and causing
the thrift's failure in 1988. In 1991, Munitz was named chancellor of the
California State University system, where students gave him the nickname
"Chainsaw Chancellor."
It is unclear how much actual impact this "figurehead" position will
have on the literally thousands of appointments (about 400
environment-related) the new governor will make. Davis is stressing Munitz'
background in academia and reputation as an educator. But the choice
certainly doesn't inspire confidence in Davis' proclaimed support for
forest protection.
------------------------------------------------------------
4
ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY RALLY TO CELEBRATE
JULIA BUTTERFLY'S OCCUPATION OF LUNA
from LunaMedia
On Thursday, December 10, Julia Butterfly Hill and supporters will
celebrate the one-year anniversary of her occupation of the ancient redwood
Luna.
Her message of love and respect for all life continues to reach the
world as forest defenders throughout Northern California struggle to
protect what is left of the redwood ecosystem from Maxxam and other
industrial timber companies.
You can join the effort by attending a day of celebration and renewal
two days later on December 12, 1998, at noon, in Stafford, California. Rain
or shine. A commitment to nonviolence is the only requirement.
The Luna Treesit will be accepting donations online throughout the
month of December on a new section of http://www.HeadwatersForest.org that
will debut in a couple weeks. Stay tuned to these Weekly Updates for info.
Directions to the 12/12 Rally:
240 miles north of San Francisco or 30 miles south of Arcata on State
Highway 101. Take the Stafford off-ramp. Look for the signs.
For more information please go to http://www.lunatree.org or call
415-337-4302 after November 16.
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T H E S E . U P D A T E S . are prepared by Headwaters Sanctuary Project
and distributed by Bay Area Action www.baaction.org.
http://www.HeadwatersForest.org | info: headwaters@enews.org
:NOV:15: HCP COMMENTS DUE MONDAY !
H E A D W A T E R S . F O R E S T . A C T I O N . A L E R T
Action Alert 11-11-98
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COMMENT ON THE HEADWATERS HCP -- ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT!
DEADLINE FOR WRITTEN COMMENT: Monday, November 16
The deadline for comments on the Pacific Lumber HCP/SYP is Monday, November
16. Let's flood them with letters! If you haven't already written, now is
the time to do it!
If you have written to Bruce Halstead of Fish and Wildlife, please CC a
copy to William Hogarth at the National Marine Fisheries Service (addresses
below.)
Please use the talking points below or refer to the detailed summary of
Pacific Lumber's proposed Habitat Conservation Plan at the website of the
Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC),
http://www.igc.org/epic/pages/pl_hcp.html.
Comment writing workshops in the Bay Area will be held on Wednesday at
7pm at Boalt Hall School of Law, in the 2nd floor library computer lab.
Berkeley Associated Students for Headwaters (BASH) will host.
PLEASE MAIL YOUR COMMENTS _BEFORE MONDAY_ TO:
Mr. Bruce Halstead
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
1125 16th St., Room 209
Arcata CA 95521
PLEASE FAX A COPY TO:
Mr. William Hogarth, Regional Administrator
National Marine Fisheries Service
501 West Ocean Blvd. #4200
Long Beach, CA 90802
fax: 562-980-4018
If you can, email a copy of your letter to susans@nextgeneration.org.
Thank you!
TALKING POINTS:
1. Wildlife agencies should rely on the best available science for species
protection. The government's own studies show that the provisions for the
endangered coho salmon in this HCP are seriously inadequate. The ManTech
report, commissioned by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 1996,
recommends minimum buffer zones of 170 feet for all types of streams. The
Forest Ecosystem Management (FEMAT) standard, already implemented on public
lands throughout the Pacific Northwest, incorporates 300, 150, and 100-foot
buffer zones for Class 1 (fish-bearing), Class 2 (non-fish-bearing), and
Class 3 (seasonal) streams respectively. Yet Pacific Lumber/Maxxam's draft
HCP contains buffers less than 10 percent the size of these
recommendations! The Fish and Wildlife Agency and the National Marine
Fisheries Service must stand up to Pacific Lumber and insist on sound
science for the final HCP.
2. This HCP deals a lethal blow to California's devastated fisheries. The
coho salmon, an ancient species that has evolved on the Pacific Coast over
thousands of years, will likely go extinct if the aquatic provisions of
this HCP are not dramatically improved.
3. Not so long ago the coho salmon was abundant in California's rivers and
streams. But with the onset of industrial logging over the past century
salmon populations have plummeted to 1 percent of their original numbers.
In fact, according to documentation by federal agencies, nearly every run
of California wild salmon is near extinction. The goal of the Endangered
Species Act and the goal of this process should be to save and restore
species like the coho salmon. Please take every necessary step toward that
goal.
4. The streamside buffer zones, critical in protecting riparian habitat,
have been drawn arbitrarily and have no relation to the government's own
proscriptions for salmon protection. The National Marine Fisheries Service
has completed studies ("Take Avoidance Guidelines") that proscribe minimum
buffer zones equal to the height of one "site-specific" tree, which in
Headwaters Forest is often 300 feet or more. Yet the buffer zones for
fish-bearing streams in the HCP are only 30 feet. After a two-year process
more about politics than species protection, wildlife agencies have a
chance to bring biology back into the plan. Please use your own science,
not Pacific Lumber's, in drafting the final HCP.
5. Strict oversight from federal agencies is absolutely critical. The
provisions of this HCP are completely meaningless unless they are enforced.
Pacific Lumber has violated forestry laws nearly 300 times in the past
three years. Yet the penalty imposed by the California Department of
Forestry is only $1,000 per violation. It is clear that this company will
not comply with any species protections unless they are strictly monitored
and enforced by federal agencies.
------------------------------------------------------------
T H E S E . U P D A T E S . are prepared by Headwaters Sanctuary Project
and distributed by Bay Area Action www.baaction.org.
http://www.HeadwatersForest.org | info: headwaters@enews.org
:NOV:13:1998...State of the Union
_
Every year, the President of the United States stands up before the
Congress, and gives a highly visible speech about his own successes, and
highlights "problems" that about which he hopes to pass legislation for the
rest of the year. Everyone applauds a lot, and takes the speech seriously.
I have come across a lot of information lately regarding the state of the
United States. It is not quite so rosy as the President would have us
believe. Well okay, it's pretty horrific: human rights abused, oppressive
racism, the revocation of key aspects of citizenship, and drastic economic
inequality.
PARDON ME, BUT YOUR BOOT IS ON MY NECK
Amnesty International has recently begun a campaign to reform human rights
in the United States, releasing a lengthy report of its research about the
U.S. One problem with the report is its lack of hard data or statistical
evidence, although this is understandable; corrupt government agents rarely
keep journals of their atrocities ("March 21: kicked an old woman, tortured
a political dissident, raped a prisoner, gored a cute little puppy"). To
supplement the largely trend-based and anecdotal AI report, I am will
cross-reference it with a similar report released by the group Human Rights
Watch, covering roughly the same time period (1997-98). The AI report is
huge, so I can only skim the surface. The full reports can be found at the
respective organizations' websites: www.amnesty.org and www.hrw.org.
One difference between the two reports is the AI report's focus on
international issues. The AI report lists a number of international
treaties regarding human rights that the United States has signed, the
conventions of which AI claims are regularly broken by the U.S.: the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination, and a number of UN standards and protocols _[I don't know
the specifics of these treaties and standards, but I imagine they'd be on
the UN webpage, www.un.org . -Ed.]_
A large segment of each report deals with police brutality. Thousands of
excessive force and harassment complaints are filed by American citizens and
millions of dollars are awarded to plaintiffs in lawsuits each year due to
police misconduct (add to that the presumably huge number of people who are
too afraid to make such complaints). AI cites cases where unresisting
"suspects" were beaten or killed, abuse with usually non-lethal weapons
(e.g. batons, chemical spray, electroshock devices). There have also been a
number of deaths due to improper restraints. A common practice that some
police departments have now abolished is "hogtying," where a suspects are
left face-down, with their wrists and ankles bound together. This position
restrains breathing as well, and a number of suspects have died as a result
of "positional asphyxia" (a San Diego report claimed that 94 people had died
in the ten years up to 1992 in this way. The AI report does not say whether
or not this number was just in San Diego, or nationwide).
Both reports also find that racial minorities are much more likely to be the
victims of police brutality than whites. Part of this is due to the police
practice of "profiling," where the officers will investigate or pull over
individuals who fit a certain "profile" of a kind of criminal, usually with
a racial component (sometimes called the "crime" of "driving while black").
Minorities are also convicted and sentenced at a much higher rate. In 1996,
black men were 8.5 times more likely to be imprisoned than white men. Black
men were imprisoned at a rate of 3,098 per 100,000 compared to 370 per
100,000 for white men. And in the past ten years, the rate for black men
has increased ten times faster than the rate for white men. More than 1.7
million Americans are in prison. More than 60% of the prisoners are ethnic
minorities, and more than 50% are African-Americans, despite the fact that
they are only 12% of the U.S. population. 75,000 of the prisoners are women.
Abuse of the prison population is also a common finding of the two reports.
Some guards let prisoners attack each other, or occasionally encourage
fights. Sometimes the guards themselves inflict the pain, through physical
violence, or via chemical or electroshock weapons. Female prisoners are
sometimes raped, or even forced into prostitution by the guards. Many
inmates do not receive adequate medical treatment. Some prisoners are kept
in tiny solitary confinement cells for long periods of time. Many prisons
are overcrowded and understaffed, which can also lead to violence. Most of
the above violate national and international standards of human rights. HRW
points out that many states are also returning to prison labor (AKA "chain
gangs," or as prison officials prefer to call them "secured work groups").
Some chain gangs are actually secured with shackles, some with stun belts.
There is also little independent review of prisons to inspect the
conditions, and what little oversight there is has little power to demand
change.
The HRW report puts its primary focus on the treatment of immigrants to the
US seeking asylum. Often they are detained in much the same way as American
convicted criminals (see NW v2, #4 "With Asylum Like This, Who Needs
Persecution?" for just one example). The Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996 made it much more difficult for asylum-seekers to
plead their case. Both AI, HRW, and the UN see the right to seek asylum as
a fundamental human right; the US law seems to at least violate the spirit
of that concern. In the NW piece mentioned above, I wrote about just a few
cases, in which asylum-seekers came to the US, fleeing torture or threat of
death in their home countries, and upon arrival in the US were tossed into
prisons, where they were then brutalized by the prison guards, and in some
cases detained for years. Welcome to America.
The reports of both groups show their concern about the death penalty, which
also seems to violate international human rights conventions. In the US,
the death penalty is not applied systematically, and, as with most of the
American criminal justice system, shows high racial bias. Forty-two percent
of those on death row are black (again, while only making up 12% of the
population). Even further into human rights abuse, laws are being pondered
to execute juveniles, laws exist to execute people who committed crimes when
they were juveniles and the mentally ill. For these reason, the American
Bar Association (the national organization of lawyers) called for a
moratorium on execution back in February of 1997, which has been ignored by
government.
AI also rebukes the US for its selective support for human rights in various
other nations; I won't remark much upon it, as I talk about this frequently.
This observation is essential US foreign policy. The US will only support
human rights when it is in the US' interest (or of course, what government
officials perceive as "US interest"); otherwise they will turn a blind eye.
AI is also concerned with the sale of US weapons to countries with known
human rights abuses. AI is also deeply concerned with the use of
electroshock weapons and restraints; AI seems to feel that these devices
will naturally lead to abuse. Some US prisons use these weapons, and some
are made in the US and exported to other countries (even those in which law
enforcement has a history of abusing people with electroshock devices).
FELONY DISENFRANCHISEMENT
So we see the awful, and frequently racist treatment that African-Americans
face in this nation. But it gets worse. The effects of prison can extend
beyond physical incarceration. Forty-six states (and the District of
Columbia) have laws which prohibit inmates from voting, 32 states have laws
prohibiting parolees from voting, 29 prohibit citizens on probation, and 10
even prohibit felons who have finished their sentence from voting
permanently (four more disenfranchise some ex-inmates, and Texas revokes
voting rights for two years after release. Some states do have provisions
for regaining their right to vote, but it usually involves being pardoned by
the states governor, or a parole board). And since African-Americans,
particularly African-American males, are arrested and imprisoned so much
more often than other races, this group literally has less governmental
representation than other groups. A recent report by Human Rights Watch and
the Sentencing Project shows that 1.4 million African-American men cannot
vote because they are in prison, or because of various state laws which
prevent them from voting permanently (3.9 million Americans are permanently
barred from voting by these laws, or 1 in 50 Americans). This amounts to
13% of the black male population in the United States (no figures were given
for black females) which is denied the right to vote.
In Alabama and Florida, more than 31% of black men cannot vote. This can
significantly affect the outcome of state and local elections. It can also
have national impact; in the 1996 presidential election, 4.6 million black
men voted, and 1.4 million were ineligible due to these disenfranchisement
laws. At current rates, three in ten black men can expect to lose their
right to vote at least temporarily at some point in their lives. HRW and
the Sentencing Project fear that this figure will soon rise to four in ten.
And why? Can anyone think of a legitimate reason for permanently denying
someone the right to vote because they committed a crime in the past?
AFRICAN AMERICAN UNEMPLOYMENT
Black men not only have to worry about prison and losing their voting
rights, they also have to worry about finding work in the real world. And
chances aren't very good. A study by economics professor Robert Cherry has
found large distortions in official unemployment rates, especially among
black men (again, no figures were given for African-American women. Sexism
in research? Maybe). While the "official" unemployment rate in the United
States is 4.5% (which Cherry also feels is underestimated), Cherry theorizes
that actual unemployment rates among African-American men is much higher .
Unemployment statistics do not count those who have stopped looking for
work, those who are in prison, those not counted in the census, and
geographic differences in population distribution. When all this is taken
into account, Cherry claims that the unemployment rate among
African-American men is a shocking 25.2%!
ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
And let's finish this off with some fun facts:
- The top 1% of American households own 39% of the wealth. This is about
the same amount owned by the bottom 95%.
- The average young family (headed by someone under age 30) has seen their
income drop 33% since 1991.
- 19.9% of American children live in poverty, up from 14.4% in 1973.
- 13.3% of Americans live below the official poverty line (11% of whites,
26.5% of blacks, 27.1% of Hispanics). Some analysts believe that the
poverty line should be increased by at least 50%. 22.5% of Americans would
live below this new poverty line (19.7% of whites, 39.8% of blacks, 43.9% of
Hispanics).
- To properly compensate workers for gains in productivity since 1973, wages
should have increased by 24% of the 1973 rate. Instead, they have increased
9%. Workers are averaging about 14.2% less money per week in 1997 than they
were in 1973.
CONCLUSIONS
So what can we say about the state of the United States? The "law
enforcement" and "justice system" often defame the concepts they are
supposed to represent. The government violates numerous international
treaties and conventions regarding the rights of human beings. Minorities,
especially African-Americans suffer terrible racism from powerful government
institutions, even being deprived of key elements of their citizenship.
Inequality in wealth is amazing, with huge numbers of people living in
poverty, and suffering from high rates of unemployment, where again,
minorities suffer the worst.
Granted, I am only looking on the negative side here, but that side
certainly deserves a look; we need to know what needs to be fixed, desperately.
_Sources: Amnesty International's "Rights for All: The United States of
America," AP Oct 23 98, Dollars & Sense Nov/Dec 98, Human Rights Watch World
Report 1998, Human Rights Watch /The Sentencing Project's "Losing the Vote:
The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States", Z
Magazine Nov 98_
NOV:11:1998....Amtrak vs. African-Americans
On August 21, fourteen current and former employees of Amtrak, a US national
train company, have filed a class action lawsuit against the railroad. The
grievance is racial discrimination, harassment, intimidation and retaliation
by the Amtrak management against African-American employees.
I watched a press conference about the suit on C-SPAN. It was infuriating,
plaintiff after plaintiff recounting similar stories: frequently being
called "n####r" behind their backs or even to their faces; jokes about
lynching; but worst of all, African-American employees with years of
experience, education, and company loyalty being passed over for promotion
for white male hirees with no experience, and not even fulfilling the
supposed requirements for the positions they received. African-Americans
who made inquiries or complaints about this treatment often found their
positions "abolished;" they were often "allowed" to re-apply for other
Amtrak jobs with lower responsibility and lower paying. White employees
whose positions were likewise abolished were usually re-trained and
transferred to other departments. After the initial suit was filed on July
31, the plaintiffs' law firm received "a flood" of calls from other
African-American Amtrak employees who had also faced discrimination, some
for more than a decade, and the suit was broadened.
The company's racial record seemed to significantly worsen under the
leadership of Amtrak president Thomas Downs. The number of African Americans
participating in Amtrak's key Leadership Conference dropped from 25 down
to two, and other executive departments faced similar drops in diversity.
What this appears to be is in some part blatant racism and hatred. But it
may also be a form of institutional racism, the "old boys network." A
recent study by the American Sociological Association found that hiring and
promotion is still largely a function of whom you know and who knows you.
And since a disproportionate number of whites hold high status employment
and hire their friends and relatives, or pass information along to these
same people. _[I haven't gotten a hold of this report yet, but I hope to in
the near future. I'll write a piece about the details if I can- Ed.]_
Amtrak denies all of these allegations, but their occurrence does seem a
little too frequent and the stories of many employees seem too similar for
me to believe Amtrak. I'll update you as I receive information.
Sources: Agence France Presse Aug 25 98, American Sociological Association,
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) Aug 21 98, C-SPAN Aug 20 98, Journal of
Commerce Aug 21, 24 98, PR Newswire Aug 20 98
SENT BY NEWSWATCH 1998
NOV:08:1998..........UPDATE ON KILLER ROAD...
To updata you all on events which which we heard about this week.The news about the upgrading of the
A8 in Lanarkshire to M8 south of Shawhead.After a few hours of talks, there is now light at the end
of the tunnel.It seem that work should start soon on upgrading the road ,but not to the standard
which was first planned.Now a 6 lane motorway will be built instead of the 14 lanes.
Time scale is still unknown at this time.Work will continue for now keeping the A8 going till then...
NOV:07:1998.........BRIDGE NEEDS £500,000 SPENT ON IT
A major road link in the Lanarkshire town of Coatbridge has been forced to turn back lorries over 15 tons
since the start of November.The bridge is the on the main road A725 from Coatbridge to the M74
known as the Whifflet Viaduct the bridge takes traffic over the London to Inverness rail line.Traffic not
able to use the bridge is being sent into nearby housing estates.At this time its
unclear what the problem with the bridge is......
........
:NOV05:1998...H E A D W A T E R S . F O R E S T . A C T I O N . A L E R T
Action Alert 11-02-98
1 -- FOR EVERYONE: Fax William Hogarth
2 -- N. CALIFORNIANS: Critical Oakland hearing Thursday
------------------------------------------------------------
1 -- FOR EVERYONE:
ON TUESDAY, FAX WILLIAM HOGARTH!
DEMAND THAT FEDERAL WILDLIFE AGENCIES FOLLOW THEIR OWN
SCIENTIFIC GUIDELINES TO PROTECT COHO SALMON
The second of three full-page ads sponsored by Headwaters Sanctuary Project
blasting wildlife agencies for ignoring their own science on coho salmon in
the Headwaters HCP will run Tuesday, November 3, in the New York Times. The
ad points out that the government's own studies show that the 30-foot
buffer zones in the Pacific Lumber HCP are not adequate for salmon to
survive.
The ads ask readers to contact William Hogarth, regional administrator
of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Let's jam his fax machine with
HUNDREDS of letters! Please take a minute to fax a short letter asking
Hogarth to utilize HIS AGENCY'S OWN GUIDELINES in coho salmon protection in
the final Headwaters HCP.
Please point out that:
* The Federal Ecosystem Management Access Team currently requires 300-foot
buffers on either side of streams on federal lands in the Pacific
Northwest. And a recent report commissioned by the National Marine
Fisheries Services (NMFS) recommends buffers of similar width to protect
coho salmon on private timberlands in California. In fact, NMFS has ALREADY
prescribed 170-foot buffers on private lands in Oregon. The result of all
these federal studies and standards is clear: Without buffers of at least
170 feet, it is the government's opinion that coho salmon will go extinct.
* 99% of California's native coho salmon runs are extinct. NMFS must take
every necessary step to protect and restore this species.
* NMFS should rely on their own science, not Pacific Lumber's, in setting
guidelines for salmon protections.
Here's his contact info:
Mr. William Hogarth, Regional Administrator
National Marine Fisheries Service
501 West Ocean Blvd. #4200
Long Beach, CA 90802
fax: 562-980-4018
(This is the best way to get your letter noticed!)
If you can, email a copy of your letter to susans@nextgeneration.org.
Thank you!
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2 -- FOR NORTHERN CALIFORNIANS:
ATTEND THIS THURSDAY'S OAKLAND HEADWATERS HCP HEARING
If you do just one thing for Headwaters Forest this year, this should be it.
Rides to the Oakland hearing on November 5 will be available from the
Santa Cruz area. Please call Steve Graves of the Rainforest Action Group at
831-425-4433 if you need a ride or can offer rides.
A detailed summary of Pacific Lumber's proposed Habitat Conservation
Plan is available at the website of the Environmental Protection
Information Center (EPIC), http://www.igc.org/epic/pages/pl_hcp.html. Or
see the talking points below.
THE HEARING DATES AND LOCATIONS:
NOVEMBER 5 -- OAKLAND
noon-4pm and 5-9pm
Oakland Marriott Convention Center, 550 Tenth St, West Hall
NOVEMBER 10 -- EUREKA **NOTE DATE CORRECTION**
9-11am, noon-4pm, and 5-9pm
Redwood Acres Fairground, 3750 Harris St, Franceschi Hall
UPDATED TALKING POINTS:
1. Wildlife agencies should rely on the best available science for species
protection. The government's own studies show that the provisions for the
endangered coho salmon in this HCP are seriously inadequate. The ManTech
report, commissioned by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 1996,
recommends minimum buffer zones of 170 feet for all types of streams. The
Forest Ecosystem Management (FEMAT) standard, already implemented on public
lands throughout the Pacific Northwest, incorporates 300, 150, and 100-foot
buffer zones for Class 1 (fish-bearing), Class 2 (non-fish-bearing), and
Class 3 (seasonal) streams respectively. Yet Pacific Lumber/Maxxam's draft
HCP contains buffers less than 10 percent the size of these
recommendations! The Fish and Wildlife Agency and the National Marine
Fisheries Service must stand up to Pacific Lumber and insist on sound
science for the final HCP.
2. This HCP deals a lethal blow to California's devastated fisheries. The
coho salmon, an ancient species that has evolved on the Pacific Coast over
thousands of years, will likely go extinct if the aquatic provisions of
this HCP are not dramatically improved.
3. Not so long ago the coho salmon was abundant in California's rivers and
streams. But with the onset of industrial logging over the past century
salmon populations have plummeted to 1 percent of their original numbers.
In fact, according to documentation by federal agencies, nearly every run
of California wild salmon is near extinction. The goal of the Endangered
Species Act and the goal of this process should be to save and restore
species like the coho salmon. Please take every necessary step toward that
goal.
4. The streamside buffer zones, critical in protecting riparian habitat,
have been drawn arbitrarily and have no relation to the government's own
proscriptions for salmon protection. The National Marine Fisheries Service
has completed studies ("Take Avoidance Guidelines") that proscribe minimum
buffer zones equal to the height of one "site-specific" tree, which in
Headwaters Forest is often 300 feet or more. Yet the buffer zones for
fish-bearing streams in the HCP are only 30 feet. After a two-year process
more about politics than species protection, wildlife agencies have a
chance to bring biology back into the plan. Please use your own science,
not Pacific Lumber's, in drafting the final HCP.
5. Strict oversight from federal agencies is absolutely critical. The
provisions of this HCP are completely meaningless unless they are enforced.
Pacific Lumber has violated forestry laws nearly 300 times in the past
three years. Yet the penalty imposed by the California Department of
Forestry is only $1,000 per violation. It is clear that this company will
not comply with any species protections unless they are strictly monitored
and enforced by federal agencies.
------------------------------------------------------------
T H E S E . U P D A T E S . are prepared by Headwaters Sanctuary Project
and distributed by Bay Area Action www.baaction.org.
http://www.HeadwatersForest.org | info: headwaters@enews.org
NOV:05:1998.......Scots launch Hallowe'en invasion of Rugby
A band of 14 Scots were reported to have launched a Hallowe'en raid
on the Warwickshire town of Rugby on Saturday 31 October. Striking
out from their Brownsover base, the party, led by Darth Vader,
included Cleopatra, Zorro, a hippie-chick, a sauce salesm , Einstein,
a vampress and two cats, was assisted by two Geordies, and an Ozzie.
By 10pm the marauders had captured the old chapel in Bilton.
Eye-witness reported heavy fire as a rocket fight developed in Magnet
Lane. No casualties are reported but severa crates of beer, two
bottles of Grouse, some Smirnoff and about a dozen bottles of
whisky+irn-bru where reported missing in action.
The general of the Scots, Darth Vader -- the Dark Lord of Sith --
said: "Our mission was accomplished. We struck out at the Rebel base
in Bilton, leaving everyone unconscious before regrouping for
debriefing in Brownsover and dispersing the fleet. We ve been
victorious."
Witnesses on Sunday 1 November reported seeing a
large number of personnel carriers returning to the home stations via
the Midlands motorway network. They described the conquering army as
looking tired, but nonetheless rampant..........SENT BY Civman
NOV:04:1998.....FIRST TWO HEARINGS GENERATE BUZZ ...
H E A D W A T E R S . F O R E S T . U P D A T E
Weekly Update 11-02-98
1 -- Headwaters hearings generate press, hundreds of comments
2 -- NY Times ad campaign
3 -- LA Times runs front-page story on Julia's treesit
4 -- New Headwaters video showing in San Francisco
5 -- Albion Monitor follows up on David Chain's death
6 -- Protest targets Home Depot
7 -- New York memorial tribute to David Chain
See the adjoining ACTION ALERT for what YOU CAN DO.
------------------------------------------------------------
1
First two Headwaters hearings generate press, hundreds of comments
The first two HCP Hearings were held last week in Los Angeles and
Sacramento. Turn-out was a little lower than we had hoped, roughly 200 in
LA and 250 in Sacramento. About half the attendees made comments, speaking
up for stronger habitat protections for coho salmon and other endangered
species. Thank you to everyone who took the time to attend these hearings.
The next hearing takes place this Thursday, November 5, in Oakland. It
is CRITICAL that HUNDREDS of people attend to protest Pacific Lumber's HCP.
See the adjoining Action Alert for details and carpool information.
------------------------------------------------------------
2
New York Times ad campaign kicked off by Headwaters Sanctuary Project
First ad in series of three runs on October 29
A full-page ad headlined "99 percent of Coho Salmon are Already Gone" ran
in the New York Times on October 29, the day of the Sacramento hearing. It
blasted wildlife agencies for ignoring their own scientific guidelines on
coho salmon protection, and urged readers to fax letters to William
Hogarth, regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Look for another ad in Tuesday's edition, and be sure to send a fax! (See
adjoining Action Alert for details.)
------------------------------------------------------------
3
LA Times runs front-page story on Julia's treesit
An article on Julia Butterfly, complete with photo, titled "Tree-Sitter
Takes Protest to New Heights in Old Growth," ran on October 22 on the front
page of the LA Times. Butterfly has pledged to continue her vigil until
Pacific Lumber agrees to protect Luna, the tree she has called home for the
past 10 months. See the full article at
http://www.HeadwatersForest.org/news/
------------------------------------------------------------
4
New headwaters video showing in san francisco
On Wednesday, November 4, Earth First! activists will release a new video,
"Fire in the Eyes," featuring footage of police pepper spray attacks on
non-violent demonstrators. The video will begin at 8:30pm at Artists
Television Access in San Francisco. ATA is located at 992 Valencia at 21st
Street. Donations will be accepted at the door.
For more info, call 510-594-4000 ext. 222
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5
Albion Monitor follows up on David Chain's death
http://www.monitor.net/monitor
On October 30 the Albion Monitor published two new articles in a series on
the death of forest activist David "Gypsy" Chain, killed in September when
an angry Pacific Lumber Company logger felled a tree in the direction of
activists trying to stop illegal logging near Grizzly Creek State Park.
David Chain's mother, Cindy Allsbrooks, returned to Humboldt County
seeking answers to questions about her son's death. What she discovered so
disturbed her that she held a press conference in San Francisco. There she
revealed that the sheriff's investigator told her he intended to recommend
prosecution of the seven activists who were with Chain when he was killed.
The investigator said the logger is not a suspect in any crime, meaning the
investigator totally discounted the sworn testimony of the seven
eyewitnesses backed up by a videotape which recorded the logger threatening
to fell a tree toward them and saying he wished he had his pistol.
Details are online at http://www.monitor.net/monitor
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6
Protest targets home depot
On October 14 activists from the Sonoma County Rainforest Action Group, The
Living Jungle Alliance, Earth First!, and many others staged a
demonstration outside The Home Depot in Rohnert Park to demand that the
company stop selling old-growth wood. Old-growth refers to trees that have
lived a hundred years or more and are home to many species. Four activists
were arrested after locking down to some of the old-growth lumber on
display in the store.
The protests were organized by the Stealing Home Coalition and
Rainforest Action Network (RAN) in an effort to convince stores to boycott
products made from such wood as Amazon mahogany, lauan plywood from
Southeast Asia, and 2,000-year-old California redwoods.
RAN estimates that just a fifth of the world's old-growth forests are
left. "Economically, ecologically, or morally -- there is no reason in this
day and age to continue selling old-growth wood," said spokeswoman Celia
Alario.
For six years, The Home Depot has lied about their intent to
discontinue the sale of old-growth products, at times dismissing
environmental claims and other times championing them.
"We find it particularly offensive that The Home Depot is selling
old-growth redwood despite taking a pledge last year to discontinue its
sale," said James Hansen of FLAG. "Old-growth forests are being destroyed
and now an activist has been killed all for cheap lumber and fancy hot
tubs," Hansen said, referring to the death of David Chain in September.
Based on investigations by contractors, the Stealing Home Coalition
believes that the redwood sold by the chain comes from Headwaters Forest in
Northern California.
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7
NEW YORK MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO DAVID "GYPSY" CHAIN
Sunday, November 8, 3pm
Wetlands Preserve, 161 Hudson Street, New York City
(3 blocks south of Canal near Holland Tunnel)
The Warrior Poet Society, Earth First!, and Wetlands Preserve invites you
to join in honoring David Chain, killed in the struggle to save the ancient
redwood forest. Bring poetry, song, and the will to fight on.
For directions from New England call Mass EF! at 413-367-9352. For
in-town directions call 212-966-4225 or Kim at 718-274-4443.
Proceeds/donations will go toward the Headwaters campaign.
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T H E S E . U P D A T E S . are prepared by Headwaters Sanctuary Project
and distributed by Bay Area Action www.baaction.org.
http://www.HeadwatersForest.org | info: headwaters@enews.org
NOV:1:1998......NEW TIME ZONE FOR SCOTLAND
If plans which are being talk about reach the stage of a bill for the UK MPs to
vote on, Scotland could have a new time zone and would not have the same time as the rest of the UK.
END OF ARCHIVE
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