Great Game for oil & power
In March 2001 Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham told the National Energy Security Summit that “America faces a major energy supply crisis over the next two decades.
National Clips
ATLANTA: Marchers say ‘Set Marcus free’ / PHILADELPHIA: Transit workers set to strike / LUBBOCK, Texas: Clergy protest mosque vandalism / BOOK CLIFFS, Utah: Environmentalists, residents unite
Ishmael Flory, fighter for equality, 96
Ishmael Flory, veteran trade union organizer, activist in the African American freedom movement, and a longtime leader of the Communist Party in Illinois, died Feb. 4 in Chicago following a long illness. He was 96.
Budgets of mass destruction
After factoring out the Social Security surplus and adding in a pricey supplemental appropriation for the war in Iraq, the federal budget deficit for Fiscal Year 2004 could reach $700 billion.
Marchers denounce mental health cuts
SAN ANTONIO – Marching from historic San Fernando Cathedral to Travis Park United Methodist Church on Jan. 15, nearly 180 mental health consumers, family members, clergy and other mental health advocates brought attention to the fact that an incident involving an out-of-control mental health consumer never should have occurred.
New bill aims to defend womens rights
National Organization for Women (NOW) President Kim Gandy and other women’s rights leaders held a Washington, D.C., press conference Jan. 22, the 31st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, to announce the introduction of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) that would codify the landmark Supreme Court decision protecting reproductive rights.
National Clips
WASHINGTON: Defense contractors owe $3 billion in taxes / MONTGOMERY, Ala.: No charter schools in Alabama / NEW YORK: Librarians, booksellers launch petition drive against Patriot Act / ARLINGTON, Va: Int’l panel says ‘give D.C. a seat’
Breakthrough in struggle for same-sex marriage rights
While the Massachusetts Legislature adjourned Feb. 13 without having added an amendment to the state’s constitution banning same-sex marriage, the nation’s attention swung to the other coast when San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Ending needless deaths
Reversing the 1980s Reagan/Bush (and now the new Bush) ideological drive to make health care a market commodity will require a major political struggle.
Peoples Gas gives Chicagoans cold shoulder
CHICAGO – Miriam Cienfuegos, 26, had her gas turned off illegally Jan. 20. Under Illinois law, no person should be disconnected after Dec. 1. This latest shutoff, in the midst of a record low temperature cold wave, gives more weight to growing sentiment that profits should not keep people in the cold.
