From the open publishing newswire: Our native forests find themselves under siege yet again. A 149-acre piece of the Willamette national forest called Trapper was sold to the Seneca Jones Timber Company in 2003. The stand is native forest, meaning it has never before been logged, but it is now under serious threat and could be cut any day. The area was subject to a high-intensity wildfire 150 years ago, which left clusters of old growth among an area that is largely 140 year old post-fire regrowth. The area is also habitat to the endangered spotted owl. Our native forests are in and of themselves an endangered species and this particular area is a beautiful mix of mature forest and old growth that provides incredible habitat, as well as pristine drinking water.

There is still time to halt this project!

Call the Willamette National Forest and Seneca Jones Timber Company and demand they drop the sale. Tell them we will not stand for logging in our watershed, and we will not sit quietly and continue to witness the destruction of our last remaining native forests.

Contact:
Meg Mitchell, Supervisor, Willamette National Forest, 541-225-6300
Rick Ram, Seneca Jones Timber Company, 541-689-1011

 http://www.savetrapper.blogspot.com

From the open publishing newswire: A swarm is coming! The Beehive Design Collective heads to Portland to release their long-anticipated "True Cost of Coal" graphics campaign!

Two years in the making, the "True Cost of Coal" is an elaborate narrative illustration that explores the complex story of mountaintop removal coal mining and the broader impacts of coal in Appalachia and beyond. To create the poster, the Beehive interviewed hundreds of community members throughout the Appalachia region. In their interactive picture-lectures, the Bees lead audiences through an engaging, larger-than-life banner version of the graphic, interweaving anecdotes, statistics, and history.

Several events in Portland
* Friday, August 27th, 3-5pm at the Ecotrust Building, Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center, 2nd floor (721 Northwest 9th Avenue)
* Sunday, August 29th, 7pm at Autonomy (316 Northwest 4th Ave.)
* Tuesday, August 31st, 2pm - 6pm, Special Art Workshop & Presentation at Tryon Life Community Farm (details below)

From the open publishing newswire: Molly Pettit a Northeast Portland musician, sound consultant and long time volunteer for the Last Thursday street fair on Alberta Street in Northeast Portland chronicles how the City has repeatedly and purposefully stifled any attempt to use space creatively for entertainment purposes combining art and politics. Portland, Oregon, 25/08/2010.

In February 2010 a vacant lot at 20th and Alberta Street was eyed up as a location for festivities on Last Thursday - a street fair which occurs on the final Thursday of each month where vendors and performers from the local community transform an already funky street into a festival like atmosphere during the space of an evening. Miss Pettit secured permission to borrow the land and proposed a solid plan that would involve music combined with the distribution of political literature from local and national groups such as the Beehive Art Collective, Climate Ground Zero, Indymedia and the Jericho Movement. She would also organise a stage and beer garden whilst following strict codes imposed by the City.


Copyright for the story and pictures remain with the creator © Alex Milan Tracy 2010. All Rights Reserved. Story and pictures not for use without direct permission. Contact  Alexmilantracy@gmail.com

From the open publishing newswire: Two weeks ago Audubon Society of Portland and Willamette Riverkeeper publicly called on the Port of Portland to immediately cease disposal of contaminated dredge materials from the Portland Harbor Superfund Site on West Hayden Island. At Audubon's request the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has agreed to hold a public hearing on this issue.
When: Monday, August 30th at 6:00 PM
Where: University of Oregon Building, Room 142/144, 70 NW Couch Street, Portland, Oregon

Please attend this hearing and help us send a strong message to the Port, the City and the regulatory agencies that West Hayden Island is the wrong place to dispose of contaminated dredge materials.
Background: The Port is currently in the process of disposing of 30,000 cubic yards of dredge materials containing lead, zinc and pesticides from the Willamette River at Terminal 5 and has requested permission from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to add an additional 75,000 cubic yards of dredge material containing DDT, PCBs, PAHs and petroleum hydrocarbons from the Willamette River at Post Office Bar (river mile 2.2)

From the open publishing newswire: Under the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, schools receiving federal funds MUST release students' personal information to military recruiters if they are to continue to receive federal funds. Students may "opt-out" of this provision by so indicating on their registration form or by submitting an opt-out form amending their registration form.

The deadline for opting-out is October 1.
WHAT IS OPT-OUT? Under the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, schools receiving federal funds MUST release students' personal information to military recruiters if they are to continue to receive federal funds.

OPT-OUT FACTS:
* Students must opt-out EVERY YEAR.
* Traditionally, the deadline for opting-out for the year is October 1
* Students do NOT require parental or guardian consent to opt-out.
* EVERY high school students' personal information is being released to military recruiters -- not just that of juniors and seniors!
* Girls are NOT exempt from this provision.

HOW CAN STUDENTS OPT-OUT?
* At registration -- before the beginning of the school year. There is usualy a checkbox on the registration form that allows for opting-out.
* By going directly to their school main office and amending their registration form if they have not checked the box to opt-out. (If they don't remember whether they opted-out or or not, students can go to the main office to verify the information on their form.)
* By submitting an opt-out form (either that supplied by Recruiter Watch volunteers or by download at www.leavemychildalone.org/optout) to their school's main office.

From the open publishing newswire: Former US Senator Gordon Smith's brother rules to cut old growth forests near Bend to save the Spotted owl. It's back to square one people.

A federal appeals court (9th District) Friday cleared the way for logging to resume in an old growth forest reserve at a national forest in Oregon to protect northern spotted owl habitat from being lost to wildfire.

In a 2-to-1 decision by a three-judge panel, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that had stopped the Five Buttes project on the Deschutes National Forest near Bend, Oregon.


Judge Milan D Smith (The infamous former US Senator Gordon Smith's brother) says we must cut the forests to save them from insects and fires and other bad things and save the spotted owl habitat. Don't you just hate it when the elite try to play with our minds and souls! I don't know about you, but I am pissed!

This is federal old growth owned by the people of the US, not corporations. This is an ongoing attempt to dismantle the Northwest Forest Plan one forest ecosystem at a time.

Maybe it is time to pull away from the United States Corporation of America. Organize ourselves around our ecosystem called Cascadia.

This was a court battle that was being fought for saving the forests by Cascadia Wildlands Project, The League of Wilderness Defenders-Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, et al.

From the open publishing newswire: The FBI raids Utah activist house in an A.L.F. investigation for the second time in five months.
The FBI raids my home for the second time in five months.
Today I awoke at 9am to FBI & ATF agents raiding my home in Salt Lake City. This is the second time my home has been raided in an A.L.F. investigation in five months.

Ten agents with the FBI and ATF corralled myself and my roommates into the living room, handed us a search warrant, and spent the next five hours removing belongings from our home.

The warrant indicated they were seeking evidence in recent Animal Liberation Front arsons, including two in Utah.

From the open publishing newswire: [T]he NEST volunteers who were arrested were released and all their gear returned by the linn county sherrif's department.
The four members of the Northwest Ecosystem Survey Team who were arrested were cited and released by Linn County, and all their gear returned.

The Linn County Sherrifs had thought that NEST was camped illegally on private land, but were in the Willamette National Forest, according to maps provided by the Forest Service. As it turns out, the maps were inaccurate. Even so, the camp was still so close to the boundary of the Forest land that it would be close to impossible to determine which side of the boundary the camp had been set up in.

Linn County will certainly be hearing from our wonderful friends at the CLDC!

From the open publishing newswire: The Civil Liberties Defense Center has been at the front line defending several Green Scare political prisoners and was key in winning the early release of prisoners such as Jeff "Free" Luers.
The CLDC provided free legal representation to over 35 people arrested for civil disobedience - 30 were acquitted. Represented over 80 environmental, animal and social rights nonviolent civil disobedience protesters in 2006 alone among other victories. Come out and show your support for the CDLC!

*Becky White- Rootsy Folk Punk Devotional Music*
*Tre Arrow- Musician and Former Eco Political Prisoner*
*Jeff "Free" Luers- Former Eco Political Prisoner*
*Dapper Cadavers- Local Portland Folk*
*Mic Crenshaw- MC and Poet*
*Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits- Bay Area Acoustic Duo
*Holy! Holy! Holy!- A Dancing Gypsy Crazy Hazah
**And late night Interspecies DJ Dance Party*

*Where:* Autonomy 316 NW 4th Portland, Oregon 97209
**Generous donations taken at door and all night!!*
*Contact:*  oregonjericho@gmail.com (503)-750-0523

[** PDX Event Date: Sat August 14 2010]
[Eugene Event Date: Thurs August 12 2010]

From the open publishing newswire: Lauren Regan, founder of the Eugene Oregon based Civil Liberties Defense Center speaking at the recent Roots of Resistance Conference held in Portland Oregon, organized by Jesus Radicals.

The Conference, held in Portland Oregon on the week end of August 6th and 7th, explored themes of Christian Anarchism, violent vs non violent strategies, among others.

Lauren, along with Tre Arrow, spoke Sunday morning on a panel entitled, "Navigating the Security Culture, Activism in a Posts 911 World."
According to the flyer for the event, "the aim of this session is ................to inform people about laws that criminalize dissent and that make it exceedingly difficult to work for social change." Regan, who is a public interest attorney specializing in civil rights, criminal defense and environmental law, has successfully represented hundreds of political activists in both civil and criminal litigation. After first discussing some of her cases, she enumerates 4 main methods used by law enforcement to infiltrate, intimidate, marginalize and discourage organizations seeking to bring about social change as well as ways that activists can evade and neutralize these methods.

Lauren Regan, Navigating the Security Culture

Portland CLDC Benefit Show Sat Aug 14th | CLDC Benefit show in Eugene Thursday August 12th

From the open publishing newswire: On September 1, 2010, TriMet, according to one source a $2.5 billion transit agency, is set to cutback on 60 bus routes and implement a five cents per ride fare hike. One transit group has set a 'wake' of sorts, mourning the loss and fare hike, for AFTER the austerity measures occur. Transit Riders Union is organizing NOW against the cuts and the fare hike.

TriMet's unelected board of directors voted 6-1 (Lynn Lehrbach with the Teamsters voted no) to implement the Sept. 1, 2010 five cents a ride fare hike. The unelected TriMet board also voted to cut back on 60 bus routes Sept. 1. This will be the third round of service cuts and second fare hike in the past two years. New TriMet board president Rick Van Beveren has voted for all five 'transit shock doctrine' austerity cuts and fare hikes.

So far, TRU has held one picket at Portland Business Alliance to protest TriMet cuts and fare hikes. PBA pushed for the elimination of Fareless Square, year after year (along with sit-lie 1 amd 2). PBA just donated $5,000 to the campaign of Tom Hughes for Metro president, and Hughes has been endorsed by the Tribune and the Oregonian. A new, appointed-in-secret member of the TriMet board is Steve Clark, president of the Portland Tribune.

Come help transit riders and organizers stop the cuts and the fare hike!

From the open publishing newswire: Yesterday, August 9th, oral arguments for Eric's appeal were heard at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Most of the discussion focused on the incorrect written response to a question the jurors asked during deliberations at Eric's trial (the oral answer to a jury question was the complete opposite from the written answer - the jury reached a guilty verdict soon after). The presiding judge on the panel seemed particularly interested in this issue (she wrote a previous decision for the 9th circuit in which a case was reversed due to an erroneous jury instruction).

The prosecution, lacking any solid arguments about why this issue was "harmless error," resorted (as they usually do) to their typical bag of tricks and lies. We know we probably don't need to go into detail here - but just keep this in mind if you choose to listen to the arguments.

If you are interested in listening to yesterday's proceedings in their entirety, they are posted on the 9th Circuit's website at:
 http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/view_subpage.php?pk_id=0000005995

 http://www.supporteric.org

From the open publishing newswire: On July 12, 2010, Judge Ronald Whyte ruled to dismiss the indictment of the AETA4. His ruling stated the indictment violated federal rules of criminal procedure, as well as the defendants' fifth amendment rights by not providing detail into the alleged crimes that were committed. In the days following the ruling, the Assistant U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case stated to the AETA4 defense team that the government would contact them with their plans by August 13, 2010.

However, yesterday, one of the defense attorneys received a call from the U.S. Attorney. The call was to the effect that although she had promised us some kind of communication on or about August 13 regarding status, she is still working on it and we should not expect to hear anything regarding status before mid-September. She would/could not go into any details about what is going to happen.

We'll keep you posted. Continue to support those facing charges under the unconstitutional Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.

 http://www.aeta4.org