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oregon & cascadia

Cascadia is the northwest coastal region of North America, including the area surrounding the Cascade mountain range extending from Humboldt County, Calif., to the Alaskan panhandle, and covers much of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.

A narrower definition of Cascadia refers to the area influenced by the Cascade mountain range and the 100 miles of coastal lands between it and the Pacific Ocean. Cascadia is a Pacific Rim nation-state concept and a possible basis for regional autonomy, as plans are made to secede from the respective countries that envelop the Cascadia bioregion. For many residents of the Pacific Northwest, Cascadia is a state of mind fostered by the lifestyle of this unique biosphere and has become a geographical identity spoken of with pride.



environment 08-Feb-2010 09:56

Radical Botany: Skillshare - Spring plants in Cascadia - Nettles and the potherb

From the open publishing newswire: It is the time of year to begin harvesting in the wild. Spring tonic plants are available due to our warm winter weather. Also, plants used for basketry and fiber are available. Go out in the woods and connect!

here a number of native plants that are very important to health, nutrition and ecosystem support. This is the time of year to start looking for basket-making plants.

Nutritional - Medicinal

There were a number of plants that were known by First-peoples of Cascadia that helped humans survive starvation and nutritional imbalance. Know by Europeans as "Spring tonic" plants, these plants with their new shoots are full of nutrients that are helpful to our well being. For instance- stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) when picked young, can be steamed and eaten in February and March. This plant has been known to alleviate muscle pain, depression and tiredness. Because of the unusually warm weather this winter in Cascadia, I have already begun to harvest young Stinging Nettle. Stinging nettle is often found in semi-wet well drained areas. The plant is often found near Horse Tail (Equisetum arvense).

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forest defense 08-Feb-2010 08:02

Medics, Mediators, Cooks etc. still needed for EARTH FIRST! OC/WR in SB Feb. 11-15!!!

From the open publishing newswire: This is a quick shout-out to let everyone know that the EARTH FIRST! Organizers' Conference and Winter Rendezvous is still happening next week in Santa Barbara.

All are invited, but people with skills are especially needed to come down and help make this party a reality.

PLEASE COME TO THIS PARTY! The Organizers' Conference portion will occur from Feb 11-13 and the Winter Rendezvous portion from Feb 13-15th. For details on where it is, what to bring and other valuable information, check out 2010oc.org.

thanks for reading this, and may the forest bewitch you. hope to see y'all in Santa Barbara!

 http://2010oc.org

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animal rights | political theory 29-Jan-2010 23:37

AR Folks PLEASE Chill Out

From the open publishing newswire: I know death is a scary and upsetting subject for most people. Emotions run high and people get confused about things. Especially under such strange and disturbing circumstances as the recent self immolation.
But in your search for meaning in this please be careful with your allies and comrades feelings. We're receiving a high volume of complaints from people who've had their feelings hurt and are expressing frustration with open publishing. Even worse than that, people are complaining that they are feeling discouraged from being a part of the struggle for animal rights (on all sides of the opinion spectrum on this issue).

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education | social services 26-Jan-2010 21:43

What’s rotten about education?

From the open publishing newswire: Budget shortfalls, student ratios, and teachers' contract disputes hamper institutions' ability to educate students
Let's just say it: education is pretty messed up right now.
Oregon taxpayers now spend roughly the same amount of money to incarcerate 13,401 inmates as they do to educate 438,000 university and community college students. But spending on prisons is growing at a faster rate than education and other state services.

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government 26-Jan-2010 16:06

FORTY PORTLANDERS JOIN SAN FRANCISCO PROTEST AGAINST OBAMA HOUSING PRACTICES

From the open publishing newswire: Forty activists and homeless people from Portland joined newly-formed WRAP (Western Regional Advocacy Project) protest in San Franciso for march down Market Street for housing rights and against 'crimes of status' with target of Nancy Pelosi's office. Organizers also helped with a picket in Ashland against US Bank over 66/67, and a forum on housing politics with JwJ/OA.
On January 20, 2010, the one year anniversary of Obama's Inauguration, hundreds of West Coast activists and poor people pooled their protesting energy in San Francisco and marched down Market Street in the rain to Nancy Pelosi's office, advocating for more housing funding and civil rights. WRAP, Western Regional Advocacy Project, with members from Sisters of the Road and Street Roots in Portland, endorsed by PSU Progressive Student Union, Tenant Rights Project and Transit Riders Union (among others) in Portland, and including groups from San Francisco and Los Angeles, like LA CAN -- organized this protest, with the theme "Housekeys Not Handcuffs."

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actions & protests | health 25-Jan-2010 16:07

Pre-Olympics Street Medic Training in Bellingham, WA

From the open publishing newswire: The Rosehip Medic Collective is holding a 20 hour basic Street Medic training in Bellingham, WA on the last weekend in Janurary, with a focus on training medics for the Anti-Olympics Convergence. In these trainings we seek to empower people to provide
quality emergency care in situations pertinent to activists. We will train you in giving a basic assessment, in offering friends and allies life saving first aid, discuss strategies for dealing with police weapons and violence, and many other awesome things.

This training will be the weekend of January 29-31, 5pm-9pm on Friday and 9am-6pm on both Saturday and Sunday. We ask for a $20 donation to cover the cost of materials, supplies, and travel, but no-one is turned away for lack of funds. We're not from Bellingham, but we can help to coordinate housing for people coming from out of town. Our priority is to get as many people trained as possible, and we will prioritize anyone planning on providing medical support at the Olympics. Please let us know if there's anything we can do to make this training accessible for you.

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environment | police / legal 19-Jan-2010 12:26

FOREST ADVOCATE FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST EUGENE POLICE OFFICER, CHIEF, AND CITY

BOYCOTT (ST)UMPQUA BANK From the open publishing newswire: On Thursday, January 14, Josh Schlossberg and the Civil Liberties Defense Center filed a lawsuit against Eugene Police Department Officer Bill Solesbee, Chief of Police Pete Kerns, and the City of Eugene regarding a March 13, 2009 incident where Schlossberg was falsely arrested, injured, and jailed by Eugene Police Department Officer Bill Solesbee while Schlossberg was legally distributing brochures from the edge of a public sidewalk in front of Umpqua Bank in downtown Eugene.

Link to Utube Video

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actions & protests | police / legal 18-Jan-2010 14:52

Students and Faculty Occupy Building in opposition to SWAT POLICE training on WSUV campus

MLK picture with WSUV SWAT training From the open publishing newswire: We the student and faculty members of the Center for Social and Environmental Justice and Social and Environmental Justice Club on the campus of Washington State University Vancouver are now meeting in our building of work and learning.

We are here today as a direct response to the police, sheriff and SWAT training that has been scheduled to occur in our building concurrent with the campus's prescheduled Martin Luther King Day events happening elsewhere on campus.

We feel that this training is in direct opposition to the strategies and philosophy of Martin Luther King. We know that if he were here with us today Martin Luther King would challenge the claim that this type of militaristic civil drill is an effective avenue for addressing acts of violence.

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corporate dominance | environment 18-Jan-2010 14:45

Video: Bark Hike To Proposed Nestle Bottling Plant

Osbow Springs at Oxbow Fish Hatchery, Nestle Proposed Tap Source From the open publishing newswire: Currently, Nestle is proposing a new bottling plant in the town of Cascade Locks on the Columbia River, capturing the pristine water of Oxbow Springs. This video is from the January 2010 Bark Field Trip to the proposed Nestle bottling site. Hike is led by Loriann Burd of the forest advocacy group Bark and Julia DeGraw, of Food and Water Watch

Food and Water Watch Fact Sheet

24 minute Video Of Bark Hike
Sign the petition!

Article from the Bark Site

Bottling a hundred million gallons annually, Nestle is seeking to turn a profit on our most valuable public resource. There are several groups working together to support the residents of Cascade Locks who don't want a multinational bottling plant in their community; low-wage jobs or not. If you are interested in getting involved in this effort, contact amy@bark-out.org and stay tuned to Bark for upcoming actions you can take.

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gender & sexuality 15-Jan-2010 19:55

Help Organize the 2nd Annual Cascadia Trans & Womyn's Action Camp!

From the open publishing newswire: This year will be the 2nd Annual Trans & Womyn's Action Camp in Cascadia.

The Trans' and Womyn's Action Camp (TWAC) is a annual gathering of activists with a diversity of backgrounds, but who have a focus on radical feminism, environmentalism, challenging gender oppression, and bringing down patriarchy. TWAC is for folks who identify as any variety of womyn, transfolk, genderqueer or intersex. This will be safe(r) space camp in the woods to share skills in a supportive, empowering and encouraging environment.

Last year was the first Trans'& Womyn's Action Camp (TWAC) in Cascadia, where folks from all over the country traveled to participate in over 40 workshops. Here, it was decided to host this as an annual event in Cascadia, in coordination with other TWAC's happening around the country during the same time.

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anti-racism 07-Jan-2010 10:06

This Friday! January 8th! Protest Nazi supporters!

From the open publishing newswire: This Friday, January 8th at 3:00 p.m in the Walnut room of the U of O campus will be host to a Pacifica Forum meeting.
This group in particular has been labeled as a white supremacist organization and not without reason. In the past they have hosted Holocaust deniers and supporters of the "National Socialist Movement" a known Neo-Nazi organization.
In they're last meeting, speaker Jimmy Marr invited all those in attendance to join him in giving the Sieg Heil salute. Marr also showed video footage from a National Socialist Movement demonstration in Phoenix, Arizona.

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anti-racism 24-Dec-2009 07:19

AntiFascist Hackers Release Info from 11 Neo-Nazi Message Boards

Rose City Antifa From the open publishing newswire: In a massive blow to fascist organizing, hackers are in the process of formatting data taken from 11 neo-Nazi message boards, including private messages, email addresses, and passwords. Neo-Nazi's ability to propagandize and recruit is always hindered when examined with a critical lens, because their ideological arguments simply do not stand up on their own.

Antifascist hackers have released information from the websites of the following neo-Nazi groups and projects: Volksfront International--a white power skinhead crew founded in here in Portland, Aryan Front, Blood and Honour, the Creativity Movement, East Coast White Unity, the ENationionalist forum, Final Stand Records, Hammerskin Nation--whose 20th anniversary festival slated to happen in the Willamette Valley in October of 2007 was shut down by the Ad-Hoc Coalition Against Racism and Fascism, NorthEast White Pride, and the White Revolution Forum.

Tech-savvy antifascists are in the process of formatting the data to make it more easily accessible, and WikiLeaks has requested help with this project. For any of you Indymedia readers interested in opposing white supremacist organizing, this would be one great way to help. And if you find any information that might be useful, sharing it with Portland's chapter of the Anti-Racist Action Network (Rose City Antifa) might be a place to start. They have both a voicemail--971.533.7832--and an email address:  fight_them_back@riseup.net

 https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Draft:Nazis

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forest defense 23-Dec-2009 12:23

Klamath Justice Coalition Halts Logging on Karuk Sacred Sites

From the open publishing newswire: The Klamath Justice Coalition organized a blockade in northern California this week, to stop a U.S. Forest Service logging contractor from damaging any sites held sacred by the Indigenous Karuk Nation.

Before daybreak on December 16, members of the indigenous-led Coalition gathered at Orleans Mountain Lookout Road within the Six Rivers National Forest and set up a large fire in the roadway.

Fortunately, the logging crew took the moral and legally responsible path and turned back without involving the police.

"This morning's small but important victory marks the beginning of our campaign to defend Karuk sacred sites and protect the health of our forests," says Karuk Ceremonial Leader Leaf Hillman, in a Press Release issued after the protest.

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