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No Justice for Amazon Massacre in Peru Five years ago yesterday the Devil’s Curve earned its name. This wild stretch of highway outside the Peruvian town of Bagua was transformed from a peaceful protest site into a national tragedy now known as the Baguazo. Though the multi-week roadblock was due to disband that same day, militarized riot police entered by force in the early dawn and a deadly melee ensued. When the teargas and gunsmoke cleared, 34 people were dead and hundreds more wounded, including protesters and police officers. Today, 54 protesters and ostensible instigators are on trial for the infamous Baguazo. Government prosecutors have accused high-profile indigenous leaders of inciting their people to violence. Several indigenous representatives like Alberto Pizango, president of the Amazon-wide indigenous organization AIDESEP, face sentences of 35 years to life. |
Tag Archives: Arizona
JPMorgan Chase dropping mountain destruction
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| Tell the Banks to Stop Financing Mountain Destruction |
This could be the tipping point for the horrific practice of Mountaintop Removal coal mining.
Just this week, JPMorgan Chase updated its environmental policy, revealing that it will be ending financial relationships with Mountaintop Removal coal mining companies.
Wells Fargo and BNP Paribas/Bank of the West have recently taken similar steps. If the other major banks commit to stop financing mountaintop removal, fossil fuel companies will have no choice but to end the obliteration of mountains and poisoning of communities for coal.
tell Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to stop financing Mountaintop Removal coal mining!
Mountaintop Removal (MTR) is a mining practice that uses explosives to literally blow the tops off mountains for the coal inside. The rubble is then pushed into streams and poisons the water supply for thousands of people. This is morally unacceptable and why many, many local communities in Appalachia, along with activists around the world, are taking a stand against MTR.
For more than five years, Rainforest Action Network members like you have demanded JPMorgan Chase and other banks drop MTR financing. And while we’ll have to remain vigilant to ensure JPMorgan Chase stays on the path away from MTR, the bank’s new policy demonstrates that your activism is working.
JPMorgan Chase will no longer be doing business with companies like Alpha Natural Resources—the worst of the worst when it comes to MTR. Last month, the EPA issued Alpha the largest water pollution discharge penalty in the history of the Clean Water Act. The company also faces ten lawsuits over water pollution at its MTR mines.;
JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, shows that the smart money is leaving companies like Alpha Natural Resources. Other major banks do not want to be singled out for continuing to support environmental destruction and poisoning communities.
Tell the banks to drop Alpha Natural Resources and adopt a policy to phase out MTR financing.
Our movement is truly turning the tide against MTR. Companies like Alpha Natural Resources need financing from big banks to continue the destruction. If we make sure the banks can’t hide their responsibility for keeping MTR alive, we can force them to act to protect their image.
JPMorgan Chase is acting to protect its image right now by moving out of MTR financing. Let’s use that momentum. Send the banks a message today and help end Mountaintop Removal coal mining once and for all.
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For healthy communities and a healthy ecosystem, |
Photo Credit: Kent Kessinger/Appalachian Voices
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Save Duncan from euthanasia
The Municipal Court Of The City Of Seattle: Save Duncan from euthanasia
by Stacey Norman | 10,361 supporters
Duncan is currently being held by the Seattle Animal Shelter awaiting an appeal in Seattle Municipal Court. We are not allowed to visit In September of 2012 Duncan was at home with his mom and dad; dad had just come home from the hospital after…
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the Amazon
Chainsaws and bulldozers are devouring the Amazon rainforest — home to jaguars, parrots, and sloths.
Can you chip in $5 today to protect the Amazon and other threatened ecosystems worldwide?
We’re just $7,000 away from our goal!
An area bigger than the state of Texas is missing from the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
A place where jaguars, parrots, and sloths used to roam, fly, and climb — where hundreds of indigenous groups once lived — is gone. The result of decades of man made destruction.
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Scandals
What Conservatives Should Do If They Are Really Concerned About Veterans Health Care
The scandal at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs over long wait times to receive health care and fraudulent reporting by hospital administrators is a serious problem that needs to be addressed immediately. Yesterday, a preliminary report from the VA Inspector General confirmed many of the initial problems, finding that:
a) at least 1,700 veterans waiting for care were purposely withheld from the official electronic wait list because administrators knew they could not receive care within a 14-day period that was the goal;
b) at the Phoenix VA hospital at the center of the controversy, the average wait time for an initial primary care appointment was in fact 115 days, and not 24 days as reported by the Phoenix hospital;
c) there were multiple paper wait lists used to track patients in addition to the electronic wait list that were invisible to federal oversight.
Other reports coming out indicate that “cooking the books” is a much broader problem within the VA.
Secretary Eric Shinseki has called the findings “reprehensible” and is “not waiting to set things straight.” In fact, Shinseki, a disabled Vietnam veteran who served in the Army for 38 years, has fought an uphill battle to reform the VA bureaucracy in a number of ways, according to experts at the Center for American Progress. But that hasn’t stopped numerous elected officials from calling for his resignation, including, at last count, 74 Republican members of Congress.
We all agree that veterans deserve the best possible care. But if conservatives were truly outraged at the prospect of veterans not receiving the health care they deserve, there’s another step they could take right now to expand coverage to not just thousands, but hundreds of thousands of veterans, and almost 5 million Americans overall. Instead, they are standing directly in the way.
There are over a quarter million uninsured veterans in states that are currently refusing to accept federal funding to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. These veterans are not receiving delayed care, they aren’t receiving any care at all. While many people assume that all veterans have health benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs, as of 2013 only two-thirds were eligible and just one-third were enrolled. The map below shows a state-by-state breakdown of those affected:
Conservative legislators have been quick to condemn the VA’s actions, but that hasn’t stopped them from voting again and again to repeal the Affordable Care Act that expands coverage to millions of people, including veterans. And it hasn’t stopped them from defending state lawmakers who continue to refuse to expand Medicaid under the ACA and deny coverage to veterans and millions of other Americans.
BOTTOM LINE: The scandal at the VA is serious, and those at fault should be held accountable. But those who would repeal the Affordable Care Act are at the heart of another scandal: over 250,000 veterans in 24 states have no access to care at all because of conservative lawmakers’ refusal to expand Medicaid.
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