The Perspective on Utah

There are several ways people can find out about the Green Party of Utah “saga” over the past year and a half. They offer different perspectives on the situation:
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Goodbye, Ken Sain

I was very, very sad to learn today of the retirement of Ken Sain’s blog. I will post Ken’s entire message here because won’t be up much longer:

No more blog

I did talk to my new employers about my blog and my gay movie review site. I always knew that this day may come, and it is finally here.

The Gazette is owned by the Washington Post, although they are very independent from it. In fact, we consider the Post competition.

But one of the conditions of my employment is that I have to shut down this blog. The conflict of interest is more perception than reality. As the arts and entertainment editor I will have little influence on political coverage. But, the perception — as Michael Petrelis will no doubt point out — is still there.

So this blog comes to an end this weekend.
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National Call-In Day on Iraq War

United for Peace and Justice has issued a call for today to be a National Call your Congress Official Day. The Green Party of Utah has issued a press release urging Utahns to participate and demand a stop to the Iraq War.

Here is a list of contact informaiton for Utah U.S. House of Representatives for Utah:
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Health Care for ***ALL***

Awaiting a 3rd District Judge’s ruling on the legality of the new domestic partners benefits program instituted by the mayor and city government of Salt Lake, 16 employees are ready to take advantage of those benefits.

The employees have applied in accordance with the published deadline which was last week. All that remains is the Judge’s ruling. Three citizens have sued the city stating that the implementation of this benefits program violates Utah’s Defense of Marriage Act.

Salt Lake City will proceed with the program until such time as a court order prevents them from doing so.

Kudos to SLC for their stance on providing benefits for all their employees, whether “married” or not.

Supreme Court refuses to hear Utah’s Appeal on Nuclear Waste Issue

Utah officials and activists expected the U.S. Supreme Court to reject its case of appeal of a lower court ruling that denied a set of laws from being implemented that would have blocked the storage of high level nuclear waste in Utah.

Private Fuel Storage, the coalition that wants to store the waste in Utah’s west desert in Goshute Reservation land, is of course relieved with this recent news.

The article in today’s Salt Lake Tribune has an archive of links to past articles on the issue.

At the end of the article is a series of bulleted points on “what lies ahead” in this struggle. The last point states that:
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has proposed a plan to keep waste at the nuclear reactors that produced it until it can be reprocessed. It has the support of Utah’s governor and congressional delegation, with the exception of Sen. Orrin Hatch.

Today in history

December 6

1865

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, abolishing slavery.

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A Sad Day for the GPUS

Ever since the Tulsa Convention there has been much to-do about the seat left vacant on the nationsl GPUS Steering Committee as a result of the elections leavning such a vacancy. There recently came about a proposal from California regarding this, with two people up for being placed in the vacant seat, each sharing the votes by half.

Today, Tom Sevigny, one of the two, and the person who won the election via the voting method that was used in Tulsa (one of the points of contention is the actual voting method), resigned from the party all together. A veteran Green, he’s had it.

This has made me very sad.
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Carnival of the Green #5

This week’s Carnival of the Green (#5) is hosted by The Greener Side, a blog devoted to all sorts of green issues.

Gas Leaks

Most of Utah’s drinking water comes from underground water sources. So it’s alarming to hear that
4,000 cases of leaking underground petroleum storage tanks have been reported since 1988, according to an article in today’s Deseret News. Cleanup efforts are approaching the $1 million mark.
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Today in history

(Sources: Peace Buttons and War Resisters League Calendar)

December 5

1955
Five days after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat the African-American community of Montgomery, Alabama launched their boycott of the city’s bus system.The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was formed to coordinate the boycott with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., elected as its president. Out of Montgomery’s 50,000 black residents 30,000-40,000 participated. The boycott lasted over 1 year (54 weeks) until the buses were integrated.

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