Friday, May 26
Arriving
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I will be offline for a few days.
The Green Party of the United States issued a press release today on the Stop the Divine Strake Action. I a m quoted in it:
“It’s obvious that Divine Strake is a show of force preceding an imminent attack on the people of Iran — which may include the use of nuclear weapons. It’s a test run for President Bush’s apparent attempt to set off a world war with Middle Eastern nations,” said Deanna Taylor, Desert Green candidate for Salt Lake County Council , who plans to participate in the protest. Desert Greens (Green Party of Utah) have led the Green Party of the United States in opposing the test.
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Here is the latest update of Stop the Divine Strake Actions.
Workshops:
(subject to change)
Teton Rainbows ~ Bennie LeBeau aka Blue Thunder
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The Utah Special Legislative Session will begin Wednesday at 2pm.
According to today’s Salt Lake Tribune, these items will be up for proposal to be addressed following an address to the House and Senate by Mexican President Vicente Fox:
It is anticipated the much of the session will be spent debating the medicaid dental benefits.
I’d like to start this post by stating that I am not condoning not wearing seatbelts. I encourage people to wear seatbelts.
I am against the government telling me that I have to wear a seatbelt.
Yesterday the “Click it or Ticket” campaign was kicked off in Utah. Within four hours of the kickoff ceremony, 571 citations were issued to motorists not wearing seatbelts.
I truly understand the need for motorists to wear seatbelts, however, they are hurting no one but themselves by not wearing them. Why, then, are our tax dollars being spent enforcing something that doesn’t affect the safety of others by virtue of someone not wearing their seatbelt? In my opinion, this is an invasion of privacy and yet another attempt by authorities to dictate what people do to their own bodies.
I would like to know what me not wearing my seatbelt does to harm the driver in the lane next to me?
The article (click link above) quotes Traffic officers say that unfortunately, the threat of losing money causes people to react more than the threat of losing their lives.
“Maybe that will get people to catch on,” said Utah Highway Patrol Col. Scott Duncan.
Advocates of this law say that the state has to pay so much money in emergency medical care for those involved in injuries resulting from not wearing seatbelts.
So it’s not lives after all, it’s money. Bottom line.
I would like to see the statistics and compare the cost of emergency medical care resulting from people not wearing seatbelts to the cost of all the patrol officers issuing citations yesterday and also to the costs of those wearing seatbelts and still being injured. I would also like to see statistics that compare time periods where mass citations are issued and other crimes are committed (murder, rape, theft, etc.) during the same time period where law enforcement resources would have been better expended.
Again, I am not advocating not wearing seatbelts. Statistics show that people are more likely to die in accidents where people don’t wear seatbelts. I am against being told what I have to do to protect my own self. I want my tax dollars spent wisely, and, in my opinion, this is not the best use of my tax dollars.
(Check back for updates)
Workshops:
International Human Rights and the Western Shoshone
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I am a co-coordinator of scheduling workshops at the Divine Strake Action at the test site next weekend. So far, here are the workshops scheduled on Saturday, May 27th at Peace Camp:
International Human Rights and the Western Shoshone
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Yesterday the five candidates from the Desert Greens issues a press release denouncing the Divine Strake Test. It was published on the Green Party of the United States website.
When I did a google news search for Divine Strake our press release came up first this morning.
I had a lengthy discussion with a writer on Honolulu yesterday who called me when she found out about the test. She is outraged and has all sorts of connections to people like Dr. Helen Caldecott, renowned anti-nuclear activist physician and some others in the medical, activist, and noted activist actors arena. I urged her to use her contacts to get the word out to realize her vision of getting the media actively involved in this and to organize actions all around the country.
I have received similar phone calls from others in places all over the country. This has been, so far, an inspiring experience for me.
The Salt Lake Tribune has a piece on liberal voting trends between 2000 – 2004 along Utah’s Wasatch Front. The article includes graphs and maps of statistical information on percentages of liberal and conservative voting records.
There are some surprises resulting from the study. Not surprisingly, Salt Lake City has more liberal than conservative voters, but Murray, a suburb south of SLC has about an even amount of both. In fact, a significant portion of the area depicts 50-59% of voters leaning liberal.
The map in this article is such that when you roll your mouse over each city you get information on the stats for that city.
My city, West Jordan, is the 6th most conservative in the area, with a 60-69% conservative voting trend.
Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. is expected to announce the call today for Utah Legislators to convene a special session beginning May 24. The special session will begin by greeting Mexican President Vicente Fox to Utah.
At this point, it is predicted that Utah lawmakers will focus mainly on taxes:
The governor wants tax reform, in the form of a “flatter, fairer” system of income tax that would provide long-term stability and predictability. But some lawmakers would be satisfied just to lower rates to get a $70 million tax cut before November’s election.
Against Utah lawmakers wishes, the governor is considering putting the medicaid issue on the agenda. Advocates for the poor are urging the legislature to fund another year’s worth of dental and vision care for more than 60,000 adults on Medicaid – at a cost of $4.6 million.
Newly released state Health Department data show between 2003 and 2005 – the last time dental coverage was pulled – the state and federal government spent $725,166 on hospital emergency room visits for Medicaid clients with oral health complications.
I will be following this special session as best as I can and posting news items here.
Trucks transporting spent fuel rods to the pending Private Fueld Storage (PFS) Site in Utah would take up 2/3 of the road leading to it, making two-way traffic impossible, according to Utah officials quoted in an article published in today’s Deseret News.
The Utah Attorney General’s office spokesperson, Denise Chancellor, briefed the Utah Legislature’s Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee on the issue stating that The route, U-196, is in “sad shape.” Varying from 20 to 22 feet across, often without a shoulder, it is a main thoroughfare to Dugway Proving Ground. It is also an escape route that would be used if an accident happened at the Army’s chemical weapons incinerator, located near Stockton, Tooele County.
The transport trucks would weigh 225 tons and would haul casks of highly radioactive fuel to the PFS site, with much of the weight being the “protective” casing around the rods. The D-News has a diagram and map in today’s article.
Nuke Waste will also be transported by rail through Salt Lake City en route to Tooele County, according to Chancellor. About 697,000 Utahns live within five miles of the route.
You can find out how close you and people around the country for that matter live to a proposed rail line for shipping this waste at Citizen Alert, NukeWasteMap, and NukeWaste states.
In related news, a U.S. House panelOK’d option of private nuclear waste facility.
I wonder how close the people on that panel live to transportation routes?
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged environment, goshutes, nuclear issues, private fuel storage, Utah
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 
