FROM THE NEWSWIRE: August 11 Richmond, VA - Despite a massive police presence throughout the city and our major action plan derailed by law enforcement harassment, 50 activists snaked their way through Richmond today in an un-permitted march, paying visits to several climate criminals. Carrying banners reading, “No Nukes, No Coal, No Kidding” and “Social Change not Climate Change,” people marched to the headquarters of Massey Energy, Dominion, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and Bank of America.

At Massey Energy, a notorious coal company involved in mountaintop removal coal mining, activists surrounded the entrance and yelled, “Hands off our mountains!.” The group then moved on to the Department of Environmental Quality which recently rubber stamped Dominion’s dirty coal plant in Wise County, VA. Next the group brought the party to Dominion, who is building the aforementioned coal plant as well as proposing a new nuke plant in Louisa County, VA. Chanting “No coal, no nukes, we won’t stop until you do!” the activists attempted to take over Dominion’s plaza but were repelled by police on horses. In a show of interspecies solidarity one horse bucked a cop off its back.

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: Activists from the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action occupied the welcome center for Dominion’s North Anna nuclear power plant today. The action was taken to protest Dominion’s plans to build two new nuclear reactors and to call out nuclear power for the false solution that it is to the climate crisis. “We are here to serve notice on the so-called ‘nuclear renaissance’ that the anti-nuclear movement is alive and well,” said Glenn Carroll, coordinator of Nuclear Watch South.

In all 25 people occupied the visitors center for 2 hours until police came in to remove them. The protestors wore shirts that read “Nukes not Welcome” and chanted and sang. “We chose to take non-violent direct action because Dominion and the federal government have completely failed to address the climate crisis,” said Paxus Calta who lives twenty miles from the plant. The protesters also gave their own version of a tour for visitors revealing the true nature of the nuclear industry. In all 6 people were arrested for refusing to leave the building and were escorted out in handcuffs to the cheers of their friends.

The nuclear power industry is attempting to pose itself as our savior for the climate crisis. This is simply not possible. The only thing that the nuclear industry can promise us is a life of radioactive waste, poisoned water, and cancer. Nuclear energy has no place in our transition away from fossil fuels. Since the action, police have set up check points around the convergence, following cars leaving the area, and pulling people over and running ID’s.

We will continue to fight for climate justice in the southeast. More action to come! The convergence runs through August 11th so come on out! Todays action was planned by Nuclear Watch South, Blue Ridge Earth First!, and Rising Tide North America.

FROM THE NEWSWIRE:
You are invited to:

Mountain Justice Summer Camp
May 17 - 23
Harlan County, Kentucky

Our 2008 Mountain Justice Summer camp will be at the base of beautiful Pine Mountain, with an old-growth forest and incredible hiking just above the camp - plus live mountain music, great food, films, workshops on coal mining and Appalachian culture, skills training, and plenty of time for fun and relaxing.

Best of all, the camp is extremely low-cost, only $20 plus $10 per night. There are cabins with bunk beds, plus tent spaces, a beautiful lake, awesome mountain views, and some of the best people you will ever meet anywhere (sorry - no dogs this year).

Register now at http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org

Go to the website to see pictures of the camp and some photos of our camp last year in Tennessee. This is our 4th annual camp, and we think this is going to be the biggest and best camp we have ever had, with well-known speakers like Kentucky author Silas House, Kayford Mountain Keeper Larry Gibson, Teri Blanton of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Ed Wiley from Rock Creek, West Virginia, plus many local Harlan County residents and coal miners who are concerned about mountaintop removal mining.

VA Tech Social Freak Brigade Tour

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: Recently, a group of radical mental health activists visited Blacksburg, VA to facilitate a community conversation about mental health on the Virginia Tech campus. The Icarus Project, The Asheville Radical Mental Health Collective, and other mutual aid societies around the globe continue to challenge people to consider what it means to be labeled "crazy" in a culture which is obviously insane.

It’s the year 2007 and I’m traveling with a couple carloads of fellow radical mental health activists that have come to Blacksburg to facilitate a discussion about mental health on the Virginia Tech campus. We’re all very excited and nervous, we’ve been talking about it for days, unsure of the situation we’re walking into. Ever since the infamous massacre on April 16th, when 23 year old English student Seung-Hui Cho murdered 32 people before killing himself in a spectacular display of mass media inspired brutality, this campus has become, among other things. a dramatic symbol to many of everything that’s wrong with college mental health services in the United States. Of course the really scary part is that what happened at Virginia Tech could have happened at any number of big universities and the odds are likely that it will happen again. There are a lot of alienated and disturbed kids out there that have fallen through the cracks in a fragmented, traumatized society, and a there are also a lot of guns.

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: Between September 21st and 23rd, Blue Ridge Earth First!, a new EF! group that just got started up in Virginia, held their first equinox campout. Several Katuah EF!ers from Asheville came to their campout, helped teach workshops, and participated in the demonstration at Geannie Strosser's house.

Blacksburg, VA - We've always known Jeannie Stosser was a scumbag, always. Back in 2004 she was so upset over the widespread support for an anti-development candidate for town council that she was caught sneaking around his house peering through the windows apparently preparing to launch a bizarre allegation that something about "it's supposed to be a duplex but he lives in the basement," and "is there a staircase here?" or something and so he shouldn't even be allowed to register to vote let alone run for council and he should be all duct-taped up and shipped to the moon! Yep, she always has been a weird one, always.

Come to the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action

FROM THE NEWSWIRE:

Southeast “Convergence for Climate Action” to combine low-impact living with high-impact civil disobedience
August 8-14, near Brevard, NC
You must register at http://www.climateconvergence.org/southeast to get directions!

The Southeast Convergence for Climate Action, near Asheville, North Carolina, will bring together activists across the region who are fighting mountaintop removal mining and coal and nuclear power plants. Mountaintop removal coal mining is currently devastating the ecologically diverse southern Appalachian Mountains. The coal companies have literally flattened hundreds of square miles of mountains, destroyed thousands of miles of our life giving streams, and terrorized countless communities in the process. Meanwhile southern utility companies are planning a blitzkrieg of new dirty coal plants, despite our regions already dismal air quality. To add insult to injury these same utility companies are using climate change as a justification for building a new fleet of dangerous nuclear reactors.

With extreme weather, massive species extinctions, and melting ice caps becoming a more urgent and dire reality each day, it is high time for us to come together to take direct action against the root causes of climate change. This summer, environmental and social justice groups throughout the Southeast will come together for the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action, a gathering to learn and take collective action against climate Change.

The convergence will consist of a week of information and skill-based workshops, strategy sessions, and direct action aimed at building a no-compromise climate justice movement. With some of the Big Green environmental groups selling out to the nuclear and "clean" coal industries, and large, corporate-led climate initiatives designed to preempt any meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions being pushed in DC, grassroots groups need to join forces with affected communities to fight the fossil fuel empire and create truly sustainable, community-based solutions outside of the capitalist system.