A driving snowstorm could not keep Vermonters away from the statehouse in Montpelier yesterday as the Vermont Senate convened a historic debate and then voted on the future of the state’s aging nuclear power plant.

Some 1300 people – most of them standing before live video coverage outside the small, overcrowded Senate chamber -- listened to several hours of respectful debate that even included the proposition of building a new nuclear power plant in Vermont as per President Obama’s pro-nuclear agenda. But when it was all over, senators from both parties resoundingly voted against a last-minute amendment for a new plant to replace the old one, and similarly defeated re-licensure of Vermont Yankee in 2012 by a vote of 26 to 4. Amidst cheers, clapping and hugs from the victors, it was clearly another Vermont moment for a state that prides itself on being cutting edge on social, political and environmental issues. As the only state in the nation that by statute allows its legislature to decide whether to re-license a nuclear power plant, the vote is likely to have wide-reaching ramifications, including

Our sources tell us that any day now Senator Lindsey Graham's appalling legislation (S. 2977) could be hitting the Senate floor. Graham's proposal takes a back-door approach at stopping federal trials for those suspected of being involved in the September 11th terrorist attacks - instead of flat-out opposing action to move these detainees to facilities in the U.S., this legislation drains funding from the last hope we'll have at fair September 11th trials.

If these men are guilty, then our federal courts will reach that determination. It is just wrong to cheat - and worse, even rob - them of their day in court. However, one-by-one we're seeing the Senators we thought we could count on to uphold the rule of law, turning on those values and backing this devious proposal.

Last week, we asked you to pick up the phone and put both Senator Graham and the White House on notice that we would fight any attempt to backtrack on federal trials. Now that they've been warned, it's our time to strike!

“It’s a great day to fight for working families,” thundered Ohio AFL-CIO President Joe Rogola, to the cheers of hundreds at the March for Jobs in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday. “It’s snowing here and they’re sitting up there in Wall St., nice and warm. But I’ll tell you, it’s going to get a whole lot hotter there, as we organize and fight for jobs and security for working families here in America!”

“Hey, hey, ho, ho, Wall St. greed’s gotta go,” “People’s needs, not Wall St. greed,” & “We need JOBS, now,” echoed off buildings in downtown Columbus, as hundreds braved the latest snowstorm to march to the Ohio State Capital building, calling for jobs and relief for working families.

“I came to the march to fight for jobs, for me, but especially for our families,” said unemployed sheet metal worker Mary Young. “I’ve worked 4 months in the last two years, and had to go to Tennessee to even get part time work,” she said. “It’s ridiculous! These billionaires just take more and more and more from working folks. Even when they hire a few, they won’t hire the women,” she said.

The mystery has been solved.

Where is this "new reactor renaissance" coming from?

There has been no deep, thoughtful re-making or re-evaluation of atomic technology. No solution to the nuke waste problem. No making reactors economically sound. No private insurance against radioactive disasters by terror or error. No grassroots citizens now desperate to live near fragile containment domes and outtake pipes spewing radioactive tritium at 27 US reactors.

No, nothing about atomic energy has really changed.

Except this: $645 MILLION for lobbying Congress and the White House over the past ten years.

As reported by Judy Pasternak and a team of reporters at American University's Investigative Reporting Workshop, filings with the Senate Office of Public Records show that members of the Nuclear Energy Institute and other reactor owner/operators admit spending that money on issues that "include legislation to promote construction of new nuclear power plants."

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The Commander of the U.S. Army Pacific, Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, predicted a coup was "unlikely" during the Pentagon's military training exercise on Thai soil, but a powerful Red Shirt opposition movement has now targeted America's relations with Thailand's coup-minded army.

"In the unlikely event of a coup, we will take our direction from D.O.D.," Lt. Gen. Mixon said a few days ago in an e-mail interview, referring to U.S. Department of Defense guidelines.

Ultimately, a coup did not occur during the Cobra Gold 2010 joint military exercise, which began on February 2 and successfully ended on Thursday (February 11).

South Korea participated for the first time, and joined Singapore, Japan, Indonesia and Thailand with a combined total of 11,500 personnel, including 6,000 from America, the U.S. Army's Pacific Public Affairs Office said.

But simultaneously, 20,000 Thai security forces are separately being deployed throughout Bangkok at strategic sites.