We are writing because of the new and immediate danger of a U.S. attack on Iran, either directly by the Pentagon or through Israel. In the next few weeks and months, we need your help to organize and mobilize a grassroots movement in opposition to another illegal U.S. war predicated on lies about “weapons of mass destruction.” The real threat of such an attack was made clear last week, when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, addressing a convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington DC, said that Iran's nuclear program must be stopped by "all possible means." Democrats and Republicans seemed united as they lined up to express unequivocal support for this position, presenting Iran’s totally legal development of nuclear energy as a dire threat to "world peace."

King Fossil Fuel has ruled: there will be no Senate debate on global warming this year. And Joe Lieberman's greenwashed campaign gift for John McCain is a no-go.

On June 6 the Senate failed to override a Republican-led filibuster against the bi-partisan Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. It was a stunning victory for a coal-oil-gas industry that will resonate through the presidential campaign and deep into next year's new presidency and Congress.

The legislation was complex and controversial, involving a wide range of potential strategies to fight the climate crisis. At its core were "cap-and-trade" schemes establishing a federal bureaucracy meant to control emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Proposals introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) promoted renewables and efficiency, among other things. Waiting in the wings was a series of amendments which may have set aside roughly a half-trillion dollars for funding new commercial reactor construction.

Over the years, once in a great while, I’ve been surprised to cross paths with a journalist at a major TV outlet who actually seems willing and able to go outside the conventional boundaries of media discourse.

That’s what happened one day in the fall of 2005 at the Boston headquarters of the CN8 television network, owned and operated by the corporate media giant Comcast. I showed up for an interview about my book "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death." My expectations weren’t very high.

After all, I was setting foot in the studios of a large commercial TV channel with wide distribution of its programming in New England and beyond. And Comcast, shall we say, has earned a reputation as a voracious media conglomerate with scant interest in the public interest.

I was scheduled to appear on a prime-time nightly show hosted by Barry Nolan, a longtime TV newsman. When the cameras started rolling, it quickly became clear that he’d actually read the book -- and was willing to explore its documentation and damning implications about the use of media to drag the United States into one war after another.

The Worthington Arts Council has chosen a proposal for Project Green, a public visual arts installation to celebrate the spring groundbreaking of the Peggy R. McConnell Arts Center. William Cravis, a visiting professor of sculpture and foundations at Ohio University, will execute his proposal this summer.

In keeping with Project Green’s theme of sustainability, Cravis’ proposal incorporates the use of thousands of plastic bottles and containers. To collect these materials, the Worthington Arts Council and Sustainable Worthington are partnering on a city-wide Bottle Drive from May 2 – June 18. They are in need of plastic containers of all shapes, sizes and colors. Bottles or containers should be rinsed out, the labels removed and the caps left on. The plastic materials can be dropped off at several sites across Worthington:

WAC Office/Griswold Senior Center, 777 High St. 2nd Floor
Northwest Library, 2280 Hard Rd.
Old Worthington Library, 820 High St.
Worthington Community Center, 345 E. Wilson Bridge Rd.
Worthington Municipal Building, 6550 N. High St.