NewsTrust - All Rated Stories

Are Electric Co-ops All So Different?

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Sep. 30 (Opinion) - The Old Dominion Electric Cooperative argues it is different than commercial utilities because it adheres to the "Seven Cooperative Principles," the last of which is Concern for Community—While focusing on members needs, cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policy. But sustainable development evidently includes forging ahead in its efforts to build yet another coal fired plant in Virginia at a time when utilities in other states are abandoning such efforts. The proposed Cyprus Creek Power Station, currently slated to cost $6 billion, will add additional mercury, nitrogen and other emissions harmful to the Tidewater region's waterways and air.

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The Failure of Empathy

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Aug. 18 (Opinion) - American G.I., Alyssa Peterson, who committed suicide after refusing to torture Iraqi prisoners. "The official probe of her death would later note that earlier she had been "reprimanded" for showing "empathy" for the prisoners. One of the most moving parts of the report, in fact, is this: "She said that she did not know how to be two people; she ... could not be one person in the cage and another outside the wire.""

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How will Roberts Rule on Clean Water?

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Jan. 12 (Opinion) - In the mining case being argued today, the Army Corps of Engineers granted a permit for a gold mine north of Juneau, Alaska, to Coeur Alaska which allows the company to deposit mine tailings into Lower Slate Lake after raising the level of the lake by building a long earthen dam. Turner writes, All agree that the tailings, fill or otherwise, would kill nearly all life in the lake. Coeur and the Corps insist that once the ore has been exhausted they’ll restore the lake to its former glory and where have we heard that before. According to Martin's post today, when a mining company attorney told the court that an Alaskan lake would be better off in the long run Justice David Souter described that logic as "Orwellian."

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Foreshadowing the Bush Legacy on Coal

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Jan. 08 (Opinion) - To assess what has been handed down from his [George W. Bush] eight years in office is doable. To write about what will last long- term is harder. One exception, though, comes to mind: here in Appalachian, we face a permanent hole in our vistas (and our lives) in the wake of so-called mountaintop removal mining (MTR). So-called because I prefer to call it Mountain Range Destruction. This type of mining pulverizes whole mountains for their underlying coal and dumps the resulting toxin-laden rubble in headwater streams.

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New FBI Guidelines: More COINTELPRO?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Sep. 04 (Special Report) - [Disclosure: author is a NewsTrust staff member. The portion quoting Jeanne Roberts was added after her review and hence there is no reference to her relationship to the piece in her review.] At 9:30 a.m. on September 17, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be hearing from Robert S. Mueller, III, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the wake of complaints. I wait, wondering, what, if anything, will come out of this hearing--how much further will we erode our Constitution and how much further will we descend from our proclamation in our national anthem that we live in the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave."

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The Big Tent in Denver

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Aug. 28 (Opinion) - [Disclosure: The is a post from the blog of a NewsTrust staff member.] It seems some of the more serious conversation on the future of the Democratic party in Denver this week--at least the progressive wing--might be taking place, not at the Convention or its associated events, but over at the Big Tent, a "new media center created by local organizations, national blogs, Digg, Google and YouTube."

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Ecoterrorism, not

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Jul. 31 (Opinion) - [DISCLOSURE: This piece is from the private blog of a NewsTrust staff member] But Blue Ridge Earth First! activists as eco-terrorists? Five folks who blockaded Dominion Resources for a couple of hours on June 30 after that company had succeeded in convincing the State to let it build a new coal fired electric plant, which will serve to accelerate the blowing of of mountains? Another five who held signs and banners and disbanded upon request and still got arrested and have agreed to performing 200 hours of unpaid labor for the City of Richmond hundreds of miles from their homes? Another two, who did who held the signs and disbanded, but are asking for a trial? Just who are the eco-terrorists here? Those who engage in civil disobedience and are willing to take their punishment or those who perpetrate the destruction of our mountains and our way of life?

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Filibuster Threats Stops Energy Votes...Again

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Jun. 12 (Opinion) - What's causing the "pain at the pumps?" Like me, you may have read the oil companies and the Bush Administration's arguments that demand from China and India is responsible. You may have read analysts who suggest that tax abatement on carbon fuel v.s renewables has stymied the latter's competitiveness. On June 6, the Washington Post's David Cho brought up another possibility( DISCLOSURE: Author is member of NewsTrust's staff)

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McCain's Health Plan embraces troubled model

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Jun. 05 (Opinion) - Although the Journal would be expected to be sympathetic to Mr. McCain, it actually pointed out that the plan has more problems than those of his Democratic rivals. While all would continue to rely on insurance companies to shore up the system, McCain proposes a federally funded [Disclosure: the author is a NewsTrust staff member]

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Cap and trade: "inefficent and ineffective"

Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - May. 07 (Opinion) - Over the weekend, Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, two Oakland, CA EPA attorneys, speaking as private citizens, sent an open letter to every member of Congress indicating that the cap and trade approach, such as espoused in the Lieberman-Warner America's Climate Security Act of 2007 (S. 2191), would be "inherently inferior to a carbon tax."

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Mr. McCain goes to Inez (KY) and tells us what women need

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Apr. 30 (Opinion) - April 23, the press covered Senator John McCain's stop in Inez, KY on his "It's Time for Action" campaign tour, seeking to emphasize his attention to powerless in our country. As he campaigned in rural eastern Kentucky, where poverty is worse among women than men, McCain suggested what women need is education and training while talking about Ms. Ledbetter's case and the law before Congress to address a Supreme Court decision which reversed an award in her favor on the grounds that she did not sue within six months of the first discriminatory paycheck.

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The Pennsylvania Presidential Primary

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Apr. 23 (News Analysis) - Yesterday, McCain senior adviser Mark McKinnon told USA Today reporter David Jackson, We're for anything that keeps it going. Jackson added that Senior McCain adviser Mark Salter smiled while saying, we don't want to intrude on their process. We want them to carefully deliberate their choices. All this probably leaves the Republicans hopeful that either Democrat will emerge as damaged goods come the Convention. And, meanwhile, it also leaves many of us tired.

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So where does McCain stand on the issues?

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Feb. 01 (Opinion) - With news that McCain's candidacy is off life-support with wins in NH, SC and FL, and his attractiveness to some independents (v.s his status as an anathema for some conservative Republicans), I reckoned it was time to look at where he stands on the issues.

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Rangel's Proposed Tax Package Political Hornet's Nest

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 07:50:58 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Oct. 30 (News Analysis) - There used to be a time when the Republicans were known for their fiscal conservatism. The pejorative the Republicans use for Democrats, "Tax and spend" rings hollow these days when contrasted with their practice: "Don't tax and yet spend." Compare the success of Clinton in balancing the budget with Bush's growing deficits resulting from his embrace of the Reagan notion that tax cuts for the wealthy "trickle down" and generate increased revenues. It makes a girl pine for the days when Papa Bush denounced "voodoo economics."

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The New Furor over FISA "Reform"

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Oct. 23 (Special Report) - I have to wonder whether those in Congress resisting further erosion of the Bill of Rights will prevail. Will a sufficient number stand up and abandon the President's agenda and eliminate retroactive immunity and program warrants, or, as in the case of previous vetoes and veto threats, will Mr. Bush, in the end, get his way?

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Pesticide's Elin D.Miller & The Revolving Door at EPA

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:33:06 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Oct. 11 (Opinion) - What had persuaded the EPA to ignore a letter from 54 scientists and physicians about the dangers of methyl iodide, after dropping its plan to approve the fumigant in April 2006? What had caused the agency to deny the scientists request for an independent study by the National Research Council?

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The Corps, its whistleblower and Katrina

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:09:48 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Oct. 10 (Special Report) - The story of the pumps is especially troubling as they were supplied by Bush family business partner and political supporter J. David Eller of MWI, already under investigation since 1999 for supplying faulty pumps in Nigeria. The ACE had also awarded a contract to rebuild the levees to the former ACE officials who had designed the problematic levees in the first place.

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GE: Here's a bright idea: How 'bout American-made compact fluorescents?

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:09:54 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Oct. 04 (Opinion) - Almost everybody will tell you that compact fluorescents are a good idea from the EPA to your local power company to environmental lifestyle magazines. The small amount of mercury is less than that added to the environment by coal burning plants. The Energy Bill, still awaiting its conference committee reconcilation even included a plan to transition to these energy savers from the old-style incadescent bulbs. Who tells you, however, how the bulk of these bulbs, even those produced under American labels, such as General Electric, are made in China?

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Are "national interest electric corridors" for us or for the industry?

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:39:32 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Oct. 03 (Opinion) - Clayton's is the first national paper to provide coverage other than the AP account. He cites both the government's position and that of opponents and the possible results of the order. He fails to mention that the National Trust for Historic Presenrvation named historic places in transmission corridors as one of the 11 most endangered historic sites for 2007. And while he mentions the order's source of legislative authority, he fails to set it within the framework of other Bush administration orders, several recent, which favor the desires of the energy industry over those of advocates for environmental quality or worker safety.

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W&M's Gene Nichols still nailed by the Wren Cross

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:29:40 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Oct. 02 (Opinion) - Checking today, I learned that Nichol's foes are again using the power of the internet to rally against him, sponsoring a site with arguments against his renewal and a petition "Should Nichol's be Renewed," created on June 12 in Utah, after sending out an anonymous newsrelease on June 11. There's a second site created at nearly the same time with the same provider, for the Society for the College of William and Mary, which appears to be down with no past history at the internet archive. But Nichols supporters also have a site (email), which says it has uncovered some of the right-wing funding behind the effort.

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