MORTON SENTENCED
TO FEDERAL PRISON
Eugene peace activist and Quaker scholar
Peg Morton says she’s “relieved” at her
three-month sentence this week for criminal
trespass at the former Army School of the
Americas (SOA) in Georgia (see news briefs
last week). Morton, 73, says Judge Mallon
Faircloth usually gives six-month sentences
for repeat offenders, but may have taken into
account her bad back and age. Three other
protesters, none from Oregon, did get six-
month sentences. A fifth protester got two
years of probation.
Morton stipulated to the facts in the case,
which means she conceded that she was on
Fort Benning property, but she pled not
guilty, which allowed her to make a statement
to the court.
Due to prison overcrowding and multiple
convictions in the civil disobedience actions,
Morton won’t begin serving her sentence
until April, which will give her more time for
preparation and research. She’s particularly
interested in the stories of women who are
serving time for non-violent crimes, such as
being “co-conspirators” in drug cases.
She says she’s willing to go to federal
prison, but she still thinks the sentences given
to SOA protesters are unfair and the true
criminals are those trained in torture and
murder by the SOA. “The generals and dicta-
tors who are authors of these crimes and
graduates of this school have never been
brought to trial in Central and South
America.” — TJT
WINTER RAINS DUMP
RAW SEWAGE IN RIVER
On Dec. 13 one out of every five toilet
flushes in Eugene-Springfield went directly
into the Willamette River untreated.
The regional sewer plant released 23 mil-
lion gallons of raw sewage into the river in a
16-hour period during a rainstorm last month,
according to a memo from the plant. The
plant has a capacity of 175 million gallons of
sewage a day, but, due to rainwater infiltrat-
ing the sanitary sewer system, was deluged
by more than 195 million gallons on Dec. 13.
“There was minimal risk of public expo-
sure from these overflows because of the cold
temperature, heavy rain, high stream flows,
and lack of water recreation activity,”
Wastewater Director Peter Ruffier stated in
the memo.
Since the last overflow during storms in
1996-97, the plant has been working on a plan to
handle five-year storm events equal to 3.9 inches
of rain in one day. On Dec. 13, rainfall measured
2.7 inches. — Alan Pittman
GARRETT EPPS’ TALK
ON CITY CLUB SITE
For those who missed law professor
Garrett Epps’ talk to City Club Jan. 6 on “The
Bill of Rights Today: an Historical
Perspective,” the text of his presentation is
now available on-line at www.cityclubofeu-
gene.org
Epps says his talk, which examines how
constitutional rights have been interpreted
during times of war, is scheduled to be pub-
lished in the next Oregon Law Review and
will eventually be on-line for broad reader-
ship at www.law.uoregon.edu/org/olr/
In his talk, Epps describes the Bill of
Rights as “a partial list of the treasured liber-
ties traditionally enjoyed by British sub-
truly profound effect on the tone of
jects, to be read explicitly against a
public debate and has shaken the
background of the English
Bush administration.”
common law, and to be inter-
But Epps is still worried.
preted by — by whom?
“Each dark moment in our his-
Nothing
in
the
tory has ended well so far; but
Constitution makes clear
that does not make a happy
who if anyone is to enforce
ending inevitable in our time.
the Bill of Rights. In 1789,
Over and over, fear and hatred
it was far from clear that
attack freedom, and one of these
courts would have that re-
GARRETT EPPS
days those wounds may prove fatal.
sponsibility.”
All it will take is a government deter-
Epps outlines the pattern of Bill
mined to drive every nail, and a people so
of Rights abuses by our government during
frightened and divided that they will accept
wars hot and cold, but “The eventual happy
the hammer.” — TJT
ending of the story comes only because the
people themselves have kept alive the idea
PARKWAY COSTS
that there are some things government should
ALREADY EXPENSIVE
not do, even in moments of danger.”
He notes that “the movement by cities
The $100 million or more West Eugene
across the country, including Eugene, to
Parkway hasn’t even broken ground yet but
adopt resolutions opposing the USA PA-
it’s already bleeding the city of money.
TRIOT Act is very much in the mainstream
The city spent $50,000 on the parkway
of the American tradition — and it has had a
last year, according to a city memo. Public
works staff working on analyzing the many
environmental impacts of the project spent
$10,144. The rest was $39,913 in legal fees
BY PAUL NEEVEL
defending the controversial project. — AP
David Oaks
Since 1990, Eugenean David Oaks has
directed Mind Freedom Support Coalition
International , a U.N.-recognized NGO pro-
moting human rights for mental health
consumers and psychiatric survivors.
“Drug companies dominate the mental
health system — that’s the problem,” he
explains. “We’re in the pro-choice camp,
looking at a full range of alternatives.” In
1968, at age 13, Oaks published an under-
ground newsletter in his school on
Chicago’s South Side. “It was all about
social change and the counterculture,” he
recalls. “It was censored by the principal.”
Later on, as a student/activist at Harvard,
Oaks suffered emotional and mental
crises. “I was in a psychiatric facility five
times, forcibly drugged and locked up in
solitary confinement,” he says. “That was
my recruitment room for this work.” After graduation, Oaks became an organizer for
peace and environmental groups. In Eugene since 1983, he worked on forest actions
and a nuclear-free zone before devoting his efforts full-time to mental health issues in
1989. “We oppose forced treatment,” he emphasizes. “People should be given full
information and the ability to make choices.” Learn more at www.MindFreedom.org
8 JANUARY 29, 2004
COURT STOPS SPRAYING
ALONG SALMON STREAMS
In a precedent setting ruling, federal dis-
trict court Judge John Coughenour last week
restricted the use of 38 pesticides near
salmon streams and has required point of sale
warnings on products containing pesticides
that may harm salmon. The ruling came in a
case brought by fishing and conservation
groups in Seattle.
“This is a landmark decision that finally
gives salmon relief from pesticides after a
decade of agency inaction,” said Patti
Goldman, the Earthjustice attorney that rep-
resented the groups. “The court has blocked
the use of the most harmful pesticides along
salmon streams until the government has en-
sured that salmon will be protected.”
The ruling followed Judge Coughenour’s
2002 decision that found EPA out of compli-
ance with the Endangered Species Act for
failing to protect salmon from harmful pesti-
cides. The Judge ordered EPA to consult with
the NOAA Fisheries to establish permanent
restrictions needed to protect salmon from 54
pesticides over a two-and-a-half-year time-
line. After the 2002 ruling, environmental
and fishing groups filed for an injunction to
reduce contamination of salmon streams
while EPA and NOAA Fisheries develop per-
manent restrictions.
The ruling puts in place no-spray buffers
of 100 yards for aerial applications and 20
yards for ground applications, with excep-
tions for certain uses that are unlikely to pol-
lute water.
The court order also requires this warning
for products containing seven pesticides that
have polluted urban salmon streams.
These warnings must be provided to pur-
chasers in urban home and garden stores
throughout Washington, Oregon and
California.
“Now consumers buying lawn and garden
products can easily make informed choices
that are better for salmon,” said Aimee Code
of the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to
Pesticides. She applauded the court’s deci-
sion saying, “It imposes simple and effective
measures to protect salmon.”
The interim measures imposed in the
court’s ruling will protect salmon from these
pesticides during the time it will take EPA to
comply with the law. The Judge found “with
reasonable scientific certainty that the re-
quested buffer zones — 20 yards for ground
applications, 100 yards for aerial applications
— will, unlike the status quo, substantially
contribute to the prevention of jeopardy” to
salmon. He further found that the evidence
“demonstrate[s] that pesticide-application
buffer zones are a common, simple, and ef-
fective strategy to avoid jeopardy to threat-
ened and endangered salmonids.”
“Our streams and rivers should provide
clean water for salmon to thrive in — instead
they’re a toxic soup of hazardous pesticides,”
said Erika Schreder of the Washington Toxics
Coalition. “This court decision forces EPA to
enforce current law and protect endangered
salmon from the impacts of pesticides.”
KALI’S CALAMITY
A month into the new year and it’s al-
ready the end of an era for Mother Kali’s
Bookstore staff. On Friday, Jan. 23, the