Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

California State Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat representing the San Fernando Valley, has called an April 14th hearing on the seismic safety of Pacific Gas'n Electric and Southern California Edison's nuclear power plants on the California Coast.

The hearing will explore a broad range of issues including the adequacy of current seismic risk assumptions, safety system redundancy, the continued accumulation of spent fuel, and other disaster preparedness and response requirements at California's operating nuclear power plants. The committee will hear testimony from seismologists, nuclear power plant owners and operators, and representatives from appropriate federal and state regulatory agencies.

Press release and KPFA radio report: Senator Padilla Announces Committee Hearing Exploring Safety at California's Nuke Plants by CA State Senator Alex Padilla & KPFA News

For her book, Cunningham spent over 20 years illustrating how California might have looked before the arrival of Europeans. Her artwork often goes back centuries and even millennia (and on a few occasions way back to the ice age).

Among her illustrations is a striking view of the San Fernando Valley (as seen on the book cover), not too long ago with a grizzly bear in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. Below the bear is vast uncorrupted land. Another local scene by Cunningham shows San Bernardino with 15-foot-tall sun flowers. These plants were thought to be extinct since 1937, but recently some were found near LA. In "State of Change," this awe-inspiring painting is juxtaposed with a modern freeway on-ramp.

While researching "A State of Change," she studied protected areas but says she also learned from abandoned lots and their native grasses. Nineteenth-century art was another source of reference, as was accounts by early Euro-Americans.

Cunningham also consulted indigenous elders and sometimes learned things that were contrary to what anthropologists and other scientists had stated. She seems to agree with M. Kat Anderson, author of Tending the Wild, about the critical role Native Americans could have in restoring ecosystems. One problem, though, is that indigenous people tend to be more long-term in their approaches, whereas the Federal Government tends to think in terms of months rather than centuries. Nevertheless, she is aware of cases where the government was swayed toward the long-term. This gives her hope for the future.

Story and photos: Author-Artist-Scientist Laura Cunningham on "Forgotten Landscapes of California" by R. Plesset

Not every smoker can (or wants to) give up smoking, but everybody should prevent them from entering and poisoning our oceans vis-a-vis gutters and storm drains. Mary of the Echo Park Peace Vigil uses a portable ashtray from Europe. When she doesn't have access to one, she implements another solution.

Story and photos: Some Smokers are Butting Out of the Storm Drains by R of the Northeast L.A. Radical Neighbors

For the second consecutive year, the Northeast L.A. Radical Neighbors (NELA-Rad) and Converging Storms participated in the annual world-wide 350 demonstration. (Other groups were represented this year as well, including the Montrose Peace Vigil.) However, unlike last year, we organized two events: one on October 2, which coincided with Eagle Rock's annual Music Festival and thus benefited from heavy foot traffic. The second event happened on October 10 in conjunction with the other 350 activities around the world

Story and pictures: So Cal Participates in the 10/10/10 Global Work Party by R of the Northeast L.A. Radical Neighbors

George Duffy was a wilderness hero, a U. S. Forest Service employee and tireless advocate for the environment and for the wilderness who worked (and at times bled green) within the system for the safety of the Angeles National Forest that he was charged with protecting. With his retirement and now his death it is sad to see a staunch advocate of what is wild fall by the wayside. Farewell, George, your friends, family, and the forest creatures who knew you will miss you.

Letter: George Buffy's Farewell to the Wilderness by George Duffy via Fredric L. Rice