25
Mrz
2005

Das Interesse der Macht an der Verdummung der Massen

Chomsky liest seiner Regierung einmal mehr die Leviten:
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/19/19753/1.html

The revolution will be televised

Most people know that the corporate newspapers, radio and television exist to serve the interests of the big businesses that own them. In recent weeks, they have opened an all-out assault on the Venezuelan revolution.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8364.htm

Washington Focuses on Southern ”Axis of Evil”

While U.S. President George W. Bush played nice to a deeply frustrated Mexican President Vicente Fox at the North American Summit in Texas Wednesday, U.S. media attention was focused more on Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld's efforts to sound the alarm against Latin American troublemakers in his swing through the region this week.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8363.htm

If It's Really A 'World' Bank, Then Let's Look South

The selection of the new World Bank head freezes out the 1 billion people who live on less than $1 per day, and the 3 billion who live on less than $2 per day. It freezes out the entire Southern hemisphere­Africa, Asia, South America. In fact, it freezes out everyone who is not a Bush loyalist in the U.S., or a nervous European elite.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8368.htm

United States Arms Transfers Eligibility Criteria

Below is a list of links to specific provisions within U.S. law and international agreements that place restrictions on U.S. security assistance, including arms transfers, military aid, and military training.

http://www.fas.org/asmp/campaigns/legislationindex.html


From Information Clearing House

New Details About U.S. Military Shooting of Italian War Correspondent

New details are emerging about the killing of the Italian agent who saved her life. We speak with independent journalist Naomi Klein, who just returned from meeting with Sgrena in Rome.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8361.htm

Not even in his worst nightmares

For the neoconservatives around George Bush it was a guiding principle that the US should undertake no policy that conferred validity on the concept of international law. Is it any surprise that Lord Goldsmith should have been left struggling to find validity in international law for their policy on Iraq?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1445492,00.html


From Information Clearing House

Blair faces backbench backlash as pressure mounts to publish war advice

Tony Blair is under mounting pressure to publish the Attorney General's advice on the legality of the Iraq war after the revelation that Lord Goldsmith changed his mind to back the invasion shortly before it began.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=623450


From Information Clearing House

The Missing WMD Report

This matter has so far received little media coverage. But Democrats should be howling about Roberts' stonewalling. Do your bit for responsibility and accountability in government by passing along this article.

http://www.davidcorn.com/2005/03/the_missing_wmd.php


From Information Clearing House

Omega-News Collection 25. March 2005

There is No More Time
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/581015/

THE METHODIC DEMISE OF NATURAL EARTH
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/581162/

Abrupt Climate Change
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/581166/

Could global warming 'lead to a deep freeze'?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/584732/

Crazy Weather: Northwest Drought Tied to Southwest Floods
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/586856/

Global Warming Crisis Nears
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/590604/

Thin Skin Of Earth That Stands Between Us And Total Disaster
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/584575/

Protest moves from forest to town
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/581181/

HAIDA NATION FIGHTS FOR OLD FORESTS
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/590655/

Logging blockades in Queen Charlottes
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591560/

On the falsity of much 'Corporate Social Responsibility'
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/581608/

The story of vanishing tigers
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/584710/

Pollution Killing Asia's River Dolphins
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/586890/

Arctic Refuge and America's Coasts at Risk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591667/

Canada Begins Annual Seal Cull Amid Call to Boycott its Seafood
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591362/

World Water Day: EU Urged to Stop Privatization
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/586899/

Water socialists are all wet
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/587962/

World Water Day 2005: Private Sector Wants to Own Every Drop
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/588112/

Huge Dam in Laos to Displace Villagers, Imperil Rare Elephants
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/588777/

Biggest Study of GMO Finds Impact on Birds, Bees
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/586884/

The end for GM crops
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/586081/

EU to Push for GMO Foods Despite Opposition
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/584726/

Poland to Ban Monsanto GMO Maize Seed
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/588080/

Administration Kept Mum About GM Corn Sold
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591610/

Americans clueless about gene-altered foods
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/590698/

Damning Verdict on GM Crop
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/588103/

Human Exposure and Health Hazards
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591332/

Vote USA 2004
http://omega.twoday.net/to

Iraq War
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Irak-Krieg/

Is Iran next?
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next

Tsunami
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Tsunami/

RFID
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/RFID/

EMF-Omega-News 25. March 2005
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591980/

EMF-Omega-News 25. March 2005

Red blood cells lump by mobile phone
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/582286/

"MOBILE TELEPHONE CAN CAUSE CANCER"
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/586356/

SYMPTOMS of EMF SENSITIVITY (EMS)
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/590591/

Legal help needed for EMR injured
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/582037/

Continuation of the medical investigation with Saint-Cyr military school
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/586043/

Tetrawatch demands clarity
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/585970/

Council rejects latest phone mast bid
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/581965/

Exeter and Devon try to help campaigners
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/586577/

“THE FIGHT GOES ON!” SAY WINCHESTER PHONE MAST CAMPAIGNERS
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/586860/

Victory in fight to stop mast
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/586586/

Second thoughts on church masts
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/582860/

GREENS SHOW FLAG AT MAST FORUM
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/587887/

Plea to include phone masts
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591176/

TETRA AND PHONE MAST FORUM – GILLINGHAM
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/589979/

Parents oppose plans for more masts
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591162/

Mast's third refusal
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591122/

Driver's phone mast misery
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591140/

To Whom it may concern
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591207/

Children and Wireless
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591354/

Magenta News from Mast Network
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Magenta+News+-+Mobile-+Tetra+Masts+from+Mast+Network/

24.03.05

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/24_03_05_pfarrer_engelbrecht.pdf

Two Years Of Mess O' Potamia

Watch Jon Stewart's musings about the 2-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/thedailyshowwithjonstewart/

"They said it wouldn't last. Seriously, they said it wouldn't last."

(Hint: Skip the first minute of the clip (about Major League Baseball) and watch minutes 2-4 for Jon's take on Iraq.)

Source: http://www.tompaine.com/index.php#passiton

The Kids Are All Right

by Talking Points Memo

The Pew Center just released a poll saying Bush is losing trust among young people on his privatization scheme.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/the_kids_are_all_right.php

Oil, Porn, Death And Dignity

Oil, Porn, Death And Dignity: Your Letters

by TomPaine.com Readers

Readers react to our recent pieces about oil, hypocrisy in Congress and the Terri Schiavo case.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/oil_porn_death_and_dignity_your_letters.php

No Blood On Our Hands

by Sister Dianna Ortiz, TomPaine.com

A torture survivor speaks on the U.S. policy of systematically passing off the blame in torture cases.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/no_blood_on_our_hands.php

All PART Of The Game

by Gary Bass and Adam Hughes, TomPaine.com

Two OMB Watch analysts reveal Bush's main budget- management tool to be yet another farce.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/all_part_of_the_game.php

Very Deadly Year for Journalists

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/032305I.shtml

The Energy Crunch to Come

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/032305E.shtml

The Amazing Hypocrites

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/032305B.shtml

Arctic Refuge and America's Coasts at Risk

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0323-07.htm

Iraq Checkpoint Killings Unchecked

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0323-35.htm

Unmasking the Theocons

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0323-24.htm

Left and Right Unite to Challenge Patriot Act Provisions

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0323-01.htm

Administration Kept Mum About GM Corn Sold

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11203401.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp


Informant: Anna Webb

Iraq: Focus on Threats against Progressive Women

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/032305WA.shtml

Mercury Study Stripped from Public Documents

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/032305EA.shtml

The Exception To The Rulers

Please forward

An Evening with Amy Goodman

Joined by Javier Cosou, brother of Spanish Journalist killed at the Palestine Hotel in Iraq

WHEN: 7 -10 PM – Thursday, March 31, 2005

In The Exception to the Rulers, internationally acclaimed host of Democracy Now, award-winning journalist Amy Goodman, with the aid of her brother David Goodman, exposes the lies, corruption, and crimes of the power elite. An elite that is bolstered by large media conglomerates.

Special Guest: Javier Couso, brother of Jose Couso, the Spanish cameraman killed when a US military tank fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad nearly two years ago, who is in the United States to call for an independent investigation into the death of his brother and the prosecution of those responsible.

Copies of Goodman's the newly released paperback edition of The Exception To The Rulers will be available with a book signing to follow.

WHERE: Immanuel Presbyterian Church3300 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles (S.W. corner of Wilshire & Berendo-Parking on the street and at UTLA parking structure north of Wilshire off Berendo.)

Pre-event Dinner 5:30pm: $50 Donation and free copy of book.

General Admission Tickets:
$10.00 Donation at Door

No one turned away for lack of funds.

For More Information: Call KPFK at (818) 985-2711 Ext. 214

Democracy Now! is a daily radio and TV news program on over 300 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the US.

In Los Angeles, Democracy Now! can be heard on KPFK 90.7 FM M-F at 6 AM repeated at 9 AM . Also seen on satellite TV - Link TV, channel 375 Direct TV and channel 9410 DISH network M-F: 8AM, 3PM EST Free Speech TV, channel 9415 Dish Network M-F: 5 AM, 9 AM, 4 PM and 9 PM PST.



TRANSCRIPT FROM SHOW -TO WATCH/LISTEN GO TO:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/23/1455244

Democracy Now!

Brother of Slain Journalist Jose Couso Calls for Prosecution of Those Responsible for U.S. Attack on Palestine Hotel

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005

We speak with Jose Couso's brother, Javier, who is in the United States to call for an independent investigation into the death of his brother and the prosecution of those responsible. [includes rush transcript]

Since the beginning of the invasion, over three dozen journalists have been killed in Iraq. It remains one of the deadliest conflicts for journalists in recent history.

• Javier Couso, brother of Jose Couso. For more information go toJoseCouso.info.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Jose Couso's brother, Javier, in the United States to call for an independent investigation into the death of his brother and the prosecution of those responsible. I asked him to talk about the comments of the tank commander, Sergeant Shawn Gibson on the documentary. Gibson is the U.S. soldier who pulled the trigger that killed Jose Couso. He’s translated by James Hollander.

JAVIER COUSO: [translated] I think he’s lying, because of all of the proof, because of the evidence that we have, that we know of: Recordings, the testimony of hundreds of witnesses, of military experts who make it very clear that if you are exposed to an enemy attack, you would never have a tank on the bridge, you know, just sort of sitting there. Ten minutes that the main gun of the tank was aiming at the Hotel Palestine. There was a heat round from the tank. It was a high explosive, high power explosive used called “heat.” We have actually been able to gain a copy of the manual of urban combat of the U.S. Army. They had to get information – they had to ask for information from the G2, which is the operations section, and G3, which is information sections. And they knew. They knew that the Hotel Palestine was a civilian building. They received authorization from the head of the Third Infantry Division, General Buford Blount, who also knew that the Hotel Palestine was a civilian target and the Hotel Palestine had all of these journalists.

AMY GOODMAN: So you're calling for the prosecution of those in the military? Who? Of who?

JAVIER COUSO: [translated] The General of the Third Infantry Division, Buford Blount, Captain Philip Wolford, Lieutenant Colonel Philip DeCamp, and Sergeant Shawn Gibson. According to the Code of Military Justice, orders to attack civilians or journalists -- journalists are civilians -- can be disobeyed. The head of the division, the Third Infantry Division, is either a madman or he’s simply a criminal, war criminal.

AMY GOODMAN: And what has the Spanish government responded to this demand? What has the U.S. government responded?

JAVIER COUSO: [translated] The attitude, as Olga said before, because of the mobilization that we have had, the movement that we have had, the attitude has changed. What we asked the Spanish government to do was exactly what the Ukrainian government had done in the case of Taras Protsyuk, who was a Reuters journalist who was killed. We had to wait 22 months so that they would recognize the dignity of my brother as a worker, as a media worker. At a diplomatic level, there was request for explanations between, well, minister to minister, say, from the foreign minister – the Spanish foreign minister -- to Secretary of State Colin Powell, at the time. Right, but Powell, all he did was simply pass along the buck to the report that was -- that had been made by the internal army report. In the last two weeks we have raised the bar of our demands. We have gone to the European Parliament. We met with all of the political groups present in the Parliament from right to left, every single one. We were received by both the President and the Vice President of the European Parliament. And they issued an institutional statement supporting our struggle for justice. On the 13th of April, they're going to debate this in the European Parliament. Really, the focus on the difference between the case of Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian journalist who was attacked a few weeks ago and the case of the attack on the Hotel Palestine and Jose Couso, why is there going to be a serious investigation apparently into the attack on the Italian journalist but not into the Hotel Palestine? We're working with the Human Rights Commission of the European Parliament on a resolution that would demand explanations from the government of the United States, which would deal with all kinds of attacks on journalists, not only the attacks like the Hotel Palestine or the one on Giuliana Sgrena, but also journalists who have been kidnapped, because my impression both having been in Iraq and also outside Iraq is that independent journalism is under threat, is that there have been more than 40 journalists who have been killed in Iraq without any investigation. They're being kidnapped by dark forces whose whereabouts in that character were don't know. If we don't stop this among -- between all of us, with all of us, that is, families, journalists, media organizations, then the only information we'll receive about war will be from embedded journalists or from the military itself.


AMY GOODMAN: Javier Couso, the brother of Jose Couso, who died on April 8, 2003, when the U.S. military attacked the Palestine Hotel. Since the beginning of the invasion, over three dozen journalists have been killed in Iraq; remains one of the deadliest conflicts for journalists in recent history. Tonight, Javier Couso will be screening the full documentary, Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness, here in New York at the Unitarian Church of All Souls on Lexington and 79th. He will also be joining us for our Un-Embed the Media tour that we kick off next week.

http://www.democracynow.org


Informant: Carolela2

Intro to the Signs and Techniques of Online COINTELPRO

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/03/314036.shtml


Informant: billder

Iraqi Legal Calls for Trying Bush, Blair

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2005-03/23/article01.shtml


Informant: ranger116

New Volcano Threat: Just When You Think It's Safe ...

http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/050324_volcano_erupt.html


Informant: Anna Webb

Logging blockades in Queen Charlottes

http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=bc_logging-haida20050323

Haida blockades roads to protest transfer of Weyerhaeuser timber rights
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/politics/news/shownews.jsp?content=n032315A

Protests stall logging activities
http://www.canada.com/search/story.html?id=60f5c86d-ad5e-4350-9b80-4a9614e84696


Informant: Deane

Your Travel Papers, Comrade

http://www.lewrockwell.com/suprynowicz/suprynowicz21.html

Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right

First, we want you to know about the conference being held in New York City on April 29th and 30th. Titled: "Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right." It is drawing a lot of media attention and people are signing up from as far away as California! If you live near NYC--don't miss this opportunity!

Co-sponsored by the New York Open Center and CUNY Graduate Center Public Programs (At Fifth Ave & 34th St. Manhattan)

Friday Evening, April 29, 7:30-10 pm and
Saturday, April 30, 10 am-5:30 pm

I will be speaking on "Is an Unholy American Theocracy Here Or Has Jim Jones Gone Mainstream?" If you don't live near New York city you may want to pass this on to your friends that live there.

For more information go to:
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/NYConference.html

Second, we have posted a number of articles and important documents on the Terri Schiavo case. A survey done by Findlaw reveals that only 33% of Americans have a living will. Learn how to protect yourself from the Terri Schiavo Effect at: http://www.yuricareport.com/Health_Issues/ProtectYourselfFromSchiavoEffect.html

Thirdly, we are posting the GOP playbook, written by the Republican guru of words, Frank Luntz on how the GOP plans to win the 2006 elections. Yes--they have it all written out and it involves "redefining words" if not reality! These are two PDF files and it will take about 30 minutes to download, but believe me--this is an important document! (We are typing the material out, but it will take us several weeks to finish the task--so that you will be able to link to sections etc.) Plus this:

NEW: Meet the Man Who is Responsible For Turning Radical Religious Right Wingers Into Jolly Santas: Frank Luntz, the Propagandist of the Century
by Katherine Yurica

Luntz is proud to point out that the football he used in focus groups during the historic Contract with America campaign is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution! He's a pollster with a difference. His real strength is that he polls people to test the effect of words on them! He's a guru to politicians. He's been helping GOP candidates win their elections since 1994. Who is this man? He's the man who has written the Playbook for Winning the Elections in 2006 for the GOP! Click here. To go to the essay and to download the Playbook.
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/LuntzPropagandistOfCentury.html

I want to thank you for reading our stuff.

Best Regards,

Katherine Yurica
Publisher
The Yurica Report

Fluoride Stupidity And Population Control

http://www.preferrednetwork.com/FLUORIDE_STUPIDITY.htm


From ECOTERRA Intl.

CODEX ALIMENTARIUS and legislation to take away America's health freedoms

http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.htm


Informant: V

DeLay and His Demagogues

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/032405N.shtml

How Much Longer Can the American Economy Live on Credit?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/032405H.shtml

Once-Beautiful Baghdad Falling into Ruin

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/032405E.shtml

Freedom's Coming, All Aboard

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/032405B.shtml

Update from the Field 3/24/05

http://tinyurl.com/4av9h

VACCINES AND CHRONIC ILLNESS: THE NEW EPIDEMIC

The physician I have enlarged below, Lawrence B. Palevsky, is one of my very best friends and favorite people in this whole Universe!!! The greatest Dr. I have ever met! One of the greatest souls i have ever come to know .. a friend in need AND indeed! I am happy Sheri got a hold of this piece...she is always in touch with what is happening in this field, everywhere it seems! Bless her very busy, passionate heart!!!

If you or someone you know and love are in the New York area and want/need an incredible Holistic, M.D., be sure to look this man up....You will love him too!

P.S. Dr. Larry, shines when addressing a crowd...he knows his stuff and oozes passion, truth and integrity...You gotta see him speak!! Blessings all,

Pamela


Sheri Nakken
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 2:55 PM
Subject: [Vaccine Info] [NVIC] Vaccine Talk in NY

E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER
Vienna, Virginia
http://www.nvic.org


UNITED WAY/COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN
#9119

"Protecting the health and informed consent rights of children since 1982."


VACCINES AND CHRONIC ILLNESS: THE NEW EPIDEMIC

GUEST SPEAKERS
Barbara Loe Fisher & Kathi Williams of
The National Vaccine Information Center
http://www.NVIC.org

Lawrence B. Palevsky, MD
http://www.HolisticChildHealth.com

Alan P. Sherr, DC
Director, Northport Wellness Center

WHEN:
Saturday, April 9, 2005
7:30PM ~ 9:30PM

WHERE:
Northport Wellness Center
220 Ft. Salonga Road, Suite 203
Northport, NY 11768
631-262-8505

Cost $25
Seating Limited to 100
Registration and Advance Payment Required

Kathi Williams
National Vaccine Information Center
421 Church St., Suite E
Vienna, Va 22180
703-938-DPT3
http://www.NVIC.org



News@nvic.org is a free service of the National Vaccine Information Center and is supported through membership donations. Learn more about vaccines, diseases and how to protect your informed consent rights http://www.nvic.org



Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath

Vaccines - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm
Vaccine Dangers http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccineclass.htm

ANY INFO OBTAINED HERE NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS MEDICAL
OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION TO VACCINATE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE.


"Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information and religions destroy spirituality" ....Michael Ellner

Cultural Barbarism: Halliburton Destroys Babylon

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0324-28.htm

Bush Team Theme - 'We Were All Wrong'

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0324-23.htm

Our Face to the World Needs Lifting

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0324-33.htm

Challenging a Mistaken War Can Take More Courage than Fighting One

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0324-36.htm

Canada Begins Annual Seal Cull Amid Call to Boycott its Seafood

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0324-01.htm

Children and Wireless

Antennas removed
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591348/

Firefly phone targets tweens, their parents
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/591341/

Antennas removed

New York Daily News

Antennas removed
http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/v-pfriendly/story/292436p-250364c.html

BY DONALD BERTRAND
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005

Calling it a "huge victory for our children," an Astoria councilman announced yesterday that a cell phone company has agreed to remove four antennas from a building across the street from a local elementary school.

Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Astoria), other elected officials and the community have been protesting the antennas across from Public School 122 at the corner of Ditmars Blvd. and 21st St. since they were installed by Nextel Communications in October.

Nextel spokeswoman Diane Rainey said the four antennas were removed Friday. At the same time, eight other antennas on the building were activated.

"None of those face the school or are even pointed toward the school," said Rainey.

"We felt we did our best. This was the best solution we could find to address the concerns of the community but at the same time retain some kind of effectiveness at that cell site so that we can continue to serve our business and public safety customers in that area."

Vallone said getting the four antennas removed was a "first step, but we must continue to fight to remove all towers from this location and the unregulated placement of towers throughout the city."

In addition to removing the four towers directly facing the school, Nextel agreed to reconfigure the remaining towers so they blend inconspicuously with the architecture of the building and the neighborhood. The firm also will conduct a live radio frequency emissions study on a semiannual basis to ensure that the towers have no health effects on the surrounding community, the councilman said.

Vallone, Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) and state Sen. George Onorato (D-Astoria) have been fighting to have the towers removed since they were erected. The legislators organized a rally in November, attracting more than 100 concerned parents and teachers, and had threatened Nextel with boycotts and legal action.

A City Council resolution sponsored by Vallone asserts that many questions regarding potential long-term health risks have not been adequately resolved, and must be studied by the city before proper and complete assessments can be made regarding the placement of cell phone base stations where residents live and work. It was unanimously passed by the Council on March 9.

Intro 149, also sponsored by Vallone, was recently voted out of the Council's Buildings Committee and requires the city buildings commissioner to maintain a list of permits issued for all antennas.

Currently, the city does not keep track of tower locations. Intro 49 is expected to be voted on and passed by the full Council today.

"I don't want this to be the same situation we had with lead paint and asbestos, where everyone assumed they were safe and then we found out years later that they weren't," Vallone said

RCR Wireless News


Janet Newton, President
The EMR Policy Institute, P.O. Box 117, Marshfield VT 05658
Tel: (802) 426-3035 FAX: (802) 426-3030
Web Site: http://www.emrpolicy.org

Firefly phone targets tweens, their parents

http://www.rcrnews.com/article.cms?articleId=47901

by Mike Dano

Mar 11, 2005

As penetration rates soar in the United States and elsewhere, wireless players are looking for new areas of the market to push their wares. In some cases that involves super-cheap phones and prepaid service. In other areas, it means specialized branding like phones and service from ESPN. And for a handful of companies, it involves selling phones to children.

Founded three years ago, startup Firefly Mobile Inc. launched its Firefly phone for 8- to 12-year-olds. Rather than modifying an aging handset model from Nokia Corp. or Motorola Inc. for their purposes, Firefly's executives designed the device from the ground up to appeal to both kids and parents. The goal is to give parents a way to check up on their kids-"I'll pick you up from soccer practice in 15 minutes"-as well as to give kids a useful and desirable new toy-"look what I got!"
continued below

"Why aren't parents buying cell phones (for their children)? They're such practical tools," said Fred Bullock, Firefly's chief marketing officer. Bullock, along with other Firefly execs, hails from Apple Computer Corp., a company often lauded for its designs. "It's a huge untapped market."

Firefly's phone replaces the standard 10-key phone layout with five buttons that can directly dial a child's mom or dad (the mom button features a homely stick figure with a dress) as well as an optional 20 additional pre-selected numbers. The tiny phone also features a dedicated button for 911 emergency calls. Parents will be able to control the use of the phone; for instance, they can ensure the phone will receive calls from only a select set of numbers. The phone is about twice the size of a cigarette lighter, weights 2 ounces and is built by Solectron Corp.

For kids, the phone features a set of blinking lights and glowing keys "just like a real firefly," Bullock said. Kids can also choose from among 20 Disney-esque ringtones and can switch out the colored plastic covers. Firefly is even selling a mesh pouch for boys and a "wristlet" purse for girls.

"It was also very important to make a phone that kids would like and want," Bullock said.

Interestingly, Firefly evades the wireless industry's constant high-tech cravings with a phone that does nothing beyond placing and receiving calls. Parents won't have to worry about their children sending 100 text messages a day, downloading the latest 50 Cent ringtone or visiting one of a growing number of WAP porn sites.

"It's also designed to appeal to parents," Bullock said. "We're actually launching a new category of phone."

Firefly said market statistics point to a major opportunity. The company said there are 20 million 8- to 12-year-olds in the United States, and only 10 percent have mobile phones. Similar research from the World Wireless Forum shows that there were 190,000 children under the age of 10 in the United States who owned mobile phones at the end of last year, and that number is expected to double this year. For children aged 10 to 14, 5.5 million owned mobile phones last year and that number should increase by 2 million this year. The World Wireless Forum's new report also shows that children under 10 spend 12 percent of their pocket money on mobile-related products and services. Similar research from the NPD Group backs up that figure-the firm found that youth between 13 and 17 years old spent 10 percent less money in the past year on clothing, making up for that with an increase in spending on mobile phones.

Firefly is selling its device with prepaid service through Triton PCS/Suncom and soon plans to sell it through Cincinnati Bell's wireless arm. Triton is offering the phone for $200 with 1,200 prepaid minutes. Firefly also will sell the phone through its own Web site starting in May for $100 with 30 prepaid minutes, as well as through Target stores starting this summer under an exclusive arrangement with the retailer. The company will sell wireless service under a mobile virtual network operator arrangement with Cingular Wireless L.L.C., although Bullock said Firefly doesn't consider itself an MVNO.

Firefly plans to run its own advertising campaign to promote the phone, although Bullock declined to say how much money the company would spend on the effort.

Bullock said Firefly is working to expand the number of carriers selling the device. The company also is planning to upgrade its Firefly technology. The current version of the phone works on GSM 850 MHz, while a future version will work on GSM 900 MHz and CDMA networks. Firefly counts around 20 employees and is privately funded. Bullock declined to give funding specifics.

Firefly is not alone in marketing wireless services to children. Toy maker Hasbro said in February it is working on a phone using two-way radio technology for children ages 11 to 14. Wherify Wireless Inc. sells its Wherifone G550 device to parents and children, a gadget that supports voice calls and global positioning system location functions. Finally, SAMSys Technologies Inc. is teaming with SafeTzone Technologies to develop a family locator system working through radio frequency identification technology. The system will be installed in venues including Steamboat Ski and Resort in Colorado and Dollywood's Splash Country in Tennessee.


Janet Newton, President
The EMR Policy Institute, P.O. Box 117, Marshfield VT 05658
Tel: (802) 426-3035 FAX: (802) 426-3030
Web Site: http://www.emrpolicy.org

Human Exposure and Health Hazards

Part 1, February 03, 2005
http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?issue_ID=2491

Part 2, February 17, 2005
http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?issue_ID=2492

Dangers of Psychiatric Drugs - A bill to strengthen and protect America in the war on terror

Internet /radio interview with Sen RON PAUL ...TONITE! Re: Nat. Mental Health Screening

THERE IS MORE AT STAKE HERE THAN ONE CAN IMAGINE!!!

Tonight's Show March 24, 2005:
AAL Series - Dangers of Psychiatric Drugs Part 10
Featured Guest: CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL

YOU DEFINITELY DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS SHOW!

http://www.anniearmenlive.org/psychiatric_drugs.htm

AAL Press Release:
http://www.anniearmenlive.org/AALPressRelease032105.htm

For details, please visit
http://www.anniearmenlive.org/psychiatric_drugs.htm


URGENT: SUPPORT H.R. 181 - Parental Consent Act of 2005
introduced in the House by Congressman Ron Paul and Tom Feeney.
http://www.thelibertycommittee.org/pcapetition.htm

H.R. 181 would prohibit the use of federal funds for any universal or mandatory mental-health screening program. For those of you with websites, please post this petition on your sites and have valued members of your networks sign the petition in support of H.R. 181. You will also find this petition on my "linx" page at http://www.anniearmenlive.org/annie_linx.htm

So that you have a greater sense of what is at stake, below are two related items:

NOW, EVEN PARENTS LOST RIGHTS!!! Children's Mental Health in the 108th Congress

This is just ONE example that illustrates our current state of affairs...MAINLY, THAT THIS IS NO LONGER a government of the people for the people - DESPITE tireless efforts by so many...including most in Congress!


THE BAD - Sadly, despite media coverage by Dr. Laura, G. Gordon Liddy, World Net Daily, News Max, (my note: ALL REPUBLICANS!) many talk radio interviews across the country, and thousands of calls and emails to Congress, grants to fund the New Freedom Commission (NFC) recommendations, which include universal mental health screening and treatment with ineffective and dangerous medications, were not stopped. $20 million was appropriated for state grants to implement the NFC recommendations. Physician and Congressman Paul’s excellent language that required parental consent for screening before these programs were funded was not included. Dr. Paul wrote a letter signed by more than twenty Members urging the parental consent language. House leadership, including Speaker Hastert, Majority Leader DeLay, and Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Regula accepted the Paul language. All of these House Members and those that voted for the original amendment in September deserve our thanks. Sadly, that language protecting the basic right of parental consent was dropped in the Senate.

The Department of Education is spending $5 million on “Mental Health Integration in Schools” that we are still investigating, as well as $1 million for Senator Kennedy’s disastrous early childhood mental health program called Foundations for Learning. (See our update.)

The stand-alone bill passed the US House 425-1, but was stalled in the Senate by Senator Edward Kennedy.

And some though that the Democratic Party were our saviors!


The second item, is that Pharmaceutical companies got their bases covered with Senate Bill S - 3 in case there is any harm brought about to our children because of prescription drugs, such as antidepressants, prescribed during this Mental Health Screening debacle!
S.3
Title: A bill to strengthen and protect America in the war on terror. Sponsor: Sen Gregg, Judd [NH] (introduced 1/24/2005) Cosponsors (8)

Latest Major Action: 1/24/2005 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

What is further hypocritical is how a hidden intent for this bill is camouflaged in its title:

" A bill to strengthen and protect America in the war on terror".

With this bill, in essence, Pharmaceutical companies or government agencies are no longer required to disclose harmful effects on things such as vaccinations and drugs NOR may the public be awarded punitive damages!!!

In the audio clip excerpt below, I will provide the portion of the interview that is pertinent to this Senate Bill. The complete interview can be heard at the following link to learn on whose behalf portions of this bill aims to protect....NOT THE PUBLIC'S!!! http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2005/03/21.html

PLEASE TURN YOUR COMPUTER VOLUME UP AND CLICK ON THE LINK TO LISTEN
http://PlayAudio-123.com/play.asp?m=160164&f=CVXGXG&ps=13&p=1 (1 minute)

Senate Bill S- 3 (portions highlighted):
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c109:2:./temp/~c109TyIkZ7:e45042:

(If link above does not work, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.html and enter "Bioshield" in the Search Box.

`SEC. 762. WARNING UNIFORMITY.

`(a) IN GENERAL- Except as provided in this section, no State or political subdivision of a State may, directly or indirectly, establish or continue in effect under any authority any notification requirement for a drug, vaccine, or other biological product intended for use by humans that provides for a warning concerning the safety of the drug, vaccine, or biological product or any component or package thereof, unless such notification requirement has been prescribed under the authority of this Act and the State or political subdivision notificatio n requirement is identical to the notification requirement prescribed under the authority of this Act.

`(b) DEFINITIONS- In this section:

`(1) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENT- The term `notification requirement' includes any mandatory disclosure requirement relating to the dissemination of information about a drug, vaccine, or biological product in any manner, such as labels, labeling, posters, public notices, advertising, or any other means of communication.

`(2) WARNING- The term `warning' with respect to a drug, vaccine, or other biological product means any statement, vignette, or other representation which indicates, directly or by implication, that the drug, vaccine or biological product presents or may present a hazard to human health or safety.

IT GETS WORST!!!

`SEC. 319F-3. LIABILITY PROTECTIONS FOR PANDEMICS, EPIDEMICS, AND COUNTERMEASURES.

`(2) SPECIAL RULES- In an action brought under this section for damages the following provisions shall apply:

`(A) PUNITIVE DAMAGES- No punitive damages intended to punish or deter, exemplary damages, or other damages not intended to compensate a plaintiff for actual losses may be awarded , nor shall any party be liable for interest prior to the judgment.

`(B) NONECONOMIC DAMAGES-

`(i) IN GENERAL- Noneconomic damages may be awarded in an amount not to exceed $250,000 against a defendant only in an amount directly proportional to the percentage of responsibility of such defendant for the harm to the plaintiff, and no plaintiff may recover noneconomic damages unless the plaintiff suffered physical harm.

`(ii) DEFINITION- For purposes of clause (i), the term `noneconomic damages' means damages for losses for physical and emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, mental anguish, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of society and companionship, loss of consortium, hedonic damages, injury to reputation, and any other nonpecuniary losses.

`(3) COLLATERAL SOURCES- Any recovery by a plaintiff in an action under this section shall be reduced by the amount of collateral source compensation, if any, that the plaintiff has received or is entitled to receive that result or may result in loss to the manufacturer, distributor, or health care provider.


Jack Topel

DOWN, DOWN, DEEPEST DORSET

http://www.electrosensitivity.org.uk/thisweek.htm
http://www.policestateplanning.com/action.htm


Letter from Vera Chaney, Green Network

Our three day conference followed by our meeting at the House of Commons on the 16th March are proof that networking supplies a great deal of strength to each link in the chain.

Please, please keep the momentum flowing. We all also work on behalf of all those folk too ill to physically be with us at those meetings. Use your own websites to exchange information; whatever you find your own priority to be, emphasise the omission regarding human health, which has led to the situation we all find ourselves in today.

In particular, note the threat to our food supply, i.e. Dr Jean Monro’s (founder of Breakspear Hospital ) proposal to investigate the responses of patients when exposed to Genetically Modified Foods. This is of tremendous importance, especially to patients with hypersensitivity syndromes.

Dr Jean A Monro MB, BS, MRCS, LRCP, FAAEM, DIBEM, MACOEM is also a Consultant Physician at Fachkrankenhaus Nordfriesland, Bredstedt, Germany .

Also, watch our website for detailed information from our past meetings at the House of Commons, which are of great importance still for you to use today.

My sincere thank you to all new and old existing links in our chain of networkers, not forgetting also the supporting MPs and Members of the House of Lords.


Yours sincerely

Vera Chaney



PS After the three-day conference and the meeting at the House of Commons we are desperately in need of funding. Please help if you can.


From Mast Network

Proposed Power Line Threatens the Methow Valley

#122 WILD NORTHWEST, March 24, 2005
A Message from Northwest Ecosystem Alliance
=====Keeping the Northwest Wild=====

Proposed Power Line Threatens the Methow Valley

Demand a transmission plan alternative that protects local wildlife and shrub-steppe lands

The Okanogan Public Utility District (PUD) has released a draft plan for upgrading electric power to the Methow Valley that includes a proposal to build a second power line. The new line would cut into the largest remaining tract of high quality shrub-steppe uplands in Okanogan County, home to mule deer, bald eagles, golden eagles, western gray squirrels, and sharp-tailed grouse. Alternative 2 of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement calls for construction of a 30-mile-long transmission line crossing 72 tributaries of the Methow River and requires a new substation spur along the valley bottom. The alternative would create new roads and development in critical winter range for Washington's largest mule deer herd and disturb the many bald eagles that use the river. And because Alternative 2 fails to improve or maintain existing lines, it could end up bankrupting the PUD with an $11 million band-aid.

There is a better way for the Methow. The DEIS's Alternative 4 calls for no new lines, proposing instead a long-overdue upgrade of the existing Loup-Loup Pass transmission line and downstream distribution. Maintaining and improving current power lines solves the Methow's needs for reliable power, while keeping intact the rich wildlife habitat of eastern Washington's shrub-steppe lands.

Comments are due on March 31, 2005. What you can do:
Use our quick action system at
http://www.ecosystem.org/action/index.html?MessageTemplateID=3
to urge the PUD to choose Alternative 4, the plan that best protects both the environment and the economy of the Methow Valley.

Or send in a letter, email, or fax on your own to:
Attn: Comments for Methow Transmission Project
Dan Boettger, Okanogan PUD
Box 912, Okanogan, WA 98840
Email: dan_b@okpud.org, Fax: 509-422-4020

Jan Flatten, USFS
1240 Second Avenue South, Okanogan, WA 98840
Email: jflatten@fs.fed.us, Fax: 509-826-3789

Additional resources: You will find a fact sheet and background information available at www.okanogan1.com/friends.

Please mail a copy of any hard-copy letters you send to George Wooten, NWEA Conservation Associate, PO Box 501, Twisp, WA 98856. And thank you all, as ever, for taking action to keep the Northwest wild!


Erin Moore
Communications Coordinator
Northwest Ecosystem Alliance
1208 Bay St., Ste. 201
Bellingham, WA 98225
360.671.9950 ext. 24

To Whom it may concern

I am writing in hopes of finding some answers about cell towers. From what I have read I am a nervous wreck that my kids are going to get cancer if we are too close. What is too close? I've read some articles talking of 300 meters. I know that 1600 meters are in a mile. I have cell towers that are said to be 1/2 mile from our home. There are several around. We are moving. Not because of the cell towers. Since I have become aware of their possible danger I would like to be as far away as possible. There is not an area that we can resonably move to that does not have cell towers in this distance and they are all that distance from the possible schools that my child would go to. How far out do you have to be to stop seeing the increased cancer rates? What do you think of 'parabolic antennae '(sp) from my discription, the FCC says that that is what one of the towers is that would be 1/2 mile from one of the schools. Also, do you know if I can get something to measure radiation myself.

Thanks for any info.

Lisa

Bush’s Napoleon Complex

He's trying to copy the Corsican's Spanish crime.

Article by Gregory Cochran.
http://www.amconmag.com/2005_03_28/article.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

American nationalism

The Anatomy of American Nationalism
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/this_week/story.aspx?story_id=2110335

Timothy Snyder on "America Right or Wrong" by Anatol Lieven:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195168402/lewrockwell/


Informant: Lew Rockwell

Democratizing the Media

First the World, Then the Media

Kevin Casey on imperial democratization.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/casey3.html

One-Way Planet

God's Favored Empire?

Uniquely righteous, uniquely dangerous. Not a happy combination, says Tom Engelhardt.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/engelhardt/engelhardt59.html

Shifting Wisdom

With Wolfowitz's rise and Kennan's death, the days of cautious US diplomacy are over.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/hadar/hadar9.html

The Federal Slave Corps

The coming draft will be the worst in American history, says Tom Reeves.

http://www.counterpunch.org/reeves03192005.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

Cynthia Ann McKinney: The Voice Of The Voiceless

http://tinyurl.com/4dwe8


Representative Cynthia McKinney Grills Rumsfeld On Dyncorp Sex Rings, Missing Pentagon Trillions & 9/11 Wargames

C-Span | March 24 2005
http://www.prisonplanet.com/

Rumseld and Myers forced to shuffle uncomfortably and fumble for words as McKinney gets in their face about three issues seldom mentioned in official circles.

From a reader: Here is a Video of Representative Cynthia McKinney's Exchange on the House Hearing on FY06 Dept. of DefenseBudget, March 11th, 2005.

Watch how McKinney asks questions about Dyncorp slave rings, the 3 trillion missing from the pentagon and the 911 wargames.

Notice the faces Rumsfeld, Myers, Jones, Hunter and others make!! McKinney Grills Rumsfeld On Dyncorp Sex Rings, Missing Pentagon Trillions & 9/11 Wargames http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2005/240305mckinneygrills.htm


Informant: Our bill of rights

--------

[From The Wilderness Email Alert list]


A Message From Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

March 24, 2005

Dear Friend,

Thank you for the support you've given me in the past. And because you are on this list, I know you are a trusted friend in peace.

I need your help now more than ever. With the Republicans targeting Georgia for redistricting, we know they expect to make manipulated gains here as they just did in Texas. Please help me send a message to them to leave the progressive voices in Georgia alone! You can do that by making a contribution to my campaign before the March 31 Federal Election Committee (FEC) reporting deadline.

A strong fundraising total will let them know that I am ready to campaign despite the Republican effort to change lines on a map. I need your help today because there are only a few days left until the FEC deadline.

I have already hit the ground running on the House Budget Committee and its Armed Services Committee. If you're a C-Span junkie, you've undoubtedly seen me at work, asking the tough questions on the people's behalf.

Please visit my website at
http://www.cynthiaforcongress.com/donations today or put a check in the snail mail at:

Cynthia McKinney for Congress
Post Office Box 371125
Decatur, GA 30037

If you're in town on Saturday, March 26th, come by our fundraiser with Isaac Hayes at the home of State Senator Gloria Butler:

6241 Southland Trace
Stone Mountain, GA 30087
4:30 pm - 6:30 pm

I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,
Cynthia McKinney

P.S. Please visit the web address below and tell your friends to do so, too!

http://www.cynthiaforcongress.com/donations.html

(Campaign contributions are not tax deductible and corporate contributions are not allowed.)


Informant: Martin Greenhut

Plea to include phone masts

Northwich Guardian

THE chairman of a group fighting against mobile phone communication masts being put up is asking Vale Royal Borough Council if the potential effects of masts will form part of the leukaemia investigation.

Dennis Cannon is chairman of Together Against Masts, which has more than 4,000 members in east Lancashire.

He said: "I have heard of similar cases where exposure to the microwave radiation from mobile phone masts has caused cancer.

"I have been trying to speak to Vale Royal Borough Council to discover whether there is a phone or emergency service Tetra mast near to the housing estate.

"The operators would then be obliged to provide information as to where the waves of greatest intensity strike the ground."

He added: "If anyone is concerned, they can ring me on 01282 771635."


From Mast Network

Bamberger Appell: Ärzte gegen Elektrosmog

http://www.izgmf.de/Aktionen/Meldungen/Archiv_04/Bamberger_Appell/bamberger_appell.html

Bamberger Appell
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/265206/

Bamberger Appell – Ärzte gegen Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/282385/

Ärzteappelle gegen ungezügelten Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1064751/

Parents oppose plans for more masts

Mar 24 2005

By The Journal

Parents are battling plans for a further three mobile phone antennas near their children's primary school - taking the total within 50 metres up to six.

More than 200 parents and teachers turned out yesterday in a show of anger against the proposal for more masts overlooking Kells Lane Primary, in Low Fell, Gateshead.

The school's playground is already just 49 metres from two mobile phone towers, spiked on top of a British Telecom building on nearby Clement Street.

Stephen Aspinall, 48, whose six-year-old daughter Collette attends the school, said parents fear the masts could cause their children health problems in the future.

He said: "My daughter is at the school and knowing there were already two mobile phone masts nearby has always been in the back of my mind.

"But two weeks ago we were sent a letter from the council saying an application was in for another three masts at the same site."

More than 100 parents have already signed a petition against the masts, with some sending letters of objection to Gateshead Council's planning committee which is set to make a decision on the application on Wednesday.

Mr Aspinall, who is a governor at Kells Lane, said: "The school is in a conservation area, and when we needed to replace some windows we had to stick to strict rules, so how can they just stick masts on to the top of buildings.

"It looks like one rule for some, and another when it comes to this."

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/thejournal/tm_objectid=15329090%26method=full%26siteid=50081-name_page.html


From Mast Network

MOBILE MEASURES

While parents in Muswell Hill call for mobile phone masts to be banned from residential areas, SHYAMTARA NI FHOGHLU investigates how dangerous the radiation we are exposed to in order to use our phones actually is

Six months ago Sarah Purdy used her mobile phone without giving it a thought, and never wondered how she got such good reception in Muswell Hill.

Then in January this year Vodafone was granted planning permission to install up to six mobile phone antennae on the roof of the BT telephone exchange in Grand Avenue, just 260 metres away from where two of her children go to primary school.

And it wasn't until staff at Tetherdown Primary School told Ms Purdy about the plans, that she had any idea how many mobile phone masts there are in the area, so she started questioning the possible health risks they pose.

Now the thought that her own children could be in harm's way has motivated her to demand Haringey Council adopt a precautionary principle not to grant permission for masts near schools, hospitals or residential areas. She even wants the council to re-site existing masts.

But the parents' protest in Muswell Hill has highlighted a major conundrum: no one wants their children to be near mobile phone antennae, but realistically, how many of us would give up using our mobile phones?

Jane Frapwell, EMF (Electro-Magnetic Field) adviser for Vodafone, said mobile antennae operate at a very low power hundreds of times below international guidelines so there needs to be more of them to supply adequate coverage to ensure phone users get good reception.

She said: "In a city you're going to have more installations because of usage the more people who use mobile phones, the more capacity you need.

"The only health and safety issue is the area directly in front of the antenna. That area we would not want the public to have unrestricted access to. We do take people's concerns seriously. It really is a difficult balance how can we provide a service without affecting the community?"

According to estimates from the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) there are about 40,000 base stations, or masts, in the UK, and another 10,000 are expected with the advent of 3G services. It also states mobile phone usage has doubled from 25 million in 2000 to 50 million this year.

A quick search on the Office of Communications sitefinder website shows at least 25 base stations dotted around Muswell Hill, Highgate, Hornsey, Alexandra Palace and Crouch End. But it only shows mobile phone masts. There are also TETRA transmitters for the police radio system, and radio and TV transmitters in the area.

To give an idea of their strength, the TV transmitter at Crystal Palace which has been in operation since the 1930s is 4,500 kW. The digital radio transmitter at Alexandra Palace is 3.2 kW, and a standard mobile phone antenna is about 1.8 kW.

Dr Michael Clark, scientific spokesman for NRPB, made the analogy that radio and TV transmitters are like one big floodlight, whereas mobile phone masts are 60 watt bulbs dotted everywhere to get the same coverage.

The NRPB stated in its Mobile Phones and Health Report 2004 that the extensive use of mobile phones suggests that users do not in general judge them to present a significant risk. Nevertheless, since their introduction, there have been persisting concerns about the possible impact of mobile phone technologies on health'.

There are concerns that emissions from phones, and masts could affect brain function, particularly in children, and it has been linked with symptoms such as insomnia, dizziness, nausea, migraines, tumours and leukaemia.

Dr Clark said: "I just can't believe they are all caused by mobile phone masts. People are beginning to blame a multitude of symptoms on mobile phones."

But he said if mobile phones and masts caused just one or two of the symptoms, then research had to be done.

"We do feel that the issue of research is concentrated on the handset issue, because that's the greatest concentration. On the phone, the level of exposure is 10,000 times more than that of standing close to a mast. From the public concern point of view it's clearly the other way around."

One project underway is the development of a personal exposure meter, a device a person can wear which will measure emissions from radio signals.

Volunteers will be asked to wear the device for about a week and keep a diary of what they are doing and where they are, allowing researchers to measure exactly what they are being exposed to.

There is also a UK study investigating whether pulsed signals have more effect than continuous signals.

Another study is looking at whether living close to base stations affects cancer in children, and there are three studies to see if the use of mobile phones can affect the risk of developing leukaemia.

Dr Clark remains convinced that if there was a significant health risk from masts, it would have been very evident by now.

But Ms Purdy insisted: "They have the same property as all radiation, and other radiations cause cancer. These are the effects that need to be researched."

On Monday night, Ms Purdy gave a speech to Haringey's full council meeting outlining the concerns of the group at Muswell Hill.

A motion was put forward by the Liberal Democrats to change planning regulations regarding mobile phone antennae, and it will be debated at the next full council meeting in June.

The council also promised to hold an in depth review of mobile phone masts next year.

Vodafone has agreed not to activate the masts at the Grand Avenue site until a meeting is held with residents on April 6.

1:30pm Thursday 24th March 2005

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/indepth/features/display.var.582322.0.mobile_measures.php


From Mast Network

Driver's phone mast misery

http://www.gooletoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=766&ArticleID=973424


Informant: Sylvie

Systematic Concealment Of Detainees Is Found

Army Documents Shed Light on CIA 'Ghosting': Systematic Concealment Of Detainees Is Found

Senior defense officials have described the CIA practice of hiding unregistered detainees at Abu Ghraib prison as ad hoc and unauthorized, but a review of Army documents shows that the agency's "ghosting" program was systematic and known to three senior intelligence officials in Iraq.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3028

Mast's third refusal

Mar 24 2005

Ormskirk Advertiser

ORANGE have had their third application in a year for a mobile phone mast in Scarisbrick rejected amid fears of public health risks.

But the official reason for the council's decision is that it spoils the Green Belt.

Government planning rules mean that health and safety cannot be taken into account when deciding planning applications.

Scarisbrick resident Ian Masheder spoke at a planning meeting, opposing Orange's plans to install the 6m flagpole antenna on Mill Brow waterworks, yards from his home.

Speaking of the increasing concerns over public health risks posed by mobile phone masts, he said: "I live in Mill Brow cottage with my wife and four children. My wife and myself feel we will be used as human guinea pigs.

Exposure to microwaves could be a danger to our health."

This prompted members of the committee to talk about public safety risks, be they real or imagined.

Scarisbrick Cllr Margaret Edwards said: "Until they can give a categoric assurance that there is no health risk we should not allow any application where there are residents."

Cllr Terry Rice said: "The more we get to know the more we know that experts get it wrong.

"Remember, we are not just here as members of the planning committee but as councillors representing the public."

Although a representative for Orange was expected to speak at the meeting nobody attended.


From Mast Network

Bush's first defeat

by Jacob Weisberg

Slate

03/22/05

George W. Bush's plan to remake the Social Security system is kaput. This is not a value judgment. It's a statement of political fact. In the months since the president first presented the idea as his top domestic priority, Democrats in Congress have unexpectedly unified in opposition to any reform based on private accounts. Several Republican senators whose votes would be needed for passage are resisting private accounts as well. And public opinion, which has never favored any form of privatization, is trending even more strongly against Bush's scheme. At this point, there's just no way that the president can finagle enough votes to win. This means that Bush is about to suffer -- and is actually in the midst of suffering -- his first major political defeat...

http://www.slate.com/id/2115141/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Taking the Fifth

by Matt Welch

Reason

03/05

Under current law, reporters' ability to shield sources from the long arm of the law is not a federal right for all Americans but a privilege granted in 31 states and the District of Columbia to the limited category of human being known as 'journalist.' And by wearing the First Amendment like a badge, Bronstein is neatly evading his role in helping the government eviscerate another part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment that's really under assault is not the First but the Fifth. Besides putting pressure on journalists, the Bonds, Plame, and Rhode Island cases have one crucial element in common: Each is the direct result of the federal government's extraconstitutional prosecutorial power run totally amok...

http://www.reason.com/0503/co.mw.taking.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Anti-war activism: Closing the credibility gap

by Geov Parrish

Seattle Weekly

03/24/05

Opposition to this war should be rooted in what is best for this country. Rather than being reflexively antimilitary, antiwar activists should learn to understand and embrace why this war is bad news from the perspective of the men and women fighting it. Supporting our troops is not simply the politically correct or a humane thing to do; it's also the best way to work for an end to this war...

http://tinyurl.com/5jwno


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Paranoia in high places

by Norman Solomon

Common Dreams

03/24/05

Journalists often refer to the Bush administration's foreign policy as 'unilateral' and 'preemptive.' Liberal pundits like to complain that a 'go-it-alone' approach has isolated the United States from former allies. But the standard American media lexicon has steered clear of a word that would be an apt description of the Bush world view: Paranoid...

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0324-37.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

GOP Senators beyond point of no return

by Christopher G. Adamo

Sierra Times

03/24/05

A grave and as yet unrecognized danger presently looms for Senate Republicans with respect to the upcoming battle over the President's judicial nominees. Democrat reaction to the possibility of a Senate rules change has been nearly hysterical, which might seem to offer Republican political strategists reason to rejoice. ... [Yet,] [d]espite Democrat caterwauling to the contrary, this situation is not, in their minds, about preserving the Constitution, and it is not about finding some mythical 'common ground' between the liberal view of constitutional law and a conservative effort towards the same end. Rather, it is all about preventing the appointment of individuals who are dedicated to the preservation of the original intent of the document...

http://www.sierratimes.com/05/03/23/adamo.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Far too quiet on the homefront

by Jerry Lanson

Christian Science Monitor

03/24/05

I can't tell whether America is in denial or despair over events in Iraq, but I suspect it's some of each. The denial comes amid a flurry of flag-waving that's followed Iraqi elections and the Bush administration's insistence that peace is breaking out all over because of its own aggressive actions. Conventional wisdom this month is that the president is right. Conventional wisdom has turned an already meek press corps into church mice. But conventional wisdom in this war has been wrong many times before. The despair, I suspect, keeps many people who are bitterly opposed to this war at home -- and deflates turnout at those underpublicized and undercovered antiwar rallies...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0325/p09s01-coop.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Democrats: MIA

by staff

The Nation

03/24/05

After giving George W. Bush far too easy a ride in his first term, the Democratic leadership in Congress promised that the second term was going to be different. 'This is not a dictatorship,' announced Senate minority leader Harry Reid. ... But three months of watching the Democrats' stumbling, often incoherent responses to Administration appointments and initiatives shows clearly that the party is making the same mistakes that cost it so dearly in the 2002 and 2004 elections. It's easy simply to blame the GOP majorities in the Senate and House when bad legislation passes those chambers. But too frequently it has been Democratic disorder rather than Republican treachery that has made possible the Bush White House's legislative victories." [editor's note: Except for labeling the usual powerlust, common to BOTH branches of the Duopoly, as "disorder" ... this is pretty insightful! - SAT]

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050411&s=editors1


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

You have no rights

by Ali Hassan Massoud

Strike the Root

03/24/05

In my view, the Constitution and the laws and misrule that derive from it are a system of oppression that is imposed upon me and held in place by armed force. That is as plainly as I can say it. All of this is defined as treason or blasphemy against the state religion of democracy as is evidenced by the reaction of statists of all sorts. I am indeed a traitor though, using their terminology and definitions. However, I accept their scorn and misunderstanding as a badge of honor...

http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/massoud/massoud6.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Bush approval slips to 45%, lowest of his presidency

USA Today

03/24/05

President Bush's approval rating has fallen to 45%, the lowest point of his presidency, according to a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll. The finding, in a poll of 1,001 adults Monday through Wednesday, is a dip from 52% in a poll taken last week. Bush's previous lowest rating, 46%, was recorded last May. The White House declined to comment.

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said that Bush is taking on 'tough issues, whether it's to reform Social Security, promoting the spread of democracy or making a renewed pitch to Congress to pass comprehensive energy reform...

http://tinyurl.com/4oc9m


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

MOBILE TELEPHONE CAN CAUSE CANCER

The Court of Appeals of Richmond, Virginia, has decided these last days to retake different judicial causes, that had like object demands against Motorola, Nokia and twelve companies more of telecommunications. The Court of Appeal has shaped in his resolution an incontestable censorship to the practices of those, before giving back to the corresponding courts the judgments that will have to be transacted. It insists on considering guilty to the companies of "... not warning of the risk of contracting diseases as cancer by the use of these apparatuses ", informed Bloomberg. (Five Days - Madrid 18/03/05). It seems to be that, in clear parallelism which takes control today anywhere in the world of the tobacco, it is not far the day in which in the U.S.A. the mobile telephones, wireless and the Wi-Fi computers will come surrounded with the warnings: "MOBILE TELEPHONE CAN CAUSE to CANCER" "MOBILE TELEPHONE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE USED BY the PREGNANT WOMEN" "MOBILE TELEPHONE CAN SUPPOSE RISK OF OCULAR CANCER" * and as Paul Sagawa, analyst of Stanford C. Bernstein & Co says to us: "The key of this subject is that the industry of the mobile telephony does not want that each cancer of brain that is taken place in the U.S.A. turns a demand that demands ten million dollars to the sector". Two questions assault to us: We will also surround with cellophane all the antennas that watch and threaten us from the next tile roofs? Or will we charge the operators to do it, placing, with mold letters, warning posters, so that nobody says soon, that they had not be warned?

Agustín Garci'a Andrés Licensed in Right and Lawyer in Political Sciences L'Escala, 21 of March of the 2005 *

The Institute of Ophtalmology in the University of Essen (Germany) has demonstrated that the use of the mobile telephone can be a leading factor of ocular cancer, melanoma intraocular of the uveal tract (structure that rainbow includes), ciliary body and coroides.


Version print in “Computer science”

Judicial the mobile telephony undergoes his first crossed legal Light Fernandez/Ines Madrid April (18-03-2005) Published in: Printed edition

Companies First were the tobacco, soon the food sweepings and now it seems that it touches the mobile telephony, that becomes at the end the new target of the collective demands in EE UU. A court has given back at the present time the controversy about the consequences of the exhibition continued to the radiations of the cellular phones, when recovering five demands against Motorola, Nokia and one more dozen of companies of telecommunications. This sector has denied whenever that radiations cause damages to the health, but has not been able to silence the complaints and investigations of those who think that the mobile telephones can cause cancer or other diseases. Thus, the decision of the fourth Court of Appeals of Richmond, Virginia, to retake four of the cases and to send them to the corresponding courts so that they are reviewed, comes to intensify these theories.

The sentence of the cut of appeals maintains that the companies of mobile telephony were at least guilty of not warning of the risk of contracting diseases as cancer by the use of these apparatuses, according to Bloomberg. These are the first demands interposed against the set of the sector of the mobile telephony. In the denunciations it is requested that the companies provide each user with some type of earpiece that it protects of the exhibition to the radiations of low intensity which emit the terminals. But this sanction seems inefficient for many experts since it does not suppose a great payment for the companies. ' The key of this subject is that the industry of the mobile telephony does not want that each cancer of brain that is taken place in the U.S.A. turns a demand about ten million dollars to the sector', comments Paul Sagawa, analyst of Stanford C. Bernstein & Co. The cases splash to the main actors of the sector, as much manufacturers as operators. Motorola, Nokia, VoiceStream Wireless, SBC Communications, Verizon Communications, Nextel Communications, Cingular Wireless, Sprint, Samsung and Ericsson are the accused by these denunciations. Operators and manufacturers insist that scientific study does not exist that demonstrates that the use of the mobile phones causes cancer. In March 2003, the five cases were not admitted to proceeding with the argument the denunciations entered conflict with the attempt of the Senate to define standards of security for the mobile telephony. The denouncers appealed before this decision until the court of appeals yesterday decided to send four of the cases to the courts where they originated and returned fifth to the judge who rejected the denunciations in 2003. The defenders of the denounced companies have insisted that any scientific study does not exist that demonstrates that the use of mobile telephones causes cancer. “The industry will fight with nails and teethes', assured of the lawyers who thinks no of the cases will arrive to be accepted to be put under a jury. The great preoccupation of the affected companies is that this precedent is translated in a new wave of civil demands in the style of the denunciations so common in the U.S.A., where somebody can superficially take to the courts an office companion to him to have thrown a cup of hot coffee. The denouncers are represented by Ken Starr, one of the independent advisors who investigated the bad actions of ex- president Clinton. But no, neither denounced nor denouncers, have wanted to comment out previous the judicial struggle. For those who have more memory, this situation remembers to the first confrontations against the industry of the tobacco. Also one questioned the relation between smoking and the appearance of different diseases in the beginning, whereas today the tobacco companies in the U.S.A. are tired to pay millionaire indemnifications. In fact, this sector faces civil denunciation never interposed by the department of Justice of the U.S.A., that requests fines by a total of 280,000 million dollars. In the field of the mobile telephony it is left much to discover. The World-wide Organization of the Health started a study in 1996 to know the effects the electromagnetic fields. With the present knowledge, it is 'little probable that the exhibition to mobile telephones or stations bases favours the appearance of cancers, although clarifies that the situation can vary as soon as the levels of the radio frequency of these apparatuses rise.

Fronts for the controversy: A report for each combined statement of the El Mobile Spanish extreme forces the controversy by the effect of the mobile phones to the health has been strong in Spain in the last three years and means, until the point of which the unfolding of cellular antennas in the country has paralyzed to a great extent. In order as far as possible to palliate the consequences of the social alarm, the four operators of mobile telephone - Telephone Moving bodies, Vodafone, Pleasant and born Xfera - were not united in March of 2002 to undertake a campaign of measurements and spreading of information. The result has been a luck of annual ITV of antennas, in which the operators have measured each one of the stations bases of the country to see if they fulfilled the norm. The successfully obtained data have been to a large extent positive and they have been used to try to tranquilize the population. Tranquillity: Lack of scientific evidences like there are information that prevent the use of the mobile telephone and the electromagnetic emissions, send reassuring messages for the population. Thus it happened in the Seminary on electromagnetic fields, mobile telephony and health, organized by the Spanish Association Against the Cancer in April of 2004, where the information of the World-wide Organization of the Health and the Committee of Experts of the Ministry of Health were studied. The conclusion arrived is that great parts of the population associates mobile telephony with injurious effects for the health, but that, in spite of it, 'does not exist scientific evidences that demonstrate relation' between this technology ' and cancer'. The seminary also stated that in Spain the levels of emission recommended by Europe in 1999 and gathered in a real decree of 2001 'suitably protect the population of the effects produced by the emissions of the telephony mobil'. Precaution: Taken care for the security of the boy the mobile telephony has been the subject of multitude of information on his effects in the health, as much to favour as in against. One of most recent has reopened the debate on the convenience of leaving young minors of eight years use this technology. The report is from William Stewart, member of the National Council of Radiological safety of the United Kingdom, and it clear requests to the parents that they do not let use mobile phones in any case the minors of eight years. The study insists there are still there no tests that the cellular telephony is injurious, but Stewart has added that several information have bought serious concern on it. For that reason, he alerts on the greater risk than the children run and advises not to put antennas near schools. Credibility: To the search of state organism the Spanish operators of mobile telephone have done all the possible to convince the population that the antennas and the terminals are not dangerous. They have made measurements and they spread all the information on the effects on the health - the positives that arrive at their hands. Nevertheless, they are conscious that their credibility is in jeopardize because they are the part more interested to lower the alarm and the installation of the greater possible number of antennas is allowed. For that reason, Telephone Moving bodies, Vodafone and Amena have begun to demand the creation of a governmental authority that is the one that pronounces when there is an controversial case and whose verdict, given its independence and entailment to the Government, cannot be questioned. It would be something similar to the Agency of Nourishing Security, that guards the conditions of foods and, in necessary case, retires those that are injurious. The operators consider that this new organism would have to depend on the Ministry of Health.

Translation Spanish-English: omega


Informant:

AVECORN
Asociación de Vecinos Contra Radiaciones Nocivas de L'Escala (Girona)

US federal court decisions involving the Telecommunication Act (TCA) of 1996

Three reports on recent US federal court decisions involving the Telecommunication Act (TCA) of 1996:

23 March 2005 - RCR Wireless News - Supreme Court rules telecom cases do not include attorney's fees - tower siting case

23 March 2005 - Los Angeles Times - Cities Get Break on Permitting of Cell Towers - another report on this Supreme Court decision on tower siting

18 March 2005 - RCR Wireless News - Industry could ask Supreme Court to review RF lawsuits - 6 headset cases


RCR Wireless News

http://www.rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=21934
Supreme Court rules telecom cases do not include attorney's fees
By Heather Forsgren Weaver
March 23, 2005
WASHINGTON-In a stunning 9-0 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday told Mark Abrams he is not entitled to attorney's fees and other damages even if he wins a tower-siting case.

"Liability for attorney's fees would have a particularly severe impact in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 context, making local governments liable for the (often substantial) legal expenses of large commercial interests for the misapplication of a complex and novel statutory scheme," wrote Justice Antonin Scalia.

In passing section 704 of the Telecommunications Act, Congress allowed tower owners to go to court if a locality was holding up a siting or if it did not support its decision in writing.

Mark Abrams, an SMR operator, wanted to use a 54-foot antenna on his property for commercial purposes, but the permit was denied by Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. Abrams sued and won in federal court in 2002. Since then Abrams has been trying to get attorney's fees and other monetary compensation. Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in Abrams' favor.

The Supreme Court said that when Abrams went to court to reverse the city's tower-siting decision, he lost the right to also ask for legal fees and damages because Congress did not expressly allow for legal fees and damages in the telecom act.

"In this case, the statute's text, structure and history all provide convincing evidence that Congress intended the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to operate as a comprehensive and exclusive remedial scheme. The structure of the statute appears fundamentally incompatible with the private remedy offered by section 1983," wrote Justice John Paul Stevens in a concurring opinion. "I am not persuaded that the statutory requirements can simply be mapped onto the existing structure of section 1983, and there is nothing in the legislative history to suggest that Congress would have wanted us to do so."

Section 1983 was passed in 1871 and allows people to sue for legal fees and damages when others have been found to violate the law.

Abrams' tower dispute began when he attempted to build a second tower on his property. After several back-and-forth attempts at the local level, Rancho Palos Verdes denied Abrams' request. He then sued, citing section 704 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

A federal judge, after waiting more than a year to deliver a decision, sided with Abrams but said he was not entitled to damages. It was this decision that was overturned by the 9th Circuit. Rancho Palos Verdes then appealed to the Supreme Court and won.

The Supreme Court's decision was predicted from oral argument that occurred in January.

Several Supreme Court justices appeared not to buy arguments that municipalities are liable for attorneys' fees and damages when they lose antenna-siting court cases.

In addition to Scalia and Stevens, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer expressed skepticism to varying degrees about whether wireless carriers have legal rights to collect attorneys' fees and damages in siting litigation.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, recovering from thyroid cancer treatment, was absent. However, he reserved the right to participate in the Abrams' case based on written briefs in the record. He joined in ruling against Abrams.

Justice Clarence Thomas, as is typically the case, was silent throughout oral argument but he, too, joined against Abrams.

RCR Wireless News Washington, D.C., Bureau Chief Jeffrey Silva, who attended the oral argument, contributed to this report.
Full text of the Supreme Court Decision 03-1601 City of Rancho Palos Verdes et al. v. Abrams is available at:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/22mar20051115/www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/04pdf/03-1601.pdf

Excerpts from Slip Opinion:

page 1 paragraph 2

Held: An individual may not enforce § 332(c)(7)'s limitations on local zoning authority through a § 1983 action. The TCA -- by providing a judicial remedy different from § 1983 in § 332(c)(7) itself -- precluded resort to § 1983.

Stevens, J., concurring in judgment

page 1 paragraph 1

When a federal statute creates a new right but fails to specify whether plaintiffs may or may not recover damages or attorneys' fees, we must fill the gap in the statute's text by examining all relevant evidence that sheds light on the intent of the enacting Congress. The inquiry varies from statute to statute. Sometimes the question is whether, despite its silence, Congress intended us to recognize an implied cause of action . . . Whenever we perform this gap-filling task, it is appropriate not only to study the text and structure of the statutory scheme, but also to examine its legislative history.

page 4 paragraph 1

. . . Congressional silence is surely probative in this case because, despite the fact that awards of damages and attorney's fees could have potentially disastrous consequences for the likely defendants in most private actions under the TCA, see Primeco Personal Communications v. Mequon, 352 F 3d. 1147, 1152 (CA7 2003), nowhere in the course of Congress' lengthy deliberations is there any hint that Congress wanted damages or attorney's fees to be available. That silence reinforces every other clue that we can glean from the statute's text and structure.


Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-scotus23mar23,1,2650501.story
Cities Get Break on Permitting of Cell Towers

By David G. Savage
Times Staff Writer

March 23, 2005
WASHINGTON ­ The Supreme Court made it easier Tuesday for cities to say no to new cellphone towers in their neighborhoods.

In a 9-0 ruling, the justices said the federal law that was designed to encourage the growth of the telecommunications industry did not allow cities to be sued for damages for refusing to permit a cellphone tower.

In the last decade, 140,000 cellphone towers have sprouted around the nation, but the phone industry says it needs more of them to eliminate "dead spots."

The high court's decision will take some of the pressure off local governments to approve permits for new cellphone towers, although it does not mean they can refuse all of them.

The ruling was one of three Tuesday in which the high court overturned decisions of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based in San Francisco.

The ruling on cellphone towers will affect disputes across the country. However, it did not arise from a typical conflict between a cellular phone company and a municipality, but rather from an unusual dispute between a ham radio operator and the city of Rancho Palos Verdes near Los Angeles.

Mark Abrams, the ham radio operator, erected a 52-foot radio tower on his property on Oceanaire Drive in the Del Cerro neighborhood. City officials objected in 1998, when they learned Abrams was using the tower for commercial broadcasts, and they denied him a permit to broadcast from the tower.

He then sued the city in federal court, seeking an order that would allow him to keep the tower as well as monetary damages and attorney fees. When the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for Abrams, the Supreme Court took up the dispute to decide whether the Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed such damage claims against cities.

Writing for the court in Rancho Palos Verdes vs. Abrams, Justice Antonin Scalia said Congress did not intend for local governments to be liable for huge money verdicts in such disputes. He said it could have "a particularly severe impact" on small towns and rural communities across America if the giants of the cellphone industry could seek monetary damages and legal fees.

Cities must give their reasons for refusing to permit new phone towers, Scalia pointed out, and disappointed applicants may go to court to challenge a city's decision. But that is all, he concluded. They may not seek monetary damages from the city, even if officials wrongly denied the permit, he said.

The ruling is a victory for the League of California Cities and the National League of Cities, which joined the case on the side of Rancho Palos Verdes. Groups representing the cellphone industry had sided with Abrams, arguing that unless checked by the courts, cities could use their zoning powers to exclude cellphone towers.

RCR Wireless News
March 18, 2005
Cover Story
http://www.rcrnews.com/article.cms?articleId=47934


RCR Wireless News

Industry could ask Supreme Court to review RF lawsuits
By Jeffrey Silva
March 18, 2005
WASHINGTON-The mobile-phone industry may ask the Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court ruling that breathed new life into five class-action lawsuits alleging cellular firms could have better protected consumers from mobile-phone radiation harm by supplying them with headsets.

Last Wednesday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to remand four of the headset lawsuits to state courts in Georgia, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania. The other class-action lawsuit was returned for further proceedings to U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake of Baltimore, who dismissed all five suits on federal pre-emption grounds in 2003.In addition to resurrecting the five headset lawsuits, the 4th Circuit's decision-which turned not on health, but on jurisdiction-could impact pending brain-cancer lawsuits that industry argues are pre-empted by federal law as well cellular consumer lawsuits pitting federal law against states rights.

"We're pleased. We think the court ruled correctly," said Michael Allweiss, a Louisiana lawyer who filed the first headset case and argued for the plaintiffs before a three-judge panel in Richmond, Va., last October. Allweiss is working with attorneys at the law firm of trial lawyer and Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos. The lead headset case is Pinney v. Nokia Inc.

In these cases, plaintiffs are asking that wireless companies supply subscribers with headsets and reimburse those who already have bought them. In addition, plaintiffs are seeking punitive damages.

Former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, currently dean of Pepperdine University law school and of counsel to the Kirkland & Ellis law firm, argued the appeal for the cellular industry.

Starr strongly suggested the headset case is far from settled.

"Congress has given the FCC broad authority to regulate radio-frequency emissions from wireless phones and the FCC has accordingly set standards for wireless phones through a uniform, nationwide scheme. Thus, these cases belong in federal court," said Starr in a written statement. "The 4th Circuit's split-decision that these cases should not be heard in federal court and are not pre-empted by federal law is unfortunate. We are considering appealing to the full Court of Appeals, and, if necessary will consider seeking review by the Supreme Court."

The jurisdictional issues in this case are important, not just to the mobile telephone industry but to the general enforcement of federal law, and should attract interest from the Supreme Court. But whether these cases are heard in state or federal court, we are confident that the courts will find, as the scientific community has found, that wireless phones cause no adverse health effects."

The mobile-phone industry, which has yet to lose a health-related case, suddenly finds itself in a legal venue favored by many trial lawyers. Defendants in the five class-action headset lawsuits read like a Who's Who of the wireless industry. Included are all five national carriers and the world's leading mobile-phone manufacturers. Industry trade associations are named as defendants as well.

Last July, Blake, who in 2002 rejected an $800 million brain-cancer lawsuit brought by a neurologist represented by the Angelos law firm, remanded six other brain-cancer lawsuits against wireless firms and trade associations to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

The mobile-phone industry has asked Judge Brook Hedge to dismiss the six brain-cancer lawsuits based on a federal pre-emption defense. As such, the 4th Circuit decision could hurt industry's case in the brain-cancer litigation.

The wireless industry tried to put the best face possible on last week's legal defeat, saying the 4th Circuit's ruling was about process and venue rather than science, and that it was a split decision with a strong dissent.

Indeed, the 4th Circuit's decision was not altogether surprising, given the court's conservative makeup and its pro-states rights tendency.

Still, it was a major setback for a wireless industry that was led to believe headset (and brain-cancer) litigation was on the way out.

"We have thoroughly examined the claims asserted by the Pinney plaintiffs in their complaints, and one thing is clear: the elements of each of the claims depend only on the resolution of questions of state law," stated Circuit Judge M. Blane Michael, who wrote the majority opinion.

Michael was joined in the opinion by Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig. Luttig, a native of Tyler, Texas, is regularly mentioned as a future pick for the Supreme Court.

Senior District Judge Jackson Kiser dissented, agreeing with Blake that the headset lawsuits are a thinly disguised attack on the validity of the Federal Communications Commission's radio-frequency radiation safety standard. That standard has been upheld by two federal appeals courts.

"Here, plaintiffs are not merely raising a claim that may undermine a federal regulatory scheme through inconsistent interpretations; rather they are raising claims which, if successful, will result in the complete invalidation of federal regulatory standards. This presents a substantial federal question," said Kiser.

Wireless health studies have yet to definitively link cell phones to cancer or other diseases, though some studies have found adverse biological effects from low level RF radiation. For that reason, government health officials in the U.S. and overseas continue to call for additional research.

"There is nothing good here for the wireless industry," said Rebecca Arbogast, a telecom analyst at Legg Mason. At the same time, she said the decision is not devastating for industry.

Arbogast said the 4th Circuit ruling complicates the legal strategy for the mobile-phone industry. "The defendants will have to litigate in various state courts instead of one-stop shopping with Judge Blake," said Arbogast. "I think it's going to be pesky for industry."

Susan Kalla, a telecom analyst at Friedman, Billings and Ramsey, said she doubted the mobile-phone industry would take a hit as a result of last week's 4th Circuit decision.

Full text of U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit decision 03-1433 Pinney v. Nokia is available at: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=4th&navby=title&v1=Pinney
Excerpts from Opinion:

page 1 paragraph 2

Held: An individual may not enforce § 332(c)(7)'s limitations on local zoning authority through a § 1983 action. The TCA -- by providing a judicial remedy different from § 1983 in § 332(c)(7) itself -- precluded resort to § 1983.

Stevens, J., concurring in judgment

page 1 paragraph 1

When a federal statute creates a new right but fails to specify whether plaintiffs may or may not recover damages or attorneys' fees, we must fill the gap in the statute's text by examining all relevant evidence that sheds light on the intent of the enacting Congress. The inquiry varies from statute to statute. Sometimes the question is whether, despite its silence, Congress intended us to recognize an implied cause of action . . . Whenever we perform this gap-filling task, it is appropriate not only to study the text and structure of the statutory scheme, but also to examine its legislative history.

page 4 paragraph 1

. . . Congressional silence is surely probative in this case because, despite the fact that awards of damages and attorney's fees could have potentially disastrous consequences for the likely defendants in most private actions under the TCA, see Primeco Personal Communications v. Mequon, 352 F 3d. 1147, 1152 (CA7 2003), nowhere in the course of Congress' lengthy deliberations is there any hint that Congress wanted damages or attorney's fees to be available. That silence reinforces every other clue that we can glean from the statute's text and structure.



Janet Newton, President
The EMR Policy Institute, P.O. Box 117, Marshfield VT 05658
Tel: (802) 426-3035 FAX: (802) 426-3030
Web Site: http://www.emrpolicy.org



Cell Phone Companies Sued For 'Unsafe Levels Of Radiation'
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/579834/

MOBILE TELEPHONE CAN CAUSE CANCER
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/590981/
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