EARTH CIRCLE . . . On the first day of each month, people around the world stop for five minutes to visualize peace and focus on new levels of kindness, understanding, and compassion necessary for collectively facing the challenges of the 21st century. Join peacemakers everywhere at 4:00pm Greenwich Mean Time, 10:00am in Lincoln and Omaha, 9:00am Mountain Time in CD 3, on Tuesday, February 1, 2011, with the intention of deep healing for the Planet and all its beings. Click here for more information about Earth Circle.

SCROLL DOWN FOR TRANSCANADA XL PIPELINE UPDATE. News items, and contact information for needed communication with specific elected officials, is below in Congressional District 3 Green Notes.  Included is news of Nebraska senators’ letter to Secretary Clinton, new Action Alerts, new media reports, and pipeline related Legislative Bills introduced this past week.

Lincoln area: Congressional District 1

VIGIL AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY . . . Every Monday, from noon to 1:00pm, Nebraskans for abolition of the death penalty meet in front of the governor’s mansion when weather is good, 1425 H Street, Lincoln. In winter, the vigil is inside the capitol, near the Information Desk. The lunch-hour presence reminds the governor of a constituency that does not want state killings. Weekly vigils have taken place year-round since July, 1991. All abolitionists are welcome to participate for a few minutes, or the hour. For information about Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty, click here.

LUNCH AT THE LIBRARY . . . Wednesday, February 2, 2011, Joel Starita, author of the 2010 One Book One Lincoln selection “I Am A Man,” will discuss his work at Bennett Martin Public Library, 14th & N Streets, Lincoln, in the fourth floor auditorium, 12:10pm. Bring your own lunch. Free coffee available. For more information, phone 402.441.8516.

WATER AND NATURAL RESOURCES SEMINARS . . . A 14-lecture series of seminars at UN-L focused on urban stormwater runoff, gobal climate change, and related environmental issues continues Wednesday, February 2, 2011, 3:30 TO 4:30pm, in the first-floor auditorium of Hardin Hall, on the northeast corner of North 33rd and Holdrege Streets, Lincoln. For more information, contact the UN-L Water Center, 402.472.3305. Click here for a schedule of the lectures. View most lectures online after the have been presented here.

LINCOLN PEACE VIGILS . . . Lincoln peace vigils continue at the Federal Building, 15th and O streets, every Wednesday from 5:00 to 6:00pm. Contact Mark at 402.499.6672 or e-mail mark [at] weddleton [dot] com for more information.

LPS WANTS INPUT ON STRATEGIC PLAN . . . Lincoln Public Schools administration staff are developing a Strategic Plan for the future. They will host public forums for community members and students in February. There will be a Community Meeting open to the public on Wednesday, February 5, 2011, 7:00 to 8:30pm, at Lincoln High School, 2229 J Street, in the cafeteria. The general student meeting will be February 15th.

SUNDAY LECTURE SERIES . . . There will be no February 6, 2011 Series Lecture at The Unitarian Church of Lincoln. February 13th, Bill Gleason, Coordinator, Eurasian Studies at the US Department of State, will speak on Russian-Ukranian relations.

LOCAL ARTISTS WANTED . . . The Third Annual Artistic Rain Barrel Program invites local artists to paint rain barrels with original designs for display citywide next spring. Twenty-five artists will be chosen for a public auction of barrels in May, 2011. Click here [pdf] for an application, which includes a short summary and preliminary sketch of your intended design. Applications are due by February 11, 2011. For more information, contact Ellen Wright, 402.441.7075.

Omaha area: Congressional District 2

BLACK HISTORY MONTH IN OMAHA . . . The Omaha Public Library will celebrate the accomplishments and rich history of African-Americans in the United States with a Series of free Programs, open to the public, during February. This week’s Black History Month schedule begins Tuesday, February 1, 3:00 to 5:30pm, at the Benson Branch, 6015 Binney Street, with Sharif Liwaru, president of the Malcolm X Foundation, speaking about the legacy of Malcolm X. At 5:30 to 7:00pm, Preston Love Jr. will present “Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr.” at the Charles B. Washington Branch, 2868 Ames Avenue. Saturday, February 5th, 10:00 to 11:30am, professional genealogist Karen Tippets will discuss how to use library resources to find your ancestors. From 2:30 to 4:00pm, Malcom X will be discussed at the Washington Branch. For more information, phone Emily Getzschman, 402.444.4896, or e-mail egetzschman [at] omahalibrary [dot] org.

OMAHA PEACE VIGILS . . . Omaha peacemakers vigil every Wednesday, 4:30-5:30pm, at StratCom/UN-O, 6801 Pine Street, east of the Scott Technology Center on the UN-O campus. Free parking is available at the NE Corner of 67th Street and Pine in a student lot. For more information, phone Jerry Ebner, 402.502.5887. Every Saturday, 1:00-2:00pm, there is a Peace Vigil at 72nd and Dodge Streets. Park next to 72nd Street, in the pet store parking lot. Contact Steve Horn at 402.426.9068 for more information.

OMAHA PEOPLE’S FILM FESTIVAL . . . There is a People’s Film Festival every Wednesday evening, 7:00pm, at McFoster’s Natural Kind Cafe, 38th and Harney in Omaha. The event is always free and open to the public. This week’s film is “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.” This award-winning documentary tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg, a high-level Pentagon official and Vietnam War strategist, who in 1971 concluded that the war was based on decades of lies and leaked 7,000 pages of top secret documents to The New York Times. View the trailer here.  For more information, click here. The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.

PROTEST KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE . . . Saturday protest actions by Guardians of the Good Life are on hold until weather warms up, but a bus bench ad campaign has begun. STOP THE PIPELINE yard signs are available in Omaha by calling Nebraskans for Peace Coordinator Mark Welsch, 453.0776, or e-mail NFPOmaha [at] nebraskansforpeace [dot] org.  For more information, e-mail japlapoo [at] netzero [dot] net.

Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . This week’s LA Times article by Kim Murphy, “Some Texans, too, resist Keystone XL Pipeline,” was published in the Sunday Lincoln Journal Star hard copy, January 30, 2011, under the title “One Pipeline Too Many.” From Port Arthur, the report begins “Texas has rarely met an oil business it didn’t like. Ever since Spindletop sent a gush of crude 150 feet into the air near here in 1901, Texans have been mostly willing to put up with the spills, smokestack belches and massive refinery vistas that go along with big, fat pots of “Texas tea.” But that was before a Canadian company, TransCanada Corp., came forward with a plan to build a 1,700-mile pipeline to carry heavy, high-pollutant oil from the tar sands under the boreal forests of northern Alberta, across the American heartland, through scenic ranchlands in the piney woods of east Texas and on to refineries near Houston and Port Arthur.”
“Big Oil’s Pipeline Scheme to Increase Midwest Gas Prices,” by Jeremy Symons, was published by Wildlife Promise January 24, 2011. “It’s an old story: oil companies increase gas prices and their profits soar. But rarely do we get an inside view of how they manipulate markets to drive up prices, and even rarer still an opportunity to stop it from happening. This time, Big Oil has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar as they scheme to hike America’s oil bill by $4 billion every year. This time, we have the industry documents that prove it.” From the article, “Here’s how the pipeline scheme would really work: …So here’s the bottom line if the Keystone XL pipeline is built: Canadian oil producers get a huge profit windfall, and America gets higher gas prices as well as the pollution from refineries and any pipeline spills.”
Learn more from the National Wildlife Federation’s report on XL, “Staying Hooked on a Dirty Fuel: Why Canadian Tar Sands are a Bad Bet for the United States.”  Click here to send a personalized message to the President, or sign the online e-mail strongly urging him to stop the proposed pipeline.
In this month’s Prairie Fire, Julie Myers, who grew up in Nebraska, contends “The Keystone XL is a gamble that Nebraska cannot afford, for at least two crucial reasons: (1) It would route huge quantities of a hazardous substance for the first time directly through the Sand Hills geology and over the deepest part of the Ogallala Aquifer. And (2) its approval is being rushed through without performance data, skipping orderly review to avoid the scrutiny that might appropriately lead to its rejection, unless the area’s unique environmental safety concerns can be resolved.” Read the entire article here.
Wednesday, January 26th, 21 Nebraska senators sent a letter to Secretary Clinton urging her to study the route/impact on the Sand Hills and the Ogallala Aquifer before deciding on a permit. “Caution urged on pipeline plan”  was published January 27th in the Omaha World Herald.
The following pipeline bills have been introduced in the Nebraska legislature this session:
LB 340 [pdf] establishes state-based guidelines and oversight for oil pipelines. Introduced by Senator Dubas,  send thank yous to adubas [at] leg [dot] ne [dot] gov.
LB 629 [pdf] establishes a state-based certification process for oil pipelines. Introduced by Senator Sullivan, send thank you to ksullivan [at] leg [dot] ne [dot] gov.
LB578 [pdf] requires pipeline companies to be financially responsible for clean-up, decommissioning, and maintenance to roads. Introduced by Senator Haar, send thank you to khaar [at] leg [dot] ne [dot] gov.
Find your state senator’s web page by name and by District here.  Contact information is included for each Senator.
“TransCanada sues to access pipeline land,” by Cody Winchester, January 26, 2011, reports “Court records show that TransCanada has filed more than a dozen lawsuits to condemn land along the route of its Keystone XL oil pipeline in western South Dakota, though it hasn’t received the federal permit it needs to go ahead with the project. …So here’s the bottom line if the Keystone XL pipeline is built: Canadian oil producers get a huge profit windfall, and America gets higher gas prices as well as the pollution from refineries and  any pipeline spills.”
A Washington Post article about the proposed XL pipeline was published on the front page of the January 24, 2011 LJS. “Great Plains oil pipeline plan sparks grass-roots activism, high-stakes lobbying,” was written by staff writer Juliet Eilperin. “A massive feat of engineering by any measure, the Keystone pipeline expansion project would transport crude oil close to 1,700 miles from “oil sands” in the icy reaches of Hardisty, Alberta, down through the Great Plains to the refineries of Port Arthur, Tex. In doing so, the giant pipe also promises to allay some fears about U.S. energy security:  The oil will come from a trusted ally, and its cross-continental path avoids visions of another deep-sea drilling disaster.  But the decision on whether to issue a permit to the project, opposed by environmental groups, rests with the State Department, which has little expertise in engineering or environmental matters. And reflecting the chaos of U.S. energy and environmental policy, the proposed pipeline is pitting Montana landowners against pipe fitters in Nebraska and creating unlikely allies of Nebraska ranchers and chieftains from Alberta’s indigenous communities.” The article continues here.
Lincoln Journal Star has editorialized on the Keystone XL pipeline several times, most recently in “State needs pipeline oversight,”  published January 21, 2011. There was little or no local media coverage of the January 29th XL ACTION EDUCATION FORUM in Lincoln, but coverage of a protest against the pipeline threat was extensive. “Recap: Pipeline Rally Sends Clear Message,” a blog written by Bold Nebraska and Nebraskans for Peace, includes links, video and quotes from the rally.
Save the Date: Sunday, March 6, 2011.  Join members of the groups actively working to protect Nebraska land and water from further pipeline exploitation at Lincoln’s Zoo Bar, 136 North 14th Street, 2:30 to 5:00pm. Live music to be announced.
“Risks outweigh pipeline benefits,” a January 4, 2010 letter to the LJS editor from Ellen Beck in Seward, NE, begins “The Seward County League of Women Voters has written to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking that the government deny a permit to build the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline. The Seward league believes it is important for organizations and Nebraska residents to voice opposition to this project.” “On Precaution,” by Naomi Klein for Reader Supported News, features photos of Canadian landscapes gutted by tar sands extraction.  To get involved with planning XL pipeline opposition strategy, e-mail japlapoo [at] netzero [dot] net.
The Natural Resources Defense Council calls tar sands “the dirtiest, most destructive oil on the face of the Earth.” The Keystone XL pipeline would threaten Nebraska’s underground source of fresh water, the 175,000-square-mile High Plains Aquifer, that provides water to 1.9 million people and irrigation for thousands of square miles of farmland throughout eight states. Nebraska’s geologically unique Sand Hills, where many bird species rest during migration, would also be threatened. Read Ken Winston’s November 4, 2010 Tar Sands Pipeline Update for Nebraska Sierra here.
Nebraska has no legislation on the books for regulating the current Keystone I pipeline, nor the proposed XL tar sands pipeline.  Our Congressional delegation and the governor need to receive letters, e-mails and phone calls from constituents demanding regulation on the existing pipeline, expressing concern about more TransCanada construction in our state. Contact information for Nebraska Congressional Representatives is as follows: Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, CD-1, 1517 Longworth House Office Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20515, 202.225.4806, 402.438.1598 (Lincoln); Rep. Lee Terry, CD-2, 1524 Longworth HOB, Washington, DC 20515, 202.225.4155, 402.397.9944 (Omaha); Rep. Adrian Smith, CD-3, 503 Cannon House Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20515, 202.225.6435, 888.ADRIAN7 (Toll Free); and Governor Dave Heineman, PO Box 94848, State Capitol Bldg., Lincoln, NE 68509, 402.471.2244.
Stop the Keystone XL pipeline — call your senators.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has the power to approve or reject the Keystone XL pipeline, and your senators can pressure her to stand up to Big Oil and stop it. Help put some needed peer pressure on Secretary Clinton by calling your senators today. Tell them that oil pipeline regulations need to be in place, not only to govern the existing pipeline, but also any future pipeline proposed by TransCanada or other environmental exploiters.
Click here to tell Secretary Clinton NOT to grant a permit to TransCanda, tell Gov. Heineman to put forth laws that protect our resources and economic activity and tell President Obama to live up to his promise of clean energy and energy independence. Click here for a Bold Nebraska XL Pipeline Action page with resources and background information. E-mail actions [at] boldnebraska [dot] org to get yard signs, bumper stickers and t-shirts, or stop by Bold Nebraska at 1141 H Street, 3rd Floor, Lincoln, 10:00am to 6:00pm, Monday through Friday.
Remember, every man-made by-product of the petroleum industry could be replaced by hemp. “Help Save the Earth, Time to Subsitute Hemp for Oil.“

AGENCY SCIENTISTS OPPOSE GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SALMON . . . The following quotes are from Fish and Wildlife Service scientists themselves: “The environmental impact of escaped GE salmon is of great concern.” – Gregory Moyer, Regional Geneticist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; “…approval of the proposal is premature, given the unknowns and uncertainties regarding the possible ecological and environmental effects of these fish.” – Jeff Adams, Branch Chief, Fairbanks Fish and Wildlife Field Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and “…I do think the chance of escapement is huge” – Deborah Burger, Manager, Chattahoochee Forest National Fish Hatchery, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Ask the President to stop the GE salmon approval process.

BUY FRESH. BUY LOCAL . . . . Farmers, gardeners, and craftspeople meet through The Nebraska Food Cooperative, an on-line, year-round farmers’ market and local food distribution service offering the best in local freshness. For ordering and pickup schedules, refer to the calendar here.  Click here, for products and prices from North Star Neighbors, a Cooperative member that doesn’t therapeutically medicate or unduly confine animals. Click here for Tomato Tomäto, Omaha’s year-round indoor Farmer’s Market at 156th & West Center. Shop for fresh foods grown in or very near your own community at Open Harvest, Lincoln’s member-owned natural foods retail cooperative at 1618 South Street. Buying local grows family farming, grows the local economy, and is thousands of miles fresher.

HELP NEBRASKA GREENS WITH GOODSEARCH . . . Each time you search the Internet (or shop online at a participating store), a donation can be made to Nebraska Green Party at no cost to you! To help NGP in this way, enter Nebraska Green Party where it says WHO DO YOU GOODSEARCH FOR? here.  Bookmark the GoodSearch Homepage, or make it your own Home Page. Enter the url you want in the GoodSearch search box. Each time you do, one penny will be donated to Nebraska Greens. THANK YOU for your support!

We are no longer the alternative; we are the imperative. –Rosa Clemente