GREENS ARE GATHERING SIGNATURES. . . The Green Party is qualified for ballot status this election cycle in all of the four biggest states: New York, California, Florida, and Texas. At this time, 20 states have ballot status in November 2012. For brief information about current candidates for President, click here.
NGP is gathering signatures so voters here will also have the choice of voting for the Green Party presidential slate. In Lincoln, petitions are available at Meadowlark Coffee and Espresso, 1624 South Street. Registered Nebraska voters are invited to stop by for coffee, visit with Adam Hintz from 6:00am to 2:00pm daily, sign a petition, or pick up one to circulate. In Omaha, look for Charles Ostdiek at McFoster’s, 38th and Harney, to sign and pick up petitions.
You must be a registered voter to circulate the county specific petitions. Fill out a voter registration application online here.[pdf] If you can help us identify a public place in CD 3 where petitions could be available, if you would like us to mail you petitions to circulate, or to participate in the ballot access process in any way, please let us know by e-mailing mjberry [at] inebraska [dot] com. Let’s take Our democracy back from Wall Street!

McFOSTER’S WILL STAY OPEN!. . . From an Omaha World-Herald article March 1, 2012, “…Owner Tom Foster said his customers donated more than the $15,000 he needed to pay off property taxes he owed on the restaurant, located near 38th and Farnam Streets. “They saved the day,” Foster said. “Even though we’ve been here for 18 years, we don’t have a big advertising budget, and a lot of people have never heard of us. We hope a lot of those new customers will become regulars.” Channel 6 tv news coverage is here.
Thank You to Every One who helped save Omaha’s Nebraska Green Party home.

PAGE DOWN FOR KEYSTONE XL UPDATE.

Lincoln area: Congressional District 1

VIGIL AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY . . . The Nebraska Supreme Court issued a stay of the scheduled March 6th execution on Thursday, February 23, 2012. “Supreme Court halts Ryan execution” provides details. Subsequently, from “Judge rejects appeal by death-row inmate Ryan,” March 3rd, “Death-row inmate Michael Ryan lost his latest appeal Friday, opening the door for Attorney General Jon Bruning to again seek a death warrant…”
Every Monday, 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. When weather is bad, 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 more information about NADP, click here.  “It is the deed that teaches, not the name we give it. Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their kind.” –George Bernard Shaw

OCCUPY EDUCATION . . . Occupy Education, an initiative of Occupy Lincoln, is offering a free and open university with weekly talks/discussions through March 19, 2012. The teach-in workshops are Mondays, 7:00 to 8:00pm, at Indigo Bridge Books, 701 P Street.  The Monday Phil 99 Course, “A Philosophical Look at Law, Punishment, and Power,” consists of informal lectures, followed by an open discussion. “Part 3: The War on Drugs — The Basis and Effects of the U.S. Drug Policy,” will be Monday, March 5th. The five-week seminar will be presented by Steve Swartzer, Lecturer of Philosophy and Assistant Director of the Center for the Teaching and Study of Applied Ethics at UN-L.
Tuesday Teach-In Workshops will be hosted by a different member of the Occupy Lincoln community, on a topic of their choosing, Tuesdays, 7:00 – 8:00pm, at Meadowlark Coffee and Espresso, 1624 South Street. Tuesday, March 6th, the topic will be “Pre-Season Gardening,” with Erin Frank. For more information, e-mail Hendrik van den Berg, hvan-den-berg1 [at] unl [dot] edu Education is a Basic Human Right.

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.

RUN FOR WILDERNESS PARK BRIDGES . . . Wednesday, March 7, 2012, is the deadline to register for “Run for the Bridges Benefit Trail Run,” Saturday, March 17th, at the Fitness Loop/Day Camp area (First and Park) in Wilderness Park. The 1/2 Marathon and 6 mile run will help Raise Funds to Replace Bridges in Wilderness Park. Check-in starts at 8:00am. Run starts at 9:00am. Click here to register, or mail entry fees to 1850 Dakota Street, Lincoln NE 68502.

WACHISKA AUDUBON MEETING . . . Thursday, March 8, 2012, 7:00pm, “The View from Phlox Mountain” will be presented by Jim Locklear, Director of Conservation for Omaha’s Lauritzen Gardens, at the March Wachiska Audubon meeting, Union College Dick Auditorium, 3800 South 48th Street, Lincoln. For details, click here.

2012 WINTER LECTURE SERIES . . . Sunday, March 11, 2012, this year’s Winter Lecture Series at Lincoln’s Unitarian Church, 6300 A Street, will end with an African cuisine Dinner at 6:00, followed by a panel discussion with scholors from Northern Africa, at 7:00pm. Advanced reservations are required, by phone at 402.483.2213, or e-mail admin [at] unitarianlincoln [dot] org.

OCCUPY LINCOLN . . . “City officials and Occupy Lincoln have reached an agreement that will keep tents pitched on Centennial Mall until May 1, two months later than the city had planned.” Read the Lincoln Journal Star coverage here.
The Occupy Lincoln camp site is located on Centennial Mall north of the state capitol. There is a General Assembly every Sunday, 1:30-2:30pm, at Bennett Martin Library, 14th and N Streets, in the 4th floor auditorium; Wednesday, 6:30pm at Indigo Bridge Books; and Friday, 6:00 to 9:00pm.  The Facebook page is here.  The Twitter feed is @OccupyLincoln. For more information, e-mail occupylincoln [at] gmail [dot] com or phone 402.585.5865.  Corporate Greed is Revolution’s Seed!

Omaha area: Congressional District 2

GREEN TEAM ROUNDTABLE . . . The Green Omaha Coalition Green Business Council and WasteCap Nebraska will convene a Green Team Roundtable on Wednesday, March 7, 2012, from 11:30am to 1:00pm, at UN-O Mammel Hall, 6708 Pine Street, Omaha. Green Team Roundtables are peer-to-peer networking meetings for green teams and individuals committed to sustainable business practices. Three panelists will discuss three different types of Green Jobs. Cost includes a zero-waste lunch. Registration and payment must be made by noon on Friday, March 2nd, here.  For more information call Julie Diegel, 402.434.7376.

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 about Saturday vigils.

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. Wednesday, March 7, 2012, the film will be “Aristide and the Endless Revolution,” a detailed account of the United States’ removal of Haiti’s democratically elected president, featuring Aristide, Sen. Maxine Waters, Noam Chomsky, Rep. Charles Rangel, and others. The trailer is here.  An informal discussion will follow the film. For more information, click here.  The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.

FORUM ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE & MASS INCARCERTATION . . . Michelle Alexander, former ACLU attorney and author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” will appear in Omaha Saturday, March 10, 2012, as Keynote Speaker for “Journeys of Justice & Safe Communities,” hosted by ACLU Nebraska at the Tip Top Ballroom, 1502 Cuming Street. An NPR interview with Michelle Alexander is here. Before the dinner, there will be a “Nebraska Safe Communities | Fair Sentences Forum” featureing Alexander and local experts on the criminal justice system. View the full schedule and list of sponsoring organizations here.  Learn about how tax-payer dollars have been wasted on programs that don’t make our communities safe, and what you can do to change this. Purchase tickets for dinner, the forum, or both, here.

PIPE DREAMS AT OMAHA FILM FESTIVAL . . . “Pipe Dreams,” a documentary about “The Greatest Environmental Battle in the USToday–the Keystone XL Pipeline,” is scheduled to play at the Omaha Film Festival on Sunday, March 11, 2012, at noon. View the trailer here.  The Leslie Iwerks film features Stop the Pipeline Coalition members from Nebraska.

OCCUPY OMAHA . . . The current Occupy Omaha location is in transition. The official Occupy Omaha website is here. The FaceBook page is here.  The Twitter feed is #occupyomaha

ENGAGE OMAHA . . . One of the nation’s first city-wide, virtual town hall websites, EngageOmaha, is now online. Omaha residents may weigh in on issues for the city to consider. Pick a topic, and join the mix here.

Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . In “A new chapter in the fight against Keystone XL” from 350.org details Monday’s announcement that TransCanada will go ahead and build the southern leg of the pipeline, from Cushing Oklahoma, through Texas to the Gulf of Mexico, and that they will re-apply for a presidential permit allowing them to build the pipe across the US-Canadian border – the same permit that President Obama denied last month.
The same day, February 27, 2012, the White House applauded the news, promising to help expedite the permits necessary to complete the pipeline’s route. Breaking up the pipeline in this way is quite simply TransCanada’s latest end run around the State Department’s formal review process. …The southern portion of Keystone XL carries the same risks of oil spills on American water and soil, and brings the tar sands carbon bomb one big step closer to being unleashed across the world. President Obama must insure that the Department of Transportation and the Army Corps of Engineers do not cut any corners in evaluating this project, and consider it’s full impacts on the climate.
As Bill McKibben wrote over the weekend, this is an important, iconic fight — big oil knows that, which is why they are pushing so hard. The Omaha World-Herald article is here.
           Tell President Obama: Don’t “expedite” Keystone XL.
Please don’t expedite approval of the southern leg of Keystone XL, or cut any corners to force this project through.
For the record, Nebraska Sierra’s Ken Winston compiled TransCanada’s record in the last three years as follows:
1. Threatened to use eminent domain against Nebraska landowners, then said at a legislative hearing they wouldn’t use eminent domain, then sent letters threatening eminent domain within 30 days, then said they wouldn’t use eminent domain “at this time.”
2. Told us for three years they couldn’t change the route and then said they would change the route
3. Opposed posting a bond, then said they would be willing to post a bond if the Legislature wouldn’t do a special session and then opposed legislation requiring a bond
4. Threatened to sue the state if it passed routing legislation and now demanding that it pass routing legislation.
5. Agreeing to avoid the Sand Hills, but not putting that promise in writing anywhere.
6. Demanding the passage of legislation that makes the State pay $2 million for study of a route and now saying they might pay the state back if the pipeline isn’t built, a promise that is totally unenforceable.
Last week BOLD Nebraska revealed that reports Transcanada is required to submit show the Canadian company spent almost half a million dollars on lobbying expenses in Nebraska during the last quarter alone.
“Far From D.C., Michigan Residents Fight Their Own Tar Sands Pipeline Battles,” posted by Rocky Kistner, Natural Resources Defense Council, includes a 6:37 minute video update on Michigan restoration work from the Enbridge pipeline spill that continues to force thousands of people along the Kalamazoo River to deal with tar sands oil. Forty miles of the river are closed, and no end is in sight.
Action Alerts still available online include the following:
From Bill McKibben: “The Keystone XL zombie is lurching back to life and we need your help to knock it back again. The Senate is considering a series of tricks designed to force approval of the project. It’s hard to track what’s real and what’s just noise, but our friends on the Hill assure us this is a crucial moment for the public to weigh in. Click here to write your Senators.
Keystone XL is the perfect symbol of the cronyism that’s corrupting our government: the 44 Senators who co-sponsored the most recent piece of legislation have taken $22.3 million in oil and gas money — that’s more than three times as much dirty money as those opposing the pipeline. The one Democrat on this list, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, has taken more money from the fossil fuel barons than anyone else in his party—it’s really just a game of follow-the-cash.
From Sierra Club: “We knew Big Oil wouldn’t give up, and sure enough, they’re still at it, using their money to force the pipeline down our throats, thwart the President, and pass this bill.
This pipeline would carry the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel, tar sands oil, from Canada to Texas, where it would be shipped overseas. To build the pipeline, TransCanada has to seize private land from ranchers and farmers, and then expose what’s left to the threat of oil spills and leaks. Clean water, clean air, agriculture, and our shared climate would all be put at risk for what have been greatly exaggerated benefits. Take thirty seconds to tell Sen. Johanns and Sen. Nelson — put our public health before Big Oil profits. Oppose this and any other attempt to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.”
Sign a Natural Resources Defense Council Action Alert telling Congress to reject all attempts to force approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline by attaching it to the payroll tax bill, the transportation bill or any other unrelated legislation. The Keystone XL will deliver billions in profits to Big Oil while the people get stuck with poisoned water, contaminated land and an overheated planet.

STOP FRACKING NOW . . . Quoting Bill McKibben in “Why Not Frack?”  “The planet is running short of the easy stuff, where you stick a drill in the ground and crude comes bubbling to the surface. The great oil fields of Saudi Arabia and Mexico have begun to dwindle; one result has been a rising price for energy. We could, as a civilization, have taken that dwindling supply and rising price as a signal to convert to sun, wind, and other noncarbon forms of energy-it would have made eminent sense, most of all because it would have aided in the fight against global warming, the most difficult challenge the planet faces. Instead, we’ve taken it as a signal to scour the world for more hydrocarbons. And it turns out that they’re there-vast quantities of coal and oil and gas, buried deep or trapped in tight rock formations or mixed with other minerals. Getting at them requires ripping apart the earth: for instance, by heating up the ground so that the oil in the tar sands formation of Canada can flow to the surface. Or by tearing holes in the crust a mile beneath the surface of the sea, as BP was doing in the Gulf of Mexico when the Deepwater Horizon well exploded. Or by literally removing mountaintops to get at coal, as has become commonplace across the southern Appalachians.
Ted Glick also wrote about “Fracking, Obama and the 2012 Debate” for Reader Supported News last week: “President Obama says that fracked natural gas allows us to essentially chill out. Because of it, ‘we don’t have to choose between our environment and our economy.’ What a disappointing, inaccurate and alarming statement. It’s as if the around-a-thousand – so far – documented cases of water poisoning from fracking are caused by one or two ‘bad apple’ companies in the gas industry that can be easily made to see the error of their ways.”
Petition Congress:  “We, the undersigned, call on Congress to pass the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act this year. It’s time to hold the oil and gas production industry to the same standards as any other industry to ensure the safe protection of America’s drinking water.”

PETITION THE EPA . . . Tell the Environmental Protection Agency to immediately prohibit the use of clothianidin and conduct a full scientific review to determine its impact on honey bee populations.  Learn more about clothianidin and sign the petition here.

TELL PRESIDENT OBAMA NOT TO CAVE TO MONSANTO AND THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY . . . The Obama administration has unbelievably chosen to approve three biotech crops, Roundup Ready genetically modified alfalfa, Roundup Ready genetically modified sugar beets and a new industrial biotech corn for ethanol production. These decisions are a devastating blow to our democracy and the basic rights of farmers to choose how they want to grow food on their land and the rights of consumers who increasingly choose organic and sustainably grown food for its positive health and environmental impacts. Please tell the President it’s time to stand up to Monsanto and reject GMO crops.
From FitLife.tv, “In the wake of a 12-year battle to keep Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered crops from contaminating the nation’s 25,000 organic farms and ranches, America’s organic consumers and producers are facing betrayal. A self-appointed cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, has decided it’s time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have publicly admitted that they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE crops, such as Monsanto’s controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa, and are prepared to sit down and cut a deal for “coexistence” with Monsanto and USDA biotech cheerleader Tom Vilsack.”
To help organize or coordinate a Millions Against Monsanto and Factory Farms Truth-in-Labeling campaign in your local community, sign up here.  To pressure Whole Foods Market and the nation’s largest supermarket chains to voluntarily adopt truth-in-labeling practices, sign editable text here.

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 asks you to name your cause 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!

Remember, every man-made by-product of the petroleum industry could be replaced by hemp. “Help Save the Earth, Time to Substitute Hemp for oil.“