June 2011

For the past two and a half weeks, floodwaters from the swollen Mississippi River have been diverted into the Atchafalaya River and into communities in Louisiana's "Cajun Country" to the south of Baton Rouge and southwest of New Orleans.  The Louisiana Environmental Action Network and award winning chemist Dr. Subra have been tracking the impacts of the flooding.  Here is Dr. [...Read more]

A letter to President Barack Obama concerning his promises to the Gulf [...Read more]

When the BP oil disaster began, writer, activist, and oil industry expert Antonia Juhasz traveled to the Gulf Coast, where she followed the response efforts and interviewed dozens of government officials, community leaders, fishermen, scientists, and coastal residents. [...Read more]

On June 1, a week past her 31st birthday, civil rights activist Catrina Wallace was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. [...Read more]

“Feinberg says no claims filed on cleanup illnesses,” ran an erroneous Associated Press headline last week, stirring up more mistrust of the BP claims process among Gulf Coast residents.  It is simply not true that sick cleanup workers have not filed medical claims with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), administered by Kenneth Feinberg.  Rather, Feinberg and the GCCF ap [...Read more]

In the dim light of a projector, rapt faces took in the solemn image of a bus in flames. On screen, a multiracial group of youth crawled in the grass, coughing and choking from the smoke of the blaze behind them. [...Read more]

"everything is laid out for you. Your path is straight ahead of you. Sometimes it's invisible but it's there. You may not know where it's going, but still you have to follow that path. It's the path to the Creator. That's the only path there is."

--Leon Shenandoah, ONONDAGA
 
The days are long sometimes, and our hearts can be very heavy.
and we may feel like it is all in vain
but the night is just a break in the day
and the dawn brings the birds to song again [...Read more]

How many family fishermen will be put out of business in the Gulf of Mexico, before NOAA's inept handling of the BP oil/dispersant disaster is investigated?  The fishing families, coastal communities, marine life and the natural resources they depend on for survival, continue to suffer through the largest oil disaster and ill-conceived cleanups in the history of our country.  And now, these fishing families are being blamed for turtle deaths.  NOAA (N [...Read more]

By Zack Carter, South Bay Communities Alliance. Remarks delivered on Tuesday, June 21st at commerical fisherman Christopher LaForce's funeral.  I am privileged that Christopher’s family asked me to speak today to help us honor the legacy he leaves for us. Indeed I am humbled to speak today because I know there are so many of you all that have known and loved Christopher La Force much longer than I. [...Read more]