FROM THE NEWSWIRE: May 25, 2008 - Charlotte, NC Today, activists with Asheville Rising Tide broke ground on a new 800 Mw clean energy power plant in Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers front yard. The power plant will tap into a previously unexplored energy source known as hot air which has been found in large concentrations at Roger's residence, 330 Eastover Rd, Charlotte, NC. "The hot air emitting from Jim Rogers mouth has been around for quite some time, but the last couple of years has seen an exponential growth of this untapped energy source as Rogers parades around the country calling for greenhouse gas reductions while building the dirty Cliffside coal plant. This was simply an opportunity we couldn't pass up," said Jill Rockingham, chief engineer for the project.

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: A video of the APD doing a walk-through of Pisgah View Apts., a local housing project, one officer is carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle. He refered to it as his piece maker.

This apparently happens somewhat regularly in PVA. The locals of the neighborhood have a lot to deal with. The police presence is intense and the when the police use such tactics as a means to intimidate people, its no wonder the community is afraid of the police.

http://www.myspace.com/ashevillecopwatch

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: Protesters confront HLS customer Quintiles and supplier, Staples. Huntingdon Life Sciences, known as Life Sciences Research in the U.S., is the world's most notorious contract testing laboratory which kills 500 animals daily to test agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and common household items like food colorings and artificial sweeteners. Employees have been caught on videotape punching 5 month old beagle puppies in the face, documented breaking animal welfare laws, admitting to falsifying scientific data...They have locations in Britain and in New Jersey.

Saturday May 10, 2008

Today a group of protesters held another noisy demonstration outside of Staples with a bullhorn, letting them know that this campaign will not end until they end their association with HLS. A number of people stopped to speak with protesters about HLS and Staples, voiced their appreciation and wished us good luck. One man said he would complain to the store and might return his order because of it.

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: At around 1pm, dozens of colorful celebrators gathered at the Vance monument to enjoy their freedoms, express their dissent, have a waterball fight in the street, and parade around downtown for this year's international workers day.

Food Not Bombs provided food for the initial picnic while a marching band provided entertainment. Eventually people started shoving giant plastic barricades into the street, blocking all traffic in the intersection in front of the Vance Monument, so they could have a water balloon fight. Then there was a parade! Everyone marched around downtown, turning corners to avoid the police blockades. Right outside the Grove Arcade, one person got arrested and charged with inciting a riot, but he is now out of jail. His court date is scheduled for June 6. Everyone else marched back to Pack Place and continued the party for awhile. Over all, it was a wonderful May Day for Asheville.

Happy May Day!

See also: http://www.mountainx.com/news/2008/may_day_parade_attra...f_apd

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: A number of residential protests occurred outside the homes of Quintiles and GlaxoSmithKline Executives homes as well as a noisy protest outside of the Staples corporation. We demand they make statements publicly severing their ties with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

As part of World Week for Animals in Labs, local animal activists held a number of protests as part of the campaign to close Huntingdon Life Sciences, a notorious animal testing laboratory that has been caught in six undercover investigations abusing animals including shaking and punching five month-old beagle puppies in the face, cutting open a monkey while it was still alive as, falsifying scientific data, and breaking animal welfare laws hundreds of times. One worker was quoted as saying, "you could wipe your ass with this data." Another employee was documented cutting out a dead beagle's eyes and mailing it to his ex-girlfriend in the mail saying, "I only have eyes for you." These are the sick people who work at Huntingdon and this is the kind of shoddy, fraudulent research that is being contracted by pharmaceutical companies like Novartis, Glaxosmithkline, Syngenta and Quintiles. HLS has been almost financially ruined by activists around the world, but has been continually propped up by the UK and US governments. Organizers in the U.S. and Britain have been undergoing serious repression including government spying and the incarceration of activists at the behest of financial institutions and pharmaceutical companies. But the protests will not stop.

FROM THE NEWSWIRE:
You are invited to:

Mountain Justice Summer Camp
May 17 - 23
Harlan County, Kentucky

Our 2008 Mountain Justice Summer camp will be at the base of beautiful Pine Mountain, with an old-growth forest and incredible hiking just above the camp - plus live mountain music, great food, films, workshops on coal mining and Appalachian culture, skills training, and plenty of time for fun and relaxing.

Best of all, the camp is extremely low-cost, only $20 plus $10 per night. There are cabins with bunk beds, plus tent spaces, a beautiful lake, awesome mountain views, and some of the best people you will ever meet anywhere (sorry - no dogs this year).

Register now at http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org

Go to the website to see pictures of the camp and some photos of our camp last year in Tennessee. This is our 4th annual camp, and we think this is going to be the biggest and best camp we have ever had, with well-known speakers like Kentucky author Silas House, Kayford Mountain Keeper Larry Gibson, Teri Blanton of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Ed Wiley from Rock Creek, West Virginia, plus many local Harlan County residents and coal miners who are concerned about mountaintop removal mining.

Asheville Rising Tide is actively looking for donations. Anything helps!

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: At 6:30 this morning, North Carolina residents locked themselves to bulldozers to stop the construction of Duke Energy's massive Cliffside coal-fired power plant being built 50 miles west of Charlotte, NC. "In the face of catastrophic climate change, building a new coal plant is tantamount to signing a death sentence for our generation," said local farmer Matt Wallace, while locked to a bulldozer. The concerned citizens also roped off the construction site with "Global Warming Crime Scene" tape and held banners that read "Coal Fuels Climate Change" and "Social Change, not Climate Change."

Shortly after activists locked themselves to construction equipment, police arrived on the scene and used pain compliance holds and tazers to force them to unlock themselves.

The act of civil disobedience is one of over 100 protests taking place around the world on what climate activists are calling Fossil Fools Day, a confrontational day of protest targeting companies responsible for runaway carbon dioxide emissions. The day of action was organized by the international Rising Tide network and its allies to demand an end to the extraction and burning of fossil fuels and a just, rapid transition to sustainable ways of living. In Nottingham, UK, climate activists blockaded the offices of E-on, a company trying to build a new generation of coal-fired power stations, while another group in Wales halted work at one of the biggest opencast coal mines in Europe.

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: Over 60 students walked out of classes here at UNC-Asheville on Thursday, March 20th, to answer the national call to action from Students for a Democratic Society. They were joined by members of the community, as well as members of the WNC Peace Coalition, Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, No More Victims, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization for a march downtown and a rally at Pack Square. These organizations made up the Asheville March 20 Coalition, organized by UNCA SDS. Leaders from all of these organizations spoke at the rally downtown.

Angela Denio spoke to the rally on behalf of UNCA SDS. In her speech to the assembled crowd she noted, “Almost 4000 American soldiers have died in this war. 1.2 million Iraqi people have died. Beyond this there is mass displacement- 4 million refugees.”

Do you keep missing meetings? Forget your dad's birthday? Didn't realize that martial law was declared to put down a meat packers' strike in Nebraska City on January 27, 1922? You must not have a Slingshot Organizer!

Asheville Indymedia is now selling 2008 Slingshot Organizers at Rosetta's Kitchen at 111 Broadway St in downtown Asheville. We know it's a little late in the year, but Slinghots are cool, artsy, collectively-made daily planners chock-full of facts about people's history. They also include menstrual calandars, space for address & phone numbers, and loads of useful information on emotional well-being, consent, dealing with government repression, etc. as well as a list of radical contacts around the world. For more information, go to: http://slingshot.tao.ca/organizer.php

Small "classic" pocket Slingshots are $6. Large desk calendar versions are $12. All proceeds go to Asheville Indymedia. Supplies are very limited, so go pick up yours today.