Speak Out: No New Nukes! National Rally against the first new license for a nuclear power plant since Three Mile Island.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is ready for action after streamlining the nuclear power plant licensing process to exclude public participation, reactor safety, and radioactive waste disposal. It's flirting with disaster by proposing to build 2 new nuclear power plants in central Virginia.

If you're coming to DC on J20 to protest Bush's inauguration, support us on J19 in Virginia, just an hour south of DC. We have no doubt that this hearing date was picked in order to keep people from showing up.

We need a major turnout to send a message that we repudiate the U.S. Department of Energy and the heavily-subsidized industry's efforts to license new nuclear power plants despite unresolved safety and waste issues.

North Anna Nuclear Licensing Hearing: January 19, 2005; Mineral, Virginia Louisa County Middle School, 1009 Davis Highway, Mineral, Virginia 23117

After a few years of a nascent anti-war movement in Virginia, more than 20 progressive activist groups came together in Richmond on Jan. 8 to formally endorse a statewide network opposed to the U.S. war on Iraq and the oppressions intertwined with U.S. war abroad and the daily experiences of marginalized people at home.

This Wednesday, January 12, the Virginia Public Service Workers Union (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 160) will hold rallies at three public hospitals in Petersburg, Staunton and Williamsburg to demand that all state workers receive a 6% wage increase, and that workers currently earning less than $30,000 annually receive a $1,500.00 living wage adjustment.

These rallies are also the first events for which people attending this past Saturday's "Organizing Conference for a Virginia Anti-War Network" in Richmond agreed to mobilize. UE Local 160 has been a committed leader among anti-war organizers in Virginia since the first flickers of resistance to the invasion of Iraq appeared.

Twice in as many days, dozens of members of a faith-based community of activists breached security at the White House and Pentagon, two of the most heavily guarded buildings in the country, during nonviolent anti-war protests. Several protestors, including Virginian participants, were arrested and given spring court dates. At both sites, passers-by, including Pentagon soldiers, thanked the protesters for being there.

Please join fellow anti-war activists in Richmond for a day of networking and movement building on Jan. 8 at Asbury United Methodist Church.

What has been lacking has been a sustainable way for us to stay in touch, support each others' work and coordinate actions. Anti-war activists in Richmond are proposing that different groups and individuals from across the state gather to form a workable organization or network through which we may better collaborate toward our shared goals.

The most recent statewide mobilization, on July 3 in Richmond, brought together 1,000 people in support of these three demands:

1) Real sovereignty for Iraq - bring the troops home now!
2) End the occupations of Iraq, Haiti, Afghanistan & Palestine!
3) Money for jobs & human needs, not war!
In addition, we are proposing a fourth demand:

4) No to racism, sexism & the oppression of lesbians, gays, bisexuals & transgendered people!

If you and your group agree with these four demands, we invite you to join us in Richmond on Saturday, January 8, at Asbury United Methodist Church, 324 N. 29th St. That's on the corner of 29th and East Marshall streets in Church Hill, one block north of East Broad Street. The gathering will start at 10 a.m. and finish up by 9 p.m.

WRIR 97.3FM Richmond Indie Radio is the cities newest radio station and the nation's most powerful low-power FM station in terms of population reach. 190,000 plus potential listeners from Richmond can now tune into the community-run independent radio station.

WRIR 97.3FM isn't just contained to the Richmond metro area, the signal reaches out to the surrounding counties as well, as far out as Short Pump, Glen Allen/Ashland/Hanover, Eastern Henrico, etc. And with nationally syndicated radio shows such as Democracy Now, Talk of the Nation, Free Speech News, plus locally produced shows like Richmond Independent Media Radio, & The Richmond Defenders Radio; not to mention the nations first Low Power FM station to be allowed to broadcast National Public Radio programs, the city of Richmond will never be the same.

Never before has Richmond had the opportunity to bask in progressive grass roots born information like this. With that said we all should be listening right now and telling everyone we know about it so we can all engage each other with this new found information which will help us form intellegent well informed opinions about local and world issues. If there is something you feel is missing from the stations program, a voice that needs to be heard, WRIR is a community run station that will do all they can to help get that voice heard!

URGE YOUR DELEGATE TO REPEAL THE AFFIRMATION OF MARRIAGE ACT

Last week, Delegate Mitch Van Yahres (D-Charlottesville) introduced legislation to repeal the so-called "Affirmation of Marriage Act". Write your Delegate today and urge them to support this measure!

The measure, HB 1633, simply states that the measure patroned by Del. Robert Marshall (R-Manassas) and passed in the 2004 General Assembly session is repealed.

Write for Richmond Indymedia! We'll help you find stories in your neighborhood, no matter where in Virginia your neighborhood is. We'll help you post your stories. We'll even post your early ones for you under your name or a pseudonym. We'll publish your organization's news. No matter how short the article or announcement. And we will teach you how to use the site. This site gets many thousands of hits per month... so...

Be indymedia. If you are interested, contact the email address above and/or post a comment below.

The General Assembly will open for the 2005 legislative session on January 12. Delegate Jeion Ward has pre-filed a bill to collect data on racial profiling in Virginia, and many VOP local groups have met with their delegates to ask them to support a bill to document patterns of racial profiling this year. Signing on as a co-sponsor to Del. Ward's racial profiling bill is a concrete way that all delegates can move this bill along in the upcoming session.

Jonathon Rowland of the new Paper Street Infoshop in Richmond talks about the struggles of single handedly runnning a bookstore, plans for the future and the upcoming collectivisation of the store. Now that you know, the rest is up to you. Go support Paper Street and get involved.

On August 7th of this year, Brian Buckley, a Catholic Worker from Lousia County, VA, walked into the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum’s hanger in Chantilly, VA with a group of approximately 20 others. This hanger is home to, among many other items, the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These bombs resulted in the deaths of over 200,000 people by the end of 1945. Brian and the others approached the plane and six of the group proceeded to die-in. Brian then poured ashes over himself and the others to symbolize the ashes of those who were incinerated by the bomb. Other members of the group unfurled a banner and passed out flyers explaining the action, calling the Enola Gay a weapon of mass destruction and a killing machine. The group also chanted and sang songs of peace. Brian and another man were arrested and the rest of the group was escorted from the building.

Brian was found guilty of disorderly conduct earlier this year in a bench trial, and appealed the decision. Monday, Dec. 6, he returned to Fairfax County to make his case in front of Judge Keith, and was sentenced to 2 months in jail and a $2000 fine.

Bill and Sue Frankel-Streit from the Little Flower Catholic Worker will facilitate a workshop on "Nonviolent resistence for the long haul" on Dec. 11th at 4pm at 725 W. Broad. Childcare will be provided.

We'll be doing some basic nonviolence training as well as trying to put our own struggles into some historical context. It's a long haul deal and the better we understand our past and present movements, the more equipped we are for the future. We'll reflect on the work we're already doing and on what more--or less--we could do individually and communally.