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PCC: WE ALLOW FREE PAPERS--JUST NOT MOST OF THEM

Although this paper routinely contains articles related to food-and agriculture (see page 5 of this issue, for example), the Free Press was not one of the few chosen by PCC for distribution in its stores. --Ed.

NEED MORE TAXES FROM MICROSOFT, BOEING

Gov. Locke plans to cut Medicaid benefits as his solution to a $175 million deficit. Yet Bill Gates and Paul Allen are worth $88 billion between them! You'd think that such staggering wealth would contribute to the state coffers. Why aren't they taxed sufficiently to support the state and the people who use and build their software? The sole business tax, the B&O, isn't applied to sales out of state, thus letting Microsoft, Weyerhauser, Paccar and Boeing off the hook for most of their revenues. Microsoft earnings are expected to be $32 billion this year. The state's entire shortfall is small change to them. Isn't it obvious the company is ripping us off? The governor needs to let up on poor, working, and laid-off people and instead introduce tax laws that will make wealthy corporations and individuals pay for the transportation, education and social services they so abundantly use. -- Henry Noble, Freedom Socialist Party

Prisons Need Secular Program

Sixty to eighty percent of prison inmates are incarcerated for crimes associated with drugs and alcohol. Their crimes include those committed under the influence of substances, as well as trafficking and possession. Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are the predominate volunteer-run substance-abuse programs available in Washington State correction facilities. While both programs have helped many, there is a need for another approach to help the estimated 14% of the prison population who are non-religious. Several states have mandated secular programs in their prisons. However, Washington has only one secular program, the Smart Recovery/Inside Out program at the Monroe Reformatory. I introduced this program in 1999 and have been coordinating weekly group meetings for inmates ever since. I now have an interest in expanding the program at Monroe and taking the program into other prison facilities. To do this, I need to find volunteers who are interested in helping inmates with substance abuse problems and making a difference in the lives of inmates while reducing recidivism. If you are interested in learning more about Smart Recovery/Inside Out and how you can help, please contact me at 360-293-8128 or cpellett@cnw.com. -- Howard Pellett

Still Ignored by Social Services

I sent the Free Press an article [Jul 2002] about how I wasn't getting compensation for injuries from working at Boeing. I wanted to give you an update on how things are going. I've gone back to school. I'm training in the Human Services field. Western Washington University has a program called the Direct Service Providers Project, geared specifically for disabled individuals who want to go into the field of helping other disabled people. But I still haven't heard if I'll be receiving disability from SSI. I have to go in front of an Appeals Judge and that won't happen for another 16 months! I applied over a year ago. The Dept. of Labor and Industry insists that I'm responsible for the medical bills that have piled up, they said the condition I suffered from was caused by a pre existing condition (acid reflux). Funny how it only gave me problems when I was exposed to the chemical at The Auburn plant (bldg. 17-45)! When I hear that Alaska Air lines is going to buy Airbus planes instead of Boeing, I get a "happy rush"! Serves them right, justice served! Too bad for the thousands of workers Boeing is sending to the streets, though. Its not an easy transition, unemployment barely gets you by, and it goes by [runs out] so fast. My wife and I are taking care of my younger brother who has been wheelchair bound since 1992. He was facing the likelihood of being placed in a nursing home when the adult family home he was staying at was forced to close (by the state). We modified our home to take him in. Thanks for the help. -- Brian Teitzel

CONTINUE PARKS PROGRAMS

Demonstrators asked for an end to environmentally harmful Parks practices and for the continuation of environmental education programs at West Seattle's Camp Long recently. The demonstrators protested the termination of Lynn Havsall, former director of Camp Long who was terminated on Jan. 2, 2003. Since then programs have been cancelled including a Habitat Restoration series, a series of community potlucks at Camp Long, half the Weekend Naturalist Series, the Strolls with a Naturalist programs in southend parks and half of the Art & Science series. And these programs generate revenue! Havsall and her supporters contend that management decisions in the Parks Department are often determined by how to serve political and personal ambitions, and are in disregard for environmental policies and fairness to workers. Havsall says her removal is just one example of how cronyism dominates Parks management. She contends she was removed as retaliation for breathing life into Camp Long, and upsetting the quiet, sleepy status quo. Essentially, Lynn was fired for making Camp Long too successful, too popular. When they got rid of Lynn, the public lost a very committed, talented and capable public servant. She really went all out to make Camp Long a jewel within the City's parks, to build public appreciation for and use of the Park, to provide programs that made environmental education fun. -- Stewart Wechsler

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

I think probably the CIA deliberately helped get the World Trade Center bombed on 9-11. I've come to this conclusion after reading international news reports compiled by Sonoma State University's Project Censored. The stories are published in "Censored 2003: The Top 25 Censored Stories." Here is some of what the reports said:

• In June 2001, the US government told India it planned to attack Afghanistan in October. A month later, the BBC reported that the US told the Pakistani Foreign Secretary the same thing.
• In July 2001, while Osama bin Laden was on the world's "most wanted list," he was treated in the American Hospital in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. A CIA agent met with him there.
• Pakistan Intelligence Services has worked with the CIA for a long time. Its chief met with the US State Department and the Pentagon before and after the 9-11 attacks. Six months before 9-11, this Pakistani chief wired $100,000 to Atta, the man who later hijacked the plane at the World Trade Center. Two days before the hijacking, the chief was removed from his position in a "routine reshuffling."
• During the two weeks before 9-11, certain types of trading in airline and related stocks dramatically increased--so much that many people think these traders knew 9-11 would happen.
• For two hours after the World Trade Center was attacked, not one US Air Force plane was sent to investigate--even though it's standard procedure to do that when a plan deviates from its flight path.
• Right after the attack, the FBI helped escort members of Osama bin Laden's family safely out of the US. In the eight weeks after the attacks, not one family member was questioned regarding Osama's whereabouts.
• Karzai, Afghanistan's leader right after 9-11, has worked with the CIA since the 1980's.
• In January 2002, Atty. Gen. Ashcroft urged federal agencies to resist most Freedom of Information Act requests by Americans. The Act allows people to scrutinize public documents.

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