North Dakota Peace Coalition

August 21, 2007

United Tribes Youth Day is Friday, September 7

BISMARCK (UTN) - School classes and youth groups are invited to take a field trip to Youth Day at the United Tribes International Powwow on Friday, September 7 on the college campus in Bismarck .

The music and cultural event is offered as an educational experience for young people and visitors who are interested in learning about Native American culture.

Continue (at uttc.edu) »

August 7, 2007

ACTION ALERT: Stop the Development of Nuclear Weapons
From the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)

Dear fellow North Dakotan,

Senator Byron Dorgan can help stop the Bush administration's plan to develop new nuclear bombs. At the same time that the administration is condemning nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, it is proposing to rebuild the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, potentially reigniting a nuclear arms race.

The administration plan would produce a new nuclear weapon called the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW), the first new warhead to be developed by the U.S. in two decades. Instead of focusing on post-Cold War reductions of the nuclear weapons stockpile, as the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty calls for, the U.S. is developing new nuclear warheads at the total cost of billions of taxpayer dollars.

But Sen. Dorgan, as chair of the powerful Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, the panel that controls nuclear weapons spending, can put a halt to RRW.

Head to the FCNL Action Alert page to read more and for ways to take action.

August 3, 2007

Tonight!
An Evening of Music with Kristin Kitko

Please join us in Bismarck for an evening of original peace-loving music by our own Kristin Kitko. As the CHICAGO TRIBUNE put it, she "displays several musical superpowers."

From Kris ~

Hi!

Please come on out for a FREE concert of my original folky music!

WHEN: Friday, Aug. 3, at 8 pm
WHERE: 818 East Divide Ave., Bismarck (Unitarian Universalist building)
WHY: I love sharing music, and I hope to meet some wonderful folks and see friends...

The concert will be outside if it's nice and inside if not...

Call 258-6667 if you have questions or visit www.kitko.org.

See you there!
Kristin Kitko

June 27, 2007

From the Friends Committee on National Legislation...
Success! Congress "Cans" the New Nuclear Bomb Plant!

Good news! Congress has rejected the proposed new nuclear bomb plant! Not one of the relevant congressional committees that considered the bomb plant gave the plan one dollar to move forward. The proposal is effectively dead.

Other Nuclear Weapons Developments

At the beginning of June, the House Appropriations Committee cut the nuclear weapons budget proposed by the Bush Administration by $630 million and increased support for nuclear non-proliferation programs by nearly $1 billion.

This was certainly a welcome trend for this committee, which also declined to give the administration any money for what would have been the first new nuclear weapon in two decades, the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW).

Yesterday, the Senate acted on its version of the nuclear weapons funding bill with a different result. The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee has allocated $66 million for RRW, which will need to be resolved with the House's zero in conference committee. The conference committee is expected to complete work sometime in September.

The time to influence Congress' decision on RRW is now. The truth is, four members of Congress will have by far the most say: Sen. Byron Dorgan (ND), Sen. Pete Domenici (NM), Rep. Pete Visclosky (IN-1), and Rep. David Hobson (OH-7). They are the members who will sit down together in conference committee and work-out the final bill. As constituents of Sen. Dorgan, you can help influence his decision. Inform a friend, write an email, get creative, whatever you can do. If we get RRW completely zeroed-out this year, it should not raise its head again.

Peace,

Devin Helfrich, Legislative Assistant
Friends Committee on National Legislation