The Earth Liberation front has claimed responsibility for vandalizing the Chapel Hill, North Carolina home of Steve Jones, a board member of Bank of America. Bank of America is a major funder of mountaintop removal coal mining, in spite of its December announcement that it would “phase out” funding many such projects. In a communique [...]

The Salvadoran anti-mines activist who we reported missing in late June is confirmed to have been tortured and murdered. Community leader and activist Marcelo Rivera vanished from his community of San Isidro on June 18. On July 1, his body was found inside a dry well, with his belongings in an abandoned house nearby. DNA [...]

International Rivers reports that blasting has begun on the first of five several dams slated for Chilean Patagonia: “The Chilean energy company Colbún, controlled by the Matte Group and partner with Endesa in the HidroAysén mega-project, has initiated blasting at the site on the San Pedro River where they intend to build a 144 MW [...]

From Erie Times-News: “Pennsylvania State Police in Corry are looking for the person who tried to sabotage a railroad line. “The incident was discovered Thursday when a train operator noticed that joint bars connecting sections of rail had been disassembled on the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad line about one-half mile east of Route [...]

Several items of transportation news: • The Department of Transportation has approved a $386 million loan to the state of North Carolina for the construction of two new sections of the Triangle Expressway in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. The Triangle Expressway will connect the area’s major highways with 18 miles of roads, including “the new [...]

From www.mostlyeverything.net (links added): “Indiana State Police [ISP] today [July 9] widened its case against I-69 resistance to target yet another individual. Apparently not content pinning years’ worth of diffuse intentions and attempts from myriad actors onto just Tiga and Hugh, the state served Philip Shelton a search warrant authorizing his forceful detainment for the [...]

The contraction of the global economy caused U.S. infrastructure spending to decline by an estimated 4.3 percent in 2009, according to analysts from HIS Global Insight, in spite of the $48 billion given to the Department of Transportation as part of stimulus packages. Non-highway spending is expected to decrease by 10.2 percent. The only infrastructure [...]

A couple of articles reminding us how our struggles can make a real difference for the big picture: 1. Check out this article analyzing some of the connections between the push for expanded liquefied natural gas infrastructure in the United States and the recent massacre of indigenous protesters in Peru. The writer points out how [...]

Unrest continues in Peru even after the government agreed two repeal two contested Free Trade laws and the indigenous mobilization in the Amazon came to a temporary halt. On July 1, police attacked an ongoing road blockade being held by campesinos protesting mining concessions near their communities. In the resulting violence, a campesino was killed [...]

Hugh Farrell, who has been indicted on misdemeanor and felony charges of intimidation, improper use of property, and corrupt business influence for publicly organizing against the I-69 “NAFTA Superhighway”, has released an open letter to his supporters. In the letter he writes, among other things, about the significance of the fight against I-69: “What the [...]