ECHOES AND UPDATES

1) When will the lights go out? Possibly later than suggested by the Solomon Brothers data [Aug 85], but the effect of canceled construction must sooner or later appear. During the period of slow demand growth, 105 nuclear and 75 coal-fired plants were canceled (more nuclear ones because more were on order). Without new generating capacity, testified Deputy Secretary of Energy Danny Boggs before the Senate Energy Committee (7/25/85), the lights will go out sometime in the 1990s and will do so increasingly as the decade progresses.

3) Four more meritless radiation cases have been dismissed since the Justice Dept. based its defense on health physics [AtE Feb, Jul, Aug 85]. In Legarreta v. US, perennial witness Dr Carl Johnson, unaware of the lack of evidence, reported that preconceptual irradiation causes leukemia in later offspring; in Minto v. US, plaintiff claimed to be "one of the best qualified people on the face of the earth" in health physics, but thought that NCRP and ICRP were associations of retired persons [National (or International) Committee on Radiation Protection].

4) Military aid to the Soviet Protectorate of Mozambique [Aug 85] was fought for tooth and claw by Asst. Secr. of State Chester Crocker, but defeated by the House, 247-177, ably led by Mark Siljander (R-Mich.). [Did your congressman vote for arms to kill the guerrillas fighting the Cubans, East Germans, North Koreans, and Neville Shultz's State Department?] A number of organizations is aiding the freedom fighters in the Soviet colonies and needs your help (such as the Friends of Mozambique, 2901 Broadway/#114, New York, NY 10025, and several others listed in Jack Wheeler's article, Reason, June/July 85). The two organizations that seem most effective to me are the US Council for World Freedom, Box 37048, Phoenix, AZ 85069 (chaired by Gen. John K. Singlaub); and two funds, the Afghan Freedom Fighters Fund and the El Salvador/Nicaragua Defense Fund, both administered by Omega Group, Ltd., Box 693, Boulder, CO 80306, which gives direct aid and passes on all of your money, financing its overhead from other sources.