Many years from now when the history of our time is written, some may reflect that a small but meaningful step that preserved our world was taken this week. In the US, the event passed with little notice. Read more »
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Yesterday was my first day at the 2011 American Public Health Association (APHA) Conference. This conference hosts over 12,000 public health professionals and is always a bit overwhelming at first. Read more »
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Before the end of the year the Super Committee will be required to submit plans to cut at least $1.5 trillion in deficit-reduction measures over the next 10 years. What we decide to cut will speak to our priorities as a country. Read more »
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Today, 10 years later, I remember the fear, the uncertainty, and those who lost their lives on September 11th. I wish I could say the fear and the uncertainty has disappeared. On Thursday, after President Obama’s address to Congress, information of a “specific, credible, but unconfirmed” threat were made public. Living in Washington DC, I am worried about what someone may do on the anniversary of September 11th. Mixed in that worry is no longer simply the fear of an attack but, also, how our country may change in the shadow of another act of terrorism. Read more »

Should the U.S. government be building more nuclear weapons? Residents of Kansas City, Missouri don’t appear to think so, for they are engaged in a bitter fight against the construction of a new nuclear weapons plant in their community. Read more »
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Yesterday, McClatchy reported on a cable from the recent WikiLeaks release of diplomatic cables. In the cable is evidence that disputes the United States official story. U.S. trained Iraqi police, neighbors, and a doctor’s inspection of the 10 civilians present a very different picture. Read more »

The Aug. 29th Washington Post article “Syrian unrest raises fears about chemical arsenal” by Pulitzer Prize winning author Joby Warrick raises a key national security question for the United States. Will we pursue an arms control or arms proliferation foreign policy in the 21st century? Read more »
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Yesterday afternoon, like many people in DC (and up and down the East Coast), I experienced the jarring reality of a moderate earthquake. It was a scary moment up high in our office tower. Sadly, at that same moment, many people feared that instead of a natural disaster, we were facing a man-made tragedy. Read more »
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Over the weekend, the New York Times reported on General Electric’s successful attempt at using laser enrichment to create nuclear fuel. They now seek support for a $1 billion facility that would cover 100 acres in Wilmington, NC. Read more »

Sen. Hatfield was a true statesman - a public servant who worked across party lines to pursue peace. When I was in junior high school and first learning about international issues, he inspired me through his powerful words and by matching his actions with his rhetoric. Read more »
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66 years ago today a plane called Bockscar set out to drop an atomic bomb on the city of Kokura. Scientists at Los Alamos were intrigued as to which type of bomb was better, a uranium based bomb which had shown its effectiveness three days earlier at Hiroshima, or the plutonium bomb which was intended for Kokura. As it happened, Kokura was under storm clouds on August 9, so the crew looked over its list of secondary targets and bombed Nagasaki. Read more »

In the midst of the current stampede to slash federal spending, Congress might want to take a look at two unnecessary (and dangerous) "national security" programs that, if cut, would save the United States over a quarter of a trillion dollars over the next decade. Read more »
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The U.S. and Russian Federation are off to a successful beginning in implementing the New START Treaty, which entered into force on February 5. As of July 25, the U.S. had conducted seven inspections of Russian facilities, while the Russians had visited six U.S. facilities. This is a fast pace, given that the yearly quota is 18 inspections for each side. Read more »
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Eliminating nuclear weapons is the democratic wish of the world’s people. Yet no nuclear-armed country currently appears to be preparing for a future without these terrifying devices. In fact, all are squandering billions of dollars on modernization of their nuclear forces, making a mockery of United Nations disarmament pledges. If we allow this madness to continue, the eventual use of these instruments of terror seems all but inevitable. Read more »
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Within the past week, we have witnessed two separate nuclear threats in the United States as a consequence of a forest fire and flooding. The Los Alamos National Laboratory is the birthplace of the nuclear bomb and continues to be a center for nuclear weapons’ development and a place for storage of radioactive waste. A forest fire that has already consumed 61,000 acres of forest is now at the edge of Los Alamos. The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Reactor is imperiled by flood waters from the Missouri River. Read more »
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The production of nuclear weapons components is a dirty business. That's why Congress set up a program at the turn of the century (called the EEOICPA) that reimburses nuclear workers up to $400,000 and a medical card to pay for expenses related to their illness. There is a list of several hundred workers from the KC Plant who have died at relatively young ages from brain tumors, pancreatic cancer, leukemia and other catastrophic illnesses. Read more »
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Ann Suellentrop, MSRN, PSR Kansas City leader and her colleagues, the KC Peace Planters, collected over 4,000 signatures to stop the building of a new nuclear weapons production facility city in Kansas City, Missouri. Read more »
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Iowa PSR recently sponsored a workshop on the interconnections between militarism, climate and environmental degradation from a health and human rights perspective. Read more »

The Pentagon and US Navy are planning to rebuild the Trident submarine nuclear weapons fleet over the next fifteen years at a cost likely to exceed $1 trillion over the life of the program. Read more »
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It has been a privilege on behalf of PSR to be participating for the past two days in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Annual Conference on Nuclear Policy. This gathering with over 700 top level participants from 40 countries has been grappling with some of the most pressing issues facing our world today. Read more »
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