* PLEA FOR HELP - U.S. cellular tower battles continue - Seeking Advice from Berkeley - Help, please: AMINA LAWAL SET TO BE STONED ON 3RD JUNE (18/5/03)

PLEA FOR HELP


My neighbor has become completely disabled as a result of EMF disease.
She has exhausted all her financial funds in medical costs trying to
heal herself. Her elderly mother has also used all of her money to aid
her daughter.

On July 15th she has to be out of the house she has rented for the last
7 years. She has no place to go. Her mother can no longer help her and is
moving back to Florida to be with her 84 year old husband. Where do
people suffering from this environmental disease live? Where do they
find help?

Are there any research programs or medical facilities anywhere that could
possibly help a woman trying to survive under her circumstances? She
can't even sleep in the house since the owners put an aluminum roof on
the house. She is sleeping outside. She complains that even talking on
the regular telephone affects her health.

Please contact me so that I can pass on any information to her. My
compassion toward her is great. She is a wonderful woman and she
needs professional and compassionate help ASAP.

Please respond soon.
Thank you,
Karen Sycamore
Thousand Oaks, California


RCR News 3/19/03 U.S. cellular tower battles continue

Tower moratoria down, but not out
by EMILY MOTSAY
May 19, 2003

Activists against tower buildout are everywhere, doing everything they
can-from heading up D.C. lobbying efforts to initiating small online chat
rooms and message boards-to stunt tower growth. Their arguments against
siting range from the possible effects of towers on the environment to
aesthetic concerns to potential health risks from radiation. Industry
continually fights back, claiming effects on health and the environment
are minimal and that activists' arguments claiming the contrary are
often embellished or presented out of context.

As for aesthetic concerns, industry counters that every tower it builds
meets zoning board requirements and that solutions to hide towers in
trees, on rooftops and inside church steeples are employed when
possible. Regardless of which argument more closely resembles the truth,
the fact remains there is high demand for ubiquitous cell-phone
coverage, which forces industry to walk a tight line-fighting consumers
on the tower issue without alienating them as potential customers.

Adding to industry's woes, anti-tower groups are getting backing from
their local municipalities, which are placing temporary blocks on the
development of wireless towers in their communities while they take
time-often months-to debate changes to zoning ordinances. Meanwhile,
construction companies are waiting in the wings to build, tower
companies are anxious to rent space, and carriers are eager to offer
highly demanded wireless services to customers.

The City of Davis, Calif., for example, on April 3 issued a 45-day
moratorium on issuing permits for wireless telecommunications facilities
while it reconsiders procedures and requirements for building towers.
The moratorium is the city council's response to concerns from Davis
citizens regarding the city's current public notification procedures,
submittal requirements, and rules on the separation of wireless
telecommunications facilities from residential areas. During the 45 days,
the council was to review current standards and procedures and decide
whether revisions were necessary-if so, the moratorium would be extended
beyond its May 17 expiration date while they were made.

But when the deadline approached, according to the council's May 14
meeting agenda, it was recommended the council extend the moratorium for
an additional 10 months and 15 days to study further and provide
preliminary feedback to the staff working on a "Draft Wireless
Telecommunications Facilities Ordinance amendment."

Although companies cannot build during the moratoria, applications for
use permits are being accepted. But building permits will be issued only
after an ordinance is revised and the moratorium lifted, representing
another conundrum for wireless companies that may need to revise their
site plans to follow suit with new ordinances.

Other cities, big and small, have stepped in to make similar adjustments
to their communities' regulations, putting a halt to wireless tower
buildout for chunks of time.

Sound bites from some city council meetings show the disconnect that
exists between the lawmakers and the technology they are debating. For
example, during a city council hearing held last year in Chattanooga,
Tenn., in the midst of its moratorium on tower builds, a councilman
questioned the need for more towers, noting drastically dropping share
prices of wireless carriers and his understanding that most installed
fiber at existing sites goes unused.

The length of moratoria depends on the council: North Ridgeville, Ohio,
for example, last summer enacted a 180-day moratorium on the placement
of all towers and additional antennas on existing towers while it
reassessed its zoning code. Council members there were hopeful six
months was enough time to review the current zoning code and pass
legislation on revisions.
Other councils have fallen to pressure from industry and decided against
enacting moratoria on buildout. County officials in Santa Cruz, Calif.,
late last year voted down a proposal for a six-month moratorium after
wireless companies threatened to sue the county if it was adopted.

In fact, according to Karl Nelson, an attorney at Saul Ewing L.L.P.,
which works on behalf of industry to get towers built, moratoria are
declining. Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, local governments
cannot ban infrastructure, he explained, and since it was signed, courts
increasingly have frowned on moratoria. However, other trends stunting
tower buildout are gaining momentum, particularly in large population
centers, Nelson said.Seattle's Mayor Greg Nickels, for example, in March
announced plans to prohibit cell-phone antenna towers in Seattle's
single family zones, or residential neighborhoods catering to
single-family homes. "It's become increasingly clear to me that the cell
antenna towers are not compatible with our single family neighborhoods,"
Nickels said in a press conference March 24. "The towers are too tall,
too large and are simply not a good fit."

The legislation will not be retroactive to sites that have already been
approved, but it will nullify pending applications in 13 neighborhoods.
The decision did not sit well with T-Mobile USA Inc., which had about 20
applications pending or about to be filed, according to the Seattle
Times, including a project under which the carrier would pay the city to
top existing utility poles with cell antenna equipment. "This is a dark
day for wireless service in Seattle," T-Mobile's government affairs
director Laura Altschul told the newspaper. "Seattle prides itself as a
city that is technologically savvy, and this directive sets that back."

Informant: Libby Kelley


Seeking Advice from Berkeley

Dear Fellows:

I hope you are all doing fine. I would like to seek your advice and opinion.

As you might know by now, two neighbor groups in Berkeley, California,
are fighting to stop the installation of Sprint's antennas in their
neighborhood. On April 1st, 2003, we barely managed to get a Public
Hearing for our case. I write "barely" because the dismissal of our
appeals was recommended.

So, we left the City Hall happily after the City Council gave us a
Public Hearing. The Public Hearing was scheduled for June 17, 2003.

Today, the City Officials are asking us to agree with the postponement
of the Public Hearing for a month. They say that they are seeking the
evaluation of Sprint's application by a 3rd party radio Frequency engineer.

This sounds strange (at least to me). Some neighbors think that this is
a routine procedure.

The puzzling thing is that, before April 1st, we were told that Sprint's
application had fulfilled all requirements. The Zoning Board even
granted a Use Permit to Sprint ignoring opposition from 20 neighbors.
The City Officials were so sure that they recommended the dismissal of
our appeals. Now, they are saying that they want to have Sprint's
application re-evaluated by an RF engineer.

Well, if the application had fulfilled all requirements, then why should
it get scrutinized now? I am sure that if WE requested the Planning
Department or the Zoning Board in December to have a 3rd party engineer
re-evaluate Sprint's application, they would have refused our request.

Do you folks think we should insist on the original date of the Public Hearing?
Any suggestions as what this delay could be for? What should be done?

Best regards,

Radi


Help, please: AMINA LAWAL SET TO BE STONED ON 3RD JUNE

Please find below an Amnesty International petition you might be
interested to sign, asking for a woman's life to be spared from the
death penalty apparently she will be stoned to death for being found
guilty of committing adultery.

The Nigerian Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for Amina Lawal,
condemned for the crime of adultery on August 19th 2002,to be buried
up to her neck and stoned to death. Her death was postponed so that she
could continue to nurse her baby. Execution is now set for June
3rd. If you haven't been following this case, you might like to know
that Amina's baby is regarded as the 'evidence' of her adultery. The
father denied everything when he realised the trouble he was in. To
find out more about sharia law, see
"http://www.guardian.co.uk/theissues/article/0,6512,777972,00.html".

Amina's case is being handled by the Spanish branch of Amnesty
International, which is attempting to put together enough signatures to
make the Nigerian government rescind the death sentence. A similar
campaign saved another Nigerian woman, Safiya, condemned in similar
circumstances. By March 4th the petition had amassed over 2,600,000
signatures. It will only take you a few seconds to sign Amnesty's online
petition. Go to the web page "http://www.amnistiaporsafiya.org/"

The website http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/302184339 will
give more details regarding this proposal. The following is part of that
information passed on by central coast people for peace and justice.
http:/www.ccpeople4peace.org

From central coast people for peace and justice


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