Nun Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison for Peace Protest
In the United States, an 84-year-old nun has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison for infiltrating a nuclear weapons site in a protest for peace. In 2012, three peace activists calling themselves the “Transform Now Ploughshares” broke into the Y-12 nuclear facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. They cut holes in the fence to paint peace slogans and threw blood on the wall, revealing major security flaws at the facility, which processes uranium for hydrogen bombs. More than two hours later, when security guards finally arrived, they found the protesters singing. The three were convicted last year of damaging a national defense site. Two of the activists, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed, received five-year sentences, while 84-year-old Megan Rice received 35 months.
White House Issues New Guidelines on Sexual Assault
The White House is releasing a new set of guidelines(notalone.gov) to address the epidemic of sexual assaults on college campuses. A new task force report urges colleges to conduct anonymous surveys and adopt proven strategies for combating assault. The announcement follows a rash of high-profile cases where schools across the country, from Brown University to Florida State University, have been accused of mishandling sexual assault. One in five college women will be sexually assaulted during her college career.
Bike Counts Up, Car Counts Down in Edinburgh
The May 2014 Spokes traffic census found the highest ever number of bikes and the lowest ever count of private cars. During the 8-9am peak period more than one in every five vehicles heading for the city centre along bike-unfriendly Lothian Road was a bike, as were nearly one quarter of all citybound Forrest Road vehicles… As usual, we counted bikes on Lothian Road and Forrest Road, on the second Tuesday in May, during rush hour. 21.2% of citybound Lothian Road vehicles were bikes, and 24.3% in Forrest Road.