Much fanfare accompanied Paul Schell's unveiling last week of "his" plan to maintain the Cedar River watershed as a forest preserve for the next 50 years, closing the area off to logging. But credit really deserves to go to Protect Our Watershed Alliance, a loose affiliation of activists from Seattle Earth First! and the Pacific Crest Biodiversity Project. They loudly insisted on a "no cut" option as one of the choices in the initial Environmental Impact Statement for the watershed's plan, when even mainstream enviro groups like the Sierra Club were signing off on the idea of heavily logging the watershed to pay for restoration efforts. POWA got newly elected city council members and then Mayor Schell to agree to what was initially the idea of a few ragtag activists. Give Schell credit for doing the right thing, but give POWA credit for the idea and the persistence to make it happen.--Geov Parrish

Just last week the 15 nations that are members of the European Union signed an agreement to set up a military force for the EU. This new "rapid-reaction force" will have its own permanent secretariat in Brussels, Belgium, a military committee, and a military staff. The first recruit: NATO Secretary General Javier Solana. He's due to vacate his post as head of NATO at the end of this year, then he'll slide into the post of "EU foreign policy supremo" and build up a whole new army for the EU. While EU members were quick to say that this army wasn't meant to supplant NATO, its mandate is to take military action within Europe independently of the United States. It seems the EU member nations are a bit abashed that the NATO bombing campaign needed to rely so heavily on U.S. planes, weapons, and transports. The first step will be to buy some decent hardware. I can already hear champagne corks popping over at East Marginal Way.--Maria Tomchick

Every weekday I get up, feed the cats, brush my teeth, and call the White House. My daily message has been the same for months: "Stop bombing Kosovo, war is not a humanitarian mission! Stop bombing Iraq and end the sanctions. We're murdering innocent civilians. And ban ALL automatic weapons in the U.S. before there's another slaughter." The person taking messages (a volunteer, usually an older woman) then asks: "What state are you calling from?" Some days I answer "A state of outrage!" but otherwise I simply reply "Washington State." Are these phone calls effective? There are no immediate results. But Clinton is such a spineless figurehead, changing direction like a windsock in a hurricane--measuring public opinion, then caving in to corporate pressure. I figure it's worth a few bucks to call each day, hoping to get Clinton's attention (if enough people call to demand an end to global and national violence). Add your voice: 202-456-1111.--Valerie Jean

I heard the most lucid discussion of funding for sports stadiums today. It wasn't a public hearing or a dinner party--I was riding the bus, eavesdropping on two teenagers. One said, "It's so stupid to spend money on another stadium. We already have one, and there's people living in the streets, kids going hungry. And the stadium owners want more money!!" "We should use the stadium for housing homeless people," said the other. I told them if they'd run for public office, I'd vote for them. Until then, the only option is to call King County Council members, tell them to respond to this latest extortion with a demand for repayment of $430 million in taxes. Earlier this year the county was considering shutting down the downtown Seattle dental clinic for low-income people. Dental clinics are a proper use of tax dollars; Paul Allen could start repaying taxpayers by funding the state's public health facilities for the next 100 years.--V.J.

One of the most discouraging aspects of the so-called, one-sided "war" against Yugoslavia was the U.S. media's cheerful acquiescence in the NATO, Pentagon, and White House cycles of naked propaganda accompanying the attacks. These have been at their worst when reacting to the constant litany of "accidental" attacks on civilian targets that have no military significance.

The cycle, which continues despite the peace agreement, is frightfully predictable. On the day after the attack, no mention is made of it in briefings by folks like NATO's Jamie Shea. Then, under questioning, the issue is "under investigation" and involves Serb military. By the second day, the overt Serb military is out and the target is a secret Serb military outpost. Background briefings suggest that the Serbs hurriedly removed signs of military activity before letting reporters near. Then, once that story is discredited, the civilian deaths are deemed the evil Slobodan Milosevic's fault for using "human shields," although why such shields are deployed far from any military installation is never explained. Finally, NATO admits the "error" and expresses profound regret--although nobody notices because there's already been another atrocity to restart the cycle. And with a peace agreement in place, one wonders: why? Is NATO killing civilians just for practice?--G.P.

Word has come down the pipeline that Mumia Abu-Jamal is in need of immediate medical attention. Mumia still sits on Pennsylvania's Death Row waiting for his case to come before a federal court, possibly by the end of this year. But now he has a new worry: his ankles and shins are grotesquely swollen, which may be a sign of diabetes, a heart problem, or even gangrene. Needless to say, prison medical care has failed him (and thousands of other prisoners, too)--when it has been available at all. Mumia's supporters are asking that folks contact the following people and demand access to outside medical care for Mumia and all sick prisoners who are at the mercy of the prison industry. The addresses are: Governor Tom Ridge, 225 Main Capitol Bldg., Harrisburg, PA 17120, 717-787-2500, and Martin F. Horn, Dept. of Corrections, PO Box 598, Camp Hill, PA 17001-0598, 717-975-4859. To find out more about Mumia's case and volunteer your help, contact the Seattle Mumia Defense Committee at 206-376-5867. On the Internet, you can find information at http://www.mumia.org.--M.T.