Cassandra Dixon, of WNPJ member group Mary House near Wisconsin Dells, reports from Tuwani, Palestine:

From Brian Rothgery, Organizing Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a WNPJ member group:

On Sunday, March 7, a bus with 20 Minnesotans departed St. Paul for Washington, DC, with stops in Wisconsin to pick up 18 people at  Eau Claire, Tomah, Madison, and Milwaukee.  It will also have riders from Green Bay and Appleton. Many of the riders have personal stories of struggling to afford health care because of insurance company greed.  You can participate online.

Scott Anderson, left, executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches, a WNPJ member group, is featured in a Capital Times column by Phil Haslanger:

Madison-area Presbyterians have approved Anderson's ordination as a minister, which Haslanger calls wise because "Anderson is an extraordinarily gifted religious leader, which he has demonstrated in the last seven years as the executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches. It is wise also because Jesus’ message focused far more on issues like caring for the poor and breaking down old barriers between people than it did on questions of sexuality."

An opinion column in the Capital Times by WNPJ Chair Jim Drager and Liberty Tree Foundation director Ben Manski: For the first time in recent history, citizens of Wisconsin have the opportunity to help answer the question “Who decides about war?” The column also ran in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

A student protest Thursday at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee over the cost of higher education ended with campus police using pepper spray, 15 students arrested, and different and conflicting accounts of what happened. Here's the AP version.

This statement is from Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES), the youth component of WNPJ member group Voces de la Frontera:

While the Wisconsin legislature considers a Clean Energy Jobs Act that would open the door to more nuclear reactors in Wisconsin, a similar pro-nuclear proposal has suffered a major setback across the Mississippi in Minnesota. Minnesota Public Radio reports:

 Michele Naar-Obed, of  member gorup Loaves and Fishes, Duluth, MN -  has returned to Suleimaniya, Iraq this winter. WNPJ will post her reports on our website. Michele can be reached at obedsinduluth@yahoo.com. Michele writes: March 5, 2010 - Dear friends, It's been a long and tiring month and a lot has happened here in the Kurdish north of Iraq. Our long awaited human rights report is now public. "Where there is a promise, there is a tragedy": Cross-border bombings and shellings of the northern village peoples of the Kurdish region of Iraq by the nations of Turkey and Iran

This new video from the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort Educational Fund, a WNPJ member, on why we need background checks on all gun sales, is done simply. But it makes its point. Take action.

Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is one of 16 co-sponsors of a privileged resolution by Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich (H. Con Res. 248), that will require the House of Representatives to debate whether to continue the war in Afghanistan. Debate on the resolution is scheduled for Wednesday, Mar. 10.  The Pentagon doesn't want Congress to debate Afghanistan. The Pentagon wants Congress to fork over $33 billion more to pay for the current military

... as they used to say on  the radio shows. Members of WNPJ and its member groups regularly express their opinions in letters to the editor. Here's a sampling of the latest batch. (If you have one published, let us know so we can include it.)

Sue Larson, Wis. State Journal: Blame all laws that erode local control.

Steve Carlson, Journal Sentinel: Pure fiction

Joe Ellwanger, Journal Sentinel: Resources are the key

Two Madison college professors with religious backgrounds, who have worked tirelessly to change the world -- Esther Heffernan and Joe Elder, pictured above  -- were honored for their lifetimes of activism on Oct. 3 by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice (WNPJ), a statewide network of 170 organizations working for social change.

Peacemakers 2009: Elaine Kinch (Racine), Jannet Arenas (Madison), Jason Moon (Milwaukee), Dartanian Lewis (Milwaukee), Don Hoffman (Wisconsin Rapids), Will Williams (Windsor), and Josh Bartz (Madison).

Peacemakers of the Year for 2009 were honored by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice at a ceremony Oct. 3rd at the Goodman Community Center in Madison, following the WNPJ's annual fall assembly.....