Gene Farley dies. Gene Farley, medical activist and founder of the Linda and Gene Farley Center for Peace, Justice and Sustainabilty, died Friday, November 8 at age 86. Gene and his wife Linda, who died in 2009, were perpetual activists for health care for everybody and strongly advocated for a single-payer health care system. Both of them were physicians who practiced family medicine, often in underserved areas. Read memorial articles by  Dennis Punzel of the Wisconsin State Journal, and John Nichols and Ed Garvey of the Capital Times. The Linda and Gene Farley Center for Peace, Justice and Sustailabilty is a WNPJ member group.

Action Alert 1: Support hospital workers
Action Alert 2: Call for clean energy and efficiency
Action Alert 3: Share your food security stories
Action Alert 4: Oppose the forced relocation of Bedouins
Plus Events!

Two scary bills fail to reach votes in the state Senate and Assembly. Click on the titles to read the whole stories.

Mining bill headed back to drawing board. Sen. Tom Tiffany is taking Senate Bill 349 back to the drawing board after a ten hours of testimony from environmentalists and local governments. The bill would have severely limited the control that local governments could exert over frac sand and other non-mettalic mining operations in their jurisdictions. Tiffany plans to revamp the legislation and reintroduce it, though probably not for another year. Kim Lamoreaux, Baraboo News Republic, 10/30/13.

Bill allowing concealed weapons in schools won't get vote. The state Assembly will not be voting on a bill allowing concealed carry in schools. The bill in question would have applied only to off-duty, retired and out-of-state police officers. Joel Kleefisch, the bill's sponsor, planned to go ahead with a vote in the Assembly Criminal Justice Committee to expand the proposal to allow anyone with a concealed carry permit to carry guns in schools but concede that even in this Republican-controlled committee there were not enough votes to pass. Appleton Post-Crescent, 10/30/13.

Al Gedicks and Dave Blouin wrote articles for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Lacrosse Tribune to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the grassroots victory of a diverse grassroots coalition over the controversial  mine project in Crandon, Wisconsin. Both articles draw parallels to the current mining controversy over mining in the Bad River watershed. Al Gedicks is executive secretary of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, a WNPJ member group, and winner of the 2013 WNPJ lifetime achievement award.

Five articles about WNPJ members and groups. Click on the titles to read the whole articles.

Penzeys Spices owner weighs in on Indian mascot bill. Bill Penzey, the owner of Penzeys Spices of Wauwatosa, was upset about the proposed change in state law making it more difficult to remove racist school logos and mascots, so he sent a letters explaining his position to residents of Mukwonago, where the current controversy originated. Included with the letters were boxes of spices. "He showed people how to be good neighbors across cultural and racial line," said Barbara Munson, chair of the Indian mascot and logo task force of the Wisconsin Indian Education Association. She describes the letters as "a thoughtful, educational piece of advocacy." Jessica Vanegeren, The Capital Times, 10/23/13. Barbara Munson is co-chair of the board for WNPJ.

From July 11-14, 2013, members of the WNPJ Outreach team hosted community dialogues that asked the simple question: what are we doing well in our pursuit of creating communities of peace, justice and sustainability? We put out a call to WNPJ members, and what resulted were three events, two in Milwaukee and one in Verona with over 40 people participating.

In this blog entry, we will summarize what happened at each event to the best of our memory and from our notes,* linking to projects and ideas that participants mentioned. Our hope is that these connections will serve as a basis for more conversations around the state and more momentum for those who are working for peace, justice and sustainability. For more information on how to organize an event in your community, you can contact WNPJ at 608-250-9240 or diane@wnpj.org.

Many thanks to all who joined us in La Crosse on Saturday for WNPJ's member assembly and 13th annual awards reception, with special thanks to our host Tracy Littlejohn and the Hmong Cultural and Community Center!

Our awardees included (from left to right in the picture) Peacemaker of the Year - Adult Babette Grunow, Lifetime Achievement Award winner Al Gedicks, Peacemaker of the Year - Senior Pat Popple, and Peacemaker of the Year - Youth Key Jackson.  (Not pictured is our Dennis Bergren LGBTQ Advocacy Award winner Sharon Whitney, who was unable to attend.)

To see more pictures from the day, click here.

WNPJ's first User's Manual is designed to help WNPJ member groups and individual members make greater use of the services we offer, including: statewide lobby days, event publicity, weekly action alerts, WNPJ work groups, meetings and awards and website features like In the News and Success Stories. Printed copies of the WNPJ Users Manual are free to member groups and individual members, or read the full Users Manual online here...