OAK RIDGE Y-12 PLANT: Three people convicted of trespass for crossing the line at the Tennessee nuclear weapons plant last April were each sentenced September 16 to two months in a half-way house, plus one year probation and some community service. Tim Mellen was ordered to begin his sentence December 3, Mary Adams will report January 6, 2003, and Sister Mary Dennis Lentsch is to turn herself in February 3, 2003. A fourth defendant who had pleaded guilty, Lena Feldman, was sentenced the same day to two years probation. The address of the half-way house will be available from the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, (865)483-8202, orepa@stopthebombs.org...

PROJECT ELF: Eleven people who entered the Navy's nuclear submarine communication transmitter site on two occasions earlier this year were convicted of trespass in federal court September 10. In the morning, Madison, Wisconsin Magistrate Stephen Crocker first convicted three couples from California, Colorado and Alabama who had been arrested on Martin Luther King's birthday last January. The prosecutor recommended no particular punishment, and Crocker fined each of the six $150. Before the afternoon trial of five people arrested last May, the federal attorney declared he would seek up to maximum prison time of six months for the defendants. Prior court rulings eviscerated any possible defense on the issue of nuclear weapons and ELF's critical role in preemptive warfare. Defendant John LaForge tried again in vain to raise a defense, then told one reporter, "The courts have created a vacuum into which they can allow no whiff of the government's hideous war plans...The judiciary know what happens if juries and judges consider the legal status of thermonuclear weapons and war plans. In Germany, England and Scotland, similarly situated defendants have been acquitted by juries who learned the facts about nuclear weapons." The five were also convicted, but will return to learn their fate November 20 after presentencing reports have been completed. Seven people arrested August 9 for blockading Project ELF will face trial in the same court February 3, 2003...

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE: MacGregor Eddy and Liz Rondelle pleaded no contest to trespassing at Vandenberg Air Force Base last May 18, Armed Forces Day. The women were fined $110 and placed on one year probation for their effort to expose the role of the largest U.S. Space Command Base in providing surveillance, intelligence, and targeting data for offensive military operations around the world, from Colombia to Afghanistan, Indonesia to Iraq and Somalia. The Vandenberg Action Coalition is building toward a May 17-24, 2003 mass resistance action at the base. For more information, contact MacGregor Eddy, P.O. Box 5789, Salinas, CA 93915-5789, (831)754 5554, mindful@redshift.com...

STRATCOM: Fr. Frank Cordaro was released from a federal prison camp September 5, after serving his sixth six-month sentence for peacefully crossing the line at the headquarters of the Strategic Nuclear Command at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha. Cordaro returned home to the Des Moines Catholic Worker...

PRINCE OF PEACE PLOWSHARES: Rev. Stephen Kelly SJ, was released from federal prison in Ft. Dix, New Jersey on October 15, having completed a fourteen month sentence for violating probation from the February, 1997 disarmament action at a Maine shipyard. The violation was his conviction for the December, 1998 Plowshares v. Depleted Uranium action, for which he served a 27 month prison sentence...

SEN. DURBIN'S OFFICE: The U.S. Attorney was not prepared for trial October 15, so eleven people who sat-in at the Illinois Senator's office last May have had their trial postponed until December 9 in Chicago. Twelve people participated in the action that challenged Durbin's support for military aid to Colombia. One defendant changed their plea to guilty and paid a fine due to educational obligations...

PENTAGON & WHITE HOUSE: Bill Frankel-Streit and Matt Deloisio were in court in Alexandria, Virginia on October 4, for charges resulting from their holding a banner at the Pentagon's South entrance on August 6. The prosecutor wanted jail time for the pair, but the judge instead acquitted them, saying they were not given adequate time to comply with the police order to leave. Charges were also dismissed for seven people arrested at the White House on August 9...