1.Florida County Leaders Vote to Oppose Activists on Biotech Site
2.Anti-GM protesters plead not guilty in Wales
EXCERPT: Some protesters said they did not want Scripps expanding anywhere, let alone in the Florida Everglades. They criticized SCRIPPS for taking federal grant money to patent what have been traditional medicinal cures and collecting data for pharmaceutical firms that profit from it. (item 1)
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1.Florida County Leaders Vote to Oppose Activists on Biotech Site
by Dave Reynolds (bio)
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=1847&x=x
Despite protests and threats of lawsuits from environmental and other groups, Palm Beach County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to start building a multi-million dollar biotech headquarters for the Scripps Research Institute in a wetlands area along the edge of the Everglades.
The Palm Beach Business Development Board (BDB) courted the biotech firm to establish its 364,000-square-foot biotech research facility on Mecca Farms, a property currently scattered with wetlands. The county and state together have pledged hundreds of millions to buy the land, build the research facility, pay its operating costs for seven years and develop a supporting biotech cluster around the institute.
In January, activists protested at BDB offices; several entered and threw rotten fruit and sawdust. They claimed that the facility's development would violate state land use laws, pose environmental hazards, and ruin the shores of the Loxahatchee River.
Some protesters said they did not want Scripps expanding anywhere, let alone in the Florida Everglades.
They criticized SCRIPPS for taking federal grant money to patent what have been traditional medicinal cures and collecting data for pharmaceutical firms that profit from it.
(published by The NewStandard an independent, nonprofit news project that is in need of your support)
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2.Greenpeace protesters plead not guilty
Paul Carey, Western Mail, Jun 4 2005
[url at end]
A GROUP of Greenpeace protesters have pleaded not guilty to causing a public nuisance after boarding a ship carrying GM crops off the South Wales coast. The trial at Cardiff Crown Court will begin on August 30.
The 10 men and three women were involved in boarding the MV Etoile in the Bristol Channel to prevent it unloading genetically- modified animal feed.
Prosecutor John Edwards said, "This was a methodically and professionally planned operation."
Protesters on board were arrested after a police helicopter landed on the deck. Others were arrested in support vessels in nearby Penarth Marina in June 2004.
The protesters are Benjamin Ayliffe, 26, from London, N1; Nicola Cook, 36, Harleston, Norfolk; Belgian Sederick Coumord, 27, of no fixed abode; Francis Hewetson, 39, London; Timothy Hewke, 43, Sittingbourne, Kent; Jens Loewe, 35, Islington, London; Janet Miller, 48, Buxton, Derbyshire; Rachel Murray, 30, London; Michele Rosato, 32, Bow, London; Andrew Taylor, 34, Stroud, Gloucestershire, Allan Vincent, 41, Peckham, London; Richard Watson, 39, London N1 and Huw Williams, 37, of Buxton, Derbyshire.
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=15591140&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=greenpeace-protesters-plead-not-guilty-name_page.html