Energy Expert Calls MidAmerican Nuclear Plant "Bad Idea"

By  Jillian Petrus

Iowa City, Iowa - Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland is a world renowned energy expert.

On Sunday, Eastern Iowans had the unique opportunity to hear Dr. Makhijani speak about his concerns over small nuclear reactor proliferation in the Midwest.

“Nuclear reactors are risky and expensive,” Makhijani says, “I do not believe the small reactors that are produced are going to alleviate this problem. I think there’s more hype than substance to that.”

At the Iowa City Public Library, a group of about 30 people listened to Makhijani talk about the dangers of nuclear energy on the one year anniversary of Japan’s Fukushima disaster. Dr. Makhijani expressed a strong opinion that the United States is not putting enough emphasis on testing our own reactors against similar situations. He says people living in the Midwest, particularly Iowans, can grow safer alternative energy methods.

“There’s more wind energy in the Midwestern belt of the country than all the oil production of all the oil exporting countries put together.”

Makhijani has conducted studies in Utah, Nebraska and Minnesota looking at how wind energy can be grown as a major energy source while maintaining cost efficiency. He says, based on his findings, it is possible.

He also addressed the issue of a bill currently in the Iowa senate. It proposes a rate increase for MidAmerican Energy users. The energy company says the additional money generated by the increase would go toward building another nuclear plant. Makhijani calls this plan a “particularly bad idea”.

“The way it is financed, basically, is pay in advance without even a guarantee that it will be delivered.”

Iowa lawmakers could take action this week on the bill, but some are still questioning, like Makhijani, if the measure would hurt customers and distract from the growth of alternative energy possibilities in Iowa.

Lawsuit: US Cellular Workers Looked for Nude Pics

By Ryan J. Foley

Iowa City, Iowa - Employees at a U.S. Cellular store in Iowa routinely searched customers' phones for naked pictures without their knowledge and eagerly showed them to colleagues when found, according to a former worker's sexual harassment lawsuit.

Lisa Blazek, who worked as a retail consultant at a store in the northwest Iowa city of Spencer from 2007 to 2010, alleges the first thing employees did when customers brought in their phones for service was to scroll through their photos to "try and find naked or sexually explicit photos."

"If photos of that nature were found, they would show them throughout the store," Blazek wrote in a complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, filed as part of an amended lawsuit in federal court last week. "Many times I would be called over to look at something only to find out that it was a sexual picture on a customer's phone."

Blazek, 32, said she has been shown pictures of a woman masturbating, a man lying on a bed naked and "other pornographic materials" from customers' phones.

Lawyers representing the company and four employees named in the lawsuit denied Blazek's allegations in a court filing Thursday. A company spokesman didn't immediately return messages seeking comment.

Blazek's attorney, Stanley Munger of Sioux City, said he was unaware of any similar cases.

"Every allegation of sexual harassment is important, but I think this case is unique in its facts." he said.

The case was initially filed last year, but was amended last week to include more detailed allegations against one of the defendants.

In an unusual move, U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett told lawyers for both sides in November that he was using the dispute as a case study for an employment discrimination class he teaches at Drake University. 

With their consent, he sealed some key filings until the end of the class in June.

Blazek's lawsuit said that being subjected to customers' sexual photos was just one of many troubling aspects in a workplace where she said there was non-stop sexual harassment, which was then covered up by the company after she complained.

Blazek alleges two male co-workers frequently talked about their own sex lives and those of customers and asked her about her genitalia and sexual positions she favored. She also alleges that one told her to show him her breasts. After she complained to the store manager, she said he told her she'd have to deal with it since she was the one who was bothered, she claims, and also warned that his job would be in jeopardy if she complained to higher-ups.

She said her hours were changed so she wouldn't have to work with the worst offender, but no one was disciplined.

In fact, she said the harassment got worse after she reported it. The lawsuit claims a company investigator falsely accused her of having a relationship with one of the harassers and attempted to coerce her into abandoning her allegations. Blazek says she was told she would have to relocate to another office to avoid harassment. She decided to quit instead after two years of problems.

"It got to the point where I could no longer handle going to work," Blazek wrote in the complaint. "It affected me physically, mentally and emotionally. It took over every aspect of my life."

Blazek is seeking to be compensated for lost pay and health benefits, suffering and emotional distress and additional punitive damages to deter similar conduct in the future.

Munger said Blazek, who is married and has two young sons, has gone back to school and does not have another job. He said believes he will be able to prove her claims at trial and declined comment on whether he believed similar practices went beyond the Spencer store.

"It's going to be important for our society to try these claims. And, if they are found to be justified, to take that as a lesson as to how we need to conduct ourselves."

Global Media Watchdog Names Enemies of Internet

Paris - The Arab Spring is changing the face of Internet freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders, which released its latest "Enemies of the Internet" list Monday.

The annual report classifies as "enemies" countries that severely curtail freedom of expression on and access to the Web. It also draws up a list of states "under surveillance."

The group added Bahrain to its enemies list, citing a news blackout and harassment of bloggers in an attempt to quell a yearlong Shiite-led rebellion against the Sunni monarchy.

The country had previously been under surveillance.

"Bahrain offers a perfect example of successful crackdowns, with an information blackout achieved through an impressive arsenal of repressive measures: exclusion of the foreign media, harassment of human rights defenders, arrests of bloggers and netizens (one of whom died behind bars), prosecutions and defamation campaigns against free expression activists, disruption of communications," the Paris-based group's report said.

But the Arab Spring — the name given to a cascade of revolts across the Arab world — has also led to the opening up of some regimes.

Libya, where the repressive rule of Moammar Gadhafi was thrown off in a violent revolt, was removed from the list of countries under surveillance.

"In Libya, many challenges remain but the overthrow of the Gadhafi regime has ended an era of censorship," the report said.

The group said that the Arab Spring had also highlighted the importance of the Internet — and therefore the importance of protecting access to and expression on it.

"The Internet and social networks have been conclusively established as tools for protest, campaigning and circulating information, and as vehicles for freedom," the group said. "More than ever before, online freedom of expression is now a major foreign and domestic policy issue."

The enemies list contains countries that are well known for blocking Internet content, like China, Myanmar and North Korea.

But the list of those under surveillance contains some surprises like Australia and France.

Reporters Without Borders criticized Australia for persuading Internet service providers to create a national content-filtering system, which blocks access to child pornography sites and others deemed inappropriate. 

The group is concerned that the government is still also pursuing a system of mandatory content-filtering whose criteria are "very broad."

France landed on the surveillance list last year for a series of criminal indictments of journalists for stories they wrote. It remains on the list this year because of a law that could punish people who repeatedly illegally download content by cutting off their Internet access.

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