photo by George Peper

Striper Wars     Eye of the Whale     The Man who Knew Too Much     Black Genius     Recently Posted Ventura Schedule TROUBLED WATERS FOR GRAY WHALES By Dick Russell - April, 2008 A new report compiled by the California Gray Whale Coalition paints a disturbing picture of what’s happening to the “friendly” whales that migrate annually from Arctic feeding grounds to the warm lagoon birthing areas of Mexico’s Baja peninsula. As I described in my 2001 book, Eye of the Whale, gray whales require a healthy supply of tiny crustaceans called amphipods to fuel a round-trip journey as long as 11,000 miles. Amphipods need cold, nutrient-rich waters in which to thrive and, with the warming of the Arctic seas, scientists have seen their numbers decline steadily. The National Research Council has recently noted “a cascading and possibly irreversible sequence of changes in the Bering Sea ecosystem.” The new report (“Current Threats to the Eastern North Pacific Gray Whale”) cites research by marine scientist Steven Swartz that the reproductive rate of the whales “has decreased from one calf every 2.4 years to one every 3 – 4 years.” The year 2007 saw the lowest calf count in thirty years, and the calves are smaller than before. Lagoon fishermen have observed thinner adult whales trying to feed on the lagoon bottom, implying that they aren’t getting enough to eat before making the migration. There has been a considerable drop in numbers of gray whales coming into the lagoons as well. Usually there are about 2,000 at Guerrero Negro, but at the midway point of the 2008 calving season, there were only some 600. The count at Laguna San Ignacio, customarily around 300, was only 120. As a changing climate brings more temperate weather to Baja, water temperature is now two degrees cooler in the lagoons. Experts believe that’s one reason for the decline in numbers, as gray whales are increasingly seen coming up in the Sea of Cortez and other southern areas where they haven’t customarily journeyed. The new report also raises questions about the accuracy of the latest “field report” undertaken by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which estimated the gray whale population to have remained at approximately the same level as its last published estimate of 18,000-plus in 2001. At the International Whaling Commission meeting in 2007, the U.S. delegation said the population was at 17,000. These figures are already considerably below the approximately 23,000 estimated whales at the time grays were taken off the Endangered Species List in 1994. Climate change may be the biggest threat to the gray whale population, but it is far from the only one. “The Federal Government has recently sold 29.4 million acres in the Chukchi Sea for oil lease sales,” in the midst of the gray whales’ critical feeding habitat. With the Minerals Management Service’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) estimating a 33 to 50 percent chance of a 1,000-barrel oil spill in the area, clearly the impact on the whales would be huge. Thirteen Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) terminals have also been proposed, along the gray whales’ near-shore migration route encompassing California, Oregon, Washington, Western Canada, and the Baja. Construction and operation of these terminals would cause underwater noise disruptive to the whales’ migration patterns. Meanwhile, the Navy – blocked by the California courts from testing its sonar off the California coast for failure to adequately consider the impact on whales and other marine life – is now courting Alaska. Plans are afoot for the Navy to do sonar testing in the Gulf of Alaska in May, just when the gray whales are passing along the coast. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the environmental group that’s taken the lead in successful legal actions against the Navy, stated in a recent letter: “We urge the Navy, in preparing its EIS for the Gulf of Alaska, to substantially alter the approach it has taken thus far.” The mass mortalities of whales stranding in the vicinity of Navy sonar, according to the NRDC, “are likely only the tip of the iceberg of sonar’s harmful effects. Marine mammals are believed to depend on sound to navigate, find food, locate mates, avoid predators, and communicate with each other. Flooding their habitat with man-made, high-intensity noise interferes with these and other functions.” In response to all this, early in April California Assemblyman Pedro Nava called upon the U.S. Congress and the President to urge the NMFS “to undertake an immediate and comprehensive assessment of the California gray whale,” and also requested the California Fish and Game Commission “to change the status of the gray whale to endangered.” Thirty years ago, gray whales first began approaching boatloads of visitors to Laguna San Ignacio, soon becoming known as the “friendly whales.” As I wrote in my book, perhaps they have been trying to tell us something: “What is hurting them is hurting us. As the oceans go, so go we. Can we survive global warming? Noise pollution? The wanton carelessness about our habitats? Can we pretend to endure anything that the whales cannot? Can we come to grips with the suicidal tendency to destroy what sustains us? Is this what the gray whales are reaching out to communicate?”   "Don't Start the Revolution without Me" How I Came to Write a Book with Jesse Ventura By Dick Russell It all began, fittingly enough, in a bar in Baja. I’d heard that the governor had recently bought a house, not far from property of close friends where I often came to write during the winter. And, sure enough, one night at the local “spot” above the beach, there he was hanging out at a long table. When the opportunity arose, I went over and sat down across from him. I’d actually met him briefly several years earlier, soon after he decided not to run for a second term in Minnesota, when he came to Dallas for the 30th anniversary marking President Kennedy’s assassination. Having heard that Mr. Ventura was a student of books about the tragedy, I gave him a copy of mine, The Man Who Knew Too Much. So that was how I re-introduced myself in Baja, and it turned out he’d liked the book very much. A few days later, my wife and I were walking along our beach when we ran into the governor and his wife, Terry. We invited them up for a drink, which turned into dinner in the course of a long and memorable evening. What a raconteur he was! The Venturas came over once more while I was in the Baja, at which point he mentioned his interest in writing a memoir about his years as governor – and, if I came back next year, maybe we might work on it together. When I returned, he hadn’t forgotten. We embarked on a series of weekly 90-minute interviews, which I taped in his living room about 10 minutes down the road. I would then transcribe our wide-ranging discussions, which covered everything from insightful and often amusing anecdotes about being an independent governor in a two-party system, to his thoughts on the Iraq War and economics, and much in-between. I found that Jesse Ventura not only possessed an agile mind, but a remarkably original one. He came up with things that I’d never heard anyone say before! He was “politics, with a twist,” you might say. And he sure didn’t pull any punches. The man was a breath of fresh air, as politicians go. Over the course of six months, little by little the book came together. It was his idea to ultimately frame the story as a travel narrative, moving through reminiscences and rants as he and Terry made their long overland journey from Minnesota to southern Baja. We also decided to give Terry a real voice, with her perspective on what it was like to be the state’s First Lady adding a unique element to the story. And it was his idea to create an ending for the book that would be, well, highly unusual and most likely extremely controversial as well. I won’t give it away here – but how could it be otherwise when you’re Jesse Ventura? For me, the journey of assembling his story – of “becoming,” in imaginative prose, a 250-pound ex-wrestler who became a maverick governor – was, to say the least, a whole lot of fun.

"Don't Start the Revolution without Me" by Jesse Ventura and Dick Russell Vintage Ventura on Display in New Book Jesse Ventura Gets in (another) Last Word CIA Confirms Ventura Meeting Occurred Ventura had it right: CIA was here - Are they still?

Jesse Ventura will talk about the book....

May 15 - Minnesota Public Radio 12:00 PM May 15 - Book-Signing, The Mall of America, Minnespolis, 6:00 PM May 15: Mary Lahammer/Minnesota Public TV, St. Paul, 10 to 11 AM. May 15: Radio interview with MPR Gary Eichten, noon. May 15: NPR radio interview, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, 8:10 pm. May 16: Book-signing, Barnes & Noble 8040 Wedgewood Lane, Maple Grove, Minnesota 7:00 PM May 16: Tim Penny Radio Show, Minnesota, 9 to 10 AM. May 19: 2 hour radio tour, 6 to 8 AM PT. May 19: Allan Handleman radio show, 11:30 to noon EST. May 20: Premiere Radio Networks 2 hour radio tour, 8 - 11 AM EST. May 20: Alex Jones Show, radio, noon to 12:30 EST. May 20: KSEV Radio Russell Sherrill, 4:06 to 4:25 pm CT. May 21: Howard Stern Radio, 7:30 to 8 AM EST. May 21: News/Talk 630 WBMQ, Ray Steele, 8:10 AM EST. May 21: Envision Radio Networks radio tour (8 - 10 stations), 9 - 10 AM EST. May 21: Darwin & Cat Radio Show, 10:30 to 10:45 AM EST. May 21: Dave Rabbit podcast, 11 to 11:45 AM EST. May 21: Larry King Live interview, CNN, via satellite, 7:30 pm. May 22: Nineball Radio Tour, 8 to 10 AM EST. May 22: "Top Story with Kelly Klass and Scott Martin," 10:30 to 11 AM EST. May 22: Radio Free Mississippi, 2:30 to 3 pm EST. May 22: The Michael Medved Show (syndicated), 3 to 4 pmEST. May 22: FOX Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld, 9:30 pm EST. May 23: KARN Newsroom, Dve Elswick, 8:35 to 9 AM CST May 23: McArthur in the Morning, Nickey Robertson 103.9 The Hawk, 9:30 to 9:40 AM CST. May 23: Call to Rights, 10 to 10:30 AM CST. May 23: New Perspectives interview, 10:35 to 11 AM CST.

Reviews, etc. Booklist Online Ray Olson - March 2008 Skyhorse Is Set to Ride Jesse Ventura to Fame and Fortune by Dermot McEvoy -- Publishers Weekly, March 27, 2008

Available at Amazon now!

"Don't Start the Revolution without Me!" by Jesse Ventura and Dick Russell   Vintage Ventura on Display in New Book The Huffington Post PATRICK CONDON | January 5, 2008 | AP MINNEAPOLIS – Former Gov. Jesse Ventura may prefer Mexico to Minnesota these days, but his ex-constituents will still recognize his style if they pick up his upcoming book, "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me!" Ventura uses the book – part personal memoir, part political rant – to rail against organized religion and the media, detail his brushes with celebrities and suggest that he should be viewed as a possible presidential candidate. "Is it worth it to put my family and me out there, to take on a force that most of the American people are willing to go along with?" Ventura writes in the book, due in stores in April. "The government is supposed to be us, and it's not us anymore. It's been hijacked. Just when is somebody going to do something?" The former pro wrestler hasn't reined in the outrageous opinions that often got him in trouble when he was governor from 1999 to 2003. The book is constructed as a loose travelogue of his and wife Terry's drive from Minnesota to Baja California, Mexico, where they now spend much of their time, but it leaves plenty of room for Ventura to digress into his obsessions. He discusses at length the assassination of President Kennedy. He scorns the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and claims that during a trip to Dallas as governor a police officer warned him to avoid talking too much about "things that certain people don't want brought to light." Ventura also airs his suspicion that "somebody in the government" sent people to infiltrate a government course he taught at Harvard University in 2004, on a day he discussed Kennedy's assassination. He repeatedly shows a fascination with conspiracy theories and surveillance, recalling several encounters he had with CIA agents while governor and claiming that his wife found an electronic listening device at their private home during his term. Complete article here

Jesse Ventura Gets in (another) Last Word Rachel E. Stassen-Berger and Bill Salisbury -- Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn. January 3, 2008 Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and his strongly held, sometimes outrageous opinions will soon be back on public display in his new book, "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me." The book -- part Mexico travelogue, part memoir, part screed -- details his brushes with famous people; his feelings about his governorship; and hints, teases and jokes about a possible 2008 run for president. In the book, co-written with author Dick Russell, Ventura says he suggested to then-President Clinton that certain disputed Israeli sites should be blown up to stop the fighting over them; he consulted with then-Vice President Al Gore about a Minnesota abortion debate; and he offered to be Sen. John McCain's running mate in 2000, if the Republican ran as an independent candidate. He also reveals some continued bitterness about the tough time he had governing Minnesota from 1999 to 2003. "In our country, there is a certain ruling class that won't give up the power," he writes. "I know I had to be destroyed because of what I represented and how I got elected. There was a ripple of fright that what happened in Minnesota could be a trend." This is Ventura's fourth book. He previously wrote or co-wrote: "Jesse Ventura Tells It Like It Is: America's Most Outspoken Governor Speaks Out About Government," published in 2002; "Do I Stand Alone? Going to the Mat Against Political Pawns and Media Jackals," published in 2001; and "I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Reworking the Body Politic from the Bottom Up," published in 2000. Since leaving office in 2003, Ventura briefly -- and profitably -- worked for MSNBC and taught at Harvard University in 2004 and moved to Baja, Mexico. Complete article here

CIA confirms Ventura meeting occurred by Tim Pugmire Minnesota Public Radio January 3, 2008 Former Minn. Governor Jesse Ventura (MPR Photos/Laura McCallum) The St. Paul Pioneer Press offered a sneak peek Thursday Jesse Ventura's forthcoming book, "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me." In one excerpt, Ventura describes a post-inaugural meeting with CIA agents. He also claims a CIA operative was on the state payroll. Even a Ventura confidant is questioning the account. But the surprising revelations are at least partially true. St. Paul, Minn. — Shortly after taking office in 1999, Jesse Ventura writes he was asked to attend a meeting at the state Capitol. He says 23 CIA agents were waiting for him in a basement conference room. Ventura's account of the meeting is detailed in an advance copy of his new book, which is scheduled for release in April. He claims the agents' questions focused how he campaigned for office, or as Ventura writes "how had the independent wrestler candidate pulled this off?" Memories can fade after nine years, but a meeting with 23 CIA agents is something that might stand out. John Wodele, who served as Ventura's director of communications, said the meeting was news to him. "I don't recall any indication that the governor had met with a CIA agent," he said. "Now, that doesn't mean it didn't happen. But I was not aware of it. Turns out there actually was a Ventura meeting with the CIA in 1999. CIA Spokesman George Little confirmed the event today in a written statement, but he offered few details. Little said that "on occasion CIA officers meet with senior state government officials, as they did in this case, to discuss issues of mutual interest." Little shed less light on another revelation in Ventura's book. The former Independence Party governor says he was "stunned to learn that there is a CIA operative inside every state government." Ventura says the Minnesota operative was a deputy commissioner, who was working with a dual identity. In response to a question about Ventura's claim, Little wrote, "I wouldn't think of CIA officers as being in state governments. They're federal employees." Complete article here

Ventura had it right: CIA was here Are they still? BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER, Pioneer Press - January 3, 2008 The secret is out - sort of. Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura met with a group of Central Intelligence Agency officers in 1999 shortly after he was elected, he claims in his soon-to-be-released book "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me." "There were 23 CIA agents waiting in a conference room for me. I counted," says the book, co-written with author Dick Russell. "I got the gist of what they were after. All their questions centered around how we campaigned, how we achieved what we did, and did I think we truly could win from the start? In short, how had the independent wrestler candidate pulled this off?" A CIA spokeswoman, who - as is the intelligence agency's custom - did not want to be identified by name, confirmed the meeting. But not the rest of his statement. "It was part of a training class apparently so, yes," said the spokeswoman. "I can't comment on the content of the meeting. I wasn't there. I can just say that yes, he did have this meeting but it was part of a training exercise." As to the number of agents in attendance: "Our population is actually classified," she said. "So we don't usually comment on numbers." Ventura also said in the book that: "there is a CIA operative inside every state government...They are not in executive positions - in other words, not appointed by the governor - but are permanent state employees. Governors come and go, but they keep working - in a legitimate job with a dual identity. In Minnesota, this person was at a deputy commissioner level, fairly high up." That claim, the spokeswoman did not confirm. "We are federal employees so that, I think, is a little bit off. We are federal employees we are not anywhere near being state employees," she said. Rachel E. Stassen-Berger can be reached at rstassen-berger@pioneerpress.com.

Review - March 2008 "Don't Start the Revolution without Me" The most colorful governor of our time is back with a book that is arguably more fun than its two forebears. Yes, it includes plenty of political carping, more than a little self-justifying anent his tenure as Minnesota’s thirty-eighth chief executive, some of what uncharitable reviewers of his previous books have called name-dropping but is really just a reflection of the sharing of interests and desire to palaver among celebrities, and what his nonfans would call conspiracy theorizing about the JFK assassination and 9/11. All that is framed by a travel narrative tracing his and wife Terry’s initial trip to Baja California with the intent of finding a vacation home. With Russell’s writing help (Ventura chooses good coauthors) and long asides and emendations from Terry, the travel story provides splendid relief, despite some creaking when the focus shifts from Baja to politics and back again. The balloon Ventura keeps floating throughout, that of an independent run for the presidency, may irk some readers; but many more may appreciate the informed disgust with two-party politics-as-usual on which Ventura floats his candidacy and will applaud his good humor and forthrightness. — Ray Olson

Testimony of Richard (Dick) Russell HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES, WILDLIFE AND OCEANS On The NATIONAL OFFSHORE AQUACULTURE ACT OF 2007 (H.R. 2010) July 12, 2007, Washington, D.C. My name is Dick Russell, and I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you this morning concerning the National Offshore Aquaculture Act of 2007. I am the author of four books, including Striper Wars: An American Fish Story and Eye of the Whale, and I have written numerous articles for national magazines about the state of our oceans and in particular our fisheries. I am also a longtime recreational fisherman. During the 1980s, I was a leader of an Atlantic coastwide campaign seeking stronger regulations to protect the then-endangered striped bass, called rockfish in the Chesapeake region. I testified before House and Senate committees on several occasions. The federal government stepped in at that time to pass important legislation that forced reluctant states to curtail the fishing pressure. This helped bring about what has been called the biggest success story in the history of marine conservation. Stripers have staged an incredible comeback, proving that if a species jeopardized by overfishing is given a real chance, it can generally overcome pollution and other habitat-related problems. Complete article is here

Birth of an Island!

• by Dick Russell Recently Posted • Troubled Waters for Gray Whales 4/16 • How I Came to Write a Book with Jesse Ventura 3/21 Ventura had it right: CIA was here. Are they still? 1/10 Jesse Ventura Gets in (another) Last Word 1/10 CIA Confirms Ventura Meeting Occurred 1/7 Vintage Ventura on Display in New Book 1/7 Sana, Sana, Colita de Rana 12/19 Nightmare of James Goldsmith, The 12/19 Absence of Bees, The 12/19

Revolt of the Elders Where sprawl meets rangeland, a GOP warhorse sets out to save his party from itself. by Dick Russell, Mother Jones, Sept-Oct, 2006 "Don't be under any illusions that I'm a great man," Pete McCloskey insisted, his steel-blue eyes fixed on his interlocutor. "I'm just pissed off."... Read the complete article here

 

ONE REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK by Dick Russell A report on the IV International Media Forum on the Protection of Nature: PROTECTION OF NATURE, PROTECTION OF HEALTH Villa Mondragone, Monte Porzio – Rome, October 4-7, 2006 For a second year, I was invited to attend a gathering of environmental journalists from around the globe, sponsored by the Greenaccord organization, with some 50 countries represented this fall... Complete Report on the conference Text of Dick Russell's talk at the conference   GREENACCORD THIRD INTERNATIONAL MEDIA FORUM ON THE PROTECTION OF NATURE Monte Porzio Catone (Rome), October 12-15, 2005 GLOBAL WARMING, HURRICANES, AND THE AMERICAN RESPONSE Talk delivered by Dick Russell at the 3rd International Media Forum on the Protection of Nature, Monte Porzio Catone (Rome), October 15, 2005. SOCIETY OF ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISTS CONFERENCE Austin, Texas – September 28 - October 2, 2005

Published June 23rd, 2005... Dick Russell's latest book: Striper Wars An American Fish Story The remarkable story of how one species was brought back from the brink of extinction – only to face new and even more daunting threats... When populations of striped bass began plummeting in the early 1980s, author and fisherman Dick Russell was there to lead an Atlantic coast conservation campaign that resulted in one of the most remarkable wildlife comebacks in the history of fisheries. As any avid fisherman will tell you, the striped bass has long been a favorite at the American dinner table; in fact, we've been feasting on the fish from the time of the Pilgrims. By 1980 that feasting had turned to overfishing by commercial fishing interests. Striper Wars is Dick Russell's inspiring account of the people and events responsible for the successful preservation of one of America's favorite fish and of what has happened since... Click here for more... hardcover: 288 pages / Island Press – Shearwater Books (June 23, 2005)

Now in Paperback! Eye of the Whale "Once in a while, a book comes along that redefines its subject to the extent that most previous works immediately become obsolete. Eye of the Whale is such a book...it will change the way you think about the natural world." –RICHARD ELLIS, LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW Named a Best Book of the Year by three major newspapers upon its initial publication, and now available for the first time in paperback, Eye of the Whale offers an exhilarating blend of adventure and natural history as Dick Russell follows the migration of the gray whale from Mexico's Baja peninsula to the Arctic's Bering Strait. Click here for more... Paperback: 688 pages / Island Press – Shearwater Books (September 20, 2004)

 

The Man Who Knew Too Much The Revised, Updated Trade Paperback Edition of Dick Russell's landmark 1992 book on the Kennedy assassination, "The Man Who Knew Too Much," is now in bookstores nationwide. Introduction by Lachy Hulme Order it here Click here for more...

Dick Russell's Black Genius in paperback In this collection of essays and interviews journalist Dick Russell examines the role of African Americans through two centuries of American history. He focuses primarily on the role of blacks in the cultural life of the United States. Russell writes about notable figures such as educator Mary McLeod Bethune, speaks with Harvard professor Cornel West about W. E. B. Du Bois, and discusses Frederick Douglass and James Baldwin in an essay titled "Timeless Voices, Parallel Realities." Black Genius and the American Experience, with an introduction by Alvin F. Poussaint, takes a thoughtful and fascinating look at the contributions to U.S. history made by Americans of African descent. Amazon.Com Click here for more... Paperback: 497 pages / Carroll & Graf Publishers (February 1, 1999)

 

Articles and Editorials by Homero Aridjis, Dick Russell...   Toward a Real Kyoto Protocol by Ross Gelbspan Kyoto and Beyond Sign the Petition: The People's Ratification of the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty Kelpie Wilson Interviews Ross Gelbspan t r u t h o u t Thursday 24 February 2005 Feeling the Heat, 2004 book of essays about climate change, including Dick Russell's chapter on the Caribbean.

 

Tracking the Bush administration's Environmental Misdeeds

 

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