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It’s a tax cut!

Taxpayers who object to Congress’ plan to beef up military spending and to the U.S.’s rising market share in arms sales (see MoJo’s “USArms,” Sept./Oct. 1994) are joining longtime “war tax” resisters to channel their money to better causes. According to the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (800-269-7464), the number of folks expressing interest is growing. As of 1994, 39 alternative funds collectively held in escrow nearly $1 million in resisted taxes, loaning out $120,000 to community groups. In 1993, they dispensed $60,000 in grants. Withheld money goes to groups that fight AIDS and hunger and improve rural education, among others.

In April, the California-based New Campaign for Conscience will go to court to gain conscientious objector status for war-tax resisters. In Congress, meanwhile, the push for a Peace Tax Fund has new support: Conservatives now see this as a religious freedom issue.

— Lynn Weiss

Work your MoJo

Celebrate passage of the Violence Against Women Act with the National Organization for Women’s summit and rally, April 8-9 in Washington, D.C. (Call 202-331-0066.)
Stop the insanity: The Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater L.A., Women Against Gun Violence, and other groups are holding their fourth annual peace march in Los Angeles on April 23 (previous marches drew thousands.) (Call 213-240-7785.)

— Jennifer Lind

Foley’s fatal folly

We told you how former Speaker of the House Tom Foley would do almost anything to protect Congressional incumbents (“Foley Flexes,” July/Aug. 1993; “Newtiavelli,” Jan./Feb. 1995). Yet another footnote for historians of hubris: in 1989 Foley cut a deal with the GOP leadership not to fund any challenger who attacked an incumbent on the issue of Congressional pay raises. So when David Worley, who was running against Newt Gingrich and lambasting him on pay raises, asked for a Demo party contribution in 1990, Foley refused. Gingrich beat Worley by fewer than 1,000 votes. How did Newt repay Foley? In 1994, he recruited George Nethercutt to run against Foley and helped raise money for him; Nethercutt won with 51 percent of the vote.

Hot rods

“Faulty Rods” (May/June 1994) has stirred some movement at the top. After reading our story, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed to reassess whistle-blower Chris Hall’s concerns that nuclear fuel rod casings made by Teledyne Wah Chang Albany are flawed. The rods are used in reactors worldwide; bad rods could release radioactivity and contribute to meltdowns.

Newtie exposed!

Get yours now, while they’re still available. “What You Need to Know About Newt” includes our revealing 1984 and 1989 profiles, as well as a 1995 look at Speaker Gingrich. Send $2.95 to NewtPack, Mother Jones, 731 Market St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94103. Bulk discounts: 5-24, $2 each; 25-99, $1.75 each; 100 or more, $1.50 each (CA residents add 7.25 percent tax).

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

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