"Going Green," by Laura Colarusso

(Photo and article courtesy: New Jersey Monthly)

The Garden State is cleaning up its energy act, one town at a time.

Until last October, the tallest structure in Ocean Gate was the water tower. Reaching 138 feet into the air, the gray steel tank was the sole silhouette rising above the town’s tree line.

But now a second structure punctuates the skyline. A town-owned wind turbine, it eclipses the water tower by seven feet and looms large over the one-story bungalows that line Ocean Gate’s streets.

The turbine has become a point of pride for residents of this sleepy Barnegat Bay community. It’s the first in New Jersey created and owned by a municipality. With its construction, the people of Ocean Gate see themselves as having taken a considerable step toward not just reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, but also saving some serious cash and helping the country work toward energy independence from foreign sources.

By this fall, Ocean Gate should have a second wind turbine installed. Once it’s running, more than half the town’s municipal electricity needs—for the firehouse, municipal building, community center, and water treatment plant—will be provided by renewable energy. How did a half-square-mile town of 2,200 people with only two restaurants, a deli, a beauty parlor, and an auto body shop find itself at the forefront of the green revolution?

Read the remainder of the article HERE.

"Safe Harbor," by Laura Colarusso

Photo and article courtesy: The Boston Globe

"Combat psychologist Leslie Lightfoot will soon open the Northeast Veteran Training and Rehabilitation Center in Gardner to help vets wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is the fifth program you’ve started in New England as part of your nonprofit, Veteran Homestead. How did you begin working with veterans?

I was an Army medic from 1967 to 1970. When I got out, I used my VA benefits to go back to school and get degrees in counseling. Most of the people that came to me for counseling were veterans. It just kind of happened. I try to find where people are falling through the cracks and do something about it."

Read the remainder of the article HERE.

"Military Drones & the Ethics of Warfare" by Laura Colarusso

Courtesy HuffingtonPost: "On Aug. 27, at least six people died in a U.S. drone attack in the South Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan. According to the Associated Press, two missiles were fired at a militant hideout. Nine others were reportedly injured.

The unmanned missile strike, the fourth reported by the media last month, is the latest in a long line of attacks from remotely piloted aircraft. More than eight years into the war in Afghanistan, the military and CIA are increasingly relying on drones and robotic ground vehicles to fight an elusive and dangerous enemy on rough terrain. These weapons have an advantage over manned platforms because they can fearlessly fly through heavy anti-aircraft fire, defuse roadside bombs or be the first to go through the door of a building where insurgents might be hiding. And if they happen to meet an untimely demise, the commanders who sent them into battle don't have to write condolence letters to bereaved family members back home...."

Find the remainder of the story from Huffington Post HERE.