Members of Freedom 14, a neo-Nazi front group, use anti-immigration sentiment and deceit to get new recruits.

By John Earl
Editor OC Voice

By Linda Nicholes
Special to the OC Voice

Americans have been led to believe that they can’t make a significant difference in much of anything once corporate and governmental interests are involved. Big oil and big automakers have historically counted on the false belief that we as American citizens cannot impact our transportation future. Plug In America, www.pluginamerica.org, a non-profit coalition of plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) advocates, proves just how incorrect that assumption actually is.

Photo courtesy Linda Nicholes

PIA was born in 2005 when a grass-roots gathering of actual and hopeful electric vehicle drivers came together in an attempt to halt the destruction of approximately 5,000 production electric vehicles as portrayed in the film documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? PIA actually managed to save 1,000 zero emission vehicles from the crusher, most of which remain on the road today. Since that time, PIA has metaphorically zoomed from zero to 60 in record time, evolving from a grassroots group to a well-respected, game-changing organization with 23,000 supporters. Today PIA helps shape corporate and legislative automotive policy. We demonstrate that when average Americans join forces to influence vested power and vested interests, the results can be truly electrifying. Continue Reading

OC Voice Editor

Joe Shaw announced his candidacy for the Huntington Beach City Council on Oct. 24, 2009 at the home of former mayor and city council member Debbie Cook.  The OC Voice was there to record the event, joining a house full of supporters, including another former mayor/council member, Connie Boardman, League of Conservation Voters representative, Gus Ayer, HB city planning commissioner Blair Farley, who is also running for city council (with Shaw’s endorsement, and others. Shaw has lived in the city a relatively short time but wasted no time in getting involved in the thick of the city’s most important issues, starting as  a founding member of the Downtown Business District and providing the initial idea and inspiration for Surf City Nights, a Tuesday event (4-9 p.m.) that closes off downtown to auto traffic and offers a farmers market and a wide variety of street entertainers, a welcome change for HB residents who have avoided the beer mall atmosphere, complete with bull-riding, barfing drunks, brawling drunks, urinating drunks, and drunks who drive recklessly at high speeds through nearby residential areas (including, in full disclosure, right outside of this writer’s home on many occasions) that occurs generally after 9 p.m. every night, especially on weekends and during the summer. Shaw has also been an on (when not campaigning) and off-again columnist for the OC Voice. He also served as a city planning commissioner and currently serves on the city’s charter review committee. More information is available on his campaign website at: http://joeshawforhb.com/joeshawforhb/Issues.html