2011-08-31 "First Circuit Court of Appeals Rules that Citizens Can Videotape Police" by Tiffany Kaiser
[http://www.dailytech.com/First+Circuit+Court+of+Appeals+Rules+that+Citizens+Can+Videotape+Police/article22587.htm]
The filming of government officials while on duty is protected by the First Amendment, said the Court
The First Circuit Court of Appeals reached a crucial decision last Friday allowing the public to videotape police officers while they're on the clock.
The decision comes after a string of incidents where individuals have videotaped police officers and were arrested. Police officers across the United States believed citizens didn't have the right to videotape them as they conducted official duties, but issues like police brutality put the issue up for debate.
One instance where a citizen was arrested for videotaping an officer was when Khaliah Fitchette, a law-abiding teenager from New Jersey, boarded a bus in Newark. Two police officers boarded the bus as well to remove a drunken man. Fitchette began taping the police officers because of how they were handling the man, and a police officer instructed her to stop recording them. When Fitchette refused, she was arrested and placed in the back of a cop car for two hours while the officers took her phone to delete the video. Fitchette was then released, but she and her mother then filed suit against the Newark Police Department with the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Another example involves Simon Glik, a passerby on the Boston Common. He used his cell phone to tape police officers when the Boston police were punching a man. Citizens surrounding the scene were saying, "You're hurting him." Glik never interfered with the police officers' actions, but recorded the entire incident. The police officers ended up charging Glik with violating a wiretap statute that prohibits secret recording, even though the police officers admitted that they knew Glik was recording them. He was also charged with disturbing the peace and aiding the escape of a prisoner.
While all charges against Glik were dropped due to lack of merit, he still decided to join forces with the ACLU and file a civil rights suit to prevent a similar incident from occurring with others.
On Friday, August 26, 2011, the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which is New England's highest federal court just below the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled that citizens are allowed to videotape law officials while they conduct official duties.
The city's attorneys made the argument that police officers should have been exempt from a civil rights lawsuit in the first place in this case because the law is unclear as to whether there's a "constitutionally protected right to videotape police" conducting their daily duties in public.
"The filming of government officials engaged in their duties in a public place, including police officers performing their responsibilities, fits comfortably within these principles [of protected First Amendment activity].," said the Court. "Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting the free discussion of governmental affairs."
The Court added that the police officers should have understood this all along, and that videotaping public officials is not limited to the press.
"Moreover, changes in technology and society have made the lines between private citizen and journalist exceedingly difficult to draw," the Court continued. "The proliferation of electronic devices with video-recording capability means that many of our images of current events come from bystanders with a ready cell phone or digital camera rather than a traditional film crew, and news stories are now just as likely to be broken by a blogger at her computer as a reporter at a major newspaper. Such developments make clear why the news-gathering protections of the First Amendment cannot turn on professional credentials or status."
The Court concluded that police officers are to expect to deal with certain "burdens" as citizens practice First Amendment rights, but that there needs to be a healthy balance between police officers being videotaped while acting irresponsibly and the harassment of officers with recording devices while they're conducting their duties responsibly.
2011-08-31 "ACLU sues Baltimore police for deleting videos off cell phone" by Eric W. Dolan
[http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/31/aclu-sues-baltimore-police-for-deleting-videos-off-cell-phone/]
The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland (ACLU) on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore City Police Department on behalf a man whose personal videos were deleted after he filmed officers subduing and arresting a woman.
“Police officers doing their jobs in a public place are accountable to the public they serve, and camera phones have become an important accountability tool,” said ACLU Legal Director Deborah Jeon. “It is antithetical to a democracy for the government to tell its citizens that they do not have the right to record what government officials say or do or how they behave in public.”
The lawsuit alleges Christopher Sharp was detained and harangued by police officers after he recorded the arrest.
He handed over his phone to officers after being told to surrender it as "evidence." Once the cell phone was in the officer's possession, they deleted the video of the arrest and all other videos contain on the cell phone.
"I’m heartbroken over the videos I lost of my son and I doing things together,” Sharp said. “The videos were keepsakes of memories like his soccer and basketball games, times at the beach and the Howard County fair. It kills me that the police acted as if it was okay for them to could just wipe out some of my fondest memories."
"I used to trust police, but now I don’t anymore, because of how wrongly the police acted here, and because it seemed like this was just routine procedure for them."
During the 2010 incident at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, a 22-year-old woman allegedly punched another person in the face, and then punched a police officer and resisted arrest. She was charged with three counts of second-degree assault and one count of resisting arrest.
Although the video of the incident was deleted from Sharp's phone, another bystander recorded the arrest and uploaded it to YouTube. In the video, officers can be heard shouting, "They're taking pictures" and other officer later says, "It's illegal to record anybody's voice or anything else in the state of Maryland."
Maryland’s wiretap law prevents citizens from recording audio if subjects have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their communications.
Watch ACLU of Maryland's interview of Christopher Sharp below:
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
2011-08-30 "Study shows one in four kids going hungry in Solano county" by Sarah Rohrs from "Vallejo Times-Herald" newspaper
[http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_18786279]
At Vallejo's Amador Street Hope Center, volunteers handing out free food try not to send parents and children away empty-handed. But sometimes, they have no choice.
Nearly seven or eight new people show up twice a week when the center opens to hand out food boxes to families with children -- just one indication of the county's growing rate of hunger.
Nearly one in four Solano County children under 18 struggles with hunger, according to a new study released by Feeding America and Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano.
Hunger is "a problem in our community," Solano County Health and Social Services Director Patrick Duterte said.
"There are times when people have money during the month but at some point their money may run out," Duterte added.
The study, "Map the Meal Gap: Child Food Insecurity 2011," indicates children go hungry in every county in the nation.
Far more children are hungry than adults, the report concluded.
In Solano County, nearly one in four, or 22.4 percent, of the county's children under 18 struggle with hunger.
However, the rate among the county's general population is 15.9 percent, according to the report.
Food Bank spokeswoman Lisa Sherrill said the report's conclusions are not surprising.
However, what is somewhat alarming is that about half the hungry children in Solano County are in families who are 185 percent of the poverty line.
This means that parents of these children earn too much money to qualify for most federal nutrition programs, including the school lunch program, she said.
However, the families still can't afford to feed their families adequately, Sherrill said.
The economy that pushed legions of people into unemployment is the primary cause behind the high rate of hunger among children, authors of the report said.
The food bank has made similar observations.
"From the clients we've talked to we've heard that a lot of them are unemployed or unable to find work or they are just not able to make enough," Sherrill said.
"They are in a bind to have enough food to feed their families," Sherrill said.
For instance, a set of parents from Contra Costa County contacted the food bank on Friday afternoon after they had spent their money fixing the family car, Sherrill said.
After paying off the car repairs, the mother and father panicked when they found they had no money left to feed their children during the weekend, she said.
The food bank was able to give them enough food for a few days so the children wouldn't go hungry, Sherrill added.
At the Amador Street Hope Center, food pantry director Mary Wall said some families who need help in Vallejo have one or two children while others have six or seven.
The pantry gives out more than 60 boxes of food per week. Families are allowed to come in once a month, but are referred to other agencies if they need help and can't get it at the pantry, she said.
Due to low donations and supplies from the food bank, the pantry, sometimes, runs out of food, Wall said.
Meanwhile, Solano County officials are encouraging families who need help with food to contact their offices to see if they qualify for CalFresh (formerly known as food stamps) benefits.
Residents can go into one of three county offices or go online to www.benefitscalwin.org.
County offices are at the following locations:
* 365 Tuolumne St., Vallejo. (707) 553-5000.
* 275 Beck Ave., Fairfield. (707) 784-8050.
* 354 Parker St., Vacaville. (707) 469-4500.
[http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_18786279]
At Vallejo's Amador Street Hope Center, volunteers handing out free food try not to send parents and children away empty-handed. But sometimes, they have no choice.
Nearly seven or eight new people show up twice a week when the center opens to hand out food boxes to families with children -- just one indication of the county's growing rate of hunger.
Nearly one in four Solano County children under 18 struggles with hunger, according to a new study released by Feeding America and Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano.
Hunger is "a problem in our community," Solano County Health and Social Services Director Patrick Duterte said.
"There are times when people have money during the month but at some point their money may run out," Duterte added.
The study, "Map the Meal Gap: Child Food Insecurity 2011," indicates children go hungry in every county in the nation.
Far more children are hungry than adults, the report concluded.
In Solano County, nearly one in four, or 22.4 percent, of the county's children under 18 struggle with hunger.
However, the rate among the county's general population is 15.9 percent, according to the report.
Food Bank spokeswoman Lisa Sherrill said the report's conclusions are not surprising.
However, what is somewhat alarming is that about half the hungry children in Solano County are in families who are 185 percent of the poverty line.
This means that parents of these children earn too much money to qualify for most federal nutrition programs, including the school lunch program, she said.
However, the families still can't afford to feed their families adequately, Sherrill said.
The economy that pushed legions of people into unemployment is the primary cause behind the high rate of hunger among children, authors of the report said.
The food bank has made similar observations.
"From the clients we've talked to we've heard that a lot of them are unemployed or unable to find work or they are just not able to make enough," Sherrill said.
"They are in a bind to have enough food to feed their families," Sherrill said.
For instance, a set of parents from Contra Costa County contacted the food bank on Friday afternoon after they had spent their money fixing the family car, Sherrill said.
After paying off the car repairs, the mother and father panicked when they found they had no money left to feed their children during the weekend, she said.
The food bank was able to give them enough food for a few days so the children wouldn't go hungry, Sherrill added.
At the Amador Street Hope Center, food pantry director Mary Wall said some families who need help in Vallejo have one or two children while others have six or seven.
The pantry gives out more than 60 boxes of food per week. Families are allowed to come in once a month, but are referred to other agencies if they need help and can't get it at the pantry, she said.
Due to low donations and supplies from the food bank, the pantry, sometimes, runs out of food, Wall said.
Meanwhile, Solano County officials are encouraging families who need help with food to contact their offices to see if they qualify for CalFresh (formerly known as food stamps) benefits.
Residents can go into one of three county offices or go online to www.benefitscalwin.org.
County offices are at the following locations:
* 365 Tuolumne St., Vallejo. (707) 553-5000.
* 275 Beck Ave., Fairfield. (707) 784-8050.
* 354 Parker St., Vacaville. (707) 469-4500.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
2011-08-28 "S.F.'s progressive course at stake in election" by Rich DeLeon from "San Francisco Chronicle" newspaper
[http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-08-28/opinion/29934385_1_mayoral-election-mayoral-race-ranked-choice-voting]
Rich DeLeon is professor emeritus of political science at San Francisco State University. He is author of "Left Coast City - Progressive Politics in San Francisco, 1975-1991." His new book on San Francisco politics will be published by the University Press of Kansas in fall of 2012.
---
San Francisco voters, as usual, have a lot on their plates. On Nov. 8, they will select a new mayor, district attorney and sheriff, and they will decide on eight ballot measures. In the mayoral race, in particular, the burden of choice will be heavier than in most past elections. Voters must choose from a crowded field of 16 candidates, 10 of whom are current or former officeholders and most of whom are serious, well-funded contenders.
Under the city's ranked-choice voting system, the voters will need to do more political homework much earlier than in the past, because this election will be a one-day sale without the option of a later runoff election simplifying choice, for good or ill, by whittling the 16 down to two. And as the voters survey the candidates to decide how to rank and vote for up to three, they will also need to consider two rival charter amendments that address the central focus of recent campaign debates, namely, how to control San Francisco's accelerating public pension obligations and rising health care costs to secure the city's financial future.
All of that is a lot for the voters to ponder and weigh. But if we place this mayoral election in a bigger picture frame, there are even deeper and more important issues at stake.
This election, as I see it, is about choosing how San Francisco will be governed as a progressive city through economic hard times. It is about making the transition from a strident politics of ideology to a more traditional politics of interest and identity. And it is about the capacity of local government to take care of business and the capacity of business to take care of San Francisco.
By a progressive city, I mean one that is democratic, just, green and growing. That combination is rare in the annals of American urban politics. Given the constraints of federalism and capitalism, a progressive city is hard to achieve and even harder to sustain. San Francisco could prove to be the exception.
San Francisco's citizens are diverse, well informed and highly politically active. Their role in making public policy extends to land use, development and other important issues - there is no sandbox here. Further, experiments in local self-governance are common. Recently, for example, San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to use ranked-choice voting for city elections. The city also adopted public financing for election campaigns. This year, both innovations are being used for the first time in a mayoral race. Democracy is alive and well in San Francisco.
Impatient with federal government inaction, San Franciscans have moved ahead to advance the cause of social justice on their own turf. The city's labor standards policies, for example, now include equal benefits for domestic partners, a high citywide minimum wage, mandated paid sick leave, and a landmark health care program for uninsured residents. The city also continues its fight for marriage equality, protects and helps undocumented immigrants, and guarantees budgets for programs serving children's needs.
Yet income inequalities persist, blue-collar jobs and affordable family housing are in short supply, and the city's African American and child populations are shrinking. It is sadly ironic that San Francisco has some of the nation's most advanced social justice programs while the population of poor people, workers and children who might benefit from them slowly disappears.
Goaded by federal neglect, San Francisco and other cities have taken the initiative in coping with climate change and protecting the environment. The city now runs the nation's top-rated recycling program, imposes local curbs on greenhouse gas emissions and has ambitious targets for the use of renewable energy. By recent reports, San Francisco is now North America's greenest city.
San Francisco's local economy is starting to boom again, this time as an emerging center of biotech research, clean and green technologies and digital social media. Unlike most U.S. cities, however, San Francisco's main problem has not been how to generate economic growth but rather how to control it. The city's growth-control policies were forged in the troughs of business cycles after waves of capital investment. Such planning by the rearview mirror can be risky and ineffectual.
The city's Downtown Plan, for example, was well designed as a surge protector to limit the damage of future high-rise office construction. But it did little to protect neighborhoods from the dot-com boom that followed years later. The most recent growth burst, therefore, is raising old fears and some hackles even as it creates jobs and needed city revenues.
In sum, San Francisco is a progressive city, but one with problems to solve and challenges to meet if its people want it to remain one.
A pivotal event in moving the city this far and this fast was the election in 2000 of a "progressive supermajority" to the Board of Supervisors. Politics as usual was suspended over the next 10 years as the supervisors collided (and occasionally collaborated) with two mayors in steering the city to the left. Now the Class of 2000 is history, Gavin Newsom has left for Sacramento, and the transition to a new political era has begun.
The legacy of reform achieved by those leaders, however, was not the work of morning glories. Their progressive initiatives were hardwired by policy into the programs and routines of the city's bureaucracy. The city's administrators and planners will keep San Francisco progressive for a very long time simply by doing their jobs. An even deeper entrenchment of progressivism can be seen in the blossoming of "San Francisco values" in local political discourse. Bill O'Reilly minted the term to target San Francisco as the viral source of left-wing extremism infecting all living Democrats and liberals.
In San Francisco itself, however, politicians happily adopted the term as their own simply by inverting O'Reilly's invective and projecting only positives from the negatives. The same values many conservatives despise - marriage equality, women's choice, immigrant rights - are precisely those most San Franciscans cherish in their local political culture. Thanks to institutional and cultural inertia, the sky will not fall on progressives in January 2012, no matter who takes office as mayor.
Yet troubles and turbulence lie immediately ahead. In addition to concerns about pensions and health care costs, the city faces large projected budget deficits over the next three years and beyond. In solving these kinds of problems, the city can expect little help from the feds and even less from the state, requiring greater dependence on the local private sector for needed resources. The challenge progressives face under these conditions is finding ways to work with business while consolidating and defending their victories. The challenge business leaders face is adapting their legitimate quest for profit and growth to a settled local political culture rooted in San Francisco values.
After years of tumult, most San Franciscans would welcome some political peace and quiet along with greater civility in the making of public policy. But civility, like happiness, can be overrated, especially if it is a facade concealing backroom deals, avoidance of controversy and deafness to noisy suffering. Dragons be there. San Franciscans are conservative about being progressive.
[http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-08-28/opinion/29934385_1_mayoral-election-mayoral-race-ranked-choice-voting]
Rich DeLeon is professor emeritus of political science at San Francisco State University. He is author of "Left Coast City - Progressive Politics in San Francisco, 1975-1991." His new book on San Francisco politics will be published by the University Press of Kansas in fall of 2012.
---
San Francisco voters, as usual, have a lot on their plates. On Nov. 8, they will select a new mayor, district attorney and sheriff, and they will decide on eight ballot measures. In the mayoral race, in particular, the burden of choice will be heavier than in most past elections. Voters must choose from a crowded field of 16 candidates, 10 of whom are current or former officeholders and most of whom are serious, well-funded contenders.
Under the city's ranked-choice voting system, the voters will need to do more political homework much earlier than in the past, because this election will be a one-day sale without the option of a later runoff election simplifying choice, for good or ill, by whittling the 16 down to two. And as the voters survey the candidates to decide how to rank and vote for up to three, they will also need to consider two rival charter amendments that address the central focus of recent campaign debates, namely, how to control San Francisco's accelerating public pension obligations and rising health care costs to secure the city's financial future.
All of that is a lot for the voters to ponder and weigh. But if we place this mayoral election in a bigger picture frame, there are even deeper and more important issues at stake.
This election, as I see it, is about choosing how San Francisco will be governed as a progressive city through economic hard times. It is about making the transition from a strident politics of ideology to a more traditional politics of interest and identity. And it is about the capacity of local government to take care of business and the capacity of business to take care of San Francisco.
By a progressive city, I mean one that is democratic, just, green and growing. That combination is rare in the annals of American urban politics. Given the constraints of federalism and capitalism, a progressive city is hard to achieve and even harder to sustain. San Francisco could prove to be the exception.
San Francisco's citizens are diverse, well informed and highly politically active. Their role in making public policy extends to land use, development and other important issues - there is no sandbox here. Further, experiments in local self-governance are common. Recently, for example, San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to use ranked-choice voting for city elections. The city also adopted public financing for election campaigns. This year, both innovations are being used for the first time in a mayoral race. Democracy is alive and well in San Francisco.
Impatient with federal government inaction, San Franciscans have moved ahead to advance the cause of social justice on their own turf. The city's labor standards policies, for example, now include equal benefits for domestic partners, a high citywide minimum wage, mandated paid sick leave, and a landmark health care program for uninsured residents. The city also continues its fight for marriage equality, protects and helps undocumented immigrants, and guarantees budgets for programs serving children's needs.
Yet income inequalities persist, blue-collar jobs and affordable family housing are in short supply, and the city's African American and child populations are shrinking. It is sadly ironic that San Francisco has some of the nation's most advanced social justice programs while the population of poor people, workers and children who might benefit from them slowly disappears.
Goaded by federal neglect, San Francisco and other cities have taken the initiative in coping with climate change and protecting the environment. The city now runs the nation's top-rated recycling program, imposes local curbs on greenhouse gas emissions and has ambitious targets for the use of renewable energy. By recent reports, San Francisco is now North America's greenest city.
San Francisco's local economy is starting to boom again, this time as an emerging center of biotech research, clean and green technologies and digital social media. Unlike most U.S. cities, however, San Francisco's main problem has not been how to generate economic growth but rather how to control it. The city's growth-control policies were forged in the troughs of business cycles after waves of capital investment. Such planning by the rearview mirror can be risky and ineffectual.
The city's Downtown Plan, for example, was well designed as a surge protector to limit the damage of future high-rise office construction. But it did little to protect neighborhoods from the dot-com boom that followed years later. The most recent growth burst, therefore, is raising old fears and some hackles even as it creates jobs and needed city revenues.
In sum, San Francisco is a progressive city, but one with problems to solve and challenges to meet if its people want it to remain one.
A pivotal event in moving the city this far and this fast was the election in 2000 of a "progressive supermajority" to the Board of Supervisors. Politics as usual was suspended over the next 10 years as the supervisors collided (and occasionally collaborated) with two mayors in steering the city to the left. Now the Class of 2000 is history, Gavin Newsom has left for Sacramento, and the transition to a new political era has begun.
The legacy of reform achieved by those leaders, however, was not the work of morning glories. Their progressive initiatives were hardwired by policy into the programs and routines of the city's bureaucracy. The city's administrators and planners will keep San Francisco progressive for a very long time simply by doing their jobs. An even deeper entrenchment of progressivism can be seen in the blossoming of "San Francisco values" in local political discourse. Bill O'Reilly minted the term to target San Francisco as the viral source of left-wing extremism infecting all living Democrats and liberals.
In San Francisco itself, however, politicians happily adopted the term as their own simply by inverting O'Reilly's invective and projecting only positives from the negatives. The same values many conservatives despise - marriage equality, women's choice, immigrant rights - are precisely those most San Franciscans cherish in their local political culture. Thanks to institutional and cultural inertia, the sky will not fall on progressives in January 2012, no matter who takes office as mayor.
Yet troubles and turbulence lie immediately ahead. In addition to concerns about pensions and health care costs, the city faces large projected budget deficits over the next three years and beyond. In solving these kinds of problems, the city can expect little help from the feds and even less from the state, requiring greater dependence on the local private sector for needed resources. The challenge progressives face under these conditions is finding ways to work with business while consolidating and defending their victories. The challenge business leaders face is adapting their legitimate quest for profit and growth to a settled local political culture rooted in San Francisco values.
After years of tumult, most San Franciscans would welcome some political peace and quiet along with greater civility in the making of public policy. But civility, like happiness, can be overrated, especially if it is a facade concealing backroom deals, avoidance of controversy and deafness to noisy suffering. Dragons be there. San Franciscans are conservative about being progressive.
2011-08-28 "32nd Annual Xicana Moratorium Day"
Sunday, 12:00pm until 5:00pm
Aqui Estamos Y No Nos Vamos: Luchando por Gente Tierra Y Libertad!
Join us for another great year at XMD as we bring it back to Oakland, Ca.
Free Concert at the Park! San Antonio Park in Oakland (on Foothill between 16th Ave. and 18th Ave.)
Vendors, Arts, Food, Community Speakers, Resources for the community, Live Art, Activities for Kids, Dance Contest and off course live MUSIC! Danza by Grupo Xitlalli
Sunrise Ceremony begins at 5am at San Antonio Park!
No Colors No Drugs No Drama
San Antonio Park in Oakland, Califas. 1701 E 19th St (between 17th Ave & 18th Ave)
Special guests:
* Tamborazo Costa Allegre
* Cihuatl Ce
* DJ Agana
* Brwn Bflo
* The Hip Hop Soul Project Band
* Favi
* Bambu
* Sonido Galion
and much more
Aqui Estamos Y No Nos Vamos: Luchando por Gente Tierra Y Libertad!
Join us for another great year at XMD as we bring it back to Oakland, Ca.
Free Concert at the Park! San Antonio Park in Oakland (on Foothill between 16th Ave. and 18th Ave.)
Vendors, Arts, Food, Community Speakers, Resources for the community, Live Art, Activities for Kids, Dance Contest and off course live MUSIC! Danza by Grupo Xitlalli
Sunrise Ceremony begins at 5am at San Antonio Park!
No Colors No Drugs No Drama
San Antonio Park in Oakland, Califas. 1701 E 19th St (between 17th Ave & 18th Ave)
Special guests:
* Tamborazo Costa Allegre
* Cihuatl Ce
* DJ Agana
* Brwn Bflo
* The Hip Hop Soul Project Band
* Favi
* Bambu
* Sonido Galion
and much more
Friday, August 26, 2011
2011-08-26 "Older students defend Vallejo Adult School, wish departing principal well" by Lanz Christian Bañes from "Vallejo Times-Herald" newspaper
[http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_18762408]
The Vallejo Adult School dominated the Vallejo school board meeting Wednesday, with many of its older students asking the board to preserve programming for senior citizens.
"This dog is still barking. ... I'm learning something new and not just watching my arteries harden," said Bruce Reed in a prepared statement about keeping classes for older citizens a viable option at the Adult School.
Senior citizens routinely defend the Vallejo Adult School, which has had its budget reduced by two-thirds in the last two years. The school board approved the Adult School's fee schedule, new graduation requirements and course offerings Wednesday night, but considered no cuts.
Part of the consternation Wednesday seemed to stem from the imminent departure of Principal Kay Hartley, who accepted a position at another adult school.
"We're sorry to hear that Principal Hartley is leaving," student Gordon Triemert told the board.
Hartley said the Vallejo Adult School was one of the few area adult schools that still offer programs for older adults.
"Their concern is an incoming administrator would look at the overall budget and say, 'This is something we don't need to pay for,' " said Hartley.
Superintendent Ramona Bishop praised Hartley for her work over the last few years as the district raided adult school programs.
"Seeing what Kay has done is truly miraculous. You have left this place better than you found it. ... and you're right ... what we're doing is criminal, truly criminal," said Bishop, answering an audience member's concern of the 67 percent reduction in the Vallejo Adult School's budget.
The Adult School has other funds besides those from the general fund propping it up, and the board on Wednesday improved a small increase in the school's fees.
Both board member Adrienne Waterman and Bishop assured Adult School students and teachers that they would find a good fit to replace Hartley. Board member Hazel Wilson, meanwhile, asked that members of the Adult School community be included in the interview panel for a new principal.
Hartley is expected to stay at the school through September.
The board also spent about an hour Wednesday learning more about the legalities of the expulsion process.
The district's expulsions made up 40 percent of all Solano County's expulsions during the 2009-2010 school year. Most were African American students.
"You as a board have the final ... authority to expel," said Dora Dome, an Oakland-based lawyer who gave the presentation.
Board President Raymond Victor Mommsen expressed concern about students lacking appropriate legal counsel during the hearings. Waterman said she wanted to know more about the district's intervention plans to head off expulsions.
The board also reviewed the district's site safety supervisors' new uniforms, now black with orange "site safety" stitched on the back for easier identification. The supervisors spent five days in training in early August preparing for the school year.
"Our main vision is student safety, nothing else. ... We will be visible. We will be on the sites. If anyone needs us, just look for 'site safety,' " district operations manager George Tisby said.
[http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_18762408]
The Vallejo Adult School dominated the Vallejo school board meeting Wednesday, with many of its older students asking the board to preserve programming for senior citizens.
"This dog is still barking. ... I'm learning something new and not just watching my arteries harden," said Bruce Reed in a prepared statement about keeping classes for older citizens a viable option at the Adult School.
Senior citizens routinely defend the Vallejo Adult School, which has had its budget reduced by two-thirds in the last two years. The school board approved the Adult School's fee schedule, new graduation requirements and course offerings Wednesday night, but considered no cuts.
Part of the consternation Wednesday seemed to stem from the imminent departure of Principal Kay Hartley, who accepted a position at another adult school.
"We're sorry to hear that Principal Hartley is leaving," student Gordon Triemert told the board.
Hartley said the Vallejo Adult School was one of the few area adult schools that still offer programs for older adults.
"Their concern is an incoming administrator would look at the overall budget and say, 'This is something we don't need to pay for,' " said Hartley.
Superintendent Ramona Bishop praised Hartley for her work over the last few years as the district raided adult school programs.
"Seeing what Kay has done is truly miraculous. You have left this place better than you found it. ... and you're right ... what we're doing is criminal, truly criminal," said Bishop, answering an audience member's concern of the 67 percent reduction in the Vallejo Adult School's budget.
The Adult School has other funds besides those from the general fund propping it up, and the board on Wednesday improved a small increase in the school's fees.
Both board member Adrienne Waterman and Bishop assured Adult School students and teachers that they would find a good fit to replace Hartley. Board member Hazel Wilson, meanwhile, asked that members of the Adult School community be included in the interview panel for a new principal.
Hartley is expected to stay at the school through September.
The board also spent about an hour Wednesday learning more about the legalities of the expulsion process.
The district's expulsions made up 40 percent of all Solano County's expulsions during the 2009-2010 school year. Most were African American students.
"You as a board have the final ... authority to expel," said Dora Dome, an Oakland-based lawyer who gave the presentation.
Board President Raymond Victor Mommsen expressed concern about students lacking appropriate legal counsel during the hearings. Waterman said she wanted to know more about the district's intervention plans to head off expulsions.
The board also reviewed the district's site safety supervisors' new uniforms, now black with orange "site safety" stitched on the back for easier identification. The supervisors spent five days in training in early August preparing for the school year.
"Our main vision is student safety, nothing else. ... We will be visible. We will be on the sites. If anyone needs us, just look for 'site safety,' " district operations manager George Tisby said.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
2011-08-23 "Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Gorilla uprising is not just monkey business", a Northbay MDS/SDS movie review
Northbay MDS / SDS is an alliance of students, labor and community members who are organizing to expand democracy in the U$A
---
Tom Walker goes bananas for the Planet of the Apes series’ return to its radical roots
It’s not every week Hollywood releases a film praising revolution. Rise of the Planet of the Apes, though, places itself firmly on the side of a downtrodden chimp—and sees him lead a powerful ape uprising.
There was reportedly pressure not to release the film in Britain after the recent riots. It is easy to see why.
“Rise” is an attempt to give a fresh start—a “reboot”—for the Planet of the Apes film series.
The main human character is Will (James Franco), a scientist at a big pharmaceutical firm working on a cure for Alzheimer’s. Will’s own father suffers from the disease.
While doing animal tests, he stumbles on a drug that dramatically increases apes’ intelligence.
His boss, Jacobs, pushes for ever more dangerous—and profitable—experiments with the medicine. “You make history,” he tells Will. “I make money.”
But it all starts to go wrong when the first super-intelligent chimp suddenly goes berserk, bursting into a company board meeting. Security guards shoot her dead, and the testing programme is shut down.
One chimp survives the ordeal: her baby, Caesar. Will smuggles him home, and it quickly becomes obvious that he has inherited his mother’s intelligence genes.
This is a film of three parts. It spends its first half an hour or so playing at family drama as Caesar grows up and comes of age.
This part is sometimes dull, though certainly convincing. Caesar is played by actor Andy Serkis through
cutting-edge motion-capture. It’s the same computer graphics technology used in Avatar, but now blended seamlessly with real footage.
Oppressed
Part two is like a classic prison flick showing the harsh treatment of life inside, in this case at an “ape sanctuary”.
This is a sharp education for Caesar, as he is cast out of the comfortable world of humanity and into the cells of the oppressed apes.
It is also the political heart of the film, as Caesar figures out how to organise and lead the other primates.
The voiceless chimp uses hand gestures to tell an orangutan what he’s learned. “Apes alone, weak,” he signs, snapping a stick. Then he grasps a bundle of sticks and shows it won’t break: “Apes together, strong.”
The final and best part, though, is the uprising itself. The turning point is a brilliant reversal of the original’s classic line, “Get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!”
The first Planet of the Apes was released in 1968, the great year of rebellion. It reflected the anger of the civil rights movement, and the fear of nuclear annihilation.
Rise is loosely based on the fourth film of the original series, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes—which in turn was based on the then-recent Watts riots in 1965 Los Angeles.
Producing a film that paralleled that uprising was an intensely political act. The six days of looting and fire-starting sparked by police racism had, as ever, been widely condemned as “criminality”.
Rebellion
It was said that in some cinemas Conquest’s soundtrack could hardly be heard above the sound of audiences cheering.
Unlike the 2001 Tim Burton “re-imagining”, which shied away from politics, this film has taken up that mantle.
It manages to capture something of this year’s spirit of resistance, from the Arab Spring to the strikes and protests sweeping much of the world.
Time magazine says that in its finale, Rise of the Planet of the Apes becomes “a Marxist view of the oppressed masses edging towards revolution”. But there’s no “edging” involved—this is a full-scale gorilla uprising.
It wouldn’t be fair to give away the ending. But if you want to see “the feds” get a bloody good hiding, see this film.
Northbay MDS / SDS is an alliance of students, labor and community members who are organizing to expand democracy in the U$A
---
Tom Walker goes bananas for the Planet of the Apes series’ return to its radical roots
It’s not every week Hollywood releases a film praising revolution. Rise of the Planet of the Apes, though, places itself firmly on the side of a downtrodden chimp—and sees him lead a powerful ape uprising.
There was reportedly pressure not to release the film in Britain after the recent riots. It is easy to see why.
“Rise” is an attempt to give a fresh start—a “reboot”—for the Planet of the Apes film series.
The main human character is Will (James Franco), a scientist at a big pharmaceutical firm working on a cure for Alzheimer’s. Will’s own father suffers from the disease.
While doing animal tests, he stumbles on a drug that dramatically increases apes’ intelligence.
His boss, Jacobs, pushes for ever more dangerous—and profitable—experiments with the medicine. “You make history,” he tells Will. “I make money.”
But it all starts to go wrong when the first super-intelligent chimp suddenly goes berserk, bursting into a company board meeting. Security guards shoot her dead, and the testing programme is shut down.
One chimp survives the ordeal: her baby, Caesar. Will smuggles him home, and it quickly becomes obvious that he has inherited his mother’s intelligence genes.
This is a film of three parts. It spends its first half an hour or so playing at family drama as Caesar grows up and comes of age.
This part is sometimes dull, though certainly convincing. Caesar is played by actor Andy Serkis through
cutting-edge motion-capture. It’s the same computer graphics technology used in Avatar, but now blended seamlessly with real footage.
Oppressed
Part two is like a classic prison flick showing the harsh treatment of life inside, in this case at an “ape sanctuary”.
This is a sharp education for Caesar, as he is cast out of the comfortable world of humanity and into the cells of the oppressed apes.
It is also the political heart of the film, as Caesar figures out how to organise and lead the other primates.
The voiceless chimp uses hand gestures to tell an orangutan what he’s learned. “Apes alone, weak,” he signs, snapping a stick. Then he grasps a bundle of sticks and shows it won’t break: “Apes together, strong.”
The final and best part, though, is the uprising itself. The turning point is a brilliant reversal of the original’s classic line, “Get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!”
The first Planet of the Apes was released in 1968, the great year of rebellion. It reflected the anger of the civil rights movement, and the fear of nuclear annihilation.
Rise is loosely based on the fourth film of the original series, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes—which in turn was based on the then-recent Watts riots in 1965 Los Angeles.
Producing a film that paralleled that uprising was an intensely political act. The six days of looting and fire-starting sparked by police racism had, as ever, been widely condemned as “criminality”.
Rebellion
It was said that in some cinemas Conquest’s soundtrack could hardly be heard above the sound of audiences cheering.
Unlike the 2001 Tim Burton “re-imagining”, which shied away from politics, this film has taken up that mantle.
It manages to capture something of this year’s spirit of resistance, from the Arab Spring to the strikes and protests sweeping much of the world.
Time magazine says that in its finale, Rise of the Planet of the Apes becomes “a Marxist view of the oppressed masses edging towards revolution”. But there’s no “edging” involved—this is a full-scale gorilla uprising.
It wouldn’t be fair to give away the ending. But if you want to see “the feds” get a bloody good hiding, see this film.
Monday, August 22, 2011
2011-08-22 "Solano supervisors ban marijuana shops in unincorporated areas" by Melissa Murphy from "The Vacaville Reporter" newspaper
The Solano County Board of Supervisors is moving forward to ban medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas of the county.
Supervisors last month denied a request from a dispensary owner to amend zoning codes to allow dispensaries. They asked staff to bring back potential ordinance changes that would, in essence, ban medical marijuana dispensaries.
On Tuesday, supervisors will consider adopting an interim urgency ordinance that imposes a 45-day moratorium on any business or facility that cultivates, sells and distributes medical marijuana in unincorporated Solano County. They will also decide whether to hold a public hearing Oct. 4 to consider an extension of the urgency ordinance.
Staff explained in a report to the board that an increase in the number of cities and counties in the region have adopted ordinances prohibiting such dispensaries, which places increased pressure to locate those facilities in Solano County.
There have been strong signals, according to staff, from the federal government that it will take aggressive action against local agencies that abet the commercial distribution of medical marijuana, because it violates federal marijuana laws.
Still, the county's zoning ordinance says that dispensaries are permissible in the Neighborhood Commercial and Business and Professional Office zoning districts.
Additionally, there is a pending business license application for a facility that may have part of its operation involved in the distribution of medical marijuana.
"Staff does not want to be in a position of having to act on the application until the exact nature of the use is known, nor do we want to act prematurely on the application in light of the board's recent direction to come back with an ordinance banning medical marijuana facilities," the report's authors wrote.
County staff admit that there are challenges in navigating between the state and federal laws and standards.
"Staff believes it is prudent and appropriate to establish a moratorium until the county assesses the best approach to address the board's direction and comply with federal and state law," the report noted.
At the end of the 45-day moratorium, staff will inform the board about the status of the analysis and either recommend ordinance changes or identify areas where further study is needed.
If the board chooses to extend the initial 45-day moratorium, the maximum extension allowed is an added 10 months and 15 days.
The Solano County Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the County Government Center, 675 Texas St., Fairfield.
The Solano County Board of Supervisors is moving forward to ban medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas of the county.
Supervisors last month denied a request from a dispensary owner to amend zoning codes to allow dispensaries. They asked staff to bring back potential ordinance changes that would, in essence, ban medical marijuana dispensaries.
On Tuesday, supervisors will consider adopting an interim urgency ordinance that imposes a 45-day moratorium on any business or facility that cultivates, sells and distributes medical marijuana in unincorporated Solano County. They will also decide whether to hold a public hearing Oct. 4 to consider an extension of the urgency ordinance.
Staff explained in a report to the board that an increase in the number of cities and counties in the region have adopted ordinances prohibiting such dispensaries, which places increased pressure to locate those facilities in Solano County.
There have been strong signals, according to staff, from the federal government that it will take aggressive action against local agencies that abet the commercial distribution of medical marijuana, because it violates federal marijuana laws.
Still, the county's zoning ordinance says that dispensaries are permissible in the Neighborhood Commercial and Business and Professional Office zoning districts.
Additionally, there is a pending business license application for a facility that may have part of its operation involved in the distribution of medical marijuana.
"Staff does not want to be in a position of having to act on the application until the exact nature of the use is known, nor do we want to act prematurely on the application in light of the board's recent direction to come back with an ordinance banning medical marijuana facilities," the report's authors wrote.
County staff admit that there are challenges in navigating between the state and federal laws and standards.
"Staff believes it is prudent and appropriate to establish a moratorium until the county assesses the best approach to address the board's direction and comply with federal and state law," the report noted.
At the end of the 45-day moratorium, staff will inform the board about the status of the analysis and either recommend ordinance changes or identify areas where further study is needed.
If the board chooses to extend the initial 45-day moratorium, the maximum extension allowed is an added 10 months and 15 days.
The Solano County Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the County Government Center, 675 Texas St., Fairfield.
At the 2011-08-22 OpBART gathering, people who were holding the Northbay Uprising banner were arrested, including Jevon Cochran [age 21]. We might never see him again, except in the news, but he has already been released. His rage is justified, and he has dignity, as can be seen in the photographs taken at the gathering. To those like him, we say: ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
2010-03-03 “Oakland Students Join March 4th Statewide Protests Against Education Budget Cuts” by OaklandSeen
Editor's note: You'll see students of all ages out on the streets tomorrow protesting drastic education cuts. It's a new movement taking shape – and radicalizing a generation who came of age after 9/11. From our discussion this morning on KPFA, students are mad and aren't gonna take it anymore. I must add that they are also inspired and growing in their power. Below is a note from student organizers Nick Palmquist from UC Berkeley and Jevon Cochran from Laney College on local actions that they hope will make a big difference in schools across the state. - Aimee Allison
***
March 4th is a day of action and strike for public education that will unite students, workers and teachers statewide—even nationwide. We are fighting against the budget cuts which represent not a financial crisis but a crisis of priorities and to reform our administrations which have been complicit and even violent in forcing through the budget cuts.
To win these battles we must unite into a mass movement. So on March 4th we will be coming together for a mobilization in downtown Oakland at Frank Ogawa Plaza. East Oakland high schoolers and teachers will be marching from Fruitvale BART at 11:30. Community college students and workers will be rallying at Laney College from 11 to 1 and then will march to Frank Ogawa Plaza. Finally, Berkeley students and workers will be marching downtown leaving Bancroft and Telegraph at 1.
While this fightback is starting around education, it cannot stop there. Budget cuts and the recession are hurting everybody. We must unite to fight the wasteful spending on the prisons, wars, and banks. So we are mobilizing for the San Francisco antiwar march on March 20th and we want to involve new organizers through an Oakland Mobilizing Townhall at Laney College on March 27th. Now is the time to start a real mass fightback!
Nick Palmquist is a UC Berkeley student, Jevon Cochran is a Laney Community College student. Both have been organizing East Oakland High School Students for the March 4th protests.
Javon Cochran and Nick Palmquist are among Oakland organizers leading March 4th protests.
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, left, talks with Jevon Cochran, 19, a college student, in Oakland, Calif. , Friday, July 2, 2010, calling for non-violence and justice in Oakland. Former San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle is on trial in Los Angeles for shooting unarmed black man Oscar Grant on New Year's Day 2009 at a BART station in Oakland.
2010-03-03 “Oakland Students Join March 4th Statewide Protests Against Education Budget Cuts” by OaklandSeen
Editor's note: You'll see students of all ages out on the streets tomorrow protesting drastic education cuts. It's a new movement taking shape – and radicalizing a generation who came of age after 9/11. From our discussion this morning on KPFA, students are mad and aren't gonna take it anymore. I must add that they are also inspired and growing in their power. Below is a note from student organizers Nick Palmquist from UC Berkeley and Jevon Cochran from Laney College on local actions that they hope will make a big difference in schools across the state. - Aimee Allison
***
March 4th is a day of action and strike for public education that will unite students, workers and teachers statewide—even nationwide. We are fighting against the budget cuts which represent not a financial crisis but a crisis of priorities and to reform our administrations which have been complicit and even violent in forcing through the budget cuts.
To win these battles we must unite into a mass movement. So on March 4th we will be coming together for a mobilization in downtown Oakland at Frank Ogawa Plaza. East Oakland high schoolers and teachers will be marching from Fruitvale BART at 11:30. Community college students and workers will be rallying at Laney College from 11 to 1 and then will march to Frank Ogawa Plaza. Finally, Berkeley students and workers will be marching downtown leaving Bancroft and Telegraph at 1.
While this fightback is starting around education, it cannot stop there. Budget cuts and the recession are hurting everybody. We must unite to fight the wasteful spending on the prisons, wars, and banks. So we are mobilizing for the San Francisco antiwar march on March 20th and we want to involve new organizers through an Oakland Mobilizing Townhall at Laney College on March 27th. Now is the time to start a real mass fightback!
Nick Palmquist is a UC Berkeley student, Jevon Cochran is a Laney Community College student. Both have been organizing East Oakland High School Students for the March 4th protests.
Javon Cochran and Nick Palmquist are among Oakland organizers leading March 4th protests.
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, left, talks with Jevon Cochran, 19, a college student, in Oakland, Calif. , Friday, July 2, 2010, calling for non-violence and justice in Oakland. Former San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle is on trial in Los Angeles for shooting unarmed black man Oscar Grant on New Year's Day 2009 at a BART station in Oakland.
Friday, August 19, 2011
2011-08-19 "Like BART Protests, Internal Documents Reveal UC Has Spied on Student Fee Hike Demonstrations" by Eric Lee
[http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/node/9279]
Eric is a 21- year-old recent graduate of UC Davis who has been active in student anti-austerity protests for the past three years. He is a native of Santa Rosa. He can be reached at ca.ericlee@gmail.com.
---
BART actions to inhibit free speech activity isn't new to University of California students who earlier this year uncovered internal documents showing officials has conspired to monitor and control constitutionally-protected fee hike protests at UC Davis.
High-ranking University of California, Davis administrators including Chancellor Linda Katehi, several vice chancellors, more than 30 staff members, and campus police were involved, according to internal documents uncovered by students involved in the demonstrations.
Students and community members are particularly disturbed in light of similar Bay Area Rapid Transit police transgressions on the freedom to communicate.
We feel threatened that public institutions like UC Davis and BART are actively pursuing policies that treat students and passengers respectively like criminals. In the throes of the current economic meltdown, it is perhaps more valid to question the criminality of dishonest actions taken against those who are trying to fight for a better life. It is a telling sign that decision makers in these institutions feel the need to incriminate others in order to avoid public pressure for their own, sometimes violent, actions.
The documents, obtained through the state public records act, reveal high-ranking administrators, staff members, and leaders of the campus police department formed a network called the “Activism Response Team” to keep close tabs on student activists, including monitoring student Facebook activity, infiltrating protests and attempting to obtain information about “anticipated student actions," and individuals involved in the protests.
In one case, an undercover campus police officer marched with students in plain clothes and refused to identify herself as a member of the UCD police department. UCD has apologized, calling it a "mistake."
Students, faculty, staff, and the Sacramento and Yolo Chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union are extremely concerned about the deepening abuse of police power in publicly used spaces—both public transit terminals and college campuses.
Students take offense at these incursions in light of the political merit of campus protests against tuition hikes: undergraduate tuition at the University of California has increased by more than 40 percent since 2009 and 300 percent since 2001 as essential services have been cut, class sizes reduced, and lower proportions of in-state students admitted.
We students worry about the precedent that is being set by a law enforcement apparatus that is using the pulpit of “security” to restrict our rights as citizens of the United States and as human beings. Time and time again history has shown that the false cry of “security” can only be used to roll back the hard-fought advances of a democratic society.
If we wish to learn from history, we must not sit idly as the pillars of democracy begin to erode and tremble in the wake of a polarizing and precarious reality.
People, including students at a major university and commuters using public transportation, have the right to dissent without being "monitored" by a secret team of administrators and undercover police or having their right to communication impinged upon.
If police or administrators wish to observe in a public fashion protests then that is their right. But it ought not to be done in manner more befitting a totalitarian regime than an open public university.
[http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/node/9279]
Eric is a 21- year-old recent graduate of UC Davis who has been active in student anti-austerity protests for the past three years. He is a native of Santa Rosa. He can be reached at ca.ericlee@gmail.com.
---
BART actions to inhibit free speech activity isn't new to University of California students who earlier this year uncovered internal documents showing officials has conspired to monitor and control constitutionally-protected fee hike protests at UC Davis.
High-ranking University of California, Davis administrators including Chancellor Linda Katehi, several vice chancellors, more than 30 staff members, and campus police were involved, according to internal documents uncovered by students involved in the demonstrations.
Students and community members are particularly disturbed in light of similar Bay Area Rapid Transit police transgressions on the freedom to communicate.
We feel threatened that public institutions like UC Davis and BART are actively pursuing policies that treat students and passengers respectively like criminals. In the throes of the current economic meltdown, it is perhaps more valid to question the criminality of dishonest actions taken against those who are trying to fight for a better life. It is a telling sign that decision makers in these institutions feel the need to incriminate others in order to avoid public pressure for their own, sometimes violent, actions.
The documents, obtained through the state public records act, reveal high-ranking administrators, staff members, and leaders of the campus police department formed a network called the “Activism Response Team” to keep close tabs on student activists, including monitoring student Facebook activity, infiltrating protests and attempting to obtain information about “anticipated student actions," and individuals involved in the protests.
In one case, an undercover campus police officer marched with students in plain clothes and refused to identify herself as a member of the UCD police department. UCD has apologized, calling it a "mistake."
Students, faculty, staff, and the Sacramento and Yolo Chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union are extremely concerned about the deepening abuse of police power in publicly used spaces—both public transit terminals and college campuses.
Students take offense at these incursions in light of the political merit of campus protests against tuition hikes: undergraduate tuition at the University of California has increased by more than 40 percent since 2009 and 300 percent since 2001 as essential services have been cut, class sizes reduced, and lower proportions of in-state students admitted.
We students worry about the precedent that is being set by a law enforcement apparatus that is using the pulpit of “security” to restrict our rights as citizens of the United States and as human beings. Time and time again history has shown that the false cry of “security” can only be used to roll back the hard-fought advances of a democratic society.
If we wish to learn from history, we must not sit idly as the pillars of democracy begin to erode and tremble in the wake of a polarizing and precarious reality.
People, including students at a major university and commuters using public transportation, have the right to dissent without being "monitored" by a secret team of administrators and undercover police or having their right to communication impinged upon.
If police or administrators wish to observe in a public fashion protests then that is their right. But it ought not to be done in manner more befitting a totalitarian regime than an open public university.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
2011-08-18 "Pot Farmer Joins Farm Bureau: A farm bureau known for its wine crops is among the first in the country to put out the welcome mat to a pot grower" by Joe Rosato Jr.
[http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Pot-Farmer-Joins-Farm-Bureau-127976198.html]
The Napa Valley is legendary for its rolling vineyards and wine grapes, guided by some of the world’s greenest thumbs.
Crane Carter owns one of those green thumbs. Only he doesn’t grow grapes with it. He grows marijuana.
Carter scampered through the backyard of his St. Helena home, offering a tour of twelve leafy pot plants spilling from their planter boxes. His medicinal bumper crop is legal in the eyes of California under Prop 215.
"This is what they call pink panther here," he said, gingerly tugging on a young green bud. "It’s a few weeks out."
Most marijuana growers prefer to farm from the shadows, but Carter is out there openly advocating for the sale and taxation of medical weed. He founded the Napa Valley Marijuana Growers and dreams of the region becoming as famous for cannabis as it is for cabernet.
"I think we do have a taxable commodity here," Carter said in his rapid-fire speaking style. "It will allow these outside growers to come to the surface and be part of our community.”"
Carter himself has emerged from the pot farming underbelly in bold fashion. Recently, the prestigious Napa County Farm Bureau accepted him as a member. He’s believed one of the first declared marijuana farmer in the country to join such a legitimate body.
"It’s a wonderful feeling to be accepted in that group," he said, pushing back the brim of his floppy wide-brimmed hat. "We don’t have to hide -- we don’t and we won’t."
For the record: another grower, Northstone Organics [http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/2010-10-07-mendocino-marijuana-tourism_N.htm], has also been accepted as a member of the Farm Bureau in Mendicino County [http://www.mendofb.org/business_members.php].
Carter’s membership folds him into the ranks of the region’s seasoned wine grape growers, dairy farmers and olive producers. While his green message is sure to rankle some members, others believe his mission isn’t so far out.
"We’re looking at agriculture and what agriculture encompasses," said wine grape manager Eric Pooler. "That’s changing, so we’re just kind of flowing with the times."
Pooler was part of the Farm Bureau committee that heard Carter’s pitch and ultimately chose him as a member. Pooler said the decision wasn’t an endorsement of medicinal marijuana – rather the acknowledgement of a legitimate agricultural crop.
"In terms of people who don’t agree with that, I can understand their viewpoints," said Pooler. "But he’s working within the bounds of the law and that’s what we’re looking at."
Carter hopes to use his new pulpit to establish marijuana-growing guidelines for the region – including sustainable techniques that eliminate pollution and pesticides. In the meantime, he peddles t-shirts bearing the logo of his homegrown organization. He also plans to sell his upcoming crop to medical marijuana dispensaries in the Bay Area
A life-long Napa Valley resident, Carter said he bristles whenever he hears someone declare Mendocino or Humboldt County as the “Napa Valley of marijuana growing.” That distinction, he believes, should remain in the Napa Valley.
"They’re not on top of three international airports," he said. "They don’t have the accommodations and what we have for the wine industry already."
Whether the world famous wine-region will ever see pot plants growing alongside chardonnay vineyards is probably a far-off vision. But it’s a vision Carter will be out there preaching, one green bud at a time.
[http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Pot-Farmer-Joins-Farm-Bureau-127976198.html]
The Napa Valley is legendary for its rolling vineyards and wine grapes, guided by some of the world’s greenest thumbs.
Crane Carter owns one of those green thumbs. Only he doesn’t grow grapes with it. He grows marijuana.
Carter scampered through the backyard of his St. Helena home, offering a tour of twelve leafy pot plants spilling from their planter boxes. His medicinal bumper crop is legal in the eyes of California under Prop 215.
"This is what they call pink panther here," he said, gingerly tugging on a young green bud. "It’s a few weeks out."
Most marijuana growers prefer to farm from the shadows, but Carter is out there openly advocating for the sale and taxation of medical weed. He founded the Napa Valley Marijuana Growers and dreams of the region becoming as famous for cannabis as it is for cabernet.
"I think we do have a taxable commodity here," Carter said in his rapid-fire speaking style. "It will allow these outside growers to come to the surface and be part of our community.”"
Carter himself has emerged from the pot farming underbelly in bold fashion. Recently, the prestigious Napa County Farm Bureau accepted him as a member. He’s believed one of the first declared marijuana farmer in the country to join such a legitimate body.
"It’s a wonderful feeling to be accepted in that group," he said, pushing back the brim of his floppy wide-brimmed hat. "We don’t have to hide -- we don’t and we won’t."
For the record: another grower, Northstone Organics [http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/2010-10-07-mendocino-marijuana-tourism_N.htm], has also been accepted as a member of the Farm Bureau in Mendicino County [http://www.mendofb.org/business_members.php].
Carter’s membership folds him into the ranks of the region’s seasoned wine grape growers, dairy farmers and olive producers. While his green message is sure to rankle some members, others believe his mission isn’t so far out.
"We’re looking at agriculture and what agriculture encompasses," said wine grape manager Eric Pooler. "That’s changing, so we’re just kind of flowing with the times."
Pooler was part of the Farm Bureau committee that heard Carter’s pitch and ultimately chose him as a member. Pooler said the decision wasn’t an endorsement of medicinal marijuana – rather the acknowledgement of a legitimate agricultural crop.
"In terms of people who don’t agree with that, I can understand their viewpoints," said Pooler. "But he’s working within the bounds of the law and that’s what we’re looking at."
Carter hopes to use his new pulpit to establish marijuana-growing guidelines for the region – including sustainable techniques that eliminate pollution and pesticides. In the meantime, he peddles t-shirts bearing the logo of his homegrown organization. He also plans to sell his upcoming crop to medical marijuana dispensaries in the Bay Area
A life-long Napa Valley resident, Carter said he bristles whenever he hears someone declare Mendocino or Humboldt County as the “Napa Valley of marijuana growing.” That distinction, he believes, should remain in the Napa Valley.
"They’re not on top of three international airports," he said. "They don’t have the accommodations and what we have for the wine industry already."
Whether the world famous wine-region will ever see pot plants growing alongside chardonnay vineyards is probably a far-off vision. But it’s a vision Carter will be out there preaching, one green bud at a time.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
2011-08-17 "Vallejo still among top U.S. cities with home foreclosures" by Rachel Raskin-Zrihen from "Vallejo Times-Herald" newspaper
[http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_18697677]
Solano County has had among the country's highest foreclosure rates since the housing crises began about five years ago, and still hasn't shaken that dubious distinction.
Last month, one of every 140 housing units here faced foreclosure, making this the fourth hardest hit area in the country, after Las Vegas, Stockton and Modesto, according to RealtyTrac's July report.
This compares to the statewide foreclosure rate showing one of out of every 239 homes is in some stage of foreclosure -- a 4 percent increase over last month, but a 16 percent drop from last year. Nationally, the foreclosure rate has fallen 4 percent since June and 35 percent since last year.
Statewide, the Vallejo area ranked third worst for foreclosures, after Stockton and Modesto.
Foreclosures in the Vallejo-Fairfield metro area jumped by a third since last month, while most other areas either dropped or rose only slightly, RealtyTrac spokesman Daren Blomquist said this week.
Blomquist said highs and lows in monthly foreclosure rates are not rare, though they're most common in the areas hardest hit by the crisis.
"The Vallejo area has for the past few years, been consistently in the top 10 worst of the 211 areas we track, though not always in the top five, like this," Blomquist said.
The Vallejo-Fairfield area was 10th worst nationally for foreclosures for all of 2010, he said. It was 11th worst in 2009 and seventh worst the year before that.
Statewide, as foreclosures started rising in October 2006, Solano County ranked second only to Stanislaus County, according to RealtyTrac.
In July, as bad as Vallejo's foreclosure rate was, it was better than the second-ranked Stockton area, in San Joaquin County, where foreclosures were up 57 percent in July. Though like Solano, that figure was down from a year ago, one in every 124 homes in the Stockton area were in foreclosure last month. Two areas in Florida also had big increases in foreclosures last month, Blomquist said.
Foreclosures were up 39 percent in San Francisco County last month over June, placing it 28th nationally. They were up 17 percent in Contra Costa County and 15 percent in Alameda County.
"We're seeing something of a roller coaster pattern in Solano County, with a dramatic up month followed by a deep drop," Blomquist said. "Other markets are also seeing surges and declines. I wouldn't be surprised to see a reversal in the area next month."
Blomquist said he attributes the situation in part to the mortgage industry trying to regain its footing after being caught in the so-called "robo-signing" debacle.
"I honestly think it's a situation where the fractured foreclosure process right now, with lenders accused of sloppy paperwork and adjustments they're making, I think this has contributed to the volatile pattern," he said. "Other outside influences, like investigations by attorneys general trying to create consistency in foreclosure procedures and state and federal foreclosure prevention programs, also are making an impact."
Blomquist said that while the worst of the foreclosure crisis is behind us, any kind of normalcy is years away.
"We estimate no normalcy in foreclosure levels until 2014 because of the backlog of inventory and the lack of big improvement in economic conditions," he said. "Even so, we have seen in Solano County and elsewhere that we're past the peak and the numbers should start to come down."
At a glance -
In Solano County last month, more than 4,600 homes were in some stage of foreclosure and those that sold, went for an average of nearly $200,500. Just more than 1,000 homes here received foreclosure notices in July.
By city:
* Vallejo -- 418
* Fairfield -- 231
* Vacaville -- 197
* Suisun City -- 91
* Benicia -- 74
* Dixon -- 42
* Rio Vista -- 23
[http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_18697677]
Solano County has had among the country's highest foreclosure rates since the housing crises began about five years ago, and still hasn't shaken that dubious distinction.
Last month, one of every 140 housing units here faced foreclosure, making this the fourth hardest hit area in the country, after Las Vegas, Stockton and Modesto, according to RealtyTrac's July report.
This compares to the statewide foreclosure rate showing one of out of every 239 homes is in some stage of foreclosure -- a 4 percent increase over last month, but a 16 percent drop from last year. Nationally, the foreclosure rate has fallen 4 percent since June and 35 percent since last year.
Statewide, the Vallejo area ranked third worst for foreclosures, after Stockton and Modesto.
Foreclosures in the Vallejo-Fairfield metro area jumped by a third since last month, while most other areas either dropped or rose only slightly, RealtyTrac spokesman Daren Blomquist said this week.
Blomquist said highs and lows in monthly foreclosure rates are not rare, though they're most common in the areas hardest hit by the crisis.
"The Vallejo area has for the past few years, been consistently in the top 10 worst of the 211 areas we track, though not always in the top five, like this," Blomquist said.
The Vallejo-Fairfield area was 10th worst nationally for foreclosures for all of 2010, he said. It was 11th worst in 2009 and seventh worst the year before that.
Statewide, as foreclosures started rising in October 2006, Solano County ranked second only to Stanislaus County, according to RealtyTrac.
In July, as bad as Vallejo's foreclosure rate was, it was better than the second-ranked Stockton area, in San Joaquin County, where foreclosures were up 57 percent in July. Though like Solano, that figure was down from a year ago, one in every 124 homes in the Stockton area were in foreclosure last month. Two areas in Florida also had big increases in foreclosures last month, Blomquist said.
Foreclosures were up 39 percent in San Francisco County last month over June, placing it 28th nationally. They were up 17 percent in Contra Costa County and 15 percent in Alameda County.
"We're seeing something of a roller coaster pattern in Solano County, with a dramatic up month followed by a deep drop," Blomquist said. "Other markets are also seeing surges and declines. I wouldn't be surprised to see a reversal in the area next month."
Blomquist said he attributes the situation in part to the mortgage industry trying to regain its footing after being caught in the so-called "robo-signing" debacle.
"I honestly think it's a situation where the fractured foreclosure process right now, with lenders accused of sloppy paperwork and adjustments they're making, I think this has contributed to the volatile pattern," he said. "Other outside influences, like investigations by attorneys general trying to create consistency in foreclosure procedures and state and federal foreclosure prevention programs, also are making an impact."
Blomquist said that while the worst of the foreclosure crisis is behind us, any kind of normalcy is years away.
"We estimate no normalcy in foreclosure levels until 2014 because of the backlog of inventory and the lack of big improvement in economic conditions," he said. "Even so, we have seen in Solano County and elsewhere that we're past the peak and the numbers should start to come down."
At a glance -
In Solano County last month, more than 4,600 homes were in some stage of foreclosure and those that sold, went for an average of nearly $200,500. Just more than 1,000 homes here received foreclosure notices in July.
By city:
* Vallejo -- 418
* Fairfield -- 231
* Vacaville -- 197
* Suisun City -- 91
* Benicia -- 74
* Dixon -- 42
* Rio Vista -- 23
Monday, August 15, 2011
2011-08-15 "Solano jail braces for an influx of inmates from state prison" by Catherine Bowen from "The Vacaville Reporter" newspaper
In a move some call long overdue and others say should never happen, the state is set to send waves of prison inmates flooding into county jails and communities as early as this fall, leaving local authorities bracing for the storm.
With the wheels set into motion earlier this year by Gov. Jerry Brown's election, Assembly Bill 109 was proposed as a solution to the constant struggle against chronic prison overcrowding.
Solano County Sheriff Gary Stanton said prison overcrowding is not new, and a major push was made when two inmates sued the state because prisoners were not receiving adequate medical and mental health care. The courts agreed, and ordered the state to remedy the problem.
"What AB 109 does is transitions responsibility for 38,000 inmates to local control, to counties," Stanton said.
By Oct. 1, Solano County will likely see the start of the nearly 700 inmates to be introduced to the area over the next three years, Stanton said. Of these inmates, all categorized by the state as "low-risk offenders,"
356 are slated to be released into Post-release Community Supervision, "a softer and gentler way of saying parolees," he added. Another 280 will be diverted from prison to a stop over in Solano County Jail.
In order for this to be done, the state identified what are referred to as "non-, non-, nons-," Stanton said -- that is, "non-sex offense, non-significant, non-violent criminal offenders."
"The state is keeping the worst of the worst,"
Stanton said. "And when they term out, when they finish their terms of confinement, they will be released to adult parole services."
However, these individuals, rather than being monitored by the state, will be under the closer supervision of county law enforcement, Stanton said.
He said if the parolees violate terms of their release, rather than being sent back to state prison, they will be sent to county jail. Stanton said the jail's regular population is expected to increase by an average of 55 because of new parole violators.
Stanton said a significant number are going to have to be released back into the community because the county simply lacks the bed space for them. With 200 available beds, the issue comes down to staffing and budget constraints.
"Every inmate coming to us from state prison ... they're all going to be assessed to determine their level of criminal sophistication, their level of potential success in out-of-custody placement, their level for violence, and then we'll decide who stays in and who goes out," Stanton said. "The reality is I can't house all of them. There's no room."
These individuals, he went on to say, will have to be put in an "alternative to custody" situation that uses GPS monitoring.
"We're going to dump as many as we can into out-of-custody programs -- if we think they'll be successful," Stanton said. "If in the assessment we don't think they'll be successful, they're going to stay in custody."
Initially set to kick in last month, AB 109 implementation has been postponed to Oct. 1, giving local law enforcement a little more time to brace for the impact.
Despite the delay, Stanton said the move comes at a bad time.
"Now that we're all down from two years of budget reductions, we get hit with this, the timing could not have been worse for us," he said.
Stanton said that if the state fails to follow through or makes further reductions the community will feel the impact. The state has allotted $3.8 million to Solano County for the first year, or an estimated $7,800 per inmate per year.
"That is likely to be insufficient to even provide supervision for them. There's no money there to put them into programs. And they should go in programs," Stanton said, citing such things as drug and alcohol classes, GED and vocational training programs as ways to help reduce the likelihood of reoffending.
"The reality of it is, I'm going to have to hire officers to watch these people and so is Probation," he said. "We're going to have to use the first pass of that funding for that. If there's anything left over, then we'll look and see what we can do for programming."
Stanton said he is expecting some initial bumps along the way but is optimistic for the future.
"What we're looking at is probably a very difficult first year, and then in the second and third years it should get a little better and then in about the fourth year I think we can probably turn the corner," he said. "We know we can't do any worse than the state did with it, they set the bar pretty low."
"It won't be perfect, we will make mistakes, but this is one of those situations where we can't say no," Stanton said. "It's now statutory and we now get it whether we want it or not. We have to make the best out of it, and we're going to make the best out of it we can."
In a move some call long overdue and others say should never happen, the state is set to send waves of prison inmates flooding into county jails and communities as early as this fall, leaving local authorities bracing for the storm.
With the wheels set into motion earlier this year by Gov. Jerry Brown's election, Assembly Bill 109 was proposed as a solution to the constant struggle against chronic prison overcrowding.
Solano County Sheriff Gary Stanton said prison overcrowding is not new, and a major push was made when two inmates sued the state because prisoners were not receiving adequate medical and mental health care. The courts agreed, and ordered the state to remedy the problem.
"What AB 109 does is transitions responsibility for 38,000 inmates to local control, to counties," Stanton said.
By Oct. 1, Solano County will likely see the start of the nearly 700 inmates to be introduced to the area over the next three years, Stanton said. Of these inmates, all categorized by the state as "low-risk offenders,"
356 are slated to be released into Post-release Community Supervision, "a softer and gentler way of saying parolees," he added. Another 280 will be diverted from prison to a stop over in Solano County Jail.
In order for this to be done, the state identified what are referred to as "non-, non-, nons-," Stanton said -- that is, "non-sex offense, non-significant, non-violent criminal offenders."
"The state is keeping the worst of the worst,"
Stanton said. "And when they term out, when they finish their terms of confinement, they will be released to adult parole services."
However, these individuals, rather than being monitored by the state, will be under the closer supervision of county law enforcement, Stanton said.
He said if the parolees violate terms of their release, rather than being sent back to state prison, they will be sent to county jail. Stanton said the jail's regular population is expected to increase by an average of 55 because of new parole violators.
Stanton said a significant number are going to have to be released back into the community because the county simply lacks the bed space for them. With 200 available beds, the issue comes down to staffing and budget constraints.
"Every inmate coming to us from state prison ... they're all going to be assessed to determine their level of criminal sophistication, their level of potential success in out-of-custody placement, their level for violence, and then we'll decide who stays in and who goes out," Stanton said. "The reality is I can't house all of them. There's no room."
These individuals, he went on to say, will have to be put in an "alternative to custody" situation that uses GPS monitoring.
"We're going to dump as many as we can into out-of-custody programs -- if we think they'll be successful," Stanton said. "If in the assessment we don't think they'll be successful, they're going to stay in custody."
Initially set to kick in last month, AB 109 implementation has been postponed to Oct. 1, giving local law enforcement a little more time to brace for the impact.
Despite the delay, Stanton said the move comes at a bad time.
"Now that we're all down from two years of budget reductions, we get hit with this, the timing could not have been worse for us," he said.
Stanton said that if the state fails to follow through or makes further reductions the community will feel the impact. The state has allotted $3.8 million to Solano County for the first year, or an estimated $7,800 per inmate per year.
"That is likely to be insufficient to even provide supervision for them. There's no money there to put them into programs. And they should go in programs," Stanton said, citing such things as drug and alcohol classes, GED and vocational training programs as ways to help reduce the likelihood of reoffending.
"The reality of it is, I'm going to have to hire officers to watch these people and so is Probation," he said. "We're going to have to use the first pass of that funding for that. If there's anything left over, then we'll look and see what we can do for programming."
Stanton said he is expecting some initial bumps along the way but is optimistic for the future.
"What we're looking at is probably a very difficult first year, and then in the second and third years it should get a little better and then in about the fourth year I think we can probably turn the corner," he said. "We know we can't do any worse than the state did with it, they set the bar pretty low."
"It won't be perfect, we will make mistakes, but this is one of those situations where we can't say no," Stanton said. "It's now statutory and we now get it whether we want it or not. We have to make the best out of it, and we're going to make the best out of it we can."
Saturday, August 13, 2011
2011-08-13 "Anonymous responds to BART with a 3 step protest plan" by Matt Gratz from "Political Fail Blog"
[http://www.politicalfailblog.com/2011/08/anonymous-responds-to-bart-with-3-step.html]
BART's decision to shut down cell phone service on Thursday to disrupt communication of citizens has caught the attention of the Internet collective known as Anonymous. Like I said yesterday, shutting down lines of communication is not something you can do in the United States and get away with it.
A tweet by YourAnonNews [http://twitter.com/#!/YourAnonNews] led me to a press release [http://pastebin.com/dQDzqAHM] that details the plan that will take place over the next couple days. It explains in 3 simple steps what the repercussions for shutting off lines of communication will be.
[begin excerpt]
1) We have begun at once a massive Black Fax and E-Mail Bomb action, where we will fill every inbox and fax machine at BART with thousands of copies of our message that this outage was unacceptable.
2) Tomorrow, Sunday - August 14, 2011 at High Noon Pacific Time we, Anonymous - will remove from the Internet the web site of BART located at www.bart.gov for exactly six hours. That's twice as long as they shut off the cell phones for.
3) On Monday - August 15, 2011 at 5:00 PM Pacific Time there will be a physical protest at the Civic Center Bart Station. Expect us!
Anyone and everyone who believes that open communication is a right, needs to be at the Civic Center BART station in San Francisco this Monday at 5PM. Be prepared for civil disobedience.
[end excerpt]
BART officials are aware of the plans. Jim Allison who is a BART spokesman would not say if they would turn off service again.
"The safety of our customers is our No. 1 priority, and we're going to do what we can to keep people safe," Allison said. "We're just going to leave it at that."
I plan on being there to document the events that unfold to share with you. (Look for me, I'll be the guy in a mask holding a camera!)
[http://pastebin.com/dQDzqAHM]
Press Release - Anonymous Operation BART
8:00 PM Saturday - August 13, 2011
This is just a brief release to clarify for the media what to expect from Anonymous on this Op. There is a more thorough Press Release from us here - http://tumblr.com/xjh42d529q
Anonymous will take the following actions over the next 48 hours.
1) We have begun at once a massive Black Fax and E-Mail Bomb action, where we will fill every inbox and fax machine at BART with thousands of copies of our message that this outage was unacceptable.
2) Tomorrow, Sunday - August 14, 2011 at High Noon Pacific Time we, Anonymous - will remove from the internet the web site of BART located at www.bart.gov for exactly six hours. That's twice as long as they shut off the cell phones for.
3) On Monday - August 15, 2011 at 5:00 PM Pacific Time there will be a physical protest at the Civic Center Bart Station. Expect us !
We sincerely hope that this series of actions will serve as a warning to BART and every public organization in the USA to NOT engage in this sort of dangerous and human rights violating behavior.
We Are Anonymous - We Are Everywhere - We Are Legion - We Never Forget - We Never Forgive - EXPECT US
[http://youranonnews.tumblr.com/post/8850132926/this-is-a-message-from-anonymous-to-the-bay-area-rapid]
This is a message from Anonymous to the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART)
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE USA:
The past year has brought about some substantial awareness through some unfortunate events that have occurred throughout our world. From internet censorship to the unnecessary violence inflicted upon unarmed civilans, we’ve all seen what can happen once a portion of us are gagged.
In Egypt and Tunisia, we saw people struggling to make their voices heard. We have seen companies such as Telecomix delve into the nastiness of political corruption in an attempt to free those censored individuals from their prisons of silence. We seen social media such as FaceBook and twitter explode with users from around the world speaking out against censorship.
Today, we’ve seen America come alive. In the Bay Area, we’ve seen people gagged, and once more, Anonymous will attempt to show those engaging in the censorship what it feels like to be silenced. #OpBART is an operation geared toward balance - toward learning. You do not censor people because they wish to speak out against the wrongs the wrongful things occurring around them. The Bay Area Rapid Transit has made the conscious decision of ordering various cell phone companies to terminate services for the downtown area inhibiting those in the area from using cell phones - even in the case of an emergency.
To BART:
We will not tolerate censorship.
We will do everything in our power (we are legion) to parallel the actions of censorship that you have chosen to engage in.
We will be free to speak out against you when you try to cover up crimes, namely on behalf of those who have engaged in violence against a mostly unarmed public.
We will set those who have been censored free from their silence. That’s a promise.
Anonymous demands that this activity revolving around censorship cease and desist and we know you are already planning to do this again.
We will not issue any more warnings.
TO THE PEOPLE OF SAN FRANCISCO:
People of San Francisco, join us Every Monday at 5pm for a peaceful protest at Civic Center station to illustrate the solidarity with people we once knew and to stand up for your rights and those of your fellow citizens.
We will be wearing “blood” stained shirts for remembrance to the blood that is on the hands of the BART police. (Protest flier)
For the people outside of San Francisco, show solidarity by using black fax, email bombs, and phone calls to the BART Board of Directors. BART decided to cut off your communications and now we will flood theirs.
We request that you bring cameras to record further abuses of power by the police and to legitimize the protest. The media will certainly spin this in an attempt to make our actions appear to be violent or somehow harmful to the citizenry at large. Remember, this is a peaceful protest. Any actions trying to incite violence in our protest are not of our people, and they ought to be discouraged.
We are Anonymous,
We are legion,
We never forgive,
We never forget,
Expect us.
BART contact info:
Phone:
510 465-2278, 415 989-2278, 650 992-2278, 925 676-2278, 510 441-2278, 510 236-2278, and 510 465-2278
Fax: (510) 464-6011
Email: BoardofDirectors@bart.gov
Fliers / Back Fax images
OpBart bus:http://www.artificialeyes.tv/node/961 OpBart Police Badge: http://www.artificialeyes.tv/node/960MuBARTek blackfax / poster / flyer: http://yfrog.com/z/h42j1oijOpBart Poster: http://www.artificialeyes.tv/node/959 Protest Poster: http://tumblr.com/xjh42tga3v
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 15.0px; font: 12.0px ‘Lucida Grande’; color: #31b8fc} span.s1 {text-decoration: underline ; text-shadow: 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px #000000}
Back Fax tools
http://youranonnews.tumblr.com/post/8832483770/email-and-fax-bomb-info-for-opbart
—————————————
File a complaint with the FCC online against BART:
fcc.gov/complaints
jammerinfo@fcc.gov
—————————————
Twitter: @OpBART
Email: OpBART@Gmail.com
send us your pictures
[http://www.politicalfailblog.com/2011/08/anonymous-responds-to-bart-with-3-step.html]
BART's decision to shut down cell phone service on Thursday to disrupt communication of citizens has caught the attention of the Internet collective known as Anonymous. Like I said yesterday, shutting down lines of communication is not something you can do in the United States and get away with it.
A tweet by YourAnonNews [http://twitter.com/#!/YourAnonNews] led me to a press release [http://pastebin.com/dQDzqAHM] that details the plan that will take place over the next couple days. It explains in 3 simple steps what the repercussions for shutting off lines of communication will be.
[begin excerpt]
1) We have begun at once a massive Black Fax and E-Mail Bomb action, where we will fill every inbox and fax machine at BART with thousands of copies of our message that this outage was unacceptable.
2) Tomorrow, Sunday - August 14, 2011 at High Noon Pacific Time we, Anonymous - will remove from the Internet the web site of BART located at www.bart.gov for exactly six hours. That's twice as long as they shut off the cell phones for.
3) On Monday - August 15, 2011 at 5:00 PM Pacific Time there will be a physical protest at the Civic Center Bart Station. Expect us!
Anyone and everyone who believes that open communication is a right, needs to be at the Civic Center BART station in San Francisco this Monday at 5PM. Be prepared for civil disobedience.
[end excerpt]
BART officials are aware of the plans. Jim Allison who is a BART spokesman would not say if they would turn off service again.
"The safety of our customers is our No. 1 priority, and we're going to do what we can to keep people safe," Allison said. "We're just going to leave it at that."
I plan on being there to document the events that unfold to share with you. (Look for me, I'll be the guy in a mask holding a camera!)
[http://pastebin.com/dQDzqAHM]
Press Release - Anonymous Operation BART
8:00 PM Saturday - August 13, 2011
This is just a brief release to clarify for the media what to expect from Anonymous on this Op. There is a more thorough Press Release from us here - http://tumblr.com/xjh42d529q
Anonymous will take the following actions over the next 48 hours.
1) We have begun at once a massive Black Fax and E-Mail Bomb action, where we will fill every inbox and fax machine at BART with thousands of copies of our message that this outage was unacceptable.
2) Tomorrow, Sunday - August 14, 2011 at High Noon Pacific Time we, Anonymous - will remove from the internet the web site of BART located at www.bart.gov for exactly six hours. That's twice as long as they shut off the cell phones for.
3) On Monday - August 15, 2011 at 5:00 PM Pacific Time there will be a physical protest at the Civic Center Bart Station. Expect us !
We sincerely hope that this series of actions will serve as a warning to BART and every public organization in the USA to NOT engage in this sort of dangerous and human rights violating behavior.
We Are Anonymous - We Are Everywhere - We Are Legion - We Never Forget - We Never Forgive - EXPECT US
[http://youranonnews.tumblr.com/post/8850132926/this-is-a-message-from-anonymous-to-the-bay-area-rapid]
This is a message from Anonymous to the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART)TO THE PEOPLE OF THE USA:
The past year has brought about some substantial awareness through some unfortunate events that have occurred throughout our world. From internet censorship to the unnecessary violence inflicted upon unarmed civilans, we’ve all seen what can happen once a portion of us are gagged.
In Egypt and Tunisia, we saw people struggling to make their voices heard. We have seen companies such as Telecomix delve into the nastiness of political corruption in an attempt to free those censored individuals from their prisons of silence. We seen social media such as FaceBook and twitter explode with users from around the world speaking out against censorship.
Today, we’ve seen America come alive. In the Bay Area, we’ve seen people gagged, and once more, Anonymous will attempt to show those engaging in the censorship what it feels like to be silenced. #OpBART is an operation geared toward balance - toward learning. You do not censor people because they wish to speak out against the wrongs the wrongful things occurring around them. The Bay Area Rapid Transit has made the conscious decision of ordering various cell phone companies to terminate services for the downtown area inhibiting those in the area from using cell phones - even in the case of an emergency.
To BART:
We will not tolerate censorship.
We will do everything in our power (we are legion) to parallel the actions of censorship that you have chosen to engage in.
We will be free to speak out against you when you try to cover up crimes, namely on behalf of those who have engaged in violence against a mostly unarmed public.
We will set those who have been censored free from their silence. That’s a promise.
Anonymous demands that this activity revolving around censorship cease and desist and we know you are already planning to do this again.
We will not issue any more warnings.
TO THE PEOPLE OF SAN FRANCISCO:
People of San Francisco, join us Every Monday at 5pm for a peaceful protest at Civic Center station to illustrate the solidarity with people we once knew and to stand up for your rights and those of your fellow citizens.
We will be wearing “blood” stained shirts for remembrance to the blood that is on the hands of the BART police. (Protest flier)
For the people outside of San Francisco, show solidarity by using black fax, email bombs, and phone calls to the BART Board of Directors. BART decided to cut off your communications and now we will flood theirs.
We request that you bring cameras to record further abuses of power by the police and to legitimize the protest. The media will certainly spin this in an attempt to make our actions appear to be violent or somehow harmful to the citizenry at large. Remember, this is a peaceful protest. Any actions trying to incite violence in our protest are not of our people, and they ought to be discouraged.
We are Anonymous,
We are legion,
We never forgive,
We never forget,
Expect us.
BART contact info:
Phone:
510 465-2278, 415 989-2278, 650 992-2278, 925 676-2278, 510 441-2278, 510 236-2278, and 510 465-2278
Fax: (510) 464-6011
Email: BoardofDirectors@bart.gov
Fliers / Back Fax images
OpBart bus:http://www.artificialeyes.tv/node/961 OpBart Police Badge: http://www.artificialeyes.tv/node/960MuBARTek blackfax / poster / flyer: http://yfrog.com/z/h42j1oijOpBart Poster: http://www.artificialeyes.tv/node/959 Protest Poster: http://tumblr.com/xjh42tga3v
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 15.0px; font: 12.0px ‘Lucida Grande’; color: #31b8fc} span.s1 {text-decoration: underline ; text-shadow: 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px #000000}
Back Fax tools
http://youranonnews.tumblr.com/post/8832483770/email-and-fax-bomb-info-for-opbart
—————————————
File a complaint with the FCC online against BART:
fcc.gov/complaints
jammerinfo@fcc.gov
—————————————
Twitter: @OpBART
Email: OpBART@Gmail.com
send us your pictures
Friday, August 12, 2011
2011-08-12 "Vallejo's dropout figures improve, but they remain Solano's highest" by Lanz Christian Bañes from "Vallejo Times-Herald"
[http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_18667525]
Breaking a several-year trend, the Vallejo City Unified School District's high dropout rate improved in the 2009-2010 academic year.
According to data released Thursday by the California Department of Education, about 41 percent of Vallejo high school students dropped out during the four-year period ending with the 2009-2010 school year. The same data set also shows about a 50 percent graduation rate.
The dropout and graduation rates for a given period do not necessarily add up to 100 percent because some students neither drop out nor graduate, for example taking the high school equivalency exam.
Because this is the first year the state is using a new system to count students, the education department warns against exactly comparing this year's released statistics with those of previous years. A different formula was used in previous years.
Regardless, it is still notable that the four-year Vallejo dropout rate in the 2008-2009 school year was 49 percent. The district still reports the highest dropout rate among the seven Solano County public school districts, which have about a combined 25 percent dropout rate, including Vallejo.
By comparison, the Solano County Office of Education's schools and programs and the Vacaville Unified School District have the next highest rates, at about 25 percent and 18 percent, respectively. Travis Unified School District and Benicia Unified School District have the lowest at 5 percent and about 10 percent, respectively.
Benicia had about a 5 percent dropout rate in the 2009-2009 school year.
The latest statistics peg the state at an 18 percent dropout rate and a 74 percent graduation rate.
In Vallejo, most of the recorded dropouts are among Latino and African-American students. Nearly half the students of both races dropped out in 2009-2010.
Dropouts are also a problem among district minorities with smaller populations. About 63 percent of American Indians and 46 percent of white students dropped out in 2009-2011. Only 11 American Indian students were represented in the statistics, along with 163 white students of the total 1,500 or so counted students.
Vallejo's dropout rate had been steadily increasing since the 2003-2004 school year, when the rate nearly doubled to 30 percent from 16 percent in the preceding year.
In the 1991-1992 school year, the district posted a four-year dropout rate of less than 7 percent.
By the numbers:
Solano County dropout and graduation rates, 2009-2010 -
* Vallejo -- 41.1 percent dropout, 49.6 graduation
* County Office of Education -- 24.6 percent dropout, 70.4 percent graduation
* Vacaville -- 18.2 percent dropout, 77.7 percent graduation
* Fairfield-Suisun -- 17.5 percent dropout, 79.1 percent graduation
* Dixon -- 14.3 percent dropout, 81.8 percent graduation
* Benicia -- 9.8 percent dropout, 89 percent graduation
* Travis -- 5 percent dropout, 92.3 percent graduation
* Solano County total -- 24.6 percent dropout, 70.4 percent graduation
* California total -- 18.2 dropout, 74.4 percent graduation
[http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_18667525]
Breaking a several-year trend, the Vallejo City Unified School District's high dropout rate improved in the 2009-2010 academic year.
According to data released Thursday by the California Department of Education, about 41 percent of Vallejo high school students dropped out during the four-year period ending with the 2009-2010 school year. The same data set also shows about a 50 percent graduation rate.
The dropout and graduation rates for a given period do not necessarily add up to 100 percent because some students neither drop out nor graduate, for example taking the high school equivalency exam.
Because this is the first year the state is using a new system to count students, the education department warns against exactly comparing this year's released statistics with those of previous years. A different formula was used in previous years.
Regardless, it is still notable that the four-year Vallejo dropout rate in the 2008-2009 school year was 49 percent. The district still reports the highest dropout rate among the seven Solano County public school districts, which have about a combined 25 percent dropout rate, including Vallejo.
By comparison, the Solano County Office of Education's schools and programs and the Vacaville Unified School District have the next highest rates, at about 25 percent and 18 percent, respectively. Travis Unified School District and Benicia Unified School District have the lowest at 5 percent and about 10 percent, respectively.
Benicia had about a 5 percent dropout rate in the 2009-2009 school year.
The latest statistics peg the state at an 18 percent dropout rate and a 74 percent graduation rate.
In Vallejo, most of the recorded dropouts are among Latino and African-American students. Nearly half the students of both races dropped out in 2009-2010.
Dropouts are also a problem among district minorities with smaller populations. About 63 percent of American Indians and 46 percent of white students dropped out in 2009-2011. Only 11 American Indian students were represented in the statistics, along with 163 white students of the total 1,500 or so counted students.
Vallejo's dropout rate had been steadily increasing since the 2003-2004 school year, when the rate nearly doubled to 30 percent from 16 percent in the preceding year.
In the 1991-1992 school year, the district posted a four-year dropout rate of less than 7 percent.
By the numbers:
Solano County dropout and graduation rates, 2009-2010 -
* Vallejo -- 41.1 percent dropout, 49.6 graduation
* County Office of Education -- 24.6 percent dropout, 70.4 percent graduation
* Vacaville -- 18.2 percent dropout, 77.7 percent graduation
* Fairfield-Suisun -- 17.5 percent dropout, 79.1 percent graduation
* Dixon -- 14.3 percent dropout, 81.8 percent graduation
* Benicia -- 9.8 percent dropout, 89 percent graduation
* Travis -- 5 percent dropout, 92.3 percent graduation
* Solano County total -- 24.6 percent dropout, 70.4 percent graduation
* California total -- 18.2 dropout, 74.4 percent graduation
2011-08-12 "High-Spirited Flashmob Invades S.F. Financial District, Shuts Down Bank" by Carol Harvey
[http://www.thestreetspirit.org/high-spirited-flashmob-invades-s-f-financial-district-shuts-down-bank/]
West Coast social justice groups protested Big Finance’s theft of billions of tax dollars, home foreclosures, attacks on unions, and record rates of criminalization of poor and homeless people. After marching on the union-busting Hyatt Hotel and corporate financier Charles Schwab, masses of protesters successfully shut down Wells Fargo bank.
West Coast social justice groups from San Francisco, Portland and Los Angeles rallied with New York and Chicago allies at Union Square in a protest led by poor and working-class people on Friday, August 5, 2011. The demonstrators angrily protested Big Finance’s theft of billions of tax dollars, nationwide home foreclosures, attacks on workers’ unions, and record rates of criminalization and incarceration of poor and homeless people.
This protest, organized by the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), was part of a two-day Community Congress of civil rights and housing workshops held on August 5 and 6 at SEUI offices, 350 Rhode Island in San Francisco.
[Video title: ] The Great American TARP Tour featuring the exuberant “Bad Hotel” dancers. Video by Bill Carpenter. [Video missing from source]
The goal of the Community Congress was to broaden state, regional and national coalitions working for economic justice by laying the groundwork for a growing popular movement of immigrants, unions, homeless and housing groups made up of impoverished, marginalized and homeless people.
WRAP Director Paul Boden said that this movement will address “the corporate gluttony and political corruption” “pitting us against each other to the point where we are all drowning in the sea of trickle-down economics.”
At Friday’s protest, Boden spoke to energetic crowds, including tourists, “We have destroyed 600,000 units of affordable housing and built 800,000 jail cells.” He pointed an accusing finger at corporate offices. “There’s your answer!”
From Union Square, hundreds of chanting marchers took part in what organizers labeled “The Great American TARP Tour,” demonstrating loudly outside the offices of the “biggest culprits.” The fired-up marchers proceeded from the union-squashing Hyatt Hotel, to the brokerage office of corporate financier Charles Schwab, then on to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Montgomery Street office, finally ending at “Well$ Fargo,” where masses of protesters successfully shut down the bank.
The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, is a federal government program which, after the sub-prime mortgage crisis, purchased assets and equity from the financial sector to bail out banks. According to polls, repeated bailouts to the biggest players on Wall Street have rendered American taxpayers ever poorer and more enraged.
Boden said, “While Washington was engaged in a manufactured crisis over the debt ceiling, some 40 million people are living in a real crisis, facing a choice between buying groceries or paying the rent.”
“The spirit is here, and it’s angry!” said marcher Sara Shortt, executive director of the Housing Rights Committee, a San Francisco-based renters’ group. “People are angry at the banks. They are taking everything and leaving people homeless.”
At the first stop, Mike Casey of UNITE HERE Local 2 indicted the Hyatt Corporation as the same corporate interests “driving this country into the ditch.” He charged the Hyatt Hotel with forcing non-union immigrant workers to clean “as many as 30 rooms a day.”
Casey reported that, a year ago, after forcing these workers to train their replacements, Hyatt’s Boston branch fired 100 workers en masse. Replacements came in at minimum wage without health care.
At the next stop, Hyatt Plaza, The Brass Liberation Orchestra (BLO) rocked a spirited flashmob performance of “This Is A Bad Hotel,” a parody of Lady Gaga’s song, “Bad Romance.”
Next stop, Charles Schwab.
Bob Offer-Westort, a civil rights organizer with the San Francisco-based Coalition on Homelessness, cited San Francisco’s new sit/lie law which bans sitting or lying on sidewalks, making it a crime “to sit down for a moment’s rest.” Loud, sustained, “boos” echoed off skyscrapers.
“The campaign to pass that law spent 412,000 dollars to ram (it) down poor San Franciscans’ throats,” he said, reporting that Charles Schwab himself invested $30,000, and his co-CEO $25,000 dollars, constituting an eighth of the campaign.
He added that the financial sector as a whole paid 72 percent of the $400,000 to get the sit/lie law passed.
“What they think they’ve learned from that is that money can buy our city. Can Money buy our city?” he asked.
“No!” shouted the crowd.
In Portland, sit/lie laws were twice passed. Homeless activists fought it and won, Offer-Westort observed.
At the next stop on the TARP Tour, Dianne Feinstein’s office, Chicago activist, Willie J.R Fleming, joined with Boden in pointing out that “politicians have made some mistakes,” divesting from the nation’s commitment to public housing at the same moment when millions of Americans are undergoing foreclosure.
“These banks and senators like ‘What’s Her Name’ behind us, Feinstein, forgot about the people and bailed out the banks,” Fleming told the marchers.
Fleming reported that Chicagoans recognized that all those bank-owned foreclosed properties, paid for by taxpayers’ money, belonged to the people.
They decided, therefore, to take back, “what was rightfully ours – the houses and the land,” he said. “We want the world to know: If you won’t house the homeless, and you can’t pay your rent, we’ll create a public housing system on our own for the people.
The Brass Liberation Orchestra plays rebellious rhapsodies. Video by Carol Harvey.
His message to all politicians, especially Feinstein, is that the land belongs to the people who worked it, “and we the people are taking what’s rightfully ours right now!”
Booming boisterous chants, Portland’s Sisters of the Road led protesters to the final destination, Wells Fargo’s Market Street entrance. There, SFPD officers stoically guarded the doors while protesters enjoyed New Orleans-style music as the Brass Liberation Orchestra backed the enthusiastic crowd in yet another spirited people’s flashmob. “We’re fired up! Can’t take it no more!” One woman held her sign two inches from an officer’s face as she gracefully undulated in her dance.
The protesters forced Wells Fargo to close its doors a half-hour early, shutting down its corporate profiteering for the day. There were no arrests. This nonviolent, yet action-packed protest renewed peoples’ spirits and commitment, and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
The Brass Liberation Orchestra created amazing music to inspire hundreds of protesters marching in resistance to corporate financial powers in San Francisco. Carol Harvey photo
Members of social justice groups from all over the West Coast marched in San Francisco to confront corporate corruption and Wall Street bailouts. Carol Harvey photo
[http://www.thestreetspirit.org/high-spirited-flashmob-invades-s-f-financial-district-shuts-down-bank/]
West Coast social justice groups protested Big Finance’s theft of billions of tax dollars, home foreclosures, attacks on unions, and record rates of criminalization of poor and homeless people. After marching on the union-busting Hyatt Hotel and corporate financier Charles Schwab, masses of protesters successfully shut down Wells Fargo bank.
West Coast social justice groups from San Francisco, Portland and Los Angeles rallied with New York and Chicago allies at Union Square in a protest led by poor and working-class people on Friday, August 5, 2011. The demonstrators angrily protested Big Finance’s theft of billions of tax dollars, nationwide home foreclosures, attacks on workers’ unions, and record rates of criminalization and incarceration of poor and homeless people.
This protest, organized by the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), was part of a two-day Community Congress of civil rights and housing workshops held on August 5 and 6 at SEUI offices, 350 Rhode Island in San Francisco.
[Video title: ] The Great American TARP Tour featuring the exuberant “Bad Hotel” dancers. Video by Bill Carpenter. [Video missing from source]
The goal of the Community Congress was to broaden state, regional and national coalitions working for economic justice by laying the groundwork for a growing popular movement of immigrants, unions, homeless and housing groups made up of impoverished, marginalized and homeless people.
WRAP Director Paul Boden said that this movement will address “the corporate gluttony and political corruption” “pitting us against each other to the point where we are all drowning in the sea of trickle-down economics.”
At Friday’s protest, Boden spoke to energetic crowds, including tourists, “We have destroyed 600,000 units of affordable housing and built 800,000 jail cells.” He pointed an accusing finger at corporate offices. “There’s your answer!”
From Union Square, hundreds of chanting marchers took part in what organizers labeled “The Great American TARP Tour,” demonstrating loudly outside the offices of the “biggest culprits.” The fired-up marchers proceeded from the union-squashing Hyatt Hotel, to the brokerage office of corporate financier Charles Schwab, then on to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Montgomery Street office, finally ending at “Well$ Fargo,” where masses of protesters successfully shut down the bank.
The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, is a federal government program which, after the sub-prime mortgage crisis, purchased assets and equity from the financial sector to bail out banks. According to polls, repeated bailouts to the biggest players on Wall Street have rendered American taxpayers ever poorer and more enraged.
Boden said, “While Washington was engaged in a manufactured crisis over the debt ceiling, some 40 million people are living in a real crisis, facing a choice between buying groceries or paying the rent.”
“The spirit is here, and it’s angry!” said marcher Sara Shortt, executive director of the Housing Rights Committee, a San Francisco-based renters’ group. “People are angry at the banks. They are taking everything and leaving people homeless.”
At the first stop, Mike Casey of UNITE HERE Local 2 indicted the Hyatt Corporation as the same corporate interests “driving this country into the ditch.” He charged the Hyatt Hotel with forcing non-union immigrant workers to clean “as many as 30 rooms a day.”
Casey reported that, a year ago, after forcing these workers to train their replacements, Hyatt’s Boston branch fired 100 workers en masse. Replacements came in at minimum wage without health care.
At the next stop, Hyatt Plaza, The Brass Liberation Orchestra (BLO) rocked a spirited flashmob performance of “This Is A Bad Hotel,” a parody of Lady Gaga’s song, “Bad Romance.”
Next stop, Charles Schwab.
Bob Offer-Westort, a civil rights organizer with the San Francisco-based Coalition on Homelessness, cited San Francisco’s new sit/lie law which bans sitting or lying on sidewalks, making it a crime “to sit down for a moment’s rest.” Loud, sustained, “boos” echoed off skyscrapers.
“The campaign to pass that law spent 412,000 dollars to ram (it) down poor San Franciscans’ throats,” he said, reporting that Charles Schwab himself invested $30,000, and his co-CEO $25,000 dollars, constituting an eighth of the campaign.
He added that the financial sector as a whole paid 72 percent of the $400,000 to get the sit/lie law passed.
“What they think they’ve learned from that is that money can buy our city. Can Money buy our city?” he asked.
“No!” shouted the crowd.
In Portland, sit/lie laws were twice passed. Homeless activists fought it and won, Offer-Westort observed.
At the next stop on the TARP Tour, Dianne Feinstein’s office, Chicago activist, Willie J.R Fleming, joined with Boden in pointing out that “politicians have made some mistakes,” divesting from the nation’s commitment to public housing at the same moment when millions of Americans are undergoing foreclosure.
“These banks and senators like ‘What’s Her Name’ behind us, Feinstein, forgot about the people and bailed out the banks,” Fleming told the marchers.
Fleming reported that Chicagoans recognized that all those bank-owned foreclosed properties, paid for by taxpayers’ money, belonged to the people.
They decided, therefore, to take back, “what was rightfully ours – the houses and the land,” he said. “We want the world to know: If you won’t house the homeless, and you can’t pay your rent, we’ll create a public housing system on our own for the people.
The Brass Liberation Orchestra plays rebellious rhapsodies. Video by Carol Harvey.
His message to all politicians, especially Feinstein, is that the land belongs to the people who worked it, “and we the people are taking what’s rightfully ours right now!”
Booming boisterous chants, Portland’s Sisters of the Road led protesters to the final destination, Wells Fargo’s Market Street entrance. There, SFPD officers stoically guarded the doors while protesters enjoyed New Orleans-style music as the Brass Liberation Orchestra backed the enthusiastic crowd in yet another spirited people’s flashmob. “We’re fired up! Can’t take it no more!” One woman held her sign two inches from an officer’s face as she gracefully undulated in her dance.
The protesters forced Wells Fargo to close its doors a half-hour early, shutting down its corporate profiteering for the day. There were no arrests. This nonviolent, yet action-packed protest renewed peoples’ spirits and commitment, and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
The Brass Liberation Orchestra created amazing music to inspire hundreds of protesters marching in resistance to corporate financial powers in San Francisco. Carol Harvey photo
Members of social justice groups from all over the West Coast marched in San Francisco to confront corporate corruption and Wall Street bailouts. Carol Harvey photo
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
2011-08-10 "Former councilman living in homeless shelter" by Kevin Courtney from "Napa Valley Register"
[http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/former-councilman-living-in-homeless-shelter/article_e2a47faa-c30d-11e0-a216-001cc4c03286.html]
Long the scourge of Napa’s political establishment, Harry Martin — a former three-term City Council member and publisher of the Napa Sentinel — has fallen on hard times.
For the past two and a half weeks, Martin, 72, and his wife Mary, 77, have been living in the south Napa homeless shelter.
Harry Martin said that he and his wife turned to the shelter after being evicted from their north Napa apartment. Fellow shelter residents were astonished to have a local celebrity in their midst.
“They’re shocked, absolutely shocked,” he said. “They’re wondering, ‘What the hell are you doing in a homeless shelter?’”
The Martins said they could have moved in with friends, but they didn’t want to be a burden. “And besides, I wanted to see how the shelter turned out,” Harry Martin said.
Two decades ago, Martin said Sentinel stories about the plight of the homeless spurred Napa to create a shelter network. “We always crusaded for the little guy,” he said.
Later, as a council member, Martin approved construction of the shelter behind South Napa Marketplace where he now resides.
“It’s very funny to go into the shelter and there is his name on a plaque,” Mary Martin said. As shelter residents, they daily walk by a wall mounting that honors Martin and the rest of the council.
The shelter experience isn’t as awful as you might imagine, Harry Martin said. “A lot of people have been in prison, but you’d never know it unless they tell you. We’ve been very compatible. Everybody gets along.”
“There’s a civility there — a humor and civility,” he said.
While Harry minimizes the shelter experience, Mary said living with strangers is “very hard for me. I’m very much a loner and now I’m sharing a room with four other women. They’re nice, but it’s hard for me.”
In keeping with shelter policy, the Martins are bunked in separate men’s and women’s areas and assigned daily chores to earn their keep. A week ago, Harry Martin said he worked in the kitchen preparing meals. Last week it was the computer room, while his wife had to get up at 5:30 a.m. and fold laundry.
“You adjust to life,” he said.
“I get very depressed,” Mary Martin interjected. “I had a comfort dog, which I had to give to my granddaughter.”
Killing time during the day is hard, she said. “We have to be out at 8:30 in the morning. We walk up to the library — easily a mile. I have very bad arthritis. It’s crippling my knees,” she said.
On the trek up Soscol to downtown, which actually measures two miles, Mary Martin said she both walks and rides in a wheelchair pushed by her husband.
“As a handicapped person going about in a wheelchair, Napa has to be one of the most handicapped unfriendly cities in the whole world,” she said. As of last Friday, they had obtained bus tokens, enabling them to ride to downtown.
The Martins gave up their car last year. Because his driving ability had been impaired by strokes, he couldn’t justify the monthly payments, Harry Martin said.
Their day destinations usually include the Napa City-County Library where Harry Martin checks his email, connects with fans of the Sentinel and makes plans for resuming publication.
Martin, who is diabetic, blames his current homelessness on a cascade of medical problems that forced him to suspend publication in December. “I was hospitalized eight times last year,” he said. His ailments included three strokes, two eye surgeries and a toe amputation, he said.
For 25 years, Martin published the weekly Sentinel, an amalgam of human interest stories, banner headlines touting exposes of local government and community service announcements.
Even while serving on the council — he was defeated in 2006 while going for a fourth term — Martin often wrote articles, minus a byline, that ripped the city for its services and fiscal policies.
Martin has published only once in 2011. The May 27 paper carried the headline: “Sentinel survives hospitalizations, fire.” The fire was his daughter’s home burning to the ground, he said.
With his health improving, Martin said he hopes to put out another issue this week. “We could do it from the shelter if we have to,” he said. In recent times, Martin has put together the paper on his laptop computer, then published it at the Napa Valley Register.
When he prints his next Sentinel, Martin said he would write about conditions at the shelter as told by residents. “We won’t publish their names,” he said. “There’s a lot of bias.”
Jere Moorman announced Monday that he and some other Martin fans were trying to put together a Harry Martin appreciation luncheon and help him get out of the shelter.
“He’s done some good service,” Moorman said. “It’s a fairly unique experience for someone I know to become homeless. It touches me.”
Harry Martin said he is not without financial resources. He gets a $406 monthly city pension and $550 from Social Security, while his wife gets $350 from Social Security, he said. As a City Council retiree, Martin said he also received a medical benefit that supplements Medicare.
Hoping to improve his chances of renting again, Martin said he was trying to rehabilitate his credit rating. He’s retained two companies that are investigating “what we’re supposed to owe,” he said.
One company found that his credit rating had been damaged by a $7,000 debt for a timeshare that he had never owned, Martin said. Sorting out last year’s medical bills is also boosting his credit rating, he said.
“I just wish to get settled down and get the book finished and get the paper out once a month, maybe twice,” Martin said.
His book is intended to be a two-part novel about the end of World War II and the second American Civil War, he said. “We’ve had so many publishers asking to have us write this book. Now I have the time,” he said.
In Harry Martin’s view, his stint in the shelter is but a temporary blip. Perhaps friends will be able to help him get his own place. In time, maybe he and Mary can team up with their daughter, Amber, and share a place with her, he said.
Nothing is permanent, Martin said. “I’ve been down financially. I’ve been up financially. I just don’t let that stuff bother me.”
[http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/former-councilman-living-in-homeless-shelter/article_e2a47faa-c30d-11e0-a216-001cc4c03286.html]
Long the scourge of Napa’s political establishment, Harry Martin — a former three-term City Council member and publisher of the Napa Sentinel — has fallen on hard times.
For the past two and a half weeks, Martin, 72, and his wife Mary, 77, have been living in the south Napa homeless shelter.
Harry Martin said that he and his wife turned to the shelter after being evicted from their north Napa apartment. Fellow shelter residents were astonished to have a local celebrity in their midst.
“They’re shocked, absolutely shocked,” he said. “They’re wondering, ‘What the hell are you doing in a homeless shelter?’”
The Martins said they could have moved in with friends, but they didn’t want to be a burden. “And besides, I wanted to see how the shelter turned out,” Harry Martin said.
Two decades ago, Martin said Sentinel stories about the plight of the homeless spurred Napa to create a shelter network. “We always crusaded for the little guy,” he said.
Later, as a council member, Martin approved construction of the shelter behind South Napa Marketplace where he now resides.
“It’s very funny to go into the shelter and there is his name on a plaque,” Mary Martin said. As shelter residents, they daily walk by a wall mounting that honors Martin and the rest of the council.
The shelter experience isn’t as awful as you might imagine, Harry Martin said. “A lot of people have been in prison, but you’d never know it unless they tell you. We’ve been very compatible. Everybody gets along.”
“There’s a civility there — a humor and civility,” he said.
While Harry minimizes the shelter experience, Mary said living with strangers is “very hard for me. I’m very much a loner and now I’m sharing a room with four other women. They’re nice, but it’s hard for me.”
In keeping with shelter policy, the Martins are bunked in separate men’s and women’s areas and assigned daily chores to earn their keep. A week ago, Harry Martin said he worked in the kitchen preparing meals. Last week it was the computer room, while his wife had to get up at 5:30 a.m. and fold laundry.
“You adjust to life,” he said.
“I get very depressed,” Mary Martin interjected. “I had a comfort dog, which I had to give to my granddaughter.”
Killing time during the day is hard, she said. “We have to be out at 8:30 in the morning. We walk up to the library — easily a mile. I have very bad arthritis. It’s crippling my knees,” she said.
On the trek up Soscol to downtown, which actually measures two miles, Mary Martin said she both walks and rides in a wheelchair pushed by her husband.
“As a handicapped person going about in a wheelchair, Napa has to be one of the most handicapped unfriendly cities in the whole world,” she said. As of last Friday, they had obtained bus tokens, enabling them to ride to downtown.
The Martins gave up their car last year. Because his driving ability had been impaired by strokes, he couldn’t justify the monthly payments, Harry Martin said.
Their day destinations usually include the Napa City-County Library where Harry Martin checks his email, connects with fans of the Sentinel and makes plans for resuming publication.
Martin, who is diabetic, blames his current homelessness on a cascade of medical problems that forced him to suspend publication in December. “I was hospitalized eight times last year,” he said. His ailments included three strokes, two eye surgeries and a toe amputation, he said.
For 25 years, Martin published the weekly Sentinel, an amalgam of human interest stories, banner headlines touting exposes of local government and community service announcements.
Even while serving on the council — he was defeated in 2006 while going for a fourth term — Martin often wrote articles, minus a byline, that ripped the city for its services and fiscal policies.
Martin has published only once in 2011. The May 27 paper carried the headline: “Sentinel survives hospitalizations, fire.” The fire was his daughter’s home burning to the ground, he said.
With his health improving, Martin said he hopes to put out another issue this week. “We could do it from the shelter if we have to,” he said. In recent times, Martin has put together the paper on his laptop computer, then published it at the Napa Valley Register.
When he prints his next Sentinel, Martin said he would write about conditions at the shelter as told by residents. “We won’t publish their names,” he said. “There’s a lot of bias.”
Jere Moorman announced Monday that he and some other Martin fans were trying to put together a Harry Martin appreciation luncheon and help him get out of the shelter.
“He’s done some good service,” Moorman said. “It’s a fairly unique experience for someone I know to become homeless. It touches me.”
Harry Martin said he is not without financial resources. He gets a $406 monthly city pension and $550 from Social Security, while his wife gets $350 from Social Security, he said. As a City Council retiree, Martin said he also received a medical benefit that supplements Medicare.
Hoping to improve his chances of renting again, Martin said he was trying to rehabilitate his credit rating. He’s retained two companies that are investigating “what we’re supposed to owe,” he said.
One company found that his credit rating had been damaged by a $7,000 debt for a timeshare that he had never owned, Martin said. Sorting out last year’s medical bills is also boosting his credit rating, he said.
“I just wish to get settled down and get the book finished and get the paper out once a month, maybe twice,” Martin said.
His book is intended to be a two-part novel about the end of World War II and the second American Civil War, he said. “We’ve had so many publishers asking to have us write this book. Now I have the time,” he said.
In Harry Martin’s view, his stint in the shelter is but a temporary blip. Perhaps friends will be able to help him get his own place. In time, maybe he and Mary can team up with their daughter, Amber, and share a place with her, he said.
Nothing is permanent, Martin said. “I’ve been down financially. I’ve been up financially. I just don’t let that stuff bother me.”
Sunday, August 7, 2011
2011-08-07 "Jan Perry Proposes Waiver of Green Space Requirement for South Central Farm Land"
[http://la.indymedia.org/news/2011/08/247283_comment.php]
What was probably intended as a quiet move by Jan Perry gets media attention and puts two organizations with an adversarial history on the same side. Four companies are named in regards to Ralph Horowitz's sale of the land (now in escrow). People are encouraged to print out copies of a petition against this plan and gather signatures.
In an apparent attempt to make the 14-acre space at 41st and Alameda more attractive to developers, city councilmember and mayoral candidate Jan Perry is trying to waive the requirement that 2.6 acres be devoted to green space. Instead, seller Ralph Horowitz would pay about three million dollars to existing park services nearby.
On Thursday August 4, the Harbor Commission in San Pedro held a public hearing to consider Perry's proposal. (The disputed land at 41st and Alameda was placed under the jurisdiction of the Harbor Department after eminent domain was declared years ago.)
There was a large presence outside the building prior to the meeting. At one point (9:20 am) this author counted 22 South Central Farm supporters holding banners and signs. They were soon joined by Aztec dancers.
The media presence was significant: there was a Los Angeles Times reporter, a camera crew from KTLA along with reporter Elizabeth Espinosa, Channel 62, Azteca TV, and at least two radio stations.
“The city is accepting a blank check in exchange for a waiver of city rights to property that cannot be replaced,” said one Farm supporter during the hearing. “I don't think that it's spelled out exactly what this man [developer Ralph Horowitz] is expecting in exchange for the carrot that he's dangling to pay for parks programs. It's part of his pattern, it's been part of his litigation. The 2.6 acres was, as National Resources Defense Council attorney Joel Reynolds said, hard-won and negotiated on behalf of the community. . . .”
Bruce Campbell expressed concerns about possible conflicts of interest among the commissioners, one of whom is linked with Forever 21, which had proposed to build a large warehouses and distribution center on the site a few years ago. (See: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2008/12/222947.php.) He also pointed out the contradiction of Perry's stated concern about pollution and health as a rationale for eliminating the green space requirement—yet she seemed fine with Forever 21's warehouses, which would have “added 2,581 additional diesel truck trip a day to this already heavily-impacted area.”
“Lastly I'm concerned that Councilwoman Perry would have too much leeway with a slush fund which would be set up under this proposal,” he added.
Environmental scientist Woodsin Joseph-Sandberg brought up environmental issues, including the Compton watershed. “The water percolates down through the green space,” he explained. “It will not flow through pavement or warehouses, it will just flow off into ocean. And Los Angeles has serious water problems. We need to protect the watershed that we have, and we need to allow that water into the ground. That is an important factor in allowing the green space to keep existing where it is. To create the farm again will create more water retention in the area. It also helps with flood control to have a place where water can go into the ground instead of just flowing across the surface of the pavement. We have way too much pavement in this city. You need to get more green spaces.
“We're at a time of environmental collapse in many of our ecosystems, so we need to have more green space and not less in this city if we want to survive in the long-term.
“Another environmental factor is the wildlife utilization of this area. There were 500 trees, there were species using these trees, including birds, reptiles, insects. And these species are important not only for the existence of ecosystems but also for our quality of life, and we need to take that [as] a factor. There are Fish and Game codes (3503.5) that need to be taken into account. There have been no mitigations for these endangered species. So I'd ask the council to take theses factors into account as well as the air pollution.”
Claudia Cano, a local resident and mother, referred to the documentary The Garden and remarked, “I sympathize with what their struggle has been thus far. We oppose the proposal. Nothing good comes of it. Although Jan Perry wrote a very nice letter showing all these benefits it would bring to the community, we've clearly deciphered the letter and [concluded] that there are hidden agendas.
“We need to see the bigger picture here. Why did it take so long? Eight years is a long time to build a soccer field. It was part of the original settlement. She's taking back things that she promised, which has pretty much always been her case. She says something and then figures out a way to unsay what she says.
“Again, as a mother, I am here to say I oppose this proposal. We need more green space, a soccer field, and you've clearly seen that. The South Central Farmers [and] the Concerned Citizens of South Central L.A. coming together is showing you that we can figure out how to make things better for our youth and for our communities.”
Mauricio of the South Central Neighborhood Council, who both lives and works in the area, said that Jan Perry has been ignoring “years of research” regarding the environment. He also expressed concern for the children and the possibility sweatshops at any developments, and he conveyed support by his organization for the Farmers.
Another resident of the area, Bernette, also opposed Jan Perry's proposal. She said that for 15 years the Farm already fulfilled the need for recreational park use which Perry is now proposing. “That was our safe space, that was our community space.“ She favors a return of the Farm as well as recreation space.
Refugio Ceballos, an elder member of the South Central Farm Cooperative whose involvement with the farm goes back about 10 years, underscored the connection of farming and the well-being of children. “I've been working with children, and I've spoke to many of the teachers in the schools nearby, and they've all told me the same thing: when the South Central Farm was there, the children seemed to be calmer, easier to deal with. They seemed more motivated because they were rested, they had somewhere to use up their energy. We would put them there and have them work in the soil with their parents, eat with family. They had a place to go to. Right now what they have is little houses all bundled up like apartments, they can't even grow so much as a rose, even in a pot, without some landlords asking the families to leave. This is not sane, it's not humanitarian—we all need a piece of green somewhere. And not just a park, a place where we can get our hands in the dirt and be with our parents when we wish.
“I speak for the children. . . .”
One surprising development to many was an alignment of Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles and the Farmers. Historically the two groups have been at odds (and some traces of hostility was evidenced by each side). “I'm here on the behalf of 5,000 families--not people but families—that reside in the immediate area surrounding the Lancer site,” said Mark Williams of Concerned Citizens. “We need safer places than our streets for our kids to play. We need the land—money is not the most precious resource that we need to help our children, it's the land. The money is readily available to develop the soccer field that would be of quality of the initial settlement [for which] Mr. Horowitz was going to donate land.
“This mean-spirited, irresponsible vilification of Mr. Horowitz is the reason why there's no farm and there's no soccer field there now. He's been responsive to the needs of this community as he's understood them, as they've been presented by the elected representatives.
“Please do not approve this. Money is readily available, land is not.
“[Inaudible sentence.] We support farms. We're willing to work again to secure the resources to purchase the entire property from Mr. Horowitz, but that irresponsible rhetoric... Mr. Horowitz said that he would not sell the property to the folks who represent the so-called farmers at any price because of this irresponsible, mean-spirited rhetoric. He's no villain.
“Please, for the needs of the local community, we need the land for a soccer field, and we can provide the resources to develop it, operate it, and maintain it. . . .”
“We've been vilified in this process also,” said Noreen McClendon, also of Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles and daughter of the late Juanita Tate. “The real villain in this whole process is Jan Perry. Jan Perry has pitted the Concerned Citizens against the Farmers from the very beginning behind our backs. We are in favor of farm space there, we are in favor of the soccer field. [Inaudible sentence.] The issue is that Jan has a history of duplicity and serving her financial interests over the interests of the constituents on the south end of her district, and this is no different.
“Please know that Concerned Citizens—and since the Farmers are here now, and I can say this publicly, and we can't be vilified later--we will join any lawsuit to prevent this from happening. This is absolutely wrong. . . . “
The two people who spoke in support of the revised settlement included Marie Rumsey, Senior Deputy at City of Los Angeles, who represented Jan Perry. “This land is zoned for industrial purposes,” she began. “It is not a park right now, it's not a community garden right now, it's vacant land that was up for sale and currently in escrow. It's not a hidden agenda, and the fact that we're all here talking about it today proves that.
“I'm here to ask you to approve the [revised settlement]. This action will put money into the neighborhood and help improve parks at [inaudible term] at Roberts Park and Ross Snyder Park.”
The commission asked her who the land is in escrow with. “It's in escrow with four Korean manufacturing garment companies,” she replied. “I do have their names, and I can grab them.” She eventually came back with a list of company names: Impact, Active, Miss Me, and Poetry.
The next speaker was a female resident of the area surrounding Alameda/41st (identified by last name only: Jones). “I don't know all those people that [were] up here, but I can tell you from experience [about] when that farm was there,” she said. “Before that place was closed, people were living in that place almost on the grounds. It was almost becoming a homeless encampment. All sorts of rodents, such as rats [were] coming out of that place, along with dogs of all sorts, and something that looked like a cat! It also came out of that place.”
She added that “the settlement of that property would benefit us” because of the large senior population in the area (“approximately 189”) and the lack of bus benches. Also, she stated that the money from the land sale, would allow improvements to park facilities. “We need new swings for our kids, we need new tables, we need games of all sorts.”
The statements were followed by an open discussion among the commissioners. Robin Kramer and David Arian expressed sympathy for those against Perry's proposal and strong reservations about supporting it themselves. However, there were also legal concerns about them getting involved at all, partly because the issue concerned another community outside their jurisdiction. (There was a perception among Farm supporters that the commission had gotten caught up in something bigger than they were used to.) Ultimately, it was decided to table the issue, thus returning it to L.A. City Council.
This decision was considered a victory of sorts for the Farm because at least the settlement was not approved.
A petition against this proposal is being circulated. People are encouraged to print out the petition featured here http://www.southcentralfarmers.com/ and collect signatures.
[http://la.indymedia.org/news/2011/08/247283_comment.php]
What was probably intended as a quiet move by Jan Perry gets media attention and puts two organizations with an adversarial history on the same side. Four companies are named in regards to Ralph Horowitz's sale of the land (now in escrow). People are encouraged to print out copies of a petition against this plan and gather signatures.
In an apparent attempt to make the 14-acre space at 41st and Alameda more attractive to developers, city councilmember and mayoral candidate Jan Perry is trying to waive the requirement that 2.6 acres be devoted to green space. Instead, seller Ralph Horowitz would pay about three million dollars to existing park services nearby.
On Thursday August 4, the Harbor Commission in San Pedro held a public hearing to consider Perry's proposal. (The disputed land at 41st and Alameda was placed under the jurisdiction of the Harbor Department after eminent domain was declared years ago.)
There was a large presence outside the building prior to the meeting. At one point (9:20 am) this author counted 22 South Central Farm supporters holding banners and signs. They were soon joined by Aztec dancers.
The media presence was significant: there was a Los Angeles Times reporter, a camera crew from KTLA along with reporter Elizabeth Espinosa, Channel 62, Azteca TV, and at least two radio stations.
“The city is accepting a blank check in exchange for a waiver of city rights to property that cannot be replaced,” said one Farm supporter during the hearing. “I don't think that it's spelled out exactly what this man [developer Ralph Horowitz] is expecting in exchange for the carrot that he's dangling to pay for parks programs. It's part of his pattern, it's been part of his litigation. The 2.6 acres was, as National Resources Defense Council attorney Joel Reynolds said, hard-won and negotiated on behalf of the community. . . .”
Bruce Campbell expressed concerns about possible conflicts of interest among the commissioners, one of whom is linked with Forever 21, which had proposed to build a large warehouses and distribution center on the site a few years ago. (See: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2008/12/222947.php.) He also pointed out the contradiction of Perry's stated concern about pollution and health as a rationale for eliminating the green space requirement—yet she seemed fine with Forever 21's warehouses, which would have “added 2,581 additional diesel truck trip a day to this already heavily-impacted area.”
“Lastly I'm concerned that Councilwoman Perry would have too much leeway with a slush fund which would be set up under this proposal,” he added.
Environmental scientist Woodsin Joseph-Sandberg brought up environmental issues, including the Compton watershed. “The water percolates down through the green space,” he explained. “It will not flow through pavement or warehouses, it will just flow off into ocean. And Los Angeles has serious water problems. We need to protect the watershed that we have, and we need to allow that water into the ground. That is an important factor in allowing the green space to keep existing where it is. To create the farm again will create more water retention in the area. It also helps with flood control to have a place where water can go into the ground instead of just flowing across the surface of the pavement. We have way too much pavement in this city. You need to get more green spaces.
“We're at a time of environmental collapse in many of our ecosystems, so we need to have more green space and not less in this city if we want to survive in the long-term.
“Another environmental factor is the wildlife utilization of this area. There were 500 trees, there were species using these trees, including birds, reptiles, insects. And these species are important not only for the existence of ecosystems but also for our quality of life, and we need to take that [as] a factor. There are Fish and Game codes (3503.5) that need to be taken into account. There have been no mitigations for these endangered species. So I'd ask the council to take theses factors into account as well as the air pollution.”
Claudia Cano, a local resident and mother, referred to the documentary The Garden and remarked, “I sympathize with what their struggle has been thus far. We oppose the proposal. Nothing good comes of it. Although Jan Perry wrote a very nice letter showing all these benefits it would bring to the community, we've clearly deciphered the letter and [concluded] that there are hidden agendas.
“We need to see the bigger picture here. Why did it take so long? Eight years is a long time to build a soccer field. It was part of the original settlement. She's taking back things that she promised, which has pretty much always been her case. She says something and then figures out a way to unsay what she says.
“Again, as a mother, I am here to say I oppose this proposal. We need more green space, a soccer field, and you've clearly seen that. The South Central Farmers [and] the Concerned Citizens of South Central L.A. coming together is showing you that we can figure out how to make things better for our youth and for our communities.”
Mauricio of the South Central Neighborhood Council, who both lives and works in the area, said that Jan Perry has been ignoring “years of research” regarding the environment. He also expressed concern for the children and the possibility sweatshops at any developments, and he conveyed support by his organization for the Farmers.
Another resident of the area, Bernette, also opposed Jan Perry's proposal. She said that for 15 years the Farm already fulfilled the need for recreational park use which Perry is now proposing. “That was our safe space, that was our community space.“ She favors a return of the Farm as well as recreation space.
Refugio Ceballos, an elder member of the South Central Farm Cooperative whose involvement with the farm goes back about 10 years, underscored the connection of farming and the well-being of children. “I've been working with children, and I've spoke to many of the teachers in the schools nearby, and they've all told me the same thing: when the South Central Farm was there, the children seemed to be calmer, easier to deal with. They seemed more motivated because they were rested, they had somewhere to use up their energy. We would put them there and have them work in the soil with their parents, eat with family. They had a place to go to. Right now what they have is little houses all bundled up like apartments, they can't even grow so much as a rose, even in a pot, without some landlords asking the families to leave. This is not sane, it's not humanitarian—we all need a piece of green somewhere. And not just a park, a place where we can get our hands in the dirt and be with our parents when we wish.
“I speak for the children. . . .”
One surprising development to many was an alignment of Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles and the Farmers. Historically the two groups have been at odds (and some traces of hostility was evidenced by each side). “I'm here on the behalf of 5,000 families--not people but families—that reside in the immediate area surrounding the Lancer site,” said Mark Williams of Concerned Citizens. “We need safer places than our streets for our kids to play. We need the land—money is not the most precious resource that we need to help our children, it's the land. The money is readily available to develop the soccer field that would be of quality of the initial settlement [for which] Mr. Horowitz was going to donate land.
“This mean-spirited, irresponsible vilification of Mr. Horowitz is the reason why there's no farm and there's no soccer field there now. He's been responsive to the needs of this community as he's understood them, as they've been presented by the elected representatives.
“Please do not approve this. Money is readily available, land is not.
“[Inaudible sentence.] We support farms. We're willing to work again to secure the resources to purchase the entire property from Mr. Horowitz, but that irresponsible rhetoric... Mr. Horowitz said that he would not sell the property to the folks who represent the so-called farmers at any price because of this irresponsible, mean-spirited rhetoric. He's no villain.
“Please, for the needs of the local community, we need the land for a soccer field, and we can provide the resources to develop it, operate it, and maintain it. . . .”
“We've been vilified in this process also,” said Noreen McClendon, also of Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles and daughter of the late Juanita Tate. “The real villain in this whole process is Jan Perry. Jan Perry has pitted the Concerned Citizens against the Farmers from the very beginning behind our backs. We are in favor of farm space there, we are in favor of the soccer field. [Inaudible sentence.] The issue is that Jan has a history of duplicity and serving her financial interests over the interests of the constituents on the south end of her district, and this is no different.
“Please know that Concerned Citizens—and since the Farmers are here now, and I can say this publicly, and we can't be vilified later--we will join any lawsuit to prevent this from happening. This is absolutely wrong. . . . “
The two people who spoke in support of the revised settlement included Marie Rumsey, Senior Deputy at City of Los Angeles, who represented Jan Perry. “This land is zoned for industrial purposes,” she began. “It is not a park right now, it's not a community garden right now, it's vacant land that was up for sale and currently in escrow. It's not a hidden agenda, and the fact that we're all here talking about it today proves that.
“I'm here to ask you to approve the [revised settlement]. This action will put money into the neighborhood and help improve parks at [inaudible term] at Roberts Park and Ross Snyder Park.”
The commission asked her who the land is in escrow with. “It's in escrow with four Korean manufacturing garment companies,” she replied. “I do have their names, and I can grab them.” She eventually came back with a list of company names: Impact, Active, Miss Me, and Poetry.
The next speaker was a female resident of the area surrounding Alameda/41st (identified by last name only: Jones). “I don't know all those people that [were] up here, but I can tell you from experience [about] when that farm was there,” she said. “Before that place was closed, people were living in that place almost on the grounds. It was almost becoming a homeless encampment. All sorts of rodents, such as rats [were] coming out of that place, along with dogs of all sorts, and something that looked like a cat! It also came out of that place.”
She added that “the settlement of that property would benefit us” because of the large senior population in the area (“approximately 189”) and the lack of bus benches. Also, she stated that the money from the land sale, would allow improvements to park facilities. “We need new swings for our kids, we need new tables, we need games of all sorts.”
The statements were followed by an open discussion among the commissioners. Robin Kramer and David Arian expressed sympathy for those against Perry's proposal and strong reservations about supporting it themselves. However, there were also legal concerns about them getting involved at all, partly because the issue concerned another community outside their jurisdiction. (There was a perception among Farm supporters that the commission had gotten caught up in something bigger than they were used to.) Ultimately, it was decided to table the issue, thus returning it to L.A. City Council.
This decision was considered a victory of sorts for the Farm because at least the settlement was not approved.
A petition against this proposal is being circulated. People are encouraged to print out the petition featured here http://www.southcentralfarmers.com/ and collect signatures.
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