2011-09-20 "Santa Cruz Sleeping Ban Struggle: Judge Accepts Considering "Writ of Habeus Corpus" by Becky Johnson, Linda Lemaster, Robert Norse
[http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/20/18690858.php]
Under pressure from pro bono attorney Jonathan Gettleman in an extensive Writ of Habeas Corpus brief, Superior Court Judge John Galllagher postponed the scheduled misdemeanor trial of long-time homeless activist Linda Lemaster for at least a month. Before the trial, Gallagher will hear the Habeas Corpus motion, which claims that Lemaster cannot even be tried for "lodging" because the case is really one of political dissent being suppressed by authorities.
Lemaster PC 647 (e) Case Postponed until October 28th
---
Santa Cruz, Ca. -- Appearing in court on Wednesday, September14th for a pre-trial readiness hearing, Linda Lemaster still faces misdemeanor "illegal lodging" for allegedly falling asleep at PeaceCamp2010 on a single night in August 2010.
Her pro bono attorney, Jonathon Gettleman, filed a comprehensive writ of habeas corpus, claiming that 647(e) is vague and overbroad, and that Lemaster's freedom of speech was truncated when County Sheriff Deputies used the antique "lodging" law to break up an otherwise legal protest.
Deputy District Attorney Sara Dabkowski again offered to reduce Lemaster's charges to an infraction with zero public service as a consequence. Having previewed the Writ a week earlier, Lemaster declined again.
In court, Judge John Gallagher, Dept 2, ordered DA Dabkowski to answer Gettleman's "well-written, voluminous" brief by October 14th, with Gettleman's response to hers due by October 21st. A hearing on the 'writ' is set for October 28th. If a trial is to result, the date will be set then. The hearing is to take a closer look at the Lodging law as applied during PeaceCamp2010.
In related news, Ed Frey and Gary Johnson, convicted of PC 647(e) in May 2011, have received the court-approved complete transcript of their trial in order to file their appeals. Frey and Johnson still face the remainder of their 6 month sentences should their appeals fail.
# # # #
Linda Lemaster herself on Linda's Hearth at [http://www.hearthbylinda.blogspot.com/] notes: I was very impressed by the "Writ of habeas Corpus", eighty pages my attorney brought together to bring the First Amendment back into these trials and hearings. As a long time advocate for homeless families and individuals, I felt a kind of validation when I saw the Jones and Eichorn cases, and the ghost of Mitch Snyner in gettleman's citing the Community for Creative Nonviolence's supreme court's decision, in this Writ.
I hope to be able to focus for a bit now, health permitting, on a fundraising dinner. To raise money for legal costs, but this event also hopes to function as a thank-you for both attorneys involved so far with this lodging law stuff.
I'm forming a "dinner committee" (and it 'may' not be a consensual one?). If any of you would like to be contacted or included in planning and carrying out such an event, e me back with your phone number or preferred contact info (I have neither a meeting directory nor a computer in my home at present).
If you have not read "my" article in Street Spirit's September issue, here's the URL to their dynamic website: thestreetspirit.org. Putting "my" in quote marks because it was largely and sensitively edited (two stories into one!) by Street Spirit's editor Terry Messman, who deserves equal credit on the writing in this instance.
---
More recent stories about PeaceCamp 2010, the struggle against the City's anti-homeless Sleeping Ban, and those being prosecuted for Sleepcrime can be found at "D.A. Bob Lee Tries Linda Lemaster for Sleep Ban Protest" at [http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/13/18690213.php] Follow the links there.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
2011-09-20 "Billionaire may buy Berkeley's occupied public housing units"
by Lynda Carson [http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/20/18690864.php]
Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com
---
Berkeley - In another step to privatize Berkeley's 75 occupied public housing town-homes, billionaire Stephen M. Ross, CEO and founder of The Related Companies, and 95% owner of the Miami Dolphins, is in talks with the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) to buy Berkeley's occupied public housing units, through one of his companies.
The BHA has entered into an exclusive negotiating rights agreement with billionaire Ross and his company known as The Related Companies of California, LLC, after the BHA's joint finance and feasibility subcommittee recommended that his company should be chosen to buy Berkeley's 75 public housing units. As of September 8, currently 66 units of the 75 units of Berkeley's public housing are still occupied.
According to Forbes as of March 2011, 69-70 year old Stephen M. Ross is worth around $3.4 billion, and has made his fortune in real estate, is married with 4 children, and has lost around $1.6 billion in net worth during the past few years because of the crumbling real estate market. Ross resides in luxury at 956 5th Ave., in New York City.
As recent as September 8, Tia Ingram, Executive Director of the BHA, directed the members of the Berkeley Housing Authority Board to approve the recommendations to authorize the Executive Director to enter into an exclusive negotiating rights agreement (ENRA) with The Related Companies of California, LLC, for the transfer of Berkeley's 75 public housing units to the company owned by the billionaire, Stephen M. Ross.
BHA's Ingram, wants the ENRA to last a period of 90 days, with the possibility of a 30 day extension, to negotiate the terms of the Disposition and Development Agreement to transfer the 75 public housing units, and to designate the BHA's joint Finance/Feasibility Subcommittee as the lead to work with BHA staff during the negotiations.
If billionaire Ross and The Related Companies gets their hands on Berkeley's public housing units, the city of Berkeley may end up subsidizing the billionaire and his company out of the city's Housing Trust Fund in the effort to renovate and rehabilitate the public housing units, but the majority of funds needed to renovate the buildings will have to be raised by the Related company.
When asked if the BHA has another developer interested in buying Berkeley's public housing units if the negotiations breakdown, BHA's Project Manager, Kathleen Sims said, "The BHA is in negotiation with The Related Companies of California, and until those negotiations are over I cannot say more about the next step the BHA will pursue with it's public housing units if the negotiations fail. I think that finding someone to renovate and maintain the public housing units as HUD has ordered, is a good thing for Berkeley."
Berkeley has long been known as a bastion of liberal causes and the progressive movement, and it is obscene gesture to many in the community that Berkeley's public housing units may end up in the hands of a billionaire and his for-profit corporation, and that the billionaire and his company may be subsidized with funds from the city's Housing Trust Fund.
Former Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner, Eleanor Walden said, "The BHA has now fallen into lockstep with people like Dick Cheney and Haliburton, if this contract is not transparent or competitive. I am appalled at the record of the BHA during the past few years which has contributed to the erosion of public housing."
Though established during 1966, in recent years the BHA has spent numerous years listed as a Troubled agency. The BHA owns and manages 75 public housing units, administers around 1,939 subsidized housing Section 8 voucher contracts, and filed papers with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Dec. 29, 2009, to dispose of it's public housing units. The approval by HUD to dispose of and sell Berkeley's 75 public housing units occurred on Dec. 22, 2010.
As recent as May 2, 2011, the BHA released a Request For Proposals (RFP), in an effort to find one or more so-called nonprofit housing developers, or for-profit developers willing to buy Berkeley's mostly occupied 75 - three and four bedroom townhouse units, located throughout the City of Berkeley, on 15 parcels.
Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com
---
Berkeley - In another step to privatize Berkeley's 75 occupied public housing town-homes, billionaire Stephen M. Ross, CEO and founder of The Related Companies, and 95% owner of the Miami Dolphins, is in talks with the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) to buy Berkeley's occupied public housing units, through one of his companies.
The BHA has entered into an exclusive negotiating rights agreement with billionaire Ross and his company known as The Related Companies of California, LLC, after the BHA's joint finance and feasibility subcommittee recommended that his company should be chosen to buy Berkeley's 75 public housing units. As of September 8, currently 66 units of the 75 units of Berkeley's public housing are still occupied.
According to Forbes as of March 2011, 69-70 year old Stephen M. Ross is worth around $3.4 billion, and has made his fortune in real estate, is married with 4 children, and has lost around $1.6 billion in net worth during the past few years because of the crumbling real estate market. Ross resides in luxury at 956 5th Ave., in New York City.
As recent as September 8, Tia Ingram, Executive Director of the BHA, directed the members of the Berkeley Housing Authority Board to approve the recommendations to authorize the Executive Director to enter into an exclusive negotiating rights agreement (ENRA) with The Related Companies of California, LLC, for the transfer of Berkeley's 75 public housing units to the company owned by the billionaire, Stephen M. Ross.
BHA's Ingram, wants the ENRA to last a period of 90 days, with the possibility of a 30 day extension, to negotiate the terms of the Disposition and Development Agreement to transfer the 75 public housing units, and to designate the BHA's joint Finance/Feasibility Subcommittee as the lead to work with BHA staff during the negotiations.
If billionaire Ross and The Related Companies gets their hands on Berkeley's public housing units, the city of Berkeley may end up subsidizing the billionaire and his company out of the city's Housing Trust Fund in the effort to renovate and rehabilitate the public housing units, but the majority of funds needed to renovate the buildings will have to be raised by the Related company.
When asked if the BHA has another developer interested in buying Berkeley's public housing units if the negotiations breakdown, BHA's Project Manager, Kathleen Sims said, "The BHA is in negotiation with The Related Companies of California, and until those negotiations are over I cannot say more about the next step the BHA will pursue with it's public housing units if the negotiations fail. I think that finding someone to renovate and maintain the public housing units as HUD has ordered, is a good thing for Berkeley."
Berkeley has long been known as a bastion of liberal causes and the progressive movement, and it is obscene gesture to many in the community that Berkeley's public housing units may end up in the hands of a billionaire and his for-profit corporation, and that the billionaire and his company may be subsidized with funds from the city's Housing Trust Fund.
Former Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner, Eleanor Walden said, "The BHA has now fallen into lockstep with people like Dick Cheney and Haliburton, if this contract is not transparent or competitive. I am appalled at the record of the BHA during the past few years which has contributed to the erosion of public housing."
Though established during 1966, in recent years the BHA has spent numerous years listed as a Troubled agency. The BHA owns and manages 75 public housing units, administers around 1,939 subsidized housing Section 8 voucher contracts, and filed papers with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Dec. 29, 2009, to dispose of it's public housing units. The approval by HUD to dispose of and sell Berkeley's 75 public housing units occurred on Dec. 22, 2010.
As recent as May 2, 2011, the BHA released a Request For Proposals (RFP), in an effort to find one or more so-called nonprofit housing developers, or for-profit developers willing to buy Berkeley's mostly occupied 75 - three and four bedroom townhouse units, located throughout the City of Berkeley, on 15 parcels.
2011-09-20 "Billionaire may buy Berkeley's occupied public housing units" by Lynda Carson
[http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/20/18690864.php]
Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com
---
Berkeley - In another step to privatize Berkeley's 75 occupied public housing town-homes, billionaire Stephen M. Ross, CEO and founder of The Related Companies, and 95% owner of the Miami Dolphins, is in talks with the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) to buy Berkeley's occupied public housing units, through one of his companies.
The BHA has entered into an exclusive negotiating rights agreement with billionaire Ross and his company known as The Related Companies of California, LLC, after the BHA's joint finance and feasibility subcommittee recommended that his company should be chosen to buy Berkeley's 75 public housing units. As of September 8, currently 66 units of the 75 units of Berkeley's public housing are still occupied.
According to Forbes as of March 2011, 69-70 year old Stephen M. Ross is worth around $3.4 billion, and has made his fortune in real estate, is married with 4 children, and has lost around $1.6 billion in net worth during the past few years because of the crumbling real estate market. Ross resides in luxury at 956 5th Ave., in New York City.
As recent as September 8, Tia Ingram, Executive Director of the BHA, directed the members of the Berkeley Housing Authority Board to approve the recommendations to authorize the Executive Director to enter into an exclusive negotiating rights agreement (ENRA) with The Related Companies of California, LLC, for the transfer of Berkeley's 75 public housing units to the company owned by the billionaire, Stephen M. Ross.
BHA's Ingram, wants the ENRA to last a period of 90 days, with the possibility of a 30 day extension, to negotiate the terms of the Disposition and Development Agreement to transfer the 75 public housing units, and to designate the BHA's joint Finance/Feasibility Subcommittee as the lead to work with BHA staff during the negotiations.
If billionaire Ross and The Related Companies gets their hands on Berkeley's public housing units, the city of Berkeley may end up subsidizing the billionaire and his company out of the city's Housing Trust Fund in the effort to renovate and rehabilitate the public housing units, but the majority of funds needed to renovate the buildings will have to be raised by the Related company.
When asked if the BHA has another developer interested in buying Berkeley's public housing units if the negotiations breakdown, BHA's Project Manager, Kathleen Sims said, "The BHA is in negotiation with The Related Companies of California, and until those negotiations are over I cannot say more about the next step the BHA will pursue with it's public housing units if the negotiations fail. I think that finding someone to renovate and maintain the public housing units as HUD has ordered, is a good thing for Berkeley."
Berkeley has long been known as a bastion of liberal causes and the progressive movement, and it is obscene gesture to many in the community that Berkeley's public housing units may end up in the hands of a billionaire and his for-profit corporation, and that the billionaire and his company may be subsidized with funds from the city's Housing Trust Fund.
Former Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner, Eleanor Walden said, "The BHA has now fallen into lockstep with people like Dick Cheney and Haliburton, if this contract is not transparent or competitive. I am appalled at the record of the BHA during the past few years which has contributed to the erosion of public housing."
Though established during 1966, in recent years the BHA has spent numerous years listed as a Troubled agency. The BHA owns and manages 75 public housing units, administers around 1,939 subsidized housing Section 8 voucher contracts, and filed papers with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Dec. 29, 2009, to dispose of it's public housing units. The approval by HUD to dispose of and sell Berkeley's 75 public housing units occurred on Dec. 22, 2010.
As recent as May 2, 2011, the BHA released a Request For Proposals (RFP), in an effort to find one or more so-called nonprofit housing developers, or for-profit developers willing to buy Berkeley's mostly occupied 75 - three and four bedroom townhouse units, located throughout the City of Berkeley, on 15 parcels.
[http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/20/18690864.php]
Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com
---
Berkeley - In another step to privatize Berkeley's 75 occupied public housing town-homes, billionaire Stephen M. Ross, CEO and founder of The Related Companies, and 95% owner of the Miami Dolphins, is in talks with the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) to buy Berkeley's occupied public housing units, through one of his companies.
The BHA has entered into an exclusive negotiating rights agreement with billionaire Ross and his company known as The Related Companies of California, LLC, after the BHA's joint finance and feasibility subcommittee recommended that his company should be chosen to buy Berkeley's 75 public housing units. As of September 8, currently 66 units of the 75 units of Berkeley's public housing are still occupied.
According to Forbes as of March 2011, 69-70 year old Stephen M. Ross is worth around $3.4 billion, and has made his fortune in real estate, is married with 4 children, and has lost around $1.6 billion in net worth during the past few years because of the crumbling real estate market. Ross resides in luxury at 956 5th Ave., in New York City.
As recent as September 8, Tia Ingram, Executive Director of the BHA, directed the members of the Berkeley Housing Authority Board to approve the recommendations to authorize the Executive Director to enter into an exclusive negotiating rights agreement (ENRA) with The Related Companies of California, LLC, for the transfer of Berkeley's 75 public housing units to the company owned by the billionaire, Stephen M. Ross.
BHA's Ingram, wants the ENRA to last a period of 90 days, with the possibility of a 30 day extension, to negotiate the terms of the Disposition and Development Agreement to transfer the 75 public housing units, and to designate the BHA's joint Finance/Feasibility Subcommittee as the lead to work with BHA staff during the negotiations.
If billionaire Ross and The Related Companies gets their hands on Berkeley's public housing units, the city of Berkeley may end up subsidizing the billionaire and his company out of the city's Housing Trust Fund in the effort to renovate and rehabilitate the public housing units, but the majority of funds needed to renovate the buildings will have to be raised by the Related company.
When asked if the BHA has another developer interested in buying Berkeley's public housing units if the negotiations breakdown, BHA's Project Manager, Kathleen Sims said, "The BHA is in negotiation with The Related Companies of California, and until those negotiations are over I cannot say more about the next step the BHA will pursue with it's public housing units if the negotiations fail. I think that finding someone to renovate and maintain the public housing units as HUD has ordered, is a good thing for Berkeley."
Berkeley has long been known as a bastion of liberal causes and the progressive movement, and it is obscene gesture to many in the community that Berkeley's public housing units may end up in the hands of a billionaire and his for-profit corporation, and that the billionaire and his company may be subsidized with funds from the city's Housing Trust Fund.
Former Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner, Eleanor Walden said, "The BHA has now fallen into lockstep with people like Dick Cheney and Haliburton, if this contract is not transparent or competitive. I am appalled at the record of the BHA during the past few years which has contributed to the erosion of public housing."
Though established during 1966, in recent years the BHA has spent numerous years listed as a Troubled agency. The BHA owns and manages 75 public housing units, administers around 1,939 subsidized housing Section 8 voucher contracts, and filed papers with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Dec. 29, 2009, to dispose of it's public housing units. The approval by HUD to dispose of and sell Berkeley's 75 public housing units occurred on Dec. 22, 2010.
As recent as May 2, 2011, the BHA released a Request For Proposals (RFP), in an effort to find one or more so-called nonprofit housing developers, or for-profit developers willing to buy Berkeley's mostly occupied 75 - three and four bedroom townhouse units, located throughout the City of Berkeley, on 15 parcels.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
2011-09-18 "Update on the movement to save KUSF college radio 90.3FM in San Francisco" by DJ Rubble
[http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/18/18690680.php]
KUSF in Exile DJ and former music director Irwin Swirnoff discusses the ongoing legal and activist fight opposing the January 2011 sale of KUSF to radio conglomerate Entercom and a shadowy “non-profit” radio conglomerate Classical Public Radio Network, reportedly affiliated with the University of Southern California. A petition to deny the sale was filed earlier in the year on the grounds that KUSF has served the local community effectively for decades, while this CPRN is neither local nor in any way fitting the mandate of a non-commercial educational station. (25 minutes)
KUSF IN Exile, with the help of band space donated by popular non-commercial New Jersey music station WFMU, is currently broadcasting its popular menu of music and public affairs shows on the internet from a Bayview studio location as they fight to retain their FM dial space.
KUSF was yanked off the air without even a minute’s notice on January 18 with station personnel forced out by armed security. A $3.75 million sale had been negotiated in secret several months earlier under a corporate “non-disclosure agreement” through a three-way deal between radio conglomerate Entercom - the 5th largest radio corporation in the U.S. - and newly emerging local “non-commercial“ chain Classical Public Radio Network (CPRN).
CPRN took over the long-time classical music station owned and operated by Entercom on 102.1FM, and are currently broadcasting on 90.3FM while they wait for approval of the sale. CPRN has purchased at least 3 Northern California stations and by its own admission is looking to acquire non-commercial stations throughout California. Entercom replaced the commercial station by simulating its San Jose classic rock station KUFX. So KUSF, a musical treasure and home of many really good public affairs shows for about 33 years, is replaced by simulcast classic rock and a really bad classical music station.
While trying to pedal their station as educational (simply by virtue of being in the business of classical music), as mandated by FCC guidelines for the left end of the dial, CPRN is anything but non-commercial. It apparently has big money (Entercoms?) to be buying up numerous stations for millions of dollars each. It broadcasts right out of Entercom’s studios. Listening will tell you the rest. Between poor quality music, bland, monotone announcers frequently direct listeners to a dot.com site (CPRN.com?) in which everything broadcast on the station along with trivia like mugs and tee shirts can be purchased. Faithful listeners of the 102.1FM classical station are very disappointed in the deteriorated quality.
After getting absolutely nowhere trying to deal with a hostile KUSF administration led by President Father Privett, KUSF filed a petition to deny the sale with the FCC. KUSF’s objective is to get a live hearing with the FCC in hopes of overturning the sale. If successful, this will be a first of a kind victory. Getting to a hearing will be an unprecedented step.
The FCC has been rubber-stamping corporate station purchases for years on the commercial part of the dial and more recently allowing “repeater“ stations easy access for licenses while making it virtually impossible for new community-based stations to enter the market. Congress has recently mandated that the FCC develop a plan to open the left end of the dial equitably for new low power FM stations. The FCC is basically allowing a corporate oligopoly on the dial, filled with about 5,000 repetitive big money songs and AP wire service news from profit-making conglomerates. Artificial scarcity of dial spaces and unrealistic barriers to enty such as costs in the millions for the intangible asset of a broadcast license keep low budget stations out while government-financed NPR and a national religious network control most non-commercial public affairs. Activist have long criticized a cozy relationship between the FCC and broadcast lobby arm the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB).
After the sale and shutdown, KUSF assembled a legal team and has been fundraising continuously to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. They continue to broadcast on internet and sponsor enjoyable music and cultural events around the city. While their relationship as the University of San Francisco’s radio station is dead, they want to continue operating on 90.3 as a self-financed station and can make this happen if they can get the sale overturned and maintain the dial space.
A number of legal actions have occurred since the petition has been filed, some of them fairing well for the prospect of an FCC hearing. Early on, two separate requests by CPRN to move the transmitter from the USF campus to Marin County were denied after a number of stations wrote in opposing the move. KUSF had help from surrounding college stations at UC Berkeley, Foothill College, and Stanford University. The local stations filed reports in opposition to the move because it could cause interference in their existing signals and because CPRN is a predator chain, going up and down the state looking to buy other small community-based stations in an effort to match their once large corporate station.
The issue has become a rallying cry for college radio enthusiast nationally, the “death of college radio” as well-finance conglomerates like NPR continue to buy up station licenses by offering incredibly inflated prices to cash-strapped colleges happy to get out of the radio business. Thus we are seeing the dissolution of community-based non-commercial radio nationally, and many college stations are allied with KUSF in this fight. Recent sales of popular stations at Rice University in Houston, Duquesne University in Pittsburgh have raised eyebrows, as is an impending sale of the Vanderbilt University station in Nashville.
On June 28, the FCC sent an unprecedented written inquiry to the parties in the sale, requesting answers to 15 detailed questions related to the sale and subsequent operating maneuvers. Friends of KUSF attorney Alan Korn is quoted, “The letter means that the FCC is giving serious consideration to the issues submitted in our Petition, along with objections raised by others“. The attorney’s describe the submissions to these 15 questions as quite evasive. Attorney Peter Franck is quoted “This action by the University is one more action which demonstrates that the parties to this whole transaction act as if the FCC was nothing more than a rubber stamp. In fact approving this sale would violate the FCC’s duty to act in the public interest, as we will point out further if the FCC grants our petition to set the whole matter for a public hearing.”
KUSF’s Irwin Swirnoff reports improprieties by USF Administration. Apparently, USF president-turned -dictator Father Privett reported that he could not supply E-Mails required because he had erased them. In violation of FCC regulations, USF dismantled the KUSF studio without FCC approval with the proposed sale still pending. In my interview, Irwin alluded to numerous legally dubious maneuvers around the sale. National conversation and involvement has developed as a result of KUSF’s efforts. Broadcast attorney John Garziglia was recently quoted in an industry journal, “The FCC’s staff for some time now has been aware that non-commercial stations have been entering into (Local Marketing Agreements) for what is essentially the sale of broadcast time. It appears the FCC is finally asking questions about this. In a sense, the buyer and the seller dared the FCC staff to ask more questions.”
A spirited save KUSF rally was held in late August at the Entercom broadcasting offices in the South of Market area. Despite acting as if an independent non-commercial outlet, CPRN is broadcasting on 90.3 right out of that Entercom office. SF Supervisor and mayoral candidate John Avalos addressed the crowd, calling KUSF an “island against” the commercialization of the left end of the dial. Avalos told the crowd, “It was a San Francisco station. We need to do more to make sure that KUSF does continue.” Avalos was previously part of an 8-3 Board of Supervisor’s vote on a resolution to oppose the sale. Supervisors Mirkarimi and Mar co-sponsored the resolution and mayoral candidate Leland Yee has spoken out in support.
Activism is needed to make this happen. You can find out how to get involved by accessing the website [savekusf.org], , where you can listen to the internet station, contact station personnel, find out about fun community-based fundraising and outreach events, and access broadcast archives.
[http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/18/18690680.php]
KUSF in Exile DJ and former music director Irwin Swirnoff discusses the ongoing legal and activist fight opposing the January 2011 sale of KUSF to radio conglomerate Entercom and a shadowy “non-profit” radio conglomerate Classical Public Radio Network, reportedly affiliated with the University of Southern California. A petition to deny the sale was filed earlier in the year on the grounds that KUSF has served the local community effectively for decades, while this CPRN is neither local nor in any way fitting the mandate of a non-commercial educational station. (25 minutes)
KUSF IN Exile, with the help of band space donated by popular non-commercial New Jersey music station WFMU, is currently broadcasting its popular menu of music and public affairs shows on the internet from a Bayview studio location as they fight to retain their FM dial space.
KUSF was yanked off the air without even a minute’s notice on January 18 with station personnel forced out by armed security. A $3.75 million sale had been negotiated in secret several months earlier under a corporate “non-disclosure agreement” through a three-way deal between radio conglomerate Entercom - the 5th largest radio corporation in the U.S. - and newly emerging local “non-commercial“ chain Classical Public Radio Network (CPRN).
CPRN took over the long-time classical music station owned and operated by Entercom on 102.1FM, and are currently broadcasting on 90.3FM while they wait for approval of the sale. CPRN has purchased at least 3 Northern California stations and by its own admission is looking to acquire non-commercial stations throughout California. Entercom replaced the commercial station by simulating its San Jose classic rock station KUFX. So KUSF, a musical treasure and home of many really good public affairs shows for about 33 years, is replaced by simulcast classic rock and a really bad classical music station.
While trying to pedal their station as educational (simply by virtue of being in the business of classical music), as mandated by FCC guidelines for the left end of the dial, CPRN is anything but non-commercial. It apparently has big money (Entercoms?) to be buying up numerous stations for millions of dollars each. It broadcasts right out of Entercom’s studios. Listening will tell you the rest. Between poor quality music, bland, monotone announcers frequently direct listeners to a dot.com site (CPRN.com?) in which everything broadcast on the station along with trivia like mugs and tee shirts can be purchased. Faithful listeners of the 102.1FM classical station are very disappointed in the deteriorated quality.
After getting absolutely nowhere trying to deal with a hostile KUSF administration led by President Father Privett, KUSF filed a petition to deny the sale with the FCC. KUSF’s objective is to get a live hearing with the FCC in hopes of overturning the sale. If successful, this will be a first of a kind victory. Getting to a hearing will be an unprecedented step.
The FCC has been rubber-stamping corporate station purchases for years on the commercial part of the dial and more recently allowing “repeater“ stations easy access for licenses while making it virtually impossible for new community-based stations to enter the market. Congress has recently mandated that the FCC develop a plan to open the left end of the dial equitably for new low power FM stations. The FCC is basically allowing a corporate oligopoly on the dial, filled with about 5,000 repetitive big money songs and AP wire service news from profit-making conglomerates. Artificial scarcity of dial spaces and unrealistic barriers to enty such as costs in the millions for the intangible asset of a broadcast license keep low budget stations out while government-financed NPR and a national religious network control most non-commercial public affairs. Activist have long criticized a cozy relationship between the FCC and broadcast lobby arm the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB).
After the sale and shutdown, KUSF assembled a legal team and has been fundraising continuously to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. They continue to broadcast on internet and sponsor enjoyable music and cultural events around the city. While their relationship as the University of San Francisco’s radio station is dead, they want to continue operating on 90.3 as a self-financed station and can make this happen if they can get the sale overturned and maintain the dial space.
A number of legal actions have occurred since the petition has been filed, some of them fairing well for the prospect of an FCC hearing. Early on, two separate requests by CPRN to move the transmitter from the USF campus to Marin County were denied after a number of stations wrote in opposing the move. KUSF had help from surrounding college stations at UC Berkeley, Foothill College, and Stanford University. The local stations filed reports in opposition to the move because it could cause interference in their existing signals and because CPRN is a predator chain, going up and down the state looking to buy other small community-based stations in an effort to match their once large corporate station.
The issue has become a rallying cry for college radio enthusiast nationally, the “death of college radio” as well-finance conglomerates like NPR continue to buy up station licenses by offering incredibly inflated prices to cash-strapped colleges happy to get out of the radio business. Thus we are seeing the dissolution of community-based non-commercial radio nationally, and many college stations are allied with KUSF in this fight. Recent sales of popular stations at Rice University in Houston, Duquesne University in Pittsburgh have raised eyebrows, as is an impending sale of the Vanderbilt University station in Nashville.
On June 28, the FCC sent an unprecedented written inquiry to the parties in the sale, requesting answers to 15 detailed questions related to the sale and subsequent operating maneuvers. Friends of KUSF attorney Alan Korn is quoted, “The letter means that the FCC is giving serious consideration to the issues submitted in our Petition, along with objections raised by others“. The attorney’s describe the submissions to these 15 questions as quite evasive. Attorney Peter Franck is quoted “This action by the University is one more action which demonstrates that the parties to this whole transaction act as if the FCC was nothing more than a rubber stamp. In fact approving this sale would violate the FCC’s duty to act in the public interest, as we will point out further if the FCC grants our petition to set the whole matter for a public hearing.”
KUSF’s Irwin Swirnoff reports improprieties by USF Administration. Apparently, USF president-turned -dictator Father Privett reported that he could not supply E-Mails required because he had erased them. In violation of FCC regulations, USF dismantled the KUSF studio without FCC approval with the proposed sale still pending. In my interview, Irwin alluded to numerous legally dubious maneuvers around the sale. National conversation and involvement has developed as a result of KUSF’s efforts. Broadcast attorney John Garziglia was recently quoted in an industry journal, “The FCC’s staff for some time now has been aware that non-commercial stations have been entering into (Local Marketing Agreements) for what is essentially the sale of broadcast time. It appears the FCC is finally asking questions about this. In a sense, the buyer and the seller dared the FCC staff to ask more questions.”
A spirited save KUSF rally was held in late August at the Entercom broadcasting offices in the South of Market area. Despite acting as if an independent non-commercial outlet, CPRN is broadcasting on 90.3 right out of that Entercom office. SF Supervisor and mayoral candidate John Avalos addressed the crowd, calling KUSF an “island against” the commercialization of the left end of the dial. Avalos told the crowd, “It was a San Francisco station. We need to do more to make sure that KUSF does continue.” Avalos was previously part of an 8-3 Board of Supervisor’s vote on a resolution to oppose the sale. Supervisors Mirkarimi and Mar co-sponsored the resolution and mayoral candidate Leland Yee has spoken out in support.
Activism is needed to make this happen. You can find out how to get involved by accessing the website [savekusf.org], , where you can listen to the internet station, contact station personnel, find out about fun community-based fundraising and outreach events, and access broadcast archives.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
2011-09-17 "Jobless rate plunges in both Solano, Napa counties" by Rachel Raskin-Zrihen, rom "Vallejo Times-Herald"
The unemployment rates in Solano and Napa counties fell precipitously in August, though whether or not this portends a positive trend remains to be seen, experts say.
The state's latest employment figures, released Friday, show this was the deepest drop between July and August in 21 years in both areas, state Employment Development Department labor market consultant Linda Wong said.
The unemployment figures for Solano and Napa counties in August stood at 11.6 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively. That was down from 12.2 percent and 9.2 percent in July. It's even below the year-ago estimates of 11.9 percent and 9.4 percent, respectively.
These figures compare with a statewide jobless rate of 12.1 percent and 9.1 percent nationally during the same period.
Though still the highest in the Bay Area, "Unemployment fell more drastically in Solano than in most of the surrounding region and Solano had the 25th lowest unemployment rate out of 57 California counties in August," Wong said. "Napa had the third lowest."
And it's not a matter of a large number of people giving up looking for work and falling off the rolls, she said.
"It's a positive," Wong said. "The labor force increased. Some 1,300 people joined the workforce in Solano County last month and the number of unemployed fell by 1,200."
Solano County's employment level rose from 185,500 people working to 188,000 -- meaning 2,500 more people were employed here in August than in July, she said.
Overall, in Solano County, total jobs increased over July by 1,900, Wong said. Government gained 600 jobs, "which is better than the 21 year average for this time of year," she said.
The trade, transportation and utility sector recovered 300 jobs in August, while the professional and business, private education, health, and leisure and hospitality sectors each gained 200 jobs, she said.
On the other hand most, sectors still lost jobs when measured against August last year, Wong said. In fact, the only sector that gained jobs last month compared to August, 2010 was government, which was up 400 jobs. It's the first year-over-year gain in that sector in 27 months, she said.
But, all in all, the news is good, Solano Economic Development Corp. head Sandy Person said.
"We're below 12 percent," Person said. "That's fantastic news. There has been some significant wins for us in the county lately, like the (green manufactured homes firm) Blu Homes in Vallejo and (electric car maker) CODA in Benicia, so there's some significant momentum. I'm feeling positive and encouraged."
Blu Homes is initially bringing some 90 jobs to Mare Island and CODA is partnering with Benicia's Amports, Inc. to install certain components and do final inspections when the cars arrive from China.
Job ads by city
July August Difference
-- Vallejo 769 820 up 51
-- Fairfield 1221 1236 up 15
-- Vacaville 912 921 up 9
-- American Canyon 100 88 down 17
-- Napa 1,249 1,254 up 5
Top five employers by number of want ads by county in August
Source: California Employment Development Department
Solano Napa
-- Kaiser Permanente -- 127 -- St. Helena Hospital -- 68
-- NorthBay Healthcare -- 92 -- VIRTUAL HIREvent (hospitals) -- 44
-- Benicia Unified School District -- 42 -- Treasury Wines Estates -- 43
-- Nurse Options USA -- 36 -- Kaiser Northern California -- 37
-- Sutter Health -- 34 -- Napa Valley Unified School District -- 27
Top five occupations by number of job ads in August
Source: California Employment Development Department
Solano County Napa County
-- Registered nurse -- 272 -- Retail sales person -- 66
-- Retail sales supervisor -- 133 -- Registered nurse -- 60
-- Retail sales person -- 119 -- Retail sales supervisor -- 54
-- Truck driver -- 108 -- Customer service representative -- 48
-- Customer service representative -- 63 -- Waitperson -- 45
The unemployment rates in Solano and Napa counties fell precipitously in August, though whether or not this portends a positive trend remains to be seen, experts say.
The state's latest employment figures, released Friday, show this was the deepest drop between July and August in 21 years in both areas, state Employment Development Department labor market consultant Linda Wong said.
The unemployment figures for Solano and Napa counties in August stood at 11.6 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively. That was down from 12.2 percent and 9.2 percent in July. It's even below the year-ago estimates of 11.9 percent and 9.4 percent, respectively.
These figures compare with a statewide jobless rate of 12.1 percent and 9.1 percent nationally during the same period.
Though still the highest in the Bay Area, "Unemployment fell more drastically in Solano than in most of the surrounding region and Solano had the 25th lowest unemployment rate out of 57 California counties in August," Wong said. "Napa had the third lowest."
And it's not a matter of a large number of people giving up looking for work and falling off the rolls, she said.
"It's a positive," Wong said. "The labor force increased. Some 1,300 people joined the workforce in Solano County last month and the number of unemployed fell by 1,200."
Solano County's employment level rose from 185,500 people working to 188,000 -- meaning 2,500 more people were employed here in August than in July, she said.
Overall, in Solano County, total jobs increased over July by 1,900, Wong said. Government gained 600 jobs, "which is better than the 21 year average for this time of year," she said.
The trade, transportation and utility sector recovered 300 jobs in August, while the professional and business, private education, health, and leisure and hospitality sectors each gained 200 jobs, she said.
On the other hand most, sectors still lost jobs when measured against August last year, Wong said. In fact, the only sector that gained jobs last month compared to August, 2010 was government, which was up 400 jobs. It's the first year-over-year gain in that sector in 27 months, she said.
But, all in all, the news is good, Solano Economic Development Corp. head Sandy Person said.
"We're below 12 percent," Person said. "That's fantastic news. There has been some significant wins for us in the county lately, like the (green manufactured homes firm) Blu Homes in Vallejo and (electric car maker) CODA in Benicia, so there's some significant momentum. I'm feeling positive and encouraged."
Blu Homes is initially bringing some 90 jobs to Mare Island and CODA is partnering with Benicia's Amports, Inc. to install certain components and do final inspections when the cars arrive from China.
Job ads by city
July August Difference
-- Vallejo 769 820 up 51
-- Fairfield 1221 1236 up 15
-- Vacaville 912 921 up 9
-- American Canyon 100 88 down 17
-- Napa 1,249 1,254 up 5
Top five employers by number of want ads by county in August
Source: California Employment Development Department
Solano Napa
-- Kaiser Permanente -- 127 -- St. Helena Hospital -- 68
-- NorthBay Healthcare -- 92 -- VIRTUAL HIREvent (hospitals) -- 44
-- Benicia Unified School District -- 42 -- Treasury Wines Estates -- 43
-- Nurse Options USA -- 36 -- Kaiser Northern California -- 37
-- Sutter Health -- 34 -- Napa Valley Unified School District -- 27
Top five occupations by number of job ads in August
Source: California Employment Development Department
Solano County Napa County
-- Registered nurse -- 272 -- Retail sales person -- 66
-- Retail sales supervisor -- 133 -- Registered nurse -- 60
-- Retail sales person -- 119 -- Retail sales supervisor -- 54
-- Truck driver -- 108 -- Customer service representative -- 48
-- Customer service representative -- 63 -- Waitperson -- 45
Thursday, September 15, 2011
2011-09-15 "UC Berkeley Police Abuse Treesitters" by Jasmine Malina
UC Berkeley Police harassed me in association with the tree sit in Peoples Park. They came to my bedside in the hospital, and asked me questions directed towards my relationship with one of the treesitters who is now in jail on seperate charges.
They proceeded to ask me personal questions and threated that if I did not cooperate that they would claim to the media that he pushed me out of the tree and reveal personal information regarding my gender identity.
When I refused to cooperate they told me that they had put the treesitter in custody in Santa Rita Jail, when I began to cry they took pictures of my face and laughed at me mockingly.
Please do not let them get away with this, spread the word and take action.
2011-09-15 "Treesitter 'Amy Blue' harrased by Uc Berkeley Police at her hospital bed" by anonymous
[http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/15/18690436.php]
Two police officers came to her bedside asking her questions about her involvement in the treesit and her relationship to the other treesitters, when she refused to cooperate they took pictures of her face while she was crying.
I have been informed by Amy from her hospital bed that the following account happened while she was in Highland Hospital:
UC Berkeley Police harassed me in association with the tree sit in Peoples Park. They came to my bedside in the hospital, and asked me questions directed towards my relationship with one of the treesitters who is now in jail on seperate charges. They proceeded to ask me personal questions and threated that if I did not cooperate that they would claim to the media that he pushed me out of the tree and reveal personal information regarding my gender identity. When I refused to cooperate they told me that they had put the treesitter in custody in Santa Rita Jail, when I began to cry they took pictures of my face and laughed at me mockingly. Please do not let them get away with this, spread the word and take action
Comments:
2011-09-16 "Context" by Konsider -
You should have included the details of the tree sit so as to put the incident in context for readers.
Amy Blue fell out of a tree at three in the morning ending a tree sit occupation underway in People's park. Amy was the third tree sitter to have taken up the action primarily organized by Running Wolf.
The precise details of why Amy fell, and what then happened to her, have been unknown until the recent email reprinted in your post. As to the injuries she sustained, I am not altogether sure, they're apparently not as substantial as some feared because she's out of the hospital now, but again, details are missing from your post needed to clarify what's going on.
The reasons for the tree sit are multiple, and they include bringing attention to a letter recently drafted by the organization known as the Telegraph Ave. Business Improvement Association urging the University to get rid of social services such as Food Not Bombs, whom they say bring homeless deviants to the park, thus blighting it's appeal.
The letter too, calls for making People's park University student oriented which they claim would provide a more wholesome and attractive environment.
Another reason for the tree sit includes Running Wolf's claim that tree sitting is a necessary way to show that people's Park is situated on Native American land.
The particular background circumstances that initiated the tree sit, and what then resulted, are crucial to understanding what we are dealing with.
2011-09-16 "wrong!" by berzerkeley -
I have been inviolved in the treesit since the beginning and actually she was the second to go up and she is suffering from a broken pelvis and spinal fractures and a lacerated spleen.
2011-09-17 "Support for treesitter who was arrested at people's Park tree sit" by Amy Blue
[http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/17/18690581.php]
I have been writing to my comrade 'Oberon' who was also involved with the treesit but was arrested. He is currently in jail and has no money on his account, which means he cannot afford stamps, envelopes, hygene supplies, ect. I am currently unemployed and have a bunch of hospital bills. Due to my fall from a platform. If you can help donate and put money on his account, please email me at, lavendardeodarant [at] gmail.com, and I will give you the information on how to do so
UC Berkeley Police harassed me in association with the tree sit in Peoples Park. They came to my bedside in the hospital, and asked me questions directed towards my relationship with one of the treesitters who is now in jail on seperate charges.
They proceeded to ask me personal questions and threated that if I did not cooperate that they would claim to the media that he pushed me out of the tree and reveal personal information regarding my gender identity.
When I refused to cooperate they told me that they had put the treesitter in custody in Santa Rita Jail, when I began to cry they took pictures of my face and laughed at me mockingly.
Please do not let them get away with this, spread the word and take action.
2011-09-15 "Treesitter 'Amy Blue' harrased by Uc Berkeley Police at her hospital bed" by anonymous [http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/15/18690436.php]
Two police officers came to her bedside asking her questions about her involvement in the treesit and her relationship to the other treesitters, when she refused to cooperate they took pictures of her face while she was crying.
I have been informed by Amy from her hospital bed that the following account happened while she was in Highland Hospital:
UC Berkeley Police harassed me in association with the tree sit in Peoples Park. They came to my bedside in the hospital, and asked me questions directed towards my relationship with one of the treesitters who is now in jail on seperate charges. They proceeded to ask me personal questions and threated that if I did not cooperate that they would claim to the media that he pushed me out of the tree and reveal personal information regarding my gender identity. When I refused to cooperate they told me that they had put the treesitter in custody in Santa Rita Jail, when I began to cry they took pictures of my face and laughed at me mockingly. Please do not let them get away with this, spread the word and take action
Comments:
2011-09-16 "Context" by Konsider -
You should have included the details of the tree sit so as to put the incident in context for readers.
Amy Blue fell out of a tree at three in the morning ending a tree sit occupation underway in People's park. Amy was the third tree sitter to have taken up the action primarily organized by Running Wolf.
The precise details of why Amy fell, and what then happened to her, have been unknown until the recent email reprinted in your post. As to the injuries she sustained, I am not altogether sure, they're apparently not as substantial as some feared because she's out of the hospital now, but again, details are missing from your post needed to clarify what's going on.
The reasons for the tree sit are multiple, and they include bringing attention to a letter recently drafted by the organization known as the Telegraph Ave. Business Improvement Association urging the University to get rid of social services such as Food Not Bombs, whom they say bring homeless deviants to the park, thus blighting it's appeal.
The letter too, calls for making People's park University student oriented which they claim would provide a more wholesome and attractive environment.
Another reason for the tree sit includes Running Wolf's claim that tree sitting is a necessary way to show that people's Park is situated on Native American land.
The particular background circumstances that initiated the tree sit, and what then resulted, are crucial to understanding what we are dealing with.
2011-09-16 "wrong!" by berzerkeley -
I have been inviolved in the treesit since the beginning and actually she was the second to go up and she is suffering from a broken pelvis and spinal fractures and a lacerated spleen.
2011-09-17 "Support for treesitter who was arrested at people's Park tree sit" by Amy Blue
[http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/17/18690581.php]
I have been writing to my comrade 'Oberon' who was also involved with the treesit but was arrested. He is currently in jail and has no money on his account, which means he cannot afford stamps, envelopes, hygene supplies, ect. I am currently unemployed and have a bunch of hospital bills. Due to my fall from a platform. If you can help donate and put money on his account, please email me at, lavendardeodarant [at] gmail.com, and I will give you the information on how to do so
2011-09 letter from Mutawally, a conscious prisoner at Pelican Bay Hunger about the Strike
Published as 2012-02-25 "RHHR Receives Letter from Pelican Bay while Hunger Strike Continues" from "Revolutionary Hip-Hop Report" [http://rhhr.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/rhhr-receives-letter-from-pelican-bay-while-hunger-strike-continues/]:
Join the Hip-Hop on Lock-Down Correspondence Connection and write to an inmate in Pelican Bay: Contact RHHR at (209) 874-6512 or rhhrorg@live.com or P.O. Box 3027 Modesto, CA 95353
---
Mutawally Cooperwood #C46411, Pelican Bay State Prison S.H.U.
In September of 2011 RHHR got a letter from longtime follower Mutawally, a prisoner in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) of Pelican Bay State Penitentiary where a hunger strike, protesting horrible conditions, is still on-going. Mutawally writes:
[begin letter]
The prisoners of Pelican Bay State Prison have called for a second wave of our indefinite hunger-strike to protest the long-term isolation in the S.H.U. and the human rights violations as well as the prison/state sanctioned torture to extract information from or cause mental illness to these prisoners held inside its security housing units.
I have been inside the notorious S.H.U. for the past 20 years, serving an indeterminate sentence based on illegal allegations of the CDCR gang affiliation placement. I have, over the past 20 years, experienced and witnessed the CDCR psychological terror techniques. ‘Mentacide’ and torture may be defined as scientific methods that are systematically being utilized by the CDCR and its law enforcement liaisons (ie Special Service Unit and Institution Gang Investigation) to wage indiscriminate psychological warfare and murder upon the minds and bodies of a class of prisoners to break their will to resist. For the past 20 years and counting, a certain class of prisoners housed at Pelican Bay SHU and Corcoran Super Maximum Security, have been subjective targets of human experimentations, manipulation, psychological warfare, sensory deprivation, cultural deprivation, illegal behavior modifications, and long term effects from solitary confinement as well as small group confinement in D1-D4 “Short Corridor.” The short corridor is the super max of the SHU where CDCR house the indeterminate prisoners until they “debrief, parole, come into mental illness, or die.”
These prisoners have been confined together in pods (sections) of very small groups for many years. Each pod has 2 short tiers with 4 cells on each tier. The cells are approximately 6 by 10 feet containing 2 concrete slabs to sleep on and a built-in toilet and sink. The front door is made of heavy gauge perforated metal which significantly blocks light and vision. Its interior is designed to reduce visual stimulation. Each cell is dull white and windowless.
The pod exercise yard is a small pen with a cement floor and walls 20 feet high and precludes the sun and any view of the outside world! The intermediate prisoners are inside our cells for 22 ½ hours a day, only released to said yard for fresh air and a 20 foot walk for approximately 1 ½ hours. There are 10 individuals inside my pod who have been within the 8-cells for over 20 years!
Being confined together in a small area 24 hours a day has dramatically increased levels of hostility, interpersonal conflicts, and paranoia upon some of us. Dr. Stuart Grassian, a board certified psychiatrist who had once compiled clinical data as an expert in the Madrid v. Gomez a class action suit concerning conditions at Pelican Bay SHU, stated “individuals exposed to such conditions also tend to become irrationally territorial, staking out areas of exclusive or special pod use and acting with hostility to trespasses by others.” Being confined in long term SHU has caused many of us to experience severe difficulties in thinking, concentration, and memory loss. For example, myself and others have reported among ourselves that long term confinement in SHU has made it difficult to perform tasks requiring some mental effort, such as reading or writing! Only for the early part of the morning, about 3 hours, is the mind alert! After, the mind seems to slow down, so much “in a fog” that we become entirely unable to maintain any meaningful mental effort.
In spite of the class action suit brought by prisoners at Pelican Bay SHU, Madrid v. Gomez which in part ruled that the prison had been in violation of the United States Constitution under the 8th Amendment (cruel & unusual punishment) and 14th Amendment, the prison continues a deliberate failure to provide and safeguard minimum medical and health care to its prisoners. The medical staff inside the SHU allows the prison guards to insinuate themselves in decision making of prisoner’s diagnosis and the circumvention of medical treatment, thus, intentionally subjecting its patients to unwarranted torture. My arrival in the SHU 20 years ago, I was in great health without any serious medical problems. Long term solitary confinement has threatened my health and life and I am now suffering from 1)high blood pressure 2)hearing impairment 3)vision loss 4)leg/knee surgery 5)deteriorating disk in lower back 6)depigmentation/natural sun-vitamin deficiency and 7)chronic asthmatic. Being that I am a chronic asthmatic that is housed inside D1-D Pod, a contaminated section of the security unit, I am being subjected to deliberate indifference to my serious medical needs, as a result of the lack of medical care provided and the unsanitary and inhumane living conditions. The small group living environment exposes chronic asthmatic patients to known substances that provokes and triggers severe asthmatic attacks, headaches, insomnia, shortness of breath, exhaustion, allergies, fevers, vomiting, and vision impairment. I pray that this document brings some light the deprivation of our situation in Pelican Bay State Prison (S.H.U.) and other similar prisons around the world.”
[end letter]
---
"Make Some Noise: International solidarity for Pelican Bay Hunger Strike!" (from http://sfbayview.com):
Prisoners across the U.S. are showing their solidarity with the Pelican Bay SHU prisoners by joining the hunger strike for varying lengths of time – including prisoners in Corcoran, Folsom, CCI Tehachapi, Calipatria and Centinela State Prisons in California and Ohio State Penitentiary – or by bravely writing statements and letters or calling people outside to relay messages to the Pelican Bay hunger strikes.
Prisoners at Collins Bay Federal Penitentiary in Kingston, Ontario, who have been on work strike since June 28 showed their solidarity with Pelican Bay prisoners on hunger strike when, on July 4, this banner was dropped off a building overlooking City Hall in downtown Kingston.
Supporters in Ontario are linking the struggles at Collins Bay to prisoners’ struggles at Pelican Bay.
Families and loved ones of prisoners have been organizing outside of Pelican Bay, sharing information with each other before visiting with their loved ones inside.
Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc dancers from Los Angeles are up in Crescent City in front of the prison to support the hunger strikers with ceremony.
Outside Corcoran State Prison, where prisoners have joined the Pelican Bay hunger strike in solidarity, families and community members have been rallying to show their support, as well as sharing information before visiting their loved ones.
In Seattle, Washington, a group of people equipped with a mobile sound system met in front of the King County Juvenile Detention Center in the Central District of Seattle.
The Deaths in Custody Watch Committee in Western Australia also supports the Pelican Bay Hunger Strike, dedicating an action in Perth on July 3 for NAIDOC Week, a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander survival.
Make sure to check out the actions page for upcoming rallies and events to show your support, help circulate the online petition, and call the CDCR and California elected officials and urge them to honor the prisoners’ demands!
Join the Hip-Hop on Lock-Down Correspondence Connection and write to an inmate in Pelican Bay: Contact RHHR at (209) 874-6512 or rhhrorg@live.com or P.O. Box 3027 Modesto, CA 95353
---
Mutawally Cooperwood #C46411, Pelican Bay State Prison S.H.U.
In September of 2011 RHHR got a letter from longtime follower Mutawally, a prisoner in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) of Pelican Bay State Penitentiary where a hunger strike, protesting horrible conditions, is still on-going. Mutawally writes:
[begin letter]
The prisoners of Pelican Bay State Prison have called for a second wave of our indefinite hunger-strike to protest the long-term isolation in the S.H.U. and the human rights violations as well as the prison/state sanctioned torture to extract information from or cause mental illness to these prisoners held inside its security housing units.
I have been inside the notorious S.H.U. for the past 20 years, serving an indeterminate sentence based on illegal allegations of the CDCR gang affiliation placement. I have, over the past 20 years, experienced and witnessed the CDCR psychological terror techniques. ‘Mentacide’ and torture may be defined as scientific methods that are systematically being utilized by the CDCR and its law enforcement liaisons (ie Special Service Unit and Institution Gang Investigation) to wage indiscriminate psychological warfare and murder upon the minds and bodies of a class of prisoners to break their will to resist. For the past 20 years and counting, a certain class of prisoners housed at Pelican Bay SHU and Corcoran Super Maximum Security, have been subjective targets of human experimentations, manipulation, psychological warfare, sensory deprivation, cultural deprivation, illegal behavior modifications, and long term effects from solitary confinement as well as small group confinement in D1-D4 “Short Corridor.” The short corridor is the super max of the SHU where CDCR house the indeterminate prisoners until they “debrief, parole, come into mental illness, or die.”
These prisoners have been confined together in pods (sections) of very small groups for many years. Each pod has 2 short tiers with 4 cells on each tier. The cells are approximately 6 by 10 feet containing 2 concrete slabs to sleep on and a built-in toilet and sink. The front door is made of heavy gauge perforated metal which significantly blocks light and vision. Its interior is designed to reduce visual stimulation. Each cell is dull white and windowless.
The pod exercise yard is a small pen with a cement floor and walls 20 feet high and precludes the sun and any view of the outside world! The intermediate prisoners are inside our cells for 22 ½ hours a day, only released to said yard for fresh air and a 20 foot walk for approximately 1 ½ hours. There are 10 individuals inside my pod who have been within the 8-cells for over 20 years!
Being confined together in a small area 24 hours a day has dramatically increased levels of hostility, interpersonal conflicts, and paranoia upon some of us. Dr. Stuart Grassian, a board certified psychiatrist who had once compiled clinical data as an expert in the Madrid v. Gomez a class action suit concerning conditions at Pelican Bay SHU, stated “individuals exposed to such conditions also tend to become irrationally territorial, staking out areas of exclusive or special pod use and acting with hostility to trespasses by others.” Being confined in long term SHU has caused many of us to experience severe difficulties in thinking, concentration, and memory loss. For example, myself and others have reported among ourselves that long term confinement in SHU has made it difficult to perform tasks requiring some mental effort, such as reading or writing! Only for the early part of the morning, about 3 hours, is the mind alert! After, the mind seems to slow down, so much “in a fog” that we become entirely unable to maintain any meaningful mental effort.
In spite of the class action suit brought by prisoners at Pelican Bay SHU, Madrid v. Gomez which in part ruled that the prison had been in violation of the United States Constitution under the 8th Amendment (cruel & unusual punishment) and 14th Amendment, the prison continues a deliberate failure to provide and safeguard minimum medical and health care to its prisoners. The medical staff inside the SHU allows the prison guards to insinuate themselves in decision making of prisoner’s diagnosis and the circumvention of medical treatment, thus, intentionally subjecting its patients to unwarranted torture. My arrival in the SHU 20 years ago, I was in great health without any serious medical problems. Long term solitary confinement has threatened my health and life and I am now suffering from 1)high blood pressure 2)hearing impairment 3)vision loss 4)leg/knee surgery 5)deteriorating disk in lower back 6)depigmentation/natural sun-vitamin deficiency and 7)chronic asthmatic. Being that I am a chronic asthmatic that is housed inside D1-D Pod, a contaminated section of the security unit, I am being subjected to deliberate indifference to my serious medical needs, as a result of the lack of medical care provided and the unsanitary and inhumane living conditions. The small group living environment exposes chronic asthmatic patients to known substances that provokes and triggers severe asthmatic attacks, headaches, insomnia, shortness of breath, exhaustion, allergies, fevers, vomiting, and vision impairment. I pray that this document brings some light the deprivation of our situation in Pelican Bay State Prison (S.H.U.) and other similar prisons around the world.”
[end letter]
---
"Make Some Noise: International solidarity for Pelican Bay Hunger Strike!" (from http://sfbayview.com):
Prisoners across the U.S. are showing their solidarity with the Pelican Bay SHU prisoners by joining the hunger strike for varying lengths of time – including prisoners in Corcoran, Folsom, CCI Tehachapi, Calipatria and Centinela State Prisons in California and Ohio State Penitentiary – or by bravely writing statements and letters or calling people outside to relay messages to the Pelican Bay hunger strikes.
Prisoners at Collins Bay Federal Penitentiary in Kingston, Ontario, who have been on work strike since June 28 showed their solidarity with Pelican Bay prisoners on hunger strike when, on July 4, this banner was dropped off a building overlooking City Hall in downtown Kingston.
Supporters in Ontario are linking the struggles at Collins Bay to prisoners’ struggles at Pelican Bay.
Families and loved ones of prisoners have been organizing outside of Pelican Bay, sharing information with each other before visiting with their loved ones inside.
Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc dancers from Los Angeles are up in Crescent City in front of the prison to support the hunger strikers with ceremony.
Outside Corcoran State Prison, where prisoners have joined the Pelican Bay hunger strike in solidarity, families and community members have been rallying to show their support, as well as sharing information before visiting their loved ones.
In Seattle, Washington, a group of people equipped with a mobile sound system met in front of the King County Juvenile Detention Center in the Central District of Seattle.
The Deaths in Custody Watch Committee in Western Australia also supports the Pelican Bay Hunger Strike, dedicating an action in Perth on July 3 for NAIDOC Week, a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander survival.
Make sure to check out the actions page for upcoming rallies and events to show your support, help circulate the online petition, and call the CDCR and California elected officials and urge them to honor the prisoners’ demands!
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