2011-09-28 "Postal workers rally to save their jobs" by HOWARD YUNE from "Napa Valley Register"
[http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/postal-workers-rally-to-save-their-jobs/article_511cf308-e993-11e0-82e1-001cc4c002e0.html]
Napa-area postal workers hoping to help save their embattled profession — and possibly their jobs — took their cause to downtown Napa on Tuesday afternoon.
Holding “Save America’s Postal Service” placards, more than 20 current and retired letter carriers lined Main Street outside Rep. Mike Thompson’s office.
Amid the car honks of sympathizers, they collected signatures for a petition to support legislation they said would repair the U.S. Postal Service’s ravaged finances and lessen the blow of threatened layoffs.
Even with mail volume slipping, rally organizers warned that cutting employees or Saturday service to slash costs would produce more harm than savings.
“The variety of things we deliver, like medicines, we have a large increase in that,” said Patrick Bjerke, 57, a letter carrier in Napa for 27 years. “Things like fruits, vegetables, even live chickens, those are things we can’t let sit over the weekend.”
The Napa rally was part of a nationwide campaign organized by five postal unions. The unions are supporting a Congressional bill to ease the Postal Service’s financial strain by reducing the pre-funding required for worker pensions. The unions, which represent letter carriers and post office clerks, were scheduled to hold events in all 435 districts of the House of Representatives.
H.R. 1351 would redirect the payments the Postal Service has made toward worker pensions since 2006 when Congress required it to pre-fund the pensions for 75 years and do so within a decade. The service could then use the overpayments to meet current financial needs.
Postal workers held their rally outside Thompson’s downtown office in support of the St. Helena Democrat, one of about 200 House members to co-sponsor the bill.
Union members argue the billions of dollars in pension pre-payments — and not shriveling mail use — are the main cause of the department’s troubles, and oppose major layoffs or dropping Saturday delivery.
“If we didn’t have to pre-fund pensions, we’d be making money,” said Karen Schuler, a postal carrier in Novato and a Santa Rosa-based officer in the National Association of Letter Carriers. “What kind of business could keep its doors open while paying for its unborn retirees? It’s outrageous.”
Postal officials warned earlier this month the service would run a $10 billion deficit in the current fiscal year, which ends Friday. The agency does not receive taxpayer money and must rely on sales and service revenue.
Since 2006, the Postal Service has closed 186 mail processing centers and eliminated at least 110,000 jobs. In July, the service announced it would consider shuttering 3,700 post offices, including the branch at the Veterans Home of California at Yountville.
The agency says mail volume has dropped by 43 billion pieces in the last five years, with the amount of first-class mail falling by nearly half as email and social networking steadily erode the number of person-to-person letters. Postmaster General Patrick Donohoe has proposed ending Saturday delivery to save up to $3 billion a year.

TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 27, 2011 - NAPA, CA - State Senator Noreen Evans spoke to about 30 people at a rally in support of postal workers on Tuesday afternoon. The rally was aimed at saving cuts to the United States Postal Service and to bring attention to HR 1351, also known as the United States Postal Service Pension Obligation Recalculation and Restoration Act of 2011. J.L. Sousa/Register

This makes me sick. Napa County "law" outlawed the humanity of a number of low-income residents because THEY WERE POOR.
Instead of working with the residents, the "authorities" merely kicked the People out into the streets, People who had no meaningful work and lived inexpensiveley off the grid...
Napa County shows once again how Fascist it really is.

2011-09-26 "Cuttings Wharf cottages empty, facing demolition" from "Napa Valley Register"
[http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/cuttings-wharf-cottages-empty-facing-demolition/article_80ed3576-e7f8-11e0-bc15-001cc4c002e0.html]
Months after their owner evicted his tenants and expressed a desire to demolish the properties, the 23 low-income cottages at Cuttings Wharf Road are still standing.
Peppered with “no trespassing” signs and abandoned by tenants who were served by a long stretch of dirt road, the homes continue to be the focal point of a legal battle between Napa County and property owner Kenneth Moore.
The row of homes now appears lifeless, stripped of personal belongings and absent the pack of neighborhood dogs that once roamed the block. On some of the homes, the only sign of recent life is the occasional phone number scribbled across a boarded-up door or window.
A laid-back, back-country way of life that existed at Cuttings Wharf for decades is now over.
As the legal dispute between the two sides rages on, the demolition that Moore told his tenants would take place months ago seems to be just around the corner.
According to a representative from the Napa County building department, Moore was issued a permit to demolish the cottages on Aug. 10.
Meanwhile, attorneys for both Moore and the county have scheduled a trial date for early February regarding the county’s attempt to have code violations abated, said Carrie Gallagher, an attorney for the county.
Talks of both demolition and court-ordered repairs have long dominated the conversation around the Cuttings Wharf cottages.
The dispute began back in early 2010 when county officials responded to a host of health and safety violations at Cuttings Wharf. Problems ranged from a lack of permanent foundations, to faulty wiring, to a lack of hot water in many of the homes, the county asserted. Most of the units also had additions built on without proper permitting, officials said.
In September 2010, the county sent Moore a letter saying that he must either correct the violations or be taken to court. Moore failed to make the necessary repairs, claiming he would rather demolish the units than fund the improvements.
In early December, he issued eviction notices to each tenant, forcing residents who had long relied on the cheap rent — less than $350 a month in most cases — to look for lodging elsewhere.
Hoping to preserve the cottages, which had provided low-income housing for decades, the county asked a judge to appoint a third-party receiver to oversee the repairs, a move that would have effectively forced Moore to fund the repairs.
Ultimately, Napa Superior Court Judge Raymond Guadagni sided with Moore and the eviction proceedings were allowed to continue.
In early February, the deadline for eviction came and went, yet at least two tenants continued to occupy their cottages, according to court documents. This prompted the county to file suit in March, again asking that Moore either bring the lived-in units up to code or demolish them.
Weeks later, Moore appeared to be willing to make some repairs to the units still being lived in, according to court documents filed in early April. Agreed-upon repairs included fixing an exposed gas line in one unit and ensuring water heaters worked.
Over the following few months, the last residents left the Cuttings Wharf neighborhood. All of the 23 units are now uninhabited, said Hillary Gitelman, Napa’s planning director.
Meanwhile, the county’s lawsuit against Moore has continued to move forward, Gallagher said, noting that Moore still needs to resolve the code violations, either by demolition or making the repairs.
“That’s why we filed the complaint,” Gallagher said.
Moore has long said that he would rather demolish the units than fund the repairs, and with permits now in hand, that outcome looks likely.
Neither Moore nor his attorney could be reached for comment on the matter, but both sides are expected to be present in court when the matter is taken up on Feb. 6.

FRIDAY SEPT. 23, 2011 NAPA, CA - A lawsuit filed by Napa County against landlord Kenneth Moore attempting to force repairs on homes in the 100 block of Cuttings Wharf Road may go to trial. The houses are now empty and the block essentially deserted. Jorgen Gulliksen/Register



Look how the Conservative attitude of the local oligarchy bleeds into the press coverage which dehumanizes the poor tenants by describing them prominently as "Stragglers"

2011-02-08 "Remaining stragglers leave Cuttings Wharf" by James Noonan from "Napa Valley Register" newspaper
[http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/article_0ee625b4-334e-11e0-955e-001cc4c002e0.html]
For the several dozen residents who made their homes at Napa’s Cuttings Wharf, life is about to change.
On Tuesday, the 60-day eviction notices issued by property owner Kenneth Moore run out, meaning that those living in the 23 low-income cottages perched along the river banks since the early 1950s must pack up and move on.
“It’d be nice if we had a couple more weeks,” Teri Dickerson said on Monday.
Dickerson, along with her neighbor Jerry Cuellar, were resting in the shade outside their homes — exhausted from the moving process and uncertain about what their future may hold.
The pair — who have both lived on Cuttings Wharf Road for nearly two decades — will be moving to Vallejo on Tuesday, where they will split the rent of a two-bedroom home costing about $900 a month.
During their years on Cuttings Wharf Road, Cuellar and Dickerson never paid more than $342 a month for their own units — a price unheard of anywhere else in the Napa Valley.
“Neither one of us can afford to live on our own now,” Dickerson said. “Not even in Vallejo.”
In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s deadline, the friendly and uniquely rustic vibe that once characterized the community has morphed into feelings of confusion and chaos.
Each passing day, another resident would pack up and leave the wharf, severing ties that — in some cases — had taken decades to establish.
“Everybody’s just kind of lost, I think,” Dickerson said. “It’s really just a sad situation for everyone.”
Only a month back, the long, dirt road that served as the main artery for the river-side community was teeming with life. Residents darted between homes, children played outside and a handful of dogs roamed freely up and down the block.
Now, Dickerson and Cuellar sit alone — reflecting on their time spent at the wharf and wondering what life will look like moving forward.
“Once it’s finally all over with, it’ll be all right,” Cuellar said softly.
“It is what it is,” Dickerson answered back.
At the other end of the dirt road — at the Moore’s Landing diner — the final days of the Cuttings Wharf community are being felt just as hard.
Inside, co-owner Margie Morin peered out the window, gazing toward the row of homes that over the past month have been slowly drained of life.
“We’re going to miss those people,” she said. “They kind of kept an eye out for us over the years.”
Throughout the confusion and activity that came with the eviction process across the way, Morin has been assuring patrons that the eatery will remain open — though it will be without the regular business and local flavor provided by the wharf’s residents.
At one of the diner’s corner tables, Bob Humphrey who lives in Vallejo was mourning the end of an era.
“I’m heart-broken,” he said. “But for sentimental reasons.”
Humphrey — whose daughter has lived on Cuttings Wharf Road for the last 12 years — grew up in rural Napa County and knew the Moore family in his youth, he said.
While taking a break from helping Dickerson and Cuellar pack their final belongings, he lamented the loss of one of Napa’s rural treasures.
“If I would win the lottery tomorrow, I’d put it back in this place just to keep that legacy alive,” he said, knowing that no such savior is coming. “I’m just glad it lasted as long as it did.”
With the eviction date having come and gone, the fate of the small, well-worn dwellings remains in question.
Moore had previously provided residents with notices saying that demolition would be taking place Thursday, just two days after they were expected to vacate.
However, Eric Banvard, a plans and permit supervisor with Napa County, said that Moore had yet to pull demolition permits from the county’s planning and development office.
Banvard said that it normally takes between seven and 10 days after pulling permits before demolition can proceed, making the Feb. 10 date seem unlikely.
Moore could not be reached for comment.
While the cottages may live on for a few more weeks, those that filled them have uprooted and moved on.
“When we closed on Saturday night, there were no lights on over there,” Morin, the diner owner, said.
In all her years on the wharf, she had never seen it so dark. “It was pretty spooky.”

MONDAY - FEBRUARY 07, 2011 - NAPA, CA - Jerry Cuellar, right, discusses the upcoming evictions at Cuttings Wharf on Monday afternoon as his next door neighbor Teri Dickerson listens. Cuellar, who has lived at Cuttings Wharf for 17 years, will be moving to Vallejo where he will have Dickerson as a roomate. The county found a number of code violations at the properties, which the owner chose not to fix. The owner told the residents to evict the property and plans to demolish the homes. J.L. Sousa/Register

MONDAY - FEBRUARY 07, 2011 - NAPA, CA - Bob Humphrey of Vallejo takes a break at the Moore's Landing diner, from helping his daughter and friends move from their homes at Cuttings Wharf on Monday afternoon. Evictions are set to begin on Tuesday February 8, after the owner chose not to make repairs to the homes. The temporary homes, which first appeared on the property five decades ago, had a number of code violations. J.L. Sousa/Register

MONDAY - FEBRUARY 07, 2011 - NAPA, CA - Moore's Landing diner co-owner Margie Morin wants people to know that the upcoming evictions at the Cuttings Wharf homes hasn't affected her business. The popular eatery remains open after the county found a number of code violations on nearby properties, forcing residents to find other places to live. J.L. Sousa/Register

STUDENT POWER! Occupy UC Berkeley!

2011-09-23 "Tolman Hall Update!"
[http://berkeleycuts.org/]
Update #1:
Hi all! Folks are still here holding the building open, having discussions, watching movies, etc. PLEASE COME OVER AND SUPPORT. EAT DINNER HERE, STUDY HERE, MEET PEOPLE. BE HERE AT 10PM AT 8:30PM WHEN WE WILL NEED THE MOST FORCES. We are on the 1st Floor in the class rooms as well as outside.
Don’t be intimidated by the police, they might be in our halls but we will be ok since we got each other’s backs and they know this. Interestingly, earlier we overheard the police saying that the one thing they do not want students to do is to break out their books and start studying and doing homework! Why are they so afraid of this? We don’t know, but this space is open for you to study. Please do so.
Some info on why Tolman Hall is an appropriate space for us to take and why people have taken it:
-Tolman Hall houses the Department of Education. Symbolically, this is important because our struggle is for free public education for all.
-Tolman Hall currently houses few classes due to seismic retrofitting. Any excuse by the UCPD and UC Administration that our presence here constitutes a disruption of classes is not true. The only disruption would be the UCPD.

Update #2
Posted on September 23, 2011 by Sub
We are still here, just had a class visit us, we’ve been watching documentaries, having some cool conversations and heard from supportive members of the Education Department!
Please stop by, take a room, study, and meet some new people. WE NEED PEOPLE HERE BY 8:30PM!!!!!!!!

Update # 3
Posted on September 23, 2011 by Sub
Unfortunately, the open occupation was ended rather violently by the UCPD. While students and community members had gone into Tolman to create an open, collective alternative space for organizing, studying and solidarity, the UCPD had no intention of allowing students to live in peace. UCPD tackled a demonstrator some time around 8PM arresting him for likely bogus charges. Later, while students chanted in the lobby of Tolman, UCPD tried to block the doors to force students in. When students tried to open the doors, UCPD pushed, punched, and batoned students. One demonstrator trying to exit was tackled, beaten, and had his legs twisted for absolutely no reason. His screams were audible even after UCPD carried him to the second floor of Tolman. More information and videos to come.

2011-09-23 "Video recap of yesterday’s Day of Action and UCPD police brutality"
[http://berkeleycuts.org/]
[From reclaimuc]
Friends:
One of our valued comrades and partner of a UC graduate was severely beaten by police inside Tolman Hall last night, while he cried out repeatedly, “please stop hurting me.” As a matter of course, he was issued severe charges; the more the police injure someone, the worse the charges must be so as to justify their violence.
There is little doubt that he will not be convicted, should this go to trial. However, because his injuries were severe and he had been denied medical attention at the UCPD building nor at Santa Rita, his partner felt it was imperative to get him out as swiftly as possible. This meant posting bond rather than the $15,000 bail, and forfeiting the $1,500.
The good news is that his partner just started a community care job this week that provides medical insurance; she told me this, tearfully but wryly, last night. The bad news is that she is currently broke. She managed to get the necessary amount from her family, but they themselves are quite poor. As a result, we are taking up a collection to help repay them some or all of the amount, and asking for your support. Please understand: because this was bond and not bail, any donations will be exactly that; it won’t be returned at trial. We are grateful for contributions of any amount.
Please contact Joshua Clover (jclover@ucdavis.edu) if you are able to help with this, and we’ll make arrangements about gathering what we can — and we’ll repeat our thanks, both in specific and for the strength of our shared friendships.



2011-09-26 "Statement of Solidarity with September 22 Actions and Arrestees" ratified by United Auto Workers Local 2865, Berkeley Unit:
On September 22nd, members of the UAW 2865 joined several other students, workers, faculty, and their organizations to nonviolently protest the austerity measures undermining the quality and purpose of public education at UC Berkeley and other universities around the state. Hundreds participated in a rally at Sproul Plaza and marched through campus to raise awareness of the undermining of our public institutions and reclaim education as a civil right.
Near the end of the march, participants decided to occupy and utilize empty classrooms in Tolman Hall where the Department of Education is based to hold teach-ins, documentary viewings, and general meetings open to anyone who wished to contribute. While some classrooms in Tolman Hall are still in use, the reclaimed classrooms, which once prepared future generations of educators, are now empty due to administrative and state disinvestment. We students, workers, faculty, and community members understand this neglect of space to be symptomatic of a larger crisis of priorities: upper-level administration and faculty – as well as UCPD – take increasing portions of the budget while workers are fired, overworked, and underpaid; student fees and tuitions are increased; and classroom buildings as well as departments are abandoned. Such austerity measures satisfy investors by selling off our futures, displacing educational costs onto unreasonable amounts of student debt. The university continues to grow and enhance its brand while instructional value suffers, students struggle to graduate, and staff works more for less money and job security. Students and workers transformed these derelict spaces into improvisational classrooms where people could speak critically and openly about how these changes are affecting their lives and about local, national, and international movements to restore affordable education at the center of our democracies. Documentaries were viewed. Food and water was distributed. A conversation with a student activist in Chile was organized. Teach-ins were held.
Although hundreds of students and workers entered Tolman Hall to carry out these peaceful demonstrations, they were met by the UCPD with shows of aggressive, physical force and pepper spray. Throughout the day, the presence of the UCPD militarized the situation and often escalated confrontations. Demonstrators grew increasingly frustrated as they watched one participant be beaten and seized in a hallway outside of a classroom under the pretense of fabricated charges. Around 8:50pm, the UCPD began locking down the building on peacefully chanting demonstrators without giving a dispersal order or even announcing that the building was to be closed – in contrast to the official statement made by UCPD and the UC administration. The counter-force exerted outside the building came after the police locked the doors on protesters. Ultimately, nearly all protestors inside the building were allowed to leave peacefully without receiving citations. We believe these violent, precipitous, and likely illegal actions by the UCPD to be a localized expression of broader structural tensions augmented by divisive strategies of austerity and privatization. The core mission for all members of the academic community –workers, students, faculty, and community members alike—should be the restoration of the purpose and viability of education as a public, democratic good.
The repression of students and workers cannot be tolerated!
Austerity undermining public education will not be tolerated!
As members of the UC community, we demand:
* A complete reversal of recent fee increases.
* A revision of current admissions policies to lift barriers faced by underrepresented students of color and working class students.
* The re-hiring of workers fired as a result of budget cuts
* A full investigation of the Regents’ conflicts of interest, especially their investments in banks and for-profit schools.
* An end to UC administrative and police surveillance, violence, and intervention in political and academic activities.
* Equal and full access to the university for undocumented students and workers.
* The democratic control of the university by students, faculty, and staff.
* All charges be dropped against the two individuals arrested on Sept. 22.
-
The UAW Local 2865, which represents academic student-workers, calls on community members and all faculty, students, workers and their organizations to join us in making these demands.
The escalation of police force against peaceful demonstrators indicates that conventional measures of protest and dialogue have been denied despite official pronouncements by UCPD and the UC administration. If faculty, students, community members, and workers cannot gather peacefully on campus to defend public education against the austerity measures imposed by the UC administration and enforced through the brutality of UCPD, we are increasingly left with no choice but to disrupt business-as-usual at the university in order to be heard.
We call on all community members, faculty, students, workers and their labor unions, associations and organizations to accelerate preparations for larger, collective actions if our demands are not met following sustained efforts of public statements, negotiation, and peaceful protests against the UC administration.

2011-09-23 "UC Berkeley students protest tuition hikes, cuts" by Nanette Asimov from "San Francisco Chronicle"
[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F09%2F22%2FBAGI1L4JNH.DTL]
BERKELEY -- Protest season began with a bang at UC Berkeley as hundreds of chanting, fist-pumping students angry about tuition hikes charged into Tolman Hall during a raucous protest and building occupation Thursday.
A group filled ground-floor hallways before UC police ordered them to disperse about 9 p.m. Protesters outside Tolman Hall began throwing rocks, bottles and chairs at officers, police said. Two people - both male - were arrested, according to UC police Lt. Marc DeCoulode.
One was arrested for an altercation earlier in the day with a UC police officer, whose .40-caliber magazine went flying.
Officer Donna Chapman, who had been trying to order students to clear the building entrance, ran to pick up the cartridge before protesters could grab it. Around her, students shouting, "No cuts! No fees! Education must be free!" flooded into the education and psychology building.
The second person was arrested after chunks of concrete and a chair were thrown.
"It was a little more violent and aggressive than in the past," DeCoulode said. "We respect people's right to protest, but we ask that they do it safely and peacefully."
Protests are expected to resume today.
During the day, students trying to study rolled their eyes at their cacophonous classmates. But most rooms were empty because the building has been declared seismically unsafe.
"We're going to try to put those classrooms to better use," said Callie Maidhof, a doctoral student in anthropology.
The protesters are angry that basic tuition and mandatory fees have soared to $13,218 this year, twice what they were five years ago - and are likely to rise again.
As the state has drastically reduced funding for UC - it cut $650 million this year alone - university officials have laid off hundreds of employees systemwide and say they need tuition increases of 8 to 16 percent a year for four years. The regents have balked, but that could change. They have raised tuition steadily for a decade.
"Let's go in these classrooms and educate students about the cuts and tuition hikes!" cried student organizer Shane Boyle into a megaphone.

Sproul Plaza rally -
The demonstrations began with a noon rally attended by more than 300 students on Sproul Plaza, where students, campus workers, professors and supporters spoke about the devastating funding cuts.
Professor Richard Walker, vice chairman of the Berkeley Faculty Association, told students what they already knew - that the public university is becoming more privately funded as state support diminishes and students pick up more of the costs.
"This great university may no longer be public and may no longer be great," he cried to those gathered on the plaza.
Competitive poetry slammer Gabriel Cortez, a political science major, awed the crowd with his "Protest Poem," urging them to "protest like you need the extra credit."
Speakers criticized lawmakers for failing to raise taxes at a time when California has too little revenue for social services - and higher education. The audience cheered.
Freshman Andrea Nguyen, 17, was excited to attend her first Berkeley protest.
"It's amazing to be involved in and see the reputation of this place in practice," she said.
Like many students, Nguyen comes from a middle-class background and doesn't qualify for financial aid. The rising tuition at Cal "is definitely a strain on our family," she said.
Shortly before 1 p.m., the rally turned into a march. Hundreds of students surged through Sather Gate, chanting "Whose university? Our university!" They exhorted students lounging in the campus sunshine to join them.
"We share the students' frustrations over the state's disinvestment in higher education, and we absolutely support their right to free speech," said campus spokeswoman Janet Gilmore.
But, she said, the protesters would have to leave when the building closed, she said.
Past discipline
Other protesters who have refused to leave buildings have been disciplined under threat of expulsion. Last week, the Alameda County district attorney prosecuted 21 students who took over Wheeler Hall in March.
Three charged with resisting arrest are scheduled to stand trial on Oct. 11. A dozen got community service for trespassing, and six were found not guilty of disturbing the peace.

September 22nd Day of Action + Crazy Police Brutality @ UC Berkeley (HD)

Welcome, you are now in the Northbay Uprising!
On today's episode we have two guests.
Beginning at 3:30pm, Age Scott [www.agescott.com] will talk about hip-hop comix, his new "Superhood" comic book, and his children's show "Cartooning with Age!" [http://www.youtube.com/user/AgeScottTV] shown twice every week, every Monday and Friday at 5:30 pm, on V-CAT TV in Vallejo (channel 26) and anywhere Comcast is showed. please tune in!
Check out his show:





The 2nd guest is Sharon Coleman, host of Backyards Poems for Local Change [as part of 100,000 Poets for Change]
Saturday, September 24, 7:00pm - 9:00pm at Frank Bette Center for the Arts, 1601 Paru at Lincoln, Alameda, CA
Ten poets who work professionally or voluntarily for local change read from their accomplished works of poetry.
Cyrus Armajani--teaches literacy in Alameda Co. Juvenile Hall
Mary J Dacorro--tutor extraordinaire at Laney College
Anita Garriott--critic of mental welfare programs
Kimberly Satterfield--social worker
Claudia Castro Luna--former Oakland school teacher
Milani Pelley--poetry workshop leader for under-served youth
Carla Kandinsky--writing workshop leader for adults on fixed incomes
Sari Friedman--former community college instructor
Lenore Weiss--union political action committee leader
Oscar Bermeo--Oakland school employee and poetry workshop leader for
under-served youth
Hosted by Sharon Coleman and facilitated by Jeanne Lupton

Another event that is part of the National "100,000 Poets for change" is "Revolutionary Poets Brigade in Solidarity with One Hundred Thousand Poets for Change"
Saturday, September 24, 2011, 7:00 pm, at Art International, 963 Pacific St. San Francisco.
poets include Dee Allen, Lincoln Bergman, Judith Bernhard, Kristine Brown, Jim Byron,Giancarlo Campagna, Yolanda Catzalco, devorah major, Agneta Falk, Gary Hicks, Jack Hirschman, Mark Kockinos, Jessica Loos, Jimmy Mankind, Rosemary Manno, Sarah Menefee, Alejandro Murguia, Dottie Payne, Maketa Smith-Groves

100,000 POETS FOR CHANGE, Saturday, September 24, 2011, 7:00 pm, at FOCUS GALLERY, 1534Grant Ave, San Francisco
* Liv Zutphen~ Painter Poet
* Special Guest ~ Tony Serra
* ruth weiss ~ poet
* with Hall Davis, percussion and Doug O'Connor, Bass
4pm-6pm with book signing

2011-09-21 "Wells Fargo Now "Zells Fargo"? E. Palo Alto Residents Rally to Protect Affordable Housing" by Alison Moreno
[http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/21/18690885.php]
Angered that Wells Fargo is not keeping its commitment to honor tenants' concerns, E. Palo Alto residents rallied in front of City Hall Chambers ahead of a City Council meeting on the evening of September 20th. That meeting's agenda: discussion of the sale of a bulk of the housing in the city to “Vulture Investor” Sam Zell of Equity Residential.
Activists loudly demanded at the rally in songs and chants that the City publicly oppose Wells Fargo’s imminent sale of nearly half of the multi-family housing in the City to Equity Residential. Residents were joined by volunteers from Community Legal Services (CLS), Youth United for Community Action (YUCA), and the Raging Grannies.
Demonstrators will hold a second protest at Wells Fargo Corporate Headquarters in San Francisco on Wednesday September 21 at 3pm.
In 2006 Page Mill Properties purchased nearly 2000 units on the western edge of the City of East Palo Alto, to further a secret plan to extract the west-of-Bayshore property from its East Palo Alto home and have it incorporated into wealthy neighbors, Palo Alto and Menlo Park. At the peak of Page Mill’s ownership, almost two thousand families, approximately twenty-five percent of the total population of the City, were under the control of Page Mill. With much of the rental properties in the City under the sole control Page Mill Properties, PMP raised rents, flouted the City’s Rent Control Ordinance and sued the City and local agencies. Their actions resulted in immense financial cost to the City of East Palo Alto and massive social cost to its residents.
Renters were hopeful when Page Mill defaulted and abandoned their control of these properties to Wells Fargo bank, which held the mortgages on these properties. In meetings with community members, Wells Fargo committed to working alongside the East Palo Alto residents. Tenant rights activists urged Wells not to sell to a single buyer in order to avoid the monopolization of rental apartments that occurred under Page Mill.
Yet something bigger than Page Mill may be waiting in the wings. Equity Residential, led by Chairman Sam Zell, is a well-known company with nationwide holdings and a market value of approximately 16.9 billion dollars. Zell, who once said that low-income homeowners need to be “cleaned out” and not given sympathy, seems determined to treat low-income renters in East Palo Alto with the same callousness. East Palo Alto residents are determined to not allow Wells Fargo to break their promise. And if they do, Wells Fargo will be sorry...their name will be forever synonymous with corporate greed in the eyes of those watching.

2011-09-21 "Lines of Healing: The global spread of 100 Thousand Poets for Change" by Blake Montgomery from "Northbay Bohemian" newspaper
[http://www.bohemian.com/bohemian/09.21.11/arts-1138.html]
Michael Rothenberg, Guerneville native, was chatting with a friend on Facebook, venting his angst about the current, deplorable state of politics, the environment, the war and the world in general, when he blurted out an idea: a hundred thousand poets standing up for change. His friend told him to go for it. Rothenberg created a Facebook event, a poetry reading with the dual goals of peace and sustainability under the umbrella of change.
By the end of the day, he had received hundreds of responses from all over the world. Some felt the same malaise that Rothenberg himself felt; others simply loved poetry and wanted to share it. Swiftly, the event grew into a sizable online community that clamored for concrete details. When would the reading happen? Who would be in charge of organizing the events? What was the focus for each event?
Rothenberg, realizing that he had made himself the de facto leader of a movement, set the date for Sept. 24. He left everything else up to the local organizers.
100 Thousand Poets for Change was born.
"Peace and sustainability were the guidelines, and locally, you do what you want," Rothenberg says. "Each event gets to have its own vision; you're getting a global snapshot of the poetry community. I believe that we have this potential to improve the kind of world we live in with poetry."
There is no doubt that the poetry bug has spread voraciously. Rothenberg, though not quite sure why, has certainly inspired the globe. With help from partner and fellow poet Terri Carrion, he's chronicling the events: parades in Montreal, galas in Israel, over 10 events in Mexico City alone. Yvonne de la Vega, a passionate, fast-talking spoken-word artist, has rented out the famed Wadsworth Theater in Los Angeles for her all-day event.
"When I saw the event on Facebook, it just felt right. I knew I had to be involved, and my organizers and I are trying to bring all the diverse communities of Los Angeles together for this event," de la Vega says. "This has never happened in the history of mankind before, the poets have never gathered like this, so we wanted to include everybody. When a poet speaks, he speaks the truth, and though people may not want to hear it, the voice of a poet pierces deeper."
Lisa Vihos, 50, from Sheboygan, Wisc., is planning a smaller event.
"My idea was not to tackle some big political, environmental issue. I wanted people in my town to be more aware of the world around them," Vihos says over the phone while cooking dinner in her kitchen. "We all have the ability to look at the world like poets, and if more people looked at the world with the attention of poets, they would take better care of it."
Of over 650 events in 95 countries worldwide, notable events include a reading across the border in Nogales, Ariz., to Nogales, Mexico, organized by Douglas Steindorff, an ex-marine and poet, to bring more focus to the human side of the current immigration situation. Sarah Browning, part of a group called Split This Rock in Washington, D.C., has brought together poets to read on the lawns of all the embassies of countries where events like 100 Thousand Poets are prohibited, such as China and Iran. Organizers have put together an event in Afghanistan, focusing on peace. Rothenberg himself has been invited to give press conferences in Brussels and Istanbul.
Locally, there are 21 events in the Bay Area alone. At the Sonoma County Book Festival in Santa Rosa, local poet and activist Francisco X. Alarcon has put together a reading in support of the Dream Act. Also in Santa Rosa, the Peace and Justice Center hosts a reading at Gaia's Garden the previous evening. At the Sebastopol Gallery, Sandy Eastoak partners with Hale Thatcher, Shepherd Bliss and others for a reading; former Sonoma County poet laureate Geri Digiorno hosts a "shout-out on the street" in Petaluma; and in Fairfax, a morning poetry gathering takes place at Deer Park.
Rothenberg's initial cry echoes Dickens' immortal opening "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . . . in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received in the superlative degree of comparison only." He seems to want the world to awaken to multiple contradictory views: it is the golden age of gorgeous nature, our planet is doomed; look at the world with the eyes of a poet, no one cares about poetry.
"It's an act of desperation and faith, and I try not to make it more than it is," Rothenberg says. "But at times I can't believe what it is. It's out there, and people are writing. People keep telling me that they're really glad this is happening, and they say they really need it to happen now."
For more, and a full list of events happening around the world, see [www.100tpc.org].