Rick Morse and his son Brandon operate the MedMar medical marijuana dispensary in the Tower District in Fresno. The City of Fresno has been trying to shut them down for several months now. The city is using a zoning ordinance that says medical marijuana dispensaries must comply with both state and federal law. While medical marijuana is legal under state law, it is illegal under federal law.

The Morse's held a press conference on June 22nd to explain the latest news about the City of Fresno’s attempt to close their medical marijuana dispensary. They say that the city has put pressure on their landlord to have them evicted from the location where their dispensary is located.

Around the first of the year, there were over 10 medical marijuana dispensaries operating in the Fresno area. When the city filed a lawsuit to shut down the dispensaries, they were given a court order to close them down, until the legality of the city zoning ordinance could be decided.

All of the dispensaries, except MedMar shut down. Rick Morse defied the judges order and was arrested and jailed on contempt of court charges. Because of jail overcrowding he was released. He was re-arrested, jailed, and released again. Morse says he has now been arrested and released three times.

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Does corporate media leave you unsatisfied? Do you think something better is possible? If so, come to the Fresno Free Speech Media Conference on Saturday, February 20, where you will find out how to be a part of important changes that are taking place in the local media scene.
The conference will show you how to be part of the Valley's growing independent media movement. There will be panels that give you information about how to become involved with local print and broadcast media, and there will be workshops where you will learn the skills you need to start producing the stories people in this community need to know about.

The workshops will consist of training in video, radio and print. The video training will be given by professionals who are involved in the Community Media Access Collaborative (CMAC). CMAC is in the process of establishing a Community Media Center for the Public, Education, and Government (PEG) channels in the Fresno/Clovis area. Soon, the Public Access channel will be on the air and they will need content providers to produce locally originated programming. The training will explain how you can become involved and have your own show on the Public Access channel.

Radio producers from Radio Bilingue and KFCF 88.1 FM, two listener-sponsored noncommercial stations, will conduct workshops that will show how you can become involved in radio broadcasting.

There will be a writing workshop conducted by Conn Hallinan, an excellent writer and teacher from the Bay Area, as well as a workshop on how to conduct an interview and one on investigative reporting.

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On Tuesday, February 9, police arrested Rick Morse, the owner of Med Mar, the last medical marijuana dispensary in the City of Fresno. Morse was arrested for violating a court order which closed about one dozen dispensaries in January.

The City of Fresno's ordinance on medical marijuana dispensaries severely restricts their ability to operate legally. The ordinance says that dispensaries must comply with both state and federal law. Medical marijuana is legal under state law, but illegal under federal statutes. In January a judge issued a preliminary injunction, closing the dispensaries until the issue could be heard in court.

All but one dispensary, Med Mar, shut down. Med Mar owner Rick Morse explained why: "it appears there is some confusion in the ordinance. It says medical marijuana dispensaries are allowed as long as they comply with state and federal law. I assert that we are complying with state and federal law."

Morse's son Brandon spoke to the media about his fathers arrest. He said "This morning my father was illegally arrested by the City of Fresno. They executed an unconstitutionally void warrant for his arrest. Today, my father peacefully went with the authorities and as of 12 Noon he has started a fast for justice. I have joined him in this fast and we are asking people from across the city to pray for him."

Indymedia journalist Mike Rhodes spoke with several medical marijuana patients outside Med Mar who talked about the arrest. The first person, who preferred to remain anonymous said “this makes it to where people that are sick, that have been proven to be sick by their doctors, they can’t get their medicine. So, how does that help the City of Fresno, keeping people that are sick and that are in pain from getting their medicine?”

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The Fresno City Council has passed, with a 6-1 vote, an ordinance that will remove homeless people from median islands while allowing established community groups to continue using the space for their fundraisers. Bill Simon, the chairperson of the Greater Fresno American Civil Liberties Union, called the measure discriminatory.

Simon said, "Perhaps Mr. Westerlund was well intentioned when he proposed this median safety ordinance, but on its face it has a discriminatory intent and motive against poor people, especially against the homeless while protecting two popular fundraisers - The Fresno Bee Day for Children's Hospital and the Firefighters fundraiser. But, the equal protection guaranteed by the Constitution does not allow one set of rules for some people and another set for others. Equal treatment means everyone or no one. If fundraising on a median is unsafe for some, then it is unsafe for all."

Fresno City Council member Larry Westerland defended his ordinance, saying that if "somebody who wanted to, up to one time every six months, they would be able to come in and there would be a form they would fill out, a one page form, it would be like here is my name, here is the median I would like to occupy on this date, whatever that date would be. We talked about a 48 hour notice before going out there." Westerlund's ordinance would require the applicant to pay a filling fee, provide proof of insurance, and require the use of a brightly colored vest.

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On January 12, 2010, two banners were strategically placed on the UC Davis main library, reclaiming public space as well as "announcing Happy New Year to the administrators who hoped we would disappear," according to an article posted to Indybay. The banners read “We are the crisis” and “Our education, our workplace, our university.”

The banners highlighted the connections between the struggles of UC’s students, faculty, and staff members. An article posted to Indybay states that the message of the banner hang is that, at the beginning of the new quarter in which students are being required to pay 15% more in fees for their education (with an additional 17% fee increase set to occur in Fall 2010), "resistance to the UC administration’s decision-making is alive and mounting."

Shields Library was reportedly chosen as a target for these banners because of the chronic underfunding of UCD library collections, staff, and resources. The action is a precursor to mobilize protesters for a statewide day of action against the privatization of public education on March 4th. Read more

New Posters from Students in the Valley | Napa Valley College shows solidarity with statewide protests and rallies. | Update on the protests at UC Berkeley | Students protest fee hikes: an interview wit’ journalist Dave Id of Indy Bay Media | Communiqués from the Valley: New pamphlet on Student Strugggle in the Central Valley | The Enemy Within | What We Lack is Life. | Reflections on Kerr Hall (by student participants)

Older Coverage: Eight Arrested at UC Berkeley After Concert & March | Students Occupy Business Building at SFSU | On the Occupation of Kerr Hall; Demystifying the University's Erroneous Claims | California Students Protest and Occupy as UC Regents Approve 32% Fee Hike

The latest National Alliance Membership Bulletin has a detailed cover story about the Sacramento unit’s recruiting activities at local gun shows. In the article the unit leader, Jim Ring, brags about his success at signing up neo-Nazis at these events.

This notorious hate group intends to have several tables at the Cal Expo Center this weekend, January 2nd and 3rd. Jim Ring has claimed to local racists that the show sponsor, McMann Roadrunner, is "sympathetic" to the National Alliance message. McMann ignores complaints from customers and vendors when the NA appears at their shows in California and Arizona, according to Ring, who brags that McMann gives him a discount for his tables and allows him to promote and sell copies of the Turner Diaries at the show.

Antifa write that, "Sacramento has literally become 'ground zero' in our fight against these fascists." Read more

A poorly researched article on California water, the "New Dust Bowl," is online and appeared in the November-December edition of Mother Jones magazine, a publication known for its investigative reporting. Dan Bacher, an Indybay contributor and editor for Fish Sniffer, critiques the article, stating, "The 'New Dust Bowl' sounds just like a headline from the Sean Hannity Show or Fox 'News' - and the article reads like a propaganda piece for growers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley."

"On the west side of the valley, which is often last in line for deliveries from federal water projects, farmers are selling prized almond trees for firewood, fields are reverting to weed, and farmworkers who once fled droughts in Mexico are overwhelming food banks," claims the author, Josh Harkinson. "In short, the valley is becoming what an earlier generation of refugees thought they'd escaped: an ecological catastrophe in the middle of a social and economic one—a 21st century Dust Bowl."

In falsely portraying the west side as "a 21st century Dust Bowl," Harkinson sounds here like a speech writer for one of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's rants for a rally of the Latino Water Coalition, an "Astroturf" organization set up by the Governor and San Joaquin Valley growers to put a "human face" on corporate agribusiness in order to promote the construction of a peripheral canal and more dams and to strip protections for Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt and other fish species under the Endangered Species Act.

Read more | The PR Firm from Hell | Another Right Wing March and Rally for Water | The Three Big Lies Behind the Peripheral Canal | Arnold Astroturfs His Way to Environmental Destruction | Environmental Groups Around State Oppose Scary Legislative Water Package | San Joaquin Poverty and Industrial Agribusiness: Law Review Article by Lloyd Carter | We Expected Better of the Network That Gave Us Edward R. Murrow | USDA Data Dispels Myth that West Side Growers 'Feed the Nation'

Does your right to carry a skateboard vanish into thin air when you step onto the Fresno City College campus? Ask Greg and Demone Moultrie, who are still sitting in the Fresno County Jail, what they think. According to witnesses, Greg Moultrie was walking on campus with his skateboard in his hands on September 25, 2009 when he was stopped by a campus police officer. The officer ordered Moultrie to hand over his skateboard. When he did not want to comply with what he felt was an unreasonable request, the incident escalated and Demone Moultrie, Greg's brother, got involved. As officers scuffled with the Moultries, a student at the Native American Intertribal Student Association table got on the group's PA system and encouraged students to use their cell phones to film the incident.

In video on the Internet, you can see the chaotic scene, including one of the officers hitting Demone with his baton. Greg was sprayed with mace. Greg is now, more than three months after this incident, still sitting in the Fresno County Jail. He has just been given a three year sentence for charges filed against him in the skateboarding incident. Demone is also still in jail and is scheduled to be sent to Chino State Prison on January 21, all because of this skateboarding incident. How could something as simple as walking across the FCC campus with a skateboard end up with two young men in jail for a prolonged period of time? Read more

Saturday, November 21, 2009 - Students at CSU-Fresno took over the university library, keeping it open for 24 hours from Friday - Saturday morning. About 100 students and supporters occupied the second floor of the Madden Library, demanding that more university resources go towards keeping the library open for more hours. Ali Espinoza, one of the student leaders who helped organize the takeover, said the university keeps their bowling ally and pool hall open more hours than the library.

The student demands, however, go beyond longer library hours - they want a larger voice in how the university is run. In addition to more library hours the students want co-governance and greater transparency in financial matters on campus. The “study-in” ended at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning, with the students saying progress had been made in discussions with the dean of library services.

Photos | Audio and Photos

On Friday, November 6th, 2009, the Fresno Brown Berets and California Prison Moratorium Project organized a march and rally in protest of what they say is “Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer's corrupt and racist administration.” They called for his resignation or termination as police chief.

There have been 9 murders by police this year, 40 since Dyer took office. Every single one has been deemed justified by Dyer. He and his force consistently resist any calls for transparency or accountability. Activists say that "No matter what Dyer says, drug use and crimes of poverty do not justify a police officer implementing the death penalty."

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See Also: Fresno Police Kill 2 Unarmed Men this Week | Justice for Lonnie Graham and all Victims of Police Brutality