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On June 23rd, the Santa Cruz City Council passed a 45-day moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries in the city limits. Councilmembers said they needed the moratorium because they claimed there was a flood of daily inquiries to the city's Planning Department about opening medical marijuana centers. The are two pending applications for dispensaries on the Westside of Santa Cruz.
The Santa Cruz City Council Measure K Oversight Committee held their most recent meeting on June 15th. As directed in Santa Cruz Municipal Code Section 9.84.060, the Committee is charged with overseeing the implementation of SCMC Chapter 9.84 which makes "Adult Marijuana Criminal Offenses" the "Lowest Law Enforcement Priority."
On June 15th, hundreds of thousands protested in the streets of Tehran in the largest demonstration in Iran's 30-year history, and opposition candidate Mousavi made his first public appearance since the election. Clashes broke out between police and groups protesting the election results early Saturday morning. Police stormed dorms at the University of Tehran on Sunday, with several deaths and many arrests reported. Demonstrators called for the election to be canceled after it was announced that President Ahmadinejad won over 62 percent of the vote.
Joe Tougas writes:
Is there a growing movement in China against capitalism after the curtain has been pulled back to reveal where that road leads? Growing inequality, less access to education, healthcare, housing, and the economic crisis all seem to be leading Chinese folks to be less than enamored with capitalism. Some are looking back to Mao as a model to provide an alternative to following the U.S. over the cliff.
In the face of the Obama administration's refusal to release a reported 2,000 more photographs of detainee abuse — in spite of being ordered by a federal court to do so — torture opponents in fifteen U.S. cities held protests to demand that the government make the photos public. These protests also called for prosecution of those who ordered, legally justified, and carried out torture in US detention and secret prisons during the Bush years.
On May 28th in San Francisco, protesters rallied outside the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals court house to call for the prosecution, impeachment, and disbarment of "Torture Judge" Jay Bybee. Bybee's 2003 lifetime appointment to the federal bench was his reward from George Bush for his work as head of the Office of Legal Counsel. There, Bybee issued the 2002 torture memo which authorized torture including waterboarding, walling, sleep deprivation and other torture techniques.
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Also See:
May 31st John Yoo Home Demo: Shame on Yoo
If approved by the state legislature, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget plan will close 220 of 279 State Parks and Beaches, including each and every State Park and Beach in Santa Cruz County.
The proposed Santa Cruz County State Park and Beach closures are Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Castle Rock State Park, Castro Adobe State Historic Park, Coast Dairies State Park, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Lighthouse Field State Beach, Manresa State Beach, Manresa Uplands State Park, Natural Bridges State Beach, New Brighton State Beach, Palm State Beach, Rio Del Mar State Beach, Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park, Seabright State Beach, Seacliff State Beach, Sunset State Beach, The Forest of Nisene Marks, Twin Lakes State Beach and Wilder Ranch State Park.
A rally to save State Parks and Beaches took place on June 1st at Natural Bridges State Beach. On June 2nd, Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks took a bus to Sacramento for the only public hearing on this proposal before the Legislative Budget Conference Committee. Read more
Rally at Natural Bridges to Save State Parks & Beaches
At 10am on Tuesday May 26th, in a 6-1 decision, the California Supreme Court's ruled in favor of Proposition 8 banning future same-sex marriages but upholding existing same-sex marriages.
In the one dissenting opinion, Judge Moreno stated "This could not have been the intent of those who devised and enacted the initiative process. In my view, the aim of Proposition 8 and all similar initiative measures that seek to alter the California Constitution to deny a fundamental right to a group that has historically been subject to discrimination on the basis of a suspect classification, violates the essence of the equal protection clause of the California Constitution and fundamentally alters its scope and meaning."
California Upholds Proposition 8 Gay Marriage Ban, Leaves 18,000 Same-Sex Marriages Intact
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 PDF Of Decision: Strauss vs. Horton, S168047
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PROP 8 UNHELD 6-1
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Judge Moreno's Dissent
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 Gay Marriage Advocates Likely to Seek Another Ballot Vote
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Feminist Majority Coverage
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ACLU Coverage
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Supreme Court Perverts Power of Initiative Process
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California Was The Future
Street actions to protest discrimination are taking place throughout the day in California and elsewhere in the nation. Most actions took place at 6pm, but immediate action upon the announcement took place in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco and Palo Alto. In San Francisco, police arrested more than 150 protesters for blocking the intersection of Van Ness and Grove near City Hall shortly after the ruling was announced.
Fresno:
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Coverage Of Arrests Near SF City Hall
Los Angeles:
AJLPP Statement
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Press Conference At Gay and Lesbian Center
Sant Barbara:
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San Diego:
Video | Over 4,000 Rally | Over 70 Activists Occupy San Diego County Clerk’s Office
On Saturday, May 30th, a rally of California-wide advocates for national LGBT equality will be held in Fresno. Organizers chose Fresno for its location in the middle of the state and because California's Central Valley population is more representative of "middle-America" attitudes. They say that the struggle for full equality for gays and lesbians has to be won in towns like Fresno, and not just in LGBT-friendly metropolitan areas.
San Francisco | Palo Alto | Santa Cruz and Watsonville | Salinas | Monterey | Hollister | Day of Decision | Meet in the Middle
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Rage about prop8? Its White Night Time
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How to Protest the Prop 8 Decision
MarriageEquality.org
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Previous Indybay Coverage
Buffalo Field Campaign volunteer patrols have been documenting the Montana Department of Livestock, Yellowstone National Park, Gallatin National Forest and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks agents carry out massive and relentless hazing operations, harassing and harming America's last wild bison population.
After a 10-year hiatus, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is back at Stanford University. Rice has said she's ready for spirited debate, but she was recently caught on video being cornered by a student who demanded that she explain her role in authorizing torture. This week about 150 veterans of the fight 40 years ago to dislodge Stanford University from the War in Vietnam, called on Stanford to sever relations with the former Provost.
A rally and march of California-wide advocates for national LGBT equality was held in Fresno on Saturday, May 30th. The California Supreme Court issued its ruling on Prop 8, banning gay marriage, earlier in the week. Organizers chose Fresno for its location in the middle of the state and because the Central Valley is more representative of "middle-America." They say that the struggle for equality has to be won in towns like Fresno and not just in LGBT-friendly metropolitan areas like San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Peter Herlihy and Jerome Dobson, professors of Geography at Kansas University, received funding from the Foreign Military Studies Office, located at the Fort Leavenworth U.S. Army base in Leavenworth, Kansas, to map communally held indigenous land in the states of San Luis Potosi, and in Oaxaca, Mexico. The project, named the Bowman Expeditions or México Indígena, began mapping in 2005 in an indigenous region known as La Husteca, which is partially located in the state of San Luis Potosi, and then moved their operation to the state of Oaxaca amidst the statewide popular uprising of the Oaxacan Peoples’ Popular Assembly (APPO) in 2006.
On Friday, March 27, protesters decried budget cuts to home care workers in front of the State Building in Oakland. SEIU, which organized the protest, claimed that the California budget passed in February contains $1 billion in "trigger cuts" to home care, health care, higher education, SSI/SSP, and CalWORKS. The Oakland protest was part of a day of action organized by SEIU that included a rally at the Capitol Building in Sacramento and in five other cities. "When legislators buried these 'trigger cuts' deep in the February budget agreement, they were counting on not having to take responsibility for their decision to make such unpopular cuts. We're coming to our leaders' front doors to demand they accept responsibility for their decisions that will harm the elderly, the sick, people with disabilities, struggling families, and students," said Paula Cantera, a home care provider in Napa County. The home care workers weren't alone. "If our leaders can find a way to enrich corporations with billions in shameless giveaways, they can find a way to protect our seniors an people with disabilities, " said Gary Passmore, Executive Director of the Congress of California Seniors.
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Students and educators from public colleges all over the state converged on Sacramento on March 16, 2009 to demand that California fully fund higher education and not raise tuition. Many had meetings with legislators. While protests were entirely peaceful, one student was arrested by police for no apparent reason.
Amid the deepening budget crisis in California’s public colleges and schools, over 6,000 students, teachers, administrators, and education workers converged on the State Capitol in Sacramento on March 16, 2009. They came to demand, “Keep the doors open,” “No budget cuts,” “Bail out colleges, not banks,” “Fund education, not war,” and “Money for schools, not prisons.”
They came from all over the state. Students from Los Angeles Mission College had boarded buses before 3 AM to arrive in Sacramento in time to march from Raley Field to the steps of the Capitol for an 11 AM rally. De Anza College in Cupertino sent four buses with some 200 students. Altogether, over 70 buses converged at Raley Field from which participants marched across the drawbridge over the Sacramento River, down the Capitol Mall to the State Capitol, a distance of approximately one mile. They were joined on the steps of the Capitol by students from local area public colleges.
Read More with Photos
Evaluating the health effects of past and future pesticides applied on and around people to combat the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM), three state agencies concluded the potential danger was low because they incorrectly divided instead of multiplying. In their analysis, the agencies divided by the thousands of acres sprayed, when they should have multiplied by the same number of thousands. If only 1,000 acres were involved, the peoples' exposure was as much as one million times greater than reported by the state agencies.
Teachers For Class War spent a second Monday in a row discussing massive cuts to education. California Federation of Teachers (CFT) Field Representative Pat Lerman of the Pájaro Valley Federation of Teachers took some time out to speak with l@s Maestr@s. Two of the hosting Maestr@s got pink slips on Friday, March 13th.
A report released in February and authored by a group of researchers from various organizations supports concerns Californians have had about the aerial spraying of pesticides in the Monterey Bay area in 2007. The study shows the correlation of the unprecedented bird die off and red tide with the timing of the spraying of the pesticide Checkmate.
Following a series of interfaith Town Hall meetings that have been held in Oakland since the murder of Oscar Grant, the first in a series of planned Caravans for Justice headed to Sacramento on February 19th, focused on various aspects of the "justice" system. A caravan of cars and buses traveled from Richmond, Oakland, San Francisco, and East Palo Alto to the California State Capitol to speak out and lobby legislators a number of issues: Oscar Grant and police killings (including revising the "Police Bill of Rights" that shields their misconduct records from the public), repressive gang laws, reforming the Three Strikes law, dropping the charges against the San Franciscso 8, environmental justice, and other laws and issues that criminalize urban youth and negatively effect communities of color.
Speakers and participants included: Christopher Muhammad - Nation of Islam; Pastor Zachary E. Carey - TrueVine Ministries; Keith Muhammad - Nation of Islam; Gordon A. Humphrey, Jr. - Olivet Institutional Missionary Baptist Church; Sandra Swanson - Black Caucus / Ca State Assembly; Joe Coto - Latino Caucus / Ca State Assembly; Barbara Becnel - Author, journalist, and film producer; Jack Bryson - Father of Friend of Oscar Grant III; Archbishop Franzo King - Saint John Coltrane Church; Mandingo - Oakland Black Panther Party; Betty Williams - Sacramento NAACP; Rudy Corpuz - United Playaz; Reverend Daniel Buford; Mike Ali - Native American Activist; Richard Brown - San Francisco 8; and Geoffrey Pete.
Townhall meetings continue to be held every Saturday at 4:30pm at Olivet Missionary Baptist Church in Oakland in order to advance a unified movement for justice and to plan for the Caravan for Justice #2.
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Event Announcement |
Caravan for Justice
See also:
The Police Bill of Rights, Copley, and Where We Are Today in CA with Police Accountability |
Why Fresno Needs an Independent Police Auditor |
Monday, February 23: JR of Flashpoints court hearing for felony charges |
Black Panthers History "Honoring Huey P. Newton", Berkeley, 2/22/09: photos & audio |
Justice for Anita Gay, Justice for All! |
Justice for Anita! Justice for All! Anita Gay Vigil, Berkeley, 2/20/09 |
Town Hall Featuring Minister Louis Farrakhan, Oakland, 2/17/09: photos and audio |
Federal Court's Tentative Ruling Attempts to Stop Overcrowding in CA Prisons |
Federal judges ready to release up to 60,000 California prisoners |
Emergency Town Hall Meeting, 1/10/09 |
BART has a long history of excessive force and lack of accountability
Related Indybay Features:
Activists Take Over BART Board Meeting to Demand Justice for Oscar Grant |
San Jose Sees Sixth Victim of Death by Taser |
Justice Never Served… Five Years after the Murder of Rudy Cardenas by State Police |
Community Groups Respond to Fresno Police Beating of Homeless Man
Diverse communities in the U.S. have been standing together to bring about social change at the grassroots level in an unprecedented wave of euphoria set off by the inauguration of Barack Obama. Whether in public meetings, workshops, or protests the unity of purpose and momentum is palpable. What will it take to translate that human energy into real change?
Environmental leaders from throughout the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas have asked Federal District Judge Saundra Armstrong to deny the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s motion to block disclosure of the chemicals used in the CheckMate pesticides sprayed on Monterey and Santa Cruz residents as part of the government’s Apple Moth Eradication Program. EPA has requested Judge Armstrong to prevent disclosure of the chemicals in the spray, claiming the manufacturer’s proprietary interest outweighs the public’s right to know.
On January 20th, 2009, George W Bush left the White House and Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. The transition was marked in several ways across Northern California. From San Francisco to Fresno to Santa Cruz to Mountain View to Sacramento, the transfer of power was met with relief, cautious celebration, and determination to keep the fight for social justice alive. Many are concerned about military policies of George Bush that Obama may continue or expand.
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