Last year, Mountain View Day Worker Center supporters purchased an abandoned cinderblock building next to railroad tracks on Escuela Avenue in Mountain View, California. Plans are in place for day workers to help renovate the building and make improvements to the neighborhood, but NIMBY ("not in my back yard") neighbors nevertheless called in a Washington D.C. based group, Judicial Watch, to advise them on protecting their neighborhood from "illegal" immigrants.

Judicial Watch is a right-wing organization that initiates legal battles against day laborer centers around the country. Through their "sanctuary busters" program, they make the claim that day laborer centers violate federal immigration law by hiring undocumented immigrants. In April, a representative of Judicial Watch addressed a meeting of Escuela Avenue residents, calling it a "public education effort."

Judicial Watch has filed lawsuits in Herndon, Virginia, and Laguna Beach, California. But Chris Newman, the legal director of a national group of day laborer centers, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, called Judicial Watch's lawsuits baseless, pointing out that they are meant to generate anti-immigrant sentiments and intimidate people.

The city council remains stalwart in the face of threats of a lawsuit by members of the neighborhood group. The council initially approved the Day Worker Center's permit on May 5. On May 12, with a unanimous vote, the council turned down the NIMBY group's appeal of the council's earlier decision. Read more

Nimby Group Loses Anti-Day Worker Center Appeal | National Day Laborer Organizing Network

Anticipating former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's return to the Stanford University campus, student and faculty activists began demanding early this year that the University take the position that it is aware of Rice’s alleged offenses against human rights, the U.S. Constitution, and international law.

On May 3, members of the April Third Movement (A3M) from the Vietnam War protest era nailed a memo to the university president's office door, demanding that Stanford sever relations with the former Provost. The former students who led the fight 40 years ago to dislodge Stanford University from the War in Vietnam were joined by faculty, students, and peace activists from the local community who added color to the protest in Raging Granny regalia and orange jumpsuits with black hoods. A3M leader Marjorie Cohn, now president of the National Lawyers' Guild, said, "By nailing this petition to the door of the president's office, we are telling Stanford that the university should not have war criminals on its faculty."

Last week the former Secretary of State appeared at a dinner for selected students in a dormitory hall. While there she was asked to explain the use of waterboarding to which she replied, "we did not torture anyone". She referred to torture as "enhanced interrogation" and scolded the student saying, "do your homework." The conversation with Rice's denial was caught on videotape by a second student.

Rice's role in authorizing waterboarding in 2002 was detailed in a narrative released last month by the Senate Intelligence Committee. It showed that Rice played a greater role than she admitted last fall in written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Condi Caught Lying on Tape About Torture | April Third Movement Members Demand Stanford Sever Ties with Condoleezza Rice | Condoleezza Rice Challenged on War and Torture at Stanford

Page Mill Properties, the largest landlord of properties in East Palo Alto, may face criminal charges in the death of one of its employees. The victim of what many feel is the investor/landlord's negligence, was decorating trees with Christmas lights at Page Mill's direction when the string of lights came into contact with a high voltage electric line in the winter of 2007. The 24 year-old employee suffered death by electrocution.

Cal/OSHA determined that Page Mill had failed to train the employee to work near electrical lines and let him work near high-voltage lines without correct safety precautions. In late November 2008, after their appeal to the state office was denied, Page Mill paid Cal/OSHA more than $36,000 in penalties. A Page Mill spokesperson refused to disclose the amount the company paid to the family of the victim in a settlement.

Now the San Mateo District Attorney is deciding whether to file criminal charges in the case. Tenant activists are closely following the case, and are communicating with members of the Board of Supervisors of San Mateo County in hopes of encouraging the DA to proceed with criminal charges against the landlord. Activists want the county District Attorney to take the matter seriously, and have expressed concern that Jim Shore, who has worked as a Deputy DA in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and now serves as general counsel to Page Mill, might try to influence his former colleagues on this matter.

Read more | Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | EPA-Tenants.org

East Palo Alto, a city established in the mid-80's around the rallying cry for rent stabilization, is home to low-income residents, including many whose first language is not English. Not long after the company began buying up apartment buildings in that city in 2006, it announced rent increases that were in violation of the city's Rent Stabilization Ordinance. After repeated violations, the community rallied to form a tenants' organization. In August 2008, tenant Christopher Lund together with East Palo Alto city representatives, called on the public pension fund CalPERS, a major Page Mill investor, to help stop Page Mill Properties's predatory actions. Page Mill began a campaign to discredit Mr. Lund's reputation. With the assistance of the Palo Alto Police Department, the company attempted to entrap the tenant activist by tapping his phone.

Page Mill reported to police that Lund tried to extort $20,000 from them in exchange for agreeing to vacate his unit and solve the company's problems with tenant groups. The Palo Alto Police Department then worked with Page Mill to set up a tap on Lund's phone. In that secretly recorded conversation a director at Page Mill, Russell Schaadt, offered Lund $25,000 to get him out of the picture. Lund refused, adding during the recorded conversation, "That's not on the table, and it has never been about personal settlement."

Mr. Lund and other activists are also questioning the possible involvement of an active member of the Palo Alto Police Department, Lt. Tim Morgan. In an article in the San Jose Mercury News, Palo Alto Police Agent Dan Ryan said former police chief Lynne Johnson authorized Morgan to do contract work for Page Mill early last year, and he began working for the company this past summer. Lund says the lieutenant is easily recognized by activists as someone who showed up at a City of East Palo Alto Rent Board meeting, where he blocked an activist's car. Tenants and neighbors spotted him lurking with a concealed weapon near the home of Mr. Lund on January 29 and 30 and on one of those occasions he photographed Mr. Lund and his car. Renters rights supporters are now wondering if Lt. Morgan was involved in the wiretapping incident as well and the Police Department is looking into the matter.

In an interview with the Mercury News, the lieutenant said he has nothing to do with "the extortion in Palo Alto", and that he is merely working as an "emergency preparedness consultant" for the landlord. Page Mill has sent other employees to tear down Tenants' Rights notices posted on telephone poles in East Palo Alto. Photos provided to indybay by Mr. Lund show trashed yellow notices of renters' rights along with white flyers notifying tenants of a website they can visit for help, and the Page Mill employee's truck as he speeds away.

Photos and Reports: 2/9: E. Palo Alto Landlord Hits Rock Bottom with Extreme Tactics | 2/7: Questionable Police Practices Continue After Palo Alto Police Chief Forced to Retire | Mega-Landlord Offers Tenant Activist $20,000, then Twists Bribe into Extortion Charge | EPA-Tenants.org

A controversy began in 2007 when a young mother's profile photo of her nursing her infant suddenly disappeared from the social networking website Facebook. There was no explanation as to why the photo was removed, and Facebook has not responded to her inquiries. Despite queries from other women who have found similar family photos removed over the last year, Facebook still hasn’t changed its policy.

On December 27th, about twenty demonstrators gathered in front of Facebook's headquarters in Palo Alto to protest discrimination against nursing mothers. They told members of the press that in some cases their family pictures have been reported as "obscene" and they have been warned by Facebook that if they repost the photos they risk being banned from the online site.

At the same time that the group raised their concerns in interviews, chants, and song in front of Facebook's office, a virtual “nurse-in” was taking place on Facebook itself. Online demonstrators changed their profile photo for the day, to a picture of a nursing child. By Saturday evening, with hundreds joining per hour, over 70,000 members had joined the "Hey Facebook, Breast-feeding is not Obscene" site.

"Breast feeding is beautiful and to hide it in shame is absurd. Facebook’s removal of our pictures sends the wrong message to new moms," said a mother who nursed her baby as she stood in front of the company's headquarters on University Ave. Several older, experienced mothers also came out in support of the demonstration. One grandmother who came with her daughter-in-law and grandbaby in arms said that breast milk is the healthiest source of nutrition for infants and should be encouraged, not discouraged by labeling it has Facebook has. A member of the Raging Grannies summed up the feeling of many saying, "female breasts are not obscene, Facebook's attitude is!"

Photos | Announcement | Facebook Discriminates Against Nursing Moms | Mothers Breastfeed and Protest at Facebook HQ in Palo Alto | Mothers International Lactation Campaign

On November 20, the City of Palo Alto announced that its controversial police chief will retire on December 19. Chief Lynne Johnson sparked protests and a November 9 march on the city when she stated that she had instructed officers on her force to make "consensual contact" with African American men to counter a crime spike in Palo Alto. 

Her remarks were quoted in news reports worldwide and the topic of racial profiling became a much discussed issue at subsequent city council meetings. Some city officials took the opportunity to acknowledge that racial profiling exists and must be combatted, while others took the stance that the police chief "merely misspoke".

Although the police chief made several attempts at apologizing, many residents of the city and surrounding communities were left wondering why she directed her officers to look for African Americans with do-rags when victims of a 5-month city-wide crime spree had variously described suspects as being of African American, Pacific Islander, Latino or white descent.

Chief Johnson has been the target of other criticism in recent years, including what many feel was an over-reaction to a small anarchist rally in downtown Palo Alto in June 2005. To bolster the Palo Alto police force, Chief Johnson had all other police agencies in Santa Clara County plus the California Highway Patrol send a combined 233 officers to Palo Alto for about seven hours on the afternoon and evening of June 25. In addition Palo Alto was charged for the use of a police helicopter from the city of San Jose. The total cost to the city of Palo Alto is estimated to have been around $200,000 for police protection for a pre-announced anarchist rally, apparently organized by local teenagers, that began around 7 p.m. and ended about 10 p.m.

Read more | Previous coverage

On November 10, the Palo Alto City Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning racial profiling. In doing so they acknowledged the damage caused when Police Chief Lynne Johnson, commenting on a recent crime spike, said that she ordered her officers to question African Americans they see in Palo Alto to find out who they are.

Chief Johnson stated at a community meeting in late October that her officers would be stopping African American males and having "consensual" interviews. The purpose of the interviews would be to determine who they were and what they were doing in the city of Palo Alto, she stated. The next day she rephrased her original statement as follows: "What I meant to say," she attempted to clarify, "was that the officers, when they see not just the African American male adult, but the behavior, if the person is acting suspicious then they are to make contact and find out who that person is."

Victims of the recent crime wave in Palo Alto have variously described their assailants as being black, Latino, white, or Pacific Islander males, so many residents of Palo Alto and neighboring cities are wondering why the police chief is apparently targeting African Americans.

Community leaders including Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and Palo Alto Mayor Larry Klein expressed deep concern about Chief Johnson's ability to continue to act as head of the city's police department. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, issued a statement condemning the chief's original remarks. Eshoo said that Chief Johnson had "demonstrated a profound lack of judgment and leadership." In an official statement the Congresswoman said that the Police Chief should rescind her comments and orders or resign. Palo Alto Mayor Larry Klein said the chief's remarks were "unacceptable, unconstitutional and un-American."

A march starting in East Palo Alto, a city with a large African American and Latino population across highway 101 from Palo Alto, was held on November 9. Several hundred people then rallied in front of Palo Alto City Hall. Dr. Faye McNair-Knox, Executive Director of *One East Palo Alto* announced a seven point plan to stop racial profiling in Palo Alto. That plan included a call for a boycott of Palo Alto businesses and the immediate resignation of Chief Johnson.

Backlash Against Palo Alto Police Chief | March Against Racial Profiling | Erase + Racism = Eracism | East Palo Alto Residents Ask: Am I a Suspect?

October 27, 2008: Tenants and the City of East Palo Alto have been in a legal dispute with Page Mill Properties/Woodland Park Management since January 2008 over Page Mill’s repeated violations of the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance, raising tenant rents 2 or 3 times in one year totaling raises of 20%, 30%, and even up to 100%.

The October 27 hearing was to address Page Mill's challenge of the legitimacy of the revised Rules and Regulations for Implementation of the Rent Stabilization Ordinance that East Palo Alto's Rent Board passed in early July. These revised Rules and Regulations keep the intent of the original 1984 rent stabilization ordinance very clear; it is illegal for a landlord to raise anyone's rent more than the annual general adjustment in a given year--averaging around 3% each year.

East Palo Alto resident and member of the Fair Rent Now Coalition Matt Martin said that if the judge had affirmed the city’s authority it would have been a victory for tenants and the city, but yesterday's judgment "may allow predatory corporations like Page Mill Properties to undermine and override the city’s authority by forcing current tenants out through illegal rent increases."

Tenant and activist Matthew Fremont, who addressed the rally shortly before the hearing began, said later in the day that although the ruling went against the tenants on the most important point, the judge's decision still "leaves open a couple of possibilities to get relief for tenants." He and others said they plan to continue to assert the Rent Stabilization Board's authority to enforce the ordinance.

Tenants say they will continue the struggle to preserve meaningful rent control.

Read more | In the Courts and On the Streets | Investor Landlord Fights City Built on Rent Control | Youth United for Community Action

Neoliberalism, the economic view that emphasizes the importance of economic growth and asserts that social justice is best maintained by free market forces with minimal government interference, is a myth. Naomi Klein began her speech at Stanford University on October 16th with this sentiment.

Americans used to call it Reaganomics, while Brits have dubbed it Thatcherism. Ms. Klein reminded the audience that the French may have the best expression for it, "savage capitalism."

Stanford is no Berkeley, but the speaker had a standing room-only crowd of sympathetic listeners. Ms. Klein told the audience that when she spoke at the University of Chicago, home to Milton Friedman die-hards, everyone connected with the Department of Economics seemingly boycotted her appearance.

Ms. Klein is the author of Shock Doctrine, a book meant to be a wake-up call and prompt what she calls "acute intellectual disaster preparedness." Ms. Klein dubs toxic debt "a financial weapon of mass destruction." President Bush said of the crisis that Wall Street got drunk; Klein says Bush was the Bartender-in-Chief.

Read More | Shock Doctorin' | Naomi Klein

Sarah Palin flew into San Francisco to attend a GOP fundraiser on October 5 but did not speak publicly and won't be staying a minute longer than necessary to collect money in the bay area. Several hundred angry protesters gathered in front of the Hyatt-Regency Hotel in Burlingame, adjacent to the San Francisco airport, to demonstrate their displeasure with the GOP platform. Following the vice-presidential candidates recent debate with Democratic candidate Joe Biden, many protesters' signs referred to Palin as an outright liar. Others took issue with her extremist views on abortion. The California Democratic Party sent invitations to area party members to "Greet Sarah Palin" in protest, but representatives of groups World Can't Wait and the Raging Grannies outperformed the more staid Democrats with colorful costumes, props and chants.

Environmental activists dressed as wolves howled in pain while union members led chants from a flatbed truck. Veterans for Peace members from chapters 101 (San Jose and SF Peninsula) and 69 (San Francisco) mocked the Republican McCain ticket campaign poster by adding the tag line "War Without End" and "Give Us Several Trillion Dollars" to their signs.

Palin's motorcade drove past the demonstrators and arrived at the Hyatt-Regency in Burlingame at about 11:00am though she was scheduled to speak to a fund-raising brunch at 10:30am. Several demonstrators commented that it is typical of Republican officials to swoop into the San Francisco airport and appear at one of Burlingame's airport hotels in order to make a quick getaway from an overwhelmingly anti-war San Francisco.

Following the vice-presidential candidate's recent debate with Democratic candidate Joe Biden and her attacks on Obama's character made at a speech in Carson, CA on October 4, many protesters' signs referred to Palin as an outright liar.

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6