Feature Archives

The federal government announced on August 2 the start of two new analyses of fracking risks to California public lands. The Bureau of Land Management will begin developing a new “environmental impact statement” for fracking in Central California, along with a statewide independent scientific assessment of the dangerous oil extraction process. Completion of the environmental impact statement and scientific review are likely to take more than a year.

On August 5, Palo Alto's City Council passed a ban prohibiting people from dwelling in their vehicles. Violation of the ordinance, which will take effect in 2014, can result in a misdemeanor charge with a fine of up to $1,000 and possible jail time of 6 months. Before the council's decision dozens of homeless advocates staged a protest in front of City Hall, then took turns addressing the council in chambers. They screamed out "shame!" when the council voted 7 to 2 to enact the ban.

On August 3, over 2,000 people marched from the Richmond BART station to Chevron's Richmond refinery. Over 200 people were arrested at a sit-in at the gate and released on the scene. There will be a protest on the one-year anniversary of the explosion on August 6 at Richmond Civic Center Plaza. On August 17, the coalition that organized the action will meet at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists.

Governor Brown has proposed building two massive $50 billion water tunnels to divert the Sacramento River to corporate interests in the Central Valley. Fracking opponents say the peripheral tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta could play a role in increasing fracking in California, so that oil companies and huge agribusinesses can make even more profits.

On July 27, the Canaan protest village was built for the fifth time on annexed Palestinian land in the middle of the illegal Gosh Ezion Colonial block next to the illegal settler colony of Migdal Oz. The nonviolent protesters stayed in the tent on their land for around an hour and a half before the Israeli occupation soldiers tore it down, violently repressing the demonstration. The tent village was built to remember the right of Palestinians to their land and to express solidarity with hunger strikers imprisoned for fighting for the Palestinian struggle.

UPDATE: Oakland City Council voted 6-0 to continue development of city-wide surveillance program.

The Domain Awareness Center started as a nationwide initiative to secure ports by networking sensors and cameras in and around the facilities. The Oakland DAC has ballooned into a surveillance program for the entire city. As planned, the center would integrate computer dispatch systems, gunshot detection microphones, license-plate readers, crime mapping software, stationary video cameras, private alarm detection programs, Twitter feeds, news feeds, other alerts, and eventually it could feature facial recognition. Civil liberties advocates intend to make a stand against the program at the Oakland City Council meeting on July 30.

Following the unauthorized release of information by Edward Snowden on June 7, the NSA has faced an unprecedented wave of public scrutiny. On July 23, the California Department of Corrections (CDC) "apprehended, rehabilitated and discharged" a billboard in San Francisco, one day before a U.S. House of Representatives vote that would have curtailed the NSA's surveillance inside the United States. On July 24th, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on an amendment to a military appropriations bill that would have eliminated funding for the agency’s vast phone data collection. The amendment was narrowly defeated by a margin of 205 to 217