Feature Archives

Community Media with Indybay will be an introduction to contributing to the all-volunteer website, Santa Cruz Indymedia (aka Indybay). Beginning July 11th, people who are passionate about local independent media will meet every other Wednesday as part of Free Skool Santa Cruz for workshops and discussions on how anyone can publish text, photos, audio and video, either as news articles or event announcements directly to the website.

On July 1st, a benefit for Desiree Foster of the Santa Cruz Eleven was held at India Joze restaurant. Foster and ten other people were charged with two felonies each in relation to the occupation of a vacant bank building located at 75 River Street in Santa Cruz in the Fall of 2011. Foster, a 19-year-old woman, has been undergoing financial difficulties due in part to her mother's cancer diagnosis. The benefit featured food cooked and served by India Joze owner Jozseph Schultz and performances by several of Santa Cruz's biggest names in music and entertainment.

On June 27th, George Cadman interviewed local activist and best-selling author John Robbins about his latest book, No Happy Cows: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Food Revolution. John and George talked about the revolving door between Big Ag and government agencies like the FDA, the rising cost of healthcare in the United States, the predatory ad campaigns that are directed at children by big fast food companies and the misleading "Happy Cows" advertising campaign of the California Milk Advisory Board.

A support event for Desiree Foster of the Santa Cruz Eleven will be held on Sunday, July 1st. India Joze restaurant and Supporters of the Santa Cruz Eleven are hosting the community gathering to bring awareness to the SC-11, and to help out Desire Foster who is experiencing financial hardships. At 19 years of age, she's the youngest of the SC-11, who have all been charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors. Desiree is caring for her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer.

It was standing room only in the county government center for the Santa Cruz LAFCO meeting on June 6th, where over 50 community members spoke before the commission in support of protecting the forest and open space of the UC Santa Cruz upper campus from future development. LAFCO decided the next vote on the matter would be held in October.

On Saturday, June 23rd, the Springfield Grange in Pájaro hosted the Festival of Tamales, a benefit for the Grange and Center for Farmworker Families. The menu featured delicious sweet and savory tamales, made with GMO-free masa from El Aguila Foods, including turkey and chile verde, sweet corn, and ollalieberry pecan praline. The tamales were made by local community members using recipes from El Salvador, Mexico, Texas, and the Monterey Bay Area.

The first recorded Father's Day commemoration was in remembrance of a mining disaster that brought attention to the plight of working people and unsafe working conditions across the US, when hundreds of fathers died in a mine in West Virginia in 1908. With the holiday's origins in mind, members of the San Jose and Redwood City Occupy groups performed mic check demonstrations at branches of various corporate entities on the San Francisco Peninsula that have a record of anti-labor practices.