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On Friday, January 4th, prosecutors in the San Francisco 8 case announced that they are, in effect, dropping the conspiracy count against 5 of the men because the statute of limitations on conspiracy charges has expired. Ray Boudreaux, Richard Brown, Hank Jones and Harold Taylor now only face one count, the alleged murder of a San Francisco Police Officer in 1971. The case against Richard O'Neal must now be dismissed since he was originally charged only in the conspiracy count. On January 10th, their lawyers will ask that the conspiracy count be dropped against the other 3 men.

On January 1st, activists slated, sang, and demonstrated at the downtown San Jose Ice Rink where Jeppesen Dataplan displays a corporate banner. The company handles the logistics for the CIA’s torture flights and continues to be a sponsor of the city's ice rink, despite the fact that the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors recently went on record as supporting the Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act and mentioning Jeppesen by name as implicated in the outsourcing of torture.

The Justice Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have launched a joint probe into the CIA's destruction of at least two videotapes documenting prisoner interrogations at a secret CIA prison. One of the tapes may have shown CIA agents waterboarding the Al Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah. The CIA withheld the tapes from the 9/11 Commission despite repeated requests for information on interrogations directed to top CIA and White House officials.

The Santa Cruz Sleeping Ban is a local law that defines sleeping at night as “camping” and prescribes a $97 fine for falling asleep outside a house or hotel within City limits. Using one’s vehicle as housing is illegal, even though the city provides no alternatives. Since there’s shelter space in winter for only 160 of the city’s 1500-2000 homeless residents, the law in effect makes it a crime to be homeless at night, unless you stay awake.

On December 14th, Rod Coronado entered a guilty plea in federal court in San Diego to one count of distribution of information related to the assembly of explosives and weapons of mass destruction. This was the charge that Rod had fought for almost two years and for which he faced approximately five to ten years in prison if found guilty at trial. Rod stated in an open letter that “hopefully this plea agreement will once and for all grant me closure in a well-known campaign of repression against me for my past involvement, association and support for covert campaigns against environmental destroyers and animal abusers..."

The San Francisco 8 continue to speak out about the injustices committed against them in their case, and they have garnered international support in the past several months. In spite of this, those who are out on bail continue to face harassment from law enforcement officials. The Attorney General attempted to have Harold Taylor's bail revoked after Harold was arrested in Florida. The next hearing for all of the SF 8 will be Thursday, January 10th at 9:30am in Department 23, 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco. Motions to dismiss one of the counts will be heard, and the men will be also be entering their Not-Guilty pleas.

RT writes, "Myspace, blogs, and online networks are like a dream for police investigators. Where they used to have to go out and interview people, check records, walk the street, now they merely have to go online. Investigation from the convenience of their offices."