Feature Archives

A personal account of the government's persecution and entrapment of political prisoner, Eric McDavid, will be given on Monday, March 30th at 7:00pm at the Subrosa Infoshop (703 Pacific Avenue) in Santa Cruz. Eric was arrested on January 13, 2006, and has remained in custody since, after being sentenced to 19 years in prison. Eric was entrapped by an FBI agent, known as "Anna", who spent over three years setting him up for the felony of "thought-crime."

The U.S. Navy is facing criticism for its training operations on the Pacific coast. Environmental groups say some areas should be off limits to weapons testing. The Navy wants to use nearly the entire U.S. coastline for weapons and warfare training including under water bomb detonations and mining, and the use of aircraft, missiles and sonar. Environmental groups say the use of sonar and bombs has long-range effects on marine life.

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.

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.

January 2009 marked the 3rd year that Eric McDavid has spent behind bars. His arrest and imprisonment were a direct result of government infiltration and entrapment. Eric has spent the last three years of his life in a cage for what amounts to thought crime. Those years have been full of challenges and struggle. Most recently, Eric has been enduring lockdowns at the prison, the loss of phone and internet access, and a move.

The 55-year-old Bevatron particle accelerator at the Berkeley Lab will soon be reduced to 4,700 truckloads of rubble to make way for a new experimental facility. Local residents worry that UC's disposal methods are not taking the human population and environment thoroughly into account, and point to the history of the Bevatron as a facility intended to further nuclear weapons technology. Radioactive waste will be trucked to Nevada, while less hazardous rubble will be dumped in Richmond and Livermore.

Since December, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been disrupting whaling operations by a Japanese fleet that illegally hunts whales under the guise of "research." Confrontations included Sea Shepard lobbing rotten butter onto the decks of the whaling ships as well as directly ramming whaling ships on the open seas at times. The whalers in turn have used sonic weapons to retaliate. After three months of operations attempting to prevent the illegal whaling, the Sea Sheperd crew are returning to better prepare for future battles with the whalers.