Feature Archives

On Wednesday, February 14th, the California Food and Justice Coalition will hold a 12pm "Speak-Out and Eat-In for a Fair and Healthy Farm Bill" at the UN Plaza Farmers Market, near Nancy Pelosi's office. Participants will urge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to "have a heart" and support a Fair and Healthy Food and Farm Bill, one that "stops subsidizing corporate agribusiness at the expense of public health and instead invests our tax dollars into creating a sustainable, healthy, community-driven and just food system." After the speakout, participants will walk to Nancy Pelosi's office to deliver their message.

On January 27th, People Power hosted a walk along the rail corridor in Santa Cruz in response to recent threats by Union Pacific to fine "trespassers" up to $2,000. The walk in the rain, which brought out more than two dozen people, featured local historian Ross Gibson who spoke about the past and possible future of rail transportation in Santa Cruz County. The Sunday stroll began at Swift Street on the Westside of Santa Cruz and ended at Bay Street.

On January 24th, David Fridley, a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Labs, addressed facts and hype about biofuels: Can biofuels solve the climate crisis? Is ethanol production good or bad for the environment? What's a sustainable energy future and what role do biofuels play in it? The event, sponsored by Local Solutions to Global Problems and People Power, took place at the Louden Nelson Center in Santa Cruz.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe rejected the latest draft of the Klamath River Basin Restoration Agreement (KRBRA) released on January 15th because the agreement lacks adequate water assurances for fish. "Hoopa will retain its rights to defend the Klamath," said Clifford Lyle Marshall, Tribal Chairman. "We will work with any and all parties to remove the dams and assure a restored healthy river."

During the early hours of January 15th, two crew members of the Sea Shepherd vessel, 'Steve Irwin', were taken hostage by the Japanese harpoon vessel 'Yushin Maru No. 2'. The incident occurred in the area of 60 Degrees South and 78 Degrees East about 2500 miles southwest of Fremantle, Western Australia and 2800 miles southeast of Cape Town, South Africa. Benjamin Potts and Giles Lane boarded the vessel to deliver a letter to the Japanese captain stating that the whalers were in violation of international conservation law by targeting endangered species in an established whale sanctuary and in violation of a global moratorium on commercial whaling. The hostage situation ended on January 17th.

On January 12th, two University of California police officers used pepper spray to disperse about 15 people gathered below an occupied redwood tree on Science Hill at UC Santa Cruz. One of the officers proclaimed that the group was trespassing and then both officers began pepper spraying people in their faces.

a writes, "Last night [January 9th] 2 friends and I were walking from Kresge towards the science buildings when we heard screams...LOUD screams coming from the area of the tree sit. We ran as fast as we could towards them. We saw 2 cop cars, about six officers including 1 bike cop and two security guards. A woman was being dragged toward a squad car. We approached slowly, but were asking the cops to take it easy on her, it sounded like she was being hurt."