Feature Archives

For just a couple of hours on the last Friday of each month, hundreds of cyclists informally ride together to claim the streets which are normally ruled by automobiles. The gathering is part celebration and part peaceful protest. The messages of the event: that we still have a choice to live our lives in a way that is more thoughtful of the world's resources, to live in a way that is more socially nurturing of life and health, and to live our lives with more joy. The ride on September 28th marked the spontaneous demonstration's 15th year.

The San Francisco Mime Troupe performed Making a Killing, Building A New Iraq on September 23rd, but the topic of questionable government contracting reaches all the way from Afghanistan to Santa Cruz, in the form of city contractor Camp Dresser Mckee.

On September 19th, after more than two full days of deliberation, a 12-person jury informed Judge Jeffrey Miller they were hopelessly deadlocked and determined that further deliberation would not deliver unanimity. Outside the courtroom, attorneys were informed that the majority was voting for acquittal of the environmental and animal rights activist on trial for a speech he gave in San Diego in 2003.

On September 4th, forest activists in Southern Humboldt county reported that two activists were arrested, and that lumber company climbers were raiding the village and taking away supplies. Some activists have raised concerns that the company is violating the law by cutting branches during Marbled Murrelet nesting season, which ends on September 15th.

On August 29, the University of California Police Department staged an early morning operation at the Memorial Oak Grove located on the South East of the UC Berkeley campus. UCPD officers erected a ten foot high chain-link fence along the perimeter of the tree-sits to prevent supporters from bringing food and water to the tree-sitters. Support marches are leaving from the Oak Grove at noon on both Friday, August 31st and Saturday, September 1st. An emergency hearing was scheduled for Thursday at 1:30pm in Alameda County Superior Court, to consider whether the fencing of the oak grove is a violation of the current court ordered injunction.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger keeps repeating at his press conferences and meetings the big lie that no dams or water storage facilities have been constructed in California in the past 20 to 30 years. Apparently, the Schwarzenegger administration believes in the classic propaganda technique that if a big lie is repeated enough, it will eventually be accepted as truth by the media and public.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture and the United States Department of Food and Agriculture released official notices in Monterey County which state, "Due to an infestation of Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM), aerial applications of CheckMate®OLR-F (a pheromone mating disruptor) are necessary." Aerial application of the moth pheromone began in Monterey County on September 9. The operation that night covered just part of the eradication area... additional plane flights were scheduled on September 10th and September 11th.