Feature Archives

On October 21st, Fresno State saw one of its largest mobilizations since the 1960s. The student walkout was in protest against the recent fee increase of 32% (fees go up almost every year typically by around 10%), class furloughs (pay more get less), over-crowded classrooms, faculty layoffs, staff layoffs, a corrupt administration, and a corrupt Associated Students, Inc., which refuses to represent the students. The California State University master plan from the 60s promised free education to all, but the university is now run like a for-profit corporation.

On September 23rd, two Fresno police officers shot and killed Lonnie Graham. He was unarmed. Police chief Jerry Dyer said his officers feared for their lives when Graham emerged from a house with a cell phone in his hand. A protest was held on October 9th, 2009 in downtown Fresno.

On July 26th, with a brief back page article, the Sacramento Bee broke the story that Nestle Waters is coming to Sacramento. A glowing article in the Business Journal and a critical article in the News and Review followed, and then the story was mostly forgotten. According to Nestle, approximately 30 million gallons will come from Sacramento's municipal water system and 20 million will be trucked to the plant from nearby "private springs."

Boston Woodard, a frequent contributor to Indybay, is in solitary confinement because of an article he wrote, which displeased the staff and warden at Solano State Prison. Boston's article, "Rogue Prison Staff: Breaking all the Rules," published on Indybay in April, describes in detail the threats and intimidation taking place at Solano - the filing of false disciplinary charges, mail tampering, verbal threats, etc.

A major operation to confiscate marijuana in eastern Fresno County is currently underway. Save Our Sierra (SOS) is, according to Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims, targeting growers who are affiliated with Mexican drug cartels. These growers, again according to Mims, are destroying public lands with their drug operations. When questioned, Mims would not name one Mexican drug cartel involved or say how many of them were active in growing marijuana in Fresno County. Skeptics think operation SOS is more about justifying bloated law enforcement budgets by scaring people into thinking that an environmental calamity is being perpetrated by violent Mexican drug cartels.

A march and rally was held in Kettleman City on July 18th, to protest a cluster of birth defects that participants say is probably connected to pesticide used on nearby farms or a toxic dump site located just outside of town. Five children out of twenty born in Kettleman City in the last 18 months had birth defects. Three of them died.

From Death Row at San Quentin, Donald Ray Young writes: "We had strange fruit for breakfast today...a death row prisoner committed suicide at San Quentin, in East Block. But, I can’t worry about that guy....Wait; how can I not think of the suicide in this very building - - his family...loved ones? What if he was innocent? Do I know him? How many other people on death row have contemplated killing themselves to escape this madness? I believe that when one dies - - a part of all of us all dies...."