Feature Archives

The Fresno city council voted on Tuesday, May 15, 2007, to approve the installation of two portable toilets and a trash bin at a homeless encampment in downtown Fresno. The 6-1 vote, directing the city manager’s office to provide these facilities, was necessary because the mayor and city manager had not moved forward with an earlier request from the city council on April 10. The city manager, at that time, refused to follow the direction of the city council, leading some to ask who was running the City of Fresno - the elected members of the city council or city manager Andrew Souza.

Read More

An Oakland judge on April 18 refused to back down from his earlier order to stop water exports from the South Delta until an incidental take permit for endangered fish is obtained. Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ordered the agency to "cease and desist" from operation of the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant Operation until the agency has obtained authorization with regard to the Delta smelt, winter-run chinook salmon and spring-run chinook salmon.

Three Mother’s Day events took place in Fresno today. The Catholic Workers held a vigil for peace and to end the war in Iraq on a busy street corner in North Fresno. The Raging Grannies sang songs of peace and held a silent vigil at Woodward Park. Prison Moratorium Project members were at the Fresno County Jail in downtown Fresno demanding alternatives to incarceration.

On Saturday, May 5th, Cindy Sheehan and Code Pink joined in an anti-war solidarity event while unsatisfied Congresswoman Doris Matsui constituents demanded that she "Stop the Funding now!" A neighbor of Matsui threw an egg, hitting a 4-year old girl and a Matsui aide. Police conducted a door-to-door inquiry for the egg thrower, without success.

from the newswire: Independent journalist and author of 'Blackwater-Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army', a New York times bestseller, gave a fervent speech Thurs. May 3 at the United Methodist Church on J and 21st streets in Sacramento.
Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill, a correspondent for the independent radio and television news show Democracy Now, and frequent contributor to The Nation, went into detail with the crowded room about his investigation into the private contractor security company Blackwater USA.
“It’s sort of an inappropriate term because when you hear the term contractor I think what comes to mind is construction worker, people that are building something, a bridge or a building or a hospital. I think it’s an odd term for heavily armed men running around war zones with no laws governing their presence,” Scahill said....continued

Immigrants in the Central Valley took to the streets by the tens of thousands to protest both measures, which are called comprehensive immigration reform. Reports are in that hundreds gathered in both Berkeley and Oakland, and thousands more gathered in San Jose and San Francisco's Dolores Park for afternoon marches. In Los Angeles, police shot projectiles at a rally tens of thousands strong. Protests were also held in cities such as Mountain View, Davis, Fresno, Modesto, Sacramento, Salinas, Santa Cruz, and Watsonville. The ILWU reportedly stopped work in 6 west coast ports, and May 1st was also a day of nationwide student walkouts.

The Cucapa Tribe on the Colorado River Delta in Baja California faces similar problems in the battle for environmental justice that the Winnemem Wintu and other California tribes face on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and California rivers and coastal waters. The Cucapa Tribe in El Mayor, Baja California has organized an historic Zapatista peace camp to defend their fishing rights against harassment and intimidation by the Mexican government on the Colorado River Delta.