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Fresno County supervisors gave 11,000 home care workers a small raise above minimum wage last week, but didn't sign a union contract. This, despite the fact that 90% voted to join the SEIU Local 250. Details | SEIU Local 250

The Fresno-based activist group Peace Fresno was infiltrated by an agent working for the Fresno Sheriff’s Department. Aaron Kilner, known by Peace Fresno activists as Aaron Stokes, died in a motorcycle accident on August 30, 2003. Kilner's obituary in The Fresno Bee identified him as a member of the Fresno County Sheriff’s department and went on to say that he was “assigned to the anti-terrorist team.” Fresno activists believe that this “anti-terrorist team” is the recently formed Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).

Aaron Kilner had been observed taking voluminous notes at several Peace Fresno meetings by Nicholas DeGraff, a member of the group. Other members say they saw him at peace vilgils and on the bus local anti-globalization activists took to attend the demonstration against the WTO ministerial-level conference on Agricultural Science and Technology in Sacramento in June, 2003. Read More

Contact the Fresno County Sheriff's Department

11/14/2003: The students say that there are “Cockroaches in the cafeteria, rats are all over the campus, and the bathrooms don’t work!” The final insult to the 500 students, who walked out of school on November 14, was when the Fresno Unified School Board authorized a $25,000 salary increase for Superintendent Santiago Wood. The students were angered and outraged that the school districts top administrator would be given and accept a salary increase when their school was falling apart. Over 500 students walked out of Fresno High school and marched downtown and to the school administration building to protest this injustice. Photos   |   Video

12/13/2003 "An epidemic is sweeping California and it’s not the flu... Deaths have been reported in cities small and large, including yours. In many neighborhoods, people are in fear of leaving their homes...This disease can affect any family but tends to prey on our low-income and minority neighborhoods. Survivors who have been affected suffer life-long effects from exposure. The epidemic is police violence."
In Fresno, workshops are being held so people better know their rights when confronted by the police and in January 2004, a proposal for an Independent Police Auditor will come before the city council. The Fresno police department is seeking accreditation to become more professional but it comes to the city at a cost—a cost that didn't stop the already accredited Cincinnati police from beating a man to death.

12/13/2003: On Saturday, around one hundred people took to the streets of Fresno to demand an end to the war in Iraq. The "Bring the Troops Home" march was organized by Peace Fresno.
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