Feature Archives

While most of America focuses on the turkey they will eat on Thanksgiving, animal rights activists cannot forget the poor conditions millions of turkeys are forced to live in every day. Animal activists do not begrudge the celebration of family and friends on Thanksgiving, partaking in the camaraderie of the day themselves, but they are actively working to improve the living conditions of turkeys and/or to encourage the public to consider more humane animal-free alternatives.

The San Francisco Bay Area is a Mecca for vegetarians with nearly 100 vegetarian restaurants in the region. Bay Area Vegetarians (BAVeg) sponsors the annual "Best of Veg" survey to recognize the top vegetarian restaurants in the area and to raise awareness of how easy it is to dine with compassion and good health, vegetarian-style. The public is encouraged to dine at vegetarian restaurants of their choice and vote for their favorites in several categories through November 15th.

On August 25th, the first Friday of the new school year at San Jose State University, there will be a protest action against the university's expelling of legal medical cannabis patients. A homeless woman on campus was woken in the middle of the night, searched by a male officer, and held until 4:30am. Her medical cannabis was seized. This began a campaign to raise awareness of SJSU cops' lack of recognition of the state's medical marijuana laws. The protest on August 25th will be at 4:20pm at the San Jose State University Police Department, 377 S. 7th St., San Jose, at the parking garage at 7th and San Salvador. A patient training will be conducted at 5pm.

The city of San Jose is roiling in a scandal involving its mayor, Ron Gonzales, who has been indicted on charges of felony bribery. This latest scandal, according to New America Media commentator Raj Jayadev, fits right into the narrative of San Jose in the post-dot-com era.

Local grassroots group, Citizens For Cruelty-Free Entertainment, organized educational leafletings at all of the Circus Vazquez shows in San Jose in June. The group had leafleters at all the entrances each day to educate patrons about what they call the cruelty of using animals in circuses. Tigers are kept in cages just big enough to turn around and horses and camels are kept in small stalls on concrete parking lots. The activists report that violence and intimidation are standard training and handling practices. They urged the public to not support circuses that use animals — and to tell the circus they will not come back until the circus is animal-free.

The former UC Davis Ag Center (aka Bay Area Research and Extension Center, or BAREC) is 17 acres of "prime farmland" that is agriculturally zoned. It is located at 90 N. Winchester Blvd. in Santa Clara. The state of California, which still owns this property, is in the process of selling it to SummerHill Homes and the City of Santa Clara for housing developments.

VIVA (Valley Initiative for Values in Agriculture) and SaveBAREC want to turn this property into a small urban farm, which would counterbalance what they say is overdevelopment in the area. They are asking for supporters to contact local polititians to ask them to not change the agricultural zoning, and to preserve the property as farmland. The struggle over BAREC has highlighted other local issues, such as the openness of City Council Meetings (they often have closed meetings). Read more

From 1928 to 2003, the property was a University of California Agricultural/Horticulture Research Center. Composting research was conducted there. Its centralized location made it possible for many people to have access to the results of the research. Urbancompost.org The site has also hosted research into production of specific crops, pests, and weather patterns. The University of California decommissioned the research station when it felt that advances in agricultural technology had improved to the point where it was conducting less research. However, closing the site also helped the UC system to satisfy some of its budgetary requirements.

Save BAREC | City of Santa Clara Meetings | Santa Clara County Division of Agriculture | Santa Clara County History | UC Cooperative Extention Santa Clara County | Santa Clara County Open Space Authority | Fairview Gardens in Goleta (near Santa Barbara)

On the evening of May 5th, there was a public and peaceful Cinco de Mayo music and spoken word event held on the corner of Story and King in San Jose which was viciously attacked by riot police. Six people were beaten, arrested and had their video footage and property seized at this peaceful, legal gathering on private property.

This is the fulfillment of the threat articulated by Laurie Smith of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's department to the public at a county Human Relations Committee meeting last January on the subject of police brutality. During the meeting, Smith not only defended the beating and arresting of protesters and bystanders at a Colin Powell visit to De Anza College in November, but she added that anyone getting in the way of a sheriff's weapons should be considered a "lynch mob" which carries severe penalties.

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