Feature Archives

In anticipation of fee hikes, students planned a series of occupations and strikes across the state for November 18th through 20th. On Thursday, November 19th, the University of California Regents approved a 32% increase in undergraduate fees, pushing fees to over $10,000 a year for the first time. Protests, sit-ins and occupations took place at UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, CSU Fresno, San Francisco State and San Francisco City College. Students occupied Campbell Hall at UCLA, Kresge Town Hall and Kerr Hall at UC Santa Cruz, Mrak Hall at UC Davis, Wheeler Hall at UCB, and the library at CSU Fresno.

On Sunday November 22nd, a vigil in honor of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado will be held at the intersection of MacArthur Blvd., Lakeshore, and Grand Ave. in Oakland. Mercado, a very well known person in the gay community, was found dead on November 14th, in Cayey, Puerto Rico. Mercado was partially burned, decapitated, and dismembered. The police investigator handling the case said in public televised statement that "people who lead this type of lifestyle need to be aware that this will happen."

This is the first of a series of profiles of alternative and activist media workers in the Bay Area, written and photographed by Indybay contributor Peter M. Featured in the first profile is Tracy Rosenberg, the Executive Director of Media Alliance. The story of Media Alliance is key to the history of media activism in the Bay Area.

A memorial mural of Gary King Jr was painted on a support column underneath the BART tracks on Martin Luther King Boulevard after Oakland police officer Patrick Gonzales shot and killed Gary King Jr at the spot in 2007. On September 24th, 2009, the mural was removed by BART employees. The new mural also includes images of Anita Gay, Andrew Moppin, Casper Banjo, and Oscar Grant — all murdered by police in Oakland and Berkeley.

Otis writes:,"The rally and march against police brutality on Thursday, October 22nd, in Oakland at 14th and Broadway at 12pm, must be a powerful political expression of our anger and determination to stop a system which sets the police on the people, and then defends them from punishment. First the police murder Oscar Grant in Cold Blood! Now, the the judge has agreed with the murderer's attorney, that killer-cop Johannes Mehserle cannot get a fair trial in Oakland. A screaming irony, considering the "fair trial" that Oscar received at the hands of judge-jury-executioner Mehserle." Actions will also be happening in Arcata, Eureka, and Santa Rosa.

On October 16th, Superior Court Judge Jacobson ordered Johannes Mehserle's trial be moved outside of Alameda County. Judge Jacobson attempted to distance himself from the racism in Mehserle's change of venue motion, but by granting the move, he has in effect given credence to defense attorney Michael Rains' assertions that due to news coverage and protester's actions the citizens of Alameda are not qualified to be impartial jurors. A final venue will be chosen within about two weeks.

On Tuesday, October 13th, Shlomo Zand will be speaking about his newly translated book The Invention of the Jewish People, at 4pm in UC Berkeley's Dwinelle Hall. In this new book, Zand shows that the Israeli national myth has its origins in the nineteenth century, rather than in biblical times — when Jewish historians, like scholars in many other cultures, reconstituted an imagined people in order to model a future nation.