Feature Archives

Feeling conservatives had been winning the limelight in the debate over health care reform through a serious of high profile stunts and remarks, advocates of reform decided to steal back some of the media's attention, forming a flash mob September 26th in an Oakland Whole Foods in response to the CEO's recent Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal in which he opposed reform.

On Tuesday, September 29th, Max Blumenthal will discuss his new book Republican Gomorrah at First Congregational Church of Berkeley. Republican Gomorrah is an exposé of the dysfunction, scandal, and crime from the heart of the Religious Right; the fringe movement that has come to define the Republican Party.

On April 9th, after numerous community activists spoke during a BART Board meeting takeover, Gabe Meyers independently threw a small amount of red paint onto BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger and Assistant General Manager Marcia deVaughn. On September 4th, Gabe Meyers accepted a plea bargain that was offered to him by the judge in his case, who described the action as civil disobedience in the tradition of earlier civil rights and Vietnam-era anti-war protests.

Justice for Oscar Grant activists returned to East Bay BART trains and stations on September 4th to inform riders about BART's intransigence toward holding anyone accountable for their police officers' behavior on New Year's Day. Later the same day, it was learned that BART's attempt to pass AB1586 would fail in this legislative session, meaning that there would be no new police oversight of any kind established before the end of the year.

On September 21st, J.R. Valrey stood for trial in Oakland on felony arson charges, after he was arrested while reporting on the Oscar Grant Rebellion on January 7, 2009. Valrey is a producer at KPFA radio, associate editor and multimedia director of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper, and runs the Block Report Radio website. His trial was postponed until late October. Supporters are asked to show they stand with J.R. by attending upcoming court dates.

On September 11th, Johannes Mehserle's attorney Michael Rains filed his long-expected motion for a change of venue. Mehserle and his defense team appear to be hoping for the murder trial to be moved out of Alameda County as their last best chance for him to avoid a conviction for the murder of Oscar Grant III on January 1st, 2009. In the motion, Rains accuses activist groups and Indybay of spreading "disinformation" about the case and unfairly amplifying political pressure to prosecute.

On Wednesday, September 16, Maya Wind and Netta Mishly from the refusenik group "Shministim" spoke at the MLK, Jr. Building at UC Berkeley. Maya Wind and Netta Mishly both signed the 2008 Shministim Letter: a declaration by Israeli high school students that they would not enlist in the IDF to occupy Palestinian territories and rule over Palestinian life. Since military service is mandatory for Israeli Jews upon completing high school, Maya, Netta, and many of the dozens of teenagers who signed the letter have been sentenced to military prison, sometimes for multiple terms.