Feature Archives

On July 28, the Minutemen border vigilantes held a meeting in Larkspur, California, to organize a new chapter in Marin County. Local immigrant rights activists greeted them with the message that, "racists are unwelcome in our county."

Corbin Harney, Spiritual Leader of the Western Shoshone Nation, crossed over at 11:00 a.m. in the morning of July 10th, in a house on a sacred mountain near Santa Rosa, California (Turtle Island). He dedicated his life to ending nuclear testing and dumping. That battle claimed his life through cancer.

In the wake of two days of 5:00am raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement teams in San Rafael and Novato, numerous Marin County groups felt called to respond with solidarity vigils that will be held each morning from 5:00am to 8:30am in the Canal District of San Rafael. The first vigil took place on Friday, March 9th, at Medway and Canal Streets in the San Rafael Canal District ( Photos: 1 | 2), and these actions will reportedly continue "until no longer necessary."

On Monday March 12th, a community meeting in response to the raids will be held at 6:00pm at the Pickleweed Center in San Rafael. The ICE raids will be an agenda item at the Marin County Board of Supervisors Meeting on Tuesday, March 13th at 9:30am.

For several years, developer Russell Shaw has been trying to build about 26 luxury homes on Oxford Valley in San Rafael, a fragile watershed that contains Miwok archeological sites. He recently withdrew his initial plan and submitted a single home construction plan for the site that many in the neighborhood viewed as an attempt at skirting California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements.

On Sunday November 19th, there will be a benefit for exonerated former prisoners at 4:00pm at the Marin Academy Theatre, 1600 Mission Ave. in San Rafael. Pam Maffei's Justice in America class will show the film, "After Innocence," and several exonerees will be present.

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.

The People’s Revolutionary Organization (PRO), which is based in Petaluma, organized Pirates of Propaganda, a day of workshops about youth radio, stencil and graffiti art, and writing and self-publishing using Indybay. The group organized 30 days of action in July. By putting on events and workshops all month, the PRO wanted to show that activism is, “Essentially about doing stuff, and taking initiative... showing that single issue politics can be connected, even within a small group of people.” On July 23rd, about 15 people gathered at Free Mind Media Info Shop in Santa Rosa for workshops about making radio, stencil art and graffiti, and posting to Indybay. Report and photos