Feature Archives

On September 7, hundreds of Bay Area residents came together for potlucks and to send a message to Congress: "now is the time to provide children with real food in public school lunch programs". Gathering in parks, on a farm, and at a cooperative housing venue, healthy food proponents took advantage of the Labor Day holiday to bring neighbors together and build support for replacing artificially supplemented meals with natural food in schools.

Author J. Patrick O'Connor was recently interviewed in San Francisco about his research into the case of San Quentin death row prisoner Kevin Cooper, whose appeal at the Ninth Circuit Court was recently denied, with Judge William Fletcher writing a stinging dissent, declaring that the "State of California may be about to execute an innocent man.” This fall, Cooper will be appealing to the US Supreme Court, which is last chance to avoid execution.

Mark Hawthorne writes: Animal Place, an education center and sanctuary for farmed animals, is pleased to announce that in addition to our new location in Grass Valley, we will retain our current property in Vacaville, California.... Animal Place will keep our 60-acre location, transforming it into Rescue Ranch.... The Ranch will be dedicated to finding loving homes for easily adoptable animals, such as chickens, sheep, and goats.

Statement From The Chicano Mexicano Prison Project: "Once again, major violence between Raza and African prisoners has erupted within the United States Concentration Camp (Prison) System, this time at Chino California State Prison. Beginning at 8:20 PM, on Saturday evening (Aug. 8), African and Raza (Latino) prisoners, in the most brutal fashion, slashing, cutting, hitting each other with anything that could get their hands on, battled against each other for more than 11 hours. Over 200 hundred were hurt, several were critically injured with severe head injuries or stab wounds."

On Wednesday, August 5th, protesters met in San Francisco to protest Governor Schwarzenegger's budget cuts which disproportionately target health services fighting the spread of HIV. Due to Schwarzenegger's line item vetoes in this year's budget, an additional 85 million in funding is being cut from HIV/AIDS-related organizations and groups.

Boston Woodard, a frequent contributor to Indybay, is in solitary confinement because of an article he wrote, which displeased the staff and warden at Solano State Prison. Boston's article, "Rogue Prison Staff: Breaking all the Rules," published on Indybay in April, describes in detail the threats and intimidation taking place at Solano - the filing of false disciplinary charges, mail tampering, verbal threats, etc.

Health care reform activists in the San Francisco Bay Area rallied on July 30th in solidarity with a major demonstration held in Washington, DC. "Medicare: Made in America Rally and Lobby Day" marked the 44th anniversary of the creation of a single-payer health care system for seniors. Demonstrators celebrated by serving up slices of "single layer, single-payer Medicare birthday cake."