Feature Archives

California NORML reports that State Senator Carole Migden (D-SF) has introduced State Bill 529, which would relieve medical cannabis dispensaries from obligations for back sales taxes, as long as they comply and register with the Board of Equalization. CA NORML supports SB 529, because it would encourage marijuana to be treated like other legal products. Axis of Love is calling for people around the state to contact state senators, to urge them to support this bill.

On May 22nd, University of California workers, represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, announced that a settlement has been reached with the University of California to address the wage equity fight for custodians at UC Berkeley, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz and to end the practice of outsourcing groundskeepers at UC Irvine. The settlement includes an immediate initial wage increase of $1.25 per hour for custodians at UC Berkeley, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. This wage increase is retroactive to April 2007 and will be additionally increased by $.50 per hour in October, 2007.

A hunger strike initiated by 44 UC students, several alumni and a professor has passed its 1-week mark. The hunger strikers are demanding that the UC Board of Regents withdraw from their contracts to operate Los Alamos and Livermore National Laboratories based on, “the grounds that the Reliable Replacement Warhead program and Los Alamos Labs’ ongoing preparations to conduct plutonium pit manufacturing both clearly violate Article VI of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.” The UC has been identified by the hunger strikers as a site of strategic importance in the campaign against new nuclear weapons.

On Tuesday, May 8, students from UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley occupied the UC "Anti-Poverty" Center protesting poverty wages by demanding that the UC release $8.5 million earmarked for custodians by the State Legislature. The UC administration has been holding up the money - meant for low-paid workers on 4 campuses - in an attempt to force concessions in contract negotiations. Meanwhile, The Coup's Boots Riley joined Danny Glover in boycotting UC Berkeley's graduation speech in support of the custodians' wage-parity campaign.

Every year, over 800,000 pets end up in shelters in California. Taxpayers spend $250 million to house these abandoned cats and dogs and then euthanize the majority of them. Proponents of the Healthy Pets Act, a mandatory spay/neuter law, point to the wide availability of free and low-cost spay/neuter services and say it is a common sense solution to the problem of pet overpopulation. Advocates of the bill massed in Sacramento in support of the proposed law.

On April 26, 2007, Danny Glover announced that he is joining with Congresswoman Barbara Lee in supporting the ongoing boycott by UC workers against UC Berkeley due to the unsolved issue of pay equity for custodians. Before the boycott began last year, custodians who clean the dorms and classrooms at UC Berkeley have been urging the Chancellor to end poverty wages. According to the Economic Policy Institute 100% of the custodians at UC Berkeley earn a wage that is below the $19.78 per hour needed to support a one parent and one child household in the East Bay.

Eric McDavid has now been in jail, pre-trial, for 15 months. He has been in Total Separation, or solitary, that entire time. Since their arrest, his co-defendants (Zachary Jenson and Lauren Weiner) have agreed to testify against him, in a case that has been based on the reports from a paid FBI informant. In contrast, Eric has stood by his principles during his incarceration - including enduring a grueling two week hunger strike to get vegan meals. A hearing in his case has been scheduled for April 16th in Sacramento. May 5th and 6th, 2007 will be a weekend of international solidarity to help raise awareness about his case, as well as funds for his legal expenses.