Feature Archives

WAMMfest 09 will take place on Saturday, September 26th from noon to 5pm at San Lorenzo Park in Santa Cruz. WAMMfest is an annual festival organized by the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) to thank the community and public officials for all the support and encouragement over the years, especially since the DEA raid of WAMM's collective garden and arrest of Valerie and Mike Corral in 2002.

A widely circulated email, republished on Indybay, theorizes that UC Santa Cruz is in the process of completely closing the historic UCSC Arboretum. A volunteer at the world-famous botanical garden states, "They are doing it by steps to prevent a public outcry."

Alex Sanchez’s family migrated from El Salvador in the 1970s. He was a former gang member who turned his life around becoming an internationally recognized peacemaker and co-founding Homies Unidos in Los Angeles in 1998. On June 24th, 2009, Alex was arrested and named in a federal indictment based on weak evidence, charging him among a group of twenty-three others as an active gang member. On Friday, September 25th, there will be a fundraiser for Alex at Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos with live hip-hop music and the film Hijos de la Guerra.

On Tuesday, September 15th, the Santa Cruz Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom will host a discussion with representatives of local grocers to discuss the standing of their business in the face of corporate food giants like Whole Foods and Safeway. Questions on the agenda include, "What are the effects of big box stores holding a portion of space for products which local growers and bakers provide?" and "How can we support those local businesses which are supporting our community?"

Jesse James Forrey, 27, was arrested at the 2008 Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul, MN. After little and conflicting evidence from the prosecutor, a Minnesota jury convicted him on August 7th, 2009 of a felony charge of damage to property in the first degree. Jesse maintains his innocence. On September 17th, Judge Flynn sentenced Jesse to 120 days in jail.

Manuel Tzunum Aparicio published a photo essay of Watsoville's White Hawk Dancers.

On Friday, September 11th, at 8pm in the Beach Flats Community Garden, the Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive In presents A Little Bit of So Much Truth, the story of Oaxacan people taking control of the local media in the summer of 2006, in order to tell their own stories of struggle and action in the face of repression.