Newsitem List

2/17/05: Since the end of December three ELF actions have occurred in the Sacramento area. Two attempted arsons at developments in Auburn and Lincoln were claimed by an ELF communiqué sent to the Auburn Journal and the Sacramento Bee. A third successful arson at an apartment complex in Sutter Creek was discovered with graffiti that said “WE WILL WIN-ELF”. Recent bomb parts have been found on the steps of a court house and a DMV station, even though Lewis was in jail. The bomb parts are pip...

Feb. 16th: This morning a 2,500-strong military police operation evicted the Sonho Real (Real Dream) land occupation in the city of Goiânia, Brazil. Two people were killed, over 800 arrested and many wounded, including five very seriously. Among the arrested were two Indymedia reporters, one from Goiânia and one from Indymedia New York. The occupation started in May 2004 in an area which had been abandoned for years and quickly gathered 3,000 families. In January, Justice officials ordered...

Around 1:30 AM on Saturday February the 6th, Bassim Chmait along with three other friends were walking through an apartment complex in Mission Viejo, CA heading towards a college house party when a soda can was thrown at them. In frustration, one of Chmait's friends threw the can into the street, and they continued walking. At that point Douglas Bates, an off duty U.S. Custom's officer, left his apartment with his badge in hand and gun drawn to confront the group. He started to yell at them...

2/16/2005: The Sheriff's Department has called the Chmait family and stated that the investigation is 80% done. They also said that the situation remains the same. This means that the shooting of Bassim Chmait is still not considered a crime. Read More 2/6/2005: Early in the morning on Saturday February the 6th around 1:30 am, Bassim Chmait along with three other friends were walking through an apartment complex in Mission Viejo, CA heading towards a college house party when a soda can w...

February 17th, 2005: Eddy Lepp and Daniel Barnes were in Federal District Court in San Francisco today. They were arrested at Lepp's home in Lake County on February 16. Mary Otte, an assistant to Jack Herer, and documentary filmmaker Jason Dunlap were also arrested during the early morning raid on Lepp's house. Dunlap and Otte were later released, but the DEA seized all of the footage for Dunlap's planned documentary on Lepp. Lepp and Barnes were charged with distribution of mariju...

The Justice for Cammerin Boyd committee encouraged supporters to attend several events this month. On February 23rd, there was a Police Commission Meeting. More info Also in San Francisco, on Saturday, February 19th, there was a Forum about Policing in the Black Community. This week there were two events to honor Rudy Cardenas. On the evening of Thursday, February 17th, there was a vigil for Rudy Cardenas in the parking lot where Rudy was shot. On Saturday, February 19th, there were a...

NARAL Pro-Choice America has started a campaign to try to work with the anti-choice movement towards a similar goal: fewer abortions. NARAL says, "What better way to end the debate over abortion than by eliminating the reasons women seek abortion?" The group is circulating a petition to organizations in the anti-choice movement, asking them to join a new campaign to reduce the need for abortion. Senator Harry Reid - who opposes a woman's right to choose - has offered a common-sense ...

On Sunday, Feb. 20th, California Anarchist Prisoner Solidarity (CAPS) will hold a dinner and screening in Berkeley to benefit prisoners in Guadalajara currently facing trial. Videos shown included David Gilbert: A Lifetime of Struggle, new footage from recent protests in Guadalajara, and a video on eco-defense prisoners. CAPS formed in Sept. 2004 to support those who face incarceration due to their beliefs or actions which "challenge the oppressive nature of the state, the injustices that exi...

2/15/05: A display of a soldier's uniform on the gable of a house in a quiet neighborhood in the Land Park District of Sacramento has ignited a battle between anti-war activists and Bush administration supporters over the First Amendment. The conflict has created a media circus of TV cameras, newspaper reporters and talk show radio hosts in front of the house many days over the past week. Stephen and Virginia Pearcy, both lawyers who work in Berkeley, decided to put up a uniform of a U.S. s...

At 10am on Tuesday, February 15th, Americans for Safe Access (ASA) announced at a press conference that it was filing a lawsuit against the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The seven legal medical marijuana patients and caregivers whom ASA is representing say that the CHP broke the law in confiscating their marijuana during traffic stops. Read more Over eight years have passed since the passage of the Compassionate Use Act (CUA, formerly known as Propo...

About 100 participants from low power FM radio stations, alternative newspapers, newsletters serving the homeless, public access cable TV activists, representatives from Indybay Indymedia, and more networked and learned new skills at the first conference of its kind in Central California. Participants came from Davis, Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, Merced, Fresno, Visalia, Bakersfield, and as far South as Manhattan Beach in Southern California, talking and organizing around various issues inv...

Cricket is allowed but chess is "absolutely forbidden". Women may not shake hands with men. Music is permitted but only if it is not for enjoyment. Men cannot pray when wearing earrings. These are the views of the most powerful man in Iraq. ... As the election victory of the Shias has confirmed, the most influential figure in Iraq, dressed in tattered grey robe and black turban, is Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. - UK Independent "Sistani has never met an American official or soldier. He d...

In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that drug testing without suspicion of use does not violate the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches. Executive and judicial moves paved the way for the unprecedented growth of workplace drug testing within the public and private sector. About 50% of large employers today require drug testing as a predocndition to employment. About 400,000 of the nation's 1.6 million or so federal workers suffer through some form of dr...

February 11, 2005: The United States House of Representatives voted yesterday to approve H.R. 418, which would "establish and rapidly implement regulations for State driver's license and identification document security standards, to prevent terrorists from abusing the asylum laws of the United States, to unify terrorism-related grounds for inadmissibility and removal, and to ensure expeditious construction of the San Diego border fence." It would make states verify that they're not giving d...

Public comments are needed on an extreme logging plan proposed by Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI). For two years, SPI has been pushing for a 540-acre logging plan that would clear-cut on steep slopes that “frequently exceed 100%,” according to a regional manager at the Department of Fish and Game. The plan, which is laid out over the Davis Creek and Bear River watersheds, proposes to cut 29 units to create a patch work of clear-cuts in old-growth forest that is home to threatened and endanger...

February 10th: After a seven-month trial, progressive New York attorney Lynne Stewart was convicted today on charges of conspiracy to aid and abet terrorism. Her co-defendants, Mohammed Yousry and Abdel Sattar, were also convicted. They all face 20 to 40 years in jail. Stewart has already said that she will appeal the conviction. Stewart's supporters say that the conviction demonstrates the continued erosion of fundamental civil liberties in an era where the protections of the Bill o...

On December 10th, 2004, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency and announced that he was going to take away California workers' lunch breaks. He was forced to rescind the "emergency" status of his rule changes, but he is still attacking the guaranteed right to a lunch break for California workers. The Governator's rule changes would weaken workers' rights to breaks and meal periods and would shorten the amount of time that employers can be held liable for re...

2/09/05: An evangelical Christian group in Fresno, California has just received a grant from the Bush administration to mentor the children of prisoners. The $360,000 a year grant is from the “compassion capital fund" of the Department of Health and Human Services. Doug Davidian, a Fresno businessman and vice chairperson of One by One Leadership was quoted in The Fresno Bee as saying, “Because we’re a faith-based organization, there’s money available to us that isn’t to those going through...

2/18/2005: Accusations of vote-rigging are being traded between Kurdish parties. When the PUK did better than expected, some officials began to question the wisdom of a deal that secured Talabani's nomination as candidate for the largely ceremonial post of Iraqi president. The differences between Talabani and Barzani start from their demeanor. During interviews with foreign journalists Barzani wears traditional Kurdish clothes and speaks only in Kurdish; Talabani wears a suit and speaks in ...

Emile Meylan's daughter, Spc. Mariela Mason, was attacked in Kuwait on Dec. 18th while changing a tire on her truck with three other soldiers. A truck driver for Fort Hood's 96th Transportation Company, Mason remains in a coma after being transported to hospitals in Kuwait, Germany, and finally Washington, DC. Two of the other soldiers died and the last has broken legs and lost all the skin on his back, and is in a special hospital in Texas. Meylan, from Livermore, CA, submitted his account...

Colorado Indymedia reports that an anonymous tipster claiming to work with a "faith-based think tank" is alleging that Clear Channel’s Dan Caplis accepted a "gift" from the unnamed group to spread the biased Ward Churchill story, in an attempt to "frame the left" and the anti-war movement. The source reportedly described it as a ploy to set-up an "ideological enemy" on "American soil" and re-invent Ward Churchill as a "sacrificial lamb." Full story...

Queer law student groups from UC Berkeley, Golden Gate University, UC Hastings, New College, Santa Clara and the University of San Francisco, terming themselves the Coalition of Queer Law Student Associations (CQLSA), are protesting the military recruitment at the 21st Annual Northern California Public Interest/Public Sector (PI/PS) Legal Careers Day. The protest challenges the decision of organizers of PI/PS day to allow the military to recruit at the event despite the recent Third Circuit C...

The Earth Liberation Front, (ELF), has claimed reponsibility for vandalizing and attempted arson of several vacant under construction houses in Placer County. Citing urban sprawl and destruction of green space, the group has published a communique detailing their actions and why they decided to try and halt sprawl. In response to the actions, the group has received the "eco-terrorist" label from the corporate media, and now an investigation by the FBI....