Newsitem List

Marijuana is classified as Schedule 1, which means it has no recognized medical use. ASA is challenging the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to review its data and issue a statement that marijuana has medical value. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") has blocked legal action to make marijuana available to bona fide medical patients under their physicians’ supervision. ASA says that in so doing, HHS repeatedly misstates the scientific evidence and ignores num...

2/28/05: The Californians United for a Responsible Budget, Shadow Commission Hearing in Fresno brought together about 100 people to shine a light on the prison industrial complex and its effect on the Central Valley. During the last two decades over half of California’s new prisons have been built in the Central Valley. Testimony at this hearing came from people who would like to reform the system and some that would like to tear it down. There was testimony from activists that want to mo...

2/26/2005: A small march wound its way through the San Jose neighborhood where a high-speed chase one year ago ended in the death of Rudy Cardenas, at the hands of a State Narcotics Agent. Many in the hood talked with the marchers about Rudy and how to get freedom from police violence. Some joined the march. Photos Of March And Interview With Rudy Cardenas' Nephew Rudy Cardenas was shot and killed by State Narcotics Agent Michael Walker on Februrary 17th, 2004. He was mistaken for ...

National Eating Disorders Week will take place from February 27th through March 5th. Events are scheduled all over the Bay Area for that week. Eating disorders cause immeasurable suffering for victims and families. They have reached epidemic levels in America, affecting all segments of society, young and old, rich and poor, all minorities, including African Americans and Latinos. Seven million women and one million men suffer from eating disorders. •Victims lose the ability to function ...

3/24/2005 "Israel [has] announced plans for the construction of as many as 3,500 settler units around East Jerusalem. The massive settlement expansion is aimed at creating a 'territorial and demographic Jewish continuity' between the settlement of Maali Adomim, five kilometres east of Jerusalem, and other Jewish settlements on the northeastern outskirts of the occupied city. In other words, the new settlement, dubbed by Israeli officials as reflective of 'natural growth', would nearly comple...

Eureka, CA - Maxxam/Pacific Lumber will be allowed to clear-cut more steep hillsides in the blighted Freshwater and Elk River watersheds, the Regional Water board decided Friday. The decision flies in the face of independent scientific data that shows logging by Maxxam/PL is causing permanent damage to the two areas, which are listed as sediment impaired under the Clean Water Act. Lack of complete landslide data did not discourage the Regional Water Quality Board from giving the controvers...

On Saturday, February 26th, there will be a Symposium on the Deportation of Southeast Asian Refugees, titled Exiled Once Again. This annual event will examine "US Immigration Law, its impact on the Southeast Asian community, and the pending deportations of more than 1,500 Southeast Asian refugees." The Symposium is being organized by Boalt Hall's Asian Law Journal. One panel will discuss the political and historical contexts of deportation policy in the U.S., and another will address iss...

SOA Watch received news this week from the Colombia Support Network of the murder of Luis Eduardo, one of the leaders of the San Jose de Apartado Peace Community in Uraba, Colombia. Luis died with seven other civilians, including three children, at the hands of the 11th Brigade of the Colombian Army. Luis Eduardo was a founding member of the San Jose de Apartado Peace Community, a nonviolent community that has stood up to incredible paramilitary and military repression and to targeting by ...

National Eating Disorders Week will take place from February 27th through March 5th. Events are scheduled all over the Bay Area for that week. Eating disorders cause immeasurable suffering for victims and families. They have reached epidemic levels in America, affecting all segments of society, young and old, rich and poor, all minorities, including African Americans and Latinos. Seven million women and one million men suffer from eating disorders. •Victims lose the ability to functio...

On Thursday, February 24th, Books Not Bars (BNB) held a Town Hall Meeting in Oakland. BNB says, "2005 has already been a head-spinning year for juvenile justice reform... weeks ago, State Senator Gloria Romero introduced a bill that calls for closing CYA’s Chad facility and 'redesigning or rebuilding' all the facilities within 3 years...the CYA lawsuit settlement brought plans for a whole new juvenile justice model for the state. The Books Not Bars "Alternatives for Youth" campaign invit...

On Tuesday February 22nd, dozens of members of LIUNA Local 261 protested at the SF Department of Public Works (DPW) against illegal layoffs, nepotism and corruption by the management of the DPW. Laid off workers are demanding that they be reinstated to their jobs with full seniority, that the City conduct an investigation of the 7514 General Laborers Civil Service Exam, and that the City investigate Deputy Director Mohammad Nuru's involvement with the firings. Mayor Gavin Newsom has so far ...

On Wednesday Feb. 23, About 30 anti war activists protested the inclusion of the United States Marine Corps at the UC Berkeley career fair. After a 15 minute picket and flyering outside the career fair, about 20 students went inside the career fair to take the message to the recruiters and everyone inside the career fair. For about 20 minutes students asked the recruiters about their policy barring gays from the military, and also about the morality of the war in Iraq. Last fall, the the Thi...

Remaining events during Anarchy Week include the fifth annual BASTARD (Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory And Research and Development) Conference on Anarchist Theory. This event will be held at Barrows Hall on the UC Berkeley Campus on March 27th from 10 am - 6 pm. There will also be an Anarchist Pride Parade on Sunday March 27th starting at Dolores Park at 11 am. The first annual Anarchist Music Festival will be held Sunday night at 8pm at Balazo Gallery in San Francisco. The 8th an...

Books Not Bars (BNB) is planning a series of big campaign events throughout the year as part of a campaign to close the California Youth Authority's youth prisons, and to transform juvenile justice. This month there has already been a Valentine's week meeting with legislators to share BNB's vision for a new juvenile justice system in California. Earlier in the month there was a "Leadership Academy" which was attended by parents from all over California. They held workshops on organizing an...

Oakland's state-appointed school administrator Randy Ward has proposed shutting down the entire Oakland Adult Education program as of June 30th. Under Dr. Ward's plan, hundreds of teachers, clerical workers, custodians, and other employees would lose their jobs. Some 30,000 adults who rely on Adult Education for essential classes in English and other languages, high school equivalency diplomas, computer literacy, job training, senior citizen programs, health education, and other areas woul...

Months after closing at least ten K-12 schools throughout the city and restructuring others as semi-public charter schools, Oakland's state-appointed school administrator Randy Ward has proposed shutting down the entire Oakland Adult Education program. Under Dr. Ward's plan, hundreds of teachers, clerical workers, custodians, and other employees would lose their jobs. Some 30,000 adults who relied on Adult Education for essential classes in English and other languages, high school equivalen...

In the wake of the shootings earlier this year that led to the deaths of a Ceres police officer and Andres Raya, a Marine who did not want to return to duty, Ceres and Modesto Police have begun conducting an agressive campaign against perceived latino gang members. This is being done to supposedly "help latinos," and also under the pretext that gangs are "terrorists." Reports from various sources are now showing that young people are being profiled and stopped simply for being latino or wea...

2/22/05: In the wake of the police shooting in Ceres earlier this year by Andres Raya, a Marine who did not want to return to duty, Ceres and Modesto Police have begun conducting an aggressive campaign against perceived Latino gang members. This is being done supposedly to "help Latinos", and also under the pretext that gangs are "terrorists" Reports from various sources are now reporting that young people are being profiled and stopped simply for being Latino or wearing certain colors, be...

On Tuesday, Feb. 22nd, the Heads Up Collective will be showing Out: The Making of a Revolutionary as a benefit for the From Attica to Abu Ghraib conference. The film tells the story of Laura Whitehorn, an American woman who spent 14 years in prison after she was convicted in the 1983 US Capitol bombing, and for "conspiring to influence, change, and protest policies and practices of the United States government through violent and illegal means." The screening is part of the "Televising th...

Postcards from Buster is a television show on the PBS network. The show is a spinoff of the popular, long-running show Arthur, which is about a young aardvark, his family, and their friends, who are all different kinds of animals. In "Postcards," Buster Baxter travels around the country with his dad and his video camera, and sends video postcards of his adventures to his mom (his parents are divorced). The videos are live-action, but Buster is a cartoon character. Each week, the 8 year-old...

The U.S. Forest Service lost 44 court cases during the past two years in which the agency was found guilty of violating environmental laws by a federal court, according to an internal memo released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The rate of adverse court findings has been steadily growing with each passing year of the Bush Administration.In Northern California, the Happy Camp Ranger District of the Klamath National Forest is proposing the 358-acre Elk Thin timber...

3/10/2005: At least 47 people have been killed and more than 90 wounded in an explosion at a Shia funeral service in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, witnesses and hospital officials said. Gunmen have shot dead the chief of a central Baghdad police station and at least two other policemen during an ambush. 2/28/2005: "A suicide bomber steered a sedan full of explosives into a thick crowd of Iraqi police and army recruits here on Monday morning, killing at least 122, Iraqi officia...

On February 20th, 2005, the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee (NOC) presented the 2005 Day of Remembrance, “Democracy and Dissent,” at the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin at 5:30pm. The program included speakers, cultural performances, a candlelight procession, and a reception. Details In the days following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI rounded up thousands of Japanese immigrants who were detained without charges. Then, on February 19, 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Execut...