Newsitem List

The Courts and Civil Liberties...

It's important to hear voices speaking sanity in the midst of early winter madness. Steve Schnaar's critique of the Citizen's Task Force on Public Safety (which I've taken to calling the Task Farce to Prompt Anti-Homeless Hysteria) is a good first step.. I would go significantly further. These are my thoughts ("RN"), referencing Schnaar's 8 points and presenting my own "Sample Letter" at the end. To follow the sections of Schnaar's critique that I reply to, go to https://www.indybay.org/n...

The Santa Cruz Public Safety Task Force has completed their work and is presenting their recommendations to City Council on Tues, 12/3 7pm. The recommendations include some positive, proven ideas like funding drug treatment and after-school youth programs. However the report also recommends ideas which are not evidence-based, such as misdemeanor charges for multiple infractions, restricting the needle exchange program, and increasing the size of the police force based on sloppy statistics. Co...

I've not had time to look at it carefully, but agenda item #12 rewrites the entire sections on public demonstrations for commercial and non-commercial events. The staff report can be found at http://sire.cityofsantacruz.com/sirepub/cache/2/gm3nxoa24g4uqu55k4gs1zrb/382360111252013053508496.PDF . I hope to take a longer look later, but the one thing I do notice is that the permit requirement has now tightened apparently so that 50 rather than 100 people require a permit. Additionally marchi...

WASHINGTON— Tea Party senators introduced a bill this week that would effectively end the protection of most endangered species in the United States and gut some of the most important provisions of the Endangered Species Act. Senate Bill 1731, introduced by Tea Party Sens. Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Dean Heller, would end protections for most of the species that are currently protected by the Act and make it virtually impossible to protect new species under the law. It would also eliminate prote...

SAN FRANCISCO— In response to a petition submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to take a historic first step toward classifying a tiny Hawaiian coral island, Tern Island, as a Superfund site because of hazards posed by plastic pollution. The Center’s petition requested that the agency conduct a preliminary assessment of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and a portion of the enormous Pacific Garbage Patch within U.S. waters....

SACRAMENTO, Calif.— Gov. Jerry Brown’s oil and gas officials today released draft state hydraulic fracturing regulations that fall far short of protecting California’s air, water, communities and climate from fracking, a dangerously polluting practice that involves blasting chemical-laden water into the earth to fracture rock formations....

Time to Close the Book on Santa Cruz Eleven Prosecutions...

Too many executives in so-called nonprofit housing organizations all across the nation make upwards of $200,000 to $300,000 a year, off of tax payer subsidized housing projects!...

PETITION STATEMENT: Governor Brown: You misled the people of California by saying that "fracking can't happen" in California's Monterey Shale until an environmental study is completed. In fact, fracking is already happening all across the state! It's time to walk the talk and enact an immediate statewide moratorium on fracking....