The December issue features a diversity of underground media coverage dealing with topics ranging from homelessness to Christian fundamentalism. Check out Dahr Jamail's dispatch from Falluja and the CorpWatch investigation into the world of Corporate organics. Other articles can be found on organizing the service industry and cross gender searches in california prisons. Sift through the latest dirt on Gavin Newsom, Iain Boal's always infuriating Crypto, a review of the collectively written novel Q, and lots of other IndyNews. If you want to get involved, public participation is always encouraged in this 100% volunteer Indybay collective project.

Download PDF of Issue 7

Four Indybay photographers—Matt Fitt, Peter Maiden, Charles Slay, and Eric Wagner—will be showing their work in a joint exposition at the Balazo Gallery in San Francisco, from December 27th, 2004 to January 12th, 2005. The pictures, which these volunteer photographers posted as news to Indybay, will be displayed as objects of art. Photos

The gallery is located at 2811 Mission Street (and 24th Street), San Francisco. Salinas-based band Rum and Rebellion will host a closing party on Friday, January 7th, starting at 8 p.m. Meet the faces behind the cameras and do a good turn for a great gallery; $5 donation. More info | Indymedia news

12/23/2004: The DMV announced this week that it had postponed a hearing and launched an internal investigation of a letter that was sent to Diane Monson. Monson, who is a medical marijuana patient from Oroville, California and a plaintiff in the Raich, et al v. Ashcroft, et al case that is currently before the US Supreme Court, received a notice from the California Department of Motor Vehicles earlier this month that she would have to appear at a re-examination hearing this week, or lose her driver's license. The letter did not state why Monson had been selected. Re-examination hearings are usually held in cases involving drivers involved in serious crashes or who have been cited for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol several times. Read More | Response of Monson and her attorney | The Case of Raich v. Ashcroft

Nurses from University Medical Center (UMC) went on strike on Dec. 23rd. The one day strike was called by members of the California Nurses Association (CNA) to pressure management to bargain in good faith. While the nurses want a 5% salary increase, the company is offering only a 2% raise; the striking workers also seek a standardized pay scale and improved pension plan. Read More | Labor news

Chemicals and copyrights made two big wins in Fresno in late November. As the Fresno City Council decided to take no action on challenges that a recent order all but banning medical cannabis in Fresno violates state Proposition 215, two blocks away the Fresno County Board of Supervisors voted to approve a pro-biotechnology resolution brought forward by the Fresno County Farm Bureau. To many the two issues may seem somewhat unrelated, but to those concerned with the increasing influence of corporations and government officials looking to protect their guns and butter at the cost of our health, the issue is one and the same. Both actions by elected officials came in reaction to increasing attempts to provide medicine and ban dangerous products. Read full story | Central Valley news

On January 6th, 2005 there will be a "Block Bush Insurrection Rally" at the U.S. Capitol. That day is when the electoral votes, which will have been sealed and sent to the President of the U.S. Senate, are to be read aloud to both Houses of Congress. The No Stolen Elections campaign says that if one member of the House and one member of the Senate object to the certification of the vote, then all members of Congress will finally discuss these issues so they are urging people to call their Congresspeople and Senators. Locally and nationwide, voters are concerned about voter suppression and disenfranchisement, especially in African-American and Hispanic communities. Folks Don't Get It: On African-American voter disenfranchisement in the 2004 election | Against the House: It's a Rigged Game
Read more on Indybay's Government and Elections Page

12/15: Hundreds of people went to the chaotic Oakland School Board meeting today to protest school closures, which they think could lead to increased desperation that would inspire more youth to join the military in order to "get an education." Administrator Randy Ward waited until most of the audience had walked out in disgust before he revealed plans for the privatization of Oakland schools. Photos and Report
The administrator appointed to run Oakland's schools when the state took over the district called last month for the closure of at least five more schools in lower-income neighborhoods. The proposal by state administrator Randy Ward was adopted four months after the district shut five other elementary schools. More on the Education page | Download the plan

12/20: Gary Webb: Do What He Did by Al Giordano
12/18: Family, friends, and colleagues gathered at a memorial service in Sacramento.
12/16: Update about the memorial service
12/15: A public Memorial Service for Gary Webb will be held on Dec. 18th at the Garden Terrace Room at the Doubletree Hotel in Sacramento.
12/12: Gary Webb, an investigative journalist, author, and recent legislative staffer, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head Friday in an "apparent suicide" in his suburban Sacramento home. He was 49 years old. He had been a staff writer for the San Jose Mercury News from 1989 to 1997, he exposed freeway retrofitting problems in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and also wrote stories about the Department of Motor Vehicles' computer software fiascos. He had also been a Guest Editor for NarcoNews.
Webb was perhaps best known for sparking a national controversy with a 1996 story that exposed how supporters of a CIA-backed guerrilla army in Nicaragua helped trigger America's crack-cocaine epidemic in the 1980s. The Dark Alliance series in the Mercury News came under fire by other news organizations, and the paper decided that the series did not meet its journalistic standards. Webb resigned a year and a half after the series appeared in the paper. He then published his book, ``Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion".
During the last several years, Webb had worked in the California Assembly Speaker's Office of Member Services and for the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. The committee investigated charges that Oracle received a no-bid contract from Gov. Gray Davis. Most recently, he worked for the weekly Sacramento News and Review.
The Dark Alliance Series | The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations | Read More On Indybay's Drug War Page

12/12/2004: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which works to convince Congress to help fund the Israeli military, was in town this Monday. AIPAC is part of why the US gives over $3 billion in tax dollars to Israel each year. The FBI is currently investigating AIPAC for its alleged role in an espionage case. Protest organizers asked for people to call local and state politicians and ask them to boycott AIPAC's local events.

AIPAC hosted a lunchtime event in San Francisco on Monday. A small protest was planned for 11:30am at Moscone Center South, San Francisco. On Monday evening, AIPAC held a banquet at the Oakland Marriott. There was a protest outside, with a picket line of 160 people, from 5:30 to 8:30pm. Report Protesters pointed out that "While Oakland citizens need money for housing, AIPAC will promote U.S. funding for destruction of homes of Palestinian families. While Oakland needs funding for schools, AIPAC will promote U.S. funding for policies that prevent Palestinian children from attending schools." Protest info More about AIPAC on Indybay's Anti-War Page.

12/9/2004: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed on December 10th, 1948, and its anniversary is observed every year on or about that date. A perusal of Kofi Annan's most recent press briefing indicates that the world is far from accomplishing many of the goals set out in the Declaration, as territorial, resource, gender/sexuality and other political wars continue worldwide.
On Friday December 10th there were events in Berkeley, Oakland, Fresno and Merced.
On Saturday 12/11, a Stop Violence Against Women Walk left from Amnesty International's Western Regional Office at 10am. It visited four consular offices in San Francisco to share concerns about the growing violence and discrimination against women in those countries. SF Women in Black was in Union Square at 1pm.
December 3rd-10th was also a national "The War Must Stop Now" Week of Actions.
Photos | Video | Read More On The Anti-War Page

Since early July of 2004, 210 Stockton owner-operator truckers working out on the rails and ports in Stockton have unionized with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and won several victories. Today, 20 workers for the Kach Trucking Company went on strike as well. Harjit, a IWW organizer from the bay area, commented that, "One worker estimated that they are losing over $1,000 a month", and that's $1,000 that is going straight into the company's pockets. Workers are being swindled out of over time pay, being forced into making extra trips that are not paid for, and also having to cover tire, fuel, and other costs themselves. Read more | Labor news

Chapela's last class was on 12/09/2004: Photos

After a controversial tenure process Ignacio Chapela, the professor at UC Berkeley who sharply criticized the "public" university's $25 million deal with pharmaceutical giant Novartis, has been denied tenure. Chapela's 2001 discovery provided evidence of transgenic contamination that threatens the biodiversity of our planet and the safety of our food supply.

Read more on the Education page

For more than sixty years, Bayview Hunters Point and Potrero Hill have suffered the ill effects of pollution from two of the oldest power plants in the state. Residents of Southeast San Francisco are hospitalized for asthma, cognitive heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, and emphysema at three times the statewide average.

Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Sophie Maxwell announced on Nov 8th that a deal had allegedly been reached with the California “Independent System Operator” to close the PG&E; Hunters Point power plant and Mirant’s Potrero plant. In fact, there is no such agreement, no date, no contract, nothing binding whatsoever.

Residents and community groups are calling for the shutdown of the PG&E; power plant in Bay View Hunters Point now. There was e a demonstration at the front gate of the PG&E; plant on Wednesday December 8th, 2004 at 12 Noon.
Read more on the Environment Page.

Nancy Rutherford is a licensed vocational nurse who worked dispensing medication to prisoners in the San Jose Main Jail. As she is a naturally empathetic person, she was criticized for not being callous enough with the prisoners. She has said there was little oversight of conditions for prisoners, and that mentally ill prisoners faced extraordinary difficulties in the jail environment. Unable to bear the brutality in the Jail and under pressure from corrections officers, she left her job after two months. She has now become an activist for the rights of the mentally ill. In this exclusive interview, Ms. Rutherford spoke with Indymedia reporter Peter Maiden. Read more

12/05: Hundreds of locked out registered nurses and caregivers marched onto hospital property at the Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo and picketed on the last day of the lockout.

Around 7,000 nurses and hospital workers have been locked out of 13 of Sutter's hospitals in the Bay Area for five days, following a one-day strike. Caregivers and other workers say Sutter is putting CEO pay before patient care. On Dec. 3, SEIU 250 filed suit in San Francisco superior court against Sutter Health and the strike-breaking firm Modern Industrial Services (MIS), "America's leader in strike re-staffing," for alleged violations of criminal and civil codes. The California Nurses Association (CNA) filed an unfair labor practice charge against Alta Bates Summit, citing the lockout as "illegal." Full story on the Labor page

The Borderland Film/Arts Festival began on Nov. 29 with a series of interventions in San Francisco, and opened on Dec. 2 with a film festival, gallery reception and live radio broadcast. The Borderland Collective has gathered a diverse range of multi-disciplinary artists and participants to "share an understanding of both the physical Mexico/U.S border and the more implicit socially constructed borders that surround us all." More on the Arts and Action page

12/3/2004 An Elk Grove man died in November in a confrontation with Sacramento County sheriff's deputies after officers used pepper spray and shot him twice with 50,000-volt Taser stun guns. Sheriff's officials said Ricardo Zaragoza struggled with four deputies who wanted to take him in for a mental health examination after his family called saying he was acting erratically. Sheriff's officials and family members said officers shot him twice in the chest with Taser guns. Family members, however, said officers used excessive force to control him. In a report that was released this week, Amnesty International said that the widespread use of TASER electro-shock weapons by US law enforcement officers is contributing to widespread human rights abuses. Central Valley news | Police State page