This winter, a group of Bay Area activists re-started Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW), with an eye towards two actions to protest the anniversary of the US-led war and occupation of Iraq. Two "mass direct actions" are being planned for the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. On March 15th, DASW, along with community organizations, will be taking direct action against the Chevron refinery in Richmond. For March 19th, 2008—the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq—DASW is organizing a day of decentralized, multiple-target direct action against government offices and war profiteers in downtown San Francisco.

On February 24th, police broke through the front door of a home on the 700 block of Riverside Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz. For the duration of the police presence they declined to comment on their reason for being there, other than to say it was an "ongoing investigation." Comments on the newswire state that the police actions were in response to a demonstration that took place that morning at the home of a UCSC vivisectionist (animal testing by inflicting distress unto an animal to research the effects of a variable).

Aerial spraying of pesticides in Monterey and Santa Cruz is set to continue and soon will come to the Bay Area. Pesticide opponents say, "This supposed 'emergency' is the presence of the light brown apple moth in Bay Area counties, but like all toxic dumping by the agriculture industry, it is likely more about industry profits." While pro-environment organizations are calling on officials to use sticky traps instead of sprays, aerial treatments are scheduled to begin June 1st in the infested areas of Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, with subsequent aerial treatments expected to begin August 1st in San Francisco, Daly City, Colma, Oakland, Piedmont, Emeryville, Albany, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Tiburon and Belvedere.

On Tuesday, February 19th, in a ruling unrelated to the pending US Third Circuit Court decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected death row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal of a 2005 ruling by Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe, which denied Abu-Jamal’s Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) petition, on grounds that it was not "timely." Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted—many believe falsely—of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, and his trial was riddled with improprieties.

On Wednesday, February 20th, students at D-Q University, which is California's only tribal college, reported that Yolo County deputies had begun arresting them for allegedly "trespassing" on campus. As many as four students were taken to the Yolo County Jail, and it is believed that more arrests are likely. Students are calling for support from the community, and are asking for people to come out and witness the deputies' actions. D-Q University is located at 33250 Road 31 in Davis.

Family and friends of Anita Gay gathered on Thursday, February 21st at 6pm at the South Berkeley Community Church to celebrate her life and to share concerns about police conduct in Berkeley. Anita Gay, a long-term Berkeley resident and beloved neighborhood grandmother, was shot dead by a Berkeley Police officer on February 16th at her home on Ward Street. Family and community members have organized the creation of the Justice for Anita! Justice for All Campaign! to press the City Council to take action to address residents' concerns about the conduct of BPD.

The Humane Society of United States conducted a video-taped undercover investigation of Hallmark Meat Packing Company in Chino, California. The investigation documented cows unable to walk, known as "downed" cows, being rammed with the blades of a forklift, jabbed in the eyes, stabbed with electric prods and sprayed in the nose with high-pressure water hoses. Under federal regulations, only animals able to walk on their own can be used for meat.

GARDINER & WEST YELLOWSTONE, MT: 290 wild buffalo have been slaughtered by the National Park Service in Yellowstone since February 8th. These actions are being taken to appease Montana's cattle interests, who claim they fear the spread of brucellosis from wild bison to cattle. George Cadman of Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.1 FM spoke with Stephany Seay of the Buffalo Field Campaign about the real reasons behind the slaughter, what they are doing to fight it and how people can get involved.

Jeff Muskrat writes, "With the fall of the Bear Mountain tree-sit in Victoria, BC, it seems like this is a very crucial time for activists in the trees up and down the west coast. There are two campus trees-sits, one under attack right now at UC Berkeley and one at UC Santa Cruz. These actions are opposing the unnecessary development of greenspace."

On February 21st, Critical Resistance presented Gender, Health Care and the Prison Industrial Complex, at the Louden Nelson Community Center in Santa Cruz. This forum was the second in a series of monthly events that focus on different aspects of the prison industrial complex. The evening featured speakers from Justice Now, Critical Resistance and Santa Cruz AIDS Project.

Vigils will be held across California this week to remember Lawrence "Larry" King, the 15 year old E.O. Green Junior High student who was shot on February 12th in Oxnard. Larry was declared brain-dead Wednesday after he was shot in the head twice by a fellow junior high student at school, and he was taken off life support three days later. According to friends, Larry was perceived to be gay and gender non-conforming and had been bullied at school. The suspect, a 14-year old student, has been charged with attempted murder, and the case is being prosecuted as a hate crime. Vigils will be held in San Francisco on Tuesday and in Fresno on Wednesday.

Peace Fresno sponsored a Presidents' Day peace march on Monday, Feb. 18th. Organizers called it "Mourning in America" and about 150 marchers went from the Tower Theatre to the new Federal Building in downtown Fresno. There was an extremely heavy police presence at the march, but there were no incidents.

A federal court in San Francisco has wiped whistleblower site Wikileaks.org offline, granting an injunction requested by lawyers for a Swiss bank, which is attempting to prevent the public from accessing allegations of illegal activity at the bank. On Feb. 18th, Judge Jeffrey S. White ordered Wikileaks.org's San Mateo-based domain registrar to "disable the wikileaks.org domain name" and to "immediately clear and remove all DNS hosting records for the wikileaks.org domain name."

On January 30th, Elik Elhanan and Bassam Aramin spoke to a crowd of about 80 people in the basement of the Vets Hall in Santa Cruz. They are both members of Combatants for Peace, an Israeli/Palestinian organization made up of former fighters that attempts to now use their experiences to bridge gaps in peoples' understanding of the conflict and work for nonviolent, just, and viable solutions to the conflict.

Anti-war protesters celebrated on February 13th after having forced the US Army's Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies (ICB) to cancel the second day of its annual conference at UC Santa Barbara. The day prior, over 500 UCSB students and Santa Barbara community members disrupted the conference to demand an end to UC complicity in weapons research designed to kill Iraqis in an illegal war. The ICB is a $50 million Army-funded research institute hosted by UCSB, with sub-contracts at MIT and Caltech.

Friday, February 15th was Iraq Moratorium Day #6. The Iraq Moratorium is a community- based nationwide campaign to organize public displays of opposition to the war in Iraq on the third Friday of each month. Iraq Moratorium events include actions such as wearing black ribbons, calling Congress to say "Bring Home Our Troops," and coming together for protests and outreach events in cities all over the US. There were actions at military recruiting stations in Berkeley and Mountain View, and leafletting at Caltrain.

On February 12th, the Berkeley City Council voted 7-to-2 to "clarify" an anti-recruitment resolution it had passed on January 29th. The original resolution stated that the U.S. Marine Recruiting Station near Berkeley High School "is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders." The new resolution states that the military recruiters have the legal right to stay and that while the city opposes the war and military recruitment, it supports the troops. Members of Code Pink say they now intend to place a resolution against the recruitment center on the local ballot.

Protesters had camped out overnight Monday to oppose changes to the Council's anti-recruitment stand. Several pro-war groups organized members to confront protesters in Berkeley on Tuesday. During afternoon protests, three high school students were arrested by the Berkeley police. No one on the pro-war side was arrested.

Carissa Phelps was 12 years old when she was forced into prostitution on the mean streets of Fresno. She has returned to Fresno to put a spotlight on the sexual exploitation of youth, which she says is still happening today. Telling her story is a part of the process.

On February 4th, lawyers representing Jennifer Charles requested that the University of California's lawsuit attempting to stifle her free speech be dismissed. Charles, a UC Santa Cruz alumnus, has been acting as the media contact for tree sitters at UCSC protesting the University's plan to destroy 120 acres of forest. The tree sitters have been protecting groves of redwoods since November 7th, when hundreds of people rallied in opposition to the increased University construction.

On Wednesday, Feb. 13th, attorneys will present oral arguments in the infamous Fajitagate case before the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a special hearing at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall. In a motion for recusal filed last week, plaintiff's attorney Dennis Cunningham asserted that Judge Bybee, one of three judges on the panel, cannot be fair because of his involvement in authorizing the Bush Administration's torture policies.

On February 11th, more than two hundred participants of the Longest Walk 2 embarked on a five-month journey on foot from San Francisco. They plan on arriving in Washington, D.C. on July 11, 2008. Native American tribal leaders, religious groups, environmentalists, teachers, students, and people from throughout the world are joining the walk with its "peaceful and spiritual call to action to protect Mother Earth and defend human rights."

On February 7th, more than 100 UNITE HERE Local 19 service sector employees and community activists protested across the street from Google Inc. headquarters in Mountain View to support workers' rights. The rally was held adjacent to the site of Google's future four-star hotel and conference center. Despite repeated requests, Google has refused to address concerns about whether future hotel workers will be able to freely choose to join a union.

The California Fish and Game Commission in San Diego voted 3-0 on February 7th to designate the longfin smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys), a native fish that has dropped to record low numbers in the San Francisco Bay-Delta and is nearing extinction in other northern California estuaries, as a "candidate species." This is the first step toward a formal listing as an endangered or threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act, according to a press release from a coalition of three environmental groups.

Modesto Anarcho writes, "Modesto Anarcho #6 is out now and ready for download and distribution! This issue is packed full of insurrectionary class struggle analysis about what's going on in the California Central Valley area. Included within are extensive direct action and repression reports, poetry, news about ongoing struggles and happenings, a report back from the Feral Visions gathering, an in depth look at the recent Modesto dumpster dive ban, an article detailing the resistance to development at Jesse Morrow Mountain in Fresno, and much more!"

On February 7th, the Australian Government released graphic photos of whales being slaughtered by a Japanese whaling fleet to the media. The Australian Government has also extended the mission of the Oceanic Viking in documenting the whale slaughter in preparation for an international legal case against Japanese whaling. The graphic images apparently show a mother minke whale and its calf being winched aboard a Japanese vessel after being shot with explosive tipped harpoons.

GARDINER, MONTANA - Yellowstone National Park officials captured 53 wild American bison on February 8th inside the Stephens Creek bison trap located within Yellowstone National Park's borders. The captured bison are members of the last wild, genetically intact population existing in the United States, and number fewer than 4,600. Most, if not all, will be sent to slaughter without being tested for brucellosis antibodies.