HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom) member and vehicular dweller, Donna Deiss, who had her right humerus bone fractured by Officer Christian LeMoss on May 9th, 2008 at the Three Trees parking lot on W. Cliff Dr. has had all charges but one dropped. She now faces a single charge of 148 (a) PC or resisting arrest. Misdemeanor charges of battery on a police officer and possession of marijuana have been dropped without explanation. Deiss is still scheduled for arraignment on July 2nd at 8:30AM on the lone remaining charge of 'resisting arrest.' "I plan to plead 'Not Guilty' and seek a jury trial," she told HUFF members.

The Santa Cruz Police Department had issued a press release three days after the incident in which they claimed "When the officer attempted to detain Ms. Deiss she threw a cup of hot liquid onto his face. Despite being burned, the officer was able to control and eventually take Ms. Deiss into custody ." Deiss claims the officer never properly detained her, was not in uniform, did not identify himself as a police officer, and had no reason to detain her, much less grab her violently, spin her onto a parked car, cuff her, then throw her on the ground breaking her arm. Read More

previous coverage: 60 Year Old Homeless Woman Says Police Broke Her Arm || Donna Deiss Describes Her Interaction with SCPD Sergeant Christian LeMoss

Musicians and artists from the bay area are coming together at the Santa Cruz Vets Hall on Friday, June 27th in order to raise money for Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and to help the brand new Santa Cruz Chapter get off the ground. The event is being sponsored by the Santa Cruz local Veterans for Peace and Veterans of Foreign Wars chapters.

There will be music performances by Ashkon (bay area hip-hop), Cripple Catch and the Midi Mob (SC hip-hop), The Reliques (psychedelic rock and roll), and Anne and The Vets (political folk from San Jose). Artists such as William Muir, Sam Sweeley, and Phil Pflager are coming to share their art with the audience, and guests from the GI Rights Hot-line, Truth in Recruiting, Veterans for Peace, and Students Against War will be coming to share their wisdom and literature.

IVAW has 3 objectives -- 1) Immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, 2) Reparation for the Iraqi peoples, 3) Proper care, treatment and support for Iraqi and Afghani vets. Read More

see also: Veterans for Peace Santa Cruz Half Staff Flags in Honor of Dead/Injured; Iraq/Afghanistan

During summer break, the UCSC tree-sit is on high-alert of a possible attack. In Berkeley this week, police, professional tree climbers, and cherry pickers were used to cut the climb and supply lines of tree-sitters. Similar techniques could be used in Santa Cruz to remove protesters who've been in the trees since November 7, 2007.

Historically, UCSC has cut trees and broken ground on controversial projects during summer and winter breaks. While students are off campus, the administration believes that resistance to their expansion plans will be minimized. Supported by students, faculty, staff, and the Santa Cruz community, the tree-sit stands in direct opposition to UC plans to develop the campus and dramatically increase enrollment. Read More

see also: Celebrating 200 Days of Tree-Sitting Resistance to UCSC Expansion

The indynewswire show airs weekly on Freak Radio, Friday mornings 10-12 noon, broadcasting news and opinion from independent media worldwide, focused on indymedia sites but also drawing from other websites. This week features audio from KBOO, Radio4All, Puerto Rico Indymedia and Portland Indymedia. Topics include the attack against the tree-sit protesting contruction of the I-69 NAFTA superhighway, farmworker Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez who died in the fields last month while picking 'two buck chuck,' police brutality in Portland, political property destruction, sentencing in greenscare cases, the campaign to free Chip Fitzgerald and much more! Read More and Listen to Audio

related links: Anti I-69 Tree-Sit Evicted in Indiana || Worker died pruning in Two Buck Chuck vineyards || Cyclist Tased in Portland || Briana Waters sentenced to six years, appeal pending || Free Chip Fitzgerald || White Supremacist Flyer Posted in Potrero Area/River Street || Free Speech Radio News in Crisis || Militarization in Mexico

When a prison riot between inmates and guards broke out in a maximum security facility, Salinas Valley State prison in California on Thanksgiving Day in 1998, corrections officer Donald J.Vodicka's life would be changed forever. In an attempt to document evidence of injured inmates, Vodicka was behind the camera that day. What was normal standard procedure would be shunned on by a group of guards, and Vodicka was told by other guards to get rid of the photos and evidence of injured inmates. To cover-up evidence.

Vodicka was up against a prison guard gang known as "The Green Wall." A gang of guards whose corruption would force Vodicka into becoming a "whistleblower." A gang like any other street or prison inmate gang, with a hand signal that flashed the letter W for "wall" and some bearing tattoos, and other signs that gangs have. Named "The Green Wall" for the color of the uniforms they wore. Vodicka stated that what began as 15 members had grown to over 400, of the 600 guards and officers in Salinas Valley prison. A gang who disregarded prison codes and procedures, and whose corruption was worse than some of the inmates they were paid to guard. Vodicka said they "bullied, and instilled fear and intimidation in the prisoners." Read More

At approximately 2:00 p.m. on June 20th, fires started off of Highway 1 between Mar Monte Road and Airport Road. By 6:00 p.m., 1,000 acres had already burned and several homes destroyed. It is currently burning out of control and continues to threaten the health and safety of people and animals in the area.

The fires ignited and took hold rather rapidly, with many people nearby the fires unaware of the danger or what procedures to follow. An observer of the fire from Freedom Boulevard around 3:00 p.m. was overwhelmed by the giant flume of smoke that encroached over the city of Freedom and headed towards Watsonville.

Currently, over 2,000 people are being forced to evacuate their homes and others are being asked to evacuate, including all areas within the Airport Road, Freedom Blvd and Larkin Valley Road area. Highway 1 is currently closed for a six mile stretch, between Larkin Valley Road and down to Riverside Drive, according to other news reports. Read More and View Photos

Sam Farr, representative of the 17th Congressional District of California, stated in a June 19th press release that, "aerial pheromone application over urban areas is off the table" in the effort to control the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM). The California Department of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that aerial pheromone application will no longer take place over urban areas and will be "limited to agricultural land and undeveloped regions as a tool of last result."

In a June 19th conference call with environmental and citizen groups, Secretary A. G. Kawamura confirmed that aerial spraying of pesticides is off the table in all urban areas. He went on to say that this includes all areas that are accessible by road: If there are roads, CDFA considers it an urban area. Audio

“The bottom line for eradicating this pest has always been safety,” Rep. Farr said. “The public was never convinced that spraying was safe or the only option, and the result has been protests, anger and a series of lawsuits. It’s vital that we don’t delay in our efforts to control this pest. CDFA was correct to recognize that aerial application was becoming a distraction. A shift in strategy is the right move.”

reader comments, "Farr is a politico, he is only trying to keep the program alive."

"The public was never convinced that spraying was safe"

"No mention of the fact that it was actually not safe. Only public perceptions matter."

Aerial Pesticide Spraying Over Cities Stopped | Statewide Grassroots Movement Victorious in Stopping the Spray | Vegan Reader | LBAMspray.com | StopTheSpray.org | Helping Our Peninsula's Environment

anarchist writes, "To everyone who read that Greenspace lost a window to "anarchists" and cringed:
This incident is not representative of the greater revolutionary struggle or anarchists in general. One person claiming their inconsequential vandalism with a communique, especially does not represent the tactfulness and potency that most anarchists act with – both in our contribution to existing social conflicts, and even more so, in our autonomous actions.

"I write this not because I feel protective of Greenspace's financial prosperity, but because I believe this 'action' does more damage than it does good. In my opinion, it leaves a damaging misrepresentation of what anarchist intervention looks like on a local level." Read More

In October 2007 the United States, the European Community, Switzerland and Japan simultaneously announced that they would negotiate a new intellectual property enforcement treaty, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA. Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand and Mexico have joined the negotiations. Although the proposed treaty's title might suggest that the agreement deals only with counterfeit physical goods (such as medicines), what little information has been made available publicly by negotiating governments about the content of the treaty makes it clear that it will have a far broader scope, and in particular, will deal with tools targeting "Internet distribution and information technology." To date, disturbingly little information has been released about the actual content of the agreement. However, despite that, it is clearly on a fast track; treaty proponents want it tabled at the G8 summit in July, and completed by the end of 2008.

Skidmark Bob of Free Radio Santa Cruz interviewed media analyst John Anderson about ACTA and H.R. 4279, the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO IP) Act of 2007. The PRO IP Act proposes to make substantial changes to federal copyright law, including the appointment of a copyright Czar. Read More and Listen to Audio

see also: Audio Collage on Sharing Music in the Digital Age

by an act of revolutionary solidarity
Evening of June 14. As part of an ongoing local and international momentum of revolutionary solidarity with social prisoners as well as POWs of ecological struggles, the Bank of America and Wells Fargo ATMs on the University of California Santa Cruz campus had their screens smashed by a chunk of granite.

Wells Fargo is a major funder of the GEO Group, which runs Guantanamo Bay, the Northwest ICE Detention Center, and numerous other jails and prisons. Bank of America funds Peabody Coal, which is blasting the tops of mountains in Appalachia and strip-mining indigenous land in Arizona, as well as poisoning the air we breath. Banks fund these industrial atrocities with the money that they suck from your paycheck, your savings, your debts. Read More

see also: Justice Has Its Windows Smashed

Descent into stupidity
by Prom
Dear Santa Cruz vandals,
I started out in full support of your actions. The security cameras, sweet deal. Courtroom, high five. Green Business? What the fuck was the point in that? I get it, green capitalism isn't the answer, but seriously, why target people who actually make an effort to be environmentally friendly? Civilization hasn't come down yet, but while we're waiting, it doesn't hurt to have a minimal impact. Read More

The University of California's superior work in nuclear weaponry is only the most blatant program of a university that has hired itself out to the US empire's dominant social, political, and economic institutions for nearly 140 years. Whether it is creating increasingly destructive war technologies, developing modern forms of monocrop and GMO agriculture, or producing ideologies that justify conquest and torture, the UC has collaborated with the world's premier corporate and military interests since its inception.

On June 2nd, the Education for Sustainable Living Program (ESLP) class at UC Santa Cruz hosted an evening entitled "The University is Unsustainable: militarism, nuclearism, corporatism and the UC." Student researchers Jono and Leah presented on UCSC's Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) while UCSC alumni Will Parrish and Darwin BondGraham focused on the University of California from 1868 to 2008, from the genocide of Indigenous Nations, the Spanish American War and the Manhattan Project, through to the present: a time of renewed nuclear-militarism and increasing corporatization and privatization of the University. Read More and Listen to Audio

The community of Felton prevailed in its six-year fight to acquire its water system from California-American Water (Cal-Am), a subsidiary of the German multinational corporation RWE. Cal-Am and the San Lorenzo Valley Water District (SLVWD) announced a purchase agreement on May 30th, less than a week before the planned start of an eminent domain trial where a jury would have set the value of the water system. SLVWD will make a total cash payment of $10.5 million to acquire the water system, including the 250 acres of forested watershed land, which Cal-Am is 'donating' to SLVWD. In addition, SLVWD will assume the $2.9 million loan that Felton residents have been paying for a new treatment plant.

“Felton FLOW's landmark victory over private water interests demonstrates that grassroots action can stop corporate interests from profiteering on water,” said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. “This win, combined with the failure of RWE to efficiently and affordably deliver water to the residents of Felton is yet another example of why water utilities should be managed by the public. Felton’s victory should inspire other communities suffering from the effects of privatization to take back their water systems.” Read More

see also: Small California Town Overthrows Corporate Giant for Control of Water || Previous Coverage: Felton Community Resists Water Giant (June 21, 2007) || Felton Passes Measure to Take Back Water Utility (July 26, 2005)

On June 6th, George Blumenthal was inaugurated as the 10th Chancellor of UC Santa Cruz during a ceremony on the East Field overlooking the Monterey Bay. Students and workers, organized through the Student and Worker Coalition for Justice (SWCJ) and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), rallied at UCSC, marched to the Chancellor's Inauguration and blocked California Highway One at Mission and Bay during a 10-hour day of action to deliver a loud and clear message -- end poverty wages at the University of California. Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | Video

"As the inauguration activities are occurring, we want our new Chancellor to see all the workers, all the students and our supporters and know we will not back down until we get equal pay for equal work, said Nicolas Gutierrez, Senior Custodian at UCSC, "So many of us are struggling to make ends meet—we can’t afford to wait any longer.”

see also: UC Graduation Speakers to Cancel Statewide Unless 20,000 UC Workers are Guaranteed a Fair Contract || UCSC Inauguration or fenced in Coronation? || Previous Coverage: AFSCME Strike Postponed -- What's Next?

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Santa Cruz County and mental health advocates will rally on Tuesday, June 10th at 9:30am in front of the County Government Building on Ocean Street to call for the protection of mental health services in Santa Cruz County. Children, incarcerated individuals, and individuals with mental illness are losing their services or will receive reduced services.

The consequences of these reductions will intensify the current trends to:
• Decrease availability of services for children and adults
• Increase the number of people with mental illnesses in the County jail systems
• Increase the use of law enforcement to address mental health needs
• Force vulnerable populations to become homeless
• Increase unexpected deaths among mental health clients
• Increase use of expensive hospital emergency rooms and psychiatric locked facilities

Read More | Short Commentary | More Medicare cuts to doctors in Santa Cruz County!

The UC Santa Cruz administration officially accepted a joint proposal of the Graduate Student Association, UAW and STIHC (Students for Trans-Inclusive Healthcare) for GSHIP (Graduate Student Health Insurance Plan) and USHIP (Undergraduate Student Health Insurance Plan) benefits. Effective this fall, GSHIP and USHIP will include a $75,000 lifetime benefit for transgender healthcare.

This is a significant achievement, since GSHIP at UC Santa Cruz will offer a larger benefit than at any other UC or at Stanford or Caltech. In the face of major budget cuts, UAW-QUAD (UAW Members for Quality Education and Democracy) not only held the line on health care -- they got a major improvement in coverage. GSHIP coverage will now be more fair and it will help more graduate students. Read More

AFSCME Local 3299's strike, planned for June 4 - 5, has been postponed indefinitely. UC hired the infamous anti-union law firm Littler Mendelson, a firm that boasts on their website about their expertise in avoiding unionization and busting unions. Suddenly, UC Executives claimed to have new proposals for AFSCME and asked for negotiations to resume -- even though they already gave AFSCME their "last, best, and final proposal." In the eyes of a Republican-dominated state labor board (Public Employee Relations Board or PERB), these alleged new proposals were enough to overturn AFSCME's right to strike.

Under threat of legal injunctions and unfavorable rulings from PERB, AFSCME was forced to rescind their notification of intent to strike on June 4 - 5. No strike can take place in the remainder of this academic year. This is excellent timing to attempt to demoralize the power of students immediately before the summer.

UCSC is inaugurating its 10th Chancellor on Friday, June 6th at 10am with all eyes aimed on the illustrious world class institution. The UC does not want the stain of students standing up for workers who remain in poverty to precede the image of the regala events with an effective strike—the likes that UC has never seen before, UC-wide. By forcing AFSCME back to the table with these legal technicalities UC is depending upon confusion and frustration to deflate organizing and let the inauguration pomp take place, unheeded. Read More

UC's Coordinated "Return to the Bargaining Table" | WEEK OF ACTION: Fair Contract Now!!! | 96% of UC Service Workers are income eligible for Public Assistance | Know your enemy: About the UC executives | Previous Coverage: 20,000 University of California Workers Vote to STRIKE June 4th and 5th

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Read about Santa Cruz IMC's Regional Integration with Indybay.org || Lee sobre CMI Santa Cruz que se esta Integrando con Indybay.org