After the last Indymedia Film Collective documentary showing at Big E’s Coffee Shop, Stan Zimmerman spoke at what is now the SRQ Indymedia biweekly Citizen Journalist’s Self-Empowerment Session .These journalism meetings will be an interactive discussion with Indymedia coordinators, fellow reporters, and anyone interested in various methods and resources needed for good reporting. Adam Roca also gave a general overview of Indymedia and how to use the website. Here are notes on Stan and A Roc’s talk and questions from the audience throughout.

Hello friends and neighbors,

Sarasota government has not heard from any expert economist on whether or not funding a new 70+ million dollar stadium makes sense for Sarasota.
Billy Wetherington's interview with Dr. Philip Porter, a USF professor of economics, is now available for listening at www.stadiummess.com http://www.stadiummess.com>  on our Media tab.

Please take some time to hear why economists have come to the consensus that public subsidies for stadiums do not bring a return on investment to communities that foot the bill.

  The potluck in the park just started up, at Five Points Park this season. On monday a ton of mostly homeless people came through my line and ate everything. It was cool to see how much they enjoyed the nutritious, organic food and I was packed up and done at 5:45 which was not at all like last season. I do need a few volunteers at my house each week if anyone is interested in helping. My roommates are o.k. with us taking over the kitchen as long as I give them some food.

My cell  941-306-6390 Matt                                                                                                           

Whole Foods, CIW agree to "work in partnership to help improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers"!...

Gerardo Reyes of the CIW: “With this agreement, the Campaign for Fair Food has again broken new ground.  This is not only our first agreement in the supermarket industry but, in working with Whole Foods Market, we have the opportunity to really raise the bar to establish and ensure modern day labor standards and conditions in Florida.”

Read the Ft. Myers News-Press article here: "Tomato pickers sign up new ally" (9/10/08)

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — On Tuesday, September 3, just three months after witnessing his 17-year-old brother’s murder by St. Petersburg cop and battle scarred, Iraq war veteran Terrence Nemeth, 14-year-old Keon Dawson was subjected to more abuse as he was taken from his class at Meadowlawn Middle School.

14-year-old Keon Dawson at press conference

Keon was detained and subjected to search of his person and locker as a result of authorities’ claim that they got a tip from an “agency” that he had a gun. Even after it was clear that Keon didn’t have a gun, he was interrogated further alone with one cop who attempted to have him say he had a gun.

This is only the latest in a series of attacks against witnesses to the June 7 police murder of Javon Dawson. Several young witnesses who courageously came forward to testify to what they saw that night have been steadily harassed, intimidated, threatened and attacked by police. The parents of some of them have contacted the Uhuru Movement to report that the police have been phoning and coming to their houses to pressure their children to make statements to validate the police cover-up.

Mark your calendar, spread the word:

Rally for the Everglades, September 20: Don't let sprawl, heavy industry and climate change destroy what's left of our globally famous watershed!!

Starting 10am, meet at STA 1E in Western Palm Beach County (1 mile east of Lion Country Safari Rd., on the south side of Southern Blvd), we will rally and march to the entrance of FPL's West County Energy Center construction site inside the Palm Beach Aggregates rock mine-- which represent two of the greatest threats to the Everglades ecosystem.

Uhuru Movement members challenged U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama at a rally in St. Petersburg, Florida on his inability or unwillingness to speak to the issues of the African community despite the fact that he has been willing to speak to the interests of the illegitimate settler State of Israel stating that if up to him, the Palestinian people won't have the right to return to their own stolen homeland. The Obama candidacy is imperialism's attempt to resolve its own crisis at the expense of the African community by working to keep the African community tied up into the Democratic Party while Africans would be looking for solutions outside of the imperialist elections to our problems.

UPDATE:  Report from Diop Olugbala, Why We Challenged Barack Obama

Not one more black life!”
Uhuru Movement leads protest against St. Petersburg, FL police killing of 17-year-old Javon Dawson
 
Come out Sunday, June 22 to an informational conference exposing St. Pete's new waterfront stadium plan and its connection to the police containment and impoverishment of the African community. Sunday, June 22 at the Uhuru House, 1245 18th Avenue South, St. Petersburg.
 
The murder of Javon Dawson is tied to the city of St. Petersburg's plans for a new baseball stadium on the waterfront, part of efforts to gentrify and disperse the historically African community and turn St. Petersburg into an enclave for wealthy white people.

Dawson was gunned down in the back by St. Petersburg police officer Terrance Nemeth on Saturday night, June 7 at a high school graduation party.
 
Dawson had no police record, something the media always drags through the papers to try to slander the character of the victims and justify the crimes of the police.
 
Nevertheless the police and media are working overtime to criminalize the young man. The police insinuate that Dawson had a gun, even as all witnesses have stated that was clearly not the case.

UPDATE (8/29) Police Cover Up Revealed!