On Saturday, December 6th at 6:00pm at the Resource Center for Nonviolence (515 Broadway) in Santa Cruz, Indybay volunteers from around the Bay Area will facilitate an orientation to Indybay.org and the global Indymedia network. Learn how to publish your words, photos, audio and/or videos to share with your friends and the world, and much more, including how stories get made into center column features.

On December 3rd, tree-sitters unfurled a 30 ft. wide banner on the edge of the Great Redwood Forest, east of Eureka, CA. The banner read “Hey Green Diamond, Stop Clear-cutting -Earth First!”. The Green Diamond Resource Company plans to log 60 acres of large second growth and residual old growth Redwoods in the near future. The two groves represent the oldest remaining forest and best habitat for old-growth dependent species like the northern spotted owl.

On Saturday, December 6th, supporters of death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal will gather at Philadelphia City Hall for a protest march through downtown that will conclude at the Federal Court Building. International solidarity actions are being held in France, Switzerland, Germany, England, and Mexico, while in the US, events are organized in Detroit, San Francisco, Baltimore, Portland, and San Diego. The San Francisco protest will be held from 4:30 to 5:30pm at the Federal Courthouse at 7th and Mission Streets.

On Tuesday, December 9th at 3:00pm, Santa Cruz City Council will decide the fates of the Beach Flats Community Center, Harvey West Pool, Museum of Natural History and Surfing Museum. In light of the current fiscal crisis the city faces, closures of these facilities and reduction in the employee workforce are possibilities on the table for discussion at the council meeting.

IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the War) performed "Operation First Casualty" throughout downtown San Francisco on Black Friday, interrupting shoppers' routines with a graphic display of the action that they were missing by not being in Iraq. Volunteer "civilians" were detained, cuffed and hooded by the Iraq vets in a graphic reenactment of the US military's occupation of Iraq. Several volunteers were water-boarded. Volunteers pretended to be Iraq citizens suffering under the occupation of U.S. forces.

On November 27th, Darlene Wallach, a San Jose, California resident, was deported from Israel, departing Tel Aviv for New York on an El Al flight. She had been arrested, along with two other human rights observers and 15 Palestinians, by Israeli authorities while on a fishing boat in Gaza waters on November 18th.

On Thanksgiving morning, November 27th, the International Indian Treaty Council and American Indian Contemporary Arts will be holding their annual sunrise gathering on Alcatraz Island.

AIM-WEST is holding events November 24th through the 28th in San Francisco for the 40 year anniversary and reunion of the American Indian Movement. The AIM reunion includes invited speakers from California indigenous nations, and congratulatory statements from governments and community organizations. The theme of the gathering is “Somos Un Solo Rio” (We Are One River), and “No One Is Illegal.”

The City Council of Santa Cruz has applied to extend city services to the currently undeveloped UCSC Upper Campus. This is a key step in preparing this unique ecosystem for destruction under UCSC environmentally irresponsible Long Range Development Plan. The City Council's attempt to aid the University in this process is in direct contradiction to the expressed will of the people of Santa Cruz and it violates the city's existing municipal code.

On November 16th, over 200 people from numerous communities throughout the Monterey Bay area came out to join the 15th annual Peace and Unity March, organized to demand an end to violence. In attendance was the family of Ray Ray Cervantez, a recent victim of violence, who shared words of their sorrow and urged peace.

On Nov. 20th, the City of Palo Alto announced that its controversial police chief will retire on Dec. 19th. Chief Lynne Johnson sparked protests and a march on the city when she stated that she had instructed officers on her force to make "consensual contact" with African American men to counter a crime spike in Palo Alto. Although the police chief made several attempts at apologizing, many residents of the city and surrounding communities were left wondering why she directed her officers to look for African Americans with do-rags when victims of a 5-month city-wide crime spree had variously described suspects as being of African American, Pacific Islander, Latino or white descent.

On November 19th, the California Supreme Court granted review in the legal challenges to Proposition 8, a ballot measure that denied equal marriage rights to those in same-sex partnerships. In a sign that the court may not be willing to take a strong stand against discrimination, the court voted 6-1 not to let marriages resume while it considers the proposition's constitutionality.

On November 13th, three Arab students, two female and one male, were attacked by members of the Zionist Freedom Alliance. The incident happened at the University of California Berkeley campus at a concert organized by ZFA. The three activists were targeted after they displayed Palestinian flags as a silent protest in response to derogatory remarks against Arabs by some of the performers at the event.

At noon on Wednesday November 12, San Francisco State University students attended a meeting with the heads of campus departments to discuss the impact of budget cuts. $31.3 million was cut over the summer, and in early November another $66.3 million in cuts was announced. The meeting spilled over into a rally, which led to actions that lasted all day and into the night, as students held an all-night sleep-in in the middle of campus.

On November 18th, US citizen and activist Darlene Wallach, along with a British citizen and an Italian, was detained with 15 Palestinian fisherman by the Israeli Navy. The group was fishing seven miles off the coast of Deir Al Balah. The US and European citizens, who are human rights observers, were kidnapped with the Palestinians by the Israeli Navy, despite the fact that they were clearly in Gaza fishing waters and well within the fishing limit detailed in the Oslo Accords of 1994.

Join the Impact organized nationwide protests on November 15th against Proposition 8 and other anti-gay measures that were passed in November 4th's election. The SF protest took place on the front steps of City Hall. The Oakland protest took place in Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. Other local protests included Santa Cruz, Sacramento, Fresno, Modesto, Mountain View, San Rafael, Santa Rosa and Tracy.

On November 10 the Palo Alto City Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning racial profiling. In doing so they acknowledged the damage caused when Police Chief Lynne Johnson, commenting on a recent crime spike, said that she ordered her officers to question African Americans they see in Palo Alto to find out who they are. At a rally against racial profiling in front of Palo Alto's City Hall on November 9, several hundred people called for the police chief's resignation and a boycott of Palo Alto businesses.

On November 4th, 2008, California voters passed Proposition 2 by a 63% to 36% margin. The new "Standards for Confining Farm Animals" statute phases out some of the most restrictive confinement systems used by factory farms — gestation crates for breeding pigs, veal crates for calves, and battery cages for egg laying hens — affecting 20 million farm animals in the state by granting them space to stand up, stretch their limbs, turn around and lie down comfortably.

On November 4th, California voters passed Proposition 8. The proposition would amend the California constitution to specify that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Lambda Legal Defense, NCLR and the ACLU have urged the California Supreme Court to invalidate Proposition 8. The groups argue that Prop. 8 is invalid because it improperly attempts to undo the constitution's core commitment to equality and deprives the courts of their essential role of protecting the rights of minorities.

Supporters of same-sex marriage have protested the results of Tuesday's vote. On Friday November 7th, tens of thousands gathered at 5:30pm in San Francisco's UN Plaza for a No On 8 rally and marched to Dolores Park. Large protests have also taken place in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Oakland, Redwood City, Palo Alto, Sacramento, Modesto and even in Salt Lake City.

On November 7th, about 75 people turned out on Science Hill, the site scheduled for construction of a Biomedical Sciences Facility, to celebrate the one year anniversary of the UCSC Science Hill Tree Sit. The festivities featured speakers, spoken word, and musical performances, as well as laughter, storytelling and conversation. People also marked the occasion by sharing memories of November 7th, 2007, the day that hundreds of students, staff, faculty, and community members withstood the police in order to support the tree sit.

People from the Klamath Basin and throughout California are urging the State Water Resources Control Board to not grant Warren Buffett-owned PacifiCorp a clean water permit because of the degradation of water quality resulting from the operation of company's dams on the river.

Just a few days before the one-year anniversary of the aerial spraying for Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) in Santa Cruz, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) released two studies about the pesticide applications in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. While CDFA claims that these reports prove the safety of the eradication program, environmental groups and citizen advocates say that statement is misleading and point out fundamental shortcomings of both reports. Rather, they argue, they reveal another breach of the law by CDFA.

On Tuesday November 4th, Barack Obama beat John McCain to become the first African-American President of the United States of America. Obama won many traditionally Republican states, including Virginia, New Mexico, Colorado, Indiana and North Carolina. As Obama's win became clear, celebrations broke out around the Bay Area.

In California, Proposition 8 passed, changing the California Constitution to ban same sex marriage. Proposition 2, a ban on mistreatment of farm animals, passed. Prop 5, which aimed to reform how the prison system deals with drug offenders, failed to pass. In San Francisco, a measure to bring JROTC back into schools passed. A measure to change how police deal with prostitution failed to pass. The SF Board of Supervisors has remained in the hands of progressives.

On November 2, Hebrew University student Ali Bahar was detained for three hours after refusing to shake hands with Israeli president Shimon Peres. Upon approaching Bahar, the student refused to shake Peres' hand and stated "I will not shake hands with murderer of kids." Immediately following the encounter, Bahar was detained by university security personnel and his student ID was confiscated.

On November 2nd, over 1,000 people came to downtown Fresno for a NO ON 8 rally. The rally at Fresno City Hall was followed by an impromptu march to the County Clerks office to demand marriage equality. The keynote speaker at the rally was Father Farrow, who was a priest at the Saint Paul Newman Center in northeast Fresno. . . until he came out (last month) against Proposition 8. For this courageous act, he was suspended as a priest and removed as pastor.

On October 30th, a Halloween-themed rally drew a large crowd of employees to the front doors of the Santa Clara Hyatt hotel where they demonstrated for a fair process to choose a union.  Despite intermittent rain, protestors and their supporters chanted and carried placards in Spanish, English and Tagalog. Some wore masks and doled out tiny Halloween candy treats, mocking management’s attitude toward employees. Hyatt management has continually rejected its workers’ request for the company to stay neutral while workers decide for themselves whether or not to have a union.

A coalition of fishing and environmental groups is alarmed that an executive order by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued earlier this year could further threaten imperiled populations of Central Valley and Klamath River salmon. The order, made during the budget impasse between the Governor and Legislature, terminated temporary help positions from the state’s payroll.

This Halloween, Friday, Oct. 31, hundreds of Bay Area youth gathered with community members and families to denounce the atrocities committed against immigrant communities by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The action was a response to ICE attacks against immigrant communities in so-called “sanctuary cities” like San Francisco and to a presidential election season that has seen neither major candidate substantively address the issues facing immigrant families. BART police shut down at least three stations - Richmond, Fruitvale, and Coliseum - from which groups of protesters were gathering to commute to the protest in downtown San Francisco. At least three protesters were arrested in Richmond.