"We arrived inside Gaza at 5pm last night. We were met by Anees, a 23
year old Gazan. He has guided us around the community. When we first
came in tonight, kids were playing soccer in the street. We saw lots of
heavily damaged buildings, especially government buildings and homes
near the border." Kathy Kelly is with Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Audrey Stewart is a human rights worker with Loyola University New Orleans. They have been in Egypt since January 8, 2009.
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Repost from The Nation; an investigative report supported by the Nation Institute. In Algiers Point, white vigilantes shot African Americans with impunity in the days following Hurricane Katrina.
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A small group of protesters gathered in the freezing cold today in front of the Avery C. Alexander Charity Hospital demanding it be reopened. They also voiced concerns about the massive VA-LSU project that will demolish 70 blocks of lower Mid-City, ostensibly to replace Charity and the old VA hospitals. Also a related indymedia article on mass land acquisition in the footprint by a wealthy New Yorker: Land Acquisitions in Mid City Raise Questions by A. Caritas.
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Katie Hunter-Lowrey, a New Orleans resident and a former employee of the gay rights advocacy group Mass Equality, talks about her trip to California before the historic November 2008 election to fight the passing of Proposition 8, which bans equal marriage for gay couples.
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City officials and LSU still working to pull together controversial LSU hospital plan. Hundreds of Mid-City homes will be demolished from area, and Big Charity Hospital will still be closed.
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Albert Woodfox, who has spent 37 years in prison at Angola Penitentiary, must be released on bail, according to a ruling issued today by United States District Judge James Brady. On September 25th, Judge Brady overturned Woodfox's conviction for the 1972 murder of prison guard Brent Miller. Though the State has announced its intention to appeal that decision, until such an appeal is successful, according to today's ruling, there is no conviction on which to hold Woodfox. Read more...
Time is of the essence on Charity Hospital and the surrounding neighborhood. Decisions may be made as early as this Friday that will decide the fate of the VA and the neighborhood. Read more...
New Orleans is ringing with the sounds of celebration. Having endured the brunt and brutality of the Bush administration's neoliberal economic agenda and neoconservative political agenda more heavily than any other community in the United States, the city has begun a party like only this town knows how to throw. The sounds of ship horns along the Mississippi River blasting in jubilation mix with cars honking along the main avenues. Cheers of hooray resonate across the town from victory parties at bars and crowded households.
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More than a dozen people marched in the streets of New Orleans Sunday evening with a “Starbucks Stop Your Union Busting Now!” banner in solidarity with Starbucks baristas across the nation. At the end of the action, police unlawfully arrested one protester for allegedly "interfering" with officers who were detaining a fellow demonstrator without cause. After twenty four hours and bail payment, the arrestee was finally released.
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A panel of legal experts, social justice organizers and local indigenous leaders came together to reclaim what is normally "Columbus Day" just a month after another hurricane pummeled southern Louisiana tribes.
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N.O. Council member Stacy head officiated the DDD meeting and was praised as a consensus builder by developers and preservationists alike for providing leadership toward a solution that addressed the concerns of both parties. Head, well known for her leadership in the demolition of public housing touted the DDD plan as one that put an “academic background and expert opinion around the issue,” and provides various stakeholders with influence over the final reports recommendations. This was in stark contrast with her leadership during the debate over the future of public housing when she eschewed attempts to forge common ground between those who sought homes for residents of the “big four” developments, and those who advocated immediately tearing down the developments: Head was adamantly for demolition and entertained zero discussion with public housing residents and their allies about how to provide immediate affordable housing opportunities for working class New Orleanians.
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The School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish, released in mid-August, received its first hearing for public comment on Thursday September 18, 2008. From more than 30 public comments, there were no unconditional supporters of
the plan and several people mentioned that there needed to be more time
for public comment on such a large and technical document that will
have a tremendous impact on this city well into the future. A petition is underway. See Indymedia's feature on the petition.Click on the title of this feature for the first audio installment. The second installmentThe third and final installment
In response to a federal judge's decision overturning the conviction of Albert Woodfox, one of the two 'Angola 3' members who remain in prison, lawyers for the men called on the State Attorney General's office to drop any further charges and release the men immediately.
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Hurricane Gustav killed 18 people in Louisiana and displaced 1.9 million. Over 800,000 homes are without electricity. In Haiti, Gustav killed 77 with another 8 missing and damaged nearly 15,000 homes. Tropical storm Hanna, which closely followed Gustav, killed at least another 60 people. Tens of thousands of people have sought safety on rooftops and temporary shelters.
As this hurricane fell at the end of August and the beginning of September, many returning evacuees are faced with mounting bills from landlords and utility companies after footing the cost of at least 4 days of evacuation. The financial hardship for many is unbearable. Attached is a drafted tenants agreement that tenants can present to their landlords to strike agreements to defer rent payment for a reasonable amount of time.
Despite the rosy media reports of light damage from Hurricane Gustav, several of southern Lousiana’s coastal Indigenous communities are reeling from a direct hit by Hurricane Gustav’s 115mph winds and large storm surge. Their communities lie in shambles. The communities of lower Pointe-au-Chien, home of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe (PACIT), and the Isle de Jean Charles (“The Island”) Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Confederation of Muskogees (BCCM) are still trying to assess the severe damage and what it will take to rebuild after Gustav’s devastating winds and storm-surge flooded homes, knocked buildings off their foundations, and decimated the primary source of income in the early season commercial shrimp harvest. The Island is still inaccessible due to prevailing flood waters. ( the most recent update from community leaders follows this action alert)
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Your assistance is urgently needed to help the low-income women of color and their families evacuate safely if need be, stay safe for the duration of the evacuation, and return to the city as soon as possible so as not to fall prey to the pushout that has kept so many folks from being able to return to New Orleans since Katrina.
In the blazing midday sun, hot and thirsty little children walk around bags of diapers and soft suitcases piled outside a locked community center in the Lower Ninth Ward.
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Immigrant workers receive safe evacuation assurances from Department of Homeland Security
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We cannot let history as told by those who assume Power forget. Forget today, forget 2005 or forget the 500 years of neglect, abandonment and indifference that lead to the slow disasters on communities like those in the Gulf or anywhere in our world. Some of you may be aware there is a hurricane named Gustav that is working its way into the Gulf Of Mexico as we speak.
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