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Sat Apr 18 2015 (Updated 04/21/15)
Sheriff Hart Requests $47,925 to Fence Out Protesters from Santa Cruz County Jail
Sheriff Jim Hart is making an emergency requisition to install and iron fence in order to close off the area of the Santa Cruz County Main Jail's parking lot that is most commonly used by community members for public assembly and political demonstrations. Hart has specifically stated that recent political demonstrations held at the jail are the reason for building the new fence. In response, activists are calling for the community to pack the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, April 21 when the proposal will be voted on.
Wed Apr 15 2015 (Updated 04/16/15)
April 14 Action to Stop Police Violence Disrupts SF Supervisors Meeting
On April 14, a call to end business as usual to stop police killings brought demonstrations and protests from coast to coast. In San Francisco protesters took to the streets in La Mission and on the steps of City Hall. At least two hundred protesters went to City Hall and disrupted the Board of Supervisors meeting, chanting "no justice, no peace, no racist police." Simultaneous actions took place in Oakland and Stockton, too.
Read more on Indybay's Police State and Prisons page
Sat Apr 18 2015 (Updated 04/21/15)
Salinas and Capitola Police to Equip Entire Departments with Body Cameras
On April 14, the Salinas City Council voted to approve the purchase of enough body cameras to outfit every officer in the Salinas Police Department. On April 9, the Capitola City Council unanimously voted to approve a request from their police department to use $100,501.31 in Supplemental Law Enforcement State Funds (SLESF) to purchase a dual video system for police vehicles and body cameras. The National Lawyers Guild and other groups caution that there are many unresolved legal and civil rights issues regarding the police use of Personal Digital Recording Devices (PDRDs).
Sat Apr 18 2015 (Updated 04/19/15)
Report Back From Alix Tichelman Court Support Demonstration
On April 13, a group gathered at the Santa Cruz County Courthouse in support of Alix Tichelman, the woman charged with killing a Google executive named Forrest Hayes in 2013. Dozens of pamphlets were handed out in front of the courthouse detailing the case against Alix. Her parents personally thanked the group for their presence. Free Alix! writes: She is being unfairly railroaded into jail for an accident that was not her fault.
According to the environmental group EcoRights, polluted industrial drainage water is entering into Elkhorn Slough from the Pick-n-Pull auto-wrecking yard in Moss Landing. In response, the group has initiated a petition calling on the County of Monterey to require a Environmental Impacts analysis, and to require the business to relocate if it cannot operate without polluting the Slough and harming resident species.
Sat Apr 18 2015 (Updated 04/19/15)
Community Members Reach Out to Those Victimized by Childhood Sexual Abuse
The annual Walk to Stop the Silence was launched nine years ago in order to break through the silence surrounding the issue of sexual abuse and provide a healing space for survivors. The event is always well-attended, but this year, on April 11, the crowd was noticeably packed with families and young people whose energy led the walk with chants such as, "Walk to Stop the Silence!" and "Sí se puede!"
Sat Apr 18 2015 (Updated 04/19/15)
New Research Reveals Western Pond Turtle Is At Least Two Distinct Species
In response to a 2012 petition by the Center for Biological Diversity and several renowned scientists and herpetologists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on April 9 that Endangered Species Act protection may be warranted for the western pond turtle. The agency will now conduct a one-year status review on the turtle, which faces declines of up to 99 percent in some areas. “Threats like habitat destruction from urbanization and agriculture are driving western pond turtles toward extinction,” said Collette Adkins, a Center biologist and lawyer.
Thu Apr 16 2015 (Updated 04/19/15)
"California Trail" Oakland Zoo Expansion into Huchiun/Knowland Park Protested
As soon as April 16, the East Bay Zoological Society can begin sectioning off the combined seventy-seven acre “California Trail” and mitigation sites from public access behind an 8-foot chain-link barbed wire fence. On March 27, fifty people assembled to inaugurate a direct action campaign against the “California Trail” project that would expand the Oakland Zoo into the undeveloped 400-acre region known as Huchiun to Ohlone people, commonly referred to as Knowland Park.
Read more on Indybay's Environment & Forest Defense page
Mon Apr 13 2015 (Updated 04/16/15)
Community Members Troubled by Suspension of UCSC Students Following Highway Blockade
The six UCSC students arrested in association with the March 3 blockade of Highway 1 where it meets Highway 17 in Santa Cruz returned to court on April 8. A prosecutor indicated the District Attorney's office will not offer them a plea deal to reduce misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and creating a public nuisance. The Santa Cruz DA also desires a restitution amount of $19,000 be paid. Additionally, UCSC has suspended the students until the Spring of 2016.
A new report released by Californians for Pesticide Reform asserts that fumigant pesticides are an outdated, toxic technology that undermines soil health, and safe replacements are needed to grow food on the Central Coast of California. The report examines data that revealed cancer-causing chloropicrin is in the air where Monterey County children live and play, and shares monitoring results that confirm chloropicrin in the city of Watsonville’s air poses an increased cancer risk, despite state required “safer tarps” and "buffer zones".
Afrika Town is a community garden in what was long a vacant lot in Oakland next to the Qilombo social center. On March 26, the landowner came with a bulldozer to raze the garden, backed up by Oakland police officers. Activists quickly gathered and were able to convince the landowner to return a week later. On April 3, dozens of community members turned out to defend the garden. The owner backed down, giving Afrika Town the opportunity to buy the land. Afrika Town is now in dire need of funds to survive.
Read more on Indybay's Health, Housing, and Public Services page
Tue Apr 7 2015 (Updated 04/11/15)
Stop the Execution of Mumia by Medical Neglect — Independent Medical Attention Needed
On March 30, Mumia Abu-Jamal collapsed in the prison infirmary at SCI Mahanoy from diabetic shock before being hospitalized in the ICU at Schuylkill Medical Center. Despite his serious condition, he was transferred back to the prison just two days later. The National Lawyers Guild is calling for immediate and independent medical attention for him, and on Friday, April 10, community members in Oakland will participate in a National Day to "Stand Up for Mumia" at the Federal Building.
Read more on Indybay's Police State and Prisons page
The only oil company to sue San Benito County over a local ban on fracking and other high-intensity petroleum operations announced on April 6 it has dropped its lawsuit, leaving the voter-approved ordinance in place. Citadel Exploration’s decision to dismiss its own case means that local fracking bans in California face no remaining active legal challenges, despite threats from the oil industry.
Read more on Indybay's Environment & Forest Defense page
Wed Apr 8 2015
Monthly Sidewalk Sit-Ins Rile Downtown Business Owners
Community members opposing the City of Monterey's new sit-lie ban held their third sit-in on Alvarado Street on April 3. Individuals with Direct Action Monterey Network (DAMN) and other supporters returned to the same location of the previous two demonstrations and faced increased pressure from business owners, who expressed more aggressively their desire for the group to either move the location of their gathering, or leave the downtown area altogether and stop protesting.
Read more on Indybay's Health, Housing, and Public Services page
Holding plastic “torches” and “pitchforks,” activists formed human barricades at both entrances to the Nestlé Waters bottling plant in Sacramento at 5:00 a.m. on March 20, effectively shutting down the company's operations for the day. Members of the “Crunch Nestlé Alliance" shouted out a number of chants, including ”We got to fight for our right to water,” “Nestlé, Stop It, Water Not For Profit," and “¿Agua Para Quien? Para Nuestra Gente.” The protesters stayed until about 1 pm, but there were no arrests.
On the grassy lawn in front of Hewlett Packard headquarters, demonstrators held a "virtual" meeting dubbed "The People's Shareholders Meeting" on March 18. Board members in silk-screened HP insignia ties joined a Meg Whitman character in blonde wig. CEO Whitman fielded questions about the company's complicity in Israel's oppression of Palestine from a group on lawn chairs portraying shareholders. Testifiers, including two Israeli citizens, spoke to the shareholders from a mock podium.
Mon Mar 30 2015 (Updated 03/31/15)
Eight Arrested in Monterey for Blocking Highway 1 During Black & Brown Lives Matter March
On March 28 in Monterey, about 75 people joined a broad coalition of activists in a rally and march starting at the Monterey Wharf to protest white supremacist police brutality in Salinas and nationwide. Thirty protesters marched to Highway One, blocked all four southbound lanes, and closed the highway for 45 minutes. Eight people in total were arrested. The action was organized in the context of the killing of five unarmed Latino men since March 2014 by white Salinas police officers: Angel Ruiz; Osman Hernandez; Carlos Mejia; Frank Alvarado, Jr.; and Jaime Garcia.
Read more on Indybay's Police State and Prisons page
Mon Mar 30 2015 (Updated 04/01/15)
Community Members Lock Arms and Surround SFPD Mission Station for Four Hours
As community members mark the one-year anniversary of the police killing of Alex Nieto, none of the four San Francisco police officers involved in Alex’s death face any charges. In response, Stop Police Impunity held a peoples’ court in front of the SFPD's Mission District station on March 23. This trial complete with a peoples’ judge, jury, and prosecutor found all four officers guilty. Demonstrators locked themselves together, and the entire block of Valencia in front of the police station was blocked for four hours.
Read more on Indybay's Police State and Prisons page
Mon Mar 30 2015 (Updated 03/31/15)
Groups Work to Restore Landscape with Milkweed in Response to Monarch Decline
A newly completed assessment has found that monarch butterflies in North America are vulnerable to extinction. The assessment was undertaken by NatureServe and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and results were published in a report released by the U.S. Forest Service on March 9. “The time is now to intensify continent-wide efforts to reduce the threats to this iconic species and prevent it from succumbing to the fate that has befallen far too many other species,” said Bruce Young, NatureServe’s Director of Species Science.
Mon Mar 30 2015 (Updated 03/31/15)
Students Say UC Regents are Unfit to Govern the University System
Autonomous Students UCSC write: Before dawn on March 3, a group of six students at the University of California Santa Cruz went to the fishhook connecting Highways 1 to 17. Evoking the practice of highway blockades popularized during the Black Lives Matter movement, they chained themselves to aluminum trashcans filled with cement and blocked traffic for nearly five hours. The traffic jam this caused stretched over the hill to snarl Silicon Valley commutes, an act of peaceful civil disobedience that has since become the most controversial of the “96 Hours of Action” declared across the UC system for the first week of March, in protest against tuition hikes and police violence.
Read more on Indybay's Education & Student Activism page
Sat Mar 28 2015 (Updated 03/29/15)
Board of Supervisors Approves New Cannabis Prohibitions in Santa Cruz County
On March 24, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 before an overflowing room to ban the cultivation of cannabis in all unincorporated territories of the county, with limited exceptions. Personal grows of 10×10 square feet are still permitted, with restrictions. Outdoor cultivation is entirely banned in the 2nd District, represented by Zach Friend, and includes the communities of Aptos, Corralitos, Freedom, and portions of Watsonville.
On March 23, coordinated actions were held statewide in California to oppose the use of solitary confinement in prisons and jails. Protests were planned for Eureka, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose. In Santa Cruz, community members gathered on West Cliff Drive for a rally and candlelight vigil. Organizers say future actions will continue to be held statewide on the 23rd of each month to symbolize the 23 hours per day prisoners in solitary are held in the "complete isolation" of their cells.
Read more on Indybay's Police State and Prisons page
Wed Mar 25 2015 (Updated 03/26/15)
Fire Ravages Long-Time Anarchist and Artist Warehouses on 23rd and 24th Streets in Oakland
Before dawn on March 21, a fire erupted in a warehouse on 24th Street in Oakland. Two resident artists died. The fire quickly spread to the adjoining warehouse on 23rd Street commonly known as the AK Press warehouse. On the AK side, three residential units sustained severe damage, at least one being totally destroyed, with a beloved cat succumbing to the smoke and heat. Other units have borne varying degrees of damage. Businesses on the first floor are struggling with major water damage. Even worse, with both warehouses now red-tagged by the city, residents and businesses are not allowed inside either building, leaving dozens homeless. A new relief fund has been created that will be evenly split three ways between AK Press, 1984 Printing, and affected neighbors.
Read more on Indybay's Health, Housing, and Public Services, Labor & Workers, Global Justice and Anti-Capitalism or Arts + Action pages
On March 14, farmers and neighbors of the Gill Tract turned out to disrupt business as usual at a local Sprouts supermarket. Activists, a brass band, and a large delegation of workers from the Fast Food Workers Union converged on Sprouts in Walnut Creek, holding a sit-in to block the main entrance to the store and rallying around a 600-pound stump that had been recently cut down by contractors preparing for the construction of Sprouts at the Gill Tract. One week later, Sprouts management sent protestors legal documents suggesting that the parking lot in front of their Petaluma store was not a "free speech" zone.
Supporters packed a Santa Cruz courtroom on March 17 for preliminary hearings concerning the six UCSC students who were arrested for blocking traffic on Highway 17 on March 3 to protest tuition increases. The hearing was the first time all six of those arrested have appeared together in court, and they all have legal representation now. None have pleaded guilty to the charges they face, which include misdemeanors for "resisting arrest" and creating a "public nuisance."
Read more on Indybay's Education & Student Activism page
On March 12, the Pit River Tribe and their Native American and environmental allies optimistically left the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco following oral arguments in their long legal battle to protect the Medicine Lake Highlands from geothermal destruction and desecration. The Pit River people, the lead defendants in the case, are fighting in court to defend the Highlands, known to them as “Saht Tit Lah," an area that has been used for healing, religious ceremonies and tribal gatherings for thousands of years.
Thu Mar 12 2015 (Updated 03/14/15)
Excessive Force Complaint Triggers External Review of SCPD Officers' Actions
A video has surfaced of Santa Cruz Police hitting and tasing Oliver Howard in front of the Court House on October 13, in what multiple witnesses called excessive force at the time. The woman who recorded the video can be heard saying, "I hate cops" and "this is so fucked up" as the events unfolded. After the violent takedown by officers, Howard was taken directly to the hospital. He was never booked into jail and apparently was never charged with any crime. Since that time, a witness complaint with Santa Cruz PD has triggered an external review.
Sun Mar 8 2015 (Updated 03/09/15)
Amilcar Perez-Lopez Killed by Plain Clothes San Francisco Police in the Mission
Amilcar Perez-Lopez was a 21-year-old man from Guatemala, living and working in the Mission District. Amilcar and his household were facing eviction at the end of March. On February 26, plain clothes SFPD officers Craig Tiffe and Eric Reboli shot and killed Amilcar. Police have stated he was in the process of stealing a bicycle, but that claim is called into question by a number of witnesses, some who say the cyclist had stolen Amilcar's phone. Witnesses have reported being intimidated and bullied by SFPD since Amilcar's murder.
04/20/15 Park Service Considering Ranch Plan to Remove Free-Roaming Tule Elk Herds northbay | animalliberation 04/19/15 Gill Tract, Occupy the Farm Activists Continue Campaign to Stop Sprouts from Paving Land environment | labor | education | northbay 04/19/15 Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, Marin Workers, Unions, and Allies Demand $15 Minimum Wage labor | southbay | northbay 04/18/15 Sheriff Hart Requests $47,925 to Fence Out Protesters from Santa Cruz County Jail police | santacruz 04/18/15 Community Members Reach Out to Those Victimized by Childhood Sexual Abuse poverty | santacruz 04/18/15 Salinas and Capitola Police to Equip Entire Departments with Body Cameras police | santacruz 04/18/15 Group Says Auto-Wrecking Yard Should Relocate if it Can't Stop Polluting Marshlands environment | santacruz 04/18/15 Report Back From Alix Tichelman Court Support Demonstration womyn | santacruz 04/18/15 New Research Reveals Western Pond Turtle Is At Least Two Distinct Species environment | california 04/16/15 "California Trail" Oakland Zoo Expansion into Huchiun/Knowland Park Protested environment 04/15/15 April 14 Action to Stop Police Violence Disrupts SF Supervisors Meeting police |
CA Approves Plan Allowing Oil Companies to Continue Contaminating Underground Water
Monday Apr 20th 8:24 PM
Workers And Community Speakout In SF For Workers Killed & Injured On The Job, Sewol Victim
Monday Apr 20th 3:25 PM
Association for Chicana/Chicano Studies Supports Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions
Monday Apr 20th 2:24 PM
OPD to Reveal Surveillance Video to Yuvette Henderson's Family After Community Pressure
Monday Apr 20th 1:26 PM
Alleging Labor Abuses, U.S. and Mexican Workers Call for Boycott of Driscoll’s Berries
Monday Apr 20th 11:54 AM
Vigil, Caravan Demands Justice in the State-Sponsored Killing of Yuvette Henderson
Sunday Apr 19th 10:28 PM
Less than one lifetime: Eyewitness to nuclear development, from Hunters Point to Chernobyl
Sunday Apr 19th 1:36 PM
Lawsuit Targets 30-year Plan for Marine Terminal Receiving Ships Full of Dangerous Crude
More Local News...
Saturday Apr 18th 5:30 PM
Coalition Challenges Expansion of Hazardous Herbicide Containing Agent Orange Ingredient
Monday Apr 20th 2:37 PM
Amnesty International USA Calls for Approval of Civilian Board to Oversee St. Louis Police
Monday Apr 20th 1:51 PM
5 Years After Deepwater Horizon Disaster, Obama Pursues More Offshore Drilling
Saturday Apr 18th 5:33 PM
Angola3 Newsletter - The Waiting Game: 43 Years of Innocence; Still Incarcerated; Still...
Friday Apr 17th 7:34 AM
The Futile Attempt to Learn Why Philadelphia (and Your Hometown) Is Voting to Arm Nazis
Tuesday Apr 14th 8:55 PM
Mayor Announces Support for Reparations for Survivors of Chicago Police Torture
More Global News...
Tuesday Apr 14th 2:15 PM
Comments on the European Commission's approach to investor-state arbitration
Saturday Apr 18th 11:05 AM
ATU Pres Hanley On Transit Worker Rights & TPP and Charleston Police Murders With ILA/ILW
Open Newswire...
Thursday Apr 16th 9:44 AM |