"The Anatomy of Police Murder and Cover Up"

Justice for Josiah (Antonio Lopez Guzman)! [link]

2014-03-30 from the "Justice For Josiah!" campaign [https://www.facebook.com/events/551177261663079/permalink/552083461572459/]:
On February 21, 2014, the San Jose State University Police Department (UPD) murdered a community member, an undocumented Mexican immigrant.
UPD Sgt. Michael "Mike" Santos shot him in the back, twice, in broad daylight, in the middle of the day, just off campus in a residential area, directly in front of the SJSU childcare center, while still full of children. A stray bullet from his gunfire went through the 2nd floor window of a sorority into a bedroom full of young female SJSU students. Since that time, the UPD in direct collusion with the SJPD, Campus Administration and elements of the media have proceeded to concoct a story around the slaying of Antonio Lopez Guzman, 38. In a campus wide and public statement, University President Mohammad Qayoumi then proceeded in media outlets and to the students directly to congratulate the officers for their rapid response and heroic actions, swiftly moving to support his department and validate "their" story. Collectively they have attempted to distort the truth, silence and/or harass witnesses into altering and changing their stories to match their concocted version, and have begun a broad based cover up at every level of the department, campus, city and county. These aren't just allegations, we can actually PROVE THIS, witnesses have come forward.
The truth of what happened however, is this...
Antonio & The Local PD
Antonio Lopez Guzman was a 38 year old, sometimes transient, undocumented day laborer, a father of a four year old son (Josiah), and stepfather to a 10 year old daughter (Angelique) whom he had raised since the age of three. Antonio spoke extremely limited English, as such he primarily worked odd construction or landscaping jobs, where speaking didn't matter or his Spanish sufficed. He regularly volunteered at the Antioch Baptist Church, one of the oldest black churches in the state, and THE oldest in the city and county. He also volunteered at the Veterans Shelter and provided and served food to San Jose's homeless, at St. James Park and The Jungle, amongst other places. By all accounts even those of some SJPD officers, he was a profoundly nice, well mannered and respectful man, a loving father, brother, and friend, a caring spouse, and the joy in his sons life. This however didn't stop him from becoming a victim of racially charged police brutality and now, murder.
Only a year ago (September 2013), here in San Jose a group of multi-agency police (Santa Clara County Sheriffs and San Jose Police Department) beat, brutalized and sexually tortured/assaulted Antonio, yelling; "You f--king wetback, when will you learn, you need to speak English to live in this country!" After beating him, they arrested and charged him for resisting arrest, on a street stop that the police had instigated without cause. So severe were Antonio's injuries, that before taking him to jail, they took him to Valley Medical Center to be seen, then they took him back into custody, booked him and began processing him for incarceration. While in jail he began to have trouble breathing and was in fact drowning in his own blood. The police again took him to the hospital, he had to be admitted due to the distress caused by so much blood in his lungs, the blood had to be surgically drained by inserting a tube into his side. Thankfully both the Sheriffs and SJPD abandoned him to be released by the hospital (but didn't of course, lift the charges, he was murdered with charges for his own beating still pending).
Facts:
- The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department runs: security at the hospital, the Coroners/Medical Examiner's office located therein, the County Jail and provide police for the Santa Clara County District Courts.
- A 2005-2006 Grand Jury investigation cited the single most significant problem with the Santa Clara County Coroners/Medical Examiner's Office being the absence of a qualified Medical Examiner in charge of the department, this is still the case today.
- A 2006 Mercury News Six Part Investigative report entitled "Tainted Trials, Stolen Justice" resulted in the overturning and review of multiple Santa Clara County District Attorney's office cases, and multiple lawsuits against the County, most of which were won.
- By 2011, a judge had ruled that the SJPD and SCCDA's office actively, and regularly colluded in falsifying evidence and crime lab reports, and it was an endemic and repeated behavior. To quote: "The Appellate Court also reinstated [the] claim against the City of San Jose based on evidence SJPD officers routinely created false crime lab reports and there had been other instances where fake reports had been presented in court as genuine."
Antonio & SJSU
How it likely began, Antonio as he had done many times before, walked through the SJSU campus as a shortcut, this time carrying his water bottle, and his daughters pink & purple backpack full of tools and other item. At this time according to the UPD story, someone informed them that there was someone with a knife on campus. This is problematic for a variety of reasons;
1) It is not illegal to carry a knife, be it in a sheath or otherwise, and it is not even suspicious to be carrying one while simply walking from point A to point B, on or off campus. SJSU is a public space, though the University will assert that this is untrue, and claim it is a "closed campus" (it is not, if not legally so, then functionally so). Most especially as shared property such as the Martin Luther King Library, and various other structures are open to the public.
2) According to the UPD's own story, Antonio however was NOT carrying a knife, he was carrying a drywall saw blade (it is still unclear as to whether this was simple a blade itself or attached to a handle). A drywall saw however, is NOT a knife, it has a significantly serrated edge for use in construction. It is a TOOL. And it is 100% legal to carry a tool, but furthermore the entirety of SJSU campus is filled with construction workers, carrying tools. There is no less than three major construction projects going on, throughout the downtown campus, including a massive expansion and renovation of the SJSU student center. Thus interaction between construction workers and students is a regular occurrence, and large portions of the campus are fenced off as construction sites.
3) Witnesses to the shooting say; "There was no knife."
This begs the following question: Why was Antonio even approached in the first place? Most especially as he no longer presented any threat (real or imagined) to anyone on campus, and was now in a residential community.
Antonio's Murder
Antonio had LEFT the campus, and was on/near the intersection of 8th Street and San Salvador (we encourage you to Google Earth the area), in a residential neighborhood when according to the UPD (and now SJPD), Officer Frits van der Hoek stopped him, engaged with him and discovered he spoke limited English (has anyone asked if either of the officers spoke Spanish? No.), then things supposedly escalated. Standard procedure for all police stops requires the calling up of a back up officer, it is this second officer Sgt. Mike Santos that would fatally shoot Antonio in the back, twice, one of them through his heart. A recent March, 19 on campus incident of a supposed "man with a knife" in which Santos was involved, also began with all the officers responding with guns drawn. Again, there was no knife, and yet the man was still taken into custody.
According to eyewitnesses, on February 21, contrary to police claims, they saw no discussion take place between Antonio and any UPD officer, nor did they hear any orders given to drop anything, in any language. Nonetheless, it is clear that Antonio did indeed drop his backpack. According to the Mortician, when they saw the body, they had to partially reconstruct Antonio's face, and "stuff" the body, in order to give it bulk as the exit wounds and autopsy had essentially exploded his chest, they had been told the damage to his face was a result of the body falling face first into the street after being shot. However, there is no way of determining if such injury is postmortem or not actually. Again while some witnesses say Antonio was simply walking, others say he was running, but none say he was charging or presented himself as a danger to anyone, let alone a police officer.
According to the UPD officers claims, Antonio (a pacifist) brandished a knife (drywall saw), forcing the UPD officer 'to discharge his taser at range' but it was ineffective (i.e. the officer fired the taser and missed), twice. Santos claims Antonio then charged Van der Hoek, so he shot him, in the back, twice, in order to defend his partner. But one must wonder, how does a bullet that according to some accounts 'went through Antonio's body into a second story window', not represent an equally lethal danger to Officer Van der Hoek, who according to Santos would have had to have been standing in front of both Santos and Antonio in the line of fire as he shot him in the back? How is this not "more" lethal than an imaginary knife? Why would you discharge a firearm in a seemingly arbitrary direction, knowing that there is a Childcare Center full of children also directly in the line of fire?
Some witnesses say that they saw Antonio running, that in fact there was no officer in front of him, that he appeared to be running away from something, and that they did not even see an officer nearby, in front of, or behind Antonio at all, but heard shooting (three shots) and then saw Antonio stumble and fall. Due to the severity of Antonio's wounds he was likely dead before he hit the ground. He was shot through the heart. In the news media, of the dozen or so witnesses, on the short narrow two way street, none were interviewed, only a 13 year old girl who herself said she didn't know what was going on, nor did she know she was in any kind of danger, and her mother who wasn't even in the area at the time of the shooting was also interviewed. The young woman and the mother didn't 'know she was in danger', because, she wasn't, and she was naively coached, and put right in front of the cameras almost immediately, to set a particular story into motion. No adults, nor student witnesses were interviewed, and put on the news, why is that? To this day, there are still direct eyewitnesses who have yet to be interviewed. Why? Yet, supposedly the SJPD has already closed the case, and labeling it a "Justifiable Homicide".
Investigating Antonio
After the SJPD took over the case as per the Memorandum of Understanding between the City of San Jose, the SJPD and the University Police (UPD), Laurie Valdez, Antonio's widow spoke to the lead investigator of the homicide, Detective Sgt. Raul Martinez. Laurie desperately wanted to see justice done as she has family members both past and present who have worked in law enforcement, she begged Martinez to do it right and make Antonio's case a priority. In order to address her concerns with any malfeasance Martinez assured her, and said; "Don't worry. There won't be anything done wrong. We don't play favorites. And I don't know anyone at UPD except for one person - the Sergeant. There will be no problems." The "Sergeant" is the officer that shot Antonio, twice, in the back - Sgt. Michael "Mike" Santos, who is also the head of UPD Internal Affairs, which means he knows the procedures of an Officer Involved Shooting, and the Police Officers Bill of Rights, backwards and forwards, i.e. he can work the system to his advantage.
But what of Officer Van der Hoek, why hasn't he spoken up publicly in defense of Mike Santos' version of the story, or even made a single statement about having felt endangered by Antonio? If he were standing in front of Antonio, in danger, why didn't he use his own firearm and defended himself, shooting Antonio in the chest as he was charged? Perhaps the silence has to do with the fact that Frits Van der Hoek, used to be a Law Clerk in the DA's Office and is scheduled to graduate from Santa Clara University with a Juris Doctorate in Law this very year, and has in fact already accepted a job with the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, which he is scheduled to start in the Fall of 2014. Do you think those engaged in an active murder conspiracy will make good public servants for the SCCDA?
Santos and Van dar Hoek were on Paid Administrative Leave for two weeks, and are now back on duty, free to potentially murder or cover up for murder at the next possible moment, in fact they've already begun to practice for the fact: http://spartandaily.com/119042/breaking-news-police-question-possible-gunman-campus-gun-found
To date, Laurie does not have a coroners or police report from any agency, and in fact the University President was informed of Antonio's identity and death before anyone in his family was, and some in the media were informed the case is already closed. They haven't even returned a single phone call to Laurie. All incidents and "police reports" produced by the UPD are submitted to the County's District Attorney's Office for further investigation or prosecution. Wait, whose supposed to work there again? A CSU University President, is in fact, by law, the head of his campus police department, while the Chief manages it. In this case the UPD Chief of Police Peter Decena, is an SJSU alumni, a UPD alumni, a retired SJPD Officer and a "double dipper". A double dipper, is one of the (thus far) over two dozen SJPD officers who retired at the age of 50 at full pension, only to get a second ranking officer position at another police department or agency, at full pay, while still collecting their full retirement pension. These officers individually and unanimously make over $300,000+ in combined salary and retirement benefits a year as a result of their "double dipping". Needless to say, Chief Decena hasn't been the most vocal or critical about the investigation either. But why would all these peace officers who are supposed to "protect and serve" be so dishonorable, and cover for one another, so regularly? Is it just that cliched "blue wall of silence", or perhaps something more?
San Jose State & The Police
SJSU has the oldest accredited degree offering (undergraduate, and graduate) program for police in the entire country, it began in 1930. San Jose University literally established the very foundations of modern formal police training. As a result, the city of San Jose, Santa Clara County and the CSU system (the founding campus of which is SJSU) prefer if not require university educated and degreed personnel as a prerequisite for a job on their respective police forces, this is why no less than six south bay campuses have degree certified programs in policing and police related fields. To put it more simply, all these local cops are graduates of SJSU and are more often campus and UPD alumni.
The SJSU Justice Studies department is currently under investigation for financial malfeasance, moral turpitude, and the policing side of Justice Studies itself is being criticized for its lack of any form of academic rigor, cultural literacy, or scholarly value. While elsewhere in the sub-department of Criminology which is housed in SJSUs Sociology department, they have simultaneously been outted by local activists for their direct connection to and complicity with the overt militarization of policing in California, the United States, and more particular direct collusion with COINTELPRO an illegal series of Counter Intelligence programs targeting political activists from the 1950s to the present day, with the intended aim of repressing political dissent. This relationship has existed since as far back as 1964, but "Red Squads" have existed in the SJPD since at least the 1930s, before they formalized their Intelligence Division in the late 1970s.
Justice For Josiah
Josiah, is here. Antonio is not. There is no Justice for Antonio, he is a victim of Social Homicide by a Police Industrial Complex many years in the making. Josiah, is still here, his family is still here, his community is still here, for him. We strive for San Jose and a world in which no more Antonio Lopez's must die to police and structural violence, that only wants to see him incarcerated or in a grave.
***If you have any evidence or information on the murder of Antonio, please contact us via private facebook message, phone (number still pending) or email: justice4josiah[at]riseup.net ***

Domino's Pizza owners admit to wage theft

Committee to Defend Workers' Rights! [link], archive [link]

"Domino's Pizza Owners Admit to Widespread Wage Theft: Owners of 23 outlets settle with workers for half a million dollars following waves of fast food workers' strikes, protests, and court battles"
2014-03-28 by Sarah Lazare from "Common Dreams" [http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/28-2]:
The owners of 23 Domino's Pizza outlets in New York admitted to rampant theft of workers' wages and agreed Thursday to a nearly half a million dollar settlement with hundreds of employees for numerous labor violations.
"Fast food corporations like Domino’s and McDonald’s cannot hide from their responsibility for these unlawful practices," said Naquasia LeGrand, a Brooklyn KFC employee and member Fast Forward. "They’re the ones in control of the daily operations of their franchisees."
The settlement was the result of an investigation by State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman into allegations of wage theft. According to a press release from Schneiderman's office [http://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-schneiderman-announces-labor-settlements-23-dominos-restaurants-eight-new-york], between and 2013, the owners admitted to numerous violations, including: paying below minimum wage, refusing or underpaying overtime pay, and refusing to adequately compensate delivery drivers for their car expenses.
Multiple, nation-wide waves of fast food worker strikes and protests have forced into the national discourse problems of pay theft, "starvation wages," and poor working conditions that are rampant in the fast food industry [http://www.salon.com/2013/09/11/fast_food_restaurants_dont_need_to_pay_starvation_wages/].
According to a poll conducted last year by Anzalone Liszt Grove, 84 percent of current or recent New York City fast food workers say they have suffered some form of wage theft. According to the survey,  African-American "report wage and hour violations at a higher rate."
In addition to the financial component, Thursday's agreement settlement also requires that franchisees put in place "complaint procedures, provide bilingual written handbooks to employees, train supervisors on the labor law, post a statement of employees’ rights, and designate an officer to submit quarterly reports to the Attorney General's Office regarding ongoing compliance for two to three years," according to Schneiderman's office. The "most egregious" workers' rights offenders will be required to hire independent auditors.
The agreement follows a similar settlement last month with a Domino's Franchisee in New York agreed to a $1.28 million dollar settlement for withholding pay, stealing tips, and denying lunch breaks. Last week, seven McDonald’s franchises in New York City reached a $500,000 settlement on similar charges of wage theft [http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/02/03/3238331/dominos-wages-settlement/]. Meanwhile, several lawsuits across three states that could involve up to 30,000 workers are taking on McDonald's franchises and owners for wage theft [http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/14-2].
"They’re the ones in control of the daily operations of their franchisees, and that’s why over 80% of NYC fast food workers report they’ve been victims of wage theft," said LeGrand. "That’s why we’re not stopping: we will continue holding these corporations accountable.”

March 27th, 2014 Northbay Uprising Radio News

Tune in Thursdays 4 to 5pm (PST), online [link], and in the San Pablo Bay Area at 89.5FM KZCT [link], breaking the blockade of censorship, with research archives and verified sources! View past headlines [link].
Join the Community Journalist program, send news & info to [NorthbayMDS@gmail.com].

Know more with the Community Journalist's Notebook [link]!

"What Kind of Pie? Occupy!" T-shirts available! (with a union label, of course!)
$15 donation, to Orion [510 541 3835] [ohohorion99 (@) gmail.com]
Watch Orion play his folk tune, "What Kind of Pie? Occupy!" [youtube.com/watch?v=TT8mCs50_Gg]


Protest-Marching Song Writing Contest -
Contact: Casey Peters [newpolitics@mail2casey.com]. When we sing together, we experience a sense of solidarity, sisterhood, brotherhood and unity. The purpose of this contest is to create a new song, or songs, that can be sung by many and to help build a huge, new coalition of people who want to change the big shortcomings of our present society - joblessness, inequality, homelessness, poverty, pollution, militarism or multiple topics. Therefore, the songs chosen will be copyrighted as free, can be distributed by anyone, published by anyone, sung by anyone and everyone, and the authors will be recognized.
FIRST PRIZE $300; SECOND PRIZE $200; THIRD PRIZE $100
Songs must be radical. Songs must have at least three verses. Lyrics must be original. Tunes may be original or taken from any well-known song.
We accept rock, folk, country, and hip-hop, too. Great songs that authors can find on the internet for review include "Bread and Roses", "Solidarity", "We Shall Overcome" and "This Land is Your Land".
Ending date for submissions: March 31, 2014
All entries should be submitted to: Maggie Phair, 6916 Langdon Avenue, Van Nuys, CA 91406

Defend the Bulb! For more background info go to [sharethebulb.org]
Among the original Liberated Zones in the Bay Area, the Bulb needs all the defense it can get! There is a new campaign to record the people's stories about their love for the Bulb, and a petition drive, bringing in elements of the community who otherwise would not be involved, especially the working class folks who understand the need for a free zone that is not taxpayer funded. Solidarity to the refuge of the those exiled of so-called society!
Join Bulb residents and defenders, March 29th, Saturday, for a BULB LOVERS ACOUSTIC MUSIC POTLUCK & BEACH PARTY at the Albany Bulb, and be a part of the contininuing campaign to collect video and text testimonies in support of the Bulb's community. If you can't make it to the event, send testimonies of your love for the Bulb to [sharethebulb@gmail.com]. Bring layered clothing and water, expect to hear so increedable remberances from the Bulb!

Message from Community organizer Orion [510 541 3835] [ohohorion99 (@) gmail.com] [youtube.com/orionorion99], working in solidarity with the Albany Bulb residents, and calling upon the working class to unite! “Don’t Club The Bulb: Fight The One Percent!”
BE A “BULB LOVER”: We need you to help us build a support network to defend our homes!
* write and collect testimonies of love for the bulb!
* Collect phone numbers, music, chalking!
* Build Working Class Base Of Support For The Albany Bulb!
* Above all, VISIT THE BULB and take your friends there NOW! Albany Bulb is located at 1 Buchanan Street Extension Albany, CA 94706.
We have learned alot in the last month, and we have collected over 100 phone numbers and signatures on the our petition, which says: "We, the working people of the Bay Area, Demand you Restore the Parking spaces at the Bulb, So that we can continue to have free access with our friends, family and dogs, to the SPACE we love so much!”
We are using this petition as a organizing tool, and we are calling on people to call Albany shitty hall [510 559-7250] to protest the removal of 50 parking spaces TO ISOLATE THE BULB FROM ITS WORKING CLASS BASE.
THE RESPONSE HAS BEEN TREMENDOUS. We found 90% of the people that signed the petition to restore parking area for the Bulb want it to stay as it is. That means, they don’t want the campers to be evicted, they want the art, and they want unleashed dogs. To us that signifies that this is a mass movement, and that all we have to do is organize them the 2nd stage, which is "Love Letters for the Bulb" campaign, to have them write TESTIMONIES OF LOVE FOR THE BULB and print them up for social media!
Our base is the people who use the Bulb for art, dogs, good times, and camping. Not just the voters of Albany, but the people who come to the Bulb, many of them for years. The following two examples are not uncommon
* Two weeks ago a working family man said his daughter learned how to walk at the Bulb. She is now 12 years old and was walking with him.
* Three weeks ago I met another man with three kids, and he said his son Zane, who was about 9 years old and digging the monsters faces by Mad Marc’s Castle, came out there when he was 4 yrs old and said at that time “this place is magic.”

"Lovers of Bulb", posted 2014-03-24 by Justin Hill to [www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxz5sIsTKRg]:
The Albany Bulb has been a natural landfill and a community for artists and homeless campers for over thirty years. Between the people, the wildness of its nature, and the art; there is a harmonious balance that East Shore Parks threatens to control and destroy. By doing this, East Shore Parks humors the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Watch these testimonies of Bulb Lovers who refuse the change that East Shore Parks has to offer, and love it for just the way that it is.

Watch Albany Bulb Community defended by GG against capitalist Albany city council [youtube.com/watch?v=dBzPM0jxxDc]. GG was evicted at gunpoint in Oakland by 6 sheriffs in April 2012! An Injury to One is a Injuruy to All!


ACTION HEADLINES!
with articles researched for veracity, and archived for historical purposes, by participating Northbay MDS committees, each leading it's own section.

from the Committee to Defend Workers' Rights! [link]
* City of Hayward imposes drastic wage cuts to city workers [link]
* San Francisco cuts social programs, gives away $600 Million to private investor-owned companies [link]

from the Liaison group to the San Pablo Bay Ecological Preservation Association [link]
* "African American Worker Blew the Whistle on Treasure Island Radioactive Contamination" [link]
* Valero refinery blackmailing Benicia city, threatens to close down unless it can refine toxic petroleum [link]

from the Liaison group to the Solano Peace, Justice & Freedom Coalition [link]
Action Alert from USLAW!

Money for the People, Not War! Don't be fooled by the Pentagon's Phony Budget War [http://huff.to/1fQJmaa]! Sign a petition by Angela Miller, to be delivered to The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate. Sign HERE [http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/eliminate-the-pentagons?source=c.url&r_by=10152812&tag=End-OCO].
PETITION STATEMENT -
It's time to stop the budget gimmicks and be honest about our bloated Pentagon budget.
After years of using war spending as a slush fund to avoid fiscal discipline, it's time to end the Overseas Contingency Operations account, cut wasteful sending at the Pentagon, and bring our tax dollars home.
PETITION BACKGROUND -
By the end of this year, most of our troops will be home from Afghanistan and our nation will finally turn the page on more than 13 years of war. The President has promised to pivot our nation from its war-footing, do some nation building here at home, and put our fiscal house in order by finally reining in the Pentagon's bloated and waste-ridden budget.
But the Pentagon has a trick to keep the money flowing, a massive slush fund known in Washington as the 'Overseas Contingency Operations' (OCO) account. By using that slush-fund, the Pentagon and their friends in Congress have managed not only to protect billions of dollars in wasteful spending, but to completely avoid any of the dramatic cuts that domestic programs like education and health care have faced over the past few years!
It’s time to get rid of the Pentagon’s slush fund!
Our troops are finally coming home from the Middle East, yet the Pentagon's budget remains sky-high. Over the past year, more than half our troops in Afghanistan came home, yet the Pentagon's account for the war actually increased! This wasn't because the 30,000 troops in Afghanistan were suddenly twice as costly. Rather than bringing our tax dollars home with our troops - and using some of that money to pay to heal the wounds of our veterans from over a decade of war - Congress chose to protect the profits of Pentagon contractors by adding billions to the Pentagon's OCO slush fund on spending that had nothing to do with the war in Afghanistan and everything to do with special interests in Washington.
Recently, the Pentagon released its budget for the coming year, and they look ready to continue the gimmicks, keeping their slush fund for years to come. Every dollar the Pentagon puts in its slush fund is a dollar less for early childhood education, nutrition assistance, and health care, all of which are being slammed by deep budget cuts. Some in Congress are calling for giving the Pentagon even more money and paying for it by cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Congress and the Pentagon are depending on Americans not noticing their budget gimmicks. They're hoping that they can keep using the pretext of the war in Afghanistan to throw tens of billions of dollars into failing weapons systems and wasteful spending at the Pentagon.
Thankfully, we can stop them. Sign this petition today to demand that Congress get rid of the Pentagon's slush fund, cut wasteful spending at the Pentagon, and bring our tax dollars home after 13 years of war.

from the archives of the Committee for the Study of Fascism:
* "Prison Profiteers Are Neo-Slaveholders and Solitary Is Their Weapon of Choice" [link]
* "Cops are kicking in doors of voters in Benton Harbor" (2014-03-26) [link]

from the "5th World News" archive:
* "The Ghosts of March 21", a new documentary film reexamines the evidence about the death of Lovelle Mixon, a warrior of New Africa [link]. The film is on tour across the nation, and will be sponsered by Minister of Information JR Valrey, host of Block Reportin' radio.
* Race War in California: Race-based M-13 street gangs and allies ethnically cleanse neighborhoods of New Africans [link]

from the Committee to Free 'em All! [link]
[Angola3.org/the-case]"One Year Later: Albert Woodfox is still not convicted or released", 2014-02-26 from the "A3 Newsletter":
One year ago today, supporters of Albert Woodfox were elated when Judge Brady's ruling on Albert's criminal case was announced.  It was a THIRD overturning of his conviction! How can it be possible that an innocent man, who now stands unconvicted in the eyes of the law, remains locked in a solitary cage while he waits for the State's endless appeal efforts to play out?  How many more appeals, how many courts will it take for the State to finally recognize that they've done enough to this man? 

* Albert and Herman of Angola 3 deserve justice, says widow of murdered officer, 2014-03-04 [link]
* Angola Three: 42 Years of Solitary, 42 Years of Cruel and Unusual Punishment [link], statement by Robert King, submitted for the February 25 Congressional hearing on the use of solitary confinement in US prisons!
  
Albert Woodfox #72148
David Wade Correctional Center
N1 A3670 Bell Hill Road
Homer, LA  71040 

"Twilight in the Box: The suicide statistics, squalor & recidivism haven’t ended solitary confinement. Maybe the brain studies will" [link]

"The Box: Teens in Solitary Confinement in U.S. Jails, Prisons and Juvenile Halls", 2014-03-04, from The Center for Investigative Reporting [www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA1LkgyQ4Iw]:
Read the stories at [medium.com/solitary-lives]. Every year, thousands of teens are placed in solitary confinement cells in juvenile halls, jails and prisons nationwide. This animation tells the story of Ismael "Izzy" Nazario and the time he spent in solitary confinement in New York City's Rikers Island jail. This story is based on an investigation by The Center for Investigative Reporting and was created using real audio from an interview with Nazario. It features music from Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, and is part of a larger investigation on juveniles in solitary confinement. [www.cironline.org]. Produced and directed by Michael I Schiller; Illustrations by Anna Vignet; Animation directed by Zachary Medow; Reporters Daffodil Altan and Trey Bundy


A Prisoner’s Salute to Bobby Sands
An article from Counterpunch on how some prisoners are transcending long-term solitary. A version of the article has also been published in several Irish places. [http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/19/a-prisoners-salute-to-bobby-sands/]
by Denis O’Hearn is author of Nothing But an Unfinished Song: Bobby Sands, the Irish Hunger Striker Who Ignited a Generation (Nation Books).
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Support the 1,200 Detainees on Hunger Strike Near Seattle  [SIGN PETITION PLEASE]
On Friday, March 7th, 1200 people held at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, one of the largest immigration prisons in the country, began a hunger strike and work stoppage.
To signal your solidarity with the Washington hunger strikers, please sign the petition available at [http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/portfolio/support-the-1200-detainees-on-hunger-strike-near-seattle/].
They are putting their bodies on the line to protest the on-going deportations overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the inhumane conditions at the for-profit detention center owned and operated by the GEO Corporation.
Inspired in part by the February 24 #Not1More deportation action at the detention center, the hunger strikers timed their action to begin on Friday. On Fridays, the people facing imminent deportation are separated and processed for deportation, weekly events that contribute to the nearly 2,000,000 deported during the Obama administration. The hunger strikers join a nation-wide movement of resistance against unprecedented levels of detention and deportation.
Apart from calling attention to the unrelenting deportations, the hunger strikers demands include
* Improved food quality
* Improved treatment (including medical treatment)
* Increased pay for work in the facility (the current pay is $1.00/day)
* An end to exorbitant commissary prices
* Fundamental fairness and justice
People in the detention center are risking their health by not eating and withstanding potential backlash for participating in the hunger strike. Sign below and share widely to support the hunger strikers and their demands. Not one more deportation!
Please Sign the Petition! [http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/portfolio/support-the-1200-detainees-on-hunger-strike-near-seattle/].
Hunger Strike Spreads to Texas Detention Center,  Systemic Abuse by GEO Group and ICE Exposed in Multi-State Effort by Detainees in Private Facilities   March 17, 2014
[http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/2014/03/17/breaking-hunger-strikes-spread-to-texas-detention-center/]
...In the recent White House budget proposal to Congress, the administration sought funding for a quota of more than 30,000 individuals to be held in detention on a daily basis...  An attorney who confirmed the strike this morning after visiting the Conroe, TX facility, communicated the hunger strikers demands to be:
* Stop the deportations
* Just treatment for detainees
* End overcrowding in the cells
* End double judgement for old cases
* Food with nutrition in it
* Better medical care
* Lower calling prices
* Lower rates at commissary
and said the detainees wanted it known that they were inspired by the on-going Washington State efforts.
An eight-page handwritten letter from the Washington State hunger strikers ...states, in part, “[W]e join ourselves to that effort and demand that the Federal Executive (Mr. President Barack Obama) use his presidential authority and order a total stop to the unjust deportations that are separating families, destroying homes, and bringing uncertainty, insecurity and unhappy futures to our children, our loved ones.”
Copies of the demands can be found at
[http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/2014/03/17/breaking-hunger-strikes-spread-to-texas-detention-center/]
------------------------------------------------------
What's behind the hunger strike at Northwest Detention Center: The hunger strike at Northwest Detention Center reveals a human-rights crisis, according to columnists Dan Berger and Angélica Cházaro. [http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2023173231_danbergerangelicachazaroopedprisonhungerstrike20xml.html]
----------------------------
A Sliver of Light: Freed U.S. Hikers on Captivity in Iran & Activism Against Solitary Confinement
[http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/18/a_sliver_of_light_freed_us]
Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Josh Fattal were interviewed on Democracy Now! March 18, 2014, describing their experiences in solitary confinement in Iranian prison. They also briefly discussed the CA hunger strike, current work for organizations like Solitary Watch, and an expose of SHU conditions at Pelican Bay for Mother Jones magazine.
A quote from Bauer: "...We have the largest prison population in the world. We have 80,000 people in solitary confinement. We have some that have been in for decades, you know? And it’s this part of our society that I think goes unseen."
Increasingly, no longer unseen...
--------------------------------------
Torture on Death Row: Court Rules Against Automatic Use of Solitary Confinement for the Condemned       by Aviva Stahl [http://solitarywatch.com/2014/03/17/may-emerging-national-trend-court-rules-automatic-placement-solitary-confinement-sentenced-execution/]
--------------------------------
MAJOR REFORM OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN CA PRISONS INTRODUCED IN STATE SENATE   March 17, 2014
Senator Loni Hancock introduces legislation to reform CA solitary confinement [http://sfbayview.com/2014/major-reform-of-solitary-confinement-introduced-in-california-senate/]
---------------------------------
Death at CIW prison - Please call in ASAP to demand an investigation!
Shadae Schmidt  (aka Dae Dae) was a 32-year old African-American woman who died  of a heart attack last Thursday, March 13th, 2014 at CIW prison (east of LA). We suspect her death is due to medical negligence because
she had been asking for medical help for weeks. On February 3, 2014, Shadae had  a stroke and within 2 weeks she was returned back to a cell in the solitary confinement unit (SHU) where she was still in active recovery.  Upon her return, she was given medication that she repeatedly told medical staff was making her very sick. Her complaints fell on deaf ears  and prison staff continued giving her the same medication which we believe led to her death on March 13th.
 Shadae’s death  is a terrible tragedy and one that happens far too often in California prisons because of severe medical neglect. We are asking for as many people as possible to call in and demand that the federal medical receiver’s office conduct an investigation into Shadae's death immediately, before the prison tries to cover anything up.
Please pick up your phone now and call the Inmate Healthcare Inquiry Line: (916) 691-1404 to ask for an investigation into Shadae  Schmidt's untimely death (please reference her CDCR # W97014 and location at CIW). Just leave this request as a message after the prompts.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support!
 Questions: contact Jayda at (562) 612-5816 or Colby (California Coalition for Women Prisoners) at (415) 234-3837.
-------------------------------------------
Movement to End Solitary Confinement Takes National Spotlight [http://www.miccd.org/2014/03/movement-to-end-solitary-confinement-takes-national-spotlight/]


Sat. March 29, 3pm
Justice for Alejandro Nieto! Jail Killer Cops!
gather at Mission Cultural Center, 2868 Mission St., near 25th St., SF

On Friday night, San Francisco police officers shot and killed Alejandro Nieto in an act of blatant racist murder.  Three cops surrounded Nieto in a triangulated formation and riddled him with bullets. They are now trying to excuse the killing saying Nieto had a gun and that he was acting erratically.
None of their lies add up.  First of all, acting erratically is not a crime and cannot be the basis for killing someone. Nieto—a City College of San Francisco student and security guard—owned a taser gun as part of his work. The taser gun has a bright yellow stripe down the side specifically to differentiate it from a real gun. The cops were not in any danger, perceived or otherwise.
In fact, they murdered a Latino man for the crime of eating his dinner in a neighborhood that is becoming yet another center of gentrification in a city that is rapidly being reserved for the wealthy.
Bernal Heights, like many neighborhoods in San Francisco, used to be a place where working people could own homes and rent affordably. Now, it—like the Mission today and Noe Valley many years ago—is being converted into a place where   wealthier people live in homes that sell for millions or rent for many thousands of dollars a month.
The police in this city are the protectors of the wealthy developers and tech company owners who are driving the rest of us out.
Alejandro Nieto should be alive today. The police officers who killed him must be arrested and tried for murder. The ANSWER Coalition joins with many other community organizations and thousands of individuals in calling for a truly independent investigation into this latest atrocity.
We urge everyone who believes in justice to join the community march on Saturday, March 29, 3pm at the Mission Cultural Center, 2868 Mission St., near 25th St. to say: Justice for Alejandro Nieto! Jail killer cops!
More info: 415-821-6545 or [www.ANSWERsf.org]

"Justice For Alfred Wright" [www.facebook.com/events/1428432214070275/]



ACTION CALENDER!

Film screening of...
“I’m A Fucking Panther”
March 27 // 7pm
At the Qilomboa radical community social center [2313 San Pablo Ave Oakland CA 94612]
[info@qilombo.org] [qilombo.org/events-calendar]
A film about a youth organization in Sweden called The Panthers: Biskopsgården is a socio economically exposed suburb to Göteborg, Sweden. The last couple of years this suburb has suffered from the cutdowns in the welfare system, causing increasing poverty and social vulnerability. As a result, criminal gangs grow stronger and shootings resulting in deaths have almost become an everday occurance. A group of young people in the area refuse to stand by and watch while the world around them collapses. Inspired by The Black Panther Party For Self Defence they organize themselves and form the Panthers For The Restoration Of The Suburbs. They demand participation in the decisions taken by politicians and officials in order to create a shift in power which means more power to the people.


Who Stole the Economy?
Thursday, Mar. 27, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Join PJC Board member Tomas Phillips to review, understand and act on the forces that have taken the economy away from people and given it to corporations. The last 50 years have seen a steady deterioration of jobs and middle class prosperity in America, as corporations have grown richer and more powerful and are in control of much of our government. Progressive forces today include revoking corporate personhood, renewing campaign finance reform, micro lending, living wage movements, and preservation of unions. Let's discuss how to redirect wealth from corporations to people.
The Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County, 467 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa


Book Talk with Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal, and Sarah Shourd 
A Sliver of Light - Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran
Thursday, March 27, 7:30 PM
First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley

In summer 2009, Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal, and Sarah Shourd were hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan when they unknowingly crossed into Iran and were captured by a border patrol. Accused of espionage, the three Americans ultimately found themselves in Tehran's infamous Evin Prison, where they discovered that pooling their strength of will and relying on each other were the only ways they could survive.
In this poignant memoir, "the hikers" finally tell their side of the story. They recount the deception that lured them into Iran in the first place and describe the psychological torment of interrogation and solitary confinement. We follow them as they make surprising alliances with their fellow prisoners and even some of their captors, while their own bonds with each other are tested and deepened. Told through a bold and innovative interweaving of the authors' three voices, here is a rare glimpse inside Iran and a timeless portrayal of hardship and hope.
Tickets $15 ($8 students) at Brown Paper Tickets in advance; $20 at the door
Contact: Berkeley Arts and Letters, Melissa Mytinger, mytinger@gmail.com, 510-898-8929


Defend the Bay Area! Assembly of Bay Area Residents planning resistance to the tech takeover!
[defendthebayarea.org] #defendthebayarea
[https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/03/16/18752668.php]





Occupy Beale AFB! "Nonviolent Warrior" Elliott Adams to Join Demonstrators at Beale and to Speak in Grass Valley
Tuesday, April 1
2:30-5:00pm vigil at Wheatland Gate, South Beale Rd. (Elliot will speak in Grass Valley at 7pm that night)More Info: [occupybeale@earth-justice.org] [https://www.facebook.com/events/1412687962324017/],

[www.OccupyBealeAFB.org] [www.facebook.com/OccupyBealeAirForceBase]
April 1, 2:30 to 5 p.m, Elliott Adams at Beale:  Past National President of Veterans For Peace and international peace activist Elliott Adams will join locals for an anti-drone vigil at the Wheatland Gate of Beale Air Force Base at 3960 S. Beale Rd.  Adams is currently touring the country,  and will speak about the importance of banning drone attacks, stopping all war, and building a culture of peace. Some supporters are meeting Adams at the Brick coffeehouse at 1  p.m., then joining a car caravan out to the demonstration at Beale. Elliott Adams will speak in Grass Valley later that evening. 
Later that evening, Elliott Adams will speak in Grass Valley on "International Law, Drone Warfare, and Strategies for Peace," following brief presentations by local anti-drone activists. The program will take place at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains, 246 S. Church Street.  Find out event details here.
Elliott Adams served as a paratrooper in the infantry in Viet Nam, Japan, Korea, and Alaska.  He  transformed from being a soldier to being a nonviolent warrior, applying his intellect and body to building movements that create justice. He utilizes international and domestic law as a means to end our war culture. He is a nonviolence and social movement trainer, and has served in that role for Fellowship of Reconciliation, School Of Americas Watch, Peacemakers of Schoharie, Student Environmental Action Coalition, Veterans For Peace, and War Resisters League. He currently works with the Meta Peace Team, and is co-chair of Creating a Culture of Peace.
Elliott Adams travels throughout the country and internationally in his peacemaking work.  He has testified before the US Congress Judiciary Committee and attended Parliament in Canada, and has been arrested repeatedly for the cause of peace. In 2013 he engaged in an 80-day fast of 300 calories or less in solidarity with the Guantanamo Bay Prisoners and the Pelican Bay Hunger Strikes. (http://www.CloseGitmo.net). Most recently he was imprisoned for 8 days following a nonviolent anti-drone action at Hancock Air Force Base in New York. Currently he is traveling nationwide with the Meta Peace Team conducting Unarmed Peacekeeping Skills Training & Strategy Sessions.

March 20th, 2014 Northbay Uprising Radio News

Tune in Thursdays 4 to 5pm (PST), online [link], and in the San Pablo Bay Area at 89.5FM KZCT [link], breaking the blockade of censorship, with research archives and verified sources!
Join the Community Journalist program, send news & info to [NorthbayMDS@gmail.com].

Know more with the Community Journalist's Notebook [link]!


"People Over Profits" by Jasiri X (The song was written in support of the UPMC workers' fight for a living wage and the right to unionize) [www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJE-DWOgUfc]:



Please, forgive us! Eleventh Anniversary of Iraqi freedom has passed, and today there is a dictatorship worse than Sadaam, ruled by the fascist government placed in power by the alliance of the USA and EU. So far this year, the dictatorship has murdered tens-of-thousands of civilians in the city of Fallujah using USA weapons and money, erecting a complete blockade of the entire population alongside airstrikes against that city's hospitals and schools, all to stamp out an "Occupy" protest demanding protections for national minorities who are being attacked by anti-"leftist" religious militias.
Millions of people within Iraq have been murdered since 2003, adding to the millions more killed during the USA bombings of civilian targets and economic sanctions throughout the 1990s, and the millions more through the manipulations by the State Dept. to organize a war between Iraq and Iran during the 1980s...
Shame! 4 Million or More, dead! 2 generations, gone! All this for Iraqi Freedom!


ACTION HEADLINES!
with articles researched for veracity, and archived for historical purposes, by participating Northbay MDS committees, each leading it's own section.

Equality for Women, Now!
March is Women's History Month, which has its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Public Law 97-28, which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982, as “Women’s History Week."  ... Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as Women’s History Month. Since 1995, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.” 
* Walk Across America for the ERA, Week One: Vallejo [link]
* National Women's History Project [nwhp.org]
* Text WOMEN to 235246 for facts about Women's History Month from the AFL-CIO

Northbay Uprising media collective:
* "Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.3 FM Back to Full Power, Celebrates 19 years on the air!" [link]
* "Corrected Billboard Applauds Corporate Tax Loopholes" [link]
In response to our notification to the Department of Corrections [cdc@revolutionist.com] of the inclusion of information in the FM radio news broadcast about the apprehension and rehabilitation of the offending billboard, the CDC responded with: "Dear Sir or Madam, Thank you for your interest in the programs and operations of the California Department of Corrections. CDC programs are operated at advertisers’ expense for the protection of society. The public has a right and a duty to know how such programs are being conducted. It is the policy of the CDC to make known to the public, through the news media and through contact with individuals, all relevant information pertaining to operations of the department. Sincerely, Office of Communications, California Department of Corrections."

Hands Off Our Homes! [link]
* Billionaires Jorge M. Perez and Stephen M. Ross directing forced removal operations against lower-income citizens in Berkeley, Oakland, elsewhere [link]
* Berkeley public housing tenants speak out about billionaire takeover [link]

Committee to Defend Workers' Rights! [link], archive [link]:
* "Four Postal Unions Form Alliance to Defend the Public Postal Service" [link]
* WalMart employee orientation video defaming labor union organizing [link]
* Workers in Washington State fight for $15 minimum wage [link]
* "Organizing for Power: A New Labor Movement for the New Working Class" [http://uale.org/conference/conference-2014]: "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore".– César E. Chávez
Diverse. Engaged. Unafraid. There is a new working class whose presence is undeniable; a new working class which is looking for a new labor movement. Labor education is the crux of a new labor movement. Labor education is defined as education to advance the collective needs and interests of working people, and over the last decade labor educators have facilitated significant growth and change in the labor movement. The United Association for Labor Education (UALE) invites labor educators, community organizers, and those committed to worker education to unite together in Los Angeles for a conference dedicated to educating, empowering, and organizing the new working class.


Student Power! Campaign to Save City College of San Francisco (CCSF) [link]!
*"Police Violence Against CCSF Students: GET THE FACTS" [link]



The Committee for Bay Area Solidarity: Black Rider Liberation Party (BRLP) - Oakland [link].
This week, the Black Riders Liberation Party was invited by the youth at Lafayette Middle School in West Oakland, to teach about organizing community programs, for the safety and health of the People! Visit their official website here [2ServeThaPeople.wix.com/brlp].

Black Riders Liberation Party participating in a Tree Planting Project with Urban Releaf and Wo'se Community in Deep East Oakland (3/15/14). BRLP's Black Commune Program Article L: "WE RIDE FOR AN END TO ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM AND TO STOP THE DISRUPTION OF THE EARTHS ECOLOGICAL BALANCE." Urban forestry combats the pollution of the air. Tree planting ceremonies are an ancient Afrikan tradition to commemorate the cycle of energy and spirits of our ancestors. BRLP's Game Green Program is coming soon, this spring/summer. ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!


Committee for the Investigation of Civil & Human Rights abuse:
* Northbay Copwatch [link], an archive documenting Civil & Human-Rights Abuse by Security Agencies!
* Unite for Justice against Police Murder and Systematic Cover-Up! [link]
* "DA Ravitch Stonewalls Investigation into Assault by Security Detail at Pasta Fundraiser; Mounting Evidence of Bias Against Lopez Protestors", 2014-03-19 [link]
* Draconian legal measures used against homeless in Santa Cruz slammed by Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom [link]
* Treatment of the Homeless: Sonoma and Santa Cruz compared [link]

from the Committee to Free 'em All! [link]:
* Defense of Mumia abu-Jamal attacked mercilessly by Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) [link]
* Hunger Strike in Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington [link]
* "NYC Vietnam Veteran Plaza 5", arrested for their memorial of the victims of war [link]

from the archives of the Committee for the Study of Fascism:
* "California's top court bureaucracy slapped with audit" [link]
* USA Government to Deregulate Meat Industry [link]
* USA Federal Military unilaterally declares itself immune to the International Human Rights Treaty [link].
* "Private Prisons and the Creation of a Permanent Under Class" [link]
* Fascist Honduras attacking Moskitia homeland using the Drug War [link]
* USA: How state and local governments are used to restrict worker freedoms to organize [link].
Read the entire report "Regulation of Public Sector Collective Bargaining in the States" (PDF) [cepr.net/documents/state-public-cb-2014-03.pdf]. North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia have blanket statutes that prohibit collective bargaining for all public-sector employees and do not make exceptions. While the unionization of most private-sector workers is governed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the legal scope of collective bargaining for state and local public-sector workers is the domain of states and, where states allow it, local authorities. At the state-and-local level, the right to bargain collectively, the scope of collective bargaining, and the right to strike in connection with union activity is determined by a combination of state laws and case law.

from the liaison group to the Solano Peace, Justice & Freedom Coalition [link]:
* "Stanford Students, CODEPINK, and World Can't Wait unite to Give Petraeus an Unwelcome Greeting at Stanford University" [link]

Northbay Occupy News [link]:
This week, we take an international look at the continuing Occupy! movement, with the latest from Thailand in south-east Asia, and an important update of the General Assemblies in south-east Europe who are re-taking Power to the People!
* “Occupy Bangkok! Challenges Wall Street-Backed Regime" [link]
* All Power to the General Assemblies in Bosnia and Herzegovina! [link]
* Learning from the Barcelona neighborhood assemblies [link]. Learn more about the Occupy campaign in Spain, with this interview by SubMediaTV with Peter Gelederloos, an organizer with Barcelona assemblies [link].
* Read the reports from the Autonomous Worker’s Union (AWU) [link] in Kiev, Ukraine, a network of anti-state worker collectives who organized many of the original Occupy campaigns in the Ukraine during 2013, who saw how this campaign was taken over by fascists funded by the USA and EU [link]. The AWU details the laws enacted by the new dictatorship installed in Kiev [link]. Listen to a radio interview with the The Final Straw Radio (AshevilleFM) [link], with a partial transcript of the interview [link].

Liaison group to the Sovereign San Pablo Bay think-tank [link]:
* Monopolist energy producers in California use law to penalize residential solar power generators [link]
* Solar thermal desalination [link]
* Hydrogen fuel created which can retain 90% of energy collected from Solar Power, created by the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) [link]

Liaison group to the San Pablo Bay Ecological Preservation Association [link]:
* "The Great American Experiment: Lax regulation of toxic chemicals turns us all into human guinea pigs" [link]
* UC Santa Cruz reintroduces nearly extinct Marsh sandwort (Arenaria paludicola) at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area [link]

"This is what the government must do: Leave all the war stuff aside, leave the NSA stuff aside, and the billions spent on this by the government. The very first thing, beyond everything else, should be housing, damn it. It goes without question because it is so necessary for human survival." - Peter Marin, poet, author, journalist, teacher and activist, during an interview by Terry Messman with the "Street Spirit" newspaper, transcript [link]:
Street Spirit: You have been involved in homeless activism for nearly 30 years, ever since the massive increase in homelessness in the 1980s. In your experience, is the current level of poverty unprecedented in the United States? And what is your understanding of the relationship between homelessness and poverty?
Peter Marin: Yes, it is unprecedented. But I think homelessness is what happens to people when they fall out of poverty. I think it’s very hard for us to understand that, because we do have certain social mechanisms — certain programs like welfare, unemployment and disability insurance — which are actually, in a way, set up to keep people in poverty, right? You know, welfare is never enough to get you out of poverty. It’s enough to keep you continuously in poverty until something goes wrong — and then you fall into homelessness. Homelessness usually occurs when none of the other programs have worked, or when you’ve come to their end, or when you’ve violated whatever welfare rules there are, and when your money dries up.
Spirit: Do you expect that the rates of homelessness and poverty will lessen or increase in the foreseeable future?
Marin: If anything, it’s going to get worse now than it was in the past few years, because the worst times to be homeless are in economic boom times.
Spirit: Why do boom times make things worse for people living in poverty?
Marin: Because in boom times, rents go up, and gentrification occurs. When new buildings start going up, they start tearing down the old parts of cities. It’s when people have more money to spend and invest that the little pockets where the homeless people manage to survive begin to disappear.
Spirit: In boom times, newspapers carry cheerful articles in the real estate and lifestyle sections about how rising housing prices are good news for upper-class homeowners and realtors. Yet, good news for the wealthy is very bad news for poor people who end up evicted due to rising rents and gentrification.
Marin: That’s right! And this is a very interesting mechanism that I don’t think anybody, including the Obama people, have really started to confront face to face — and that is, as you start to make things better for the middle class, they become worse for the poorest of the poor.
---
Homeless people marched from Santa Barbara, California, across the entire country to join the Housing Now protest in Washington, D.C., in 1989. Pictured in back with the march sign is Peter Marin. (Photo by Eve Fowler)



California Nations United to preserve sacred water against Fracking and Damming!
"Hundreds of Tribal representatives join huge rally to oppose fracking", 2014-03-18 by Dan Bacher [link]:
Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, opens the rally with a ceremony and prayer: "We call to Olebis to look down on us and send down the good blessings. We call on sacred Mt. Shasta to help bless us with this sacred water, so it will continue to bring us and our children's, children and so on in to the future with good health and long life for all our relations. We are calling on the water and fire spirits to help bring back the balance in our world, as wild salmon, wolves, beavers and giant trees make their way back. We sing to the water that flows from the sacred spring on Buliyum Puyuk (Mt. Shasta) to the ocean and back again... waters from Mauna Kea come back and answer the call and the lakes of fire send their blessings. We ask the fires inside of Mt Shasta and all the sacred fires inside the mountains of the world to help us bring understanding and balance to our way of life and change our lives to the good again. Bring back the original taste of water to guide the people and all relatives back to healthy thinking and acting. For nothing will be here with out fresh clean healthy WATER. No air can be produced without waters to grow the trees, the Kelp, ... this world was created in the most perfect functioning way... but now so much destruction and toxic waste ... for mega money for a few. We pray that our words will be heard and the August Fire and Water Ceremony be good in sending our prayers up the Creator!!!"

"Tribal leaders at Capitol" by Dan Bacher


Special Message from the United Native Americans, who are conducting a fundraiser to continue their advocacy for indigenous freedom! [http://www.gofundme.com/2smvf4]



ACTION CALENDER!

You're invited! Richmond is doing it; why not Vallejo?
Who: Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and ACCE
Where: The Mira Theatre's Bay Terrace Theater, 51 Daniels Ave., Vallejo, CA
When: Thursday, March 20, 7:30 pm (doors open at 7:00)
What: Hear about a program that provides relief to folks who are burdened with underwater loans.
Refreshments provided and free parking available
Are you or your neighbors paying a mortgage much higher than the current assessed value?
You're not alone.
Come hear Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and the non-profit community organization Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) describe their new plan, designed to bring help to underwater homeowners.
The City is considering a new program that could help thousands of homeowners reduce their mortgage debt by tens of thousands of $$$. Find out if this or other programs might help you, and join the fight to hold the banks accountable!
Read more at [http://www.thenation.com/article/175244/rescue-local-economies-cities-seize-underwater-mortgages-through-eminent-domain#]
According to Zillow.com's "heat map", in Vallejo's 94590 zip-code, an astounding 64% of homes are underwater. 9% of owners are currently delinquent on their payments. The 94590 zip-code also has the dubious distinction of being in the top 1% of US homes both underwater, and how far their values have fallen from peaks in the mid-2000s. See more at [http://www.zillow.com/visuals/negative-equity/]
Underwater homes undermine the stability of our neighborhoods. Owners walk away and often times squatters move in. Surrounding home values continue to decline. Homeowners have no equity or cash-flow to maintain their homes. Investors purchase foreclosed houses on city hall steps. The fabric of our neighborhoods unravel.
This lecture is first in a series of community oriented events at the Bay Terrace Theatre.


San Francisco Bay Area Sabeel Conference presents...
VOICES FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE IN THE HOLY LAND
An opportunity to hear from and talk with Christian, Muslim, Jewish and secular leaders, scholars and activists about the situation in Palestine/Israel.
Friday March 21st and Saturday March 22nd,
At the Christ the King Catholic Church [199 Brandon Rd, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523]

Keynote Speaker - Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler - Senior Minister of Plymouth
Congregational United Church of Christ, Washington, D.C., and National President of
Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice accompanied by a special message from
Professor Richard Falk, U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories.
Plenary Speakers include Palestinian authors Susan Abulhawa and Omar Barghouti, Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, Ambassador Ed Peck, Col. Ann Wright, Dr. Lonnie Bristow and Prof. Clayborn Carson.
The conference will also feature several workshops led by academics, intellectuals, activists and religious leaders.
Conference co-sponsored by Christ the King Parish, Pleasant Hill, and Northern California Friends of Sabeel including Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center. For more details, contact Kate Doherty [925-682-2486] or John Erickson [510-542-4629]. Registration and conference schedule information can be found at [www.fosna.org]


Capitalism and the Myth of a Personal Life
Saturday, March 22, 6:30 - 8:30 PM
at the Niebyl Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland
$3.00 suggested donation
presented by "Speak out, Now!" [www.speakout-now.org]
Contact: Jay [mail@speakout-now.org] [510-698-2412]
It seems that life is divided between the economic sphere of work, where we meet our material needs, and the personal sphere of family, friends, and intimate relationships, where we meet our emotional needs. In this presentation, Dr. Susan Rosenthal, long-time family therapist and revolutionary socialist, explains that there is only one sphere - capitalism.
Capitalism shapes every aspect of what we call personal life. Why is this important?  Rosenthal explains that there is no such thing as a personal life separate from our work lives. Capitalism depends on women's oppression and relies on the family to maintain this system of exploitation. Only a revolution against capitalism will allow us to throw off the oppression that weighs on every personal relationship in our lives.


CA Statewide Conference to End Police Terror
Saturday, March 22, 10:00am until 5:00pm
at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church [3300 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, California]
RSVP [https://www.facebook.com/events/218235161705664]
Join dozens of families affected by police violence from across the state of California and countless organizations that are fighting against police brutality for the Statewide Conference to End Police Terror. The conference is being held on the heels of a growing mass movement from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles to bring killer cops to justice and implement new forms of community control over the police.
In the past year these families and their allied organizations descended upon Anaheim from every corner of the state in a massive march to demand justice for all victims of police violence and to commemorate the uprising of the people of Anaheim on July 21, 2012 that sparked a resurgence of the movement against police brutality. These same forces then took to the state capitol on October 22, a national day to end police brutality, to let state officials know that we are building a united movement to shut down police terror and any political force that stands in our way on any level of government.
Then came the explosive movement of Latino youth in Santa Rosa who have fought tirelessly to win justice for Andy Lopez - a 13 year-old boy murdered by racist cops for holding a toy gun. This growing coalition of forces held demonstrations across the state in solidarity with Santa Rosa and continue to show solidarity to this day as the local Santa Rosa Police Department attempts to squash the justice movement by raiding activists homes, pressing false charges, and violently attacking teenagers at protests.
Finally, the movement was rocked by the acquittal of Jay Cicinelli and Mark Ramos, two of the Fullerton 6, who were caught on camera beating Kelly Thomas to death, a mentally ill homeless man that became an international symbol for the police abuse faced by the homeless. The acquittal sparked a wave of demonstrations across the state and illustrated the pressing need to deepen the ongoing conversation on how to defeat police brutality and put a stop to the killing.
The conference will consist of both political and skills oriented workshops designed to facilitate discussion on ways to broaden the impact of the growing movement and will incorporate families and leaders of many different backgrounds and activist struggles who will share their experiences to enhance the efforts of all.
Workshops include:
* Building a united front
* Gentrification and police brutality: an investment for the rich
* Mass incarceration in capitalist America
* Racism at the root: profiling and gang injunctions
* Political repression and how to fight back
* Raids, deportations and the fight against apartheid
* Sexism and the state: police violence is a women's issue
* Know your rights
* Patrolling the cops - strategies for community control
* Principles for agitation - how to popularize our message
Food will be provided to conference participants and transportation centers are being organized from various locations around the state.
* Family endorsements: Andy Lopez, Ernest Duenez Jr, Richard DeSantis, James Earl Rivera Jr., Kenneth Harding, Rigoberto Arceo, Ignacio Ochoa, Tony Francis, Ismael Lopez, Jason Bitz, Bobby Henning, Joe Whitehouse, Manuel Diaz, Martin Hernandez, Tyler Woods, Jose de la Trinidad, Javier Arrazola, Donte Jordan, Michael Nida, Idriss Stelley
* Organizations: Women Organized to Resist and Defend (WORD), Young Survivors, Justice Coalition for Andy Lopez, Andy's Youth, ONYX Organizing Committee, Coalition to End Sheriff Violence, National Brown Beret, Idriss Stelley Foundation, Sleep Kills, Kenneth Harding Foundation, Nidas Rydas, KmB - Pro-People Youth, AF3IRM, Justice for Trayvon Martin- Los Angeles, Worker Student Alliance - UCI, Community Education for Social Action, Party for Socialism and Liberation.


"'March for Clean Water' Rally to End Fluoridation"
March 22nd, 2014
at the Union Square - San Francisco
Email: [info@CleanWaterCalifornia.org]
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/CleanWaterCalifornia]
Donations welcome: Clean Water California [325 Sharon Park Dr.-Box 624 Menlo Park. CA 94025]
CWC is a non-profit  501C3 organization: Employer ID# 46-3100464
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11 am  Start at Union Square and march to Justin Herman Plaza
*with a Marching Band
*Please wear Blue
*Bring a sign:  Clean Water is Fluoride-Free, for example
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1 pm  Learn the Truth
*Join the Rally at Justin Herman Plaza
*Hear many qualified speakers
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Studies in last 10 years say
* Fluoride in water has no relation to cavities but does cause dental fluorosis, now in 41% of teens (NIH)
* Fluoridated water should not be put in baby formula.  It causes staining and pitting of teeth. (ADA)
* Even low amounts of fluoride can cause brain damage and lower kids'  IQs (Harvard Univ and 27 world studies)
* Fluoride is now in food in greater quantities than in water (USDA fluorideinfood)
* The US drinks over half of fluoridated water in world and still has cavities similar to all countries without it.
50% of fluoride stays in the body damaging enzymes, bones, genes, kidneys, thyroid, immune system, pineal gland and more.
Please share this with friends and come to support the San Francisco Bay Area effort to make our water clean. Fluoride chemicals now come from China, some tainted with lead and arsenic.   
San Francisco, Alameda County, Contra Costa County, Marin County, Stanford, Palo Alto, Mt. View and North Sunnyvale has fluoride.  Most of Santa Clara County will be fluoridated in 3 to 5 years.


Dorothy Day Working Group of Occupy Sonoma!
Monday, Mar. 24, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Discussion and action around issues relating to homelessness, mental health, and social services in Sonoma County.
The Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County, 467 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa


Fly a kite, not a drone!
Occupy Beale Airforce Base!
March 24-25, join CodePink [CodePink4Peace.org], Veterans for Peace [VeteransForPeace.org], and activists from throughout Northern California for their Monthly NO DRONES PEACE ENCAMPMENT.

Photo showing Afghan Peace Volunteers on a cliff overlooking Kabul. One Afghan Peace Volunteer said: "When I fly kites I feel so happy and free, I wish to fly in the sky like a kite without borders."
The Afghan Peace Volunteers [http://vcnv.org/categories/afghan-peace-volunteers] are asking peace makers around the world to fly kites this month in Solidarity for Peace and a Drone Free World.  Join us at Occupy Beale AFB, as we color up the roadways into the drone base with beautiful colorful kites... modeling for the military the best alternatives to violence... PEACE!
Watch the Fly Kites Not Drones video recently made in Kabul
BRING:  
- A Colorful Kite with or without a message. Here's how to make a simple kite:  http://www.my-best-kite.com/diamond-kites.html
- COLORFUL CLOTHES to WEAR...WE WANT COLOR  (Peace is Colorful & JOYFUL & FUN!)
- A Sky Blue Scarf: [TheBlueScarf.org]
- Friends with colorful kites!
- Other beautiful colorful things to color up our "Occupy Beale for Peace Kite Day"
More info on kite flying and Afghanistan:
* New York Times, "For Afghan boys and men, kite flying is a way of life" [link]
* Video - Kite Runners Return in Afghanistan - WSJ.com [link]
Schedule:
* Mar. 24, Monday, 3pm-5pm,  Wheatland Gate, S. Beale Rd. and Ostrom Rd. Mon. Night Encampment, * Main Gate, N. Beale Rd.
* Mar. 25, Tuesday, 6-8am, Wheatland Gate
For more info./carpooling,
* Sacramento Area:  Barry  916-284-0944,  bbinks@comcast.net
* Bay Area:  Toby  510-215-5974,  ratherbenyckeling@comcast.net
For directions To Wheatland Gate (PM & AM vigils), visit this [link], which contains the directions from all directions in their entirety
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE NATIONWIDE SPRING DAYS OF ACTION AGAINST DRONE TERROR, CLICK HERE! [http://org.salsalabs.com/o/1170/p/salsa/event/common/public/index.sjs?distributed_event_KEY=708]


Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center Presents...  
Creating a Shareable community, An Evening with NEAL GORENFLO, 
co-founder of Shareable, a nonprofit news, action, and connection hub for the sharing transformation. A former market researcher, stock analyst, and Fortune 500 strategist, Neal is perhaps an unlikely voice for sharing. A revelation in 2004 inspired Neal to leave the corporate world to help people share through internet startups, public events, and a circle of friends committed to the common good.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
6 PM Potluck ~ 7 PM Speaker
At the MDUUC - Bortin Hall, 55 Eckley Lane, Walnut Creek
info: [www.ourpeacecenter.org] [925-933-7850]


Shareable.net and the growing Sharing Economy, learn more: [http://www.shareable.net/about]
Find weekly e-news and sharing policy guide: [http://www.shareable.net/blog/new-report-policies-for-shareable-cities]
Co-sponsored with Friendly Favors. Suggested Donation: $20 (and a dish to share if attending potluck). Make checks payable to "MTDPJC".  If at all possible, please rsvp so that we may inform you of any changes. No log-in required: [www.favors.org/MDPC]


The Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers presents...
Big Brother IS Watching You! (and How It Is Done)
with Tessa D'Arcangelew, Organizer, ACLU of Northern California
Wednesday, March 26, 2014 at 1:30 PM
North Berkeley Senior Center [1901 Hearst, at MLK, Berkeley].
Wheelchair accessible. All Welcome.
Tessa D'Arcangelew, an Organizer at the ACLU of Northern California where she focuses on policy advocacy for immigrants’ rights and specializes  in new community engagement programs that build membership amongst young adults.  
Tessa has an undergraduate degree in Diplomacy and World Affairs  from Occidental College, Los Angeles and volunteers for a local needle exchange.
For information, contact Margot Smith [510-486-8010] [margots999@aol.com]
Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers at [510-598-9696] [GrayPanthersBerk@aol.com] [www.berkeleygraypanthers.mysite.com], and The International Forum on Globalization [www.ifg.org].