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]! Join the Community Journalist program, send news & info to [NorthbayMDS@gmail.com].
$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.
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