BAUAW NEWSLETTER - SATRDAY, MARCH 17, 2007

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

ALL OUT TOMORROW!

MARCH AND RALLY IN SAN FRANCISCO
SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2007
(The annual St. Patrick's Day Parade is taking
place on Sat., March 17 in SF.)
ASSEMBLE 12:00 NOON
JUSTIN HERMAN PLAZA -
MARCH TO CIVIC CENTER
For more information:
http://www.actionsf.org/#local4
answer@actionsf.org
Phone: 415-821-6545
Fax: 415-821-5782
VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED! HELP GET OUT THE WORD!
COME GET FLYERS AND POSTERS. HELP WITH FLYERING!
DONATIONS OF TIME AND MONEY ARE NEEDED!

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Video: March on the Pentagon, March 17th
http://www.pephost.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8353&JServSessionIdr001=cjzhm7cai2.app8a

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Iraq: US and Iraqi Forces Raid Trade Union Offices-Petition
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=202

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Come listen and participate in a series of community conversations on
what's happening in public education. Get the 411 on:
Code Breakers: Deciphering Military Myths
Thursday, March 22, 2007 6pm-8pm
At New College of California
780 Valencia (@19th) San Francisco,CA
Military recruiters with a multi-billion dollar budget easily outnumber
college recruiters at most working class high schools. Black hummers,
outfitted with sound systems, flat screen TVs and video game systems
roll up to campuses luring students with false promises of job training,
college support, travel, and non combat positions. At this t4sj 411,
teachers from Community MultiMedia Academy in Hayward will lead
a workshop about the impact of military recruiters on campus and
how this can become an opportunity to think critically about media
campaigns, poverty, personal ethics and the role of a military
in US and global society. Curriculum and student work will be
shared. Participants will be encouraged to participate and share
their insights and work.
For future events check out http://www.T4SJ.org

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Defend the Los Angeles Eight!
http://www.committee4justice.com/

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

March 17: March on the Pentagon-1967/2007
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0gIIzg9hpN8

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Petition: Halt the Blue Angels
http://action.globalexchange.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=458
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/289327

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"

CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.

"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."

"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "

Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.

The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.

Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.

Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.

Contact:

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ARTICLES IN FULL:
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

1) Survivor Council to Open Lawless High School
Residents and Volunteers Face Down Cops and School Officials
[VIA Email from: Rolandgarret@aol.com...bw]

2) Three Detectives Are Indicted in 50-Shot Killing in Queens
By AL BAKER
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/nyregion/17grand.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

3) Taming Fossil Fuels
Editorial
The importance of these projects cannot be overstated. As a report
released Wednesday by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology observed, coal produces more than 30 percent of America’s
carbon dioxide emissions."
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/opinion/17sat1.html?hp

4) Utah Sets Rigorous Rules for School Clubs, and Gay Ones May Be Target
By KIRK JOHNSON
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/education/17utah.html?ref=us

5) TERRORISM
Cuba -- How scared should we be?
BY PHILIP PETERS
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/43180.html

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

1) Survivor Council to Open Lawless High School
Residents and Volunteers Face Down Cops and School Officials
[VIA Email from: Rolandgarret@aol.com...bw]

On Thursday, March 8, residents and volunteers working with the New
Orleans Survivor Council faced off against the Recovery School
District (RSD). The NOSC had previously decided to reopen the public
school system themselves, because the city has taken public education
out of New Orleans. They are targeting mainly poor black communities,
and particularly the Lower Ninth Ward and the area around the C.J.
Peete public housing development.

As a result of NOSC pressure, Martin Luther King elementary school
will be reopened soon in the Lower Ninth, but residents are not happy
about the fact that it is reopening as a charter school. People need
to know that all of their children are guaranteed to be able to attend
school in order for them to move back home. Charter schools choose
their students.

So a few weeks ago, the Survivor Council decided to reopen Lawless
High School, also in the Lower Ninth, and Tom Lafon near C.J. Peete,
as public schools. Student volunteers have been cleaning Lawless out
for the past week. This week, students from Wilberforce and FAMU were
in the building, cleaning and salvaging usable educational materials,
when the RSD sent contractors to the school. The contractors demanded
to know who had authorized the students to work. They answered, "the
New Orleans Survivor Council authorized us; this is their school, and
we're cleaning and reopening it."

The contractors revealed that they had been hired to clear out the
"full contents" of the school, throw them away, and prepare the school
for demolition! The second floor of the building had computers, books,
software still in its original wrappings, and other salvageable
materials. At schools that have been designated as "full content"
schools, contractors are instructed to throw away all the contents of
the school. Nearly all of the schools designated as "full content"
schools are in poor, black neighborhoods. Other schools are designated
"partial content" schools, and in those, contents are salvaged.

Since both the volunteers and the hired contractors were under
instructions to clean out the school, the POC organizers proposed that
they all work together. An agreement was worked out whereby the RSD
contractors would work on the first floor, where everything needed to
be thrown out, and the NOSC volunteers would work on the second floor
and continue to salvage materials. However, then the contractors added
"you have one day." After that, they said, the students would be in
the way and would have to go.

The volunteers responded that they planned to stay until they got the
job done, and added that if anyone started tearing the building down,
the students would get in their way. When the contractors reiterated
their demand that the students leave the following day, POC and the
Survivor Council decided to pull out all the stops. That night, they
called residents and the press.

The next day (Thursday), nearly a dozen residents donned protective
clothing to join twenty students in cleaning out the school. The press
watched as the students, many of them having done a quick orientation
in civil disobedience, prepared to be arrested if necessary, alongside
residents who were not about to back down on their goal of opening a
high school for their children.

Looking for a response, the press called RSD officials on the phone.
The officials asked where the things taken out of the school were, and
residents responded that they had salvaged it, because the RSD was
going to trash useful materials and equipment. The RSD then decided
that they did not want the publicity that would come from calling
police to arrest residents and their volunteers cleaning out their own
school, and finally said they would meet with NOSC to discuss the
reopening of Lawless School!

After the experience of MLK School, residents don't have confidence in
the RSD to look out for their interests, but they knew they had won at
least a temporary victory that day. The next day, they sent another
team into Tom Lafon School so that residents determined to reoccupy
C.J. Peete would also have a school to send their kids to.

People's Organizing Committee
www.peoplesorganizing.org

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

2) Three Detectives Are Indicted in 50-Shot Killing in Queens
By AL BAKER
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/nyregion/17grand.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

A grand jury voted yesterday to indict three city police detectives —
two black men and a white man — in the killing of an unarmed
23-year-old black man who died in a burst of 50 police bullets outside
a Queens strip club hours before he was to be wed last year, defense
lawyers and police union leaders said last night.

The jury charged two of the detectives — Gescard F. Isnora, an
undercover officer who fired the first shot, and Michael Oliver,
who fired 31 shots — with manslaughter, two people with direct
knowledge of the case said. The third detective, Marc Cooper, who
fired four shots, faces a lesser charge of reckless endangerment,
those two people said.

Detectives Isnora and Cooper are black; Detective Oliver is white.
They were among five police officers who fired into a gray Nissan
Altima carrying the bridegroom, Sean Bell, and two friends during
a chaotic confrontation in Jamaica early on the morning of Nov. 25.
Neither Mr. Bell nor his friends, both of whom were wounded, were
armed, although the police officers apparently believed that they were.

The grand jury reached its decision after three days of deliberations
and nearly two months of hearing evidence in an emotionally charged
case whose stark outlines — five officers firing 50 bullets at three
unarmed men who had been out celebrating — prompted an
outpouring of anger in some minority communities, and widespread
comparisons to the death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African
street peddler who was felled by 19 of 41 police officers’ bullets
fired at him in 1999.

The grand jurors, who dispersed into the wintry afternoon yesterday,
indicted the three officers on less-serious charges than the second-
degree murder charges filed against the four police officers who
shot Mr. Diallo. All four were acquitted.

It was unclear whether Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney,
sought the indictment of the other two officers who fired at Mr. Bell,
Detective Paul Headley, 35, who fired one shot, and Officer Michael
Carey, 26, who fired three shots. All five of the officers testified
voluntarily before the grand jury without immunity from prosecution.

Mr. Brown scheduled a news conference on Monday morning. Lawyers
for the indicted detectives said they had been told to have the men
surrender on Monday — the next day that State Supreme Court in
Queens is in session. Mr. Brown’s office, which would not confirm
the indictments, said the grand jury’s decision had to remain sealed
until at least one officer was formally charged in court.

The person with direct knowledge of the case who said Detectives
Isnora and Oliver faced manslaughter charges did not know if they
were first- or second-degree counts. Second-degree manslaughter
is defined as recklessly causing the death of another person. First-degree
manslaughter is defined as causing the death of a person while intending
to cause serious physical injury to that person or causing the death of
a third person under those circumstances. The three officers may also
face additional lesser charges.

Some leaders in the black community expressed muted optimism
as news of the indictments spread late yesterday, while others felt
the indictments did not go far enough. In Jamaica, some detected
a sense of relief that at least some of the officers would face charges.

“As long as I know that somebody got something, I can live with that,”
said Bishop Lester Williams, who was to officiate at Mr. Bell’s wedding
on the day he died. “I have some degree of relief.”

If there had been no indictments, he said, “you have groups out
there that would not have been calm. The youth of this city would
have responded.”

Lawyers for the indicted officers criticized the grand jury’s action.

Philip E. Karasyk, who represents Detective Isnora, said, “Obviously,
my client is upset, and he’s looking forward to having his day in court,
and we’re all confident he will be vindicated.”

Paul P. Martin, a lawyer for Detective Cooper, 39, said: “I am
disappointed with the grand jury’s decision, but this is just the
first stage of a long process, and I am confident that once all the
facts are considered by a jury of Detective Cooper’s peers that he
will be exonerated of all charges.”

James J. Culleton, the lawyer for Detective Oliver, said the indictment
“was not unexpected — a grand jury presentation is one-sided,”

"I firmly believe that he will be found not guilty," he said of Detective
Oliver, 35, who, with Detective Isnora, 28, were considered the most
vulnerable to criminal charges. Detective Oliver fired far and away
the most bullets, emptying one magazine, reloading and emptying
a second, and Detective Isnora opened fire first, touching off the
50-shot barrage. Detective Isnora fired 11 shots, emptying his gun.

Michael J. Palladino, the president of the Detectives Endowment
Association, confirmed the indictments but said he did not know
the charges and would not know them until Monday, when they
were unsealed.

“I know the grand jury worked very long and very hard on this
particular case,” Mr. Palladino said at a late-afternoon press conference,
surrounded by officials of his association. “I respect their decision.
However I firmly disagree with the decision to indict these officers.”

Mr. Palladino predicted that the jury’s vote would have a chilling
effect on police officers in the city and nationwide.

“The message that’s being sent now is that even though you’re
acting in good faith, in pursuit of your lawful duties, there
is no room, no margin for error,” he said.

Stephen C. Worth, a lawyer for Officer Michael Carey, described
the moment he learned his client had not been indicted:

Mr. Worth said he got a call from Charles Testagrossa, the
prosecutor who presented evidence to the grand jury, who
“told me there was no true bill as to my guy.”

“Obviously,” he said, ”we are gratified by the grand jury’s decision
as to Mike, and I have always believed that he acted professionally
on the night of this incident.”

Police Department procedures call for the suspension of officers
who are charged with a crime, and the three detectives will be
ordered to surrender their shields; all five officers are already
on paid leave without their weapons. Those who are suspended
will be unpaid.

If indictments of police officers are unusual, convictions are even
more so. Many saw a jury’s decision to acquit the officers who
opened fire on Mr. Diallo after a two-month trial as a firm rejection
of the powerful charges against them. In recent years in New York City,
Bryan Conroy, a police officer who shot a peddler in a Chelsea warehouse
had faced second-degree manslaughter charges, but was convicted
of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide by a judge, who
sentenced him to probation.

The detectives indicted in the Bell case were in a larger group seeking
prostitution arrests outside the Club Kalua, a topless bar in Jamaica
that had been plagued by narcotics and prostitution activity,
under-age drinking and guns.

Detective Isnora had trailed Mr. Bell’s party, which was broken into
two groups of four men, believing that Joseph Guzman, one
of Mr. Bell’s companions, had a gun and was about to use it,
according to a person familiar with the detective’s account.

The detective approached Mr. Bell’s car. But Mr. Bell drove forward,
clipping him, and then hit a police minivan, backed up, nearly hitting
the detective again and slammed into the minivan a second time,
the police have said.

Detective Isnora, with his shield around his neck, said he opened
fire, according to the person familiar with his account. This led
to the fusillade of shots, with some of the officers apparently
believing that their colleagues’ muzzle flashes were those
of assailants.

Mr. Bell was killed as he sat in the driver’s seat. Trent Benefield,
23, who was in the passenger seat, was struck three times,
in the leg and buttock, and Mr. Guzman, 31, who was in
a back seat, had at least 11 bullet wounds along his right
side, from his neck to his feet.

Like the officers, the wounded men told their stories before
the grand jury.

Protests that followed the shooting were mostly peaceful. Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg convened a meeting of black religious
leaders and elected officials at City Hall. He emerged from
it calling the circumstances “inexplicable” and “unacceptable,”
and said, “It sounds to me like excessive force was used.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s quick reaction was viewed as a salve to the
situation and a turnabout from the approach of his predecessor,
Rudolph W. Giuliani, who did not reach out to black leaders
in the immediate aftermath of the fatal shooting of Mr. Diallo.

The panel of grand jurors began its work on Jan. 22 and met
as often as three times a week in an auditorium-style room
in an office building in Kew Gardens.

The officers testified in the reverse order of the number of rounds
they fired: Detective Headley and Officer Carey testified on March 5;
Detectives Cooper and Isnora, testified on March 7; and Friday last
week, Detective Oliver testified in the zenith of the process.

Deliberations seemed to move slowly and in fits and starts. After
Mr. Testagrossa read the charge — the instructions on the law
that the panel had to consider as it weighed the evidence —
the panelists were left alone to deliberate.

Reporting was contributed by Cara Buckley, Diane Cardwell,
Jim Dwyer, Manny Fernandez, Colin Moynihan and William K.
Rashbaum.

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

3) Taming Fossil Fuels
Editorial
"The importance of these projects cannot be overstated. As a report
released Wednesday by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology observed, coal produces more than 30 percent of America’s
carbon dioxide emissions."
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/opinion/17sat1.html?hp

Each day seems to bring news of another prominent convert to the
cause of requiring mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases. Each day also seems to bring news of technological
advances that would make it possible to achieve those reductions without
serious economic damage. Put all these glad tidings together, and Congress
has all the reasons it needs to move quickly to regulate global warming
emissions here at home, thus setting an example for the world.

Last week the chief executives of America’s largest automobile companies
— General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota North America — pledged
to support mandatory caps on carbon emissions, as long as the caps
covered all sectors of the economy. They delivered their promise
to a House committee run by John Dingell — the crusty Michigan
Democrat who is another convert to the cause and has taken
to describing the global warming threat with phrases like
“Hannibal is at the gates.”

Meanwhile, dozens of major institutional investors organized by Ceres,
a coalition of investors and environmentalists, will gather in Washington
on Monday to offer support for mandatory controls. The group will include
Calpers, the huge California state pension fund with a history of making
environmentally friendly investments, and Merrill Lynch, whose credentials
are less impressive.

The news on the technology side is also good — particularly several
recent announcements about coal. The first came from TXU, a huge
Texas utility where the bidders have agreed to drop plans to build 11
old-fashioned coal-burning power plants. TXU has now announced
that it will build two experimental plants intended to capture carbon
dioxide before it escapes into the atmosphere. American Electric Power,
another large utility, has also announced that it will build a coal-fired
plant based on slightly different technology but with the same intended
result: capturing carbon.

The importance of these projects cannot be overstated. As a report
released Wednesday by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology observed, coal produces more than 30 percent of America’s
carbon dioxide emissions. It is also a huge problem in China, where the
equivalent of one large coal-fired power plant is being built each week,
using antiquated methods. Unless coal can be tamed, the game
is essentially lost.

But while technology will play an indispensable role, the lead authors
of the M.I.T. report, writing in The Wall Street Journal, argue that the
most effective way to reduce emissions is to attach a significant price
to carbon emissions, either as a carbon tax or through a cap-and-
trade program of the sort now embodied in various legislative proposals
in Congress. Forcing people to pay to pollute would do more than any
other known incentive to bring new technologies to commercial scale.
That is the task before Congress.

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

4) Utah Sets Rigorous Rules for School Clubs, and Gay Ones May Be Target
By KIRK JOHNSON
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/education/17utah.html?ref=us

SALT LAKE CITY, March 16 — Most people would probably not consider
the average high school chess club to be a hotbed of disorder or immorality.
But a club is a club, and Utah has decided that student groups need some
stern policing and regulation.

Next month, a 17-page law will take effect governing just about every
nuance of public school extracurricular clubs, from kindergarten jump
rope to high school drama. How groups can form, what they can discuss
in their meetings, who can join, and what a principal must do if rules
are violated are addressed.

But the school clubs law, signed last week by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.,
was not really intended to rein in the rowdies down at the audio-visual
club, some lawmakers said. The real target was homosexuality.

“This is all about gay-straight alliance clubs, and anybody who tells
you different is lying,” said State Senator Scott D. McCoy, Democrat
from Salt Lake City, who voted against the law.

State Senator D. Chris Buttars, a Republican from the Salt Lake City
suburbs and the law’s co-sponsor, said in an interview that he saw
the need for the measure after parents from a high school in Provo,
Utah, protested the formation of a gay-straight club in 2005.

But Mr. Buttars said his bill was intended to bring uniformity to the rules.
The centerpiece, he said, is a clause giving school administrators
the authority to ensure that clubs do not violate “the boundaries
of socially appropriate behavior.”

“If a gay-straight club wants to meet together, as they say they do,
just for friendship, I have no problem with that,” Mr. Buttars said.
“But I think school districts should have the authority to do whatever
they need to do protect their schools — the law gives them authority
to make decisions to protect the physical, emotional, psychological
or moral well being of students.”

The State Board of Education opposed the bill and asked Governor
Huntsman to veto it. Carol Lear, a lawyer for the board, said
in an interview that she feared that the complicated rules and the
subjective decisions that might be made in defining the term
“socially appropriate” could entangle principals in red tape and
litigation.

But Ms. Lear said she did not think the law would have much effect
on gay-straight clubs, which she said were protected under the
Federal Equal Access Act of 1984 from being singled out for
sanction or special regulation.

“It’s just mean-spirited,” Ms. Lear said of the new law. “It discourages
students from having organizations that would be helpful and mutually
supportive and that would be safer for them than being outside
the school.”

In a paradoxical twist missed by almost nobody in the clubs debate,
the federal equal access law was co-sponsored by United States
Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, to make sure that
religious and Bible study groups were not discriminated against
by secular-minded principals.

The same protections mean that gay-straight alliances cannot
be singled out, legal experts say, which is why the rules in the
new schools law must be applied across the board to all clubs,
no matter what they do or who joins them.

Under the new Utah law, every club will have to complete an activity
disclosure statement that itemizes what it will do, and discusses how
many members it will have, and whether tryouts are required.
It mandates that any student joining any club needs a parent’s
signature — though most public schools in Utah require that already
— and specifically bans any discussion by any club of “human
sexuality.”

The law defines that term to mean “advocating or engaging
in sexual activity outside of legal recognized marriage or forbidden
by state law,” and “presenting or discussing information relating
to the use of contraceptive devices.”

Gay community leaders and legal experts say the name of the law
should be “Unintended Consequences.” Some gay community advocates
said the effort to crack down on gay-straight clubs may have backfired
and in fact strengthened Utah’s gay community.

Teenage leaders at some gay-straight clubs got politically involved
and testified at the Capitol. One of the State Legislature’s three
openly gay members successfully pushed through amendments that
could limit the law’s effect and even perhaps increase visibility
of gay-straight clubs in the 14 Utah public high schools that now
have them, by requiring that all clubs get equal treatment
on bulletin boards and in school newspapers.

“We helped weaken the bill and water it down, and that is in some
ways a victory,” said Samantha Verde, 17, a senior at Hunter High
School west of Salt Lake City and co-president of the school’s
Gay-Straight Alliance.

Ms. Verde went to the Capitol this year with the club’s adviser and
Hal Newman, Hunter High’s advanced placement European history
teacher, to lobby lawmakers. She said she thought that many club
members who became politically involved in the fight would remain
engaged.

“The attitude that led to the bill is still prevalent,” she said, “so
I think we’ll be fighting again next year.” Meanwhile, the governor
was confident that the new law would not have “a deleterious effect”
on student clubs, said Michael Mower, a spokesman.

“Our interpretation is that students can continue to organize clubs
as long they don’t discuss illegal conduct,” Mr. Mower said. For
example, there can be no Texas Hold-em club, he said, if it involved
real gambling and money.

Asked whether he thought principals might try to use the law to
eliminate or ban formation of gay-straight alliances, Mr. Mower said,
“We will encourage principals to be mindful of other aspects, especially
the equal access provisions, in making decisions.”

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

5) TERRORISM
Cuba -- How scared should we be?
BY PHILIP PETERS
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/43180.html

[Outstanding column by Phil Peters - as usual, debunking what's been
printed in the MIAMI HERALD and such places with an astute political
judgement and a reverence for facts and logic which is rare in U.S.
media coverage of Cuba. In my dreams, someone like Phil Peters would
someday be in charge of U.S. policy toward Cuba. He's not a leftist
or socialist at all, but he does think facts and logic should take
precedence over rhetoric and posturing. Note that this is filed under
"Other Views" in the HERALD, which gave prominent coverage to the
Original nonsense when it first came out. Read and study closely.
Walter Lippmann
walterlx@earthlink.net]

According to a defector, Cuba has a secret, underground laboratory
southeast of Havana called ''Labor Uno,'' where biological agents --
''viruses and bacteria and dangerous sicknesses'' -- are being
developed for military use.

The administration calls Cuba a ''state sponsor of terrorism,'' so if
the defector's story is true, Cuba would represent what President
Bush terms one of the worst national security threats of the 21st
century: the world's most dangerous weapons in the hands of the
world's most dangerous people.

How scared should we be?

Not scared at all, if we judge by the administration's policies and
public statements, none of which betray concern, much less certainty,
about any threat emanating from Cuba.

The defector, Roberto Ortega, was Cuba's top military doctor. He
visited Labor Uno in 1992 while he was escorting a visiting Russian
delegation.

Ortega may be entirely truthful, but the Iraq experience teaches that
fragments of interesting information do not amount to ''slam-dunk''
intelligence.

Indeed, the Iraq intelligence failure led U.S. agencies to reassess
their views on weapons programs worldwide. The result came in August
2005 when, with Ortega's account in hand, these agencies downgraded
their Cuba assessment, concluding unanimously that it was ``unclear
whether Cuba has an active offensive biological-warfare effort now,
or even had one in the past.''

But the administration gives us more reasons to sleep easy.

 Cuba missed the ``axis of evil.'' With the exception of
now-departed John Bolton, senior officials responsible for security
matters have been silent about Cuba. In October 2005, Bolton's
successor as the State Department's top security official, Robert
Joseph, did not mention Cuba in a global survey of weapons of mass
destruction issues. Cabinet-level officials routinely chide Cuba's
human rights abuses but mention no security concerns.

 Ana Montes unchallenged. After Cuban spy Ana Montes was discovered
to be working as the administration's top Cuba defense-intelligence
analyst in 2001, Bolton and other officials charged that she had
skewed U.S. intelligence, including a famous 1998 report that called
Cuba's military capabilities ''residual'' and ''defensive'' and its
threat ''negligible.'' But in six years, the administration has
issued no report offering a less benign assessment, even though it
would serve its political interests to do so. Montes' betrayal, we
can deduce, involved leaking the identities of agents and other U.S.
secrets to Cuba rather than distorting U.S. intelligence.

 Migration exception. If the administration had the slightest
concern about terrorism coming from Cuba, it would not have a unique,
open-door policy toward undocumented Cuban migrants, where we welcome
those who reach our shores or Mexican border crossings and release
them into the community within hours. This may make humanitarian
sense, but it is truly a pre-9/11 policy in a post-9/11 world. It
tells Cuba, if indeed it is a terrorist state, to infiltrate
operatives not through cloak-and-dagger ruses but mixed in with
everyday migrants.

 No negotiations. In return for a promise to cap its nuclear
program, North Korea will receive fuel oil and direct talks with
Washington that could lead to normalized relations. Similarly, Iran
has been offered rewards for ending its nuclear ambitions. In the
Cuban case, the administration seeks no talks and does not pursue
Ortega's recommendation that international inspectors go to Cuba.
Apparently, the administration sees nothing to talk about.

What we are left with is that the only visible U.S. action in
response to a Cuba-related security issue is a maritime exercise to
prepare for a possible migration crisis in the Florida Straits.

Floridians can therefore go back to worrying about hurricanes,
tornadoes and inadequate insurance coverage -- until, that is, Raúl
Castro figures out that a new weapons program might be the ticket to
achieve normal relations with the United States.

Philip Peters is vice president of the Lexington Institute in
Arlington, Va.

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Give Us Some Real Political Leaders
Inter Press Service
Ali al-Fadhily
"BAGHDAD, Mar 15 (IPS) - Many Iraqis are now looking to local
political leadership to fill wide gaps in a fractured government
that is failing to provide security and basic needs."
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000549.php#more

An Awkward Creature
The Chinese Way of Capitalism
By REZA FIYOUZAT
March 16, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/fiyouzat03162007.html

These Boots Were Made for 22 M.P.H.
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/business/worldbusiness/17gazshoes.html?ref=business

Iowa: ‘Tar Baby’ Prompts an Apology
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, offered an apology
in Cedar Falls after using the term “tar baby” in answering a voter’s
question about federal intervention in divorce and custody cases.
In response to the question, Mr. McCain said he was not going
to take a position that it was proper “to declare divorces invalid
because of someone who feels they weren’t treated fairly in court.”
He said, ”We are getting into a tar-baby of enormous proportions,
and I don’t know how you get out of that.” When told afterward that
some people considered the term a racial epithet, Mr. McCain responded,
“I hope that it’s not viewed that way.” A moment later, he apologized,
saying, “I don’t think I should have used that word, and I was wrong
to do it.” One of Mr. McCain’s rivals for the 2008 Republican presidential
nomination, for Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, apologized
last year for using the term in referring to the troubled Big Dig
highway project in Boston.
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/us/politics/17brfs-mccain-tar-baby.html

Court Says Health Coverage May Bar Birth-Control Pills
By TAMAR LEWIN
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/health/17pill.html?ref=us

Mortgage Trouble Clouds Homeownership Dream
By EDUARDO PORTER and VIKAS BAJAJ
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/business/17dream.html?hp

The liberal war on democracy
John Pilger
Published 19 March 2007
http://www.newstatesman.com/200703190024

Florida: Settlement in Boot Camp Death
By CHRISTINE JORDAN SEXTON
The state’s Department of Juvenile Justice reached a $5 million
settlement with the parents of a 14-year-old boy who died
in January 2006 after being beaten at a boot camp in Panama City.
The agreement, orchestrated by Gov. Charlie Crist, would require
approval by the Legislature. A lawyer for the boy’s parents, Ben Crump,
said the family would seek another $5 million settlement from Bay County,
which ran the boot camp. A criminal case is pending against the seven
guards charged with beating the boy, Martin Lee Anderson,
and against a nurse who watched.
March 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/us/15brfs-SETTLEMENTIN_BRF.html

Safe Ground in a Housing Market Meltdown?
By Dean Baker
t r u t h o u t | Columnist
Wednesday 14 March 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031407J.shtml

Manhattan: Arrests at Antiwar Protest
By KATE HAMMER
Twenty students were arrested yesterday at an antiwar protest
in an Army and Navy recruiting station at 157 Chambers Street.
The protest began at noon when members of the group, Students
for a Democratic Society, marched from the campuses of Pace
University and the New School and converged near the recruitment
center. The 20 staged a sit-in while about 40 others stood outside
chanting antiwar slogans, banging steel drums and waving posters.
Organizers said that the students were demonstrating against military
recruitment practices, and that the protest was intended to call
attention to the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war,
which will be next week. The police said the 20 would be charged
with criminal trespass.
March 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/nyregion/13mbrfs-protest.html

Manhattan: Rulings on Convention Arrests
By JIM DWYER
The city may use secret police intelligence in civil rights lawsuits
to defend its policies during the 2004 Republican National Convention,
but it will be penalized for failing to disclose the information earlier
in the case, a federal judge ruled yesterday. The New York Civil Liberties
Union, which is suing the city on behalf of seven people who claim
they were wrongly arrested and detained during the convention, had
argued that intelligence reports and testimony from David Cohen,
the deputy police commissioner for intelligence, should be barred
because the city missed deadlines for disclosing that Mr. Cohen
and the documents would be part of its defense. Magistrate Judge
James C. Francis IV agreed that city lawyers had “offered no legitimate
excuse” for being late and said the city would have to pay legal
fees and other costs as punishment.
March 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/nyregion/13mbrfs-convention.html

Home in San Francisco, Pelosi Gets the Crawford Treatment
By JESSE McKINLEY
"SAN FRANCISCO, March 12 — San Francisco, meet Crawford, Tex."
March 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/washington/13pelosi.html

Your country needs you... but not you: Soldiers' mother
faces deportation
"Leven Bowman served in Iraq. His brother Damian was an army
poster boy. Now the Home Office wants to deport their mother
and her 15-year-old daughter
By Ian Herbert and Nigel Morris
Published: 13 March 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2352800.ece

U.S. House Democrats seek more war funds than Bush
01 Mar 2007 23:53:19 GMT
By Richard Cowan
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01426347.htm

Inmates to fill the void in farm fields
"Pilot program to help farmers replace workers driven
off by state's new immigration laws."
By CHARLES ASHBY
CHIEFTAIN DENVER BUREAU
http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1172581202/1

No More Denials, Please
Editorial
March 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/opinion/03sat1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Warm Winters Upset Rhythms of Maple Sugar
By PAM BELLUCK
March 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/us/03maple.html?ref=us

New Design for Warhead Is Awarded to Livermore
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
March 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/washington/03nuke.html?ref=us
[U.S. OUT OF LIVERMORE! DEVOTE LIVERMORE TO PEACEFUL
PURPOSES NOT FOR WAR--TO HELP HUMANITY, NOT DESTROY IT!...BW]

The Must-Do List
Editorial
March 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/opinion/04sun1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

The Nation In Wartime, Who Has the Power?
By JEFFREY ROSEN
WASHINGTON
March 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/weekinreview/04rosen.html?ref=world

Judge to Decide Validity of Case on Marijuana
By CAROLYN MARSHALL
March 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/us/04pot.html?ref=us

Investigations Multiplying in Juvenile Abuse Scandal
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
March 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/us/04youth.html

Antiwar Caucus Wants to Be Heard Now
By MICHAEL LUO
March 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/washington/04cong.htm

State Facilities’ Use of Force Is Scrutinized After a Death
By CASSI FELDMAN
March 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/nyregion/04detention.html?ref=nyregion

16 Civilians Die as U.S. Troops Fire on Afghan Road
By CARLOTTA GALL
March 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/world/asia/05afghan.html

The Right to Organize
Editorial
March 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/opinion/06tues1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Visit by Bush Fires Up Latins’ Debate Over Socialism
By JIM RUTENBERG and LARRY ROHTER
March 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/world/americas/09latin.html

Veterans Face Vast Inequities Over Disability
By IAN URBINA and RON NIXON
March 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/washington/09veterans.html?ref=us

The Next Big Health Care Battle
Editorial
March 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/opinion/12mon1.html?hp

Strike at Big Shipyard Is Yet Another Effect of Katrina
By ADAM NOSSITER
March 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/us/13strike.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Immigration Misery
Editorial
March 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/opinion/15thu1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Dying Woman Loses Appeal on Marijuana as Medication
By JESSE McKINLEY
March 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/us/15marijuana.html?ref=us

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

URGENT APPEAL TO SAVE IRAQ'S ACADEMICS.
Call for action to save Iraq's Academics
A little known aspect of the tragedy engulfing Iraq is the systematic
liquidation of the country's academics. Even according to conservative
estimates, over 250 educators have been assassinated, and many
hundreds more have disappeared. With thousands fleeing the country
in fear for their lives, not only is Iraq undergoing a major brain drain,
the secular middle class - which has refused to be co-opted by the
US occupation - is being decimated, with far-reaching consequences
for the future of Iraq.
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

ENDORSE THE A.N.S.W.E.R. CALL TO ACTION
March 17-18, 2007
GLOBAL DAYS OF ACTION ON THE
4TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WAR!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/Survey?
SURVEY_ID=3400&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&JServSessionIdr011=
k7a3443r73.app8a

http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage

Please circulate widely
www.answercoalition.org

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.

Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:

Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.

You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.

Happy Holidays!

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.