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Ordering a Pizza in 2010...
http://aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf
Attack of the FreewayBlogger
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/82805/
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SAVE RENT CONTROL! NO ON PROP. 98!
http://leftinsf.com/blog/index.php/archives/2492
We All Hate that 98!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Phrt5zVGn0
[The catch is, that while it's true that the landlord can increase rents to whatever he or she wants once a property becomes vacant, the current rent-control law now ensures that the new tenants are still under rent-control for their, albeit higher, rent. Under the new law, there simply will be no rent control when the new tenant moves in so their much higher rent-rate can increase as much as the landlord chooses each year from then on!!! So, no more rent-control at all!!! Tricky, huh?...BW]
Prop 98, a statewide measure on the June 3 ballot will end rent control and just cause eviction protections for renters. San Francisco will see massive displacement and the city will change forever if 98 passes.
READ ALL OF PROP. 98 at: http://yesprop98.com/read/?_adctlid=v%7Cwynx8c5jjesxsb%7Cwziq39twoqov52
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Stop fumigation of citizens without their consent in California
Target: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Joe Simitian, Assemblymember Loni Hancock, Assemblymember John Laird, Senator Abel Maldonado
Sponsored by: John Russo
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-fumigation-of-citizens-without-their-consent-in-california
Additional information is available at http://www.stopthespray.org
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http://takingaim.info/
Murdering Mumia: A Strategic Component of the War on Black America --
A Conversation with Chris Kinder, Coordinator, Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu Jamal
Access the "Taking Aim" web site above for the one hour program with Chris Kinder broadcast last Tuesday on WBAI, New York. Accessing the web site gives you the choice of playing the entire program or downloading it so that you can go both forward and backwards. The show is heard primarily on WBAI New York but also on Pacifica "listener-supported" radio.
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A CALL TO ACTION MAY 1
ALL OUT ON MAYDAY TO STOP THE WAR!
ILWU-called May Day Labor Antiwar Demo
Meet at 10:30 a.m. at Mason & Beach (Fisherman's Wharf)
March at 11:00 a.m.
Rally at Noon at Justin Herman Plaza
PORT WORKERS MAY DAY ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Clarence Thomas and Jack Heyman, Co-Chairs
Phone: 510.333.4301 * Fax: 510.215.2800
Email: news@may1.org
MEDIA ALERT
April 23, 2008
The Port Workers May Day Organizing Committee is proud to announce that Cynthia McKinney, former Congresswoman from Georgia; Danny Glover, renowned actor and political activist; and Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star mother whose son Casey was killed in Iraq four years ago, will be among the featured speakers at our "No Peace, No Work" Holiday mobilization in San Francisco on May 1st.
The West Coast longshore workers have voted to stop work to protest against the ongoing war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The Port Workers May Day Organizing Committee and the other rank-and-file committees in ports up and down the West Coast have received pledges of support from labor councils, local unions and anti-war, anti-racist, immigrant and other social justice organizations across the country and around the globe.
The "March with Longshore Workers" will assemble at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 1st, at the Longshore (ILWU) hall at Mason & Beach, and will march down the Embarcadero for a noon rally at Justin Herman Plaza.
SF Immigrant Rights May Day Demo
Meet at Dolores Park at 2pm
March at 3:30 pm
Rally at 6:00 pm in Civic Center Plaza
Oakland Immigrant Rights May Day Demo
Meet at 3:00 pm Fruitvale Plaza (35th & International Blvd.)
March at 4:00 pm
Rally at 6:00 pm at Oakland City Hall Plaza
At the start of the Iraq War in 2003, many working people were opposed to the invasion. Now the overwhelming majority want to end the war and withdraw troops. Yet, both major political parties continue to fund the war. Marches and demonstrations have not been able to stop the war. The Longshore Union (ILWU) will stop work for 8 hours in every port on the West Coast on May 1st. This action shows that working people have the power to stop the war.
Don't work on May 1st! MAKE MAYDAY A "NO PEACE, NO WORK HOLIDAY"!
We'll march from the Longshore Union hall at the corner of Mason and Beach Streets (Fisherman's Wharf area), along the Embarcadero--where San Francisco was forged into a union town in the 1934 General Strike. A rally will be held in Justin Herman Plaza across from the Ferry Building at noon.
--Stop the war!
--Withdraw the troops now!
--No scapegoating immigrant workers for the economic crisis!
--Healthcare for all!
--Funding for schools and housing!
--Defend civil liberties and workers'rights!
MAKE MAYDAY A "NO PEACE, NO WORK HOLIDAY"!
Port Workers' May Day Organizing Committee
http://maydayilwu.googlepages.com
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Rock for Justice-Rock for Palestine
FREE outdoor festival
May 10th, 2008
Civic Center, San Francisco
Please make your tax-deductible donation, payable to 'Palestine Right to Return Coalition' or 'PRRC/Palestine Solidarity Concert'
Mail to:
Local Nakba Committee (LNC)
PO Box #668
2425 Channing Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
For more information about, the Palestine Right of Return Coalition, see: www.al-awda.org.
For regular concert updates see our website at: http://www.araborganizing.org/concert.html
You can donate online at the Facebook Cause 'Nakba-60, Palestine Solidarity Concert' at: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/causes/19958?h=plw&recruiter_id=6060344
List of confirmed artists:
Dam, featuring Abeer, aka 'Sabreena da Witch'–Palestinian Hip-Hop crew from Lid (1948, Palestine).
Dead Prez
Fred Wreck–DJ/Producer, for artists Snoop Dogg, Hilary Duff,
Brittany Spears and other celebs.
Ras Ceylon –Sri Lankan Revolution Hip Hop
Arab Summit:
Narcicyst - with Iraqi-Canadian Hip Hop group Euphrates
Excentrik- Palestinian Producer/Composer/MC
Omar Offendun- with Syrian/Sudani Hip Hop group The N.o.m.a.d.s
Ragtop- with Palestinian/Filipino group The Philistines
Scribe Project – Palestinian/Mexican Hip Hop/Soul Band
Additional artists still pending confirmation.
Points of Unity for Concert Sponsorship
An end to all US political, military and economic aid to Israel.
The divestment of all public and private entities from all Israeli corporations and American corporations with subsidiaries operating within Israel.
An end to the investment of Labor Union members' pension funds in Israel.
The boycott of all Israeli products.
The right to return for all Palestinian refugees to their original towns, villages and lands with compensation for damages inflicted on their property and lives.
The right for all Palestinian refugees to full restitution of all confiscated and destroyed property.
The formation of an independent, democratic state for its citizens in all of Palestine.
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For Immediate Release
UPDATE: SIXTH AL-AWDA CONVENTION TO MARK 60 YEARS OF PALESTINIAN NAKBA
Embassy Suites Hotel Anaheim South, 11767 Harbor Boulevard,
Garden Grove, California, 92840
May 16-18, 2008
The 6th Annual International Al-Awda Convention will mark a devastating event in the long history of the Palestinian people. We call it our Nakba.
Confirmed speakers include Bishop Atallah Hanna, Supreme Justice Dr. Sheikh Taiseer Al Tamimi, Dr. Adel Samara, Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, Dr. Ghada Karmi, Dr. As'ad Abu Khalil, Dr. Saree Makdisi, and Ramzy Baroud. Former Prime Minister of Lebanon Salim El Hos and Palestinian Legislative Council member Khalida Jarrar have also been invited.
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda. org
WWW: http://al-awda. org
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is the largest network of grassroots activists and students dedicated to Palestinian human rights. We are a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC are tax-deductible.
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Call for an Open U.S. National Antiwar Conference
Stop the War in Iraq! Bring the Troops Home Now!
Join us in Cleveland on June 28-29 for the conference.
Crown Plaza Hotel
Sponsored by the National Assembly to End the Iraq War and Occupation
P.O. Box 21008; Cleveland, OH 44121; Voice Mail: 216-736-4704; Email: NatAssembly@aol.com
http://natassembly.org/thecall/
List of Endorsers:
http://natassembly.org/thecall/
Endorse the conference:
http://natassembly.org/endorse/
Join us in Cleveland on June 28-29 for the conference.
Sponsored by the National Assembly to End the Iraq War and Occupation
P.O. Box 21008; Cleveland, OH 44121; Voice Mail: 216-736-4704; Email: NatAssembly@aol.com
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Help Save Troy Davis
Troy Davis came within 24 hours of execution in July, 2007 before receiving a temporary stay of execution. Two weeks later the Georgia Supreme Court agreed to hear his extraordinary motion for a new trial. On Monday, March 17, 2008 the court denied Mr. Davis’ appeal. Troy Davis was sentenced to death for the murder of Police Officer Mark MacPhail in Georgia. The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even during the trial. Since then, all but two of the state's nine non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis.
The message:
"I welcomed your decision to stay the execution of Troy Anthony Davis in July 2007, and thank you for taking the time to consider evidence of his innocence. When you issued this decision, you stated that the board "will not allow an execution to proceed in this State unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused." Because the Georgia Supreme Court denied Troy Davis a hearing, doubts of his guilt will always remain. I appeal to you to be true to your words and commute the death sentence of Troy Davis.
"This case has generated widespread attention, which reflects serious concerns in Georgia and throughout the United States about the potential for executing an innocent man. The power of clemency exists as a safety net to prevent such an irreversible error. As you know, Mr. Davis has been on death row in Georgia for more than 15 years for the murder of a police officer he maintains that he did not commit. Davis' conviction was not based on any physical evidence, and the murder weapon was never found.
"Despite mounting evidence that Davis may in fact be innocent of the crime, appeals to courts to consider this evidence have been repeatedly denied for procedural reasons. Instead, the prosecution based its case on the testimony of purported "witnesses," many of whom allege police coercion, and most of whom have since recanted their testimony. One witness signed a police statement declaring that Davis was the assailant then later said "I did not read it because I cannot read." In another case a witness stated that the police "were telling me that I was an accessory to murder and that I would…go to jail for a long time and I would be lucky if I ever got out, especially because a police officer got killed…I was only sixteen and was so scared of going to jail." There are also several witnesses who have implicated another man in the crime but the police focused their efforts on convicting Troy.
"It is deeply troubling to me that Georgia might proceed with this execution given the strong claims of innocence in this case. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that our criminal justice system is not devoid of error and we now know that 127 individuals have been released from death rows across the United States due to wrongful conviction. We must confront the unalterable fact that the system of capital punishment is fallible, given that it is administered by fallible human beings. I respectfully urge the Board of Pardons and Paroles to demonstrate your strong commitment to fairness and justice and commute the death sentence of Troy Anthony Davis.
Thank you for your kind consideration."
Messages will be sent to:
Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles
2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SE
Suite 458, Balcony Level, East Tower
Atlanta, Georgia 30334-4909
Telephone: (404) 657-9350
Fax: (404) 651-8502
Clemency_Information@pap.state.ga.us
Please take a moment to help Troy Davis. On Monday, March 17, 2008, the Georgia Supreme Court decided 4-3 to deny a new trial for Troy Anthony Davis, despite significant concerns regarding his innocence. The stunning decision by the Georgia Supreme Court to let Mr. Davis' death sentence stand means that the state of Georgia might soon execute a man who well may be innocent.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1265/t/5820/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=23774
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"ANGOLA 3"
For 35 years, Jim Crow justice in Louisiana has kept Herman Wallace
and Albert Woodfox locked in solitary confinement for a crime
everyone knows they didn't commit.
Despite overwhelming evidence of their innocence, the "Angola 3",
spend 23 hours each day in a 6x9 cell on the site of a former
plantation. Prison officials - and the state officials who could
intervene - won't end the terrible sentence. They've locked them up
and thrown away the key because they challenged a system that deals an
uneven hand based on the color of one's skin and tortures those who
assert their humanity.
We can help turn things around by making it a political liability for
the authorities at Angola to continue the racist status quo, and by
forcing federal and state authorities to intervene. I've signed on
with ColorOfChange.org to demand an investigation into this clear case
of unequal justice. Will you join us?
http://www.colorofchange.org/angola3/?id=1798-532528
When ColorOfChange.org spoke up about the Jena 6, it was about more
than helping six Black youth in a small town called Jena. It was about
standing up against a system of unequal justice that deals an uneven
hand based on the color of one's skin. That broken system is at work
again and ColorOfChange.org is joining The Innocence Project and
Amnesty International to challenge it in the case of the Angola 3.
"Angola", sits on 18,000 acres of former plantation land in Louisiana
and is estimated to be one of the largest prisons in the United
States. Angola's history is telling: once considered one of the most
violent, racially segregated prison in America, almost a prisoner a
day was stabbed, shot or raped. Prisoners were often put in inhumane
extreme punishment camps for small infractions. The Angola 3 -
Herman, Albert and Robert - organized hunger and work strikes within
the prison in the 70's to protest continued segregation, corruption
and horrific abuse facing the largely Black prisoner population.
Shortly after they spoke out, the Angola 3 were convicted of murdering
a prison guard by an all-white jury. It is now clear that these men
were framed to silence their peaceful revolt against inhumane
treatment. Since then, they have spent every day for 35 years in 6x9
foot cells for a crime they didn't commit.
Herman and Albert are not saints. They are the first to admit they've
committed crimes. But, everyone agrees that their debts to society
for various robbery convictions were paid long ago.
NBC News/Dateline just aired a piece this week about the plight of the
Angola 3. And it's time to finally get some justice for Herman and
Albert. For far too long, court officials have stalled and refused to
review their cases. Evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and
constitutional violations have not swayed them.
It's now time for the Governor of Louisiana and the United States
Congress, which provides the funding for federal prisons like Angola,
to step in and say enough is enough. Please join us in calling for
Governor Bobby Jindal and your Congressperson to initiate an immediate
and full investigation into the case of the Angola 3.
http://www.colorofchange.org/angola3/?id=1798-532528
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DEFEND FREE SPEECH RIGHTS ON THE NATIONAL MALL!
~ Please circulate this urgent update widely ~
The ANSWER Coalition is vigorously supporting the campaign launched by the Partnership for Civil Justice to defend free speech rights on the National Mall. We thank all the ANSWER Coalition supporters who have joined this campaign and we urge everyone to do so. What follows is an urgent message from the Partnership for Civil Justice about the campaign.
1) The Partnership for Civil Justice has set up an easy-to-use mechanism that will allow you to send a message directly to the National Park Service about their National Mall Plan. Click this link to send your message.
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=8_RVxCikVreKjAjXZlb49Q..
2) Sign the Statement in Defense of Free Speech Rights on the National Mall.
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=PKScBmTUgEZOZ_cxmhZbAg..
3) If you have already signed this statement, click this link right now to let us know if we can publicize you as a signer of this important statement.
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=6kKl3z44MGnkeYbNr_pA_w..
4) If you are unsure whether you have already signed, you can sign the statement again, and all duplicate names will be eliminated.
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=XoId_W834FDPRKYz6DjgfA..
Sincerely,
Mara Verheyden-Hillard and Carl Messineo, co-founders of Partnership
for Civil Justice
Background on the NPS initiative to restrict protesting on the National Mall
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=wuIJnWmxqhcuEOXlEiwung..
Washington Post article: The Battle to Remold the Mall
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=EWmH5pSb477zqvLc8c8WDw..
Alternet article: National Mall Redesign Could Seriously Restrict Free Speech
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=jdbtCB0LDdDpdEAvIgwtqg..
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
www.answercoalition.org
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) Profits Top Expectations for Makers of Drugs
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/business/24drug.html?ref=business
2) In Surprise, Ford Swings to Profit in First Quarter
By NICK BUNKLEY
April 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/business/24ford-web.html?ref=business
3) 3 Detectives Acquitted in Bell Shooting
By MICHAEL WILSON
April 26, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/nyregion/26BELL.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
4) Sadr Tells Forces Not to Attack Iraqis
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
April 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/world/middleeast/26iraq.html?ref=world
5) California Holds Off on Crop-Spraying Plan
By JESSE McKINLEY
April 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/us/25moths.html?ref=us
6) Remembering Columbia, 1968
By Robert D. McFadden
April 25, 2008, 2:06 pm
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/remembering-columbia-1968/
7) Wesley Snipes Gets 3 Years for Not Filing Tax Returns
NEW YORK TIMES REGIONAL NEWSPAPERS
April 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/business/25snipes.html?ref=business
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1) Profits Top Expectations for Makers of Drugs
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/business/24drug.html?ref=business
Sales of a new multiple sclerosis drug helped lift Biogen Idec’s first-quarter profit by 24 percent to beat Wall Street expectations, and the company raised its full-year earnings forecast.
Schering-Plough also topped Wall Street expectations, helped by the acquisition of Organon BioSciences, while GlaxoSmithKline met expectations as generic competition cut into sales of its antidepressant and heart drugs.
Biogen, based in Cambridge, Mass., said Wednesday that it earned $163.1 million, or 54 cents a share in the quarter, compared with a profit of $131.5 million, or 38 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding several one-time charges, Biogen Idec’s profit was $250 million, or 83 cents a share, topping the 79 cents expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.
Revenue rose 32 percent, to $942.2 million, from $715.9 million, also topping expectations.
Tysabri, a multiple sclerosis treatment, brought in $114.7 million in revenue for Biogen. Paul Clancy, Biogen’s chief financial officer, said Tysabri’s first-quarter growth puts the drug on track for an annual sales rate of $1 billion.
Biogen Idec’s earnings report came before an expected proxy battle with Carl C. Icahn at the company’s annual meeting, which has not been scheduled.
Schering-Plough said its first-quarter profit fell 48 percent, mainly from costs related to the acquisition of Organon, but was well above Wall Street estimates.
Schering-Plough posted net income of $253 million, or 15 cents a share, down from $543 million, or 36 cents a share a year earlier. Schering-Plough bought Organon, a biotechnology company that makes women’s and animal health products, for nearly $14.5 billion in November.
Excluding acquisition-related costs and some other one-time items, Schering-Plough, based in Kenilworth, N.J., said it would have reported earnings of $862 million, or 53 cents a share, better than the 37 cents forecast by analysts.
Revenue, helped by $1.3 billion from sales of Organon products, rose 56 percent, to $4.66 billion.
The chief executive, Fred Hassan, said the acquisition increased earnings per share by 4 cents in the quarter.
He said results were also helped by favorable exchange rates, rising sales in the combined company’s animal health business, and strong growth in foreign markets for medicines, including the arthritis and inflammatory disease treatment Remicade and cholesterol drugs.
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2) In Surprise, Ford Swings to Profit in First Quarter
By NICK BUNKLEY
April 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/business/24ford-web.html?ref=business
DETROIT — The Ford Motor Company said on Thursday that it earned $100 million in the first quarter, after a loss in the same quarter a year ago, a surprising improvement amid a slump in the United States market that has cut sales of lucrative trucks and sport utility vehicles.
The company also warned of the possibility of more cuts in its work force.
Ford’s automotive operations earned a pretax profit of $669 million, compared with a loss of $895 million a year ago, though the company continued its lengthy streak of money-losing quarters in North America.
Shares of Ford jumped as much as 17 percent to $8.79, the highest level since November, in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Ford’s biggest one-day gain ever is 15.7 percent.
The company reaffirmed its commitment to becoming profitable by next year in North America, a crucial tenet of its restructuring plan known as the Way Forward, even as high gasoline prices and a sour housing market sap demand for big vehicles.
To reach its goal, Ford’s chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, said the automaker may need to eliminate more shifts at truck assembly plants and offer more buyouts. If not enough workers leave voluntarily, he said, layoffs are possible.
“The underlying business is improving and we are cautiously optimistic that, despite the external difficulty, our plan is working,” Mr. Mulally, who joined the automaker in September 2006 after previous turnaround efforts failed to gain traction, said on a conference call with reporters and analysts. “Clearly it’s a more challenging environment than when we laid out the plan.”
The first-quarter profit, equal to 5 cents a share, is up from a loss of $282 million, or 15 cents a share, in the period a year ago.
Analysts had expected Ford to again report a loss in the quarter. Ford said it still expected a loss for the year, but less than the $2.7 billion it lost in 2007.
Since the automaker lost $12.6 billion in 2006, it has cut about a third of its hourly work force through buyout and early retirement offers. Another 4,200 workers accepted a second round of buyouts offered earlier this year, fewer than the company had hoped.
As a result, Mr. Mulally said Ford plans to offer more buyouts, but on a “plant-by-plant and vehicle-by-vehicle” basis, unlike the previous deals that were available to everyone.
“At this time we don’t have any more plans for a company-wide buyout,” he said.
While previous job cuts were aimed at making the company smaller, this time around Ford is trying to persuade workers to leave so that it can hire replacements at significantly lower wages, under the contract it signed with the United Automobile Workers union last fall. The agreement lets Ford pay new workers as little as $14 an hour, about half the current rate, with fewer benefits. As much as a fifth of the company’s work force can be on the so-called second-tier pay scale.
Ford said costs associated with personnel actions, a reduction in the size of its United States dealer network and other special items reduced earnings in the first quarter by $416 million, or 15 cents a share.
Revenue for the quarter, excluding special items, was $39.4 billion, down from $43 billion in the January-to-March period a year ago.
Ford said it excluded revenue from its British luxury brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, which it has agreed to sell to Tata Motors of India and that total revenue would have been slightly up from last year if those brands were included.
Ford will gain a net $1.7 billion from the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover, which was announced in March and is expected to close in the second quarter.
North America was the only geographic region in which Ford did not earn a first-quarter profit. The company, which fell to the third-largest seller of vehicles in the United States last year after being passed by Toyota, lost $45 million in North America, a considerable improvement from the year-ago loss of $613 million.
Ford said $1.2 billion in structural and product costs in North America were partly offset by slower sales of more profitable vehicles like pickups and S.U.V.’s. Sales of its full-size pickups fell 13 percent in the first quarter.
“The restructuring in North America is taking hold,” Mr. Mulally said, “and we will continue to take actions to stay on our plan, and our product pipeline is full.”
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3) 3 Detectives Acquitted in Bell Shooting
By MICHAEL WILSON
April 26, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/nyregion/26BELL.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Three detectives were found not guilty Friday morning on all charges in the shooting death of Sean Bell, who died in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a club in Jamaica, Queens.
Justice Arthur J. Cooperman, who delivered the verdict, said many of the prosecution’s witnesses, including Mr. Bell’s friends and the two wounded victims, were simply not believable. “At times, the testimony of those witnesses just didn’t make sense,” he said.
His verdict prompted several supporters of Mr. Bell to storm out of the courtroom, and screams could be heard in the hallway moments later. The three detectives — Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper — were escorted out of a side doorway. Outside, a crowd gathered behind police barricades, occasionally shouting, amid a veritable sea of police officers.
The verdict comes 17 months to the day since the Nov. 25, 2006, shooting of Mr. Bell, 23, and his friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, outside the Club Kalua in Jamaica, Queens, hours before Mr. Bell was to be married.
It was delivered in a packed courtroom and was heard by, among others, the slain man’s parents and his fiancée. The seven-week trial, which ended April 14, was heard by Justice Cooperman in State Supreme Court in Queens after the defendants waived their right to a jury, a strategy some lawyers called risky at the time. But it clearly paid off with Friday’s verdict.
Before rendering his verdict, Justice Cooperman ran through a narrative of the evening, and concluded “the police response with respect to each defendant was not found to be criminal.”
“The people have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt” that each defendant was not justified in shooting, he said, before quickly saying the men were not guilty of all of the eight counts, five felonies and three misdemeanors, against them.
Mr. Bell’s family sat silently as Justice Cooperman spoke from the bench. Behind them, a woman was heard to ask, “Did he just say, ‘Not guilty?’ “
Roughly 30 court officers stood by, around the courtroom and in the aisles.
“There are no winners in a trial like this,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said later. “An innocent man lost his life, a bride lost her groom, two daughters lost their father, and a mother and a father lost their son.”
The mayor continued: “Judge Cooperman’s responsibility, however, was to decide the case based on the evidence presented in the courtroom. America is a nation of laws, and though not everyone will agree with the verdicts and opinions issued by the courts, we accept their authority.”
He added: “There will be opportunities for peaceful dissent and potentially for further legal recourse — those are the rights we enjoy in a democratic nation. We don’t expect violence or law-breaking, nor is there any place for it.”
Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, speaking at an event in Brooklyn, declined to comment on the verdict, saying that the officers could still face disciplinary action from the Police Department. He did say, however, that the United States attorney’s office had asked him to delay such disciplinary action until it had decided whether or not to pursue federal charges against the officers.
He also said that the police were ready, should any unrest develop.
“We have prepared, we have done some drills and some practice with appropriate units and personnel if there is any violence, but again, we don’t anticipate violence,” Mr. Kelly said. “There have been no problems. Obviously there will be some people who are disappointed with the verdict. We understand that.”
Detectives Isnora and Oliver had faced the most charges: first- and second-degree manslaughter, with a possible sentence of 25 years in prison; felony assault, first and second degree; and a misdemeanor, reckless endangerment, with a possible one-year sentence. Detective Oliver also faces a second count of first-degree assault. Detective Cooper was charged only with two counts of reckless endangerment.
During the 26 days of testimony, the prosecution sought to show, with an array of 50 witnesses, that the shooting was the act of a frightened, even enraged group of disorganized police officers who began their shift that night hoping to arrest a prostitute or two and, in suspecting Mr. Bell and his friends of possessing a gun, quickly got in over their heads.
“We ask police to risk their lives to protect ours,” said an assistant district attorney, Charles A. Testagrossa, in his closing arguments. “Not to risk our lives to protect their own.”
The defense, through weeks of often heated cross-examinations, their own witnesses and the words of the detectives themselves, portrayed the shooting as the tragic end to a nonetheless justified confrontation, with Detective Isnora having what it called solid reasons to believe he was the only thing standing between Mr. Bell’s car and a drive-by shooting around the corner.
Several witnesses testified that they heard talk of guns in an argument between Mr. Bell and a stranger, Fabio Coicou, outside Kalua, an argument, the defense claimed, that was fueled by bravado and Mr. Bell’s intoxicated state. Defense lawyers pointed their fingers at Mr. Guzman, who, they said, in shouting for Mr. Bell to drive away when Detective Isnora approached, may have instigated his death.
Detective Isnora told grand jurors last year that he clipped his badge to his collar and drew his gun, shouting, “Police! Don’t move!” as he approached Mr. Bell’s Nissan Altima.
Other witnesses, mostly friends of Mr. Bell, said they never heard shouts of “Police!” Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield testified that they had no idea that Mr. Guzman was a police officer when he walked up with his gun drawn.
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4) Sadr Tells Forces Not to Attack Iraqis
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
April 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/world/middleeast/26iraq.html?ref=world
BAGHDAD — Under pressure from Iraqi government troops and the American military, Moktada al-Sadr called on his followers to stop the bloodshed, unite with all Iraqis and focus their firepower on driving out the “occupation forces,” meaning the United States military and its foreign allies.
The statement, read at Friday prayers, appeared to be part of a carefully calibrated political strategy of reaching out to his “Iraqi brothers” while threatening any Iraqis who work with the occupying forces.
It echoes the one Mr. Sadr, a rabidly nationalist Shiite cleric, made last year when he asked his Mahdi militia to halt its most aggressive activities, including most sectarian killings. That gambit improved his image nationally while allowing him to build up his own forces.
In the statement Mr. Sadr, who is believed to be in Iran, issued eight edicts in an effort to open the way for a negotiation with the Iraqi government, but also to shore up his own support.
He instructed his followers to “to wage open war against the Americans” but forbade them from “raising a hand against another Iraqi citizen.” He also urged the Iraqi Army and Iraqi police to stop cooperating with the Americans, and he asked the government to purge the militias within the ranks of the police and the army. He said he would oppose any American military bases in Iraq.
He also issued a “final warning” to the Iraqi government to end its crackdown or face an “open war until liberation.”
But he quickly softened the threat, saying, “If we have threatened with an open war until liberation, we have meant by it a war against the occupier.”
The very public effort to calm the situation follows nearly a month of open fighting in Sadr City, Basra and several provinces in southern Iraq. It appeared to reflect an effort by Mr. Sadr to ensure that his movement is able to compete effectively in local elections scheduled for October.
Mr. Sadr and his allies have a strong following in Basra and could be expected to fare well in the elections. They have accused Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is allied with rival Shiite factions, of staging the Basra attack as a way to marginalize them before the vote.
For his part, Mr. Maliki has been careful not to single out the Mahdi Army publicly, saying only that the government is trying to break the grip of all militias in Basra. But citizens in the city have said that most of the attacks have been aimed at Mr. Sadr’s forces.
If the Sadr forces continued an all out fight against the government they would almost certainly suffer severe losses in manpower and firepower, and they might be barred from participating in the elections. The parliament is considering a ban on political parties that also sponsor a militia.
A similar effort is underway by Sunni political parties who agreed on Thursday to return to the government. By taking control of a few ministries, their spokesmen said, they would be in a better position to compete for seats in the elections.
Iraqi sympathy has begun to rise for the plight of impoverished civilians in Sadr City, who are suffering because of the fighting, and Mr. Sadr appeared to be trying to get ahead of the changing tides so that he could take credit for allowing aid to reach the embattled neighborhood.
A parliamentary committee visited the area on Thursday and reported that Mr. Sadr’s clerics “are sincere” in making an effort to solve the situation peacefully
Mr. Sadr’s followers were subdued as they listened while his instructions were read from the pulpit. In Sadr City the prayer was punctuated only by occasional group chants.
The crowd was larger than normal because of advance warning, from cars equipped with loudspeakers, of “an important announcement from Sayyid Moktada.” Sayyid is an honorific reserved for those who are descendants of the prophet Mohammed through Imam Hussain, one of the founders of the Shiite sect.
Many followers said afterward that they had little hope that the government would respond to Mr. Sadr’s offer, but that it was the right step to take. “I think the Iraqi government will not calm down; they will escalate their operations,” said Hussain Mohamed Hassan, 24, an engineering student. “The government doesn’t care about the Iraqi people.”
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5) California Holds Off on Crop-Spraying Plan
By JESSE McKINLEY
April 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/us/25moths.html?ref=us
SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has postponed a plan to spray pesticides over several heavily populated counties this summer to fight the light brown apple moth, an unwelcome émigré that threatens California’s critical agriculture industry.
The 11-week postponement, announced on Thursday after Mr. Schwarzenegger met with local lawmakers, will allow for a series of toxicology tests. Officials want to see how the synthetic pheromones being considered affect the skin and eyes, among other issues, the governor said.
“I am confident that the additional tests will reassure Californians that we are taking the safest, most progressive approach to ridding our state of this very real threat to our agriculture, environment and economy,” he said in a statement.
The decision was a measured victory for opponents of the spraying, which was to have begun in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties on June 1 and then move to seven other infested counties, including San Francisco, in August.
All told, some seven million people live in the areas that would be sprayed. Several local governments have voiced opposition.
In Santa Cruz, where aerial spraying in November led to scores of complaints of medical ailments, including respiratory problems, a county judge ruled on Thursday that the state needed to complete an environmental study before resuming spraying.
The governor’s postponement and the judge’s ruling pleased environmental advocates, who say the state has tried to rush through the plan.
“This moth has done no damage to California’s environment and agriculture to warrant an aerial spray campaign,” said Paul Schramski, the state director of Pesticide Watch, a nonprofit environmental group. “And I think what communities have been saying is, Let’s put this pesticide through a full environmental and health assessment.”
Agricultural officials, however, say the threat to the state’s $32 billion farm industry is serious. More than 18,000 of the insects have been found in the state, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, says, though none in the Central Valley, its richest farming region.
In an interview earlier this week, the secretary of the department, A. G. Kawamura, said the pheromones under consideration, which confuse the moth’s reproductive cycle, were “one of the most environmentally friendly tools we’ve ever been able to use for an eradication.”
Mr. Kawamura cited a recent report from the state’s Office of Environmental Hazard Assessment that said a link could not be established between the spraying and the reported illnesses.
The moth is an indiscriminate eater native to Australia. Its presence in California was confirmed in March 2007, and has prompted restrictions on some California fruits and vegetables.
Last month, Mexican authorities announced a ban on the importing of strawberries from a section of California’s Central Coast because of concerns that the moth might spread to Mexican crops. And officials in Sonoma County, the wine-rich region north of here, said Thursday that they expected a quarantine to be placed on their plants because two moths have been found there.
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6) Remembering Columbia, 1968
By Robert D. McFadden
April 25, 2008, 2:06 pm
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/remembering-columbia-1968/
Columbia University’s campus was eerie that night. Japanese music drifted from Fayerweather Hall, one of the occupied buildings, and a sitar played ancient peace into the cold darkness. Protesters moved furtively in the shadows, and down the quadrangle hundreds of police officers formed a skirmish line.
Tensions had been building for a week over a protest against what thousands of students and even many faculty members regarded as racism and militarism by Columbia. Five campus buildings had been seized by radical students, a dean had been taken hostage briefly and the university had been shut down.
Negotiations to resolve the crisis had collapsed after midnight and Columbia’s president, Dr. Grayson Kirk, had called the police onto the campus on Morningside Heights — an act of utter desperation and anathema in the academic world. A “bust” was imminent, and emotions had reached the breaking point.
As the crisis approached, the authorities cut off telephones and water at the five buildings, and issued final warnings over bullhorns: “This is it. Come out now. You made your point. Come out now!”
It was 2:20 a.m. on April 30, 1968 — nearly 40 years ago, but a moment branded in the memory of a young newsman. I was near Low Library, the administration building, with several reporters, including my New York Times colleague, Robert McG. Thomas Jr., as the phalanx of helmeted officers began moving up the wide lawns of the university quadrangle.
They came on inexorably, a disciplined blue line of bobbing flashlights and many with nightsticks, then broke into a ragged charge. The students fell back, some tripping over low chain-link fences, and scattered like disturbed insects. There were screams, shouted obscenities and cries of “fascist pigs!”
Some protesters were trampled. Others were hit with flailing nightsticks by uniformed officers, or saps wielded by plainclothes men, some of them dressed like students in scruffy clothes, all with their badges hidden. Students were punched and kicked. Some were dragged down concrete steps outside Low Library.
On a lawn between Fayerweather and Avery Hall, another occupied building, two uniformed officers grabbed a young woman, spun her around and hurled her into a tree. Nearby two officers threw a youth to the ground, and when he tried to get up pushed him down again; a plainclothes man rushed up and stomped the fallen man.
Outside Fayerweather Hall, a hundred students and two dozen faculty members, some wrapped in blankets against the chill, gathered on the steps, trying to block the entrance. Officers and plainclothes men formed a wedge and charged through the line, flinging bodies aside, stomping on arms and legs.
“I was punched in the nose,” said John F. Khanlian, an undergraduate. He could hardly see because blood was running down his face.
In Avery Hall, Mr. Thomas, who showed his Times press card and entered with the officers, was challenged by a plainclothes man on the second floor and told he would have to leave. An appeal to a deputy inspector failed, and when he turned to the curving marble staircase he was grabbed, slugged in the head by an officer using handcuffs as brass knuckles and thrown down the stairs.
Uniformed officers lining the stairs like a gantlet struck him repeatedly as he tumbled down, and at the bottom more plainclothes men pummeled him on the head. He lost his glasses but made his way out. He was not arrested, but his wounds required 12 stitches to close.
A Life Magazine photographer, Steve Shapiro, was punched in the eye by a policeman and one of his cameras was smashed after he showed his press identification.
At Mathematics Building on the west side of the campus, three young women and a young man were pulled out by their arms and legs and dragged for hundreds of yards to police vans on Broadway. “Stop twisting their arms,” a nurse from the student health service shouted as she followed the procession.
At Hamilton Hall, occupied by black students, the takeover was finished even before the doors were unlocked. The police entered through secret tunnels and met no resistance. Nearly all the protesters there were taken into custody peacefully. The police also got into Low Library through tunnels, swiftly retaking the building and dragging the occupiers away.
There was more violence at the other buildings, where the police had to shoulder aside barricades of furniture erected at the doors. Many protesters were carried out by groups of four officers, each holding a limb, though protesters’ backs sometimes scraped the ground. Some left of their own accord, though under arrest.
It was all over by 5 a.m. About 1,000 police officers had participated; 132 students, 4 faculty members and 12 police officers had been injured, most suffering cuts and bruises, and 720 had been arrested, mostly on charges of criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.
Unlike antiwar or civil rights demonstrators of the 1960’s who were more experienced in truly brutal arrests, most students caught in the Columbia confrontations of 1968 were treated relatively lightly, though most called it police brutality.
The damage was extensive. Furniture had been smashed, shelves toppled, windows broken, filing cabinets rifled, carpets strewn with cigarette butts and papers strewn in drifts. And the detritus of an eight-day occupation was everywhere: dirty blankets and half-eaten sandwiches; posters of Lenin, Che Guevara and Malcolm X. And, of course, the residue of hatred.
Was it worth it? The answer depended on what person you asked.
Mark Rudd, the 20-year-old leader of the Columbia chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, called it a just protest against the university’s plan to build two gymnasiums on the slope running from Morningside Heights down to Harlem, one at the top for students, with its own entrance, and one at the bottom for Harlem residents, with a separate entrance: an arrangement that struck many as a taste of Jim Crow. (It was also staged against university ties to the Institute for Defense Analysis, which carried out projects for the Pentagon.) The protesters also demanded amnesty.
To Edward Schwartz, president of the National Student Association, it was outrageous to bring 1,000 police officers onto a university campus. “The brutality of this action has pierced through all ambiguities surrounding the issues at Columbia,” he said.
To Dr. Kirk, Columbia’s president, wandering exhausted amid smashed desks and chairs in his Low Library office, nothing warranted the disruption of education for the university’s 17,500 students. The decision to call the police, he said, was “obviously the most painful one I ever made,” but acceding to protesters’ demands for amnesty “would have dealt a near-fatal blow not olnly to this institution but to the whole of American higher education.”
Outside, a dialogue between two students caught another perspective.
“I came here for an education,” said a young man in a jacket and tie.
“Yes, so did I,” said a young woman. “But don’t you think that this is part of education — to be part of the world?”
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7) Wesley Snipes Gets 3 Years for Not Filing Tax Returns
NEW YORK TIMES REGIONAL NEWSPAPERS
April 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/business/25snipes.html?ref=business
OCALA, Fla. — A federal judge on Thursday sentenced the actor Wesley Snipes to three years in prison for willfully failing to file tax returns.
Mr. Snipes, who was convicted in February, received one year for each count, to be served consecutively, and an additional year of probation. The sentence was handed down by Judge William Terrell Hodges of Federal District Court.
Mr. Snipes, who apologized for his actions before the sentence was announced, showed no immediate reaction to the verdict.
Judge Hodges allowed Mr. Snipes and a co-defendant, Douglas Rosile, to remain free on bond until they were summoned by either the United States Marshals Service or the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The sentencing came at the end of a daylong hearing in which lawyers for Mr. Snipes argued for leniency while federal prosecutors sought the maximum penalty possible.
The case was the most prominent tax prosecution since the billionaire hotelier Leona Helmsley was convicted of tax fraud in 1989. Mr. Snipes, who has built a worldwide following acting in films like the “Blade” vampire trilogy, must pay up to $17 million in back taxes plus penalties and interest.
In a prepared statement, Mr. Snipes said: “I’m very sorry for my mistakes. I acknowledge that I have failed myself and others.” But in the statement, which ran to nearly 10 minutes, Mr. Snipes never mentioned the words “tax” or “taxes.”
“He never stated he didn’t pay his taxes or show any remorse for it,” said Robert O’Neill, the acting United States attorney for the Middle District of Florida, the lead prosecutor on the case.
Mr. Snipes even tried to make a down payment on his taxes before sentencing; his legal team offered Judge Hodges three checks totaling $5 million.
Judge Hodges refused the checks, saying he did not have the authority to accept them. Prosecutors also declined to accept the checks. An Internal Revenue Service employee eventually accepted the checks on behalf of the Treasury Department.
Mr. Snipes’s legal team also questioned the validity of federal sentencing guidelines. At one point, one of his lawyers, Carmen Hernandez, described herself as “an expert on sentencing.”
Judge Hodges replied, “If I may be so bold, I’ve also had some experience with that.”
A jury found Mr. Snipes guilty on Feb. 1 of three misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to file tax returns, but acquitted him of felony conspiracy and tax fraud charges and three additional counts of failure to file.
The jury also convicted two co-defendants, Eddie Ray Kahn and Mr. Rosile, on felony charges.
Mr. Snipes was a member of American Rights Litigators, an organization founded by Mr. Kahn. Prosecutors have described that organization and its successor company, Guiding Light of God Ministries, as illegal tax-evasion schemes.
Mr. Rosile, a certified public accountant, prepared some tax returns, including Mr. Snipes’s, for the organization.
Judge Hodges sentenced Mr. Kahn to 10 years and Mr. Rosile to four and a half years.
Mr. Kahn, who represented himself throughout the trial and has consistently refused to recognize Judge Hodges’s authority, was defiant to the end.
“For the record, your honor, I don’t accept that,” Mr. Kahn said.
The judge responded, “You may not accept it, Mr. Kahn, but you will serve it.”
Mr. Rosile declined to comment after the sentencing. His lawyer, David Wilson, however, said the sentence was fair.
A member of Mr. Snipes’s legal team said they would appeal. “We were hoping for a complete acquittal,” the lawyer, Linda Moreno, said. “I have faith in the process, and I have faith in the jury system. We will appeal.”
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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
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Halliburton Profit Rises
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON (AP) — Increasing its global presence is paying off for the oil field services provider Halliburton, whose first-quarter income rose nearly 6 percent on growing business in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, the company said Monday.
Business in the first three months of 2008 also was better than expected in North America, where higher costs and lower pricing squeezed results at the end of 2007.
Halliburton shares closed up 3 cents, at $47.46, on the New York Stock Exchange.
Halliburton said it earned $584 million, or 64 cents a share, in the three months that ended March 31, compared with a year-earlier profit of $552 million, or 54 cents a share. Revenue rose to $4.03 billion, from $3.42 billion a year earlier.
April 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/business/worldbusiness/22halliburton.html?ref=business
Illegal Immigrants Who Were Arrested at Poultry Plant in Arkansas to Be Deported
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Eighteen illegal immigrants arrested at a poultry plant in Batesville will be processed for deportation, but will not serve any jail time for using fake Social Security numbers and state identification cards, federal judges ruled. Magistrate Judge Beth Deere and Judge James Moody of Federal District Court accepted guilty pleas from 17 of those arrested last week at the Pilgrim’s Pride plant. Federal prosecutors dismissed the misdemeanor charges against one man, but said they planned to ask Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings against him. The guilty pleas will give the 17 people criminal records, which will allow prosecutors to pursue tougher penalties if they illegally return to the United States. They had faced up to up to two years in prison and $205,000 in fines. Jane Duke, a United States attorney, said her office had no interest in seeing those arrested serve jail time, as they were “otherwise law-abiding citizens.”
National Briefing | South
April 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/us/22brfs-002.html?ref=us
Coal Company Verdict in West Virginia Is Thrown Out
By ADAM LIPTAK
April 4, 2008
National Briefing | Mid-Atlantic
The State Supreme Court for a second time threw out a $50 million verdict against the coal company Massey Energy. The court decided to rehear the case after the publication of photographs of its chief justice on vacation in Monte Carlo with the company’s chief executive, Don L. Blankenship. The chief justice, Elliott E. Maynard, and a second justice disqualified themselves from the rehearing and were replaced by appeals court judges, but the vote was again 3-to-2 in favor of Massey. A third justice, Brent D. Benjamin, who was elected to the court with the help of more than $3 million from Mr. Blankenship, refused to recuse himself.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/us/04brfs-COALCOMPANYV_BRF.html?ref=us
Utah: Miners’ Families File Lawsuit
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Rockies
April 3, 2008
A lawsuit by the families of six men killed in August in a mine cave-in claims the collapse occurred because the mine’s owners were harvesting coal unsafely. The suit, filed in Salt Lake City, says the Murray Energy Corporation performed risky retreat mining last summer. It seeks unspecified damages. Three men trying to reach the miners died 10 days after the collapse in another cave-in at the Crandall Canyon Mine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/us/03brfs-MINERSFAMILI_BRF.html?ref=us
Regimens: Drug Samples Found to Affect Spending
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Vital Signs
Having doctors distribute free samples of medicines may do exactly what drug companies hope for — encourage patients to spend more money on drugs.
A study in the April issue of Medical Care found that patients who never received free samples spent an average of $178 for six months of prescriptions. Those receiving samples spent $166 in the six months before they obtained free medicine, $244 when they received the handouts and $212 in the six months after that.
Researchers studied 5,709 patients, tracking medical histories and drug expenditures; 14 percent of the group received free samples. The study adjusted for prior and current health conditions, race, socioeconomic level and other variables.
The authors acknowledge that the study results could be partly explained by unmeasured illness in the group given samples.
The lead author, Dr. G. Caleb Alexander, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, said although free samples might save some patients money, there were other ways to economize. “Using more generics, prescribing for three months’ supply rather than one month’s and stopping drugs that may no longer be needed can also save money,” Dr. Alexander said.
April 1, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/health/policy/01regi.html?ref=health
Rhode Island: Order to Combat Illegal Immigration
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | New England
Linking the presence of undocumented workers to the state’s financial woes, Gov. Donald L. Carcieri signed an executive order that includes steps to combat illegal immigration. The order requires state agencies and companies that do business with the state to verify the legal status of employees. It also directs the state police and prison and parole officials to work harder to find and deport illegal immigrants. The governor, a Republican, said that he understood illegal immigrants faced hardships, but that he did not want them in Rhode Island. Under his order, the state police will enter an agreement with federal immigration authorities permitting them access to specialized immigration databases.
March 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/us/29brfs-002.html?ref=us
North Carolina: Ministers Say Police Destroyed Records
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
Three ministers accused a Greensboro police officer of ordering officers to destroy about 50 boxes of police files related to the fatal shooting of five people at an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally in 1979. The Revs. Cardes Brown, Gregory Headen and Nelson Johnson said an active-duty officer told them he and at least three other officers were told to destroy the records in 2004 or 2005, shortly after a seven-member panel that had been convened to research the shootings requested police files related to them. The ministers did not identify the officer who provided the information. On Nov. 3, 1979, a heavily armed caravan of Klansman and Nazi Party members confronted the rally. Five marchers were killed and 10 were injured. Those charged were later acquitted in state and federal trials. The city and some Klan members were found liable for the deaths in civil litigation.
February 27, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/us/27brfs-MINISTERSSAY_BRF.html?ref=us
Gaza: Israeli Army Clears Itself in 21 Deaths
By ISABEL KERSHNER
World Briefing | Middle East
The army said no legal action would be taken against military officials over an artillery strike in Beit Hanun in 2006 in which an errant shell hit residential buildings and killed 21 Palestinian civilians. An army investigation concluded that the shell was fired based on information that militants were intending to fire rockets from the area, an army statement said. The civilian deaths, it said, were “directly due to a rare and severe failure” in the artillery control system. The army’s military advocate general concluded that there was no need for further investigation.
February 27, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/world/middleeast/27briefs-israelistrike.html?ref=world
World Briefing | Asia
Taiwan: Tons of Fish Wash Up on Beaches
By REUTERS
About 45 tons of fish have washed up dead along 200 miles of beach on the outlying Penghu Islands after an unusual cold snap. News reports said 10 times as many dead fish were still in the water.
February 23, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/world/asia/23briefs-TONSOFFISHWA_BRF.html?ref=world
Zimbabwe: Inflation Breaks the Six-Figure Mark
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
World Briefing | Africa
The government’s statistics office said the inflation rate surged to a new record of 100,580 percent in January, up from 66,212 percent in December. Rangarirai Mberi, news editor of the independent Financial Gazette in Harare, said the state of the economy would feature prominently in next month’s presidential and parliamentary elections. “Numbers no longer shock people,” he said. Zimbabweans have learned to live in a hyperinflationary environment, he added, “but the question is, how long can this continue?”
February 21, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/world/africa/21briefs-INFLATIONBRE_BRF.html?ref=world
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION
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Russell Means Speaking at the Transform Columbus Day Rally
"If voting could do anything it would be illegal!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Lri1-6aoY
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Stop the Termination or the Cherokee Nation
http://groups.msn.com/BayAreaIndianCalendar/activismissues.msnw?action=get_message&mview=1&ID_Message=5580
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We Didn't Start the Fire
http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html
I Can't Take it No More
http://lefti.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html#9214483115237950361
The Art of Mental Warfare
http://artofmentalwarfare.com/pog/artofmentalwarfarecom-the-warning/
MONEY AS DEBT
http://video. google.com/ videoplay? docid=-905047436 2583451279
http://www.moneyasd ebt.net/
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6582099850410121223&pr=goog-sl
IRAQ FOR SALE
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6621486727392146155
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Port of Olympia Anti-Militarization Action Nov. 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOkn2Fg7R8w
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"They have a new gimmick every year. They're going to take one of their boys, black boys, and put him in the cabinet so he can walk around Washington with a cigar. Fire on one end and fool on the other end. And because his immediate personal problem will have been solved he will be the one to tell our people: 'Look how much progress we're making. I'm in Washington, D.C., I can have tea in the White House. I'm your spokesman, I'm your leader.' While our people are still living in Harlem in the slums. Still receiving the worst form of education.
"But how many sitting here right now feel that they could [laughs] truly identify with a struggle that was designed to eliminate the basic causes that create the conditions that exist? Not very many. They can jive, but when it comes to identifying yourself with a struggle that is not endorsed by the power structure, that is not acceptable, that the ground rules are not laid down by the society in which you live, in which you are struggling against, you can't identify with that, you step back.
"It's easy to become a satellite today without even realizing it. This country can seduce God. Yes, it has that seductive power of economic dollarism. You can cut out colonialism, imperialism and all other kind of ism, but it's hard for you to cut that dollarism. When they drop those dollars on you, you'll fold though."
—MALCOLM X, 1965
http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=987
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A little gem:
Michael Moore Faces Off With Stephen Colbert [VIDEO]
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/57492/
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LAPD vs. Immigrants (Video)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/ff/qr?term=lapd&Submit=S&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Search&st=s
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Dr. Julia Hare at the SOBA 2007
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack2/
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"We are far from that stage today in our era of the absolute
lie; the complete and totalitarian lie, spread by the
monopolies of press and radio to imprison social
consciousness." December 1936, "In 'Socialist' Norway,"
by Leon Trotsky: “Leon Trotsky in Norway” was transcribed
for the Internet by Per I. Matheson [References from
original translation removed]
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm
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Wealth Inequality Charts
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html
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MALCOLM X: Oxford University Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmzaaf-9aHQ
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"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King
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YouTube clip of Che before the UN in 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtATT8GXkWg&mode=related&search
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The Wealthiest Americans Ever
NYT Interactive chart
JULY 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html
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New Orleans After the Flood -- A Photo Gallery
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=795
This email was sent to you as a service, by Roland Sheppard.
Visit my website at: http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret
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[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]
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Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY
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My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic
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Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE
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Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o
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Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw
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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html
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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ
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"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]
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"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]
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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html
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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]
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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.Peace Articles at Libraryofpeace.org">
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