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TONIGHT!
Thurs. Mar. 12, 7:30pm
ATA Theater, 992 Valencia St. at 21st, SF
$6 donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Film Showing & Discussion
In honor of International Women's Day
"Under the Same Moon"
(Bajo la Misma Luna)
"Under the Same Moon" tells the parallel stories of nine-year-old Carlitos and his mother, Rosario. In the hopes of providing a better life for her son, Rosario crosses the border to the U.S. to find work, while her mother cares for Carlitos back in Mexico. The prospect of being separated indefinitely drives Carlitos to cross the border alone to find his mother. The film is a moving and realistic portrayal of the agony faced by immigrants, who must choose to leave their homes and children as the only option to provide for their families. Spanish with English subtitles, 2007, 106 min.
Call 415-821-6545 for more info.
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Mass outreach to build March 21 Demonstration:
BAUAW WILL HAVE A TABLE FROM 1:00-4:00 P.M. ON CORTLAND AVE. AT ANDOVER ST.
COME HELP POST-UP AND HAND OUT FLYERS AND...TALK TO YOUR NEIGHBORS!
San Francisco -- 415-821-6545:
Saturday,March 14:
12:00 Noon, meet at 2489 Mission St. #24 at 21st St.
East Bay -- 510-435-0844:
Saturday, March 15, 10:00 A.M.
meet at MacArthur BART main entrance, Oakland
Posters, flyers and stickers are available at the ANSWER office.
Call 415-821-6545 for convenient pick-up times. All are encouraged
to view outreach and talking to your neighbors as crucial
to building this action.
NEXT MARCH 21 COALITION PLANNING MEETING:
SUNDAY, MARCH 15, 4:00 P.M.
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO (UPSTAIRS)
474 VALENCIA STREET (NEAR 16TH STREET)
SAN FRANCISCO
Check out the new MARCH 21 Coalition Website
(An extensive endorsement list is posted here):
http://www.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=M21_homepage
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IRSN San Francisco St. Patrick's Day Parade Anti-Imperialist Contingent
Saturday, March 14th, 10:45 A.M. The assembly point will be on 2nd Street, between Folsom and Harrison Streets (look for the van). The parade will move out at 11:30 and walk to City Hall.
The comrades of the International Republican Socialist Network in San Francisco apologize for this late update, but we are dependent on the parade committee, which only provided assembly information today.
The IRSN will again be participating in the San Francisco St. Patrick's Day Parade and hosting an Anti-Imperialist Contingent to provide a republican socialist presence in the event.
As in previous years, the Anti-Imperialist Contingent will march first (# 72 in the parade line-up) behind a banner declaring "No War But the Class War." We invite participating organizations joining us to bring their own identifying banners, but will have others available and we remind our comrades in other socialist, anarchist, or anti-imperialist groups that the parade is one week before the anti-war demonstration of March 21st and therefore an excellent opportunity to distribute information about that demonstration.
Also as in the past, the Anti-Imperialist Contingent will be followed by a van, transformed into a moving billboard and the content of the vans' decoration will focus on specifically Irish concerns. This year it will note the 40th anniversary of the occupation by the British Army in 1969 and the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement--concludi ng that all that has been won is the "peace of the grave." The van will be # 73.
The assembly is earlier this year and comrades are asked to be there not later than 10:45, on Saturday, March 14th. The assembly point will be on 2nd Street, between Folsom and Harrison Streets (look for the van). The parade will move out at 11:30 and walk to City Hall.
Following the parade, anyone participating with the IRSN will be welcome to join us for an after parade party featuring Margaritas and nachos--a tradition for us and a little known ethnic cuisine of the Irish nation, sort of...well the Margaritas are greenish anyway. As former participants can attest, the after party usually features some great discussion in a comradely setting, and we rarely send anyone away without some psychotropic alteration.
Please come out an help the comrades of the IRSN heighten the political content of this San Francisco tradition and help to build for the anti-war demonstration on March 21st.
Absolutely noone with shoes featuring curled up toes will be admitted.
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March against the war on March 21
Dear friends,
During his presidential campaign, Obama's popularity surged with the promise that he would bring the troops home from Iraq within 16 months. But his recently announced plan would continue the illegal occupation indefinitely. It would leave up to 50,000 troops in that war-torn country for who knows how many years. And it would delay the withdrawal of the first batch of troops to 19 months.
"When President Obama said we were going to get out within 16 months, some people heard, 'get out,' and everyone's gone. But that is not going to happen," said a senior military officer.
This plan doesn't "leave Iraq to its people and responsibly end this war", as Obama claimed during his Congressional address of Feb. 24. Instead it entrenches the U.S. in a brutal counter-insurgency war that helped to bankrupt our country and sends an endless stream of Americans to continue dying and killing.
The U.S. government, the American people, and the Iraqi people need to hear our voices of opposition on March 21.
Last week, Sec. of Defense Gates and President Obama announced their plan to deploy an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan - that's a 50 percent increase - despite the fact that the Department of Defense has no exit strategy. And the U.S. is expanding the covert war run by the CIA inside neighboring Pakistan.
We cannot afford another quagmire.
Please join us in Washington, SF, and LA on March 21.
Go to www.pentagonmarch.org for more information
Meanwhile the U.S.-funded occupation and blockade of Gaza continues after an assault in which 100's of civilians were killed and even a United Nations school was not spared from the onslaught of human rights crimes and violations of international law.
The people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine are struggling to rid themselves of deadly, racist occupations. We need to unite in the realization that the movement in solidarity with the people of Palestine is the same as the movements in solidarity with the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Let us stand together with each other and with them, and say:
Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, occupation is a crime!
The people of the world need to hear from Americans that we are against the racist U.S. wars of aggression and occupation. We have an historic responsibility to raise our voices and be heard, to march with our banners held high and be seen, demanding
Bring ALL the troops home NOW!
Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!
End U.S. support for the occupation of Palestine!
No war on Iran or Pakistan!
The National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations is joining with a broadening alliance of 100's of coalitions, organizations, and networks in a united MARCH 21 NATIONAL COALITION to mobilize people across the United States to take part in a March on the Pentagon on the sixth year of the military invasion and occupation of the Iraq War: Saturday, March 21.
Demonstrations will also be held on that date in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other cities across the U.S.
For updated information about buses and the national March 21 coalition, which includes labor unions, peace and anti-war groups, veterans and community groups and more, see: www.pentagonmarch.org
These actions will remind the nation and the world that the U.S. antiwar movement - marching behind a banner demanding "Out Now!' - will intensify its struggle to stop the wars.
The actions are needed to assure the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and other countries threatened by Washington's expansionist policies that tens of millions of people in this country support their right to settle their own destinies without U.S. interventions, occupations and murderous wars. International law recognizes - and we demand - that the U.S. respect the right to self-determination. We reject any notion that the U.S. is the world's self-appointed cop.
The March 21 united mass actions are also needed at this time of economic meltdown to demand jobs for all; a moratorium on foreclosures; rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure; guaranteed, quality health care for all; an end to the ICE raids and deportations; and funding for sorely needed social programs. So long as trillions of dollars continue to be spent on wars, occupations, and bailouts to the banks and corporate elite, the domestic needs of the people of the U.S. can never be met.
For more information about the National Assembly please visit: www.natassembly.org
March 21, in D.C., will culminate in a dramatic direct action where hundreds of coffins-representing the multinational victims of militarism, Empire and corporate greed-will be carried and delivered to the headquarters of the Corporate War Profiteers and Merchants of Death.
From the Pentagon, we will march to the nearby giant corporate offices of Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin Corporation, General Dynamics and KBR (the former subsidiary of Halliburton).
A March 21 Labor Rally and contingent to March 21
will be held in the grassy area just South of Market
Street in Justin Herman Plaza
Saturday, March 21
Rally at 10:30 a.m. // Form contingent to march at 11:45 a.m.
http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=18479
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Donate to Courage to Resist
A message from Army Spc. Agustín Aguayo,
Iraq War veteran and war resister
Since the day I surrendered to military custody after refusing to return to Iraq, Courage to Resist has been there for me and my family as a constant fountain of support. This support has come in many forms, from a friendly call, to organizing a campaign to cover my legal expenses and basic needs. I believe only an organization with altruistic motives that truly cares would have done this. As someone who has felt the enormous relief of having a strong support group behind me, it is a privilege now as a member of Courage to Resist to help others as I have been helped.
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/26/
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Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.
http://www.wakeupfreakout.org/film/tipping.html
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) Speak, O Muse, of Fallen 401(k)s and Malignant Mortgages
March 8, 2009
Ideas & Trends
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/weekinreview/08poems.html?ref=us
2) Longtime Residents Not Allowed In-State Tuition
By ARIANA GREEN
March 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/education/09teacher.html?ref=education
3) Two Americas, Two Tax Codes
By DOROTHY BROWN March 9, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/opinion/09brown.html
4) Obama Calls for Overhaul of Education System
By DAVID STOUT and JEFF ZELENY
March 11, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/us/politics/11web-educ.html?hp
5) Israeli Settlers Terrorise Palestinian Villagers
By Mel Frykberg
March 10, 2009
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22185.htm
6) GEO Group, Inc.: Despite a Crashing Economy,
Private Prison Firm Turns a Handsome Profit
by Erin Rosa, Special to CorpWatch
March 1st, 2009
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15308
7) Happy International Women's Day from Radical Women!
March 10, 2009
Radical Women
8) Kenya: Students and Police Clash Again
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS March 11, 2009
World Briefing | Africa
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/world/africa/11briefs-STUDENTSANDP_BRF.html?ref=world
9) U.A.W. Deal With Ford Cuts Hourly Rate to $55
By NICK BUNKLEY
March 12, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/business/12auto.html?ref=business
10) 4 States With Unemployment Above 10%
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 12, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/business/economy/12jobless.html?ref=business
11) Two Articles Against: JROTC in S.F. Schools
School Board Should Be Supported
Letter to the Editor, by TOM AMMIANO
Bay Area Reporter
March 12, 2009
http://ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=letters
What Next if JROTC Stays?
Letter to the Editor, by Michael Job
Bay Area Reporter
March 12, 2009
http://ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=letters
12) Net Worth of Families Down Sharply
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 12, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/business/13networth.html?hp
13) Iraqi Shoe Thrower Gets Three Years
By MARC SANTORA
March 13, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/middleeast/13iraq.html?hp
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1) Speak, O Muse, of Fallen 401(k)s and Malignant Mortgages
March 8, 2009
Ideas & Trends
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/weekinreview/08poems.html?ref=us
Last week, nytimes.com invited readers to submit original verse about the economic downturn. About 100 readers responded. Here's a sampling.
Worked in iron
Worked in steel
Never worried
'bout my next meal
Trusted bankers
With my 401k
It was there yesterday
Gone today
Greenspan said "Forget fixed rate"
Got an ARM
Now it's too late
While I lose my house, my job, my pension
My taxes bail out bankers
(It's worth a mention)
PETER PATTEN
Melville, N.Y.
I miss the commute
the most and the classroom chalk
I miss my house too.
SUSAN SULLIVAN
St. Louis
Those of us who've lost it all,
Thought not about the cost at all.
Those of us who are content,
Gave thought to every single cent.
JOHN DUVALL
Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.
Awake too late
It took 20 years to
Recognize
I inhabit a den of thieves.
There is no DNA
For fiscal rape
Hence they shall escape.
They stole my graying years.
PAUL M. STAFFORD
Pasadena, Calif.
The new recession
when rich folks must shop Costco
to save on Chanel.
MAYA LELAND
Kaneohe, Hawaii
It's 2009 and still they show women
with long, open legs on high heels
next to the car they want me to buy.
I have never known such a dream-girl,
no surprise here, as I've never owned
the right wheels, even though I am sure
I would enjoy it all very much for a while.
My own car is more likely to be seen
above an oily mechanic, and
my woman, she wears socks in bed,
sometimes two pairs in the winter.
GRÉGOIRE VION
Santz Cruz, Calif.
I worked 50 years since I was 16
Saw visions ahead of the American dream
Saved and I saved, no splurges in sight
Bought an apt at the market's height
Maxed my IRA and 401 too
Put it in blue chips, not CDOs like you
I dreamed of Paris and Venice and Rome
But I'll be staying a lot closer to home
While all the bankers enjoyed their spree
Financed by naïve ones like you and like me
BARBARA ROSTON
New York, N.Y.
OK
401K
40.1K
4.01K
.401K
.0401K
NOT OK
GERALD DUFFY
Portsmouth, N.H.
Last weekend
i wanted to buy something
spend a grand or two.
But then I remembered what the tv said
about the future
about tomorrow
about how I may not have a job.
So I sat by the window
and watched
the snow fall instead.
THOMAS BERNARD MARBLO
Charlotte, N.C.
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2) Longtime Residents Not Allowed In-State Tuition
[Funny! Not allowed in-state tuition but CAN join the military:
U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship
By JULIA PRESTON
February 15, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/us/15immig.html
Hmm.....BW]
By ARIANA GREEN
March 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/education/09teacher.html?ref=education
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Some high school teachers worry about grooming students for admission to elite universities. Judah Lakin worries about getting his students' immigration papers so that they can afford college.
Illegal immigrants do not qualify for federal financial aid, and those living in Rhode Island, as in 39 other states, do not qualify for in-state tuition at public universities. Since out-of-state tuition is about three times as high as in-state, many young immigrants forgo higher education.
Mr. Lakin, a 26-year-old history teacher at Hope High School here, is out to change that.
"One of my students has been here since she was 1 year old, but she can't afford to pay the out-of-state rate to a university in a place she's grown up in," Mr. Lakin said. "Her mother has a work permit and pays taxes here, yet her daughter is essentially denied access to higher education."
The difference in the cost of tuition is considerable. At the University of Rhode Island, out-of-state students pay $24,776 a year, compared with $8,678 for in-state students. In the last few years, Mr. Lakin has become the go-to person for immigrants at Hope High School. Ever since he helped one student navigate the bureaucracy to gain citizenship and raised money on her behalf, he has had students, parents, teachers and even other schools asking him for assistance.
Mr. Larkin wants the school district to give presentations each school year encouraging illegal immigrants in all grades to go to organizations that can advise them on their legal options. He said that would have greatly benefited the student who had been in the country since she was an infant.
"This student always assumed she'd go to a good college," Mr. Lakin said. "She's used to getting awards and internships, but nobody ever explained to her the gravity of what remaining undocumented would mean for her college prospects."
Twenty-two percent of Rhode Island children live in immigrant families, according to the advocacy group Rhode Island Kids Count.
"People think immigration status is black and white, but in a lot of cases, people can qualify as being here legally but don't know how to approach the process," said Carl Kruger, a staff lawyer at the International Institute of Rhode Island, an organization that assists immigrants. "They need to know how to get relatives to petition for them or to find out how else they could qualify."
But some of Mr. Lakin's students will have to wait many years to earn citizenship. One student he tried to help is working as a dishwasher because, without financial aid, he cannot pay for college.
Grace Diaz, a state legislator, has introduced legislation that would make students who have lived in the state for more than three years eligible for in-state tuition.
"I testify in support of her legislation whenever it comes up," said Robert Carothers, who has been president of the University of Rhode Island for 18 years. "It does no good to keep people who live here from an education by which they could make contributions back to the state. It perpetuates ignorance, which is not in our interest."
The office of Gov. Donald L. Carcieri would not comment on the legislation.
But Terry Gorman, executive director of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement, is strongly opposed. "I think it's unfair to U.S. citizens to have to pay the tax burden for the college educations of illegals," he said.
Debate on this issue continues nationally, with 30 states having considered legislation to allow illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition since 2001, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Ten states passed the legislation, but in 2007 Oklahoma repealed its law.
Even if the Federal Dream Act, which would provide a path to citizenship to immigrants who go to college or serve in the military, were to pass, it would not necessarily resolve the issue of in-state tuition because states could rule that temporary residents are not eligible, said Michael Olivas, a law professor at the University of Houston.
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3) Two Americas, Two Tax Codes
By DOROTHY BROWN March 9, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/opinion/09brown.html
Atlanta
WARREN BUFFETT knows there's something very unfair about the American tax system. He's often complained that while his 2006 tax rate (for federal income taxes and Social Security withholding) on $46 million of income was 17.7 percent, his secretary's combined tax rate was 30 percent.
There are effectively two tax systems in America: one for the very rich and one for the rest of us. Income from stock dividends and capital gains, which makes up a disproportionate amount of the earnings of the very rich, is taxed at 15 percent. But the bulk of what the rest of us earn - wages and interest from savings accounts - is taxed at up to 35 percent. Though President Obama's recent tax proposals are progressive and comprehensive, his reforms don't do nearly enough to address this significant disparity.
Yes, President Obama's plan would eliminate the loophole that has allowed hedge fund titans, whose income comes in no small part from management fees, to be taxed at just 15 percent instead of the ordinary income tax rate.
Families earning more than $250,000 and singles earning more than $200,000 would likewise see taxes on their wages and interest increased to a top rate of 39.6 percent from 35 percent. And the rate on both capital gains and dividends on the sale of stock would increase, but only to 20 percent from 15 percent. These changes lessen the unfairness in our tax system; they don't eliminate it.
The gap between the tax rates for the rich and the rest of us is relatively recent. Until 1921, capital gains were taxed at the same rate as ordinary income. Then Congress enacted a law that taxed capital gains at 12.5 percent while ordinary income was taxed at as much as 58 percent.
In the decades since, the tax rate on capital gains varied - sometimes it increased, sometimes it decreased. But with the exception of a brief period in the late 1980s, it was always lower than the tax on ordinary income. That was not the case for stock dividends, which were taxed like wage income and savings account interest - that is, until President George W. Bush and Congress in 2003 gave dividends the same preferential treatment as capital gains. The Bush tax cuts moved our tax system too far in the wrong direction.
There is a flip side to raising the tax rates for dividends and capital gains. In this market, there won't be too much capital gain to worry about. So how should we treat capital losses?
Under current law, capital losses that exceed capital gains can be deducted up to $3,000 (losses above that limit can be carried forward indefinitely into future tax years). If we increase the tax rate on capital gains, then a more generous limit on capital losses should almost certainly be allowed. During the presidential campaign, Senator John McCain proposed increasing the $3,000 offset against ordinary income to $15,000. It's an idea worth dusting off.
The question of how to tax capital gains and dividends is one of fundamental fairness. Why should tax law treat income from savings accounts differently from income from a diversified stock portfolio? Either we push up the rates on corporate dividends and capital gains or we lower the rates on wages and interest: it's all income and it should all be taxed at the same rate.
Dorothy Brown is a professor of tax law at Emory University.
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4) Obama Calls for Overhaul of Education System
By DAVID STOUT and JEFF ZELENY
March 11, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/us/politics/11web-educ.html?hp
WASHINGTON - President Obama called for sweeping changes in American education on Tuesday, urging teachers, parents and students to embrace merit pay for good teachers, a longer school day and school year and a renewed commitment to learning from grade school through adulthood.
The president said it was time to erase the limits on charter schools in some states, while at the same time closing those that are not working. His administration refers to charter schools as "laboratories of innovation." Teachers' unions oppose the schools, saying they take away funding for public schools.
In his first major speech on education speech since taking office seven weeks ago, the president said the United States' prosperity, security and even the American dream itself are at risk unless the country reverses years of decline and restores its education system to pre-eminence. "Let there be no doubt," Mr. Obama said in an address to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here, "the future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens - and my fellow Americans, we have everything we need to be that nation."
"It is time to give all Americans a complete and competitive education from the cradle up through a career," Mr. Obama said. "We have accepted failure for too long - enough. America's entire education system must once more be the envy of the world."
In a proposal sure to be greeted warily by teacher unions, the president renewed his support for a merit-based system of paying educators. "It means treating teachers like the professionals they are, while also holding them more accountable," the president said. "New teachers will be mentored by experienced ones. Good teachers will be rewarded with more money for improved student achievement, and asked to accept more responsibilities for lifting up their schools."
In promoting a merit-based system of pay for teachers, the president was following through on positions he took during his campaign - and implicitly laying down a challenge to unions, traditionally reliable supporters of Democratic candidates.
The president said too many people in his party have resisted the idea of "rewarding excellence" with extra pay, while too many Republicans have opposed spending money on early education "despite compelling evidence of its importance."
"The time for finger-pointing is over. The time for holding ourselves accountable is here," Mr. Obama said. "What's required is not simply new investments, but new reforms. It is time to expect more from our students."
While the overwhelming number of teachers are "doing an outstanding job under difficult circumstances," states and school districts should be able "to move bad teachers out of the classroom."
"I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences," Mr. Obama said. "The stakes are too high. We can afford nothing but the best when it comes to our children's teachers and the schools where they teach."
The address on Tuesday was the first step in laying out the president's agenda to improve American schools, officials said, with more specifics to be outlined to Congress in the coming weeks. The president noted that the recently enacted stimulus package calls for spending some $5 billion on the Early Head Start and Head Start programs - an investment that he said would be rewarded by lower welfare rolls, fewer health care costs and less crime, as well as better classroom performance.
Mr. Obama set a goal of the United States having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. Nothing less than that will suffice in the 21st Century, when Americans are competing in a world made ever smaller by the Internet, the president said.
The president said his Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, "will use only one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars. It's not whether an idea is liberal or conservative but whether it works."
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5) Israeli Settlers Terrorise Palestinian Villagers
By Mel Frykberg
March 10, 2009
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22185.htm
AT TUWANI, West Bank, Mar 9 (IPS) - "I couldn't run. My pregnancy was too far advanced and there was nowhere to hide," said Amna Salman Rabaye, 31, as she recalled the terrifying incident several months ago.
Rabaye from the Palestinian Bedouin village of At Tuwani in the southern West Bank was grazing her sheep when she was assaulted by a security guard from the adjacent illegal Israeli settlement of Ma'on.
"We saw a group of masked Israeli settlers armed with sticks and chains heading towards us. The younger shepherds ran and managed to escape, leaving me with the flock of sheep," Rabaye told IPS.
"It was physically impossible for me to run and I also didn't want the settlers to kill or steal my sheep. The security guard pushed me over but I was not injured," recalled Rabaye who was then seven months pregnant.
At Tuwani was established over 300 years ago by nomadic tribes of Bedouin who first moved into the area seeking shelter in the nearby caves. However, Israeli settlers built the adjacent Ma'on settlement in 1982. The nearby illegal outpost of Havot Ma'on was built at a later date.
Outposts normally comprise small settlements ranging from a few caravans, which are sometimes connected to water and electricity, to slightly larger settlements. They are referred to as outposts by the media as they are generally not recognised by the Israeli government.
The settlements, however, which are legal under Israeli law can number from several hundred residents to small towns with thousands of inhabitants, and all the associated infrastructure.
There are nearly 300,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank and nearly 200,000 in East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli information centre for human rights B'Tselem.
Under international law, including various UN Security Council resolutions, the settlements are built illegally on Palestinian land.
The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from transferring citizens from its own territory to the occupied territory (Article 49). The Hague Regulations prohibit an occupying power from undertaking permanent changes in the occupied area unless these are due to military needs in the narrow sense of the term, or unless they are undertaken for the benefit of the local population.
Nevertheless Israeli settlement building on the West Bank has accelerated at an unprecedented rate in the last few years.
This has included the enlargement of already existing settlements and the establishment of new ones, contrary to every understanding and peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israeli human rights group Peace Now released a report several weeks ago stating that the Israeli government is currently building an additional 73,300 illegal housing units in the West Bank. The report added that this would increase the total number of Israeli settlers in the area by 100 percent.
International human rights organisations have argued that the motive behind the accelerated settlement building is to establish facts on the ground and to make the establishment of a viable, contiguous and independent Palestinian state near impossible.
Currently the West Bank is effectively divided into three cantons by military checkpoints and the settlements. Palestinian towns and villages are surrounded by Israeli settlements while swathes of their land has been confiscated to build settlers-only bypass roads.
While Israeli officials are furthering the facts-on-the-ground scenario through official government policies, an unofficial war between Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers over the continued land expropriation continues unabated.
"The settlers are carrying out a deliberate policy to try and drive us off our land and intimidate us into leaving so that they can take our land," said Hafez Hreini, 37, one of the villagers. Hreini's mother, 79-year-old Fatima, was left bleeding after a settler threw a rock at her head in another encounter with the settlers.
"It is very hard not to physically retaliate when you see people attack your elderly mother but I know if I had done anything back, the Israelis would have used this as an excuse to arrest me and a lot worse," Hreini told IPS. "So we are deliberately applying a policy of non-violence and we are determined to stay here and keep our land."
In 2006 the villagers lost over 100 sheep after the settlers sprayed pesticides on their grazing land. Several donkeys belonging to the village were stabbed to death. The village's water wells have also been poisoned on numerous occasions while crops have been set ablaze. The children of the village and the surrounding villages have been regularly attacked by the settlers as they try to make their way to school.
A group of outraged Israeli intellectuals wrote to incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert several years ago requesting action be taken against the settlers. This led former Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz to order the demolition of Havot Ma'on settlement but the demolition never took place.
The Israeli Knesset, or parliament, also ordered the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to escort children to and from school to protect them from the settlers. But according to international members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) who live in the village, the IDF patrols are irregular, unreliable and sometimes sources of hostility towards the children.
The CPT have created their own school escorts for the children, and have themselves been assaulted by the settlers. One member received head injuries severe enough to require hospitalisation.
The Israeli police seem disinterested. "It doesn't help if we go to the police because they never do anything," Sreini told IPS.
The Israeli rights group Yesh Din has stated repeatedly that only a very small number of settler attacks against Palestinians are investigated by the Israeli police. These result in even fewer arrests and practically no convictions.
(FIN/2009)
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6) GEO Group, Inc.: Despite a Crashing Economy,
Private Prison Firm Turns a Handsome Profit
by Erin Rosa, Special to CorpWatch
March 1st, 2009
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15308
While the nation's economy flounders, business is booming for The GEO Group Inc., a private prison firm that is paid millions by the U.S. government to detain undocumented immigrants and other federal inmates. In the last year and a half, GEO announced plans to add a total of at least 3,925 new beds to immigration lockups in five locations. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and the U.S. Marshals Service, which hire the company, will fill the beds with inmates awaiting court and deportation proceedings.
GEO reported impressive quarterly earnings of $20 million on February 12, 2009, along with an annual income of $61 million for 2008 - up from $38 million the year before. But the company's share value is not the only thing that's growing. Behind the financial success and expansion of the for-profit prison firm, there are increasing charges of negligence, civil rights violations, abuse and even death.
Detaining immigrants has become a profitable business, and the niche industry is showing no signs of slowing down. The number of undocumented immigrants the U.S. federal government jails has grown by at least 65 percent in the last six years. In 2002, the average daily population of immigration detainees was 20,838 people, according to ICE records. By 2008, the average daily population had grown to 31,345.
Since 2003, more than a million people have been processed through federal immigration lockups, which are part of a network of at least 300 local, state and federal lockups, including seven contracted detention facilities. GEO operates four of those seven for-profit prisons.
Numerous investigations and reports have documented problems at GEO's immigration detention facilities.
At the company's Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, federal prosecutors charged a GEO prison administrator in September 2008 with "knowingly and willfully making materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements to senior special agents" with ICE, according to court filings. A February 2008 audit found that over a period of more than two years ending in November 2005, GEO hired nearly 100 guards without performing the required criminal background checks. The GEO employee responsible, Sylvia Wong, pleaded guilty. In the plea agreement the federal government stated that Wong falsified documents "because of the pressure she felt" while working at the GEO lockup to get security personnel hired at the detention center "as quickly as possible."
Two months before the fraud charges, a study by the Seattle University School of Law and the nonprofit group OneAmerica reported that conditions at the Tacoma facility violated both international and domestic laws that grant detained immigrants the right to food, due process and humane treatment.
Federal immigration officials have the authority to incarcerate undocumented immigrants, asylum-seekers, and even lawful permanent residents while they await hearings with immigration judges or appeal decisions. ICE reports the average length of stay is 30 days, but detentions can last years, according to a November 2008 ICE fact sheet.
Pramila Jayapal, executive director with OneAmerica, took part in interviewing a random sample of more than 40 immigrants detained at the Northwest Detention Center, which holds approximately 1,000 immigrants at any given time.
"It's a very giant concrete box. It's just like a jail," said Jayapal. "You're only supposed to meet in the client area, which is only a few rooms."
One inmate from Mexico, Hector Pena-Ortiz, told interviewers that guards had interrogated and handcuffed him twice, demanding that he sign immediate deportation papers despite the fact that he had a pending appeal. Under federal law, immigrants cannot be deported from the United States if their immigration legal cases are still pending. During one of the incidents, guards admitted to having a file on the wrong inmate, Pena-Ortiz said.
In addition to violations of legal rights, inmates cited food as a major concern. The vast majority of the 40 prisoners interviewed at the facility said rations were inadequate and sometimes rotten. Inmates with financial resources depended on food bought from the lockup's commissary. Others went hungry. A man identified in the study as "Ricardo" said he had lost 50 pounds of his original 190-pound weight since arriving at the detention center.
ICE officially denied the claims in the report, but in 2005, annual agency inspections at the Northwest Detention Center documented problems with the quality and quantity of food and found that some meals were so poor, guards had to collect and replace them.
Looking for Opportunities
The Tacoma lockup, site of the most recent GEO controversy, is located on top of a former toxic waste dump that borders coastal wetlands near the Port of Tacoma, Washington. In August 2008, the firm announced plans to expand its 1,030-bed Northwest Detention Center to 1,575 beds, "to help meet the increased demand for detention bed space by federal, state, and local government agencies around the country."
Just four months after GEO's announcement, ICE notified government contractors that the agency was looking for a contractor-owned and -operated detention facility. According to federal procurement data, the new facility should be capable of providing 1,575 beds - the same number GEO was set to build - to be completed no later than September 2009 - the same date GEO had set for the completion of its own construction project.
Lorie Dankers, ICE spokeswoman in Washington state, implied that the similarity in numbers and date was a coincidence. "I would never comment, nor have I in the past, on what GEO is doing and why they're doing it. That's a business decision that GEO made," said Dankers. "To insinuate that there was some kind of connection, or that they has some inside information as to the request, that would be incorrect."
Dankers added that ICE's request for more space is still in the "pre-solicitation" phase, meaning that there is no guarantee a contract will be offered, and the agency is simply requesting information from contractors to "guage interest."
"I don't have any information one way or the other as to what would happen," Dankers said. "I think often times, if I had to speculate, they see where there's a need. I think they're always looking for opportunities."
Canceled Contracts
And opportunities, like prisoners, abound. GEO owns more than 62,000 prison beds in the United States, with approximately 3,000 beds used for detained immigrants. The company also claims a global market share of 25 percent of the private corrections industry. Currently, the Northwest Detention Center incarcerates immigrants mainly from Oregon, Washington and Alaska, according to Dankers.
In the last five years, criminal immigration prosecutions have surged by 388 percent according to federal court data obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University in New York. The most recently available court information shows that there were 11,454 prosecutions in September 2008 alone. Adding to GEO's profitability and prospects are immigration laws introduced in the 1990s, the expanding use of immigration detention without bond, and a greater emphasis on prosecutions after 9/11.
The company's relationship with government officials has also proven valuable in winning corrections contracts.
In 2006, while on the state payroll as director of prisons at the Colorado Department of Corrections, Nolin Renfrow helped GEO obtain a $14 million-per-year contract to detain 1,500 inmates in a proposed state prison project in the northern part of the state. Renfrow was moonlighting for GEO -with an expected compensation of $1 million - when a 2007 state audit and news reports uncovered the public servant's business deal.
The audit found that Renfrow's actions could "arguably present a conflict of interest and result in a breach of ... the public trust," because state law prohibited an "employee from assisting any person for a fee or other compensation in obtaining any contract."
The county district attorney with jurisdiction over Renfrow declined to press criminal charges, but in the wake of the scandal, officials with the state's corrections department rescinded the contract.
Prisons as Money Makers
Immigrant facilities are not the only GEO lockups that have sparked claims of negligence and abuse.
In 2007, the firm settled a lawsuit with the family of an inmate for $200,000. LeTisha Tapia, a 23-year-old woman incarcerated at the GE0-owned Val Verde Correction Facility in southern Texas, told her family in July 2004 that she had been raped and beaten after being locked in the same cell block with male inmates. Shortly after, she had hung herself in her cell. The nonprofit Texas Civil Rights Project sued GEO on behalf of Tapia's family.
"The jail drove this young woman to kill herself," charged the family's attorney, Scott Medlock, in a February 15, 2006 press release from the Texas Civil Rights Project. "GEO cuts corners by hiring poorly trained guards, providing inmates with cut rate medical care, and running their facility in a grossly unprofessional manner." Citing confidentially provisions in the settlement, Medlock refused further comment.
More recently, in 2008, civil liberties attorneys sued the company for failing to provide adequate medical attention to inmates outsourced from Washington, DC, to the Rivers Correctional Institute, located in North Carolina and overseen by GEO through a contract with the federal Bureau of Prisons. That same year, Idaho state authorities removed 125 inmates from a GEO prison after an investigation - spurred by the suicide of a detainee at the facility - revealed poor staff training and health care.
"Pretty immediately when people started going to Rivers we started to get letters about how bad the health care was, and just how people were really scared of dying there," said Deborah Golden, an attorney with the DC Prisoners Project, a group that is representing inmates in the legal case against GEO. One inmate named in the report, Keith Mathis, claims he was denied medical treatment for a cavity until the tooth became infected and caused an open ulcer on his face that eventually "burst open," requiring surgery and three days hospitalization.
"The more we looked into the situation the more we realized it was a systemic problem," said Golden. "I suspect that it's a pattern all over. When you try to run prisons as money makers what you do is cut back on the most expensive thing you can, which is medication and medical care."
GEO has said it will not publicly comment on pending legal cases or abuse claims by third parties, including nonprofit groups. Company spokesman Pablo Paez says that on the subject of business plans, "we have no comment beyond what's in our public disclosures."
Despite a wide array grievances and tragedies, GEO has accrued contracts worth more than $588 million in federal tax dollars since 1997, according to available federal procurement data. And as long as federal officials continue to remand a growing number of inmates and immigrants over to private businesses, without imposing strict oversight, GEO will likely remain profitable.
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7) Happy International Women's Day from Radical Women!
March 10, 2009
Radical Women
Dear Friends,
Around the world, International Women's Day is a time to commemorate
the courageous battles by and for women. Inspired by the valiant struggle
of female garment workers in the United States, German socialist Clara
Zetkin in 1910 proposed March 8 as a working-class women's holiday to
celebrate past victories and carry the fight forward.
Today we salute the women organizing for equality, social and economic
justice and an end to brutal living conditions. In Iceland, women with pots
and pans protested--demanding aid for people not banks, criminal
investigations and electoral reform. Shortly after the demonstrations the
prime minister and cabinet resigned! The Puerto Rican teachers' union,
which is 80 percent women, went on strike to stop the privatization of
schools. A recent general strike in France denounced cuts in teacher
positions, and demanded job security and a halt to President Sarkozy's
tighten-the-belt reforms. Worldwide women, men and youth poured into
the streets to stop Israel's savage attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. In the
U.S., Stella D'oro workers in the Bronx--largely immigrant women of
color--have been on strike for over six months to prevent new owners
from chopping wages by 25 percent and busting their union.
The current economic meltdown chillingly illustrates the workings of
capitalism: while top dogs in banks and industry make enormous profits,
everyone else faces unemployment, home foreclosures, retirement and
wage cuts, tuition hikes, homelessness and hunger. In the United States,
women--especially women of color and immigrants--pay the biggest
price for government bailouts and economic "reform." Social programs
and services such as healthcare, welfare, and education are slashed,
effectively balancing the budget on the backs of women. Instead of
providing more government support, conservative ideologists think women
should be limited to unpaid service and caregiving at home, and poverty
wages on the job!
These bitter life experiences have created an army of female organizers in
every community. Women are crucial drivers in the antiwar, racial equality,
immigrant, welfare rights, student and queer movements. And they
recognize the necessity of uniting these struggles. Now is the time to
build support and solidarity among feminist organizations.
Radical Women is for militant women who want to see real change and an
end to a rotten profit system that pits us against each other in the
scramble for jobs, homes, and other basic needs. We have mobilized for
immigrant rights up and down the West Coast and in New York City,
protested budget cuts at city council meetings, demonstrated in the streets
against war and occupation, organized for queer marriage as a civil right,
agitated for expanding access to abortion and reproductive healthcare,
and fought alongside the homeless. We combine political education on the
issues with activism on the solutions, and train women leaders. Join us!
Together, let's organize around demands that show what's needed to
become a safe and healthy society. As a start:
--No more bank bailouts! Nationalize the banks under worker's
control. Put the bailout money into jobs and education.
--Stop balancing the budget on the backs of the poor! Expand welfare and
social services by taxing corporations.
--End U.S. military aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan and cut all aid to
Israel! Put that tax money into the broken healthcare system and veteran's
services.
--Halt all foreclosures on homes! Fill all the houses that have already
been built. Reinstate affirmative action and put construction trades people
to work repairing old homes using quality materials.
--Provide free, quality, 24-hour childcare!
These are a big step to what is most needed of all--a truly egalitarian
society of shared wealth--socialism!
Email National Radical Women or find the local chapter nearest you to
start collaborating on these and other issues. United, we can make things
happen and open up the way toward a genuinely better future!
In solidarity,
Anita O'Shea
Radical Women
National Executive Committee
www.RadicalWomen.org
P.S. Donations are needed and appreciated. You can give online or by
mailing a contribution to Radical Women, 5018 Rainier Avenue South,
Seattle WA 98118.
National Radical Women
625 Larkin St. Ste 202, San Francisco, CA 94109
Phone 415-864-1278 Fax 415-864-0778
RadicalWomenUS@gmail.com
To subscribe to the Radical Women email list, reply with SUBSCRIBE
in the subject line.
To be removed from the Radical Women email list, reply with REMOVE
in the subject line.
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8) Kenya: Students and Police Clash Again
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS March 11, 2009
World Briefing | Africa
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/world/africa/11briefs-STUDENTSANDP_BRF.html?ref=world
RIOT Stone-throwing students clashed Tuesday with paramilitary officers and the riot police in Nairobi, in a demonstration demanding the resignation of the police commissioner. On Thursday the police killed a student who was protesting the killing of two activists. Three policemen have been arrested in the student's death.
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9) U.A.W. Deal With Ford Cuts Hourly Rate to $55
By NICK BUNKLEY
March 12, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/business/12auto.html?ref=business
DETROIT - The Ford Motor Company said Wednesday that its new agreement with the United Automobile Workers union would save at least $500 million a year and, within several years, bring its labor costs in line with what foreign competitors pay their workers in the United States.
Ford said the deal, which U.A.W. members ratified this week, immediately reduces its all-in hourly rate, including benefits, to $55.
It said the figure would continue to shrink as more workers took buyouts and when the new-vehicle market recovered, allowing increased production.
Currently, Ford's labor costs amount to a little more than $60 an hour, including health care for retirees. Labor costs for the so-called transplant automakers, including Toyota and Honda, have been about $49 an hour in the United States and are rising, Ford estimates.
"This gets us within the ballpark of where the transplants are," Joseph R. Hinrichs, Ford's group vice president for global manufacturing and labor affairs, said. "With the buyouts and with the ability to leverage some of the other tools that are in this agreement, we think we can get there in the next couple of years, on parity with the transplants."
Ford is the only Detroit automaker not borrowing money from the federal government. General Motors and Chrysler have received $17.4 billion since December and want a total of $39 billion to help them avoid bankruptcy.
Both G.M. and Chrysler have reached concessionary deals with the U.A.W. on most issues but are still negotiating on retiree health care. A U.A.W. vice president, Cal Rapson, in a letter to local union leaders, said the G.M. contract changes "in the area of economics, pattern the U.A.W.-Ford agreement" but in other aspects are "drastically different," Bloomberg News reported.
The loans that G.M. and Chrysler have received require them to exact concessions from the union, their creditors and other stakeholders. Ford, although it is not bound by such requirements, is taking many of the same steps to improve its liquidity and become more competitive. Ford lost $14.6 billion last year, a record, as the recession led to the biggest slump in new-vehicle sales since the 1970s.
Mr. Hinrichs called the agreement, which was supported by 59 percent of U.A.W. members who voted in recent weeks, "critical to our future competitiveness."
It suspends inflation-related pay increases and performance bonuses, allows Ford to save as much as $6.5 billion by substituting shares of its stock for cash it must pay into a new retiree health care fund and eliminates the jobs bank, a controversial program that allowed workers to continue receiving nearly full pay after being laid off. Now workers whose jobs are eliminated will receive less pay, for a shorter period, and will lose that benefit if they refuse to take a job that opens up anywhere in the country.
"The agreement we have in place today significantly reduces the cost of our excess labor pool and also caps that liability over time," Mr. Hinrichs said.
G.M. and Chrysler also have eliminated their jobs bank programs. They have until March 31 to show President Obama's auto industry task force that they are making progress on the broad restructuring plans that they submitted last month.
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10) 4 States With Unemployment Above 10%
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 12, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/business/economy/12jobless.html?ref=business
WASHINGTON (AP) - Four states - California, South Carolina, Michigan and Rhode Island - registered unemployment rates above 10 percent in January, and the national rate is expected to hit double digits by year-end.
The Labor Department's report on state unemployment, released Wednesday, showed the increasing damage inflicted on workers and companies from a recession, now in its second year. Some economists now predict the unemployment rate will hit 10 percent by year-end, and peak at 11 percent or higher by the middle of 2010.
In December, only Michigan had a double-digit jobless rate. One month later, four states did and that did not count Puerto Rico, where the unemployment rate actually dipped to 13 percent in January, from 13.5 percent in December.
California's unemployment rate jumped to 10.1 percent in January, from 8.7 percent in December, as jobs have disappeared in the construction, finance and retail industries.
Michigan's jobless rate jumped to 11.6 percent in January, the highest in the country. The second-highest jobless rate was South Carolina at 10.4 percent. Rhode Island was next at 10.3 percent, which was a record high for the state in federal records dating to 1976. California rounded out the top four.
Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia registered unemployment rate increases. Louisiana was the only state to record a monthly drop. Its unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent in January, from 5.5 percent in December.
The unemployment rate, released last week, rose to 8.1 percent in February, the highest in more than 25 years.
Employers are laying off workers, holding hours down and freezing or cutting pay as the recession eats into sales and profits.
And more layoffs are on the way. The National Semiconductor Corporation said Wednesday that it would lay off 1,725 employees, more than a quarter of its work force, after third-quarter profits fell 71 percent.
The industrial conglomerate United Technologies, which makes Otis elevators and Sikorsky helicopters, said on Tuesday that it would lay off 11,600 workers, or 5 percent of its work force. Dow Chemical said on Monday that it would cut 3,500 jobs at the chemical company, Rohm & Haas, as part of its $15 billion buyout of the company.
Nationwide, the recession has claimed a net total of 4.4 million jobs since December 2007, and has left 12.5 million people searching for work - more than the population of Pennsylvania.
The state unemployment report also showed that North Carolina and Oregon - along with South Carolina - notched the biggest monthly gains of 1.6 percentage points each.
North Carolina's rate soared to 9.7 percent in January, from 8.1 percent in December, while Oregon jumped to 9.9 percent, from 8.3 percent.
Meanwhile, Georgia's jobless rate climbed to 8.6 percent in January, a record high on federal records.
Wyoming continued to register the lowest unemployment rate - 3.7 percent.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Four states - California, South Carolina, Michigan and Rhode Island - registered unemployment rates above 10 percent in January, and the national rate is expected to hit double digits by year-end.
The Labor Department's report on state unemployment, released Wednesday, showed the increasing damage inflicted on workers and companies from a recession, now in its second year. Some economists now predict the unemployment rate will hit 10 percent by year-end, and peak at 11 percent or higher by the middle of 2010.
In December, only Michigan had a double-digit jobless rate. One month later, four states did and that did not count Puerto Rico, where the unemployment rate actually dipped to 13 percent in January, from 13.5 percent in December.
California's unemployment rate jumped to 10.1 percent in January, from 8.7 percent in December, as jobs have disappeared in the construction, finance and retail industries.
Michigan's jobless rate jumped to 11.6 percent in January, the highest in the country. The second-highest jobless rate was South Carolina at 10.4 percent. Rhode Island was next at 10.3 percent, which was a record high for the state in federal records dating to 1976. California rounded out the top four.
Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia registered unemployment rate increases. Louisiana was the only state to record a monthly drop. Its unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent in January, from 5.5 percent in December.
The unemployment rate, released last week, rose to 8.1 percent in February, the highest in more than 25 years.
Employers are laying off workers, holding hours down and freezing or cutting pay as the recession eats into sales and profits.
And more layoffs are on the way. The National Semiconductor Corporation said Wednesday that it would lay off 1,725 employees, more than a quarter of its work force, after third-quarter profits fell 71 percent.
The industrial conglomerate United Technologies, which makes Otis elevators and Sikorsky helicopters, said on Tuesday that it would lay off 11,600 workers, or 5 percent of its work force. Dow Chemical said on Monday that it would cut 3,500 jobs at the chemical company, Rohm & Haas, as part of its $15 billion buyout of the company.
Nationwide, the recession has claimed a net total of 4.4 million jobs since December 2007, and has left 12.5 million people searching for work - more than the population of Pennsylvania.
The state unemployment report also showed that North Carolina and Oregon - along with South Carolina - notched the biggest monthly gains of 1.6 percentage points each.
North Carolina's rate soared to 9.7 percent in January, from 8.1 percent in December, while Oregon jumped to 9.9 percent, from 8.3 percent.
Meanwhile, Georgia's jobless rate climbed to 8.6 percent in January, a record high on federal records.
Wyoming continued to register the lowest unemployment rate - 3.7 percent.
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11) Two Articles Against: JROTC in S.F. Schools
School Board Should Be Supported
Letter to the Editor, by TOM AMMIANO
Bay Area Reporter
March 12, 2009
http://ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=letters
What Next if JROTC Stays?
Letter to the Editor, by Michael Job
Bay Area Reporter
March 12, 2009
http://ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=letters
---
School Board Should Be Supported
Letter to the Editor, by TOM AMMIANO
Bay Area Reporter
March 12, 2009
http://ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=letters
I respectfully disagree with my colleague Assemblywoman Fiona Ma's (D-San Francisco) position on JROTC and her proposed bill AB 223["Students want a choice," Guest Opinion, February 26]. Regardless of what one's position is regarding the JROTC program, the bill sets a dangerous precedent in usurping and overriding local control from the school board. Throughout the state, school boards must be able to make their own decisions and exercise their own control without interference from the state. This is why we have elected school boards - to provide the accountability and independence necessary to make the difficult decisions about how to provide the best possible education for our youth.
As a former teacher and school board member, I understand all too well that not everyone will always agree with every decision made but we must respect the sovereignty of their decisions. Otherwise, we risk opening a Pandora's box where local decisions may be constantly questioned and challenged by state legislators.
Last year, the San Francisco Board of Education made a decision regarding the JROTC program and it is now time to move on from this divisive issue. In these tough financial times, we must look to programs that prepare our students with skills to be successful and responsible community members in the 21st century. In June, the district will be moving forward with an alternative pilot program called SERV (Student Emergency Response Volunteers), which better serves the needs of our students and our community. The new program was supported by not only the school board but also the Youth Commission and Student Advisory Committee. SERV will provide youth with practical experience in emergency management and teach them valuable life skills.
We may not all agree all the time, but by working together we can support the school board when it makes difficult decisions instead of mandating decisions that are not ours to make.
Tom Ammiano, Member
California Assembly, 13th District
---
What Next if JROTC Stays?
Letter to the Editor, by Michael Job
Bay Area Reporter
March 12, 2009
http://ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=letters
Douglas Montgomery's letter, "Typical straight person's view" [Mailstrom, March 5] shows Fiona Ma a way to look at JROTC in San Francisco schools. Here is another.
Gerry Paratore, JROTC instructor at Balboa High, gave an overview on KALW's City Visions program on January 12. He says JROTC here in
SF schools is a program run by retired military personnel. It offers no military training to the students. It uses no weapons, even for Color Guard
events. It teaches first aid, healthy life skills, non-violent conflict, rules of citizenship, critical thinking, and what it means to be a leader. It offers drill and ceremony. It does not exclude gay students. It follows the policies of the district. The most important thing about JROTC, say its supporters, is that it is not a recruitment tool in any way, shape or form by the U.S. military. (What about the uniforms?)
If all of the above is true, will the SFUSD pay other organizations a million dollars a year to offer the same curriculum to 500 students?
I'm thinking as an example: if the Vatican, through the Knights of Columbus, sponsored retired priests, wearing clerical garb, and offered exactly what JROTC does, and did not recruit the students to Catholicism or the priesthood, would this be allowed in some of our schools?
Students would show up once a week in clerical garb and would be called upon to participate in appropriate ceremonies and school events. It would not be a recruitment tool for the Catholic Church, especially if only 3 percent did go on to become Catholics and/or religious leaders. All of the above curriculum, just as JROTC does, would be taught.
One could put any name in the Vatican spot; maybe the Mormon Church would be interested.
JROTC should not be in our schools!
Michael Job
San Francisco
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12) Net Worth of Families Down Sharply
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 12, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/business/13networth.html?hp
WASHINGTON (AP) - The net worth of American households fell by the largest amount in more than a half-century of record keeping during the fourth quarter of last year.
The Federal Reserve said Thursday that household net worth dropped by a record 9 percent from the level in the third quarter.
The decline was the sixth straight quarterly drop in net worth and underscored the battering that families are undergoing in the midst of a steep recession with unemployment surging and the value of their homes and investments plunging.
Net worth represents total assets such as homes and checking accounts minus liabilities like mortgages and credit card debt.
Family net worth had hit an all-time high of $64.36 trillion in the April-June quarter of 2007 but has fallen in every quarter since that time.
The record 9 percent drop in the fourth quarter pushed total net worth down to $51.48 trillion, a level that is 20 percent below the third quarter 2007 peak.
After five straight years of sharp increases in home prices, the housing bubble burst in 2007, sending shockwaves through the financial system as banks were hit with billions of dollars of losses on mortgages and mortgage-backed securities.
The federal government created a $700 billion rescue fund for the financial system last October but so far that effort has shown only modest results in terms of getting banks to resume more normal lending patterns.
Households have also been battered by the recession that began in December 2006 and is already the longest in a quarter-century. That downturn has sent unemployment soaring to a 25-year high of 8.1 percent in February with 4.4 million jobs lost since the downturn began.
The Federal Reserve began keeping quarterly records on net worth in 1951.
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13) Iraqi Shoe Thrower Gets Three Years
By MARC SANTORA
March 13, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/middleeast/13iraq.html?hp
BAGHDAD - An Iraqi journalist who gained widespread acclaim throughout the Arab world for hurling his shoes at President Bush during a visit here in December was sentenced to three years in jail by a court on Thursday.
The journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, had pleaded not guilty, saying at a hearing last month that he was overcome by passion because of the suffering of the people of Iraq.
"In that moment, I saw nothing but Bush, and I felt the blood of the innocents flowing under his feet while he was smiling that smile," he said at the hearing.
The trial was postponed at that time while a judge determined if Mr. Bush's trip to Iraq was an official state visit, with the defense arguing that because it took place in the Green Zone, which was then controlled by the American military, it was not an official visit to Iraq.
Judge Abdulamir Hassan al-Rubaie declared at the start of Tuesday's hearing that Mr. Bush's visit was official, and Mr. Muntader was charged with aggression against a visiting head of state, a crime that under Iraqi law carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Before the verdict was read, all reporters were escorted from the courtroom. Moments after the decision, there was a brief period of pandemonium as dozens of family members and supporters expressed their outrage.
"Maliki is the son of a dog," one woman screamed, referring to the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al- Maliki. "Maliki is an agent of Bush," a man shouted.
Mr. Zaidi, under heavy police security, was quickly escorted from the court room as family members continued to protest.
As they spilled out of Iraq's Central Criminal Court, a special body set up for major crimes, including terrorism, Mr. Zaidi's lawyers -18 of whom were in court - said they would appeal the decision.
When Mr. Zaidi threw his shoes at Mr. Bush during the Dec. 14 news conference, the act seemed to capture a deeply felt emotion here. A statue depicting a large shoe was erected in Mr. Zaidi's honor in Tikrit, north of Baghdad, though it was later ordered dismantled by the Iraqi Parliament. In countries from Egypt to Iran, shoe throwing became the means of expressing protest. In Saudi Arabia, it was reported that a man offered $10 million for one of the shoes.
Mr. Zaidi, 30, has been in jail since the incident and his lawyers have claimed that he was beaten while in custody. As he entered the courtroom on Thursday wearing a light brown suit, supporters gathered outside chanted: "Hero."
Thursday's short trial, lasting about an hour, got under way after the judge declared Mr. Bush's visit official. The judge asked Mr. Zaidi if he had anything further to say in his defense.
"I am innocent," he said. "It was a natural reaction to the crime of occupation."
There was a lengthy statement by the defense team, arguing that the investigation was flawed and that the shoes were destroyed in an illegal manner. The defense also cited President Bush's own wry comments about the Dec. 14 incident as evidence of the lightness of the offense.
After ducking the flying shoes at the news conference with Mr. Maliki, Mr. Bush joked that he believed the man wore a size 10, and added, "That's what people do in a free society, draw attention to themselves."
"It was an insult not an assault," said Dhiya al-Saadi, the leader defense attorney for Mr. Zaidi.
When the verdict was read, according to witnesses in the court, Mr. Zaidi shouted, "Long live Iraq."
Outside the courtroom, Mr. Zaidi's eldest daughter fainted, and his brother, Dhurgham al-Zaidi, said that he felt the court had decided the sentence even before the trial began.
Maha al-Dori, a Parliament member from the party of the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, said he felt the ruling showed the judges were motivated by political concerns.
"Muntader was sentenced to three years, and in the history of the Iraqi justice system, it was a set back," he said.
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