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U.S. Out Now! From Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and all U.S. bases around the world; End all U.S. Aid to Israel; Get the military out of our schools and our communities; Demand Equal Rights and Justice for ALL!
TAX THE RICH NOT THE POOR! MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
THIS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17 SAN FRANCISCO MARCH AND RALLY AGAINST THE WARS
U.S. Troops Out Now! Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan!
Assemble 11:00 A.M. U.N. Plaza, SF (Market between 7th and 8th Streets)
March begins at 12:00 Noon
Rally begins at 1:00 P.M. back at U.N. Plaza
Commemorating the eighth anniversary of the war on Afghanistan and the 40th anniversary of the massive October 17, 1969 Vietnam Moratorium.
Sponsor: October 17 Antiwar Coalition
510-268-9429 or 415-794-7354
Volunteers are needed for set-up take-down and security at UN Plaza on Saturday:
For set-up, please show up at 8:00 A.M.
Monitor training is at 9:00 A.M.
Volunteers should call Mark at: 415-401-7471
Groups are encouraged to set up tables. The table fee is $25.00.
(Have checks ready and payable to: Bay Area Progressive Forum)
There will be a follow-up October 17 Coalition meeting:
Sunday, November 1, 2:00 P.M.
Unitarian Church (Fireside Room)
1187 Franklin at Geary, SF (wheelchair accessible).
www.oct17awc.wordpress.com
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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Free the SF8: Drop the Charges!
by Bill Carpenter ( wcarpent [at] ccsf.edu )
Monday Oct 12th, 2009 11:20 AM
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/10/12/18625220.php
Sweet Crude, is playing for FREE on Sunday October 18th in San Francisco as part of the United Nations Film Festival. The award winning documentary captures the complex reality of how the oil industry and the Nigerian government have left the Delta in such desperation that some have turned to militancy while others struggle to survive. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with the Director and experts and activists focused on the issues in the Niger Delta.
Sony Piece of crap (Hilarious!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I-JByPDJm0
Sick For Profit
http://sickforprofit.com/videos/
Fault Lines: Despair & Revival in Detroit - 14 May 09 - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ7VL907Qb0&feature=related
Michael Moore on Good Morning America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY1pcoBWp3Q
Michael Moore on Countdown With Keith Olbermann
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0URCqniVTOY
VIDEO INTERVIEW: Dan Berger on Political Prisoners in the United States
By Angola 3 News
Angola 3 News
37 years ago in Louisiana, 3 young black men were silenced for trying to expose continued segregation, systematic corruption, and horrific abuse in the biggest prison in the US, an 18,000-acre former slave plantation called Angola. In 1972 and 1973 prison officials charged Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King with murders they did not commit and threw them into 6x9 ft. cells in solitary confinement, for over 36 years. Robert was freed in 2001, but Herman and Albert remain behind bars.
http://angola3news.blogspot.com/2009/09/video-dan-berger-on-political-prisoners.html
Taking Aim Radio Program with
Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
The Chimera of Capitalist Recovery, Parts 1 and 2
http://www.takingaimradio.com/shows/audio.html
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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UNION SQUARE: PROTEST OBAMA'S WARS AT HOME ON THE POOR AND IN IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN AND THE FUNDING OF ISRAEL'S OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE!
TODAY! THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15
4:30 - 6:30 P.M. -- RALLY
Gather at Union Square across from the St Francis Hotel
355 Powell St.
(Three blocks form Powell St. BART/MUNI )
President Obama will be speaking at a major fundraiser inside the St. Francis Hotel, Union Square. Join the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition, Single Payer Now, the ANSWER Coalition and many other organizations. Among the themes of the demonstration are:
Healthcare Not Warfare! Money for People's Needs, Not the Pentagon!
End the Occupations of Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Haiti!
U.S. Out of Latin America - Restore President Zelaya in Honduras!
Overturn NAFTA and CAFTA!
For more information on Single Payer Now contact:
Don Bechler
Chair - Single Payer Now
415-695-7891
www.singlepayernow.net
ACTUAL OBAMA DINNER INVITATION:
Please join us for a very exciting evening with
President Barack Obama
President Obama will be visiting
San Francisco for the first time since his historic election,
this very special event is in support of Organizing for America and the Democratic National Committee.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2009
Reception
5:00 PM
Westin St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco
Please forward to anyone you know who would appreciate this opportunity, space is limited.
Reception:
$1000 VIP Ticket (seated)
$500 General Ticket (standing)
Please click to rsvp.
http://www.democrats.org/SanFrancisco?custom1=Annemarie+Stephens
I hope you will be able to join us for this exciting evening as we welcome President Obama back to San Francisco!
Annemarie Stephens
510-759-2491
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17 SAN FRANCISCO MARCH AND RALLY AGAINST THE WARS
U.S. Troops Out Now! Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan!
Assemble 11:00 A.M. U.N. Plaza, SF (Market between 7th and 8th Streets)
March begins at 12:00 Noon
Rally begins at 1:00 P.M. back at U.N. Plaza
Commemorating the eighth anniversary of the war on Afghanistan and the 40th anniversary of the massive October 17, 1969 Vietnam Moratorium.
Sponsor: October 17 Antiwar Coalition
510-268-9429 or 415-794-7354
Money for Human Needs Not War!
Immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. troops, military personnel, bases, contractors, and mercenaries from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Colombia.
End U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine! End the Seige of Gaza!
U.S. Hands Off Iran and North Korea!
Self-determination for All Oppressed Nations and Peoples!
End War Crimes Including Torture and Prosecute the War Criminals!
See historical images of the Vietnam Moratorium at:
http://images.google.com/images?q=vietnam+moratorium&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=lGaISs7pMIP-sQOr2OznAg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4
Image of San Francisco Vietnam Moratorium, Golden Gate Park, October 17, 1969 (I was there...bw):
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rchrd.com/photo/images/pb2-12-15.jpg&imgrefurl=http://rchrd.com/photo/archives/1969/&usg=__FeHN5CAwDXv-ewwCt2Hfni6ZUn8=&h=567&w=850&sz=143&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=EJH6Kzj6YI6zzM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=145&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvietnam%2Bmoratorium%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1
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Protest Ehud Olmert, former Prime Minister of Israel on Thursday October 22 @ 6pm. We want Olmert arrested and tried for his role in the brutal attack on Gaza in December/January, as well as the attack on Lebanon in 2006. Olmert will be appearing as a speaker for the World Affairs Council, at meeting held at the St. Francis Hotel, 335 Powell Street, San Francisco, California, 94102 USA . The protest will be outside this building in Union Square.
As Olmert speaks in the St Francis Hotel, we will be gathered outside on Union Square in San Francisco. We want Israel and its leaders held accountable for their crimes against the people of Palestine and Lebanon.
We support the findings of the Goldstone Report, that detail the crimes committed by Israel during its war against the whole people of Gaza of last December/January, in "Operation Cast Lead". President Obama and most politicians have simply refused to take this report seriously, some by vocally rejecting it, and many more by ignoring it completely.
It is therefore up to us, civil society, to again do what politicians are unwilling to do. Call for universal application of human rights and international law. This will be the message of our protest. We demand that Olmert, who initiated "Operation Cast Lead" and is directly responsible for the crimes that took place and therefore must be held accountable. Olmert is also responsible for the insane attack against Lebanon in the Summer of 2006. Olmert shares criminal responsibility for the siege on Gaza that leaves children hungry and 1.5 million people in desperate circumstances.
Please plan on being there. Please spread the word. We need to stand together to create a new reality. We will not accept that Israel may act with impunity and total disregard for human life. This protest is our opportunity to stand up and be counted.
Spread the word to your friends and all organizations that support the rule of law, human rights, and oppose militarism and occupation. Organizations are urged to send in their endorsements.
More info:
http://stopaipac.org/olmertprotest.htm
Jim Harris
people@stopaipac.org
www.StopAIPAC.org
Stop AIPAC
PO Box 11311
Berkeley, CA 94712
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Please forward widely. Contact us if you or your organization would like to endorse this call.
CALL FOR OCTOBER 22 DEMONSTRATION IN OAKLAND, CA:
NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST TO STOP POLICE BRUTALITY, REPRESSION AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF A GENERATION
Oscar Grant. Brownie Polk. Parnell Smith. And dozens more Oakland alone. Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo in New York City. Adolph Grimes in New Orleans. Robbie Tolan in Houston. Julian Alexander in Anaheim. Jonathan Pinkerton in Chicago. And thousands more nationwide.
All shot down, murdered by law enforcement, their lives stolen, victims of a nationwide epidemic of police brutality and murder.
The racist arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates this summer in Cambridge, Massachusetts - right in his own home - showed that any Black man or woman, no matter their stature, no matter their education, no matter their accomplishments can be targeted for brutality - even murder - at any moment.
Meanwhile, a whole generation of youth is treated as guilty until proved innocent, and hundreds of thousands are criminalized, and locked away in U.S. prisons with no hope for the future. And immigrants are subject to brutal raids, with families cruelly split up in an instant.
We refuse to suffer these outrages in silence. We need to put a stop to this and drag the truth about the nationwide epidemic of police violence and repression into the light of day for all so see. We say no more! Enough is Enough!
Oct 22nd 2009 is the 14th annual national day of protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of Generation---bringing together those under the gun and those not under the gun as a powerful voice to expose the epidemic of police brutality. On that day in cities across the country many different people will take to the streets against police brutality and murder, against the criminalization of youth, and against the targeting of immigrants.
We call for a powerful demonstration in Oakland on October 22 demanding:
* Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation!
* October 22....No To Police Brutality
* No to ICE raids and round-ups of immigrants!
* Enough Is Enough! No More Stolen Lives!
* Justice for Oscar Grant and all victims of police murder!
* Wear Black, Fight Back
Contact the National Office of October 22nd at:
Info@october22.org or 1-888-NOBRUTALITY
October 22nd Coalition
P.O. Box 2627
New York, N.Y. 10009
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[please excuse duplicate postings]
INVITATION
October 24 Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education
We have the power to stop the catastrophic budget cuts, fee hikes, and layoffs -- but to save public education in California requires coordinating our actions on a statewide level.
We invite all UC, CSU, CC, and K-12 students, workers, teachers, and their organizations across the state to participate in and collectively build the October 24 Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education. The all-day conference will take place at UC Berkeley (contact us for more logistics).
The purpose of this conference is both simple and extremely urgent: to democratically decide on a statewide action plan capable of winning this struggle, which will define the future of public education in this state, particularly for the working class and communities of color.
Why UC Berkeley? On September 24, over 5,000 people massively protested and effectively paralyzed the UCB campus, as part of the UC-wide walkout. A mass General Assembly of over 400 individuals and dozens of organizations met that night and collectively decided to issue this call.
We ask all organizations and individuals in the state who want to save public education to endorse this open conference and help us collectively build it.
Save public education!
No budget cuts, fee hikes, or layoffs!
For statewide student, worker, and faculty solidarity!
Please contact oct24conference@gmail.com to endorse this conference and to receive more details.
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Dear participants, authors, organizational endorsers and allies,
Attached are promotional materials for our upcoming events in support of GI
resistance on Oct. 18 and Oct. 25 featuring Col. Ann Wright (ret.), Dahr
Jamail, David Solnit, Marjorie Cohn, Rebecca Solnit, and Aimme Allison.
Web graphics and text are attached. Some list both events, and others for
each event separately. Please use as needed for your purposes. For example,
if you have an online calendar, you may want to post the date-specific
graphic and/or text for each date. Descriptions below.
Courage to Resist very much appreciates your participation and support.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Jeff Paterson, Courage to Resist
Web graphic for both events - ctr-oak09-events.jpg
Web graphic for Oct 18 only - ctr-18oct09-wright-event.jpg
Web graphic for Oct 25 only - ctr-25oct09-cohn-event.jpg
PDF leaflet for both events - ctr-oak-oct09events.pdf
Text announcement (brief) for both events - oct18-25-events-brief.txt
Text for Oct 18 only - oct18-wright-jamail-solnit.txt
Text for Oct 25 only - oct25-cohn-solnit-allison.txt
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Black is Back Coalition Rally and March: Stop
U.S. Occupation and War inside U.S. and Abroad!
Saturday, November 7 beginning at 10 am, Malcolm X Park, Washington DC
Washington, D.C. - A newly-formed Black coalition has announced a Rally and March on the White House to take place November 7, 2009 beginning in Washington, D.C.'s historic Malcolm X Park. The Rally and March are to protest the expanding U.S. wars and other policy initiatives that unfairly target African and other oppressed people around the world. Known as the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, the coalition formed on September 12, 2009 during a meeting in Washington, D.C. of more than fifteen activists from various Black organizations, institutions and communities.
http://blackisbackcoalition.org/
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U.S. OUT OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN NOW!
FREE PALESTINE!
San Francisco March and Rally
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
11am, Civic Center Plaza
National March on Washington
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
Fri., March 19 Day of Action & Outreach in D.C.
People from all over the country are organizing to converge on Washington, D.C., to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq.
On Saturday, March 20, 2010, there will be a massive National March & Rally in D.C. A day of action and outreach in Washington, D.C., will take place on Friday, March 19, preceding the Saturday march.
There will be coinciding mass marches on March 20 in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The national actions are initiated by a large number of organizations and prominent individuals. (see below)
Click here to become an endorser:
http://answer.pephost.org/site/Survey?SURVEY_ID=5940&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&autologin=true&link=endorse-body-1
Click here to make a donation:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=2302&autologin=true&donate=body-1&JServSessionIdr002=2yzk5fh8x2.app13b
We will march together to say "No Colonial-type Wars and Occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine!" We will march together to say "No War Against Iran!" We will march together to say "No War for Empire Anywhere!"
Instead of war, we will demand funds so that every person can have a job, free and universal health care, decent schools, and affordable housing.
March 20 is the seventh anniversary of the criminal war of aggression launched by Bush and Cheney against Iraq. One million or more Iraqis have died. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops have lost their lives or been maimed, and continue to suffer a whole host of enduring problems from this terrible war.
This is the time for united action. The slogans on banners may differ, but all those who carry them should be marching shoulder to shoulder.
Killing and dying to avoid the perception of defeat
Bush is gone, but the war and occupation in Iraq still go on. The Pentagon is demanding a widening of the war in Afghanistan. They project an endless war with shifting battlefields. And a "single-payer" war budget that only grows larger and larger each year. We must act.
Both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were predicated on the imperial fantasy that the U.S. could create stable, proxy colonial-type governments in both countries. They were to serve as an extension of "American" power in these strategic and resource-rich regions.
That fantasy has been destroyed. Now U.S. troops are being sent to kill or be killed so that the politicians in uniform ("the generals and admirals") and those in three-piece suits ("our elected officials") can avoid taking responsibility for a military setback in wars that should have never been started. Their military ambitions are now reduced to avoiding the appearance of defeat.
That is exactly what happened in Vietnam! Avoiding defeat, or the perception of defeat, was the goal Nixon and Kissinger set for themselves when they took office in 1969. For this noble cause, another 30,000 young GIs perished before the inevitable troop pullout from Vietnam in 1973. The number of Vietnamese killed between 1969 and 1973 was greater by many hundreds of thousands.
All of us can make the difference - progress and change comes from the streets and from the grassroots.
The people went to the polls in 2008, and the enthusiasm and desire for change after eight years of the Bush regime was the dominant cause that led to election of a big Democratic Party majority in both Houses of Congress and the election of Barack Obama to the White House.
But it should now be obvious to all that waiting for politicians to bring real change - on any front - is simply a prescription for passivity by progressives and an invitation to the array of corporate interests from military contractors to the banks, to big oil, to the health insurance giants that dominate the political life of the country. These corporate interests work around the clock to frustrate efforts for real change, and they are the guiding hand behind the recent street mobilizations of the ultra-right.
It is up to us to act. If people had waited for politicians to do the right thing, there would have never been a Civil Rights Act, or unions, women's rights, an end to the Vietnam war or any of the profound social achievements and basic rights that people cherish.
It is time to be back in the streets. Organizing centers are being set up in cities and towns throughout the country.
We must raise $50,000 immediately just to get started. Please make your contribution today. We need to reserve buses, which are expensive ($1,800 from NYC, $5,000 from Chicago, etc.). We have to print 100,000 leaflets, posters and stickers. There will be other substantial expenses as March 20 draws closer.
Please become an endorser and active supporter of the March 20 National March on Washington.
Please make an urgently needed tax-deductible donation today. We can't do this without your active support.
The initiators of the March 20 National March on Washington (preceded by the March 19 Day of Action and Outreach in D.C.) include: the ANSWER Coalition; Muslim American Society Freedom; National Council of Arab Americans; Cynthia McKinney; Malik Rahim, co-founder of Common Ground Collective; Ramsey Clark; Cindy Sheehan; Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK; Deborah Sweet, Director, World Can't Wait; Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace; Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild; Ron Kovic, author of "Born on the 4th of July"; Juan Jose Gutierrez, Director, Latino Movement USA; Col. Ann Wright (ret.); March Forward!; Partnership for Civil Justice; Palestinian American Women Association; Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines; Alliance for Global Justice; Claudia de la Cruz, Pastor, Iglesia San Romero de Las Americas-UCC; Phil Portluck, Social Justice Ministry, Covenant Baptist Church, D.C.; Blase & Theresa Bonpane, Office of the Americas; Coalition for Peace and Democracy in Honduras; Comite Pro-Democracia en Mexico; Frente Unido de los Pueblos Americanos; Comites de Base FMLN, Los Angeles; Free Palestine Alliance; GABRIELA Network; Justice for Filipino American Veterans; KmB Pro-People Youth; Students Fight Back; Jim Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild - LA Chapter; LEF Foundation; National Coalition to Free the Angola 3; Community Futures Collective; Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival; Companeros del Barrio; Barrio Unido for Full and Unconditional Amnesty, Bay Area United Against War.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 213-251-1025
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
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B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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JROTC MUST GO!
The San Francisco Board of Education has re-installed the Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps in San Francisco schools -- including allowing it to count for Physical Education credits.
This is a complete reversal of the 2006 decision to end JROTC altogether in San Francisco public schools. Our children need a good physical education program, not a death education program!
With the economy in crisis; jobs and higher education for youth more unattainable; the lure, lies and false promises of military recruiters is driving more and more of our children into the military trap.
This is an economic draft and the San Francisco Board of Education is helping to snare our children to provide cannon fodder for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and for over 700 U.S. military bases around the world!
We can't depend upon "friendly politicians" who, while they are campaigning for office claim they are against the wars but when they get elected vote in favor of military recruitment--the economic draft--in our schools. We can't depend upon them. That has been proven beyond doubt!
It is up to all of us to come together to stop this NOW!
GET JROTC AND ALL MILITARY RECRUITERS OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS NOW!
Write, call, pester and ORGANIZE against the re-institution of JROTC in our San Francisco public schools NOW!
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein
Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
San Francisco Board of Education
555 Franklin Street, 1st Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
415/241-6427, (415) 241-6493
cascoe@sfusd.edu
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HELP VFP PUT THIS BOOK IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL OR PUBLIC LIBRARY
For a donation of only $18.95, we can put a copy of the book "10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military" into a public or high school library of your choice. [Reason number 1: You may be killed]
A letter and bookplate will let readers know that your donation helped make this possible.
Putting a book in either a public or school library ensures that students, parents, and members of the community will have this valuable information when they need it.
Don't have a library you would like us to put it in? We'll find one for you!
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/826/t/9311/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=4906
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Stop the Extradition of Sean Garland
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48273279889
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Take Action: Stop Rite Aid's abuses: Pass the Employee Free Choice Act!
For years Rite Aid workers have faced unfair firings, campaigns of misinformation, and intimidation for trying to form a union. But Rite Aid would never have been able to get away with any of this if Congress had passed the Employee Free Choice Act.
You can help us fight mounting anti-union opposition to the bill that would have protected Rite Aid's workers. Tell Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act today!
http://action.americanrightsatwork.org/campaign/riteaidefca2/8gg63dd407ejd5wi?
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This is a must-see video about the life of Oscar Grant, a young man who loved his family and was loved by his family. It's important to watch to understand the tremendous loss felt by his whole family as a result of his cold-blooded murder by BART police officers--Johannes Mehserle being the shooter while the others held Oscar down and handcuffed him to aid Mehserle in the murder of Oscar Grant January 1, 2009.
The family wants to share this video here with you who support justice for Oscar Grant.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/21/18611878.php
WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
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Urgent: Ahmad Sa'adat transferred to isolation in Ramon prison!
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/
Imprisoned Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was transferred on August 11, 2009 to Ramon prison in the Naqab desert from Asqelan prison, where he had been held for a number of months. He remains in isolation; prior to his transfer from Asqelan, he had been held since August 1 in a tiny isolation cell of 140 cm x 240 cm after being penalized for communicating with another prisoner in the isolation unit.
Attorney Buthaina Duqmaq, president of the Mandela Association for prisoners' and detainees' rights, reported that this transfer is yet another continuation of the policy of repression and isolation directed at Sa'adat by the Israeli prison administration, aimed at undermining his steadfastness and weakening his health and his leadership in the prisoners' movement. Sa'adat has been moved repeatedly from prison to prison and subject to fines, harsh conditions, isolation and solitary confinement, and medical neglect. Further reports have indicated that he is being denied attorney visits upon his transfer to Ramon.
Ahmad Sa'adat undertook a nine-day hunger strike in June in order to protest the increasing use of isolation against Palestinian prisoners and the denial of prisoners' rights, won through long and hard struggle. The isolation unit at Ramon prison is reported to be one of the worst isolation units in terms of conditions and repeated violations of prisoners' rights in the Israeli prison system.
Sa'adat is serving a 30 year sentence in Israeli military prisons. He was sentenced on December 25, 2008 after a long and illegitimate military trial on political charges, which he boycotted. He was kidnapped by force in a military siege on the Palestinian Authority prison in Jericho, where he had been held since 2002 under U.S., British and PA guard.
Sa'adat is suffering from back injuries that require medical assistance and treatment. Instead of receiving the medical care he needs, the Israeli prison officials are refusing him access to specialists and engaging in medical neglect and maltreatment.
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat demands an end to this isolation and calls upon all to protest at local Israeli embassies and consulates (the list is available at: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/ About+the+Ministry/Diplomatic+mission/Web+Sites+of+Israeli+ Missions+Abroad.htm) and to write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that the Israelis ensure that Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners receive needed medical care and that this punitive isolation be ended. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at jerusalem..jer@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situation of Ahmad Sa'adat!
Ahmad Sa'adat has been repeatedly moved in an attempt to punish him for his steadfastness and leadership and to undermine his leadership in the prisoners' movement. Of course, these tactics have done nothing of the sort. The Palestinian prisoners are daily on the front lines, confronting Israeli oppression and crimes. Today, it is urgent that we stand with Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners against these abuses, and for freedom for all Palestinian prisoners and for all of Palestine!
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org
info@freeahmadsaadat.org
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Troy Anthony Davis is an African American man who has spent the last 18 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. There is no physical evidence tying him to the crime and seven out of nine witnesses have recanted. New evidence and new testimony have been presented to the Georgia courts, but the justice system refuses to consider this evidence, which would prove Troy Davis' innocence once and for all.
Sign the petition and join the NAACP, Amnesty International USA, and other partners in demanding justice for Troy Davis!
http://www.iamtroy.com/
For Now, High Court Punts on Troy Davis, on Death Row for 18 Years
By Ashby Jones
Wall Street Journal Law Blog
June 30, 2009
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/06/30/for-now-high-court-punts-on-troy-davis-on-death-row-for-18-years/
Take action now:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&aid=12361&ICID=A0906A01&tr=y&auid=5030305
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Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
New videos from April 24 Oakland Mumia event
http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=jlboak
Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense in the U.S. Our legal effort is the front line of the battle for Mumia's freedom and life. His legal defense needs help. The costs are substantial for our litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the state level. To help, please make your checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation (indicate "Mumia" on the bottom left). All donations are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501(c)(3), and should be mailed to:
It is outrageous and a violation of human rights that Mumia remains in prison and on death row. His life hangs in the balance. My career has been marked by successfully representing people facing death in murder cases. I will not rest until we win Mumia's case. Justice requires no less.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT!
FLASHPOINTS Interview with Innocent San Quentin Death Row Inmate
Kevin Cooper -- Aired Monday, May 18,2009
http://www.flashpoints.net/#GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE
To learn more about Kevin Cooper go to:
savekevincooper.org
LINKS
San Francisco Chronicle article on the recent ruling:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAM517J8T3.DTL
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and dissent:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf
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COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
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C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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1) After Uproar on Suspension, District Will Rewrite Rules
By IAN URBINA
October 14, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/education/14discipline.html?ref=education
2) Poster-Loving Civic Groups Protest Steep Fines
By Jennifer 8. Lee
October 14, 2009, 7:30 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/poster-loving-civic-groups-protest-steep-fines/
3) U.A.W. and Ford Reach Tentative Deal
By NICK BUNKLEY
October 14, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/business/14ford.html?ref=business
4) Oscar Grant's friends sue BART
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/10/14/MN5N1A580N.DTL
5) British Plan Would Deploy Bigger Afghanistan Force
By JOHN F. BURNS and PETER BAKER
October 15, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/world/asia/15prexy.html?ref=world
6) Justices Hear Arguments on Property Seized by Police
By ADAM LIPTAK
October 15, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/us/15scotus.html?ref=us
7) Suspended Boy Back in School
By IAN URBINA
October 15, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/education/15discipline.html?ref=us
8) As City Adds Housing for Poor, Market Subtracts It
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
October 15, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/nyregion/15housing.html?ref=nyregion
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1) After Uproar on Suspension, District Will Rewrite Rules
By IAN URBINA
October 14, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/education/14discipline.html?ref=education
School officials in Newark, Del., said Tuesday that they would revise the district's code of conduct to exempt kindergarteners and first graders from some of its automatic and harsher punishments.
The decision came after a first grader, Zachary Christie, 6, was suspended and ordered to the district's alternative school for troubled youth because he took to school a camping utensil that included a small fold-out knife.
School district officials also said they would reinstate Zachary to his school and remove the suspension from his record. And they asked his mother to review and possibly help rewrite the conduct code.
The utensil that Zachary took to school was considered a "dangerous instrument" under the zero-tolerance policy of the district, the Christina School District, and officials had said they were forced to act, regardless of Zachary's age or intent.
The case prompted an angry reaction from parents because several other students hade been expelled or suspended in the past several years for similar offenses, including an elementary school student who was expelled for a year after she took a birthday cake to school, along with a knife to cut it.
The school board passed an amendment creating a separate category of rules for students in kindergarten and first grade.
If these students engage in what is known as a Level III offense for the first time, they will now face three to five days out-of-school suspension and referral to school-based counseling, rather than being sent to the local reform school, as is now the case.
Level III offenses include possession of a "dangerous instrument," including knives under three inches in length, and more serious offenses like assault, arson or drug possession.
Some school board members said the amendment did not go far enough in revising the code.
"We are doing this because we got egg on our face, but it doesn't address the underlying issues with zero-tolerance rules," said John M. Young, who opposed the original decision to send Zachary to the district's reform program. "What if next time the case involves a second grader? That student will run into the same exact problems that Zachary did."
Mr. Young said he believed the school board should immediately reverse the decision concerning Zachary's punishment and apologize to his family. It should then begin redrafting the entire code of conduct so it gives school officials more discretion, he said.
Zachary's mother, Debbie Christie, agreed.
"I think it's a start, but I don't know if it goes far enough," Ms. Christie said.
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2) Poster-Loving Civic Groups Protest Steep Fines
By Jennifer 8. Lee
October 14, 2009, 7:30 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/poster-loving-civic-groups-protest-steep-fines/
How much should the city fine for an improper poster put up by local Boy Scouts at a street fair?
At a June 2008 street fair in Maspeth, Queens, the answer ended up being $300 per poster. While the fine for each poster is supposed to be $75, the Sanitation Department fined each group listed on the poster - the Maspeth Kiwanis Club, the Maspeth Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club and the printer - $75 each.
At 32 posters - 16 poles with two posters back to back - the total fine came to $9,600.
The Boy Scouts had volunteered to put the posters in store windows, said James O'Kane, president of the Maspeth Chamber of Commerce. "They had extra posters. They took it upon themselves and put it on their street light poles," he said. "It was a one-time thing. It was a mistake on the part of the Boy Scouts."
He felt that the city was being unduly harsh with the fines. "If they had issued us a warning, we would have taken it down," said Mr. Kane. Although the groups appealed the fines twice, they lost both times and have paid the $9,600 fine. Their annual street fair had raised $16,000.
"They didn't cut us any slack," Mr. Kane said. "They want to get every dime they can. And they don't care who they get it from."
As a result of such fines, City Council members are introducing a bill this week that would limit excessive poster-ticketing practices by the Department of Sanitation, especially when it comes to nonprofit groups and small businesses.
Called the Protection Against Ticket Harassment bill, the legislation would require that the Sanitation Department serve tickets for posting offenses within five days, and give first-time offenders a chance to remove the offending items before they are fined. In addition, if first-time offenders have put up multiple posters, they would be charged with one violation, rather than a violation per poster.
"If people are breaking the law, they should be punished, just not unfairly," said Elizabeth S. Crowley, a City Councilwoman who represents the Maspeth district and is among the co-sponsors of the bill. "Many people, working people, they always feel like the city is always punishing them to make a quick buck."
The other sponsors of the bill include the Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, a Manhattan Democrat, and Letitia James, a Brooklyn Democrat.
Vito A. Turso, a spokesman for the Sanitation Department, said that the agency didn't comment on proposed legislation until it was brought for a hearing. He added that all fines collected go to the city's general fund, not to the Sanitation Department.
The department's enforcement policy, he said, is to issue citations to all parties whose names appear on the posters. He noted that the law says that it is illegal to place posters on public utility poles as well as other city infrastructure. In an e-mail message, Mr. Turso wrote: "The answer is simple: don't place posters on utility poles. This applies to advertisers, for-profit entertainment companies and even political candidates."
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3) U.A.W. and Ford Reach Tentative Deal
By NICK BUNKLEY
October 14, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/business/14ford.html?ref=business
DETROIT - The United Automobile Workers union is asking 41,000 members who work at the Ford Motor Company to approve a tentative deal that gives the automaker some of the same concessions that General Motors and Chrysler have already received.
The deal, announced Tuesday by Ford and the union, contains a six-year freeze on wages for newly hired workers, combines some job classifications and limits the union's ability to strike.
In return, workers would get a $1,000 bonus next year and Ford would make future product commitments at five assembly plants, according to a summary distributed by the union Tuesday to its local leaders.
The local leaders, which the U.A.W. calls its Ford council, met at a downtown Detroit hotel Tuesday, where they voted almost unanimously to recommend the deal to their members, the union's president, Ron Gettelfinger, told reporters. Mr. Gettelfinger urged members to approve the deal, even though Ford is in a better position financially than G.M. and Chrysler, and it has not had to file for bankruptcy protection as those companies did.
"Ford has twice as much debt on their balance sheet as G.M.," Mr. Gettelfinger said. "We want Ford to be successful. We want them to have a profitable quarter and we want them to gain market share. That is job security for us."
Ford executives have said more concessions from the union were needed, to avoid being disadvantaged against its domestic rivals. Ford's group vice president of global manufacturing and labor affairs, Joseph R. Hinrichs, said in a statement the deal "would help Ford improve its current and long-term competitiveness in the United States." The automaker said it would not comment further until the deal was ratified.
Mr. Gettelfinger said he expects ratification to conclude within several weeks.
The deal could be somewhat of a tough sell to Ford's rank-and-file workers. Ford is the only Detroit automaker to report any profits this year, and some U.A.W. members are frustrated that they already made concessions in the contract they approved in 2007 and in a March deal that modified that contract.
Union leaders are counting on the $1,000 bonus, payable next March, and product commitments to overcome that opposition. In a letter to workers, Mr. Gettelfinger and Bob King, the U.A.W. vice president who oversees dealings with Ford, said workers might get a worse deal by refusing to negotiate with Ford until their contract expires in two years.
"Early in these discussions it became clear that we could win additional product and investment commitments now, that, if we waited until 2011, would likely be committed elsewhere," they wrote. "We also saw opportunity to win new money needed by our members that we would miss if we waited."
The product commitments include new vehicles, and in some cases additional jobs, at Ford assembly plants in Avon Lake, Ohio; Claycomo, Mo.; Wayne, Mich.; Chicago; and Louisville, Ky.
The deal with Ford prohibits the U.A.W. from going on strike over demands for increased wages or benefits, but it permits strikes over other issues or if Ford proposes cutting wages or benefits.
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4) Oscar Grant's friends sue BART
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/10/14/MN5N1A580N.DTL
Five men who were detained with Oscar Grant on the Fruitvale Station platform when he was shot and killed by a BART police officer filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Tuesday, claiming they had been falsely arrested and wrongfully searched.
The men - Jack Bryson, 21, and his 19-year-old brother, Nigel Bryson; Michael Greer, 22; Carlos Reyes, 21; and Fernando "June" Anicete, 20 - endured "several hours of being painfully handcuffed and/or mercilessly interrogated, all while mourning the demise of their childhood friend," said the suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
"Nothing will ever erase the memory of seeing Oscar getting killed," the plaintiffs' attorney, John Burris, said Tuesday.
Grant, 22, was shot early Jan. 1 while unarmed and lying face-down on the station platform. The shooting by Officer Johannes Mehserle was captured on camera and seen by millions on TV and online.
Mehserle, 27, was among officers who went to the Fruitvale BART Station in response to reports of a fight on a train. Burris said his clients had not been involved in the fight.
After Grant was shot, the men were falsely arrested and brought to BART police headquarters, "although they had not committed any crimes," the suit said.
None of the men was charged with a crime.
"The violations that occurred here were a product of a dysfunctional police department that did not have clear guidelines for discipline, supervision (and) use of weapons," Burris said. "But for that, Oscar Grant's death would not have occurred and the young men's constitutional rights would not have been violated."
Burris also represents Grant's mother and his girlfriend, the mother of his young daughter, in a separate, $50 million suit against BART, Mehserle and two other officers who were at Fruitvale Station, Tony Pirone and Marysol Domenici.
The latest suit, which seeks unspecified damages, names BART and the same three officers, along with Police Chief Gary Gee, BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger and Officers Jon Woffinden and Emery Knudtson.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.
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5) British Plan Would Deploy Bigger Afghanistan Force
By JOHN F. BURNS and PETER BAKER
October 15, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/world/asia/15prexy.html?ref=world
LONDON - Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a cautious and heavily conditioned plan on Wednesday to send 500 more British troops to Afghanistan, which would raise Britain's contingent - the second largest in the 41-nation coalition fighting the eight-year war - to 9,500.
Mr. Brown hinted strongly that discussions with President Obama and other American leaders had persuaded him that their current review of Afghanistan strategy would result in a similar approval for at least a modest increase in American troops - perhaps linked, like Britain's, to strict conditions on President Hamid Karzai's government in Afghanistan.
"I believe the decision we are announcing is consistent with what the Americans will decide," he said.
In Washington, the White House expressed appreciation for the British decision but denied that Mr. Obama had made his decision. The president met for three hours with his national security team to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan, his fifth such meeting in recent weeks as he reviews strategy and his commander's request for more troops.
Mr. Obama and his advisers focused much of their discussion on Wednesday on concerns with the Afghan government, the need to accelerate training of Afghan security forces and the challenges in deploying more civilian assistance, White House officials said. Mr. Obama plans another such meeting next week and does not appear close to a decision, prompting renewed criticism from Republicans that he is dithering at a critical moment.
On a related front, American officials moved to reassure Pakistan that a new aid package did not impinge on its sovereignty. That program, giving $7.5 billion over five years, requires assurances of civilian control of Pakistan's security forces, but House and Senate leaders released a joint statement clarifying its intent. Pakistan's visiting foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, expressed satisfaction, and Mr. Obama plans to sign the legislation by Friday.
The British troop announcement renewed attention on the contribution of NATO allies, which have long resisted American pressure to do more in Afghanistan. American officials said that if Mr. Obama approved more forces, they expected NATO to increase its participation as well, if not in combat troops then in training, equipment or economic assistance.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates will meet with fellow NATO ministers in Bratislava, Slovakia, next week, although without a final decision from Mr. Obama it will be harder to lobby then for more resources, officials said. Any appeals are likely to face resistance. The Dutch have said that they are pulling out of Afghanistan in 2010, and the Canadians plan to leave in 2011.
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the American and allied commander in Afghanistan, has submitted a request for 40,000 more troops on top of the 68,000 Americans already authorized to be there. About 35,000 troops from other NATO countries are also in Afghanistan.
Mr. Brown's announcement comes at a time of rising opposition in Britain to the war, which appeared to be one reason the proposed increase was for only some of the 1,500 to 2,000 troops that British commanders had recommended. In outlining the strategy in a tense, 70-minute exchange in the House of Commons, Mr. Brown said his plans were intended to mesh with American war policy.
Mr. Brown spoke with Mr. Obama over a video link last week and met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at his official country residence, Chequers, on Monday. Last month, Mr. Brown met separately in London with General McChrystal and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the overall American commander for Iraq and Afghanistan operations.
But the keynote to Mr. Brown's war plan was an insistent caution. He said he approved the new deployment on condition that enough equipment, including helicopters, be available to support British troops. Another requirement, he said, would be that other allies stepped up.
"Everyone must accept that they're part of a coalition, and they've got to show it," Mr. Brown said.
The exchanges in the House of Commons reflected unease about the war in Britain. Eighty-four British soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year, more than a third of all of Britain's losses since 2001 and more than all military deaths suffered in 2009 by other European nations in Afghanistan.
Before announcing the troop increase, Mr. Brown read the names of 37 British soldiers killed during the Commons' 12-week summer recess. More than a dozen lawmakers then stood to denounce the war, or to mock the idea that combat responsibilities would eventually be handed over to the Afghan forces.
Sir Peter Tapsell, a member of the Conservative opposition, said, "Anybody who believes that an Afghan army composed of different ethnic groups is going to defeat the Taliban is living in a political cloud-cuckoo-land."
But Mr. Brown said that three-quarters of all terrorist plots uncovered in Britain in recent years had links to Islamic extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. By persisting with the war effort, he said, "We are protecting the streets of Britain."
Beyond demanding greater allied involvement, Mr. Brown said, the overall war strategy will involve a new "contract" with Mr. Karzai, an idea he said had developed "after the fullest possible consultation" with American leaders and the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Mr. Brown said the pact would require an equitable solution to the disputed August presidential election, including the possibility of a runoff between Mr. Karzai and his main opponent, Abdullah Abdullah. The Afghan government would also have to take action to curb corruption while increasing its security forces and deploying them in contested areas.
Part of any new strategy may involve distinguishing among Taliban factions. Mrs. Clinton alluded to that in an interview with ABC News while traveling in Moscow on Wednesday. "Our goal is to disrupt, dismantle, defeat Al Qaeda and its extremist allies," she said. "But not every Taliban is an extremist ally."
That thesis generated criticism in Washington. "I'm worried that we're going to see 'new' analysis that justifies a more limited war strategy on the basis that we can now tolerate" the Taliban, Representative Howard P. McKeon of California, the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said at a hearing.
He criticized "the continued drift" by the White House, saying, "It is unfair to our forces in theater to fight a war while the strategy remains in limbo."
John F. Burns reported from London, and Peter Baker from Washington. Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Washington.
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6) Justices Hear Arguments on Property Seized by Police
By ADAM LIPTAK
October 15, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/us/15scotus.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday about civil forfeitures, the practice in which the police seize cars, money and other kinds of property said to have been used in connection with crimes.
Civil forfeitures can raise an array of due process issues, and the question before the court was the relatively minor one of whether people seeking to get their property back are entitled to a prompt hearing before a judge. Though some justices appeared inclined to rule that at least that much was required, several of them indicated they would leave resolution of the question for another day because the case before them was procedurally flawed.
Law enforcement agencies seize more than $1 billion worth of property every year, generally without warrants and based solely on officials' assertions that the property was in some way tainted. Property owners may challenge the seizures but must often wait months or years to do so. The police often get to keep what they capture.
Justice Stephen G. Breyer sketched out the basic issue in the case, Alvarez v. Smith, No. 08-351, by describing a hypothetical situation.
"My car was parked on the street," he said. "There happened to be some big drug crime nearby and the policeman took my car. In my opinion there was no probable cause. I would like my car back."
"Do I have to wait for up to six months," Justice Breyer asked, "before I have any magistrate, any neutral official, pass on my claim there was no probable cause to take my car?"
William M. Jay, a Justice Department lawyer, said the government needed significant time to figure out who owned the car and to investigate the owner's connection, if any, to the criminal conduct at issue.
"I'm sorry," Justice Sonia Sotomayor said. "You take the car and then you investigate?"
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. countered that requiring a prompt hearing could compromise criminal investigations.
"They may think he is involved in the drug conspiracy as well," Justice Alito said of the car's owner. "They may have him on wiretaps. They may be preparing to arrest him. Now, you want to force them to come into court within 10 or 14 days and disclose the details of a pending criminal investigation?"
The case was brought by six people whose cars or money had been seized in Chicago. The federal appeals court there ruled last year that the plaintiffs were entitled to prompt hearings.
"The hardship posed by the loss of one's means of transportation, even in a city like Chicago, with a well-developed mass transportation system, is hard to calculate," Judge Terence T. Evans wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel of the appeals court.
It is bad enough, Judge Evans wrote, when the owner of the car is accused of a crime. "But consider the owner of an automobile which is seized because the driver - not the owner - is the one accused and whose actions caused the seizure. The innocent owner can be without his car for months or years without a means to contest the seizure."
The claims of all six plaintiffs in the case have been resolved. That meant, several justices suggested Wednesday, that the case is moot.
"You have nobody before this court with a live claim," Justice Antonin Scalia told Paul Castiglione, an assistant state's attorney in Illinois.
Justice John Paul Stevens complained about a second aspect of the appeal: the appeals court had left it to the trial judge to determine the details of how and when hearings would take place.
"We are trying to get into the case much earlier than we should, it seems to me," Justice Stevens said. He said the court should dismiss the case as improvidently granted.
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7) Suspended Boy Back in School
By IAN URBINA
October 15, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/education/15discipline.html?ref=us
Zachary Christie, 6, wants to make one thing clear: he was not at Disneyland last week.
On his first day back at school in Newark, Del., after he was suspended and ordered to the district's alternative school for troubled youth for taking to school a camping utensil that included a small foldout knife, Zachary said his fellow first graders kept asking him how he had spent his days away.
"I kept telling them that I was at home doing my work," he said.
School officials had initially ruled that the camping utensil was a weapon, and that under their zero-tolerance policy they were required to suspend him and send him to the alternative school for 45 days. They reversed the punishment Tuesday night and revised the discipline code.
Zachary arrived at school on Wednesday morning with a smile from ear to ear, his mother said. He slalomed his way through the satellite trucks and reporters gathered out front, and sat with his classmates in a circle on the carpet in his class.
Joined by his teacher and his mother, Zachary soon stood to tell his classmates that they should be sure to ask their parents before bringing anything new to class.
"I told them that I think they should follow the rules," he said, adding that in his case he had not realized he was breaking a rule.
By noon, Zachary's excitement about being back at school had worn off, and his mother, Debbie Christie, took him home after lunch. "I just didn't feel like I was fitting in," Zachary said.
Ms. Christie said that when she arrived at the school, several parents thanked her for standing up to school officials and forcing them to make needed changes to the code of conduct.
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8) As City Adds Housing for Poor, Market Subtracts It
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
October 15, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/nyregion/15housing.html?ref=nyregion
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is closing in on a milestone: building or preserving 165,000 city-financed apartments and houses for low-, moderate- and middle-income families, the goal of a $7.5 billion housing plan he announced in 2002 and expanded in 2005.
It has already financed the creation or preservation of 94,000 units, including 72,000 for low-income households, city officials say.
But those efforts have been overwhelmed by a far larger number - the 200,000 apartments affordable to low-income renters that New York City has lost over all, because of market forces, during the mayor's tenure.
The shrinking supply of these apartments, highlighted by researchers at New York University, illustrates not only the increasing strain that housing costs have had on this city of renters, but also the limits of the mayor's success in providing the city's poor with reasonable places to live. While the mayor's plan has put thousands of low-income families in new or rehabilitated buildings and helped stabilize neighborhoods, it has been nearly drowned out by the twin waves of gentrification and rent deregulation.
"We're losing units even with additions to the stock under the mayor's housing plan," said Victor Bach, a senior housing policy analyst for the Community Service Society, a nonprofit antipoverty group, and a member of a panel that advised the Bloomberg administration on housing in 2002. "I'm not knocking the plan. I'm just saying it hasn't done much to stop the hemorrhaging of lower-rent units across the city."
Including public housing, the number of apartments considered affordable to low-income households - those earning less than 80 percent of the city's median income, or less than $37,000 - decreased to 991,592 from 1,189,962, a drop of nearly 17 percent, from 2002 to 2008. About 42 percent of the city's households fit in that income category in 2008.
The data were supplied by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University, which analyzed the city's Housing and Vacancy Survey from 2002, 2005 and 2008. The center and other housing experts consider an apartment affordable if it costs no more than 30 percent of a family's income, or about $925 a month for a family earning $37,000.
Although the numbers present a gloomy picture, they did contain a glimmer of hope. The worst years were between 2002 and 2005, when the city lost affordable apartments at the highest rate of the mayor's tenure. In the next three years, as the mayor's plan took hold, the city actually gained about 8,000.
"We're very proud of what we've accomplished, but we're also not satisfied or done," said Rafael Cestero, the city's housing commissioner. "We can't undo what happened between 2002 and 2005, but what happened during those years is exactly why we created the largest municipal housing plan in the nation's history. What the data suggests is that the response is working."
A majority of the 200,000 units in the Furman Center data - 137,000 apartments - had been part of the rent regulation system but were deregulated. In most cases, they became market-rate once their rent topped $2,000 and they became vacant, as allowed by the rent regulation system. Thousands of others had been in the state Mitchell-Lama or federal Section 8 programs, but were taken out of those subsidy programs by their owners and converted to market-rate apartments.
The affordability of all of the city's 2.1 million rental apartments is of course beyond the control of Mr. Bloomberg and the city's housing agency, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
But housing experts and tenant advocates say that the mayor has been far from powerless, and that his housing policy has suffered from a kind of tunnel vision, by focusing energy and resources on his 165,000-unit target rather than the larger pool of existing housing.
Tenant advocates have been pushing state legislators to make it harder to remove apartments from rent regulation, a move strongly opposed by landlords and the real estate industry. The mayor has been virtually silent on the issue, though he appoints the members of the Rent Guidelines Board, which decides the annual rent increases for rent-stabilized apartments. He proposed state legislation in 2003 that would prevent the loss of Mitchell-Lama units, but the measure failed and has become a low priority for the mayor, tenant advocates say.
"There needs to be a focus on preservation at the same level of intensity that there is for new development," said Michelle de la Uz, executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee, a nonprofit Brooklyn-based affordable housing and community development group. "It's not as though things aren't moving in the right direction. It's that advocates have a different sense of urgency."
Mr. Bloomberg's campaign said that the mayor intends to expand the housing plan by investing an additional $965 million, which will help preserve 10,000 more units of Mitchell-Lama housing than originally planned and stabilize apartment buildings that are overleveraged, meaning their debt is unsupportable by the income generated by rents, a widespread problem that has led to the physical and financial deterioration of many buildings.
The Housing and Vacancy Survey showed that in 2008, 29.4 percent of all renter households in the city paid more than 50 percent of their income toward rent, an increase from 25.5 percent in 2002. Experts call those families "severely rent burdened." (The city's median income in the Furman survey differed slightly from that in other recent surveys.)
The financial squeeze has a spillover effect. It leads to overcrowded conditions and illegally partitioned rooms. It contributes to the record number of homeless families in city shelters. It fills the halls of the city's housing courts and fuels residential evictions, which have risen slightly to 25,027 in 2008, from 23,669 in 2006. And it causes many people to move out of the city.
A study prepared for the Bloomberg administration by the polling firm Harris Interactive found that 64 percent who moved out of the city cited housing costs as a major reason. The 2006 study was obtained by the Center for an Urban Future, a nonprofit research group.
Before the recession, James Hadden was earning up to $1,000 a week cutting hair at a Harlem salon, but more recently he has taken home $400 to $700. So he has fallen behind on the $1,300-a-month rent on his one-bedroom apartment, a fourth-floor walk-up on Lenox Avenue. His landlord began asking him to pay weekly. "I'm going to go pay this man's rent so he'll stop calling me," Mr. Hadden, 42, said Tuesday.
He said he was happy to be only 16 blocks from work; closer to the salon, on Fifth Avenue at 116th Street, rents are even more expensive. But he said he sometimes heard gunfire outside his building on Saturdays. "My family comes to visit me and I'm embarrassed to show them where I live," he said.
Despite the net losses of affordable apartments, experts in the field are quick to praise Mr. Bloomberg on much of his housing record. The mayor's plan has suffered only one major setback since it was unveiled in December 2002: Mr. Bloomberg's goal of creating or preserving 165,000 units by 2013 was pushed back one year in late 2008 because of the recession.
Mr. Cestero, the housing commissioner, said the plan was on schedule and no further delays were expected. He said the preservation of existing affordable housing was the agency's "No. 1 priority," and he said the agency would "engage in the discussion" about rent regulation at the right time.
The plan relies on the rezoning of underused manufacturing areas, including the Greenpoint and Williamsburg neighborhoods in Brooklyn, that allowed developers to build larger buildings if they set aside some apartments as low-cost units. New units have also been created through the city's Housing Development Corporation, which issues bonds and uses its corporate reserves to finance low-cost mortgages to affordable housing developers.
"I think the city has done an extraordinary job, more than any other place in America," said Jerilyn Perine, executive director of the nonprofit Citizens Housing and Planning Council and the former city housing commissioner who helped create the mayor's original plan in 2002. "You have to go to Europe to find another city that has this kind of robust, sustained housing policy and housing investment."
Of the 94,000 units the administration counts as gains, fewer than half, about 35,000, are new. The rest are apartments that City Hall says it has preserved as affordable, by providing low-interest loans to rehabilitate them or keep them from leaving rent-subsidy programs..
Some housing experts say the loss of affordable units is evidence of the city's economic vitality and a natural consequence of demand for affordable housing exceeding supply. As Ms. Perine wrote in the housing plan, there has never been a time in the city's history when all of its population's housing needs have been met with safe and affordable housing.
"I don't think there's a serious crisis in this area," said Magda L. Cruz, a lawyer and an owner representative on the Rent Guidelines Board. "I do believe a big problem is employment, and salaries just not being high enough to sustain cost-of-living increases. That's something the mayor plays a part in, but it doesn't have to do with building new housing."
Affordable housing is in such demand that most new apartments are awarded by lottery. Alan Ceballos, 30, said he was grateful to have won his two-bedroom apartment, costing $839 a month, in a new building on University Avenue in the Bronx.
Mr. Ceballos, who earns about $33,000 a year as a sales associate at a car rental agency, won the spot three years ago, allowing him to move out of a one-bedroom that cost $794. He and his wife had two children then, and now have three.
He said that traffic often speeds down the street and that people who hang out in a park by the building sometimes smash car windows; his own windshield has been broken. But he is happy with the building itself: its cleanliness, security, price and size.
"Before, it being a one-bedroom, it did not have enough closet space," said Mr. Ceballos. Besides the extra room he now has, "the kitchen is bigger, the living room is bigger, so it's adequate space now."
Joel Stonington contributed reporting.
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