BAUAW NEWSLETTER - SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 2009

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

Earth Song - Michael Jackson
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/233723/earth_song_michael_jackson/

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

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!

Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
C. ARTICLES IN FULL

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

A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS

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

Urgent News
Hearing on Death Penalty June 30, Sacramento
Please: SIGN-UP TO ATTEND!
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1265/t/5820/signUp.jsp?key=4279

On May 1st, the State of California announced that it is moving forward with developing execution procedures in order to comply with a recent legal ruling and resume executions, which have been on hold for more than three years.

The State will be holding a hearing on Tuesday, June 30th from 9am to 3pm in Sacramento to hear public comments about the proposed execution procedures.

Death Penalty Focus, along with our allies, will be organizing a critical Day of Action to End the Death Penalty on June 30th.

What You Can Do to Help:

1. Please plan to attend the hearing on June 30th in Sacramento. We will be organizing buses from the SF Bay Area (more details to be announced very soon).

Please: SIGN-UP TO ATTEND!
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1265/t/5820/signUp.jsp?key=4279

We need to pack the room with more than 300 hundred supporters. More than one hundred individuals will be needed to give public comment. If they cannot accommodate everyone who signs up to speak, it is possible they will have to schedule another hearing.

After the hearing, we will head to the Capitol to share ours views with elected officials.

2. Please plan to submit a written comment to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). In just a few days we will be sending out suggestions for your comments and instructions on how to submit your comments. The CDCR is required by law to review and respond to every written comment. We need to generate thousands of comments from across the state, country and globe. We need to flood them with paperwork.

Please help us make this Day of Action a success!

Legislative Successes

Colorado
Colorado came very close to ending the death penalty this month when their State Senate voted 17-18 in favor of replacing the death penalty with life without parole and redirecting funding to solve murders. The State House has already passed the bill by a vote of 33-32.

Connecticut
On May 13, the Connecticut House voted 90-56 in favor of ending the death penalty. The bill now moves on to the Senate.

Several abolition bills are still active in other states, including New Hampshire, Illinois, Washington, and also in the U.S. Senate.

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

Greetings! We wanted to thank you again for your on-going support, and let you know about 2 upcoming events:

Reinstatement Hearing [Ward Churchill]
Wed. July 1, 9:00 am
Courtroom 6 (Judge Naves)
1435 Bannock St., Denver 80202
www.wardchurchill.net

CU is attempting to completely ignore the jury's verdict in this case, pretending that there was no finding that it violated the Constitution by firing Ward, and arguing that the judge should refuse to reinstate Ward and refuse pay him (or his lawyers).

Its excuse is that Ward is not "collegial" enough because he refused to accept the conclusions of the investigative committees. An odd argument from an entity which is refusing to accept the verdict in this case.

The hearing is scheduled for all day, with both sides presenting witnesses and arguments. If you're in the Denver area, please come and show your support. More details at www.wardchurchill.net.

"Shouting Fire" - HBO documentary on the state of free speech in America, featuring Ward's case, will air on Monday June 29 at 9:00 pm ET. Directed by Liz Garbus, and also featuring her father, famed First Amendment attorney Martin Garbus.

Review from its Sundance Film Festival premiere is available at:
http://festival.sundance.org/2009/film_events/films/shouting_fire_stories_from_the_edge_of_free_speech

HBO schedule at:
http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_DETAIL=DETAIL&FOCUS_ID=573085

In struggle and solidarity,
Natsu

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

ATTEND THE JULY 10 NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CONFERENCE IN PITTSBURGH!
REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE and DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE BROCHURE (8.5 X 14) at:
https://natassembly.org/Home_Page.html

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

On behalf of the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, we are writing to invite you and members of your organization to attend a national antiwar conference to be held July 10-12, 2009 at La Roche College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The purpose of this conference is to bring together antiwar and social justice activists from across the country to discuss and decide what we can do together to end the wars, occupations, bombing attacks, threats and interventions that are taking place in the Middle East and beyond, which the U.S. government is conducting and promoting.

We believe that such a conference will be welcomed by the peoples of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine and Iran, who are the victims of these policies. It will also be welcomed by victims of the depression-type conditions in this country, with tens of millions losing jobs, homes, health care coverage and pensions, while trillions of dollars are spent bailing out Wall Street and the banks, waging expansionist wars and occupations, and funding the Pentagon's insatiable appetite.

This will be the National Assembly's second conference. The first was held in Cleveland last June and it was attended by over 400 people, including top leaders of the antiwar movement and activists from many states. After discussion and debate, attendees voted - on the basis of one person, one vote - to urge the movement to join together for united spring actions. The National Assembly endorsed and helped build the March actions in Washington D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the April actions in New York City.

We are all aware of the developments since our last conference - the election of a new administration in the U.S., the ongoing occupation of Iraq, the escalation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the horrific Israeli bombing of Gaza, and the extreme peril of an additional war in the Middle East, this time against Iran. Given all this, it is crystal clear that a strong, united, independent antiwar movement is needed now more than ever. We urge you to help build such a movement by attending the July conference and sharing your ideas and proposals with other attendees regarding where the antiwar movement goes from here.

For more information, please visit the National Assembly's website at natassembly.org, email us at natassembly@aol.com, or call 216-736-4704. We will be glad to send you upon request brochures announcing the July conference (a copy is attached) and you can also register for the conference online. [Please be aware that La Roche College is making available private rooms with baths at a very reasonable rate, but will only guarantee them if reserved by June 25.]

Yours for peace, justice and unity,
National Assembly Administrative Body

Zaineb Alani, Author of The Words of an Iraqi War Survivor & More; Colia Clark, Chair, Richard Wright Centennial Committee, Grandmothers for Mumia Abu-Jamal; Greg Coleridge, Coordinator, Northeast Ohio Anti-War Coalition (NOAC) and Economic Justice and Empowerment Program Director, Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee (AFSC); Alan Dale, Iraq Peace Action Coalition (MN); Donna Dewitt, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO; Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace; Jerry Gordon, Former National Co-Coordinator of the Vietnam-Era National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC) and Member, U.S. Labor Against the War Steering Committee; Jonathan Hutto, Navy Petty Officer, Author of Anti-War Soldier; Co-Founder of Appeal for Redress; Marilyn Levin, Coordinating Committee, Greater Boston United for Justice with Peace, Middle East Crisis Coalition; Jeff Mackler, Founder, San Francisco Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice; Fred Mason, President, Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO and Co-Convenor, U.S. Labor Against the War; Mary Nichols-Rhodes, Progressive Democrats of America/Ohio Branch; Lynne Stewart, Lynne Stewart Organization/Long Time Attorney and Defender of Constitutional Rights [Bay Area United Against War also was represented at the founding conference and will be there again this year. Carole Seligman and I initiated the motion to include adding opposition to the War in Afghanistan to the demands and title of the National Assembly.

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

NATIONAL MARCH FOR EQUALITY
WASHINGTON, D.C. OCTOBER 10-11, 2009

Sign up here and spread the word:

http://www.nationalequalitymarch.com/

On October 10-11, 2009, we will gather in Washington DC from all across
America to let our elected leaders know that *now is the time for full equal
rights for LGBT people.* We will gather. We will march. And we will leave
energized and empowered to do the work that needs to be done in every
community across the nation.

This site will be updated as more information is available. We will organize
grassroots, from the bottom-up, and details will be shared on this website.

Our single demand:

Equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.

Our philosophy:

As members of every race, class, faith, and community, we see the struggle
for LGBT equality as part of a larger movement for peace and social justice.

Our strategy:

Decentralized organizing for this march in every one of the 435
Congressional districts will build a network to continue organizing beyond
October.

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

B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS

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

"RESOLUTION: The Torture Song" By David Ippolito
http://www.thatguitarman.com/MP3/resolution.mp3

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

Petition to Free the Wrongfully Convicted Mississippi Scott Sisters

To whom it may concern:

For over 14 miserable years, these two falsely accused incarcerated sisters (Jamie and Gladys Scott) have languished in a gruesome Mississippi prison for a trumped up $11.00 dollars crime that neither of them committed, in which they both received DOUBLE LIFE! Neither of them had any previous criminal records, no one was hurt, and the entire judiciary process from start to finish was heavily tainted by racial malpractice, witness coercion, threats, and harassment.

This travesty of injustice began in 1993 in Scott County Mississippi. It is alleged that two county Sheriffs had a beef with the sisters' father over him refusing to pay cash payoffs to the Sheriffs, whereas the Sheriffs threatened to wreck havoc upon the entire family if payment did not continue. The father refused, and soon thereafter, the Sheriffs succeeded in carrying out their threat, as Jamie and Gladys were falsely charged with armed robbery and later subsequently convicted. During the trial however, there were numerous inconsistencies and contradictions, and to make matters worst, both of the sister's lawyers were at best incompetent in their legal representation. As of this writing, the State's three witnesses have all recanted their coerced statements implicating Jamie and Gladys by a signed affidavit, but no court has seen fit to either reopen their case or seriously consider the sister's request for a retrial.

We are asking every person to sign this Free the Scott Sisters petition. Both Jamie and Gladys Scott need to be immediately exonerated and released. Your help is also needed and urged.

Thank you all.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-the-Scott-Sisters-Committee/

Sincerely,
The undersigned

Sign this petition!

Petition Author

CONTACT: Nathaniel x Vance, Jr.
Muskogee, Ok. 74401
Phone: 918-304-6017
E-Mail: broali4xx@suddenlink.net

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

Keep the Arboretum Free
http://keeparboretumfree.org/

Write the mayor and supervisors:
http://keeparboretumfree.org/email-to-board-of-supervisors-budget-committee

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

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/

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

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

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

IVAW Member Victor Agosto Refuses Deployment to Afghanistan

Sign our Petition in Support of Victor's Resistance Today:

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5966/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=383

Support Victor by making a donation to his legal defense fund:

https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=27370

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

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!

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

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

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

Don't let them kill Troy Davis

The case of Troy Davis highlights the need for criminal justice reform in the United States.

Please help us fight for the rights -- and life -- of Troy Davis today by signing the petition below, asking Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue to act on behalf of justice and commute Troy Davis's death sentence to ensure that Georgia does not put to death a man who may well be innocent.

Mr. Davis has a strong claim to innocence, but he could be executed without a court ever holding a hearing on his claims. Because of this, I urge you to act in the interests of justice and support clemency for Troy Davis. An execution without a proper hearing on significant evidence of innocence would compromise the integrity of Georgia's justice system.

As you may know, Mr. Davis was convicted of the 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail, a conviction based solely on witness testimony. Seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted or contradicted their trial testimony.

The courts, citing procedural rules and time limits, have so far refused to hold an evidentiary hearing to examine these witnesses. Executive clemency exists, and executive action - and your leadership - is required to preserve justice when the protections afforded by our appeals process fail to do so.

Thank you for your attention.

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/2446/t/4676/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=369

See also:

In the Absence of Proof
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
May 23, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/opinion/23herbert.html?_r=1

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

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/

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

PETITION IN SUPPORT OF PAROLE OF LEONARD PELTIER
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/parole2008/

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

C. ARTICLES IN FULL

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

1) City Seeks New Powers in Its Stalled Fight Against Homelessness
By JULIE BOSMAN
June 24, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/nyregion/24homeless.html?ref=nyregion

2) Supreme Court Says Child's Rights Violated by Strip Search
By DAVID STOUT
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/us/politics/26scotus.html?_r=1&hp

3) In the Andes, a Toxic Site Also Provides a Livelihood
By SIMON ROMERO
June 25, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/world/americas/25peru.html?ref=world

4) Detective Perjured Himself at a Youth's Shooting Trial
By DOMINICK TAO
June 25, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/nyregion/25perjury.html?ref=nyregion

5) U.S. Jobless Claims Rise; G.D.P Revised Upward
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/business/economy/26econ.html?ref=business

6) Warily Moving Ahead on Oil Contracts
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/world/middleeast/26oil.html?ref=world

7) California Says It Cannot Afford Overhaul of Inmate Health Care
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/us/26prison.html?ref=us

8) No Recovery in Sight
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
June 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/opinion/27herbert.html?_r=1

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

1) City Seeks New Powers in Its Stalled Fight Against Homelessness
By JULIE BOSMAN
June 24, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/nyregion/24homeless.html?ref=nyregion

In June 2004, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made a lofty promise to address one of the city's most intractable problems: he would reduce the homeless population of 38,000 by two-thirds in five years.

Today, with the total homeless population down only slightly, and with more families in shelters than five years ago, the administration is seeking state approval for a new set of policies designed to move families out more quickly, applying the same market-driven, incentive-based philosophy to homeless shelters that it has used in schools and antipoverty programs.

Under the new rules, nonprofit agencies that provide shelter beds under contract with the city would be paid more than the usual rate, which is roughly $100 a day, for each family that arrives. But after six months, if the agency has not been able to get the family into stable housing, the city would begin paying it less than the standard rate.

And city officials are trying to toughen rules and consequences for homeless families, forcing them to follow a strict code of conduct or risk being ejected from the shelter.

"The thing that we have been trying to introduce is a greater expectation of accountability, both by the providers and by the clients themselves," Linda I. Gibbs, the deputy mayor for health and human services, said in an interview. "We want them to overcome homelessness more quickly. We believe they are in shelter far longer than they need to be."

Shelter providers say that they are doing the best they can, and that the proposed payment structure could achieve the opposite of its intended result, especially since the city just imposed a 4 percent budget cut as part of reductions in virtually every city agency.

Christy Parque, the executive director of Homeless Services United, a coalition of more than 60 providers, said that further reductions "could result in an increased length of stay in shelter, because there will be fewer staff and resources to help clients address their problems and return to the community quickly."

Advocates for the homeless called the city's plans mean-spirited, and warned that they would threaten the safety of families, especially children, forced to leave the shelter with no place to go.

"It's an extraordinary change in what has been city policy for nearly three decades," said Steven Banks, the attorney in chief of the Legal Aid Society. "It's striking that the current city administration and the current state administration would be returning to these shelter-termination regulations, which are really a relic of another, harsher era."

The attempt to evict families from shelters began under Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, an effort that was blocked by the courts. The Bloomberg administration has been no more successful. In 2002, the city pursued a policy that would allow it to eject families it deemed uncooperative, but backed down and agreed to reserve the right to eject single adults, but not families.

Ms. Gibbs said that an ejection could result from a homeless family "refusing to look for housing, refusing to seek employment, anything that is an unreasonable refusal to participate in the steps they need to take to overcome their homelessness."

"The families need to understand that they can't just thumb their nose at the rules and have no consequences," she said.

One thing is indisputable: While the population of homeless single adults has gone down significantly in the last five years, the number of families sleeping in shelters is near an all-time high. According to the Web site for the Department of Homeless Services, there were 34,774 people in shelters last week, including 9,361 families - often single mothers with children.

About 150 organizations that hold contracts with the city operate most of the homeless shelters. (The city runs a small handful of its own shelters.)

The cost of providing shelter has risen. The city estimates that it costs roughly $36,000 a year to house a homeless family, up from $31,656 in 2004. The average stay in a shelter is about nine months.

City officials have privately expressed frustration at their inability to get a handle on the problem, despite efforts to expand homelessness prevention and introduce rental subsidy programs.

The new policies reflect the administration's determination to rid the system of families who stay in shelters for long stretches, sometimes rejecting apartments offered to them, while giving the shelter providers an incentive to get them out.

Under the new rules, which would take effect in January, the city would pay the agencies a 10 percent premium for the first six months that it houses a family. During that time, the agency is expected to push the family toward economic independence and permanent housing. But if the family stayed longer, the agencies would be paid 20 percent less than the standard rate.

But advocates for the homeless questioned the city's ability to avoid bureaucratic mistakes that could result in a family being wrongly ejected.

In May, a state-mandated program to charge rent to the working homeless was quickly suspended after it began with a dizzying series of errors from both state and city agencies. (City officials say the program is being revamped.)

State approval is required to make changes to social service policies. Anthony Farmer, a spokesman for the State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, said the state commissioner was considering the proposals.

Robert V. Hess, the city's commissioner of homeless services, said that the new policies would be put in place after a long rollout, staff training and orientation, and that ejections would occur only after a thorough review.

"At the end of the day, we're not putting policies in place that are intended, or will result in, people just arbitrarily having their shelter rights terminated," Mr. Hess said. "That's not what we're about."

Bonnie Stone, the executive director of Women in Need, a shelter for women and children, praised the city for its ability to house an ever-increasing number of people who needed help.

But the notion of ejecting a family, she said, made her uneasy.

"I believe that you only do that under huge, huge safety and due process, and not for small things," she said, pausing. "I think it is not what we do."

At the moment, shelter residents who resist following rules are frequently subject to another form of punishment: transfer to a shelter seen as less desirable.

Tina Rodriguez, a pink-haired 23-year-old with a silver stud in her lip, said she and her toddler son, Damonie, had been living in a shelter in Hell's Kitchen since September, and lately workers there had threatened that if she did not move out soon, she would be transferred to a so-called Next Step shelter. The city says such shelters offer more intensive case management, but among families, they are known for stricter rules and more crowded conditions.

Still, when Ms. Rodriguez was recently offered a studio apartment in Harlem, she rejected it. "I was scared to tell my worker that I didn't want it," she said, standing outside the Hell's Kitchen shelter as Damonie slept in a stroller. "But there was no living room. I can't live with a 2-year-old in an apartment like that. They're trying to force me into somewhere that I'm not comfortable."

Amanda Hayes, 24, said she entered the shelter system with her toddler, Xavier, in April after growing fed up with her living arrangements in the Bronx: sharing a one-bedroom apartment with her mother, adult brother and Xavier.

She needs no additional pressure from shelter workers to persuade her to move out, she said.

"I've been looking for work every day," Ms. Hayes said. "I don't need to be threatened about it at every turn."

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

2) Supreme Court Says Child's Rights Violated by Strip Search
By DAVID STOUT
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/us/politics/26scotus.html?_r=1&hp

WASHINGTON - In a ruling of interest to educators, parents and students across the country, the Supreme Court ruled, 8 to 1, on Thursday that the strip search of a 13-year-old Arizona girl by school officials who were looking for prescription-strength drugs violated her constitutional rights.

The officials in Safford, Ariz., would have been justified in 2003 had they limited their search to the backpack and outer clothing of Savana Redding, who was in the eighth grade at the time, the court ruled. But in searching her undergarments, they went too far and violated her Fourth Amendment privacy rights, the justices said.

Had Savana been suspected of having illegal drugs that could have posed a far greater danger to herself and other students, the strip search, too, might have been justified, the majority said, in an opinion by Justice David H. Souter.

"In sum, what was missing from the suspected facts that pointed to Savana was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear," the court said. "We think that the combination of these deficiencies was fatal to finding the search reasonable."

In fact, no pills were found on Savana when her underwear was examined by two school officials, both women, who were acting on a tip passed along by another student.

Thursday's ruling sends the case back to the lower courts to assess what damages, if any, should be paid by the school district. But, by a vote of 7 to 2, the Supreme Court held that the individual officials in the case should not be held liable, because "clearly established law" at the time of the search did not show that it violated the Fourth Amendment.

The portion of the ruling exempting the officials from liability is likely to be greeted with relief by thousands of principals, teachers and other school officials who work to impart knowledge and maintain discipline in a fast-changing world, where children are growing up (or trying to) earlier than ever.

Many school districts already prohibit strip searches, or severely limit them, a fact that was brought out when the case was argued on April 21.

Justice Clarence Thomas was the only member of the court to conclude that the strip search of Savana Redding did not violate the Fourth Amendment. He asserted that the majority's finding second-guesses the measures that educators take to maintain discipline "and ensure the health and safety of the students in their charge."

The majority said it meant to cast "no ill reflection" on the assistant principal, Kerry Wilson, who ordered the search at a time when there were incidents of students using alcohol and tobacco. "Parents are known to overreact to protect their children from danger, and a school official with responsibility for safety may tend to do the same," Justice Souter wrote.

But Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not agree, and would not have protected the officials from liability. Justice Ginsburg singled out the assistant principal, noting that he had made Savana sit on a chair outside his office for more than two hours in what Justice Ginsburg called a "humiliating situation" when the case was argued.

"At no point did he attempt to call her parent," Justice Ginsburg wrote on Thursday. "Abuse of authority of that order should not be shielded by official immunity."

During the April argument, Justice Ginsburg seemed taken aback by the circumstances of the case, particularly that Savana came under suspicion because of a "tip" to officials from a classmate. "And nothing is done to check her veracity, nothing is done to follow up on it at all," the justice observed.

Justice Stevens wrote on Thursday that "it does not require a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13-year-old child is an invasion of constitutional rights of some magnitude."

The majority noted that students in a school setting are protected by something less than the "probable cause" standard that normally determines whether searches are reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. "The lesser standard for school searches could as readily be described as a moderate chance of finding evidence of wrongdoing," the court said.

But the search of Savana Redding, who Justice Stevens said was an honors student at the time, did not meet even the lower standard, the majority found. (Ms. Redding is now in college.)

Dan Capra, a Fordham Law School professor, issued a statement in which he said that the fundamental question about the ruling in Safford Unified School District v. Redding, No. 08-479, is "is whether school officials will ever actually be liable for such searches."

"According to the court, the law on the subject was not clearly established, and so the officials had qualified immunity," Mr. Capra said. "But every case will be an application of law to fact. Officials now know they can't do exactly what was done in Safford. But what if there is any change of material fact in the circumstances?"

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

3) In the Andes, a Toxic Site Also Provides a Livelihood
By SIMON ROMERO
June 25, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/world/americas/25peru.html?ref=world

LA OROYA, Peru - Claudia Albino, a washerwoman who earns about $3 a day and lives in a one-room hovel with her family in this bleak town high in the Andes, might seem at first to have nothing to do with Ira Rennert, the reclusive New York billionaire who built one of the largest homes in the United States, an Italianate mansion sprawling over more than 66,000 square feet in the Hamptons.

But Mr. Rennert's privately held industrial empire includes the smelter with a towering smokestack that overlooks Ms. Albino's home, so the health and economic fate of her and thousands of others here rest on the corporate maneuvers he is carrying out.

La Oroya has been called one of the world's 10 most polluted places by the Blacksmith Institute, a nonprofit group that studies toxic sites. But for several months, the Peruvian smelting company in Mr. Rennert's empire has claimed that low metals prices prevented it from completing a timely cleanup to lower the emissions that have given this town such an ignoble distinction.

The tensions here over the lead emissions and the smelter's financial meltdown is precisely the kind of dire mix of foreign investment and environmental contamination feared by indigenous groups elsewhere in Peru, particularly in the country's Amazon basin, where protests over similar issues left dozens dead this month.

Citing financial difficulties, the smelter's Peruvian operators, who have idled most of its operations, have threatened to close entirely for several months, putting in danger 3,000 jobs at the plant and thousands more who rely on it like Ms. Albino, who washes clothes for the wives of smelter workers.

This week, some workers and residents protested against the possible closing, halting traffic and commerce along the highway that descends from La Oroya to the capital, Lima. Then on Tuesday, the government signaled that it might be open to extending the October deadline for the cleanup. Officials involved in talks on Wednesday said that one possible solution to the impasse would involve giving workers some control of the plant.

"This man Rennert, I've heard of him on television, of his great wealth and the homes he has around the world," said Ms. Albino. "As for me, I cannot afford to test the lead levels in my daughters' blood any longer," she said, attributing the stunted growth of her youngest daughter, 7, to the smelter's emissions.

Residents of La Oroya, with a population of 35,000, talk about the lead in their blood like people elsewhere discuss the weather. Ninety-seven percent of children under the age of 6 had lead levels that would be considered toxic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, according to a 2005 study by scientists from Saint Louis University.

But while some here seethe against Mr. Rennert and the company, Doe Run Peru, others defend them for providing work, making for a sharply divided town.

"We are thankful to Doe Run," said Elizabeth Canales, 40, a seamstress and a member of a company-supported group that teaches hygiene to poor families here. "It truly saddens me because I don't know if this is happening because there's a misunderstanding."

Some publicly praise Doe Run Peru while requesting, amid fear of retribution, anonymity to vent their anger at the company. "This town is owned by one company, and we vassals cannot be seen as disloyal to our owners," said one longtime worker.

The discord between those for and against the company festers in La Oroya's labyrinthine streets, packed with stands selling foods like seasoned guinea pig and bars catering to the plant's workers, who largely move here from other parts of Peru and earn salaries that dwarf those of other residents.

Insults and threats are common. Some workers at the plant recently paraded an effigy of Archbishop Pedro Barreto, an outspoken critic of the company's environmental record, burning it at the culmination of their protest.

"When insults don't work, the company resorts to intimidation, and when that fails, to blackmail, which is what it's doing now by saying it will shut the plant unless it gets an extension for its cleanup," said Pedro Córdova, 50, a production mechanic at the smelter who is suing the company over health claims related to a lung ailment.

Environmental activists in La Oroya said they saw parallels between Doe Run Peru's strategies here and those employed elsewhere by Renco, Mr. Rennert's holding company. Even as his fortune remained intact, they contend, some Renco companies in the United States faced complaints over environmental contamination and went into bankruptcy earlier this decade.

Through a spokesman in New York, Mr. Rennert declined to be interviewed, and Renco would say only that it was in talks aimed at "reaching a viable solution."

Doe Run Peru claims that it has "dramatically reduced" the toxic emissions at the smelter since buying it from Peru's government in 1997, leading to "a radical improvement in environmental conditions."

Still, researchers contend Doe Run Peru has misled officials by using 1997, the year it took control of the smelter, as a point of comparison for pollution levels, since contamination climbed that year. "Doe Run Peru has overseen an absolute increase in contamination in La Oroya," said Corey Laplante, an American scholar who researched La Oroya at the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law in Lima.

Despite being pressed by workers here to find a solution, officials in Lima this week said they had concerns about taking over or intervening in the company, pointing to legal battles that could arise from taking some control of a foreign-owned asset.

News reports that Renco had tried this month to buy the Swedish automaker Saab, led angry residents here to ask why Doe Run Peru could not complete its cleanup or prevent a shutdown of the smelter at a time when metal prices have begun to climb again.

Nearly everyone here wants the smelter to remain open and for the cleanup to proceed. But with Peru forging closer ties to the United States in Latin America through its new trade deal with Washington, some here question the benefits of such a pact.

"It's like we're pawns in a game," said Rosa Amaro, 52, a leader of an environmental group here. "What I still fail to understand is why we are exposed to the risks of an American investment," she added, "but not to the environmental protections enjoyed by the citizens of the United States."

Andrea Zarate contributed reporting from Lima, Peru.

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

4) Detective Perjured Himself at a Youth's Shooting Trial
By DOMINICK TAO
June 25, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/nyregion/25perjury.html?ref=nyregion

A New York City police detective was convicted Wednesday of lying on the witness stand in 2007 when he testified in an attempted-murder trial, a finding that a Bronx judge based largely on a recording made on an MP3 player by a defendant the officer had questioned.

The detective, Christopher Perino, was convicted of three felony counts of perjury after the judge found that he had lied while testifying that he had never questioned the defendant, when, in fact, the recording proved he had. He faces up to seven years in prison on each count and is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 18.

The judge, State Supreme Court Justice James M. Kindler, allowed Mr. Perino to remain free on a $15,000 personal recognizance bond until then.

Mr. Perino, who opted for a nonjury trial, was terminated by the Police Department after his conviction, said Paul J. Browne, the chief police spokesman.

"We cannot even begin to address the public safety issues in the city if the testimony on which we must rely is perjured," the Bronx district attorney, Robert T. Johnson, said in a statement. "The damage is compounded when the person who offers untruthful testimony is a police officer who is sworn to uphold the law."

Mr. Perino's lawyer, Murray Richman, said he planned to appeal. "It's an upsetting verdict," he said. "I believe the police officer was just doing a good job to get a guy with a gun off the street."

The case originated in December 2005, when Detective Perino was investigating a shooting in the elevator of a building in the High Bridge neighborhood of the Bronx. A suspect, Erik Crespo, 17, was arrested six days after the shooting.

Mr. Crespo, who was listening to music on an MP3 player when he was brought to a Bronx station house, used the device to record Detective Perino questioning him, for an hour and 15 minutes, without his parents or a lawyer present.

During cross-examination at Mr. Crespo's trial, Mr. Perino denied that any such interrogation had taken place. According to a transcript of that trial, when Mark S. DeMarco, Mr. Crespo's lawyer, asked the detective if he had asked his client any questions, Mr. Perino replied: "That's correct. He wasn't questioned."

Mr. Crespo was sentenced to seven years in prison on a weapons charge; an attempted-murder charge was dropped when evidence of Mr. Perino's perjury surfaced.

Simon Akam contributed reporting.

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

5) U.S. Jobless Claims Rise; G.D.P Revised Upward
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/business/economy/26econ.html?ref=business

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Labor Department said on Thursday that new jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week. And the number of people continuing to receive unemployment was higher than expected.

The figures indicate that jobs remain scarce even as the economy shows some signs of recovering from the longest recession since World War II.

A revised reading on gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's output, said the economy posted a 5.5 percent annualized decline from January through March. That was slightly better than the 5.7 percent estimate made a month ago. Economists generally think the economy is shrinking at a slower rate, about 2 percent, in the current quarter.

During the quarter, businesses held larger stockpiles of goods than in previous quarters, and imports declined more sharply than previously estimated.

Initial claims for jobless benefits rose last week by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 627,000. Economists had expected a drop to 600,000. Several states reported more claims than expected from teachers, cafeteria workers and other school employees, a Labor Department analyst said.

The number of people who are continuing to receive unemployment insurance rose by 29,000, to 6.74 million, slightly above analysts' estimates of 6.7 million. The four-week average of claims, which smoothes out fluctuations, was largely unchanged, at 616,750.

Most economists still expect the number of initial unemployment insurance claims, which reflects the level of layoffs, to decline slowly in coming months as the recession bottoms out.

"We still firmly believe that the underlying trends in claims is downwards, but it is slow and uneven," Ian Shepherdson, chief United States economist for High Frequency Economics, wrote in a client note.

The number of people continuing to receive unemployment aid remains below the peak of 6.8 million reached on May 30. That means job losses are most likely slowing, economists said.

Meanwhile, the rebound in consumer spending in the first quarter was slightly less vigorous than previously reported. Consumers increased their spending at a 1.4 percent rate, down from a 1.5 percent growth rate estimated last month.

Still, that was the strongest showing in nearly two years and a huge improvement from the fourth quarter, when skittish consumers cut spending by the most in nearly three decades.

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

6) Warily Moving Ahead on Oil Contracts
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/world/middleeast/26oil.html?ref=world

BAGHDAD - When Iraq puts development rights to some of its largest oil fields up for auction to foreign companies on Monday, the bidding will be a watershed moment, representing the first chance for petroleum giants like ExxonMobil to tap into the resources of a country they were kicked out of almost 40 years ago.

Yet, there are widespread doubts about whether Iraq is ready for a sudden infusion of capital from international oil corporations. The country is still not safe. Parliament has not approved a law regulating the oil industry. And oil companies are wary of corruption within Iraq's Oil Ministry.

The oil companies are also somewhat disgruntled, being forced to compete for 20-year service contracts and not the more lucrative production sharing agreements they would prefer. Such agreements would allow them to share directly in the profits from oil production, rather than getting fixed fees.

Still, all sides want to move ahead for one simple reason: money.

"Asking why oil companies are interested in Iraq is like asking why robbers rob banks: because that's where the money is," said Larry Goldstein, director of special projects at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, a Washington-based nonprofit that studies energy economics. "You can't choose where the resources are. The risks are substantial, but everybody has to play by the same risks."

The Iraqi government says that in order to maintain security and pay the salaries of the hundreds of thousands of its employees hired during the past two years, it has to try to exponentially raise oil production, which accounts for about 95 percent of the country's foreign exchange earnings.

"We are determined to develop our massive hydrocarbon resources as quickly as possible to finance the reconstruction of the country," Hussain al-Shahristani, Iraq's oil minister, said recently. Mr. Shahristani said his goal was to increase production from the current level of about 2.4 million barrels a day to 6 million barrels in six years.

To do that, the government has estimated that its oil sector needs $50 billion in investment on top of the more than $8 billion it has spent during the past several years to try to increase capacity.

But production has been declining for years in southern Iraq, which contains about 80 percent of Iraq's oil. Government officials blame crumbling infrastructure there, while others cite mismanagement.

Under the government of Saddam Hussein, many oil-sector employees who held technical jobs were members of the Baath Party. After the American invasion, many of them fled abroad, were arrested or were killed, leaving the ranks severely depleted. Iraqi oil officials acknowledge that as a result of that and mismanagement, oil production and the current bidding process have suffered.

Oil corporations have complained quietly about the corruption, mismanagement and continuing violence in Iraq, as well as rules that force them to become partners with Iraqi oil companies.

Another contractual requirement dictates that the oil companies that win fields in the auction make payments totaling $2.6 billion to the government. The Iraqi government has described the money as loans that will be paid back once production begins.

More ominously for the oil companies, stiff resistance to the coming auction has been building among members of Parliament, oil unions and even officials in the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

"The service contracts will put the Iraqi economy in chains and shackle its independence for the next 20 years," said Fayad al-Nema, director of the South Oil Company, the state-owned company that produces most of the country's crude oil.

Mr. Nema's opinion is important because the South Oil Company is likely to be chosen as one of the partners in the joint ventures that will be created with foreign companies to operate the six oil fields and two gas fields that are up for bid.

Despite the drawbacks, international oil companies see Iraq as critical for business because few other places have as much oil that is untapped and relatively close to the surface, so it can be extracted relatively cheaply. With 115 billion barrels, the country has the world's third largest proven reserves, trailing only Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Indeed, after months of lobbying by Mr. Maliki and other government officials, most of the world's big oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum and Chevron, are expected to submit bids. The companies were expelled from Iraq in 1972, after Mr. Hussein nationalized the oil industry.

"My guess is that every international oil company in the world, knowing Iraq is blessed with terrific God-given natural resources, is interested in Iraq," Daniel Nelson, a former ExxonMobil vice president, said recently. "I'm not giving any competitive secrets away here."

Last year, an Iraqi plan to award six no-bid contracts to Western oil companies was voided amid sharp criticism from several United States senators.

In the meantime, the Kurdistan Regional Government signed about 30 contracts of its own with international oil companies, though the central government refuses to recognize them.

Each of the six fields open for bidding has more than five billion barrels of oil. Four of the fields are in the south and two are in the northern province of Kirkuk.

The auction is scheduled to begin on Monday, and the government hopes to finish subsequent contract negotiations by the end of August.

Abeer Mohammed contributed reporting.

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

7) California Says It Cannot Afford Overhaul of Inmate Health Care
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/us/26prison.html?ref=us

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The Schwarzenegger administration has rejected a plan intended to end years of litigation over inmate medical care in the California prison system.

In a letter The Associated Press obtained on Thursday, the state's corrections secretary, Matthew Cate, tells a court-appointed receiver that the state cannot afford the $1.9 billion overhaul Mr. Cate agreed to last month.

Mr. Cate and the receiver appointed in federal court, J. Clark Kelso, had agreed to the outline of a deal intended to overhaul inmate medical care. The federal courts, which have ruled that the care in California prisons is so poor that it violates inmates' civil rights, have threatened to take money directly from the state treasury to fix the system.

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement Thursday that California could not afford the additional cost.

"We cannot agree to spend $2 billion on state-of-the-art medical facilities for prisoners while we are cutting billions of dollars from schools and health care programs for children and seniors," Mr. Schwarzenegger said.

The governor and lawmakers are considering eliminating or significantly reducing education, state parks and core social programs to address the $24.3 billion budget shortfall.

A spokesman for the prison receiver's office, Luis Patino, said the office would have no direct comment on the rejection of the tentative agreement.

The tentative plan significantly scaled back Mr. Kelso's original plan to revamp California's prison medical system.

Mr. Cate said Thursday that California remained committed to improving prison health care, but hoped to do it through legislation signed by the governor in 2007 that provides about $8 billion for prison construction, including $1 billion dedicated to health care improvements.

The tentative plan called for building two prison hospitals to house 3,400 inmates at a cost of $1.9 billion.

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

8) No Recovery in Sight
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
June 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/opinion/27herbert.html?_r=1

How do you put together a consumer economy that works when the consumers are out of work?

One of the great stories you’ll be hearing over the next couple of years will be about the large number of Americans who were forced out of work in this recession and remained unable to find gainful employment after the recession ended. We’re basically in denial about this.

There are now more than five unemployed workers for every job opening in the United States. The ranks of the poor are growing, welfare rolls are rising and young American men on a broad front are falling into an abyss of joblessness.

Some months ago, the Obama administration and various mainstream economists forecast a peak unemployment rate of roughly 8 percent this year. It has already reached 9.4 percent, and most analysts now expect it to hit 10 percent or higher. Economists are currently spreading the word that the recession may end sometime this year, but the unemployment rate will continue to climb. That’s not a recovery. That’s mumbo jumbo.

Why this rampant joblessness is not viewed as a crisis and approached with the sense of urgency and commitment that a crisis warrants, is beyond me. The Obama administration has committed a great deal of money to keep the economy from collapsing entirely, but that is not enough to cope with the scope of the jobless crisis.

There were roughly seven million people officially counted as unemployed in November 2007, a month before the recession began. Now there are about 14 million. If you add to these unemployed individuals those who are working part time but would like to work full time, and those who want jobs but have become discouraged and stopped looking, you get an underutilization rate that is truly alarming.

“By May 2009,” according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, “the total number of underutilized workers had increased dramatically from 15.63 million to 29.37 million — a rise of 13.7 million, or 88 percent. Nearly 30 million working-age individuals were underutilized in May 2009, the largest number in our nation’s history. The overall labor underutilization rate in May 2009 had risen to 18.2 percent, its highest value in 26 years.”

If it were true that the recession is approaching its end and that these startlingly high numbers were about to begin a steady and substantial decline, there would be much less reason for alarm. But while there is evidence the recession is easing, hardly anyone believes a big-time employment turnaround is in the offing.

Three-quarters of the workers let go over the past year were permanently displaced, as opposed to temporarily laid off. They won’t be going back to their jobs when economic conditions improve. And many of those who were permanently displaced were in fields like construction and manufacturing in which the odds of finding work, even after a recovery takes hold, are not good.

Another startling aspect of this economic downturn is the toll it has taken on men, especially young men. Men accounted for nearly 80 percent of the loss in employment in this recession. As the labor market center reported, “The unemployment rate for males in April 2009 was 10 percent, versus only 7.2 percent for women, the largest absolute and relative gender gap in unemployment rates in the post-World War II period.”

Workers under 30 have sustained nearly half the net job losses since November 2007.

This is not a recipe for a strong economic recovery once the recession officially ends, or for a healthy society. Young males, especially, are being clobbered at an age when, typically, they would be thinking about getting married, setting up new households and starting families. Moreover, work habits and experience developed in one’s 20s often establish the foundation for decades of employment and earnings.

We’ve seen what happens when you rely on debt and inflated assets to keep the economy afloat. The economy can’t be re-established on a sound basis without aggressive efforts to put people back to work in jobs with decent wages.

We also need to consider the suffering that is being endured by these high levels of joblessness, including the profound negative effect on the families of the unemployed. Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, warned about the consequences for children. “What does it mean,” he asked, “when kids are under stress because there is no money in the household, or people have to move more, or are combining households, or lose their health insurance? I believe this is going to leave a permanent scar on a generation of kids.”

The first step in dealing with a crisis is to recognize that it exists. This is not a problem that will evaporate when the gross domestic product finally begins to creep into positive territory.

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

BAUAW NEWSLETTER - FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2009

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

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!

Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
C. ARTICLES IN FULL

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

A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS

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

Urgent News
Hearing on Death Penalty June 30, Sacramento
Please: SIGN-UP TO ATTEND!
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1265/t/5820/signUp.jsp?key=4279

On May 1st, the State of California announced that it is moving forward with developing execution procedures in order to comply with a recent legal ruling and resume executions, which have been on hold for more than three years.

The State will be holding a hearing on Tuesday, June 30th from 9am to 3pm in Sacramento to hear public comments about the proposed execution procedures.

Death Penalty Focus, along with our allies, will be organizing a critical Day of Action to End the Death Penalty on June 30th.

What You Can Do to Help:

1. Please plan to attend the hearing on June 30th in Sacramento. We will be organizing buses from the SF Bay Area (more details to be announced very soon).

Please: SIGN-UP TO ATTEND!
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1265/t/5820/signUp.jsp?key=4279

We need to pack the room with more than 300 hundred supporters. More than one hundred individuals will be needed to give public comment. If they cannot accommodate everyone who signs up to speak, it is possible they will have to schedule another hearing.

After the hearing, we will head to the Capitol to share ours views with elected officials.

2. Please plan to submit a written comment to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). In just a few days we will be sending out suggestions for your comments and instructions on how to submit your comments. The CDCR is required by law to review and respond to every written comment. We need to generate thousands of comments from across the state, country and globe. We need to flood them with paperwork.

Please help us make this Day of Action a success!

Legislative Successes

Colorado
Colorado came very close to ending the death penalty this month when their State Senate voted 17-18 in favor of replacing the death penalty with life without parole and redirecting funding to solve murders. The State House has already passed the bill by a vote of 33-32.

Connecticut
On May 13, the Connecticut House voted 90-56 in favor of ending the death penalty. The bill now moves on to the Senate.

Several abolition bills are still active in other states, including New Hampshire, Illinois, Washington, and also in the U.S. Senate.

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

Greetings! We wanted to thank you again for your on-going support, and let you know about 2 upcoming events:

Reinstatement Hearing [Ward Churchill]
Wed. July 1, 9:00 am
Courtroom 6 (Judge Naves)
1435 Bannock St., Denver 80202
www.wardchurchill.net

CU is attempting to completely ignore the jury's verdict in this case, pretending that there was no finding that it violated the Constitution by firing Ward, and arguing that the judge should refuse to reinstate Ward and refuse pay him (or his lawyers).

Its excuse is that Ward is not "collegial" enough because he refused to accept the conclusions of the investigative committees. An odd argument from an entity which is refusing to accept the verdict in this case.

The hearing is scheduled for all day, with both sides presenting witnesses and arguments. If you're in the Denver area, please come and show your support. More details at www.wardchurchill.net.

"Shouting Fire" - HBO documentary on the state of free speech in America, featuring Ward's case, will air on Monday June 29 at 9:00 pm ET. Directed by Liz Garbus, and also featuring her father, famed First Amendment attorney Martin Garbus.

Review from its Sundance Film Festival premiere is available at:
http://festival.sundance.org/2009/film_events/films/shouting_fire_stories_from_the_edge_of_free_speech

HBO schedule at:
http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_DETAIL=DETAIL&FOCUS_ID=573085

In struggle and solidarity,
Natsu

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

ATTEND THE JULY 10 NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CONFERENCE IN PITTSBURGH!
REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE and DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE BROCHURE (8.5 X 14) at:
https://natassembly.org/Home_Page.html

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

On behalf of the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, we are writing to invite you and members of your organization to attend a national antiwar conference to be held July 10-12, 2009 at La Roche College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The purpose of this conference is to bring together antiwar and social justice activists from across the country to discuss and decide what we can do together to end the wars, occupations, bombing attacks, threats and interventions that are taking place in the Middle East and beyond, which the U.S. government is conducting and promoting.

We believe that such a conference will be welcomed by the peoples of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine and Iran, who are the victims of these policies. It will also be welcomed by victims of the depression-type conditions in this country, with tens of millions losing jobs, homes, health care coverage and pensions, while trillions of dollars are spent bailing out Wall Street and the banks, waging expansionist wars and occupations, and funding the Pentagon's insatiable appetite.

This will be the National Assembly's second conference. The first was held in Cleveland last June and it was attended by over 400 people, including top leaders of the antiwar movement and activists from many states. After discussion and debate, attendees voted - on the basis of one person, one vote - to urge the movement to join together for united spring actions. The National Assembly endorsed and helped build the March actions in Washington D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the April actions in New York City.

We are all aware of the developments since our last conference - the election of a new administration in the U.S., the ongoing occupation of Iraq, the escalation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the horrific Israeli bombing of Gaza, and the extreme peril of an additional war in the Middle East, this time against Iran. Given all this, it is crystal clear that a strong, united, independent antiwar movement is needed now more than ever. We urge you to help build such a movement by attending the July conference and sharing your ideas and proposals with other attendees regarding where the antiwar movement goes from here.

For more information, please visit the National Assembly's website at natassembly.org, email us at natassembly@aol.com, or call 216-736-4704. We will be glad to send you upon request brochures announcing the July conference (a copy is attached) and you can also register for the conference online. [Please be aware that La Roche College is making available private rooms with baths at a very reasonable rate, but will only guarantee them if reserved by June 25.]

Yours for peace, justice and unity,
National Assembly Administrative Body

Zaineb Alani, Author of The Words of an Iraqi War Survivor & More; Colia Clark, Chair, Richard Wright Centennial Committee, Grandmothers for Mumia Abu-Jamal; Greg Coleridge, Coordinator, Northeast Ohio Anti-War Coalition (NOAC) and Economic Justice and Empowerment Program Director, Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee (AFSC); Alan Dale, Iraq Peace Action Coalition (MN); Donna Dewitt, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO; Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace; Jerry Gordon, Former National Co-Coordinator of the Vietnam-Era National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC) and Member, U.S. Labor Against the War Steering Committee; Jonathan Hutto, Navy Petty Officer, Author of Anti-War Soldier; Co-Founder of Appeal for Redress; Marilyn Levin, Coordinating Committee, Greater Boston United for Justice with Peace, Middle East Crisis Coalition; Jeff Mackler, Founder, San Francisco Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice; Fred Mason, President, Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO and Co-Convenor, U.S. Labor Against the War; Mary Nichols-Rhodes, Progressive Democrats of America/Ohio Branch; Lynne Stewart, Lynne Stewart Organization/Long Time Attorney and Defender of Constitutional Rights [Bay Area United Against War also was represented at the founding conference and will be there again this year. Carole Seligman and I initiated the motion to include adding opposition to the War in Afghanistan to the demands and title of the National Assembly.

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

NATIONAL MARCH FOR EQUALITY
WASHINGTON, D.C. OCTOBER 10-11, 2009

Sign up here and spread the word:

http://www.nationalequalitymarch.com/

On October 10-11, 2009, we will gather in Washington DC from all across
America to let our elected leaders know that *now is the time for full equal
rights for LGBT people.* We will gather. We will march. And we will leave
energized and empowered to do the work that needs to be done in every
community across the nation.

This site will be updated as more information is available. We will organize
grassroots, from the bottom-up, and details will be shared on this website.

Our single demand:

Equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.

Our philosophy:

As members of every race, class, faith, and community, we see the struggle
for LGBT equality as part of a larger movement for peace and social justice.

Our strategy:

Decentralized organizing for this march in every one of the 435
Congressional districts will build a network to continue organizing beyond
October.

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

B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS

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

"RESOLUTION: The Torture Song" By David Ippolito
http://www.thatguitarman.com/MP3/resolution.mp3

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

Petition to Free the Wrongfully Convicted Mississippi Scott Sisters

To whom it may concern:

For over 14 miserable years, these two falsely accused incarcerated sisters (Jamie and Gladys Scott) have languished in a gruesome Mississippi prison for a trumped up $11.00 dollars crime that neither of them committed, in which they both received DOUBLE LIFE! Neither of them had any previous criminal records, no one was hurt, and the entire judiciary process from start to finish was heavily tainted by racial malpractice, witness coercion, threats, and harassment.

This travesty of injustice began in 1993 in Scott County Mississippi. It is alleged that two county Sheriffs had a beef with the sisters' father over him refusing to pay cash payoffs to the Sheriffs, whereas the Sheriffs threatened to wreck havoc upon the entire family if payment did not continue. The father refused, and soon thereafter, the Sheriffs succeeded in carrying out their threat, as Jamie and Gladys were falsely charged with armed robbery and later subsequently convicted. During the trial however, there were numerous inconsistencies and contradictions, and to make matters worst, both of the sister's lawyers were at best incompetent in their legal representation. As of this writing, the State's three witnesses have all recanted their coerced statements implicating Jamie and Gladys by a signed affidavit, but no court has seen fit to either reopen their case or seriously consider the sister's request for a retrial.

We are asking every person to sign this Free the Scott Sisters petition. Both Jamie and Gladys Scott need to be immediately exonerated and released. Your help is also needed and urged.

Thank you all.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-the-Scott-Sisters-Committee/

Sincerely,
The undersigned

Sign this petition!

Petition Author

CONTACT: Nathaniel x Vance, Jr.
Muskogee, Ok. 74401
Phone: 918-304-6017
E-Mail: broali4xx@suddenlink.net

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

Keep the Arboretum Free
http://keeparboretumfree.org/

Write the mayor and supervisors:
http://keeparboretumfree.org/email-to-board-of-supervisors-budget-committee

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

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/

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

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

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

IVAW Member Victor Agosto Refuses Deployment to Afghanistan

Sign our Petition in Support of Victor's Resistance Today:

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5966/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=383

Support Victor by making a donation to his legal defense fund:

https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=27370

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

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!

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

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

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

Don't let them kill Troy Davis

The case of Troy Davis highlights the need for criminal justice reform in the United States.

Please help us fight for the rights -- and life -- of Troy Davis today by signing the petition below, asking Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue to act on behalf of justice and commute Troy Davis's death sentence to ensure that Georgia does not put to death a man who may well be innocent.

Mr. Davis has a strong claim to innocence, but he could be executed without a court ever holding a hearing on his claims. Because of this, I urge you to act in the interests of justice and support clemency for Troy Davis. An execution without a proper hearing on significant evidence of innocence would compromise the integrity of Georgia's justice system.

As you may know, Mr. Davis was convicted of the 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail, a conviction based solely on witness testimony. Seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted or contradicted their trial testimony.

The courts, citing procedural rules and time limits, have so far refused to hold an evidentiary hearing to examine these witnesses. Executive clemency exists, and executive action - and your leadership - is required to preserve justice when the protections afforded by our appeals process fail to do so.

Thank you for your attention.

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/2446/t/4676/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=369

See also:

In the Absence of Proof
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
May 23, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/opinion/23herbert.html?_r=1

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

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/

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

PETITION IN SUPPORT OF PAROLE OF LEONARD PELTIER
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/parole2008/

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

C. ARTICLES IN FULL

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

1) City Seeks New Powers in Its Stalled Fight Against Homelessness
By JULIE BOSMAN
June 24, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/nyregion/24homeless.html?ref=nyregion

2) Supreme Court Says Child's Rights Violated by Strip Search
By DAVID STOUT
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/us/politics/26scotus.html?_r=1&hp

3) In the Andes, a Toxic Site Also Provides a Livelihood
By SIMON ROMERO
June 25, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/world/americas/25peru.html?ref=world

4) Detective Perjured Himself at a Youth's Shooting Trial
By DOMINICK TAO
June 25, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/nyregion/25perjury.html?ref=nyregion

5) U.S. Jobless Claims Rise; G.D.P Revised Upward
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/business/economy/26econ.html?ref=business

6) Warily Moving Ahead on Oil Contracts
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/world/middleeast/26oil.html?ref=world

7) California Says It Cannot Afford Overhaul of Inmate Health Care
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/us/26prison.html?ref=us

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

1) City Seeks New Powers in Its Stalled Fight Against Homelessness
By JULIE BOSMAN
June 24, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/nyregion/24homeless.html?ref=nyregion

In June 2004, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made a lofty promise to address one of the city's most intractable problems: he would reduce the homeless population of 38,000 by two-thirds in five years.

Today, with the total homeless population down only slightly, and with more families in shelters than five years ago, the administration is seeking state approval for a new set of policies designed to move families out more quickly, applying the same market-driven, incentive-based philosophy to homeless shelters that it has used in schools and antipoverty programs.

Under the new rules, nonprofit agencies that provide shelter beds under contract with the city would be paid more than the usual rate, which is roughly $100 a day, for each family that arrives. But after six months, if the agency has not been able to get the family into stable housing, the city would begin paying it less than the standard rate.

And city officials are trying to toughen rules and consequences for homeless families, forcing them to follow a strict code of conduct or risk being ejected from the shelter.

"The thing that we have been trying to introduce is a greater expectation of accountability, both by the providers and by the clients themselves," Linda I. Gibbs, the deputy mayor for health and human services, said in an interview. "We want them to overcome homelessness more quickly. We believe they are in shelter far longer than they need to be."

Shelter providers say that they are doing the best they can, and that the proposed payment structure could achieve the opposite of its intended result, especially since the city just imposed a 4 percent budget cut as part of reductions in virtually every city agency.

Christy Parque, the executive director of Homeless Services United, a coalition of more than 60 providers, said that further reductions "could result in an increased length of stay in shelter, because there will be fewer staff and resources to help clients address their problems and return to the community quickly."

Advocates for the homeless called the city's plans mean-spirited, and warned that they would threaten the safety of families, especially children, forced to leave the shelter with no place to go.

"It's an extraordinary change in what has been city policy for nearly three decades," said Steven Banks, the attorney in chief of the Legal Aid Society. "It's striking that the current city administration and the current state administration would be returning to these shelter-termination regulations, which are really a relic of another, harsher era."

The attempt to evict families from shelters began under Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, an effort that was blocked by the courts. The Bloomberg administration has been no more successful. In 2002, the city pursued a policy that would allow it to eject families it deemed uncooperative, but backed down and agreed to reserve the right to eject single adults, but not families.

Ms. Gibbs said that an ejection could result from a homeless family "refusing to look for housing, refusing to seek employment, anything that is an unreasonable refusal to participate in the steps they need to take to overcome their homelessness."

"The families need to understand that they can't just thumb their nose at the rules and have no consequences," she said.

One thing is indisputable: While the population of homeless single adults has gone down significantly in the last five years, the number of families sleeping in shelters is near an all-time high. According to the Web site for the Department of Homeless Services, there were 34,774 people in shelters last week, including 9,361 families - often single mothers with children.

About 150 organizations that hold contracts with the city operate most of the homeless shelters. (The city runs a small handful of its own shelters.)

The cost of providing shelter has risen. The city estimates that it costs roughly $36,000 a year to house a homeless family, up from $31,656 in 2004. The average stay in a shelter is about nine months.

City officials have privately expressed frustration at their inability to get a handle on the problem, despite efforts to expand homelessness prevention and introduce rental subsidy programs.

The new policies reflect the administration's determination to rid the system of families who stay in shelters for long stretches, sometimes rejecting apartments offered to them, while giving the shelter providers an incentive to get them out.

Under the new rules, which would take effect in January, the city would pay the agencies a 10 percent premium for the first six months that it houses a family. During that time, the agency is expected to push the family toward economic independence and permanent housing. But if the family stayed longer, the agencies would be paid 20 percent less than the standard rate.

But advocates for the homeless questioned the city's ability to avoid bureaucratic mistakes that could result in a family being wrongly ejected.

In May, a state-mandated program to charge rent to the working homeless was quickly suspended after it began with a dizzying series of errors from both state and city agencies. (City officials say the program is being revamped.)

State approval is required to make changes to social service policies. Anthony Farmer, a spokesman for the State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, said the state commissioner was considering the proposals.

Robert V. Hess, the city's commissioner of homeless services, said that the new policies would be put in place after a long rollout, staff training and orientation, and that ejections would occur only after a thorough review.

"At the end of the day, we're not putting policies in place that are intended, or will result in, people just arbitrarily having their shelter rights terminated," Mr. Hess said. "That's not what we're about."

Bonnie Stone, the executive director of Women in Need, a shelter for women and children, praised the city for its ability to house an ever-increasing number of people who needed help.

But the notion of ejecting a family, she said, made her uneasy.

"I believe that you only do that under huge, huge safety and due process, and not for small things," she said, pausing. "I think it is not what we do."

At the moment, shelter residents who resist following rules are frequently subject to another form of punishment: transfer to a shelter seen as less desirable.

Tina Rodriguez, a pink-haired 23-year-old with a silver stud in her lip, said she and her toddler son, Damonie, had been living in a shelter in Hell's Kitchen since September, and lately workers there had threatened that if she did not move out soon, she would be transferred to a so-called Next Step shelter. The city says such shelters offer more intensive case management, but among families, they are known for stricter rules and more crowded conditions.

Still, when Ms. Rodriguez was recently offered a studio apartment in Harlem, she rejected it. "I was scared to tell my worker that I didn't want it," she said, standing outside the Hell's Kitchen shelter as Damonie slept in a stroller. "But there was no living room. I can't live with a 2-year-old in an apartment like that. They're trying to force me into somewhere that I'm not comfortable."

Amanda Hayes, 24, said she entered the shelter system with her toddler, Xavier, in April after growing fed up with her living arrangements in the Bronx: sharing a one-bedroom apartment with her mother, adult brother and Xavier.

She needs no additional pressure from shelter workers to persuade her to move out, she said.

"I've been looking for work every day," Ms. Hayes said. "I don't need to be threatened about it at every turn."

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

2) Supreme Court Says Child's Rights Violated by Strip Search
By DAVID STOUT
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/us/politics/26scotus.html?_r=1&hp

WASHINGTON - In a ruling of interest to educators, parents and students across the country, the Supreme Court ruled, 8 to 1, on Thursday that the strip search of a 13-year-old Arizona girl by school officials who were looking for prescription-strength drugs violated her constitutional rights.

The officials in Safford, Ariz., would have been justified in 2003 had they limited their search to the backpack and outer clothing of Savana Redding, who was in the eighth grade at the time, the court ruled. But in searching her undergarments, they went too far and violated her Fourth Amendment privacy rights, the justices said.

Had Savana been suspected of having illegal drugs that could have posed a far greater danger to herself and other students, the strip search, too, might have been justified, the majority said, in an opinion by Justice David H. Souter.

"In sum, what was missing from the suspected facts that pointed to Savana was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear," the court said. "We think that the combination of these deficiencies was fatal to finding the search reasonable."

In fact, no pills were found on Savana when her underwear was examined by two school officials, both women, who were acting on a tip passed along by another student.

Thursday's ruling sends the case back to the lower courts to assess what damages, if any, should be paid by the school district. But, by a vote of 7 to 2, the Supreme Court held that the individual officials in the case should not be held liable, because "clearly established law" at the time of the search did not show that it violated the Fourth Amendment.

The portion of the ruling exempting the officials from liability is likely to be greeted with relief by thousands of principals, teachers and other school officials who work to impart knowledge and maintain discipline in a fast-changing world, where children are growing up (or trying to) earlier than ever.

Many school districts already prohibit strip searches, or severely limit them, a fact that was brought out when the case was argued on April 21.

Justice Clarence Thomas was the only member of the court to conclude that the strip search of Savana Redding did not violate the Fourth Amendment. He asserted that the majority's finding second-guesses the measures that educators take to maintain discipline "and ensure the health and safety of the students in their charge."

The majority said it meant to cast "no ill reflection" on the assistant principal, Kerry Wilson, who ordered the search at a time when there were incidents of students using alcohol and tobacco. "Parents are known to overreact to protect their children from danger, and a school official with responsibility for safety may tend to do the same," Justice Souter wrote.

But Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not agree, and would not have protected the officials from liability. Justice Ginsburg singled out the assistant principal, noting that he had made Savana sit on a chair outside his office for more than two hours in what Justice Ginsburg called a "humiliating situation" when the case was argued.

"At no point did he attempt to call her parent," Justice Ginsburg wrote on Thursday. "Abuse of authority of that order should not be shielded by official immunity."

During the April argument, Justice Ginsburg seemed taken aback by the circumstances of the case, particularly that Savana came under suspicion because of a "tip" to officials from a classmate. "And nothing is done to check her veracity, nothing is done to follow up on it at all," the justice observed.

Justice Stevens wrote on Thursday that "it does not require a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13-year-old child is an invasion of constitutional rights of some magnitude."

The majority noted that students in a school setting are protected by something less than the "probable cause" standard that normally determines whether searches are reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. "The lesser standard for school searches could as readily be described as a moderate chance of finding evidence of wrongdoing," the court said.

But the search of Savana Redding, who Justice Stevens said was an honors student at the time, did not meet even the lower standard, the majority found. (Ms. Redding is now in college.)

Dan Capra, a Fordham Law School professor, issued a statement in which he said that the fundamental question about the ruling in Safford Unified School District v. Redding, No. 08-479, is "is whether school officials will ever actually be liable for such searches."

"According to the court, the law on the subject was not clearly established, and so the officials had qualified immunity," Mr. Capra said. "But every case will be an application of law to fact. Officials now know they can't do exactly what was done in Safford. But what if there is any change of material fact in the circumstances?"

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

3) In the Andes, a Toxic Site Also Provides a Livelihood
By SIMON ROMERO
June 25, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/world/americas/25peru.html?ref=world

LA OROYA, Peru - Claudia Albino, a washerwoman who earns about $3 a day and lives in a one-room hovel with her family in this bleak town high in the Andes, might seem at first to have nothing to do with Ira Rennert, the reclusive New York billionaire who built one of the largest homes in the United States, an Italianate mansion sprawling over more than 66,000 square feet in the Hamptons.

But Mr. Rennert's privately held industrial empire includes the smelter with a towering smokestack that overlooks Ms. Albino's home, so the health and economic fate of her and thousands of others here rest on the corporate maneuvers he is carrying out.

La Oroya has been called one of the world's 10 most polluted places by the Blacksmith Institute, a nonprofit group that studies toxic sites. But for several months, the Peruvian smelting company in Mr. Rennert's empire has claimed that low metals prices prevented it from completing a timely cleanup to lower the emissions that have given this town such an ignoble distinction.

The tensions here over the lead emissions and the smelter's financial meltdown is precisely the kind of dire mix of foreign investment and environmental contamination feared by indigenous groups elsewhere in Peru, particularly in the country's Amazon basin, where protests over similar issues left dozens dead this month.

Citing financial difficulties, the smelter's Peruvian operators, who have idled most of its operations, have threatened to close entirely for several months, putting in danger 3,000 jobs at the plant and thousands more who rely on it like Ms. Albino, who washes clothes for the wives of smelter workers.

This week, some workers and residents protested against the possible closing, halting traffic and commerce along the highway that descends from La Oroya to the capital, Lima. Then on Tuesday, the government signaled that it might be open to extending the October deadline for the cleanup. Officials involved in talks on Wednesday said that one possible solution to the impasse would involve giving workers some control of the plant.

"This man Rennert, I've heard of him on television, of his great wealth and the homes he has around the world," said Ms. Albino. "As for me, I cannot afford to test the lead levels in my daughters' blood any longer," she said, attributing the stunted growth of her youngest daughter, 7, to the smelter's emissions.

Residents of La Oroya, with a population of 35,000, talk about the lead in their blood like people elsewhere discuss the weather. Ninety-seven percent of children under the age of 6 had lead levels that would be considered toxic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, according to a 2005 study by scientists from Saint Louis University.

But while some here seethe against Mr. Rennert and the company, Doe Run Peru, others defend them for providing work, making for a sharply divided town.

"We are thankful to Doe Run," said Elizabeth Canales, 40, a seamstress and a member of a company-supported group that teaches hygiene to poor families here. "It truly saddens me because I don't know if this is happening because there's a misunderstanding."

Some publicly praise Doe Run Peru while requesting, amid fear of retribution, anonymity to vent their anger at the company. "This town is owned by one company, and we vassals cannot be seen as disloyal to our owners," said one longtime worker.

The discord between those for and against the company festers in La Oroya's labyrinthine streets, packed with stands selling foods like seasoned guinea pig and bars catering to the plant's workers, who largely move here from other parts of Peru and earn salaries that dwarf those of other residents.

Insults and threats are common. Some workers at the plant recently paraded an effigy of Archbishop Pedro Barreto, an outspoken critic of the company's environmental record, burning it at the culmination of their protest.

"When insults don't work, the company resorts to intimidation, and when that fails, to blackmail, which is what it's doing now by saying it will shut the plant unless it gets an extension for its cleanup," said Pedro Córdova, 50, a production mechanic at the smelter who is suing the company over health claims related to a lung ailment.

Environmental activists in La Oroya said they saw parallels between Doe Run Peru's strategies here and those employed elsewhere by Renco, Mr. Rennert's holding company. Even as his fortune remained intact, they contend, some Renco companies in the United States faced complaints over environmental contamination and went into bankruptcy earlier this decade.

Through a spokesman in New York, Mr. Rennert declined to be interviewed, and Renco would say only that it was in talks aimed at "reaching a viable solution."

Doe Run Peru claims that it has "dramatically reduced" the toxic emissions at the smelter since buying it from Peru's government in 1997, leading to "a radical improvement in environmental conditions."

Still, researchers contend Doe Run Peru has misled officials by using 1997, the year it took control of the smelter, as a point of comparison for pollution levels, since contamination climbed that year. "Doe Run Peru has overseen an absolute increase in contamination in La Oroya," said Corey Laplante, an American scholar who researched La Oroya at the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law in Lima.

Despite being pressed by workers here to find a solution, officials in Lima this week said they had concerns about taking over or intervening in the company, pointing to legal battles that could arise from taking some control of a foreign-owned asset.

News reports that Renco had tried this month to buy the Swedish automaker Saab, led angry residents here to ask why Doe Run Peru could not complete its cleanup or prevent a shutdown of the smelter at a time when metal prices have begun to climb again.

Nearly everyone here wants the smelter to remain open and for the cleanup to proceed. But with Peru forging closer ties to the United States in Latin America through its new trade deal with Washington, some here question the benefits of such a pact.

"It's like we're pawns in a game," said Rosa Amaro, 52, a leader of an environmental group here. "What I still fail to understand is why we are exposed to the risks of an American investment," she added, "but not to the environmental protections enjoyed by the citizens of the United States."

Andrea Zarate contributed reporting from Lima, Peru.

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

4) Detective Perjured Himself at a Youth's Shooting Trial
By DOMINICK TAO
June 25, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/nyregion/25perjury.html?ref=nyregion

A New York City police detective was convicted Wednesday of lying on the witness stand in 2007 when he testified in an attempted-murder trial, a finding that a Bronx judge based largely on a recording made on an MP3 player by a defendant the officer had questioned.

The detective, Christopher Perino, was convicted of three felony counts of perjury after the judge found that he had lied while testifying that he had never questioned the defendant, when, in fact, the recording proved he had. He faces up to seven years in prison on each count and is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 18.

The judge, State Supreme Court Justice James M. Kindler, allowed Mr. Perino to remain free on a $15,000 personal recognizance bond until then.

Mr. Perino, who opted for a nonjury trial, was terminated by the Police Department after his conviction, said Paul J. Browne, the chief police spokesman.

"We cannot even begin to address the public safety issues in the city if the testimony on which we must rely is perjured," the Bronx district attorney, Robert T. Johnson, said in a statement. "The damage is compounded when the person who offers untruthful testimony is a police officer who is sworn to uphold the law."

Mr. Perino's lawyer, Murray Richman, said he planned to appeal. "It's an upsetting verdict," he said. "I believe the police officer was just doing a good job to get a guy with a gun off the street."

The case originated in December 2005, when Detective Perino was investigating a shooting in the elevator of a building in the High Bridge neighborhood of the Bronx. A suspect, Erik Crespo, 17, was arrested six days after the shooting.

Mr. Crespo, who was listening to music on an MP3 player when he was brought to a Bronx station house, used the device to record Detective Perino questioning him, for an hour and 15 minutes, without his parents or a lawyer present.

During cross-examination at Mr. Crespo's trial, Mr. Perino denied that any such interrogation had taken place. According to a transcript of that trial, when Mark S. DeMarco, Mr. Crespo's lawyer, asked the detective if he had asked his client any questions, Mr. Perino replied: "That's correct. He wasn't questioned."

Mr. Crespo was sentenced to seven years in prison on a weapons charge; an attempted-murder charge was dropped when evidence of Mr. Perino's perjury surfaced.

Simon Akam contributed reporting.

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

5) U.S. Jobless Claims Rise; G.D.P Revised Upward
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/business/economy/26econ.html?ref=business

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Labor Department said on Thursday that new jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week. And the number of people continuing to receive unemployment was higher than expected.

The figures indicate that jobs remain scarce even as the economy shows some signs of recovering from the longest recession since World War II.

A revised reading on gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's output, said the economy posted a 5.5 percent annualized decline from January through March. That was slightly better than the 5.7 percent estimate made a month ago. Economists generally think the economy is shrinking at a slower rate, about 2 percent, in the current quarter.

During the quarter, businesses held larger stockpiles of goods than in previous quarters, and imports declined more sharply than previously estimated.

Initial claims for jobless benefits rose last week by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 627,000. Economists had expected a drop to 600,000. Several states reported more claims than expected from teachers, cafeteria workers and other school employees, a Labor Department analyst said.

The number of people who are continuing to receive unemployment insurance rose by 29,000, to 6.74 million, slightly above analysts' estimates of 6.7 million. The four-week average of claims, which smoothes out fluctuations, was largely unchanged, at 616,750.

Most economists still expect the number of initial unemployment insurance claims, which reflects the level of layoffs, to decline slowly in coming months as the recession bottoms out.

"We still firmly believe that the underlying trends in claims is downwards, but it is slow and uneven," Ian Shepherdson, chief United States economist for High Frequency Economics, wrote in a client note.

The number of people continuing to receive unemployment aid remains below the peak of 6.8 million reached on May 30. That means job losses are most likely slowing, economists said.

Meanwhile, the rebound in consumer spending in the first quarter was slightly less vigorous than previously reported. Consumers increased their spending at a 1.4 percent rate, down from a 1.5 percent growth rate estimated last month.

Still, that was the strongest showing in nearly two years and a huge improvement from the fourth quarter, when skittish consumers cut spending by the most in nearly three decades.

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

6) Warily Moving Ahead on Oil Contracts
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/world/middleeast/26oil.html?ref=world

BAGHDAD - When Iraq puts development rights to some of its largest oil fields up for auction to foreign companies on Monday, the bidding will be a watershed moment, representing the first chance for petroleum giants like ExxonMobil to tap into the resources of a country they were kicked out of almost 40 years ago.

Yet, there are widespread doubts about whether Iraq is ready for a sudden infusion of capital from international oil corporations. The country is still not safe. Parliament has not approved a law regulating the oil industry. And oil companies are wary of corruption within Iraq's Oil Ministry.

The oil companies are also somewhat disgruntled, being forced to compete for 20-year service contracts and not the more lucrative production sharing agreements they would prefer. Such agreements would allow them to share directly in the profits from oil production, rather than getting fixed fees.

Still, all sides want to move ahead for one simple reason: money.

"Asking why oil companies are interested in Iraq is like asking why robbers rob banks: because that's where the money is," said Larry Goldstein, director of special projects at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, a Washington-based nonprofit that studies energy economics. "You can't choose where the resources are. The risks are substantial, but everybody has to play by the same risks."

The Iraqi government says that in order to maintain security and pay the salaries of the hundreds of thousands of its employees hired during the past two years, it has to try to exponentially raise oil production, which accounts for about 95 percent of the country's foreign exchange earnings.

"We are determined to develop our massive hydrocarbon resources as quickly as possible to finance the reconstruction of the country," Hussain al-Shahristani, Iraq's oil minister, said recently. Mr. Shahristani said his goal was to increase production from the current level of about 2.4 million barrels a day to 6 million barrels in six years.

To do that, the government has estimated that its oil sector needs $50 billion in investment on top of the more than $8 billion it has spent during the past several years to try to increase capacity.

But production has been declining for years in southern Iraq, which contains about 80 percent of Iraq's oil. Government officials blame crumbling infrastructure there, while others cite mismanagement.

Under the government of Saddam Hussein, many oil-sector employees who held technical jobs were members of the Baath Party. After the American invasion, many of them fled abroad, were arrested or were killed, leaving the ranks severely depleted. Iraqi oil officials acknowledge that as a result of that and mismanagement, oil production and the current bidding process have suffered.

Oil corporations have complained quietly about the corruption, mismanagement and continuing violence in Iraq, as well as rules that force them to become partners with Iraqi oil companies.

Another contractual requirement dictates that the oil companies that win fields in the auction make payments totaling $2.6 billion to the government. The Iraqi government has described the money as loans that will be paid back once production begins.

More ominously for the oil companies, stiff resistance to the coming auction has been building among members of Parliament, oil unions and even officials in the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

"The service contracts will put the Iraqi economy in chains and shackle its independence for the next 20 years," said Fayad al-Nema, director of the South Oil Company, the state-owned company that produces most of the country's crude oil.

Mr. Nema's opinion is important because the South Oil Company is likely to be chosen as one of the partners in the joint ventures that will be created with foreign companies to operate the six oil fields and two gas fields that are up for bid.

Despite the drawbacks, international oil companies see Iraq as critical for business because few other places have as much oil that is untapped and relatively close to the surface, so it can be extracted relatively cheaply. With 115 billion barrels, the country has the world's third largest proven reserves, trailing only Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Indeed, after months of lobbying by Mr. Maliki and other government officials, most of the world's big oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum and Chevron, are expected to submit bids. The companies were expelled from Iraq in 1972, after Mr. Hussein nationalized the oil industry.

"My guess is that every international oil company in the world, knowing Iraq is blessed with terrific God-given natural resources, is interested in Iraq," Daniel Nelson, a former ExxonMobil vice president, said recently. "I'm not giving any competitive secrets away here."

Last year, an Iraqi plan to award six no-bid contracts to Western oil companies was voided amid sharp criticism from several United States senators.

In the meantime, the Kurdistan Regional Government signed about 30 contracts of its own with international oil companies, though the central government refuses to recognize them.

Each of the six fields open for bidding has more than five billion barrels of oil. Four of the fields are in the south and two are in the northern province of Kirkuk.

The auction is scheduled to begin on Monday, and the government hopes to finish subsequent contract negotiations by the end of August.

Abeer Mohammed contributed reporting.

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

7) California Says It Cannot Afford Overhaul of Inmate Health Care
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/us/26prison.html?ref=us

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The Schwarzenegger administration has rejected a plan intended to end years of litigation over inmate medical care in the California prison system.

In a letter The Associated Press obtained on Thursday, the state's corrections secretary, Matthew Cate, tells a court-appointed receiver that the state cannot afford the $1.9 billion overhaul Mr. Cate agreed to last month.

Mr. Cate and the receiver appointed in federal court, J. Clark Kelso, had agreed to the outline of a deal intended to overhaul inmate medical care. The federal courts, which have ruled that the care in California prisons is so poor that it violates inmates' civil rights, have threatened to take money directly from the state treasury to fix the system.

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement Thursday that California could not afford the additional cost.

"We cannot agree to spend $2 billion on state-of-the-art medical facilities for prisoners while we are cutting billions of dollars from schools and health care programs for children and seniors," Mr. Schwarzenegger said.

The governor and lawmakers are considering eliminating or significantly reducing education, state parks and core social programs to address the $24.3 billion budget shortfall.

A spokesman for the prison receiver's office, Luis Patino, said the office would have no direct comment on the rejection of the tentative agreement.

The tentative plan significantly scaled back Mr. Kelso's original plan to revamp California's prison medical system.

Mr. Cate said Thursday that California remained committed to improving prison health care, but hoped to do it through legislation signed by the governor in 2007 that provides about $8 billion for prison construction, including $1 billion dedicated to health care improvements.

The tentative plan called for building two prison hospitals to house 3,400 inmates at a cost of $1.9 billion.

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