Friday, January 24, 2014

BAUAW NEWSLETTER: FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014





To all Bay Area Supporters of Lynne Stewart:

Join a joyous CELEBRATION of Lynne's liberation and a BENEFIT for her ongoing medical care.
When: Wednesday, January 29, 6:00 to 9:00 pm

Where: 1015 Folsom St. (between 6th and 7th St., San Francisco) - venue requires participants to be at least 21 years of age.

Special Feature: A live report from Lynne Stewart via Skype;  Convey to Lynne your own greetings!
Refreshments (food and beverages)

Suggested Donation: $20 (no one turned away)

RSVP: mya.shone@gmail.com
 
If you cannot attend, please send donations (by check or money order) to Lynne Stewart Organization, 1070 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216.

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Send Obama a message for Medicare for All Single Payer Now 
[ http://www.singlepayernow.net ]

Send President Obama, Michele Obama, & Congresswoman Pelosi that San Francisco Supports Medicare for All
Fri 11:20am, Jan 31
Corner of Mason and California in SF

Dear Healthcare Activist,

Please help us send a message to Michele Obama, President Obama, and Nancy Pelosi to fix our healthcare system by supporting HR 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All act. HR 676, sponsored by Congressman John Conyers Jr., has 51 co-sponsors. HR 676 would remove the insurance companies from our lives and give everyone healthcare from birth to death. HR 676 includes full dental, vision, and long term care.

HR 676 has no copays or deductibles, and would be paid from a national tax which would remove the need to pay insurance company premiums. The removal of insurance companies from our lives would save Americans $400 billion a year. Under the best case scenario, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Affordable Care Act will still leave 3 million Californians without health insurance. Michele Obama and Nancy Pelosi are raising money for the Democratic Party at a luncheon at the Fairmont Hotel on Friday, January 31. We will be holding banners for Medicare for All.

Please let us know if you can help hold banners.

The number of people who volunteer to hold banners from 11:20am to 1pm will let us know how many banners to make.

Thank you,
Don Bechler Chair - Single Payer Now
[ http://www.singlepayernow.net ]
415-695-7891

Single Payer Now survives on the generosity of our supporters. Please consider making a donation [ https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6055/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=3489 ].
www.SinglePayerNow.net [ http://singlepayernow.net ]
| 415-695-7891 | dbechler@value.net [ mailto:dbechler@value.net ] 

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Menard Hunger Strike Update

 The following information is drawn from letters received from prisoners in Administrative Detention at Menard Correctional Center in Menard, Illinois. Compiled by Alice Lynd.

On January 15, 2014, approximately 25 prisoners in Administrative Detention at Menard Correctional Center went on hunger strike. Officers shook down their cells and took any food they found. The hunger strikers were sent to see medical staff and charged $5 for medical treatment.

On the way back from seeing medical staff, one prisoner (said to be Armando Valazquez) was pushed onto the stairs while in handcuffs by two officers. Those officers then kicked and stomped on his back, picked him up and then slammed his face into the plexiglass window on a door. One officer was sent home early that day. Prisoner Velazquez was moved to the Health Care Unit and the prisoners have not seen him since.

The hunger strikers have been told the prison administration is working on obtaining a preliminary injunction to force feed them. They expect to continue the hunger strike even if they are force fed.

“We need as much outside support as possible.”

Please phone or send emails to:
Governor Pat Quinn, 217-782-0244
http://www2.illinois.gov/gov/Pages/ContacttheGovernor.aspx
Illinois Department of Corrections Director Salvador A. Godinez,
217-558-2200, x 2008
Warden Rick Harrington, 618-826-5071
 

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FREE CHELSEA MANNING

For every signature, we mail a letter to top
decision-makers! 
Sign our petition today!
The internet is a tool with the capability to revolutionize our democracy. PVT Chelsea Manning recognized its power when she released Iraq and Afghanistan war databases so the public could see and analyze the truth for themselves.

Now, we need your help harnessing the internet as a force to ensure decision-makers in Washington D.C. know that people worldwide still support Chelsea and believe she deserves clemency.

For each person who signs our petition, we will mail letters on their behalf to the two individuals with the power to give Chelsea clemency. One letter will be sent to President Obama in the White House, and another letter will be postmarked to court martial Convening Authority Major General Buchanan.

Our goal is to generate so many letters that we can’t be ignored. If each person reading this e-mail signs our petition, then soon President Obama’s and Maj. Gen. Buchanan’s mailrooms will fill with thousands of individual letters. If each of you share this petition with your friends, encouraging them to sign, then our impact will grow exponentially.

Outraged by Manning’s 35-year prison sentence for promoting government transparency?
Sign our petition today!
http://www.privatemanning.org/pardonpetition


Snowden and Manning deserve clemency
based on NYT criteria
http://ymlp.com/z9ltdc
Last week, the New York Times editorial board thrilled government transparency advocates worldwide when they released an article calling on President Obama to grant clemency to Edward Snowden. They declare him a whistleblower loud and clear in the article’s title, and detail the NSA’s legal and ethical violations which Mr. Snowden uncovered.

Firedoglake’s Kevin Gosztola, who reported on PVT Manning’s trial last summer, praised the NYT for its support of Snowden while challenging them on another point “If Snowden is a whistleblower, what is Chelsea Manning?” This summer the NYT’s editorial board called Manning’s 35 year-sentence “excessive”, but they stopped short of calling her a whistleblower.
There are close parallels in the stories of Snowden and Manning as detailed on Gosztola’s blog:
Just as the Times makes clear that Snowden could not have gone through ‘proper channels,’ it would have been impossible for Manning as well… Had she sent specific documents in the sets to get the attention of members of Congress or had she gone to superiors within the military and said this should not be secret, she most certainly would have lost her security clearance...


Six bullet points on violations Snowden revealed and legal actions he provoked are offered by the Times editors to further advance the argument that he is a whistleblower. Certainly, the same could be done for Manning:
· Manning revealed a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack, which shows two Reuters journalists being gunned down in Baghdad. The video, which featured soldiers begging superior officers for orders to fire on individuals, was withheld from Reuters, even though the media organization filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.


· Frago 242, which the US and the UK appeared to have adopted as a way of excusing them from having to take responsibility for torture or ill-treatment of Iraqis by Iraqi military or security forces, was revealed in the Iraq War Logs.


· Yemen president Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to secretly allow US cruise missile or drone attacks that he would say were launched by his government


· Both the administrations of President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama pressured Spain and Germany not to investigate torture authorized by Bush administration officials


· US government was well aware of rampant corruption in the Tunisian ruling family of President Ben Ali and the FBI trained torturers in Egypt’s state security service. The information released by Manning was one of the “small things“ that helped to inspire the Arab Spring


· Al Jazeera journalist Sami al-Hajj was sent to Guantanamo Bay prison “to provide information” on the “al Jazeera news network’s training program, telecommunications equipment and newsgathering operations in Chechnya, Kosovo and Afghanistan, including the network’s acquisition of a video of [Osama bin Laden] and a subsequent interview” of bin Laden, a clear attack on press freedom


· Partly basing its ruling on diplomatic cables Manning released, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the court condemned the CIA for its extraordinary rendition program and found Macedonia had been responsible for the torture and violation of German car salesman Khaled el-Masri’s rights when he was abducted. Macedonia was ordered to pay $78,500 in damages to Masri.
If you’re wondering why government transparency advocates should present a unified front in fighting for whistleblower protections, you have only to look to the words and experiences of these whistleblowers themselves. While Snowden flees persecution by the same administration and same set of laws that were used to imprison Chelsea, he has clearly stated that ”Manning was a classic whistleblower.” She “was inspired by the public good.”

Do you support both Manning and Snowden? Tell us why on our facebook page. Leave a comment, a graphic, or a picture of you holding a sign with your message. We will share some of our favorite messages and images with our 105,000+ facebook followers in the coming weeks.




Help us continue to cover 100%
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38591


COURAGE TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter

Table of Contents:
A. ARTICLES IN FULL
B. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.

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A. ARTICLES IN FULL
(Unless otherwise noted)

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1) You Don’t Have to Be Jewish to Love a Kosher Prison Meal
By





2) Thirty-two Arrests at Rally for Airport Workers Near La Guardia
By EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS





3) States Cutting Weeks of Aid to the Jobless
By

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/business/states-cutting-weeks-of-aid-to-the-jobless.html?hp




4) Snowden Denies Suggestions That He Was a Spy for Russia
By

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/world/snowden-denies-suggestions-that-he-was-a-spy-for-russia.html?hp




5) Food Banks Anticipate Impact of Cuts to Food Stamps
"Since 2006, the number of Americans receiving food aid from pantries and similar services has gone up almost 50 percent, according to Feeding America."
By




6) Bee Deaths May Stem From Virus, Study Says
[A logical solution would be to stop growing tobacco--saving both bees and people!...bw]
By

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/us/bee-deaths-may-stem-from-virus-study-says.html?ref=us




7) Watchdog Report Says N.S.A. Program Is Illegal and Should End
By





8) Texas Executes Mexican Man for Murder
By




9) Family of South Carolina Boy Put to Death Seeks Exoneration 70 Years Later
By ALAN BLINDER

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/us/family-of-s-carolina-boy-put-to-death-seeks-exoneration-70-years-later.html?ref=us




10) Keystone XL Pipeline Fight Lifts Environmental Movement
By





11) Dimon’s Pay Jumps to $20 Million in a Year of Legal Woes for JPMorgan Chase
By PETER EAVIS
January 24, 2014, 12:29 pm 
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/dimons-pay-jumps-to-20-million-in-a-year-of-legal-woes-for-jpmorgan-chase/?ref=business
12) Russia Plans to Extend Snowden Asylum, Lawmaker Says
By




13) On Moroccan Hill, Villagers Make Stand Against a Mine
By AIDA ALAMI

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/world/africa/on-moroccan-hill-villagers-make-stand-against-a-mine.html?ref=world




14) In Rural Jails, E-Cigarettes Are a Calming Vapor
By




15) Soldier’s Family Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide
By




16) Hospital Chain Said to Scheme to Inflate Bills
By and




17) Florida: More Pilot Whales Found Dead
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

















 
 
 

 
 
 

 

 


 





 

 
 

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1) You Don’t Have to Be Jewish to Love a Kosher Prison Meal
By

MIAMI — Captive diners know that a good meal is hard to find.

Airplane passengers, for instance, have been known to order kosher meals, even if they are not Jewish, in the hope of getting a fresher, tastier, more tolerable tray of food. It turns out that prison inmates are no different.

Florida is now under a court order to begin serving kosher food to eligible inmates, a routine and court-tested practice in most states. But state prison officials expressed alarm recently over the surge in prisoners, many of them gentiles, who have stated an interest in going kosher.

Their concern: The cost of religious meals is four times as much as the standard fare, said Michael D. Crews, who is expected to be confirmed as secretary of the Department of Corrections in March.

“The last number I saw Monday was 4,417,” Mr. Crews said of inmate requests at his recent confirmation hearing before a State Senate committee. “Once they start having the meals, we could see the number balloon.”

To which, Senator Greg Evers, the Republican chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee remarked: “Is bread and water considered kosher? Just a thought. Just a thought.”

Florida, a state with a substantial Jewish population and the third-largest prison system, stopped serving a religious diet to inmates in 2007, saying it cost too much and was unfair to other prisoners. Several inmates have challenged the move with little success. Last year, though, the United States Department of Justice sued Florida for violating a 2000 law intended to protect inmates’ religious freedom. The federal judge in the case issued a temporary injunction in December, forcing the state to begin serving kosher meals by July until the issue is decided at trial. Florida is one of only 15 states that do not offer inmates a kosher diet systemwide.

Kosher food in prisons has long served as fodder for lawsuits around the country, with most courts coming down firmly on the side of inmates. As long as inmates say they hold a sincere belief in Judaism — a deeply forgiving standard — they are entitled to kosher meals, even if it takes a little chutzpah to make the request.

“Florida is an outlier,” said Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has represented inmates around the country. “It’s a holdout. I don’t know why it’s being a holdout. It is strange that Florida, of all places, is placing a special burden on Jewish inmates. It’s just stubbornness.”

In Florida’s prison system. which faces a $58 million deficit, money is the easy answer for the battle against kosher food. The cost of three kosher meals in Florida is $7 a day, a big jump from the $1.54 for standard meals, Mr. Crews said. In New York State, where 1,500 inmates out of about 56,000 keep kosher, the cost of a kosher meal is $5 a person. In California, where some prisons have kosher kitchens, the price tag is $8, and the meals are served to 0.7 percent of about 120,000 inmates.

Last April, facing an inmate lawsuit, Florida began a pilot program for the religious diet at Union Correctional Facility near Jacksonville. Initially, some 250 inmates signed up, Mr. Crews said. But once other inmates spied the individually boxed lunches, 863 expressed a sudden interest in keeping kosher.

Prison officials began to fret that if those numbers held, the cost of the kosher program could reach $54.1 million statewide. “You are talking about a lot of money,” Mr. Crews said.

But lawyers and chaplains said prison officials were inflating the numbers as a scare tactic, a common move in some states. “They are trying to make the problem bigger than it is,” Mr. Rassbach said.

And even if it did cost $54.1 million, budget anxiety is not a compelling enough reason to deprive an inmate of a kosher meal, the courts have ruled.

When the meals are first offered in prisons, demand for them jumps and then begins to wane. For some, the choice is genuinely religious.But some inmates, gentile or otherwise, have been known to profess a belief in Judaism for decidedly secular reasons, chaplains said.

In a world of few choices, the meals are a novelty, a chance to break from the usual ritual of prison life. Others believe the kosher turkey cutlets and spaghetti and meatballs simply taste better. But some see it as a safer bet.

“Inmates have a lot of paranoia about what they are being fed,” said Gary Friedman, a chaplain who is chairman of Jewish Prisoner Services International and has dealt with the issue of kosher prison meals for more than two decades. “About how the food could be adulterated, how the prison uses out-of-date products, how they use things that don’t meet U.S.D.A. standards, how sex offenders may be handling their food.”

“If they are using prepackaged, sealed meals, the inmates believe they are safer,” he said.

In the past, some gang members have declared themselves Jewish so they could sit apart, in the kosher meal section, and talk business. The meals are sometimes bartered for coveted items.

Eventually, inmates grow bored with the narrower offerings. “And then what happens?” Mr. Friedman said. “It drops off.”

But the question of who gets a kosher meal is tricky. In all, less than 1.5 percent of the country’s 1.9 million inmates are Jewish, according to the Aleph Institute, a social services organization, and many do not even request kosher meals. “Who is a Jew?” Mr. Rassbach said. “People disagree about who is a Jew.”

The courts steer clear of that perilous debate. Instead, inmates need only say they have a “sincerely held” religious belief.

Attempts by prison officials and rabbis to quiz prisoners about the Torah and the rules of keeping kosher were ruled not kosher. Tracing maternal lineage was similarly viewed unfavorably.

“Knowledge does not equal sincerity,” Mr. Friedman said.

Some states, like New York, do nothing to try to discern who is feigning Jewishness. In California, inmates talk with a rabbi who will gauge, very generally, a prisoner’s actual interest.

But some Jewish groups in Florida are pushing for greater control, which may pose a difficult legal hurdle.

“There should be away to ascertain who really does require a kosher meal for their religious belief,” said Rabbi Menachem M. Katz, director of prison and military outreach for the Aleph Institute in South Florida, “and who is just gaming the system.”


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2) Thirty-two Arrests at Rally for Airport Workers Near La Guardia
By EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS

The police arrested 32 people outside La Guardia Airport on Monday afternoon at a march in support of airport contract workers having a paid holiday on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

Some local politicians were arrested at the protest, including Representative Charles B. Rangel. They were given summonses for obstructing vehicular traffic and disobeying a lawful order, the police said.

The protesters were blocking traffic at 94th Street and Ditmars Boulevard in Queens around 12:30 p.m., the police said. They held banners that read: “MLK: Our Day.”

The march, organized by the union SEIU 32BJ, which represents building services employees, is part of a campaign for better wages and benefits for airport contract workers. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and the city’s public advocate, Letitia James, attended the rally but were not arrested.

About 15,000 people work for contractors hired by airlines and terminal operators at New York-area airports, the union said. Some of the workers, who provide cabin cleaning, terminal security and baggage handling, make about $8 an hour.

Several City Council members were arrested at the protest. Councilman Ritchie Torres of the Bronx posted a photo of his arrest on Twitter. “Proudly celebrating MLK’s legacy by getting arrested for the first time ever in solidarity with airport workers!” he wrote.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has said that it supports making the day a paid holiday for airport workers and that it was having “productive discussions” with the union about the issue.

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3) States Cutting Weeks of Aid to the Jobless
By
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/business/states-cutting-weeks-of-aid-to-the-jobless.html?hp

 RIEGELWOOD, N.C. — After losing her job as a security guard in June, Alnetta McKnight turned to food stamps and unemployment insurance to support herself and her 14-year-old son. But her jobless payments ran out after 20 weeks, and now they are living on close to nothing.

“I worked for 26 years; I lost my job through no fault of my own,” Ms. McKnight said, sitting in her darkened living room — she keeps the lights off to save money — in this small town about 20 miles from Wilmington, N.C. “This is what I get?”

Had Ms. McKnight been laid off a year earlier, she almost certainly would have qualified for more than a year of unemployment insurance payments, helping keep her family out of penury while she sought another position. But last July, North Carolina sharply cut its unemployment program, reducing the maximum number of weeks of benefits to 20 from 73 and reducing the maximum weekly benefit as well.

The rest of the country is now following North Carolina’s lead. A federal program supplying extra weeks of benefits to the long-term unemployed expired at the end of 2013, and congressional Democrats failed in an effort to revive it. About 1.3 million jobless workers received their last payment on Dec. 28. Starting on Jan. 1, the maximum period of unemployment payments dropped to 26 weeks in most states, down from as much as 73 weeks.

With that move, the country’s safety net for jobless workers has undergone a sudden transformation, from one aimed at providing modest but sustained protection to workers weathering a tough labor market to one intended to give relatively short-term aid before spurring workers to accept a job, any job.

It is still early, but the results in North Carolina suggest that there are both gains and losses from cutting back on support for the jobless. The state’s unemployment rate has plummeted to 7.4 percent from 8.8 percent, the sharpest drop in the country. In part, that is because more jobless workers are connecting with work. But an even greater number of workers have simply given up on finding a job.

North Carolina’s move also highlights a sharp political divide that is now playing out on the national stage. In Washington, Democrats are making an election-year charge that Republicans are pulling the safety net from under struggling families at a time when the economy remains weak and is operating far below its potential.

“North Carolina still has a higher-than-average unemployment rate, so this is important to this state,” President Obama said last week as he unveiled plans for a new manufacturing research center in Raleigh. “Folks aren’t looking for a handout. They’re not looking for special treatment. There are a lot of people who are sending out résumés every single day, but the job market is still tough.”

Republicans, in response, say that Democrats have done nothing but make unemployment and poverty more comfortable, while overseeing scant job growth. They argue that what they see as overly generous government support only encourages dependency and that a thinner safety net would actually be more effective, pointing to North Carolina’s falling jobless rate as prime evidence.

“Employers were telling me they had vacant jobs, but people would say, ‘Hold that job until my unemployment benefits end.’ ” said Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican who is the prime mover behind the policy. “I heard that time and time again. Now, employers are telling us that people are coming in and filling out applications to accept jobs, not to meet the requirements of unemployment."Nonpartisan economists said it was difficult to definitively show the impact of the change to the unemployment insurance program on the state’s labor market. Employment increased from June through November by more than 22,000 people (reaching a total of over 4.3 million). But for every worker who found a job, more than two dropped out of the labor force entirely, according to the latest survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which recorded a decline of over 50,000 from June through November.

It is hard to separate the effects of the unemployment cutbacks from overall changes in the regional and national economy.

“We don’t have enough data to know what is happening for sure,” said Mark Vitner, who studies the regional economy for Wells Fargo.

He said it was clear, though, that some of the unemployed were prodded back to work. “If someone had been receiving unemployment benefits for a long enough time, odds are they exhausted their savings, and they’re probably going to go ahead and take a job they wouldn’t have been taking previously,” he said.

Nationally, economists expect the economy to respond much as North Carolina’s has. The unemployment rate, currently at 6.7 percent, is likely to fall further, both as the number of discouraged workers rises and as more unemployed workers accept positions. Michael Feroli of JPMorgan Chase has estimated that the loss of extended benefits might lead to a 0.25 to 0.5 percentage-point drop in the unemployment rate.

But statistics don’t tell the full story. North Carolina still has nearly 350,000 listed as officially unemployed, and many more, including those living in depressed rural areas, have given up even looking for a job. For them, the safety net is gone, and largely out of sight, countless families have slipped deeper into poverty.

That includes Ms. McKnight’s. She still applies for jobs every day, and is hoping to be retrained as a certified nurse’s assistant. But in the meantime, she has sold her son’s dirt bike. She has stopped sending money to her mother, who has cancer, or to her daughter in college. A friend sold a set of decorative car rims to help her pay her electric bill. She has started visiting a local food bank for groceries.

“Two interviews so far out of 150 applications,” Ms. McKnight said. “If unemployment were for a year or a year and a half, that’s enough time to get established and get a job. Now, it’s over before it starts. That’s not enough time to find a job in an economy as bad as it is.”

Even conservative proponents of the North Carolina policy said there were downsides along with the upsides: Many jobless workers are accepting jobs for far less pay than they made before, and in many communities, there are simply not enough jobs.

“We anticipated that in more urban areas, and with younger workers, there would be a bigger impact,” Governor McCrory said, pointing to improvements in the state’s major cities. By contrast, he said, rural areas might be hardest hit, and job retraining and economic development initiatives were what those areas needed.

For now, that is little consolation for those who have lost a critical lifeline. “Our economies have been deconstructed,” said the Rev. Mac Legerton, the executive director of the Center for Community Action, a nonprofit in nearby Lumberton, one of the poorest communities in the state.

“We’re having to build new economies, which takes a significantly long period of time,” he said. “The assistance from extended unemployment benefits really provides one of the very few support systems for people who’ve been impacted by decisions far beyond their control.”


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4) Snowden Denies Suggestions That He Was a Spy for Russia
By
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/world/snowden-denies-suggestions-that-he-was-a-spy-for-russia.html?hp

WASHINGTON — Edward J. Snowden on Tuesday adamantly denied as “absurd” and “smears” the suggestion by the leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees that he might have been a Russian spy when he downloaded archives of classified National Security Agency documents and leaked them to journalists.

In an interview with The New Yorker, Mr. Snowden declared that the accusation — advanced in particular by Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee — was “false,” saying he had “clearly and unambiguously acted alone, with no assistance from anyone, much less a government.”

In the latest jostling over how to frame the public debate that Mr. Snowden’s leaks created, Mr. Rogers said on the NBC News program “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Mr. Snowden should be seen not as a whistle-blower but as “a thief, who we believe had some help.”

Officials at both the N.S.A. and the F.B.I. have said their investigations have turned up no evidence that Mr. Snowden was aided by others. But Mr. Rogers, asserting that Mr. Snowden had downloaded many files about military activities that do not involve issues of civil liberties, pointed to the Russian Federal Security Service, known as the F.S.B., the successor to the Soviet K.G.B. He offered no evidence.

“I believe there’s a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms, of an F.S.B. agent in Moscow,” he said, adding: “I believe there’s questions to be answered there. I don’t think it was a gee-whiz luck event that he ended up in Moscow under the handling of the F.S.B.”

Mr. Rogers made his remarks two days after President Obama embraced some calls to reform certain N.S.A. activities brought to light by Mr. Snowden. In particular, Mr. Obama said he would impose greater court oversight on the once-secret program in which the agency has been collecting records of every American’s phone calls, and that he intended to eventually get the N.S.A. out of the business of gathering such records in bulk.

Mr. Snowden responded to Mr. Rogers’s remarks via an encrypted chat service from Russia, where he is a fugitive from criminal charges in the United States.

On Sunday, the “Meet the Press” host, David Gregory, also asked Mr. Rogers’s Senate counterpart, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, whether she agreed with his suspicions that Mr. Snowden had been helped by the Russians. She replied: “He may well have.”

Mr. Snowden criticized news organizations for treating such remarks as newsworthy.

“It’s not the smears that mystify me,” Mr. Snowden told The New Yorker, “it’s that outlets report statements that the speakers themselves admit are sheer speculation.”

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5) Food Banks Anticipate Impact of Cuts to Food Stamps
By

WASHINGTON — Late last year, staff members at the Capital Area Food Bank here began fielding requests for larger deliveries from the dozens of soup kitchens and food pantries that it supplies as more and more people showed up seeking help.

The food bank said it was not unusual to see a surge before Thanksgiving or Christmas. But this time the lines were caused not by the holidays but by a $5 billion cut to the federal food stamp program that took effect in November when a provision in the 2009 stimulus bill expired.

Now the food bank, which provided about 45 million pounds of food last year, says it is preparing for even greater demand as Congress prepares to cut billions of dollars more from the food stamp program, which is included in a farm bill that has yet to pass. About 47 million Americans receive food stamps.

“We are going to increase our efforts to get more donations and try to serve as many people as possible, given our resources,” said Nancy E. Roman, executive director at the food bank. “But make no mistake, if the food stamp program is cut, we’re going to see much longer lines of people seeking help with their food budgets, and we can’t help them all.”

It is not just a Washington problem. Food banks across the country are making similar preparations, increasing efforts to prepare for the increased demand even as donations decline. Moreover, they say, they do not have enough staff to meet all the requests.

When the stimulus money expired, a family of three typically lost $29 in aid per month — enough for at least 20 meals, according to Feeding America, a national coalition of food banks. For a family of four, the loss was about $36 in benefits, about 23 meals per month.

It is unclear when the new cuts will kick in, even if Congress manages to pass a new farm bill, an effort that has taken almost two years. The House and the Senate appear to have worked out most of their differences on the bill. That compromise is expected to cut about $9 billion from food stamps over 10 years. House Republicans had wanted to trim financing by $40 billion over the same period, and a bipartisan Senate bill sought a $4 billion cut.

But House members, most of them Republicans, may be unwilling to pass a bill that includes anything less than the $40 billion cut. And senators, especially Democrats, may see the compromise measure as going too far. President Obama has threatened to veto any bill that cuts too deeply.

Still, even with these unknowns, food banks say they are all but resigned to less money for food stamps this year.

Even before the stimulus money ran out in November, food banks said they were having trouble keeping up. Since 2006, the number of Americans receiving food aid from pantries and similar services has gone up almost 50 percent, according to Feeding America.

“We’re already telling our partners — soup kitchens, churches and food pantries — that they need to step up their efforts to raise money and secure more food,” said Margarette Purvis, president and chief executive of the Food Bank for New York City.

Lawmakers say the compromise would not force anyone off the food stamp rolls. The budget savings, said Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan and chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, would come from changes to the way states administer a federal program that helps low-income families with their heating bills.

Under that program, known as Heat and Eat, the District of Columbia and 15 states, including New York and California, allow people who receive heating assistance subsidies to deduct their utility costs from their incomes, allowing them to claim more food stamp benefits.

Critics of the program say that in many cases states exploit a loophole in the law and help families increase the amount of their benefits by giving them a heating subsidy as little as $1, solely to make them eligible for more food stamps. By barring states from doing so, some families will received less in food stamps, and Congress expects that will reduce the program’s costs by $9 billion over the 10 years.

But advocates for the poor say that the Heat and Eat program is vital and that the proposed cut will hurt families that are already struggling to get enough food, even with food stamps. The cut is expected to affect about 850,000 households, about 1.7 million people, across the 15 states, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The affected households would lose an average of $90 per month in benefits, the Budget Office found.

“Losing $90 is a lot of money for a family struggling to get by, and that’s on top of what many of these people lost last November,” said Ellen Vollinger, legal director of the Washington-based Food Research and Action Center.

In New York City, where the number of people seeking food aid grew 85 percent after the cuts last year, 23 percent of food pantries and soup kitchens reported having to reduce the number of meals they provide, according to a survey by the Food Bank for New York City. About 190,000 people in the city are expected to see a reduction in their benefits if the proposed cuts in the farm bill go through.

In Oregon, about 80,000 people will see monthly benefits reduced if Congress changes the Heat and Eat program, said Jeffrey H. Kleen, a public policy advocate with the Oregon Food Bank.

Mr. Kleen said his agency had a 20 percent increase in requests since November, was already stretched thin and might not be able to replenish supplies and ship more food this year.

“We have distributed a record amount of food over the last year — 86.3 million pounds,” Mr. Kleen said. “But even if we could get more food, we just don’t have the infrastructure to distribute it.”


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6) Bee Deaths May Stem From Virus, Study Says
By
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/us/bee-deaths-may-stem-from-virus-study-says.html?ref=us

The mysterious mass die-offs of honeybees that have wiped out roughly a third of commercial colonies each year since 2006 may be linked to a rapidly mutating virus that jumped from tobacco plants to soy plants to bees, according to a new study.

The research, reported Tuesday in the online version of the academic journal mBio, found that the increase in honeybee deaths that generally starts in autumn and peaks in winter was correlated with increasing infections by a variant of the tobacco ringspot virus.

The virus is found in pollen that bees pick up while foraging, and it may be spread as the bees mix saliva and nectar with pollen to make “bee bread” for larvae to eat. Mites that feed on the bees may also be involved in transmitting the virus, the researchers said.

Among the study’s authors are leading researchers investigating the bee deaths at the Agriculture Department’s laboratories in Beltsville, Md., as well as experts at American universities and at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing.

Their research offers one explanation for the phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder, in which bees have died at more than twice the usual rate since it was identified seven years ago. But most researchers, including the study’s authors, suspect that a host of viruses, parasites and, perhaps, other factors like pesticides are working in combination to weaken colonies and increase the death rate.

Honeybees are crucial to the production of crops that make up a quarter of Americans’ diet, the Agriculture Department says, and pollination adds about $15 billion to the crops’ value each year.

The infection of bees by the tobacco ringspot virus, spotted by chance during a screening of bees and pollen for rare viruses, is the first known instance in which a virus jumped from pollen to bees. About one in 20 plant viruses is found in pollen, the researchers wrote, suggesting that pollen should be monitored as a potentially significant source of host-jumping infections.

The tobacco virus is an RNA virus: usually a single strand of genetic material that mutates faster than other pathogens and so is adept at devising workarounds to its hosts’ defenses. In humans, diseases caused by RNA viruses include AIDS, influenza and some strains of hepatitis.

That rapid mutation rate also allows RNA viruses to switch hosts more rapidly than conventional pathogens, with the tobacco virus jumping to bees just as influenza has leapt to humans from pigs and chickens.

The tobacco virus is believed to attack honeybees’ nervous systems. Monitoring 10 colonies kept at the Agriculture Department’s Maryland laboratories, researchers found that the share of bees infected with the virus rose to 22.5 percent in winter from 7 percent in the spring.

In weak colonies — those heavily infected with tobacco ringspot or other viruses — deaths began rising sharply in late autumn. Researchers said the strong colonies that survived the winter showed no trace of either the tobacco virus or a second one, Israeli acute paralysis virus, that may also play a role in colony collapse disorder.

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 7) Watchdog Report Says N.S.A. Program Is Illegal and Should End
By

WASHINGTON — An independent federal privacy watchdog has concluded that the National Security Agency’s program to collect bulk phone call records has provided only “minimal” benefits in counterterrorism efforts, is illegal and should be shut down.

The findings are laid out in a 238-page report, scheduled for release by Thursday and obtained by The New York Times, that represent the first major public statement by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which Congress made an independent agency in 2007 and only recently became fully operational.

The report is likely to inject a significant new voice into the debate over surveillance, underscoring that the issue was not settled by a high-profile speech President Obama gave last week. Mr. Obama consulted with the board, along with a separate review group that last month delivered its own report about surveillance policies. But while he said in his speech that he was tightening access to the data and declared his intention to find a way to end government collection of the bulk records, he said the program’s capabilities should be preserved.

The Obama administration has portrayed the bulk collection program as useful and lawful while at the same time acknowledging concerns about privacy and potential abuse. But in its report, the board lays out what may be the most detailed critique of the government’s once-secret legal theory behind the program: that a law known as Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the F.B.I. to obtain business records deemed “relevant” to an investigation, can be legitimately interpreted as authorizing the N.S.A. to collect all calling records in the country.

The program “lacks a viable legal foundation under Section 215, implicates constitutional concerns under the First and Fourth Amendments, raises serious threats to privacy and civil liberties as a policy matter, and has shown only limited value,” the report said. “As a result, the board recommends that the government end the program.”

While a majority of the five-member board embraced that conclusion, two members dissented from the view that the program was illegal. But the panel was united in 10 other recommendations, including deleting raw phone records after three years instead of five and tightening access to search results.

The report also sheds light on the history of the once-secret bulk collection program. It contains the first official acknowledgment that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court produced no judicial opinion detailing its legal rationale for the program until last August, even though it had been issuing orders to phone companies for the records and to the N.S.A. for how it could handle them since May 2006.

The privacy board’s legal critique of the program was approved by David Medine, the board’s chairman and a former Federal Trade Commission official in the Clinton administration; Patricia M. Wald, a retired federal appeals court judge named to the bench by President Jimmy Carter; and James X. Dempsey, a civil liberties advocate who specializes in technology issues.

But the other two members — Rachel L. Brand and Elisebeth Collins Cook, both of whom were Justice Department lawyers in the George W. Bush administration — rejected the finding that the program was illegal.

They wrote in separate dissents that the board should have focused exclusively on policy and left legal analysis to the courts. Last month, two Federal District Court judges reached opposite legal conclusions in separate lawsuits challenging the program.

Ms. Brand wrote that while the legal question was “difficult,” the government’s legal theory was “at least a reasonable reading, made in good faith by numerous officials in two administrations of different parties.” She also worried that declaring that counterterrorism officials “have been operating this program unlawfully for years” could damage morale and make agencies overly cautious in taking steps to protect the country.

But the privacy board was unanimous in recommending a series of immediate changes to the program. The three in the majority wanted those changes as part of a brief wind-down period, while the two in dissent wanted them to be structural for a program that would continue.

Some of those recommendations dovetailed with the steps Mr. Obama announced last week, including limiting analysts’ access to the call records of people no further than two links removed from a suspect, instead of three, and creating a panel of outside lawyers to serve as public advocates in major cases involving secret surveillance programs.

Other recommendations — like deleting data faster — were not mentioned in the president’s speech. And all members of the board expressed privacy concerns about requiring phone companies to retain call records longer than they normally would, which might be necessary to meet Mr. Obama’s stated goal of finding a way to preserve the program’s ability without having the government collect the bulk data.

The program began in late 2001 based on wartime authority claimed by President Bush. In 2006, the Bush administration persuaded the surveillance court to begin authorizing the program based on the Patriot Act under a theory the Obama administration would later embrace.

But the privacy board’s report criticized that, saying that the legal theory was a “subversion” of the law’s intent, and that the program also violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

“It may have been a laudable goal for the executive branch to bring this program under the supervision” of the court, the report says. “Ultimately, however, that effort represents an unsustainable attempt to shoehorn a pre-existing surveillance program into the text of a statute with which it is not compatible.”

Defenders of the program have argued that Congress acquiesced to that secret interpretation of the law by twice extending its expiration without changes. But the report rejects that idea as “both unsupported by legal precedent and unacceptable as a matter of democratic accountability.”

The report also scrutinizes in detail a handful of investigations in which the program was used, finding “no instance in which the program directly contributed to the discovery of a previously unknown terrorist plot or the disruption of a terrorist attack.”

Still, in her dissent, Ms. Cook criticized judging the program’s worth based only on whether it had stopped an attack to date. It also has value as a tool that can allow investigators to “triage” threats and provide “peace of mind” if it uncovers no domestic links to a newly discovered terrorism suspect, she wrote.

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8) Texas Executes Mexican Man for Murder
By
AUSTIN, Tex. — Despite opposition from the State Department, Mexican officials and Latino advocates, Texas executed Edgar Arias Tamayo on Wednesday night, putting to death a Mexican citizen whose case raised questions about the state’s duty to abide by international law.

Mr. Tamayo, 46, was strapped to a T-shaped gurney in the state’s death chamber at a prison in Huntsville, injected with a lethal dose of the sedative known as pentobarbital and pronounced dead at 9:32 p.m. Mr. Tamayo was the 509th inmate executed by Texas in the past three decades and had been one of 21 foreign citizens on its death row.

The case became an international issue that Mexican officials and Secretary of State John Kerry said threatened to strain relations between the two countries. Mr. Tamayo’s arrest in Houston in 1994 on charges of murdering a police officer violated the international treaty known as the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The authorities neglected to tell him of his right under the Vienna Convention to notify Mexican diplomats.

In executing Mr. Tamayo, Texas officials disregarded an international court’s order that his case be reviewed to determine what impact the violation of his consular rights had on his conviction. That decision, made in 2004 by the World Court, the top judicial body of the United Nations, was binding on the United States under international law, Mr. Kerry had told Texas officials. No United States court had given Mr. Tamayo such a review.

Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott, had argued that the state was not directly bound by the World Court’s decision, a position backed up by rulings by the United States Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Mr. Tamayo was the third Mexican citizen that Texas had executed whose case was part of the World Court’s order.

“The international outcry about this, Texas’ third illegal execution of a Mexican national and the first without any review whatsoever of the consular assistance claim, is unprecedented,” Mr. Tamayo’s lawyers, Sandra L. Babcock and Maurie Levin, said in a statement.

Hours before the execution, Mr. Tamayo and his lawyers were awaiting rulings on two appeals before the Supreme Court. One claimed Mr. Tamayo was mentally disabled and ineligible for the death penalty. The other argued that the impact of the denial of Mr. Tamayo’s consular rights needed to be assessed by a court. The Supreme Court refused to stay the execution, but it was delayed a few hours while the justices considered his appeals.

Mr. Tamayo had seemed resigned to his fate. In a holding cell, he told a spokesman for the state’s prison agency earlier in the day that he was “ready to go,” adding, “Twenty years is too long.”

A human rights commission that is an arm of the Organization of American States urged the United States last week to halt the execution and grant Mr. Tamayo’s case the review the World Court had ordered. Meanwhile, Mr. Kerry and State Department officials expressed concerns to Texas officials that executing Mr. Tamayo would complicate the United States’ ability to help Americans overseas. The Vienna Convention helps ensure that United States citizens who are detained in other countries have access to food, medical care and legal representation.

“If we ourselves don’t uphold those obligations, it will make it much harder for us to ask other countries to do so,” a State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, said Tuesday.

Mr. Tamayo was convicted of killing Guy P. Gaddis, the Houston police officer who apprehended him and another man in January 1994 after a robbery. Mr. Tamayo, who was in the United States illegally, pulled out a pistol in the back of the patrol car and shot him three times. Officer Gaddis was 24, and four days before his death, he had learned that he was going to be a father.

Members of the officer’s family watched Mr. Tamayo’s execution. “Three times shot in the back of the head for simply doing his job as a police officer,” said Ray Hunt, president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union. “That’s how his life ends. It’s time for that sentence to be carried out.”




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9) Family of South Carolina Boy Put to Death Seeks Exoneration 70 Years Later
By ALAN BLINDER
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/us/family-of-s-carolina-boy-put-to-death-seeks-exoneration-70-years-later.html?ref=us

SUMTER, S.C. — After South Carolina electrocuted George J. Stinney Jr. in 1944, his family buried his burned, 14-year-old body in an unmarked grave in the hopes the anonymity would allow him to rest in peace.

But on two mornings this week, nearly 70 years after the electrocution that ultimately made Mr. Stinney, a black teenager in the segregated South, the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century, lawyers and spectators crowded into a courtroom with a very different agenda: shedding enough light on the case to try to clear Mr. Stinney’s name.

“When I looked at the case and what was there and studied it, it was appalling,” said Miller W. Shealy Jr., one of the lawyers who agreed to help the Stinney family in its quest for a new trial or a voided verdict. He added that the case played out in the “old South Carolina,” but said, “It’s still appalling.”

Judge Carmen T. Mullen of Circuit Court did not rule on the requests at the end of the two-day hearing, and she asked for more written briefs in the coming weeks.

But in a state where racial matters still simmer — the presence of the Confederate battle emblem at the State House was the subject of a demonstration this week — the proceeding was a reminder of a difficult past recent enough that two of Mr. Stinney’s sisters were in the courtroom.

When a lawyer asked Amie Ruffner, one of the two, what she recalled of her Jim Crow-era childhood in South Carolina, she replied, “Nothing good.”

A huge part of that painful childhood was the execution of her brother, who was put to death less than three months after two white girls, ages 7 and 11, were found dead in Alcolu, the mill town where Mr. Stinney lived, in March 1944. Mr. Stinney, who, along with his father, joined the group searching for the two girls, was arrested soon after their bodies were found in a ditch, dead from blows with a railroad spike.

Investigators said then that Mr. Stinney had admitted to killing the girls after they asked him for suggestions about where to find maypops, a type of flower in the area. (His confession, and other records of the case, were lost.)

Mr. Stinney’s hastily scheduled trial lasted just hours, and he was executed that June.

Although Judge Mullen declared early in this week’s proceedings that she would not be contemplating Mr. Stinney’s guilt or innocence, the hearing took on the atmosphere of a trial, if one somewhat mellowed by the lessons of history.

“Back in 1944, we should have known better, but we didn’t,” said Ernest A. Finney III, solicitor for the Third Circuit Court in Sumter, who was opposing the request on the state’s behalf. “The fact of the matter is, it happened, and it occurred because of a legal system of justice that was in place.”

But Mr. Shealy said the state owed Mr. Stinney a different result, even if a favorable ruling prompted an onslaught of appeals in other aging cases. “The state really needs to say, ‘This was wrong,’ ” he said.

With another trial a prospect, if only a distant one, Judge Mullen heard legal arguments that touched on issues like judicial standing, and aggressive inquiries about the limits of memory, an especially important issue because many of the records in the case were destroyed.

Witnesses evaluated photographs and a large map, one that was disputed for its accuracy. Lawyers asked pointed questions during cross-examinations. A pathologist voiced concerns about the autopsies of the two victims, and a psychiatrist cast doubt on the validity of a confession Mr. Stinney gave investigators.

“Does the confession fit the evidence? No,” said Dr. Amanda B. Salas, a child and adolescent forensic psychiatrist who had studied the case before she began evaluating it on the Stinney family’s behalf less than a week ago.Dr. Salas said Mr. Stinney’s admission was “a coerced, compliant, false confession,” but she cautioned that she had no evidence of misconduct by investigators. Instead, she attributed the confession to his vulnerability as a black teenager facing scrutiny by white officials.

Those echoes of the state’s past came into play as each side brought to the stand witnesses with fierce views about whether Mr. Stinney merits a trial that, both parties acknowledged, could not bring a boy back.

“I’d like to see them find him innocent,” said another sister of Mr. Stinney’s, Katherine Robinson, a retired teacher.

But Frankie Bailey Dyches, the niece of one of the victims, said she was unmoved by such calls.

“I believe that he confessed,” said Ms. Dyches, who was born after the 1944 killings. “He was tried, found guilty by the laws of 1944, which are completely different now — it can’t be compared — and I think that it needs to be left as is.”

She also said: “I’ve heard stories here that I believe are false. It doesn’t change my feelings about what happened.”

Despite the divergent testimony, Mr. Finney, a son of the first black State Supreme Court chief justice since Reconstruction, said he believed that the session had been cathartic for people in this region, who have watched the case become the subject of a theatrical production and a 1991 movie. “I think it’s been beneficial for the community, and I hope the Stinney family feels like we’ve done some good,” he said.


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10) Keystone XL Pipeline Fight Lifts Environmental Movement
By

WASHINGTON — Environmentalists have spent the past two years fighting the Keystone XL pipeline: They have built a human chain around the White House, clogged the State Department’s public comment system with more than a million emails and letters, and gotten themselves arrested at protests across the country.

But as bad as they argue the 1,700-mile pipeline would be for the planet, Keystone XL has been a boon to the environmental movement. While it remains unclear whether President Obama will approve the project, both sides agree that the fight has changed American environmental politics.

“I think it would be naïve for any energy infrastructure company to think that this would be a flash in the pan,” said Alexander J. Pourbaix, president of energy and oil pipelines at TransCanada, the company that has been trying to get a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline since 2008.

Environmentalists want to stop the transport of 800,000 barrels a day of heavy crude oil from tar sands formations in Canada to Texas refineries, and an oil extraction process — effectively a strip-mining operation in once-pristine forests in Alberta — that emits more greenhouse gases than other forms of production. Proponents of the Keystone XL project say that the oil will come out of the ground with or without a new pipeline and that other methods of transport, like rail, cause more pollution. They point out that TransCanada began operations on Wednesday on a southern pipeline segment that connects to existing pipelines to provide a route from Alberta to the Gulf Coast.

Although some critics say the environmental movement has made a strategic error by focusing so much energy on the pipeline, no one disputes that the issue has helped a new breed of environmental organizations build a mostly young army eager to donate money and time. The seven-year-old email list of 350.org, an organization that focuses on climate change, has more than doubled to 530,000 people since the group began fighting the pipeline in August 2011. In addition, about 76,000 people have signed a “pledge of resistance” sponsored by seven liberal advocacy groups in which they promise to risk arrest in civil disobedience if a State Department environmental analysis, expected this year, points toward approval of the pipeline.

The Keystone XL project has also raised the profile of a diverse generation of environmental leaders, like the activist Bill McKibben, a former writer for The New Yorker and founder of 350.org, and the billionaire venture capitalist Thomas F. Steyer, who is estimated to have contributed at least $1 million to the movement and has starred in four 90-second ads opposing the pipeline. Not least, it has united national and local environmental groups that usually fight for attention and resources.

“Over the last 18 months, I think there was this recognition that stopping the pipeline is, in fact, important,” said Ross Hammond, a senior campaigner at Friends of the Earth. “But it has also brought a huge number of people into the movement.”

That movement, Mr. McKibben said in an interview, “looks the way we want the energy system to look: not a few big power plants, but a million solar panels all tied together.”

Politically, the draw of Keystone XL comes from its physical presence. It is far easier, environmental activists say, to rally people around something as vivid as a pipeline bisecting the United States than, say, around cap-and-trade legislation that would have forced industry to pay a price for its carbon emissions. The legislation failed in Congress in 2009.

“When we’re able to focus on distinct, concrete projects, we tend to win,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. “And when we tend to focus on more obscure policies or places where we need action from Congress, we tend to stall, like every other thing tends to stall.”

The pipeline has been a particular hit with small donors, especially as environmental organizations turn more to protests, fund-raisers said. Last year, the Sierra Club raised $1 million in six weeks for a major rally in Washington. About $100,000 of that came from contributions of less than $1,000.

“This is not one of our usual long-term campaigns,” said Jackie Brown, the Sierra Club’s chief advancement officer. “This was an emerging upswelling of support.”

Wealthier donors are also opening their wallets. Betsy Taylor, a longtime environmental fund-raiser, said her network of contributors was increasingly supporting the more aggressive campaigns run by groups like 350.org and Bold Nebraska, a shift away from the environmental research and policy organizations that have traditionally drawn such contributions.

Keystone XL — the XL stands for express line — would be a shortcut to the Gulf of Mexico as well as an extension of TransCanada’s existing Keystone pipeline, which runs from Alberta to Nebraska, with small branches to Illinois and Oklahoma. Keystone XL would be a far more direct route across the United States. Keystone consists of a three-foot-diameter pipe that is three feet underground. Keystone XL would also be three feet in diameter, but four feet underground.Initially, opposition to Keystone XL consisted of scattered people and groups along the proposed route of the pipeline, including indigenous tribes in Alberta. The fight went national in June 2011 when James E. Hansen, a former NASA climate scientist, wrote an open letter calling the pipeline “game over for the climate” and urged people to write to Hillary Rodham Clinton, then the secretary of state. (Because the project crosses an international boundary, it is subject to approval by the State Department.)

Mr. McKibben, the author of numerous books about climate, decided to use 350.org to campaign against the pipeline. That fall, he urged his members to commit civil disobedience in front of the White House.

“I remember when I heard the call for civil disobedience, I thought, ‘Yeah, right, you’ll get like 40 people to show up,'  ” said Mr. Hammond of Friends of the Earth. “And then, bam!” Over a two-week period, about 1,200 people were arrested at the White House.

Stephanie Kimball, 30, a Wisconsin dentist, said in a recent telephone interview that she had been “trying to figure out where to jump in” to the environmental cause when a talk by activists arrested in 2011 inspired her to volunteer as a local coordinator for 350.org. She said she was also working to stop a pipeline by the Canadian corporation Enbridge.

To counter the campaign, TransCanada has had to run television and radio ads to promote the jobs that the pipeline could provide. Industry allies like the American Petroleum Institute have also been running ads.

If Mr. Obama approves the Keystone XL pipeline, Mr. Brune of the Sierra Club said, it will be “the Vietnam of his presidency.” But, he added, environmentalists’ efforts will hardly have been for nothing.

“If you lose on this,” said Mike Casey, a consultant for Mr. Steyer, “this infrastructure doesn’t go away. It remains deployable and passionate.”

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11) Dimon’s Pay Jumps to $20 Million in a Year of Legal Woes for JPMorgan Chase
By PETER EAVIS
January 24, 2014, 12:29 pm 
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/dimons-pay-jumps-to-20-million-in-a-year-of-legal-woes-for-jpmorgan-chase/?ref=business

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, has been awarded total pay of $20 million for 2013, a huge increase over the amount he received for 2012, according to a regulatory filing released on Friday.The bank’s board of directors approved the increase even though a steady stream of scandals and a raft of regulatory actions have in recent months cast doubt on Mr. Dimon’s leadership at the nation’s largest bank. The big raise for 2013 came in the face of opposition from a vocal minority of board members, who wanted Mr. Dimon’s compensation for 2013 to be roughly equal to his pay for 2012, which totaled $11.5 million.

Last year, the board decided to cut Mr. Dimon’s 2012 bonus payout, a decision that was driven in part by a desire to hold him accountable for some the issues that led to a multibillion-dollar trading loss stemming from a bad bet on derivatives.

Mr. Dimon’s 2013 package is made up of $18.5 million of restricted stock, which he will be free to sell over the coming years, as well as a base salary of $1.5 million.

The filing said that the board approved the increase in part because, under Mr. Dimon, the bank had taken steps to deal with its regulatory problems. It added that some of the regulatory actions related to practices at two firms that JPMorgan purchased – Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual — and therefore predated Mr. Dimon’s stewardship. Mr. Dimon was, however, in charge of JPMorgan when the two problematic firms were acquired.

Mr. Dimon’s 2013 pay was close to the $23.1 million he got for 2011, when he was the highest-paid chief executive at a large bank. Over the last five years, Mr. Dimon has been paid nearly $70 million.



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12) Russia Plans to Extend Snowden Asylum, Lawmaker Says
By

DAVOS, Switzerland — Russia plans to extend its offer of asylum to Edward J. Snowden beyond August, a Russian lawmaker said Friday at the World Economic Forum here.

The lawmaker, Aleksei K. Pushkov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s lower house of Parliament, hinted during a panel discussion that the extension of temporary refugee status for Mr. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, might be indefinite.

“He will not be sent out of Russia,” Mr. Pushkov said. “It will be up to Snowden.”

He added that Mr. Snowden’s father believes his son could not get a fair trial in the United States.

Mr. Pushkov made his comments came against a backdrop of broad criticism of the American spying programs that have come to light since the summer. He pointed to the sheer volume of information that American authorities are able to gather.

“The U.S. has created a Big Brother system,” Mr. Pushkov said.

American participants on the panel continued to criticize Mr. Snowden for leaking information about the surveillance.

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, argued that Mr. Snowden should be convicted. “Mr. Snowden violated an oath, and that is a fact,” he said. “The damage that has been done has been exaggerated, because we’re hearing it from Mr. Snowden.”

The remark drew criticism from Mr. Pushkov, who said that the courts must review the evidence first.

Jane Harman, a Democrat and former House member from California, said Mr. Snowden should stand trial. She also defended some of the work that the intelligence community had done, pointing to what has been described as the disruption of 54 potential terrorist plots.

But she added that some changes to the data-gathering initiatives were warranted. “Do we need to change the system?” she said. “I think we should.”

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13) On Moroccan Hill, Villagers Make Stand Against a Mine
By AIDA ALAMI
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/world/africa/on-moroccan-hill-villagers-make-stand-against-a-mine.html?ref=world

IMIDER, Morocco — On a hilltop nearly 5,000 feet high in the Atlas Mountains here, a tiny outpost has taken shape over the past two years. The small stone buildings are decorated gaily with graffiti, and there is an open-air gallery. Many doors bear inspirational inscriptions from people like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa. On the dam of a nearby reservoir, someone has painted the face of a local activist, now in jail on what the locals regard as trumped-up charges.

It is an unlikely spot for a settlement, but it was established with a purpose: to protest a mining company’s expropriation of precious water supplies, as well as the pollution that results from the mining.

The inhabitants are drawn from the nearby municipality of Imider, 6,000 people scattered over seven villages and neighbor to the most productive silver mine in Africa.

But while the area may be rich in silver, it is home to some of the poorest people in Morocco.The people of Imider (pronounced ee-me-DER) say they have grown to resent the mine because they get nothing from it except pollutants. So two years ago, some of them climbed up the hill and cut the water supply to the mine. Since then, they have occupied the hill as they continue to fight the Imiter Mettalurgic Company and, by extension, the king of Morocco, its principal owner.


“We were ready to talk,” said Brahim Udawd, 30, one of the leaders of the protest movement, referring to the events that led to the occupation of the hilltop. “But nobody paid attention to us, so we closed the water valve. They take the silver and leave us the waste.”

These days, the hilltop, Mount Alebban, is relatively calm. Women come daily to cook in the little stone houses and participate in the regular strategy meetings that the villagers hold.

“We have been here for two and a half years, and nobody is hearing our cry for help,” said Mina Ouzzine, 40. “I voted yes for a new constitution because I hoped there will be change, more equality. We are only equal in poverty.”

In 2011, when the Arab revolutions led to the fall of dictators in Egypt and Tunisia, the Moroccan king, Mohammed VI, managed to stall the protests by offering constitutional overhauls that guaranteed more power to an elected government and more freedoms to Moroccans. But none of that has helped the people here.

While for some, the conflict of Imider is mostly ideological, others say that it is not just about ordinary people rising up to make their lives better but also part of a larger problem that is echoed in conflicts with big mining companies across the globe.

The occupation of the hill was set off in the summer of 2011 after students who were used to getting seasonal jobs were turned down. That led the other villagers — even those with jobs — to show solidarity and move to block the mine’s production abilities. One of the main demands of the villagers is that 75 percent of the jobs at the mine be allocated to their municipality.

“The bigger the mine, the more capital intensive the industry and the fewer the jobs,” said Gavin Hilson, who specializes in mining and development at the University of Surrey Business School. “Even if the policy in place is to create jobs, there are only so many jobs it can create.”

Exactly what is happening with the water is in dispute. The villagers say they want the company held responsible for environmental damage that they say is the cause of disease, livestock fatalities and desertification.

“In the 1990s, I used to have trees, fruits, oil, almonds,” said Bou Tahar, 70, a farmer. But they died after the mine began taking the water, he said, adding, “Since we cut the flow in 2011, our wells are starting to fill up again.”

According to Mr. Hilson, these kinds of disputes are not uncommon. “If you’re operating in a place like that with quite a few people living in the community, it would be suicidal to exhaust the place from its water supply or to reach a point where villagers become agitated over the consumption of water,” he said. “It is always challenging to operate in dry environments. There are issues with water, with waste disposal and community development because it all revolves around water.”

The company categorically denies the townspeople’s accusations and says that an environmental impact study has proved that it is not contaminating the water supply or harming the environment. The company says that the mining was certified as meeting global environmental standards and that it has put in place irrigation systems for the farmers.

“We are very careful, and we don’t pollute the water or the land around the mine,” said Farid Hamdaoui, a manager at the mine. “We recycle 62 percent of the water we use, and we have authorization from the state to pump the water we use.”

Company officials say their processing capacity dropped 40 percent in 2012 and 30 percent in 2013, after the villagers cut off one source of their water. These days, they use another source in an effort to make up the loss.

Mr. Hamdaoui said that despite having the king as the main shareholder, the company did not gain any special treatment from the government. He said the company was spending more than $1 million a year to build schools and to support community projects.

“We don’t substitute for the state, but we work with the state in a proactive social program,” he said. “The mine cannot unfortunately solve all the problems of unemployment in the region.”

Still, the activists who refer to themselves as the “Movement on the Way of 96,” a reference to a similar upheaval in 1996 that was crushed by the authorities, maintain that the company is in fact receiving favorable treatment from the state.

The governor and other elected officials declined to comment on the dispute, which settled into a stalemate after negotiations broke down in November.

After each meeting held at the foot of the hill, the villagers walk back home holding up three fingers — one for the Berber language, one for the land and one for mankind — hoping for someone to hear their call.

“The king forgot about us. He tours the country helping people, and he never comes to this region,” said one woman. “He is our father, and he has forgotten about his children.”



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14) In Rural Jails, E-Cigarettes Are a Calming Vapor
By

LAFAYETTE, Tenn. — As city governments and schools across the country move to ban or restrict the use of electronic cigarettes, one place increasingly welcomes the devices: the rural county jail.

Though traditional cigarettes are prohibited from most prisons and jails because of fire hazards and secondhand smoke, a growing number of sheriffs say they are selling e-cigarettes to inmates to help control the mood swings of those in need of a smoke, as well as address budget shortfalls, which in some jails have meant that guards are earning little more than fast-food workers.

The trend stands in contrast to restrictions on e-cigarettes approved in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and other big cities. County jails in at least seven states have permitted the sale of a limited selection of flavors of e-cigarettes to inmates. They have quickly become one of the most sought-after items in jail commissaries. And although federal prisons ban e-cigarettes, the inmate market has so much potential that Chinese and American manufacturers now produce “jail-safe” versions made of plastic instead of metal.

In Gage County, in southeastern Nebraska, Sheriff Millard Gustafson said that he had sold out of the 200 e-cigarettes bought in December for the 32-prisoner jail, but that more would be arriving soon. “They’ve been selling like hot cakes,” he said. “I look at this as something to control their moods. And so if they’re not a good boy or girl, I’m going to take them away, just like I do with the TVs.”

Electronic cigarettes, most of which contain nicotine but not the harmful tars found in traditional cigarettes, are sold to prisoners for $8 to $30 each, depending on the number of puffs they deliver. Some jails earn profits of more than 400 percent for each e-cigarette — money that goes either to the county’s general fund or directly into the jail budget.

Mark Gammons, sheriff of Macon County, Tenn., said he had introduced e-cigarettes to create an additional revenue stream for the jail after successive years of budget cuts and a grim funding outlook.

He said that at least half of the jail’s 150 inmates were smokers and that many had turned to e-cigarettes.

Sheriff Gammons said that he had taken pains not to encourage smoking among inmates, but that the jail commissary had still sold about 1,100 e-cigarettes since they were first offered five months ago. He said his priority is to win a pay raise for his overworked guards, who earn a top salary of $10.58 an hour — which after taxes typically amounts to less than the state’s $7.35 an hour minimum wage, the guards say.

The jail buys each e-cigarette for $2.75 and sells it for $10. An e-cigarette at the jail — either a Marlboro-style flavor or a menthol version — is good for about 500 puffs, which is the equivalent of about three and a half packs of regular cigarettes, jail officials and inmates say.

Mr. Gammons said that depending on sales, he hoped to collect between $20,000 and $50,000 from e-cigarettes this budget year.

“I just want my boys to make as much as they can,” he said, even if it is only an additional $1 an hour.

Behind the scenes, e-cigarette distributors have been lobbying local officials at state sheriffs’ association meetings, and dropping by penitentiaries and leaving behind samples.

Precision Vapor, based in Lexington, Ky., says on its website that it is “at the forefront of the introduction of electronic cigarettes to the prisons and continues to expand into all 50 states.” Its sales pitch concludes: “Providing revenue to the jail. Where it belongs.”

Electronic cigarettes, powered by a battery, heat a liquid solution to create a vapor that users inhale. The most popular flavors contain nicotine, but there are also nicotine-free varieties.

E-cigarette makers say their product is safer than regular cigarettes because there is no combustion, which means that byproducts of that process — including tars and carbon monoxide — are absent. But whether they are safe or help reduce dependence on regular cigarettes remains unclear.

In September, 40 state attorneys general sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration urging it to regulate e-cigarettes in the same manner as tobacco products. The F.D.A. is expected to soon set marketing and product rules on the devices.

“They have potential because their short-term effect appears to be far less harmful than combustible cigarettes,” said Thomas Glynn, director of cancer science and trends for the American Cancer Society. “But we don’t know the long-term effects.”

Despite the unanswered questions, the use of e-cigarettes has increased significantly in the past three years. There are now more than 350 varieties and global sales have reached nearly $2 billion, according to the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, an industry group.

County sheriffs say the most significant benefit for them has been a reduction in violence and tension in jails, which are often overcrowded and where minor disagreements can quickly escalate into fights, endangering the safety of guards.

“When these guys get in here they’re wound up anyway, and then you tell them they’re not getting cigarettes, and it’s on,” said Jason Armstrong, who runs inmate accounts at the Greene County Detention Center in eastern Tennessee, which began selling e-cigarettes in September. “Now, they’re pretty much getting their nicotine fix, so it’s cut down on altercations.”

Mr. Armstrong, who said that “pretty much everyone” at the jail used to smoke, said they had nearly sold out of the 1,500 devices bought for the facility’s 350 inmates. “It’s been tremendous,” he said.

In Nebraska, Sheriff Gustafson said the influence that e-cigarettes exert over inmates has been instrumental in maintaining good order. “The thing I like about it is it controls the guy,” he said. “We had four or five fights last week. One guy who’d had a fight asked for an e-cigarette and it calmed him down. It’s not meant to help inmates, it’s meant to help my guys.”

Logan Smith, 32, an inmate at the Macon County jail in Tennessee, said that before his arrest he had been a two-pack a day smoker. Jail, he said, put him “on edge,” but smoking a single e-cigarette each week helped soothe him.

“I’d get withdrawals from nicotine, but I didn’t want to try them at first because I didn’t think they’d help,” he said. “But it takes the nicotine edge off.”

Byron Satterfield, Macon County’s chief deputy sheriff, said that because the introduction of e-cigarettes had led to fewer inmate fights, there had also been a reduction in trips to the hospital.

“The cost of fixing a broken nose is $2,000,” he said, “so I figure we’re saving the county some money.”

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15) Soldier’s Family Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide
By

KILLEEN, Tex. — An apparent murder-suicide involving the husband and the two children of a soldier who had recently returned from a deployment to Afghanistan is providing a new twist to a persistent problem at the sprawling Fort Hood Army base here.

Soldier suicides have been dismayingly familiar in recent years at Fort Hood, which is north of Austin. In 2010, officials reported that 22 soldiers had taken their own lives that year, including a murder-suicide involving a sergeant and Iraq war veteran who shot his wife before killing himself with the gun.

But this week, Fort Hood has been struggling to make sense of a suicide involving not a service member, but one’s family.

Army investigators said on Thursday that the civilian in the suspected murder-suicide, Rouhad Ahamd Ezzeddine, 43, the husband of Pfc. Carla Santisteban, 33, appeared to have killed the couple’s two children before committing suicide. The bodies of Mr. Ezzeddine and their two daughters — Zeinab Rouhad Ezzeddine, 4, and Leila Rouhad Ezzeddine, 9 — were discovered Tuesday morning in their single-story duplex-style house in the Pershing Park neighborhood of Fort Hood.

Army officials have released few details, citing the continuing investigation. They said Private Santisteban was assigned to the 15th Brigade Support Battalion, Second Brigade Combat Team, First Cavalry Division. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division said in a statement that the deaths appeared to be the result of a murder-suicide, but that a final determination would not be made until the investigation was complete.

“This is a terrible tragedy for the mother and families of these children,” Maj. Gen. Anthony R. Ierardi, Fort Hood’s senior commander, said in a statement. “We are doing everything possible to care for the family in this time of profound grief and loss.”

It was unclear if anything like it had happened before at Fort Hood involving the spouse of a soldier. Fort Hood officials said they do not have a method to track civilian suicides. In recent years, the focus, both at Fort Hood and throughout the Army, has been on preventing soldier suicides, and very little is known about the suicide rate of Army spouses. Repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have put a tremendous amount of stress on Army families, as have other problems that affect both military and nonmilitary households, like depression and alcohol abuse.

In January 2010, Deborah Mullen, the wife of Adm. Mike Mullen, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke of the problem of spousal suicide at a military suicide prevention conference in Washington. She said Army leaders told her that they lacked the ability to track suicide attempts by family members of Army personnel because there were too many to track. “I was stunned,” Ms. Mullen said, according to The Associated Press.

At Fort Hood, nearly 70 soldiers have committed suicide since 2009, Army officials said. The base, one of the largest military installations in the world, has an on-post population of about 80,000, including more than 43,000 assigned military personnel. The number of suicides in one year appeared to peak in 2010 with 22. Last year, suicides dropped to five, with two additional cases still unconfirmed and under investigation. Fort Hood officials believe one of the reasons for the decrease has been their focus on behavioral health issues for soldiers and families.

The base is home to a fitness center that treats the mind, body and even spirituality of soldiers and their families. Called the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Training Facility, it provides a range of services, including financial advice, a climbing wall, yoga classes, meditation as well as marriage and other types of counseling.

“The Army and we here at Fort Hood remain committed to the welfare of our soldiers and their families,” General Ierardi said. “While there has been some progress in reducing the number of suicides over the past year here at Fort Hood, every suicide is one too many, and there remains more work to be done to support our soldiers and address their needs in times of challenge and crisis in their lives.”
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16) Hospital Chain Said to Scheme to Inflate Bills
By and

Every day the scorecards went up, where they could be seen by all of the hospital’s emergency room doctors.

Physicians hitting the target to admit at least half of the patients over 65 years old who entered the emergency department were color-coded green. The names of doctors who were close were yellow. Failing physicians were red.

The scorecards, according to one whistle-blower lawsuit, were just one of the many ways that Health Management Associates, a for-profit hospital chain based in Naples, Fla., kept tabs on an internal strategy that regulators and others say was intended to increase admissions, regardless of whether a patient needed hospital care, and pressure the doctors who worked at the hospital.

This month, the Justice Department said it had joined eight separate whistle-blower lawsuits against H.M.A. in six states. The lawsuits describe a wide-ranging strategy that is said to have relied on a mix of sophisticated software systems, financial incentives and threats in an attempt to inflate the company’s payments from Medicare and Medicaid by admitting patients like an infant whose temperature was a normal 98.7 degrees for a “fever.”

The accusations reach all the way to the former chief executive’s office, whom many of the whistle-blowers point to as driving the strategy.

For H.M.A., the timing could not be worse. Shareholders recently approved the planned $7.6 billion acquisition of the company by Community Health Systems, which will create the nation’s second-largest for-profit hospital chain by revenue, with more than 200 facilities. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

While the lawsuits against H.M.A. provide a stark look at the pressure being put on doctors and hospital executives to emphasize profits over their patients, similar accusations are being raised at other hospital and medical groups as health care in the United States undergoes sweeping changes.

Federal regulators have multiple investigations into questionable hospital admissions, procedures and billings at many hospital systems, including the country’s largest, HCA. Community Health Systems, the Franklin, Tenn., company from which H.M.A. hired its former chief executive in 2008, faces similar accusations that it inappropriately increased admissions. Community is in discussions with federal regulators over a settlement regarding some of the accusations.

The practice of medicine is moving more rapidly than ever from decision-making by individual doctors toward control by corporate interests. The transformation is being fueled by the emergence of large hospital systems that include groups of physicians employed by hospitals and others, and new technologies that closely monitor care. While the new medicine offers significant benefits, like better coordination of a patient’s treatment and measurements of quality, critics say the same technology, size and power can be used against physicians who do not meet the measures established by companies trying to maximize profits.

“It’s not a doctor in there watching those statistics — it’s the finance people,” said Janet Goldstein, a lawyer representing whistle-blowers in one of the suits, of a type known as qui tam litigation, against H.M.A.

What’s more, like their Wall Street bank counterparts, the mega-hospital systems, with billions of dollars in revenue, are more challenging to regulate, according to experts.

Still, when H.M.A. announced the Justice Department’s involvement in the lawsuits, investors and analysts shrugged, and the stocks for both companies involved in the merger barely budged.

Sheryl R. Skolnick, who follows health care for CRT Capital, recently wrote in a note to investors, “Investors seem to think that D.O.J. investigations, qui tam suits and allegations of serious Medicare fraud are simply a cost of doing business.” Many settlements run only into the tens of millions of dollars. That’s a corporate slap on the wrist for companies whose stocks typically soar when executives push the profit envelope. Only if the penalty is at least $500 million, Ms. Skolnick said, are corporations likely to find the cost a deterrent.

H.M.A. also faces shareholder lawsuits and a federal securities investigation. A former executive was indicted late last year on an obstruction charge related to these investigations.

The company said it could not comment on pending litigation, but was cooperating with the Justice Department investigation. In a statement, the company defended the quality of its medical care. “H.M.A. associates and physicians who practice at our facilities are focused on providing the highest-quality patient care in all of our hospitals,” it said.

The architect of the strategy to raise admissions, according to several of the lawsuits, brought by an array of physicians, individual hospital administrators and compliance officers, was the company’s former chief executive, Gary D. Newsome.

“Gary vigorously denies the allegations,” according to an email from his lawyer, Barry Sabin of Latham & Watkins.

Mr. Newsome joined H.M.A. in September 2008 from a high-ranking post at Community Health. He left H.M.A. last summer to head a religious mission in Uruguay. His compensation in the three years before his departure totaled $22 million.

Shortly after joining H.M.A., Mr. Newsome traveled to North Carolina to meet with local hospital officials. He informed them he was putting in place new protocols, using customized software, meant to “drive admissions” at hospitals, according to allegations in a federal suit filed by Michael Cowling, a former division vice president and chief executive of an H.M.A.-owned hospital in Mooresville, N.C.

To reach admission goals, administrators were directed to monitor on a daily basis the percentage of patients being admitted, using a customized software program called Pro-Med. The progress of the physicians in meeting their goals was updated daily on the scorecards.

When Mr. Cowling confronted Mr. Newsome with physician concerns that the new protocols were clinically inappropriate and would result in unnecessary tests and admissions, and said that his doctors “won’t do it,” Mr. Newsome responded: “Do it anyway,” according to the lawsuit.As a result, according to a former physician who cited multiple examples, patients who did not need inpatient treatment often were admitted, which allowed the hospital to bill Medicare and Medicaid more for the care.

In Georgia, a baby whose temperature was 98.7 degrees was admitted to the hospital with “fever,” according to a lawsuit filed in federal court by Dr. Craig Brummer, a former medical director of emergency departments at two H.M.A. hospitals.

In one case, an 18-year-old Medicaid patient with a right-knee laceration was admitted, though he could have been treated and discharged, Dr. Brummer said in his lawsuit.

Executives who raised questions about H.M.A.’s policies and procedures were often fired.

When Jacqueline Meyer, a regional administrator for EmCare, a company that provided emergency room physicians to a number of H.M.A. hospitals, refused to follow H.M.A.’s directives and fire doctors who admitted fewer patients than H.M.A. wanted, she was fired, according to the lawsuit she filed with Mr. Cowling. The Justice Department has not yet decided whether to join her lawsuit against EmCare, which declined to comment.

Likewise, shortly after Ralph D. Williams, an accountant with 30 years’ experience in hospital management, was hired as the chief financial officer for an H.M.A. hospital in Monroe, Ga., he asked an outside consulting firm to review the hospital’s inpatient admission rate.

When Mr. Williams showed the report, which confirmed a higher admission rate, to a higher-level division executive, he was told to “burn it.” Mr. Williams was soon fired, according to a qui tam lawsuit Mr. Williams filed in federal court in Georgia.

The last year has been particularly tumultuous for H.M.A., starting with the announced departure of Mr. Newsome, a battle for control of the board with Glenview Capital Management, the hedge fund founded by Lawrence M. Robbins, and the announcement of the acquisition by Community Health Systems.

The merger — and the fact that Glenview controlled big blocks of stock in both H.M.A. and Community Health — recently drew fire from some critics who questioned whether shareholders knew enough about the whistle-blower lawsuits before they voted on the merger.

H.M.A. has disclosed in regulatory filings dating back almost two years that it was the subject of investigations by attorneys general in numerous states. But the shareholder vote on the merger started before the Justice Department joined the multiple lawsuits and the company disclosed that fact.

“I find it incredibly troubling that a few days after voting had started on the merger that the company announced that the Justice Department was joining a bunch of these suits,” said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers. The union represents nurses at some of the company’s hospitals, but also trustees of teacher pension funds that own shares.

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17) Florida: More Pilot Whales Found Dead
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Boaters discovered 25 dead pilot whales off the southwest coast on Thursday, raising the death toll to 33. The whales were found on Kice Island, south of Naples and near Marco Island, said Blair Mase, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stranding coordinator. They appeared to have been there for about a day, and were part of a pod first seen Sunday. The whales were found two days after eight others were found dead near Lovers Key, 40 miles north. The deaths also come about a month after more than 50 whales were found stranded in the Everglades. The cause of death has not been determined. Pilot whales are susceptible to mass strandings because they are often unwilling to leave even one sick whale behind. Ms. Mase said the number of strandings in the last year is high.
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B. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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STOP THE TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (TPP)

Hello Everyone,
   Letting you know of this upcoming event to STOP the TPP!! This was written by 600 corporate advisors in secret with no public input. If this legislation is “Fast Tracked” it will affect all of our lives globally from the food we eat to the internet and more! If you can’t come to the Jan. 31st action please call your Senators and Rep. Pelosi (She’s the Democratic Minority Leader of the House)

“NO to FAST TRACK”  of  TPP

Senator Dianne Feinstein  Tel: 415 – 393 - 0707  / 202 - 224-3841
Senator Barbara Boxer  Tel: 510 – 286 - 8537  /  202 - 224-3553
 Representative Nancy Pelosi  Tel: 415 - 556 – 4862  / 202 – 225-0100


Inter-Continental Day of Action
STOP the TPP!!
January 31, Friday
4:30 pm – Meet at Rep. Pelosi’s office
7th and Mission Street
San Francisco        
March down Market Street to Senator Feinstein’s office
5:30 pm – Senator Feinstein’s office
One Post Street
(Market & Montgomery Streets)
San Francisco 

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Call to Action for February 8 Solidarity Rally against LGBTQ and Political Repression in Russia on the Opening Day of the Olympic Games

What: Planning meeting to organize an action in solidarity with targets of fascism in Russia
When: Tuesday, January 21, 2014, 6:00-7:30pm
Where: New Valencia Hall, 747 Polk Street, Civic Center (at Ellis Street and on/near Civic Center BART/Muni and #19, 31, 47, 48 & 49 Muni bus lines)

Dear friend,

Please don't miss the next community organizing meeting on Tuesday, January 21, 2014, the purpose of which is to further decided details for a public rally on Saturday, February 8 in San Francisco demanding queer and civil rights in Russia during the Olympic Games and to show solidarity with targets of escalating fascism.

The 2014 Winter Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia from February 7–23.  Many of you are aware that state-supported violent bigotry and repression against the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer community and others in Russia is an increasingly serious reality.  Also being targeted are dissidents, radicals, feminists, artists, immigrants, and national and religious minorities.  The Putin Administration, instead of advancing equality for all, is dragging Russia backward by instituting laws making it a crime to be gay or to even advocate for LGBT rights, throwing socialists, anarchists, and feminists like punk rock group Pussy Riot into prison, and clamping down on all forms of public protest. These policies aim to divert working people’s anger at economic austerity measures and are emboldening a growing fascist movement.  (Links to more information can be found below.)

We believe that oppressed and working people everywhere have a stake in the fight to stamp out dangerous rightwing scapegoating. What’s needed is a public display of solidarity in order to show that people in the Bay Area support civil liberties for all, the separation of church and state, and solidarity with the oppressed—in Russia and here at home.

We invite you to join the ad hoc community group meeting to discuss and plan a visible and disciplined protest rally happening at UN Plaza 11am-1pm on Saturday, February 8 in San Francisco to oppose Putin’s repression and also hopefully plan other community actions on February 7 as well. Your ideas, support, endorsement, and help are all greatly needed.  The next planning meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 21, 6:00–7:30pm at New Valencia Hall, 747 Polk Street in San Francisco (between Ellis and Eddy and near Civic Center BART/Muni).  Wheelchair accessible. Everyone is welcome.  We hope to see you there—please spread the word.

For more information or to get involved, please contact Masha at 415-678-8232 or Toni Mendicino at 415-730-2917, or email .

More information can be found here:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/10/gay-russian-teens-avoid-propaganda-law
http://therussianreader.wordpress.com/2013/11/09/dmitry-chizhevsky/
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/downfall-toward-fascism/489100.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/rising-russian-nationalism-sets-off-ethnic-tension/2013/11/11/9c9c15ae-495c-11e3-b87a-e66bd9ff3537_story.html
www.socialism.com/drupal-6.8/?q=node/2594   (“Russia’s new anti-LGBT law denounced”)
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/t1006504/
http://www.vocativ.com/11-2013/russian-neo-nazis-now-beating-gays-ukraine/
 

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THIS BOY IS JUST SO STRANGE
a free concert of original songs

featuring Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Joel Mark and Diana Hartman

Saturday Feb. 1 at 8pm and Sunday Feb. 2 at 3pm
Eric Quezada Center, 518 Valencia/16th

Says Tommi, who wrote the songs and monologues in the show:

"This boy is just so strange" is something a nun said (in a heavy South Philly accent of course) to my Mama because I draped my sweater over my shoulder "like a girl" (gender non-conformity was not something the brides of jesus understood), it's also the name of my latest musical excursion, which could be called "how I survived the gender binary system" or Tommi, the sissy rock opera.

And to paraphrase Liza, it's Tommi with an "i" not Tommi with a "y."

From a working-class Italian neighborhood in South Philly and the wild and wonderful gay liberation movement of the early 70s to the very gay Castro in San Francisco in the 90s, this musical winds around a lifetime and comes out somewhere in the social construct called the present.

They say that southern Italians (both sides of the family are from il mezzogiorno) are born with an opera libretto not a silver spoon. I've been singing since I can remember, sometimes to the horror of neighbors and family, especially after I got a guitar for graduation and struggled to learn chords.

Featuring Joel Mark on acoustic bass and Diana Hartman on vocals, she also plays various characters. Funded by a grant from Faetopia. FREE, but donations gladly accepted and shared among the performers. ALSO RUNS SUNDAY FEB. 2 at 3pm.

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New Trial Date for Beale AFB Anti-Drone Protestors Arrested April 2013

"Wheatland 4", Anti-Drone Protestors to Put Drone Warfare on Trial
    (Defendants:  Martha Hubert, Robin Ryan, Bill Doub and Toby Blome)

When:   February 3,    (Original date was Jan. 13)
Where:   Sacramento, U.S. Courthouse, 50l  I St.
8:00-9:00 am:   Pre-trial Anti-Drone Rally, and press conference outside the courthouse
9:00am:  Trial begins. 

In April, 2013, 5 activists were arrested on April 30, 2013, while attempting to deliver a letter to the Commander at Beale AFB during a nonviolent protest of drone warfare.  4 of the defendants face trespassing charges and a maximum of 6 months in jail.  Barry Binks, the 5th arrestee had his charges dropped due to his veteran status.  Please attend the pre-trial rally and join the trial to stand in unity with us against the brutality and illegality of drone warfare.

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C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND
ONGOING CAMPAIGNS


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Sireen Khudairy Appeal Update.

Sireen Khudairy was arrested again at 4am on Tuesday 7th January 2014. According to reports she has been taken to Huwwara military point. When the Israeli army took her from her home they didn't show any papers to her or the person she was with.

This follows eight months of harassment of this 24-year-old Palestinian woman who is a teacher, activist and supporter of the non-violent action against the Israeli occupation. She was previously imprisoned from May to July 2013, and has been subjected to frequent harassment ever since. See further details at:

http://freesireen.wordpress.com

Please help by contacting your Embassies urgently to demand her release and spread her appeal widely. Follow updates on:

https://www.facebook.com/FreeSireenKhudiri?ref=hl

Please contact us to let us know any action you take. We will pass this information on to her family. Thanks for your solidarity and support.  

Steven Katsineris, January 2014
 
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U.S. Court of Appeals Rules Against Lorenzo Johnson’s
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied Lorenzo Johnson’s motion to file a Second Habeas Corpus Petition. The order contained the outrageous declaration that Johnson hadn’t made a “prima facie case” that he had new evidence of his innocence. This not only puts a legal obstacle in Johnson’s path as his fight for freedom makes its way (again) through the state and federal courts—but it undermines the newly filed Pennsylvania state appeal that is pending in the Court of Common Pleas.

Stripped of  “legalese,” the court’s October 15, 2013 order says Johnson’s new evidence was not brought into court soon enough—although it was the prosecution and police who withheld evidence and coerced witnesses into lying or not coming forward with the truth! This, despite over fifteen years and rounds of legal battles to uncover the evidence of government misconduct. This is a set-back for Lorenzo Johnson’s renewed fight for his freedom, but Johnson is even more determined as his PA state court appeal continues.

Increased public support and protest is needed. The fight for Lorenzo Johnson’s freedom is not only a fight for this courageous man and family. The fight for Lorenzo Johnson is also a fight for all the innocent others who have been framed and are sitting in the slow death of prison. The PA Attorney General is directly pursuing the charges against Lorenzo, despite the evidence of his innocence and the corruption of the police. Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!

—Rachel Wolkenstein, Esq.
   October 25, 2013

For more on the federal court and PA state court legal filings.
Hear Mumia’s latest commentary, “Cat Cries”
Go to: www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org for more information, to sign the petition, and how to help.
 
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PUSH CHELSEA'S JAILERS TO RESPECT HER IDENTITY
Call and write Ft Leavenworth today and tell them to honor Manning's wishes around her name and gender:
Call: (913) 758-3600


Write to:
Col. Sioban Ledwith, Commander
U.S. Detention Barracks
1301 N Warehouse Rd
Ft. Leavenworth KS 66027

Private Manning has been an icon both for the government transparency movement and LGBTQ activists because of her fearlessness and acts of conscience. Now, as she begins serving her sentence, Chelsea has asked for help with legal appeals, family visits, education, and support for undergoing gender transition. The latter is a decision she’s made following years of experiencing gender dysphoria and examining her options. At a difficult time in her life, she joined the military out of hope–the hope that she could use her service to save lives, and also the hope that it would help to suppress her feelings of gender dysphoria. But after serving time in Iraq, Private Manning realized what mattered to her most was the truth, personal as well as political, even when it proved challenging.

Now she wants the Fort Leavenworth military prison to allow her access to hormone replacement therapy which she has offered to pay for herself, as she pursues the process to have her name legally changed to ‘Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.’

To encourage the prison to honor her transgender identity, we’re calling on progressive supporters and allies to contact Fort Leavenworth officials demanding they acknowledge her requested name change immediately. Currently, prison officials are not required to respect Chelsea’s identity, and can even refuse to deliver mail addressed to the name ‘Chelsea Manning.’ However, it’s within prison administrators’ power to begin using the name ‘Chelsea Manning’ now, in advance of the legal name change which will most likely be approved sometime next year. It’s also up to these officials to approve Private Manning’s request for hormone therapy.
Call: (913) 758-3600


Write to:
Col. Sioban Ledwith, Commander
U.S. Detention Barracks
1301 N Warehouse Rd
Ft. Leavenworth KS 66027

Tell them: “Transgender rights are human rights! Respect Private Manning’s identity by acknowledging the name ‘Chelsea Manning’ whenever possible, including in mail addressed to her, and by allowing her access to appropriate medical treatment for gender dysphoria, including hormone replacement therapy (HRT).”

While openly transgender individuals are allowed to serve in many other militaries around the world, the US military continues to deny their existence. Now, by speaking up for Chelsea’s right to treatment, you can support one brave whistleblower in her personal struggle, and help set an important benchmark for the rights of transgender individuals everywhere. (Remember that letters written with focus and a respectful tone are more likely to be effective.) Feel free to copy this sample letter.

Earlier this year, the Private Manning Support Network won the title of most “absolutely fabulous overall contingent” at the San Francisco Pride Parade, the largest celebration of its kind for LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning) people nationwide. Over one thousand people marched for Private Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning in that parade, to show LGBTQ community pride for the Iraq War’s most well-known whistleblower.

Help us continue to cover 100%
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38591

COURAGE TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
 

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 SAVE CCSF!


Two campaigns that need funds – Please donate!
Posted on August 25, 2013

Cartoon by Anthonty Mata for CCSF Guardsman

DOE CAMPAIGN
We are working to ensure that the ACCJC’s authority is not renewed by the Department of Education this December when they are up for their 5-year renewal. Our campaign made it possible for over 50 Third Party Comments to be sent to the DOE re: the ACCJC. Our next step in this campaign is to send a delegation from CCSF to Washington, D.C. to give oral comments at the hearing on December 12th. We expect to have an array of forces aligned on the other side who have much more money and resources than we do.
So please support this effort to get ACCJC authority revoked!

LEGAL CAMPAIGN
Save CCSF members have been meeting with Attorney Dan Siegel since last May to explore legal avenues to fight the ACCJC. After much consideration, and consultation with AFT 2121’s attorney as well as the SF City Attorney’s office, Dan has come up with a legal strategy that is complimentary to what is already being pursued. In fact, AFT 2121’s attorney is encouraging us to go forward.
The total costs of pursuing this (depositions, etc.) will be substantially more than $15,000. However, Dan is willing to do it for a fixed fee of $15,000. He will not expect a retainer, i.e. payment in advance, but we should start payments ASAP. If we win the ACCJC will have to pay our costs.

PLEASE HELP BOTH OF THESE IMPORTANT EFFORTS!
Checks can be made out to Save CCSF Coalition with “legal” in the memo line and sent to:
Save CCSF Coalition
2132 Prince St.
Berkeley, CA 94705
Or you may donate online:  http://www.gofundme.com/4841ns

http://www.saveccsf.org/
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16 Years in Solitary Confinement Is Like a "Living Tomb"

American Civil Liberties Union petition to end long-term solitary confinement:
California Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard: We stand with the prisoners on hunger strike. We urge you to comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons 2006 recommendations regarding an end to long-term solitary confinement.

In California, hundreds of prisoners have been held in solitary for more than a decade – some for infractions as trivial as reading Machiavelli's "The Prince."

Gabriel Reyes describes the pain of being isolated for at least 22 hours a day for the last 16 years:

“Unless you have lived it, you cannot imagine what it feels like to be by yourself, between four cold walls, with little concept of time…. It is a living tomb …’ I have not been allowed physical contact with any of my loved ones since 1995…I feel helpless and hopeless. In short, I am being psychologically tortured.”

That’s why over 30,000 prisoners in California began a hunger strike – the biggest the state has ever seen. They’re refusing food to protest prisoners being held for decades in solitary and to push for other changes to improve their basic conditions.

California Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard has tried to dismiss the strikers and refuses to negotiate, but the media pressure is building through the strike. If tens of thousands of us take action, we can help keep this issue in the spotlight so that Secretary Beard can’t ignore the inhumane treatment of prisoners.

Sign the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term solitary confinement.

Solitary is such an extreme form of punishment that a United Nations torture rapporteur called for an international ban on the practice except in rare occasions. Here’s why:

The majority of the 80,000 people held in solitary in this country are severely mentally ill or because of a minor infraction (it’s a myth that it’s only for violent prisoners)
Even for people with stable mental health, solitary causes severe psychological reactions, often leading people to attempt suicide
It jeopardizes public safety because prisoners held in solitary have a harder time reintegrating into society.

And to add insult to injury, the hunger strikers are now facing retaliation – their lawyers are being restricted from visiting and the strikers are being punished. But the media continues to write about the hunger strike and we can help keep the pressure on Secretary Beard by signing this petition.

Sign the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term solitary confinement.

Our criminal justice system should keep communities safe and treat people fairly. The use of solitary confinement undermines both of these goals – but little by little, we can help put a stop to such cruelty.

Thank you,
Anthony for the ACLU Action team
P.S. The hunger strikers have developed five core demands to address their basic conditions, the main one being an end to long-term solitary confinement. They are:

-End group punishment – prisoners say that officials often punish groups to address individual rule violations

-Abolish the debriefing policy, which is often demanded in return for better food or release from solitary

-End long-term solitary confinement

-Provide adequate and nutritious food

-Expand or provide constructive programming and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates

Sources
“Solitary - and anger - in California's prisons.” Los Angeles Times July 13, 2013
“Pelican Bay Prison Hunger-Strikers' Stories: Gabriel Reyes.” TruthOut July 9, 2013
“Solitary confinement should be banned in most cases, UN expert says.” UN News October 18, 2011
"Stop Solitary - Two Pager" ACLU.org
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What you Didn't know about NYPD's Stop and Frisk program !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rfJHx0Gj6ys#at=990

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Egypt: The Next President -- a little Egyptian boy speaks his remarkable mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeDm2PrNV1I

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Wealth Inequality in America

[This is a must see to believe video...bw]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM

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Read the transcription of hero Bradley Manning's 35-page statement explaining why he leaked "state secrets" to WikiLeaks.

March 1, 2013

Alternet

The statement was read by Pfc. Bradley Manning at a providence inquiry for his formal plea of guilty to one specification as charged and nine specifications for lesser included offenses. He pled not guilty to 12 other specifications. This rush transcript was taken by journalist Alexa O'Brien at Thursday's pretrial hearing and first appeared on Salon.com.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/bradley-mannings-surprising-statement-court-details-why-he-made-his-historic?akid=10129.229473.UZvQfK&rd=1&src=newsletter802922&t=7

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You Have the Right to Remain Silent: NLG Guide to Law Enforcement Encounters

Posted 1 day ago on July 27, 2012, 10:28 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Occupy Wall Street is a nonviolent movement for social and economic justice, but in recent days disturbing reports have emerged of Occupy-affiliated activists being targeted by US law enforcement, including agents from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. To help ensure Occupiers and allied activists know their rights when encountering law enforcement, we are publishing in full the National Lawyers Guild's booklet: You Have the Right to Remain Silent. The NLG provides invaluable support to the Occupy movement and other activists – please click here to support the NLG.

We strongly encourage all Occupiers to read and share the information provided below. We also recommend you enter the NLG's national hotline number (888-654-3265) into your cellphone (if you have one) and keep a copy handy. This information is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact the NLG or a criminal defense attorney immediately if you have been visited by the FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should also alert your relatives, friends, co-workers and others so that they will be prepared if they are contacted as well.

You Have the Right to Remain Silent: A Know Your Rights Guide for Law Enforcement Encounters

What Rights Do I Have?

Whether or not you're a citizen, you have rights under the United States Constitution. The Fifth Amendment gives every person the right to remain silent: not to answer questions asked by a police officer or government agent. The Fourth Amendment restricts the government's power to enter and search your home or workplace, although there are many exceptions and new laws have expanded the government's power to conduct surveillance. The First Amendment protects your right to speak freely and to advocate for social change. However, if you are a non-citizen, the Department of Homeland Security may target you based on your political activities.

Standing Up For Free Speech

The government's crusade against politically-active individuals is intended to disrupt and suppress the exercise of time-honored free speech activities, such as boycotts, protests, grassroots organizing and solidarity work. Remember that you have the right to stand up to the intimidation tactics of FBI agents and other law enforcement officials who, with political motives, are targeting organizing and free speech activities. Informed resistance to these tactics and steadfast defense of your and others' rights can bring positive results. Each person who takes a courageous stand makes future resistance to government oppression easier for all. The National Lawyers Guild has a long tradition of standing up to government repression. The organization itself was labeled a "subversive" group during the McCarthy Era and was subject to FBI surveillance and infiltration for many years. Guild attorneys have defended FBI-targeted members of the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement, and the Puerto Rican independence movement. The NLG exposed FBI surveillance, infiltration and disruption tactics that were detailed during the 1975-76 COINTELPRO hearings. In 1989 the NLG prevailed in a lawsuit on behalf of several activist organizations, including the Guild, that forced the FBI to expose the extent to which it had been spying on activist movements. Under the settlement, the FBI turned over roughly 400,000 pages of its files on the Guild, which are now available at the Tamiment Library at New York University.

What if FBI Agents or Police Contact Me?

What if an agent or police officer comes to the door?

Do not invite the agents or police into your home. Do not answer any questions. Tell the agent that you do not wish to talk with him or her. You can state that your lawyer will contact them on your behalf. You can do this by stepping outside and pulling the door behind you so that the interior of your home or office is not visible, getting their contact information or business cards and then returning inside. They should cease questioning after this. If the agent or officer gives a reason for contacting you, take notes and give the information to your attorney. Anything you say, no matter how seemingly harmless or insignificant, may be used against you or others in the future. Lying to or misleading a federal agent is a crime. The more you speak, the more opportunity for federal law enforcement to find something you said (even if not intentionally) false and assert that you lied to a federal officer.

Do I have to answer questions?

You have the constitutional right to remain silent. It is not a crime to refuse to answer questions. You do not have to talk to anyone, even if you have been arrested or are in jail. You should affirmatively and unambiguously state that you wish to remain silent and that you wish to consult an attorney. Once you make the request to speak to a lawyer, do not say anything else. The Supreme Court recently ruled that answering law enforcement questions may be taken as a waiver of your right to remain silent, so it is important that you assert your rights and maintain them. Only a judge can order you to answer questions. There is one exception: some states have "stop and identify" statutes which require you to provide identity information or your name if you have been detained on reasonable suspicion that you may have committed a crime. A lawyer in your state can advise you of the status of these requirements where you reside.

Do I have to give my name?

As above, in some states you can be detained or arrested for merely refusing to give your name. And in any state, police do not always follow the law, and refusing to give your name may make them suspicious or more hostile and lead to your arrest, even without just cause, so use your judgment. Giving a false name could in some circumstances be a crime.

Do I need a lawyer?

You have the right to talk to a lawyer before you decide whether to answer questions from law enforcement. It is a good idea to talk to a lawyer if you are considering answering any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer present during any interview. The lawyer's job is to protect your rights. Once you tell the agent that you want to talk to a lawyer, he or she should stop trying to question you and should make any further contact through your lawyer. If you do not have a lawyer, you can still tell the officer you want to speak to one before answering questions. Remember to get the name, agency and telephone number of any investigator who visits you, and give that information to your lawyer. The government does not have to provide you with a free lawyer unless you are charged with a crime, but the NLG or another organization may be able to help you find a lawyer for free or at a reduced rate.

If I refuse to answer questions or say I want a lawyer, won't it seem like I have something to hide?

Anything you say to law enforcement can be used against you and others. You can never tell how a seemingly harmless bit of information might be used or manipulated to hurt you or someone else. That is why the right not to talk is a fundamental right under the Constitution. Keep in mind that although law enforcement agents are allowed to lie to you, lying to a government agent is a crime. Remaining silent is not. The safest things to say are "I am going to remain silent," "I want to speak to my lawyer," and "I do not consent to a search." It is a common practice for law enforcement agents to try to get you to waive your rights by telling you that if you have nothing to hide you would talk or that talking would "just clear things up." The fact is, if they are questioning you, they are looking to incriminate you or someone you may know, or they are engaged in political intelligence gathering. You should feel comfortable standing firm in protection and defense of your rights and refusing to answer questions.

Can agents search my home or office?

You do not have to let police or agents into your home or office unless they have and produce a valid search warrant. A search warrant is a written court order that allows the police to conduct a specified search. Interfering with a warrantless search probably will not stop it and you might get arrested. But you should say "I do not consent to a search," and call a criminal defense lawyer or the NLG. You should be aware that a roommate or guest can legally consent to a search of your house if the police believe that person has the authority to give consent, and your employer can consent to a search of your workspace without your permission.

What if agents have a search warrant?

If you are present when agents come for the search, you can ask to see the warrant. The warrant must specify in detail the places to be searched and the people or things to be taken away. Tell the agents you do not consent to the search so that they cannot go beyond what the warrant authorizes. Ask if you are allowed to watch the search; if you are allowed to, you should. Take notes, including names, badge numbers, what agency each officer is from, where they searched and what they took. If others are present, have them act as witnesses to watch carefully what is happening. If the agents ask you to give them documents, your computer, or anything else, look to see if the item is listed in the warrant. If it is not, do not consent to them taking it without talking to a lawyer. You do not have to answer questions. Talk to a lawyer first. (Note: If agents present an arrest warrant, they may only perform a cursory visual search of the premises to see if the person named in the arrest warrant is present.)

Do I have to answer questions if I have been arrested?

No. If you are arrested, you do not have to answer any questions. You should affirmatively and unambiguously state that you wish to assert your right to remain silent. Ask for a lawyer right away. Do not say anything else. Repeat to every officer who tries to talk to or question you that you wish to remain silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer. You should always talk to a lawyer before you decide to answer any questions.

What if I speak to government agents anyway?

Even if you have already answered some questions, you can refuse to answer other questions until you have a lawyer. If you find yourself talking, stop. Assert that you wish to remain silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer.

What if the police stop me on the street?

Ask if you are free to go. If the answer is yes, consider just walking away. If the police say you are not under arrest, but are not free to go, then you are being detained. The police can pat down the outside of your clothing if they have reason to suspect you might be armed and dangerous. If they search any more than this, say clearly, "I do not consent to a search." They may keep searching anyway. If this happens, do not resist because you can be charged with assault or resisting arrest. You do not have to answer any questions. You do not have to open bags or any closed container. Tell the officers you do not consent to a search of your bags or other property.

What if police or agents stop me in my car?

Keep your hands where the police can see them. If you are driving a vehicle, you must show your license, registration and, in some states, proof of insurance. You do not have to consent to a search. But the police may have legal grounds to search your car anyway. Clearly state that you do not consent. Officers may separate passengers and drivers from each other to question them, but no one has to answer any questions.

What if I am treated badly by the police or the FBI?

Write down the officer's badge number, name or other identifying information. You have a right to ask the officer for this information. Try to find witnesses and their names and phone numbers. If you are injured, seek medical attention and take pictures of the injuries as soon as you can. Call a lawyer as soon as possible.

What if the police or FBI threaten me with a grand jury subpoena if I don't answer their questions?

A grand jury subpoena is a written order for you to go to court and testify about information you may have. It is common for the FBI to threaten you with a subpoena to get you to talk to them. If they are going to subpoena you, they will do so anyway. You should not volunteer to speak just because you are threatened with a subpoena. You should consult a lawyer.

What if I receive a grand jury subpoena?

Grand jury proceedings are not the same as testifying at an open court trial. You are not allowed to have a lawyer present (although one may wait in the hallway and you may ask to consult with him or her after each question) and you may be asked to answer questions about your activities and associations. Because of the witness's limited rights in this situation, the government has frequently used grand jury subpoenas to gather information about activists and political organizations. It is common for the FBI to threaten activists with a subpoena in order to elicit information about their political views and activities and those of their associates. There are legal grounds for stopping ("quashing") subpoenas, and receiving one does not necessarily mean that you are suspected of a crime. If you do receive a subpoena, call the NLG National Hotline at 888-NLG-ECOL (888-654-3265) or call a criminal defense attorney immediately.

The government regularly uses grand jury subpoena power to investigate and seek evidence related to politically-active individuals and social movements. This practice is aimed at prosecuting activists and, through intimidation and disruption, discouraging continued activism.

Federal grand jury subpoenas are served in person. If you receive one, it is critically important that you retain the services of an attorney, preferably one who understands your goals and, if applicable, understands the nature of your political work, and has experience with these issues. Most lawyers are trained to provide the best legal defense for their client, often at the expense of others. Beware lawyers who summarily advise you to cooperate with grand juries, testify against friends, or cut off contact with your friends and political activists. Cooperation usually leads to others being subpoenaed and investigated. You also run the risk of being charged with perjury, a felony, should you omit any pertinent information or should there be inconsistencies in your testimony.

Frequently prosecutors will offer "use immunity," meaning that the prosecutor is prohibited from using your testimony or any leads from it to bring charges against you. If a subsequent prosecution is brought, the prosecutor bears the burden of proving that all of its evidence was obtained independent of the immunized testimony. You should be aware, however, that they will use anything you say to manipulate associates into sharing more information about you by suggesting that you have betrayed confidences.

In front of a grand jury you can "take the Fifth" (exercise your right to remain silent). However, the prosecutor may impose immunity on you, which strips you of Fifth Amendment protection and subjects you to the possibility of being cited for contempt and jailed if you refuse to answer further. In front of a grand jury you have no Sixth Amendment right to counsel, although you can consult with a lawyer outside the grand jury room after each question.

What if I don't cooperate with the grand jury?

If you receive a grand jury subpoena and elect to not cooperate, you may be held in civil contempt. There is a chance that you may be jailed or imprisoned for the length of the grand jury in an effort to coerce you to cooperate. Regular grand juries sit for a basic term of 18 months, which can be extended up to a total of 24 months. It is lawful to hold you in order to coerce your cooperation, but unlawful to hold you as a means of punishment. In rare instances you may face criminal contempt charges.

What If I Am Not a Citizen and the DHS Contacts Me?

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is now part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and has been renamed and reorganized into: 1. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS); 2. The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP); and 3. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). All three bureaus will be referred to as DHS for the purposes of this pamphlet.

? Assert your rights. If you do not demand your rights or if you sign papers waiving your rights, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may deport you before you see a lawyer or an immigration judge. Never sign anything without reading, understanding and knowing the consequences of signing it.

? Talk to a lawyer. If possible, carry with you the name and telephone number of an immigration lawyer who will take your calls. The immigration laws are hard to understand and there have been many recent changes. DHS will not explain your options to you. As soon as you encounter a DHS agent, call your attorney. If you can't do it right away, keep trying. Always talk to an immigration lawyer before leaving the U.S. Even some legal permanent residents can be barred from returning.

Based on today's laws, regulations and DHS guidelines, non-citizens usually have the following rights, no matter what their immigration status. This information may change, so it is important to contact a lawyer. The following rights apply to non-citizens who are inside the U.S. Non-citizens at the border who are trying to enter the U.S. do not have all the same rights.

Do I have the right to talk to a lawyer before answering any DHS questions or signing any DHS papers?

Yes. You have the right to call a lawyer or your family if you are detained, and you have the right to be visited by a lawyer in detention. You have the right to have your attorney with you at any hearing before an immigration judge. You do not have the right to a government-appointed attorney for immigration proceedings, but if you have been arrested, immigration officials must show you a list of free or low cost legal service providers.

Should I carry my green card or other immigration papers with me?

If you have documents authorizing you to stay in the U.S., you must carry them with you. Presenting false or expired papers to DHS may lead to deportation or criminal prosecution. An unexpired green card, I-94, Employment Authorization Card, Border Crossing Card or other papers that prove you are in legal status will satisfy this requirement. If you do not carry these papers with you, you could be charged with a crime. Always keep a copy of your immigration papers with a trusted family member or friend who can fax them to you, if need be. Check with your immigration lawyer about your specific case.

Am I required to talk to government officers about my immigration history?

If you are undocumented, out of status, a legal permanent resident (green card holder), or a citizen, you do not have to answer any questions about your immigration history. (You may want to consider giving your name; see above for more information about this.) If you are not in any of these categories, and you are being questioned by a DHS or FBI agent, then you may create problems with your immigration status if you refuse to provide information requested by the agent. If you have a lawyer, you can tell the agent that your lawyer will answer questions on your behalf. If answering questions could lead the agent to information that connects you with criminal activity, you should consider refusing to talk to the agent at all.

If I am arrested for immigration violations, do I have the right to a hearing before an immigration judge to defend myself against deportation charges?

Yes. In most cases only an immigration judge can order you deported. But if you waive your rights or take "voluntary departure," agreeing to leave the country, you could be deported without a hearing. If you have criminal convictions, were arrested at the border, came to the U.S. through the visa waiver program or have been ordered deported in the past, you could be deported without a hearing. Contact a lawyer immediately to see if there is any relief for you.

Can I call my consulate if I am arrested?

Yes. Non-citizens arrested in the U.S. have the right to call their consulate or to have the police tell the consulate of your arrest. The police must let your consulate visit or speak with you if consular officials decide to do so. Your consulate might help you find a lawyer or offer other help. You also have the right to refuse help from your consulate.

What happens if I give up my right to a hearing or leave the U.S. before the hearing is over?

You could lose your eligibility for certain immigration benefits, and you could be barred from returning to the U.S. for a number of years. You should always talk to an immigration lawyer before you decide to give up your right to a hearing.

What should I do if I want to contact DHS?

Always talk to a lawyer before contacting DHS, even on the phone. Many DHS officers view "enforcement" as their primary job and will not explain all of your options to you.

What Are My Rights at Airports?

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is illegal for law enforcement to perform any stops, searches, detentions or removals based solely on your race, national origin, religion, sex or ethnicity.

If I am entering the U.S. with valid travel papers can a U.S. customs agent stop and search me?

Yes. Customs agents have the right to stop, detain and search every person and item.

Can my bags or I be searched after going through metal detectors with no problem or after security sees that my bags do not contain a weapon?

Yes. Even if the initial screen of your bags reveals nothing suspicious, the screeners have the authority to conduct a further search of you or your bags.

If I am on an airplane, can an airline employee interrogate me or ask me to get off the plane?

The pilot of an airplane has the right to refuse to fly a passenger if he or she believes the passenger is a threat to the safety of the flight. The pilot's decision must be reasonable and based on observations of you, not stereotypes.

What If I Am Under 18?

Do I have to answer questions?

No. Minors too have the right to remain silent. You cannot be arrested for refusing to talk to the police, probation officers, or school officials, except in some states you may have to give your name if you have been detained.

What if I am detained?

If you are detained at a community detention facility or Juvenile Hall, you normally must be released to a parent or guardian. If charges are filed against you, in most states you are entitled to counsel (just like an adult) at no cost.

Do I have the right to express political views at school?

Public school students generally have a First Amendment right to politically organize at school by passing out leaflets, holding meetings, etc., as long as those activities are not disruptive and do not violate legitimate school rules. You may not be singled out based on your politics, ethnicity or religion.

Can my backpack or locker be searched?

School officials can search students' backpacks and lockers without a warrant if they reasonably suspect that you are involved in criminal activity or carrying drugs or weapons. Do not consent to the police or school officials searching your property, but do not physically resist or you may face criminal charges.

Disclaimer

This booklet is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact an attorney if you have been visited by the FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should also alert your relatives, friends, co-workers and others so that they will be prepared if they are contacted as well.

NLG National Hotline for Activists Contacted by the FBI

888-NLG-ECOL

(888-654-3265)

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Free Mumia NOW!

Prisonradio.org

Write to Mumia:

Mumia Abu-Jamal AM 8335

SCI Mahanoy

301 Morea Road

Frackville, PA 17932

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Rachel Wolkenstein

August 21, 2011 (917) 689-4009

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL ILLEGALLY SENTENCED TO

LIFE IMPRISONMENT WITHOUT PAROLE!

FREE MUMIA NOW!

www.FreeMumia.com

http://blacktalkradionetwork.com/profiles/blogs/mumia-is-formally-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-w-out-hearing-he-s



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"A Child's View from Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against

Censorship" book

https://www.mecaforpeace.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=25

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Justice for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace: Decades of isolation in Louisiana

state prisons must end

Take Action -- Sign Petition Here:

http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/justice-for-albert-woodfox-and-herm\

an-wallace

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WITNESS GAZA

http://www.witnessgaza.com/

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Write to Bradley

http://bradleymanning.org/donate

View the new 90 second "I am Bradley Manning" video:

I am Bradley Manning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-P3OXML00s

Courage to Resist

484 Lake Park Ave. #41

Oakland, CA 94610

510-488-3559

couragetoresist.org

"A Fort Leavenworth mailing address has been released for Bradley Manning:

Bradley Manning 89289

830 Sabalu Road

Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027

The receptionist at the military barracks confirmed that if someone sends

Bradley Manning a letter to that address, it will be delivered to him."

http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/update-42811

This is also a Facebook event

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207100509321891#!/event.php?eid=2071005093\

21891

Courage to Resist needs your support

Please donate today:

https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590

"Soldiers sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning

has been defending and supporting our Constitution." --Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon

Papers whistle-blower

Jeff Paterson

Project Director, Courage to Resist

First US military service member to refuse to fight in Iraq

Please donate today.

https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590

P.S. I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly

becoming a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to

make a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!

Please click here to forward this to a friend who might also be interested in

supporting GI resisters.

http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com

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The Battle Is Still On To

FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!

The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610

www.laboractionmumia.org

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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!

Reasonable doubts about executing Kevin Cooper

Chronicle Editorial

Monday, December 13, 2010

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL

Death penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's

death row!

http://www.savekevincooper.org/

http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255

URGENT ACTION APPEAL

- From Amnesty International USA

17 December 2010

Click here to take action online:

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&\

b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084

To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to

http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success

For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):

http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf

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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work

The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's

work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown

on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l

Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected

over the past nine years.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl

Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial

support to carry out its work.

To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to

http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html

and follow the simple instructions.

Thank you for your generosity!

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D. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:

[Some of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:

http://bauaw.blogspot.com/ or bauaw.org ...bw]

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Exceptional art from the streets of Oakland:

Oakland Street Dancing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQRRnAhmB58

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqH9s5mwTEY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atyTZ8prhCg

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NYC RESTAURANT WORKERS DANCE & SING FOR A WAGE HIKE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_s8e1R6rG8&feature=player_embedded

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On Gun Control, Martin Luther King, the Deacons of Defense and the history of Black Liberation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzYKisvBN1o&feature=player_embedded

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Fukushima Never Again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU-Z4VLDGxU

"Fukushima, Never Again" tells the story of the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdowns in north east Japan in March of 2011 and exposes the cover-up by Tepco and the Japanese government.

This is the first film that interviews the Mothers Of Fukushima, nuclear power experts and trade unionists who are fighting for justice and the protection of the children and the people of Japan and the world. The residents and citizens were forced to buy their own geiger counters and radiation dosimeters in order to test their communities to find out if they were in danger.

The government said contaminated soil in children's school grounds was safe and then

when the people found out it was contaminated and removed the top soil, the government and TEPCO refused to remove it from the school grounds.

It also relays how the nuclear energy program for "peaceful atoms" was brought to Japan under the auspices of the US military occupation and also the criminal cover-up of the safety dangers of the plant by TEPCO and GE management which built the plant in Fukushima. It also interviews Kei Sugaoka, the GE nulcear plant inspector from the bay area who exposed cover-ups in the safety at the Fukushima plant and was retaliated against by GE. This documentary allows the voices of the people and workers to speak out about the reality of the disaster and what this means not only for the people of Japan but the people of the world as the US government and nuclear industry continue to push for more new plants and government subsidies. This film breaks

the information blockade story line of the corporate media in Japan, the US and around the world that Fukushima is over.

Production Of Labor Video Project

P.O. Box 720027

San Francisco, CA 94172

www.laborvideo.org

lvpsf@laborvideo.org

For information on obtaining the video go to:

www.fukushimaneveragain.com

(415)282-1908


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1000 year of war through the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiG8neU4_bs&feature=share

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Anatomy of a Massacre - Afganistan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6BnRc11aug&feature=player_embedded

Afghans accuse multiple soldiers of pre-meditated murder

To see more go to http://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures

Follow us on Facebook (http://goo.gl/YRw42) or Twitter

(http://www.twitter.com/journeymanvod)

The recent massacre of 17 civilians by a rogue US soldier has been shrouded in

mystery. But through unprecedented access to those involved, this report

confronts the accusations that Bales didn't act alone.

"They came into my room and they killed my family". Stories like this are common

amongst the survivors in Aklozai and Najiban. As are the shocking accusations

that Sergeant Bales was not acting alone. Even President Karzai has announced

"one man can not do that". Chief investigator, General Karimi, is suspicious

that despite being fully armed, Bales freely left his base without raising

alarm. "How come he leaves at night and nobody is aware? Every time we have

weapon accountability and personal accountability." These are just a few of the

questions the American army and government are yet to answer. One thing however

is very clear, the massacre has unleashed a wave of grief and outrage which

means relations in Kandahar will be tense for years to come: "If I could lay my

hands on those infidels, I would rip them apart with my bare hands."

A Film By SBS

Distributed By Journeyman Pictures

April 2012

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Photo of George Zimmerman, in 2005 photo, left, and in a more recent photo.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/02/us/the-events-leading-to-the-sooti\

ng-of-trayvon-martin.html?hp

SPD Security Cams.wmv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WWDNbQUgm4&feature=player_embedded

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Kids being put on buses and transported from school to "alternate locations" in

Terror Drills

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFia_w8adWQ

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Private prisons,

a recession resistant investment opportunity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGLDOxx9Vg

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Attack Dogs used on a High School Walkout in MD, Four Students Charged With

"Thought Crimes"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wafMaML17w

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Common forms of misconduct by Law Enforcement Officials and Prosecutors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViSpM4K276w&feature=related

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Organizing and Instigating: OCCUPY - Ronnie Goodman

http://arthazelwood.com/instigator/occupy/occupy-birth-video.html

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Rep News 12: Yes We Kony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GbzIkYdc8

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The New Black by The Mavrix - Official Music Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4rLfja8488

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Japan One Year Later

http://www.onlineschools.org/japan-one-year-later/

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The CIA's Heart Attack Gun

http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/assassination-studies/the-cias-heart-attack-g\

un-.html

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The Invisible American Workforce

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/5/new_expos_tracks_alec_private_prison

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Labor Beat: NATO vs The 1st Amendment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbQxnb4so3U

For more detailed information, send us a request at mail@laborbeat.org.


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The Battle of Oakland

by brandon jourdan plus

http://vimeo.com/36256273

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Officers Pulled Off Street After Tape of Beating Surfaces

By ANDY NEWMAN

February 1, 2012, 10:56 am

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/officers-pulled-off-street-after-ta\

pe-of-beating-surfaces/?ref=nyregion

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This is excellent! Michelle Alexander pulls no punches!

Michelle Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow, speaks about the political

strategy

behind the War on Drugs and its connection to the mass incarceration of Black

and Brown people in the United States.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P75cbEdNo2U&feature=player_embedded

If you think Bill Clinton was "the first black President" you need to watch this

video and see how much damage his administration caused for the black community

as a result of his get tough attitude on crime that appealed to white swing

voters.

This speech took place at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem on January 12,

2012.

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FREE BRADLEY MANNING

http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/national-call-in-for-bradley

I received the following reply from the White House November 18, 2011 regarding

the Bradley Manning petition I signed:

"Why We Can't Comment on Bradley Manning

"Thank you for signing the petition 'Free PFC Bradley Manning, the accused

WikiLeaks whistleblower.' We appreciate your participation in the We the People

platform on WhiteHouse.gov.

The We the People Terms of Participation explain that 'the White House may

decline to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or

similar matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or

agencies, federal courts, or state and local government.' The military justice

system is charged with enforcing the Uniform Code of

Military Justice. Accordingly, the White House declines to comment on the

specific case raised in this petition...

That's funny! I guess Obama didn't get this memo. Here's what Obama said about

Bradley:

BRADLEY MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!

"He broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be

charged, let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the

President to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with

a crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!

Obama on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-

Presidential remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at

fundraiser. Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political

action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be

Release Bradley Manning

Almost Gone (The Ballad Of Bradley Manning)

Written by Graham Nash and James Raymond (son of David Crosby)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAYG7yJpBbQ&feature=player_embedded

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Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded

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School police increasingly arresting American students?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl-efNBvjUU&feature=player_embedded

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FYI:

Nuclear Detonation Timeline "1945-1998"

The 2053 nuclear tests and explosions that took place between 1945 and 1998 are

plotted visually and audibly on a world map.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lquok4Pdk&feature=share&mid=5408

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We Are the 99 Percent

We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to

choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are

suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay

and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1

percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.

Brought to you by the people who occupy wall street. Why will YOU occupy?

OccupyWallSt.org

Occupytogether.org

wearethe99percentuk.tumblr.com

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

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We Are The People Who Will Save Our Schools

YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFAOJsBxAxY

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In honor of the 75th Anniversary of the 44-Day Flint Michigan sit-down strike at

GM that began December 30, 1936:

According to Michael Moore, (Although he has done some good things, this clip

isn't one of them) in this clip from his film, "Capitalism a Love Story," it was

Roosevelt who saved the day!):

"After a bloody battle one evening, the Governor of Michigan, with the support

of the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, sent in the National

Guard. But the guns and the soldiers weren't used on the workers; they were

pointed at the police and the hired goons warning them to leave these workers

alone. For Mr. Roosevelt believed that the men inside had a right to a redress

of their grievances." -Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story'

- Flint Sit-Down Strike http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8x1_q9wg58

But those cannons were not aimed at the goons and cops! They were aimed straight

at the factory filled with strikers! Watch what REALLY happened and how the

strike was really won!

'With babies & banners' -- 75 years since the 44-day Flint sit-down strike

http://links.org.au/node/2681

--Inspiring

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HALLELUJAH CORPORATIONS (revised edition).mov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0WSNRpy3g

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ONE OF THE GREATEST POSTS ON YOUTUBE SO FAR!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8C-qIgbP9o&feature=share&mid=552

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ILWU Local 10 Longshore Workers Speak-Out At Oakland Port Shutdown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JUpBpZYwms

Uploaded by laborvideo on Dec 13, 2011

ILWU Local 10 longshore workers speak out during a blockade of the Port of

Oakland called for by Occupy Oakland. Anthony Levieges and Clarence Thomas rank

and file members of the union. The action took place on December 12, 2011 and

the interview took place at Pier 30 on the Oakland docks.

For more information on the ILWU Local 21 Longview EGT struggle go to

http://www.facebook.com/groups/256313837734192/

For further info on the action and the press conferernce go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3fE-Vhrw8&feature=youtu.be

Production of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org

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UC Davis Police Violence Adds Fuel to Fire

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

19 November 11

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8485-uc-davis-police-violence-add\

s-fuel-to-fire

UC Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4&feature=player_embedded

Police PEPPER SPRAY UC Davis STUDENT PROTESTERS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWEx6Cfn-I&feature=player_embedded

Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded

*---------*

UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to her car

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CZ0t9ez_EGI#!

Occupy Seattle - 84 Year Old Woman Dorli Rainey Pepper Sprayed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTIyE_JlJzw&feature=related

*---------*

THE BEST VIDEO ON "OCCUPY THE WORLD"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S880UldxB1o

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Shot by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0pX9LeE-g8&feature=player_embedded

*---------*

Copwatch@Occupy Oakland: Beware of Police Infiltrators and Provocateurs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrvMzqopHH0

*---------*

Occupy Oakland 11-2 Strike: Police Tear Gas, Black Bloc, War in the Streets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tu_D8SFYck&feature=player_embedded

*----*

Quebec police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest

were actually undercover Quebec police officers:

POLICE STATE Criminal Cops EXPOSED As Agent Provocateurs @ SPP Protest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoiisMMCFT0&feature=player_embedded

*----*

Quebec police admit going undercover at montebello protests

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg&feature=player_embedded

G20: Epic Undercover Police Fail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrJ7aU-n1L8&feature=player_embedded

*----*

WHAT HAPPENED IN OAKLAND TUESDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 25:

Occupy Oakland Protest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPs-REyl-0&feature=player_embedded

Cops make mass arrests at occupy Oakland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R27kD2_7PwU&feature=player_embedded

Raw Video: Protesters Clash With Oakland Police

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpO-lJr2BQY&feature=player_embedded

Occupy Oakland - Flashbangs USED on protesters OPD LIES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q&feature=player_embedded

KTVU TV Video of Police violence

http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587714/index.html

Marine Vet wounded, tear gas & flash-bang grenades thrown in downtown

Oakland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMUgPTCgwcQ&feature=player_embedded

Tear Gas billowing through 14th & Broadway in Downtown Oakland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU4Y0pwJtWE&feature=player_embedded

Arrests at Occupy Atlanta -- This is what a police state looks like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YStWz6jbeZA&feature=player_embedded

*---------*

Labor Beat: Hey You Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY8isD33f-I

*---------*

Voices of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA48gmfGB6U&feature=youtu.be

Voices of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjKZpOk7TyM&feature=related

*---------*

#Occupy Wall Street In Washington Square: Mohammed Ezzeldin, former occupier of

Egypt's Tahrir Square Speaks at Washington Square!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziodsFWEb5Y&feature=player_embedded

*---------*

#OccupyTheHood, Occupy Wall Street

By adele pham

http://vimeo.com/30146870

*---------*

Live arrest at brooklyn bridge #occupywallstreet by We are Change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULSI-31Pto&feature=player_embedded

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FREE THE CUBAN FIVE!

http://www.thecuban5.org/wordpress/index.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmS4kHC_OlY&feature=player_embedded

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One World One Revolution -- MUST SEE VIDEO -- Powerful and beautiful...bw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3R1BQrYCw&feature=player_embedded

"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Thomas Jefferson

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Japan: angry Fukushima citizens confront government (video)

Posted by Xeni Jardin on Monday, Jul 25th at 11:36am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuGwc9dlhQ&feature=player_embedded


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Labor Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand

Jury Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.

"If trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."

"Investigate the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse

Sharkey, Vice

President, Chicago Teachers Union

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ

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Coal Ash: One Valley's Tale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded

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