Saturday, June 21, 2014

BAUAW NEWSLETTER: SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 2014




NO NEW U.S. WAR ON IRAQ!

Sat. June 21st 12pm

Powell and Market Sts., SF


US bomberIt has become increasingly likely that the U.S. government will once again take military action in Iraq. It is urgent that anti-war forces mobilize to tell the Obama administration that the people of this country completely oppose any new war on Iraq.

The ANSWER Coalition is gearing up for such efforts, and is calling for nationwide demonstrations on Friday, June 20 and Saturday, June 21, as well as emergency actions the day U.S. bombing starts, in the event that it happens before these dates.

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld should be arrested and prosecuted for their criminal acts in Iraq. It was the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq that destroyed the country and brought about the current crisis. There is nothing the Pentagon can do with more air strikes and destruction to undo that, or bring about peace now.

We in the anti-war movement fought too long and too hard to prevent and end that illegal and unjust war. We cannot sit by idly today when the Pentagon may be about to open a new chapter in its history of death and destruction.

In San Francisco, we will rally at Powell and Market streets on Sat. June 21 at 12pm. Join us! For more information please contact ANSWER at 415 821 6545

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org
http://www.AnswerSF.org
Answer@AnswerSF.org
2969 Mission St.
415-821-6545

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Nat Weinstein ¡Presente!

October 3, 1924—May 9, 2014

There will be a Celebration of the Life of Nat Weinstein on Sunday, June 22, from 1 to 4 p.m. in San Francisco. The celebration will be at SEIU 1021's Union Hall at 350 Rhode Island St. The entrance is on Kansas Street, between 16th and 17th. (The Building is marked 350 Rhode Island on the Kansas side too.) There will be remembrances by family members and life-long comrades of Nat and an open mic for those who wish to share appreciations and memories of Nat's life. He was a fighter for socialism to the end. Refreshments will be served.

Nathan Weinstein was born in Brooklyn in 1924. His mother was a Russian-Jewish immigrant, his father an American-born son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. He married Sylvia Mae Profitt in 1944 and joined the Socialist Workers Party in 1945. He served as a Merchant seaman during World War II from 1943-1945. He first learned about socialism in 1945 aboard a Merchant ship. For the rest of his life he devoted himself to his family and to the socialist cause. He participated in the civil rights movement, especially defending Robert Williams and Malcolm X, and was a supporter in the U.S. of the Cuban Revolution. He was active in the Painters Union both in New York and in San Francisco and participated in many labor struggles throughout his life. Nat was an editor of Socialist Viewpoint magazine, where many of his writings were published, including analyses of the Cuban Revolution, the fall of the Soviet Union, the nature of the Chinese state and the power of the united front of workers. Nat was also a decorative painter and an artist. Besides baseball, pool and pinochle, he loved a good political debate. Nat is survived by his daughters Bonnie and Debbie Weinstein, Bonnie’s husband, Jack Biancalana, her son Kevin Sheppard and his wife Maria Sheppard, her son John A. Gould, and Debbie’s son, Reshad Karboau. To his whole family and his many friends and comrades Nat Weinstein represented the best tradition of the militant, class-conscious socialist worker. Messages and comments can be sent to Bonnie Weinstein at giobon@comcast.net, Carole Seligman at caroleseligman@sbcglobal.net, or call Socialist Viewpoint at (415) 824-8730 for more information.



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Chelsea Manning SF Pride Contingent 2014
http://www.facebook.com/events/298467196976692/

 June 28/29 Celebration Civic Center
June 29 Parade Market Street

This year we have more reason to celebrate the SF Pride 2014 parade in San
Francisco: Heroic WikiLeaks whistle-blower Chelsea Manning is being honored
as an official Grand Marshal! March with us to show your pride in Chelsea!

Organized by the Chelsea Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist.
Endorsing organizations include War Resisters League-West, CODEPINK Women
for Peace, CivSol, and the Brass Liberation Orchestra.

Please contact us to include your organization as an endorser!

A motorized cable car will be available for participants with mobility
limitations.

For further details, please contact farah@couragetoresist.org

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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) Assessing Fukushima Damage Without Eyes on the Inside
By




2) Chaos in Paris: Riot police and striking train workers clash during the worst disruption to French railway network in years
Train workers strike over a bill to reform the state-run railway system
Protesters block cars, fire flares and throw bottles at parliament building
The proposed bill would unite the SNCF train operator with the RFF network 
Workers staged protests near the National Assembly on Paris' Left Bank
By Travelmail Reporter
Published: 07:56 EST, 17 June 2014 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2660109/Chaos-Paris-Riot-police-striking-train-workers-clash-worst-disruption-French-network-years.html 





3) As Justice Department Scrutinizes Local Police, Cleveland Is Latest Focus
By




4) Georgia Inmate Is Put to Death in First U.S. Execution Since Botched Procedure
By ALAN BLINDER




5) Social Security Agency Cuts Services as Demand Grows, Senate Report Says
By





6) Border Centers Struggle to Handle Onslaught of Young Migrants
"As detainees, none of the children are allowed to go outside except to exercise for 45 minutes to an hour a day."
By




7) Drones Kill 5 as Pakistan and U.S. Target Tribal Belt
By ISMAIL KHAN and




8) Rail Strike Strands French and Tests Their President
By SCOTT SAYARE




By




10) Family of Framed Man Sues City and Police
By





11) Groups Appeal to UN for 'Humanity' as Detroit Shuts Off Water to Thousands
'By denying water service to thousands, Detroit is violating the human right to water.'
By Sarah Lazare
Published on Wednesday, June 18, 2014 by Common Dreams
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/06/18-7
 
 
 
 
12) Five Exonerated in Central Park Jogger Case Agree to Settle Suit for $40 Million
By




13) Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian Teenager Protesting Arrests in the West Bank
By




14) Witness to Fatal Shooting of Palestinians Reports Threats From Israeli Soldiers
By




15) Albuquerque Protest to Put Police Chief 'on Trial'
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/06/21/us/ap-us-albuquerque-police-shootings.html?ref=us




16) A Job Seeker’s Desperate Choice
By



 



17) Unblinking Eyes Track Employees
Workplace Surveillance Sees Good and Bad
By




18) Workplace Surveillance and the ‘Transparency Paradox’
By STEVE LOHR



















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1) Assessing Fukushima Damage Without Eyes on the Inside
By

A particle that barely ranks as a footnote in a physics text may be about to lift the cleanup of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex in Japan over a crucial obstacle.

Inside the complex, there are three wrecked reactor cores, twisted masses of hundreds of tons of highly radioactive uranium, plutonium, cesium and strontium. After the meltdown, which followed a tsunami and earthquake in 2011, most of the material in the plant’s reactors resolidified, in difficult shapes and in confined spaces, wrapped around and through the structural parts of the reactors and the buildings.Or at least, that is what the engineers think. Nobody really knows, because nobody has yet examined many of the most important parts of the wreckage. Though three and a half years have passed, it is still too dangerous to climb inside for a look, and sending in a camera would risk more leaks. Engineers do not have enough data to even run a computer model that could tell them how much of the reactor cores are intact and how much of them melted, because the measurement systems inside the buildings were out of commission for days after the accident.

And though the buildings may be leaking, they were built of concrete and steel so thick that there is no hope of using X-rays or other conventional imaging technology to scan the wreckage from a safe distance.

To clean up the reactors, special tools must be custom-made, according to Duncan W. McBranch, the chief technology officer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the tools “can be much better designed if you had a good idea of what’s inside.” But “nobody knows what happened inside,” he said. “Nobody wants to go in to find out.”

That is where muons come in.

In the next few days, Toshiba, the contractor in charge of the initial cleanup work, and the laboratory expect to sign a formal agreement to deploy a new technology that experts believe will yield three-dimensional images of the wrecked reactor cores, and will be able to differentiate the uranium and plutonium from other materials, even when 10 feet of concrete and steel are in the way.

The Energy Department has been working on the technology for years, and already licenses it in a less advanced form for a more limited job: A Virginia company is using it in a device that screens shipping containers for smuggled uranium or plutonium that could be used in a nuclear bomb. The lab’s new version will be much more ambitious and will focus on mapping rather than just detection.

The technique takes advantage of the fact that everything on earth is constantly being bombarded by muons, subatomic particles that are somewhat like electrons, though about 200 times as heavy. Muons are shaken loose from molecules in the atmosphere by cosmic radiation, and rain down on the earth. They are so penetrating that most go straight through the planet and zip out the other side at near the speed of light without any effect on their trajectory.

But occasionally, one of the muons will happen to hit an atomic nucleus, and when it does, it will change direction in a way that gives a clue about the shape of the target and the target’s density. The technique of detecting those scattered particles and inferring what it was that they bounced off is called muon tomography.

“There is a similarity to X-ray, but the details of the physics are different,” Dr. McBranch said.

Decision Sciences International, a Virginia company, says it can use muon tomography to screen a 40-foot shipping container in 45 seconds and sense whether there is uranium or plutonium in it, though not in great detail. As altered by the Los Alamos scientists for use at Fukushima, the process requires a much longer exposure — it could take weeks. But the result will be a three-dimensional image; concrete, steel and water will all be distinguishable from uranium, plutonium and other very heavy materials.

“You don’t need a quick image, you just need a good image, and you have plenty of time,” said Stanton D. Sloane, the chief executive of Decision Sciences. Testing will begin later this year, officials say, and final images will be produced next year.

“I would expect to be able to distinguish fairly readily between what would be described as random results from the meltdown, versus engineered structural components,” Mr. Sloane said.

The Department of Energy, which runs the Los Alamos lab, does not yet have a formal agreement with Decision Sciences to produce the necessary hardware, but the company is likely to do so.

Mr. Sloane would not say how much the equipment would cost, but the project is small by nuclear standards. Toshiba will reimburse Los Alamos for its costs, which officials said would come to less than half a million dollars. Los Alamos has spent about $4 million developing the technology. Decision Sciences spent additional money to commercialize it, but has not said how much.

The Los Alamos contribution to the Fukushima project is mostly software. The accompanying apparatus, which has already been tried out on a small, intact reactor, consists of two billboard-size detectors, set up on opposite sides of the building. Each detector is like an array of pipes in a church organ, with each pipe filled with inert gases, including argon, that give an indication when a muon hits. The detectors keep track of which pipes were hit on the way in and on the way out, and at what angle. (It is not possible to “tag” a muon, but by timing the detections, the engineers can tell that they spotted the same muon coming and going.)

The detectors do not have to go inside the reactor building. In fact, they would work less well inside, because gamma radiation coming off the melted fuel would make it harder to spot the muons. Instead, the detectors will be set up a few feet away from the reactor buildings’ outer walls, and will be shielded with four inches of steel, which will stop the gamma rays but makes no difference to the muons.

At sea level, about 10,000 muons will pass through each square meter of the detectors every minute. Only a few of them will be deflected and yield useful data, so the detectors will need to run for weeks to gather enough for a clear picture.

Muon tomography is not completely new; it was used in the 1960s to peer inside the Great Pyramid at Giza. But the current version produces images of much higher resolution, according to Dr. McBranch.

Japan is increasingly turning to other countries for the technology needed to clean up Fukushima. This month, Tepco, the utility that operated the power plant, announced a deal with Kurion, a waste-handling company based in Irvine, Calif., for a mobile system to scrub radioactive strontium from 340,000 tons of contaminated water at the site.

Lake H. Barrett, an engineer who is not directly involved in the muon project, said the technique was certainly worth trying. Mr. Barrett was the director of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission office on site at the cleanup of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pa.; he is now an adviser to the president of Tepco.

Referring to the technology’s use in detecting smuggled weapons fuel, he said, “It’s nice to see the synergy of nonproliferation technologies, on which we in the U.S. have spent hundreds of millions of dollars, applied to another area.”

“How effective it is, we’ll have to wait and see,” he continued. “But we’re all optimistic.”

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2) Chaos in Paris: Riot police and striking train workers clash during the worst disruption to French railway network in years
Train workers strike over a bill to reform the state-run railway system
Protesters block cars, fire flares and throw bottles at parliament building
The proposed bill would unite the SNCF train operator with the RFF network 
Workers staged protests near the National Assembly on Paris' Left Bank
By Travelmail Reporter
Published: 07:56 EST, 17 June 2014 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2660109/Chaos-Paris-Riot-police-striking-train-workers-clash-worst-disruption-French-network-years.html 

French riot police clashed with train workers during a week long strike, causing some of the worst disruption to the country's rail network in years. 

Angry train staff hurled bottles and blocked traffic over a bill to reform the state-run railway system. 

And the chaos shows no signs of slowing down as the reform bill goes to the lower house of Parliament for debate today. 

The bill would unite the SNCF train operator with the RFF railway network, which would pave the way to opening up railways to competition. Workers fear the reform will mean job losses and security concerns. 

 The government says the reform is needed to create a stronger structure for the railways, as France and other European countries gear up for full-scale railway liberalization in coming years. 

Several hundred workers staged a protest Tuesday near the National Assembly on Paris' Left Bank, waving red union flags and demanding that the bill be delayed or changed. 

The protesters blocked cars and tried to push past police to approach the parliament building, firing flares and throwing bottles.

Officers  responded with tear gas and batons and wrestled a few protesters to the ground. 

The protesters retreated and their demonstration continued peacefully. 

Later Tuesday, French television showed footage of protesters marching onto train tracks at Paris' busy Montparnasse station, which links travelers with cities across western and southwest France. 

The strike began last Wednesday, and while only a minority of workers are taking part, it has disrupted travel on trains across France and on commuter lines. 

About a third of trains were canceled nationwide Tuesday. The strike has not affected international lines such as the Eurostar train from Paris to London, but it has caused problems for international travelers using the commuter rail to and from Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport. 

Prime Minister Manuel Valls broke with the tradition that governments don't meddle in strikes, saying Monday that the movement was 'not useful and not responsible.'
Lawmakers begin debating the bill Tuesday afternoon.

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3) As Justice Department Scrutinizes Local Police, Cleveland Is Latest Focus
By

CLEVELAND — As cries of “shots fired” shrieked from police radios, a caravan that grew to 62 patrol cars chased an old blue Malibu through 20 miles of this city’s streets and highways. The vehicle and its two occupants were surrounded in a school lot, and in a disorienting jumble of sirens and strobes, officers fired 137 rounds at close range.

When the shooting stopped that night in November 2012, a man and a woman, both African-American, were dead, riddled with bullets in the car’s front seat. There was no evidence that either had a gun. Investigations suggested that they had set out to purchase crack cocaine in a car that apparently backfired as it passed an officer, and then panicked when the police tried to pull them over.

Late last month, one officer was indicted on manslaughter charges and five supervisors were charged with criminal dereliction of duty.

The Department of Justice has also opened a wide-ranging civil rights investigation that could lead to years of court oversight and mandated controls on the use of force.

It is the latest in a series of sharp federal interventions in police departments across the country, part of an initiative that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. considers a signature achievement, forcing change and accountability on insular police departments.

“For me, it’s kind of personal,” Mr. Holder said in an interview. In his days as a prosecutor and a judge in Washington, D.C., he recalled, strong criminal cases had crumbled because jurors mistrusted the police.

“Sometimes people think a choice has to be made between lawful, respectful policing and effective policing,” Mr. Holder said. “I think they are mutually dependent.”

The federal investigations are often followed by agreements called consent decrees and years of court monitoring. Even cities that have not come under direct scrutiny have been encouraged to tighten rules for using Tasers and guns, to find better ways to deal with mentally ill suspects and to adopt new technology such as on-officer video cameras.

Some police departments and political leaders have pushed back. Last month, more than 100 officers in Seattle filed a suit to block a court-ordered plan there, saying it imposed unrealistic limits that put police and the public at risk. Some experts have criticized the interventions as overly intrusive and costly.

The federal program was authorized by Congress in 1994 in the shock waves that followed the beating of Rodney King and subsequent riots in Los Angeles. While early cases were begun in cities including Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, the Justice Department under President George W. Bush put an emphasis on technical assistance to departments rather than on court-ordered changes.

But the Obama administration opened investigations, often leading to court supervision, in about 20 cities. They include New Orleans, where court oversight aims to combat a history of police violence and corruption; Portland, Ore., where the focus is on responses to mentally ill offenders; and Albuquerque, where a string of questionable shootings has caused community outrage.

“This program has brought important reforms in the departments that have settlements,” said Samuel Walker, emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska. “More importantly, it has defined a set of best practices, conditions for effective and constitutional policing that are now well known throughout the country.”

Mr. Walker said that three elements had emerged as hallmarks. Departments should have clear policies and training to minimize the use of force, he said, that include tactics for de-escalating confrontations. They should also have computerized warning systems to identify the officers who are most often involved in violence, he said, so problem behavior may be addressed quickly. And, he said, departments should have effective methods for responding to citizen complaints.

In many cases, mayors and police chiefs have said they welcome the outside help, which, among other things, can reduce lawsuits.

But in New Orleans, Mayor Mitch Landrieu sought, without success, to get out of a court settlement, saying the city could not afford the projected $55 million required to reconfigure the police and pay a monitor.

The Los Angeles Police Department entered into a consent decree in 2001, after revelations that officers in one district were abusing suspects, tampering with evidence and committing perjury. Members of the force complained bitterly about the outside supervision, which continued for 13 years.

Others said that internal overhaul had made only halting progress.

“The consent decree was the best thing ever to happen to the L.A.P.D.,” said Richard E. Drooyan, a former president of the Los Angeles police commission and a prominent lawyer. “It forced changes, and now this is a much better police force.”In Cleveland, the leader of the police union called the November 2012 episode a “perfect chase” that protected the public from an apparent danger, but chagrined city officials saw it as a serious breakdown in discipline: Apart from the fusillade of bullets, in which officers fired wildly toward each other across the target car, more than one-third of the city’s on-duty officers joined in the chase, many without permission. The department itself disciplined more than 70 officers and supervisors.

But civil rights leaders here, who have seen overhauls come and go in the past, demanded stronger action, and several wrote to the Justice Department asking it to intervene.

Among black residents, the episode created “a powder keg of anger and frustration,” said the Rev. Jawanza K. Colvin, pastor of the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church.

“We all hear stories in the barber shops, the beauty shops, the basketball courts — stories of police harassment and violence,” Mr. Colvin said in an interview. “When you have an incident like Nov. 29, 2012, it brings all these concerns and anxieties to the fore.”

His church was one of several places that hosted community meetings with federal investigators, at which frustrations often boiled over.

Mayor Frank G. Jackson asked for the federal investigation “to add credibility” to overhauls the Police Department had already started, according to Maureen Harper, the mayor’s spokeswoman. “We will not presume the outcome of the D.O.J. review,” she added.

Community leaders say they hope for lasting changes in police-community relations, a goal also pursued in private lawsuits filed on behalf of the two victims in the police pursuit, Timothy R. Russell and Malissa A. Williams.

The point is not to demonize the police, some of whom are members of his congregation, Mr. Colvin said.

“It’s our civic duty,” he said, “to make sure these officers from our own community are not only given the best equipment but also the best training to deal with a very divided society.”


Campbell Robertson contributed reporting from New Orleans.





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 4) Georgia Inmate Is Put to Death in First U.S. Execution Since Botched Procedure
By ALAN BLINDER

JACKSON, Ga. — Marcus A. Wellons, who was convicted in the 1989 rape and murder of a teenage girl, was executed at a Georgia prison on Tuesday, becoming the first inmate put to death in the United States since a botched execution in Oklahoma seven weeks ago prompted renewed questions about capital punishment.

A spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections said that the execution began at 10:41 p.m., and that Mr. Wellons was pronounced dead more than an hour later, at 11:56 p.m. Media witnesses described a shorter procedure.

A journalist who witnessed the execution, Rhonda Cook of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said a prison official fainted shortly before Mr. Wellons was declared dead. But she said there had been no other abnormalities.

Mr. Wellons apologized for his crime, Ms. Cook said. “I ask and hope that you will find peace with my death,” she quoted him as saying. He later said, “I’m going home to be with Jesus.”The execution took place well after the scheduled start time of 7 p.m. State officials had delayed the execution of Mr. Wellons, 58, while the United States Supreme Court considered his final appeal.

Before the execution in this city southeast of Atlanta, law enforcement officials in fluorescent vests and riot gear stood guard at the prison’s entrance.

Although the state acknowledged that it used a substantial dose of a single drug — pentobarbital, a barbiturate — from a compounding pharmacy to execute Mr. Wellons, many of the procedures surrounding his death were kept secret. A state law that took effect last summer and was upheld in May by the State Supreme Court allowed the authorities in Georgia to withhold information about the people and companies involved in executions.

That secrecy was a subject of one of Mr. Wellons’s many appeals in the federal and state courts, which continued well into Tuesday. Defense lawyers argued that the confidentiality exposed Mr. Wellons to the threat of a cruel and unusual punishment because they could not evaluate the qualifications of members of the execution team or the safety record of the compounding pharmacy.

But in a 10-page ruling that the federal appellate system allowed to stand, Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. of the Federal District Court in Atlanta ruled that Georgia had a “compelling need” for secrecy. He also said that the authorities in Georgia had “a strong interest” in ensuring the execution was properly handled.

“Botched executions lead to embarrassment, investigations, bad press and, perhaps worst of all for the individuals involved, the knowledge that they caused an individual needless pain and suffering,” Judge Batten wrote in a ruling issued on Monday.

The execution of Mr. Wellons followed the botched one of Clayton D. Lockett in Oklahoma on April 29, an episode that President Obama described as “deeply troubling” and prompted him to seek a Justice Department review of capital punishment.

Oklahoma officials had planned a second execution for the same night, but postponed it after Mr. Lockett appeared to endure agonizing pain before he died of a heart attack. The state authorities said that Mr. Lockett’s vein had collapsed during the procedure, and an autopsy commissioned by his lawyers and released last week said the execution team had not properly placed an intravenous line. The findings of an autopsy ordered by the state have not been made public.

Two other inmates in the United States were scheduled for execution within a day of Mr. Wellons’s death. A federal appellate court lifted a stay of execution for John Winfield, a Missouri inmate, on Tuesday evening, and the Supreme Court later refused to halt the execution. He was executed early Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.

Florida has an execution scheduled for Wednesday evening, and the courts have so far turned back requests for a stay.

Mr. Wellons’s execution came more than 21 years after a jury in metropolitan Atlanta convicted him of raping and then murdering a 15-year-old neighbor, India Roberts. The night before the attack, Mr. Wellons’s girlfriend ended her relationship with him, and Mr. Wellons became “distraught and unbalanced” in the hours that followed, a federal appeals court later wrote.

Mr. Wellons mounted a defense related to mental illness during his trial, but he did not elicit testimony from any psychological experts during the guilt or innocence phase of the proceedings.
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5) Social Security Agency Cuts Services as Demand Grows, Senate Report Says
By

WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration is closing field offices and reducing services to the public even as demand for those services surges with the aging of the baby boom generation, according to a bipartisan Senate committee report.

The report, to be issued Wednesday by the Senate Special Committee on Aging, says the agency has closed more than two dozen field offices in the last year, generally without considering the needs of communities and without consulting beneficiaries or field office managers.

In deciding whether to close field offices, the Social Security Administration “excludes both its own managers and the affected public,” and the decisions often appear arbitrary, the report says.

The committee’s chairman, Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, said, “Seniors are not being served well when you arbitrarily close offices and reduce access to services.”

He added, “The closure process is neither fair nor transparent and needs to change.”

The field offices served over 43 million people last year. About 10 percent of the visitors filed for benefits, and 30 percent were seeking new or replacement Social Security cards.

In testimony prepared for a committee hearing on the issue on Wednesday, Nancy A. Berryhill, a deputy commissioner at the agency, said its budget and work force had not kept pace with what she described as “a staggering 27 percent increase” in claims for retirement benefits, to 3.3 million last year, from 2.6 million in 2007.

Social Security encourages consumers to use the Internet to do business with the agency. In 2013, Ms. Berryhill said, “we received nearly half of all Social Security retirement and disability applications online, and the percentage of people who choose to file online continues to grow.”

In March, the Social Security Administration closed a field office in Gadsden County, Fla., assuming consumers could use an office in Tallahassee instead. But, the committee report said, “there is virtually no public transportation” between the two places.

Brenda A. Holt, a Gadsden County commissioner, said the county had a high poverty rate.

“Most of the people here don’t have computers, let alone reliable Internet access,” she said. “It is highly unlikely that many of these seniors will be able to get to Tallahassee. We never had an opportunity to weigh in as a community to try to save our office. Social Security did not do much of anything to inform our community of the closure.”

Senator Susan Collins of Maine, the senior Republican on the committee, said that despite a growing caseload, “in the past five years, Social Security has closed 64 of approximately 1,245 field offices — the largest field office reduction in its history — and shuttered 533 temporary mobile offices.”

Ms. Collins said she was troubled by the draft of a strategic plan prepared for the agency by the National Academy of Public Administration, a nonprofit group chartered by Congress.

“The plan proposes that Social Security shift from face-to-face services to online systems as the primary means of serving beneficiaries,” Ms. Collins said. “This is completely unrealistic.”

The agency, in budget documents, acknowledges a problem.

“We have lost a significant number of front-line employees over the last three years, resulting in longer wait times for the American public,” the agency said in its 2015 budget request. “In fiscal year 2013, the public had to wait longer for a decision on their disability claims.” The request said that wait times had also increased on the agency’s toll-free telephone line and that it took longer to set up appointments at field offices.

Representative Xavier Becerra of California, the senior Democrat on the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, has repeatedly expressed concerns about the agency’s operating budget, which was $11 billion in 2013, about 4 percent less than in 2010. “No one should be surprised that service hours have been reduced, wait times have increased and local offices have closed,” Mr. Becerra said.

Since October 2010, the report says, the number of full-time employees in Social Security field offices has declined by 14 percent, to 25,420.


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6) Border Centers Struggle to Handle Onslaught of Young Migrants
"As detainees, none of the children are allowed to go outside except to exercise for 45 minutes to an hour a day."
By

NOGALES, Ariz. — In a 120,000-square-foot warehouse on the edge of this desert city, Border Patrol agents line up hundreds of children who may have never seen a doctor for basic vaccinations and other medical care, hand out snacks or join them for a game of basketball under a circuslike tent that doubles as a recreation room.

In a makeshift processing center, the children — all minors caught crossing the border in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas without parents — are housed for as many as three days or more in nine holding pens. Boys are separated from girls and older children from younger ones; teenage mothers and their babies stay in a cell of their own.

There is barely room to walk; mattresses line the concrete floor, which also has long bleachers bolted to it. The children are being transferred here from Texas because a similar site there cannot take any more.Customs and Border Protection officials said Wednesday that 900 children from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras were being held here — the newest arrivals still in the clothes they wore on their trek to the United States, the others clad in white T-shirts and blue shorts, as in a reformatory. On one mattress, a girl barely in her teens wept, her face buried in a soiled stuffed lamb. Nearby, a toddler smiled as she held the hand of a Border Patrol agent taking her for a walk.

As detainees, none of the children are allowed to go outside except to exercise for 45 minutes to an hour a day.

Chief Manuel Padilla Jr., the agent in charge of the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol, said that the agency’s goal was to keep the children safe, healthy, nourished and clean, and that a lot had been done “to achieve these priorities,” sometimes in small ways.

When agents noticed that the children were refusing their breakfast burritos, which were made with flour tortillas, the kitchen switched to corn tortillas, like the ones used in Central America.

On Wednesday, the Border Patrol gave reporters a first glimpse of this processing center as well as a similar one in Brownsville, Tex., both focal points in the national debate over the sudden stream of unaccompanied minors crossing illegally into the United States. From here, the children will be sent to juvenile detention facilities around the country, where efforts will be made to release them to relatives in the United States on the condition that they cooperate with deportation proceedings.

But the swelling number of arriving youths — many of them making perilous journeys to flee gang violence in their native countries — has presented the Obama administration with political and humanitarian predicaments and started to dominate the nation’s conversation over immigration reform.

Representative Candice S. Miller, Republican of Michigan and the vice chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Committee, called on the administration on Wednesday to deploy the National Guard along the Texas-Mexico border.

Also on Wednesday, two Texas legislators — Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, and Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat — sent a letter to the Homeland Security secretary, Jeh Johnson, demanding answers to a series of questions about how the children were being handled: Are they tracked upon their release from custody? Does anyone check to see if they have criminal records or gang affiliations? What measures does Homeland Security take to “help ensure that they do not end up in the hands of predators or sex offenders?”Acknowledging the dangers of the illegal border crossing, the letter also asked, “What percentage of unaccompanied alien children apprehended at the southern border this fiscal year were victims of crime or exploitation while traveling through Mexico?”

In Nogales, the logistical challenges of caring for the children are clear. There are three portable restrooms in each pen, and 60 showers in five trailers like the ones used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in disaster areas. In the holding pens, there is no source of entertainment other than televisions with seemingly no sound or improvised games of soccer played in cramped corners.

At the processing center here, Art Del Cueto, president of the Tucson chapter of the union for Border Patrol agents, said the agents were under pressure and felt overwhelmed by the unexpected demands they were facing.

“Catching illegal aliens is part of the job,” he said in an interview. “Processing is part of the job. But babysitting is not part of the job, and that’s what a lot of the agents have been doing.”

The agents are the children’s most frequent escorts and often the ones to explain to them what is happening and what lies ahead. Many of the agents are bilingual, and Mr. Del Cueto said it was fair to assume that many of the children do not comprehend the gravity of their situation.

Speaking to reporters at the start of the tour of the site here, Chief Padilla said that his agents were working to fulfill a “humanitarian mission” while carrying out their task of securing the border.

Since October 2013, about 50,000 unaccompanied children have been apprehended on the Mexican border, most of them in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Agents there have been sending many of them to the Border Patrol station in Brownsville, intended as a hub for processing young people.

On Wednesday, more than 400 children caught in the past few days were being held in chilly, crowded cells that had concrete benches along the walls, but no beds. The station also housed some adult mothers and their children, swelling the population well above its normal capacity of 250 detainees.

In Nogales, teenage girls packed the intake area, having just traded their belongings for receipts bearing their names and claim checks. Later, their clothes would be washed, dried, stuffed in plastic bags and neatly arranged on the metal shelves in the property room, next to camouflage bags and Disney Princesses backpacks.

Agents here and in Brownsville said the conditions were spare because the facilities were set up only for brief detentions and, in the case of Nogales, were not meant to house minors. Border authorities are required to transfer unaccompanied youths within three days to Health and Human Services, which runs long-term shelters where the children receive complete medical screenings and live in a camp-like environment while officials try to locate their relatives in the United States.

When asked if agents in Brownsville were meeting the three-day transfer limit, a Homeland Security official said, “We would like to move faster.”


Julia Preston contributed reporting from Brownsville, Tex.




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7) Drones Kill 5 as Pakistan and U.S. Target Tribal Belt
By ISMAIL KHAN and

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — An American drone strike killed at least five people in North Waziristan on Wednesday, Pakistani officials said, as the Pakistani military continued its offensive against militants in that tribal district.

The officials said that two drones fired at least six missiles on a compound near Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, as tens of thousands of civilians fled in anticipation of intense fighting.

The missile strikes underlined the resumption of America’s contentious drone campaign, after a hiatus of almost six months, and introduced a new element into an already volatile situation.

Since declaring the much-anticipated operation in North Waziristan, the country’s main jihadist hub, the Pakistani military has deployed troops, tanks and fighter jets for a campaign against the Pakistani Taliban and allied international militant groups.

So far, the army has mainly carried out airstrikes on militant bases that it says killed about 200 people, although that number could not be confirmed independently. Now, for the first time in years, Pakistani strikes in the tribal belt are occurring at the same time as American ones.

Residents of Miram Shah reported six blasts in short succession Wednesday morning. “We heard one blast after another, just as we were offering prayers,” said one resident by phone, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

A senior Pakistani security official said the compound that was the target of the drones was located next to a seminary run by the Haqqani network, the militant group that has carried out numerous attacks on Americans in Afghanistan and held the American Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl hostage.

But it was not clear, he added, whether any Haqqani network fighters had been killed.

Elsewhere in North Waziristan, civilians took advantage of a break in curfew to flee the district, often amid frantic scenes, as the military operation, Zarb-e-Azb, an Urdu phrase for Strike of the Prophet’s Sword, entered its fifth day.

A senior government official told Agence France-Presse that about 30,000 people arrived in Bannu, a town just outside North Waziristan, on Wednesday alone, and that about 90,000 residents had left their homes since the first airstrikes last month.

But Tariq Hayat Khan, a federal government official charged with coordinating assistance to refugees from North Waziristan, said that 67,000 people had registered for assistance so far. Many were reluctant to enter government-run camps, he added.

“Only the poorest of the poor would go to a camp in such hot and humid weather,” said Mr. Khan, who has served as a political agent in North Waziristan.

Tribal residents appeared to see the break in curfew on Wednesday as a sign that intensified fighting was approaching, and long traffic jams formed on roads leading into the adjoining settled areas. “Hundreds of vehicles are lining up,” said one resident of North Waziristan, speaking by telephone. “The process is too slow.”

Some said the initial barrage of airstrikes had killed civilians as well as militants, though Pakistani officials reported only the deaths of militants. The last humanitarian crisis of such magnitude in northwestern Pakistan occurred in 2009, when the army mounted a major drive to flush the Taliban from the picturesque Swat Valley. Hundreds of thousands of people fled the valley for crowded refugee camps on the plains around Peshawar, or relatives’ homes.

But while that operation was a short-term military success, the army failed to capture the local Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, who last year become the leader of the overall Taliban organization in Pakistan.

One major difference this time is that the army operation will take place along with the American drone campaign, although it is unclear how much, if any, cooperation exists between American and Pakistani officials.

In the past, the two countries have clashed sharply over North Waziristan.

Americans have accused the Pakistanis of having an uncomfortably close relationship with the Haqqani network, which is seen as a proxy for Pakistani interests in Afghanistan.

In an apparent reference to worries that the current army operation will avoid Haqqani forces, the Pakistani army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif, has insisted that all militant sanctuaries will be attacked “without discrimination.”

In any event, overt cooperation over the drone campaign was seen as unlikely. After the latest strikes the Pakistani Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning what it called a violation of the country’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

In private, though, some Pakistani officials have said that the resumed American drone campaign enjoys a strong degree of Pakistani military cooperation. (The Central Intelligence Agency has never publicly acknowledged any drone attacks in Pakistan, though at least 385 have occurred since 2004 according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which monitors the strikes.)

In the rest of Pakistan, the gathering momentum of the Waziristan operation has created an air of trepidation, with security officials bracing for possible violent reprisals in major cities.


Ismail Khan reported from Peshawar, and Declan Walsh from London.



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8) Rail Strike Strands French and Tests Their President
By SCOTT SAYARE

PARIS — Now entering its second week, the national railway strike here has stranded thousands and exasperated millions more. It has brought on even more stress for high school students trying to reach their nationwide graduation test sites; upended business trips, hospital visits, vacations and daily commutes; and cost the state rail system upward of $250 million (about 184.2 million euros).

It is also becoming a moment of truth for the beleaguered government of President François Hollande.

Faced with a stagnant economy; a vast, underfunded system of social-welfare benefits; and deep unpopularity, Mr. Hollande is trying to persuade his Socialist Party to embrace a more centrist path that includes tax and spending cuts and more market competition. The main opposition is coming from his base on the left, especially labor unions.The rail strike is seen as a crucial test of Mr. Hollande’s willingness to hang tough in the face of criticism from that opposition and the ensuing strains in his party. Two major unions are striking in an effort to block a planned restructuring of the national rail system, a change intended to help prepare for further competition with private and foreign train services, in accordance with European Union directives.

Given the disruption caused by the strike, there is not a great deal of public support for it, especially in light of the generous welfare benefits and labor safeguards that rail workers receive. But French law affords broad legal protections to striking workers, and the government has been unable to persuade the unions to back down.

On Wednesday, train service was still cut by about half nationwide, with 12 percent of workers on strike, according to the S.N.C.F., the national rail operator. That was down from a high of nearly 28 percent last week, but the two unions leading the strike, the CGT and SUD-Rail, said it would continue Thursday. On Wednesday afternoon at the Gare de Lyon station in Paris, Thierry Clergue, 49, awaited a train home to Montpellier after an earlier train was canceled.

“It’s France, and it’s madness — everyone’s resigned to it,” Mr. Clergue said. French unions “don’t want to shift,” he said, “but the world is shifting.”

The proposed overhaul, which is being debated in the lower house of Parliament this week, would combine the S.N.C.F. with the R.F.F., the state administration that oversees the rail network infrastructure, under a newly formed state rail parent company, to be called the S.N.C.F.

The unions say the overhaul is little more than cosmetic and is likely to increase administrative waste, not reduce it, as the government contends. In an unusual convergence of opinion, some lawmakers on the right as well as defectors from Mr. Hollande’s leftist parliamentary majority agree. Though politicians from across the political spectrum have expressed reservations about the restructuring plan, only members of the radical left have backed the strike.

But union leaders have also asserted that the government is secretly planning to privatize the rail system, and they fear a potential disruption to the benefits that railway workers are currently guaranteed by law, including full retirement pensions for drivers as young as 50 and conductors and other workers as young as 55. The government has called those worries unfounded.

Despite unrest among Socialist Party lawmakers, Prime Minister Manuel Valls, the most prominent of the party’s centrists, has pledged to push the legislation through Parliament. The work stoppage “makes no sense with the current conditions of dialogue that exist, and with respect to a bill that would reform, modernize the S.N.C.F., and which protects the statutes of rail workers,” Mr. Valls said.

If there is any agreement between the strikers and everyone else, it is that the system could benefit from some adjustments. Defenders of the status quo — in which the S.N.C.F. handles the trains while the R.F.F. handles the rails — are few. S.N.C.F. administrators recently discovered that, after receiving faulty measurements from R.F.F., the company spent €3 billion on new trains that were too wide for about 15 percent of France’s rail stations.


Maïa de la Baume contributed reporting.

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9) Guantánamo Detainee Arraigned in Case That Could Help Decide Fate of Tribunals
By

FORT MEADE, Md. — An Iraqi detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was arraigned Wednesday on war-crimes charges before a military commission, setting in motion a case that could help determine whether the tribunals system will be used extensively in the future or wither away after the handful of cases before it are completed.

The detainee, known as Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, is accused of being a high-level operative for Al Qaeda. Officials say he oversaw plots to attack American forces in Afghanistan, including by firing on a medical helicopter, and to assassinate Pervez Musharraf, the former Pakistani president. Mr. Iraqi, 53, who is also said to have become Al Qaeda’s emissary to insurgents in Iraq, could face life in prison if convicted. He did not enter a plea.

Mr. Iraqi’s case has added significance because he has also been charged with conspiracy, which is a strategy for prosecuting people who are suspected of participating in terrorist organizations but have not been linked to specific attacks.

Although the conspiracy charge is routine in civilian court, it is not a recognized war crime, and the legitimacy of bringing it before a tribunal is in doubt. Mr. Iraqi’s case could determine how useful tribunals will be in prosecuting terrorism suspects.

“Al-Iraqi’s case is the key for the future of the commissions,” said Stephen I. Vladeck, a law professor at American University.

Mr. Iraqi was captured in late 2006 or early 2007 and held for a time by the C.I.A. before becoming one of the last inmates sent to Guantánamo by the Bush administration.

His appearance in the commission courtroom, a video feed of which was broadcast at Fort Meade, was a rare public sighting. Mr. Iraqi wore white clothing and a white headdress. He looked haggard, with bushy eyebrows and a long gray beard that he occasionally stroked while listening. At other times he sat with his arms folded.

Mr. Iraqi spoke only briefly as the judge, Capt. J. Kirk Waits of the Navy, asked him whether he accepted his interpreter and defense lawyers. But at one point, after asking for a civilian lawyer, he gestured with a pointed finger and said something that a linguist translated as, “I am in need of another civilian lawyer because of what’s going on between Afghanistan and Iraq, and because it’s very destructive from your government.”

In a different case, a panel on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has vacated a tribunal’s conviction of a Guantánamo detainee on a conspiracy charge because conspiracy was not a recognized international war crime at the time of the detainee’s actions.

The Obama administration has appealed that ruling. If it stands, it would mean that as many as several dozen detainees at Guantánamo whom a task force designated for prosecution cannot be tried except by a civilian court. Congress has blocked such trials.

But with the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Congress explicitly authorized tribunals to bring conspiracy charges. That raised the question of whether tribunals could be used to prosecute suspects for conspiracy over conduct that took place after the law was passed, even if it is not a war crime.

Mr. Iraqi is one of the few detainees at Guantánamo captured after the 2006 law went into effect. If higher courts approve the charge in any appeal, it will be easier for the government to use commissions against lower-level terrorism suspects captured in the future.

Brig. Gen. Mark S. Martins added the conspiracy charge against Mr. Iraqi in February. He said Wednesday that the prosecution “fell into a narrow but important category of cases in which the pragmatic choice” for dealing with a terrorism suspect was a military commission, given the context and location of the actions alleged and the investigation.

“The utility of commissions going forward, and outside of Guantánamo, depends entirely on whether they can try offenses like the ones with which al-Iraqi is charged,” Mr. Vladeck said.

Congress has outlawed bringing Guantánamo detainees to the United States for prosecution or any other purpose. The Obama administration, which is trying to close Guantánamo, has not sent any Qaeda suspects there.

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10) Family of Framed Man Sues City and Police
By

The family of a man wrongfully convicted in Brooklyn has sued the city and police officers, asking for $15 million — even though the man, David Ranta, had already reached a settlement with the city.

Mr. Ranta was released in 2013 after spending more than two decades in prison for killing a Hasidic rabbi, after revisited evidence showed he all but certainly did not do it. An eyewitness said that a police detective, Louis Scarcella, whose methods have come under attack, coached him to pick Mr. Ranta from the lineup, and two other witnesses said they had lied.

Mr. Ranta settled with the city for $6.4 million in February, the product of an unusual decision by the city comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, to pay Mr. Ranta before he had filed a suit. Usually, the city’s corporation counsel defends such cases, which can take years to decide.Mr. Stringer, who took office in January, argued that the quick settlement would save the city money by avoiding a drawn-out trial and the potential of a huge jury verdict, and that it was the right thing to do morally.

It is not unheard-of for family members to subsequently file claims, but they often are dismissed, lawyers said.

“David Ranta is the sole claimant with whom we settled,” Eric Sumberg, a spokesman for Mr. Stringer, said. “Anyone is allowed to file claims with our office and we will evaluate all claims based on their merits.”

A spokesman for the corporation counsel declined to comment.

Mr. Ranta’s former wife, son and daughter are suing the city, the Police Department, Mr. Scarcella and the detective’s partner, Stephen W. Chmil.

Peter C. Dee, the Ranta family’s lawyer, said the family has been “ripped apart” and “hopefully through this action they will obtain some closure.”

It is the first federal lawsuit naming Mr. Scarcella or Mr. Chmil since allegations about their methods came to light. The Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, is reviewing all 57 convictions obtained under Mr. Scarcella, and has already released some of those convicted prisoners. A lawyer for Mr. Scarcella, Alan M. Abramson, declined to comment.

Mr. Ranta’s family members claim that their civil rights were violated because they were “deprived of their intimate familial relations with David Ranta,” and they were “branded as the family of a murderer.”

The Police Department and the Brooklyn district attorney’s office had “misconduct and egregious failures of supervision and oversight,” the lawsuit charges.

Joel B. Rudin, a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer, said the bar for suing police officers is higher than that of suing civilians. “The plaintiff must show that the officer violated clearly established rules barring such conduct and that no reasonable police officer could have believed that the officer’s conduct was lawful,” he said.

Mr. Ranta is planning to sue the State of New York for unjust conviction and imprisonment, said his lawyer, Pierre Sussman.

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11) Groups Appeal to UN for 'Humanity' as Detroit Shuts Off Water to Thousands
'By denying water service to thousands, Detroit is violating the human right to water.'
By Sarah Lazare
Published on Wednesday, June 18, 2014 by Common Dreams
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/06/18-7
 
As thousands of people in Detroit go without water, and the city moves to cut off services to tens of thousands more, concerned organizations have taken the unusual step of appealing to the United Nations to intervene and protect the "human right to water."

“After decades of policies that put businesses and profits ahead of the public good, the city now has a major crisis on its hands," said Maude Barlow, founder of Blue Planet Project and board chair of Food & Water Watch, in a statement. “By denying water service to thousands, Detroit is violating the human right to water."

The Submission to the Special Rapporteur was released Wednesday by the Detroit People’s Water Board, the Blue Planet Project, the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and Food & Water Watch.

It calls for the "state of Michigan and U.S. government to respect the human right to water and sanitation" and for shut-offs to be halted, services restored, and water to be made accessible and affordable.

The report comes on the heels of the Detroit's city council's Tuesday approval of an 8.7 percent increase in water rates, part of a long-standing trend that, according to Food & Water Watch, has seen prices increase 119 percent over the past decade.

This rate hike follows an announcement in March by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department that it would start turning off water for accounts that are past due. According to a late May Director's Report from the DWSD, there were "44,273 shut-off notices sent to customers in April 2014" alone, resulting in "3,025 shut-offs for nonpayment, and additional collections of $400,000."

Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, who was appointed to power by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder in March 2013, has aggressively pursued privatization and austerity measures across the city. "Nothing is off the chopping block, including water utilities, which are being considered for regionalization, sale, lease, and/or public private partnership and are currently subject to mediation by a federal district judge," reads the report.

"The Detroit People’s Water Board fears that authorities see people’s unpaid water bills as a 'bad debt' and want to sweeten the pot for a private investor by imposing even more of the costs of the system on those least able to bear them," the report continues.

Residents say the mass cut-off of this vital service is especially unjust in a city already struggling with high unemployment, a poverty rate near 40 percent, and a foreclosure crisis that has devastated and displaced people across the city, hitting Detroit's African American community especially hard.

"When delinquent corporate water lines are still running without collection of funds, it demonstrates a level of intentional disparity that devalues the lives of the people struggling financially," said Lila Cabbil, President Emeritus of the Rosa Parks Institute, which is part of the People’s Water Board. "Where is our compassion? Where is our humanity?"
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12) Five Exonerated in Central Park Jogger Case Agree to Settle Suit for $40 Million
By

The five men whose convictions in the brutal 1989 beating and rape of a female jogger in Central Park were later overturned have agreed to a settlement of about $40 million from New York City to resolve a bitterly fought civil rights lawsuit over their arrests and imprisonment in the sensational crime.

The agreement, reached between the city’s Law Department and the five plaintiffs, would bring to an end an extraordinary legal battle over a crime that came to symbolize a sense of lawlessness in New York, amid reports of “wilding” youths and a marauding “wolf pack” that set its sights on a 28-year-old investment banker who ran in the park many evenings after work.

The confidential deal, disclosed by a person who is not a party in the lawsuit but was told about the proposed settlement, must still be approved by the city comptroller and then by a federal judge.The initial story of the crime, as told by the police and prosecutors, was that a band of young people, part of a larger gang that rampaged through Central Park, had mercilessly beaten and sexually assaulted the jogger. The story quickly exploded into the public psyche, fanned by politicians and sensational news reports that served to inflame racial tensions.

The five black and Hispanic men, ages 14 to 16 at the time of their arrests, claimed that incriminating statements they had given had been coerced by the authorities. The statements were ruled admissible, and the men were convicted in two separate trials in 1990.

In December 2002, an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, found DNA and other evidence that the woman had been raped and beaten not by the five teenagers but by another man, Matias Reyes, a convicted rapist and murderer who had confessed to acting alone in the attack. Concluding that the new evidence could have changed the original verdict, Mr. Morgenthau’s office joined a defense motion asking that the convictions be vacated.

If approved, the settlement would fulfill a pledge by Mayor Bill de Blasio to meet a “moral obligation to right this injustice.”

The proposed settlement averages roughly $1 million for each year of imprisonment for the men. That amount would suggest that the city was poised to pay one of the men, Kharey Wise, who spent about 13 years in prison, more than it has in any wrongful conviction case.

The other four men — Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana Jr. — served about seven years in prison.

The lawsuit had accused the city’s police and prosecutors of false arrest, malicious prosecution and a racially motivated conspiracy to deprive the men of their civil rights, allegations which the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg denied and fought vigorously for more than a decade in federal court.

In contesting the suit, the Bloomberg administration argued that the authorities had acted in good faith and with cause, and should not be held liable. In 2011, a senior corporation counsel lawyer said that the charges had been supported by “abundant probable cause, including confessions that withstood intense scrutiny, in full and fair pretrial hearings and at two lengthy public trials.”

In early 2013, the city’s Law Department echoed those views. “The case is not about whether the teens were wrongly convicted,” a department spokeswoman said. “It’s about whether prosecutors and police deliberately engaged in misconduct.”

But in January, lawyers for Mayor de Blasio asked the court to delay the litigation so that the new corporation counsel, Zachary W. Carter, could “get up to speed on the facts and the circumstances” of the case. Later, the mayor said that Mr. Carter was “committed to making sure we get to that settlement quickly, some complicated issues, but we’re going to work through them very, very quickly.”

If the proposed settlement is approved by the comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, it would then be submitted for approval to Judge Deborah A. Batts of Federal District Court in Manhattan. In 2007, Judge Batts rejected the city’s motion to dismiss the suit and allowed most of the claims to proceed.

In such settlements, the city typically does not admit liability or wrongdoing; and any settlement with the five men would presumably include the legal fees and costs. Aides to Mr. de Blasio, Mr. Carter and Mr. Stringer all declined to comment on Thursday when asked about the discussions, as did Jonathan C. Moore, a lawyer representing four of the men. A lawyer for the fifth man did not return a message seeking comment.

The proposed deal comes not long after the city said it would settle two longstanding lawsuits involving the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practices. In that litigation as well, Mr. de Blasio reversed the city’s long-held position, and he agreed to sweeping court-ordered reforms that the Bloomberg administration had tried to block on appeal.The mayor made that announcement at a news conference in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where stop-and-frisk tactics had been widely used. He appeared with Mr. Carter; the police commissioner, William J. Bratton; and, in a show of unity, lawyers with groups that had sued the city.

It is not yet known if or how the mayor might announce a settlement of the Central Park lawsuit, if it is approved.

Over the years, the men have consistently maintained their innocence in the rape of the jogger, Trisha Meili, who was left with no memory of the attack. (Years later, Ms. Meili revealed her identity and wrote a book, “I Am the Central Park Jogger.”) In prison, three of the men — Mr. Richardson, Mr. Salaam and Mr. Santana — maintained their innocence in the rape at parole hearings, where such a stance hurt their chances at a reduced term. At the hearings, the men acknowledged being in the park as part of a group of teenagers, some of whom committed assaults unrelated to the attack on Ms. Meili, and most expressed regret for the events, without going into specifics, transcripts show.

Mr. Santana indicated in his hearing that the larger group was out to rob people. “I took part in with the beatings of that man,” he said of one victim, adding, “If I could go back in time and not do it again, you know, it would have been a whole different story.”The men’s lawyers have long said that their clients committed no crimes in the park that night.

In recent years, the case remained in the public eye, largely through a documentary, “The Central Park Five,” made by the filmmakers Ken Burns; his daughter, Sarah Burns; and her husband, David McMahon.

As recently as last Friday, about 100 people gathered at the Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Brooklyn to view the film and to hear a talk by one of the men, Mr. Salaam. He described the stigma of living with the brand of being a rapist. “It wasn’t a popular thing to be one of us,” he said. The film, he added, “really gave us our lives back.”

At one point, he addressed the lawsuit. “Mayor de Blasio has said that he will settle this case for us and there has been some positive motion,” Mr. Salaam said, adding, “We’ve been waiting for 25 years for justice.”

Jim Dwyer contributed reporting.


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13) Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian Teenager Protesting Arrests in the West Bank
By

JERUSALEM — Israeli troops killed a Palestinian youth before dawn Friday and seriously wounded several adults as their sweeping West Bank arrest campaign following last week’s disappearance of three Israeli teenagers both slowed and encountered more resistance.

About 25 Palestinians were rounded up overnight, the Israeli military said in a statement, less than half the typical daily number earlier this week. The arrests bring the total detained since Saturday to 330, 240 of them leaders of the militant Islamic movement Hamas. Troops confiscated material from nine Hamas-affiliated institutions, according to the military, among a total of 1,150 locations scoured in the past week.Israel insists Hamas is responsible for the abduction but has offered no proof. Three other groups have made dubious claims of credit. Hamas officials have generally cheered the capture without saying who carried it out. A spokesman on Thursday night praised “Palestinian resistance,” but added, “if it truly is behind the kidnapping of the three teenagers.”

The early days of Israel’s crackdown generally proceeded quietly, as former Hamas ministers and lawmakers acceded to arrest and Palestinian families in the Hebron area watched soldiers conduct house-to-house searches almost like sport. But on Friday morning, Israeli troops “faced sporadic confrontations,” the military statement said, with rocks, gasoline bombs, grenades, fireworks and improvised explosives thrown at them, responding in some cases with live ammunition to what officials called a “life-endangering threat.”

Witnesses in Dura, a West Bank town of 28,000 near Hebron, said that Mohammed Jihad Dudeen, 15, was fatally shot around 5 a.m., as he and other youths hurled rocks at about 150 soldiers storming their neighborhood. “One of them crouched and opened fire on the boy,” said Bassam al-Awadeh, 42, who said he watched from about 150 yards away. “The boy was hit in his heart and his abdomen.”

By noon Friday, Mohammed’s mother, Aida Abdel Aziz Dudeen, 39, sat in her living room robed in black mourning clothes, clutching a portrait of her son as she wailed, “Why did you leave me? Why have you abandoned me? I want to see you again in my dreams.” The women beside her on the couch, also wearing black, tried to comfort Ms. Dudeen by saying that her son had gone to paradise as an Islamic martyr.

A neighbor, Iman Abdel Alal, said Israeli troops damaged her home as they searched it in the early hours. “The soldiers kept me and four children and my husband in one room and told me, ‘You are Hamas!’ ” Ms. Alal said. “This has made me very angry. I will not have any sympathy with the soldiers. They killed many of us, but because of the kidnapping of three boys, they turn the whole world against us.”

Mohammed was the second Palestinian casualty in Israel’s operation, after Monday’s death of a 20-year-old in the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah. Palestinian news organizations reported that there were also clashes Friday in the Qalandiya refugee camp outside Ramallah, seriously wounding three young men, and in Bethlehem’s Dheisheh camp, where five were hurt.

One of the three hurt in Qalandiya, Mustafa Alsan, 20, was fighting for his life in an Israeli hospital Friday afternoon after being shot in the head.

“It’s to be expected that there will be some more friction on the ground,” Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said.

“The mission is ongoing. It is a substantial mission, the most substantial mission in Judea and Samaria since 2002,” Colonel Lerner said, using the biblical names for the West Bank. “But it is the most substantial terrorist attack in Judea and Samaria also in recent years. People can’t expect to just hijack little boys on their way home from school and we won’t do anything about it.”

The three teenagers — Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, who is also 16 and is a citizen of both Israel and the United States — were last heard from on June 12 around 10 p.m. as they hitchhiked home from their yeshivas in West Bank settlements. One of the teenagers called a police hotline and whispered, “I’ve been kidnapped,” but the authorities thought it was a crank call and did not begin their search for hours.

Tension was mounting not only between Israeli troops and Palestinian residents, but also between the Palestinian factions whose April reconciliation pact paved the way for a consensus government that was sworn in June 2. President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority has condemned the kidnappers and pledged not to let the situation descend into an intifada, or uprising, prompting harsh criticism from his Hamas partners.

“We are capable of igniting a third intifada, and no one will be able to prevent this right of ours once the pressure on the Palestinian people mounts,” Salah al-Bardaweel, a prominent Hamas leader in Gaza, said on Thursday. “We will not stand idly by in the face of the crimes of the occupation in the West Bank.”

Another Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, condemned the coordination between Palestinian Authority security forces and Israeli troops, after Mr. Abbas promised Wednesday that those forces would help find the missing teenagers and hold their captors accountable.

“These statements do not represent the Palestinian people,” Mr. Abu Zuhri said at a news conference in Gaza on Thursday night. “We have passed the weakness to challenge, waiting to take the initiative, complaining of confrontation, and we have strength cards.”

With the reconciliation on the brink of collapse, the prime minister of the consensus government, Rami Hamdallah, on Friday visited Hebron, the center of the Israeli operation.

Riyad al-Malki, the Palestinian Authority foreign minister, acknowledged Friday that if Hamas were culpable for the kidnapping, it would threaten the new government, but demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel provide proof and called Israel’s reaction “exaggerated.”

“If Netanyahu has any evidence, he has to put it on the table,” Mr. al-Malki told Agence France-Presse at a conference in Paris. “Three kids have disappeared but in exchange for that the Israeli Army has taken 300 Palestinians,” he added. “Their reaction went beyond logic, and what infuriates me the most is the lack of reaction from the international community.”

Alongside the arrests, Israel has tightened restrictions on Palestinian travel around Hebron; limited exit from the West Bank into Jordan; all but closed its crossings into Gaza; and punished Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, particularly those connected to Hamas, by, for instance, cutting back family visits.

On Friday, men under 50 were barred from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City, where Israeli soldiers were out in force. Gaza militants have also fired rockets into southern Israel daily for a week, prompting repeated Israeli airstrikes; early Friday, Israel bombed five Gaza sites.

Mr. Netanyahu met Friday with the families of the missing teenagers, while his wife, Sara, joined a social media campaign by posting a photo of herself with a #BringBackOurBoys sign, mirroring a campaign around the abduction of Nigerian schoolgirls.

Bat-Galim Shaar, Gilad’s mother, said afterward that the parents had asked Mr. Netanyahu to do more. “We believe the government has other means of pressure that could expedite the return of the boys,” she said, the Israeli news site Ynet reported.

Yoav Limor, writing in the free daily Israel Today, said the military “has nearly maximized its ability to attack Hamas’s infrastructure” and that its leaders “are worried about increasing friction with the Palestinian civilian population.”


Said Ghazali contributed reporting from Dura, West Bank.


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14) Witness to Fatal Shooting of Palestinians Reports Threats From Israeli Soldiers
By

A Palestinian carpenter whose security cameras recorded the fatal shooting of two Palestinian teenagers at a protest in the West Bank last month told Human Rights Watch that he was threatened by Israeli soldiers this week during an hourlong interrogation.

The carpenter, Fakher Zayed, also witnessed the shooting of Nadeem Siam Nawara, 17, and Mohammad Mahmoud Odeh Salameh, 16, and his testimony was included in a video report on the episode produced by the rights group Defense for Children International-Palestine.

The killings took place during an annual commemoration of what Palestinians call the “catastrophe,” or “nakba,” suffered by their community in 1948, when hundreds of thousands fled or were driven from their homes by Israeli forces fighting to establish a Jewish state.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Zayed said, about two dozen Israeli soldiers arrived at his carpentry shop in Beitunia while he was out and told one of his employees that they would burn it down unless he returned immediately. When Mr. Zayed arrived, he said the soldiers confiscated his identification card and told him that he would have to go to the nearby Ofer military base for questioning. Another person who was present at Mr. Zayed’s shop but asked not to be named confirmed this account, Human Rights Watch reported.

Mr. Zayed told the rights group that, over the course of an hour, he was berated for sharing the video and giving interviews to the media, and he was warned that if he did not take down his security cameras immediately, there would be severe consequences.

“At Ofer I was taken into a room that had several captains,” he said. “They told me that the video I gave to the press was fabricated, that everything I said and all my testimonies are a lie, that this is a serious violation of the law, and that I made the I.D.F. look bad and caused a lot of problems. They told me the cameras need to be brought down within 24 hours.”

“They were all speaking, and I had no chance to respond,” he continued. “There were so many threats. They said it as though they were going to turn the law against me. One of the captains told me: ‘We will crush you, according to the law.’ There were many threats against my family. They told me that I was up against a very powerful force, and I am very small. One of them said, ‘We will squish you like a bug, you are nothing.’ There were no direct violent threats, except when I left that room, one of the soldiers told me that they will unleash dogs on my children.”

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said that the army was “not aware of the claims raised” by Mr. Zayed to Human Rights Watch. A military police investigation into the fatal shootings is continuing, he added. “Once concluded the file will be raised with the military prosecutor for evaluation.”

Last month, Colonel Lerner told my colleague Jodi Rudoren that the edited footage did not capture the “atmosphere of violence” during the demonstration in Beitunia that day, and that it did not show who had fired the shots or what sort of ammunition was used. The Israeli military, which administers the occupied territory, insisted that no live ammunition was fired at the protesters who hurled rocks in some parts of the protest, saying that it had used “less lethal” rubber bullets.

In response to claims from Israeli officials, analysts and bloggers that the video surveillance footage was fake, B’Tselem, an Israeli group that monitors human rights in the occupied territories, posted hours of the raw video online, showing first Nadeem and then Mohammad collapsing to the ground after being shot, and there was no sign that any of it had been altered.

Mr. Zayed also said that last month, after CNN broadcast additional footage of the shootings that corroborated some of the images from his surveillance cameras, Israeli soldiers came to his home and confiscated his recording equipment.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch concluded that a review of video, photographs, witness testimony and medical reports by doctors who tried to save the two teenagers suggested that their killings could constitute a war crime. “Israel has a responsibility to prosecute the forces who targeted these teens, and also those responsible for assigning the use of live ammunition to police a demonstration,” Sarah Leah Whitson, the group’s director for the Middle East and North Africa said.

That sentiment was echoed on Thursday by Brad Parker, an international advocacy officer and lawyer at the Defense for Children group, which joined Human Rights Watch in deploring the apparent harassment of Mr. Zayed. “Israeli forces are threatening to treat Palestinians like criminals because they witnessed or recorded what appear to be war crimes committed by the Israeli military,” he said. “Instead of harassment and threats Israeli forces should focus on bringing to justice those responsible for killing two boys on May 15.”


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15) Albuquerque Protest to Put Police Chief 'on Trial'
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/06/21/us/ap-us-albuquerque-police-shootings.html?ref=us

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Critics of the Albuquerque Police Department said they will put the embattled police chief "on trial" during a planned rally Saturday as protesters continue to advocate for reforms.

Demonstrators said the march in Roosevelt Park is aimed at pushing for drastic changes within Albuquerque police following a harsh U.S. Justice Department report over the agency's use of force.

Albuquerque police also are under scrutiny over 40 police shootings — 26 of them fatal — since 2010.

David Correia, one of the protest's organizers, said the mock trial will outline how police Chief Gorden Eden has failed to stop his officers from using excessive force.

"He has to answer to these charges," Correia said. "They'll all be read before the public."

Eden, who took the job four months ago while the U.S. Justice Department was wrapping up its investigation into the police, said in a statement that police have talked to protest organizers and officers will be providing traffic escorts for the marchers.

"We acknowledge their First Amendment rights to voice their concerns," Eden said. "Our job will be to protect public safety during the time they are in Roosevelt Park and while they are marching. Additional officers will be on call in case they are needed."

Three previous demonstrators forced the city to momentarily shut down. At one protest, riot police deployed tear gas toward a rowdy crowd. Another demonstration prompted city councilors to abruptly end a scheduled meeting.

The city of Albuquerque and the Justice Department officials currently are negotiating over reforms that federal authorities are expected to order in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the Albuquerque Police Department has announced a number of new changes to training and has ordered officers to stop shooting at moving vehicles.

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16) A Job Seeker’s Desperate Choice
By

On the morning of March 20, Shanesha Taylor had a job interview. It was for a good job, one that could support her three children, unlike the many positions she’d applied for that paid only $10 an hour. The interview, at an insurance agency in Scottsdale, Ariz., went well. “Walking out of the office, you know that little skip thing people do?” she said, clicking her heels together in a corny expression of glee. “I wanted to do that.”

But as she left the building and walked through the parking lot, she saw police officers surrounding her car, its doors flung open and a crime-scene van parked nearby. All the triumphant buoyancy of the moment vanished, replaced by a hard, sudden knot of panic. Hours later, Ms. Taylor was posing for a mug shot, her face somber and composed, a rivulet of tears falling from each eye. A subsequent headline in The Huffington Post said it all: “Shanesha Taylor, Homeless Single Mom, Arrested After Leaving Kids in Car While on Job Interview.”

The article ricocheted across the Internet. Many viewed her story — that she, unable to find child care, had left her two sons, aged 6 months and 2 years, in her 2006 Dodge Durango while she went to a 70-minute job interview — as emblematic of the harsh realities of today’s economy, where jobs are scarce and well-paid ones even scarcer, and where desperate choices have become common. Certainly, many people could identify with the cruel math of Ms. Taylor’s pretrial report, which put her monthly income at $1,232 (including food stamps), while her monthly expenses totaled $1,274.

Ms. Taylor, 35, was charged with two counts of felony child abuse, and soon became the subject of syndicated columns calling her the “true face of poverty,” petitions asking the prosecutor to drop charges and a crowd-sourced fund-raising campaign that gathered $115,000. After 10 days in jail, she was freed after strangers paid her $9,000 bail. Her story was featured on the “Today” show; her lawyer was interviewed by Bill O’Reilly. Then came the backlash, as critics contended that a woman who had put her children in peril was being made into a hero. Bill Montgomery, the Maricopa County attorney, contradicted news reports that Ms. Taylor was homeless and unemployed, saying she was actually neither. Her children — she also has a 9-year-old daughter who was in school at the time of the job interview — were removed from her custody.

All at once, Ms. Taylor had become a symbol of both economic desperation and shirked responsibility. Her story became fodder for polemic and preaching. But until a recent interview with The New York Times in a conference room at the office of her lawyer, Benjamin P. Taylor II (no relation), she had not spoken publicly.

Wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and with Antoine Duncan, 33, the father of her children, at her side, Ms. Taylor described how her life had slowly disintegrated during the recession, with low-paid jobs and irregular hours. In an attempt to improve her lot, she enrolled in a community college. When she spoke about her children, she teared up easily, bringing to mind her now-famous mug shot. But she had a tendency to gloss over the details of her financial troubles unless pressed.

Even though her financial experiences hew closely to those of millions of Americans in the recession and its aftermath, she did not ascribe her troubles to broader economic forces. “I understand the economy is suffering,” she said, “but in the grand scheme I can’t explain to my daughter that ‘The economy’s bad, baby; that’s why we don’t have a home.’ She’s going to look at me and say, ‘O.K., why don’t you have a job?' ”

From House to House

Ms. Taylor grew up in a household she described as “a little less than middle class.” Her mother and stepfather often worked more than one job each. “I don’t even know when they saw each other,” she said. She liked school but thought that college was financially out of reach, so after high school she joined the Air Force, stationed in Texas, North Dakota and Britain before returning home in 1999.

At the time, Phoenix was booming and the housing market was growing manic. Ms. Taylor soon found her niche as a mortgage loan officer, bringing home commissions large enough to rent a house and live comfortably. She reconnected with Mr. Duncan, whom she had met while in the Air Force, and in 2004, their daughter was born.

The overheated mortgage market in Phoenix was banking on the continued rise of home values. But after mid-2006, those values began to decline, making refinancing impossible for Ms. Taylor’s increasingly desperate clients.

In 2008, after the death of her grandmother, with whom she was close, Ms. Taylor quit her job, she said, to give herself time to regroup. But she never regained her economic footing. She spent down her savings, only to find that the customer-service and phone-sales jobs for which she qualified were paying less than before and were harder to come by. “I had to downgrade to an apartment; it got difficult paying day care, apartment, car payments, insurance — all the basic needs in life,” she said.

Although the number of low-wage jobs has grown nationally since the recession hit, their rebound has been slow in Arizona, while middle-wage jobs in health care and finance, particularly the insurance industry, have led the recovery, said Lee McPheters, an economist at Arizona State University. In inflation-adjusted terms, he said, customer-service jobs pay less than they did before, and the state’s unemployment rate of 6.9 percent is still above the 6.3 percent national average.

Eventually, Ms. Taylor applied for food stamps and Medicaid. In January 2010, in an attempt to improve her prospects, she enrolled full time at Estrella Mountain Community College, with plans to major in engineering. Ms. Taylor’s daughter went to day care and Ms. Taylor’s mother and stepfather helped care for her.

In late 2011, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Duncan had a son and were living together as a family. But they couldn’t afford rent and so they moved to a “weekly,” a cheap motel that is often the last stop before homelessness. Ms. Taylor was working in customer service, making $12.35 an hour. To keep her student loan debt — now about $30,000, she said — from ballooning, Ms. Taylor tried to pay for her own classes, but eventually took a break from school in mid-2012.

When money became even tighter, she and the children stayed with her parents. In 2013, her work hours were cut and she lost a child-care subsidy she’d been getting. She became pregnant with her younger son, was placed on bed rest, and during her absence she was fired, she said. By the time she was arrested, she said, she was filling in as an office aide at a home health care agency for about eight hours every other week. She was paid $8 an hour in cash, she said. (The agency said Ms. Taylor had not worked there — she had been offered a job, the human resources manager said, but she had not taken it because she could not find child care.)

Living with her parents in Phoenix was not a permanent solution. When other serious family matters began to put a strain on them, Ms. Taylor said, she and the children decamped, going from house to house when friends or relatives could provide shelter. On a couple of occasions, she said, she and the children slept in the Durango for days at a time.

Mr. Duncan was having his own troubles making ends meet, working sometimes as a day laborer and other times at call centers, and living in a small apartment with roommates. He now makes $10 an hour doing customer service for a cable company.

“We don’t communicate well sometimes, and that’s pretty much it,” Ms. Taylor said in the interview. “Finances had a lot to do with it. You know, not being able to make ends meet sometimes strains a relationship.”

‘What Do I Do Now?’

More often than not, Ms. Taylor said, she was solely responsible for meeting her family’s needs. Her Facebook page, which she hasn’t updated since her arrest, is littered with encomiums about motherhood (sample: “Your children will become who you are, so be who you want them to be”), photographs of her children (caption: “love my babies to the maxxxx”) and a recounting of her daughter’s fretting about Santa’s health (she wanted to leave him broccoli instead of cookies).

Ms. Taylor strove not to let her children feel the bite of poverty. “I would say, ‘O.K., we’re not going to go to Chuck E. Cheese’s today; we’re going to go to the park,' ” she said.

Looking for stability, she applied for job after job — PetSmart for $10 an hour, a bus company for $10 an hour, an Internet service provider. But the job at a Farmers Insurance broker in Scottsdale was different. “Thirty-nine thousand the first year, $65,000 the second year, $89,000 the third year,” Ms. Taylor recited. “And the fourth year, with proper work, I could have had my own agency.” She thought her experience as a loan officer made her a perfect candidate. She had a feeling that the job would be hers.

The night before the interview, she put the children to bed at her parents’ house and went to a Walmart parking lot, where she spent hours scrounging up recyclable cans and asking passers-by for gas money, to make sure she had enough for the 35-mile drive to the interview. Her parents would be at work the next day, so she had arranged to leave the boys at a babysitter’s house, she said. But when she arrived, she said, no one answered the door.

“I felt like this was my opportunity to basically improve life for all of us, and the one key part of it is now not available, so what do I do now?” Ms. Taylor said. “That was my only thought: ‘What do I do now? What do I do now?’ That was kind of what started the whole chain of events that day.”

Across the country, subsidies for child care have plummeted. In Arizona, the number of children covered has dropped by almost 75 percent since 2009, according to the Children’s Action Alliance. Only 15 states allow parents looking for work to qualify, according to the National Women’s Law Center.

“Child care is often listed as the No. 1 challenge that gets in the way of women’s work participation,” said Barbara Gault, vice president and executive director of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Ms. Taylor said the home of the next-closest available sitter was a 30-minute drive away in the opposite direction of the interview, and she wasn’t sure if she had enough gasoline to make it.

She drove to Scottsdale, to an anonymous cluster of office buildings, and parked the car in the lot. There was no shade. It was 71 degrees. According to the police report, she left the boys strapped into their car seats, the tinted windows cracked, and the keys in the ignition with the fan blowing but the engine off.

About a half-hour later, two women heading to lunch walked past the car, heard crying and called 911. The boys were sweating and, according to a paramedic who responded, they “showed signs of heat distress,” the police report said, but were ultimately found to be unharmed.

The children had already been taken to a hospital when an officer saw a woman “running toward us with a panicked look on her face,” the report said. “She repeated to me how much she needed this job and that she had no other option but to leave her kids in the car so that she could attend the interview.”

A man at the Farmers Insurance office where Ms. Taylor had been interviewed said the office had no comment. Ms. Taylor said she had been offered the job. The police report does not mention the missing babysitter, saying only that Ms. Taylor told the authorities that she had been unable to find child care and had timed the interview to coincide with the children’s nap. On the advice of her lawyer, Ms. Taylor would not speak about her mind-set when she decided to leave the boys in the car.

Ms. Taylor was charged with two counts of felony child abuse, each with a maximum sentence of seven years. She pleaded not guilty. More than 55,000 people signed a petition asking the prosecutor to drop the charges. Unlike 19 other states, Arizona does not specify that leaving a child in a car is illegal, so the prosecutor has some discretion.

But leaving a child in a car in Arizona can be extremely dangerous. The police estimated that the temperature in the Durango when they found the children was more than 100 degrees. Mr. Montgomery’s office is handling three other cases — two fatal — in which children were left in cars, and he clearly wants to send a message to parents.

“I respect the fact that people want to be heard on what they think should occur in this case,” Mr. Montgomery said at a news conference in April. “But I’ll point out that not a single communication that’s come into this office as of yet has mentioned at all the position that those two young children were put in. Everything has focused on the mother.”

According to KidsandCars.org, about 38 children die from heat stroke in cars every year. Janette Fennell, the founder of KidsandCars, said that there were too many variables to tell how a long an infant could survive in a hot car — including such things as how hydrated the baby was at the time. But even though the organization lobbies to outlaw leaving children in cars, Ms. Fennell said that in Ms. Taylor’s case, “A felony sounds pretty severe.”

Ms. Taylor’s lawyer has said that his client is not a criminal, but the victim of an economic system. “She was arrested for trying to get a job,” he said. “She wasn’t going to a liquor store. She wasn’t going to a party. She was going to a job interview.”

Mr. Montgomery, the prosecutor, has resisted this narrative of economic privation. Because Ms. Taylor listed an address — her parents’ — on her court papers, the prosecutor says she was not homeless. And because she listed a part-time job — the very part-time office aide job — she was not unemployed.

Ms. Taylor has no prior felonies. Reports that her younger son had tested positive for drugs when he was born were incorrect, according to a spokeswoman for Arizona Child Protective Services, which is not permitted to volunteer information but only to confirm or clarify information given by others. The spokeswoman said Ms. Taylor’s doctor had reported that she tested positive for an illegal drug while she was pregnant, and she confirmed Ms. Taylor’s account that the drug was marijuana. Ms. Taylor said the test was taken on the day she learned that she was two months pregnant. The spokeswoman could not confirm the date of the test.

Now Ms. Taylor acknowledges that leaving the children in the car was a mistake, one that was particularly difficult to speak about with her daughter, whom she has always warned to avoid jail at all costs. “I had to explain to her, well, I did something wrong, that’s why I had to go,” she said.

‘I Stay Inside and I Cry’

On March 30, Ms. Taylor walked out of jail as a controversial figure, provoking sympathy and condemnation by turns. With a possible felony conviction overshadowing her, her job prospects were even slimmer than before. Far worse, in her mind, she was not allowed to see her children, who were being cared for by a relative.

During the day, when they were not home, she would drop off clothes and diapers for them. Some evenings, she spoke to them by telephone. Anticipating that she would be required to take parenting classes, she put in a request to begin them at once. A few days after her interview with The Times, a judge gave her permission to visit the children for the first time in more than two months.For the first time in years, on the other hand, Ms. Taylor had no financial worries. More than $100,000 had been contributed to her cause.

“People ask me all the time, ‘Are you happier now?’ They feel that I should be over the moon,” she said. “When, truth be told, I stay inside and I cry because I don’t have my children.” The money will be used to create a stable home and benefit the children, said Ms. Taylor and her lawyer, who is working pro bono. The next hearing is in July.

In the meantime, the ordeal has persuaded Ms. Taylor and Mr. Duncan to make another go of things, and they said they have been seeing a couples counselor.

“This is one of those eye-opening situations that makes you feel like that there are some things that are bigger than yourself, so sometimes you have to learn to communicate in order to make life better,” Ms. Taylor said. “Because, I mean, I understand that a two-parent household is better than a one-parent household, and they love their dad to death; it’s ‘Daddy’ all day. So it’s letting go of your own notions of how things are supposed to go.”

Ms. Taylor has also rented and furnished a modest three-bedroom house. It’s easy to see where most of her energy has gone: Her daughter’s room is decorated in many shades of pink, with flower-shaped pillows on the bed and a pink desk set. For the boys, there is a Disney theme and a rug printed with a roadway for toy cars. In the closet waits a row of little outfits on child-size hangers.

Ms. Taylor is waiting, too, not just for her children to come home, but for her life to restart. She is particularly impatient to start college again.

“Ten dollars an hour is basically going to keep me broke, keep me dependent on food stamps and Medicare and things like that,” she said. “I don’t want to live like that forever. I want to get out and do something bigger and better and be self-sustaining.”

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17) Unblinking Eyes Track Employees
Workplace Surveillance Sees Good and Bad
By

A digital Big Brother is coming to work, for better or worse.

Advanced technological tools are beginning to make it possible to measure and monitor employees as never before, with the promise of fundamentally changing how we work — along with raising concerns about privacy and the specter of unchecked surveillance in the workplace.

Through these new means, companies have found, for example, that workers are more productive if they have more social interaction. So a bank’s call center introduced a shared 15-minute coffee break, and a pharmaceutical company replaced coffee makers used by a few marketing workers with a larger cafe area. The result? Increased sales and less turnover.Yet the prospect of fine-grained, digital monitoring of workers’ behavior worries privacy advocates. Companies, they say, have few legal obligations other than informing employees. “Whether this kind of monitoring is effective or not, it’s a concern,” said Lee Tien, a senior staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.

When Jim Sullivan began working as a waiter at a Dallas restaurant a few years ago, he was being watched — not by the prying eyes of a human boss, but by intelligent software.

The digital sentinel, he was told, tracked every waiter, every ticket, and every dish and drink, looking for patterns that might suggest employee theft. But that torrent of detailed information, parsed another way, cast a computer-generated spotlight on the most productive workers.

Mr. Sullivan’s data shone brightly. And when his employer opened a fourth restaurant in the Dallas area in 2012, Mr. Sullivan was named the manager — a winner in the increasingly quantified world of work.

Still, even people involved in the workplace analytics business say rules governing privacy are needed, if the emerging industry is to flourish.

Ben Waber is chief executive of Sociometric Solutions, a start-up firm that grew out of his doctoral research at M.I.T.’s Human Dynamics Laboratory, which conducts research in the new technologies. Sociometric Solutions advises companies using sensor-rich ID badges worn by employees. These sociometric badges, equipped with two microphones, a location sensor and an accelerometer, monitor the communications behavior of individuals — tone of voice, posture and body language, as well as who spoke to whom for how long.

By now, Sociometric Solutions is working with 20 companies in the banking, technology, pharmaceutical and health care industries, involving thousands of employees. The workers must opt in to have their data collected. Mr. Waber’s company signs a contract with each employee guaranteeing that no individual data is given to the employer (only aggregate statistics), and that no conversations are recorded.

“Privacy policy,” Mr. Waber said, “is going to have to deal with the workplace and not just the consumer issues.”

The payoff for well-designed workplace monitoring, Mr. Waber said, can be significant. The underlying theme of human dynamics research is that people are social learners, so arranging work to increase productive face-to-face communication yields measurable benefits.

For example, the company studied workers in Bank of America call centers and observed that those in tight-knit communications groups were more productive and less likely to quit. To increase social communication, the shared 15-minute coffee break was introduced to the daily routine. Afterward, call-handling productivity increased more than 10 percent, and turnover declined nearly 70 percent, Mr. Waber said.

Mr. Waber’s company also provided the data-guided insight to help the pharmaceutical company increase sales with its new cafe area. At a tech company, his company found, workers who sat at larger tables in the cafeteria, thus communicating more, were more productive than workers who sat at smaller tables.

Bryan Koop, a commercial office developer who has worked with Sociometric Solutions, points to the potential for more scientifically designed work environments. There are current fashions in office design, he said, that are assumed to increase worker productivity, like stationing workers at communal bench-style tables and constructing work cubes with lower dividers.

“We don’t know if those tactics work,” Mr. Koop said. “What we’re starting to see is the ability to quantitatively measure things instead of just going by intuition.”

Skeptics warn of a digital-age rerun of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s “scientific management” from a century ago, whose excesses were satirized in Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times.” Taylor’s instrument of measurement was the stopwatch, used to time and monitor a worker’s every movement. His time-and-motion studies determined the best way to do work.

Initially, Taylorism was hailed as a progressive force that would free workers from the whim of autocratic bosses and benefit all. “This is the way workplace analytics is being presented now,” said Peter Cappelli, director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

But the ideas of Taylorism, he said, were simplified and hardened into a speedup dogma used by bosses, and workers hated it.

Digital tools for workplace surveillance, according to Lamar Pierce, an associate professor at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, can be simplistically viewed as either good or bad. “The real challenge for all of us,” he said, “is what is the right level and in what context is it being done.”

Mr. Pierce was a co-author of a research paper published last year that examined the effect of the monitoring software used in restaurants, like the one in Dallas where Mr. Sullivan works, on employee behavior.

The researchers studied the data on all transactions and patterns suggesting theft, before and after the software was installed, at 392 restaurants, in 39 states. The savings from the theft alerts themselves were modest, at $108 a week per restaurant. More startling, revenue increased an average of $2,982 a week at each restaurant, about 7 percent, a sizable gain in the low-margin restaurant industry.

Servers, knowing they were being monitored, pushed customers to have that dessert or a second beer, which resulted in the increased revenue for the restaurant and tips for themselves.

The monitoring software is a product from NCR called Restaurant Guard. The product, introduced in 2009, exploits the rapid progress in so-called big data technology, for collecting, storing and analyzing vast amounts of data. “That’s the big change that makes this possible,” said Jeff Hughes, general manager for digital insight at NCR.

The software is used in several thousand restaurants. But to test the prototype software in 2008, Mr. Hughes visited his brother Jim Hughes, who owns a few midprice restaurants in the Dallas area, Bread Winners Cafes. The software has steadily improved, he said, so that it now “lets you see everything that goes on in a restaurant.”

Today, Mr. Sullivan is the one doing the software-assisted monitoring of workers. For example, he said, the data might show that someone who is good at serving several tables efficiently is not very good at sales, if her average ticket is below the restaurant’s.

That server, Mr. Sullivan said, would benefit from advice on how to talk to customers and suggest featured dishes and drinks. “The data allows me to go back and coach and train them,” Mr. Sullivan said, “so we can make more money and so can they.”

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18) Workplace Surveillance and the ‘Transparency Paradox’
By STEVE LOHR

Jim Sullivan, general manager of a Dallas restaurant, embraces digital monitoring in the workplace. Software, sensors and data make it increasingly possible, and Mr. Sullivan, as noted in an article I wrote, is a beneficiary of the improved measurement techniques. His data showed he was a highly productive worker, a prime candidate for the promotions he received.

His attitude toward workplace surveillance is pragmatic and positive. When he was a server, he said: “Personally, I was always aware and assumed that you’re being watched at work. I wasn’t stupid.”

Today, as a manager, Mr. Sullivan is an enthusiast. “When people know they are being watched,” he said, “I believe that productivity improves.”

Yet the academic research suggests caution. Much, it seems, depends on the way the watching is done and in what context.

Making surveillance productive, said Ethan S. Bernstein, an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School, is a “design challenge” that requires an understanding of human and organizational behavior. More monitoring, he said, is by no means always better. His research concludes that the opposite is sometimes the case.

In a research project conducted at one of the largest mobile phone factories in the world, Mr. Bernstein tested the impact of surveillance, or transparency, on workers’ behavior and productivity. The plant, covering one million square feet and employing 14,000 workers in southern China, was designed for clear sight lines across the floor and the gangways above — for maximum visibility. It was run by a company Mr. Bernstein identified by the pseudonym PrecisionMobile.

In the experiment, four of the 32 assembly lines were bordered by curtains, somewhat like large hospital-bed curtains, he said.

The purpose, Mr. Bernstein explained, was to test the impact of a measure of privacy added to a portion of the workplace. The workers themselves were not told of the experiment, which was conducted with the company’s approval and the cooperation of the factory’s general manager, head of human relations and chief of operations. The experiment ran for five months.

The workers behind the curtains were 10 percent to 15 percent more productive than others in the factory, Mr. Bernstein concluded in his research, described in a paper, “The Transparency Paradox.”

“Creating zones of privacy may, under certain conditions,” he wrote, “increase performance.” The right degree of privacy, he added, can foster “productive deviance, localized experimentation, distraction avoidance and continuous improvement.”

In the factory setting, Mr. Bernstein attributed the improved performance behind the curtains to an increased willingness among workers to share tips during their short periods of down time and to move around the line to help each other out. If observed, he said, such clustering of people would attract attention. So in the open lines, without curtains, that informal communication was less likely to occur. Some of his insights came from handful of “embeds” — native-Chinese-speaking Harvard undergraduates who volunteered to work in the factory on academic internships. (Mr. Bernstein wondered if he would get any volunteers at first. There were 40 applicants for the first three slots.)

The quest to increase worker productivity constantly, Mr. Bernstein wrote, is “fueling a gospel of transparency” across corporate America, though his research suggests there is often a cost.

Since the factory project, Mr. Bernstein has conducted research studying the privacy-transparency trade-off in other settings, including biotechnology labs and service businesses. That research is not yet published, but Mr. Bernstein said the results so far point to “larger effects” than in manufacturing.


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B. EVENTS AND ACTIONS


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Chelsea Manning SF Pride Contingent 2014
 
http://www.facebook.com/events/298467196976692/

June 28/29 Celebration Civic Center

June 29 Parade Market Street

This year we have more reason to celebrate the SF Pride 2014 parade in San
Francisco: Heroic WikiLeaks whistle-blower Chelsea Manning is being honored
as an official Grand Marshal! March with us to show your pride in Chelsea!

Organized by the Chelsea Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist.
Endorsing organizations include War Resisters League-West, CODEPINK Women
for Peace, CivSol, and the Brass Liberation Orchestra.

Please contact us to include your organization as an endorser!

A motorized cable car will be available for participants with mobility
limitations.

For further details, please contact farah@couragetoresist.org

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C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND
ONGOING CAMPAIGNS


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Transport Workers Protest Oakland Schools Censorship of Mumia

Fresh from defeating Obama’s nominee to head the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department because he served for a period as Mumia’s attorney, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is attacking an Oakland teacher’s lesson plan that asks students to compare the censorship of Martin Luther King’s later, thoroughly radical positions with the censorship of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s prison writings.  As a result of this intimidation from the FOP, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) took down an entire web site—Urban Dreams—which contained this as well as educational material on a diverse range of issues!

The following is an open letter by the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee protesting this outrageous act of police-state censorship . . .

Stop the Censorship!
Restore the Urban Dreams web site!

Open letter to Oakland School Board members:
May 28, 2014

Members of the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, including (among others) the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), BART workers and AC Transit bus drivers, were appalled to hear that the Oakland Unified School District succumbed to pressure from the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the right-wing Fox News by shutting down the educational Urban Dreams website, which includes material on Mumia Abu-Jamal and Martin Luther King Jr.

In effect, academic freedom was pushed to a back seat of the bus. This censorship is wrong. The Urban Dreams website must be restored immediately for all to freely visit and learn.

If not, OUSD administration has joined in with the FOP’s vendetta against Mumia Abu-Jamal. The target of the FOP-Fox News smears was a lesson plan by Oakland teacher Craig Gordon asking students to compare the media’s wall of silence on Martin Luther King’s militant anti-corporate, anti-war campaigning with its wall of silence on Mumia’s writings.

To take that lesson plan down, OUSD took down the entire Urban Dreams website, a website containing many rich and evocative teacher-developed lessons, of which Gordon’s is one. Several of these lesson plans were still in active use by teachers in Oakland and elsewhere. [Urban Dreams was initially set up under a grant from the federal Dept. of Education in 1999-2004].

Academic freedom was pushed to the back of the bus.
This censorship is wrong!

Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Black journalist called the “voice of the voiceless,” was framed for the murder of a Philadelphia policeman over 30 years ago and sentenced to death. Only recently was this innocent man removed from death row.

Fifteen years ago, in the best tradition of the abolitionists, Oakland teachers initiated a teach-in on the plight of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the vestige of slavery, the death penalty. Indeed, Craig Gordon was one of the organizers of that teach-in.

Following that stellar example in 1999, striking school teachers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, demanded his release from prison. As well, longshore workers shutdown all West Coast ports and led a march of 25,000 strong in San Francisco calling for the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Workers in the Bay Area, especially here in Oakland, have a long and proud tradition of defending Black victims of the racist state oppression – from Martin Luther King Jr. to Angela Davis to Huey Newton to Oscar Grant.

Oakland teachers have an obligation to teach that history
and students have a right to learn from that history!

The Urban Dreams website must be restored immediately
for all to freely visit and learn!

Contact Jack Heyman, chair of the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, at TransportSolidarity@yahoo.com.

The statement above was published at:

http://sfbayview.com/2014/stop-the-censorship-restore-the-urban-dreams-website/

This message from: the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

www.laboractionmumia.org

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 AN URGENT FUNDRAISER FOR LYNNE STEWART'S 

MEDICAL NEEDS CONTINUES
http://lynnestewart.org/

LYNNE STEWART HAS JUST BEEN DENIED 

MEDICAL BENEFITS. SHE CAN'T RE-APPLY UNTIL JULY! 

SHE IS IN URGENT NEED OF OUR HELP NOW!

Because of a determined people’s movement, Lynne is finally home with her family. But she has urgent medical needs and costs. Lynne’s Stage 4 breast cancer spread a year ago to both lungs, back, bones and lymph nodes. Now 74, she has lost weight and has trouble breathing; doctors estimate her lifespan at 12 months. Lynne will soon begin treatment requiring her to pay deductibles and co-payments. To boost the odds, she’ll use a special diet, vitamins, and other healing methods – some costly and none covered by insurance.
Lynne’s spirit is indomitable – help her fight to survive!

“I fought lions, I fought tigers, and I’m not going to let cancer get me,” Stewart said.

Lynne has always come to the aid of those who needed her. Now it’s our turn to stand by Lynne.

SEND LYNNE A DONATION TO:

On line at:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lynne-stewart-s-medical-fund

Or by USPS to:

Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
  1070 Dean Street?
  Brooklyn, New York 11216



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Tell Maj. Gen. Buchanan why Chelsea deserves to be free!

 


PVT Chelsea Manning has served nearly four years in prison, yet she’s showing a remarkable spirit of persistence. She is unjustly imprisoned, but not defeated. With plans to enroll in a prelaw/political science university program, and a legal name change underway, she continues planning for her future and working to fulfill her dreams. She is determined to make the best of her situation. However, we know she could contribute more to the world if she was free.
Please write a letter to Convening Authority Major General Buchanan today urging him to reduce Chelsea’s sentence!
We began collecting letters to include in PVT Manning’s clemency packet last fall. We expected that the military would finalize her record of trial last December, and that she could then submit her application to Maj. Gen. Buchanan by the end of 2013. Just like so many times before, however, the military’s process has slowed Chelsea’s ability to defend her rights. Defense attorney David Coombs now estimates that it will be at least another month before the clemency application can be submitted.
Want to make sure decision-makers know why you believe Chelsea deserves to go free? If you haven’t done so yet, please write a short letter to Maj. Gen. Buchanan. Hundreds of people have already submitted letters for us to use, including Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and award-winning author Alice Walker.
As Alice Walker wrote:
Private Manning was the one soldier willing to speak out against what he thought was wrong. When others silently followed orders, Manning could not. Pvt. Manning is a humanist, meaning he sees humanity before nationality, and values human life above all else. When he released documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, he wanted the American people, and the world, to judge for themselves if the U.S. military was properly valuing human life in Iraq and Afghanistan. As taxpayers who fund that military, we deserve that opportunity.
Learn now how you can write a letter to be included in Chelsea Manning’s official application for clemency!
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
http://www.privatemanning.org/pardonpetition



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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Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.

The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
  Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!

On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.

Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.

Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.”  Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).

It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.

On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”

This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.

This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.

In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”

Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!

 SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION

CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!


Write: Lorenzo Johnson
            DF 1036
            SCI Mahanoy
            301 Morea Rd.
            Frackville, PA 17932

 Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
              Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC


 www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org

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End Drone Killing, Drone Surveillance and Global 
Militarization 
United National Antiwar Coalition Call for Spring Days of
 Action 2014

Today we issue an international call for Spring Days of Action—2014, a coordinated campaign in April and May to end drone killings, drone surveillance and global militarization.

The campaign will focus on drone bases, drone research facilities and test sites and drone manufacturers.

The campaign will provide information on:

1. The suffering of tens-of-thousands of people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza who are under drone attack, documenting the killing, the wounding and the devastating impact of constant drone surveillance on community life.

2. How attack and surveillance drones have become a key element in a massive wave of surveillance, clandestine military attacks and militarization generated by the United States to protect a global system of manufacture and oil and mineral exploitation that is creating unemployment and poverty, accelerating the waste of nonrenewable resources and contributing to environmental destruction and global warming.

In addition to cases in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia, we will examine President Obama’s “pivot” into the Asia-Pacific, where the United States has already sold and deployed drones in the vanguard of a shift of 60 percent of its military forces to try to control China and to enforce the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership. We will show, among other things, how this surge of “pivot” forces, greatly enabled by drones, and supported by the U.S. military-industrial complex, will hit every American community with even deeper cuts in the already fragile social programs on which people rely for survival. In short, we will connect drones and militarization with “austerity” in America.

3. How drone attacks have effectively destroyed international and domestic legal protection of the rights to life, privacy, freedom of assembly and free speech and have opened the way for new levels of surveillance and repression around the world, and how, in the United States, increasing drone surveillance, added to surveillance by the National Security Agency and police, provides a new weapon to repress black, Hispanic, immigrant and low-income communities and to intimidate Americans who are increasingly unsettled by lack of jobs, economic inequality, corporate control of politics and the prospect of endless war.

We will discuss how the United States government and corporations conspire secretly to monitor U.S. citizens and particularly how the Administration is accelerating drone surveillance operations and surveillance inside the United States with the same disregard for transparency and law that it applies to other countries, all with the cooperation of the Congress.

The campaign will encourage activists around the world to win passage of local laws that prohibit weaponized drones and drone surveillance from being used in their communities as well as seeking national laws to bar the use of weaponized drones and drone surveillance.

The campaign will draw attention to the call for a ban on weaponized drones by RootsAction.org that has generated a petition with over 80,000 signers:

http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6180

And to efforts by the Granny Peace Brigade (New York City), KnowDrones.org and others to achieve an international ban on both weaponized drones and drone surveillance.

The campaign will also urge participation in the World Beyond War movement.
The following individuals and organizations endorse this Call: 
Lyn Adamson, Co-chair, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace; Dennis Apel, Guadalupe Catholic Worker, California; Judy Bello, Upstate NY Coalition to Ground the Drones & End the Wars; Medea Benjamin, Code Pink; Leah Bolger, Former National President, Veterans for Peace; Canadian Voice of Women for Peace; Sung-Hee Choi, Gangjeong Village International Team, Jeju, Korea; Chelsea C. Faria, Graduate student, Yale Divinity School; Promoting Enduring Peace; Sandy Fessler, Rochester (NY) Against War; Joy First; Bruce K. Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space; Holly Gwinn Graham, Singer/songwriter, Olympia, WA; Regina Hagen, Darmstaedter Friedensforum, Germany; Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence; Malachy Kilbride; Marilyn Levin and Joe Lombardo, Co-Coordinators, United National Antiwar Coalition; Tamara Lorincz, Halifax Peace Coalition, Canada; Nick Mottern, KnowDrones.org; Agneta Norberg, Swedish Peace Council; Pepperwolf, Director, Women Against Military Madness; Lindis Percy, Coordinator, Campaign for the Accountability of American; Bases CAAB UK; Mathias Quackenbush, San Francisco, CA; Lisa Savage, Code Pink, State of Maine; Janice Sevre-Duszynska; Wolfgang Schlupp-Hauck, Friedenswerkstatt Mutlangen, Germany; Cindy Sheehan; Lucia Wilkes Smith, Convener, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM),  Ground; Military Drones Committee; David Soumis, Veterans for Peace; No Drones Wisconsin; Debra Sweet, World Can’t Wait; David Swanson, WarisACrime.org; Brian Terrell, Voices for Creative Nonviolence; United National Antiwar Coalition; Veterans for Peace; Dave Webb, Chair, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (UK); Curt Wechsler, Fire John Paki Wieland, Northampton (MA) Committee to Stop War(s); Loring Wirbel, Citizens for Peace in Space (Colorado Springs, CO); Women Against Military Madness; Ann Wright, Retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat; Leila Zand, Fellowship of Reconciliation.
United National Antiwar Coalition
UNACpeace@gmail.com
UNAC
P.O. Box 123
Delmar, NY 12054
518-227-6947
www.unacpeace.org

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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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Checkpoint - Jasiri X 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq6Y6LSjulU



Published on Jan 28, 2014
"Checkpoint" is based on the oppression and discrimination Jasiri X witnessed firsthand during his recent trip to Palestine and Israel "Checkpoint" is produced by Agent of Change, and directed by Haute Muslim. Download "Checkpoint" at https://jasirix.bandcamp.com/track/ch....

Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x

LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point

If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint

Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint

If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint

At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint

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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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