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| Published as of Friday, 24 February 2006 03:17:23 PM |
| Rod Coronado arrested for 2003 teach-in in San Diego | | 23 Feb 2006 | Details are sketchy, but a federal indictment was handed down by a Federal Grand Jury in San Diego charging Rod with "teaching and demonstrating the making of a destructive device" before a crowded room at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center in Hillcrest on Aug. 1, 2003, one day after an arson at the University Towne Center apartment complex under construction in San Diego.
Rod is already awaiting setencing from previous charges. 2 months back Rod and Matt Crozier were found guilty of felony conspiracy to interfere with or injure a government official (max 7 years), charges related to an Earth First! campaign to prevent mountain lions from being captured or killed by hunters in Tucson, Arizona in March 2004. [ Related Articles: Rod Coronado Indicted on Federal Conspiracy Charges | Rod Coronado on the Animal Liberation Movement | Rod Coronado: A Voice for Liberation | Peter Young's statement on SD Grand Jury | Two Activists Jailed For Refusing to Cooperate with Grand Jury ]
[ Related Websites: San Diego Indymedia | Arizona Indymedia | Portland Prisoner Support Page | FBI Witch Hunt | Arizona Earth First! ] Read More >> |
| PSU cafeteria workers boycott employer Sodexho | | 23 Feb 2006 | | We, the undersigned, have terminated our period of employment at Sodexho's Victor's Café in Ondine Hall on the PSU campus. Given the financial and emotional stresses of unemployment, this was not an easy decision to make; however, the unacceptable business practices of the company made it, in our opinion, the only ethical one. |
| Schumacher Furs Protest Report (I'd rather go naked than wear fur), February 18 | | 22 Feb 2006 | While about twenty protesters stood out in the cold holding signs and passing out literature in front of Schumacher Furs last Saturday, another half dozen protesters stripped down to g-strings and shoes, some with strategically placed anti-fur stickers, others with anti-fur slogans written on their bare skin with black ink.
Meanwhile a crowd gathered across the street, fascinated by our protest, and more than usual amounts of educational literature were distributed. Why would people take off their clothes downtown in 37 degree weather? To drive home the point that we'd rather wear nothing than wear the product of intense animal abuse and suffering. |
| 1800 People Killed by Corporate Timber and Human Ignorance | | 22 Feb 2006 | More than a thousand people have died in the Philippines, as a result of a tremendous landslide. As they slipped beneath the mud of the nearby mountainside, did they know who was to blame? As it turns out, logging was to blame. People of Cascadia, take note.
According to scientific analysis and preliminary government reports alike, the reason for the massive landslide that took so many lives last week is clear: It was logging. The steep slopes above the buried village were denuded of all their trees. Ancient forests had been carved away by greed and indifference. The delicate forest ecosystem had melted under the weight of machines and "progress," and so the ancient mountain then melted away onto the little village below. |
| Know Your Rights, Legal Observation and Jail Support Workshop | | 22 Feb 2006 | Have you been wondering, "Why are people getting arrested for chalk drawings and spitting on the sidewalk when bands of activists are allowed to run amuck, buck naked, with only g strings and anti-fur stickers on their nipples?!" Well, even if you haven't, this free workshop is open to anyone wondering what rights they still might have as an activist, how to best protect em, and what to do if you wind up in the clink anyway. The event is being hosted by In Defense of Animals and you know what that means? Homemade vegan treats!
When: This Sunday, February 26th @ 4:00 - 6:30 pm (Doors at 4pm, speakers at 4:30 pm)
Where: Free Geek: 1731 SE 10th Avenue, Portland, OR (503-232-9350)
[ Related Articles: Resisting Repression- Black Panthers and Animal Defenders Unite to fight back ] |
| Portland City Council To Consider Regulation of Payday Loans | | 22 Feb 2006 | Portland City Council meets tonight at 6 p.m. at the Mt. Scott Community Center, 5530 SE 72nd Ave., to consider new regulations on high-interest payday loans.
Proposed legislation includes a requirement that 25 percent of the principal of a loan be paid before it can be rolled over, a 24-hour window for a borrower to cancel the loan, requirements for payment plans to be set up, and a $1,500 annual fee for payday loan outlets. |
| Cascadia Policy Wines and Dines Corporate Shill John Stossel | | 22 Feb 2006 | | ABC's fact-challenged antienvironmental crusader John Stossel cavorted with cronies at Portland's posh Multnomah Athletic Club earlier this month, courtesy Cascadia Policy Institute, Portland's resident procorporate "Libertarian thinktank." John Borowski crashed the party and gives us the details. [See also: I Didn't Call John Stossel a "Corporate Shill", But I Should Have!] |
| Media Maintains Status Quo | | 20 Feb 2006 | The mass media's real "job," unbeknownst to the general public, is and has always been to protect the status quo, that is, to protect the interests of the governing classes. What currently threatens their legitimacy (and that of the ruling classes) is not that they have not been doing their job in the last few years, but rather that the public has begun to realize that the real function of the mass media (and the government) is to work against the public interest. This growing realization is a terrifying prospect for the ruling classes. Hence they would do anything, including lamenting their own personal and individual "failures," to prevent such a ruinous outcome for the system.
To restate the matter, there has not been any failure as such. In the last few years, the mass media and the government have been doing exactly what they were designed to do within the context of the capitalist system. The lamentations are meant to keep people from realizing this fundamental fact. |
| SHAC 7 Trial-Week 2 | | 19 Feb 2006 | >>Monday, February 13, 2006
The SHAC 7 trial kicked off February 6th, with a strong protest of about 80-100 people, despite attempts by Homeland Security to prevent the demonstration from happening.
The first week of trial is now over and the case is moving along quite fast. Jury selection started Monday and the full jury was picked by Tuesday afternoon.
The prosecutor, Charles McKenna, opened with a dramatic, yet dull statement, that dragged on for 30 minutes. Each of the defense attorneys had time to make opening statements, calling attention to the gross misrepresentations in the governments opening, as well as the fact that these defendants are on trial for nothing more than reporting on the actions of others.
The week saw approximately 15 witnesses for the government, including the Huntingdon Life Sciences' Managing Director Brian Cass and other HLS employees. Despite allegations by the government that the SHAC USA site was "causing" people to take direct action against these employee's homes, most testified that either nothing illegal had happened at their homes or that their home addresses had not been posted on the SHAC USA website prior to any direct action. Of course, none could say that any of the defendants had done anything illegal to them. |
| Protest - Tuesday 21st - Why JUDY CAMERONs research will never help anyone | | 19 Feb 2006 | These studies would be laughable if the consequences weren't so grim for us as well as the monkeys. We have paid millions of tax dollars for Cameron's experiments, which at best duplicate what we already know from human observation. Lab monkeys are not even good models for normal monkeys because of the stressful and unnatural conditions of a lab. Common sense tells us that they cannot teach us about complex human social and psychological phenomena. Cameron has even planned to learn about human divorce by creating fake nuclear monkey families and removing the father to see the effects.
While OHSU's primate center gets more and more tax dollars, programs that actually help people are disappearing because of budget cuts. From 2000 through 2003, Cameron received $8,792,889 in National Institutes of Health grants, as well as portions of the OHSU primate center's base grants. The primate center is in the process of a massive expansion.
Cameron explains in her own words what is wrong with her experiments, commenting on the surrogate parent study: "The results are intriguing because they match observations on humans who lose their parents... Another experiment suggested a way to ease the stress: adoption. ... This probably translates to humans" |
| "We Don't Need To Have An Eye For An Eye. We Have The Courts." | | 18 Feb 2006 | In an article from today's (February 18, 2006) Oregonian, Joseph Rose writes about Charles Porter,a man in Springfield who, frustrated by the clearing of a police officer who killed his son, allegedly hired a hit man to kill that officer. I want to say up front that I do not condone killings of any kind, and murder is murder no matter what the motivation, but this is what can come of a system that straight-arms citizens. I have witnessed the frustration and pain caused by the results of a grand jury investigation and an "internal investigation" subsequent to the killing of Fouad Kaady on September 8, 2005. There is no connection between the Kaady case and Charles Porter, except the wrongful death of a son and the unconditional clearing of the killers.
What happens when a closed system investigates itself? Victims are left in the cold, hurt and angry and unable to find answers to their anguished questions. Doors are closed to them and they are expected to accept the results of those investigations without further "bother". This is just not working. Those of us who have read the reports and seen the pictures regarding the Kaady case are still very angry, still full of questions and some of us can even understand the reasons why Charles Porter was driven to his desperate act. This is tragic. This is not necessary. There has to be a better way of investigating questionable shootings, such as those committed against unarmed citizens. |
| World Social Forum Report Back from Venezuela | | 18 Feb 2006 | Venezuela: Another World is Happening
Community Report Back from the World Social Forum in Caracas and 23 de Enero Twenty-three Portland activists have returned from Caracas, Venezuela where they attended the 2006 World Social Forum (WSF). The World Social Forum, whose slogan is "another world is possible," is a yearly gathering at which over 100,000 progressive activists, non-profits, and community organizations from around the world debate alternatives to corporate globalization. At this year's Forum, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan joined Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to condemn the Iraq war and call for the assembled activists to work together and build a just economic order. Chavez, as usual, mockingly referred to Bush exclusively as "Mr. Danger." The first Forum took place in 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It was intended as a counterpoint to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where some of the most powerful economic players in the world meet each year. Since then, the WSF has grown so much that organizers decided to hold this year's forum in three separate locations: one in Caracas, Venezuela; one in Banako, Mali; and one in Karachi, Pakistan. Saturday February 18, 7 PM @ SEIU Local 49 (3536 SE 26th Ave.)
www.pcasc.net [ Read More ]
Grand Juries, Snitches and Spies.... oh my! Come to an educational forum on Grand Juries, criminal prosecution, and the use of confidential informants presented by Attorney Lauren Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense Center. Learn the facts about the legal system and what rights citizens have in the face of a growing police state that is based on political whim more than a desire for safe communities or justice. Come hear how grand juries and snitches deny your rights, disrupt political movements, and destroy communities. How will current events impact your community? PORTLAND DATES: SOUTHEAST:
Saturday, Feb. 18th, 7PM
Laughing Horse Books, 3652 SE Division St. NORTH / NORTHEAST:
Wednesday, Feb. 22nd, 7PM
Liberty Hall, 311 N Ivy" Civil Liberties Defense Center [ Read More ] |
| Report from the Common Ground Speaking Event | | 16 Feb 2006 | Kerul Dyer and Sakura Kone' spoke at Reflections Coffee House (446 NE Killingsworth St.) on Sunday February 12th. Sakura came in place of Common Ground founder, Malik Rahim. Malik deeply wanted to come, but on saturday morning his aunt died and he had to stay to make funeral preparations for her. Sakura came on just a couple hours notice, for which we were deeply thankful.
After a video about Common Ground and the relief effort, Sakura sat down to talk to folks about what was really going down in New Orleans. After a short talk, he and Kerul opened the floor for questions from the packed room.
The overlying theme of this event was to help establish a "Common Ground Portland" ... or something of the sort. Common Ground rose up AFTER the hurricane and in response the the governments dissmisal of poor people. The idea is to start organizing for something catastrophic NOW so that we have a network already set up that even if the government decided to care, we wouldnt need them.
Listen to streaming AUDIO: On The Air |
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