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Supreme Court hears Voting Rights Act challenge: The legal fight to protect white power
March 15, 2013
Scalia has made it clear why this case is before the Court – it’s about race and white “race entitlement.” The Voting Rights Act was passed because no group is going to “apportion themselves out of power.” If the Court rules in favor of Shelby County in the face of its racist record, it will be doing nothing more than validating white power and racism.
Court misses white racial entitlement
March 9, 2013
In oral arguments before the Supreme Court on the Voting Rights Act, Justice Antonin Scalia slandered the act as a “racial entitlement,” arguing, “whenever a society adopts racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get out of them through the normal political processes.” The justice proved once more that he is not a neutral arbiter of the Constitution but a right-wing activist with an agenda to enforce.
The sequester and the Tea Party plot
March 2, 2013
Tea Party Republicans are crowing about the “sequestration” cuts beginning March 1. “This will be the first significant Tea Party victory in that we got what we set out to do in changing Washington,” says Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas. Sequestration is only the start. What they set out to do was not simply change Washington but eviscerate the U.S. government.
Yee introduces bill to aid young parents in foster care system
March 1, 2013
On Feb. 22, Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco-San Mateo, chair of the Senate Committee on Human Services, introduced legislation to assist pregnant teens and young parents in the foster care system. Legislation helps ensure access to child care, offers support to pregnant foster youth, and provides reproductive health education.
How the media tried to assassinate Chris Dorner
March 1, 2013
Christopher Jordan Dorner is dead, but his words and actions will continue to impact the Los Angeles area and beyond for quite some time. The former U.S. Navy lieutenant and Los Angeles police officer who is alleged to have shot and killed four people early in February was the subject of the largest manhunt in Southern California history.
Obama administration official provides insights on U.S. Congo policy
February 23, 2013
On Monday, Feb. 11, outgoing Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson presented an outline of the Obama administration’s policy position on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The purpose of Ambassador Carson’s presentation was twofold: discussing why efforts should be redoubled to bring stability to the Congo and laying out a framework for “moving forward.”
10 things you didn’t know about Rosa Parks
February 21, 2013
Feb. 4, 2013, marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rosa Louise MaCauley Parks in Tuskegee, Alabama. Parks was born in the segregated South, where African Americans were subjected to daily humiliations aimed at maintaining the system of exploitation and national oppression which grew out of slavery and the failure of reconstruction.
Chris Dorner is not the only one: Two officers, same stories, different outcomes
February 17, 2013
It has taken a Dorner manifesto and several targeted deaths to get LAPD to take notice. If you ask Sgt. Randy Franklin what he thinks of the LAPD today, he will tell you, “They lack integrity, honor, dignity, discipline, reverence for the law and respect for the people they swore to serve.” This comes straight from someone who believes that the greatest mistake in his life was joining the LAPD.
How law enforcement and media covered up the plan to burn Christopher Dorner alive
February 15, 2013
I listened through a police scanner as San Bernardino sheriffs gave the order to burn down the cabin where suspected murderer Christopher Dorner was allegedly hiding. Deputies were maneuvering a remote controlled demolition vehicle to the base of the cabin, using it to tear down the walls of the cabin where Dorner was hiding, and peering inside.
LAPD was never spooked by Christopher Dorner: Something don’t smell right
February 14, 2013
Over the past week, Southern Cali police had more than 1,000 officers combing mountains, stopping traffic on major freeways where cars were held up for hours, offering a million dollars, the highest reward ever offered for a wanted person in state history – and that’s just for starters. During the past week, LAPD shot three innocent people without identifying themselves as police officers.
Wanted dead, not alive: LAPD is afraid of what renegade cop Chris Dorner has to say
February 13, 2013
Let’s not be too quick to dismiss the “ranting” of renegade LAPD officer Chris Dorner. Dorner, a three-year police veteran and former lieutenant in the U.S. Navy who went rogue after being fired by the LAPD, has accused Los Angeles police of systematically using excessive force, of corruption, of being racist and of firing him for raising those issues through official channels.
Dorner case echoes California’s Black Panther past
February 12, 2013
Does someone who is hated by the general public – say, a killer or someone who threatens violence – deserve to have his concerns investigated? Christopher Dorner may be accused of murder, but that does not make him wrong about the nature of police in California, a history anyone from a city teenager to an aging Black Panther can recite.
Obama knows what ails Chicago: People need work
February 11, 2013
President Obama, who has organized, taught and represented this city, knows the situation well. He knows the guns are not made here. He knows Chicago’s tough gun laws are undermined by lax enforcement and lower standards outside the city. He knows that as the guns and drugs are flowing in, the jobs are flowing out.
Have we sold our souls by turning a blind eye to Obama’s drones?
February 11, 2013
Be wary of the attempts to get folks to buy into a concept that we once railed against called “preemptive strikes.” When Bush kicked this off, we hit the streets by the thousands. Obama doesn’t use that term, instead he invokes the image of us being in a life and death struggle against “evil terrorists.” As a result, many have checked their conscience at the door.
Cop-on-cop crime in LA: American blowback
February 8, 2013
In a letter titled only “Last Resort” and addressed to “America,” Christopher Dorner makes clear his grievances, his objectives and the rationale behind his actions – a chilling declaration of war on the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPD has long played a vanguard role in white supremacist policing in the United States.
Judges grant California six additional months to cut prison population
January 31, 2013
On Tuesday, a panel of three federal judges granted California six additional months to comply with federal orders to reduce prison overcrowding. About six years ago, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson appointed federal receiver J. Clark Kelso to oversee the state’s prison health care system after determining that an average of one inmate per week died as a result of malpractice or neglect. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered California to reduce its inmate population to help improve prison health care.
CPUC’s San Onofre investigation: Parties cry foul
January 31, 2013
Parties to the California Public Utilities Commission’s investigation of the San Onofre nuclear generating station outage are crying foul over ongoing procedural delays and a narrow Scoping Memo issued Tuesday, Jan. 28. Parties ask CPUC to stop paying for these severely damaged reactors now and plan for permanent replacement resources instead.
Postal hunger strike to save 6-day delivery
January 28, 2013
A half dozen postal hunger strikers completed a six-day fast for six-day delivery and declared a “people’s victory” in late December. The strikers established an “emergency” tent encampment in the shadow of the Capitol, demanding that Congress and the president halt closures and cuts to the U.S. Postal Service.
Beyond banning ‘bad guns’ and ‘arming good guys’
January 27, 2013
In our current climate, it is increasingly hard to see how some of the alternating proposals flowing from these debates, namely, a “good guy with a gun” in every school or a generic “gun control” that bans all bad guns and gun accessories will be anything but a distraction from truly understanding and addressing the root of what is causing people to die.
HUD housing programs at risk locally and across the nation
January 26, 2013
Massive spending cuts to the nation’s federal housing programs are scheduled to go into effect on March 1, 2013, threatening thousands of low-income families in Oakland and other Bay Area cities with higher rent than they can pay. Additionally, several hundred thousand or more low-income families all across the nation could lose their vouchers.