Monthly Archives: June 2009

Chevron's 107-year-old Richmond refinery is the largest industrial polluter in the region, and communities in Richmond, particularly low-income and communities of color, already suffer from industrial pollution-related health problems. Putting a halt on this expansion project will prevent increased pollution in Richmond and throughout the Bay Area.

The residents of Martin Luther King - Marcus Garvey Cooperative Square Apartments, Inc. (King Garvey Co-op), who are also the shareholders of this housing complex in San Francisco's historically Black Fillmore district, known before redevelopment as "Harlem of the West," are being intimidated into a fraudulent deal that would turn over nearly $100 million in their families' assets to private developers with government connections.

People speaking up, seemed not to matter / People speaking, I seen no one scatter / ... This ain't enough even for us to live / ... And what about my kids / And now you cutting off / General Assistance? It's all I got / ... Something left for the people?

"Have you forgotten the holocaust? Have you forgotten the gulags in Russia? Communism, nazism, fascism did not come from Africa. ... A Western country was the first to use weapons of mass destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those countries have been able to rise. Africa, there is hope," Bishop Tutu assured.

San Francisco bus fares will go up and service will go down - impacting Blacks more than any other group - as the struggle over who gets stimulus funds continues. Transit authorities around the country are in line for token stimulus funds, but only for new building projects; no immediate operating support to stave off fare hikes, service cuts and layoffs.

A Michigan judge ruled this week that the Rev. Edward Pinkney, a Benton Harbor minister and longtime vocal community activist who recently served 13 months in jail, couldn't attend his own hearing in Grand Rapids before the Michigan Court of Appeals because he is under 24-hour house arrest and probation for quoting the Bible.

Their force did not wait for a mediator or a trained police dog. Asa was cornered, trapped and shot down, with no chance to defend himself. The SFPD force was not in any way equal to the only thing Asa had with him - just his words. That is all Asa had to defend himself with that evening: HIS WORDS.

The move by FEMA to enforce the June 1 eviction date for Gulf Region residents who live in temporary trailers not only lacks basic compassion but is also a derogation of the government's responsibilities to uphold fundamental human rights.

Less than a month after 13 single payer advocates were arrested protesting the exclusion of single payer, it is at the table in both Houses, making progress while the multi-payer pro-insurance reform is faltering.

A march called Real Deal or No Deal, expected to be the biggest of the season, will take off at 3 p.m. Wednesday from Hallidie Plaza to City Hall. San Franciscans hit hard by the recession will join with city workers and the working poor to march against Mayor Gavin Newsom’s proposed city budget.

HR 2269, which is co-sponsored by 16 Congress members and supported by 165 regional and national organizations, funds "green" resident-led recovery projects to help meet the overwhelming unmet needs of the individuals, families and communities devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Right now, Adimu is working on a new documentary called "Operation: Small Ax" about the POCC: Block Report Radio show and its role in organizing in the terrible but fine year of 2009 in the Bay Area in the eye of the storm of controversies like the murder of Oscar Grant, the Oakland Rebellions, the trials of the Oakland 100, the murder of Lovelle Mixon and four OPD and more. It also includes exclusive interviews with Emory Douglas of the Black Panther Party, Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. of the POCC, Umar Bin Hassan of the Last Poets, rappers Beeda Weeda, J. Stalin, Mahasen and Chela Simone and an exclusive Block Report Radio interview with Angela Davis that was used to promote Mumia's new book.

Damon Jamal is a pioneering force in the Bay Area's media and hip hop markets that has been producing projects that 15 years ago would have only been conceivable with a budget from MTV or VH1. Now he is a very sought after videographer and filmmaker who makes the magic happen on an independent level right from his Mac laptop's Final Cut program, which is sitting on his desk in his downtown Oakland office which he shares with Kaz Kyzah's Mogul Media.

In the Bayview, Experience Corps has partnered with Malcolm X Academy since 2004 and just expanded to Carver Elementary School at Oakdale and Keith. Of Carver's 285 students, only one in five are meeting the state standards in language arts and fewer than one in three meet standards in mathematics.

The depth of the crisis and the level of social discontent in Madagascar directly affected a group of soldiers of the Army Corps of Personnel and Administrative and Technical Services who had been ordered to move against protestors on the streets. The soldiers refused to obey orders to fire on the people and repress anti-government demonstrators. Following this, they then declared they would not obey government orders either.

The Hampton House Motel in Miami’s predominantly Black Brownsville section was one of the places where famous Black recording artists stayed during segregation after performing for all-white audiences on the beach. The performers were not allowed to stay in predominantly white hotels. Miami-Dade County is restoring and renovating Hampton House after it fell into disrepair over the years. But ironically, the construction work on the Black historic site does not include any Black contractors, subcontractors or laborers.

A victory in the campaign for justice for Oscar Grant III was celebrated today after the presiding judge, Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay, concluded the preliminary hearing in the trial of Johannes Mehserle by ruling that the former BART police officer will stand trial for murder. June 18 is the date Mehserle is scheduled to appear back in court and declare his plea of guilt or innocence before the full trial begins.

Our beloved Mother Mary Ann Wright passed last month; she was 87. She was soft-spoken when not in the pulpit or behind her bullhorn holding church at her multiple food giveaway sites. I marveled over this woman who'd done so much to comfort the poor, a woman loved by all who knew her.

A preliminary hearing to begin June 8 will decide whether the San Francisco 8 will have to stand trial for the 1971 murder of a SFPD officer. SF 8 member Richard Brown reports in this Block Report that more evidence has surfaced on the torture tactics used to extract the inadmissable confessions that this case is based on.

The first study to assess the impact of the San Francisco Public Defender's Office reentry social work program found that alternatives to incarceration, reduced sentencing and avoided jail days obtained as a result of reentry advocacy saved California state prisons over $5,000,000 and San Francisco County over $1,000,000.