Monthly Archives: March 2013

AshEl is a food-based activist who has been heightening consciousness for years in the Bay about what we put in our bodies. We have to use everything that we have to inform and educate our people about how our body works – young people especially. I salute AshEl on his valiant quest to keep us in the know about how these corporations are trying to kill us from the inside out.

Because the California State Legislature has the full authority to amend, repeal and make new state law, the PBSP SHU Short Corridor Representatives respectfully request on behalf of all CDCR prisoners, male and female, that they please amend California Penal Code Sections pertaining to the: Inmate Bill of Rights, earning of good behavior credits, Inmate Welfare Fund and restitution fines.

Roy Agyemang is a Ghanaian filmmaker from London who recently made the documentary film “Mugabe: Hero or Villain?” an in-depth look at Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe. It recently screened at the Pan African Film Fest and won an award, and it will be screening in the Bay opening night at the Oakland International Film Fest at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 4, at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland.

Is the peace treaty for the undeclared war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, signed Feb. 24, really a roadmap for the division of mineral rich eastern Congo into separate countries, or even free trade zones, for the convenience of Western mining companies? Congolese mining researcher Jean Didier Lozango says the borders of the DRC must remain intact.

Ida B. Wells was a fiery crusader for African American justice at a time when angry white men indulged in lynching as acceptable behavior. Her determination, courage, ambition and refusal to back down helped change the course of history. Her talents as an investigative reporter, successful writer and newspaper owner were unbeatable weapons.

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.

There should be no doubt indefinite solitary confinement is torture. Yet in §700.2, the CDCR has devised an insidious program whereby they can leverage this torture to coerce validated SHU prisoners to submit to brainwashing in lieu of debriefing – the end result being qualitatively no different: “broken men” will be created by a new process.

Rebellions aren’t pretty, clean or politically correct. Christopher Dorner rebelled. He waged psychological warfare against law enforcement, and it worked. They were afraid. It showed that the police do not have the type of training to take on just one person who is determined and who is skilled. Imagine if they were facing an entire movement.

For many in the African American community, especially those who are between poverty and middle class, autism is unfamiliar. We aren’t quite sure what kind of delay that means in our children. Does it mean they are dumb? Does it mean they won’t talk ever in life? Will they be sitting in the corner for decades, fascinated by the shiny object on the ceiling? Will they have friends of their own? Will they be independent?

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.

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.