Daily Archives: October 30, 2013

As the CEO of United Council of Human Services, I am calling for full support of the homeless beds facility, which will benefit many working-class residents and other homeless citizens of Bayview Hunters Point. A homeless bed facility is essential in the neighborhood with the City’s second largest concentration of homelessness. We need your support in making the 100-bed facility a reality.

Augusta Collins is one of the local bluesmen we have floating around Oakland and the Bay. A few years back I came into contact with him while covering playwright Anita Woodley’s “Mama Juggs” play about her family dealing with breast cancer. Augusta had a singing part in the play that was really heartfelt. It is an honor to now catch up with the Oakland bluesman himself, Augusta Collins. Check out his new DVD “Game.”

During the prisoners’ hunger strike in July 2013, many supporters signed up on the Emergency Response Network-Pledge of Resistance of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition, agreeing to receive one email a week suggesting a targeted action to support the prisoners. Although the strike has been suspended, its results are still being felt throughout the California prison system.

On Monday, Oct. 28, a jury began hearing testimony in a civil suit filed against four prison guards in Wise County, Virginia, for an attack on Wallens Ridge prisoner Frank Reid in July 2009. Reid filed the suit after defeating prison officials’ charges of aggravated assault in the same incident. Reid is charging the guards with violating his constitutional rights as a prisoner of the Virginia Department of Corrections (VA-DOC).