Local News & Views

What was amazing about the hearing Monday was the prosecution’s admission that it didn’t have enough evidence to convict these men. As attorney Daro Inouye said of Jalil Muntaqim, who pled no contest to the prosecution’s charge of conspiracy, his client picked up a loaded grenade to save his brothers, his friends, his fellow defendants, and he didn’t plead guilty. That language did not pass his lips.

Support both of these cases. In both cases of the police and courts have no evidence. These are bogus charges to waste the defendants’ time and resources. We as the community must stand behind these two warriors as they are attacked individually and the community is attacked through them. What's the call? Free ‘em all!

The KPFA station board has the responsibility to approve KPFA’s budget, evaluate management and oversee programming. Nominations for KPFA’s Station Board are now open. Anyone who becomes a member, by donating $25 or by performing three hours of volunteer work before July 15, is eligible to run as a candidate and to vote in KPFA’s Station Board elections. You may wonder why you should participate. Only 17 percent of the world’s population lives in a country with freedom of the press. So please exercise you right to have your ideas heard by participating in these elections as a candidate or voter.

The San Francisco Housing Authority plans to tear down thousands of homes in public housing and give the projects to Bridge Housing, the John Stewart Co. and Mercy Housing to prey on the poor and gentrify the areas. Bridge will have Potrero public housing, John Stewart has already started executing its plans at Hunters View in Hunters Point and Mercy Housing is waiting for the green light to gentrify and make hay while the sun shines at Sunnydale. Where are the people? They are fast asleep!

Among youth, while only 15 percent of teens (ages 13-19) are African American, they accounted for 73 percent of the new AIDS cases reported in 2004. Comparably shocking, HIV and AIDS is the leading cause of death for African American women between the ages of 25 and 34. Where’s Black leadership on this issue? Where’s the Black church?

In a letter dated May 22, 2009, Navy representatives announced their intention to dissolve the RAB. This is not the first time the Navy has threatened to take this action. Indeed, whenever a critical impasse has arisen regarding key shipyard cleanup matters, a threat to disband the elected body recognized by Congress as the legitimate organized voice for public comment, dissent and scientific debate has been made.

If enough listeners become subscribers, and vote in the election, it’s possible that “people power” will overcome “money power” and elect an LSB majority that isn’t wedded to the status quo. The Bay Area deserves a KPFA that innovates. For example, isn’t it about time for a program for the Black community, a program for the LGBT community and a program about California’s injustice system? And KPFA workers, paid and unpaid, deserve management that respects them and the listener community.

Thirty-seven percent of the adults and 20 percent of the kids living in West Oakland have asthma and children living in this community are seven times more likely to be hospitalized for breathing related illness than any other children in California.

We often tell our children, "I want you to do better than I did. I want you to make a difference and I want you to be more financially sustained than I am." My name is Betty McGee and I earned a doctorate in business administration in 2004. The journey for me was five years of hard work, sacrifice and to some degree doubt around my ability to complete the work.

Few events reflect the priorities of elected officials more vividly than a budget crisis. It is during a budget crisis that policy-makers are forced to choose between the interests of powerful or popular constituencies and the needs of the less powerful and most vulnerable citizens. Presently, this drama is being played out in San Francisco, where social and legal services to the poor are being slashed while Police and Fire Department budgets are being protected. This Faustian bargain is displayed in Mayor Newsom's proposal $1.9 million cut to the Public Defender's budget, while adding $18 million to the Police Department budget.

The murder of a 22-year-old unarmed Black man, Oscar Grant, by a transit cop in Oakland during the early hours of New Year's Day sparked national indignation. Onlookers captured the shooting on cell phones, and their video footage was transmitted to millions via the Internet and TV.

In response to the California state budget crisis and to global warming urgencies, California's 20th District Assemblymember Alberto Torrico has proposed Assembly Bill 656, a tax "for the privilege of severing oil or gas from the earth or water in this state," to fund higher education, especially renewable energy education, to train a generation capable of helping California make a transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.