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On Saturday, August 9th, anti-nuclear protesters gathered at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on the 63rd anniversary of the U.S. dropping the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. They were joined by Reverend Nobuaki Hanaoka, who survived that devastating attack and called for the “complete elimination of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.”
On August 4, a partial hearing on Stephanie Tang took place in Alameda County Court. Tang, a long time organizer with World Can’t Wait (WCW), is facing up to one year in jail and $1000 in fines, stemming from an ongoing effort by WCW to shut down the Marine Recruiting Station in Berkeley. This specific charge is connected to a demonstration on Feb. 22, in which Tang, although assaulted by Berkeley Police, was charged with obstruction of an officer.
Within weeks of forming a union, employees of Bay Area News Group were shocked at the seemingly retaliatory firings of at least 20 journalists who had worked to form the East Bay bargaining unit. Last week, the Northern California Media Workers Guild filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board. The 230-member Bay Area News Group East Bay bargaining unit includes the Oakland Tribune and other East Bay papers, as well as the San Mateo County Times on the peninsula.
Northern California radicals have banded together as "Unconventional Action (UA) in the Bay" and collectively chosen to adopt Sector 4 in downtown St. Paul, MN during the Republican National Convention. UA in the Bay has announced a Barricade Building Contest and named three street intersections as convergence points for the morning of September 1st. A pre-RNC UA in the Bay meeting will be held in St. Paul on August 30th.
On July 22nd, Judge Barbara Miller upheld U.C. Berkeley's plans for an athletic training center in the Memorial Oak Grove. The order will end an injunction that had blocked destruction of the grove.
On Thursday, July 24th, the Berkeley City Council will likely make its final decision about whether or not to pursue an appeal. Supporters of an appeal plan will meet at the grove at 3:30pm and march to City Hall at 4pm before the 5pm public hearing.
On July 22nd, over 3,000 people rallied at the Port of Oakland to protest against pollution and poverty. Many truck drivers at the port make as little as $8 an hour and receive no benefits. The port trucking system requires drivers to sit idle in their trucks for hours everyday while their trucks spew out toxic diesel emissions. Port diesel pollution is associated with high rates of cancer and asthma. As a result, cancer and asthma rates are higher in West Oakland than other parts of the Bay Area.
On Sunday July 20th, Indybay will have a 3pm orientation in Oakland for new volunteers. The meeting will take place at 570 14th St. Suite #3 and is intended to be for those interested in learning about the site and getting involved in media production and editorial work. Come meet some of the collective members, bring your ideas for new projects to collaborate on, learn about some Indymedia history, find out how the site works and discuss ways to improve the site and work more with the community.
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Residents at the California Hotel in Oakland are threatened with eviction. They received a letter on July 1, notifying them that the hotel will close on July 15. Some of the residents have lived in the affordable housing units for 20 years.
On July 14th, tenants at the hotel and their supporters gathered at 3501 San Pablo Ave. to protest the attempt to illegally lock them out of their housing by their landlord Cahon Associates, and Oakland Community Housing Inc.
In the recent week, attempts to bring food and medication to the tree sitters at the Memorial Oak Grove have failed. Three tree-sitters negotiated coming down of the trees. One tree-sitter was in a desperate need of medical attention.
Under the guise of the "War on Drugs," the Mexican Army has increased its presence around the Zapatistas autonomous municipalities in La Garrucha — the last place Subcomandante Marcos was seen. On June 4, a convoy of 200 army, state and local police tried to enter La Garrucha under the pretext of “looking for marijuana plants,” but were turned away by Zapatista men, women and children armed only with machetes and stones.
While the violence surrounding drug cartels in Mexico causes great alarm in Mexico and abroad, the targeting of Zapatista communities in the “War on Drugs” is equally alarming.
On June 21, about 200 pro-war/pro-military bikers invaded Berkeley to demonstrate in support of the Marine recruiting station in downtown Berkeley. They were met by about 100 demonstrators chanting, "Murder, Rape, Torture, War – That's What They're Recruiting For" and carrying pictures of Iraqi civilians maimed at the hands of U.S. troops.
On Tuesday June 18th, Alameda County Superior Judge Barbara Miller upheld a temporary injunction preventing U.C. Berkeley from developing an athletic center in the Memorial Oak Grove. Celebrations broke out among protesters as the news was announced.
 Photos
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 PDF Of Ruling
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Tree Supporters Prevail in Berkeley Oak Grove decision
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Berkeley Daily Planet Report
The University says they will continue taking down tree-sits and it is not clear how long the oak grove will be safe. Many tree-sit members have said they will remain in the trees until getting a guarantee from the University that the grove will not be cut down.
UC Berkeley officials say that the campus has prevailed on virtually every challenge raised in the lawsuit.
"We are thrilled that the judge concluded that state seismic law will allow the Student-Athlete High Performance Center to be built on the site," said Vice Chancellor for Administration Nathan Brostrom at a campus press conference.
"The university has prevailed on every single issue in this suit except for two simple, very technical issues," said the university's attorney, Charles Olson.
The issues preventing UC development are related to earthquake risks and additional noise and traffic impacts of their proposed development.
While Judge Barbara Miller ruled that the proposed training center itself wouldn't be on the Hayward Fault, she did rule that its construction will involve alterations to the stadium which is on the fault. Therefore, the University must prove that such construction wouldn't violate the Alquist-Priolo Act which regulates new development on active faults.
The law only prevents renovating structures on faults if the work amounts to more
than half the value of the original building, so it is possible the University merely needs to provide proof that their alterations will amount to less than half the value of the stadium (which the university estimates to be worth $600 million). The proposed athletic center itself is estimated to cost $123 million, so a lifting of the temporary injunction could come as quickly as the University can provide the court with a proof of its cost estimates.
 Audio from UC Berkeley's Press Conference following court ruling
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Other coverage:
Campus officials declare 'a major victory'
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Both Sides Claim Victory as Judge Issues Stadium Ruling
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Judge rules in UC Berkeley's favor
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Judge rules in Cal stadium case
Previous Indybay Coverage Of The Oak Grove Tree-Sits
On June 16th, same sex marriages officially began in California. same sex marriages were officially held in San Francisco. In San Francisco, hundreds came to City Hall to celebrate.
After being together for more than 50 years, Phyllis
Lyon and Del Martin were the first couple to be legally married.
In Oakland, the first couples were married by mayor Ron Dellums, city council member Jean Quan, and congresswoman Barbara Lee.
In Fresno, dozens of couples arrived early to get their marriage licenses Tuesday morning. Tinasha Broadus and Alicia Rice were the first in line and the first to be married.
On June 16th, around a dozen protesters gathered at Ashby and MLK in Berkeley to protest the shooting of Anita Gay, grandmother, mother, and resident of Berkeley. She was killed on February 16, 2008 by a Berkeley Police officer who is now back on the street. Following the killing of Anita Gay by Berkeley police
Justice for Anita! Justice for All! was formed.
The group is composed of family, friends, and concerned community members.
Photos
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Event Announcement
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Previous Indybay Coverage
On, June 10, Berkeley residents & activists gathered at Berkeley City Hall to protest UC Berkeley's plan to pulverize LBNL's Bevatron structure. Protesters are worried about the environmental and health impacts of the University's plans to demolish, and haul away, the Bevatron and its contents.
The demolished structure will contain radioactive materials, asbestos, lead, mercury, PCBs, and chlorinated VOCs. Some of the radioactive materials include Cobalt 60, Cesium 137, and Europium 154. Radioactive energy form Cobalt 60 can be 59 times greater in intensity than that of an ordinary X-ray. The waste material is scheduled to be hauled by thousands of heavily loaded uncovered trucks down Hearst Avenue to Oxford Avenue, south on Oxford to University Ave and from there onto I-80.
Protesters say that an alternative to the demolition would be to allow the Bevatron and its contamination to remain onsite in relative containment. Onsite containment will allow the radioactivity to decay in place and not be hauled away to other communities.
Photos | Wikipedia Article On The Bevatron
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Bevatron Shutdown In Nostalgic Ceremony
On June 2nd, the Education for Sustainable Living Program (ESLP) class at UC Santa Cruz hosted an evening entitled "The University is Unsustainable: militarism, nuclearism, corporatism and the UC." Student researchers Jono and Leah presented on UCSC's Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) while UCSC alumni Will Parrish and Darwin BondGraham focused on the University of California from 1868 to 2008, from the genocide of Indigenous Nations, the Spanish American War and the Manhattan Project, through to the present: a time of renewed nuclear-militarism and increasing corporatization and privatization of the University.
In a letter to Chevron executives and shareholders (and to ExxonMobil, who meet the same day), Iraqi oil workers unions called on Chevron to end the occupation and stop pushing for the "Iraq Oil Theft Law." This message will be delivered by an alliance of environmental justice, human rights and international solidarity groups converging on Chevron's annual shareholder meeting, Wednesday, May 28th at 7:00AM at Chevron corporate headquarters in San Ramon.
The campaign against science experiments on animals at the University of California continues to grow stronger, but not without opposition. Over the last several months, activists have been conducting frequent demonstrations outside the homes of UC animal researchers -- a handful of people with signs, a bullhorn and some literature to hand out to neighbors.
On May 22, more than 2,000 Berkeley High School students of all different nationalities streamed out of class and formed a human chain around the school to protest the escalating attacks on immigrants. As they linked arms, they chanted “Immigrants are people!” A young woman with the group Fighting for Immigrants’ Rights and Equality (FIRE), which organized the protest, said, “Most of the school went out with us… Ooooh it made the whole school feel good, like we were a family, no matter what race you are or nothing, like we were together.”
On May 17th, Act Against Torture, World Cant Wait, Code Pink, and Vet’s for Peace participated in a demonstration at the UC Berkeley School of Law graduation to demand that Professor John Yoo, author of the legal memo justifying the Bush administration's use of torture, be fired, disbarred and prosecuted for war crimes.
Berkeley Copwatch has organized a Know Your Rights and Copwatching Training Week for Saturday, May 24th through Friday, May 30th in Berkeley. Copwatch observes police interactions with civilians and teaches community members about their basic rights with the police as well as how to effectively observe police actions. The week of free events will include three Know Your Rights Trainings and a screening of "These Streets are Watching" After each training, participants will have the option of joining Berkeley Copwatch on a Copwatching shift.
On May 8th on the Cal State East Bay (CSUEB) campus, the Queer/Straight Alliance (QSA) sponsored a Mock Marriage for Marriage Equality and a LGBT Resource Fair. Five couples, of varying sexes, genders, and sexualities were mock married and three ceremony types were utilized: a Jewish ceremony, a Pagan hand fasting, and a Christian ceremony. There were also participants of varying ethnicities within the ceremonies.
Farm Sanctuary, which operates the largest rescue and refuge network for farm animals in North America, and Animal Place, a nonprofit sanctuary for abused and discarded farmed animals, have responded to a call from Santa Cruz Animal Services and are coming to the aid of 14 neglected animals confiscated from a Watsonville slaughterhouse on May 1st. The rescued animals—12 goats, one cow and one sheep—were discovered at the Lee Road slaughter facility on May 1st by Todd Stosuy of Santa Cruz Animal Services, when he noticed a cow with a bloody horn from the road and initiated an investigation.
Direct Action to Stop the War brought its anti-war focus to May Day actions in San Francisco and Oakland on May 1st. Starting at 5:45 a.m. at West Oakland BART, DASW lead a community picket to shut down the Union Pacific rail lines at the Port of Oakland. From 12:30-2:30pm, DASW marched from Justin Herman Plaza to protests at the Armed Forces Recruiting Center (670 Davis St. at Broadway) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (630 Sansome St. at Washington St.). DASW also had a contingent at labor and immigrant rights demonstrations on May Day.
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