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features archive
In anticipation of the one-year anniversary of the 2008 RNC in St. Paul, Minnesota, we've compiled this packet for the media and other interested observers.
One year after the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., the aftermath remains newsworthy. The RNC was for many of us our taste of a police state; the astounding violence against protesters, bystanders, journalists and others directed by Sheriff Bob Fletcher and other authorities shocked and radicalized many of us. We have since come to realize that these instances of raids, intimidation and violence play out regularly in our society, particularly in communities of color and working class communities, and will almost assuredly replay themselves at upcoming summits such as the G20 in Pittsburgh later this September. Thus, keeping the RNC in our collective consciousness is critical. You can find it here:  http://rnc08arrestees.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/rncpresspacket.pdf
or on the homepage of http://RNCaftermath.org
On Friday, August 7, Josh Schlossberg and attorney Lauren Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense Center filed a tort claim notice against the City of Eugene regarding a March 13, 2009 incident where Schlossberg was falsely arrested, injured, and jailed by Eugene Police Department Officer Bill Solesbee while Schlossberg was legally distributing brochures from the edge of a public sidewalk in front of Umpqua Bank in downtown Eugene.Schlossberg, a local forest activist, was civilly informing bank customers of the irresponsible logging and harmful pesticide practices of Umpqua's chairman of the board, Allyn Ford. The charges of "intercepting communications" and "resisting arrest" were dropped after prosecutors viewed Schlossberg's confiscated digital video footage clearly showing him legally standing at the edge of a public sidewalk. The tape shows Officer Solesbee illegally demanding he leave-which Schlossberg is in the process of doing, while stating to Solesbee that he believes the officer is in error for forcing him to leave the public sidewalk. Solesbee falsified police reports and attempted to file unwarranted charges against Schlossberg as a result of this incident; and the Chief of police has ratified this dishonest conduct once again.
Four organizers with Tenant Rights Project used their alloted 3 minute time slots at this week's Wednesday morning Portland City Council meeting to criticize a local slumlord housing corporation and housing commissioner Nick Fish. The council objected to the "harsh rhetoric" of tenants. Tenant Rights Project started organizing CCC tenants in the fall of 2008. CCC is a $33,000,000 annual budget nonprofit, with 23 buildings and 1400 tenants. There are persistent pest control (cockroaches, mice and bedbugs) problems in several buildings, crime (drugs, prostitution, sex harassment) that has moved into some of the buildings (aided and abetted by CCC managers in some buildings), and lack of transparency: the CCC board of directors has an 'oral preference' that tenants aren't allowed to attend board meetings or to speak at board meetings. Tenants are also forbidden to get copies of board minutes -- a practice that Community Alliance of Tenants (which TRP has been talking with since November, 2008) says may be illegal, under Oregon Attorney General John Kroger rules regarding transparency and nonprofits. At this week's Aug. 26 city council meeting, tenants criticized Fish's refusal, for six months now, to meet with tenant organizers on these issues. Fish said nothing in response to this complaint. Instead, Fish launched into a long talk about people misusing the First Amendment, likening tenant protesters to the conservative protesters against Obama's health plan proposal. Fish deplored the lack of civility in public discourse, and suggested tenant organizers should "alter their delivery" and use 'less harsh' rhetoric, etc.
Portland Fermentation Festival @ Ecotrust Thursday, August 27th 6-8pm -- with special guest Sandor Ellix Katz author of Wild Fermentation -- is open to whatever you want to bring -- fermented food and drink to share, products to sell, recipes, cultures etc. Or don't bring anything at all -- just come and enjoy some late summer skill sharing, talking, eating and drinking of all sorts of tasty food and drink. As of now there will be a room full of tables and people and fermented food and drink. Everything else is up to what we make of it. Should be great. Portland Fermentation Festival For more info, go to: www.lizcrain.com
With a designer chicken in a circle and someone who clearly does his own media work the urban farm store is here. Great place for a bunch of hype. Overpriced chicks, feed, and 275$ for a chicken coop!!! I'm not kidding. No selection of seeds. Many good, solid glossy books on the subject of gardening. Go to the library for info, and buy "gardening west of the cascades" ANYWHERE ELSE.
"The backyard food and chicken raising craze has many societal and public policy implications for Portland. Explore them with the man at the center of the local chicken and homegrown food scene, Robert Litt, owner of Urban Farm Store." Local chicken and homegrown food scene? What? And my guy is claiming to be at the center of it? Excuse me? My big problem with the commodification of this movement is that food has gotten incredibly spendy. I do not want anyone to be turned off from growing food because they only have access to overpriced goods. The Urban Farm store is taking advantage of peoples ignorance in prices, and selling an image to yuppies. A very clean, upper middle class image.
All the Mercury in the USA, currently existing, and generated by private sources, up to 11,000 metric tons, may be stored at Hanford Nuclear Reservation, 215 miles upstream of Portland, on the Columbia River. The US Department of Energy is considering this plan and accepting comments. COMMENT DEADLINE: AUGUST 24, 2009 COMMENT ONLINE: click here HANFORD IS THE MOST CONTAMINATED SITE IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE, AND THE LARGEST ENVIRONMENTAL CLEAN-UP PROJECT IN THE WORLD. DOES THIS PLACE NEED YET ANOTHER 'MISSION'? Hanford covers 586 square miles of desert in eastern Washington. 51 miles of the Columbia River runs through it. It is 35 miles north of the Oregon border, and 215 miles upstream from Portland. Recommended commentary is that the USDOE TAKE NO ACTION, NOT ACCEPT COMMERCIAL MERCURY WASTE, the army should handle the mercury storage. At the very least, NO MERCURY TO HANFORD.
Tristan Anderson, an American national, was critically injured on 13 March 2009 when he was shot with a high velocity tear-gas projectile during an unarmed demonstration against the Wall in the West Bank village of Ni'lin (report and video: palsolidarity.org/2009/03/5324).The Israeli Ministry of Defense has notified the Anderson family's lawyers that Israel perceives the incident on 13 March 2009 as an "act of war." This classification was made despite the fact that Anderson's shooting occurred during a civilian demonstration and there were no armed hostilities during the event or surrounding it. [Tristan] was taken to Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv and to date remains in the hospital facilities. He has had several life-saving surgeries and his prospects for recovery are unclear.
Yesterday (Sunday Aug.9th) my friend Audrey stopped by my house with a story. She told me that police had approached her & told her that she was NO LONGER allowed to sell her artwork at Saterday Market because she didn't have a "permit". Even though she had been selling artwork at Sat.Market for years with NO problems or complaints, all of a sudden cops were taking it upon themselves to enforce this "permit" rule. She said that all the other people selling art/creative works as well as street entertainers were given the same warning for not having permits.
The Portland Office of Transportation (1120 SW 5th Ave 503 823-7002) is the govt. agency which issues permits for street vendors. Audrey said she tried applying for a formal permit long ago. But apparently, the POT does NOT issue permits to sell ARTWORK. They do issue permits to sell flowers & umbrellas... but not artwork. Nonetheless, Sat.Market has welcomed artists to sell their works with or without a permit for years. Only yesterday have the police started issuing warning papers to people for not having permits. Eventhough POT seemingly does not issue permits to sell art, cops were threatening artists that they would confiscate their work & fine them if they did not "comply".
A peace & media delegation with Central America is having a celebration & fundraiser video and speakers and music event. August 15 at 4 pm - Everyone is invited. The featured video by Joe Anybody covers topics about recent anti war activism and human rights issues in the Cascadia region. The event is a fundraiser to send a Peace & Media Delegation on Venezuela on September 3. It is open to the public and is free to all with donations greatly appreciated but not necessary. It is being held at the Portland Art Museums in the Mark Building, in the Miller Gallery off to the right from the Lobby. Stop in to help show support for Portland's Independent Media grassroots efforts and to build solidarity in the peace & justice movement.
Portland, OR- Today solidarity activists in Portland participated in the Global Day of Action in Honduras by hanging a banner from the MLK Blvd. overpass above I-84. The purpose of this action is to call attention to the fact that democracy has not yet been restored in Honduras, more than 40 days after a military coup occurred in that country.
Thousands of farmers, women, indigenous people, teachers, unionists and ordinary citizens from all over Honduras are participating in a National March that began on August 5, 2009 and culminate[d] August 11, 2009. This National March was organized by the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d'etat as well as the farmworkers movement in Honduras. They are calling for the unconditional return of President Mel Zelaya who was removed in a military coup on June 28, 2009.
The community of Molalla has been very active in protecting the Molalla River watershed. Through their efforts, Senators Wyden and Merkley recently introduced the Molalla River Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 2009. This act will protect 21 miles, and approximately 7,000 acres of riverside land, through Wild and Scenic River designation. Sunday, August 9th, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Come hike and learn about Bark past and present activism in the Molalla River Recreation Corridor. This hike will explore the highest point of the watershed, Table Rock, which rises to an elevation of 4,881 feet with panoramic views of the Cascade volcanic range. The trail ascends approximately 1000 feet in 2.3 miles (4.6 miles round trip) and crosses a boulder field for a small portion. ***NEW MEETUP LOCATION! After ten years of meeting at the old Daily Grind, we have decided to begin meeting at the Hollywood Trader Joe's at 4121 NE Halsey in Portland. It is across the street from the Hollywood Transit Center, near the I-84 exit 2.***
Under the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, schools receiving federal funds MUST release students' personal information to military recruiters if they are to continue to receive federal funds. Please share this information with the young people in your lives: Opt-Out Facts:
Announcing the first annual QueerFest, an alternative to the Eugene Pride celebration.
Join us at QueerFest to reclaim queerness as a radical expression of individuality. If you are not queer identified we encourage you to claim queerness for yourself, thus approaching life from a nonconformist, outsider perspective which contains a huge amount of power in the homogeneity of American mass society. You don't have to be gay or gender variant to be queer, all that is required is a rejection of that which is offered up as "normal" in America. Why we're going to be in the park during Eugene Pride: QueerFest websites: http://www.facebook.com/events.php?ref=sb&__a=1#/event.php?eid=101521984696
http://queerfest.wordpress.com
PETA has sent an urgent letter to Portland Mayor Sam Adams and city commissioners calling on them to implement a ban on horse-drawn carriages. PETA's letter comes on the heels of an August 1 incident in which a horse pulling a newlywed couple collapsed and died in downtown Portland in 90°F temperatures. The 23-year-old horse, Balatour, reportedly suffered a heart attack in the sweltering heat.
PETA points out that researchers from Cornell University have found that the recorded air temperature can be as much as 50 degrees cooler than the temperature of asphalt. While working in sweltering heat, horses must walk on hard pavement, inhale exhaust fumes, and dodge cars, buses, and streetcars—all of which can be terrifying to them.
At 8 pm PST at the Radical Faerie Sanctuary in Southern Oregon. Radical Faeries at their annual summer gathering each were given a handful of crematorial remains (of John Burnside and Harry Hay) which in unison were released to the land, thus bringing these seminal figures of gay rights home one last time.John Burnside passed away this last fall, surviving Harry by a number of years. The life partners were among the original founders of the Radical faeries, and Harry Hay was one of the initial agitators for queer rights, as founder of the Mattachine Society, the first gay rights advocacy organization since the fall of the German Vidmar republic, agitating in a world before Stonewall. Both life-long critics of Capitalism, and the commercialization of the gay culture and the commodification of gay men, as well as Advocates of "subject-subject" consciousness. They will be missed, but will never be silent.
Calling all those who love Cascadia and wish to defend its threatened ecosystems - for the kickoff of CasT.A.Z. - a midsummer Cascadia Temporary Autonomous Zone! CasTAZ begins will be held Sat-Mon, Aug 1 -3, within an hour's drive of Eugene, Oregon. Location details will be announced, shortly! Please join us - for a day, a week, the whole summer, or beyond!
A skill-share and community building event, Cas T.A.Z. will be held in the heart of the Willamette National Forest, surrounded by a tract of beautiful and threatened ancient forest. Co-created by all participants, content and activities will be shaped by all those who attend. Please come ready to engage and take an active role! Workshops and discussions will be followed by strategy sessions and direction building for current and future campaigns. Please bring your workshop ideas, discussion topics, and suggestions! There will be space to add to the schedule and improvise, throughout the week. There will be no fully stocked communal kitchen. Please come with your own camping supplies, food for yourself and the community. Where?: The site of Cas T.A.Z. is home to many acres of native old growth forest, slated to be logged before 2011, by the Seneca Jones Timber Company. These 300-400 year old trees support a fragile ecosystem, inadequately protected by the USFS. http://foresestdefensenow.org
Portland City Council will consider this week a proposal to build a water treatment plant (LT2) for our pristine Bull Run water. The plan is, we are told, designed to address a US EPA requirement that all drinking water in the US be treated/filtered for Cryptosporidium. While this cookie cutter approach will likely add to the safety of water in other cities, it is not appropriate in Portland because our Bull Run system supplies water with virtually no possibility of contamination. Cryptosporidium in a form that is lethal to humans has never been found in the Bull Run water system. There has been no demonstrated need for treatment/filtration.
The construction of a water treatment plant will be very expensive, $385 million, all of it to be paid for by the city water users. The $385 million would be financed via the issuance of bonds; interest payments due and paid for by water users would increase that figure to close to $1 billion dollars. Alliance for Democracy has joined others in calling for the Portland city council to postpone a decision until later in August, and to hold public meetings scheduled it a time when citizens can attend. Ask the Portland city council now to postpone a decision until the public can gain knowledge of what is at stake and can get their voices heard. In addition to the letter below from Oregon Wild, please see the editional comment by the Oregonian where they write "The best solution, of course, is the one that would cost nothing: Leave Portland's water alone." [Background Article: http://friendsofreservoirs.org/background.html]
On the night of July 25, a group of sexy autonomous individuals visited Embassy Suites Airport Hotel to continue a campaign against the hotel that hosted Neo-Nazi David Irving. David Irving is a notorious white supremacist and holocaust denier - more information at
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/07/392426.shtml
Wearing ravishing disguises, the group came prepared with flyers that were left under the doors of most of the rooms in the hotel. The flyers informed the patrons of Embassy Suites' heinous apathy to the presence of fascists in our community. Since we do not support the right of Nazis to spew their filth in our community, we felt it was necessary to send a strong message to Embassy Suites and those who choose to give them money that supporting Irving and any Nazi is unacceptable. Ignoring Nazis in the past has not made them vanish, as many liberals would pretend. Removing Nazis from one's community in the past has always involved direct action targeting their homes, their work, and the spaces in which they organize. On Saturday night, Embassy Suites Airport Hotel felt the second wave of backlash against them and their yuppie army of paying guests.
Punk rock permaculture e-zine is a radical permaculture zine that documents permaculture and radical organizing together. We post resources, news, essays, art, articles and articles and we're looking for more writers
If you've wanted to write, network, make art, and be actively engaged in radical permaculture projects and autonomous organizing efforts then here is your chance... Check us out! http://www.punkrockpermaculture.com
Short update on the case of the AETA4 in California, and ways that folks can support them:
On July 13th, defense attorneys for Joseph Buddenberg, Maryam Khajavi, Nathan Pope and Adriana Stumpo (the AETA 4) presented oral arguments on their motion to dismiss the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. The defense demanded that the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) be struck down as unconstitutional before Judge Ronald Whyte of the United States District Court, Northern District of California in San Jose. The AETA is being used for the first time since its passage by Congress in 2006 to do exactly what civil rights advocates feared it would do - criminalize activities protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The oral arguments presented on July 13th were not about the allegations as directly applied to the AETA 4, but rather that the whole case should be dismissed now because the AETA itself is unconstitutional. The courtroom was packed, and many people were there in support of the AETA 4. The following are very rough and incomplete notes of the oral arguments: http://www.aeta4.org
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