From the open publishing newswire: A vigil was held at the site of a fatal accident involving an eighteen wheeler truck and bicyclist Kathryn Rickson at SW 3rd and Madison Ave. Portland, OR, USA, 05/18/2012.

From the open publishing newswire: Taken from our comrade Jose Palafox:

From the face of the Grand Jury Subpoena, it appears related to an animal rights action that took place in Santa Cruz in August of 2008. I believe this is a political repression and part of a government attempt to gather information on activists and the animal rights movement. I will be getting a lawyer and plan to exercise my rights to the fullest extent. The National Lawyers Guild in San Francisco can help people subpoenaed before Grand Juries.

homepage:  http://www.becausewemust.org/grand-jury-subpoena-in-oakland

From the open publishing newswire: Occupy Portland recently organized a Rally in Richland Washington, "speaking out directly against the failure of the cleanup at Hanford Nuclear Reservation..... raising the question: is enough being done to clean up the most contaminated site in America?"

Selected Speakers From Hanford Rally

"The purpose of the rally on April 15th, 2012 was to raise awareness about issues facing the Hanford Nuclear Facility. The Hanford site is an environmental disaster with the potential of becoming a catastrophe as large in scope as that of the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan."

This video was produced for a taped segment of the local Public Access program, "A Growing Concern," and features almost a full hour of selected speakers from the event.

Besides a potent introduction by Mirian German, organizer with Occupy Portland, included are Indigenous speakers from the Walla Walla tribes, as well as Umi Hagitani from No Nukes Action in California; Bonnie Urfer, Wisconsin Nukewatch; long time antinuclear and peace activist, Sister Megan Rice; and Lori McMillan, a downwinder suffering from long exposure to radiation in the Tri-Cities area.

Also included are performances by local Spoken Word artist, Mic Crenshaw and the song, "Peace and Love," by local rock band Miriam's Well.

From the open publishing newswire: President Obama coming out to call for equality of relationships when answering the question, should gays be allowed to marry was wonderful. The answer for me has always been yes, to see him join the 21st century is great; but let's not forget his short comings, he still thinks he can murder people anywhere in the world at his will. So, forgive me if I wait to celebrate his conversion to equality. I don't know what the lunatics will now say about him, but I will defend this position, because it is the correct position. When religious leaders try to say their god says this or that---look at them with a cautious eye, most of the time they lie. The more interesting thing that is going on, occupy is on the move again. They are looking at budgets and school funding, they are demanding people be allowed to return to their homes, they are challenging the status quo on every level and still want to do it their way. I say us old fogies who have fought the good fight for many years should get the hell out of the way and let the young learn and lead. I still fear that organizations will try, (and many have tried) to direct or overshadow the Occupation Movement. I have great respect for our big thinkers who have taken a step back and not criticized the people who are doing the good work, but stay near to help and support the new movement. Even the politicians are using words like equality, sharing, coming together; it is good.

We, who are in the streets should stay, there seems to be help on the way. I like the idea that over 20 people have signed up to run for mayor of Portland, many are young and will be our leaders in the future, their ideas are wonderful and we should have listened to all of them. I do get irritated with entrenched organizations who exclude candidates on the basis of how much money the candidates raised; seems too calculated for me. We should make arrangements to hear all the candidates on an equal basis; there is that word equal again. I was very disappointed with the City Club, League of Women Voters and The Urban League, they along with others took the easy way out of setting up for debates, just the major candidates please on our stage--very short sighted. Even my Progressive and the Greens had some short comings, but we might do better in the general election--maybe!

On 5-16-2012 we will appear again in front of the City Council to present an argument concerning the use of Police Horses during demonstrations. We wish to have our wonderful horses retired to a good life working with children or maybe helping our veterans readjust from killing people in far off lands. The use of the horses by the cops during demonstrations has endangered our protesters and the horses. This will be a long fight but the cost of keeping the horses on board may be the very thing that cause them to be retired.

From the open publishing newswire: Two speakers from the Power Past Coal Rally: Lauren Goldberg, event moderator and an attorney for Columbia Riverkeeper; and Jeff Cogen, Chair of the Multnomah County Commission.

Power Past Coal Rally [9. min video]

Lauren Goldberg warned of the health and other consequences of "150 millions tons of coal per year being strip mined in Wyoming and Montana and coming through Washington and Oregon at 30 coal trains per day. These are uncovered coal trains, spewing coal dust and diesel pollution, a mile and a half long, every single day, 365 days of the year."

Speaking next, Jeff Cogen states that the proposals for six coal export terminals in Washington and Oregon would "turn the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area into the largest coal chute in the nation.............coal dust leaks off these trains in large quantities. PNSF railways says that each coal car leaks off 500 pounds of coal dust with each trip. And we're talk about 10's of thousands of coal cars going through our communities. This is nasty stuff!"
Just last week, Portland General Electric said they didn't want a coal terminal near one of their power plants because the coal dust is too dirty."

Unfortunately, due to illness, and much to my disappointment, I was unable to tape the speech by Robert Kennedy Jr. His speech was powerful and inspiring, citing the great damage the coal industry has wreaked on our nation with Mountain Top Removal.

As several other people were there with video cameras taping the event, I'm giving a shout out, hoping that someone can provide me a copy of just that speech to air on Public Access television.
This message needs to get out to the widest possible audience.

Related Video PIMC post by Courtney
Robert Kennedy Jr. on the threat of coal in the Columbia basin

From the open publishing newswire: An un-permitted May Day rally through downtown Portland ended in mass arrests as people repeatedly marched in the streets. Police came in with force at intervals to make targeted arrests at various intersections. Portland, OR, USA, 05/01/2012.

Related picture posts from May Day in PDX:
[1.] | [2.] | [3.]
Related video post from May Day in PDX:
[1.] | [2.] | [3.] | [4.] | [5.] | [6.]

From the open publishing newswire: An action organized by Portland Jobs With Justice, Union leaders, and city workers as an attempt to sell cupcakes to raise money for the citys coming budget cuts which are in the millions. Unsold cakes/cupcakes were offered to city officials for a pledge to cover the amount of these cuts.

A mock fundraiser organized by Portland Jobs With Justice, Union leaders/members, and city workers. Cupcakes were sold for $2 to the attendees to help raise money to cover the city's budget shortfall in the millions which is threatening to cut public service programs. Delegations of five people went in to City Hall with press and cameras and upstairs into council members' offices. Members of the group gave their statements to staff along with remaining cakes for council members to buy at prices representing the amount of the cuts.

A17 City Hall Budget Cuts Bake Sale 4-17-12
[video 1hr 12min]

From the open publishing newswire: I'm with Code Pink Portland and We Are Oregon. I was asked to speak at the demo on April 23 in front of Wells Fargo in San Francisco. Below is an expanded and updated version of my remarks.

I was asked to speak here on how Wells Fargo's policies affect women in particular. Before I address that issue, I should say that for the last quarter century I've been working with people who became disabled through motor vehicle accidents, on-the-job accidents, or serious illnesses. First they lost their health, then their jobs and health insurance. After they depleted their life savings, they lost their homes. Seeing one person or family go through this is pretty upsetting. Hearing the same stories for 25 years, in the so-called "richest country in the world," is enough to make my head explode.


This brings me to the issue of Wells Fargo's crimes against women. I'm sure you've heard that Wells specifically targeted black and Hispanic communities with subprime loans. Women got the same treatment. According to the Consumer Federation of America, although women and men have roughly the same credit scores, women were 32% more likely to receive subprime loans than men. This was true across the board—within every income and ethnic group. According to Maria Poblet, executive director of Causa Justa (Just Cause), the majority of foreclosures have been on female-headed households.


With all these lucrative investments, 2011 was a banner year for Wells Fargo. Yesterday, April 24, they voted to give CEO John Stumpf an annual salary of $13 million, plus additional compensation worth $7 million.

 http://www.ebisupublications.com/

From the open publishing newswire: On Wednesday, April 18, at approximately 16:00 Eastern Time, U.S. Federal authorities removed a server from a colocation facility shared by Riseup Networks and May First/People Link in New York City. The seized server was operated by the European Counter Network ("ECN"), the oldest independent internet service provider in Europe, who, among many other things, provided an anonymous remailer service, Mixmaster, that was the target of an FBI investigation into the bomb threats against the University of Pittsburgh.

"The company running the facility has confirmed that the server was removed in conjunction with a search warrant issued at the request of the FBI," said May First/People Link director Jamie McClelland. "The server seizure is not only an attack against us, but an attack against all users of the Internet who depend on anonymous communication." "The FBI is using a sledgehammer approach, shutting down service to hundreds of users due to the actions of one anonymous person," said Devin Theriot-Orr, a spokesperson for Riseup. "This is particularly misguided because there is unlikely to be any information on the server regarding the source of the threatening emails.""Furthermore, the network of anonymous remailers that exists is not harmed by taking this machine. So we cannot help but wonder why such drastic action was taken when authorities knew that the server contained no useful information that would help in their investigation."

The FBI purportedly seized the server because it was hosting an anonymous remailer called Mixmaster. Anonymous remailers are used to send email anonymously, or pseudonymously.

Riseup Birds explanation for riseup users - "Server Siezure (Don't panic)"

From the open publishing newswire: Keaton Otis Vigil 4.12.12
((( i ))) - a video report back from the vigil that is held monthly on NE 7th street

first part: Fred and the corporate news - audio quality is low at some points in video
second part: Dave talking with folks at the vigil

 http://youtu.be/0RlRl79YGz0 (12 min video)

Original PIMC post w/ cell phone video clip of the police shooting Keaton:
 http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2012/04/414958.shtml

From the open publishing newswire: StreetNews Report: Early on the morning of 4/17, a board meeting was held at 8:45am at the Parkrose District Office concerning teacher union negotiations between the school board and the Parkrose Faculty Association (PFA). The reentered contract was given a unanimous "No" vote and the board asked for a ten day extension under overwhelming opposition. With much media coverage and a large attendance of the public, outrage ensued. A strike is "inevitable" according to organizers.

VIDEO LINK: Parkrose School District meeting on contract negotiations

Parkrose Superintendant's Official Statement

joeanybody.com

From the open publishing newswire: It's not too early to plan to join protests in Tampa (rnc august 27-30) & Charlotte (dnc september 3-6). Protests will be fierce; protests MUST be fierce. The two parties are rotten to their innermost layers. And the political process is owned, but not by you & me. In lieu of being in those two cities, solidarity protests are indicated for everywhere, ... everywhere that people choose to take back control of the country, away from our vile out-of-control oligarchic federal government.

 http://www.MarchOnTheRNC.com

 http://www.ProtestDNC.org

From the open publishing newswire: A Occupy Portland protest highlighting tax evasion was held at Terry Shrunk Plaza. Tax Dodgerball saw the 1% face Janitors, homeowners, teachers and medicare recipients. Portland, OR, USA, 17/04/2012.

homepage:  http://alexmilantracy.com