Fundraiser is believed to be at a private home in the Hancock Park area of LA: Possible address of fundraiser (unconfirmed) (# unknown) S. Hudson Avenue, Los Angeles, CA ------------- AF-1 Schedule Air Force One at LAX Arriving approximately 4:10pm Monday. Departing approximately 8:40am Tuesday. other info: The LA fundraiser, which will take place at the home of Marilyn and John Wells, costs $2,500 per person to attend, although “co-hosts” will have to shell out as much $30,400 each, the maximum allowable contribution by a donor to a national party committee per year. Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40379.html Obama will be spending the night somewhere in LA Monday night. Presidents often stay at the Century City Plaza Hotel or Downtown at the Biltmore. These are other possible protest sites. ---------- More information: Los Angeles Reception for President Barack Obama Start: 08/16/2010 - 5:00pm End: 08/16/2010 - 8:00pm PLEASE JOIN Co-Hosts KATIE MCGRATH & J.J. ABRAMS CINDY & ALAN HORN MARILYN & JEFFREY KATZENBERG KATE CAPSHAW & STEVEN SPIELBERG BARBRA STREISAND JANET & TOM UNTERMAN ALONG WITH…Members of the California Delegation Along with Nancy Pelosi SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE Chris Van Hollen CHAIRMAN OF THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE Invite you to join President Barack Obama Monday, August 16, 2010 5:00 p.m. (time tentative) – Cocktail Reception 7:30 p.m. – Co-Host Dinner with Special Dinner performance by Tony award winner Idina Menzel at the home of Marilyn & John Wells Los Angeles, California Address available upon rsvp For more information please contact Lindsay Rachelefsky at (310) 207-5039 or lindsay@capstratca.com Location: Home of Marilyn & John Wells Los Angeles, California Organizer(s): Chris Van Hollen Source: http://montereycountydemocrats.org/los-angeles-reception-president-barack-obama

TO: CALIFORNIA COASTAL COMMISSION ATT: MEG VAUGHN SOUTH COAST AREA OFFICE 200 OCEANGATE, SUITE 1000 LONG BEACH CA 90802-4302 I have been informed that the development named "The Ridge", built by Hearthside Homes, in Bolsa Chicamesa/Huntington Beach, has attained a zone change or variance that is allowing them to dig up and remove historical human remains and historical Native American artifacts. Basically, they are digging up an old Tongva cemetery. This happened in Playa Vista, and the upshot was that the corpses and their religious artifacts were separated, and the artifacts were delivered to museums. This is grave-robbery. It is illegal and must be stopped. The cemeteries of the Tongva are a signficant cultural resource not only for the Tongva, and all Native Americans, but all Americans. These are the ancient people of the area, who have been here for millennia. They are the "Mission Indians". The City of Huntington Beach has re-zoned five acres of cemetery from "Preservation" to "Development". I suggest that the Coastal Commission and the State of California try to conform to the spirit of the Federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and intervene to stop the building. Did you know that under NAGPRA, over 30,000 human corpses have been repatriated to their tribes? That is horrifying, that our museums (and tax dollars) were used to maintain human bodies as archeological artifacts, while their descendents begged for decades to have their relatives returned home for a proper re-burial. Will the dead ever have their peace? Now, for the worship of the dollar, we have a housing developmen company expanding their footprint, and it has led to the removal of human bodies. If these bodies (and related artifacts) end up in an institution with Federal funding, they will be required to return the bodies (and artifacts). What kind of folly are these developers undertaking? They are wasting our tax money, and probably doing something that eventually leads to a museum breaking the law. Do not allow the continued excavation. Scale back the project. http://www.nps.gov/nagpra/FAQ/INDEX.HTM

In California, attorneys are supposed to take a certain percentage of pro bono cases each year. In Orange County, anyone needing pro bono services is told that the attorney cannot afford to do pro bono or has taken too much pro bono work already. What does this mean? It means that the attorney may have completed his or her quota of one free phone call for a well paying client. The pro bono lie is a standard joke among Orange County attorneys. To check this out, we asked 200 needy potential clients to survey attorneys, presenting their compelling cases and asking for low cost or pro bono services. Over 90% of Orange County attorneys have been contacted to date . Not one of the clients involved in the survey received an offer of pro bono, low cost or reasonably priced work by any of the Orange County attorneys surveyed. Only 10% are left to go. Based on the first 90 %, it seems unlikely anything will change. Even where the potential clients' life depended on obtaining services, the attorneys offered over-priced services that were out of the clients’ price range. The clients with the worst responses were the victims of domestic violence seeking family law services. Attorneys tended to triple their rates or say the case was too messy when they learned the client was a domestic violence victim. The State Bar of California has some clean-up work to do in one of California's richest counties.

SAT AUG 28 2010 9 am 1st street and Mednik ave, East LA March to Salazar Park

About 100 people, led by the SEIU, are protesting NOW outside Meg Whitman's new East Los Angeles office, 212 E. Atlantic. They're pressed up the doors and windows, with drums, signs, and chants. Channels 4 and 34 are doing interviews. Cars honking and slowing traffic on Atlantic. Sheriffs just showed up. "Whitman, liar, pants on fire." :) Seems like Meg picked the wrong barrio.

The May 19th Movement, named for the day being the day of the group's first meeting as well as also being the birthdates of Malcolm X, Ho Chi Minh, Augusto Sandino, Lorraine Hansberry and Yuri Kochiyama, is dedicated to the development of a local independent political party with the express purpose of finding, running and electing working class candidates to office in Los Angeles to represent the interests of the poor and the working poor. Please send your feedback to the group so that we can all share our ideas. Thanks! To subscribe to the May 19th listserve send an e-mail to may19thmovement-subscribe@lists.riseup.net KICK-OFF MEETING Saturday, August 7 1:30 pm Afiba Center 5730 Crenshaw Bl LA, CA 90043 DRAFT: Mission Statement: The Mission of the May 19th Movement is to identify indigenous leadership from the oppressed working class communities of Los Angeles and run these leaders as Independent Candidates in the 2011 Los Angeles City Council elections in the 8th and 9th council districts. These independent candidates will represent the interest the interest of their communities, not for the interest of the status quo. We already have these rights as guarantee by the Declaration of Human Rights. The problem is that there is lack of political will and organization to effect these rights. PLATFORM: 1. The Right To A Job For All Wanting To Work At A ‘Union-Wage’ The Right To Participate In Real Job-Training So As To Dramatically Improve The Skill Levels Of The Unemployed, 2. The Right To Housing And An End To Involuntary Homelessness; END FORECLOSURES NOW!!! 3. The Right To Free And Quality Health-Care; 5. The Right To Free Education Up To The Person’s Ability; The Right Of A Worker To Go To Where He/She Can Best Provide For Themselves And Their Families-SIN FRONTERAS!!!! Freedom from intimidation by the policing forces; Social rehabilitation not penal incarceration. Planning Meeting Thurs Aug 5th 6:30PM Coalition LA 2500 Wilshire Bl Ste 908 LA, CA 90057

Baldwin Park, Calif. -- Workers at Kaiser's Baldwin Park Medical Center filed complaints with state and federal agencies today, asking for help after Kaiser management failed to ensure the safety of workers and patients in response to death threats by a former employee. On July 16, the Los Angeles Superior Court issued a restraining order against Tiffany Ford, 47, for making death threats against two Kaiser employees in the hospital cafeteria.[1] Despite the court's order, Kaiser officials have allowed Ford full access to the hospital where she threatened employees, citing a prior agreement with Ford's employer, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). After complaints [2] to Kaiser management about Ford's disruptive behavior and violent threats were ignored, workers reported the unsafe conditions to the California Department of Public Health [3], the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) [4], and the hospital accreditation board JCAHO (the Joint Commission).[5] Safety has been a special concern for employees at Kaiser Baldwin Park since a 2003 workplace shooting of a Kaiser doctor in the urology department.[6] Kaiser's written code of conduct said that harassment and threats of any kind "will not be tolerated." [7] Yet Ford has violated the court's restraining order twice in the last two weeks and has evaded responding police officers, and Kaiser management has still refused to bar her from the facility. DOCUMENTATION 1. Restraining Order after Hearing to Stop Harassment, July 16, 2010. http://nuhw.org/storage/BPK-TRO.pdf 2. Letter from 13 employees to Medical Group Administration head Rick Rosoff, Area Medical Director John Bigley, and Executive Director Maggie Pierce. July 8, 2010. http://nuhw.org/storage/BPK-ee-letter.pdf 3. Letter to California Department of Public Health, "RE: Complaint regarding Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park Medical Center," Aug. 5, 2010. http://nuhw.org/storage/BPK-CDPH.pdf 4. Complaint to with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Aug. 5, 2010. http://nuhw.org/storage/BPK-OSHA.pdf 5. Complaint to Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Organizations (JCAHO), Aug. 5, 2010. http://nuhw.org/storage/BPK-JCAHO.pdf 6. "Doctor Shot in Baldwin Park Hospital," Los Angeles Times, Sept. 20, 2003. http://articles.latimes.com/2003/sep/20/local/me-hospital20 7. Kaiser Permanente Principles of Responsibility/Code of Conduct, policies on harassment and employee safety. http://nuhw.org/storage/BPK-policy.pdf # # # The National Union of Healthcare Workers is California's fastest-growing union, representing caregivers in every job classification. NUHW is dedicated to member democracy, dignity and justice for healthcare workers, and quality, affordable healthcare for all. | NUHW.org

Pride Rally Reveals Queer Community’s Divisions Over Obama by MARK GABRISH CONLAN Copyright © 2010 by Mark Gabrish Conlan for Zenger’s Newsmagazine • All rights reserved PHOTOS, top to bottom: City Councilmembers Carl DeMaio and Todd Gloria, Stuart Milk, Robin McGehee (with her two children), Autumn Sandeen, Joseph Rocha San Diego’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Pride Festival officially began on the evening of Friday, July 16 with the so-called “Spirit of Stonewall” pride rally on the site of the festival near Sixth and Juniper in Balboa Park. Most cities’ Pride committees have regarded the rally as a stepchild, an embarrassing remnant of Pride’s radical political origins to be dismissed as obsolete and quaint in the highly corporatist business-fests Pride weekends have become. But when San Diego’s Pride organization quietly eliminated the rally in 2009 after a disappointing event in 2008 that drew only 50 people — despite an internationally known headliner, British Queer rights organizer Peter Tatchell — veteran local Pride volunteers and political activists listed that as one of the things they wanted changed about Pride when the remaining members of Pride’s board resigned in early 2010. So a rally was once again held this year, drawing about 100 people — double the attendance in 2008 but still a fraction of the people who went to the parade and festival the next two days — to hear a program that, almost as if it were planned that way, started with the most conservative elements in Queer politics and worked its way up to the most radical ones. The rally was introduced by San Diego’s two openly Gay male City Councilmembers, Republican Carl DeMaio from District 5 and Democrat Todd Gloria from District 3. DeMaio, a controversial figure opposed by liberal and progressive San Diego Queers for his fights to downsize city government, outsource city workers’ jobs to private companies and weaken the power of public employee unions, began the rally with a short statement that said, “There’s something uniquely San Diegan about the tranquility in our diversity.” Gloria, who along with DeMaio was there to present the City Council’s resolution declaring the week before the events “San Diego LGBT Pride Week,” said, “This year is special. Many times, those who hate us try to stop this resolution from happening, and year after year you come out for us. This year we had not one speaker against us.” Bob Leyh, board member of both San Diego LGBT Pride and the San Diego Democratic Club, then took over as MC of the event, which became a weird mixture of presentations of Pride’s service awards and speeches that became more intense and farther Left as the evening wore on — and as more and more people left the rally site to sample the night life of Hillcrest or go home to rest up for the parade and festival the next day. Milk Comes to Praise Obama … The first major speaker was Stuart Milk, nephew of openly Gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, who along with the city’s mayor was killed in November 1978 by a fellow Supervisor, an ex-police officer who got a notoriously light sentence for the double murder. Stuart Milk, who in recent years has come out as Gay himself and has worked for international human rights, began his speech by recalling that when his uncle was stationed with the Navy in San Diego he wrote home to his mother calling San Diego “a beautiful city with beautiful boys.” Stuart Milk congratulated the California state legislature for passing a bill to make May 22, Harvey Milk’s birthday, a state holiday, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for signing it into law. Stuart Milk said that his uncle would be “amazed” at how many openly Queer elected officials there are in the U.S. today (when Harvey Milk won his seat in 1977 there were only two others, Minnesota state legislators Elaine Noble and Allan Spear) and hailed openly Gay teacher Kevin Beiser’s candidacy for the San Diego Unified School District board of trustees. “You also have examples of authenticity among our youth, including Lisa Sanders,” Stuart Milk said — referring to San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders’ openly Lesbian daughter, whose example influenced him to reverse his position on same-sex marriage equality and allow San Diego to join California’s other major cities in support of the unsuccessful attempt to overturn Proposition 8, California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, in the courts. “Harvey knew he was going to be killed,” Stuart Milk recalled. “He had stacks of death threats. He willingly gave up his life not just for his nephew but for all of us. When Harvey first ran for office [in 1971], homosexuality was still listed as a mental disease. … Harvey’s message was, ‘Come out,” and every time one of us comes out, that takes courage. I’m an openly Gay man and a Gay relative of a famous Gay man, and every time I’m asked, ‘Where’s your wife?,” I say, ‘You should ask, “Where’s your husband?”’ — even though I don’t have one. I’ve spoken in Istanbul and Damascus, and other places that are very dark for our community.” Reporting on a meeting he’d been in between President Obama and prominent Queer political activists, Stuart Milk reported, “Obama said last fall, ‘It’s not for me to tell you to be patient, any more than it was up to others to counsel patience to African-Americans. There is no difference.’ Obama said we will see an administration that will fight until all people have human rights. An African-American President speaking those words sends a huge message, and in all my travels overseas it’s being heard. Harvey said history has shown laws have been enacted full equality and it’s been taken away” — a reference to how quickly Queers in Germany lost the equality they’d had under the Weimar Republic when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, started persecuting them and ultimately sent them to death camps in the Holocaust along with Jews, Gypsies, Communists and people with disabilities. “We have to realize that we are all at risk of being discriminated against,” Stuart Milk warned. “As much as we’ve got a long way to go, please thank the President for speaking up for me and you.” Stuart Milk also thanked another president, Cristina Fernandez Kirchner of Argentina, who had just signed into law the world’s most recent bill allowing same-sex couples to marry, for saying “it’s a distortion of democracy to allow the majority to vote down the rights of the minority.” He acknowledged that “more than three decades after my uncle stood on a streetcorner in San Francisco, we still do not have federal protection against discrimination in employment and housing. We are second-class citizens paying first-class rates, and that has to stop. We cannot live on hope alone. Too many of us have lost hope. We are reminded of the false promises and unfulfilled commitments. We need to make tomorrow the day that we have our rights.” … McGehee to Challenge Him But the evening’s final speaker, Fresno-based Queer activist Robin McGehee, said that one of the reasons the Queer community has endured so many false promises and unfulfilled commitments is that they have failed to hold the Democratic party accountable for making those promises and then welching on them. She bade her audience to stop listening to Obama’s fine words in support of Queer equality and instead look at his administration’s pathetic record on our issues. Obama has done virtually nothing to push the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) through Congress, nor has he been a leader on repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that prevents Queer Americans from serving openly in this country’s military, McGehee argued — and, she added, that’s not going to change until Queers are willing to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience actions targeting Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate majority leader Harry Reid and other Democratic politicians who talk a good game on Queer rights but do little or nothing for us. “When will we be dissatisfied enough to fight back and deliver the message that we are no longer willing to settle for anything less than full federal equality?” McGehee said. “I toured the country with Cleve Jones (former aide to Harvey Milk and founder of the NAMES Project AIDS memorial quilt, and principal organizer of the 2009 March on Washington) to say it is no longer O.K. to address our issues one by one, but that we must fight for full recognition under the Fourteenth Amendment that guarantees all Americans equal protection under the law. … Our fight for equality will only be enhanced with the luxury of two feet, one cell phone and one laptop. Many have classified me as an ‘angry Lesbian activist.’ I’m a fed-up mother who will continue fighting until my family is equal to anybody else’s.” McGehee urged people to register for her Web site, www.getequal.org, “to empower the LGBT community and its allies to use direct action. Why direct action, and why now? Why not now? I am tired of our community being bullied. No longer should we settle for piecemeal processes that do not protect us all. Every day our children are being harassed, we should look at apathy as criminally negligent. Many of us have suffered, and if we do not act we are denying the suffering of others. … We continue to target Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and other officials who are not making our fight for equality their priority. We hope to empower others to take the fights into their own hands. We must create iconic actions that demonstrate employment discrimination, military discrimination and religious inequality. We will take our lead to target people to promise to be our friends.” According to McGehee, when she’s made similar speeches she’s been accused of being “anti-Democrat” and “anti-Obama.” Noting that she’s a registered Democrat who took her son to the voting booth in November 2008 when she voted for Obama, she said, “Not holding our friends to account is a sign of a dysfunctional relationship. The rights of a minority were taken away in November 2008 [when California voters passed Proposition 8] and in May 2009 [when the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8] and Obama did nothing. I thought of that as I stood looking at the White House that I shouldn’t have to do that. What happened to their campaign message? I did not ask Obama to give us a speech with a Cliff’s Notes summary of our rights. I asked him to follow through on legislation. I will not fall in love as easily in 2012 as I did in 2008, and I hope you don’t either. I want Obama to show the courage to deliver the change he promised. I hope I did not vote for someone who proclaimed himself a ‘fierce advocate,’ and then was not afraid to run from us. I still have hope, but it’s fading.” What’s going to revive McGehee’s hope, if anything can, is not Obama but ourselves: a raging tide of ordinary Queers and allies signing on to www.getequal.org and being willing to put themselves on the line and get arrested to show the Democrats that they can no longer put us off with fine rhetoric and no action. “When we realize we are fighting for equality, we get equal faster when we all take our quest for equality into our own hands,” McGehee said. “Our brothers and sisters are dying because we are not holding our so-called ‘friends’ accountable.” Though she positioned herself well to the Left of Stuart Milk, she closed her speech with a similar admonition to his and his famous uncle’s that the more of us come out, the faster the struggle for Queer equality will triumph. “It is a lot harder to discriminate against the people we know than the people we think we know,” she said. Autumn on the Front Lines “Freedom must be demanded, and at this point I’m in a pretty demanding mood,” said San Diego Transgender activist and 20-year Navy veteran Autumn Sandeen. She answered McGehee’s call for direct action in Washington, D.C. on April 20, when she and five other Queer U.S. veterans handcuffed themselves to the White House gates to demand that Obama and Congress repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” this year. Though all six participants were arrested, the police singled out Sandeen for especially vicious treatment. “They called me an impersonator, an ‘it,’ a ‘shim,’” Sandeen recalled. “It was law enforcement officers who called me that.” Sandeen said she took part in the action — a followup to one in March in which two of the same participants, Lt. Dan Choi and Cap’t. Jim Pietrangelo II, and McGehee had been arrested — “not because it would impact Transgender people, but because Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual people need to be able to serve in the U.S. military as proud, open members. If an issue is one for even a small subgroup of our community, it’s an issue for me. I sacrifice for other communities in a way I hope others would do for Trans people. I do it because this is about us.” According to Sandeen, when she started presenting as a woman in 2003 after years of living as a male, “the [California] Fair Employment and Housing Act did not protect Trans people. By 2004 we had legal protection for Transgender Californians. … What rights and freedom we have were fought for by activists. I work for the freedom, equality and justice for those who will come after me. I am somebody, we are somebody, we deserve equal rights. … We have a choice. We can end injustice, not just in our backyard but all over America. I personally choose to act to further justice. I’ve marched, I’ve engaged in direct actions, and I want the justice that will really make us free Americans.” Rocha: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in Practice Before Sandeen spoke, another military veteran, Joseph Rocha, had given the audience a grim picture of how “don’t ask, don’t tell” actually works — or doesn’t — in practice. His ordeal began when, as an 18-year-old newly recruited to the Navy, he was stationed in the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain. He knew he was Gay but he believed that if he followed “don’t ask, don’t tell” and kept his sexual orientation a secret, he’d still be allowed to serve his country. He was wrong. As he reported in an article in the Washington Post on October 11, 2009, Rocha was harassed almost immediately by his fellow servicemembers. “Shop talk in the unit revolved around sex, either the prostitute-filled parties of days past or the escapades my comrades looked forward to,” Rocha wrote in the Post. “They interpreted my silence and total lack of interest as an admission of homosexuality. My higher-ups seemed to think that gave them the right to bind me to chairs, ridicule me, hose me down and lock me in a feces-filled dog kennel.” The dogs, Rocha explained, were there because the business of the unit he was training for was to detect explosives — and the way they did that was with bomb-sniffing dogs. Rocha’s worst experience was the “all-day event” he was put through by a superior officer, Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint, in a classroom at the American school in Bahrain. “In one corner of the classroom was a long sofa, turned away from the door,” Rocha recalled in his Post article. “When you walked into the room, it appeared that one man was sitting on it, alone. But I was there too — the chief had decided that I would be down on my hands and knees, simulating oral sex. A kennel support staff member and I were supposed to pretend that we were in our bedroom and that the dogs were catching us having sex. Over and over, with each of the 32 dogs, I was forced to enact this scenario.” Knowing better than to tell any of his story to his superiors — “I feared that reporting the abuse would lead to an investigation into my sexuality,” he explained — Rocha suffered in silence until a female sailor witnessed it six months after it had started. “She reported the incident and, from what I understand, this prompted an internal investigation into hazing in my unit,” Rocha wrote in the Post. “The Navy confirmed 93 incidents of misconduct, including hazing, abuse, physical assault, solicitation of prostitutes and misuse of government property and funds, but the case was closed.” What’s more, the Navy chose to make Petty Officer First Class Jennifer Valdivia, who’d actually been supportive of Rocha, their scapegoat, charging her with having failed to stop the abuse — while Michael Toussaint, Rocha’s chief tormentor, was promoted. When Valdivia learned of the charges against her, she committed suicide. Just two days before she killed herself, Valdivia told Rocha he’d been accepted to the Naval Academy prep school in Annapolis, and he actually accepted — then, “mentally and emotionally depleted … after more than two years of abuse,” Rocha decided to come out as Gay and resign from the Navy. Rocha told his audience at the Pride rally that what kept him going was his sense of a debt to “the men who would never come home. I decided that, in order to justify that I was alive, I had to dedicate my life to honor them and justify their sacrifices. I realized that through technology we could get this demand for justice to the country through newspapers, rallies and TV. We no longer have to wait for a straight politician to take up our case. We can be our own champions. All of you are challenging old stereotypes in jobs, schools and churches, and this can be as important as anything activists do. … Please don’t ever — and I tell you this from my own experience — don’t let anyone make you feel less proud than you do this weekend.” Community Service Awards Earlier in the rally, former San Diego Democratic Club president Andrea Villa gave a Stonewall Service Award to reverend canon Allison Thomas of St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral — located just a few blocks from where the rally was happening — for the overall Queer-friendly policies of her church (Villa called it “a beacon of openness and equality”) and her involvement in recruiting religious leaders to oppose Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage in California. Later in the program another Queer-friendly religious leader, Rabbi Laurie Coskey, received a “Friend of Pride” award for contributions from a person who doesn’t identify as Queer but nonetheless supports the Queer community. The citation mentioned that Coskey has been challenging both religious and secular orthodoxy about Queers since 1987, when she gave a sermon about the myths then current about AIDS. More recently she’s been involved in interfaith movements of Queer-friendly people of faith and in United for a Hate-Free San Diego and the anti-8 campaign. After Villa announced the award to Thomas, Leyh himself gave an award to Ann Garwood and Nancy Moors, the couple in charge of the Hillcrest History Guild, “an online museum that captures the history of Hillcrest, including photos and stories charting the evolution of a Zip code.” He then introduced two prestigious officeholders, State Senator Christine Kehoe (who’s held public office continuously since her 1993 election to the San Diego City Council, the first open Queer to hold office anywhere in San Diego County) and Assemblymember Lori Saldaña. “Happy Pride to every single person in San Diego, straight or Gay,” said Kehoe, who recalled her role — along with her successors in the District 3 City Council seat, Toni Atkins and Todd Gloria, in forcing out a three-person Pride board widely seen as dysfunctional and replacing it with a group of veteran community activists, including former Pride board members, that shepherded the process of producing this year’s events. She thanked the current Pride board, staff and volunteers “for making this event happen. The board stepped in at a critical time and is working for transparency and accountability.” Kehoe also boasted that the state legislature recently passed a resolution urging the U.S. Congress to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Saldaña joked, “I’ve been in the parade with Frontrunners and the Sierra Club, and after 20 years walking they’ve let me ride in a car.” A third elected official, Congressmember Susan Davis, made a walk-on appearance but didn’t speak. Afterwards Leyh introduced other officials and candidates in the crowd — including the major-party nominees for the 76th District California State Assembly seat, Democrat Toni Atkins and Republican Ralph Denney. It’s a race that marks another milestone in San Diego politics: the first time a Queer Democrat and a Queer Republican have run against each other as major-party nominees, ensuring that a Queer person will almost certainly fill that seat no matter who wins. Other candidates Leyh introduced included Stephen Whitburn, openly Gay challenger to County Supervisor Ron Roberts; and Kevin Beiser, openly Gay candidate for the San Diego Unified School District board. He also mentioned that Pride had received congratulatory letters from at least two local Republican officeholders, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and County Supervisor Greg Cox (though, oddly, not from Cox’s wife Cheryl, the mayor of Chula Vista), as well as Democrats including U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, Congressmember Bob Filner, and California attorney general (and candidate for governor) Jerry Brown. Community service awards went to Cheryl Houk, executive director and 17-year veteran of Stepping Stone, and Queer businesswoman Dr. Joyce Merrick. Another award recipient was actor and playwright Patricia Lowry, who won for her original script Dear Harvey for Diversionary Theatre. Drawn entirely from letters by and to Harvey Milk and interviews with people who knew and worked with him, Dear Harvey has been performed throughout the country since its premiere at Diversionary in San Diego. Actor James Vasquez reproduced one of Harvey Milk’s speeches as presented in Lowry’s play, and this provided a natural segue into Pride board co-chair Larry Raney’s introduction of Stuart Milk.

Queer Democrats Back State Party on Redistricting Join Fight to Protect Legislators’ Power to Draw Their Own Districts by MARK GABRISH CONLAN Copyright © 2010 by Mark Gabrish Conlan for Zenger’s Newsmagazine • All rights reserved PHOTOS, top to bottom: Mark Hansen and Paul Clay, Paul Clay, Mark Hansen The predominantly Queer San Diego Democratic Club debated the two ballot propositions about redrawing legislative districts at their regular meeting July 22 but ultimately voted overwhelmingly to support the state party’s position that it should be the legislators themselves — not an independent commission — that get to draw their own districts. The club went along with the state party in endorsing no on Proposition 20, which would extend the authority of the state’s independent redistricting commission to draw Congressional as well as state legislative districts; and yes on Proposition 27, which would dissolve the redistricting commission altogether and hand the power to map legislative districts back to the legislature itself. Both propositions will appear on the November 2 ballot. The independent commission actually doesn’t exist yet. It was authorized by a measure narrowly passed by California voters in 2008 and is currently whittling down thousands of applicants into a 14-member panel. By law, the final commission must contain five Democrats, five Republicans and four people not registered with either of the two major parties. A clause in Proposition 20 requires that any redistricting plan passed by the commission must be approved by at least nine members: three of the Republicans, three of the Democrats and three of the people affiliated with smaller parties or no party at all. The original initiative to create the redistricting commission didn’t include Congressional districts in the hope that restricting it to the state legislature would win the support of the California Democratic Party — or at least that the state Democrats would stand neutral. It didn’t work. Not only did the state Democratic leadership oppose the initiative, but even after it passed they circulated and qualified Proposition 27 to get rid of the independent commission before its members could be selected and it could begin work. Within the San Diego Democratic Club, support for independent redistricting was led by Alex Sachs, the club’s former vice-president for political action. Sachs, who had resigned his club office the previous month and is relocating to Iowa, warned that opposing independent redistricting could spark a backlash that could hurt the state Democratic ticket. “It is dangerous for our club and our party to be on the wrong side of the electorate,” Sachs said. “If we oppose what’s seen as a good-government position, we do so at our peril.” Other club members strongly disagreed. “Sometimes the majority of Californians is wrong,” said special events chair Matt Corrales — which got knowing chuckles from an audience who knew precisely what he was referring to: the passage of Proposition 8, the state’s ban on legal recognition of same-sex marriage, in November 2008. “The redistricting commission is less diverse than either the California legislature or the electorate as a whole,” Corrales added — suggesting that by being older, whiter and more Republican than California’s overall population, they might consciously or unconsciously bias the redistricting in favor of the GOP. Club member Gerry Senda said he was concerned about the provision in Proposition 20 that allows three commission members from one political party to block the redistricting altogether. He said the real agenda of Proposition 20’s Republican backers is to sabotage the commission and force the redistricting into the California Supreme Court — which consists of six Republicans and one Democrat (though three of those six Republicans voted for the right of same-sex couples to marry in a decision later reversed by the voters through Proposition 8). “The GOP wants to Texicate California,” Senda said — referring to a court-ordered redistricting in Texas that changed the state’s legislature and congressional delegation from an even split between the major parties to overwhelmingly Republican. Senda claimed that the California congressional delegation, which is now 33 Democrats to 19 Republicans, would shift to 27 Democrats and 22 Republicans if Proposition 20 passes. Ellis Rose, former club activist who has recently returned to attending and speaking out regularly at its meetings, said he was involved in the last redistricting process for the San Diego City Council — which also involved an independent commission — and it soured him on the whole idea. “The issue isn’t trusting independent voters, it’s trusting an independent commission,” Rose said. “It can be just as corrupt as any other body.” Eventually the club voted overwhelmingly, 32 to 7 with two abstentions, to endorse the state party’s positions of no on 20 and yes on 27. The club accepted the state party’s endorsements on three other propositions without debate. The club opposed Proposition 23, which would suspend California’s landmark law against global warming until the state’s unemployment rate drops below 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters — which, opponents point out, has only happened three times in the last 30 years. It supported Proposition 25, which would reduce the required vote to pass a budget in the state legislature from two-thirds in each house to a simple majority; and opposed Proposition 26, which would raise the threshold to pass state fees and levies from a simple majority to two-thirds. (California’s constitution already requires a two-thirds vote to raise taxes, and neither proposition would change that,) Also on the agenda were two Democratic nominees for state legislative seats in heavily Republican districts: Paul Clay, who’s running for the State Senate against Joel Anderson; and Mark Hansen, a candidate for the Assembly against Brian Jones. Despite the Republican registration edge in both districts, Clay is confident he has a chance because Anderson is unpopular even among many Republicans in the area. “He’s been fined $20,000 by the Fair Political Practices Commission, and the Fresno County Republican Central Committee was fined $29,000 for those same violations,” Clay said of Anderson. “He paid himself $100,000 from his campaign fund in the primary, shifting it to a ‘company’ which doesn’t exist. He used $246,000 of state taxpayers’ money to send out his brochures, and spent $517,000 on his primary campaign. His backers include British Petroleum, Exxon, AIG, GEICO and most of the major insurers and oil companies.” “My opponent, Brian Jones, is a bit more humble,” said Hansen. “He believes the earth is 5,000 years old and dinosaurs and people lived at the same time. He’s the deputy mayor of Santee and ran against Duncan Hunter (Jr.) for Congress last time and lost in the Republican primary. He’s being very low-key, and I haven’t raised enough money to scare anyone yet.” Asked about Jones’ position on Queer issues, Hansen admitted, “I’ve heard nothing along those lines from him, but he is a lay minister at Sunrise Church, which is not a progressive organization.” Hansen described his principal issues as “sustainability in terms of the economy, environment and culture,” and pointed to his involvement with the Heartland Coalition (not to be confused with the Right-wing Heartland Institute) in creating jobs for inner-city youth and training them to be construction workers. The club endorsed both candidates without audible opposition. The club also made Howard Wayne’s candidacy for the District 6 seat on the San Diego City Council a priority race at the suggestion of former political action vice-president Alex Sachs. Democrats got a shock when Lorie Zapf, the Republican front-runner, beat Wayne by 12 percent in the primary and more people voted for Republicans than for Democrats — leading to the fear that this seat, currently held by progressive Democrat Donna Frye, might be lost in November. “Wayne is clearly a strong friend of this community, and his opponent is clearly not,” Sachs said. (During the primary, Zapf was quoted as saying that Queer people are not morally fit to hold elective office, though she later backtracked.) Sachs also pointed to the overlap between District 6 in the city and District 4 for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, where former club president and openly Queer candidate Stephen Whitburn is running to unseat incumbent Ron Roberts. The motion to make Wayne’s race a priority passed unanimously.

Cause for Creativity: Tour da Arts, vol. 2 Sunday, August 22, 2010 2:00pm Pedal on over to SMMoA for the second annual Cause for Creativity: Tour da Arts and Urban Expeditions event!! Festivities include: bike checks, spoke card workshop, live performances, and a closing party. Registration is required: surveymonkey.com/s/TourdaArts Schedule of Events: 2 - 4 pm Bike Checks – Bicycle “cooks” from the Bikerowave will provide bike checks to make sure your wheels are in perfect shape for the Urban Expeditions ride Spoke Card Art Workshop – FREE for SMMoA members, $5 for non-members 4 - 7 pm Urban Expeditions Bike Tour – C.I.C.L.E will lead a bike tour featuring live music with Ben Sollee at The Broad Stage and Shakespeare at Virginia Avenue Park with The Actors' Gang 7 - 9 pm Exhibition and Closing Party – Music by Dublab, Acro Yoga with lululemon, live t-shirt screen printing with Hit + Run, extended museum hours, food trucks, bike-themed vendors, fixie zone, and more! C.I.C.L.E.’s Urban Expeditions program is made possible with support from REI. Visit www.CICLE.org or call 323.478.0060 for more information. Date: Sunday, August 22 Time: 2:00 pm (ride leaves promptly at 4:00 pm) Location: Santa Monica Museum of Art at Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90404. Exit Cloverfield from the 10 freeway and go north. Take first right onto Michigan Ave., which ends at Bergamot Station parking lot. Price: Free. Registration is required: surveymonkey.com/s/TourdaArts What to Bring: Your bicycle, in good running order. (Please have bike inspected and tuned at least once a year at a bike shop.) All participants under 18 must wear a helmet and be escorted by a parent or guardian. Children under age 8 should be on a tag-a-long, bike trailer, tandem, or other safe child-carrying device to participate in the ride. Background Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange (C.I.C.L.E.) is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that works with individuals and communities to promote the bicycle as a viable, healthy, and sustainable transportation choice. C.I.C.L.E. projects include Bike Week Pasadena, lifestyle focused and skill-building safety workshops, and Urban Expeditions, a monthly community-focused bicycle ride aimed at getting more people out of their cars and onto bikes. www.CICLE.org :: 323.478.0060

At around 7 p.m. 25-30 people mass outside of the city hall in Pomona, California for a candle light vigil protesting Arizona's SB1070 and 287g. 7:30 p.m. - Within 30 minutes the group swells to over 75 people, many with signs and banners. 7:45 p.m. - Several speakers address the crowd, including Professor José Calderón. 8:00 p.m. - Rally turns into a march down Mission Ave. March passes Pomona Police Department with no confrontation. 8:05 p.m. - A banner reading "BOYCOTT ARIZONA, NO BORDERS (A) (E)" is suspended using rope, between two traffic signals on the corner of Mission ave. and Garey ave. 8:15 p.m. - March returns to corner of Garey and Mission Ave., rallies around banner. Chants of "¡Zapata vive, vive! ¡La lucha sigue, sigue!, "¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!", "Whose streets? Our streets!", "Undocumented and unafraid!" and many more are shouted by the crowd. Many cars and trucks honk and raise fists out of windows in a show of solidarity and support. 8:45 p.m. - Crowd begins to disperse.

VozMob

LA Times Blog

*Partial justice is no justice at all! Despite Judge ruling to block parts of SB 1070, racial-profiling, raids, deportations and the militarization of the border will continue unchallenged. This is why today we shut down Interstate 19 (I-19)* *Sigue en espa**ñol abajo:* *DIRECT ACTION DISRUPTS ARIZONA RACISM!* *Partial justice is no justice at all! Despite Judge ruling to block parts of SB 1070, racial-profiling, raids, deportations and the militarization of the border will continue unchallenged. This is why today we shut down Interstate 19 (I-19)* *July 29, 2010 Tucson, AZ—*On the morning that SB1070 is scheduled to take effect in the state of Arizona and three days before Obama deploys 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, a group of concerned community members blocked traffic on I-19 south of Ajo Rd. in Tucson, AZ. A blockade of tires covered in tar and broken glass were placed across both southbound lanes along with a banner reading “Stop All Militarization! The Border is Illegal!” This blockade is a temporary shutdown of the very road that is used to deport people deemed “illegal” as well as a direct disruption of the flow of capital. By blocking I-19 we have halted the transportation of migrants and the profits Whack-n-hut and Corrections Corporation of Amerikkka make by these inhumane acts of separating families, communities and loved ones. This morning we interrupt the privatization of the criminalization of people of color. The State of Arizona ruthlessly disrupts and terrorizes the lives of non-white communities on a daily basis. SB 1070 is yet another example of how migrants and people of color are criminalized. Today’s action is a declaration of resistance to the criminalization of affected communities and the militarization of indigenous land. Neither SB 1070 nor the deployment of National Guard troops to the border do anything to address the root causes as to why people migrate. U.S. economic policies and wars have displaced and impoverished millions of people all over the world. Capital-driven policies, such as NAFTA, create poverty. These policies and laws not only consume and exploit land and people, but they also displace us from our homes, forcing us to migrate in order to survive. If policymakers were serious about stopping “illegal immigration,” they would end these capitalist exploitations and stop their military invasions abroad. We want an end to the militarization of indigenous land, I.C.E. raids, deportations, the attacks on ethnic studies, violence against women and queer people, the expansion of prisons and immigration detention centers, empire, the border wall and the genocide at the Arizona-Sonora border that has claimed the lives of over 153 people during the first 8 months of this fiscal year alone. Today we interrupt the flow of Arizona’s traffic to bring attention to the following points: - *ABOLISH ALL OF SB 1070 AND OTHER ANTI-MIGRANT LAWS.* - *STOP ALL MILITARIZATION. NO NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS ON INDIGENOUS LAND.* - *BORDERS AND THE ARIZONA GOVERNMENT ARE ILLEGITIMATE.* - *NO HUMAN BEING IS ILLEGAL—THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS TO BLAME.* - *WE WANT RESPECT AND JUSTICE FOR ALL PEOPLE.* We affirm our dignity and promote the well-being of all people. We stand for solidarity, peace, self-determination and autonomy. We assert the rights of all people everywhere to feel safe and live free of oppression and state violence. * **ACCIÓN DIRECTA INTERRUMPE EL RACISMO DE ARIZONA! * *A pesar de la decisión de la Juez de bloquear componentes polémicos de la medida SB 1070, el perfil racial, las redadas, deportaciones y la militarización de la frontera continuaran sin ser desafiadas. Es por eso que hoy bloqueo la Interestatal 19 (I-19).* *29 de Julio 2010 Tucson, AZ—*En la mañana que la SB 1070 esta programada para entrar en vigor en el estado de Arizona y tres días antes de que Obama desplegue a 1,200 tropas de la Guardia Nacional, un grupo de miembros comunitarios bloquearon el tráfico hacia en la I-19, sur de La Calle Ajo en Tucson, AZ. Un bloqueo de llantas cubiertas con alquitrán y vidrio quebrado fueron colocadas en los dos carriles que van hacia el sur. En la carretera se ubicó un cartelón que declara “¡Alto a toda la Militarización! ¡La Frontera es Ilegal!” Este bloqueo es un paro temporal de la misma carretera que es usada para deportar a personas consideradas “ilegales”, al igual que es una interrupción directa del flujo de los productos y mercancía. Al interrumpir el tráfico de la I-19 hemos logrado suspender el transporte de migrantes y las ganancias que empresas como Wackenhut y Corrections Corporation of Amerikkka ganan al cumplir actos inhumanos como separar a nuestras familias. Esta mañana nosotr@s interrumpimos la privatización de la criminalización de las comunidades de color. El Estado de Arizona sin piedad perturba y aterroriza a diario la vida ñde nuestras comunidades. La SB 1070 es otro ejemplo de cómo los migrantes y las personas de color somños criminalizadas. La acción de hoy es una declaración de resistencia a la criminalización de nuestras comunidades y la militarización de tierras indígenas. Ni la SB 1070, ni el desplegue de tropas de la Guardia Nacional hacen nada para combatir las causas de por qué la gente emigra. Las guerras y las pólizas económicas de los EE.UU. han desplazado y empobrecido a millones de personas en todo el mundo. Pólizas impulsadas por ganancias, como el Tratado de Libre Comercio, causan la pobreza. Estas políticas y leyes no sólo consumen y explotan la tierra y la gente, pero también nos desplazan de nuestros hogares, obligándonos a emigrar para sobrevivir. Si los políticos tuvieran la seriedad de frenar la "inmigración ilegal", pondrían fin a su sistema económico que empobrece al mundo y acabarían con sus invasiones militares en el extranjero. Queremos poner un fin a la militarización de tierras indígenas, redadas, deportaciones, los ataques a los estudios étnicos, la violencia contra las mujeres y gente gay, lesbiana, bisexual, transgenero, la expansión de las cárceles, los centros de detención, el imperio, el muro fronterizo y el genocidio en la frontera entre Arizona y Sonora, que ha cobrado la vida de más de 153 personas durante los primeros ocho meses de este año fiscal. *Hoy interrumpimos el flujo del tráfico de Arizona para llamar a la atención los siguientes puntos:* - *SUPRIMIR **COMPLETAMENTE LA SB 1070 Y OTRAS LEYES ANTI-MIGRANTES. * - *FRENAR** TODO LA MILITARIZACIÓN. FUERA TROPAS DE LA FRONTERA.* - *LAS **FRONTERAS Y EL GOBIERNO ARIZONENSE SON ILEGITIMOS. * - *NINGUN SER HUMANO ES ILEGAL—ESTE SISTEMA ECON**ÓMICO ES EL PROBLEMA.* - *QUEREMOS **RESPETO Y JUSTICIA PARA TODAS LAS PERSONAS.* Afirmamos nuestra dignidad y promovemos el bienestar de todas las personas. Estamos a favor de la solidaridad, la paz, la auto-determinación y la autonomía. Afirmamos el derecho de todos los pueblos del mundo a sentirse seguros y vivir libres de la opresión y libres de la violencia estatal.

Please join us (Hands Across The Sand & Surfrider Foundation) in drawing a human line in the sand to say NO to offshore oil drilling and YES to clean energy on Saturday, June 26th,11am on Santa Monica Beach (next to Santa Monica Pier) and on beaches all over the world! Please see: www.handsacrossthesand.com. Join our Facebook pages for the following Los Angeles beaches: Santa Monica Beach (next to Santa Monica Pier): http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/pages/Hands-Across-The-Sand-Santa-Monica/120626091306927?ref=ts Pacific Palisades, Sunset Beach (Sunset Blvd. & PCH): http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/pages/Hands-Across-The-Sand-Pacific-Palisades/125368857488265?ref=ts Topanga Beach: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/pages/Hands-Across-The-Sand-Topanga-Beach/130222070329659?ref=ts Malibu Surfrider Beach (next to Malibu Pier): http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/pages/Hands-Across-The-Sand-Malibu/125471304144834?ref=ts We hope you will join us! Thank you!

Celebrate Hemp History Week with the Green Party! Join the Los Angeles Greens for vegetarian potluck and a talk on "How industrial hemp will help California's economy." Using hemp for food, medicine, fuel, fiber, paper and up to 50,000 products made from industrial hemp; provides jobs, cultivates the soil, preserves the trees, and creates energy we can inject into our struggling economy. We'll also discuss state and federal hemp legislation, including the Tax and Control Cannabis Initiative relating to fully legalizing cannabis hemp (marijuana). Be sure to sign a postcard addressed to President Obama which puts an end to the status quo and lets farmers grow hemp! http://www.votehemp.com/hemphistoryweek.html http://www.taxcannabis.org/index.php/pages/initiative/ When: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 7pm Where: Peace Center, 8124 W. Third St., Los Angeles Vegetarian potluck. Bring some food or drinks if you can. And bring your own utensils/plate if possible to minimize waste/clean-up. Los Angeles Greens' meetings are free (donations accepted) and open to the public. Children are welcome. Free parking is available behind the building. http://blog.losangelesgreens.org/ http://losangelesgreens.org/ The Green Party of California has long supported hemp: "Fully deregulating the growth and production of industrial hemp, with assistance to farmers for converting to hemp cultivation." More at: http://www.cagreens.org/platform/platform_ecology.shtml#1001834

Air pollution, has been observed in Los Angeles for years. There is a difference in the air from many other cities’ in the fact it feels more moist, and less clean. I could tell the difference of the air in the city since the first time I visited. According to The Press Enterprise in 2007, “Los Angeles topped air pollution. A major cause is constant heavy traffic. It is known that Los Angeles is a heavy populated city with lots of traffic. According to ‘Su, a person who researched pollution in the city, Los Angeles had a population of “16.7 million people.” A huge amount of those people rely on their vehicles for transportation which causes constant rush hours. Su said, “Each of these vehicles release unwanted toxins such as; nitric oxides, nitrogen dioxide, and nitrogen oxides into the environment.” People’s health are also affected. The Environmental Protection Agency have been discussing problems with traffic pollution. They talk about the release of particulate matter, “which is a mixture of particles and droplets such as acids, organic chemicals, metal, and dust particles.” Those particles cause health problems in the heart and lungs. They also pointed out how, “50 percent of emissions of particulate matter in urban areas is related to road traffic.” Roosevelt from The Los Angeles Times talks about air pollution’s affect on the hardening of arteries. Los Angeles residents living near freeways experience a hardening of the arteries that leads to heart disease and strokes at twice the rate of those who live farther away and about 2 million residents live within 300 feet of the freeways. Due to the growing population, more people are driving, however, air pollution can be reduced substantially. If less people drive and use bikes and busses, the amount of pollution will decrease greatly. If every person that drives in Los Angeles carpools with at least one other person then that would cut the amount of unwanted particles being released into the air in half. Los Angeles is a great, but crowded city where the community can work together to make it a healthier place to live.

Celebrate Earth Day with the Los Angeles Greens! Two guest speakers will join Ramona Merryman for a talk on: "Guerilla Gardening and Learn to Grow Your Own Urban Food." Ms. Merryman, aka The Mistress of Soil, is a permaculture designer and teacher. Joey Soto, of Gardens of Gratitude: We're attempting to plant 100 Edible Gardens in a single weekend in neighborhoods across West LA! http://gardensofgratitude.org Larry Santoyo, founder of EarthFlow Design Works, brings 20 years teaching experience to the worldwide Permaculture Movement. http://earthflow.com/ When: Wednesday, April 21 at 7pm Where: Peace Center, 8124 W. Third St., Los Angeles Vegetarian potluck. Bring some food or drinks if you can. And bring your own utensils/plate if possible to minimize waste/clean-up. Los Angeles Greens' meetings are free (donations accepted) and open to the public. Children are welcome. Free parking is available behind the building. Guerrilla gardening is political gardening, a form of direct action, primarily practiced by environmentalists. It is related to land rights, land reform, and permaculture. Activists take over an abandoned piece of land which they do not own to grow crops or plants. Guerrilla gardeners believe in re-considering land ownership in order to reclaim land from perceived neglect or misuse and assign a new purpose to it. Some guerrilla gardeners carry out their actions at night, in relative secrecy, to sow and tend a new vegetable patch or flower garden. Others work more openly, seeking to engage with members of the local community. It has grown into a form of proactive activism or pro-activism. Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in natural ecologies. The intent is that, by rapidly training individuals in a core set of design principles, those individuals can design their own environments and build increasingly self-sufficient human settlements — ones that reduce society's reliance on industrial systems of production and distribution that are fundamentally and systematically destroying Earth's ecosystems. http://blog.losangelesgreens.org/ http://losangelesgreens.org/

Downtown is a traffic mess. If you don't need to take a car for logistical purposes, take public transit. Most long bus lines that run toward downtown will stop in the Pershing Square area. From there, it's around 6 blocks up to City Hall. If you can't walk it, you can take the Red Line train from Pershing Square to Civic Center station, which is 2 blocks from City Hall. A bus also runs along 1st St if you can't walk the 2 blocks. Bus fare is $1.25 per boarding. A "Day Pass" is $5, and covers you for boarding all day long. If you are coming from distant points, you can park near the endpoints of the Red Line in North Hollywood, and the Gold Line in East LA/Montebello, and the Gold Line's northeastern branch, and at some point along the Blue Line, and then ride the train from there. Most areas in LA are metered, unless you park a ways away. (There are some spots on 4th st that aren't metered.) Afterward, the eating opportunities nearby are numerous. Little Tokyo, Chinatown, Olvera St., the gentrified old Downtown as well as the ungentrified parts, and even the mall underneath City Hall. The garment district and food districts are also happening on the weekends, in a big way. It's good times if you're not a Nazi.

Dear friends, Today Steve received a sentence of 60 months (5 years) and three years of supervised release. This is an incredibly difficult time for Steve and his loved ones. He is currently being held at the CDC in San Bernardino. We have no idea how long it will take for Steve to be transferred to a federal facility. Awaiting a transfer can be a particularly stressful time - Steve has no idea where he will end up, although we are hoping that he will be in Texas so he can be closer to his partner. Please take a minute to write Steve a note of support. His current address is: MURPHY, STEVE JAMES 0910300841 CENTRAL DETENTION CENTER 630 EAST RIALTO AVE SAN BERNARDINO, CA 92408 We will keep you updated about Steve's whereabouts once he starts the transfer process. Yours, Steve's Support Crew

A state agency created to preserve open space and habitat in the San Gabriel Valley is pouring millions of dollars into a controversial and costly San Gabriel River interpretive center even as it plans to build two more interpretive centers in the same east Los Angeles County area. The San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy’s $30 million San Gabriel River Discovery Center, proposed for the Whittier Narrows Natural Area and wildlife sanctuary on the San Gabriel River, was approved in January by a joint powers authority led by the conservancy. Construction of the Discovery Center would require demolition of the one interpretive center that currently serves the immediate area, as well as the bulldozing of wildlife habitat within a county Significant Ecological Area. Yet the conservancy, through another joint powers authority, has plans to build two more interpretive centers, each less than three miles from the proposed site of the Discovery Center. The Watershed Conservation Authority, led by the conservancy, plans to build the “Duck Farm on the San Gabriel River,” an interpretive center with many elements similar to those of the Discovery Center. And the authority has included as part of its proposed update to the Whittier Narrows Master Plan a “welcome center” to be built within the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area, which includes the natural area. The County of Los Angeles and two municipal water districts are pouring millions more public dollars into the Discovery Center even as taxes and water rates increase. “It’s indefensible and obscene,” said Gloria Valladolid, board member of the Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area. “When each passing day seems to bring news of more budget cuts to education, other basic services and even emergency services, to build even one of these projects would be questionable. “But to take millions of dollars from the community, destroy an existing interpretive center and then build three redundant facilities — is this really the way to manage public resources?” Questions have also been raised regarding the propriety of the $3 million grant the conservancy gave itself and its partners to build the Discovery Center. A request under the California Public Records Act revealed that the conservancy provided the $3 million for the Discovery Center even though the project “was not included in the [conservancy’s] regular competitive grant process” — a process the agency spent tens of thousands of tax dollars to develop and implement. In a letter accompanying materials provided in response to the request, Belinda Faustinos, executive officer of the conservancy, the San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority and the Watershed Conservation Authority, stated that no application was submitted for the grant to the Discovery Center and that the grant program guidelines “do not apply to this particular project.” “It’s this kind of lack of accountability that leads to taxpayer cynicism and distrust of government,” said Friends board member Valladolid. “The conservancy was created to preserve, restore and protect open space and habitat to benefit the community and the environment upon which we all depend. It certainly wasn’t created to take our tax dollars and dot the land with buildings.” For more information, please visit http://naturalareafriends.net.