Mayday March & Rally for Immigrant Rights / Downtown LA
By: Orlando Pardo for the ANSWER Coalition
A broad, community-based coalition of progressive, pro-immigrant organizations, including the ANSWER Coalition and the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition, is calling for a massive, united May Day March and Rally on May 1 in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. The march will gather at Olympic and Broadway at 10 am.
Carlos Alvarez, ANSWER Coalition leader in LA, said: “We in the anti-war, anti-racism movement must stand in solidarity with the immigrant community at this time to say ‘No Human Being is Illegal!’ All progressive organizations and people are encouraged to join the ANSWER contingent in the march.”
This struggle for immigrant rights is country-wide, and this demonstration is but one of an expected 350 in cities throughout the nation.
President Obama promised just and comprehensive immigration reform within his first 100 days in office. That time has come and gone.
On Friday, April 22, Arizona Governor Janice Brewer signed an anti-immigrant bill into law known as the SB 1070 or the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Act.” The legislation gives state and local police the power to act as federal immigration enforcers, able to detain anyone they consider to have a “reasonable suspicion” of being an undocumented immigrant and making it a misdemeanor to not carry proper documentation. This new law, essentially, legalizes racial profiling in the state of Arizona.
While many may see the law as one which has only been passed to address the illegal immigration concerns of the Arizona government, those who have become American citizens to be safe from persecution in other countries, and those who take pride in their ethnic roots, see it, instead, as a dangerous precedent.
Immediately after the bill was passed, many students, outraged that such a bill was passed, walked out and took the streets in a display of unity and opposition of the bill.
Others chained themselves to the Capitol Building in Phoenix at a student organized sit-in demonstration. Some of whom were arrested and taken away.
The ANSWER Coalition demands full legalization for all immigrants, and an immediate repeal of the Arizona Senate Bill 1070. Those who support these actions have the opportunity to join in their demonstration in Los Angeles this weekend, or in those across the country.
Protesting this bill is a vital action for all those who have come to this country for the basics of freedom, and for those who understand that it may take away the rights that they believe are theirs and inherent in the Constitution.
Categories: Government & Politics Tags: 1070, Arizona, Immigration Bill, Immigration Bill Protest, los angeles, Protest
Categories: Government & Politics Tags:
“Criminal and Civil Charges” possible for NY Fed
Prosecuting those who caused the financial crisis would lead to the next logical step: confiscating all the ill gotten gains and returning them to the people. The market went down and the people lost a bundle. The market is now back up and those losses are still in place. But guess who made a bundle on the fluctuation? This must be corrected.
Neal Barofsky dropped a bombshell in an interview with Richard Teitelbaum of Bloomberg.com yesterday. He indicated that individuals at the New York Federal Reserve Bank may be liable for criminal or civil charges. Barofsky is the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (SIGTARP).
Barofsky says the question of whether the New York Fed engaged in a coverup will result in some sort of action.
“We’re either going to have criminal or civil charges against individuals or we’re going to have a report,” Barofsky says. “This is too important for us not to share our findings.”
In a statement, the New York Fed said: “Allegations that the New York Fed engaged in a coverup of its intervention in AIG are not true. The New York Fed has fully cooperated with the Special Inspector General.”
He (Barofsky) won’t say whether the investigation is targeting Geithner personally.
There’s a double hedge here, of course. There may just be a “report” and Geithner may or may not be a target. That’s far from comforting for the Secretary of the Treasury.
Barofsky was more specific about insider trading by bankers aware of TARP awards prior to public disclosure of the largess.
Barofsky … says he’s also looking into possible insider trading connected to TARP. He says his agency would want to know if bankers bought stock in their companies before it was made public that their institutions would get TARP money, for example.
“There was a time when, if you got that word the stock price would go up, and if you were to trade on that information prior to the public announcement, that would be classic insider trading,” Barofsky says.
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2010/04/29/criminal-and-civil-charges-possible-for-
Categories: Government & Politics Tags:
March On Wall Street: Unions Grab The Bull By The Horn
by Sam SteinThousands of people marched on Wall Street on Thursday afternoon in a major protest of financial sector greed and lending practices by big banks.
Taking to the streets of downtown Manhattan, an expected gathering of 10,000 AFL-CIO union members shouted and jeered at the offices surrounding them, demanding three major changes to Wall Street culture. The first is to call off the lobbyists fighting regulatory reform. The second is to stop the incessant focus on market speculation over business lending. The third is to chip in money for job creation initiatives.
“Our history and our heritage teach us that America is about more than making easy money and looking out for number one. Our lives and our livelihoods are all bound together. And we are all paying the price for those who knew no limits on their greed,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka was to say, according to advance remarks. “Eight and a half million lost jobs — that’s the price of greed — that’s the real cost of bankers’ bonuses and private jets and cute tricks like the one that got Goldman Sachs in trouble last week.”
The remarks were far more condemning in tone than those offered by President Obama last week during a speech at Cooper Union, in which he urged financial industry titans to join him in passing reform. But the underlying message was largely the same: the mess made by Wall Street still needs cleaning.
The rally, one of the largest in recent memory to take place at the epicenter of the financial world, was timed to begin at 4:00 p.m. on the dot, the same hour when the trading bells close. Dozens of individual unions were expected to be in attendance, with a slow march planned down a six-block route followed by Trumka’s speech at the iconic bull at the corner of Wall Street and Broad.
“He’s going to grab the bull by the horns, figuratively speaking,” said AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/29/march-on-wall-street-unio_n_557400.html
Categories: Government & Politics Tags:
Three-year-old boy arrested as suspected terrorist in France
By Peter Allen
A three-year-old was arrested as a suspected terrorist and held at a French police station for more than two hours, it emerged today.The child – identified only as Daniel – is the son of an illegal immigrant from the Paris suburb of Juvisy.
Last Thursday the pair were arrested as they returned to their car after visiting a leisure centre.
Police officer claimed they were carrying out routine vehicle checks before arrested both father and son.
They were taken to Juvisy Police Station where, after 20 minutes, they were split up.
The father, who is from a North African background, was questioned about links to radical groups possibly linked to Islamic terrorism. Both he and Daniel were formally placed under investigation.
Daniel’s mother then arrived at the station and Daniel was finally released after two hours, but local social services said he was in a ’severely traumatised state after his ordeal.’
A spokesman said: ‘He can’t sleep and he’s crying constantly. He’s a terrified little boy. The whole thing has been an absolute nightmare for him.’
Categories: Government & Politics Tags:
Ten Animals Most at Risk From Gulf Oil Spill
Sea turtles, oysters and shorebirds are all in danger from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
By Julia Kumari Drapkin Buenos Aires, Argentina — Oil is spreading across the Gulf of Mexico — the result of the sinking of an oil rig last week. A spill of this magnitude so close to the wetlands, estuaries and national fisheries of south Louisiana is unprecedented.Though it’s unclear how badly wildlife along the Gulf Coast will suffer, the timing of the spill couldn’t be worse. This is peak spawning and nesting season for many species of fish, birds, turtles and marine mammals. Many species remain in set breeding areas during this time and there’s less instinct to move away from danger.
Disturbances to nests, fish spawning grounds or key links in the food chain might have lasting effects on species already at risk, commercial fish stocks and the people who make a living harvesting them. Minor oil spills are relatively common on the Gulf Coast, but this one has biologists, wildlife agencies, conservation groups and fishermen particularly concerned.
Here’s a selection of animals at risk in the open water, along the coasts and in the wetlands.
1. North Atlantic Bluefin Tuna
The Great Bluefin Tuna, prized for sushi and sashimi, is one of the species most in danger of slipping into extinction. Traveling down across the Atlantic seaboard, bluefin tuna spawn in the Gulf of Mexico between mid-April and mid-June.
2. Sea Turtles
Five of the world’s seven sea turtle species live, migrate and breed in the Gulf region. Kemp’s ridley is the world’s most endangered species of sea turtle, and one of its two primary migration routes runs south of Mississippi. Loggerhead turtles, also endangered, feed in the warmwaters in the Gulf between May and October.
3. Sharks
Shark species worldwide are in decline. The grassbeds south of the Chandeleur Islands are very close to the oil spill. These grasses are a known nursing area for a number of shark species, which are now beginning their spawning season in the Gulf. Whale sharks, the world’s largest fish, feed on plankton at the surface of the water and could also be affected.
4. Marine Mammals — Whales, Porpoises, Dolphins
Oil spills pose an immediate threat to marine mammals, which need to surface and breathe. Not only does the oil pose a threat, but also the nasty toxins that the oil kicks off into the air. A resident pod of sperm whales in the spill area could be at risk along with piggy sperm whales, porpoises and dolphins.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/the-americas/100428/oil-spills-endangered-species
Categories: Government & Politics Tags:
