Last weekend, a military coup in Honduras overthrew the democratically elected government of that Central American nation and sent President Manuel Zelaya into exile in Costa Rica. The coup was apparently led by Romeo Vasquez, a graduate of the notorious School of the Americas (SOA), a military/torture school located at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Take Action: Military Coup Photos, Video: Fr. Roy Bourgeois on Democracy Now!

Today, July 2, 2009, Mark Nepermann pleaded “not guilty” in court. He is charged with misdemeanour theft under $300, despite evidence given to State’s Attorney Julia Rietz of the greater artistic value of the two signs stolen from the “Beyond the Chief” exhibit at the University of Illinois.

Nepermann will be back in court July 31 at 9 a.m. for a pre-trial hearing.

The News-Gazette published an apology from Nepermann in its letters to the editor section. Yet Nepermann’s attorney Brian Silverman told him not to say anything when questioned by media after the hearing. For more about Silverman see an article I wrote a couple years ago:

http://www.ucimc.org/content/what-happens-when-women-seek-justice-champa...

BD

A massive campaign is underway to "turn on the pumps" and deliver additional water to farms in the western Central Valley. Agribusiness interests and their allies claim environmental and water activists care more about fish than people and are demanding more water, now!

Rose City Antifa writes:, "This July, David Irving, a British neo-fascist and fraudulent historian, goes on the road in the United States, planning to hold approximately one and a half dozen speaking engagements over the course of a month. As militant anti-racists and anti-fascists, we are making a public call for resistance at each stop along the way of this tour."

PDX QUEER TOWN HALL
7pm Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
The Q Center (4115 N Mississippi)

ABOUT
Over PDX Pride weekend 2009, multiple members of our community experienced harassment, violence & queer-bashing, as well as inadequate police response. A group of us who were pretty directly involved in the incidents, came together to create space to talk about what happened, and move toward some positive & empowering solutions; thus the Town Hall concept was born. We see this Queer Town Hall as a space to share our experiences & resources, and to catalyze action that can help keep ourselves and our communities safer in the future. The meeting itself will begin with a short introduction, followed by breakout groups which will be spread around the room. This is an opportunity to hear about ideas that are currently in the works, to get involved, and share!

This year Cascadia made home to the now annual Trans & Womyn's Action Camp.
Cascadia hasn't hosted a camp of this sort in a few years, unfortunately. This camp alone brought out so many new faces and introduced them to the radical environmental movement that we decided it must continue out here, in coordination with other Trans and Womyn's spaces that correlate with future Earth First! Rendezvous.
Taking place in workshops spaces such as Learn First! and Share Garden, the schedule was widely diverse with issues of forest defense techniques, tactics of non-violent direct action, strategic campaigning, supporting mental health wellness & burnout, gender identity, sex work, DIY reproductive health (where many women saw a cervix for the first time!), how to call out oppressive behavior in a constructive way, etc. There was a large focus on anti-oppression by having three unique AO scheduled workshops, with additions of an impromptu critical discussion on privilege and oppression in the larger EF! movement, which eventually turned into a discussion about environmental racism and environmental justice. And prior to that there was an in-depth discussion on how to incorporate the safer space of TWAC- trans-inclusiveness, solidarity, and anti-oppression- at the upcoming EF! Round River Rendezvous, which eventually turned into trying to rally folks to attend the EF! RRR.

Beyond having some really amazing & critical workshops, we also had lots of fun ones!

In post-Katrina New Orleans, anarchist truths found fertile, if toxic grounds to take root and grow. New paths were walked on. Antiauthoritarian principles emerged as important guides for both reconstruction and the struggle against disaster capitalism. A million or more equally important stories can now be told about mutual aid, cooperation, subversion of authority, disruption of state and capitalist plans. And yet Brandon Darby's morality tale has become a media darling, due in no small part to his perfect and full adoption of his role as a state agent, regardless of whether it was official in 2006, or whether the FBI is still cutting him paychecks. We owe it to ourselves to tell these other stories of New Orleans, St. Paul and beyond.

Philadelphia, PA – Three military veteran organizations are calling on the Obama Administration to release photographs depicting abuse of detainees in U.S. custody. Veterans For Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Common Sense wrote a joint letter to President Obama describing how releasing the pictures is crucial to U.S. national security, upholding international law and safe guarding democracy at home. The organizations published the joint letter and asked veterans to co-sign before it is sent to the President.

At a June 29, special meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utility (ERMU) and the City Council to discuss alternatives for their energy supply in 2018, the Council moved to table discussion of investment the Big Stone II coal project until  July 13. 

One of the options presented was investing in 30 megawatts of the Big Stone II coal plant expansion for $90 million.  

The Utilites board will meet July 8 to discuss the proposal and have requested more detailed information from the proposers.

When asked about the liklihood of ERMU's approval Troy Adams, Director of Operations for ERMU, said "To tell you the truth, I don't know. We're waiting for more information about the finances and the risk of the project."

Residents, students and supporters of Democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya will gather at the Honduran Consulate, 6161 Savoy Lane, Friday, July 3rd at 1 PM to demand his reinstatement as President. [Read full release]

On June 28th, the Honduran military ousted the democratically elected government of Honduras, detaining and then exiling President Manuel Zelaya to Costa Rica. The crisis in Honduras began when the military refused to distribute ballot boxes for an opinion poll on a new Constitution. President Zelaya fired the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Romeo Orlando Vasquez Velasquez, who refused to step down. The heads of all branches of the Honduran armed forces quit in solidarity with Vasquez. Vasquez, however, refused to step down, bolstered by support in Congress and a Supreme Court ruling that reinstated him. Vasquez, along with other military leaders, graduated from the United States' infamous School of the Americas (SOA). According to a School of the Americas Watch database compiled from information obtained from the US government, Vasquez studied in the SOA at least twice: once in 1976 and again in 1984.

Coverage of the coup in Honduras: NarcoNews (en) | Honduras Indymedia (es) | Minga Informativa de Movimientos Sociales (es) | Americas Mexico Blog (en)

Several thousand people gathered in Dolores Park on June 26th to demand equality for the transgender community. Beginning at the park they formed a contingent of marchers that made their way through San Francisco's Mission district to 26th and Valencia. This year's march marked San Francisco's sixth year since the event began in 2004 when it was first established to honor Gwen Araujo, a young transgendered woman who was brutally murdered in Newark, California in November of 2002.

On Saturday, June 27, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams hosted a forum in San Francisco to address the issue: "A United Ireland, How Do We Get There?" Hundreds packed St. Anne's Meeting Hall in San Francisco's Sunset District to discuss how to unite the still divided island nation of Ireland. Gerry Adams said the purpose of the forum was "to kickstart yet another chapter in our struggle - the final chapter."

On July 30, Michael Steinberg Writes:, "Today San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom hid in his office and locked the door on a crowd of tenants who came to petition him to support a package of renter relief measures. The SF Board of Supervisors passed the package earlier this month, but not by a veto proof margin, and Newsom has said he will veto it."

On Sunday, June 28, two groups of radical queer activists demonstrated against other contingents participating in the 2009 Pride Parade in San Francisco. Members of the International Jewish Solidarity Network marched and protested Zionist presence at the Pride Parade. Another group staged a die-in in front of Gavin Newsom's float at the annual Pride Parade to protest cuts to HIV/AIDS prevention, queer youth programs, and other vital services.

For two decades, janitors have been uniting to achieve social and economic justice through Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) Justice for Janitors campaign. Since 1985, janitors in over 30 cities throughout the United States have united in SEIU and won family health insurance, livable wages, full-time work, and better working conditions. This movement of low-wage, mostly immigrant workers has earned broad-based support from the public as well as religious, political and community leaders.

Radix is an anarchist art and media collective based in Portland, Oregon. The word radix is the Latin root of the word radical, which means, "to get to the bottom of a situation." Our topics include but are not limited to anarchism, animal rights, human rights, prisoner support, and civil liberties.

Fuck the war! On July 4th we're throwing a party to support anti-war organizing and Port Militarization Resistance (PMR). BBQ starts at 4:00 (vegan food available), DJ Arrives (read: partying starts) at 9:00. It's at 8th and Cushing, Olympia. This is a great way to get involved in anti-war organizing in the area, meet some new friends, and kick it with old ones. You won't want to miss this one!

Racist propaganda found
Recently in the NW district there have been overtly racist stickers being put on signs, posts, newspaper dispensers, phone booths, etc. The stickers are for a group or individual called WILD (White Identity Love Defense). Some stickers have a picture of a tiger, and read, "WILD Portland," while others simply state, "White Identity." However, this weekend a new variety that reads, "Resist The Jews" was seen, so be on the lookout, not just for these, but any new variety of racist propaganda. The heavy concentration of the stickers has been on NW 21st and 23rd avenues. Furthermore, they have been quickly replaced once taken down. Some of these stickers have a website on them. The website itself is not much more than a hub with links to other sites, however the sites that the creator linked to is cause for concern. Some are anti-Semitic, some bemoan immigration (not merely undocumented immigration, but all immigration that "threatens a white majority."), and one is to Stormfront, the leading far-right forum whose members have celebrated such recent tragedies as the murder of Dr. Tiller in Kansas.

A 10 lane bridge, while still too big, would be preferable to the current 12 lane concept, and there are signs that a smaller bridge might become the new concept
One of the things that jumped out at me from the fact sheets I got at the recent Columbia River Crossing "open house", (last Wednesday), was a projection from a sheet titled, "Traffic Effects of 8, 10 and 12 Lane Scenarios." This sheet compares the "local streets impacted by I-5 backups" in a 10 lane and 12 lane bridge scenario. In the 12 lane scenario, of course, there are no local streets impacted by an I-5 backup, either in Portland or Vancouver.

But in the 10 lane scenario, there are six streets or highways that are impacted. All but one of them are in Vancouver. So this really is a Clark County thing. The new bridge must be as large as possible so drivers from the northernmost reaches of Clark County, and probably beyond, can get to Portland in time for...whatever.

Former Sandy Cop, and murdering, stalking, drunk driving, thug, William Bergin plead guilty to a very reduced charge last Thursday: From the original indictment by a (not so) grand jury, for felony identity theft, first-degree official misconduct and use of an invalid driver's license, he was allowed by the infamous John Foote (DA for Clackamas County), to plead guilty to misdemeanor "official Misconduct," and to do the perp walk to jail for a very harsh sentence: twenty four freakin hours in jail, no doubt in the VIP suite. WTF?

Mr. Bergin, for those who do not remember, is one of two (protect and serve) officers from Clackamas County, who, finding a badly burned, injured, naked (clothes burned off his body) and totally unarmed, "catatonic" according to their statements, Fouad Kaady, could think of no way to help him, so they tasered him until their alter penises were completely discharged of electricity, and then pumped five shots into his body.