News

Alex Ellefson

September 14, 2014

'We Want to Show What's at Stake': Rockaway Residents Demand Climate Action

When protestors fill the streets of Manhattan on September 21 to demand that world leaders address global warming, a contingent of Rockaway residents will be there too. These inhabitants of the narrow 11-mile-long spit of land on the edge of Queens, which was one of the areas most devastated by Superstorm Sandy, plan to wear colorful papier-mâché life preservers that read: “Preserve our Communities.” Many...

Karen Lee Ziner

August 28, 2014

In Providence, immigration activists call on Chafee to end ‘ICE holds’

PROVIDENCE — Immigrant activists Monday renewed their call for Governor Chafee to limit collaboration between Rhode Island law enforcement agencies and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with regard to holds placed on detainees. Three dozen people marched from St. Patrick Church on Smith Street to the State House, where they urged Chafee to end — by executive order — the practice of state and local...

Jean Casella and James Ridgeway

August 19, 2014

Civil Rights Groups Demand Change for Transgender Women Held in Solitary in New York’s Prisons

Earlier this month, Solitary Watch published an in-depth investigation by Aviva Stahl into the experiences of transgender women held in New York’s state prisons. It found that most transwomen in men’s prisons were subjected to long-term solitary confinement simply for being themselves. Many also faced sexual assault by staff as well as other prisoners. Shortly after the investigation was released, four organizations – the National...

Christina Fialho

August 18, 2014

Adelanto: Unlimited Prison Possibilities

The City of Adelanto, California, greets visitors with a sign, proclaiming it to be a city of "unlimited possibilities." However, when you drive through this small town in the Mojave Desert, it is clear the city is known for only one possibility: incarceration. Currently, there are four large detention centers within 10 miles of one another. On any given day, up to 9,325 people are...

Michelle Williams

August 15, 2014

Springfield No One Leaves protests foreclosure policies outside of Freddie Mac office, at home of Board Member Nicolas Retsinas in Providence

Shaking as she stepped before the crowd, Marie Bain spoke of facing foreclosure while taking care of her terminally ill son. At age 25, Bain's son, Patrick, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. "I got my house in 2006," Bain said of her Boston home. "In June 2011, my son suffered from a brain tumor and I had to leave my job to take care...

Frances Kai-Hwa Wang

August 15, 2014

Camp Aims to Connect Youth with Radical South Asian History

“We’re creating the camp we wish we had had when we were their age,” said California-based organizer and writer Tanzila Ahmed , “with access to all the South Asian American history we wish we had known.” Bay Area Solidarity Summer (BASS) in Berkeley, California, East Coast Solidarity Summer in New York City (ECSS, formerly DCDS), and Chicago Desi Youth Rising (CDYR) are training the next...

Iris Baez

August 12, 2014

Are the Police Getting Away with Murder?

Editor's note: Iris Baez is a member of the Justice Committee in New York, a longtime activist for accountability and justice in police brutality cases, and the mother of Anthony Baez, who was killed by a New York Police Department officer's use of a chokehold in 1994. (CNN) -- Although details are still emerging in this most recent tragedy, we know an officer repeatedly shot...

Kaci Felstet

July 28, 2014

"Clean energy" advocates protest in Great Falls

GREAT FALLS -- Several people representing Indian Peoples Action ,Wild Idaho Rising Tide, and Occupy Bellingham protested in front of the Calumet Refinery in Great Falls on Saturday. Their goal was to educate people about what they believe are the dangers of non-renewable energy. The protest was in response to the development of the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, and the Bakken oil fields in...

David Self Newlin and Brian Maffly

July 21, 2014

Utah Deputies Arrest Anti-tar Sands Activists

Twenty-one activists were arrested Monday during a “blockade” of a tar sands company’s construction equipment in eastern Utah, according to anti-tar sands groups who accused Uintah County sheriff’s deputies of “brutality.” The Sheriff’s Office declined to confirm the arrests Monday afternoon, except to say that all of its available deputies were at the site about 50 miles south of Vernal. By Monday night, the Sheriff’s...

Linda Borg

July 20, 2014

Members of Providence Student Union applaud NECAP test postponement

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The student activists largely responsible for bringing concerns about the NECAP test to the public’s attention applauded the test’s postponement as a graduation requirement. One member of the Providence Student Union, Hector Perea, said, “I’m so proud of all the hard work that has been put into the high-stakes testing by PSU students and the whole community. ” Another PSU activist, Tim...

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