Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley surprised many in the Chicago peace community with remarks he made in a February speech, lamenting the misallocation of American funds towards war and the presumed paucity of antiwar activism.

Activists quickly decried Mayor Daley for hypocrisy in his remarks, given that since 2003 he has acted repeatedly to suppress, intimidate, arrest, and otherwise block grassroots Chicago peace activists and antiwar protest. Peace activists repeatedly challenged Daley to support his words with actions — including calling for the end of abusive practices by Chicago police and ending the militarization of Chicago peace protests and Chicago public schools.

Whether or not Daley follows up on these challenges, it appears that the 7th Annual rally and march for peace in Federal Plaza and Michigan Avenue on March 18th promises to be the most vigorous major Chicago antiwar protest in years.

Additional Links: Say No to Daley | Video flyer for March 18th protest for peace | Chicago Mass Action website

The Champaign City Council is deciding at their meeting on Tuesday at 7pm whether to accept $22.5 million federal grant already awarded to the two cities and the University for creating jobs and building internet connectivity in our community. If you support the deployment of a municipal broadband network in Champaign-Urbana, please consider contacting your city council member to express your support of the plan. Attached is a .doc file containing contact information and a sample correspondence. Whether or not Champaign accepts the grant funds has a strong bearing on whether federal stimulus money under the Broadband Opportunities Program will be used to create jobs in both Champaign and Urbana or provide essential services to underserved parts of our community. Our acceptance of this money also has a strong bearing on the viability of our round 2 funding proposal for community centers, libraries, and schools.

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After two years of delay caused by federal court injunction, a new round of analysis and comment is scheduled for April.

On March 9th at Golden Gate National Recreational Area's Fort Baker in Marin County, nearly a hundred UC service workers, students and supporters from UCB, UCSF, UCSC, UC Davis entered the hired meeting space of Blum Capital Partnership, the Cavallo Point Lodge at Fort Baker in Sausalito, and picketed the street in front. Richard Blum is a UC Regent and the husband of California Senator Diane Feinstein.

The Oregon Supreme Court announced this Friday, March 5, 2010 that it has placed on its calendar a hearing of Case SO 58025: Wendy Siporen, Ivend Holen and Medford Citizens for Responsible Development v. City of Medford and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to be held at North Medford High School on May 18, 2010 at 9 AM.

New York City is not broke. There are plenty of financial resources that are being hoarded by the elite.

The NTIA just sent out an official press release announcing that the infrastructure part of the broadband proposal submitted by a coalition of the two cities and the University is going to receive $22.5 million in federal funds for a fiber-optic infrastructure rollout.

Note that the SBA (Sustainable Broadband Adoption) and PCC (Public Computing Centers) parts of the proposal were rejected for Round 1 funding, so this increases the importance of submitting a strong application for those components for Round 2, in order that the infrastructure being contructed can be successfully utilized by the citizenry. The cities have 30 days to decide whether to accept the award.

Project description from the NTIA press release below:

Now that it's $2.25 and rising, there's a pretty penny to be made from 585,000 new fares, not to mention planned cuts to Access-A-Rides for the disabled, at least 1,100 layoffs of MTA workers, and maybe another fare hike for good measure. It's all about "gap closing," as the MTA's 2010 Budget coins its program of deficit reduction via service reduction. Yet there are other gaps, other deficits that recent events have brought to the attention of the public (and they implicate the City and the State as much as the MTA).

Democrat Joyce Segers will announce her candidacy for Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District at 11 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 22 at the headquarters of the Jackson County Democratic party, 40 S. Central Ave., in Medford.
Segers will be running against Republican incumbent Greg Walden.

Fourteen Philly residents — ranging in age from 24 to 72 and including several grandparents and two members of the clergy, public school teachers, and life-long Philadelphians — lined the entrance to the SugarHouse construction site on the Delaware River last fall and refused to move. They were promptly arrested and held for more than 12 hours. On the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010, these individuals will stand before a judge and defend their First Amendment rights.

According to low level Metro workers, new rules are due to go into effect in March requiring photo ID with use of reduced fare passes.
Currently, if you are on Medicare (as are all people on social security,ssd,and ssi) you can use a reduced fare pass if you also show your medicare card to the ticket-checker on the subway. The new rule states that when you do this you must also show photo ID.

NFTA Customer Care Dept. Confirms:

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Once again at the start of the year's legislative session in St. Paul, the Minnesota Historical Society is whitewashing history while seeking funds for the reconstruction of its flagship tourist attraction, Fort Snelling.  The Fort is located at the site of both the genesis and genocide of the Dakota people, overlooking the site of a concentration camp with hundreds of Dakota women died following the War of 1862.  The MNHS only reluctantly acknowledges this history in its patriotic displays venerating the men like Alexander Ramsey and Henry Sibley who vowed to exterminate the Dakota.

The MNHS has long wished to invest more money in Fort Snelling to repair crumbling 19th-century buildings and remodel its visitors' center.  It has met with grassroots opposition from pro-indigenous and pro-environment groups who advocate taking down the fort - or just refusing to invest more money in it and letting nature do the work.

Related: New Robert Erickson Tea Party Trailer--Columbus Go Home: Take Down the Fort

The Panel for Education Policy’s decision to close 19 public schools across the city has ignited a widespread revolt against mayoral control of education. The panel, where the majority of its members are handpicked by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, voted 9-4 to close the schools January 26 even after hundreds of testimonies against the closings and protests leading up to the Panel for Education Policy hearing.

The tensions that arose at the hearing were the product of long-simmering grievances directed at Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein’s running of the education system, writes Indypendent reporter John Tarleton.

Texas has the opportunity to be a leader, instead of a polluter and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is leading the way by proposing new ozone standards for the state that would make sure we have clean air to breathe. Right now the EPA is accepting public comments, and we need you at this hearing to show public support!

The Coal and Oil industries are going to come out with a vengeance. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and Governor Perry have threatened to sue the EPA over this proposed ruling on ozone standards. We know Texans deserve standards that protect our families. For too long TCEQ has been issuing illegal air permits which got us into this air quality mess in the first place. There are TWELVE NEW coal plants proposed in Texas, and we already have 17 coal plants up and running (some of the dirtiest in the country). We deserve better. [read full article]

Related: EPA wants stricter smog pollution rules to protect public health

The Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), a collective providing cannabis under California's 1996 Compassionate Use Act (Prop. 215), along with the city and county of Santa Cruz, have reached a settlement in their unprecedented lawsuit against the federal government. WAMM's case was prompted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration's raid of their medicinal garden in Davenport on September 5, 2002, in which armed agents terrorized residents and patients, and seized more than 160 cannabis plants.