SF Bay Area

Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for June 8 to the 14th 2013.

Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for June 1st to the 7th 2013.

Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for May 25th to the 31 2013.

KPFA EVENING NEWS, 06.15.2013: Occupiers attempted to save San Francisco's Hayes Valley Farm, renamed Gezi Gardens to invoke the battle for green space in Istanbul, Turkey, but police raided it this week to make way for condo development, in the early morning hours of June 13th. KPFA spoke to San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos about the push and pull over public land use, and organizing to create an urban farm in District 11.

This past Friday, the San Francisco Pride Committee announced their decision that Bradley Manning will not be an official Grand Marshal of the city's LGBT Pride Parade on June 30th. The Dyke March published a statement titled "Not Proud of Pride," and the Trans March published a statement saying they will be honoring Bradley Manning at their march on Friday, June 28th, as the 2013 San Francisco Pride Weekend begins.

On Friday, 06.07.2013, the San Francisco Pride Committee announced their decision that Bradley Manning will not be an official Grand Marshal of the city's LGBT Pride Parade on June 30th. Former Pride Grand Marshal Joey Cain said that it doesn't matter what the Pride Board does, that Bradley Manning is already the most famous San Francisco Pride Grand Marshal, or non-Grand Marshal, ever.

Santa Cruz documentary filmmaker Brent Adams is starting a campaign to create an organized, self-regulated homeless community called a sanctuary camp.

Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for May 18th to the 24th 2013.

As the San Francisco Giants got ready to play the Colorado Rockies on Saturday, more than 700 concession workers at AT&T Park went on a one-day strike for job security and increased wages and benefits. The workers union, Unite Here Local #2, is currently negotiating with Centerplate. The concession worker spokesman told KPFA that Centerplate had called the workers "obnoxious" and filed a lawsuit against them. He also said that many of the concession workers live below the poverty level and have not had a raise in three years, despite increased attendance at the ballpark, and increased sales, prices, and revenues for Centerplate.

FEMA, is in the final stages of reviewing a fire management plan covering a thousand acres from Richmond to San Leandro. The plan would involve cutting down thousands of trees and spraying pesticide. The plan is highly controversial, and cause for heated argument between environmentalists. The most fierce debate has centered around Claremont Canyon, in the Berkeley and Oakland hills, and Strawberry Canyon in the Berkeley Hills. Both are near where the devastating East Bay Hills Fire of 1991 began. KPFA Radio news archive, 4 minutes, 6 seconds.

Free Radio Santa Cruz, 101.3 FM or streaming live on freakradio.org (click on RED OVAL atop image of transmission tower for link to online service).

On May 24 at SubRosa Community Space in Santa Cruz, Mendocino County resident Will Parrish spoke about the ongoing efforts to protect the large areas of land that are being disturbed as part of a highway project by Caltrans to build a bypass around the town of Willits. Community members there have been resisting the project through tree sits, demonstrations, and by appealing directly to politicians in California in an effort to save the area, which is also known as Little Lake Valley.

Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for May 11th to the 17th 2013.

California's most important environmental law, the California Environmental Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), is under attack, and activists are trying to make sure the act will still hold sway in San Francisco. CEQA requires corporations and landholders to provide public information about potential environmental impacts of their projects in advance. A statewide coalition recently blocked attempts to weaken CEQA at the state level, but now San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener has proposed to weaken CEQA locally. Supervisor Jane Kim has proposed competing legislation which is more CEQA friendly.

The Jackson, Mississippi press is reporting "crunch time" in a close mayor's race. Jackson's population is majority Black and Democratic, so Tuesday's Democratic primary run-off, between Black Democrat Chokwe Lumumba and Black Democrat Jonathan Lee, will effectively determine who the city's next mayor will be. The Jackson Free Press reports, however, that donors to the Jonathan Lee campaign have also given $1.2 million to federal Republican campaigns since 2008. Second District Mississippi Congressman Bernie Thompson has endorsed and campaigned with Lumumba, whom he calls "the real Democrat" in the race. ColorLines Founding Editor Bob Wing spoke to KPFA from Jackson about why this race matters.

Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for May 4th to the 10th 2013.

Free Radio Santa Cruz -- 101.3 FM or streaming live at freakradio.org (click on the RED OVAL atop image of radio tower).

AUDIOS are from the May 5th, 2013 broadcast of Radio Autonomía: Zapatismo in the Bay on Berkeley Liberation Radio, 104.1FM, livestream at Berkeley Liberation Radio