THE BATTLE IS JOINED FOR NORTH AMERICA'S ONLY SAFE INJECTION SITE

Canadian Press reports retired police officers, including one who traveled halfway around the world, are asking the federal government of Canada to keep Vancouver's supervised-injection site running.

Traditional, heavy-handed enforcement methods have been a failure in fighting drug use, they told a news conference on Tuesday.

Three retired cops, either members or supporters of a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, endorsed the Vancouver Insite program which offers addicts clean needles, a safe place to inject and access to counselling and detox.

"We all agree that most of society's problems with illegal substances are not caused by those substances but rather by the over-enforcement of our drug laws through the war on drugs," said Tony Smith, a 28-year-veteran of the Vancouver police.

"We believe that drug addicts should not be treated as criminals but receive non-judgmental medical assistance for their addictions."

Keeping drugs illegal simply provides an opportunity for international traffickers to make huge amounts of money, he added.

The Insite program in Vancouver's blighted downtown eastside operates with an exemption from federal drug laws which expires at the end of next month.

Supporters, including the city's mayor, the provencial health minister, the provincial nurses association and the police chief, support the program. They say it saves lives, encourages the use of detox programs and hasn't lured more crime to the area.

Insite was the first safe-injection site in North America. When launched in 2003, Vancouver, the province and Ottawa supported the program, but it's time will run out on June 30 unless Ottawa elects to extend the exemption.

Federal Health Minister Tony Clement has not announced whether the clinic will be permitted to stay open. The Vancouver Sun says the Conservative Party doesn't want to be seen supporting an endeavour that "sanctions drug use." The paper points out the Party's core support came from those who agree with PM Stephen Harper's strong stand against crime and drug use

Liberal MP Keith Martin from British Columbia told the Hill Times he believes the Conservative government's plan is to try and eliminate harm-reduction from Canada's drug strategy all together. "I believe the government is putting on short-term extensions, so if they get a majority government they can kill [safe injection sites] all together."

Martin, who is also physician, said he worked in detox centres in B.C. on and off for 12 years and that seeing the "ravages of addiction" is what has made him such an advocate of Insite and other harm-reduction strategies.

"If the government fails to allow communities across Canada to have supervised injection, they will be committing murder. They will be allowing people to die that could have been saved," he said. "We have a moral obligation to help drug addicts."

Martin said he believes the Conservative government's opposition to Insite is rooted in an ideological aversion to the concept of harm reduction as a way of dealing with drug abuse, which he said is "appalling." He added: "The government takes an ideological moral position against addicts. I believe it's a medical issue."

Recently the International Journal of Drug Policy published articles by scientists from around the world condemning the federal government for interfering politically with the site's research.

Insite has been the subject of numerous peer-reviewed studies in places such as the New England Journal of Medicine, The lancet, The British medical Journal and the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association. These studies have shown a reduction not just in harm to the addicts serviced but also a reduction in the "nuisance" that these people provide to others.

However, those who oppose the whole concept don't much care for scientific reports. They are on a moral crusade.

But supporters of Insite are on a crusade, too.

A convoy is rolling across Canada right now to raise awareness about the site and increase knowledge about how it saves lives. And to build support to keep it open.

Thomas Kerr, with the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, was one of the scientists responsible for the scientific evaluation of the facility.

"The scientific support for this initiative is overwhelming," Kerr said, citing more than 30 published peer-review studies that have supported the program.

"We should not right now be discussing if this facility should continue to operate, we should be asking the next question, which is: "How can we ensure that Canadians living elsewhere can enjoy the health benefits of such a facility?"

What follows is a lengthy article from StoptheDrugWar.org and Drug War Chronicle.

Vancouver's Safe Injection Site Fights for Its Life -- Again

The only officially-sanctioned safe injection site in North America, Vancouver's InSite will have to close its doors June 30 if the Canadian federal government does not extend its exemption from Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. But while the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made no secret of its distaste for the program, it has very strong community, local, provincial, and international support, and its supporters are now engaged in a strong campaign to ensure its continued existence.

Situated on Hastings Street in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, home to one of the hemisphere's largest concentrations of hard drug users, InSite has operated since 2003, when it was granted a three-year exemption by the then Liberal government. With the advent of Conservative government, with its ideological opposition to programs that "encourage" or "facilitate" drug use, InSite's continued existence has been shaky. Twice, the Conservatives have granted the program temporary 18-month exemptions, saying that more research on its efficacy was needed.

But now, after five years of monitoring and evaluation, the results are in: According to peer-reviewed scientific studies, InSite increased the use of addiction treatment services, increased the use of detox services, reduced needle sharing, led to improvement in neighborhood public order and quality of life, resulted in no increase in drug-related crime, prevented overdose deaths, and helped reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS among drug injectors.

As if the nearly two-dozen studies of InSite were not enough, the Conservative government last year commissioned its own study, "Vancouver's INSITE service and other Supervised injection sites: What has been learned from research?," which was released in early April. According to Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd, who was hired by the government to advise the committee overseeing the study, the research shows that InSite has no apparent negative impacts, has resulted in "modest decreases" in drug use, and has not disturbed public order.

In fact, said Boyd at a press conference announcing his findings, InSite should not only be continued, but the program should be expanded to other locations. "I think our data suggests... the building of additional facilities of a similar kind in neighborhoods where they are needed would yield benefits much in excess of the costs required for such projects," he said.

That's unlikely under the Harper government, which is ideologically opposed to such harm reduction practices and in fact removed funding for them from its anti-drug budget. As Harper put it last October: "Because if you remain an addict, I don't care how much harm you reduce, you're going to have a short and miserable life."

Harper has also scoffed at empirical evidence when it conflicts with his agenda. In a January speech to party faithful, he mocked opponents who cited falling crime statistics in challenging his emphasis on law and order. "They try to pacify Canadians with statistics," said the prime minister. "Your personal experiences and impressions are wrong, they say; crime is really not a problem."

More recently, Health Minister Tony Clement and his underlings have sounded similar themes. Science would not be the only factor in determining whether to continue InSite's exemption, Clement's undersecretary, Winnipeg MP Steven Fletcher told The Canadian Press earlier this month. While the government would make a "rational and thoughtful decision based on science," it must also take into account "the realities of the situation," Fletcher explained. "There's multiple sides to this and they all have to be taken into consideration," said Fletcher.

When pressed in parliament by Vancouver East MP Libby Davies, a staunch InSite supporter, Clement vowed to make a decision before June 30 and responded to her criticism about rejecting the science supporting the program: "We are the government that actually wants more research, that actually commissioned more research because we want to make sure this decision is the right decision for Canada, for addicts and for the community in Vancouver," he said. "That is the decision we have made, more research and more consideration. That is because we are open-minded and we want to make the best decision for Canada and Canadians."

Now, as the June 30 deadline looms, InSite's supporters have mobilized. Already this month, the International Journal of Drug Policy published articles by scientists from around the world condemning the federal government for interfering politically with the site's research, Boyd held his Ottawa press conference, advocates held a rally in a Downtown Eastside park featuring 1,000 white crosses to symbolize the people who didn't die from drug overdoses while injecting at InSite, Vancouver street nurses picketed the office of the Vancouver Police Union, whose president is a leading critic of the site, BC Nurses Association president Debra MacPherson held a press conference to tout the health benefits of InSite, and all three BC civic parties have signaled their joint support of the program.

"We're fully behind the effort to keep InSite open," said David Hurford, director of communications for Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan. "It is part of the solution, not part of the problem, and it is a bottom-up solution from the grassroots. The federal government has said it supports grassroots decision-making, so why should bureaucrats from 3,000 miles away be making decisions for us here?" he asked.

The mayor's office is "working with local stakeholders to help communicate the benefits of InSite," said Hurford. "We wrote to the health minister last week asking him to keep the site open, and at a minimum, to extend the permits until all pending legal issues are heard."

Hurford is referring to a lawsuit pending in the BC courts that challenges Health Canada's jurisdiction over InSite. That suit argues that since under Canadian law, health care is the domain of the provinces, the federal government should not have control over InSite. But that lawsuit will not be settled by the end of next month.

Opposition politicians have also joined the fight. "This government chooses to view harm reduction as nothing more than dirty words, at the expense of protecting the safety and health of Canadians," said Liberal Party public health spokesperson Dr. Carolyn Bennett.

"The results from the InSite project show measurable evidence that it saves lives," said Liberal MP Dr. Hedy Fry, who played a key role in bringing the agreement that allowed InSite to open. "This has won it widespread support not only from experts in Canada but from the international scientific community, from the Vancouver police and from residents of the Downtown Eastside," said Dr. Fry. "It is simply irresponsible to ignore scientifically-based proof of the efficacy of harm reduction programs like this, and base public policy on ideology alone because real people suffer the consequences."

"The Conservative government must stop its unconscionable interference in scientific research on Vancouver's safe injection site," added New Democratic Party MP Libby Davies, who represents the Downtown Eastside. "Medical researchers from the University of British Columbia have revealed that Harper and his team have been suppressing evidence and denying funding to scientists who are looking objectively at the merits of Insite," she said.

"More than 20 medical and academic studies have been published showing the health and social benefits of InSite. We now have both scientific fact and evidence from users in our community that this facility is helping, not hurting the people of our city. The research record shows that Insite saves lives and increases public safety," Davies continued. "Harper doesn't understand that you can't just hide the facts whenever they don't suit your political agenda. We need a change in direction. It's time for this government to make decisions based on evidence instead of ideology -- InSite needs to be kept open."

"What we want is a 3 ½ year renewal of the exemption from the Controlled Substances Act," said Nathan Allen of InSite for Community Safety. "The fact that the Harper government has not granted this renewal shows they are very reluctant to support the community."

While the Harper government has previously said it needed more research to evaluate InSite's efficacy, that dog won't hunt anymore, said Allen. "They've already spent more than $1.5 million studying InSite, they've produced two dozen academic papers, and they've concluded that it has all kinds of positive impacts. We're wondering what questions the government has left to ask," he scoffed. "InSite has undergone the most thorough and well-funded scrutiny of any health clinic in the country."

In the event the government refuses to grant another exemption, Allen said he hoped it would respect provincial authority and local autonomy. "This has been a regional response to a local crisis here in Vancouver. We need to let the people here on the ground do what they need to do. If not, people will die," he predicted bluntly.

The clock is ticking for InSite, but the pressure is mounting on the Harper government. The next few weeks will determine if that pressure is sufficient to overcome the government's ideological opposition to the safe injection site.

FOR THE SAHARAWI PEOPLE IT JUST GOES ON AND ON

Last week Moroccan secret services brutally attacked Saharawi students in the University Qadi Ayad in Marrakesh, while they were organising a peaceful demonstration to demand the Sahrawi peoples right to self-determination and independence.

A similar intervention took place the next day against the Saharawi students in the university Ibn Zuhr in Agadir, where the Saharawi students organised a demonstration of solidarity with their compatriots in Marrakesh.

During the assaults police surrounded the University of Marrakesh and tear gassed students. There were numerous injuries. Many students were beaten up,handcuffed, and jailed.

Also, yesterday the Court of Appeal in Marrakesh, Morocco, decided to postpone the trial of the Saharawi human rights defender Ennaâma Asfari to June 2nd, 2008. The decision was based on a request from Asfari whose lawyers weren't in court since the state had apparently forgotten to inform them about the trial date.

Meanwhile, today some 8,000 Polisario rebels, armed with AK-47 assault rifles, staged a marching procession at a dusty Western Saharan outpost to mark the 35th anniversary of the organization. Tifariti, where the parade was held, is one of six "liberated zones" or military camps on the border area which were won in the war by the rebels.

"We will continue to struggle as we have done for the past 35 years and all options are open," Polisario leader Mohammed Abdelaziz told the gathering.

The following is from The Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State (ASVDH)

ASVDH statement on recent Sahrawi demonstrations, Moroccan brutality in Marrakech
20 May 2008

ASVDH has followed with great concern the painful and bloody events that took place at the University Alqadi Ayad in Marrakech, Morocco. Many Saharawi students were the victims of these violations, as well as the related arrest of the Saharawi human rights defender Mr. Ennaâma ASFARI, Co-Chairman of the French Committee for the respect of human rights and freedoms in Western Sahara (Corelso), and members of students from the democracy movement, and others have been victims of brutal attacks which caused serious injuries of various degrees.

Reportedly, some students have been manipulated by the Moroccan security services and intelligence and incited against others to create dissension between them which has a direct impact on their studies on the first hand, and on their political and cultural activities, among many other activities, on the second hand.

The situation of students at the University Alqadi Ayad becomes more problematic following the abuse of the Moroccan administration of the university in Marrakech especially with the problems of students who have been victims of food-poisoning (more than 22 cases), which has created an angry reaction from students usually led by students from the democratic movement. And instead of dealing with the situation and recognize the error, the administration has tried to conceal this serious mistake, and responded to the students with repression and arrests.

On the basis of the above, the ASVDH declares:
- Its absolute and unconditional solidarity with all victims, regardless of their origin and affiliations, and foremost with the Sahrawi human rights defender, Mr. Ennaâma ASFARI

- Calls for the release of the prisoner of conscience, Mr. Ennaâma ASFARI, and the Saharawi students and students of the democratic basist pathway who are considered by the ASVDH as POLITICAL PRISONERS

- Its severe condemnation of the repressive approach followed by security services against university students in Marrakech and in various universities in Morocco

- Its condemnation of the methodology of falsifying charges and police records and more other violations committed by the Moroccan authorities to counteract the activities of the human rights defenders and students

- Calls upon the State of Morocco to reconsider its security policies followed in the university and provide favourable conditions for study to all students and guarantee their right of expression and peaceful demonstration

- Requests the Moroccan State to assume all costs of hospitalization for all the victims and especially serious cases

- Requests the immediate release of all prisoners of conscience and political detainees, including the secretary general of ASVDH, Mr. Brahim SABBAR, and the president of the local section of the ASVDH in Boujdour, Mr. Mohamed TAHLIL

THE LAWSON FILE: THE PATRIOT GUARD ARE FINE BY ME

I've said it before and I'll say it again here at the Oread Daily we (and or me) try to make a distinction between the war and the soldiers who fight it.

Kids go off to war for any number of reasons.

I can't imagine any come home exactly the same way they left.

They are stuck in situations hardly any reading the Oread Daily can even imagine. They have to make decisions we don't have to face. They pay a price few of us can ever understand.

Those who die leave behind families filled with grief, with love, many with pride, some with anger, all with unanswered questions.

There have to some (besides a plethora of chickenhawks and tough talking politicos who somehow never found a way to actually fight in the wars they drum up) there for these men and women who do offer up their lives in battles not of their own making.

Today I give you the Patriot Guard, a group made up largely of motorcycle riding Americans who have made it their mission to see that these men and women are not forgotten and too insulate their families from the likes of those creeps out of Topeka, Kansas who get off by displaying their vile selves at funerals.

It's important to note, as Roland "Bogie" Boguszewski of Bradley, Illinois says in the article below, the Patriot Guard don't care if you're a hawk or a dove, rich or poor, vet or not, biker or walker, "The only prerequisite," Bogie says, "is respect."

I know a guy who rides his bike to guard funerals out here on the plains. He isn't pro war. He isn't a leftie. He is just a working guy, an ordinary American, not out to make a political statement, just out to do what he believes is right.

Can't fault a fellow for that.

It is not the title I might have chosen but the article below is from the Daily Journal in Kankakee, Illinois.

Patriot Guard all about respect for military
By Robert Themer

The cremated remains of World War I Pvt. Herman Tietke, of Morris, were placed in their final resting place Friday.

More than 50 attended the lost doughboy's services, with 25 Patriot Guard motorcycles and 10 vans, cars and trucks parked nearby, most flying or carrying American flags and the black-on-yellow Patriot Guard flags with the motto "Riding with Respect" and banners saying "Standing for Those Who Stood for Us."

Started in August 2005 by American Legion Riders Chapter 136 in Mulvane, Kan., to combat disruptions of military funerals by religious zealots, the Patriot Guards reported over 138,000 members nationwide at the end of April.

They are summoned to missions by e-mail. Patriot Guard groups were at three services simultaneously at the cemetery on Friday and another was expected, said Roland "Bogie" Boguszewski of Bradley, Missing in America coordinator for Illinois.

The guards have three types of missions:

* To attend funerals of fallen veterans at the request of the families, showing respect and shielding the mourners from would-be protesters;

* Welcome-home parades for returning military and send-off for those being deployed; and

* Help on the Homefront activities in support of military families.

Motorcycle riders are predominant in the Patriot Guard, but nonriders are welcome. Most members are military veterans, but that isn't required, either.

Respect for those who serve in the military is the common denominator.

"We don't care what you ride or if you ride, what your political views are, or whether you're a hawk or a dove," Bogie said. "It is not a requirement that you be a veteran. It doesn't matter where you're from or what your income is. The only prerequisite is respect."

Dennis Benge, of rural Manteno, who served in the Marines in Vietnam, has been on about 50 Patriot Guard missions in two years.

Friday's turnout "was pretty good, considering it was a weekday," he said. "I've done welcome-homes when there were 130-140 people."

Most of Friday's riders came from surrounding communities, but one was from Galesburg, he said. "They come from a long ways a lot of times."

Benge usually rides for missions in Northern Illinois, but good weather can find him in a Southern Illinois event.

Benge hasn't encountered funeral protesters. Bogie has -- at Naperville and Danville, the latter after Illinois passed a law restricting protests at military funerals. "They were scattered out every 100 yards or so with signs like "God hates soldiers" and so forth," he said. "We got guards riding at both sides of the hearse and family cars and protected the family from seeing them. We tried to make them invisible."

Bogie, a member for two years, isn't a veteran. His father was a World War II vet and two of his and Janet's children are in the military now.

Benge spent four years active in the Marines and 23 more in the Reserves.

"I'm retired now and 90 percent of what I do is with veterans," he said. He's on the board of the Kankakee County Veterans Assistance Commission and the advisory council of the Illinois Veterans Home at Manteno. He's sergeant at arms of both the Marine Corps League in Kankakee, which does honor guards, and the Leathernecks of Northern Illinois.

"I have five veterans meetings a month, plus these missions."

The other 10 percent of his time? Marine Corps annual Toys for Tots Christmas campaign.

HUNGER STRIKERS BATTLE THEIR OWN UNION IN NORTHERN IRELAND

Two sacked airport workers (pictured here) in Northern Ireland are on hunger and thirst strike for the second time in a month in a protest now to get payment of legal costs and hardship money from their union.

Their request to the union followed their victory in a landmark Employment Tribunal judgement in Belfast last year, which was won on the grounds that they had suffered discrimination on trade union and political grounds.

Having suspended their hunger strike in April when the union agreed to pay their costs, Gordon McNeill resumed it again this week. Yesterday he was hospitalised but has since signed himself out of hospital and rejoined the action again today where he was joined by a fellow worker.

The previous hunger strike ended with a promise from the union that they would pay the outstanding legal bill for the long court action taken by the sacked workers against their former employer, ICTS (Unite). Unite also said that they would make an offer of compensation to the shop stewards for the hardship which the actions of the union leadership had put them through. All this was to have been done by 30 April.

The 30 April deadline passed without any movement by the Unite leadership on any of these issues. Instead, on 8 May, the shop stewards received a letter from the union solicitor which went back on all the previous promises that had been made.

"We have learned that nothing the Unite leadership say can be trusted. Every member of the union would do well to note the way we have been lied to and fobbed off" Gordon McNeill

The three issues at dispute are: the promise to pay outstanding legal fees for the men’s Industrial Tribunal victory, the promise to fund the costs of the appeal by the employer against this decision, and the promise to pay compensation for the hardship caused by the union’s action.

The shop stewards are now saying that, if Unite make good their promise on the first of these issues and pay the outstanding legal bill, they will suspend their action. This would mean that the money they have already paid their solicitor would be released and returned to them.

Progressive television and film producer Ken Loach points out the obvious, "It is a fundamental principal of trade unionism to support workers in struggle. This situation should never have been allowed to develop. Tony Woodley, the General Secretary, should intervene now to resolve the situation in favour of Gordon and his comrades.”

If you want to show some support there is a petition you can sign at http://gopetition.co.uk/petitions/justice-for-sacked-belfast-airport-workers/sign.html .

The following is from lib.com

Unite hunger striker Gordon McNeill in bad shape

Gordon McNeill is now on the fourth day of a hunger and thirst strike outside Transport House in Belfast.

His health is deteriorating rapidly and visibly. A healthy person might expect to live a week or so without food and water. Gordon suffers from a heart condition and has not recovered from the previous five day hunger and thirst strike at the start of April. He has already reached a critical stage.

Gordon has made it clear that he will refuse medical treatment if he is hospitalised.

"I am going to see this through to the end. Either the Unite leadership will give me justice or I will die. That is what it has come down to. Some Unite officials have been in contact with me but all they are offering are the same assurances that they have offered countless times in the past and have then reneged on.”

Support for the shop steward now on hunger strike at Transport House is mushrooming.

The protest is a result of the union's past collaboration with the ICTS management at Belfast airport, which resulted in four shop stewards and 20 other workers being unfairly dismissed.

Last September, a Belfast employment tribunal ruled that these workers were unfairly sacked and blamed both the management and the local T&G official for bringing this about. The huge legal costs amounting to over £200,000 have been loaded on the shoulders of the four shop stewards whilst the union refused any responsibility. The tribunal ordered ICTS to pay damages, also over £200,000, but this sum has been frozen pending an appeal to the High Court by ICTS.

Because of these legal obstacles, the shop stewards are facing eviction from their homes and hugely indebted. The solicitors who acted for the workers have said they cannot act any further without these costs being met. A number of issues are involved but as a sign of good intent, the shop stewards have said that if the union pays off the outstanding legal fees, they will call off the protest.

Unfortunately, the shop stewards feel that they cannot trust the union without this concrete gesture. On four separate occasions, the union promised to settle but all of these promises have been reneged upon.

Well known actor Ricky Tomlinson today spoke out in support. "I give my full support to the shop stewards. I myself spent twenty days on hunger strike in prison and have some idea what Gordon McNeill is going through.

The Unite leadership must make good the promises they made and must do so immediately to prevent a tragedy taking place."

Prominent playwright, Jimmy McGovern has also spoken out: "Remember the way the TGWU betrayed the Liverpool dockers? I bet you thought no union could ever sink so low again. I did too. We were wrong. The way in Unite has treated the Belfast Airport workers is a disgrace. Unite's leaders should hang their heads in shame."

At a lunchtime rally at Transport House Tony Maguire brought the support of the Northern Ireland Region of the Fire Brigades Union and Frank Bunting, Regional Secretary of INTO gave his support.

THE LAWSON FILE: WHICH FUTURE FOR THE LOS ANGELES RIVER

So for once I thought I'd blog a little bit about what appears to be a good plan currently being implemented by a city government.

I'm hoping the good plan works out the way so many dream.

I'm talking about something named the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan.

A critical element of the Revitalization Master Plan has been ongoing opportunities for public involvement in the process - something which is too often left out of such planning. And as you'll read below community involvement can make all the difference.

Recently one aspect of the plan "opened." in Long Beach. The Dominguez Gap Wetlands, a small, restored wildlife habitat area adjacent to the Los Angeles River which offers local residents the chance to experience the flora and fauna one might expect to find in a wilderness. It is model for what could be.

Wrigley Area Neighborhood Alliance (WANA) President Jill Hill says, “When you enter the wetlands, it’s a vision that you would never expect to see in this area. Coming into it, it looks like a trail, but once you enter and you see all the wildflowers, the water and the birds, it’s unbelievable.”

The first of its kind in the region, the wetlands project, along the east and west sides of the Los Angeles River between Del Amo Boulevard and the San Diego (405) Freeway, still offers flood protection along the river's urban lower reaches.

But it also helps improve groundwater quality, restores some native habitat and offers trails for walkers and horseback riders.

The blog Breathing Treatment points out the construction of the 37-acre east basin includes one mile of treatment wetlands, pedestrian and horseback trails, bird observation decks, woodland and riparian habitat and a bike trail rest station.

Some of the wildlife native to the area, including the red-shouldered hawk, the great blue heron, and the tri-colored blackbird, are returning to the region, according to county officials. Plants like purple sage, buckwheat, monkeyflower and willow trees are also part of the habitat.

The Los Angeles River flows 51 miles through some the most diverse communities in Southern California. It stretches 32 miles within the City of Los Angeles alone, from Owensmouth in the upper reaches of the northwest San Fernando Valley, all the way to the border with Vernon at the southern end of Downtown. The River is typically dry during summer months, and can become a river filled with racing waters during the rainy season.

The L.A. River has historically been polluted by stormwater and runoff that collects on the city streets and communities, due to littering and illegal dumping of automobile fluids and other contaminants.

Part of the plan is to educate the public to take action to prevent such pollution and to keep the area clean.

It all sounds good, doesn't it?

On the other hand, my friends, while every other community along the LA River is being gifted with parks, housing and community-community-building projects, one outfit seems determined to spoil it for those in downtown LA and demonstrate how so few can mess up a good idea so easily.

The Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA) seems to think lining the river within the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council’s boundaries with block after block of wall-to-wall new factories is a swell idea.

Did I mention that contrary to what I happily reported above the CRA refused to hold even a single public meeting within downtown until public pressure embarrassed them into giving a single token meeting.

As for that meeting, the blog LA Cowboy reports:

"Because even though many of us attended a half-dozen of these public meetings in the Central Area to give our input – every single suggestion or request made by those of us Downtown regarding the river within Downtown LA Neighborhood Council’s boundaries was 100% ignored."

Except for a few street trees."

And, oh yes – if there were any palm trees discovered in the area – they would have to be removed and destroyed since palm trees were not considered sufficiently politically correct to be allowed in our neighborhood."

Again, behind closed doors, every decision regarding our community, every detail of our future down to what trees we would be allowed to have in our neighborhood, had already been made long before the first 'public' meetings were held."

Entrenched special interests within City Hall had already determined – that no matter what our community wanted – all we deserved along our river was factory buildings. No parks or anything serving the various communities that actually live in the area would ever be allowed since the goal was to have the area 'cleansed' of all residential uses."

Some also fear that in the city of Los Angeles up to 45 percent of communities (primarily Hispanic) near the River itself will have no access, or are not within walking distance to parks of any kind.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that a good idea doesn't go bad.

The following is from LAObserved.

We love it! We hate it! The L.A. River in Long Beach
Jenny Price

While the City of Los Angeles is busier than ever implementing its incredible, amazing, wonderful yearling master plan to revitalize the L.A. River, still the big river kudo this year so far goes to the brand-new Dominguez Gap Wetlands in Long Beach, where lovely new river projects have been sprouting steadily but with far less media attention and fanfare.

Brought to you by your public servants and your money—the L.A. County Public Works, using state (mostly) funds—this quondam big ugly ditch has now become a fifty-acre, mile-long quiet riverside wetland with a walking path through tens of thousands of blooming native wildflowers.

It is, without exaggeration, one of the prettiest things I’ve ever seen in the L.A. basin—yes, hard by the 710 between the 405 and Del Amo Blvd. [To see it for yourself, you can enter from the north side off Del Amo just east of the river (park on Oregon); or enter from the south end at 4062 Del Mar Ave. off W. San Antonio Dr.]

And it’s one of the smartest things. Like a lot of L.A.’s upcoming master plan projects upriver, it’ll catch and clean up polluted stormwater runoff, and recharge and store our local water supplies. You know, that water—not the stuff that we use up to a quarter of our energy expenditures and ~1200 miles of aqueducts to import from northern California and the Colorado River.

That’s the good news. In the dubious-news column, the big L.A. River blooper this year so far goes to…the cabal of civic and business leaders in Long Beach who seriously propose to move the mouth of the river--and its assorted loads of trash and toxics--from downtown Long Beach a mile west to the port. This project has received, mercifully, little media attention outside Long Beach—please forget it after you read this—and qualifies as the worst really huge plan for the river since 1989, when a state assemblyman suggested that L.A. convert the river into a dry-season truck freeway.

What would be the best use, after all, of hundreds of millions of dollars (conservatively) of your money and several decades of efforts by your public servants? We could clean up the L.A. River, or, alternatively, we could divert the pollution to someone else’s neighborhood—and to the area that already happens to suffer the worst air quality, no less.

Moving the river would, of course, leave the blooming Dominguez Gap Wetlands high and dry. It would also make Long Beach’s ambitious master plan to revitalize its own nine miles of river—a plan that's not being nearly heralded enough--completely pointless.

The L.A. River is a lot like that just now: it thrives in parallel universes of imagination. In the older universe, it’s a reviled concrete anti-river of a sewer, a joke, and the place to dump the bodies in movies. And in the second universe, it’s now the Great Green Hope of the Future. It’s the inspiration for wildly ambitious plans to create a 51-mile greenway along the river corridor, which itself should serve as the backbone for a county-wide network of greenways, green streets, wetlands, and other projects that can give us the park and public space we need, clean up our polluted water bodies, and maximize our local water supplies.

Try a visit to the Dominguez Gap Wetlands. It’s a preview of the second universe.

VILLAGERS SAY DAMN THE MAPITHEL DAM

A whole boatload of folks in India are ticked off about the construction of the Mapithel dam which will displace residents of the area. The dam has been under construction off and on since 1980 and since the very beginning the villagers have been demanding adequate rehabilitation and resettlement (RR) measures for them. Negotiations with the government have not been satisfactory at all.

In addition to those concerns are worries about the integrity of the construction already done. Reports that the wall of the Mapithel Dam was beginning to show cracks has alarmed villages despite the official clarification that there were no serious breaches.The villagers are rightly wary of the quality control that has gone into the construction of the dam so far.

In fact, Manipur Assembly Deputy Speaker Thounaojam Shyamkumar told reporters last week that the earthen dam under construction is posing a threat to the people of the area. He cited concern with a 30-metre crack that has appeared.

Citizens Concern for Dams and Development (CCDD) joint secretary Jiten Yumnam states that the explanation given by the engineers in connection with the cracks that have already started appearing on the concrete wall of the cliff where the spillway of the dam is being constructed are misleading.

It has been noticed that cracks have also appeared on the area where slope protection have already been done with grasses growing all over the surface.

This shows that no proper testing of the soil had been conducted and the execution of the work was sub-standard, Jiten contended.

The United Naga Council (UNC), All Naga Students Association Manipur (ANSAM), Naga Women Union Manipur (NWUM) and Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) in a joint press statement earlier this month said that they would resist the construction of Mapithel Dam until conducting of proper assessment of environmental impact of the dam.

The organisations also demanded the Government agree to a comprehensive rehabilitation and resettlement policy.

Citizens Concern for Dams and Development Chairman R Kasa said that the insistence of the Government to complete construction of the Mapithel Dam without making necessary arrangements for rehabilitation of the villagers whose houses, paddy fields and source of livelihood would be submerged under water deserved strong condemnation.

He said, the villagers affected by the construction of the dam do not want simple monetary compensation, but a suitable place to live, land to cultivate and other alternate means of livelihood like hunting.

Kasa added until and unless, arrangement for rehabilitation and settlement of the would be affected villagers is assured, construction of the dam would not be allowed.

In case the Government tries to use force, the villagers would not hesitate to lay down their lives for the cause, Kasa said.

The following is from the Sangai Express.

Rally staged against Mapithel dam

Raising strong objection to construction of Mapithel dam, thousands of people took out a protest rally in Ukhrul district headquarters today.

On the other hand, the Tangkhul Naga Long has declared that it would not allow construction of Mapithel dam under any circumstance.

The protest rally was jointly organised by the Naga People's Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR), Tangkhul Naga Long (TNL), Tangkhul Mayar Ngala Long (TMNL) and Tangkhul Katamnao Saklong (TKS) and Tangkhul Shanao Long (TSL).

The protest rally which was also participated by a large number of students terminated at TNL ground where a public meeting was held.

All along the rally, the protesters shouted various slogans against construction of Mapithel dam.

Showing solidarity to the protest rally, all the shops and markets of Ukhrul district Hqs remained closed and taxi service was also suspended.

However, there was no disruption to Imphal-Ukhrul bus service and functioning of Government offices.

Addressing the meeting, director of the New Delhi based Inter-Cultural Resources Smitu Kothari asserted since the country gained independence, the Government has displaced more than 50 million people in the name of development.

Out of these, construction of dams accounted for displacement of two crore people.

Quoting a survey report conducted by Government agencies, Smitu Kothari said that the cost of living for 77 percent of the total population of India is just Rs 20 per day.

This shows that several lakhs of people have not been rehabilitated yet.

The development trend of India as observed in the last 15 years is marked by creation of special economic zones and selling out of the country's land and resources to multi national companies in the name of development projects, Kothari remarked.

Mapithel dam is also one such project and this is a threat to the people, Kothari said.

Later briefing media persons, TNL president Stephen Angkang asserted that the dam construction will not be allowed under any circumstances.

Observing that the Government has failed to fulfil any of the assurance it gave to the people, Stephen asserted that the people has no other option but to prevent construction of the dam.

TKS president PR Jordan dam affected people raised several demands to the Government.

But the State rather addressing the demands, declared that the anti-dam protesters were trouble-makers.

This is humiliating, he said.

On being asked whether dam construction should be allowed to proceed after the project is reviewed and resettlement and rehabilitation programmes have been taken up, he informed that people will not provide such option to the Government.

FERRARI: PUTTING CARS BEFORE PEOPLE

They're only workers.

That seems to be the message coming out of an Italian Ferrari Formula One factory which is the site of a possible tuberculosis outbreak.

Workers at Ferrari’s F1 lab in Maranello are less then pleased after being told to work on despite the TB outbreak.

They accused bosses of "putting cars before people" after a worker was rushed to hospital with the contagious disease.

One Briton at the Maranello complex said the TB was found in a routine check-up of a carbon fibre specialist in the "clean room", a contamination-free area of the works. He is in quarantine.

Ferrari lead the F1 constructors’ championship after drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa won the last four races.

The following is from F1-Live.com

Disease outbreak at Ferrari F1 factory

Workers at Ferrari's Formula One factory in Italy have been told to keep working despite an outbreak of the infectious disease tuberculosis.

The British newspaper The Sun reports that a staff member was rushed to hospital and diagnosed with TB, a common and deadly disease that - if untreated - kills up to half of its victims.

The newspaper said the staff member was a carbon fibre specialist, and Ferrari confirmed that he has a 'mild form' of tuberculosis.

It is reported that the 25 technicians whose job it is to build Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa's cars for each Grand Prix are currently undergoing blood tests to see if they have also been infected.

Ferrari said Raikkonen and Massa will not need tests.

"We're not happy," a British employee is quoted as saying from Maranello.

"We think the lab should be shut down until we get an all-clear. It feels as if Ferrari are putting cars before people."

GOVERNMENT AGENCY COVERS UP THE HEALTH THREAT TO MILLIONS LIVING NEAR THE GREAT LAKES

Oops - After getting this all together I realized it is several months old news. Oh well, its worth the read anyway.

Live near the Great Lakes? You might want to read the article below (following the OD introduction) which was taken from the Center for Public Integrity Web site.

In many states, citizens and scientists are accusing the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) of failing to make the connection between public health problems and industrial sources of pollution -- even in the face of scientific evidence.

But the crime being committed goes far beyond that. In some instances, including a major study involving the Great Lakes and the millions of citizens (Americans and Canadians) who live near them is simply being covered up.

That report, "Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in the Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern," had been scheduled for release in July 2007 but was withheld. Many say that was because the reports conclusion were too scary.

Oh, and by the way, a few days before the report was slated to be released and was was pulled, its lead author, Christopher De Rosa, was removed from the position he held since 1992.

The 400-plus-page study, Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in the Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern, was undertaken by a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the request of the International Joint Commission, an independent bilateral organization that advises the U.S. and Canadian governments on the use and quality of boundary waters between the two countries.

After researching the question for seven years and a "revised" report has finally been released.

However, commenting on the "revised" report the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry a few weeks back said it could not draw broad conclusions about how industrial pollution in the Great Lakes region has affected human health.

That comment was a lie.

Great Lakes: Danger Zones?

For more than seven months, the nation’s top public health agency has blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states, reportedly because it contains such potentially “alarming information” as evidence of elevated infant mortality and cancer rates.

The 400-plus-page study, Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in the Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern, was undertaken by a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the request of the International Joint Commission, an independent bilateral organization that advises the U.S. and Canadian governments on the use and quality of boundary waters between the two countries. The study was originally scheduled for release in July 2007 by the IJC and the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

The Center for Public Integrity has obtained the study, which warns that more than nine million people who live in the more than two dozen “areas of concern”—including such major metropolitan areas as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee—may face elevated health risks from being exposed to dioxin, PCBs, pesticides, lead, mercury, or six other hazardous pollutants.

In many of the geographic areas studied, researchers found low birth weights, elevated rates of infant mortality and premature births, and elevated death rates from breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer.

Since 2004, dozens of experts have reviewed various drafts of the study, including senior scientists at the CDC, Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal agencies, as well as scientists from universities and state governments, according to sources familiar with the history of the project.

“It raises very important questions,” Dr. Peter Orris, a professor at the University of Illinois School of Public Health in Chicago and one of three experts who reviewed the study for ATSDR, told the Center. While Orris acknowledged that the study does not determine cause and effect—a point the study itself emphasizes—its release, he said, is crucial to pointing the way for further research. “Communities could demand that those questions be answered in a more systematic way,” he said. “Not to release it is putting your head under the sand.”

In a December 2007 letter to ATSDR in which he called for the release of the study, Orris wrote: “This report, which has taken years in production, was subjected to independent expert review by the IJC’s Health Professionals Task Force and other boards, over 20 EPA scientists, state agency scientists from New York and Minnesota, three academics (including myself), and multiple reviews within ATSDR. As such, this is perhaps the most extensively critiqued report, internally and externally, that I have heard of.”

Last July, several days before the study was to be released, ATSDR suddenly withdrew it, saying that it needed further review. In a letter to Christopher De Rosa, then the director of the agency’s division of toxicology and environmental medicine, Dr. Howard Frumkin, ATSDR’s chief, wrote that the quality of the study was “well below expectations.” When the Center contacted Frumkin’s office, a spokesman said that he was not available for comment and that the study was “still under review.”

De Rosa, who oversaw the study and has pressed for its release, referred the Center’s requests for an interview to ATSDR’s public affairs office, which, over a period of two weeks, has declined to make him available for comment. In an e-mail obtained by the Center, De Rosa wrote to Frumkin that the delay in publishing the study has had “the appearance of censorship of science and distribution of factual information regarding the health status of vulnerable communities.”

Some members of Congress seem to agree. In a February 6, 2008, letter to CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding, who’s also administrator of ATSDR, a trio of powerful congressional Democrats—including Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee, chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology—complained about the delay in releasing the report. The Center for Public Integrity obtained a copy of the letter to Gerberding, which notes that the full committee is reviewing “disturbing allegations about interference with the work of government scientists” at ATSDR. “You and Dr. Frumkin were made aware of the Committee’s concerns on this matter last December,” the letter adds, “but we have still not heard any explanation for the decision to cancel the release of the report.”

Canadian biologist Michael Gilbertson, a former IJC staffer and another of the three peer reviewers, told the Center that the study has been suppressed because it suggests that vulnerable populations have been harmed by industrial pollutants. “It’s not good because it’s inconvenient,” Gilbertson said. “The whole problem with all this kind of work is wrapped up in that word ‘injury.’ If you have injury, that implies liability. Liability, of course, implies damages, legal processes, and costs of remedial action. The governments, frankly, in both countries are so heavily aligned with, particularly, the chemical industry, that the word amongst the bureaucracies is that they really do not want any evidence of effect or injury to be allowed out there.”

The IJC requested the study in 2001. Researchers selected by the ATSDR not only reviewed data from hazardous waste sites, toxic releases, and discharges of pollutants but also, for the first time, mapped the locations of schools, hospitals, and other facilities to assess the proximity of vulnerable populations to the sources of environmental contaminants. In March 2004, an official of the IJC wrote to De Rosa to thank him for his role in the study, saying that he was “enthusiastic about sharing this information with Great Lakes Basin stakeholders and governments,” and adding, “You are to be commended for your extraordinary efforts.”

Unlike his Canadian counterpart, however, the ATSDR’s Frumkin seems anything but thankful. De Rosa, a highly respected scientist with a strong international reputation from his 15 years in charge of ATSDR’s division of toxicology and environmental medicine, was demoted after he pushed Frumkin to publish the Great Lakes report and other studies. De Rosa is seeking reinstatement to his former position, claiming that Frumkin illegally retaliated against him. Phone calls to ATSDR seeking comment about the pending personnel dispute were not returned.

“I think this is really pretty outrageous, both to Chris personally and to the report,” Dr. David Carpenter, a professor of public health at the State University of New York at Albany and another of ATSDR’s peer reviewers, told the Center for Public Integrity.

Some members of Congress have also taken De Rosa’s side. That same February 6 letter to Gerberding, which was co-signed by Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina, chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the Science and Technology Committee, and Rep. Nick Lampson of Texas, chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, expressed concern that “management may have retaliated against” De Rosa for blowing the whistle on ATSDR’s conduct related to this investigation and another involving work on formaldehyde in trailers supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. “The public is well served by federal employees willing to speak up when federal agencies act improperly, and Congress depends upon whistle blowers for effective oversight,” the letter states. “We will not tolerate retaliation against any whistle blowers.”

Barry Johnson, a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service and a former assistant administrator of ATSDR, told the Center that before he left in 1999 he recommended that the agency investigate the dangers that chemical contaminants might pose to residents of the Great Lakes states.

“This research is quite important to the public health of people who reside in that area,” Johnson said of the study. “It was done with the full knowledge and support of IJC, and many local health departments went through this in various reviews. I don’t understand why this work has not been released; it should be and it must be released. In 37 years of public service, I’ve never run into a situation like this.”


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Sheila Kaplan is a journalist who divides her time between Washington, D.C., and Northern California. Research support for this story was provided by the Nation Institute Investigative Fund.

FARMER ACTIVIST LEADER IS LATEST POLITICAL MURDER IN THE PHILIPPINES

Motorcycle-riding assassins shot dead the spokesperson of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) in Southern Mindanao, as he was preparing to leave for Compostela Valley Thursday, the human rights group Karapatan and police authorities said.

Celso Pojas, also chair of the Farmers Association of Davao City (FADC), was buying cigarettes near his office in Barangay Ma-a here when attacked by two gunmen around 6 a.m., Kelly Delgado, Karapatan secretary general for Southern Mindanao, said.

His colleagues at the FADC said they were preparing to leave for Compostela town in Compostela Valley to look into the plight of lumad evacuees there when Pojas excused himself to buy cigarettes.

Pojas’s colleagues inside the FADC-KMP office said they heard four gunshots. A witness said Pojas was still able to run toward the office, crying for help. He fell to the ground just before reaching the gate.

Investigators from the Talomo Police Station said Pojas was hit in his right rib and in his left arm. Police said they also recovered two caliber .45 shells in the scene.

Pedro Arnado, KMP vice chair for Southern Mindanao, said the group does not have any suspect other than the military.

“This is a case of extrajudicial killing done at the height of KMP’s campaign against militarization of farmers and lumad (indigenous) communities in Compostela Valley,” Arnado said.

Shortly before he was shot, Pojas was preparing to leave for Compostela town in Compostela Valley province to attend to peasant and lumads who had evacuated from the hinterlands due to intensifying military operations, according to the KMP. Pojas, the group said, had been receiving death threats since December last year.

A brother-in-law of Pojas added “And that he was a staunch critic of the government’s anti-people policy, on top of his recent public appearances where he lambasted the military operations in Compostela Valley as it had adversely affected the sector that is closest to his heart, could very well be the reason for his death.”

Pojas was set to go to Compostela with Delgado this morning after receiving reports that soldiers had allegedly entered last night the municipality gymnasium where some 300 evacuees had sought refuge since Tuesday.

Celso Pojas was the 14th activist killed in the Philippines this year and the 903rd since President Gloria Arroyo assumed office in 2001. Local and international groups, including the United Nations, have condemned the Arroyo regime for the series of extrajudicial killings in the country.

One sign of what is going on is the issuing of silencers to special military groups.

“The procurement of this kind of firearms is just for special ops,” says Scout Ranger officer who requested to remain anonymous.

The officer, who requested anonymity for obvious reasons, told the Phillipines Daily Inquirer his unit received the guns three years ago, along with an “order of battle” listing the names of state enemies for “neutralization.”

One active general says military officers resort to political executions because the government is apparently tolerating it. “It’s a good accomplishment for them,” he says of his colleagues.

“Apparently, these people are acting on the basis of how to please her,” the general says, referring to Ms Arroyo.

Both the active and retired generals whom the Inquirer spoke to said that all one had to do was to take note of the President’s “body language.”

The Scout Ranger officer who said he got a gun with a silencer says men in uniform are trained to follow orders. The military “discourages” political and social awareness, making it easy for some to kill an enemy, he says.

The following reports comes from MISNA.

FARMER LEADER KILLED

Two gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead the spokesman of the KMP (Farmers Movement of the Philippines) in Davao, in southern Mindanao. Celso Pojas, who was also chairman of the Farmers Association of Davao City (FADC), was shot three times at around 6:30 a.m this morning outside his office. “He was killed for his opposition to the militarisation of peasant and lumad communities in the southern Mindanao region”, said the KMP leader Rafael Mariano. Pojas’s colleagues say that his killing is part of a military campaign to silence all critics of a government proposal to arm farmers to fight the communist rebellion in the region. “Since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power in 2001, over 1,000 people have been victims of extra-judicial killings, 105 were KMP members”, continued Mariano. The government’s failure to take any substantial action in face of the long string of political killings, mainly targeting extreme left activists, farmer association leaders, but also many civil society representatives and journalists, is among the most controversial aspects of Arroyo’s presidency. An independent fact-finding commission headed by the former Supreme Court judge Jose Melo last year drew up a report attributing a majority of the killings to “military elements”, calling on the President to take the necessary measures.

GREEKS STRIKE AGAINST PRIVATISATION

Greek workers are noted for their militancy and they've demonstrated that again as they've pretty much closed the place down in protest over government privatisation schemes. The worker actions and strikes disrupted air transport, bank and state services on Thursday.

The partial sale of phone company OTE was just one of the privatisations that thousands of Greek workers protested against when they went on strike and took to the streets. That sale is the centerpiece in the privatization plan of the governing conservatives, who won re-election last September and now hold a small majority among the 300 seats in the Greek Parliament.

“The government’s sell-off of OTE to Deutsche Telekom, despite opposition from the majority of society, is like putting up a ‘for sale’ sign on the future of the country,” said Dimitris Stratoulis of Synaspismos Left Coalition.

The head of the phone company union Panayiotis Kourtis told EuroNews: "It's treachery, this deal, they're handing over public property. We've repeatedly protested. But unfortunately the government prefers to pander to foreign company bosses. OTE's being given away to Deutsche Telekom, without the Greek people getting any of the money."

Commented Stathis Anestis, GSEE (Greece’s largest union group) spokesman.
"We want to stop the sell-off of these companies, which will lead to job cuts, low quality of services and increased product prices. This is only the first step. We will certainly continue with more strikes in the near future.”

M and C reports ships remain anchored at the ports of Pireaus near Athens and in the northern port city of Thessaloniki and state carrier Olympic Airlines cancelled 40 flights and rescheduled another 24.

Greek private air company Aegean also cancelled 28 flights and changed departure times for another 52 as air traffic controllers held a four-hour walkout.

Dock workers have been conducting their own campaign against privatization for w while now and joined in today's actions. The strike by dock workers who fear the privatisation of the nation's ports will lead to job cuts has also been backed by workers at post offices, banks, the Hydro Company, Athens Water Company, ambulance and hospital employees, where workers also held work stoppages.

Also joining in the fun is the bank workers' union OTOE, which has called a 24-hour nationwide strike at banks that have refused to take part in negotiations for a collective labour agreement in the banking sector. Among these are National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank, Eurobank, Probank, FBB, HSBC, BNP Paribas, Citibank, American Express, Hellenic Bank and Bank of Cyprus.

In Athens, police fired tear gas to prevent the striking bank employees from entering the headquarters of the National Bank of Greece..

In addition thousands of students staged a separate action against recent reforms in state universities.

The following is from news.com.au (Australia)

Greeks march against privatisations

THOUSANDS of Greek workers walked off the job today and marched through central Athens in protest at the conservative government's privatisation plans.

Dock workers, hospital and civil aviation authority staff and workers at Greece's biggest phone company OTE walked out a day after the government agreed to sell a stake in OTE to Deutsche Telekom and share management with the German firm.

"This is how workers show their discontent with the government's sell-out policy," said Stathis Anestis, spokesman for the GSEE private sector umbrella union.

Dozens of flights were grounded and public offices were shut, as an estimated 3500 protesters marched peacefully to parliament, holding banners reading "enough of reforms" and chanting "public property is not for sale".

Private and public sector unions, representing more than 2.5 million workers, pledged more strikes against privatisation, adding to pressure on the government which is pushing through difficult reforms with a slim majority in parliament.

"Workers have agreed to escalate the fight because they believe the government was elected on a platform to strengthen the economy and not to sell it off," Mr Anestis said.

OTE labour unions have already pledged more strikes to protest against the deal with Deutsche Telekom, which is awaiting parliamentary and regulatory approval.

"We hope parliamentary deputies will resist and not ratify this disgraceful agreement," OTE's union said. "Our fight will become stronger and more determined."

The government, with only 151 deputies in the 300-seat government, hopes to privatise several other state-run concerns, including the main commercial ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki, to reduce public debt and increase competitiveness.

Although faced with labour unrest for months, first over pension reforms and now privatisations, the ruling party is expected to approve the deal.

Dockers have staged repeated strikes and refused to work overtime since the beginning of the year, causing serious delays in goods processing as containers pile up. They fear any sell-off will lead to job cuts.

They were backed by three-hour work stoppages at state carrier Olympic Airways, by air traffic controllers, by post office workers, and at electricity utility PPC, the Athens Water company and banks.

The controllers' and Olympic's strikes forced the carrier to scrap 40 flights to and from Athens and reschedule another 16 international and domestic flights.

Aegean Airlines cancelled 28 flights, most of which were domestic.

But truckers said today they had ended a 10-day strike which had dried up fuel supplies and caused long queues at filling stations, disruptions to businesses and transport and product shortages.

"Our demands haven't been fulfilled but we are suspending the strike, because we feel a social responsibility. We will give the government time to reconsider our demands," said Angelos Falaris, general secretary of the fuel truckers' union.

TRIBE'S BATTLE OVER BORDER FENCE HIGHLIGHT HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT'S MONARCHIAL POWER

The Tigua Tribe of Texas won't be able to access a sacred site once the federal government builds a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The tribe conducts ceremonies in the Rio Grande. The planned fence, however, will block access to the river.

Opposition to fence by the Indians has run directly into the Department of Homeland Security which last month issued a waiver to ignore a slew of environmental and historic preservation laws and build that damned fence.

The Dallas Morning News reports that 28 separate federal laws were waived in order for Homeland Security to build the Texas-Mexico border fence.

By the way, the Tigua are not alone amongst Indian nations having problems with the fence.

A 75 mile stretch along the Arizona border will divide Tohono O’odham territory leaving about 1,400 tribespersons south of the fence and separated from 14,000 others as well as from medical and health services and jobs.

The Tennessean writes, in section 102c of the Real ID Act of 2005, Congress reinstituted "monarchial" power in the United States for the first time since the American Revolution.

The clause gives the Homeland Security Secretary, "...the authority to waive … all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section."

This Act means that a planned appeal about the Texas wavers may go nowhere. The Act states, "no court … shall have jurisdiction to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security" with regard to the waiver(s) he issues."

Didn't we fight a revolution or something back in the 1700s about this sort of thing?

Again from the Tennessean:

"In the Declaration of Independence, hailed as the archetypal exhibition of American spirit and pride, the signers thereof brazenly declared to the English king that a government is created to secure the rights of the people and derives its power from them. And "whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it."

The following story is from the El Paso Times.

Planned border wall blocks Tiguas from sacred grounds
by Brandi Grissom

Proposed border fencing in El Paso could cut off the Tiguas' access to parts of the Rio Grande the tribe has used for centuries to conduct sacred ceremonies.

"It is an infringement on our First Amendment right of freedom of religion," Tigua War Captain Rick Quezada said this week.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working to build 670 miles of fencing along the border by the end of this year. That plan includes about 57 miles of barrier starting at Socorro and extending east of the Fabens port of entry.

Federal officials said they were meeting with the tribe and many other communities in Texas where opposition to the fence is widespread.

The Tiguas have been conducting sacred ceremonies in the Rio Grande for more than 300 years, Quezada said. It's where the tribe starts its calendar year, inducting elected tribal officers, and where they conduct naming ceremonies.

They use a section of the river that stretches from the Ascarate area to Fabens.

The Department of Homeland Security's fence plans would cut off the tribe's access to the river.

"That's one of the biggest concerns," Quezada said, "our continuous practice of our culture and our religion."

Typically, governmental agencies are required to respect customs, traditions and ceremonies of Native Americans under the federal American Indian Religious Freedom Act.

Tigua objections to a proposed Lee Treviño extension from North Loop to the César Chávez Border Highway that would have encroached on sacred land sent El Paso city leaders looking for alternatives to solve traffic problems in that area.

Last month, though, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he would use waivers to sidestep about 30 laws and ensure the fencing could be completed this year. One of the laws Chertoff said he would ignore is the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.

That announcement was one reason U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, signed onto a legal brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the waivers.

Reyes and 13 other congressmen submitted a brief in a legal challenge filed in March against Chertoff by the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife. They want the court to rule unconstitutional the law that allowed Chertoff to circumvent other laws to get the fence built.

"It is irresponsible for DHS to sidestep more than 30 federal laws, including those designed to protect Native Americans' access to sacred sites," Reyes said.

He said he has met with tribal Gov. Frank Paiz and is urging Homeland Security to respect the Tiguas' ceremonial customs.

Ramiro Cordero, a spokes man for the U.S. Border Patrol El Paso Sector, said federal officials were working with the tribe to find a solution to their concerns.

"We've been meeting with the Tiguas just like we've been meeting with other groups," he said.

And there are many other groups on the Texas border that have concerns over the fence and possible damage it could do to the environment, to local economies and to relationships with friends, family and neighbors in Mexico.

In El Paso, both the City Council and the County Commissioners Court have passed resolutions opposing the fence.

The manager of Rio Bosque Wetlands Park has said the fence could undo nearly a decade of work to restore habitat and wildlife in the area.

The Texas Border Coalition, a group of elected officials and business leaders from across the border, has repeatedly asked Homeland Security to work more closely with local governments and to consider alternatives to the massive barrier.

Homeland Security officials and Chertoff maintain that they have discussed the fence plans with border communities and that their concerns will be taken into account. But, they have said, the fence must be built to ensure national security and curb illegal immigration.

El Paso County Commissioner Veronica Escobar said federal officials haven't done enough talking with border residents and are plowing forward with a costly plan that will not stop the flow of undocumented workers or drug and human traffickers into the United States.

"We want to be consulted," she said. "We want to have a voice, and we want meaningful solutions."

STUDENTS SAY "YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING" ABOUT UNIVERSITY'S PLAN TO HONOR PHYLLIS SCHLAFY

The announcement by Washington University in St. Louis that it planned to give Phyllis Schlafly, a leader of the national conservative movement since the 1960s, an all around hate monger, and idiot, an honorary doctorate has galvanized students who take offense with her anti-women and homophobic stances to speak out.

Schlafly is an arch foe of the Equal Rights Amendment, the United Nations, Darwinism and virtually any other ideas or institutions that have emerged since the Dark Ages. She has advocated banning women from traditionally male occupations like construction, firefighting and the military; and defended men's property rights over their wives' vaginas ("by getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don't think you can call it rape").

Many of those who are asking the university to reverse their plan say their protest is not about free speech. They are simply protesting the university's honoring of her and her despicable ideas, not her right to speak them.

Many of Schlafly's views go against "some of the most fundamental principles for which the university stands" such as tolerance for people of all different backgrounds, Sally Goldman, president of the university's Association of Women Faculty said.

Dan Tilden, a graduating senior and a leader of the protest told the schools student newspaper, "She is not representative of the community we want to build here. She has made statements that go against the basic tenets of the University. I couldn't sit in commencement as a senior and do something that is recognizing her not as a politician but as a person."

Michael Murphy, a lecturer in the Women and Gender studies department, said, "Don't think that the very possibility of a disruption to the University's most solemn event (commencement) would not sway the University."

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on Monday that Mary Ann Dzuback, the director of the women and gender studies department, would not take part in commencement exercises, along with several other members of the department.

A Facebook group, entitled "No honorary doctorate for anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly," has gained more than 1,000 members since being formed a week ago. In comparison, a group supporting Schlafly, entitled "In Support of Phyllis Schlafly's Honorary Degree from Wash U," has approximately 25 members.

Schlafly said of those opposing her receiving an honorary degree, “They are a bunch of bitter women. It was 25 years ago that we buried the Equal Rights Amendment and they are still whining about it.”

Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton sent an e-mail to the university community this afternoon in which he apologized for the anguish that the university's decision to honor Phyllis Schlafly has caused for many people. However, he said they were still going ahead with the plan.

"Personally, I do not endorse her views or opinions, and in many instances, I strongly disagree with them," Wrighton said.

Isn't that nice?

The Post Dispatch reports about 25 students and faculty members protested outside Chancellor Wrighton's residence on Tuesday afternoon (see picture) , chanting and holding signs that said, "This school teaches evolution" and "Marital rape is still rape" in response to some of Schlafly's controversial statements on those subjects.

One of the protestors David Lawton, chairman of Washington U.'s English department, said he was particularly offended by one of Schlafly's columns in which she wrote that she was not surprised to learn that Cho Seung-Hui, who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, was an English major since she had heard that English departments are hotbeds of radicalism.

The protesters plan to return outside the chancellor's house today.

In a letter to Wrighton, 14 Washington U. law professors said they were "extremely disappointed" in the university's decision to honor Schlafly. They wrote that she has berated scientific inquiry, shown bigotry toward gays and lesbians, and led campaigns to "undermine the independence of the judiciary."

"Our objection to honoring Ms. Schlafly ... stems from the fact that she has devoted her career to demagoguery and anti-intellectualism in the pursuit of her political agenda," the letter says.

The letter adds, "An even more important reason to rescind the degree offer to Ms. Schlafly is that her repeatedly expressed views are antithetical to some of the most fundamental principles for which this University stands."

Below are a few gems from the mouth of the women the university plans to honor.

“It’s very healthy for a young girl to be deterred from promiscuity by fear of contracting a painful, incurable disease, or cervical cancer, or sterility, or the likelihood of giving birth to a dead, blind, or brain-damaged baby (even 10 years later when she may be happily married)”

“Many years ago Christian pioneers had to fight savage Indians. Today missionaries of these former cultures are being sent via the public schools to heathenize our children.”

“Men should stop treating feminists like ladies, and instead treat them like the men they say they want to be.”

“Sex education classes are like in-home sales parties for abortions.”

“Sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for virtuous women.”

“[The] ERA mean[t] abortion funding, mean[t] homosexual privileges, mean[t] whatever else”

“When will American men learn how to stand up to the nagging by the intolerant, uncivil feminists whose sport is to humiliate men?”

You can let Chancellor Wrighton know what you think by emailing him at Wrighton@wustl.edu.

The following is from the St. Louis Examiner.

Protesters demand honorary degree for Schlafly be rescinded

Protesting students and faculty are demanding that Washington University rescind the honorary degree it plans to give conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly on Friday.

They gathered Wednesday outside Chancellor Mark Wrighton's residence and his office, chanting and holding signs.

They say they're not protesting Schlafly's views, but the university's honoring those views.

The university has said the honorary degree is a recognition that the 83-year-old's life and work have had an impact on American life.

Schlafly, who holds two degrees from Washington University, does not plan to speak at Friday's commencement ceremony.

She called the protesters "a bunch of losers."

LANDLESS WORKERS BLOCK TRACKS IN BRAZL

Some 400 demonstrators pushing for land reform blocked and disabled a key iron ore export railway in Brazil for several hours before moving out as police arrived on Wednesday.

The Carajas railroad run by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), the world's biggest iron ore miner, transports 300,000 metric tons of iron ore per day from one of its main mines there.

The Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) and the mine workers invaded the tracks near the town of Parauapebas in northern Para state in the lower Amazon basin. The group has spearheaded several other actions against Vale to pressure the government to speed up its land reform program.

According to a statement issued by Vale, the protesters pulled out 1,200 track clamps, slashed fiber optic communication cables and placed burning tires on the tracks, damaging more than 300 ties. Guedes said the railway was still inoperative.

The blockade is also part of an on going campaign for nationalization of resources.

NACLA points out Brazil lags far behind her left-leaning neighbors in government initiatives that bring privatized national resources back into the public domain. In recent months, however, Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) and other groups have launched mass actions that demand similar moves toward national resource sovereignty.

The MST, which has spent the last 20 years developing a massive direct-action approach to demand agrarian reform, has now committed itself to helping Brazil rethink the control of national resources. With over 350,000 MST families living in direct-action secured agrarian reform settlements, and an additional 120,000 families currently living on occupied estates, the MST has called on its members to lead the fight for a new wave of state-led expropriations.

Established in 1942, NACLA reports CVRD was a successful and profitable state-owned company, but it was auctioned off in 1997 during a wave of privatizations encouraged by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Sold for $3.3 billion in 1997, the CVRD’s own estimates were that its market value was closer to $40 billion. To put these figures in perspective, CVRD’s market value as of June 30, 2007, was $103billion, with second- and third-quarter profits this year at $4.1 and $2.6 billion, respectively.

The MST’s demands for re-nationalizations are not beyond the scope of its central grievance of land reform, writes NACLA. Movement leader João Pedro Stédile in an interview explained, “The new model for agricultural that we are calling for entails a development project based on the defense of popular sovereignty and on a new economic model, which has at its core a strong internal market, the distribution of income, and a national industry that sustains the creation of jobs and income for the people.”

The following is from Reuters.

Brazil protesters end blockade of miner Vale's railroad

Landless Brazilian peasants ended their blockade of a railroad run by mining company Vale on Wednesday after a daylong protest that caused trade losses worth at least $22 million.

Damaged tracks still needed to be repaired, Vale said in a statement, without saying when it expected to resume iron ore shipments.

The blockade on Tuesday halted the transporting of 285,000 tonnes of iron ore along the Carajas railroad in northern Para state, which links one of Vale's main mines to ports and pelletizing plants.

Vale, the world's biggest iron ore miner, said the blockade caused daily losses of $22 million to Brazil's trade balance, as it cannot export the ore overseas. Vale is Brazil's biggest net exporter.

The leftist Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) and some wildcat miners invaded the tracks near Parauapebas on Tuesday afternoon to protest lack of help from the federal and state governments, Vale said.

Vale urged authorities to resolve the issue and said it was unfairly targeted by the protesters as it had nothing to do with their problems. It was the 11th time since March 2007 protesters had invaded Vale facilities.

Last month, landless peasants staged demonstrations across Brazil as part of their annual "Red April" campaign to demand land for about 150,000 homeless families and more public money for farm production.

IS BARRY BONDS A BLACK LEON TROTSKY????

Barry Bonds as Leon Trotsky...that's a comparison you don't see made everyday. If that intrigues you so be sure to read the commentary below by Dave Zirin .

Barry Bonds holds the record for most home runs ever, like ever and he's out there available for the taking and no major league team seems interested.

Sounds like the bosses are whiteballing Barry to me.

Even as an old man, just last year he lead the entire National League in walks and had 28 home runs in 132 games while hitting .276. He had a better season than one helluva lot outfielders gainfully employed.

Now we all know about the steroids investigation and all that, but since when did baseball's big shots become so righteous.

The MLB Players Association finds it odd and has stated publicly that they think collusion has taken place among all 30 MLB teams to keep Bonds from playing baseball this year and ever again. They do not understand how any team from a league known for giving players second and third chances who have shown a propensity for hitting home runs has not signed the all-time home run king.

But then Barry is black and has been indicted by the federal government for perjury.

Indicted, but why?

Mike Gimbel,former consultant on player evaluation for the Boston Red Sox and the Montreal Expos writes:

"Bonds has not been convicted of anything. He has not been accused of betting on games or throwing games. He has not been accused of assaulting anyone. Bonds has been accused of not being a nice guy by the media, but is that a crime?"

Bonds has been accused of not telling the truth to a grand jury investigating BALCO. He does not own BALCO and does not distribute steroids on behalf of BALCO. Why was the grand jury investigating Bonds? Weren’t they supposed to be investigating BALCO? How did that “investigation” of BALCO turn into a witch hunt directed against MLB players? Clearly, BALCO wasn’t the real target in the racist campaign against Bonds."

...In effect, MLB teams are willing to lose money rather than hire Bonds. Isn’t that the definition of a “blacklist”? The actors, singers, directors, etc., who were “blacklisted” during the McCarthy era witch hunt were money makers for the entertainment industry, yet no owner would hire them! Isn’t that exactly what is happening with Bonds?"

Weren’t many of these talented performers indicted and some convicted for refusing to cooperate with grand juries and dragged before government-staged hearings in front of hundreds of cameras and reporters? Years later many of those “blacklisted” were apologized to, but did that apology make up for the destruction of their livelihoods and their personal lives during the McCarthy “blacklisting”? Of course not!"

...Years from now, when MLB is forced to apologize to Bonds for their actions, that apology will never make up for the crime that it is inflicting today on him and on the many fans who admire the athletic greatness that Bonds has personified as a player. I also admire him for his unbending, “in your face” attitude, as he’s been enduring this constant attack from the big business media, especially the sports talk radio and cable channels that have to fill 24-hour-a-day air time by creating controversy and scandal where there would have been little or none before those media outlets were created."

The following is from The Edge of Sports blog.

Boss's Boycott: The Bonds Vanishes
By Dave Zirin

The Commissar Vanishes is a coffee table book for only the dourest of coffee tables. The hard-covered volume is a photographic compilation of the way that Josef Stalin systematically erased his chief political opponents, Leon Trotsky and his followers, from the history of the Russian Revolution.

Page after glossy page plainly displays the desecration of memory at the service of dictatorship. It shows before-and-after photos of people either airbrushed to invisibility or crudely vandalized, their faces blacked out with an ugly scribble.

Meet Barry Bonds, the Leon Trotsky of Major League Baseball. In 2007 Bonds broke the most hallowed record in sports, passing Henry Aaron's record for home runs. When he wasn't injured, this maestro of the batter's box packed San Francisco's ballpark, despite a team that stank like cottage cheese left on a radiator. At season's end, the Giants refused to re-sign him, with owner Peter Magowan saying, "We're going in a new direction; that would not be going in a new direction. The time has come to turn the page." That is surely his right, but the page hasn't just been turned, it's been raggedly erased.

All traces of Bonds, the greatest player in baseball history, have vanished from the Bay. The left-field wall no longer carries an image of Bonds chasing Hank Aaron for the crown. There is no marker of where Bonds hit home run number 756. There is no reminder that Bonds ever even wore a Giants uniform.

But it's not just Magowan trying to “disappear” Barry Bonds. He has been blackballed in a blatant and illegal act of Major League collusion, a bosses' boycott. Yes, Bonds' fielding has become painful to watch in recent years, as the seven time gold glover limped around the outfield on knees grinding together without cartilage. But despite the agony of movement most of us take for granted, Bonds still hit 28 home runs in 340 at bats, led the NL in walks, and had an on base percentage of .480. Since 1950, only Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Norm Cash, and Bonds himself have recorded higher OBP's. [Cash’s epic season was an anomaly in an otherwise middling career. That a player could have a brilliant year out of nowhere, used to be one of the charms of baseball. Today they would be accused of sprinkling steroids on their corn flakes.]

Maybe Bonds can no longer roam the outfield, but there are at least a dozen AL teams that could use a designated hitter with a .480 OBP, not to mention a player whose every game would sell tickets and every at-bat would provoke baited breaths and empty bathrooms.

In this case of blackballing so obvious it would shame a Dartmouth frat house, one would think the media would be raising hell. But they have largely been yipping collusion lackeys. Bill Simmons, ESPN.com's Sports Guy, wrote,

"Opening Day came and went without Bonds for the first time in 22 years, and nobody seemed to notice. I didn't think about him for more than two seconds all spring. Did anyone? Can you remember being a part of a single "I wonder where Bonds is going to end up?" conversation? Did you refresh ESPN.com incessantly in hopes of a Bonds update?...Of course not. No one cared. The best hitter since Ted Williams is gone and forgotten. We wanted him to go away, and he did."

There is one problem. Bonds doesn't want to go gently into that good night and is pushing his union to fight back. He has asked the Players Association to file collusion charges on his behalf and the union has served Commissioner Bud Selig with papers. [There is a certain irony here as Bonds was hardly Big Bill Haywood during his career. In 2003, he became the first player in thirty years to not sign the Player's Association's group licensing agreement.]

The Player's Association's efforts on Bonds behalf have also met with high profile derision. Newsweek's Mark Starr wrote "The union approaches new heights of absurdity when it bothers to investigate whether collusion has ended the career of baseball's all-time home run king, Barry Bonds, who can't attract an offer to play anywhere this 2008 season. What the union sees as possible collusion, once an honored practice among ownership, I see as a rare display of common sense."

Bonds, according to Starr, is "widely regarded as a cancer in the clubhouse."

This is moralistic spew. The idea that baseball owners would ruin their own team's chances because they have collectively agreed to "turn the page" is a violation of Bonds' rights and the unwritten social contract they have with fans. And when one considers the absence of saints on Major League Baseball teams, even on the God Squad in Colorado, it is all the more drenched in hypocrisy.

Mike Gimbel, who is a former adviser on player trades and acquisitions to the GM's of the Boston Red Sox and the Montreal Expos, wrote it well.

"Bonds has been accused of not telling the truth to a grand jury investigating BALCO [the Bay Area Lab Company, implicated in steroid distribution]. He does not own BALCO and does not distribute steroids on behalf of BALCO. Why was the grand jury investigating Bonds? Weren't they supposed to be investigating BALCO? How did that 'investigation' of BALCO turn into a witch hunt directed against MLB players?"

Good questions. Bonds deserves far better than to be forced into retirement and have his history coarsely expunged. The overriding ethos of the sports world is that of the meritocracy. If you are good enough, then you get to play. Yet a man who can get on base 48% of the time, has been told to go home and a new generation of fans will never see the Mozart of the batting cage. This is about more than a baseball player. It's about people in power deciding on utterly unjust grounds, who gets to take the field, who gets to be heard, and even who gets to be remembered. Somewhere, Stalin smiles.

THE LAWSON FILE: GET A LIFE PRINCIPAL ESPENEL

The Molalla Pioneer writes, "American comic strip artist Bil Keane once wrote, 'A hug is like a boomerang — you get it back right away.” But thanks to a rule at Molalla River Middle School, it will just get you in trouble.'"

Middle school students at Molalla River Middle School in Molalla Oregon are protesting the new rule that prevents hugging. The principal instituted the new rule after kids started showing up late to class, which has sparked protest among the students. Twelve-year-old Desha Eaves, protest leader, wrote a letter to the school board saying, "We're kids. I mean, come on, you need hugs."

I mean give me a break. I'm supposed to believe that kids are so busy hugging each other that they coming to class late?

That's a lot of hugging dude.

Principal Bob Espenel told the Molalla Pioneer newspaper, “You’d have groups of 10 to 15 kids and they all had to hug each other before they went to class. It was getting out of hand,” Espenel said. “…This is not the Love Boat.”

Okaaay.

Phone calls to Principal Bob Espenel weren't returned to Portland's FOX. However, the Molalla Pioneer reported Espenel said he was not likely to lift the hugging ban (wouldn't be prudent).

Can you imagine having to deal with that situation.

Maybe the school needs to bring in counselors to work with these kids. I mean what kinda kids go around hugging each other?

"It's just something us kids do," said eighth-grader Elizabeth Lopez.

Would it be so bad if there were more hugs and less violence in our schools?

“Sometimes they really need a hug and I didn’t think it was fair for me to not give my friend a hug,” Eaves said.

Someone should tell this budding anarchist that "fair" isn't what makes this country great...or something.

The Pioneer reports Espenel does not have any firm data on whether the hugging ban has decreased student tardiness, but said it does give students one less excuse to be late for class.

What do you think these kids learned from their Principal's action?

The following is from KOLD News (Arizona). I wonder how the look on hugging in arizona anyway.

School Bans Hugging On Campus

Giving a hug means breaking the rules at one Oregon middle school. School leaders say they imposed the no hugging rule after students started showing up late to class because they were busy hugging each other in the halls.

But kids say the rule is hard to embrace. The school says it's designed to protect kids from feeling uncomfortable.

The rule has actually been in effect for several years, but one 12-year-old girl is protesting it.

Desha Eaves has sent a letter to the school board in an effort to change the rule.

WORKERS ASK FOR MANDELA TO HEAR THEIR CALL

Striking South African Municipal Workers Union members descended on proceedings at Pretoria’s Church Square today where hundreds of people were witnessing the bestowal of the Freedom of the City award on former president Nelson Mandela.

Police fired rubber bullets to disperse the workers.

The workers have been striking and protesting government privatization plans involving their jobs.

The following is from The Independent (South Africa).

Mandela warns of destructive divisiveness

Former president Nelson Mandela on Tuesday warned against "destructive divisiveness" in the country.

"Remember the horror from which we came. Never forget the greatness of a nation that has overcome its division. Let us never descend into destructive divisiveness."

Mandela was speaking shortly after receiving the Freedom of the City from Tshwane mayor Gwen Ramokgopa at a private ceremony at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg.

Referring to himself as "an old man", Mandela said he had stopped receiving awards but that this award was an exception that he accepted "warmly and with humility".

"We accept this honour from the administrative capital of our nation."

The event was broadcast live to Pretoria's Church Square and the City Hall.

During the celebrations, about 100 striking members of the SA Municipal Worker's Union interrupted proceedings. They sang derogatory songs and called on Mandela to hear their call for better working conditions.

"We want Mandela to hear our call," said union member Thomas Paledi.

Union members have been on strike since last Monday, demanding that the city halt its restructuring process, employ all its workers directly and stop investigations into outsourcing the bus service.

The group also protested outside Pretoria's City Hall shortly around 1pm.

"About 150 striking workers went into the grounds of the hall to disrupt proceedings there. Tshwane Metro police as well as the SA Police Services had to shoot at them with rubber bullets after which they immediately dispersed," said metro police spokesperson Superintendent Alta Fourie.

Fourie said one woman was injured in the incident.

"But she ran away with the protesters," said Fourie, who added that calm was then restored.

The protesters, however, did not dampen the mood of those who came to witness the bestowal of the award on Mandela on a screen set up in Church Square.

A vendor at the square said that the event had increased his sales.

Those who gathered at the square to witness the event via satellite included Alida Boshoff who said the country had come a long way since reconciliation.

"We've come a long way in reconciliation. This award is important and I hope it unites the different people of Pretoria," said Boshoff.

Fourie said roads including Paul Kruger Street leading to the Square would remain closed until around 6pm.

"The celebrations are taking longer than what we anticipated. Roads leading to the Square will be closed until around 6pm but I don't think it will affect afternoon traffic," said Fourie. - Sapa