In the early morning hours of December 21, a homeless couple huddled together for warmth beneath an overpass at Bear Creek Drive and G Street in Merced. The couple, Joseph Edwards and Bernice [...] Continue Reading
Activism
Conspiracy Theories Abounded
A self-identified Tea Party activist and Fresno State student couldn’t decide whether student body president Pedro Ramirez was an illegal immigrant. According to activist Neil O’Brien on his [...] Continue Reading
Race Relations in 2010
It was 1996, not long after O.J.’s acquittal in his criminal trial. One of my colleagues at the Fresno Center for Nonviolence, a retired physician, was outraged by the (in his view) miscarriage of [...] Continue Reading
2011: A Brave New Dystopia
(Reprinted with permission. This article originally appeared at Truthdig, www.truthdig.com/ on December 27, 2010.) The two greatest visions of a future dystopia were George Orwell’s 1984 and [...] Continue Reading
Opinion and Analysis from the Grassroots
Fresno Could End Hunger Here, Now By Edie Jessup The fallout of Walmart’s ploy with poor cities, in a pretense of addressing hunger, is a case study and an expose of Walmart’s co-opting the City of [...] Continue Reading
From Jefferson to Assange
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared at Truthdig, www.truthdig.com/ All you need to know about Julian Assange’s value as a crusading journalist is that the New York Times and most of the [...] Continue Reading
China Syndrome or Chinatown?
Conflict and Contradiction for Fresno’s Nuclear Ambitions Fresnans looking for some cozy holiday movie watching might consider curling up with two classic California films from the 1970s—The China [...] Continue Reading
Green Chemistry—What It Is and What It Isn’t
Green! Green! Green! It seems as if green is everywhere. With the 40th anniversary of Earth Day (April 22, 2010), concern with solar and other forms of alternative energy, global climate change, [...] Continue Reading
A Tale of Two Cities
The voting precinct map (below) illustrates why there is a gap between the political power of north and south Fresno. Voters north of Shaw Avenue are more conservative and have a much higher voter [...] Continue Reading
From the Editor
Last month, I spoke at the Metro Ministry’s 40th anniversary celebration. It was an honor to share some of my thoughts with the 300+ people at the event. Metro Ministry is one of those progressive [...] Continue Reading
Progressive News Briefs
Fresno Police Officers Beat Homeless Man In February 2009, Fresno police officers Jeff Gross and Scott Payn were caught on videotape beating Glen Beaty. Beaty, who was homeless at the time, had been [...] Continue Reading
State Report Fails to Find Underlying Cause of Kettleman City Birth Defects; Activists Demand Further Action
After nearly a year of investigating the cluster of birth defects in Kettleman City, state environmental agencies have completed a draft report on the cause of the problem. Their conclusion was that [...] Continue Reading