There are days when I feel like I’m living in a parallel universe. For example, take the 2011 Martin Luther King, Jr., Day march in downtown Fresno, which I attended. The contradictions that held that [...] Continue Reading
News
Letters to the Editor
Help for the Community Alliance from Inside the Prison Industrial Complex I am writing in regard to your request for help, so that you can continue printing the Community Alliance. Enclosed you will [...] Continue Reading
Progressive News Briefs
Fresno Homeless Czar Harasses the Homeless Probably the cleanest homeless encampment in downtown Fresno is on F Street (between Ventura and Santa Clara). The people at that encampment were targeted [...] Continue Reading
Friant Ranch a Disaster in the Making for Lost Lake Park and Fresno County
Virtually unknown to the citizens of Fresno County is the impending decision facing the Fresno County Board of Supervisors on February 1. The Board is being asked to approve a zoning change that will [...] Continue Reading
Be the Media! Public Access TV Comes to Fresno
Jerry Lee, the new executive director of the Community Media Access Collaborative (CMAC), says that we are in for some big changes in 2011. Lee is now working on a plan to build the public access [...] Continue Reading
The Out-of-State Transfer Scam
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is again making a mad dash over the borders with large numbers of prisoners in an expensive attempt to reduce overcrowding within its [...] Continue Reading
Fresno Food Not Bombs 2011 Celebration and Fund-Raiser
Historically, February 25 has seen many milestones. The Beatles first single, “Please, Please Me,” was released on this day in 1963. The Beatles also began recording Abbey Road on that date in 1969. [...] Continue Reading
In the Small Isle of Stop-Time
It’s 1 p.m., and the sunlight bleakly concedes to a relentless overcast. In my pickup, I keep my daughter company as she eats her Taco Bell Steak Burrito, its aroma a warming bouquet against the [...] Continue Reading
Merced Homeless Couple Declared Heroes—Given $5 Reward
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
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