The U.S. government is currently engaged in perpetuating the charade of pseudo negotiations, known by some as the “piece” process, where more and more pieces of Palestine are taken by the Israelis. [...] Continue Reading
Politics
Police Auditor’s Report Faults Fresno Police Department for Its Handling of Citizen Complaints
Fresno’s first attempt at civilian oversight of the police is not yet a year old, so perhaps it is too soon to make any definitive judgments about its effectiveness. The Office of Independent Review [...] Continue Reading
Opinion and Analysis from the Grassroots
Defunding Public Education: An Arresting Development By Tim Young Americans are facing the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression. States like California have responded by pulling the [...] Continue Reading
Carlos Alvarez: Socialist Candidate for Governor
Last month, I had the opportunity to talk with Carlos Alvarez, the Peace and Freedom Party candidate for governor. He was in Fresno the same day Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman held their debate at Fresno [...] Continue Reading
Craig Scharton: Fresno’s Downtown Development Czar Talks to the Community Alliance
We printed an interview with three members of Southwest Fresno H.E.A.T. in last month’s issue of the Community Alliance newspaper. In that interview, the organizers raised concerns about high density [...] Continue Reading
Progressive News Briefs
Fresno Police Violate Federal Court Order Protecting the Homeless In January of this year, the City of Fresno violated the settlement agreement protecting homeless people from having their property [...] Continue Reading
The New Jim Crow
Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow is a brilliant history and assemblage of legal decisions, statutes, rules and practices that have incrementally grown since the 1970s to form a system of mass [...] Continue Reading
On Hold at the Housing Authority
My husband, Tom, and I are reluctant landlords. We have just been told by Preston Prince, the new director of the Fresno Housing Authority, that we have a “small portfolio” of rental properties. What [...] Continue Reading
Meeting Energizes Peace Community
On the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the peace movement in our politically conservative San Joaquin Valley got a big boost. One hundred [...] Continue Reading
Reefer Madness: Fresno Moves to Ban Outdoors Growing of Pot
In reference to the use of cannabis as medicine, one member of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors recently proclaimed in a public hearing, “I know it’s the law, but…I don’t like it!” The Board of [...] Continue Reading
2010 Election Preview
The national narrative for the 2010 elections has been defined by the mainstream media as an impending success, perhaps even landslide, for Republicans, with the strong likelihood that the Republicans [...] Continue Reading
The ACLU Goes Back to School
The Golden Westside Planning Committee and others in southwest Fresno asked the Fresno Area American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Board to support community efforts to build a new neighborhood middle [...] Continue Reading