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By Deanne Stillman $24.99
By Yasheng Huang $21.60
$35
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 Shutterstock image of students raising hands.
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By Frank Pepper —
Since I’m a public school teacher, everybody always asks me what I think about charter schools. You got an hour?
Posted on Apr 24, 2013
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 Illustration by Mr. Fish
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By Chris Hedges — The multifaceted Ishmael Reed has spent half a century destroying myths of the American empire, especially those that cement racism in place.
Posted on Dec 30, 2012
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 AP/Mary Altaffer
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There were doubts about whether Occupy Wall Street could pull off the massive day of protest its organizers spent many months planning. But demonstrators in New York City and elsewhere joined forces with labor unions and immigrant-rights activists to remind the public that there is a working class and May 1 is its holiday.
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Olle Johansson, Sweden —
Posted on Apr 3, 2012
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 Mr. Fish
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By Chris Hedges — The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in Oakland and other cities, are a gift from heaven to the security and surveillance state.
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Clashes between protesters and police in Oakland have once again focused the Occupy spotlight on the city.
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 HowardLake (CC-BY)
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Childhood suffering is on the rise in Oakland, where the U.S. Census Bureau found nearly three in 10 children living in poverty, more than double the number recorded three years ago. The city has the highest rate of child destitution in the Bay Area.
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Things are looking up for two-tour Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen, who was injured Oct. 25 during a police raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment, where he was taking part in demonstrations against the corporatization of the American political system. (more)
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 Wikimedia Commons / Danlev / Dan Leveille (CC-BY-SA)
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It’s not like Los Angeles’ slickster Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa would have missed out on that multicity conference call that Oakland’s Jean Quan squeaked about to the press. So it’s not surprising that on Friday, as he visited the Occupy L.A. encampment to pay tribute to the spirit of the movement ... (more)
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This disturbing video clip shows Occupy Oakland protester and three-tour Iraq War veteran Kayvan Sabehgi in an altercation with riot police Nov. 2. The Guardian posted the clip late last week and reported that Sabehgi suffered a ruptured spleen as a result of the beat-down captured here, and that Oakland police say they are looking into the incident.
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Dan Siegel was a friend and legal adviser to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, but he resigned his post the same day police cleared the Occupy Oakland encampment.
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 Scott Olsen
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The young Iraq War veteran who was hospitalized after Oakland police attacked Occupy protesters in the city is still working to get his speech back, but he is able to write and he posted on Google+: “I’m feeling a lot better, with a long road in front of me. … You’ll be hearing more from me in the near future and soon enough we’ll see you in our streets!”
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This week, a series of accusations about past indiscretions threatened to slow the Cain Train’s roll. Can GOP presidential contender Herman Cain ride it out? More important, can Greece emerge in one piece from its current economic catastrophe? (more)
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 AP / Jeff Chiu
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The day started with a general strike in Oakland, Calif., and by sundown the Occupy movement had scored a symbolic and practical victory in peacefully closing down the busy Port of Oakland. But around midnight and early into Thursday morning, protesters and riot police were clashing at the main encampment by City Hall. What changed? (more)
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 AP / Noah Berger
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It’s one of the nation’s busiest ports, but Wednesday night the giant cranes that inspired the imperial war machines of “The Empire Strikes Back” sat idle after thousands of marchers forced a halt to commerce. A day earlier we learned that Iraq veteran Scott Olsen lay injured only two blocks from ambulances and rescue personnel ... (more) Updated
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 Shrieking Tree (CC-BY)
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As Occupy Oakland moves forward with its call for a general strike Wednesday, the city is still unprepared to respond in a swift, coordinated manner if altercations between protesters and police result in injuries, an Alameda County official in charge of medical preparedness said.
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On Wednesday, Occupy Oakland demonstrators were preparing to launch a citywide strike, nodding to a similar moment in Oakland’s history and preparing for pushback from local police and employers of striking workers. Amy Goodman takes a look at the buildup to the strike in this clip from “Democracy Now!”
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 AP / Noah Berger
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The Oakland Police Officer’s Association announced “we are confused” in an open letter to the city’s residents Tuesday. The letter blames Mayor Jean Quan for ordering the clearing of the Occupy Oakland encampment that resulted in a young Iraq War veteran’s brain injury and national attention.
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 Truthdig / Peter Z. Scheer
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Despite showing support early on for the protesters occupying their lawn, the people who run L.A. City Hall have decided the occupation “cannot continue indefinitely.” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa complained to the Los Angeles Times, “The lawn is dead, our sprinklers aren’t working … our trees are without water.” (more)
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 ktvu.com
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Oakland police repeatedly fired tear gas and what appeared to be flash-bang grenades at Occupy Oakland protesters trying to retake their camp Tuesday night. Police deny using flash-bangs, accusing protesters of throwing fireworks. However, local news footage contradicts that claim. Updated (more)
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 AP / Ben Margot
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Tuesday morning’s arrests of Occupy Oakland protesters, along with the recent display of police prowess that Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed visited upon the occupy encampment in his own city, add up to signs of trouble that could threaten the peaceful tone of the movement, at least as The Christian Science Monitor … (more)
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 Sony Pictures
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By Richard Schickel — “Moneyball” is a good story and people who have little interest in baseball don’t need to fear it. On the other hand, it has its largely overlooked problems.
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 Brooke Anderson (CC-BY)
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By Bill Boyarsky — The death of the Oakland Tribune symbolizes the contempt that newspaper publishers feel toward the communities they purportedly serve.
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 AP / Jeff Chiu
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By James Harris — In a recent interview, Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Tony Smith shared with me one of the most mind-numbing statistics I have ever heard.
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 AP / Noah Berger
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More than 150 people were arrested Friday night as angry protesters marched through the Lake Merritt area of Oakland following the sentencing of a former BART police officer in the killing of a young black man on a transit platform in 2009. The protest was touched off by what was viewed as the lightness of the sentence, two years in prison.
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 Flickr / Troy Holden
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James Harris and Harry Edwards discuss President Obama and the myth of post-racial society, James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time” and why now is the time to repair the black community in urban cities such as Oakland.
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 youtube.com
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The Los Angeles jury hearing the case of the BART cop who killed an unarmed Oakland man on New Year’s Day 2009 went with the least serious of three possible charges, convicting the former officer of involuntary manslaughter. He faces two to four years in prison.
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 youtube.com
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Oscar Grant was killed on New Year’s Day 2009 in Oakland by a white transit police officer in a case that has drawn comparisons to the notorious Rodney King case in Los Angeles. The trial of the BART officer on a murder charge was moved to L.A., where the jury could start deliberations this week.
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 U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement
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A recently implemented immigration program in Oakland subjects anyone booked at local jails to a fingerprint check to determine if they are in the country illegally. The deportation scheme is part of a $1.4 billion federal program that is supposed to be running in every jail in the country within a few years.
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 thebeatwithin.org
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This week on the podcast: Sheerly Avni and Omar Turcios from The Beat Within, a magazine written by and for the troubled kids in juvenile prisons. Such facilities could be “recruiting grounds for crime fighting,” argues Avni, and that’s in our self-interest. “If you want to stop crime—very simple. You look at a bunch of 5-year-old kids in the ghetto. Ask yourself: ‘Do I want them to be criminals or not in 10 years? What’s that going to do to the value of my home?’ ”
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 thebeatwithin.org
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This week on the podcast: Sheerly Avni and Omar Turcios from The Beat Within, a magazine written by and for the troubled kids in juvenile prisons. Such facilities could be “recruiting grounds for crime fighting,” argues Avni, and that’s in our self-interest.
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 AP photo / Alex Brandon
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By Bill Boyarsky — This is a day to think about how far we’ve come, to think about our experiences in past times and how we are now ready to begin forging a country where all of life is no longer defined by race.
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On Aug. 2, 2007, Chauncey Bailey was murdered in Oakland, Calif., while investigating Your Black Muslim Bakery. A secret police video unearthed by the Center for Investigative Reporting captures the remarkable scene of three key figures in the case discussing the murder.
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By Amy Goodman — Yuri Kochiyama’s remarkable life took her from a Japanese internment camp in Arkansas to the Audubon Ballroom, where she witnessed the assassination of her friend Malcom X, and on to Oakland, where she continues to struggle for social justice.
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 AP photo / Eric Risberg
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On Friday, a full two days after a container ship rammed into San Francisco’s Bay Bridge and began spilling oil into the bay, Coast Guard authorities were doing damage control on their own behalf as the slick continued to spread.
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 AP photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
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Truthdig regulars Sheerly Avni, James Harris and Josh Scheer put their heads together to try to figure out why the big problems that plague our communities never get solved.
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 AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast
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Truthdig regulars Sheerly Avni, James Harris and Josh Scheer put their heads together to try to figure out why the big problems that plague our communities never get solved.
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By James Harris — Truthdig contributor James Harris investigates the assassination of an Oakland journalist who was gunned down recently, apparently to protect the reputation of Your Black Muslim Bakery, an organization claiming high ideals that has been increasingly linked to violence and scandal.
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A wave of shootings following the assassination of an Oakland, Calif., journalist has left seven dead since Friday. Seventy-nine people have been killed in Oakland so far this year. That’s five fewer than at the same time last year, but still far too high.
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 James Harris
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By Sheerly Avni — Oakland’s skyrocketing murder rate has experts scratching their heads, but cultural critic Sheerly Avni suggests that one answer lies in plain sight. Just ask the kids who are likeliest to kill and be killed, and you will learn that a major villain is the “hug drug.”
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 James Harris
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By James Harris — In 2006 alone, 148 people were murdered in the streets of Oakland, most of them African-American. Today the epidemic of violence continues unabated and largely ignored. Truthdig contributor James Harris reports on the forgotten crisis that threatens to tear his city apart.
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Robert Scheer joins Truthdig contributors James Harris and Joshua Scheer for a conversation on the State of the Union, alternative energy, Nancy Pelosi, Iraq, Oakland and more.
Posted on Jan 26, 2007
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Is Pelosi too soft on Bush? Is there more to Martin Luther King Day than shopping? How do you save Oakland? Plus: crossing party lines to oppose the war and more, all on this week’s podcast with Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer and James Harris.
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Is Pelosi too soft on Bush? Is there more to Martin Luther King Day than shopping? How do you save Oakland? Plus: crossing party lines to oppose the war and more, all on this week’s podcast with Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer and James Harris.
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Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer joins James Harris for a conversation on the Vietnamization of Iraq, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the plight of Oakland and more.
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Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer joins James Harris for a conversation on the Vietnamization of Iraq, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the plight of Oakland and more.
Posted on Jan 12, 2007
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 Photo: zauberbilder.de / Illustration: Peter Scheer
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Two private elementary schools in Oakland, Calif., have adapted to a phenomenon known as gender variance?when kids identify as the opposite sex. Some grow out of it, some don’t, but the schools’ open attitude is meant to bolster self-esteem and avoid the kind of scars that can follow children into adulthood.
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