Rustbelt Radio for April 17, 2006
Intro
Welcome to this week's edition of Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of the news from the grassroots, news overlooked by the corporate media. The show airs live every Monday from 6-7pm on WRCT 88.3FM in Pittsburgh, PA, every Thursday from 11am to noon on WARC-Meadville from the campus of Allegheny College, and every Saturday from 5-6pm on WVJW Benwood, 94.1 FM in the Wheeling, West Virginia area. And we're now on WPTS 92.1FM from the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, also Saturdays at 5pm.
We're also available on the internet, both on WRCT's live webstream at W-R-C-T dot ORG and for download, stream or podcast at radio dot I-N-D-Y-P-G-H dot org.
On today's show...
- An interview with La'Tasha Mayes, a local reproductive justice activist with the Sistersong Collective
- We'll hear about the "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" game hosted by Penn State University's College Republicans
- Native Americans say "People not Mascots" in Cleveland
- underdog Democrat wins local election
- Anti-LGBT legislation in California targets students
- Reports from "This week in Palestine" and "Bad Cop, No Donut"
- but first these headlines,
Headlines
Local News
[1:00] WILPF, Codepink & Roots of Promise in Squirrel Hill
Earlier today members of the Womens International League for Peace and Freedom, CodePink and Roots of Promise gathered outside the Squirrel Hill Post Office to demonstrate to tax-payers where their tax-dollars were going. Edith Wilson explains the scene.
[1:00] Governor Rendell Signs EcoTerrorism Bill
On Friday Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell signed House Bill 213 into law. The bill amends the state's crimes code to include the offense of "ecoterrorism."
As Rusbelt Radio reported last week, HB 213 is a sentencing enhancement bill that increases the severity of penalties for pre-established crimes, such a criminal trespass and vandalism, based on the motivation of the actor and the fact that the conduct is in some way related to an activity involving animals or natural resources.
A sizable coalition of interests lobbied on behalf of a bill, including the pharmaceutical industry, biotech industry, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, Pennsylvania Forestry Association, Pennsylvania State University, University of Pittsburgh and University of Pennsylvania. Last week the Anarchist Black Cross protested against the bill and two of their members met with the Governor, who told them he had strong reservations about it.
But the Governor went ahead and signed the bill and in a release he said that "Destroying property, intimidating Pennsylvania residents or illegally confiscating animals as a way of political protest will not be tolerated in Pennsylvania."
[1:00] Dem to replace Habay
In a special election last week, Democrat Shawn Flaherty won a narrow
victory which makes him the Pennsylvania State House representative
for the remainder of the term.
The special election was held because the previous elected official,
Republican Jeff Habay, resigned after he was convicted of for
illegally using his office staff to do campaign work when they were
supposed to be working for the state.
Flaherty won the district 30 election by only 108 votes, a margin of
less than 1 percent. District 30 includes Fox Chapel, Hampton and
parts of Ross, Shaler and O'Hara, and has not been represented by a
Democrat for over 40 years.
[3:30] People not Mascots protest in Cleveland
Native Americans have been organizing opposition to racist imagery in popular culture, including the mascots of sports teams like Cleveland's Major League Baseball team. Cleveland Indymedia's Patrick Turner has more.
Those were just interview excerpts from the "People not Mascots" demonstration held in Cleveland on April 7th outside Jacobs Field. The full story from Blackout News can be heard at cleveland (dot) indymedia (dot) org.
Wrapup
For more on local news, you can visit pittsburgh dot I-N-D-Y-M-E-D-I-A dot org.
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Global News
Intro
You are listening to Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news overlooked by the corporate media. We turn now to news from other independent media sources around the world.
[0:30] More Generals call for Rumsfeld Resigantion
Two more retired US generals are calling for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to resign. Newly Retired Majors General John Riggs and Charles H Swannack Jr. have both made public statements calling on Mr. Rumsfeld to resign for his mishandling of the war in Iraq, adding to the statements of four other former high-ranking US military officers directly involved in the war in Iraq who have publicly callled for Mr. Rumsfeld to step down.
[2:40] anti-lgbt legislantion
Bills that are pending or proposed in more than a dozen states across the country would restrict the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students. In California, Republicans have proposed one of the most restrictive.
AB 2311 wants to amend state law so that “The promotion of homosexuality in public education is prohibited. If passed it would silence any discussion about homosexuality or LGBT civil rights. A companion bill would require a judge to take into consideration moral and ethnic values of a dependent child's birth parents before placing the child for adoption or appointing a legal guardian. Conservative Christian groups are claiming that these bills will “help to protect parental rights and religious liberties.”
In Idaho, state legislators are considering a law that would require students to get a parent's signature to join school clubs and organizations.
The move comes just two months after a club for LGBT students at Lake City High School in the Coeur d'Alene School District in Idaho drew ire from parents and community members.
The bill's sponsor, Representative Bob Nonini (R-ID) says his bill would help parents get more involved in their children's lives.
Representative Nicole Lefavour (D-ID) says the bill would prevent gay and lesbian students from seeking support from their peers at school.
Similar bills aimed at blocking LGBT student clubs have been considered in Utah, Georgia and West Virginia.
The Georgia bill would require parents to sign off on any school club their child joins. In Utah and West Virginia the state legislatures adjourned without passing the bills.
Gay/Straight Alliances have been shown to be successful in helping curb homophobia in schools.
A recent poll found that gay students — or students perceived to be gay — were the second largest group of bullied students in schools nationwide.
A similar study taken in 2004 found that 66 percent of students used homophobic language, such as "that's so gay" to describe something that is wrong, bad or stupid and 81 percent reported hearing homophobic language in their schools frequently.
[4:00] This week in Palestine
The past few weeks have seen a rising tide of violence within the Occupiede Terrioties. Israel has been repeatedly striking Gaza and just recently 16 palestinians have been killed including an eight-year old child and his father, and a ten-year old girl in her home. On Monday April 17th, 6 Israelis were killed in Tel Aviv in a suicide attack. The International Middle East Media Center has more with their weekly report.
That was just This Week in Palestine, a project of the International Middle East Media Center. You can find more information on their website at
http://www.IMEMC.org,
[1:10]Climate researchers censored in US
Scientists doing climate research for the federal government say the Bush administration has made it hard for them to speak forthrightly to the public about global warming. The result, the researchers say, is a danger that US citizens are not getting the full story on how the climate is changing.
Employees and contractors working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in interviews that over the past year administration officials have chastised them for speaking on policy questions; removed references to global warming from their reports, news releases and conference Web sites; investigated news leaks; and sometimes urged them to stop speaking to the media altogether.
These scientists say they are required to clear all media requests with administration officials, something they did not have to do until the summer of 2004. Before then, climate researchers — unlike staff members in the Justice or State departments, which have long-standing policies restricting access to reporters — were relatively free to discuss their findings without strict agency oversight.
Administration officials said they are following long-standing policies that were not enforced in the past.
[1:10] Yucca capacity may be doubled
The proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site in the Nevada desert would be authorized to hold twice as much nuclear waste as currently planned under legislation the Bush administration said it would send to Congress on Apr. 5.
US Energy Secretary Sam Bodman on Apr. 4 said the legislation "will speed the process of opening the Yucca Mountain repository and make it an even more valuable national asset once it is up and running."
Energy Department officials said the proposed legislation would not answer the question of when the underground waste dump would open its doors to accept waste from the 103 US nuclear power plants.
The project, more than 10 years behind schedule, is still plagued by scientific foul-ups and political stonewalling.
The proposal would eliminate the current 77,000-ton limit on waste allowed at the site, and allow shipments to rise to their technical capacity of 132,000 tons, Energy Department officials said.
The administration proposal would also reserve about 147,000 acres of federally owned land to build a railway corridor to transport spent fuel to the Yucca Mountain site.
[1:30] Street Vendor Protests in El Salvador
On Friday, April 7th, informal street vendors in El Salvador blockaded major roadways with burning tires in downtown San Salvador. The vendors, some of whom who sell "pirated" CD's and DVD's were protesting against the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA reforms that make it a serious crime to sell pirated CDs and DVDs. Police responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters.
After the protests ended that evening, someone set fire to a section of the market. Police accuse vendors of starting the fire, but the vendors, who have nothing to gain from burning down their own places of business, believe that police started the fire in retaliation for the protests.
In a press conference Minister of Interior Rene Figueroa justified the attacks and the police violence in a scathing statement: “The police will act energetically, using the necessary methods to dissolve this area of sabotage, pillaging, and robbery that the capital has become. If it's necessary to use tear gas, that’s what we’ll do, because what should rein here is law and order.”
The vendors held another protest on Monday to demand the release of 20 people the police apprehended on Friday.
Approximately 60,000 Salvadorans working in the informal sector are affected by CAFTA reforms which incriminate the sale of pirated CD's and DVD's. Vendors have demanded that the government, and specifically President Saca, offer them alternatives for work that would allow them and their families to survive if they stop selling the CD's and DVD's. At this time, the government has not offered any alternatives.
[1:30] AOL busted censoring emails
America Online, the internet service provider for aproxamatly 20 million Americans, was caught last week censoring email criticizing the company. In two seperate incidents, incoming emails campaigning against the corporations proposed email tax were not delivered, nor were error messages sent to the sender.
In one incident, the online news website C-Net found that email sent by it's reporters containing a link to the website www.dearaol.com were not delivered. The dearaol.com website contains an open letter to AOL criticizing the email tax, as well as online tools to organize against it.
In a seperate incident, AOL blocked it's users from reciving newsletters from the website www.moveon.org that contained an opinion piece criticizing the email tax plan. AOL initially called the newsletter spam despite the fact that recipients clearly had to request to recive it. Wes Boyd, of Move On dot org said in an interview with C-Net [quote] "AOL is essentially scanning e-mail for anything that's opposing their policy."
After pressure from Move On, AOL eventually delivered the messages.
AOL's email tax plan has been widely condemed as an assult on free speech on the internet. The proposal would charge a one cent fee to deliver email to it's subscribers. The company says that this would reduce spam email; critics counter that it limits the online organizing of organizations such as Move On dot org while legitimizing unsolicieted email from corporations.
AOL is a division of Time-Warner, a multi-national corporation that owns many television stations, movie studios, cable companies, and internet service providers.
You can find out more about the campaign against the email tax at www.dearaol.com.
[1:30] Common Ground Collective co-founder Scott Crow Under Investigation by FBI
Common Ground Collective co-founder Scott Crow has recently come under investigation by the FBI as well as the ATF.
On Wednesday, April 5th, two FBI agents came knocking on his door in Austin, Texas, asking many questions including whether Scott was stockpiling firearms. Robert King Wilkerson, former political prisoner, Black Panther and member of the Angola 3 who is a guest at Scott’s house, answered the door and informed the two agents that Scott was out of town and refused to answer any of the agent’s questions.
Several hours later the two agents returned. This time when Wilkerson answered the door they knew who he was. The agents pulled out a binder filled with pictures of firearms and began flipping through it asking Wilkerson if he had seen any of the firearms in the picture.
While the agents questioned people in Austin, other agents from the Ft. Worth office simultaneously visited the shop where Scott had legally purchased a firearm, asking the owner numerous questions.
This investigation comes only a month after an FBI agent at a presentation at the UT Law School, listed the Austin branches of Indymedia and Food Not Bombs as well as anarchists in general as potential terrorist threats in the Central Texas region.
These events are also amidst a larger wave of recent ongoing government repression of various activist groups: the arrests and charges brought against environmental and animal rights activists being called the Green Scare, admissions by the NSA and Defense Department of surveillance and spying on anti-war and civil rights groups, the government campaign against Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty, and of course the FOIA discovery that the FBI has been keeping tabs on the Thomas Merton Center.
[2:00] Yearbook omissions
The Conroe School District, north of Houston, Texas, has implemented a policy of dropping students from all publications, including the yearbook, if they choose to not allow the school district to give their name to military recruiters. John Basel has more.
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military_recruiting_at_cisd.mp3: 1:45
That was just John Basel speaking about Military recruiting in Schools.
Wrapup
You can read more independent global news stories by visting indymedia: I-N-D-Y-M-E-D-I-A dot O-R-G. We will be back after a short musical break.
Bad Cop No Donut
We now turn to this week's edition of Bad Cop No Donut. We will hear about a Pennsylvania cop who resigns amid child sex investigation and other police brutality and misconduct in the region.
Features
Intro
That was just Bad Cop no Donut with Ron Anicich from CKLN Toronto
Welcome back to Rust Belt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news from the grassroots.
[15:00] Sistersong
On Friday, we interviewed La'Tasha Mayes, a local reproductive justice activist with the SisterSong Collective, a national organization dedicated to working for reproductive justice and access to sexual health for women of color. Originally from Philadelphia, La'Tasha has been working to develop New Voices for Reproductive Justice in Pittsburgh,a local chapter of the nationally based Sistersong Collective.
That was just La'Tasha Mayes speaking about reproductive justice and the Sistersong Collective.
6:00 Racist Immigrant Action
While Millions of people across the country have been marching for Immigrant?s Right The College Republicans at Penn State University were playing a
"Catch an Illegal Immigrant Game."
The College Republicans wore orange shirts,
symbolizing that they were illegal aliens and people were invited to
catch them and teal their shirts. Members of the Latino Caucus, the Black Caucus and other people in the Penn State community expressed their outrage at this action which they deemed offensive and racist. Others reacted positively to the game. Sophomore Chuck Knight in a letter to the editor that was published in the student newspaper wrote "You have to be creative to get students to listen to you,"
This incident was not the first time that the College Republicans had caused an uproar on the campus. In 2003 they hosted a party where people dressed like members of the Ku Klux Klan and Blackface and then posted the pictures on a website. In response to criticism of therir catch an illegal immigrant game the colleger republicans have agreed to cohost an immigrant awareness day with the Latino Caucus. Lisa Vega, President of the Latino Caucus spoke with Rustbelt Radio about this incident, racism on campus atnd the plight of immigrants.
You're listening to Rust Belt Radio. That was just Lisa Vega speaking about the “catch an illegal Immigrant game” that College Republicans hosted at Penn State University.
Ending
[m:ss] Calendar of events
And now we present the Indymedia calendar of events:
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Outro
[ Outro music ]
Thanks for tuning in to Rust Belt Radio here on WRCT Pittsburgh, WARC Meadville, WVJW Benwood and WPTS Pittsburgh.
You can get involved with Rustbelt Radio! To contact us, or to send us your comments, email RADIO at I-N-D-Y-P-G-H dot ORG. All of our shows are available for download or podcast on our website at RADIO dot INDY-P-G-H dot ORG and this show can be heard again Tuesday morning on WRCT at 9 AM after Democracy Now!
Tune in next week at this time for another edition of Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news from the grassroots.
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