Protest Reports

ALBANY, NY (May 5, 2023) - The Museum of Political Corruption proudly announces that Anna Wolfe, Investigative Reporter for Mississippi Today has been named the 2023 winner of Museum’s Nellie Bly Award for Investigative Reporting. Anna Wolfe’s tenacious reporting has resulted in her exposing the biggest case of fraud in Mississippi government history.

The case involved Mississippi state officials’ mishandling of millions in federal funds intended to assist struggling families. Those involved have pleaded guilty and investigations by the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office are ongoing.

“I started reporting on Mississippi’s welfare system with a simple but often overlooked question: What is the poorest, yet most federally funded state in the nation doing to solve poverty? Who knew getting the answer would require the very kind of innovative, dogged and brave reporting that Nellie Bly championed. I’m certainly honored to receive this award in her name,” offered Wolfe.

Wolfe is the 7 th annual recipient of the award. Previous “Nellie” winners include Jerry Mitchell, Alex Gibney, Jane Mayer, Megan Twohey, Jodi Kantor, Jim Heaney, and Susanne Craig.

The sixteenth-biggest bank in the US has just suddenly and dramatically collapsed and is being bailed out by the federal government.  This may or may not be a precursor for a cascading series of other bank collapses, but with subprime (aka "variable rate") mortgages being more popular now than they have been since 2007, I smell an imminent financial crisis.

This is not the only thing that makes me think about Occupy Wall Street, and the autumn of 2011, especially, but it's one of them.  Witnessing the fizzling-out of another very youthful and multiracial movement that took over the streets throughout the US more recently reminds me a lot of the last time I had that experience, in the wake of Occupy.
 

In The Tempest William Shakespeare mused “What’s past is prologue,” which is certainly true for Jan Goodman, whose radical roots set the stage for a lifetime of activism, making her an indispensable part of Los Angeles’ Left. Born 1949 into a progressive family and raised in Watts, her father, printer Eugene Goodman, was named after Eugene V. Debs. Monikered after her dad, Jan was therefore also named in honor of the 1920 Socialist Party candidate who ran for president from a prison cell.

As the Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born’s bail fund holder, Eugene’s father, Morris, posted bail for left activist non-citizens imprisoned at Terminal Island. Morris, who also organized with the Insurance Agents Union, worked closely with Committee founder Rose Chernin; she was arrested during the McCarthy era and charged with conspiring to overthrow the government.

By Just Visit Western Sahara, May 26, 2022
https://worldbeyondwar.org/three-u-s-women-human-rights-defenders-depor…

Three US women heading to visit their friends in Boujdour, Western Sahara, were forcibly turned back on May 23rd, when they landed at Laayoune Airport. Twelve men and six women Moroccan agents physically overpowered them and placed them against their will on a plane back to Casablanca. During the scuffle, one of the women’s shirt and bra were pulled up to expose her breasts. In the cultural context of the passengers on the plane, this was a serious form of harassment and violence against women.

Wynd Kaufmyn said of her treatment by the Moroccan forces, “We refused to cooperate with their illegal actions. I repeatedly shouted out on the departing airplane that I wanted to go to Boujdour to visit Sultana Khaya, who has endured torture and rape at the hands of Moroccan agents.

We are EXTREMELY CONCERNED about the attacks and actions promulgated by Pacifica’s current leadership and attorneys, and we think you will be, too, once you know more about them.

We write as part of the majority of the Pacifica Foundation members who voted 6640 to 5216 (55% to 45%) to install new leadership and a workable set of new by-laws, but are being prevented from implementing those much needed changes by legal actions taken by current Pacifica leadership, based on their very dubious interpretations of applicable California law.

Tucson, Arizona (AZ) — On the morning of November 23, 2021, Hia Ced, Tohono, and Akimel O’odham peoples and local community members held a press conference in front of the AZ State Office Building in support of Hia Ced and Tohono O’odham land and water protector, Amber Lee Ortega. The community denounced the recent ruling by Judge Leslie A. Bowman to not allow the federal Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA) as a defense for Amber Ortega.

Ms. Ortega is currently facing federal misdemeanor charges for the action she took on September 9, 2020 to stop border wall construction near the O’odham sacred site of A’al Vappia- Quitobaquito Springs. Last Thursday’s ruling will not permit the testimony of Ms. Ortega and the expert testimony of O’odham elder, Lorraine Eiler to be used in the case. They both testified on the immense religious significance of Hia Ced O’odham sacred sites and burial grounds destroyed by border wall construction, which also threatens the springs.

On Saturday, October 2nd 2021 more than 1,000 people attended the Rally for Abortion Justice at the Ohio State House in Downtown Columbus as part of the 2021 National Women's March. Demonstrators in Columbus and at 600 other marches around the country showed up to support the right to access abortion care. The unpreceded Texas law banning nearly all abortions in that state shocked many advocates for reproductive health care.

Abortion access is under attack in Ohio as the 1st hearing for Ohio Senate Bill 123, a "trigger ban" that would criminalize abortions in Ohio, entered Senate Committee with support from two Republican sponsors on September 29th. Also the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear the Mississippi case which could overrule Roe v. Wade in the session starting this October 2021.

At the rally demonstrators held signs that read "My body, my choice" and "Anti-abortion laws are part of systemic racism," and "If you can't trust me with a choice, how can you trust me with a child?"

Nick Vasquez and me, shortly before his arrest.

Nick Vasquez and his comrade, Donald, both leaders in the Extinction Rebellion movement, a worldwide environmental group that seeks to prevent the extinction of the human race by environmental catastrophe through non-violent acts of civil disobedience, were both arrested Friday, 17th of September, in Tallahassee, FL, at the steps of the capitol building. I plan to interview them both on my podcast Vanguard Youth Radio. Nick & Donald have been traveling throughout Florida in their quest to pressure Governor DeSantis to fulfill his obligations on the environment. They have been arrested multiple times, some charges were dropped, others are still pending, and they need our support, especially from the students and youth who can join the rebellion.

Last weekend, U.S. corporate media continued a 20-year repetition compulsion to evade the central role of the USA in causing vast carnage and misery due to the so-called War on Terror. But millions of Americans fervently oppose the military-industrial complex and its extremely immoral nonstop warfare.