Midwest_feeds

It was a beautiful day for the fifth annual Unity March, an event organized by Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice. This year’s march was dedicated to passage of the coming Township referendum on the ballot this election day, a measure that would raise funds to help the poorest of the poor in Champaign. A diverse crowd of approximately 150 people marched to stamp out poverty.

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Restoring Champaign’s safety net for the poor

Would you vote “Yes” for a tax increase if you didn’t know what it was for? If you live in Champaign, this is exactly what you’ll be faced with on Election Day unless you read on. If you don’t vote “Yes” you may regret it once you understand what’s at stake.

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"I, Pat Tiberi, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.

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Wednesday night at rush hour, approximately 30 people assembled outside the Illinois Terminal in downtown Champaign to protest the proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street.

Several local TV stations, as well as WILL 580's Jim Meadows were there, although the News-Gazette failed to cover the event.

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A 10-year-old girl sprayed in the face with a chemical Friday, Sept. 26, while at a local Islamic mosque was not the victim of a hate crime, police Chief Richard Biehl said.

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There is a school crossing at Oregon and Vine, the kind with flashing yellow lights, and a sign depicting a child in silhouette crossing with an adult, and white zebra stripes painted on the street. But every day at least 20 Urbana school children who walk to Leal Elementary School along this route play a deadly game of “Frogger” with unyielding motorists.

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There have been numerous attempts to improve public education in the United States over the years. The No Child Left Behind Act has created required benchmarks for students through standardized testing with a focus on improving the performance of children in school, but it does little to help keep kids in school.

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Prison Poster Project launches in Cleveland

I quit watching television in 1985. I remember the exact moment when I made this decision. It was when I saw a senior citizen lady fall to the floor when she tried to spin the big wheel on The Price Is Right. It appeared she sprained her ankle during the fall, and for a long 15 television seconds, she couldn’t get up.

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In negotiations this summer, Patrick Thompson and Martel Miller arrived at a settlement in a civil suit against local authorities claiming their civil rights had been violated when eavesdropping charges were leveled against them in 2004 for videotaping the police.

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The 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, like other political conventions in recent years, has seen mass-protests against the RNC on a variety of issues and violent responses from police and other authorities.

The police violence began the weekend before the RNC began, when convergence spaces in the Twin Cities were raided to intimidate counter-convention attendees. Chicagoans were among those arrestees amid the raids, and other Chicagoans called for solidarity and decried the violent crackdown. [See Chicago Independent Television coverage of Chicago press conference: Video 1 | Video 2 ]

When the convention began, a massive march and a host of smaller actions enveloped the Twin Cities. Activists faced down a massive police presence, further repression, and hundreds of arrests. The additional repression extended beyond protesters and activists but also to journalists; Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, was among the arrestees.

Photos from RNC: Photo Set 1 | Photo Set 2 | Photo Set 3 | Photo Set 4

Additional Indymedia Coverage: Twin Cities Indymedia | Indymedia US: RNC Day 1

Additional Chicago-related coverage: Marching on the RNC | Statement of Solidarity with NO RNC Organizers in the Twin Cities | Superanne Twitter Feed at the RNC | Chi-town Daily News: Police Targetting Journalists at RNC

Additional Coverage: RNC 08 Twitter Feed | CodePINK Liveblogging | Radical Reference: RNC Raids | Democracy Now!

From sascha:

The Twin Cities Independent Media Center was just raided by the police and shut down. Having worked extensively with TC Indymedia folks for years, I know first-hand that they are avid journalists who have a multi-year history of covering important local stories.

Ongoing coverage is available at: http://twincities.indymedia.org

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In a small claims case local black activist Patrick Thompson filed against his former attorney, Harvey Welch, a judge decided that legal malpractice had been committed and ruled in Thompson’s favor. Thompson filed the suit pro se, arguing his own case, while Welch was represented by Urbana attorney David Rumley.

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August 26, 2008 at 7pm: The Prison Impact Working Group will host a film screening at the UCIMC, showing the film Juvies, by director Leslie Neale. The film deals with the juvenile justice system in the United States, with regards to the trying of children as adults and the dispensation of excessively harsh sentences. For more information, please visit:
http://prisonimpact.blogspot.com/

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In the spring of 2008, a class at the University of Illinois produced a film about their participation in the Books to Prisoners program at the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center. SPCM396: Crime, Punishment, and Social Justice was taught by Professor Stephen Hartnett. Additional DVD credits include Martha Becker, Lisa Galvan, Nick Guida, Cody Mullen, and Roger Smith-Bergsrud.

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From the newswire: "In a brazen move against freedom of speech and against the Chicago peace movement, Chicago Police held peace activists at the 2008 Chicago Air and Water Show inside a fenced-off 'free speech zone', as one police officer termed it. The 'free speech zone', surrounded by a three-and-a-half-foot-high impromptu metal barrier serving as a makeshift fence, sat just south of eastern base of the North Avenue foot bridge, near the intersection of North Avenue and Lake Shore Drive.

"Until recently, activists who assembled at the Air And Water Show could assemble and interact with other attendees unimpeded. However, in the 2008 Show, activists were ordered to remain within the confines of the 'free speech zone', roughly eight feet away from the sidewalk and on a hard-to-walk-on sandy surface. Police said that individuals who left the 'free speech zone' would be arrested." Read more | See photos

Selected previous Chicago "free speech zone" incidents: McCormick Place, 2003 | Taste of Chicago, 2006 | CIMC Video: Taste of Chicago, 2006 | AFSC free speech restricted

On August 2, 2008, more than two hundred protesters assembled in downtown Chicago to rally outside the State of Illinois Building, and marched against a possible bombing of Iran — in the face of belligerent policy remarks by the U.S. government and strong hints of possible future military actions.

After the half-hour-long rally, the participants marched from the State of Illinois Building. They headed first to a nearby Republican campaign office. The marchers then headed north on Wells Street up to Wacker, then East just past Michigan Avenue to the Israeli Consulate. The marchers then proceeded south on Michigan Avenue to Randolph Street to a nearby Democratic Party campaign office, to join up with a second protest already underway on behalf of single-payer health care.

Read account | Watch video | See Photos

Additional Resources: Stop War on Iran | No War on Iran Coalition — Chicago