Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

Noel Aguilar, age 23, was killed on May 26, 2014 by Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Deputies Albert Murad and Jose Ruiz LASD falsely reported that Noel was armed, had shot an injured deputy, and tried to take away the officers' guns. A witness cell phone video released in December 2015 revealed that Deputy Ruiz actually shot Deputy Murad accidentally and then shifted the blame to Noel, who was shot four times at point-blank range while being pinned down. Noel's final words #ImDying became a rallying cry for a protest held January 16, 2016.

Over 300 people marched a three-mile route to the Compton station of the LASD, where Noel's killers Albert Murad and Jose Ruiz report to duty. A large cardboard sign suggested, "Strong Communities Make Police Obsolete," accompanied by the slogan, "End Police Terror in Your Community Now," and the advice, "Form Police Accountability Groups In Your Area—Protect Your Neighbors from the Bullies with Badges and Guns. Learn Your Rights! Take Your Power Back." Other signs put it more simply: "Police are the Dangerous Gang Around Here" and "The Police are Armed and Dangerous."

Story and photos: Hundreds March Long Beach to Compton to Protest Los Angeles Sheriff Murder of Noel Aguilar by Jessica Lux

Bernie Sanders supporters staged a great rally and march for New Years day at the end of the Famed Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena California. The stands cheered in the bright Los Angeles sun to the oversize visages of Senator Sanders and his merry band of hopeful followers.

Full Story and photos: Bernie At The Rose Bowl Photo Set1 Photo Set 2 by Robert S Lowden

Related: March For Bernie 2, Pasadena and Los Angeles (story and photos) by johnk

More: Bernie Sanders in Lincoln Heights by johnk

Keiro is a non-profit nursing home that's been taking donations from the community since its founding in 1961 to serve the Japanese-speaking elderly in Los Angeles. In 2015 they announced that the board would be selling the facilities to Pacifica (not the radio station) a for-profit developer. Normally, sales of assets from a non-profit to a for-profit require a hearing and approval by the Attorney General.

The AG's office waived this requirement, and pushed the approval through. Community member Mo Nishida wrote a letter and started a movement that snowballed into the Ad Hoc Committee to Save Keiro, which has gathered over 17,000 signatures opposing the sale, and is now researching a lawsuit to fight for the ability of its residents, many who are on Medicaid, to stay until death.

The Ad Hoc Committee is having a "Speak Out" public hearing on the 23rd, to substitute for the public hearing that the state waived, to set in writing the concerns, anger, and objections to the sale, from the community.

See also: Save Keiro Elder Care by johnk, East Wind: Save Keiro by Miya Iwataki

When an oil spill happens, you see it. At a coal fired power plant, you can often see the pollution blowing in the wind. But when a natural gas storage facility pollutes, what do you see? Until now, you saw nothing. That’s because much oil and gas air pollution is normally invisible.

Earthworks uses a FLIR (Forward Looking InfraRed) Gasfinder 320 camera that is specially calibrated to expose otherwise invisible air pollution from oil and gas operations.

This pollution must be stopped: •Methane is 86 times worse for climate change than carbon dioxide over a 20 year period. This one leaking facility in Porter Ranch accounts for an estimated 25% of California’s daily methane emissions. •Natural gas and natural gas drilling operations (mostly hydraulic fracturing a.k.a fracking) often bring up ‘hitchhikers’ like benzene with the natural gas that drillers seek. These pollutants can be harmful to human health and have led to documented health impacts for people living near compressor stations, pipelines, fracking facilities, etc.

Full article and video: Porter Ranch Methane Leak Doesn't Bode Well for Climate by Hilary Lewis

More: Erin Brockovich on Democracy Now! (December 30, 2015)

The corporate culture produces “just war” narratives to satisfy an insatiable appetite for violence, exactly what Star Wars delivers, except this time, I would argue, it’s been turned upside down in the service of a real empire: The US Empire.

I am not saying that The Force Awakens was intentionally made as an imperial piece of propaganda for US wars, but it’s hard not to make the connections between Disney’s history of racism and xenophobia, the total absence of the Dark Side’s politics (other than ISIS like nihilism), and the way in which the “good guys” are always innocent and being attacked by an evil force that literally hates their freedom. The Dark Side in The Force Awakens is reconstituted as The First Order that explicitly engages in an act of mass terrorism to destroy the Republic, i.e democracy.

Review/commentary: Why Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a Parable that Supports US Empire by Chris Burnett Spoilers!