Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

duko writes: A couple weeks ago most Locke students didn’t know about the Jena 6, but when they found out they became outraged and active. On Tuesday, two Chicano students from the school boarded a bus for the long trip to Jena. One of them had started announcing it in her classes from the minute she decided to go. A teacher proudly told her to go to Jena and represent Locke there. The student told her classmates that they had to do something important at the school on September 20.

One of the students who started organizing early on described the transformation at the school. “I did a current event on the Jena 6 and people couldn’t believe that this was happening here and now. People were dumbfounded…then we started to get out the word of the walkout and things spread really fast.” She said, “Revolution was really important because it showed people the truth that they don’t get anywhere else. That’s how they [the students] found out about this. The teachers told us that they support us and that they’re behind us—that we should keep it up.”

The Simi Valley City Council is calling for the secretary of Homeland Security to personally end a stalemate between the city and a local church sheltering an illegal immigrant.

Mayor Paul Miller sent a letter Wednesday to Secretary Michael Chertoff detailing a conflict between the city and the United Church of Christ, which has been housing Liliana, an illegal immigrant whose most recent home was in Oxnard and who is wanted for deportation, and her U.S.-born son.

Miller said the city approached Homeland Security before, through the Washington office of Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley. Both Chertoff's department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused to be involved, the letter says.

Protesters have demonstrated outside the former parsonage where Liliana is staying, and, the mayor said, the city had to call in local law enforcement to maintain peace.
From the newswire: Simi Valley Mayor asks DHS head Chertoff to Raid Sanctuary Church - Oxnard Responds by E. Valeryevich

Seventeen year old Manuel Gonzales was convicted of attempted premeditated murder with a handgun April 11, 2005 in Van Nuys CA. Manuel was sentenced to serve 27years in a CA prison without any possibility of early parole. The 23 year old victim in this case was shot at three times and nicked on top of his shoulder requiring a two hour hospital visit (no stitches ) and was released with pain medication.

Within the first the first few days after this shooting, the victim identified to the police another mans face other than Manuel's in a picture lineup. Forty days later this victim changed his mind and Manuel Gonzales was arrested instead.
From Newswire: Manny Gonzales the kid everyone forgot in the CA prison system By Douglas Field

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA (Sept. 24) – – As US Congress and Iraqi government officials probe recent killings of civilians by the notorious private contractors in Baghdad, local opponents to the expansion of Blackwater USA will stage a major rally and encampment at the gates of the proposed “Blackwater West” site in Potrero, a tiny town in east San Diego county on Saturday, October 6th - Sunday, October, 7th. The event will happen just days after Blackwater founder Erik Prince is scheduled to testify before the US Congress. Blackwater USA plans to build a training facility “Blackwater West” in Potrero, California, a small community in San Diego County 45 miles east of the City of San Diego. Residents of Potrero and San Diego have been organizing and began fighting this facility earlier this year on a number of issues.
From the newswire: As Blackwater Comes Under Fire in Iraq, So-Cal Turns Up Heat to Stop Blackwater West by StopBlackwater.net

The long delayed criminal trial of Costa Mesa resident and immigrant rights activist Benito Acosta, a.k.a. Coyotl Tezcatlipoca—a name that references his native American heritage—is scheduled to start Aug. 15 at the Harbor Superior Court in Newport Beach. Acosta is charged with one misdemeanor count each of violating city codes 2-61(b) and 2-64, which address unlawful conduct by audience members during city council meetings.

The charges of “disrupting” a city council proceeding stem from a free-for-all that broke out during a public comments session of the Jan. 3, 2006, Costa Mesa city council meeting after police, acting on Mayor Allan Mansoor’s orders to take an early recess, pulled Acosta away from the speaker’s podium and pushed him outside the council chambers before his three minute speaking limit had expired.
From the newswire: Criminal Trial for Costa Mesa Activist By JOHN EARL OC Voice Editor | | Defend free speech! Attend Coyot Tezcatlipoca's criminal trial, Sept. 25th by Civil Liberties