San Francisco Bay Area News

Indybay.org moves to a new home

2007-01-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

Indybay's server will be moving this afternoon (1/28/07), so the site will be down for several hours between (approximately) 1pm and 8pm. **If you want to post something to the site, please wait until the front page says that it is back up**

People have posted a lot of great coverage from yesterday's anti-war protests. If you have media that you would like to post, please go to http://www.indybay.org/publish.php (to post things like pictures or audio files, you just choose the number of items, and then find them on your computer- just like attaching something to an email, except that you have to have all the required parts of the post first, like the title, subject, text, etc)

The next SF Bay Area IMC new volunteer orientation and meeting will be on March 10th in Oakland. Find more info about it on Indybay's Media News page.

http://www.indybay.org

Wal-Mart Action Planning Meeting on August 2nd

2005-07-31T11:20:00.000-07:00

Just Cause reports that Wal-Mart is scheduled to open in East
Oakland around August 24th. Just Cause and the coalition fighting
Wal-Mart are making plans to let the public know
what impact Wal-Mart has on communities, and to make it known that they want Wal-Mart
to leave Oakland.
A planning meeting for anti-Walmart actions will be held on Tuesday, August 2nd from 3:30pm to 5:30pm in the Just Cause Oakland office at 1212 Broadway, Suite 400 in Oakland.

People have been protesting Wal Mart nationwide as well as locally. In February of 2004, members of Raging Grannies and the Women's International League For Peace And Freedom protested Wal Mart's unfair labor practices and anti-union management policies outside of a store in Mountain View. After workers at a Quebec Wal-Mart store formed a union, the company closed the store. Wal-Mart Watch held "Grill Wal-Mart Week,” a series of neighborhood barbeques that activists and supporters in 25 states have held during the week of July 23-30.
In 2003, Oakland's City Council had voted to limit the size of bix-box stores, which are discount retail stores with full-service supermarkets that exceed 100,000 square feet, or about 2.5 acres. However, this February, protests against Wal-Mart sprung up, as building trades workers protested an out-of-state contractor that used non-union labor in construction of the store.

Just Cause Oakland's Website | Wal-Mart Associates Complain About Employer | Wal*Mart Watch | Good Jobs First | Always Low Prices Blog | UC Berkeley's Center for Labor Research and Education report Hidden Costs of Wal-Mart Jobs | Wal-Mart Sucks | The Case Against Sprawl | UFCW Article: The Wal-Mart Threat | UFCW's Wake Up Wal-Mart Campaign

Wal-Mart Women's Lawsuit Court Date in SF on August 8th

2005-07-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

Non-profit public interest and women's legal groups, along with nationally respected
private employee rights law firms, have filed a class action
suit against Wal-Mart (including Sam's Clubs) charging that Wal-Mart discriminates against women. Women have complained about their treatment in over 20 California Wal-Mart stores. The next hearing in the
case will be on August 8, 2005 at 1:30pm at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The hearing will take up the issue of
Wal-Mart's appeal of the class certification order in the case.

Wal-Mart Class Action Lawsuit Another women's lawsuit website | The Wal-Mart Litigation Project | Alternet Article: The Women of Wal-Mart

Eric Kleemeyer Justice Fest to Be Held August 6th in San Jose

2005-07-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

The "Forever in Our Hearts" Justice Fest 2005 will be held at Saint James Park in downtown in San Jose on Saturday, August 6th,
from 2pm to 9pm (Flyers). The event will feature rock bands in the afternoon, funk bands in the evening, exhibits such as the Stolen Lives Wall, food, and fun. The event was organized in memory of Eric Kleemeyer, who was killed by Santa Clara police in January. The F.B.I. and U.S. Attorney General are currently looking into the case to see if the case warrants further investigation. Read Eric Kleemeyer's story

Justice for Eric Kleemeyer | Justice for Eric Kleemeyer Online Journal, which includes Eric Kleemeyer's Pursuit Route from the night he was killed

Nabolom Bakery Seeks Sponsors in Order to Stay In Business

2005-07-31T11:06:00.000-07:00

Nabolom Bakery is one of the oldest collective businesses in Berkeley, and it will close on September 1st unless it can raise $50,000. Nabolom has supported progressive causes for years. Nabolom Bakers have distributed pastries at early morning blockades in Livermore, donated food for events ranging from Sparks Fly! to draft counselor trainings. The bakers have given thousands of
dollars worth of pastries to events from Sparks Fly! to draft counselor
trainings, have hosted an ISM-NorCal reportback, and they even hang community artists' work in the space, and have free WiFi. Over the years, Nabolom has provided decent jobs with maximum worker control over conditions
to dozens of activists in many political movements.

Financial mismanagement forced the bakery into debt about four years ago. When a former financial officer took over the operation, this person incurred some $40,000 in debts from penalties on back taxes. The bakery lost its major client, with Fellini’s, a restaurant on University Avenue. The bakery held several meetings last year to try to revive the business. In spite of staying open later and serving pizza, the bakery has not succeeded in attracting many new customers.

A Town Hall Meeting will be held on Monday, August 1st, from 7-9 p.m. at Nabolom (at 2708 Russell, just east of College) to discuss how the community can help save the bakery. Nabolom is looking for pledges to purchase $500 or $1000 sustainer certificates, which will entitle the bearers to 10% discounts
on all products, and make it possible for the bakery to survive. Nabolom is currently only accepting pledges; money will not be accepted until $50,000 in pledges has been collected by August 15. Read more | Berkeley Daily Planet Article

SF Bay Area News

2005-07-31T10:43:00.000-07:00

I was thinking this could be a backup news site for me to write stories for when the SF Bay Area Independent Media Center is unable to provide Bay Area News. Maybe I should get the RSS feeds from the site, but I can also post some stories here for folks to read.