Archive - Mar 6, 2009

• Unemployment hits 25-year high
• California Supreme Court hears Prop 8 same sex marriage ban arguments
• Bay area activists protest BART officer involvement in Oscar Grant killing
• Mexico Unconquered: author says struggle for dignity continues - Full Interview here
  
• Salvadoran troops sent to Lebanon

• Supreme Court Will Not Hear Case Challenging Presidents Indefinite Detention Power
• Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister in Car Accident/ Judge Arrested/Obama Extends Sanctions
• Govt Says It Has Located Kidnapped UN Official As Violence Continues in Pakistan
• UN Asks US not to Deport Haitians
• Kenyan Human Rights Activists Killed
• Congress May End School Vouchers in DC
• Washington State’s Assisted Suicide Law Goes Into Effect

Unemployment numbers jumped to their highest levels in a quarter century. Lawmakers begged for a silver lining to the bad news – but there doesn’t seem to be one. Tanya Snyder reports from Washington.

California’s State Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday in a case challenging a state ban on same sex marriage. The Prop 8 measure passed with a 52 percent majority – but opponents say it’s an unconstitutional threat to equal protection and basic civil rights. Christopher Martinez reports.

Activists attempted to shut down the Bay Area Rapid Transit station Thursday where Oscar Grant was killed. Grant died on New Year’s Day after he was shot in the back by BART police officer, Johannes Mehsrle. Meserle has been arraigned for Grant's murder, but demonstrators want charges filed against another officer present on the night of the killing and have called for BART police to be disbanded. Africa Jones reports.

Mexico has been in the US news a lot this week: the U.S. sent its top military officer there to pledge support to quell escalating violence near the border; Mexican military troops stormed a maximum security prison in Juarez to deal with a massive riot; and U.S. college students have been warned from traveling to certain places in Mexico for Spring Break, due to possible local violence. But recent news hasn’t highlighted continuing struggles for liberation across Mexico – and one author says that although we’re taught that the conquest of Mexico is something that’s buried in the past, there is an ongoing story between a violent and powerful elite and everyday people who rebel. John Gibler’s new book is called Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt… Aura Bogado recently sat down with him and asked him what it’s like to write about a nation that is deeply divided.

Mexico has been in the US news a lot this week: the U.S. sent its top military officer there to pledge support to quell escalating violence near the border; Mexican military troops stormed a maximum security prison in Juarez to deal with a massive riot; and U.S. college students have been warned from traveling to certain places in Mexico for Spring Break, due to possible local violence.