This is a callout by queers in San Francisco to form a radical queer affinity group to protest at the Republican National Convention in NYC.

This article is based on personal experience, and nothing else. It is not based on statistics, it is not based on what social workers say. It is merely what I experienced as a single mom in poverty, and observations about what would have helped me the most in that situation. My son is now an adult, so I am not in the thick of child care needs, etc. anymore. I can finally write about it. As I was experiencing it, I was too overwhelmed to have the time or energy to have written this down. I find that we make welfare moms invisible by not giving them access to childcare.

No wonder America has no money for humanitarian prison reforms or an overhaul of the decayed criminal justice system. We are in the hot pursuit of dangerous fugitives like Bobby Fischer. Chess phenomenon Fischer is in a weird legal bind. News reports seem to indicate that he has been held at a Tokyo airport for American extradition since July 13, 2004. His American passport was canceled in December 2003. So now he is trying to claim German citizenship since he father was born in Germany, and he may qualify for a citizenship agreement involving your father being from Germany.

To say there is some sort of egalitarian consistency, instead of arbitrary sentencing by judges, regarding punishments for like crimes in American, is laughable. Gary Ridgway, the Green River Murderer, a white male, pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder in Washington state recently, and got life in prison. John Allen Muhammad, the “D.C.Sniper mastermind,� a black male, has pleaded guilty to one count of murder in Virginia, and was sentenced to death. Now, that is a pretty big difference in treatment for like crimes. Just what *do* the judges use as criteria to come out with such a wide variation in sentencing for like crimes in American courtrooms?

Please come to this forum against prison torture, being put on by the United Front To Abolish the SHU (Security Housing Units)

Thurs Aug 5 at 7pm
Louden Nelson Center
301 Center St, Santa Cruz
Room 6

The murder of a Turkish hostage by militants in Iraq.

Mark Sound: guitar, bass Nick: drums Tom: keys Pete: bari sax Jimmy: sax recorded at Tom's next to the train tracks

You are invited to sign two petitions aimed at securing East Timorese rights to oil and gas. In Sep the Melb NGO Group petition will be presented to Australian Prime Minister John Howard and the Timor Sea Justice Campaign (Sydney) petition will be tabled in Parliament.

The PLASTIC TURF project at Mission Hill Jr. High School, with a four-lane perimeter athletic track, has been delayed for at least six months, pending resolution of legal action brought by the Mission Hill Neighbors and Parents Association (MHNPA). This project involves the removal of 1' of earth site-wide in a sensitive archeological area (the historic Mission District - see Archeologist's report (.pdf)), and the installation of site-wide plastic turf and track over ground used car tires (mixed with sand), at the cost of $1 MILLION.

WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP! Please contact the school board concerning how you feel about this project. It is imperative that opponents of this plan immediately contact, preferably by phone, the six school board members who will decide the issue of whether to proceed in the next few months with defending the action brought by MHNPA or settle.

Mission Hill Neighbors and Parents Association