This year a group of Soldiers’ families was prevented from marching with a banner that would have listed the names and pictures of their loved ones who were in Iraq. This year also, a Man In Black (who typically dresses as Man In Black for Peace Friday at the corner of Ocean and Water from 4:30-5:30PM most Fridays) was excluded from the rear of the parade because he was carrying a sign that read “No More Depleted Uranium Weapons�.

Audio: CMRN: First Night Censorship?

This list was prepared by the Homeless Persons Health Project and the Homeless Services Center of Santa Cruz. These 30 deaths occurred between December 22, 2003 and December 21, 2004. This list is considered an undercount.

see also: [ Human Rights Organization fundraiser raises $1840.00 I HUFF Santa Cruz I National Coalition for the Homeless ]

Santa Cruz Community Television is offering up more than the usual community dish. Recently, Club Cruz, a locally produced television show, has been used as a platform for virtual infomercials for an extremist group with a record of harassing peace advocates.

The show, produced by Santa Cruz resident Becky Johnson, has featured on several occasions a man named Lee Kaplan, self-proclaimed founder and director of the extreme Zionist group, Dafka. read more >>

HUFF activists have been lobbying for years to end the Sleeping Ban, but now that homeless people are dropping dead on the Mayor's front step, it is definitely time to act.

It was against the law to lie down on a bench, but that was the least of his problems. Robert Wagner, 58, of Santa Cruz was dying of cancer. A fatal tumor occluded his airway, and as he slept on a park bench directly outside of Mayor Mike Rotkin's office, he died of asphyxiation. When SCPD Officer Venegas arrived on the icy November 29th morning, he found Wagner's lifeless body. The local paper described his history of alcoholism but made no mention of the cancer.

[ HUFF Santa Cruz I previous sc-imc coverage: March and Vigil Remembering Dead-of-Exposure Homeless Man ]

Tonight (Thursday December 2nd) there'll be a candlelight march from Borders Book Store at Pacific and Soquel to City Hall, where Robert Wagner reportedly died of exposure while sleeping on a City Hall bench over the weekend.

At least one activist plans to spend the night at City Hall shivering. Hot vegan soup will be provided sometime between 10 and 11 PM.

+++ Under the new Rotkin Council, it remains illegal to sleep outside, cover up with a blanket, or put up a tent against the cold. City Council has given no indication it will let up on criminal enforcement of MC 6.36 (The Camping Ordinance), even before this latest death and after the death of Scotty under the Soquel St. bridge last month--also by exposure.

+++ Early Wednesday morning (12-1) police drove away all the people (approx. a dozen) who were sleeping quietly under the eaves of the federal post office. According to the victims, police admitted they had no specific complaints & did not provide any options for the sleepers.

+++ The Winter Armory Shelter requires picture ID, involves waiting in lines for more than an hour, has scheduloing requirements often impossible for working people, does not take pets, has no parking place for vehicles, is not a walk-up situation, refuses those under 18 unless with parent, and is restrictive for couples. In addition there is emergency shelter for only 160 of the 1500 to 2000 homeless people in Santa Cruz city limits on any given night.

Photos from the Vigil: Watch Us Freeze

Sami Abed and Megan McNamara of Felton have safetly arrived in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine to attend a conference on nonviolent political action December 27-30. McNamara, a local EMT, and Abed, a local business owner, are representing the Resource Center for Nonviolence.

On the Judicial Branch, continued

What I suggest and hope is that as many people as possible contact their congress people and demand an investigation not only of NSA's spying on the public but of their software people SRA International and also into their 'spinoff', Mantas Inc,.who,as I have explained previously in various indymedia articles,allowed the illegal 'pump and dump' .of Texas' fraudulent biotech company, Endovasc, to be orchestrated and covered up through a Charles Schwab account.(see link Charles Schwab Share-Money laundering below.)

WASHINGTON - In a Christmas Eve message American President Bush said the holidays are a time to mourn U.S. troops who have died in overseas