On August 27th at around 10:30am, 5-6 police officers from three agencies made their way into the Long Haul Infoshop in Berkeley, broke down every door, and confiscated all computers on the property. Computers taken included those used by the Slingshot Collective and East Bay Prisoner Support. The police stated that the computer equipment "may have been used to commit a felony." This is the first time there has been a raid since the infoshop opened 15 years ago.

The 2008 Democratic National Convention is being held in Denver, Colorado, August 25th through August 28th. On Wednesday, a convergence space used by anti-DNC organizers was raided by police and two people were arrested. On Tuesday, Iraq Veterans Against the War orchestrated guerrilla theater in downtown Denver to show the brutality of the U.S. Occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. On Monday, as activists sought to crash delegate parties, police picked off organizers early in the day and mass-arrested demonstrators later in the day. On Sunday, Aug. 24, protesters took over the downtown of the Mile High City on the eve of the convention.

On August 23rd, two small boats carrying 42 human rights activists broke the siege of Gaza. They sailed from Cyprus in defiance of Israeli threats to intercept the boats to enforce its blockade of Gaza. The arriving boats were greeted by thousands of jubilant Gazans and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Intense international support was crucial in persuading Israel to allow the boats through.

Family and friends of Anita Gay, the 51-year-old grandmother gunned down by the Berkeley Police on February 16, held a two-hour street rally at the corner of Ashby and Martin Luther King Drive in Berkeley to draw attention to the large number of murders by police in the East Bay.

Activists, in coordination with the group In Defense of Animals, protested Ringling Bros. Circus August 20th - 24th. In a tradition of greeting circus-goers with information about Ringling's operation every year when Ringling brings their animal acts to the Bay Area, a group of about 15 activists wore signs and leafleted outside of the HP Pavilion in San Jose.

The 2008 Watsonville Gay Pride Parade Committee, a group of diverse volunteers, organized the first ever pride parade in Watsonville on August 24th. The celebration was a huge success, with 325 people marching through the streets and over 500 enjoying a party in the plaza.

On Thursday August 21st, the University of California cut off branches from trees used by tree-sitters. Limbs were cut off of two or more oak trees in the middle of the grove. The extractors then used a large crane with four people in a basket and cut down two five gallon jugs of water, several bags of food, other gear. They almost succeeded in cutting down one of the platforms but were prevented from doing so by those in the trees.

Northern California radicals have banded together as "Unconventional Action (UA) in the Bay" and collectively chosen to adopt Sector 4 in downtown St. Paul, MN during the Republican National Convention. UA in the Bay has announced a Barricade Building Contest and named three street intersections as convergence points for the morning of September 1st. A pre-RNC UA in the Bay meeting will be held in St. Paul on August 30th.

On Sunday, August 24th, the ACLU of Santa Cruz County will hold their 2008 Summer Awards Celebration and Fundraiser at the Long Marine Lab's Seymour Center. The local ACLU plans to present Santa Cruz Mayor Ryan Coonerty with the 'Hammer of Justice' award. Meanwhile, homeless rights advocates hope to educate ACLU members about what they say is the true nature of Mayor Coonerty.

Glen Chase, a Professor of Systems Management, has released a second report identifying the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) eradication program as a fraud. Professor Chase's first report revealed the falsehoods the CDFA delivered after June 19 when courts and public pressure stopped the CDFA from aerial spraying synthetic pheromone based pesticides directly on cities. This second report reveals the fraud and misinformation delivered by the CDFA from the fall of 2007 until June 19, 2008.

On Saturday, August 9th, anti-nuclear protesters gathered at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on the 63rd anniversary of the U.S. dropping the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. They were joined by Reverend Nobuaki Hanaoka, who survived that devastating attack and called for the “complete elimination of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.”

On Thursday, August 12, anti-torture and anti-war activists came to disrupt Pelosi’s book promotion at the San Francisco’s Cowell Theatre. Pelosi was promoting her new book “Know Your Power- a Message to America’s Daughter.” While speaking, activists yelled and disrupted Pelosi’s talk, calling her “traitor” and yelling “torture,” “impeach.” Two people were escorted out by security personnel, and arguments erupted between Pelosi supporters and the activists.

Shutdown: The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the War, a new documentary created by organizers from within DASW, chronicles the story of the March 20, 2003 shutdown of San Francisco's financial district, going behind the scenes for a look at the successes and pitfalls of mass organizing. The film screens in San Francisco on Friday, August 22 along with five shorts about oil, war and organizing.

Eureka, CA-Community residents and forest activists from the redwood region and far beyond Humboldt County in Northern California, were relieved and elated as news spread of an unprecedented commitment by Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC) owners of what was Maxxam/PL land to spare the Nanning Creek and Fern Gully ancient groves where tree-sits have been keeping chain saws at bay. The message was delivered directly to tree-sitters and included a commitment to further protect from future cutting all old growth 250 years old or more.

As part of a week of international conference of anti-Zionist Jews, Reuven Abarjel, a Mizrahi anti-Zionist Jew, visited the Bay Area. Reoven is one of the founders of the Israeli Black Panthers, an anti-Zionist, and a social activist. Abergel participated in several meetings and panels and spoke about Zionism, racism, and colonialism and ways to resist them. Abergel also spoke about his personal experience as one of the ringworm children, a group of thousands of children from Jewish-Arab background that the state of Israel did radioactive experiments on without their knowledge or family consent.

On August 12th, the police of Orissa, India detained David Pugh, a teacher who lives in San Francisco. The Orissa Police have also detained two anti-displacement activists, Protima Das and Pradeep, who accompanied Pugh. Pugh has been released from detention, but the Orissa police have ordered him to stay at his hotel to await further interrogation. In a press release, the movement against displacement in India has called on people to urgently contact various officials in Orissa and India and demand the release of all the activists.

Update! Pugh has been released from detention and he has issued a statement.

California based political prisoner Sara Olson was released from prison on March 17, 2008 and re-arrested 4 days later. What was behind this bizarre incident which played out in the mainstream media? For the first time anywhere, Sara tells her story about what was behind her release and re-arrest.

On August 9, the Santa Cruz city council and Coalition to Limit University Expansion (CLUE) reached a settlement agreement with UCSC over campus expansion. In response, the tree sitters occupying the area released a statement declaring that although Chancellor Blumenthal speculated that the tree sitters "have accomplished their goals," they will not be coming out of the trees. The tree sitters accuse the city and CLUE of never intending their lawsuit to protect the north campus trees and ecosystem, saying "Let the city and university make their agreements. We are here for the forest."

On August 4, a partial hearing on Stephanie Tang took place in Alameda County Court. Tang, a long time organizer with World Can’t Wait (WCW), is facing up to one year in jail and $1000 in fines, stemming from an ongoing effort by WCW to shut down the Marine Recruiting Station in Berkeley. This specific charge is connected to a demonstration on Feb. 22, in which Tang, although assaulted by Berkeley Police, was charged with obstruction of an officer.

On August 7th, police raided a home on the 700 block of Riverside Avenue in Santa Cruz. It is the same home that was raided on February 24th, 2008. In the February raid, police assert that the home, or the people who were inside of it, were somehow connected to what they proclaim are animal rights activists that held a protest that allegedly ended with a scuffle at a UC Santa Cruz researcher's house. The raid on August 7th was apparently carried out by at least the Department of Justice, FBI, and UCSC police.

On August 6th, around 50 anti-war activists in San Francisco targeted the video game maker Ubisoft to “help stop the Army’s child recruitment program” in the form of the free “America’s Army” game. Organizers noted that the game “targets children as young as 13.” San Francisco game companies Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Secret Level are profiting from the illegal recruitment program.

The San Francisco Bay View newspaper has been forced to stop printing its weekly paper due to financial strain. The last printed copy went out on July 2nd, marking the 697th issue the Ratcliffs have published since starting the paper in 1992.

Outraged by voting irregularities and allegations of fraud in the 2000 and 2004 elections, the Raging Grannies teamed up with the Open Voting Consortium to promote open source electronic voting solutions at San Francisco's LinuxWorld, the largest single gathering of fans of open source technology.

"We don't need another parking lot" read one of over 30 stenciled cardboard signs erected on the evening of August 1st across the fences of various failed businesses in Santa Cruz by a group of bicyclists as part of a "Going Out of Business & Green Futures" community ride. Part protest against car culture, part living art project, and part prank, the bicyclists visited the sites of former gas stations, drive thrus, auto-dealerships, and more, planting wild flower seeds, and other decorations depicting a deteriorating economy and hopes for a greener, wilder future.

East Palo Alto's rent stabilization program, established by voters in the early 1980's, was designed to help tenants know the maximum their future rent increases could be, and enable them to plan family budgets with a measure of certainty. But in 2005 Page Mill Properties started to buy up residences on East Palo Alto's west side and disputes first with tenants and then with the city brewed. Apartment residents are now seeing multiple rent hikes in a year, often in the range of 30 to 40%. One group of tenants has particular reason to be outraged. Many East Palo Alto residents are public employees and their retirement system, CalPERS, has Page Mill Properties in its portfolio of investments. CalPERS is the pension fund for California public employees and is one of the largest financial institutions in the US.

Animal Liberation Press Office writes, "The home of one UC Santa Cruz vivisector and the automobile of another were burned early Saturday [August 2nd], in what local authorities are calling attacks by animal liberationists. No communiques claiming the actions have yet been received by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office as of Sunday afternoon [emphasis added]. According to a San Jose Mercury News reporter, the automobile of a vivisector whom police refused to name was completely destroyed, while the damage to the home of animal abuser David Feldheim was limited to a door frame and smoke damage."

Over three hundred pro-immigrant demonstrators called for the reaffirmation of San Francisco's sanctuary program on the steps of City Hall on July 30th. They countered about a dozen anti-immigrant members of the Minutemen Project. During the rally Renee Saucedo, an attorney with La Raza Centro, spoke for many saying the city should affirm the sanctuary law and "call out these hatemongers," referring to the Minutemen Project.

On the July 25th indynewswire on Freak Radio, danielsan spoke with Carmina Eliason, curator of the multimedia exhibit Remembering the Struggle, opening August 1st in Watsonville, which showcases art and history about the Watsonville Cannery Strike of 1985-87.

In Santa Cruz, a banner has been hung over Highway One expressing solidarity with the movement opposing Interstate 69, also known as the NAFTA Superhighway. Portions of the route in Indiana would run through wetlands, farmland, forests and karst terrain, threatening rare species and underground water systems. Urban planners predict the highway will require annual subsidies of $2 billion and accelerate suburban sprawl and automobile dependency. Others believe that by subsidizing trade, I-69 will further undercut union jobs in the United States.

On July 28th, at the Left Bank offices in Tel Aviv, a party was held to celebrate thirty years of artistic and political work by Mohammad Bakri, a well known Palestinian actor and director. Another reason for the celebration was a recent decision by a judge who ruled that Bakri cannot be sued for making the film Jenin Jenin. After producing Jenin Jenin, a documentary featuring interviews with residents of the refugee camp Jenin following the Israeli invasion in April 2002, Bakri was sued by a group of Israeli soldiers. The film shows through the testimony of Palestinians that the invasion of Jenin in April of 2002, constitute a war crime.