Feature Archives

Neighbors of a proposed new location for Mountain View's award-winning Day Worker Center have called in right-wing extremist group Judicial Watch to advise them on "protecting" their neighborhood. They threatened the city council on May 12, saying that by approving a conditional-use permit for the Center the city will face a lawsuit for using taxpayer funds to help what they refer to as "illegal" immigrants. The city council, however, has remained unconvinced by the NIMBY group's arguments.

After a 10-year hiatus, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is back at Stanford University. Rice has said she's ready for spirited debate, but she was recently caught on video being cornered by a student who demanded that she explain her role in authorizing torture. This week about 150 veterans of the fight 40 years ago to dislodge Stanford University from the War in Vietnam, called on Stanford to sever relations with the former Provost.

Last week tenants and activists protested in front of Page Mill Properties' headquarters in downtown Palo Alto and marched to Congresswoman Anna Eshoo's office. They are asking elected officials to do more to stop the giant landlord/investor from harassing tenants and neglecting maintenance at the East Palo Alto rental properties owned and managed by Page Mill. This week's disclosure that the San Mateo County District Attorney's office may file criminal charges stemming from the electrocution death of a Page Mill employee is a grim reminder that landlord negligence can even lead to death, as it did during the winter holidays of 2007.

On Saturday, March 21st, protest marches took place across the U.S. and around the world on the sixth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. In the Bay Area, four days of demonstrations protesting the continuing war on Iraq officially commenced on Thursday, March 19th with leafleting at more than 20 BART stations and a march in Berkeley. On Wednesday, March 18th, a group of persons wearing masks smashed the windows and splattered red paint at the U.S. Marine Corps Recruiting Center in Berkeley. On Saturday, March 21st, a demonstration sponsored by ANSWER began with a march from Justin Herman Plaza at 11am culminating in a rally at Civic Center Plaza. On Sunday, March 22nd, a Rally in the Valley for Peace and Justice was be held in downtown Fresno.

Page Mill Properties began buying up apartment buildings in the largely low-income and immigrant city of East Palo Alto in 2006. A short while later, the company announced rent increases that violated the city's Rent Stabilization Ordinance. The giant landlord/investor was challenged by tenant Christopher Lund, who called on the public pension fund CalPERS, a major Page Mill investor, to help stop Page Mill Properties's predatory actions. Page Mill began a campaign to ruin Mr. Lund's reputation, and with the assistance of the Palo Alto Police Department, tried to entrap the tenant activist.

On January 20th, 2009, George W Bush left the White House and Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. The transition was marked in several ways across Northern California. From San Francisco to Fresno to Santa Cruz to Mountain View to Sacramento, the transfer of power was met with relief, cautious celebration, and determination to keep the fight for social justice alive. Many are concerned about military policies of George Bush that Obama may continue or expand.

A controversy began in 2007 when a young mother's profile photo of her nursing her infant suddenly disappeared from the social networking website Facebook. There was no explanation as to why the photo was removed, and Facebook has not responded to her inquiries. Despite queries from other women who have found similar family photos removed over the last year, Facebook still hasn’t changed its policy. On December 27th, women of all ages gathered in front of Facebook's headquarters in Palo Alto to protest discrimination against nursing mothers.