A Bell Tolls for Countless Deaths on Nameless Streets

The bell tolled for 91 individuals who died on the streets last year in San Francisco, and it tolled for the uncounted thousands of homeless deaths around the nation. The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty reported that homeless Americans die, on average, 30 years earlier than those with housing.

Surviving Uncaring Board and Care Homes

I have experienced endless abuses in board and care homes, including substandard housing, lack of food and rigid rules that treat adults like children. Even the name “board and care” is a misnomer. All too often, the people who ran these homes couldn’t care less about their residents.

Corporate Con Games: Tax Holiday or Gigantic Scam?

Congress already fell for this scam with a tax holiday passed in 2004. But companies didn’t create the jobs or investment they promised — layoffs actually increased. Instead, they boosted CEO pay, stock buybacks and shareholder dividends, and stockpiled even more money offshore to avoid taxes.

Berkeley May Sell Its Public Housing to a Billionaire

At the same moment when thousands of families in public housing across the nation are living in substandard conditions or are at risk of becoming homeless, the Berkeley Housing Authority has entered into an agreement to sell the city’s occupied public housing units to a billionaire.

National Scandal of Using Jails as Psychiatric Wards

The cruelty and medical neglect suffered by poor and homeless people who are incarcerated for being mentally ill is a national disgrace. It is unacceptable that the prison system has displaced the mental health system as the main institution for dealing with poor people with psychiatric disabilities.

Poor Women Will Be First Victims of State Cutbacks

A powerful spirit was in the air at the Oakland rally, for we came together to speak out for the voiceless, for the children too young to attend, for the seniors who are housebound, for those incapacitated by illness who cannot leave their beds, for disabled people who need in-home attendants

Oakland Pastor Reflects on the Occupy Movement

We, like 99% of the people marching in Oakland, were unified by the desperate condition of our world, our families and our future. We were the cry of the lost oak trees that once lived here, as well as the moans of the Ohlone people who once thrived here.

Elderly Man Injured After Falling on Broken Sidewalk

The Oakland Public Works Department is faulted for ignoring the dangerous conditions that resulted in an Oakland resident in his 80s falling and being badly injured and hospitalized. The ruptured, crumbling sidewalk has caused the injuries of several people, yet is still ignored by city officials.

Occupy Wall Street: Elites Betrayed the Social Contract

Under the brutal economic Darwinism of Reaganomics, the nation was subjected to class warfare between haves and have-nots. Since the Reagan era, the top one percent of U.S. earners has enjoyed a six-fold increase in income. Now, this nation’s economic elites are in for the fight of their lives.

San Diego’s Freedom Square Attacked by Police

As one young man told me, the war for Middle-Earth has begun. The occupiers, mostly youth, had been camped near San Diego City Hall to proclaim solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests nationwide. They were challenging privilege, wealth and the ugly specter of militarism on the streets of San Diego.