SF GREEN PARTY WEEKLY 4/21/06-4/27/06 NEWS: - 4/12: Katrina, Three Strikes and Dirty Elections, by Green Party Lt. Governor Candidate Donna J. Warren (http://www.sfbayview.com/neworleans/threestrikes092805.shtml) - 4/17: Aimee Allison, Green Party candidate for Oakland City Council, writes about police and crime in Oakland (http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/allison170406.h) - 4/17: A Tribute to Marla Ruzicka (http://www.alternet.org/story/34978/) - 4/18: Healthy Saturdays Passes Unanimously; SF Green Party Among Supporters (http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3165#more) - 4/18: Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi Gets Funding Approved to Save John Swett Alternative Elementary School (http://cbs5.com/localwire/localfsnews/bcn/2006/04/18/n/HeadlineNews/ JOHN-SWETT/resources_bcn_html) - 4/19: Green Party Member Joe Lynn Resigns from Ethics Commission (http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=335) - 4/19: Bayview Redevelopment Hits Board of Supervisors (http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3172#more) EVENTS: This week: - 4/21: Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi Hosts Art Opening Of Riley McFerrin's Work - 4/22: EARTH DAY MOBILIZATION for Aimee Allison for Oakland City Council - 4/23: Reception for Barry Hermanson for Assembly - 4/24: Salmon rally to help salmon fishermen, communities and the Klamath River - 4/25: Transportation Working Group - 4/25: 30 years after Roe v Wade: Firsthand account by son of Ob-Gyn Save the date: - 5/24: Something Fun at the Green Party Forum!!! Join the medley of politics and performance ANNOUNCEMENTS & ACTION ALERTS: - Healthy Saturdays in Golden Gate Park Wins Significant Victory - Attend a Hearing to Support Healthy Car-Free Saturdays in Golden Gate Park! Also tell the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to Support This - Co-Chair Needed for GROW Working Group IN EVERY ISSUE: - Discuss Instant Runoff Voting in Green Party Activist Jim Dorenkott's Blog (http://www.dailykos.com/user/jim%20d) - Take Action! - Earn A Living Making San Francisco A More Green and Progressive City! - Become a Green Party Sustainer! JOKE OF THE WEEK: - Three Years of War: A Shame on Our Nation (http://www.bushflash.com/3.html) ************************************************************ EVENTS: 4/21: Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi Hosts Art Opening Of Riley McFerrin's Work WHEN: Friday, April 21 5:00PM-8:00PM WHERE: San Francisco City Hall, 1 Carlton B Goodlett Place, Room 282 DETAILS: Please join Supervisor Mirkarimi in celebrating the 35th Anniversary of Earth Day on April 22 with San Francisco artist Riley McFerrin. In this new body of work titled "Let Outside Inside", Riley McFerrin takes a closer look at the growing divide between people and nature by combining both naturally occurring and synthetic materials in unexpected and symbolic ways. This body of work evokes our awkward and often helpless interactions with nature, and contemplates life in an age where our tools of survival are no longer as closely connected to the natural world as they used to be. Riley McFerrin's studio is located in Hayes Valley. His works have been featured at the Bucheon Gallery, the Low Gallery, Thoreau Gallery, and the Tinhorn Gallery, in San Francisco. --------- 4/22: EARTH DAY MOBILIZATION for Aimee Allison for Oakland City Council WHEN: Saturday, April 22 11:00AM-3:00PM WHERE: Aimee Allison HQ: 3208 Grand Ave (next to the Grand Lake Theater), Oakland DETAILS: Because absentee and walk-in voting starts in less than four weeks, WE NEED HELP NOW -- so that we can elect Aimee Allison to Oakland's City Council! Join Aimee Allison, Green Party candidate for Oakland City Council, on April 15, 22 amd 23 as we walk the neighborhoods to promote Aimee's candidacy to thousands of voters! This is a grassroots campaign effort, so we need as many volunteers as possible to get the word out about Aimee. Also, former Oakland City Council member Wilson Riles will be joining us for the 11:00 am shift on April 22 -- make a commitment to help us out then, if you can! Aimee is committed to: - Advocating for a future for Oakland's youth: resources for excellent schools and after school programs, and job and college placement opportunties; - Creating economic development that lasts: balancing housing and industrial growth to create real economic development; - Developing affordable housing for working families: mandating the creation of affordable homes to help all Oakland residents; - Making Oakland safer for all: demanding a responsive, accountable police force, directing resources to addressing violent crime, and implementing programs to address the root causes of violence in our community. Please confirm that you can join us. For more info, or to RSVP, please call: (510) 986-1125. --------- 4/23: Reception for Barry Hermanson for Assembly WHEN: Sunday, April 23 3:00PM-5:00PM WHERE: 1339 27th Avenue, San Francisco DETAILS: Join the Westside Green Club in support of Green candidates: Barry Hermanson (State Assembly, District 12) and Nancy Lewis (Green Party County Council) Refreshments served. Bring family, friends and all interested voters. Children are most welcome. These events are sponsored by the Westside Green Club. --------- 4/24: Salmon rally to help salmon fishermen, communities and the Klamath River WHEN: Monday, April 24th 10:00 a.m. WHERE: Pier 47 - San Francisco DETAILS: This rally, held by Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-01), will bring attention to the salmon season off the coasts of California and Oregon, and also roll-out a disaster assistance bill that is aimed to help the communities in need. Another aspect of the bill will have a conservation component to help restore and monitor the salmon of the Klamath River. The reason for the dramatically shortened salmon season is because the Klamath River will not meet the 35,000 natural spawner floor for fall-run chinook for the third consecutive year. The reported result will likely be a near closure of Oregon and California's commercial ocean, in-river Klamath and tribal fisheries for 2006. The impacts on the California coastal economy from last year's season, which was cut by 60-percent due to poor Klamath River returns, combined to a near closure of this year's season, would be catastrophic and could very likely have permanent affects on the salmon fishing industry and related businesses in both states. The declining salmon populations in the Klamath River basin are due not to over fishing by tribes, the commercial salmon fishing industry or recreational anglers; but federal mismanagement of the Klamath River system which hurt both farmers and fishermen. This mismanagement led to the fish kill in 2002 when up to 78,000 adult salmon died on the Klamath River. It also led to the outbreak of Ceratomyxa Shasta (C. Shasta) which has reportedly infected 80-percent of juvenile salmonids. Mortality from C. Shasta is 100-percent. We look forward to seeing you there, and thank you in advance for your support! --------- 4/25: Transportation Working Group WHEN: Tuesday, April 25 7:00PM-9:00PM WHERE: San Francisco Green Party office, 1028 A Howard St (between 6th St. and 7th St.), San Francisco DETAILS: Regularly scheduled TWG meeting. Supposrt Congestion Pricing study. --------- 4/25: 30 years after Roe v Wade: Firsthand account by son of Ob-Gyn WHEN: Tuesday, April 25 Starts 6:30PM WHERE: Valencia Street Books, 569 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 INFORMATION/CONTACT: Jonathan Birdsong, Legislative Director for Congressman Mike Thompson, 231 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, (202) 225-3311, (202) 225-4335 - FAX: 415-552-7200 DETAILS: In 1973, Eyal Press and his family arrived in Buffalo where his father, Shalom, had accepted a three-year residency in obstetrics and gynecology, only three weeks after the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Roe v. Wade. Leaving Israel, a country where militants routinely invoke religion to justify force, the family expected that life in Buffalo would be tranquil. They weren’t prepared for what the next three decades held in store—protesters outside their home, mock funerals at Shalom Press’s office and the 1998 threat on his life, which came shortly after his colleague was killed by James Kopp. The shooting of Dr. Barnett Slepian haunted Eyal, now a journalist, and compelled him to understand why the abortion conflict has sparked such passion and fierce moral convictions on both sides of the issue. Hence, his new book,"ABSOLUTE CONVICTIONS: My Father, a City, and the Conflict that Divided America." Hosted by Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights. --------- 5/24: Something Fun at the Green Party Forum!!! Join the medley of politics and performance WHEN: Wednesday, May 24 7:00PM-2:00AM WHERE: Studio Z, 314 11th Street @ Folsom, San Francisco CONTACT: (415) 252-7666 www.StudioZ.tv ADMISSION: $5 to $500 Must be 21+, with ID No one turned away for lack of funds DETAILS: Join the medley of politics and performance with: Barry Hermanson (candidate for 12th Assembly district), Forrest Hill (candidate for Secretary of State), Ross Mirkarimi (Supervisor, District 5), Mehul Thakker (candidate for state treasurer), Laura Wells (candidate for state controller), Diamond Dave Whitaker (San Francisco icon of poetry and Greenism ...), Ubidube Whitaker (Rocker and son of icon ...), Mike Wyman (candidate for state Attorney General), Go Van Gogh (Indy rock band), Garrin Benfield (Indy soloist) And more ... ============================== ANNOUNCEMENTS & ACTION ALERTS: Healthy Saturdays in Golden Gate Park Wins Significant Victory Thank you for helping our efforts to win more car-free space in Golden Gate Park. Thanks to your calls & letters and thanks to more than 100 of us who spoke up at the hearing on Friday, we won unanimous support from the Board of Supervisors' Land Use Committee for Healthy Saturdays. (Special thanks to Supervisors McGoldrick, Mirkarimi, and Maxwell for their crucial support.) But it's not over yet...the Healthy Saturdays legislation heads to the full Board next week, on April 25th. We're working for unanimous support from the Board and the Mayor, so your help is still needed. Please contact the on-the-fence city leaders and urge them to support Healthy Saturdays. --------- Co-Chair Needed for GROW Working Group Micheas Herman of the GROW Working Group (tabling and voter registration) is seeking a new co-chair. Contact Micheas Herman at ... or the County Council at cc@sfgreens.org for more information. ============================== IN EVERY ISSUE: Take Action! Find out about opportunities to help our elected Greens (writing letters, attending hearings, etc) -- subscribe to the SF Green Party Action list! The Action list is a low-traffic list (approximately one message per week in addition to our newsletter) telling you what you can do to help: https://list.sfgreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/action --------- Earn A Living Making San Francisco A More Green and Progressive City! Two years ago, former organizers for the Matt Gonzalez for Mayor campaign decided it was time to stop getting 'close but not close enough' to progressive victories like public power and Matt as Mayor, and to begin a city wide, year round, grassroots campaign that would start helping us win such victories! So in January 2004, the organization Our City was born. Since then we have helped to: - Pass the ban on old polluting diesel buses - Pass Matt Gonzalez's anti chain store law - Get the downtown hotel workers back on the job, and - Get the Police and Planning Commissions put back on SF Government TV after the City tried to pull them off. Now we are campaigning to get rid of PG&E's monopoly on our electricity service, and start running the City on renewable energy like solar and wind power instead! We have just begun hiring and training new grassroots campaigners to help us win this fight. No experience necessary. Earn $280 to $400 each four day work week learning to be a strong progressive organizer. To apply, call Eric at 415-756-8844 from noon to 2pm any weekday, or send an email to jobs@our-city.org For more information, see our web site at http://our-city.org --------- Become a Green Party Sustainer! As you may know, the SFGP is supported by our wonderful sustaining donors -- 175 and growing. In the next 12 months we hope to double that figure, and you can help us achieve our goal by signing up to make a regular contribution to the Green Party. Our sustainer program nearly pays all of our basic monthly operating expenses, including rent and utilities on the office, and drastically reduces the amount of work needed to raise money. Our sustainers free us up to do what we're really here for - to pursue Green values through the democratic system. Sustainers also ensure that we are able to keep our office, which has hosted numerous campaigns' headquarters including the successful Prop A, Instant Runoff Voting initiative. Becoming a Green Party sustainer is easy, fun, and secure! For more information, see http://www.sfgreenparty.org/makeadonation/makeadonation.html ************************************************************ For more info on our activities, please see our website, http://www.sfgreenparty.org. You can also email us questions at info@sfgreens.org. 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