Yesterday, I returned to the University of Maryland, my alma mater, to attend a University Senate (the governing body comprised of 90% faculty and staff, and 10% students) meeting where members voted 81-2-1 in favor of an important life-saving overdose prevention policy. The Diamondback reports:
After proposing a measure nearly six years ago that would protect dangerously drunk students or students on drugs from university sanctions if they call 911 for themselves or a friend, the University Senate voted overwhelmingly yesterday to approve an all-inclusive Good Samaritan policy.
The policy first passed the senate in 2011, when it was amended to only include alcohol. But activists quickly mobilized to push for a policy that included all drugs, leading former undergraduate senator Brandon Levey to propose all-inclusive legislation more than a year ago. Now, after the senate’s 81-2 vote with one abstention, the measure will go to university President Wallace Loh for his signature.
I started working on this issue in 2007 as an Undergraduate Senator at UMD when I first introduced the idea for an all-inclusive “Call 911 Good Samaritan” policy that would protect students from University sanctions in situations where emergency medical assistance is needed for a student overdosing on alcohol or other drugs. Unfortunately, my proposal wasn’t able to make it out of committee before my term expired.
Fortunately, Irina Alexander, President of the UMD SSDP chapter at the time (and later SSDP board member), picked up where I left off as she was elected to the University Senate. She worked tirelessly on this issue during her term, making major strides forward, but falling just short of a full Senate vote on the issue before her term was up. Then Brandon Levey, another UMD SSDP officer (and later, SSDP board member), got himself a seat in the Senate, as Irina passed the torch to him.
Watch Crystal and Brandon address the University Senate before the vote.
Thank you and congratulations to everyone who helped make this possible. Words can hardly describe how proud I am to have been a part of this six-year campaign!
Brooke Napier, National Outreach Coordinator for the AMPLIFY Project (Students for Sensible Drug Policy), asked Jeremy Salken of Big Gigantic a few questions last week about the recent passage of Amendment 64 and how the music community can encourage youth to get involved in the political process.
Thank you for taking the time before tonight’s show to talk with me! Amendment 64 in your home state of Colorado just passed, officially legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. What do you think about this and what this means for drug policy reform at large?
I think it’s very exciting! Locally in Colorado it seems it hasn’t really changed the mentality towards marijuana because it was decriminalized already in some localities here, and basically decriminalized state-wide before. It’s a big move for the country though, and I’m hoping the federal government doesn’t interfere with the laws here or in Washington; they should listen to what the people want. I have a feeling a lot of people will end up moving to Colorado, and I can understand why; I grew up in VA where marijuana use was really heavily penalized. I mean, I want people to know about this new law and how great Colorado is overall, but it’s peaceful and quiet here so I don’t want that to get ruined either. (Laughs)
What would you say to student volunteers and activists who helped work on this initiative or to others who are working on legalization in other parts in of the country?
Thank you all SO much for your hard work. Any kind of ground support and grassroots organizing is great, and word of mouth is best way to get information out there and to build a solid following. It’s so important for voters to not just see advertisements but to hear from real people who care and know about the issues. People become much more committed to a cause when they see the battle being fought on the ground. It’s so inspiring to see what people can do when they put their minds to it. And this kind of commitment doesn’t stop with just the issue of legalizing marijuana. There are many important issues out there that we need to work together on, and to stop being afraid to rise up against corporations and the mainstream propaganda. I think this shows we are making steps in the right direction though.
How do you think the music community can influence youth to get involved in the political process?
There are many organizations out there like the AMPLIFY Project, Conscious Alliance, Rock the Vote, Head Count, and Massive Exposure for example that encourage people within the music community to get involved in the political process and I think a lot of youth are already actively working with these organizations. I encourage everyone involved in these types of organizations to keep it up, and for those not yet involved to get active. Becoming actively involved in the music community you care about encourages youth to not only look at the music that’s there but at the larger community surrounding the music, which in turn helps them to understand what it’s like to be a part of the larger global community.
I’m 31 now, and when I was 16-my early 20′s I loved jam music and wanted to get in to a million shows. So I used to actually volunteer for Conscious Alliance to get to see my favorite bands for free, and it was great; I became a part of the jam community and really loved to help out however I could and it became important for me to continue the community building process. For me and for many others in the music community now, it was that you’re a fan first and then you start thinking about making it your life and career, and how you can be a part of the bigger picture.
Many of these organizations based around music communities encouraging involvement in the political process have been strong in the jam scene for a while, but I’d really like to see more involvement from the youth in the EDM scene. The EDM scene often attracts a much younger crowd and I encourage those younger kids to realize there’s more than just the music, but that there’s this thriving community as well and they can help make it stronger.
Experimenting with drugs seems to be pretty prevalent within the EDM scene. Honestly though, the reality is that people in general do drugs, just as they have for a long time. I just want people who make that decision to be as safe as they can. That’s why I think AMPLIFY is so awesome. Not only do the volunteers make people aware of what’s going on in drug policy and offer ways to push for policy change, but during shows and at festivals your table offers people a safe place to go to have open discussions about drug use as well as information and materials to help make safer choices. AMPLIFY volunteers help people in a very direct way by offering a place to talk and cool down; of course if there’s a medical emergency you want to get someone to the hospital, but many times people who are too spun are not experiencing a life-threatening emergency and really just need a place to get grounded and for someone to tell them it’ll be ok. So really, thank you to all of the volunteers who help create this space.
We are all just as thankful to have welcomed Big Gigantic as a part of the AMPLIFY project this year, and have really enjoyed being a part of Big Gigantic’s current Uprising Tour. How has the tour been going? What have been your favorite stops so far?
The double tour has been really great. We’ve been able to hit entire country, and I can’t believe there’s only a week and a half left. One of my favorites was the sold out show at the National, in my home town of Richmond, Virginia. Others that really stick out are Kalamazoo, Michigan, being out west in Los Angeles, and Little Rock. I did have a blast getting to many smaller towns too this tour.
Well thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today Jeremy, and have a great show tonight!
Thank you, and I look forward to seeing AMPLIFY at our shows.
Original WWO mix: It’d Be A Lot Cooler If We March On, with short samples from… Cypress Hill: Hits From The Bong; Basement Jaxx with Yoko Ono: Day of the Sunflowers; and Matthew McConaughey in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused.
John Reynolds and Morgan Lesko record our first discussion really getting to know each others’ perspectives. This was a casual late night chat on July 25, 2012, but perhaps you’ll find value in this too.
Here is an Immediate Need for Justice Reform Action
Alert Regarding — 7650 RESERVOIR ROAD SACRAMENTO CA. 95837-9313 — Warning!
by ~ Rev. A. Odeye
My name is: Rev Ashiya Odeye.
I am a Board member of the Sacramento chapter of the ACLU. I am Executive Director of the Justice Reform Coalition (JRC), a civil rights advocacy and citizens over site organization headquartered in Sacramento, California. The JRC was founded in 2005. I am Reverend Director of the Order of Olufunmi since 1976 I am also acting as a Private Attorney General for our organization and person of interest and intervener in this matter.
For over 37 years the Full Circle Farm (7650 Reservoir Road) has been home to the Chow family and a spiritual center for many people. The Farm’s Founder wanted it so. In his own words: “We the family of the Full Circle Farm have been growers and producers of an alternative to commercial food and culture in the true organic tradition…We care about the quality of life and want to see more than just sugar beets growing on farms.” His son David “Tat” Chow has kept this tradition.
The Farm is a 3.5 acre grove on Reservoir Road, off of Garden Highway, near the airport in Sacramento, California. The Farm sits next to and protects one of the last little natural creek areas in Sacramento County. It also sits next to an area of importance to the local Native American community’s history. It has been under constant attack because greedy people want the land. This includes the Airport authorities and the golf course next door.
David Chow vs U.S. Bank (34-2010-0091102), involves U.S. Bank, American Home Mortgage Service, Inc (AHMSI), BNC, and others, who colluded to commit fraud by filling fraudulent loan documents. Without the consent of the owner and trustee of the property, David Chow, they granted a loan to David’s ex a loan in one week, using the Farm property as collateral. His ex had no standing or permission to use the property for collateral. She then divorced Mr. Chow after using the money to rebuild her business. In the beginning when Mr. Chow tried to return the funds, he couldn’t because AHMSI said he was not on the note, he was not the borrower and they refused to speak with him.
Mr. Chow was forced to make payments on a loan he did not want or need. AHMSI engaged in criminal practices such as sending payments to a “suspense account” instead of applying those payments to the loan account, and refusing to deal with the owner-trustee because he “isn’t the borrower”, even though his property was being used as collateral for a loan he did not authorize or sign for. Then filing an illegal foreclosure on the property that was at the time one and a half months over paid. Then getting a relief from stay by influencing Mr. Chow’s bankruptcy attorney to not inform Mr. Chow of an exparte’ hearing and then not appear herself, which allowed U.S. Bank to get to get a default judgment, relief from stay. Robert Jackson and Associates was U.S. Bank’s second attorney on this matter and were the one’s who filed the unlawful detainer actions and had Rosenberg and link handle the case locally. You will find these law firms’ names on countless foreclosure and evictions by U.S. Bank and others.
Mr. Chow, In Pro Se, filled a civil suit and injunction for fraud against U.S. Bank, which they never responded to. Instead they filed an unlawful detainer actions against Mr. Chow. They were heard illegally in unlawful detainer court. Since there were allegations of fraud and other misconduct , and the unlawful detainer court is a limited scope court, according to its own rules, the cases should not have been heard there. Because of the limited scope of this Court the true issues at hand could not be addressed there and judgment was given to U.S. Bank even though the Court was informed of the civil suit filed by Mr. Chow which is still pending.
In January of 2012 U.S. Bank threatened the Farm with another eviction attempt. This eviction was from an unlawful detainer action filed by U.S. Bank attorney Robert Jackson and Associates who are known legal scoundrels. It appears they did multiple UD filings on the same matter using the new electronic filing system only for attorneys doing UD’s and didn’t serve us one of them. This is double jeopardy and is illegal. This is another area where the Court failed its due diligence.
12UD00600, filed on 1/19/12, is the one we were served, which we responded to on 2/8/12 and they never moved forward on. But they had also filed UD1200055 earlier on 1/3/12 , which we were not served. This is the one they filed and got their default on, on 2/21/12. In order to hide this crime, someone in the Sheriff’s Department had scheduled the eviction for 6am that following Sunday. Can you believe that. We filed an injunction, and when we went to serve the Sheriff, we were told that the Sheriff had pulled the eviction because the “writ was improper”. The injunction was later denied with leave to refile, because we didn’t have all the paperwork we needed to file with it. We plan to re-file the injunction.
U.S. Bank refiled the writ in March and rescheduled the eviction. But Mr. Chow filed a chapter 7 which stayed the eviction. The stay was lifted do to failure to file one document timely. This was purely an over sight on our part. We had served a copy of the injunction on the Bank’s attorneys, and we received a letter that they were no longer the proper place to serve the Bank.
A few weeks later a man, Anthony Vasquez, came by the Farm to say he had purchased the Farm from U.S. Bank for $70,000. Mr. Chow told him that the property was in litigation and had a lis pendence on it. Anthony said he had not been told this by the Bank, only that the property was occupied. He then insisted that he had a “clear” title to the property. He was told that he couldn’t have a clear title under the circumstances because the Bank did not own the property. Mr. Chow asked him to show him the paperwork he had and he said he would. Their paper work consist of robo-doc paperwork generated by out of state entities already charged with fraud.
Chicago Title issued a bogus “clean title” report which was filed with the County Recorder and a title was issued to Vasquez. This is part of the paperwork used to get Mr Chow evicted.
Vasquez was part of a dispensary closed down under suspicion of money laundering .
Vasquez used drug money to purchase the property.
Since the eviction the 11 residents of the Farm have not been allowed to get their property.
They have been threatened verbally and at gun and knife point.
Mr. Chow was assaulted by thugs at the Farm while trying to retrieve his property. They threatened his girlfriend who had just had a miscarriage the day after their eviction.
One of Vasquez’s cronies tried to hire some people to “rough up” Mr. Chow. Fortunately some of the folks asked were friends of Mr. Chow’s so it didn’t happen.
Vasquez and his cronies have ripped out old growth trees and many of the amenities which made the Farm what it was.
Now they have committed arson and burned down the main house on the property. The fire is under investigation now.
There is still a lis pendence on the property.
The State Attorney General’s office has been notified about this situation and the Sacramento District Attorney Real
Estate fraud division is being brought in.
The civil suit mentioned above is being amended to include Mr. Vasquez
DO YOU REALLY WANT TO BUY INTO THIS MESS?
We ask you not to support this criminal conspiracy and please tell everyone.
Audio/Notes: http://ur1.ca/9im3l On Thursday nights, Media Monarchy joins Corbett Report Radio live on Republic Broadcasting to go over all the latest stories from the world of food, environment and health. This week’s lunch menu features leaks, labs and alerts + the ‘Hemp for Victory’ ‘Binge and Purge’, phone calls and more…
Full Circle Farm is a beautiful ~3 acre property in north Sacramento OWNED by David “Tat” Chow where he has lived nearly his whole life. A community garden with budding fruits and veggies is/was thriving with several farm animals and hard-working and passionate people.
Despite the ongoing legal debate on the property’s ownership, U.S. Bank auctioned the property to Anthony Vasquez (aka Richard Vasquez) for the giveaway price of $85,000 (including taxes and fees). Upon visiting the farm, he explained to me that he just intended to flip the property for a profit…clearly a noble cause compared to our occupied community garden. Vasquez could have joined Tat’s lawsuit against U.S. Bank, but chose not to. Tat offered Vasquez $120,000 — then $150,000 — so he could buy the property again, but those offers were denied. Vasquez has already listed the property hoping for a quick sale asking $300,000 and describing “an opportunity to steal a lot”.
Didn’t you hear about the rEVOLution? That kind of greed is so 20th century.
Tat’s legal proceedings continue, which he has been fighting Pro Se (without a real lawyer) with the help of the Justice Reform Coalition. But Mr. Vasquez was able to get the Sheriff’s department to evict Tat and the rest of us on June 13th without advance notice.
[video clips of eviction]
Three months ago, I moved to Full Circle Farm when some participants of Occupy Sacramento were joining to help prevent the illegal foreclosure of Tat’s land, and grow organic (hopefully non-GMO) fruits and vegetables. The simple agricultural act is political both in helping feed ourselves healthy food and helping feed to those less fortunate than us living on the street. Some of our other roommates include a retired Vietnam veteran and an anti-war veteran of the Iraq War (2003).
[video of my phone call]
[video of our friendly confrontation]
Dear Mr. Vasquez and crew, please join us in our lawsuit against US Bank or give the property back to Tat…instead of trying to remove our community from this land. At least let us feed and water the animals and plants we care for on the farm. We all want and expect to move back into Full Circle Farm.
ADVENTURE CAT: It’s at the Westfields Marriot by Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia. If my friend Morgan still lived in Washington DC, he would be there in half a heartbeat — half an hour actually — and beg everyone he knows in the area to PLEASE check it out.
SIBLING CATS: Sooo, why does this matter?..powerful people meet all the time.
ADVENTURE CAT: They sure do, but usually meetings this big are much more public and universally covered for at least a few news cycles. Think about how much media attention NATO summits get…or the Oscars, or NFL Drafts.
SIBLING CATS: OH yea! Who won the Oscars?
ADVENTURE CAT: WHO CARES?! But guess who attended the Bilderberg Conference last year?… (show list of attendees)
SIBLING CATS: WOW! What a collection of some of the biggest public players in the world.
ADVENTURE CAT: No joke! Talk about the 1%…Bilderberg is the 0.00000002%.
SIBLING CATS: Why haven’t we heard of this before?!
ADVENTURE CAT: Participants agree to keep details spoken at the meetings from the public, so these world leaders can speak more frankly. So the mainstream media has hardly ever mentioned it until the past few years with knowledge spreading across the internet.
SIBLING CATS: So if these meetings are behind closed doors, and invite-only, why are you going?
ADVENTURE CAT: Top politicians and businessmen are discussing plans for our world without transparency and therefore accountability. If they have our collective best interest in mind, what do they have to hide?…or why can’t they speak honestly to us like adults?
SIBLING CATS: Good points.
MOMMA CAT: That’s just a silly conspiracy theory.
ADVENTURE CAT: You’re a conspiracy theory.
Actually, the phrase “conspiracy theory” is mostly just used to get most people to disregard the alternative narrative being discussed. Where conspire is defined as ‘to act in harmony toward a common end,’ this is more conspiracy fact.
SIBLING CATS: Yea! And the Bilderberg Group seems to be the world’s most public steering committee. The attendees can both help manifest the plans toward their common ends, as well as take advantage of knowing what this powerful crowd hopes will happen in the next year.
ADVENTURE CAT: That sure does seems to be the case, and other organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission spend more of the year hashing out more concrete policy details, plans, and drafting legislation.
MOMMA CAT: What if you’re put on some terrorist watch list or NDAA-ed out of your relative freedom.
ADVENTURE CAT: This is no time to let such fears beat us, mom. If we don’t have at least a voice, we don’t have anything. And there is WAY too much going on ‘in our name’ to be passive. Anyone with half a whisker of my curiousity should seriously check it out.
Occupy Bilderberg!
Video and editing by Morgan Lesko for the artists, Occupy Sacramento, Wiki World Order, We Are Change, Peace Revolution, and peaceful Occupations everywhere.
Description by Brian McNally and Kimberly Sloan of Occupy Sacramento…
Occupy Sacramento invites you to an unusual night of diverse musical acts expressing in many unique ways our individuality within one unified community of many minds. See below for descriptions, bios, and links to the work of featured performers and show details. Please help us Occupy Coffee Garden and see for yourself without media filter who we are. People new to Occupy (in person) are most welcome). We promise you won’t get arrested.
FREE to ALL, but $5 Suggested Donation (no pressure!) will be solicited from the audience between acts to pay the artists.
SHOW DETAILS
Show starts promptly at 7:00 pm, and ends at 9:30 pm, Coffee Garden closes at 10 pm. Show will be in the outside back garden. Seating is limited and we may exceed capacity, so please arrive early. Volunteers wishing to help out with onsite arrangements – please message either one of the admins of this page.
MORE DETAILS on our PERFORMERS:
FREEDOM MOVEMENT featuring KNEEL and the STRAWMEN is a local Sacramento post hip hop group dedicated to personal freedom and financial liberation of the economically oppressed. They have performed for many community events in Sacramento focused on social justice. Influences include T-Reazy, DUC, Benner, and William Hung. Although several members are dedicated Occupy Sacramento organizers this will be their first performance at an Occupy Event. Much credit goes to Kim Sloan, Co-Producer and one of two lead organizers on the April 22nd Project for recommending and obtaining their participation. Like all our guest performers they prove that showcasing talent and an entertaining program are best achieved through a truly diverse offering of music styles. Our youngest performers on stage also invite you to check out their music tracks on FB: http://www.facebook.com/kneelandthestrawmen/app_178091127385
JOE STEVENS, SPECIAL GUEST OF THE OCCUPY
Joe Stevens, performing solo on April 22nd, is a Sacramento local now taking a break from his band of many years, Coyote Grace. He has toured from coast to coast and recorded an impressive number of CDs, mixing bluegrass, blues, soul, and southern twang into a unique sound that hovers just beyond the edge of familiar. His touring schedule is very generous to small audiences in small towns. Whether solo for Occupy Sac or with his band on tour, he combines virtuoso craft as a musician, inspirational and introspective song writing, with a humble, warm, charming and humorous stage presence. Mr. Stevens is also seriously funny on stage in between songs and knows how to break the ice with some gentle, humble humor.
“Talented and devoted musicians, Joe and Ingrid move forward into the mainstream public eye with personal integrity and a musical sound all their own. In honoring who they are, they refuse to be told who or what they should be as people. It is that candor, combined with impressive musical craftsmanship, that transcends boundaries and speaks to a wide audience.”
–Performer Magazine http://performermag.blogspot.com/2009/08/coyote-grace.html
“There’s a yearning, freight-train-hopping, propulsive energy to many of (Coyote Grace)’s songs that suggests not only an indie-band road tour, but the road to one’s true identity, a destination on a map still being written. These youthful travelers depend on the kindness of strangers and of lovers, and on their journey they’ve experienced enough joy and heartbreak to last a lifetime (…) If wholeness and grace are forms of political power, Stevens and Elizabeth are wielding it with quiet intensity, in a growing community of kindred spirits. An army of lovers cannot fail.”
– Sylvia Sukop, Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sylvia-sukop/transamericana-from-folk_b_424035.html
Sounds like my time in the Occupy, but you decide.
EVAN GREER (Of Riot Folk, Now on tour with Bonfire Madigan):
Evan Greer, taking time out of a busy schedule to perform for Occupy Sac, is a radical gender queer singer/songwriter, parent, and community organizer based in Boston. (S)he writes and performs high-energy acoustic songs that inspire hope, build community, and incite resistance. At 25 years old, Evan tours internationally as a musician and facilitates interactive workshops to support movements for justice and liberation. Wielding an arsenal of fiercely radical songs that vary in style from pop-punk poetry to foot-stompin’ bluegrass singalongs, Evan has been honored to collaborate, tour, and share stages with artists as musically diverse as Pete Seeger, Immortal Technique, Billy Bragg, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Pamela Means, Boots Riley of The Coup, Anne Feeney, Oi Polloi, State Radio, Leftover Crack, Emma’s Revolution, The Mammals, Defiance Ohio, Holly Near, Chumbawamba, and Vicci Martinez (featured on NBC’s “The Voice”.)
Reviews: Evan Greer
“Evan Greer is an eloquent and energetic writer. (S)he reminds me of Phil Ochs.” –Howard Zinn, historian and author of A People’s History of the United States
“Evan Greer continues to write inspiring folk music in the tradition of the great protest singers. ‘Never Surrender’ contains an urgency and earnestness that is uniquely her’s…and (s)he’s a heck of a guitar player. I suspect that songs like ‘Ya Basta!’ and ‘Picketline Song’ will be heard at the barricades for years to come.”–Tom Morello, guitarist of Rage Against the Machine
“Evan feeds off the energy of the crowd, putting some of the punk back into the sound with a raw and passionate performance. Being in the crowd at an acoustic show where the kids genuinely care about the message and dance and sing along with fists in the air in a crowded basement or open performance space, is a whole different type of folk show from the typical coffee house style. It’s refreshingly alive and a striking contrast to sitting down and listening to someone singing about their feelings.”–Urban Folk, NYC
“Current folk is sometimes stereotyped as sappy, weak, and boring. Despite this contemporary betrayal, the Riot Folk collective champions the genre’s radical roots … Behind all the exclamation points and proclamations of anarchy, lies a genuine sense of revolution. The Riot Folk Collective may just re-establish folk music as a revolutionary staple.” –VenusZine
“Phenomenal activist folk!” –Pacifica Radio KPFA-FM
“Examples of modern day singers who use their music to make political points.” –MSNBC, Today.com
Alex Leach facilitates a workshop on compassionate communication. March 25th, Students for Sensible Drug Policy conference in Denver, CO. For more from Alex, please visit http://KindCommunication.org
Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance delivers the opening speech of the 2012 Students for Sensible Drug Policy Conference in Denver, CO. March 24th.
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