The CA Attorney General’s office is holding public meetings around the state in January to talk about how to implement CA’s new privacy law. On the agenda will be things like how much you will pay for your privacy, whether the law applies to loyalty programs like HHhonors or grocery and drug store discount programs, opt-out procedures, what needs to be disclosed about how your data is sold, and how to verify whether an information request is really from a customer or not. This is the only Bay Area forum with others to be held in San Diego (1/14) , Riverside (1/24) , LA (1/25), Sacramento (2/5) and Fresno (2/13).
We know industry and business will be out in force – and consumers and customers won’t be – so we’re trying to spread the word and even things out a bit.
Can’t stress enough that even though the legalese will be flying, the issues at stake are down to earth and practical and will affect all of us everyday. You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to be a person who worries about where all their personal data ends up and doesn’t feel like they can do enough about it. The voices of real people is always what is missing at these forums, but it doesn’t have to be.
We’ll post some background material in the discussion session on the Faceook Event Page.
Join the Rainforest Action Network and allies to tell JPMorgan Chase to stop funding climate destruction!
Chase Bank is the biggest Wall Street funder of fossil fuels. They finance the Keystone XL pipeline, toxic tar sands oil expansion, and abuses of indigenous rights, profiting from worsening climate chaos.
Demand that they stop funding fossil fuel expansion, starting with tar sands
Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay.
We fight against “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” spy drones, facial recognition, police body cameras and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones, to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government.
We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.
Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network.
Our major projects currently include local legislation to regulate state surveillance (we got the strongest surveillance regulation ordinance in the country passed in Oakland!), opposing Urban Shield (now gone!) and pushing back against ICE with local legislation.
If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:
Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/ Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy
Check out our sister site DeportICE.
Oakland Privacy works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment. Oakland Privacy drove the passage of surveillance regulation and transparency ordinances in Oakland and Berkeley and is kicking off new processes in Richmond and Alameda County. To help slow down the encroaching police state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.
For our next #ArsLive we are very excited to host Ashkan Soltani (@ashk4n) as our guest. He recently testified about Facebook before the UK parliament, among many other achievements. He is a Technologist, Reporter, Founder, Policy Wonk — former FTC CTO and Obama Whitehouse Senior Advisor .
The Cambridge Analytica scandal. Data breaches at hotels, banks, rideshare companies, and hospitals. Facial recognition. DNA databases. We’re living through the data privacy apocalypse and now it’s time to figure out what happens next. Here to discuss that with us at the next Ars Technica Live is Ashkan Soltani, an independent researcher and technologist who specializes in data privacy.
Recently, Soltani testified before the US and UK governments about Facebook’s privacy practices and how they make user data available to third parties. Soltani also authored the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, which regulates large companies that make more than 50 percent of their revenues from selling California residents’ personal information. The CCPA was signed into law earlier this year.
Soltani will be in conversation with Ars Technica editors Cyrus Farivar and Annalee Newitz.
Soltani previously served a brief stint as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as the Chief Technologist for the Federal Trade Commission, advising the commission on its technology related policy as well as helping to create its new Office of Technology Research and Investigation. He also served at the FTC in 2010 as one of the first staff technologists in the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, helping to lead investigations into major technology companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, HTC, and PulsePoint. Soltani was also recognized as part of the 2014 Pulitzer winning team for his contributions to the Washington Post’s coverage of National Security issues.
Ars Technica Live takes place on the second Wednesday of every month at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland (3629 MLK Way—they have the best tater tots you’ve ever eaten).
Doors open at 7pm, and the live filming is from 7:30pm to 8:20-ish (be sure to get there early if you want a seat). Stick around afterward for informal discussion, beer, and snacks. Can’t make it out to Oakland? Never fear! Episodes will be posted to Ars Technica the week after the live events.
The event is free but space is limited, so RSVP using Eventbrite. You can also keep up with the latest Ars Live doings on Facebook.
The Richmond City Council took its first step on December 18, 2018 toward ending the shipment of coal and petroleum coke (pet coke) through the city. These toxic commodities are shipped overseas from the privately-owned Richmond Levin terminal.
The Richmond City Council is considering legislation to phase out and ultimately end the use of the terminal for coal and pet coke. At the council meeting yesterday, about a dozen people spoke in support and no one spoke in opposition to an initial draft of the legislation. Council members voted unanimously to submit the proposed ordinance to the city attorney for review.
The proposed ordinance would prevent new facilities from handling large amounts of coal and pet coke. Existing facilities that are non-compliant would not be able to increase their handling of these commodities. The ordinance defines an amortization period, during which non-compliant facilities will be required to reduce and finally eliminate the handling of coal and pet coke. Five years was the recommended amortization period, but the city attorney may consider alternatives.
While activists in Oakland and Vallejo have organized to prevent the construction of terminals to ship coal, Richmond is already burdened by coal pollution. The coal arrives at the Richmond Levin terminal in two ways: on partially-loaded ships from Stockton, and on open rail cars to top off those ships; the Stockton Deepwater Channel through which coal is transported is too shallow to accommodate fully-loaded freight vessels. Dangerous particulate matter escapes both from the trains and from the uncovered coal and pet coke piles at the terminal. The dust is visible on homes and cars and invisible in the lungs of Richmond residents, some of whom live within 100 feet of the rail line.
The proposed ordinance is an important step toward eliminating these toxins, which constitute much more than a local health hazard: Coal is the fossil fuel most responsible for climate change.
New activists are welcome.
JOINT WALK‐IN CLINICS with Public Defender and EBCLC
*Please bring your statewide CA DOJ RAP sheet
if you have it or we can give information at clinic*
We may be able to help with:
Dismissal of Conviction – PC 1203.4
Felony Reduction / Prop 47 and 64 Relief
Early Termination of Probation
Certificate of Rehabilitation
Sealing Arrest Record – Factual Innocence
Juvenile Record Sealing
Post-Conviction Relief for Immigrants and
Survivors of Human Trafficking
Employment denials due to criminal background
reports
Occupational Licensing Denials(DSS, Security
Guard)
Voting Rights, Jury Service Rights
The Alameda County UASI Ad Hoc Committee (aka Urban Shield Task Force) is meeting on Thursday, January 10 at 1:00 pm until 5:00 pm or until we have finished voting on recommendations, which could be well after 5 pm.
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Meeting of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors’ Ad Hoc Committee on Urban Area Security Initiative, charged with reconstituting and rethinking Urban Shield.
The committee was established by the Board of Supervisors in March 2018 in response to sustained community concerns about Urban Shield, which is funded in part by UASI grants from the Department of Homeland Security, and coordinated by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
The Board of Supervisors decided in March, 2018 that 2018 would be the last year the county would approve Urban Shield, as currently constituted, and asked the Ad Hoc Committee to make recommendations to the Board on the UASI-funded emergency preparedness training and exercise in 2019 and beyond.
Agendas and materials for each meeting are posted at http://www.acgov.org/board/calendarcom.htm
* Live from the Border: Pedro Ríos from the American Friends Service Committee Border Program, San Diego, will speak via Skype on the current struggle for rights of the Migrant Caravan at the Tijuana-San Ysidro border wall.
* Catherine Tactaquin, from the National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights (NNIRR) on the current struggles for the rights of migrants and refugees.
* Art and poetry to help us further connect the struggles of our communities across borders.
Come see the art on display at the Asian Resource Center Gallery:
“GRAFFIKA URBANA” | Prints by Noel Rodriguez from Mexico City
“PRESENTE! Defend Puerto Rico” | Puerto Rican Photographers
At the Asian Resource Center’s lobby gallery two timely exhibits portray the humanity of two nations – Mexico and Puerto Rico, currently disparaged in the mass media and besieged by governments’ mismanaged response to societal and natural disasters.
In “GRAFFIKA URBANA” printmaker Noel Rodriguez focuses on the hustle and bustle of Mexico City, one of the most crowded cities in the world, now undergoing a major challenge to the political corruption and drug trafficking that the State is commonly known for. Issues of revamping trade agreements and xenophobic immigration policies with Mexico have obsessed the Trump Administration’s agenda and directly impact communities here.
“PRESENTE!”, a small exhibit of photographs from Puerto Rico speaks to the resilience of local residents, both rural and urban, in the face of economic crises and the feeble
* * *
Sponsored by East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation East Side Arts Alliance
Chiapas Support Committee
Class Conscious Photographers
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
For more information on the exhibitions & reception/report-back
Call Greg Morozumi (510) 533-6629
The San Francisco Public Bank Coalition is gearing up for action! Their goal is to pressure the SF Board of Supervisors to author a charter amendment on the November 2019 ballot establishing the framework for a public bank. This framework will include mission, principles, and a governance structure.
The Coalition is planning a launch party for January 10. There’ll be music, food, presentations, and strategizing about how to move SF’s money from Wall Street to OUR streets. You’re invited!
Hang out with other members who are interested in the labor movement, hear about what’s happening in the East Bay DSA Labor Committee, and learn how you can get involved!
Join East Bay DSA’s Labor Committee for their regular Beer and Roses Social!
Hang out with other members who are interested in the labor movement, hear about what’s happening in the East Bay DSA Labor Committee, and learn how you can get involved!
Want to get involved with SURJ Bay Area? Come learn about our current work and activities. SURJ moves white people to act for justice, with passion and accountability, as part of a multi-racial majority.
Prisoners started arriving at Guantanamo on Friday, Jan. 11 2002. This Friday, on the 17th Anniversary of Guantanamo Prison, DRAD will join Codepink and allies at a rally and press conference at UC Law School to call for closing Gitmo and prosecution of John Yoo for torture.
Join us to speak out against the injustice!
Meet up in front of the law school, rain or shine.
Gitmo now holds 40 men, including 5 who have long been cleared for release, and it continues to be a moral stain on our nation as well as enormously expensive. “Maintaining the prison at Guantnamo has cost the American taxpayer $4.8 billion since it opened in 2002, and an average of $454 million every year for the last five years.” ACLU, 2017
Did you know that UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky called for prosecuting John Yoo? That’s right. A 2014 Nation article said “Chemerinsky’s argument is that Yoo has committed a criminal act – conspiracy to torture – and that at he should be put on trial for it.”
At that time Chemerinsky was Dean of UC Irvine Law School.
This Friday at 12:30 we’re going to deliver a letter of concern to Dean Chemerinsky making him aware of the community’s opposition to John Yoo’s complicity in torture and asking him to take action to protect UC Berkeley law students from Yoo’s toxic theories and criminal actions.
Please Join Us!
It’s past time to shut Gitmo and for Yoo to be held accountable for his illegal actions.
The Japanese Abe government continues to restart nuclear plants throughout the country. At the same time they have accumulated over 1 million tons of radioactive water at the Fukushima plant which they want to release into the Pacifica ocean. It contains tritium which the government is saying is safe in “small amounts”.
The government has also covered up the statistics of thyroid cancer in children in order to continue the cover-up of the dangers of Fukushima. 3.11 Fund for Children With Thyroid Cancer has said that children who have cancer are not being counted by Fukushima Medical University which is controlled by TEPCO and other supporters of nuclear power. There is a growing increase of thyroid cancer and other diseases from the radioactive contamination. The government continues to demand that children and familiar return to Fukushima or lose the housing benefits outside Fukushima.
The danger of another major earthquake that threatens another Fukushima and also would release millions of tons of radioactive water into the ocean.
At the same time the government is pushing ahead to build a new military base in Henoko that will have US nuclear weapons despite mass opposition from the people of Okinawa. The same Abe government is pushing ahead to remove Article 9 that forbids expansion of Japan’s military role around the world.
Stopping another Fukushima and more militarization are part and parcel of the same struggle.
Come speak out to defend the people of Fukushima, Japan and the world.
For more event information:
http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com
7 YEARS LATER, WHY HASN’T JAPAN LEARNED FROM FUKUSHIMA?
Cancer rates in children are sky high, radioactive rubbish is piling up and radiation levels are rising. Yet the government bails out the plant’s operator – even as it announces a profit and plans to resume seaside operations
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2136176/7-years-later-why-hasnt-japan-learned-fukushima
Japan undecided on what to do with 1 million tonnes of radioactive water at Fukushima plant
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-02/fukushimas-radioactive-water-still-a-dilemma-for-japanese-gov/9504072
By North Asia correspondent Jake Sturmer in Tokyo
Updated 1 Mar 2018, 11:11pm
Fukushima 4-year-old missing in Japan thyroid-cancer records
https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20170330/news/303309794
Directed by Schwarzer Hahn (Germany) – 108 minutes – in theaters soon https://vimeo.com/251190328
So you think you’re a radical activist. But do you have any idea what your parents were up to when they were your age?
Join us for a screening of the new film from by Schwarzer Hahn, a radical film collective from Berlin, Germany. Post-film discussion with the filmmakers about independent filmmaking and radical activism in today’s world.
Climate change, refugees locked up in detention camps, endless wars and the rise of the far right – enough shit to get angry about. But apart from a few half-arsed protests, nothing happens. Jenny and her friends decide to take action. But as the state starts coming down on the group, Jenny’s dad is confronted with his own militant past and has to take sides. The meaning of code name “Jenny” becomes ever more blurred. Where is the line between resistance and terrorism?
Subversive. Feminist. Anarchistic. Cross-generational. CODENAME: JENNY is a film about two generations and their activism.
Rally to Fund Public Education Now! Join 1,000s of other teachers in letting the incoming governor and legislature know that we are demanding a new day for California students and educators, including:
– Closing the Prop 13 loophole so commercial property owners pay their fair share of property taxes going to public education.
– Pressuring the State to assume a greater share of the funding for federally mandated services for students with special needs.
-Promoting policies that provide educators with the salaries and conditions needed to provide students with the best possible education.
Brought to you by The East Bay Coalition for Public Education, comprised of local CTA chapters, including Alameda Education Association, Albany Teachers Association, Castro Valley Teachers Association, Dublin Teachers Association, Emery Teachers Association, Fremont Unified District Teachers Association, Hayward Education Association, New Haven Teachers Association, Newark Teachers Association, Oakland Education Association, San Leandro Teachers Association, San Lorenzo Education Association and San Ramon Valley Teachers Association.
Imagine. A vision of thriving communities across the globe. So much has been known of aspects of this vision for 20 years, 50 years, and even centuries. Why have we not made more progress?
Our Historic Moment offers a vision for the world, in both book and video form, that is rooted in The Natural Step and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, weaving together renewable resource use, ecological health, radical inclusivity and equity. Our Historic Moment explores the barriers to greater progress that we’ve encountered to date to achieving this vision, and it offers solutions for positive change, looking at the most strategic places to apply our efforts. At heart, Our Historic Moment encourages big picture thinking, and encourages us to see our roles within the greater framework.”
Please join us and contribute to the discussion!
Doughnut Economics: 7 ways to think like a 21st century economist
By Kate Raworth Chelsea Green Publishing (2017)
The capitalist economic system defines every aspect of our lives: the schooling and medical care we get, where we live, and how we sustain ourselves. The system works for a lucky few and exploits everyone else. And it’s a real threat to the survival of our species (and many others) on this planet.
We know the system needs to change—but we can’t change what we don’t understand. We have to know what we’re talking about.
Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics lays out traditional economic theory—still taught as gospel at all the major temples of capitalism—with clarity, authority, lots of graphics, and quite a bit of humor. She exposes the flawed models and persistent myths that keep the system in place. Even more importantly, she presents seven big, basic ideas with which to begin creating the world we want to see. We can indeed build an economy in the “doughnut”—meeting the needs of all while maintaining the biospheres that support us.
All of us need to read this book. We’ve all grown up in this deeply unfair and absurd system; seeing it clearly and getting free of it require a group effort.
So we at Strike Debt Bay Area are sponsoring a group discussion of Doughnut Economics. We’re doing one meeting a month on the 2nd Saturday; we’ll usually do about one chapter per meeting. Please join us!
3rd meeting:
4:30 – 6:00pm, Saturday, January 12th.
Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland
We’ll be discussing the 3rd chapter.
Bring the book (available at your favorite online bookseller and in select local bookstores) and/or your thoughts on the topic (The first and possibly subsequent chapters are available online – http://tinyurl.com/ycysqtde ‘Look Inside’).
The book is an easy read (but full of ideas!) so it’s easy to catch up.
Author website: https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/
Monthly interfaith prayer meeting, held on second Sundays, dedicated to healing.
The Bahá’í community of Oakland is organizing this gathering for the community to connect, share prayers, writings and poems from all spiritual traditions, reflect and recharge and build coalitions interested in healing.
Come share prayers, quotes, poems, and favorite passages from your scriptures with us. Simple breakfast will be served.
Doors open: 10:00 AM
Refreshments served: 10:00-10:30 AM
Prayers: 10:30-11:30 AM
Discussion and socializing: 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM
“Thy name is my healing, O my God, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy. Nearness to Thee is my hope, and love for Thee is my companion. Thy mercy to me is my healing and my succor in both this world and the world to come. Thou, verily, art the All-Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.” ~ Bahá’u’lláh
“Remember the saying: ‘Of all pilgrimages the greatest is to relieve the sorrow-laden heart.'” ~ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá