Charles Barkley, who has become one of the most vocal supporters of gay rights in the athletic arena, shocked people in a radio interview when he said that he had several gay teammates, and that their sexual orientation did not concern him.

While it may be easier for straight male athletes to advocate gay rights, it seems more difficult for gay athletes to come out of the closet. Not a single American male athlete has ever come out while still playing for a professional sports team. However, there’s a lot of support in the sports community now and as former NBA MVP and longtime gay rights supporter Steve Nash said recently, “Anyone who’s not ready for this needs to catch up.”

Article Title: Giving Gay Rights a Sporting Chance
Source: In These Times Magazine/ September 2011
Author: Pete Redington
URL: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/11789/giving_gay_rights_a_sporting_chance/

Student Researcher: Claire Lueders, Sonoma State University
Faculty Evaluator: James Dean, Sonoma State University

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The 99 Percent Movement was born out of the fact that the country has grown incredibly unequal and millions of Americans are struggling to get by. The richest 1 percent of the country now owns more than 40 percent of the wealth and takes home nearly a quarter of national income.

The American economy wasn’t always structured in a way that so generously rewarded the one percent while giving the 99 percent less and less. Following the Second World War, widespread unionization, higher and fairer tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, and New Deal policies helped craft an economy with widespread prosperity. In fact, if you look at income growth in period between 1947 and 1949, it was approximately equal across the board. Meanwhile, income gains between 1980 and 2007 went overwhelmingly to the richest

Not only should Americans be concerned that only 1 percent of the country owns majority of wealth, but that there was once a time when everyone was semi equal and there was not such a large gap between classes. The author, Jilani, explains that since there was a time wealth among people were similar, it’s optimistic to assume that one day it can be possible for people in America to be equal once again.

Title: It Wasn’t Always This Way: America’s 99 Percent Used to Have a Much Greater Share of The Nation’s Riches

Source: ThinkProgress.org, October 25, 2011

Author: Zaid Jilani

URL: http://thinkprogress.org/special/2011/10/25/351981/it-wasnt-all-this-way/

Student Researcher: Brianna Santo, Sonoma State University

Faculty Evaluator: Marco Calavita, Sonoma state UniversitySimilar Posts:

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Mike Konczal’s article charts jobs and income growth of top one percent earners and the causes of changing income inequality. With evidence from tax returns the data shown in the article depicts that the top occupations are non-financial executives first, then financial professionals, followed by lawyers, real estate and medical professions.

Konczal’s article says that 60 percent of the top percentile of income goes to these top professions. The article points out that with the way corporation are structured under our laws that “a business exists only to enrich its shareholders, including, of course, senior managers themselves and this is done by paying out more in dividends that is earned in profits”.

This type of action is what upsets the people of the Occupy Wall Street movements, that the top one percent are “cashing out wealth during good times and then leaving workers and the rest of the real economy to deal with the aftermath”.

There’s good reason to focus on the top 1% instead of the top 10 or 50%. There is evidence that financial pay at this elite level is correlated with deregulation and the other legal changes that brought on the crisis. High-ranking senior corporate executives’ pay has dwarfed workers’ salaries, but is only a reward for engaging in shady financial engineering practices. These problems require a legal solution and thus they require a democratic challenge and a rethinking of how we want to structure our economy.

Title: Who are the 1 percent and what do they do for a living?

Source, Rortybomb, 10/17/11

Author, Mike Konczal

http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/who-are-the-1-and-what-do-they-do-for-a-living/

Student researcher, Nicole Trupiano, Sonoma state University

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Biofuel targets set by the European Union and the large financial incentives given to the biofuel industry are some of the real culprits of world hunger (according to Meals per gallon report released Feb., 2010 by the UK Charity ActionAid).  Biofuels competing with food for feedstock, as well as shady land takeovers also impact the inflated food prices.  Tracts of land that were once farmed for food production have been replaced with biofuels.  Land is also being taken from poor farmers all over the world without their permission.

The jatropha scam is a huge related problem also, because it was hyped as a miracle non-food biofuel crop that would supposedly grow anywhere.  It has failed to deliver on it’s promise and poor farmers scammed into growing it have lost their source of income (and nourishment) by replacing real food crops with jatropha.  Another key issue is that biofuels actually release more greenhouse gases than fossil fuels, according to more and more scientists.  ActionAid has called for a global moratorium to address these issues.

Title: Biofuels and world hunger

Source: Third World Resurgence, Issue No. 247 (March 2011)

Author: Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

Article: http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/resurgence/2011/247/cover05.htm

Student Researcher: Cheryl Fonseca, Sonoma State University

Faculty Evaluator:  Elaine Wellin, Sonoma State University

( Can be linked to Project Censored article: http://www.mediafreedominternational.org/2010/04/09/massive-african-land-grab-by-rich-nations/ )

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Tom Horne, who wrote the bill and was the state superintendent of schools found that the Tucson ethnic studies program were in violation of the new law. Tucson teachers and students filed an appeal of his decision. When a state-commissioned audit was done the results found the MAS program actually was in compliance with the new law.

However, the new supervisor of the MAS program, appointed by the TUSD superintendent, has reassigned La Raza teachers to other courses, reduced their course offerings, and accused the Chicano/a student group MECHA in Tucson of being unpatriotic and anti-Semitic.

Before summer break, students, teachers and supporters were engaged in civil disobedience and other protests. They are working toward saving La Raza studies and its high standards for public schools.

Article Title: Ethnic Studies Elicits “Cult” Charge
Source: Freedom Socialist Party/ October 2011
Author: Monica Hill
URL: http://www.socialism.com/drupal-6.8/?q=node/1720

Student Researcher: Claire Lueders, Sonoma State University
Faculty Evaluator: Daniel Malcipa, Sonoma State University

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A former NYPD narcotics detective, Stephen Anderson,  testified in October that he regularly saw police plant drugs on innocent people as a way to meet arrest quotas.  He was testifying, under cooperation with prosecuters, in the trial of a fellow detective charged with falsifying public documents and business documents.

Anderson says he frequently witnessed the practice of “flaking,” or planting cocaine on innocent people. The NYPD has come under heat this year for arresting 50,000 people for low-level marijuana offenses, 86% of whom are black and Latino, and most of which results of illegal “stop and frisk” searches conducted by officers.

Gabriel Sayegh has this to say: “One of the consequences of the war on drugs is that police officers are pressured to make large numbers of arrests, and it’s easy for some of the less honest cops to plant evidence on innocent people. The drug war inevitably leads to crooked policing…and quotas further incentivize such practices.”

Title: Former NYPD detective testifies that police regularly plant drugs on innocent people to meet arrest quota

Source: gothamist.com, 13 October 2011

Author: John Del Signore

URL: http://gothamist.com/2011/10/13/nypd_narcotics_detective_testifies.php

Student Researcher: Cary Esovedo, Sonoma State University

Faculty Evaluator: Sheila Katz, Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

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The Vatican is now calling for stricter regulation of global financial markets, a tax on financial transactions, and a global authority that can enforce these new rules.  The Vatican even confirms a shared view.  Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the council that authored the Vatican’s note, said that the “basic sentiment” of the Occupy movement is in line with Catholic social teachings.  Working for a more just economy is not limited to Catholicism, however. Interfaith organizations such as Interfaith Worker Justice and PICO focus on wage theft, globalization, workforce development, and low-income housing.  Vatican note states, this global economic crisis requires the concerted efforts of everyone, a thorough examination of every facet of the problem—social, economic, cultural, and spiritual.

Title: Vatican Supports Occupy Wall Street

Source: Reader Supported News October 25 2011

Author:Cindy Wooden

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8069-vatican-supports-occupy-wall-street

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/11/vatican_ows.html

Student Researcher- Cameron Orsi, Sonoma State University

Faculty Evaluator- Cynthia Boaz, Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

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October 14^th, President Barack Obama announced he was sending United States Special Forces troops to Uganda to join the civil war there. Within the next few months, US combat troops will be sent to South Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic to only “engage” for “self-defence.” Like all America’s subsequent invasions, a trail of blood from Latin America to Afghanistan and Iraq, the rationale was usually “self defence” or “humanitarian,” words long emptied of their dictionary meaning.

In Africa, Obama says the “humanitarian mission” is to assist the government of Uganda defeat the Lord’s resistance Army (LRA), which “has murdered, raped, and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women, and children in central Africa.” Obama’s other justification also invited satire. This is the “national security of the United States.”

However, US “national security” usually means buying a corrupt and thuggish regime that has something Washington wants. The main reason the US is invading Africa is no different from that which ignited the Vietnam War- it is China. China is replacing al-Qaeda as the official American “threat.” Africa is China’s success story. Where the Americans bring drones and destabilization, the Chinese bring roads, bridges and dams.

Article Title: The Son of Africa Claims a Continent’s Crown Jewels

Source: Information Clearinghouse Date: October 19^th, 2011

Author: John Pilger

URL: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29461.htm

Student Researcher: Jessica Belluomini, Sonoma state University

Faculty Evaluator: Elaine Leeder, Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

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A controversial provision in the National Defense Authorization Bill that would “affirm” the President’s supposed power to wage perpetual war anywhere on Earth against undefined enemies — including Americans in the United States — is attracting fierce criticism from across the political spectrum.

The language was inserted into the bill by Rep. Howard McKeon (R-Calif.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee.  It purports to cede “the authority to use all necessary and appropriate force” to the executive branch in its never-ending battle against unnamed countries, organizations, and people.

The military could even be used to go after Americans in America.  So-called “belligerents,” Americans included, could be detained without trial until the end of hostilities.  “.… If Congress broadly turns over to the President the power that Article I of the Constitution provides to Congress to declare war, it very likely will never get the power back.”

“Of all of the powers that Article I of the Constitution assigns to Congress, no power is more fundamental or important than the power ‘to declare War,’” a letter from oppositionists concludes. “We urge you to use this power carefully, and to oppose this wholesale turnover of war power, without any checks — and without even holding a single hearing.”

Title:  Congress Considers Endless War, Worldwide

Author:  Alex Newman

Published in:  The New American

Published on:  May 16^th, 2011

URL:  http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/foreign-policy/7502-congress-considers-endless-war-worldwide

Student Researcher – Corey Savio, Sonoma State University

Faculty Evaluator – James Joseph Dean, Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

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The uprising did not come out of nowhere. In September 1971, there were over 2,200 people locked up in the facility that was built to accommodate 1,600. Living conditions in Attica prison were almost unbearable with one shower a week, an outdated library, and race tension boiling, something was bound to happen and unfortunately it was an incident as tragic as this.

We need to reflect on the conditions that precipitated the rebellion and to examine its legacy. In 1970, there were 48,497 people in federal and state prisonsin the U.S. By 2009, there were 1,613,740individuals locked up in our federal and state prisons. This exponential growth of the prison population means that the events of Attica are as relevant today as they were in 1971; perhaps even more so.

Title: Attica Prison Uprising 101, a short primer
Author: Mariame Kaba with contributions by Lewis Wallace
Source: San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, September 9, 2011
URL: http://sfbayview.com/2011/attica-prison-uprising-101-a-short-primer/

Student Researcher: Louie Pomerantz, Sonoma State University
Faculty Evaluator: Suzel A. Bozada-Deas , Sonoma State University

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