CHANDLER — Chandler fire investigators are sifting through what’s left of a home leveled in an explosion. The blast and the fire destroyed a second home late Sunday night near Cooper Road and Chandler Boulevard. The blast cracked windows on homes across the street.

KSAZ-TV reports neighbors heard loud explosions and debris from the blast scattered to the house next door setting it on fire. A woman inside the second house was able to escape.

Chandler fire officials say the fire is suspicious.

 http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/article_c3480c94-4b5c-11e1-971a-001871e3ce6c.html

Then came Saturday, which started peacefully enough — a midday rally at City Hall and a march. But hours later, the scene near downtown Oakland had dramatically deteriorated: clashes punctuated by rock and bottle throwing by protesters and volleys of tear gas from police, and a City Hall break-in that left glass cases smashed, graffiti spray-painted on walls and an American flag burned.

More than 400 people were arrested on charges ranging from failure to disperse to vandalism, police spokesman Sgt. Jeff Thomason said. At least three officers and one protester were injured.

On Sunday, Oakland officials vowed to be ready if Occupy protesters try to mount another large-scale demonstration. Protesters, meanwhile, decried Saturday’s police tactics as illegal and threatened to sue.

Mayor Jean Quan personally inspected damage caused by dozens of people who broke into City Hall. She said she wants a court order to keep Occupy protesters who have been arrested several times out of Oakland, which has been hit repeatedly by demonstrations that have cost the financially troubled city about $5 million.

Quan called on the loosely organized movement to “stop using Oakland as its playground.”

“People in the community and people in the Occupy movement have to stop making excuses for this behavior,” she said.

Saturday’s protests — the most turbulent since Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment in November — came just days after the group announced a new round of actions. The group said it planned to use a vacant building as a social center and political hub and threatened to try to shut down the Port of Oakland for a third time, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

After the mass arrests, the Occupy Oakland Media Committee criticized the police’s conduct, saying that most of the arrests were made illegally because police failed to allow protesters to disperse, and they threatened legal action.

“Contrary to their own policy, the OPD gave no option of leaving or instruction on how to depart. These arrests are completely illegal, and this will probably result in another class action lawsuit against the OPD,” a release from the group said.

Deputy Police Chief Jeff Israel told reporters late Saturday that protesters gathered unlawfully and police gave them multiple verbal warnings to disband.

“These people gathered with the intent of unlawfully entering into a building that does not belong to them and assaulting the police,” Israel said. “It was not a peaceful group.”

Earlier this month, a court-appointed monitor submitted a report to a federal judge that included “serious concerns” about the department’s handling of the Occupy protests. Police officials say they were in “close contact” with the federal monitor during the latest protests.

Social activism and civic unrest have long marked Oakland, a rough-edged city of nearly 400,000 across the bay from San Francisco. Beset by poverty, crime and a decades-long tense relationship between the police and the community, its streets have seen clashes between officers and protesters, including anti-draft protests in the 1960s that spilled into town from neighboring Berkeley.

Before the Occupy movement spawned violence, mass arrests and two shutdowns of the Port of Oakland, the city was disrupted by a series of often-violent demonstrations over a white Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer’s fatal shooting of an unarmed black man named Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009.

Occupy protesters have invoked Grant’s memory, referring to the downtown plaza named after Frank Owaga, the city’s first Asian-American councilmember, by renaming the former space they occupied with tents as Oscar Grant Plaza.

Police maintained a guard at City Hall overnight, and dozens of officers were on the scene Sunday.

“They were never able to occupy a building outside of City Hall,” Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said Sunday. “We suspect they will try to go to the convention center again. They will get not get in.”

City officials said they will call for mutual aid from other police jurisdictions if needed.

Quan, who faces two recall attempts, has been criticized for past police tear-gassing though she said she was not aware of the plans. On Saturday, she thought the police response was measured, adding that she has lost patience with the costly and disruptive protests.

She also said she hopes prosecutors will seek a stay-away order against protesters who have been arrested multiple times.

“It appears that most of them constantly come from outside of Oakland,” Quan said. “I think a lot of the young people who come to these demonstrations think they’re being revolutionary when they’re really hurting the people they claim that they are representing.”

Saturday’s events began midday when a group assembled outside City Hall and marched through the streets, disrupting traffic as they threatened to take over a vacant convention center.

The protesters then walked to the convention center, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and “destroying construction equipment” by the convention center shortly before 3 p.m., police said. The number of demonstrators swelled as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging up to 2,000 people, although city leaders say that figure was much closer to several hundred.

A majority of the arrests came after police took scores of protesters into custody as they marched through the city’s downtown, with some entering a YMCA building, Thomason said.

Michael Davis, 32, who is originally from Ohio and was in the Occupy movement in Cincinnati, said Sunday that Saturday was a hectic day that originally started off calm but escalated when police began using “flash bangs, tear gas, smoke grenades and bean bags.”

“What could’ve been handled differently is the way the Oakland police came at us,” Davis said. “We were peaceful.”

The national Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate excess and economic inequality, began in New York City in the fall but has been largely dormant lately. Oakland, New York and Los Angeles were among the cities with the largest and most vocal Occupy protests early on. The demonstrations ebbed after those cities used force to move out hundreds of demonstrators who had set up tent cities.

http://news.yahoo.com/oakland-assess-damage-occupy-protests-172156955.html

Why One Former Ariz. Teacher Supports the Ethnic Studies Law

Special Guests: JOHN A. WARD, FORMER TUCSON HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER

This is a rush transcript from “On the Record,” May 17, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: And now to Arizona, where things are getting hotter. The illegal immigration fight is still blazing hot, and now the battle escalates, taking on another law that bans some ethnic studies classes from being taught in Arizona schools. Former Tucson, Arizona, high school teacher John Ward used to teach in an ethnic studies department. He says he was removed from teaching a class. Why? John Ward joins us live. Good evening, John. And why were you removed from teaching a class? JOHN A. WARD, FORMER TUCSON HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER: Hi, Greta. Thank you for having me. The short and simple is I was removed from teaching a class because I questioned the pedagogy and the instruction that was taking place in that classroom. And that was something that was not going to be tolerated by these ethnic study activists who were involved in the curriculum. VAN SUSTEREN: All right, now, I have a copy of an article or an op-ed that you wrote back in 2008, so this is not something new that suddenly has come up in the heat of all the other battle over the immigration law. This is something you’ve been talking about for at least two years. Now, tell me, this was originally supposed to be a history class you were teaching, is that right? WARD: It was. It was an American history class and students were receiving American history credit that is required by the state of Arizona for graduation. VAN SUSTEREN: What was wrong with it? Why wasn’t it, in your view, American history? What was — what was the argument about it? WARD: I was surprised during the first six weeks of class when absolutely no American history was being covered in the class. The class focused solely on the history of the Aztec people, which is the group that Mexican-American activists basically ascribe their lineage to. And at that point, I questioned why these students were receiving American history credit when, in fact, there was no American history being taught. So that was the beginning of this internal conflict that was taking place within the program. VAN SUSTEREN: All right, now, in this op-ed going back two years, you note that you yourself are Hispanic. So I imagine that was somewhat of an interesting twist to all this. But you also write, “The basic theme of the curriculum was that Mexican-Americans were and continue to be victims of a racist American society driven by the interests of middle and upper class whites.” Is this paragraph that you have in this op-ed — was this sort of – - is this something that sort of permeated the whole course, that it was not necessarily, Let’s see what history was, but rather was a diatribe of some sort? WARD: That was the underlying theme of the entire course from the first day of class until the point in March in which I was removed from that classroom for raising concerns. And so you have a group of very young, impressionable students who are very smart but nonetheless very impressionable, and this is what the were being force-fed on a daily basis. And by the time I had left the classroom, these students had bought that message totally and believed that they were nothing less than victims of a very racist and oppressive society. VAN SUSTEREN: In terms of the response to you, you write in your op-ed, “When I raised these concerns” — ones that you and I just discussed, you were told that you were a racist, despite being Hispanic, and that acknowledging your heritage, the Raza studies staff also informed you that you were a bandito — I don’t know if I’m pronouncing that correctly — which is a Spanish term for sell-out? WARD: Good pronunciation. VAN SUSTEREN: Thank you. So it’s — you were — that you were — in fact, you got attacked for being a sell-out. WARD: True. For many of these ethnic activists, they demand conformity to their radical ideas. And if one does not agree with those ideas and they’re part of that ethnic group, they have to be discredited somehow. And so obviously, one way of doing it is by calling someone a, you know, sell-out or a racist themselves. And that’s totally absurd. I’m proud of my heritage. I’m proud of my family, who are all Mexican- American. But these are the types of tactics that these groups use to try to discredit individuals who disagree with them, especially individuals who are within that community. VAN SUSTEREN: Well, it seems to me there’s a big difference between teaching history, teaching cultural history, which describes a person’s ethnic background, and teaching hate. And it seems to me from at least your description that this was almost teaching to be a victim and to hate. Am I right? I mean, is that the way you describe it? WARD: The underlying themes of the course were victimization and resentment. And it was at that point that I, you know, put my foot down as the co-instructor of the course and said, This is no longer going to happen as long as I’m the teacher of record of this class. And it was at that point that I was asked to remove myself from that classroom. VAN SUSTEREN: You — what is this “teacher of record,” too? It says that you were the teacher of record in the course. What does that mean? WARD: Initially, before the beginning of the school year, they needed someone to teach the class. The class was typically thought by someone from the ethnic studies department at the district level. The individual that was slated to teach the course didn’t have a teaching credential, and so they needed someone like myself, who had teaching credentials, to be the, quote, “teacher of record.” My understanding was that I would co-teach the class with this other teacher. Unfortunately, I found out once I entered the class that I was expected to sit in the back of the room and simply be the name below the assignment of grades at the end of the semester and to keep quiet. And that was simply not a role that I was willing to accept or embrace. And at that point, it was when, again, this was something that was not going to be allowed or tolerated by these individuals. VAN SUSTEREN: John, thank you. WARD: Thank you.

Read more: http://drupal.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/transcript/why-one-former-ariz-teacher-supports-ethnic-studies-law#ixzz1knbF3wig

OAKLAND, California (Reuters) – Riot police fought running skirmishes with anti-Wall Street protesters on Saturday, firing tear gas and bean bag projectiles and arresting more than 200 people in clashes that injured three officers and at least one demonstrator.

Three police officers and one protester were injured during the clashes, the city said, without detailing their conditions. Internet broadcasts by activists showed several demonstrators being treated by paramedics or loaded into ambulances.

The scuffles erupted in the afternoon as activists from the Occupy movement sought to take over a shuttered downtown convention center, sparking cat-and-mouse battles that lasted well into the night in a city that has seen tensions between police and protesters boil over repeatedly.

“Occupy Oakland has got to stop using Oakland as its playground,” Mayor Jean Quan, who has come under criticism for the city’s handling of the Occupy movement, said at a late evening press conference.

“Once again, a violent splinter group of the Occupy movement is engaging in violent actions against Oakland,” she said, speaking as officers in riot gear were still lined up against demonstrators in downtown intersections.

City Council President Larry Reid said a group of protesters broke into City Hall, damaging exhibits and burning a U.S. flag.

Occupy Oakland organizers had earlier vowed to take over the apparently empty downtown convention center to establish a headquarters, hoping to revitalize a movement against economic inequality that lost momentum after police cleared protest camps from cities across the country late last year.

They also hoped to draw attention to homelessness in the attempted building takeover, seen as a challenge to authorities who have blocked similar efforts before.

A police spokesman said more than 200 people had been arrested during the day following altercations that began when activists tried to tear down a chain-link fence surrounding the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center.

“The 1 percent have all these empty buildings, and meanwhile there are all these homeless people,” protester Omar Yassin said.

‘IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICES’

Police in riot gear moved in, firing smoke grenades, tear gas and bean-bag projectiles to drive the crowd back.

“Officers were pelted with bottles, metal pipe, rocks, spray cans, improvised explosive devices and burning flares,” the Oakland Police Department said in a statement. “Oakland Police Department deployed smoke and tear gas.”

Some activists, carrying shields made of plastic garbage cans and corrugated metal, tried to circumvent the police line, and surged toward police on another side of the building as more smoke canisters were fired.

“The city of Oakland welcomes peaceful forms of assembly and freedom of speech but acts of violence, property destruction and overnight lodging will not be tolerated,” police said in a statement.

Hundreds of demonstrators regrouped and marched through downtown Oakland, where they were repeatedly confronted by police in riot gear. Police at several points fired flash-bang grenades into the crowd and swung batons at protesters.

A group of demonstrators ultimately made their way to City Hall, where they brought out a U.S. flag and set it on fire before scattering ahead of advancing officers.

Several hundred people remained in the streets well after dark, facing off against lines of riot police holding batons who demonstrators sometimes taunted as “pigs.”

Protesters in Oakland loosely affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York last year have repeatedly clashed with police during a series of marches and demonstrations.

Elsewhere, the National Park Service said on Friday it would bar Occupy protesters in the nation’s capital, one of the few big cities where Occupy encampments survive, from camping in two parks where they have been living since October.

That order, which takes effect on Monday, was seen as a blow to one of the highest-profile chapters of the movement.

(Writing by Dan Whitcomb and Mary Slosson; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Bill Trott)

http://news.yahoo.com/police-smoke-grenades-occupy-oakland-protesters-000545184.html

Police clash with Oakland protesters, 100 held

By Laird Harrison | Reuters – 1-28-12

OAKLAND (Reuters) – Riot police arrested more than 100 anti-Wall Street protesters during a series of clashes in the streets of Oakland on Saturday that saw officers in riot gear firing tear gas at activists who tried to take over a shuttered convention center.

Three officers were injured during the running confrontations, which police said first erupted when the crowd began destroying construction equipment and tearing down fencing at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center in downtown Oakland in the early afternoon.

“Officers were pelted with bottles, metal pipe, rocks, spray cans, improvised explosive devices and burning flares,” the Oakland Police Department said in a statement. “Oakland Police Department deployed smoke and tear gas.”

The scuffles marked the latest confrontation between police and Occupy activists seeking to regain lost momentum in their movement against economic inequality after authorities cleared protest camps across the country late last year.

Occupy Oakland organizers had vowed to take over the fenced-off building to establish a new headquarters for their movement and draw attention to homelessness in a move seen as a challenge to authorities who have blocked similar efforts before.

Police said 19 people were arrested near the convention center and another 100 taken into custody after they were corralled by officers outside a YMCA in downtown Oakland.

“The one percent have all these empty buildings, and meanwhile there are all these homeless people,” protester Omar Yassin told Reuters at the scene.

Near the convention center, several dozen police officers declared an unlawful assembly and confronted the demonstrators at a fence, firing smoke and tear gas canisters into the crowd after telling protesters to disperse through loudspeakers.

AMERICAN FLAG BURNS

Some activists, carrying shields made of plastic garbage cans and corrugated metal, tried to circumvent the police line, and surged toward police on another side of the building as more smoke canisters were fired.

“The City of Oakland welcomes peaceful forms of assembly and freedom of speech, but acts of violence, property destruction and overnight lodging will not be tolerated,” police said in a statement.

Later, hundreds of demonstrators regrouped and marched through downtown Oakland, where they were repeatedly confronted by police in riot gear. Police at several points fired flash-bang grenades into the crowd and swung batons at protesters.

Later a group of demonstrators made their way to City Hall, where they brought out a U.S. flag and set it on fire before scattering ahead of advancing officers.

Protesters in Oakland loosely affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York last year have repeatedly clashed with police during a series of marches and demonstrations.

In October, former U.S. Marine Scott Olsen was left in critical condition with a head injury following a confrontation with police on the streets of Oakland in which tear gas was deployed.

Organizers said Olsen was struck in the head by a tear gas canister. Authorities opened an investigation into that incident but have not said how they believe he was hurt.

Elsewhere, the National Park Service said on Friday it would bar Occupy protesters in the nation’s capital, one of the few big cities where Occupy encampments survive, from camping in two parks where they have been living since October.

That order, which takes effect on Monday, was seen as a blow to one of the highest-profile chapters of the movement.

(Writing by Dan Whitcomb and Mary Slosson; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

http://news.yahoo.com/police-smoke-grenades-occupy-oakland-protesters-000545184.html

December 14, 2011-Buck Sexton

(The Blaze/AP)– A Lebanese national who U.S. authorities say is the ringleader of a vast international drug smuggling ring with links to the militant group Hezbollah has been indicted on drug and money laundering charges after allegedly reaping more than $850 million in illicit profits.

The indictment was announced Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria against Ayman Joumaa, who is currently at large. It alleges he led a conspiracy that, among other activities, sold nearly 100 tons of Colombian cocaine to the Zetas drug cartel in Mexico between 2005 and 2007 that was ultimately smuggled into the United States.

The conspiracy has run since at least 2004 and at times brought in as much as $200 million in a single month, according to court documents.

Earlier this year, the Treasury Department designated Joumaa as a drug trafficker and said Hezbollah profited from his network.

Specifically, Treasury accused a major Lebanese bank, the Lebanese Canadian Bank, of being complicit in Joumaa’s money laundering and turning a blind eye to massive cash transactions. One of the members of Joumaa’s network is a suspected Hezbollah supporter, and bank managers had links to Hezbollah officials, according to the Treasury Department’s findings.

The criminal indictment itself makes no mention of links between Joumaa, 47, and Hezbollah, which the U.S. ¬government has designated as a terrorist group since 1997.

The court documents show that Joumaa’s network has played a major role in the global drug trade for years, helping Colombian producers get their product into the hands of cartels in Central America and Mexico, and from there into the U.S.

“Money fuels the drug trade, and Mr. Joumaa is alleged to be at the center of it all … working with those producing the vast majority of the world’s cocaine to get their drugs safely into the hands of Mexican cartels,” said Neil MacBride, U.S.Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, whose office is prosecuting the case. “Organized crime networks know no borders, and neither can U.S. law enforcement.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration led the investigation.

The Lebanese Canadian Bank was sold to an affiliate of France’s Societe Generale in March to restore confidence after those accusations triggered concerns in Lebanon that the U.S.-would begin targeting Lebanon’s banking sector as a way to exert pressure against Hezbollah. Attempts to contact the bank for comment were unsuccessful after working hours Tuesday.

Lebanon is a major financial hub for the Middle East and its banks, like those in Switzerland, have a reputation for secrecy.

The indictment seeks the forfeiture of at least $850 million, the amount that Joumaa allegedly obtained over the course of the conspiracy, according to the grand jury.

Peter Carr, a spokesman for MacBride’s office, said Tuesday that Joumaa is at large. Law enforcement officials believe he is Lebanon; it is unclear whether U.S.¬officials would be able to obtain his extradition.

It is the second time in recent months that federal prosecutors in Alexandria have announced charges against major international drug trafficking rings.

In July, authorities announced they had taken down a major drug ring that was smuggling drugs from Ghana through Dulles International Airport near Washington. Most of those charged in that ring, including the ringleader, were eventually extradited to the U.S. and are facing trial.

In addition, two men of Bangladeshi origin were caught by Customs and Border Protection illegally crossing the US-Mexico border last June and admitted they were members of a terrorist organization that allied with Bin Laden against America.

The latest Mexican cartel-Hezbollah nexus makes one thing clear: Hezbollah infiltration of Latin American continues to be a threat, and in the absence of greatly improved border security measures, is likely to worsen.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/report-hezbollah-operatives-running-vast-drug-ring-with-mexican-cartels/

Chandler will host a free, live simulcast of a Feb. 8 lecture on the state of higher education by Noam Chomsky, the linguist and political activist. Chandler will open its City Council Chambers for Valley residents to listen to Chomsky, who will deliver his speech from the University of Arizona in Tucson. The lecture, “Education for Whom and for What?” will be followed by a question and answer session.

Chomsky, a linguistics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has spoken about education issues in recent years.

The Chandler simulcast begins at 7 p.m. Feb. 8 at City Hall, 175 S. Arizona Ave. Parking is free in the parking structure south of the building. For more information, visit

52 page document in it’s entirety

http://debs.indstate.edu/u588r47_1950.pdf

http://www.revolutionarycommunistparty.org/tag/virginia/

 Socialist Party of Central Virginia

http://sites.google.com/site/spcentralva/

 CPUSA – Virginia

http://www.facebook.com/CPUSA.Virginia