ARIZONA: Somos America Upcoming Events in Phoenix

Please mark your calendar for upcoming events! Please, please let me know if you can come volunteer (or protest) at any of these events and whether you will be there the entire time or only part of it. (if you need more information that what I have provided here, let me know)

Sat. Nov. 3rd: Protest outside of Food City, 43rd AVE & Indian School, 10:30-1pm, protestors needed.

Sat. Nov. 3rd: Pruitt Protest, 36th St. & Thomas, 11am-2pm, protestors, video recorders, and picture takers needed! (park across the street)

Sat. Nov. 10th: Immigration Forum at Mesa, place TBA, time TBA (most likely 9am-12pm), volunteers needed at registration (bilingual/little spanish ok), security, video recorder, picture taker, and ushers.

Sat. Nov. 10th: Pruitt Protest, 36th St. & Thomas, 11am-2pm, protestors, video recorders, and picture takers needed! (park across the street)

Wed. Nov. 14th: Beat the Odds parent meeting follow-up, Larry C. Kennedy on 28th St. & Osborn, 5:30-7pm, volunteers needed for registration (bilingual/little spanish ok), group facilitating, recorders.

Wed. Nov. 14th: Immigration Forum @ Peralta Elementary, Peralta on 71st AVE & Encanto, time TBA, volunteers needed at registration (bilingual/little spanish ok), security, video recorder, picture taker, and ushers.

Sat. Nov. 17th: Immigration Forum at Crockett Elementary, Crocket on 36th & Van Buren, 9am-noon, volunteers needed at registration (bilingual/little spanish ok), security, video recorder, picture taker, and ushers.

Sat. Nov. 17th: Pruitt Protest, 36th St. & Thomas, 11am-2pm, protestors, video recorders, and picture takers needed! (park across the street)

Wed. Nov. 21st: Beat the Odds Parent/Teacher "speed date", Larry C. Kennedy on 28th St. & Osborn, 4-5pm, volunteers needed at registration (bilingual/little spanish ok), translating, more to be developed....

Sat. Nov. 24th: Pruitt Protest, 36th St. & Thomas, 11am-2pm, protestors, video recorders, and picture takers needed! (park across the street)

Thanks to:
Lilian Chavez
lilianchavez@gmail.com

ARIZONA: Protest Against Desecration of Sacred Sites

PROTEST SNOWBOWL TOMORROW IN FLAGSTAFF!

PROTEST SNOWBOWL THIS WEDNESDAY!

Arizona Snowbowl will be holding their annual Job (un)Fair this Wednesday.
Join us and voice/demonstrate your concerns with Snowbowl's attempts to desecrate the Sacred San Francisco Peaks, cause ecological harm and risk community health.
This is an opportunity to educate people that are considering working at Snowbowl.

What: Protest Arizona Snowbowl's Job (un)Fair!

When: Wednesday, November 7th from 4PM-7PM

Where: Northern Arizona University's Walkup Sky Dome (http://www.nau.edu/web/campus_map/south_campus.html)

Why: Snowbowl Ski Area is attempting to expand their current ski area development and make fake snow from treated sewage effluent on the Sacred San Francisco Peaks despite pleas from tribes, environmental groups and the greater community.

Who: You and anyone who cares about community health, our environment and respecting Indigenous cultures!

www.savethepeaks.org




---
Ninth Circuit Court Allows Review In Legal Case of Recycled Sewage On Sacred Mountain

(Save the Peaks Coalition News Release Oct. 17th 2007)

Flagstaff, AZ -- The 9th Circuit Court has granted the U.S. Forest Service and an Arizona ski resort the opportunity for review of the court's decision on March 12th, 2007 that had provided protection for a mountain held holy by more than 13 Native American Nations. The slopes of the San Francisco Peaks, located in Northern Arizona, have been at the center of a historical and lengthy battle that has pitted economic interests on public lands against environmental integrity, public health and cultural survival. A small local ski resort proposed a plan to expand and use treated waste effluent to make fake snow. However, their development has been halted due to the Ninth Circuit Court ruling, which has been hailed as a victory for Religious Freedom, Environmental Justice & Cultural Survival.

"The decision of the Ninth Circuit to rehear this case is regrettable. It means that the Court will reconsider the case - not that it has reversed any decision at this point. It is, however, even more regrettable that our federal government seems to place the profitability of a privately owned, non-destination ski area, that operates on federal land, over the deeply held religious and cultural convictions of hundreds of thousands of Native Americans living in the southwestern United States." said Howard Shanker, of the Shanker Law Firm, PLC, representing the Navajo Nation, the White Mountain Apache Tribe, the Yavapai-Apache Tribe, the Havasupai Tribe, Rex Tilousi, Dianna Uqualla, the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Flagstaff Activist Network.
Shanker, who is running for Congress in Arizona Congressional District 1, further provided that, "this situation is indicative of the fact that we need better laws and lawmakers who are willing to stand up and be counted in the face of this type of injustice. The continued pursuit of the use of reclaimed waste water to make snow on the San Francisco Peaks should be an affront to all people of conscience everywhere."

"We are confident that a hearing en banc by the 9th Circuit Court will only make the current ruling stronger." Rudy Preston of the Flagstaff Activist Network.

"Why in 2007 do we as America's first people have no guarantee for protection of our religious freedom?" said Jeneda Benally a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition. "The case to protect the sacred San Francisco Peaks demonstrates the need for further protection of Native American religious freedom and rights in this country. We will continue our dedication to save the Peaks until we have our human rights fully upheld."

For more information visit: www.savethepeaks.org


###

Thanks to:
Ne74

ARIZONA: Students Walk Out

I'M CURIOUS. WAS IT BEFORE OR AFTER THE WIDE MEDIA COVERAGE THAT THE POLICE DEPARTMENT DECIDED IT WILL NO LONGER CALL BORDER PATROL TO SCHOOLS OR CHURCHES?
-Ne74


About 150 students, mostly from Catalina High, took to the streets in protest of a
fellow student that was deported along with his family after authorities found marijuana
in his backpack. The teens were shouting, "We're students, not criminals," and carried
signs that said "keep the migra out of our schools," and "we are students, not terrorists."
They ended up at the Tucson Police Department downtown.


TPD will no longer call Border Patrol to schools, churches


MARY BUSTAMANTE and DAVID L. TEIBEL news@tucsoncitizen.com


The Tucson Police Department will no longer call the Border Patrol to schools or churches when officers determine that suspects in their investigations are illegal immigrants.

The opinion was prompted by a protest and the deportation to Mexico of a man and the voluntary return with him of his wife and two sons.

The family had told police they had been here illegally for six years.

The incident occurred after police were called to TUSD's Catalina High Magnet School Nov. 1 because one of the sons in the family allegedly was found in possession of marijuana there.

School officials said the 17-year-old also appeared to be under the influence of a narcotic substance.

On Tuesday morning, more than 100 students, mostly from Catalina, gathered outside Tucson Police Department headquarters, 270 S. Stone Ave., to protest the removal of the boy and his family by U.S. Border Patrol.

Tucson Police called Border Patrol officials after they had been told by the family that is had been in the country illegally, police officials said.

But the students, some carrying signs including "Migra out of our schools," said they should not be afraid they are going to be yanked from their classrooms by immigration police.

In Arizona, all public school districts are forbidden by law to deny an education to any school-age child living here, Tucson Unified School District officials said.

The district's feeling on the issue was clear.

"We don't want immigration laws enforced on our campuses," said TUSD Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer.

He, deputy superintendent Patti Lopez and police officials including Assistant Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villaseñor, met as the protesters waited in a orderly fashion outside the station.

Pfeuffer said Villaseñor came out to speak with students after their meeting and pointed out the Border Patrol never would have been called by police if police hadn't been called to the school for criminal activity.

Villaseñor said police have to ask the question of citizenship when they are taking someone into custody.

But community activist Isabel Garcia questioned that action. And, she added, "you should not have called Border Patrol onto campus."

Villaseñor said Tuesday afternoon that TPD would no longer call the Border Patrol to churches or schools, although it will cooperate with Border Patrol.

The removal of the family prompted rumors of high school immigration raids, hotly denied by police and TUSD authorities.

The peaceful demonstration started about 10:15 a.m. and lasted about two hours.

"We should be safe in school," said Ener Lopez, 14, a ninth-grader at Catalina High, 3645 E. Pima St.

Araceli Sanchez, also 14 and a ninth-grader at the school, conceded the arrested 17-year-old student and his family were in the United States illegally, "but, he was just another student."

"We think that shouldn't be allowed, because school is where we're supposed to be safe," said Mario Portillo, 16, a Catalina 11th-grader whom students identified as one of the protest organizers.

"No matter if you're an illegal alien, you have the right to an education," Portillo said.

"How can we learn if we've scared the border patrol is going to come for us," said senior Jorge Guerrero, 18.

Pfeuffer told students at the demonstration that although "the school's got to be a safe place. . . . Obviously, we can't condone illegal activity."

Villaseñor concurred. "We can't lose sight of the fact that police were there because there was criminal activity going on," he said.

SOURCE:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/67973.php

Thanks to:
Ne74