Former Philadelphia Police Captain Joins Occupy Protesters, Gets Arrested
- The Florida teenager who was arrested two weeks ago for causing a small exp...
- As some of you might know already, Nuns on the Bus will be making a pass th...
- As the shutdown of LSU’s Earl K. Long Medical Center in northern Baton Ro...
- Neither soaking rain nor the lack of permit from the City of Atlanta preven...
- Spokane City Councilman Jon Snyder and President of Aging and Long Term Car...
- One of the consequences of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s policy of shrinking state ...
- The Boston Marathon bombings happened more than 2,700 miles away, but fo...
- On Saturday, as Texas hosted the National Rifle Association’s annual conv...
- Clean energy opponents turned to dirty tactics this week at the North Carol...
- Last week, an exchange between Jeff Flake, Janet Napolitano, and Chuck S...
- An arbitrator said that a picket line of retired longshore union workers ...
- Within hours of renowned climate scientists announcing a staggering milesto...
Retired Philadelphia police Captain Ray Lewis was arrested yesterday after joining the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
He was charged with violating a local ordinance and two counts of disorderly conduct, including disrupting traffic and refusing to move on. This morning Capt. Lewis was released by police with all charges dropped. He says he was treated well in jail.
Now he's back at Zuccotti Park, where he plans to protest at least another week. He says he's staying in “the cheapest hotel that I can find,” but that cheap hotels unfortunately come with problems. “I’m going to have Thanksgiving at the square,” he admitted.
When asked if fellow police officers had commented at all on his protesting with Occupy Wall Street, Capt. Lewis replied “One said, ‘You’ve got the biggest balls, Another said he had the utmost respect for what I’m doing.” Other NYPD officers were more discreet, but Capt. Lewis said he also got winks and nods.
Link to original article on MyAuburn
States - New York
New York News
Malcolm Smith and the alleged plot to rig the New York City mayoral race, explained
Early Tuesday morning, the New York Times broke the news of the arrest of a state senator and a city councilman in a major federal corruption probe. They are accused of attempted to rig the city’s upcoming mayoral election. Four other New York political figures from both sides of the aisle were arrested as part of the alleged scheme. Intrigued? Confused? Us too. Here’s everything you need to know about the case. What happened? The probe involves both the New York City mayoral race and a development project in Spring Valley, New...
Rachel Weiner | The Washington Post 03 Apr 2013 Hits:374 New York
Read moreNY Rallies for Gun Control Legislation: 'History Cannot Reflect That We Allowed Sandy Hook…
Tony Bennett and Al Sharpton joined a rally in Harlem to demand nationwide gun control legislation. Each time Milagros Ortega saw a city council member pass by her on Thursday at a rally against gun violence, she stopped them and held up the picture she was wearing around her neck. “This is my son Francisco. He was shot and killed two months ago at the Queensbridge Houses. Please make other politicians pass gun control around the country,” she told politician after politician at a Harlem gathering to encourage other states to pass...
Alyssa Figueroa | AlterNet 24 Mar 2013 Hits:257 New York
Read moreNYS Assembly votes to ban fracking for at least two years
The New York State Assembly has approved, by a 95 to 40 vote, a two-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in New York. While it's unlikely to be passed in the Senate, the action reflects state lawmaker's growing worries about potential health impacts from the natural gas drilling process. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has led the way in recent days to ban hydrofracking for at least another two years in New York. The Speaker says right now, there are too many unanswered questions....
Karen DeWitt | North Country Public Radio 08 Mar 2013 Hits:374 New York
Read moreWoodstock Town Board First in State To Adopt Resolution in Support of Criminalizing Hydrau…
The Town Board of Woodstock, New York at its meeting on January 15 reviewed and adopted a resolution in support of a NY State law to criminalize hydraulic fracturing and related activities. The Town will submit its resolution supporting NY Public Law #1 to the New York State Legislature for implementation. Some 40 citizens in attendance resoundingly supported the decision. This resolution (attached) is in support of NY Public Law #1, which makes hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas and all related activities crimes under the state penal code. NY Public...
Linda Leeds | Sovereign People's Action Network 17 Jan 2013 Hits:2585 New York
Read moreNYC Fast Food Workers Strike for $15/hr Pay, Independent Union
Two hundred workers from dozens of fast food outlets in New York City—including McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Domino's, and Taco Bell—walked off their jobs Thursday morning to demand $15 an hour in pay and the right to form their own independent union, according to the organizers of Fast Food Forward. It is the largest strike ever in the United States against the $200-billion-a-year fast food industry and represents the latest in a wave of collective actions by low-wage workers to change conditions in their...
David Moberg | In These Million 30 Nov 2012 Hits:524 New York
Read moreOccupy Sandy: A Movement Moves to Relief
On Wednesday night, as a fierce northeaster bore down on the weather-beaten Rockaways, the relief groups with a noticeable presence on the battered Queens peninsula were these: the National Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Police and Sanitation Departments — and Occupy Sandy, a do-it-yourself outfit recently established by Occupy Wall Street. This stretch of the coast remained apocalyptic, with buildings burned like Dresden and ragged figures shuffling past the trash heaps. There was still no power, and parking lots were awash with...
Alan Feur | New York Times 12 Nov 2012 Hits:684 New York
Read moreDOMA Ruled Unconstitutional By Federal Appeals Court In New York
NEW YORK -- A federal appeals court in Manhattan has become the second in the nation to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its ruling Thursday. The decision upholds a lower court judge who ruled that the 1996 law that defines marriage as involving a man and a woman was unconstitutional. The three-judge panel says the law violates equal protection. A federal appeals court in Boston earlier this year also found it unconstitutional. The issue is expected to be decided by the...
Huffington Post / AP 18 Oct 2012 Hits:644 New York
Read moreAttack Ads, by Outside Groups With Murky Ties, Shape 3 New York Senate Races
In Westchester County, a television advertisement accused a Democrat running for the State Senate of using campaign money to treat himself to fancy dinners. In Rochester, a commercial branded a Republican candidate as anti-women. And in Queens, a mailer attacked a Democratic incumbent for providing taxpayer money to a nonprofit organization that facilitates parrot adoptions. The searing advertisements have one thing in common: they were financed by independent groups, not political campaigns. As both parties battle for control of the State Senate, the most forceful attack advertisements have...
Thomas Kaplan | The New York Times 17 Oct 2012 Hits:494 New York
Read moreRestaurant Union Workers Win Historic Victory in New York City
Fired by a union-busting boss, the workers occupied their restuarant and then opened their own sidewalk cafe--forcing their owner to cede to their demands. The restaurant workers who were fired and locked out of their store for organizing a union have won after a week of escalating protests outside the Manhattan cafe. Saturday afternoon, the owner declared that he had bowed to the workers demands to reopen the store, rehire all the workers and recognize their newly formed union, an inspiring labor victory at a time when many are...
Laura Gottesdiener | AlterNet 10 Sep 2012 Hits:668 New York
Read moreMexican Caravan for Peace Arrives in New York City
On Thursday, the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity arrived in New York City, one of the tour's last stops in the United States. The caravan is a group of Mexican peace activists, led by poet Javier Sicilia, who have been travelling across the United States throughout the summer to call for an end to the U.S.-funded drug war. The majority of the caravaners have lost family members to the raging drug war in Mexico, including Sicilia, whose son was killed last year. The ...
Laura Gottesdiener | AlterNet 07 Sep 2012 Hits:442 New York
Read moreMajor Rent Strike Against Millionaire Slumlord Catches Fire in Brooklyn
As foreclosures continue to put historic pressure on the nation’s rental market, slumlords now have more opportunity than ever to prey on the most vulnerable of tenants. The electrical box in the basement of multifamily brownstone on 46th Street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, looks like a middle-school science fair project gone horribly wrong. The door to the box is ajar and a cheap plastic fan, positioned only inches from the fuses, desperately tries to keep the wiring from catching fire when it sparks and ...
Laura Gottesdiener | AlterNet 13 Jul 2012 Hits:587 New York
Read moreThe Legislature's Black and Latino Caucus is peeved with Gov. Cuomo for not renewing the t…
Andrea Evans (l.) is the only black representative on the 11-member state Parole Board after Gov. Cuomo refused to renew the term of the panel's lone black male, Henry Lemons. State Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson (r.) said she spoke with the governor to voice her displeasure. Gov. Cuomo is taking heat from minority lawmakers for not renewing the term of the lone black male on the state Parole Board. Henry Lemons, a former deputy chief investigator in the state attorney general’s office and longtime Brooklyn prosecutor, was cut...
Kenneth Lovett | New York Daily News 05 Jul 2012 Hits:407 New York
Read moreRep. Charles Rangel defies demographics, censure to win tough primary
Rep. Charles Rangel’s victory in the Democratic primary for New York's 13th Congressional District shows that – despite demographic changes in his district, ethics woes, and a censure vote by his House colleagues – he’s still popular enough to win the toughest fight of his 42-year career in Congress. Tuesday's primary victory essentially counts as the election in one of the most Democratic-leaning districts in the nation. “MY district,” is how Mr. Rangel refers to it. RECOMMENDED: Rangel censure vote: 5 others the House has slapped down And so it continues...
Mark Lennihan/AP 27 Jun 2012 Hits:670 New York
Read moreHuge Multiracial Father's Day March Tells Bloomberg and NYPD, 'No More Stop-and-Frisk!'
Picture by Sarah Seltzer Momentum has been building in the movement to end stop-and-frisk, but many were still amazed at the size of the crowd Sunday. A Father’s Day crowd that some estimated to be as large as 50,000 marched in silent protest on Sunday afternoon in NYC, letting Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly know, in no uncertain terms, that they've had enough of the NYPD's policy of stop-and-frisk, a racial profiling tactic that has resulted in the illegal arrests of tens of thousands of young...
Kristen Gwynne | Sourced from AlterNet 18 Jun 2012 Hits:553 New York
Read moreLessons From the Victory at Sotheby's
Last September 22, when Occupy Wall Street was just five days old, labor activists from the encampment at Zuccotti Park disrupted an auction at Sotheby's in support of the locked out art handlers of Teamsters Local 814. This action began a collaboration that lasted nine months, eventually leading to the ratification of a new three-year contract that ended the lockout on May 31. George Miranda, president of the Teamsters Joint Council 16, said, "These hard-working men and women will go home today and...
Gary Roland | Waging Nonviolence 04 Jun 2012 Hits:505 New York
Read moreKids Inundate NY Gov…
The groundswell of opposition to the dirty and dangerous practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in New York has come from all corners of the state and from…
High stakes in fight…
The town of Vestal, N.Y., near Binghamton, is well-placed for natural gas development. Just across the border in Pennsylvania the industry is in full swing. Vestal is situated in one…
Hundreds of Students…
The chant is becoming familiar by now: "1, 2, 3, 4, tuition fees are class war!" But on May 22nd, the New York City streets echoed also with "Solidarité!" Hundreds of…
Low-Wage Workers in …
May Day, the Occupy movement and the 99 percent narrative have raised the voices of low-wage workers who joined together under the banner "Organize, Legalize, and Unionize." May Day…
Occupy’s Lockout: So…
Sotheby’s New York auction house made international headlines last week, selling Edvard Much's painting “The Scream” for a record $119.9 million. But few stories mentioned what was happening…
Brooklyn Grocery Sto…
As we reported in February, the workers at Golden Farm supermarket in Brooklyn are owed thousands in back pay thanks to years they spent working for less than…
New York: The Front …
Can a crew of CEOs, investors, priests, rabbis, enviros, and more score a huge campaign finance victory in the Empire State? Forget Washington, DC. The real front line in the…
Class Action Suit Se…
The New York Civil Liberties Union announced this week that lawyers have filed a class-action lawsuit against the New York Police Department’s “Operation Clean Halls,” a program…
Occupiers, Other Act…
Yesterday morning a number of New York City commuters were surprised to find that the entrances to some subway stations were chained open, with what looked like official signs…
PDA In Your State
PDA Radio - Upcoming Show
Leadership
PDA is looking for leadership in your state. Please contact us if you are interested in organzing at the state or chapter level.
State Leadership
Email us at: field@pdamerica.org
Chapters
Want to bring progressive change to your state? Start a PDA chapter; send us an email and we'll get you started.
Email us at: field@pdamerica.org
Take Action
Issue Team Calls
| Tue May 21, 2013 @ 9:00PM - 10:00PM Healthcare for All Issue Team Call (559) 726-1300; Access Code: 733525# |
| Wed May 22, 2013 @ 9:00PM - 10:00PM End Corporate Rule IOT Call (559) 726-1300; Access Code: 754227# |
| Mon May 27, 2013 @ 9:00PM - 10:00PM PDA ERA 3 State Strategy Call (559) 726-1300; Access Code: 787085# |
| Tue May 28, 2013 @ 9:00PM - 10:00PM Clean, Fair, Transparent Elections IOT Call (559) 726-1300; Access Code: 314363# |
| Wed Jun 05, 2013 @ 9:00PM - 10:00PM Economic and Social Justice Issue Team Call (559) 726-1300; Access Code: 781761# |
| Mon Jun 10, 2013 @ 8:30PM - 09:30PM End Mass Criminalizations IOT Call (559) 726-1300; Access Code: 331473# |
| Tue Jun 11, 2013 @ 9:00PM - 10:00PM End Wars and Occupations Issue Team Call (559) 726-1300; Access Code: 952870# |
| Tue Jun 18, 2013 @ 9:00PM - 10:00PM Healthcare for All Issue Team Call (559) 726-1300; Access Code: 733525# |
| Wed Jun 19, 2013 @ 9:00PM - 10:00PM Stop Global Warming Issue Team Call (559) 726-1300; Access Code: 661274# |
| Mon Jun 24, 2013 @ 9:00PM - 10:00PM PDA ERA 3 State Strategy Call (559) 726-1300; Access Code: 787085# |
PDA Issues
PDA is organized around several core issues. These issues include:
- End Corporate Rule
- Healthcare for All/Single Payer
- ERA 3 State Strategy
- Economic and Social Justice
- End Wars and Occupations
- Stop Global Warming
- End Mass Criminalization
- Clean, Fair, Transparent Elections
- Stop Voter Suppression
Each team hosts a monthly conference call. Calls feature legislators, staffers and other policy experts. On these calls we determine PDA legislation to support as well as actions and future events.