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This week on Uprising:

* Escalating Tensions Over Britons Detained in Iran
* Empire Notes on the fight over Iraq Appropriations
* Immokalee Workers’ Next Target: McDonald’s
* Black Agenda Report on Alberto Gonzalez
* Anti Porn Law Struck Down in the Name of Free Speech

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Escalating Tensions Over Britons Detained in Iran

GUEST: Reese Erlich, author of the upcoming book, “The Iran Agenda: The Truth Behind US Policy and the Middle East Crisis; ” his latest article on Iran, called “Brad Pitt and the …

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GUEST: George Monbiot, columnist for the Guardian Newspaper in Britain, author of several books including, “The Age of Consent: a manifesto for a new world order”

The Bush administration wants to cut gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next 10 years and instead raise the production of alternative fuels, including bio-fuels like ethanol, to 35 billion gallons a year by 2017. That goal has spiked the demand worldwide for corn, the main source of ethanol in the United States. The definition of bio-fuel is any fuel that is derived from biomass — that is recently living organisms or their metabolic byproducts. It is a renewable energy source, unlike other natural resources such as petroleum, coal, and nuclear fuels. Bio-fuel includes ethanol from corn; bio-diesel from fats …

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GUEST: Marcos Aguilar, Principal of Academia Semillas del Pueblo

The Los Angeles Board of Education voted yesterday to renew the charter of Academia Semillas del Pueblo for another five years. The 5-2 decision came just weeks after district staff had recommended non-renewal to the board on the basis of low test scores. However, in light of recent political pressure and new information, the recommendation was ignored. Gregory McNair, director of LAUSD’s charter office, had initially led the charge against renewal, but reversed his position, saying that Academia’s multilingual instruction needs more than a five year charter to be properly assessed. However, according to the Los Angeles Board of Education, under the conditions of the charter renewal, the school must meet comparable state and national standards for at …

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GUEST: Ferd Hoefner, Policy Director at the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

Discussions for the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill have begun among government officials, legislators and special interest groups. Every five years the Farm Bill, which is essentially a collection of laws that set the overall direction of U.S. agriculture policy, comes up for Congressional renewal. The Farm bill also specifies the amounts of federal subsidies to agribusinesses. So far, the proposals to address agricultural waste would continue government subsidies of factory farms. More specifically, policymakers have discussed continuing and even increasing subsidies for the so-called “concentrated animal feeding operations,” or CAFOs. Proposals for CAFOs are geared towards financially helping large agribusinesses comply with existing government environmental regulations. Critics say that such handouts encourage factory farms to …

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GUEST: Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report

This week’s commentary is about Alberto Gonzalez. Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Listen to This Radical Day in History

… about The US Purchase of Alaska.

Produced by Radio Rootz.

Radio Rootz works in public schools to train teens in media literacy and radio production. Rootz Youth analyze and critique the media, and learn how to create news that reflects their voices, issues, and communities. For more information, visit www.radiorootz.org

“The sinister idea of converting food into combustible was definitively established as the economic line of the foreign policy of the United States. Apply this recipe to the countries of the Third World and you will see how many people among the hungry masses of our planet will no longer consume corn… Or even worse: by offering financing to poor countries to produce ethanol from corn or any other kind of food no tree will be left to defend humanity from climate change.” – Fidel Castro, quoted from his first editorial after recovering from his 2006 surgery.

KPFK Pacifica Radio and El Centro Cultural de Mexico present a screening of the award winning film on undocumented immigration, “Crossing Arizona,” which Uprising featuring during the February 2007 Funddrive.

The screening will be held on Friday March 30th at 7pm at El Centro Cultural de Mexico, 310 W 5th street in Santa Ana, CA 92701 (near the corner of Broadway and 5th street).

This is a free screening although donations will be requested at the door.

For more information about Crossing Arizona, visit www.crossingaz.com.

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GUEST: Reese Erlich, author of the upcoming book, “The Iran Agenda: The Truth Behind US Policy and the Middle East Crisis; ” his latest article on Iran, called “Brad Pitt and the Girl Guerrillas,” appears in Mother Jones Magazine

Britain said today it would seek help from the United Nations against Iran in the dispute over the recent detention of 15 British Naval personnel. The Iranians are claiming that they were captured in Iranian waters, while the British military had earlier released what it called proof that its boats were in the territorial waters of Iraq, not Iran. Yesterday Iranian state TV showed a video of the sailors and marines being captured – a move loudly denounced by the British government. One of the sailors was …

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GUESTS: Jeanmarie Simpson is founding artistic director of the Nevada Shakespeare Company, wrote the play, A Single Woman, and plays the role of Jeanette Rankin, Kamala Lopez-Dawson, producer and director of the film, A Single Woman

In 1916, schoolteacher, seamstress, and suffragette, Jeanette Rankin became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress and the first woman elected to a national legislature in any western democracy. Only four days into her term however, the House of Representatives voted on a resolution to enter World War I. 50 members, including Jeanette Rankin voted against the resolution. This vote marked her staunchly anti-war tenures in Congress all the way through the US war on Vietnam. Not many people in the US have heard the name Jeanette Rankin. But …