We’ll speak with Chris Hedges about the decline of the newspaper industry; and we’ll do a special feature on the airline industry – from workers rights to customer satisfaction. Plus, environmental groups pressure the EPA to regulate mercury emissions.

Our weekly edition is a nationally syndicated one-hour digest of the best of our daily coverage.

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This week on Uprising:

* Hamdan a Test Case for Military Justice
* Mumia Abu Jamal on Media Coverage of Elections
* US Deal with India is Beyond Nuclear
* Black Agenda Report on Afghanistan
* Highly Organized Puerto Rican Teachers Face Repression

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Hamdan a Test Case for Military Justice

Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a father of two from Yemen, is standing trial in Guantanamo, Cuba, for participating in a terrorism conspiracy and faces life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors are portraying Hamdan as Osama bin Laden’s …

This Friday, tune into KPFK for live coverage of the House Judiciary Committee hearing on
the Imperial Presidency and possible legal responses entitled “Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitations”. Uprising will be back live on Monday July 28.

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The Los Angeles City Council voted on Tuesday to ban the use of all plastic bags in the city by retail and grocery stores by 2010. According to the unanimous decision the ban will go into effect if the state fails to impose a minimum 25 cent per use fee for consumers requesting plastic bags. More immediately, the city council also approved a ban on food service products using polystyrene, more commonly known as Styrofoam, for packaging from city events and facilities starting next year. The recent steps taken by the council were hailed by environmental groups as crucial to the future of the city’s environment and economy. As the second largest city in the United States, LA’s population uses an estimated 2.3 …

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The highly organized teachers of Puerto Rico have faced violent repression in their fight for labor rights and quality education. The Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico or FMPR, represents over 40,000 teachers and is the largest independent union in Puerto Rico. In February 2008 teachers voted to strike after working without a contract for 30 months. Their historic 10 day strike was met with police action and over a dozen arrests. The FMPR’s main opposition is Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila, whose government decertified the union in retaliation. Now, leaders of the FMPR are on a national tour of the United States and they’re coming through Los Angeles. Their aim is to “build solidarity with teachers and communities… about what it will take to win …

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The Federal Minimum Wage is set to increase 70 cents today bringing the mandated hourly pay rate to a whopping $6.55 per hour. Today’s minimum wage raise is the second of three annual increases set forth by Congress after a decade of no such action. With the U.S. economy in a fragile state, diverging views are emerging over the pay raise. The Employment Policy Institute released data that they say shows a wage increase now will cause job losses for vulnerable groups such as teenagers and adults without a high school diploma. The U.C. Berkeley Labor Center released new research that refuted such claims by stating that findings showed beneficial wage increases for the lowest paid workers have no such negative effectives on employment. Nevertheless, a 70 cent …

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Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is about Afghanistan.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

“No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country” –- Franklin Delanore Roosevelt

We’ll find out why Puerto Rico’s highly organized teachers face violent repression in their struggle for labor rights and quality education. And, as the LA city council agrees on an historic plastic bag ban, we’ll hear from one local activist how the struggle was waged and won. Plus, the federal minimum wage increases to a whopping $6.55. We’ll speak with Holly Sklar, author of “A Just Minimum Wage.”

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For over 20 years, the Los Angeles based theater troupe, Culture Clash has been examining the United States on stage, through a uniquely Chicano lens. Formed on Cinco de Mayo in 1984 in San Francisco, Culture Clash originally had 6 members, including Monica Palacios, a guest we had on Uprising only last week. Today 3 original members of Culture Clash remain: they are Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza. Counting Charlie Chaplin, Bertold Brecht, Cantinflas, and the Marx Brothers as their influences, the trio has consistently wowed audiences and critics alike with plays like “Border Town,” “Anthems,” “Chavez Ravine,” and more recently, “Zorro in Hell.” They have performed at the nation’s leading theaters including the Mark Taper Forum, The Kennedy Center, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Huntington, …