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Facing an influx of angry and desperate students who could not add classes or were in standing – room only classrooms, a coalition of faculty and students at Cal State Northridge organized a week-long faxing campaign called “Vent at the Tent”. The “Vent Tent” which was up on the first day of school until yesterday, collected messages from over a thousand students to be faxed to the offices of the Governor, various lawmakers, and the CSU Board of Trustees. In addition to written messages, students and faculty shared their testimonies on video as well. During the last budget battle, the California educational system suffered a $9 billion cut while the State prison system was cut by only $1.2 billion. As a result CSU students received a 32% fee hike, classes were …

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The March on Washington

Back in the day on August 28th, 1963, hundreds of thousands of people participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Black union leader A Phillip Randolph first proposed the idea for a mass convergence on the nation’s capital. With organizational help from various civil rights groups, the planned demonstration faced disagreements from parties involved as to its stated objective. Some groups wanted to focus on black poverty while others wanted to show public support for the Kennedy administration’s proposed civil rights legislation. When the march finally took place, John Lewis of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee had to tone down the criticisms he levied against President Kennedy. The demonstration would later culminate on the steps of the Lincoln memorial with Martin Luther King …

“We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are.” — Adelle Davis

We’ll go to the campus of Cal State Northridge where students and professors have been gathering stories all week about the real and often heartbreaking effects of budget cuts. And we’ll speak with a journalist who just returned from Afghanistan covering the recent elections. Plus Food Fight, a documentary about changing the way we think about food.

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The Obama Administration’s stand on the recent coup in Honduras has many scratching their heads. While the President has denounced the anti-democratic move by a conservative regime to snatch power, tens of millions of US dollars are still going to the post-coup government under the umbrella of the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Within days of coups in Mauritania and Madagascar, the US cut off MCC aid money. Democratic members of Congress have asked the President to freeze the assets of coup leaders and deny them entry into the US. On Tuesday Washington announced it has temporarily frozen the issuing of US visas in Honduras. Meanwhile, Republicans leaders have threatened to delay a key Senate vote in opposition to what they see as Obama’s efforts to reinstate the democratically elected left-leaning government of …

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While many are buoyed by increased housing sales in the month of July, the housing situation of millions of low-income Americans is more fragile than ever. Those residing in Section 8 housing may face increased rent, or lose their homes altogether as federal funds dry up. Section 8 housing is defined by federal rental assistance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD. To make up for the increased demand in assistance, HUD is dipping into emergency funds and the Federal stimulas package passed this February but even that is expected to not last to the end of the year. Across the country, thousands of families are on waiting lists. In Chicago this week more than 800 people camped out in the rain waiting to apply for Section 8 vouchers, …

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The Kellogg-Briand Pact

Back in the day on August 27th, 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in the city of Paris by fifteen nations pledging to halt wars of aggression. In the wake of the ravages of the First World War, the United States and France had originally approached the notion of the pact through a bilateral agreement. U.S. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand discussed formally abolishing any possibility of war solely between the two nations, when Kellogg thought it best to extend the invitation to all nations. Among the initial signatories to the pact that called for the “renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy” were France, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Japan. Forty-seven nations would follow in formal adherence. Of …

“We frail humans are at one time capable of the greatest good and, at the same time, capable of the greatest evil. Change will only come about when each of us takes up the daily struggle ourselves to be more forgiving, compassionate, loving, and above all joyful in the knowledge that, by some miracle of grace, we can change as those around us can change too.” — Mairead Maguire

We’ll go live to Honduras to examine the effects of the coup, in particular how independent media have been attacked in recent days. And, we’ll look at the biggest crisis in Los Angeles that you haven’t heard of: Section 8 housing and how funding may dry up this year.

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Is the economy picking up or is it still plunging? Well, it depends on who you ask. In terms of long-term deficits, the White House Office of Management and Budget saw a rosy future. But the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office or CBO painted a gloomier picture. After heavy criticism, the White House revised its numbers to reflect a 9 trillion dollar deficit over ten years, as opposed to it’s original estimate of $7.1 trillion. The CBO did assess the potential effects of the $787 billion stimulus package passed in February, saying that “[E]conomic activity will begin to rebound in the second half of 2009, largely the result of fiscal stimulus.” Meanwhile the Commerce Department reported that home sales increased nearly ten percent in July, prompting some economists to claim that the housing …