“It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home. ” — Carl T. Rowan …

We’ll examine the politics of the payroll tax extension and what both Republicans and Democrats are pushing. Plus, a follow-up with journalist Matthew Fleischer on the on-going investigation of abuse within LA County Jails. Plus, the US Human Rights Network brings its conference to Los Angeles on International Human Rights Day. …

On Wednesday November 30th, over a thousand people gathered at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles to hear a speech by the acclaimed physician and best-selling author Gabor Mate. The speech was the first of Uprising Media’s Speaker Series.

Two bomb blasts apparently targeting Shia Muslim shrines as hundreds of people gathered to mark the day of Ashoura have killed at least 60 people and injured scores more, according to Afghan police and media reports.

At least 56 people were killed by a suicide bomber who detonated explosives at the gate of the Abu-Ul Fazil shrine in the capital Kabul on Tuesday, many of them children, the AFP news agency reported.

Al Jazeera’s Jennifer Glasse, …

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai is calling on U.S. forces to cease their controversial and increasingly frequent night raids. The two countries have been in talks about the future of their collaborative military efforts since March. However, the Afghan government has made firm demands that if the tactics used by the U.S. military of conducting night raids into the private homes …

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Police arrested thirty one people at the Occupy D.C. encampment this past weekend when protesters refused to take down a wooden structure they had erected in McPherson Park. In response, hundreds of clamorous Chicagoans affiliated with Occupy Chicago left for Washington DC yesterday morning targeting the national mall with four days of protest in support of their D.C. colleagues. With …

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The Department of Justice is reviewing new laws enacted by a handful of state legislatures that restrict how and when voters may cast a ballot. The DOJ will be looking for violations of the Voting Rights Act, established in 1965 to prohibit discriminatory voting practices such as literacy tests. New laws have been enacted in Wisconsin, Rhode Island and Kansas, …

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Civic Circus with Ankur Patel breaks down local politics, with a weekly report on city, county, and state bureaucracies.

A little bit of background: The UC system comprises of 10 campuses and has about 220,000 students, while the CSU system is made up of 23 campuses and has about 440,000 students. The decision making body for the UC System is the …

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“I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.” — Bishop Desmond Tutu …

They call it the Robin Hood tax — a tiny levy on trades in the financial markets that would take money from the banks and give it to the world’s poor.

And like the mythical hero of Sherwood Forest, it is beginning to capture the public’s imagination.

Driven by populist anger at bankers as well as government needs for more revenue, the idea of a tax on trades of stocks, bonds and other financial instruments has attracted …

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