Published by Truthdig.com on December 5, 2013

By Sonali Kolhatkar

Over the past 50 years, the city of Los Angeles has made great strides to curb its smog problems by cutting vehicle emissions. But now, the emerging “fracking” industry threatens to undo much of that progress by wantonly spewing toxic chemicals into the air.

Fossil fuel companies, in an attempt to squeeze more and more oil and gas out of the earth, have popularized a highly …

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“Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.” — Stella Adler …

On Saturday December 7th 2013, Spirit Awakening Foundation will hold its seventh annual event showcasing the written work of formerly imprisoned youth called Voices of the Unheard at the Los Angeles Theater Center in downtown LA.

Akuyoe Graham is founder of Spirit Awakening Foundation, author of “The Little Book of Transformation/7 Days to a Brand New You,” and creator of a writing program “Writes of Passage” which was heralded by California’s State Department of Justice as “innovative and effective” in preventing youth gang violence.

Quiyona Bridges is a “graduate”- of the Spirit Awakening creative writing and life skills program, who was in juvenile detention in Santa Clarita as a teenager some years ago, currently a Sociology major in college, and mentors other students in the program.

Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar interviewed Akuyoe and Quiyona about the program and the upcoming event.

Watch a video of the interview here: http://youtu.be/A1uQSrJe5BE.

Bipasha Shom recorded this interview.

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Uprising’s guest expert Rahul Mahajan, sociologist and news analyst and author of Full Spectrum Dominance: US Power in Iraq and Beyond, analyzes today’s news headlines:

Newly obtained documents show that the American Legislative Exchange Council has lost a significant amount of funding and members. The Guardian newspaper has just published an exposé on the state of ALEC – a controversial collaboration between …

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A judge ruled yesterday that the city of Detroit is eligible to proceed with a bankruptcy filing, making it the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history. The decision was much anticipated by local government officials who see it as a way to revitalize a city burdened with $18 billion of debt. But unions and city workers are angered by the ruling …

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A Bloomberg Businessweek report on the impact of raising the minimum wage recently profiled a woman named Shawndraka Mack who has been working for McDonald’s full time for six years but cannot afford to eat there herself. Meanwhile, according to a new report by the Institute for Policy Studies’ Sarah Anderson, McDonald’s “CEO in 2011 and the first half of 2012, …

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The United States not only imprisons more people than any other country in the world, it also holds the record for the largest number of youth behind bars.

It was a year ago that the Supreme Court ruled the practice of sentencing juveniles to life sentences without parole was unconstitutional. And, while the ruling seemed to offer some hope to the …

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We’ll find out why labor unions and activists are up in arms over Detroit’s bankruptcy filing with our guest Dianne Feeley, a former auto worker and writer. And, how the Fast Food industry is capitalizing on tax loopholes to over-pay its already overpaid CEOs while its workers barely make minimum wage. Plus, a local event features spoken word by formerly incarcerated youth. We’ll hear meet one young person who’s involved. …

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Uprising’s guest expert Robert Jensen, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, analyzes today’s news headlines:

Two men are calling on the European Court of Human Rights to hold Poland responsible for the torture they suffered at the hands of the US CIA at a secret “black” site in that nation. Abd al-Rahim Hussayn Muhammad al-Nashiri, a Saudi man …

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Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian protestors gathered in Independence Square, in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, this weekend, demanding the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych. The public anger was a response to the rejection by Yanukovych of a pact with the European Union which he had spent months publicly intending to sign but then balked at the last minute from signing. On Saturday …

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