After walking out of school to protest school closures and conditions, nearly 200 Detroit Public School students were suspended for as much as two weeks, their cell phones confiscated and gone through with phone contacts deleted by police.

A DPS spokesman later blasted the community for encouraging and participating in the protest.

Detroit News:

An estimated 200 students walked out of school midday Wednesday to protest the upcoming closure of Southwestern High School and demand improved conditions across the district. Students explained their reasons for walking out in a minute-long video posted on YouTube.

"We don't have the necessary supplies we need to learn," a student said in the clip viewed some 1,150 times. "Teachers should motivate us more to learn and succeed. … Some only care about their paychecks and not enough about our education. We want our voices heard in any decision-making process that will affect us as students."

Freddie Burse, another student in the video who helped organize the protest, said he learned he was being suspended after being pulled from the lunchroom Thursday.

After students identified as having walked out Wednesday gathered near the auditorium, school employees handed them suspension slips, Burse said. Students were not given details about why they were suspended, but the notices implied it was for being part of "a student demonstration."

In March, students at Denby High School in Detroit marched to protest plans to have the state take over the school as part of a plan initiated by Gov. Rick Snyder. Students were also suspended after they staged a walked out in March at an all boys school in Detroit to demand an education.

A student from the only all boys school in Detroit, the Douglass Academy spoke with the Detroit Free Press about their walkout:

"We've been wronged and disrespected and lied to and cheated," said senior Tevin Hill, who made the announcement to start the walkout. "They didn't listen to us when we complained to the administration. They didn't listen to the parents when they complained to the administration, so I guess this is the only way to get things solved."

Hill said he was accepted to Bowling Green State University but left the college's math placement exam recently.

"I'm generally good in math, but I was embarrassed. I didn't know any of it."

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in 2009 branded Detroit "ground zero" for education reform, however the district is still hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and faces dwindling enrollment, the first day of academic year 2011-2012 saw a 55 percent attendance rate.

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Update: We passed the half-way mark late this morning and things are looking a lot better than they were 24 hours ago. My most heartfelt thanks and admiration to all of you who have donated so far, including my colleagues at Crooks and Liars, you are all amazing. We're not out of the woods yet, and there is still a ways to go - not as far as yesterday at this time, but we still need to get the other half in order to save the Archive from destruction and Newstalgia from becoming extinct. Any amount you can afford to give will be appreciated beyond words. The donation amounts so far have run from between $1.00 to $100.00 and they are ALL gratefully appreciated. Any amount of money is money desperately needed at this point. I cannot thank you enough, to those who have donated so far. I cannot tell you how much your support means, to those who haven't yet. We're a lot closer to making this happen, and with your continued support we will succeed!

If you've just run across Newstalgia for the first time, please take some time to scroll down the page and check out the some 3,000+ posts, running the gamut from historic speeches (like this one) and historic events (like 3-Mile Island) to weekly Jazz, Rock and Classical concerts and everything in-between. It's all about history, all about information and all about our world.

I ran across an article about Eugene Debs the other day. Considered by many to be the first Socialist leader four-time candidate for President in the early 20th Century, firebrand labor leader and one of the more notable figures on the political scene from the 1890's until his death in 1926.

Here is an address, which has been attributed to an actor (Len Spencer) at the time, recorded shortly after he originally gave it in 1904.

Debs was renown for his public speaking, and his dramatic addresses were legendary. Although this is most likely not the real voice of Debs, Len Spencer was well aware of Debs' oratorical skills and was said to have captured the spirit of a Debs address quite accurately. Obviously, that isn't anything anyone can actually verify in 2012, so we'll have to take their word for it.

Here is the transcript of that address, as the original cylinder and recording techniques make it hard to understand at times:

Continue reading »

A disabled woman whose home is in foreclosure was arrested Thursday night after attempting to deliver a payment at the home of a Wells Fargo executive while about 100 protesters supported her on the residential street. Ana Casas, who says she is close to eviction after the bank rejected a loan modification on her South Gate home, defied a city ordinance by going up to the front door and demanding to see Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer Tim Sloan.

Via:

Police also allowed Ana Casas Wilson, who suffers from cerebral palsy and uses a motorized wheel chair, to wait 15 minutes at Sloan’s door with a mortgage payment on her foreclosed home. Casas Wilson, who has lived on the property for 27 years, said Wells Fargo has been unwilling to negotiate a loan modification although she is once again able to make payments after falling behind during a hospital stay.

About a dozen San Marino officers were joined at the scene by a handful of Pasadena police, while dozens of officers from Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Gabriel and Alhambra — many in crowd-control gear — waited on surrounding blocks.

Just before 8 p.m., about 90 minutes into the demonstration, police formed a line around the home, declared the assembly illegal and ordered the group to move 75 feet up the street.

Casas Wilson refused to go and was taken to San Marino police headquarters with the assistance of San Marino Fire Department paramedics.

“I’m doing this because people need to see what the banks are doing. It’s awful. It has to stop,” Casas Wilson told the Pasadena Sun. “When I was down and out in the hospital they took my house.”

In the video above from SGV News, the newscaster asks Ms. Wilson if she had anything she wanted to say to Wells Fargo, and she replied "They're going to burn in hell."

Not a good PR day for the bank.

Via Youtube:

CISPA...

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Follow @TheAnonMessage for the latest updates.
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To learn how CISPA would affect you, read here.

Who's lawless and out of control?

Not Guilty.

Judge dismisses charges against 30 members of Occupy Philly including freelance journalist and photographer Dustin Slaughter, charges of obstruction of a highway, failure to disperse and conspiracy stemming from a Nov. 30 protest sparked when police forced the Occupiers from their 56-day encampment outside City Hall on Dilworth Plaza.

Not Guilty.

Jonathan Zook of OCCUPY PORTLAND found not guilty on three of four charges, and guilty only on the nebulous charge of "interfering" with a police officer.

Not Guilty.

Five members of OCCUPY SEATTLE found not guilty because jury felt their actions in shutting down a branch of Chase Bank were justified.

Not Guilty.

Manhattan District Attorney dropped charges against New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez.

Not Guilty.

Ed Fallon of Occupy Iowa found not guilty of violating curfew law at state capitol because it's unconstitutional .

Not Guilty.

Previous group from Occupy Philly acquitted in February.

[H/T Michael Moore]

While you chat amongst yourselves, enjoy some Matt Pless and "Something's Got to Give."

Massive unrest is sweeping Quebec in Canada where 15,000 students have taken the streets. On Earth Day, they were joined by more than 300,000 protesters. A short film by Alex Pritz produced for the McGill Daily.

[Via]

Sadly, Wall Street's financial giants have learned nothing from Occupy Wall Street. Once again they have reverted to old predatory ways and are seeking to reap profits from those who can least afford to be targeted to have a single hard-earned dollar milked out of their pockets.

Via:

“I may as well have gone to a payday lender,” said Mr. Wegner, a 36-year-old nursing assistant in Minneapolis, who ended up choosing a local branch of U.S. Bank and avoided the payday lenders, pawnshops and check cashers lining his neighborhood.

Along with a checking account, he selected a $1,000 short-term loan to help pay for his cystic fibrosis medications. The loan cost him $100 in fees, and that will escalate if it goes unpaid.

An increasing number of the nation’s large banks — U.S. Bank, Regions Financial and Wells Fargo among them — are aggressively courting low-income customers like Mr. Wegner with alternative products that can carry high fees. They are rapidly expanding these offerings partly because the products were largely untouched by recent financial regulations, and also to recoup the billions in lost income from recent limits on debit and credit card fees.
...
“It is a disquieting development for poor customers,” said Mark T. Williams, a former Federal Reserve Bank examiner. “They are getting pushed into high-fee options.”

That $1,000 short-term loan if paid on the due date will cost Mr. Wegner $1,100, or a typical $10 for every $100 borrowed. The loans are offered as an advance on direct-deposit paychecks. On the due date, the amount owed is automatically deducted from the borrowers account whether there's enough money to cover it or not, which can lead to overdraft and other fees tacked on to the balance "that translate into an annual interest rate of more than 300 percent, according to the Center for Responsible Lending."

And the banks are counting on consumers to miss their loan deadlines, that's where most of their profits will come from with most of these consumers with either lower incomes, or poor credit ratings. They've certainly created enough consumers with poor credit ratings through the foreclosure crisis.

Don't expect to escape these high debts you'll rack up by using their "services," *cough* because remember now the new bankrupcty law of 2005 -- that was pushed by the banks -- eliminating some exemptions, raising legal fees, requiring credit counseling at an additional cost, and moving many from Chapter 7 to Chapter 13 with a long road to repayment.

Prepaid cards are also a new lure for lenders as they are not restricted by Dodd-Frank financial regulation law, leaving banks free to charge high fees each time a customer swipes their card. Banks are already under fire for not clearly disclosing the fees associated with their prepaid cards.

Customers with a “convenient cash” prepaid card from U.S. Bank, for example, pay a $3 fee to enroll, a $3 monthly maintenance fee, $3 to visit a bank teller and $15 dollars to replace a lost card.

Feeling special yet?

Banks have no shame. None. May Day can't come too soon and it can't last too long.

The infamous superlobby/moneyed conservative front group ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) counts hundreds of corporations among its membership, including UPS, Wal-Mart, Time Warner Cable, United Healthcare and Monsanto, among many others. On February 29, dubbed Shut Down the Corporations day, Occupy Portland was determined to haunt them all. Watch this video and slip into the May Day mindset.

Filmmakers: Occupy Portland Media Collective

Emily James spent more than a year embedded in activist groups such as Climate Camp and Plane Stupid to document their clandestine activities. With unprecedented access, "Just do It" takes you behind the scenes of a community of people who refuse to sit back and allow the destruction of their world.

Torpedoing the tired cliches of the environmental movement, "Just Do It" introduces you to activists who super-glue themselves to bank trading floors, blockade factories and attack coal power stations en-masse, despite the very real threat of arrest.

The film is a story of people standing up for what they believe and making themselves heard, and it needed to be told without the creative constraints of traditional production models or the editorial control of big investors. A truly independent project, "Just Do It" was made possible through 500 crowd funders, an army of over 100 volunteers, a slate of indie film giants and a handful of foundation grants.

On April 30, in preparation for May Day, Occupy.com will host a free 24-hour screening of the full-length film. Be sure to tune in!

Filmmaker: Emily James