Interview by Mike Coday

Thanks for agreeing to talk with us about your life and legal issues, Joe. I read the first part of your interview with Olympia Power and Light. That was a good interview and covered a lot of ground, but I think Works in Progress has questions for you that did not come up in the earlier interview. The first question that comes to mind is why did you ever trust Jeff Kingsbury so much? Do you and Jeff go back further than the recent political history of running for office at the same time and serving together on the City Council? Had Jeff been a reliable friend to you outside of your political lives?

from WIP News Service

The recent raids by the Israeli Defense Forces on several humanitarian vessels bringing aid to the people of Gaza represent a stark escalation in the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine. While the killing of Palestinians involved in non-violent protest have become commonplace in occupied Gaza, the slaughter of nine humanitarians aboard the MV Mavi Marmara in international waters on a mission of peace has sparked a global outcry. The call to end the siege on Gaza is louder now than ever.

by Zoltan Grossman

I visited Tucson on May 20-22, originally to attend the annual conference of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA). http://www.naisa.org. But when the anti-immigrant Senate Bill 1070 was signed by Gov. Jan Brewer, Rep. Raul Grijalva called for a boycott of the state by future conventions. Local Native and Chicano activists went a step further, welcoming educators and activists to come to the state--but only if they turn their previously planned conferences into forums against SB1070, refuse to patronize corporate hotels and restaurants, and actively hold protests against the new apartheid laws.

by Angela Davis

Imprisonment has become the response of first resort to far too many of the social problems that burden people who are ensconced in poverty. These problems often are veiled by being conveniently grouped together under the category "crime" and by the automatic attribution of criminal behavior to people of color. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages.

by Wally Cuddeford

On the evening of March 4, in a college bar in Milledgeville, Georgia, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger brought a college student with him into the VIP area of the Capitol City Club, where he provided her drink after drink. Not long after this, Roethlisberger followed her into a back bathroom, where he raped her. A month later, on April 12, District Attorney Fred Bright in Milledgeville, Georgia, held a press conference to announce he would not pursue charges of sexual assault against the Steelers quarterback.

by Joshua Neuhouser

Last month, we ran the first part of an article about a video released by WikiLeaks that showed the killing of Reuters journalists Namir Noor-Elden and Saeed Chmagh by US forces. We follow it up this month by examining the risks that news agencies ran with their Iraqi employees and how it has affected our view of the war.

Interview by Mike Coday

Thanks for agreeing to talk with us about the raid on the home of Joe Hyer. As you know, the public has a lot questions regarding how that investigation developed, the tactics of the raid and the motivations behind the investigation, raid and prosecution.

by Joanne McCaughan

Dateline: May 15, 2010, Machinists Hall, South Seattle - Washington State Labor Council COPE [Committee on Political Education of the WSLC] Convention. Saturday morning, 7 a.m., pretty early to be in Seattle. Unions caucus first, gathering their strength for the day's hard work ahead, coming together for strategy sessions, leaning into their base to create unity. Talk of the recent legislative session, how much was at stake, how much was lost. For state and other public employees, it was an uphill battle all during the session, right to the last minute of the special session and final signing of the budget. Battles over the privatization of children's services and liquor stores, attacks on public employee health care funding, furloughs and worse, layoffs, prison and other institutional closures, agency mergers and other 'efficiencies' were proposed.

by Janet Harwell Boggs

Last April, Washington CAN! and O.U.R. Washington led their members in a sit-in at the Bank of America building in downtown Seattle, WA. The crowd of more than 30 members protested Bank of America's failure to modify home mortgage loans and demanded a moratorium on all foreclosures, a homeowner's community center, and an end to predatory lending and racial redlining.

by Cheryl Crist

My name is Cheryl Crist and I'm running for Congress because I still believe in hope and change. When we send young men and women to kill and die around the world, when 18 thousand Americans die from lack of health care each year, and when Washington State has more than nine percent unemployment, my conscience compels me to stand up for peace, for prosperity, and for the people of the 3rd District.

by Pat Tassoni
Originally printed in the January 1995 Works In Progress

On December 14th, Tim Marshall of Immigrant Rights Movement of San Francisco spoke on the resistance campaign against Proposition 187 in California. Tim, a student at San Francisco State toured the Northwest to educate people about the passage of Proposition 187 and the coalition he is working with to resist implementation. This presentation was sponsored by Puget Sound Solidarity.