California Topics

Democracy Now! stories, posts and pages that relate to California

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  • Martinlee-smokesignals

    Smoke Signals: Martin Lee on Growing U.S. Movement to Legalize Marijuana

    We turn now to look at the outcome of this month’s historic votes in Colorado and Washington state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Even before this, 18 states and the District of Columbia allowed the medical use of marijuana. Now, many are asking whether the passage of these latest measures could be the beginning of the end for marijuana prohibition. All of this comes as the federal government continues to consider marijuana...
    Nov 29, 2012 | Story
  • Amys_column_default

    California’s Food Fight: To Label or Not to Label GMOs

    Of the 11 initiatives before the 2012 California electorate, one drawing perhaps the most attention is Proposition 37, on the labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Whether or not this ballot passes could have a significant impact on how our food system is organized, favoring small, local organic-food producers (if it passes), or allowing for the increased expansion of large, corporate agribusiness (if it fails).
    Oct 25, 2012 | Columns & Articles
  • Jeanne_woodford

    Prop 34: Ex-San Quentin Prison Warden Jeanne Woodford Backs California Measure to End Death Penalty

    The former warden of San Quentin State Prison, Jeanne Woodford, joins us to discuss why she has come out in favor of Proposition 34, a ballot initiative to abolish the death penalty in California. Home to nearly a quarter of the nation’s death row population and in a state coping with budget crisis, independent analysts estimate that getting rid of the death penalty could save California taxpayers $130 million annually. The latest polls...
    Oct 25, 2012 | Story
  • Valeria_tachiquin-2

    Valeria "Munique" Tachiquin: U.S. Agent Kills Young Mother of 5 in Latest of Growing Border Deaths

    In the wake of a dramatic increase in deaths at the hands of U.S Border Patrol agents, the Department of Homeland Security has agreed to launch a long-awaited investigation into the agency’s use of force. Since 2010, border agents have killed at least 18 people, including Valeria "Munique" Tachiquin, slain by a Border Patrol agent on September 28 in broad daylight several miles north of California’s border with Mexico. Tachiquin...
    Oct 25, 2012 | Story
  • Prison_image

    A Life Sentence for Stealing Socks? California's Prop 36 to Decide Future of Three-Strikes Law

    Under California’s three-strikes law, a person convicted of a felony who has two or more prior convictions for certain offenses must be sentenced to at least 25 years to life in state prison, even if the third offense is nonviolent. Critics have argued it is the harshest sentencing law in the United States. Life sentences have been handed down for stealing a pair of pants, shoplifting, forging a check and breaking into a soup kitchen. Although...
    Oct 25, 2012 | Story
  • Prop_37_yes_no

    Food Fight: Debating Prop 37, California's Landmark Initiative to Label GMO Food

    On Election Day, California voters will decide on Proposition 37, which would make their state the first in the nation to require the labeling of food products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The California Department of Public Health would be responsible for labeling everything from baby formula and instant coffee, to granola, canned soups and soy milk. Many major corporations, including Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Pepsi and Coke,...
    Oct 24, 2012 | Story
  • Prop_37_protests

    Michael Pollan: California's Prop 37 Fight to Label GMOs Could Galvanize Growing U.S. Food Movement

    As California voters prepare to vote on whether to label GMOs in food, we go to Berkeley to discuss Prop 37 and its implications for the broader food system with journalist and best-selling author Michael Pollan. Among the nation’s leading writers and thinkers on food and food policy, Pollan is the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Journalism. He’s written...
    Oct 24, 2012 | Story
  • Bauer

    EXCLUSIVE: "No Way Out" - Freed Hiker Shane Bauer on Solitary Confinement from Iran to United States

    Shane Bauer was one of three Americans detained in 2009 while hiking in Iraq’s Kurdish region near the Iranian border. He and Josh Fattal were held for 26 months, and Sarah Shourd — now Bauer’s wife — was held for 13 months, much of it in solitary confinement. Seven months after being freed from prison in Iran, Bauer began investigating solitary confinement in the United States. Now, in his first major article since his...
    Oct 22, 2012 | Story
  • Subversives

    Read an Excerpt from "Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals and Reagan's Rise to Power"

    Read "Spies in the Hills," Chapter 1 of the new book, Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals and Reagan’s Rise to Power, by Seth Rosenfeld. Decades in the making, the book reveals that the FBI tried to disrupt the 1964 Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, helping to ignite an era of protest and to launch Ronal Reagan’s political career. Rosenfeld will be a guest Thursday on Democracy Now! His book also contains...
    Aug 22, 2012 | Web Exclusive
  • Chevron-richmond

    Chevron Oil Refinery Fire in Richmond, California Forces Over 900 Residents to Hospitals

    More than 900 people have sought medical treatment following a massive fire at a Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, California. Tens of thousands of area residents were ordered to stay in their homes with the windows and doors closed after a series of blasts Monday sparked blazing fires that sent huge plumes of smoke. Chevron now says the situation is under control. We talk with Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, a member of the Green Party, who...
    Aug 08, 2012 | Story