May 15, 2004

Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia charged nearly two months ago that U.S. intelligence operatives directed torture of Iraqi prisoners.

WASHINGTON – Mother Jones, the legendary labor agitator, made an unexpected appearance May 2 at the “Women of Steel” election conference here aimed at ousting George W. Bush from the White House next Nov. 2.

WASHINGTON (PAI) – If you can’t beat ’em, try to fool ’em.

That was the latest GOP strategy when dealing with the issue of workers’ overtime pay. Despite the Senate’s 52-47 pro-overtime vote on May 4, it could work – if voters don’t pay attention.

Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia had served three years in the Army and almost five in Florida’s National Guard when he was deployed to Iraq in April 2003.

He saw the brutalizing effects the war had on his fellow soldiers.

Elizabeth Fausto’s brother, Jose – an army reservist now serving in Iraq – recently learned that his deployment has been extended a second time, for a period of 120 days.

LOS ANGELES – When Rossana Cambron, a special education teacher from Whittier, Calif., saw Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) on a local Spanish-language television program April 30 speaking favorably of a military draft, she got mad.

Another coup attempt against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has failed. Eighty-eight Colombian paramilitaries were captured May 9 in Caracas while training for an assault on a military installation.

PHOENIX – Thousands of trade union activists poured into the Wyndham Hotel in downtown Phoenix on May 6 to hear Democratic Party presidential candidate John Kerry speak and to launch the Arizona Labor 2004 Kickoff campaign to kick George W. Bush out of the White House and send him packing back to Texas.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department said May 10 it is reopening the investigation into the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a Black teenager whose murder while visiting Mississippi was an early catalyst for the civil rights movement.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.: Vote stealers are at it again / SOUTH LIVINGSTON, Texas: State to execute mentally ill man / DAYTON, Tenn.: First ‘Gay Day’ celebration / PITTSBURGH: Steel city a civil liberties zone / EAST CHICAGO, Ind.: Steelworkers may strike to save jobs / WASHINGTON: Moms march to ban assault guns