July 14, 2007

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers returned to the capital from a July 4th recess with their constituents’ urgent demands for an end to the Iraq war still ringing in their ears.

PITTSBURGH — Domestic violence takes place behind drawn shades and frequently in front of children, who are often victims, and falls into the “dirty little secret” category of the law, where women’s voices and pleas fall on deaf ears. That’s about to change here.

NEW YORK — The mood was upbeat as leaders of the Communist Party and invited guests met here July 7-8. Buoyed by the sea change in the country’s atmosphere since last fall’s congressional elections, meeting participants analyzed the impact of that change on the labor and people’s movements. The meeting also projected a course of struggle in the new political landscape.

PHILADELPHIA — Some 9,000 National Education Association delegates wrapped up their four-day national assembly here determined to continue their active opposition to the Bush education agenda. Among the meeting’s highlights, none was more stirring than the adoption of a resolution condemning the Supreme Court’s June 28 decision overturning school desegregation plans.

LOS ANGELES — On the heels of a fare increase for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority comes a strike by coach operators for the neighboring Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA). The drivers are represented by Teamsters Local 952.

OAKLAND, Calif. — As leftovers from July 4 barbecues festered in the hot summer sun, locked-out workers were on the picket line at garbage giant Waste Management here and in other San Francisco Bay Area communities this week.

COLUMBIA, S.C.: Antiwar veterans tour bases, get arrested
RICHMOND, Va.: Support Republicans, lose your seat
TUCSON, Ariz.: Immigrant death toll climbs in heat
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.: Law restricts abortion, sex ed
NEW YORK: Rent goes up, again

ATHENS, Greece — A severe nine-day heat wave in Europe has broken 100-year temperature records. Throughout southern Europe and the Balkans, unusually high temperatures caused many deaths, including 29 in Romania where temperatures reached 113 degrees in Bucharest, the highest in 90 years.

Syria: Iraqi immigration causes disruption
Indonesia: Workers’ rights almost nonexistent
Mozambique: Renewed attention to agrarian reform
Chile: Subcontracted copper miners strike
Italy: Center-left coalition puts pensions back in budget

On July 2, BBC News broadcast a television interview conducted by reporter Claire Bolderson with Gerardo Hernandez, one of five Cuban men incarcerated in U.S jails since 1998 for defending Cuba against terrorism. Publicity like this for the Cuban Five is extremely rare.