Dec. 8, 2007

The campaign to reshape Venezuela’s 1999 constitution toward a socialist future ended Dec. 2 in a narrow defeat for the government of President Hugo Chavez.

It looks like President Bush’s apocalyptic push for World War III with Iran has been postponed. With the stunning release of the National Intelligence Estimate this week reporting that Iran ended its nuclear weapons program in 2003 (if it ever had one, which is up for debate), the “war option” is “off the table” for now, at least according to numerous government officials.

LOS ANGELES — Next year labor contracts covering some 350,000 union members in 30 union locals in Los Angeles County will expire, while tens of thousands more are organizing for first contracts.

WASHINGTON — In the spirit of holiday giving, labor and community activists are descending on lawmakers’ offices this month with a warning: enact SCHIP children’s health care by a veto-proof margin now or face removal from office next fall.

CHICAGO — Wearing white lab coats and red armbands, dozens of American Medical Student Association members from schools across the Midwest rallied here Nov. 30, urging presidential candidates to back expanded, comprehensive programs to fight AIDS and reject President Bush’s abstinence-only focus. Nationwide rallies took place in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., on Dec. 1.

SAN FRANCISCO — A statement issued last week by Nobel Peace Prize laureates including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has galvanized attention on a long-simmering case involving eight former Black Panther Party members charged with the 1971 murder of a San Francisco police sergeant. The men and their supporters contend the evidence cited against them was obtained under torture.

CLEVELAND — The Ohio AFL-CIO is mobilizing an army of political activists to make sure Democrats win the state in next year’s elections.

Service and maintenance workers at Yale University, members of Local 35 Unite Here, have become the target of an anti-immigrant hate group seeking to create racial divisions and undermine the union leadership.

Workers at Yale are still waiting for an apology, five weeks after an African American library worker was the victim of racial profiling by a supervisor.

Opposition to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding the service of gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals in the U.S. armed forces is gaining momentum — this time from within the military community.