CalAware Today

Open Campus Auxiliary Bill Nears Governor' Desk

OPEN GOVERNMENT -- The Assembly Higher Education Committee on Tuesday approved SB 330 – a reintroduction of last year’s SB 218 – to apply the California Public Records Act (CPRA) to nonprofit 'auxiliary' organizations that perform government functions at campuses of the University of California, California State University, and California’s community colleges, reports the office of Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), author of both bills.

Update: College's Hardline Speech/Assembly Bans

FREE SPEECH/FREE ASSEMBLY -- In an update on the South West College (SWC) crackdown on faculty support for student budget cut protesters, Peter Bonilla notes that a key target for reform is the policy that treats all but a small patch of the campus as a speech-free zone.

Report: Crowd Control Increasingly Militarized

FREE ASSEMBLY -- When the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Police Department deployed against a crowd of demonstrators a long-range deafening gun used previously by our forces in the streets of Iraq, the "non-lethal" arms escalation became the latest example of using military weapons and principles against civilian demonstrators, writes Justin Rogers-Cooper in the City University of New York Graduate Center's newspaper, the Advocate.

Court: Police May Arrest Protesters 'on Suspicion'

FREE ASSEMBLY -- "The police have no obligation to order a crowd to disperse before making arrests, a federal appeals court ruled today, marking a victory for the District of Columbia in a suit that alleges police unlawfully arrested a group of demonstrators in January 2005," reports Mike Scarcella in the Blog of the Legal Times.

Lawsuit Alleges Off-duty Cop Bullying at Meeting

FREEDOM OF SPEECH/PETITION -- A federal lawsuit has been filed against the City of Pomona and its police on behalf of more than 50 members of the Pomona Habla/Pomona Speaks coalition and others, involving an August 2008 meeting about traffic checkpoints that they say was disrupted by the intimidation of off-duty police officers, reports Monica Rodriguez for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.