Category: Politics

Join Occupy Sacramento on Monday, January 21, as we march with thousands of others to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday.

To march with us, meet us at one of two starting points:
1. Six-mile march: meet at the Oak Park Community Center, 3425 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Sacramento 95817 (8th Ave and MLK, Jr. Blvd.). Opening ceremonies begin at 7 am; march departs at 7:30 am. For more info, see map http://www.mlk365.org/#march

2. Shorter march: meet at Sac City College, 3835 Freeport Blvd., Sacramento 95817 (between the SCC bookstore and Hughes Stadium) Opening ceremonies begin at 8:30am; march departs after the main march reaches SCC, approximately 9 am. For more info, see map http://www.mlk365.org/#sac_city

Bring your own organization’s banner!

Join us after the march at the North Steps of the State Capitol for a celebration of freedom and democracy. Celebration is from noon to 4 pm.

Busses are available to take marchers back to the Oak Park Community Center and Sac City College. http://www.mlk365.org/#transportation

For more info, call Brother Carter at 916-275-8737.

March website: http://www.mlk365.org/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
for Friday, January 11, 2013
Contact: David Mandel, 916-446-5066

SACRAMENTO – The California Housing Financing Agency (CalHFA) will consider a dramatic proposal Friday to use billions of dollars from the TARP Hardest Hit State Fund to buy foreclosed homes and homes in default, and then resell or refinance them to their former owners with new financing at current market value, either directly or through a third party.

Details will be provided at a news conference Friday, January 11, at 1:30 p.m. at 500 Capitol Mall (street level). The CalHFA will meet at 2 p.m. in Room 1400 at 500 Capitol Mall.

Occupy Sacramento and California Housing Advocate(s) will ask CalHFA MAC(California Housing Finance Agency Mortgage Assistance Corporations) Board of Directors to implement in California the same program Short Sale/Buy Back Program that Oregon Financial Housing Administration is having success with (http://www.projectreconomy.org/component/k2/item/563-stories).

CalHFA Mac is the nonprofit entity formed to administer Keep Your Home California, which received nearly $2 billion to help struggling California homeowners to keep their homes.

“Our proposal is that CalHFA MAC use this $2 billion not for not just temporary help for homeowners, but for long-lasting, permanent solutions. This proposal can help a significant number of California foreclosure victims and provide the impetus to get more future funding. help the majority on lower and fixed incomes, such as seniors, benefit from the program,” said CHA and OS.

Since 2008, more than 1.5 million California families have lost their homes to foreclosure. Many more reluctantly concluded short sales or simply turned their homes over to their lenders. All these families have had their lives shattered due to an ugly mixture of predatory loans, absurdly inflated prices, dual tracking, denial of reasonable modifications — even banks foreclosing without proper loan assignment, or foreclosing mistakenly on the wrong house or on homeowners who are not in default, they added.

Copies of the proposal will be available at the press conference. It reads, in part:

“Discussion, recommendation and possible action regarding this Board instructing CalHFA to request U.S. Treasury authorization to immediately implement under the Hardest Hit States program the attached proposal for CalHFA to buy foreclosed homes, homes in default (as short sales) and/or loans in default. The homes would then be resold or refinanced, respectively, to their former owners, with new financing, at current market value. The purchase/sale could be done directly or through a third party intermediary, as is currently being done by the Oregon state HFA and others.”

Dozens of Anti-Foreclosure ‘Elves’ Defending Woodland Home Thursday Facing Eviction After ‘Foreclosure Grinch’ Wells Fargo Makes Mistake

WOODLAND – Dozens of Occupy anti-foreclosure activists from throughout Northern California – dressed as “Santa’s Elves” – have taken defense positions around a home here to prevent deputies from serving an eviction notice on a family. The action is continuing throughout the day.

Raw video here:

Calling Wells Fargo Bank a “Grinch” trying to steal Christmas from the Ponce family (couple and 4 children), Occupy anti-foreclosure activists from Sacramento, Davis, Woodland, Stockton and Marin began the defense of the home of Alma and Heriberto Ponce, THURSDAY, 6 a.m. at 1543 Paradise Valley Drive in Woodland. Yolo County Deputies are expected to enforce the eviction.

Last May, Occupy foreclosure action teams successfully defended the Ponce Family home after the bank foreclosed, even though the had been approved for a loan modification. Wells Fargo backed off from the eviction because of the publicity.

Wells Fargo made a mistake on the final modification paperwork for the Ponces and before it could be corrected, the house was sold in foreclosure, even though the bank assured the family everything was all right because they had successfully completed the trial modification period and received the final HAMP modification. This is an example of “dual tracking”, which will be illegal in California on January 1, 2013, when the Homeowner Bill of Rights takes effect.

Occupy Sacramento members have contacted Wells Fargo numerous times, suggesting a win/win/win solution which would benefit the bank and the investor who bought the house, as well as keeping the Ponces in their home. Wells Fargo refused; consequently the Ponces face eviction.

The home defense action comes on Dec. 6, nationwide Foreclosure Day, which is being held in more than 20 cities nationwide to bring attention to foreclosures happening around the country.

http://occupywallst.org/article/d6-reclaim-our-homes-reclaim-our-future-occupy-our/

MOVIE NIGHT! SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18
6:30 pm, Sol Collective, 2574 21st Street, Sacramento

Join Occupy Sacramento for an inspiring screening of the explosive documentary “HEIST—Who Stole the American Dream (and How We Can Get it Back)”. This film unflinchingly reveals the roots–some familiar, some surprising– of the American economic crisis and the continuing assault on working and middle class people by the mega-corporations and the elite. HEIST also presents a robust Take Action segment with real world solutions and footage from the Occupy Movement.

Watch a trailer for the movie http://www.heist-themovie.com/

Arrests Expected as Peace Activists, Vets from NorCal Blockade Beale AFB to Protest US Killer Drones; Two Days of Demonstrations Start Monday, With Direct Actions Tuesday

BEALE AFB (Marysville), Ca. – Military veterans and peace advocates have announced 2 days of protests here starting Monday afternoon – and say they will  risk arrest Tuesday – in an effort to stop the  inhumane and cruel U.S. Drone Program, now killing thousands of innocent men, women and children around the world. Activists will carry model drones and large photos of child victims of drone strikes to show the dark side of drone warfare.

The two days of protests will be held at the Main Gate to Beale AFB (North Beale Road near Marysville). Beale AFB is home to the U2 and the Global Hawk, the unmanned surveillance drone that is an “accomplice” in drone killings.

Monday (Oct. 29), 3-6 p.m.: Anti-war, anti-drone activists from Fresno to the Bay Area and from Sacramento to Nevada City will picket.

Tuesday (Oct. 30), at 6 a.m.: Activists are expected to mass at the front gates. Arrests expected.

Beale AFB has been the target of protests for years. There have been a series of direct actions leading to arrests this year, most recently at Hancock Air Base near
Syracuse, NY Thursday, where 17 were arrested.

Activists will demand: (1) An immediate ban on the use of all drones for extrajudicial killing (2) A halt all drone surveillance that assaults basic freedoms and inalienable rights and terrorizes domestic life in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia (3) A prohibition on the sale, and distribution of drones and drone technology to foreign countries in order to prevent the proliferation of this menacing threat to world peace, freedom and security and (4) The U.S. must immediately stop this lawless behavior of drone warfar that violates many international laws and treaties.

“US military and CIA Drone attacks have killed thousands of innocent civilians, including women and children, in the Middle East,  Somalia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.  In the name oF combating terrorism against the U.S. we are terrorizing innocent people, and creating many more enemies and potential terrorists in the process,” said a statement issued by Veteran for Peace, Code Pink, Chico Peace and Justice Center, Nevada County Peace Center, Peace Fresno, WILPF and World Can’t Wait.

“Our government has become lawless powers, acting as judge, jury and executioner, just because they can.  They use remote-controlled drones to kill women in their kitchens, elders meeting in their jirgas, mourners at funerals, and rescuers who try to help the wounded.  By most independent studies, the vast majority of those killed are civilians,” said Toby Blome, of CodePink’s Peace Delegation to Pakistan.

“When I learned about what we are doing with drones…killing innocent civilians, and see the faces of dead children and their mourners, I find the passion to do something.  That’s why I’m taking some action at Beale,” said Shirley Osgood, Occupy Nevada County and Nevada County Peace Center and Nevada County Green.