Zero Tolerance initiative continues its abuses of people of color. Last night (Tuesday, April 29th) an ARM (Rochester's Anti-Racism Movement) member was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after questioning officers who were racially profiling his 16-year-old brother and assuming him "suspicious of dealing drugs" when he got out of a car on his way into Extreme Graphics with his brother, saw a friend and gave him a cultural handshake familiar among black males.

To read the full article, click the "more" button below.

Additional Information: Minority Reporter Newspaper | Rochester's new "Zero Tolerance" initiative | $2.5 million set aside to fund "Zero Tolerance" | Community Speak Out Against "Zero Tolerance" | A Conversation With Tim Donaher, Monroe County Public Defender

An audience of around 50 people attended the May Day rally for workers and immigrant rights at the Liberty Pole on May 1st. A slew of speakers made connections between the immigrant rights movement, the anti-racism movement, and the anti-war movement both regionally and nationally. The rally took place despite a wave of terror launched by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who, days before the rally, raided a Mexican restaurant in Buffalo, NY taking into custody some sixty workers as well as another three farm workers from Wayne County, NY on May 1st, according to the Rochester Alliance for Immigrant Rights.

After the rally there was to be a May Day picnic and outdoor social that had to be relocated because of rain. The Anti-war Storefront on Monroe Avenue generously donated their space for the picnic to take place. Approximately 40 people attended; there was food, hula-hooping, sidewalk soccer, music, dancing, and radical readings from authors such as Emma Goldman, Voltairine de Cleyre, the Haymarket Martyrs, the Industrial Workers of the World, and others.

Photos: Rochester Against War May Day photo gallery | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

The governments of Rochester and Monroe County are at war with their own citizens, and it's about time that we started fighting back. It was bad enough when the county closed down the DIY music shows in the parks, and when the city closed down A/V space. Then the DIY Rochester website (on MySpace) went on "hiatus," and then the Treehouse got shut down. Now I read ("Bar Shots," March 26) that the town of Greece is closing down the Landfill, too. It's time to ask: what is going on here?

See also: Not your neighbor's drunken house party

This past weekend, April 25-27, animal rights advocates from around the region (ARA-UNY) were at the Blue Cross Arena demonstrating against the Shrine Circus.

According to animal advocates, performance attendances on Friday and Saturday seemed very low. After a cop and a clown told advocates that there were no animals being used in performances, further investigation by advocates revealed the circus using "bears, horses, dogs, tigers, and more." The evidence pointed to the fact that police and clowns are very untrustworthy. It was learned that these animals were leased from "Hawthorn Corp," "who, in 2004, were brought up on animal cruelty charges by USDA, and by 2007 had turned all their elephants over to sanctuary," according to the report back.

To read Lois Baum's full report back, click the "more" button below.

Photos of Shriners or people in their employ taking photos of Animal Advocates: 1 | 2 | 3

Additional Information: Cruelty Under the "Big Top" | The Circus: it's modern slavery | List of localities that ban animal circuses | Complete list of animal-free circuses | Circuses.com: The Circus is No Place for Animal Abuse

Buffalo, NY—A process that has taken nearly four years may be coming to an end. On Monday, April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled to dismiss the indictment against University at Buffalo Professor of Visual Studies Dr. Steven Kurtz.

In June 2004, Professor Kurtz was charged with two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud stemming from an exchange of $256 worth of harmless bacteria with Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Dr. Kurtz planned to use the bacteria in an educational art exhibit about biotechnology with his award-winning art and theater collective, Critical Art Ensemble.

More information: Background about the case | Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund | Strange Culture | Buffalo News: UB art professor Steven Kurtz cleared of federal charges