This morning four people Nacogdoches, Texas, “locked themselves to heavy machinery used along the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline route, according to the Tar Sands Blockade group. The action interrupted and halted ongoing pipeline construction until police pepper sprayed the blockaders and were able to arrest and remove them in flexicuffs. The action was planned [...]

Jose Pimentel faces state terrorism charges for allegedly building a pipe bomb that he planned to explode. Informants carried out a sting operation that eventually led to his arrest on November 18, 2011. Now, according to the New York Times, documents turned over to his lawyers show the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) played a [...]

A whistleblower lawsuit on behalf of two Chicago police officers has been filed in federal court. The suit alleges the officers faced retaliation after they discovered one of their fellow officers, Sergeant Ron Watts, was “robbing drug couriers and manufacturing a case against at least one confidential informant” at the Ida B. Wells public housing [...]

(update below) Two young women from New England who attempted to start a second tree blockade to stop TransCanada’s construction of the Keystone XL pipeline have been charged with felonies. They were arrested in the last twenty-four hours. As this blog reported yesterday, in Sacul, Texas, Pika of Vermont and Lauren of New Hampshire climbed up onto [...]

In an effort to connect the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline being constructed by the multinational corporation TransCanada to extreme weather like Hurricane Sandy, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein showed up to support the Tar Sands Blockade. Stein chose to risk arrest by taking supplies to the tree sitters. Backpacks and warm winter clothing [...]

Documents and surveillance video obtained by the Massachusetts chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) show the Boston Police Department (BPD) and the city’s Homeland Security fusion center, the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), have been spying on peace groups and local leaders. The documents show law enforcement [...]

More than fifty people reportedly risked arrest in Winnsboro, Texas, today, as they walked on to the area where TransCanada is constructing its Keystone XL pipeline and engaged in civil disobedience. Multiple individuals chose to defend and show solidarity with people who have been in the trees for the past three weeks taking direct action [...]

In East Texas, TransCanada, a multinational energy corporation, has transformed property surrounding the easement it has control over for construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline into a police state, according to the Tar Sands Blockade. Enlisted off-duty police officers are intimidating, harassing and arresting just about anyone they think is trespassing, even if those [...]

In a powerful short documentary posted by The Nation, a New York Police Department (NYPD) veteran, who has been part of the department for fifteen years, says of stop and frisks, “People don’t like police because of the harassment. And what civilians don’t understand is that the police department is forcing us to do these stops or [...]

Community, faith and labor organizations mobilized this afternoon for a rally and civil disobedience action in support of thirty-eight workers on strike at a Walmart warehouse in Elwood, Illinois. They marched down to this distribution center, and, at least thirteen clergy and community leaders sat down and blocked an entrance to the center to prevent [...]