Tribal leaders and Native organizations from the United States and Canada are standing together today pleased that President Barack Obama is acknowledging his pledge to listen to the voices of this countries' original people, by rejecting the Transcanada Keystone XL pipeline.  

"This is one battle won for our Mother Earth," said Clayton Thomas-Muller, campaign coordinator with Clean Air ally Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign.

In her press release announcing the Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) resolution to amend their daytime curfew law, Board President Monica García gives credit to the Community Rights campaign for their struggles to amend the law.

In the latest advance in CRC's campaign to roll back punitive truancy/tardy ticketing, the elected board of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) yesterday voted to support City Councilmember Tony Cardenas' motion to amend the ticketing law itself .

CRC student leaders are featured in the current issue of Rethinking Schools magazine, a special issue titled, "Stop the School to Prison Pipeline." The article, titled, "Arresting Development- Zero Tolerance and the criminalization of children," is by Annette Fuentes, who wrote a guest blog with the CRC in August.

In February, the Community Rights Campaign and several local and national allies--including Dignity in Schools Campaign, Padres & Jovenes Unidos, Youth United for Change and the Alliance for Educational Justice--will be working with the Advancement Project to host a national training in Los Angeles, one of four regional action camps to train school-to-prison pipeline organizers, activists and advocates from across the country.

After two months of nominations it's now time for the 2012 BRU/SDP planning committee elections. There are 11 candidates running for election, 5 of whom will be elected. Learn about the candidates here. BRU/SDP members this is your chance to decide who should lead the BRU/SDP in 2012!

Los Angeles' top judge for juvenile courts has released new guidelines to eliminate fines and unnecessary court time for students receiving truancy / tardy tickets.  The court will also direct students who miss school to school- and community-based resources that are shown to improve academic achievement and get struggling students back on track.  This is a major step toward CRC's goal of rolling back truancy and tardy ticketing that targets low-income students of color.

The Bus Riders Union and a broad coalition of allies put Metro's backs up against the wall today in the first Metro Board meeting since the release of the scathing federal civil rights audit earlier this week. The Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) report calls into question the legitimacy and legality of policies that punished 100,000's of low-income bus riders and bus riders of color with repeated cuts in bus service and fare increases.

Read a blog by Community Rights Member Elizabeth Chaidez on the human impact of incarceration.

Imagine being taken out of society, and forced to live in cell for 5, 10, 15 or maybe 20 years, or forever, for a crime you may or may have not committed. You do not have any human contact except when you are transferred from one place to another. However, when you are transferred you are handcuffed and chained by the waist like an animal.