On Thursday, August 27^th, Californians United for a Responsible Budget and allies held simultaneous press conferences in Los Angeles, Oakland and Sacramento urging Governor Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown to choose human rights over politics as usual by not appealing the historic federal court order on prison overcrowding. We urged them instead to submit a comprehensive prison reduction plan by September 18th as ordered by the courts...read more to learn how to take action on this critical issue!

With the reauthorization of the Federal Surface Transportation Act (FSTA) still pending in Congress, the first delegation of Bus Riders Union members visited House Representative Watson's office to meet with her district transportation staffer, Ken Bell, last Thursday August, 20th, 2009.

Dozens of BRU members worked to collect close to 3000 postcards from bus
riders who were asked to grade their bus service in LA County. People were asked
to grade MTA bus service anywhere from an A for excellent thru an F for
extremely poor, on the following aspects: fares, night service, on-time
performance etc.,.

The good news is that as a result of the calls and emails sent by members of the TRPT campaign over the past month, the number of congressmembers co-sponsoring H.R. 2746 (Carnahan-MO) has grown. As you may recall H.R. 2746 is a marker bill that will allow more federal transit dollars to be used for the cost of operating buses and trains in the upcoming $500 billion federal surface transportation act (FSTA).

With the new school year approaching, the Community Rights Campaign unviels its "No to Pre-Prison" Human and Civil Rights Platform to demand the end to LAMC 45.04 and Truancy Tickets.

As local transit agencies cut much needed service and raise fares, despite the obligation the U.S. has to reduce green house gas emissions to curb global warming, forces in the world are calling for the restriction of auto use and working to implement policies to invest in a sustainable mass transit. Critical factors that shape the BRU’s programmatic demands – auto restriction, bus-centered system with bus only lanes and fare reductions as a means to free fares – are highlighted in the following articles of the last two weeks.

Barbara Ehrenreich's op-ed, Is it now a crime to be poor?, published on August 9th in the New York Times is an important contribution, written for the readers of the New York Times, about the criminalization of poverty in the U.S. 

On August 4th, a panel of 3 federal judges ordered California to reduce the prison population by 44,000 prisoners in the next two years to address the inhumane conditions caused by prison overcrowding!  As the LA Times reported: "The 185-page opinion...accused the state of fostering "criminogenic" conditions, compelling former prisoners to commit more crimes and feed a cycle of recidivism."

Our 4th annual Summer Youth Organizing Academy is underway. We launched SYOA last week with 18 students!

Transit advocates, environmental justice and civil rights groups come together in Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland, New York City and Portland to call their congressmembers to support H.R.2746 to combat the adverse impact the govenment's auto-centric policies have on communities around the US.