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.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has found unprecedented levels of racially discriminatory impacts in its civil rights audit of Los Angeles Metro, the second largest transit agency in the country. These findings represent the most serious civil rights compliance deficiencies by an agency in at least a decade. By finding Metro "deficient" in 5 of 12 civil rights categories, FTA went beyond its more typical findings of procedural 'deficiencies' to also find that Metro ignored evidence that its transit service cuts had a discriminatory impact on riders of color.

Indigenous leaders returning from Durban, South Africa condemn the fiasco of the United Nations climate change talks and demand a moratorium on a forest carbon offset scheme called REDD+ which they say threatens the future of humanity and Indigenous Peoples' very survival. During the UN climate negotiations, a Global Alliance of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities against REDD+ and for Life was formed to bring attention to the lack of full recognition of Indigenous rights being problematic in the texts of the UN climate negotiations.

The BRU, Communities for a Better Environment, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, and Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles have sent this letter to Mayor Villaraigosa and the Board of Directors of MTA calling for swift action on climate change. We demand restoration and expansion of bus service and a halt to the multi-billion dollar expansion of the I-710 freeway as two immediate actions that would benefit the health and well-being of LA's low income communities of color while reducing LA's carbon footprint.

Joining forces with Communities for a Better Environment, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, and Physicians for Social Responsibility-LA, the BRU marched to demand the Mayor and the MTA "Expanding the bus system, not the 710 freeway. Meanwhile, BRU organizer Francisca Porchas is representing Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and Transit Riders for Public Transportation in Durban, building our connections with the international climate justice movement.  

In selling new bus passes that are only good for 30 days, instead of
the old 31 days, MTA has once again limited our mobility and forced us
to pay more for less."With this new policy I can no longer get my child to school on the last day of the month because MTA found a way to make low-income families pay them more money." A single mother speaks out on the impact of the new policy.

Mother Earth Achieves a Victory Today with Obama Administration Decision to Delay the Keystone XL Pipeline Decision. Read the statement from Clean Air allies The Indigenous Environmental Network in the latest victory against Big Oil!