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Tuesday 01 May 2012

Live Coverage: Occupy May Day
Media for the 99%, The Media Consortium: "Truthout's Matt Renner joins a roundtable of guests from The Media Consortium on Free Speech TV to discuss themes related to today's May Day celebrations and protests. Truthout reporters Yana Kunichoff in Chicago (@Yanazure), Susie Cagle in the Bay Area (@susie_c) and Jesse Myerson in New York (@JAMyerson) will be contributing updates from on the ground. Watch the live video above, the Storify and Map below and Truthout's Twitter feed for continual coverage of todays events."
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May Day Celebrations Continue in Oakland, San Francisco
Susie Cagle, Truthout: "Last fall's General Strike in Oakland was a historic event, as thousands of Bay Area residents converged on downtown from the very start of the day. Protesters ruled the town and police were relatively hands off until the evening. Today, a fraction of that crowd - several hundred at its peak - has attempted to shut down the town, while police have been more aggressive."
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Across New York City, People Honor May Day
J.A. Myerson, Truthout: "Walter Hillegas marches with a scale-model of the former World Trade Center. 'I was there for the first five days after the tower came down,' he tells me, 'doing debris-recovery and victim-removal. I got sick and lost my job.' Hillegas is beset by sarcoidosis and lower lumbar spondylosis, both of which he attributes to his first responder work in the days after September 11, 2001. 'These guys taught me how to stand up,' he says of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters in whose midst he marches. Hillegas had his day in court this week and won: 'I'm here to honor them.'"
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Chicago's May Day Takes the Streets
Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "The birthplace of May Day celebrated the workers' holiday Tuesday with an Occupy-led action against Bank of America and a thousand-strong march chanting for immigrant rights and justicia for the 99 percent. 'Unionize, Organize, Papeles Para Todos [Papers for All]' was the slogan of this year's May Day, bringing together two traditional strongholds of the march in Chicago - immigrant rights and labor."
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Arun Gupta | How to Rebrand Occupy
Arun Gupta, Truthout: "'The 99% Movement' has something for everyone, even the left, but is it Occupy? By all measures the Occupy movement is a powerful brand. It has thousands of spin-offs such as Occupy Our Homes, Occupy Money, Occupy the Hood, Occupy Gender Equality and Occupy the Food System. It has powerful name recognition, snagging 'word of the year' honors in 2011. And now, ardent supporters are manning the ramparts to defend its integrity."
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British Panel Finds Murdoch Unfit to Lead Media Empire
John F. Burns and Alan Cowell, The New York Times News Service: "In a damning report after months of investigation into the hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers, a parliamentary panel here concluded on Tuesday that he was 'not a fit person' to run a huge international company, amplifying a public outcry against him, but threatening further bruising divisions within the political establishment."
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Bill Moyers | Marty Kaplan on Big Money's Effect on Big Media
Bill Moyers, Moyers & Co.: "Big money and big media have coupled to create a ‘Disney World' of democracy in which TV shows, televised debates, even news coverage is being dumbed down, just as the volume is being turned up. The result is a public certainly more entertained, but less informed and personally involved than they should be, says Marty Kaplan, director of USC's Norman Lear Center and an entertainment industry veteran. Bill Moyers talks with Kaplan about how taking news out of the journalism box and placing it in the entertainment box is hurting democracy and allowing special interest groups to manipulate the system."
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Sarah van Gelder | Why This May Day Matters
Sarah van Gelder, YES! Magazine: "If the mainstream media was confused about Occupy Wall Street in its early days in Zuccotti Park, they're bound to be completely befuddled this May Day. May Day already has a lot piled on it. In pre-Christian Europe, May Day was a time to dance, light bonfires, sing, and carry on in celebration of the changing seasons. May Day also marks the anniversary of the 1886 Haymarket massacre, which occurred during a Chicago strike for the eight-hour work day. Also called International Workers' Day, it's a holiday in more than 80 countries."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: CISPA Might Be Another Example of Bought and Paid-For Legislation, and More
In today's On the News segment: Workers of the world are uniting in a global day of action, five men arrested in Ohio for attempting to blow up a bridge, Democratic state lawmakers are fleeing ALEC, and more.
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Jerry Elmer | Martyrs for Justice: The Haymarket Affair and the Origins of May Day
Jerry Elmer, New Clear Vision: "May Day is celebrated in at least 80 countries worldwide, from Argentina to Vietnam, but not in the United States. Here, our 'Labor Day' was carefully put into September – by President Grover Cleveland in 1894 – specifically so that we would not observe May Day, with all of its radical roots in syndicalist labor history. This is deeply ironic, for the event that gave rise to May Day observances the world over occurred right here in the United States: the bombing at Haymarket Square, Chicago, on May 4, 1886, during a labor rally."
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The 2012 Hunger Games: Sending Debt Peonage, Poverty, and Freaky Weather Into the Arena
Rebecca Solnit, TomDispatch: "When I was growing up, I ate books for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and since I was constantly running out of reading material, I read everyone else's - which for a girl with older brothers meant science fiction. The books were supposed to be about the future, but they always turned out to be very much about this very moment."
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Affordable Housing Wobbles as Redevelopment Agencies Close
Rene Ciria-Cruz, New America Media: "Affordable housing advocates across California are scrambling for alternative sources of funding following the closure of the state's redevelopment agencies last February. A state law upheld by the California Supreme Court mandated the dismantling, which aims to redirect billions in property tax earnings held by the redevelopment agencies (RDAs) back to local governments to help close a huge gap in the state's general fund."
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The BuzzFlash commentary for Truthout will return soon.

Ending Poverty Should Not be Tainted and Forgotten Because of the Personal Sins of John Edwards
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Four New York City Lawmakers Sued the City Over its Handling of the Occupy Wall Street Protests
Read the Article at AP

US Official Acknowledges Drone Strikes
Read the Article at NBC News

Lehman Bros. Pay Report Brings Calls for Reform
Read the Article at The Los Angeles Times

What No One Said About NCLB Profiteering (Except the People Who Were Saying It)
Read the Article at FAIR

Some Israelis Resist Netanyahu
Read the Article at Consortium News

Four Medical Implants That Escaped FDA Scrutiny
Read the Article at ProPublica

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