June News Briefs

US Quietly Launches Largest Air Strike in History Against Somalia 

Admiral James Kilby, while speaking at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, revealed that while the Navy’s 6th Fleet was illegally bombing Yemen, the strike group also quietly carried out the “largest air strike in history” in Somalia. Some 125,000 pounds of ordnance were dropped on alleged militants. Kilby’s ship the USS Truman also came back from deployment having lost three F/A 18 Hornets at the cost of 70 million dollars each.

Campus Hunger Strikes Continue

Students at Yale, University of Oregon, Stanford, UCLA and the California university system continue their ongoing hunger strikes demanding their Universities divest from Israel. More students are joining the strike. Strikers are starting to report deteriorating health of those on the hunger strike. UCLA student and model Maya Abdullah has been hospitalized after nine days without food. 

Moody’s Downgrades US Credit Rating

Moody’s has downgraded the USA’s credit rating, the move brings the rating agency inline with the other agencies that have already downgraded America’s credit. Mounting national debt was the reason behind this move.

Polis Betrays Workers, Vetoes Bill

Polis says many pretty and reasonably sounding things, but his true loyalties come out when he reaches for his veto pen. On May 13, Polis vetoed the Workers Protection Act. “Governor Polis has chosen to protect an 80-year-old, anti-union law over the rights of working Coloradoans,” said Stephanie Felix-Sowy, President of SEIU Local 105.

Israel Allows Aid While Launching a Major Ground Offensive

A trickle of humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza after almost three months of Israeli blockade, after the U.N. reported that 14,000 children are likely to die of malnutrition in the next couple of days if aid wasn’t immediately allowed into Gaza. At the same time IDF forces launched a large operation in northern Gaza called ‘Gideon’s Chariots.’ At home, the MAGA regime is promising to forcibly relocate one million Palestinians to civil-war torn Libya.

Genrich To Get New Trial; Rubenstein to Waste $$$ on Another Appeal

In 1993, James Genrich was convicted of a series of seemingly unrelated pipe bombings in Grand Junction. Two people were killed and 28-year-old Genrich was convicted largely on tool mark ‘evidence’ on a wire from an exploded bomb. Tool mark evidence has largely been discredited as subjective rather than scientific. In 2023, Judge Gurly vacated Genrich’s conviction and ordered a new trial, but District Attorney Rubenstein appealed and last month an appeal court reaffirmed that justice demands a new trial for Genrich. Rubenstien has vowed to appeal again, this time to the Colorado Supreme Court. Genrich has maintained his innocence over the past 30 years of incarceration. Genrich is represented by the Innocence Project which has exonerated over 300 people wrongfully convicted by over zealous law enforcement and junk forensic science.

On Strike!

New Jersey Transit engineers have reached a tentative agreement after a three-day strike, on May 18. On May 8, after six-months on strike 2300 behavioral health professionals in Southern California reached a tentative agreement with Kaiser Permanente. On May 5th UAW workers at Lockhead Martin plants in Denver and Orlando went on strike for higher starting wages and pay increases and for Veterans Day to be a paid holiday. Also on May 5, 3000 workers at a Pratt & Whitney plant in Connecticut went on strike for competitive wages and improved retirement benefits. There have been 88 strikes across America so far in 2025. Chiquita Bananas fired thousands of striking workers in Panama, the company says the strike cost the company 75 million dollars, probably just cheaper to pay people enough to live in dignity. On May 18, 2000 Starbuck Workers staged a rolling strike across seven states.

Majority of Americans: Can’t Afford a Basic Quality of Life.

A new report by the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity has found that in 2023, a staggering sixty-percent of Americans could not afford a basic quality of life. Expect this number to increase significantly in the coming years. The American Dream is not just dead–it is starting to stink.

D49 Sues CHSSA 

Last month we reported on D51 School Board Member Andrea Haitz, Barbara Evanson, and Angela Lema signing on to a letter drafted and pushed by right-wing education lawyer, Brad Miller demanding that the Colorado High School Sports Association bar trans athletes from competing in high school sports. Well now Pueblo D49 has filed suit. D49 of course is one of Brad Miller’s clients. 

GJ Resource Center Closed June 10

After a year an a half the tent is coming down. It was used to deflect political heat the city of GJ was getting after undemocratically and unilaterally shutdowning Whitman Park. A highly controlled institution environment was never going able to meet the needs of the unhoused, as well as they could for themselves (with decentralized community acts of mutual aid.) in that park. RE-OPEN WHITMAN PARK. All of the Resource Center’s drama and special meetings stem from the short-sighted closure of Whitman.

LA UPRISING SPREADS

In what looks like a repeat of BLM uprising of 2020, resistance to the violent destruction of families and communities, has erupted. Large confrontational protests have begun in most large cities. Find ways to be in solidarity with those in the streets.

Supreme Court Unanimously Overturns ‘Bomb Train’ Ruling

At the end of May, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s injunction preventing the Unitah Basin Railroad. The ruling limits NEPA and will fast track more fossil fuel projects in the future. Eight to ten “bomb trains,” are expected to roll through the Grand Valley each day.