May 3, 2015 (Borrego) – La Casa del Zorro in Borrego Springs is offering several upcoming attractions, set against a beautiful desert backdrop.

Consumer group starts petition to urge more review

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: GMO salmon (back) is larger than non-GMO salmon of same age

May 2, 2015 (Washington D.C.)  -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is considering approving a genetically modified salmon – not as a food, but as an “animal drug,” according to Sarah Alexander at Food and Water Watch.  If approved, it would be the first GMO animal allowed into our food chain. But tests have found high levels of both hormone and potential allergens.  Only six fish were tested for allergies – but those fish had an allergenic potency was 20 to 50 percent higher in the GMO salmon than non-GMO salmon.

By Leon Thompson

Photo: Winona LaDuke with her cousin, ECM Tribal Beat journalist Leon Thompson

May 2, 2015, 2015 (SDSU Montezuma Hall) - The Conrad Prebys Student Center at San Diego State University was filled on Earth Day, April 22, as Winona LaDuke took the stage dwarfed by the giant screen depicting the past splendor and future possibilities of her native White Earth Nation.  In the language of the Anishinaabe she brought greetings and recounted the Ojibwa names for the months or moons noting that not one of them was named after a Roman Emperor.

May 2, 2015 (San Diego’s East County)--Mothers across the country are telling their personal stories of drug war damage with stories, articles and interviews in honor of Mother’s Day. By sharing these powerful stories of losing loved ones to drug-prohibition-related violence, incarceration, overdose and addiction, they are bringing focus to a real need to reform our nation’s drug policies.  Many of the moms leading this campaign have been personally impacted by the war on drugs, including having children who suffer from addiction and who have been repeatedly incarcerated, or have died from preventable drug overdoses and other drug related problems.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Maryland Attorney General Marilyn Mosby is nation’s youngest top prosecutor

May 2, 2015 (Baltimore) – Six Baltimore police officers are under arrest, facing charges ranging from manslaughter to murder for the death of Freddie Gray,  a 25-year-old African American man.  Gray’s death of a spinal cord injury while in custody sparked riots in Baltimore and other cities.

Goal is to Increase State's Dismal Voter Turnout

By Suzanne Potter, California News Service

May 1, 2015 (Sacramento)--Before the 2016 election most California drivers could be automatically registered to vote and receive their ballot in the mail all without having to lift a finger. Today, the Assembly Transportation Committee hears a bill to authorize the state to use the Department of Motor Vehicles database to register all drivers who are eligible to vote.