Agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 24 people for immigration violations January 23 in Baltimore, Maryland.  On the same day in Southern Californica, some 761 immigrants were arrested on immigration violations on "one of the biggest such sweeps ever" by US law enforcement agents.

The U.S. Army has subpeonaed journalist Sarah Olson in its court-martial of Iraq war refuser Lt. Ehren Watada.  Sarah Olson, a regular reporter for Truthout.com, interviewed Lt. Ehren Watada for the August 2006 issue of Left Turn Magazine (#21, Estamos en la Lucha).  

Olson has refused to confirm the veracity of her report in the prosecution of Watada.

In international news, while Mexican Federal Police are still bogged down in the rebelious state of Oaxaca, (where residents are fighting for the resignation of the repudiated governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, new president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (himself suffering from challenges to his presidency and its legitimacy) has sent thousands of federal troops to the Pacific state of Michoacan to take over areas reportedly under the control of violent drug trafficking gangs.  It was in Michoacan that a gang called "la familia" entered a crowded bar and threw five severed heads on the dance floor along with a poorly written letter that stated that "the family does not kill women nor innocents.  The family only kill those that need to be killed." La Familia is also said to be responsible for a recent prison uprising.

The Baltimore Sun is currently running a three-part series about "Baltimore's arcane system of ground rents ... a vestige of colonial[ism]" in Maryland.  Parts 1 and 2 of On Shaky Ground have already been published, and detail how rising property values in Baltimore have lead a handful of wealthy investors, lawyers and real estate agents to seize houses from their owners for debts as little as $84.  Since the arcane laws allow ground rent holders to add $1,500 in legal fees (there was no cap on the fees before 2003) when they sue home owners in "ejectment" proceedings, homeowners can be faced in court with an unpayable fine twenty times more then they originally owed in unpaid ground rent payments.  If the homeowner does not pay the additional fees and unpaid ground rent, they can lose their homes in the legal proceedings.  Over 500 homeowners have lost their properties in Baltimore in recent years from such lawsuits.

On December 1, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, of the PAN takes power as President of the United States of Mexico... Two days ago the voice of the Oaxacan uprising Radio Universidad fell silent. The Cinco Señores barricade at the doorstep of the Benito Juarez Autonomous University of Oaxaca was left unguarded... Days after some 160 Oaxacan protesters were arrested without warrents or even charges, news comes that the two murderers of New York Indymedia videographer who had been arrested have been released
While Radio Universidad remian's silent, will any one hear Calderón''s iron fist falling on Oaxaca?

What was supposed to be a peaceful eight-mile march to the Oaxaca City Center from the offices of the repudiated Governor of Oaxaca Ulises Ruiz ended in violent confrontations that spiraled into a five hour battle between police and protesters this past Saturday.  This confrontations began less than an hour after the APPO surrounded the Preventative Federal Police for a "48 hour peaceful siege" of their encampment in the Zocalo.

Unfortunately, I have not been on Radio Universidad very much in the last two days.  While NarcoNews carries a statement published by the APPO, there is no other news from Oaxaca on the site, even in Spanish.

La Jornada reports that bombs went off in the national PRI headquarters, the Electoral Tribunal at the Judicial Branch of government, and at a ScotiaBank location.    Another bomb, supposedly found in a wooden box with the words "Danger, Bomb" on it, is said to have been disabled at another bank location before it exploded.

The blasts seem to have been strong enough to do serious damage to the rooms where the bombs exploded, but the purpose of the explosions (if they were to have been planned by a protest group) are not clear.  No one was injured, and the bombs are suspiciously similar to recent blasts at banks in Oaxaca that many suggested were done by right wing or government provocateurs.  I am not familiar with the link between the Scotia bank and the federal electoral fraud.  

KeHuelga Radio in Mexico City is carrying Radio Universidad online.  Listen for Spanish language updates from the South of Monster City (Ciudad Monstruo) according to Enemigo Comun.  They are asking for students to come defend University Radio and their university and to bring (large bottle) rockets and empty bottles and reporting that gas bombs are being dropped by PFP helicopters.

At 2:38 PM EDST are reporting that state and federal police are attacking barricades again around University City with the help of PFP helicopters.  There is also a burning bus put up in defense of the University.  They are also asking for Oaxacans who aren't near University City to go to the Zocalo to divide the police.

At 2:40 they announced a police retreat, but at 2:45 they said that they police trucks were returning and that there is a serious injury that urgently needs the help of a Red Cross Ambulance.