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.

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.

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.

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.