Pittsburgh, PA – The city of Pittsburgh agreed Feb. 14 to pay $400,000 to settle the claims of 13 people who were swept up in a mass arrest of demonstrators, observers and passersby in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, hours after the 2009 G-20 Summit ended. The city previously paid $88,000 to settle the claims of 11 of the 25 original plaintiffs, bringing the total paid to settle the case to $488,000.

Protesters demand President Obama stop the Keystone XL pipeline

Washington, DC – According to protest organizers, more than 50,000 people joined the massive “Forward on Climate” rally here Feb. 17. Organized by 350.org, the Sierra Club, Hip Hop Caucus and the Natural Resources Defense Council, the rally was the largest protest in U.S. history addressing the issue of climate change. Many participants were students.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said in a Feb. 16 televised speech that Lebanese resistance forces are well equipped and would not tolerate any Israeli aggression.

For several years, immigrant rights activists have said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is systematically carrying out mass deportations of immigrants who have done nothing wrong, resulting in well over 1 million deportations during the first four years of the Obama administration. This has caused the separation of untold thousands of families and the tearing apart of Chicano and Latino communities around the country – simply to fill arbitrary deportation quotas. ICE officials and the White House denied such allegations. On February 15, 2013, USA Today newspaper broke the story in a front page article based on newly released documents that verify what activists have been saying – that ICE has in fact been intentionally targetting 'low-priority' immigrants for mass deportations, through methods such as mass searches of drivers license databases and checkpoints set up near workplaces and neighborhoods thought to have many immigrant workers. One checkpoint referenced in the USA Today article was near Asheville, NC. Here Fight Back! News has an exclusive interview with Bobby Sullivan, who was stopped repeatedly at a checkpoint near Asheville, North Carolina – likely the same checkpoint referenced in the USA Today article. Woodfin, NC – Bobby Sullivan goes to work every day from his home near Asheville, NC. One day something strange started happening on his way to work: he kept getting stopped at a police checkpoint. What was going on? The police, along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had set up an immigration checkpoint on a road near his home.

In response to President Obama’s Feb. 12 announcement in his State of the Union address that about 34,000 troops will be pulled out of Afghanistan, the Afghan resistance responded on Feb. 13 saying that all foreign troops must leave the country.

Tampa, FL – Immigrant rights activists across the country will be participating in a national call-in day, Feb. 14 to demand, “Stop deportations and legalization for all!”

According to a Feb. 12 report from the Korean Central News Agency, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted another successful nuclear test.

Milwaukee, WI – Over 50 students and community members rallied Feb. 6 at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (UWM) to demand an end to the sale of Palermo’s pizza on campus. The rally was organized by the Coalition to Boycott Palermo’s, which includes Youth Empowered in the Struggle, Students for a Democratic Society, the Alliance of History Graduate Students, the Hmong Student Union and the Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association.

St Paul, MN – Minnesota’s Governor Mark Dayton got an earful from members of the Welfare Rights Committee, Feb. 6, when he entered the House chambers in the Capitol building to deliver his State of the State address.

Milwaukee, WI – Over 50 students rallied today, Feb. 6, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to demand the University join the boycott of Palermo's Pizza. Organized by UWM Boycott Coalition, striking workers participated in today’s rally.

Civil liberty groups respond

Washington, D.C – A leaked Justice Department white paper titled the “Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa’ida or An Associated Force,” was published Feb. 5 by NBC News. The once secret document gives the legal justification the White House is using for the assassination of U.S. citizens living in other countries.

St. Paul, MN – A Ramsey County jury found Anthony Newby, executive director of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, not guilty on assault charges here Feb. 4. An employee of a law firm representing Freddie Mac, a primary target of the housing justice movement, pressed charges against Newby following a peaceful protest that happened March 1, 2012.

The Student Commission of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) recently met and made plans to build the movement on campuses around the U.S.

Numerous reports in the western press indicate that Israeli aircraft carried out bombing runs in Syria on the morning of Jan. 30.

Tampa, FL – Student groups from the Tampa Bay area and neighboring Polk County came together, Jan. 24, to demand answers from Congressman Dennis Ross and protest his anti-immigrant record.

San José, CA – On Jan. 26, there was a commemoration of Fred Korematsu, one of the Japanese Americans who resisted the World War II U.S. concentration camps for Japanese Americans. The event, held in San José’s Japantown, began with the film, “Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story.”

Zimbabwe's two major political parties agreed to a new draft constitution Jan. 17. After nearly two years of deliberation, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), reached an agreement that may replace the country's current constitution and pave the way for a presidential election later this year. This draft proposal will go before the Zimbabwean people for approval in a nationwide referendum later this year.

Raleigh, NC – Republican state Representative Paul “Skip” Stam says he will introduce legislation that'll make it a crime for merchants to sell lottery tickets to people receiving public assistance or in bankruptcy.

_Fitzgerald organized Grand Jury against anti war, international solidarity activists _

Chicago, IL – “Fitzgerald doesn’t belong on the Board of Trustees. He’s against the right to dissent, and he’s responsible for some of the worst persecutions of Palestinians in the US,” stated Joe Iosbaker of the Committee Against Political Repression in a statement to gathered news media, on Jan 24.