News Some more info about the Portland Medics who were arrested on the first day of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. (Read my post about the event here, and my first post about the medics here.) Portland Medics David Drew, Jr, Tracy Maier, and R. Westlund have been charged with Misdemeanors in the 1st degree for “Presence at an Unlawful Assembly and Refusing to Leave.” ...   More

News It turns out some of the medical workers I wrote about here (in the photo above, they were helping activists who had been sprayed with pepper-spray or hurt by police in the aggressive suppression of anti-war protests on the first day of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul) are from a Oregon group called Portland Medics. According to the Medics, their members were arrested and attacked ...   More

News I got the impression last night, at Ron Paul's “Rally for the Republic,” which drew a crowd of over 10,000 to Minneapolis' Target Center, that the failed Republican presidential candidate really believes he is leading a revolution. Really. At the rally planned at the same time as the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, he used “revolution” or its variants (i.e. ...   More

News In my last post I described the city destruction caused by a band of hooded anarchists I followed around St. Paul before the delegate buses began to arrive at the Accel Energy Center for the truncated opening day of the GOP Convention. From piecing together other media reports, it is likely that this group during the time I spent with them caused the majority of the vandalism in St. Paul. It ...   More

News Some new numbers are in. According to local media, 10,000 people were at the Capitol in St. Paul to protest against the War in Iraq during the Republican National Convention (lower than the 50,000 expected). As I mentioned in an earlier post, the vast majority of those 10,000 were nonviolent and civil. The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting on the “bands of protesters” who ...   More

News The majority of the expected 50,000 activists (local media reports say not near that number attended) here in St. Paul to protest the opening day of the Republican National Convention were peaceful and civil. The 50-75 young folks swathed in black hoods and sweaters I followed from the Capitol Building all around the city as they threw rocks through windows, took hammers to car windows, tipped ...   More

News Note to readers: Kevin Stark is live-blogging for WWire this week as Republicans gather behind John McCain and newly nominated Veep candidate Sarah Palin in St. Paul, Minn. Keep up with all the Streets of St. Paul entries here at WWire. Last night, I took a red-eye into the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport on the eve of the Republican National Convention. It is hot and humid here ...   More