The brand new Austin Police Accountability Coalition (APAC) is encouraging members of the public to attend city meetings to discuss the future Austin Police Monitor.  Next meetings are Wednesday, June 9, 2010 from 3-5pm and 6-8pm at the Carver Library on Rosewood Avenue.

The next APAC meeting is Tuesday, June 15, 2010 from 6-8pm at 5604 Manor Road.  The public is invited.

APAC plans to issue their first statement over the weekend.

Catch up on the latest activity with these videos:

The controversial social studies curriculum process is coming to an end. Public testimony will be heard at the State Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, May 19, and we expect a vote on these standards to take place the following day. We need you to stand up to the State Board of Education by attending our rally on Wednesday, May 19. Or testifying in front of the board. Or both!

The story around Robert Hicks  and his group Deacons for Defense have all but been erased from public consciousness. You check on familiar touch points like YouTube and there's nothing there. Pictures are hard to find and articles are scant. The thought of armed Black men standing up to the KKK and successfully protecting lives and propert during the harsh days of the Jim Crow South is a scary thought for many. The truth of the matter is many African Americans did not sit back and just allow themselves to be beaten and terrorized by the KKK. Hicks represented an underplayed part of our history..

One would think with the last week's conviction and sentencing of Scott Roeder the lunatic responsible for murdering abortion doctor George Tiller that other would be 'domestic terrorists' would get the message to to find another way to protest. Sadly for some they have become emboldened. Such is seemingly the case with Erlyndon Joseph Lo who has threatned abortion clinics in Dallas.

Thousands of phone calls, emails and letters flooded the office of Governor Rick Perry who seemed unmoved and unphased to grant Hank Skinner a stay of execution so he could get DNA testing to prove his innocence. Its a claim he has always made since the 1993 New Year's eve triple killing of his then live in girlfriend Twila Busby and her two adult sons.

We are putting the final touches on our Travis County Democratic Convention, and I am convinced that this gathering will be both inspiring and loads of fun.

With Texas Congressman Ron Paul winning the straw poll at last week's CPAK convention for who should be the next President, a few things came to the surface. First, we saw evidence of a split in the Republican Party when Paul got booed after it was announced he won. The conclusion I drew is that many in the GOP aren't too fond of the Libetarian oriented ideology of Paul and many of his followers. The other thing that came up is Paul's association with white supremacist groups who to this day express admiration for him.

 Two years ago during the New Hampshire primaries I interviewed Paul and asked him how he felt about having organizations like the Ku Klux Klan donating money to his campaign...

I would like to suggest that the articles in last week's Dallas Morning News regarding the resignation of State Rep. (D) Terri Hodge be distributed to your audience. I am personally fed up with the corruption WITHIN the Democratic Party -- many of the people in and around the electoral process see it as nothing more than a money-making opportunity for sale to the highest bidder.

A couple of months ago Detroit rap artist and activist Invincible touched down in Austin and San Antonio to share her musical talents and weigh in on an issue many in the community had been grappling with - Gentrification. Invincible noted that poor people being displaced from their neighborhood by more af fluent residents was a huge deal in Detroit, so much so that she and her partner Finale did a song about it and accompanied it with a mini-documentary called Locust.

By now the country and the rest of the world knows about the historic victory garnered by former Houston comptroller Annise Parker to become Houston’s next mayor.  Parker, who is openly gay and has been with her partner for over 19 years, made history on a couple of fronts.

If you wanna understand the political terrain of the great state of Texas, we urge you to peep this recent article written by MattTX of the Swing State Project... He gives a great historical and current breakdown of Texas and where its headed.

Today (Oct 28th 2009) Houston City Council will sit and consider a controversial bill that will deputize Houston police officers to essentially act as ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents. The program is known as 287(g). This measure has come under fire for a number of reasons.  First and foremost, it was rejected a while back and both current Mayor Bill White and Houston’s police chief Harold L. Hurtt came out against it.  They understand, as do so many community members, that having the police act as ICE agents can lead to an increase in unneccessary tension between police and the community.

Today marks the beginning of early voting on 11 proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution, as well as many elections for local candidates. Early voting goes through October 30th, but if you can't make it over the next two weeks you will have one final shot on the actual election day, Tuesday, November 3rd. 

The U.S. Census Bureau’s latest population estimates show that Latinos comprise 39.3 percent of the population of Harris County. In spite of the fact that Latinos are now the largest population group in the county, they only constitute 15 percent of the County’s 1.9 million registered voters. Yet, the relevance of the Latino vote and its promise cannot be denied.