Rampart Detective Division is currently handling an investigation into the murder of Paulina Ibarra, a transgender woman who was slain in her East Hollywood apartment on August 28, 2009. A suspect has been identified, and a reward offered. On Thursday, March 11, 2010, at 2:00 pm, a press conference will be held at the downtown police headquarters, 1st & Main Sts., to announce the reward.

For more information on the suspect, and the reward, click on the image below:

Location is Crescent Heights United Methodist Church at 1296 North Fairfax Avenue in West Hollywood (map). Parking is free on Fountain after 7pm, but be sure you’re not in a permit zone on the streets off Fountain! Public parking lot ($3 fee) located on Orange Grove Ave – 1 block east of Fairfax and just north of Santa Monica Blvd.

Agenda topics include:

• National Equality Action Campaign
• Los Angeles Diaper Bank
• Update on 2010 campaign
• Upcoming benefit at Here Lounge

Feel free to spread the word using the flyer below!

Camp Courage is designed primarily for new activists or those who have never engaged with the broader community about marriage equality as well as veteran LGBT activists and allies. A background in community organizing or an organizational affiliation is not a requirement to attend Camp Courage. The only requirements are energy, commitment, and a desire to broaden your leadership abilities.

Drawing on techniques honed for decades by progressive social movements, Camp Courage teaches basic community and political organizing skills, including:

• Finding your voice by telling your “story of self”
• Leadership development
• Principles of successful organizing
• Developing collaboration and building effective teams
• Techniques of voter persuasion
• Organizing a phonebank
• Canvassing
• Tabling
• Throwing house parties
• Online organizing

When
January 30-31, 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Where
Santa Barbara (location provided once registration is confirmed)

Register now!
Simply head to the Camp Courage website and sign-up!

Be sure to:

1. Sign up for e-mail updates
2. Sign the petition demanding full federal equal rights!
3. And donate to your local grassroots LGBT group, Equality Network!

Meetings are very Wednesday night at 7pm. If you’re interested in joining us, be sure to check this website regularly.

Location is Crescent Heights United Methodist Church at 1296 North Fairfax Avenue in West Hollywood (map). Parking is free on Fountain after 7pm, but be sure you’re not in a permit zone on the streets off Fountain! Public parking lot ($3 fee) located on Orange Grove Ave – 1 block east of Fairfax and just north of Santa Monica Blvd.

Agenda topics include:

• National Equality Action Campaign
• Los Angeles Diaper Bank
• 2010 Census & LGBT people
• Letter to Notre Dame regarding offensive comic in their paper

Everyone is welcome – please join us!

The LADB is the first program of the Equality Network Foundation, our charitable non-profit arm. The mission of the program is providing free diapers to low-income families. Utilizing a network of existing service providers, whose trusted relationship with the communities they serve can facilitate getting diapers to those who need them most, the LADB seeks to efficiently aide as many babies as possible in Los Angeles County!

For more information about the program, please visit the website. We’ve established relationship with a number of community partners already, but we’re looking for other partners both in the East Los Angeles region, and South Los Angeles.

We’re also in need of many drop locations, where diapers can be donated. There’s step-by-step information on how you can help with this, on the LADB website.

View the Diaper Bank brochure:

Los Angeles Diaper Bank – brochure, front

Los Angeles Diaper Bank – brochure, back

You can make a difference! Please donate today to the Rainbow World Fund, a platform for LGBT compassion and concern to be seen and heard throughout the world. Since 2004, Rainbow World Fund has supported ongoing projects in Haiti focusing on improving nutrition and developing safe drinking water access. 100% of your donation will go to these life saving services. Every donation no matter how small will help.

Donate online at: http://www.rainbowfund.org/donate specify “Haiti”

Donate by check at: Rainbow World Fund, 4111 – 18th Street, Suite 5, San Francisco, CA 94114.

UPDATE: So check this out, from BoingBoing

Pat Robertson thinks that Haiti is poverty stricken (and earthquake-stricken) because the country made a deal with Satan to help them overthrow the French.

Back in May, the Times Online provided some slightly better insight into Haiti’s past. Beyond a vague assumption that Imperialism had probably screwed Haiti somehow, I didn’t know much about the country’s history. Reading this story has been nothing short of nauseating.

Summary: Haiti was forced to pay France for its freedom. When they couldn’t afford the ransom, France (and other countries, including the United States) helpfully offered high-interest loans. By 1900, 80% of Haiti’s annual budget went to paying off its “reparation” debt. They didn’t make the last payment until 1947. Just 10 years later, dictator François Duvalier took over the country and promptly bankrupted it, taking out more high-interest loans to pay for his corrupt lifestyle. The Duvalier family, with the blind-eye financial assistance of Western countries, killed 10s of thousands of Haitians, until the Haitian people overthrew them in 1986. Today, Haiti is still paying off the debt of an oppressive dictator no one would help them get rid of for 30 years.

The rest of the world refuses to forgive this debt.

So, in a way, maybe Robertson is right. Haiti is caught in a deal with the devil, and the devil is us.

The U.S. Congress is currently considering a bill called The Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation. Part of what this bill would do is help countries like Haiti get their debt canceled, without making that cancellation conditional on things like closing down free schools or raising the cost of fresh water. Maybe a good time to contact your representatives about about this bi-partisan measure.