The Community News Production Institute in partnership with Global Movements, Urban Struggles aired its monthly show on Tuesday August 31st on WBAI 99.5FM. It’s a special on the 5-year anniversary of hurricanes Katrina & Rita. The show looks at housing, education, police brutality, and the overall rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region in general and New Orleans in particular.

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On August 22, competing rallies were held in Lower Manhattan over the proposed Islamic Cultural Center to be constructed two blocks from the site of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The issue was thrust into the national spotlight several weeks ago after a right-wing blogger branded the facility the “ground zero mosque.” Community News production Institute Reporter Jaisal Noor was at the rallies to file this report for Free Speech Radio News.

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On August 24, the trial of four men facing life in prison for plotting to blow up 2 Bronx synagogues and shoot down military airplanes resumed in Manhattan Federal Court. While there seems to be little disagreement that the defendants were offered something for joining the plot, questions are now being raised over the role of the Pakistani-born government informant in the case. Community News Production Institute Reporter Jaisal Noor filed this story for Free Speech Radio News.

In this powerful and lyrical piece, Debra Cole, a member of Domestic Workers United, explores the long history of music as a tool for resistance and social change. Tracing the role of music in struggle from slavery through the civil rights movement to the present, Debra mixes interviews, songs, and her own beautiful voice to create a unique meditation on the fight for a domestic workers bill of rights. Debra is a reporter for the Community News Production Institute, where she reports from the streets and parks of New York City, the gathering grounds for the city’s domestic workers.