In their first actions of 2012, Occupy Santa Rosa is working with local immigrant rights groups to protest the policies and practices of one high-profile California-based bank, with a demonstration and march in Roseland tomorrow.

Far from disappearing since vacating their City Hall lawn encampment, Occupy Santa Rosa has been quietly re-evaluating its aims and messages, explains organizer Carl Patrick, while reaching out to other social justice activists in the area.

A central part of the planned rally in the parking lot of the Roseland shopping center will be a series of speakers with personal stories that relate directly to the protest being directed at Wells Fargo and the two private prison companies.

The private detention companies that this protest is calling out don't just profit from the nation's stepped up enforcement of immigration laws, notes Patrick. They have also worked behind the scenes to make those laws even harsher.

For most corporations, profit is their only legally sanctioned goal. However, a new law taking effect in California in the new year creates an alternative—the California Benefit Corporation, or B Corp—which must promote and document its social benefits alongside its fiscal returns.

One of Assemblyman Jared Huffman's annual events is his "There Oughta Be A Law" contest, in which he invites constituents to submit ideas for legislation that he will subsequently pursue in Sacramento. AB 361, Huffman's bill to create the California Benefit Corporation classification, was the result of last year's contest.

Can American presidential politics be wrested away from the dominance of Democrats and Republicans? A new campaign, primarily organized online, is trying to do just that.

Andy Popell, a Marin County businessman, is one of the first North Bay delegates with Americans Elect, a move he says was prompted by his utter frustration with the partisan gridlock that has come to dominate the political process, both in Washington and Sacramento.

As the Americans Elect nominating process moves forward, Popell has a candidate in mind that he wants to support.

Leaked documents from government researchers cast doubts on the approval process for a potent pesticide that is now suspected as a major factor in the massive die-offs of honeybees across the country.

Tom Philpott in the fieldFarmer and agriculture writer/reporter Tom Philpott first made public the likely connection between the Bayer pesticide, the EPA's flawed approval process, and colony collapse disorder in an article he wrote for Grist early this year. Although it drew fevered attention from bee-keepers and the organic farming world, the problems he described failed to garner much attention from the mainstream media. One reason for that, he speculates, was a prior piece in the New York Times that seemed to close the door on pesticide-related causes of colony collapse.