When the debt activism group Strike Debt began planning its Rolling Jubilee, the goal was relatively modest: They would raise $50,000, use it to buy distressed medical debt on secondary debt markets, and then, rather than hounding the debtors like the collection agencies that buy most of this sort of debt, they would wipe it out.

But that was before the Rolling Jubilee caught fire in the public imagination, garnering attention from the likes of Boing Boing, the New York Times, and Fortune Magazine. Even before the group had webcast its star-studded telethon, it had already surpassed its fundraising goal. To date, they've raised nearly half a million dollars -- enough to buy and forgive nearly $10 million of debt.

Most of that money is going to go to purchasing a big hunk of distressed medical debt next month, but as a sort of proof-of-concept, Strike Debt has already spent $5,000 to buy $100,000 of distressed medical debt owed by 44 people in upstate New York.

Yesterday, the activists gathered to send out the notifications to the unsuspecting recipients of this first round of debt forgiveness. Since aggressive collection mailings often drive debtors to ignore envelopes they don't recognize, the forgiveness letters are packaged in a small box wrapped in festive paper.

"We want to make sure they open it," said Yates McKee of Strike Debt. "We also like the idea of it having a holiday feeling to it."

"Seasons Greetings from Strike Debt!" begins the letter.

"We write with good news: the above referenced account has been purchased by the Rolling Jubilee Fund, a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization. The Rolling Jubilee Fund is a project of Strike Debt. The mission of this project is to buy and abolish personal debt. We believe that no one should have to go into debt for the basic things in our lives, like healthcare, housing, and education.

"You no longer owe the balance of this debt. It is gone, a gift with no strings attached. You are no longer any obligation to settle this account with the original creditor, the bill collector, or anyone else."

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Although you didn't hear all that much about this in the corporate media, there were indeed activists, protesters and Occupiers at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. From The Nation:

Hundreds of senior citizens, religious leaders, community organizers, and Occupy Wall Street activists have descended upon St. Petersburg to protest at the Republican National Convention’s welcome event at Tropicana Field.

More than 1,800 law enforcement officers from federal, state, and local agencies worked in tandem over the last 36 hours to secure the stadium by closing surrounding roads, implementing parking restrictions, and monitoring traffic flow to facilitate the peaceful protests.

Some protesters rode down on buses provided by Occupy, including an activist named Susan, 62, who told the Huffington Post she was laid off from her job in a hospital last fall and has since been receiving unemployment benefits.

Working in the hospital, Susan said, she had seen the Great Recession’s effects up close.

“Medicaid is being cut,” she said. “Charity care is being cut. So the hospital is really struggling.” She said she felt compelled to march against Mitt Romney and the RNC. There had been plans for five buses to come down to Florida from New York, but the storm kept a lot of people at home, she said. Only two buses ended up making the 22-hour trip.

Judy Sellers, 66, a retired school teacher, told the Huffington Post she hadn’t attended a protest since Vietnam, but “this is just as important to me.”

Sellers said that she’s been middle-class all her life. She’s concerned that kids won’t be able to afford college and she’s disturbed by the way she thinks Republicans have maligned teachers. “We work our butts off,” she said. “It’s not right.”

Bank of America quickly became a primary target for activists. Carrying a giant statue of Mitt Romney wearing a sign that said “King of the 1%,” hundreds of activists (one report put the count higher at “roughly 1,000”) gathered in a downtown park for an unscheduled protest before speakers criticized tax cuts for the rich, and half the group split off to march across the street to Bank of America plaza.

Charlotte Observer:

They carried signs and chanted slogans against the “one percent.” Several demonstrators — armed with crayons and stickers — began pasting and scribbling slogans across the sidewalk and building pillars. One sign read: “You stole our money; we want it back.”

The ubiquitous Code Pink was also in attendance and held signs including, “Vagina. If you can’t say it, don’t legislate it,” and “GOP, respect women.”

“I’m completely opposed to the Ralph Reed agenda of the war on women,” said Rae Abileah, 29, of San Francisco. Reed started the Faith and Freedom Coalition, which among other causes is against abortion.

Honestly, anyone who still thinks DHS wasn't monitoring the Occupy protests is just too silly to live. Once you have a full-scale operation that's supposed to monitor threats, they're going to look at everything - because they're paranoid they're going to miss something. This is particularly amusing that they tried to push back on "inaccuracies" that were, in fact, true:

Senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials debated whether they should pressure award-winning reporter Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings to "pull down" a report he published on the magazine's web site about the agency's role in monitoring Occupy Wall Street (OWS), claiming it was riddled with "inaccuracies," according to hundreds of pages of internal DHS emails related to OWS Truthout obtained under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request we filed last October.

But it wasn't Hastings' February 28 report that was incorrect. Rather, it was an unauthorized five-page internal report prepared last October by DHS employees, who acted "outside the scope of their authority" and violated "privacy standards," according to the emails, about the potential threat posed by OWS that was flawed. The internal report strongly suggested DHS had been mining social media, such as OWS's Twitter feeds, for intelligence on the protest movement.

That document, which Hastings had accurately represented in his story, formed the basis for his Rolling Stone story. It was found in more than 5 million hacked emails from private intelligence firm Stratfor that Wikileaks released earlier this year. Hastings obtained the internal report from WikiLeaks, which entered into an investigative partnership with Rolling Stone.

It was Hastings' characterization of the internal report that struck a nerve with top officials at DHS, who spent two days discussing how they should publicly respond to it, according to the heavily redacted emails.

I'm glad that Twitter is fighting requests like this that infringe on privacy, since most people simply can't afford the legal firepower necessary to respond. The judge says that there's no reasonable expectation of privacy, but I disagree. You can block anyone you want:

NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter must give a court about three months' worth of an Occupy Wall Street protester's tweets, a judge said in a ruling released Monday after the company fought prosecutors' demand for the messages.

Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. rebuffed one of Twitter Inc.'s central arguments, which concerned who has rights to contest law enforcement demands for content posted on its site. But the judge said the company was right on a separate point that could require prosecutors to take further steps if they want to see one particular day of Malcolm Harris' tweets and his user information.

Sciarrino also decided that he would review all the material he ordered turned over and would provide "relevant portions" to prosecutors.

The case began as one of hundreds of disorderly conduct prosecutions stemming from an Oct. 1 Occupy march on the Brooklyn Bridge, but it has evolved into a closely watched legal tussle over law enforcement agencies' access to material posted on social networks.

The Manhattan district attorney's office said Harris' messages could show whether he was aware of police orders he's charged with disregarding. Twitter, meanwhile, said the case could put it in the unwanted position of having to take on legal fights that users could otherwise conduct on their own.

{...] Twitter called the ruling disappointing and said it was considering its next move.

[...] Twitter prevailed on another argument: that some of the tweets shouldn't be turned over because a federal law requires a court-approved search warrant, not just a subpoena issued by prosecutors, for stored electronic communications that are less than 180 days old.

Sciarrino found that law did apply — but only to Harris' tweets and information for Dec. 31, since the rest were more than 180 days old by the Saturday of the ruling. It was released Monday.

Prosecutors' bid for the tweets had spurred concern among electronic privacy and civil liberties advocates, and some cheered Twitter's decision to take up the fight at a time when authorities increasingly seek to mine social networks for information.

This is certainly the right place to get attention if you're trying to recreate that old time revolutionary spirit. But Philadelphia is also flooded with tourists from all over the world during Freedom Week, and the Tea Partiers are also holding a celebration on the Mall. Should be quite the culture clash!

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Occupy groups from across the country are headed to Philadelphia for a national gathering on Independence Mall, seeking to unify their far-flung movement against economic inequality a half-year after police evicted protesters from encampments in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York and other cities. The event, which starts Saturday and runs through July 4, is expected to bring about 1,500 protesters for marches, speakers and camping during the city's annual Independence Day festivities.

[...] Most of the events will center on Independence National Historical Park, in the city's historic district, an area widely known as the cradle of liberty - home to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell and the place where the Declaration of Independence was first read aloud and the U.S. Constitution was adopted.

The national gathering is endorsed by more than 100 Occupy groups across the country. Organizers have kept in touch through a networking communication system known as "inter-Occupy," using conference calls and other means of communication, said Tammy Shapiro, a member of Occupy Wall Street.

Larry Swetman, a member of Occupy Philadelphia, said the conference will feature teach-ins, workshops, and protests, including one in which participants will march to the Comcast Center. On the fourth day, Swetman said, protesters will come up with a list of priorities and goals that will likely cover a broad range of issues including health care and housing. Ultimately, a group of protesters plans to lead a 99-mile march to Wall Street on July 5.

[...] The second, smaller conference, dubbed "Continental Congress 2.0", is being planned at the Pennsylvania Convention Center from July 2 to July 4. That conference isn't endorsed by Occupy Wall Street. Organized by The 99% Working Group, it's expected to draw around 150 delegates from across the country, said Robert Manning, of Pinole, Calif., one of the organizers.

The group will develop a list of grievances that they plan to take to legislators, presidential candidates and Supreme Court justices in Washington. They plan to march to Independence Hall on July 4, Manning said.

The Independence Hall Tea Party Association is planning its annual celebration of "American Exceptionalism" on the mall on July 4 and expects up to 2,000 people, said association co-founder Don Adams.

As one of my friends said, "Now there's a recipe for happiness!"

How can these U.N. troublemakers not see the difference? In other countries, they're protesting against unemployment, political corruption and control by an oligarchy, and their goverment is repressing them with military tactics. Here, they're... just malcontents! Yeah, that's it:

WASHINGTON -- Federal officials have yet to respond to two United Nations human rights envoys who formally requested that the U.S. government protect Occupy protesters against excessive force by law enforcement officials.

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the two envoys called on U.S. officials to "explain the behavior of police departments that violently disbanded some Occupy protests last fall" and expressed concern that excessive use of force "could have been related to [the protesters'] dissenting views, criticisms of economic policies, and their legitimate work in the defense of human rights and fundamental freedoms."

The envoys also reminded the U.S. government of its international obligations to "take all necessary measures to guarantee that the rights and freedoms of all peaceful protesters be respected."

The letter, from Frank La Rue, who serves as the U.N. special rapporteur for the protection of free expression, and Maina Kiai, the special rapporteur for freedom of peaceful assembly, was sent in December 2011.

It was publicly released last week in connection with the 20th annual U.N. Human Rights Council meeting, which started Monday and at which both rapporteurs -- independent experts sent out to investigate human rights problems around the world -- will make their annual reports.

The U.S. government has not answered the letter. A State Department spokeswoman told HuffPost that "the U.S. will be replying," but she couldn't say when or how. "We do not comment on the substance of diplomatic correspondence," she said.

Rallies are planned for the Professional Golfer's Association Senior Tour Event in Benton Harbor, Michigan, from May 23-27, in protest of Whirlpool Corporation, the Cornerstone Alliance, the Harbor Shores development, Gov. Rick Snyder, Emergency Manager Joseph Harris, State Rep. Al Pscholka, and Rep. Fred Upton. All are part of an effort to take property from the residents of Benton Harbor and sell it to the Harbor Shores development. Harbor Shores is a highly exclusive development where membership in the country club alone is $5,000 a year. The development is a joint project of Whirlpool and Cornerstone. Whirpool received massive sums of money from both the federal and state government in the form of subsidies and closed its plant in Benton Harbor, devastating the local economy. After the factory closing, the average annual salary in Benton Harbor hovers around $10,000.

A member of the Cornerstone Alliance is Rep. Al Pscholka, the same legislator that proposed the state's 'Emergency Manager' bill which was signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder. Manager Joseph Harris stripped all power from local elected officials, fired his critics and put the local radio station on eBay. Now he has the power, it seems, to seize land from local citizens and sell it to Harbor Shores, one would assume under eminent domain. Rep. Fred Upton, who is a recipient of money from Whirlpool and represents the area, doesn't seem to have any problem with what is happening.

Local activists aren't taking the whole thing sitting down:

We are committed to escalating the Occupy Movement to support human rights in housing in addition to the push back against bailouts for fraudulent banks. They are stealing our homes and our lives.

Democracy is non-existent here in Benton Harbor. Joseph Harris, the Emergency Manager, must go. We have a dictator in Benton Harbor, Michigan!

The PGA will be played on a $750 million, 530 acre resort near Lakeshore with a Jack Nicklaus Signature designer golf course and with $500,000 condominiums. We cannot forget the three golf holes in the stolen land inside Jean Klock Park.

If your schedule permits your attendance is needed on May 26, 2012. Alternative action dates are May 23-25. Please let know if you can accept the invitation to Occupy The PGA in Benton Harbor.

We will meet at Benton Harbor City Hall, 200 Wall St. at 10:00am every day. Then we will March to the golf course! We will have speakers and food.

Activists who are a part of the 99 percent Spring attended the Verizon Shareholders meeting on Thursday and disrupted the 1 percent six times as they continued to exploit the company's workers. Crooks and Liars has reported extensively on the problems with Verizon and its demands for massive concessions from its workers. Activists used great strategy to draw attention to Verizon and its greedy tactics.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a better example of corporate greed than Verizon, a company making billions and tripling its CEO's pay while demanding givebacks from its workers. Today the 99% Spring movement let Verizon know that 99% of us are trying to bring big corporations back under democracy's control. Today’s Verizon shareholder meeting in Huntsville, Alabama was disrupted six separate times by members of the 99% Power coalition, part of the 99% Spring movement.

The Verizon shareholder meeting comes as the company is in negotiations with the Communication Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). The highly-profitable company -- the 16th largest corporation in America -- is asking its workers for givebacks amounting to as much as $20,000 each, while tripling the compensation of CEO Lowell McAdam from $7.2 million to $23.1 million. The company made $22.5 billion in profits over the past four years while paying its top five executives $283 million over that period. Because of this the company has earned the nickname “Verigreedy."

You'd be hard-pressed to find a better example of corporate greed than Verizon, a company making billions and tripling its CEO's pay while demanding givebacks from its workers. Today the 99% Spring movement let Verizon know that 99% of us are trying to bring big corporations back under democracy's control. Today’s Verizon shareholder meeting in Huntsville, Alabama was disrupted six separate times by members of the 99% Power coalition, part of the 99% Spring movement.

The Verizon shareholder meeting comes as the company is in negotiations with the Communication Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). The highly-profitable company -- the 16th largest corporation in America -- is asking its workers for givebacks amounting to as much as $20,000 each, while tripling the compensation of CEO Lowell McAdam from $7.2 million to $23.1 million. The company made $22.5 billion in profits over the past four years while paying its top five executives $283 million over that period. Because of this the company has earned the nickname “Verigreedy."

Dave Johnson has much more about the protests at CAF.

More FOIA records requested via the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund that indicate that Occupy evictions were coordinated with federal agencies. This isn't exactly shocking news to me (I'd be more surprised if they didn't coordinate at the federal level), but the feds are playing keep-away with the specific information that could be the smoking gun by refusing to search where those documents are likely to be:

Two days before the NYPD’s eviction of the Occupy Wall Street encampment from Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, Brookfield Properties' security was in direct communications and sharing information with the US Park Police in Washington DC, and communicating with other cities around the country, according to newly released internal documents from the National Park Service.

The PCJF is making the documents immediately available as we continue to receive them. To view NPS documents and sign up for alerts visit:www.JusticeOnline.org/nps.

The documents were released late Friday to thePartnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) in response to the civil rights legal group's FOIA demands to the NPS, FBI, CIA, DHS and other federal law enforcement agencies seeking information about the role of Federal agencies in the coordinated nationwide crackdown that led to the eviction of Occupy encampments in cities throughout the United States. The request was made also on behalf of author and filmmaker Michael Moore and the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee The PCJF is making the documents immediately available for review, and highlighting key initial findings .

"When the PCJF issued this FOIA request we wanted to uncover and expose whether local government and local law enforcement agencies were working in a coordinated way with the federal government to suppress and shut down the Occupy Movement which had inspired the country starting in September, 2011," stated Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund. "What these documents are beginning to reveal is also the coordination between law enforcement agencies and private corporate entities representing the 1 percent that wanted to see the Occupy movement removed from public view and shut out of America's parks."

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More than 40 progressive organizations are teaming up to train 100,000 activists in non-violent tactics during the week of April 9-15. The '99 Percent Spring' is designed to teach people across the country how to tell the story of the economy, help them learn about the history of non-violent action and get people involved in actions that can achieve specific goals.

Our country is at a crossroads. We have a choice to make. Greater wealth for a few or opportunity for many. Tax breaks for the richest or a fair shot for the rest of us. A government that can be bought by the highest bidder, or a democracy that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people.

The choice is in our hands. This spring we will act on that choice.

In the tradition of our forefathers and foremothers and inspired by today’s brave heroes in Occupy Wall Street and Madison, Wisconsin, we will prepare ourselves for sustained non-violent direct action.

...

This spring we rise! We will reshape our country with our own hands and feet, bodies and hearts. We will take non-violent action in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi to forge a new destiny one block, one neighborhood, one city, one state at a time.

The trainings have an associated web site that is loaded with tools and information. It lists the numerous organizations that are participating and allows new groups to sign up. It lets you find local actions and trainings or plan your own. It has toolkits on how to learn more and talk better about "Banks and the Economy," "Corporate Tax Dodging," and "Money in Politics." It has a work titled "The Power of Nonviolent Direct Action" by Daniel Hunter and press releases, videos and more. The 99 Percent Spring is also active on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.