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Gross, Doug, “Community protests meth prosecution of Indian store owners”, The Associated Press State & Local Wire, January 8, 2006. Several hundred people rallied Sunday for an end to prosecution in what federal agents have dubbed "Operation Meth Merchant." In June, 49 people and 16 corporations, most of them in northwest Georgia, were charged with supplying everyday items - from antifreeze to cold medicine - to informants who claimed they were using the products to make methamphetamine. 44 of the 49 convenience store clerks and owners charged in the sting were Indian and many shared the same last name, Patel. The American Civil Liberties Union says the sting was rife with problems. They say several defendants were not even in the country at the time they are accused of illegally selling the ingredients and that informants used obscure drug slang, which the clerks, some of whom speak limited English, did not understand. The ACLU and several other civil rights groups have taken up the cause, investigating whether police and prosecutors selectively enforced the meth prosecution by targeting retailers with Indian surnames. Ranganathan, Deepa, “State revises textbooks on Hindu history”, Sacramento Bee, March 9, 2006. The State Board of Education approved hundreds of changes to history textbooks Wednesday, in an attempt to find a compromise amid clashing demands about how ancient Hinduism should be taught in California public schools. Friends of South Asia, a group that has fought the Hindu groups' proposed corrections, thanked the board for "rejecting the ideologically motivated edits" suggested by the two groups. Supporters of the edits said the textbooks' descriptions of caste and gender discrimination unfairly singled out Hinduism for practices common in the ancient world. Opponents said the proposed changes would whitewash oppression that persists today. Greenhouse, Steven “Immigrant Workers Find Support in a Growing Network of Assistance Centers”, The New York Times, April 23, 2006. There are more than 140 worker centers nationwide, up from roughly 25 a decade ago. The centers played a pivotal role in getting tens of thousands of workers to the giant demonstrations seeking a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and protesting a House bill that would turn illegal immigrants into felons. The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York pressed two fashionable Manhattan restaurants to pay back wages. Taxi Workers Alliance provides free medical tests to drivers as they wait in line at Kennedy Airport. Fears, Darryl, and Williams, Krissah, “Other Ethnic Groups to Join Rallies; Immigration Concerns Asians and Africans, Too, Leaders Say”, The Washington Post, April 9, 2006. Members of Asian, African, Haitian and other ethnic groups say that is an illusion (of only Latinos at the immigration rallies) that they will dispel by pouring out in large numbers at huge rallies planned for tomorrow. A big majority of people living in the United States illegally – 80 percent – come from Mexico and Latin America. Another 13 percent are from Asia, Africa and other nations, and 6 percent are from Canada and Europe, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center. Executive director of the South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow, a national group based in Silver Spring, said: "There are also Asian and African groups working together. From where I stand, I feel that our community is greatly invested in the issue."
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