The holidays are a peak travel time for the airlines, so knowing your rights as a passenger can help ensure a more satisfactory travel experience.

Former realtor Kate Hanni is the founder and president of the Napa-based Coalition for an Airline Passengers Bill of Rights. Her Organization maintains a tool-free telephone number for travelers to report standings and other problems, which she says are promptly verified and compiled into a national database.

Flyersrights Hotline: 877-FLYERS6 (877-359-3776)

The Coalition has also prepared a  Stranded Flyer's Survival Guide with a combination of practical and somewhat tongue-in-cheek items to use if you should happen to wind up on a grounded plane.

The New York state legislature was the first in the country to adopt a flyers bill of rights in August, 2007. But the measure was struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals which ruled it interferred with federal regulatory authority over the airlines.

Northern California representative Mike Thompson has been a leader in the effort to win Congressional passage of a nationwide airline Passengers Bill of Rights. You can read the draft bill here.

In this analysis, commentator Michael Schwartz demolishes the myths used to sell the U.S. public the idea of an endless "war on terror" centered in Iraq, and shows how the real U.S. interests in Iraq have been rooted in the geopolitics of oil and the expansion of a neoliberal economic model in the Middle East.

Michael Schwartz, Professor of Sociology and Faculty Director of the Undergraduate College of Global Studies at Stony Brook University has written extensively on the war in Iraq at sites including TomDispatch, ZNet; Asia Times and Mother Jones, and in many print outlets, including Contexts, Against the Current, and Z Magazine.   

The dynamics of the debate  and speculation over the war in Iraq changed during the past year, as defenders of the administration pointed to what they called the success of the "surge," the boost in troop levels in 2007, in damping down the levels of violence there. Schwartz says that comparative quiet was a byproduct of widespread factional cleansing that was actually enabled by the military surge.

The election of Barack Obama as America's next president has boosted hope that he will take actions to expediently wind down the Iraq war. Schwartz cautions, however, that  as a candidate, Obama's position papers did not show a marked break from the polices that got us into the war.

Three generations later, a poisonous chemical used by American armed forces in Viet Nam is still wreaking havoc on the native population.

The effects of the U.S. military's use of Agent Orange in Viet Name are rippling down through the generations of the population there, Merle Ratner says, and so far there is no end in sight.

      To educate the community on the impact of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, the 4th annual Justice for Vietnam Agent Orange Victims will stop in Santa Rosa at the Glaser Center (see map)  on October 29^th 7  pm.   Tran Thi Hoan (right) and Dang Hong Nhut (below), both victims of Agent Orange, will be speaking at the event. To see a map of the Glaser Center location, click here .               

Some seniors are especially vulnerable to financial abuse from people close to them, but the Elder Financial Protection Network is working to reduce those risks.

There's a 24-hour, toll-free hotline for reporting suspected elder abuse at 1-888-436-3600. Additional resources are available through every California county.

  EFPN is holding a online wine auction to help support the local non-profit. Bidding is active from Oct. 31 through Nov. 9.

An online  guide to resources available to residents anywhere in the United States is the Elder Care Locator. If you're not sure exactly what elder financial abuse is, there are answers here.

Victims of domestic violence, including undocumented immigrants, now have some new programs available to protect them.

Here is a link to a page of frequently asked questions about U Visas.

Below are some additional resources with links.

Catholic Charities Immigration Services

Sonoma County YWCA

 US  Immigration Service