Fifty years after the groundbreaking "Gideon" ruling, public defenders are overworked, underpaid—and America's poor are paying the price.

Forty years to the day she and her comrades were targeted by New Jersey State Troopers, Assata Shakur was again targeted when the FBI added her to its Most Wanted Terrorist List.

“In addition,” explains Democracy Now, “the state of New Jersey announced it was adding $1 million to the FBI’s $1 million reward for her capture.”

The NATO 3—Brent Betterly, Brian Jacob Church and Jared Chase—appeared in court on Tuesday, April 30th for a status hearing about their case, one of the many pre-trial hearings in advance of their trial date in mid-September. This court date was on the one-year anniversary of their comrades in the Cleveland 4 being arrested at gun point after being entrapped by an FBI informant and was just one day before May Day protests around the country.

The International Week of Solidarity with the NATO 5 is just a month away! To help you plan your solidarity event or action, we've designed a beautiful poster that you can download and print. There is space at the bottom for you to write in the details of your event or action. You can find the poster and our support pamphlet on our website: http://nato5support.wordpress.com.

As a community and as individuals you never stop amazing me. The support and solidarity I have felt from all of you is nothing less than overwhelming and amazing. I have been receiving a steady stream of mail and books since being placed in my current institution. Y’all are bad asses! To all my birthday well wishers and all of you who decided “/b/ my valentine”, I love you all.

Yesterday, Mark Neiweem (“Migs”) accepted a non-cooperating plea deal in Cook County Court to felony charges brought on by interactions with undercover Chicago police officers who had infiltrated activist groups prior to last May's NATO protests. Migs pleaded guilty to a probation violation charge from a previous felony conviction and to solicitation and attempted possession of an explosive or incendiary device.

We got word late yesterday that Daniel McGowan was told he wouldn’t be issued a pass to go to work the next day. According to his keepers at the halfway house, this denial came at the direction of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). When he followed up, Daniel was told that it wasn’t merely a denial of a work pass, but a restriction on all movement. When asked if that meant federal marshals were coming to get him the next day, the halfway house administrators told him they didn’t know.

Sebastian “Sabi” Senakiewicz, a NATO 5 defendant, was transferred to boot camp during the last week of March. He will remain there for 4 months and will likely face deportation to his native Poland immediately afterwards. He is unable to receive visits and mail while at boot camp.

MIDDLE OF THE MAP, (colonial NW MO, US) -- North American Insurrectionists Leveraging Suppression (N.A.I.L.S.) held a dance party in honor of anti-authoritarians under the thumb of the State. It happened in a flash. We had the hits in queue in our head and we pushed play. We danced under the moonlight for the ACAC19; we kissed for the NATO5 on the dance floor that was a gravel alley seconds earlier; we tossed long pointy metal confetti at the sky for the PayPal14; we made a wish before the 'confetti' fell under the tires of the prisonkeepers to release all prisoners; we said a special wish for remaining PNW GJ resister; we twisted the knobs on every bit of equipment for the hackers Jeremy Hammond and B. Manning; we removed the bouncers in our heads and told the filth not to come back, all in honor of the Tinley Park 5. We were all the djs calling out to the other djs requesting that they play our songs in dedication to those that can't hear our songs, yet.

Yesterday at Cook County Criminal Court, lawyers for the NATO 3 defendants—Brent Betterly, Brian Church, and Jared Chase—along with over two dozen supporters, appeared in court before Judge Thaddeus Wilson awaiting his ruling on the constitutionality motion. The motion, which was filed in January, moved to dismiss four of the eleven counts the men are charged with, all of which fell under the Illinois terrorism statute. The motion argued that the terrorism statute is unconstitutionally vague, both on its face and as applied to this particular case.