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Lise Pearlman’s With Justice for Some: Politically Charged Criminal Trials in the Early 20th Century that Helped Shape Today’s America takes a fascinating look back at headline-grabbing criminal trials from the early 1900s as a cultural backdrop for contentious issues we face as a nation today. In her first book The Sky’s The Limit: People v. Newton, The REAL Trial of the 20th Century? these early trials were compared to the 1968 death penalty trial of Black Panther leader Huey Newton, which the author considered the real trial of the century neglected by most historians. Here, these riveting trials are reexamined with emphasis on the insights they provide to today’s political climate. Pearlman’s new book opens with a remarkable admission by former FBI Chief James Comey in a speech on Lincoln’s birthday in February 2015: “All of us in law enforcement must be honest enough to acknowledge that much of our history is not pretty. At many points in American history, law enforcement enforced the status quo . . . that was often brutally unfair to disfavored groups.” He invited all Americans to re-examine our “cultural inheritance” with fresh eyes. That is what Pearlman’s new book seeks to do. This well-researched volume takes advantage of the passage of time to put each trial into perspective from work done decades, sometimes even a century, later by investigative journalists and historians who unearthed far more evidence of what really happened in the events that made banner headlines in the early 20th century. She makes the case that by revisiting riveting high-stakes trials that still have ramifications today, we can gain a better understanding of the extent cultural bias has permeated the fabric of our culture – and a better premise from which to move forward as a nation than the whitewashed history so many of us were taught in school.

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Skip trace investigator R. C. Bean works for a bumbling, alcoholic divorce attorney. He’s asked to trace hidden assets to help their client, Gloria Simmons, defeat a prenuptial agreement. Gloria is the the sexy, scheming wife of a local black, playboy mortician who’s hooked on gambling, drugs and a pretty Asian bookkeeper who’s been installed in his funeral business by Asian drug dealers to monitor a joint venture. Things get nasty fast as a drive-by shooting in the mortuary’s parking lot gets covered up and the client’s mortician husband is plugged full of holes at the entrance to the funeral home while R. C. Bean is doing a a bag job inside on the home’s financial records. R.C. Bean soon realizes that whoever eliminated his client’s husband is on his trail and the killers seek to rub him out, too. Now begins a rollercoaster-like series of events as R. C. tries to stay a step ahead of his pursuers while trying to unmask the murderers. Has his client, who uses her dark beauty and racy ways to seduce his boss, ordered the hit on her husband? Are she and her attorney lover involved? Are the husband’s Asian drug partners calling the shots? The chase for answers leds to the seamy sides of the Las Vegas Strip as R. C. bean uses his street contacts and enlists a beautiful, cinnamon-skinned barmaid to help his solve the murders. Or so he thinks! This noir genre murder mystery’s plot is packed full of twists, turns and surprises. It will take you on a thrilling, page turning rollercoaster ride that will leave you asking for more.

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GOLD FEVER Part Three – The Path To Civil War is the third volume of a three-part trilogy. While part of an on-going series, the books stand alone and can be satisfactorily read individually. In GOLD FEVER Part Three the Committee of Vigilance of 1851 has disbanded and violent crime is on the rise again in San Francisco. By 1854 the city averages nearly two murders a day with only a handful of convictions; armed criminals, cutthroats and the low life rule the streets at night. Efforts to outlaw gambling and prostitution have failed despite laws to prohibit these practices and public clamor to enforce them. By 1855, San Francisco has 537 saloons, one for ever fifteen men, women and children. Placer gold deposits are nearly exhausted, yet gold seekers continue to arrive in droves. Competition for the meager gold remaining along the rivers fuels intolerance and animosity against foreigners, especially Mexicans, South Americans and the Chinese; even French and Italian miners are threatened. The San Francisco economy tumbles into recession which foments growing economic and political tensions. Southerners seeking to carve out a slave-holding state in Southern California gain control of California’s government and highest courts. California appears headed, like the nation, to a civil war over slavery. Will Manon’s restaurant be a target of the pro-slavery factions because she rescues and employs two former Chinese sex slaves? Will the economic downturn doom the restaurant and Pierre’s entrepreneurial enterprises? Can one raise a family and survive in this corrupt, lawless, and ruthless town as hotheads incite violence and chaos and push the city to the brink of civil war? GOLD FEVER Part Three – The Path To Civil War is the third volume of a three-part trilogy. While part of an on-going series, the books stand alone and can be satisfactorily read individually. In GOLD FEVER Part Three the Committee of Vigilance of 1851 has disbanded and violent crime is on the rise again in San Francisco. By 1854 the city averages nearly two murders a day with only a handful of convictions; armed criminals, cutthroats and the low life rule the streets at night. Efforts to outlaw gambling and prostitution have failed despite laws to prohibit these practices and public clamor to enforce them. By 1855, San Francisco has 537 saloons, one for ever fifteen men, women and children. Placer gold deposits are nearly exhausted, yet gold seekers continue to arrive in droves. Competition for the meager gold remaining along the rivers fuels intolerance and animosity against foreigners, especially Mexicans, South Americans and the Chinese; even French and Italian miners are threatened. The San Francisco economy tumbles into recession which foments growing economic and political tensions. Southerners seeking to carve out a slave-holding state in Southern California gain control of California’s government and highest courts. California appears headed, like the nation, to a civil war over slavery. Will Manon’s restaurant be a target of the pro-slavery factions because she rescues and employs two former Chinese sex slaves? Will the economic downturn doom the restaurant and Pierre’s entrepreneurial enterprises? Can one raise a family and survive in this corrupt, lawless, and ruthless town as hotheads incite violence and chaos and push the city to the brink of civil war? GOLD FEVER Part Three – The Path To Civil War is the third volume of a three-part trilogy. While part of an on-going series, the books stand alone and can be satisfactorily read individually. In GOLD FEVER Part Three the Committee of Vigilance of 1851 has disbanded and violent crime is on the rise again in San Francisco. By 1854 the city averages nearly two murders a day with only a handful of convictions; armed criminals, cutthroats and the low life rule the streets at night. Efforts to outlaw gambling and prostitution have failed despite laws to prohibit these practices and public clamor to enforce them. By 1855, San Francisco has 537 saloons, one for ever fifteen men, women and children. Placer gold deposits are nearly exhausted, yet gold seekers continue to arrive in droves. Competition for the meager gold remaining along the rivers fuels intolerance and animosity against foreigners, especially Mexicans, South Americans and the Chinese; even French and Italian miners are threatened. The San Francisco economy tumbles into recession which foments growing economic and political tensions. Southerners seeking to carve out a slave-holding state in Southern California gain control of California’s government and highest courts. California appears headed, like the nation, to a civil war over slavery. Will Manon’s restaurant be a target of the pro-slavery factions because she rescues and employs two former Chinese sex slaves? Will the economic downturn doom the restaurant and Pierre’s entrepreneurial enterprises? Can one raise a family and survive in this corrupt, lawless, and ruthless town as hotheads incite violence and chaos and push the city to the brink of civil war?

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Compared to technology, management practices have not really changed much over time. The typewriter and mimeograph machine are artifacts from a lost civilization. Ironically, the way we solve problems, make decisions and resolve issues are also artifacts from that past. The grooves in our brains keep us from embracing new ways of perceing and understanding. Complexity becomes overwhelming when we limit our mental bandwidth this way. Confessions of a Corporate Shaman is about expanding our personal bandwidth. There is a field of greater intelligence available to us. If we embody the parts of a problem and arrange them as a system we can tap into that intelligence and benefit from what we learn. A big problem quickly shrinks. Opaque complexity gains clarity and simplicity. This visual process, powered by the nearly limitless power of the subconscious mind, generates transformative insights and new possibilities. The shaman in some traditions is “the one who sees.” Everyone has this innate capacity. The invitation between these covers is to embark on your personal hero’s journey. Whether your challenge is about leading others, leading yourself or trying to understand and resolve the obstacles to organizational change the place to start is within yourself. The compass that will guide you is to be the change you want to see in others. As you explore the inner dynamics that shape your world hopefully you will feel inspired to embrace those dynamics as an essential part of your mission and leadership path.

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As I write this, the nation is still reeling from multiple shocks in July 2016. First, as the month began, came yet two more videotaped incidents of police shooting to death black arrestees after many other such widely-publicized incidents over the previous several years. The day after the Fourth of July holiday, disturbing footage went viral of Baton Rouge police outside a convenience store firing repeatedly at 37-year-old Alton Sterling while two white policemen already had Sterling pinned face down on the ground. A day later, a thousand miles away in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, the quick-thinking girl friend of Philandro Castile used her cell phone to capture a local policeman still waving his gun outside Castile’s car window as Castile lay bleeding to death seated beside her following a traffic stop. This graphic image was followed within days by breaking news of a horrific sniper attack on Dallas policemen who were monitoring one of many Black Lives Matter protest rallies prompted by the deaths of Sterling and Castile. Then, on July 17, 2016 came another attack, this time on Baton Rouge police. The carnage and proliferation of demonstrations and hostile reactions in the aftermath have drawn renewed national focus to fractured police-community relations in cities across country, the very issue that gave rise to the Black Panther Party a half century ago. Indeed, the day after video footage went viral of Castile dying from gunshot wounds following a traffic stop, AlterNet reporter Alexandra Rosenmann drew a direct comparison to the sensationalized 1968 murder trial of Panther Party co-founder Huey Newton. Rosenmann titled her web article, “Gun Rights, Police Brutality and the Case of the Century: Philandro Castile’s tragic case of police brutality pulls one of the most famous cases back into focus.”1 The two incidents did start out in similar ways. In the early morning of October 28, 1967, Oakland policeman John Frey stopped the car Newton was driving to write a ticket for an unpaid traffic fine. A shootout ensued that left Officer Frey dead and Newton and a back-up officer seriously wounded. Newton claimed to have been unarmed and the victim of an abusive arrest; no gun belonging to Newton was found. His death penalty trial the following summer drew international attention to whether any black man could get a fair trial in America. Before the deadly July 2016 incidents occurred, interviewees for this book had already noted the remarkable relevance of the 1968 Newton case to current events. Among them is William “Bill” Patterson, a former President of the Oakland NAACP and the first black foreman of the Alameda County Grand Jury: “It does resonate today. A young man [Oscar Grant III] being killed in the BART station by BART police and how that played out. The Florida case . . . again another young man [Trayvon Martin] shot to death. These situations continue to emerge and if we are not careful, we will find history repeating itself.” In the past several months, both champions and critics of the Black Lives Matter movement have drawn parallels to the split among Americans in the turbulent 1960s. The comparisons reached a point where President Obama felt compelled to reassure the world, on July 9, 2016, that most Americans are not as divided as we were fifty years ago: “When we start suggesting that somehow, there’s this enormous polarization and we’re back to the situation in the ’60s, that’s just not true. You’re not seeing riots, and you’re not seeing police going after people who are protesting peacefully. . . . We’ve got a foundation to build on . . .” President Obama himself symbolizes the profound change in the fabric of our nation over the past half century. So, too, do black police chiefs like Dallas Police Chief David Brown. Chief Brown’s reaction to a black gunman ambushing randomly chosen white officers on the evening of July 7, 2016, captured the sentiments of most Americans: “We are heartbroken. There are no words to describe the atrocity that occurred in our city. All I know is this must stop: this divisiveness between our police and our citizens.” This book scrutinizes the 1968 Newton trial and its context and poses the same questions President Obama and others have recently addressed: what has changed in this country in the last half century and what has not? How do we best move forward? – Lise Pearlman Oakland, California September 2016

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What is democracy and where did it come from? Is it a new development or was it always present in human society? And perhaps the most important question: what can we do to preserve and strengthen democracy among the forces that oppose it? In this book we explore trends throughout history that have brought democratic – and undemocratic – government to people wherever civilization exists. We discuss where democracy has been most, and least, successful and why. But our most important task is to clarify what each of us can do, as politicians or ordinary citizens, to bring the benefits of democracy more fully into the personal and political lives of those who cherish it. Includes the section: Guide to Voting in a Democracy

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The Constellation Approach – Finding Peace Through Your Family Lineage is the culmination of Jamy and Peter Faust’s brave and innovative healing work over the past twenty years. Together and individually, they have helped hundreds of people heal emotional wounds rooted in many varieties of trauma, neglect, loss, and longstanding family loyalties. Inspired by the teachings of Bert Hellinger, the Constellation Approach combines the practical wisdom of healing traditions from both East and West with the Fausts’ signature understanding of the Soul’s journey. As they carefully guide us to uncover the sources of unresolved and often long-hidden conflicts, a path to inner peace emerges. The journey they invite us to embark upon will not only change forever the way we understand the dynamics of our families, but it will also expand and deepen our experience of authentic love. This book reimagines our conflict-ridden world gradually but boldly transformed by peace – one family at a time.

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None of the neighbors considered it trespassing. The run-down shack on five overgrown acres in the Sierra Nevada foothills had been abandoned for years. But their exploits on the land are suddenly threatened when a woman appears out of nowhere, claiming to have just inherited the place. As she starts digging around, she does far more than uncover weeds and rocks: she uproots the very landscape of each of their lives.
“Gently and poetically, Sara takes us on a journey into rural America where lives twine together in unexpected ways. Her characters are as rich as the landscape she so beautifully describes.” – Beverly Olevin, author, The Good Side of Bad, Winner Kirkus Discoveries Best Fiction 2010
“The more we read, the more the mystery deepens…like a mirage that keeps the same distance even when you stride toward it. Sara has a knack for unfolding essential truths with a few compact words. Her handling of multiple viewpoints was pitch perfect.” – Dennis Kaplan, author, editor: The Workplace Anthology
“This debut novel draws deep into the lives of a fascinating cast of characters. Sara’s honest and lyrical voice delivers life lessons by way of pure old-fashioned reading pleasure.” – Joy Maulitz, award-winning author, host of KWMR-FM’s “Waves of Joy”

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This is the second volume of a three-part trilogy. The first volume, GOLD FEVER / San Francisco 1851, was published in 2013. While part of an on-going series, the books stand alone and can be satisfactorily read individually. In GOLD FEVER Part Two San Francisco has been torched twice in the space of six weeks. Merchants and residents are angry and organized in a Committee of Vigilance to arrest, try and hang the arsonists and all the other cutthroats, villains and armed criminals that make the city a dangerous, lawless den of inequity in 1851 and 1852. The Governor, his cronies, and the corrupt city and county officials are determined to rein in the Committee of Vigilance even if it means civil war. Pierre and Manon Dubois must negotiate their way carefully through the minefield of warring factions, treacherous streets, and from competition of the boatloads of new immigrants, Jezebels and fortune hunters arriving weekly. The city is still a ruthless man’s world where Yankee men control commerce, can bribe juries and customs officials, and deport foreign immigrants at will. Can Manon realize her dream to own and run a high-end French restaurant employing women chefs in competition with the established male-owned and staffed restaurants? Can Pierre establish a viable notary and private detective agency in this uncertain environment? Can Manon’s women partners, associates and employees prevail in their careers in the still lawless town with over 2,000 saloons, innumerable gambling palaces and dens, fancy bordellos and sex-slave cribs?

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This book is a heady journey through the counterculture of the 60s and beyond. The narrator is the fortunate product of its particular manifestation in California, experiencing this unique spread of years in all its intensity at just the right age. He enjoys a childhood in Brentwood, near the beaches of Los Angeles where he went to school with the children of Hollywood celebrities, and moves, when older, to Venice Beach and Topanga Canyon. He then heads north to La Honda, Oakland and finally Berkeley, before winding up halfway around the globe in Vienna, Austria. The books narrative grew out of the cultural interface between his experiences in California and in Middle Europe’s Vienna, Austria, world renowned center of psychoanalysis and classical music.

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