Guantanamo Bay

Room 9 bulletin:

Popular City Hall reporter Stephanie Gaskell is quitting her job with the New York Post to go cover the war in Iraq as a freelancer, she told me.

Gaskell, who covered Guantanamo Bay for the AP around 2002, is leaving on Friday night -- missing the Inner Circle show! -- and should be in Baghdad by Monday.

She'll be embedded with the military for two or three months.

We all wish her extremely well.

-- Azi Paybarah

At 9:30 a.m., on the City Hall steps, Bill de Blasio marks the anniversary of the Nixmary Brown's death by announcing recommendations for improving child welfare.

At 10 a.m., the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Committee discusses the EPA's cleanup at Ground Zero.

At 11 a.m., the Queens West Development Corporation meets at 633 Third Ave.

At noon, Hiram Monserrate and veterans groups call for the mayor to spend $5 million to create Veterans Resource Centers.

Also at noon, anti-war and human rights groups protest Iraq troop escalation and Guantanamo Bay detentions at both Thomas Paine Park and Lafayette and Centre streets.

At 12:30 p.m.Gloria Steinem, John Liu and others ask the state to pass anti-human trafficking laws, at state Supreme Court.

At 4 p.m., there will be a demonstration of proposed voting systems, at Fordham University.

At 5:30 p.m., the City Council hosts a Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King celebration in the Council Chambers

At 6 p.m., the December 12th Movement and Black Men's Movement discuss police brutality at the Calvary Baptist Church in Queens.

Also at 6 p.m. the Staten Island peace marks the fifth anniversary of people held at at Guantanamo Bay with a protest at the Staten Island Borough Hall

And at 6 p.m., there will be a reception for the exhibition of Eliot Spizter's campaign photos, called "Making of a Governor," at Grand Central Terminal.

-- Azi Paybarah

Not content to rest after his big Times profile today, Hillary Clinton's opponent Jonathan Tasini will be seeking out like-minded anti-war Democrats to sign his petitions at the Howard Zinn and James Carroll chat at the 92nd Street Y tonight.

According to Tasini's campaign, he'll also be looking for signatures in the coming days outside movie theaters playing "The Road To Guantanamo," "An Inconvenient Truth" and "The War Tapes."

The guy knows his audience.

- Jason Horowitz

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