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  The FBI kept tabs on a Buffalo bookstore owner for two years. Agents watched Leslie Pickering’s home and store, monitored his mail and used grand jury subpoenas to gather information about him. At the core of the investigation was the allegation, still unproven, that Pickering, a longtime environmental activist, was operating an eco-terrorism cell out of Burning Books, his West Side bookstore. The investigation turned up no evidence of a threat and was shut down after a confidential informant recanted part of her story, according to newly released FBI documents. Now, Pickering is asking questions about the legitimacy of...

Burning Books to screen documentary about whistleblower Bill Binney By Jordan Canahai, Artvoice, 3/4/2016 Tuesday 9:47am: Hi baby, you have to listen to me carefully—I’m on a plane that’s been hijacked. I’m on the plane; I’m calling from the plane. I want to tell you I love you and tell my children that I love them very much, and I’m so sorry babe. I don’t know what to say—there are three guys and they’ve hijacked the plane. I’m trying to be calm but it’s turned around and I’ve heard there are planes that have flown into the World Trade Center. I...

by Geoff Kelly / Jan. 20, 2016 / The Public Ted Rall is an editorial cartoonist, graphic novelist, columnist, and reporter whose work has appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers, earned him a passel of awards, and ranged in subject matter from the wars in Afghanistan (where he has traveled extensively) to the diminution of the American Left in national politics. His last two books have veered into biography: In November he released a cartoon-and-text book about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden; this week he has released a book about Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, whose surprising candidacy for the Democratic nomination for...

by George Sax, Artvoice, 12/17/2015 It’s certainly not as if Leslie J. Pickering is unaccustomed to being involved in public controversy. Not by a very long shot. Over the last seventeen years, the leftist Buffalo political organizer and educator has been the subject of extensive, sometimes inflammatory national press coverage, and the target of governmental investigators. But none of this prepared him for what happened when he was recently selected as the recipient of a community leadership award from a respected 48-year-old non-profit group. On Saturday, November 14, Pickering was to be given the Western New York Peace Center’s Altimate...

The Public / Dec. 15, 2015 A handful of imaginative Buffalonians help you navigate the holiday season’s last call…  Leslie Pickering Co-Founder of Burning Books  Party Music  Party Music reveals the never-before-heard story of the Black Panthers’ R&B band and how Black Power transformed soul music.   Censored 2016  Read about the latest news that didn’t make the news, what has happened to previously censored stories, the latest Junk Food News and News Abuse propaganda, and learn about some of the front line organizations that exemplify media democracy in action in Censored 2016.   Lumpen  When 13-year-old Ed Mead ends up in a prison for boys in his...