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US | Meet the Man Behind Oregons New Legal Pot Market | When Oregon voters approved Measure 91 in the midterm elections, they became the latest to say that marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol. Now comes the enormous job of actually bringing the legal marijuana market to life. The task falls to Rob Patridge, the chair of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, and its four volunteer commissioners. The group will be busy ahead of the Jan. 5, 2016 deadline for accepting applications from Oregonians who want to grow, process and sell marijuana. TIME spoke to Patridge, a former Republican state lawmaker and the current district attorney of Klamath County proud home of Crater Lake about his thoughts on edibles, when the market will realistically open and whether lawsuits like this one are a threat to the commission's work. What is your general philosophy for developing Oregon's pot market? , We're going out in late January and doing what we're calling a listening tour. We're going to go throughout Oregon to talk to the communities, local government, law enforcement, educators, the treatment community, the people who are invested in growing marijuana and selling marijuana. We're going to listen to the impacts it's going to have on the community and try to define how we're going to move forward to address that as we put together the rules. What issues do you expect to come up on this listening tour?, There's been a lot of interest in stuff that the legislature may or may not address like possibly allowing a special election for local jurisdictions to opt out of allowing pot shops. There are concerns related to edibles and local government is very interested in public safety issues, how it's going to interact with criminal laws. The issues are large but we're going to try to break them down so we can eat the elephant one bite at a time rather than trying to eat the whole thing. Edibles are proving to be controversial. People are concerned about kids accidentally ingesting them, wondering whether certain types should be banned. What are your thoughts about how to approach the issue?, The concern has certainly been raised, and we're going to be proceeding with caution. I know there's some legislative interest related to edibles. The legislature could mandate types. So the jury's going to be out for a while We're watching what Colorado and Washington are doing. We've been in direct contact with the other states. We've reached out to Alaska. And we're going to take some of our commissioners and staff there to talk about implementation. I'm not one to not learn from other people's lessons. At this point, do you think there are certain types of edibles that shouldn't be on the market?, I don't know that certain types should or shouldn't be on the market. It's about how they're used and what's responsible from a packaging standpoint, how they get labeled, those types of things. In general, how is the situation going to be different in Oregon than in Washington or Colorado? , First, we're not starting from zero. We already have a system in place for medical. We also have the benefit of seeing what's gone on in Washington and Colorado, which they didn't. We're not plying new ground. The Colorado model is probably a better fit, because of how their medical marijuana is regulated. It's similar to what we do. We've been fortunate that we weren't the pioneers, even if we are the Pioneer State. We're fortunate to gain from their knowledge, and they've been very free about sharing it. What is your timeline for when legal shops will open their doors and the state will start collecting tax revenue?, We're really on a fairly tight timeline. What I'm calling the "home grow provisions" personal cannabis growing and possession becoming legal come into effect July 1, 2015. Beyond that, we've got a whole set of rules we've got to deal with. We've got to set up a whole seed-to-sale system. And if the legislature changes the playing field, we're going to be continually looking at that. Best case scenario, last half of 2016 before we'd be up and running. We're trying to be very up front. A lot of people thought that in January 2016 these retail locations would pop up and people would go purchase marijuana. And that's just not going to be the case. The attorneys general in Oklahoma and Nebraska are suing Colorado over marijuana legalization, saying it violates the Supremacy Clause. How does that shape your thoughts about the nature of the market you're setting up?, There's the potential for a lot of legal challenges for Measure 91. Until it's declared one way or another, we have to stay with what current law is. Our job under current law is to implement, and the court can do what it may. If it's looks like it's a substantial enough issueif a judge issues a stay or something else happensobviously we would work with the legislature to decide whether we should continue to spend the state's money, of if they'd want us to wait until there was a legal resolution. Is legal pot good for Oregon?, It's my job to implement it as the chair of the commission. Voters made that decision. And as I've told everybody, I try to be a consensus builder. That's my job, to create a process that's transparent, that engages everybody. That's really our role, and I'm not taking a policy position as the chair. Certainly there are arguments on all sides. It's so early. |
US | Fake News President Trump Doubles Down on Twitter Feud With Morning Joe Hosts | President Donald Trump on Friday called MSNBC's Morning Joe "fake news" after host Joe Scarborough alleged senior White House aides asked him to apologize to the President to prevent the publication of a negative story about Scarborough in the National Enquirer. "Watched low rated Morning Joe for first time in long time," Trump tweeted Friday morning. "FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show.", , Scarborough made the allegation in a scathing op-ed he wrote with co-host Mika Brzezinski published in The Washington Post Friday. Scarborough reiterated the claim on MSNBC, saying "the calls kept coming" about the potential story from three top White House aides. Scarborough has since responded to Trump's tweet over the allegation, asking the President in a tweet why he keeps "lying about things that are easily disproven?", "I have texts from your top aides and phone record," Scarborough wrote. "Also, those records show I haven't spoken with you in many months.", , , The White House did not immediately respond to TIME's request for comment on the alleged communications. "At the beginning of June, we accurately reported a story that recounted the relationship between Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the truth of which is not in dispute," said Dylan Howard, vice president of National Enquirer parent company American Media, Inc. in a statement Friday. "At no time did we threaten either Joe or Mika or their children in connection with our reporting on the story. We have no knowledge of any discussions between the White House and Joe and Mika about our story, and absolutely no involvement in those discussions.", Trump's relationship with the National Enquirer has long been the subject of controversy. The Wall Street Journal reported last year that David Pecker, longtime chief executive of American Media, Inc. paid 150,000 to a woman who alleged she had an affair with Trump, but did not publish the story. The recent spat between the President and MSNBC hosts Scarborough and Brzezinski began Thursday, when Trump described the pair as "Psycho Joe" and "low I.Q. Crazy Mika" on Twitter, adding that Brzezinski once showed up to Mar-a-Lago "bleeding badly from a face-lift." |
US | Cops Arrest 500 Johns in Sex Trade Crackdown | Law enforcement agencies across the country collaborated in a recent series of sex stings that netted the arrests of almost 500 men seeking to buy sex and 14 pimps and traffickers, officials will announce Wednesday. The police crackdown, part of an annual "National Day of Johns Arrests," led to more arrests than any previous sex sting of its kind, officials said. Law enforcement agencies in 14 different states collaborated on the sting, which is part of an ongoing national pivot toward fighting the sex trade by punishing johns instead of prostitutes. "If there was no demand, there would be no prostitution," Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, whose Chicago office has taken a lead role in organizing the crackdown, told TIME Tuesday ahead of its announcement. "It makes them understand that there are some consequences here. The public still perceives prostitution as a victimless crime, so we're going about it this way to address the problem and raise awareness.", Officials said 111 prostitutes were recovered during the operation, including 13 juveniles. The crackdown, which ran from July 17 to Aug. 3, led police to multiple cases of abuse. Seattle police recovered a 15-year old girl whose mother was attempting to sell her for sex. Texas law enforcement officials arrested a federal border patrol agent who was trying to buy sex while in full uniform, as well as a man who tried to pick up a prostitute with his infant child in the backseat. Of the 150 johns arrested in the greater Phoenix area, 91 were trying to buy sex off the website Backpage.com, Dart said the "National Day of Johns Arrests" only lasts for 18 days in order to show the scope of the problem, but also because there are practical constraints on resource allocation in different jurisdictions. "Law enforcement agencies have issues that are pulling them in a million different directions," he said. "This shows what we can do in a narrow window of time, and speaks to the bigger issue of what's happening the rest of the year.", Dart said 53 of the arrested johns were married and 47 were college graduates. "The idea that these are a bunch of ne'er-do-wells could not be further from the truth," he said. The National Day of Johns is part of a national trend toward punishing men who buy sex instead of prostitutes who are sometimes forced to sell it. New York has already announced some measures to punish pimps more than trafficking victims, and to rehabilitate women who have been in the sex trade rather than imprison them. The shift has also gained traction internationally, with Sweden's ban on purchasing sex instead of on selling it has becoming a model across Europe. |
US | Feds Say Transgender Students Gender Identity Must Be Respected | In one short paragraph of a 34-page memo released on Dec. 1, the Department of Education articulated a clear stance on gender identity, saying transgender students in public schools should be enrolled in single-sex classes that align with how they live their lives day-to-day. "We're thrilled," says Shannon Minter, the legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. "It's so critical to the health and well-being of those students, and it's going to be so helpful to have that guidance in writing so that schools understand what their obligations are.", The memo is explicit that federal law protects students' decisions made in accordance with their gender identity. "Under Title IX," it reads, a school "must treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity in all aspects of the planning, implementation, enrollment, operation, and evaluation of single-sex classes.", MORE The Transgender Tipping Point, While previous resolution agreements between school districts and the education department have articulated a similar stance, advocates hope the new guidance will clarify the rights of transgender students across the U.S. "Up to this point, we have known that this is their view of the law," Ilona Turner, legal director at the Transgender Law Center, says of the language in the memo. "But the problem has been that their interpretation has not gotten out more broadly to school districts across the country that are still grappling with how to treat transgender students fairly and make sure that they're included.", Investigations into school districts' treatment of transgender students have already set a precedent that they are protected under Title IX, which prohibits gender-based discrimination. In 2011, the Departments of Education and Justice responded to a complaint against the Arcadia Unified School District in California. It stated that a transgender boy began attending an Arcadia middle school after starting his transition, appearing as a male with a court-ordered name-change. Administrators said he could not use the boys' restroom but needed to visit a nurse's office to use the bathroom or change for gym class. He was similarly isolated on an overnight school field trip in seventh grade rather than staying with peers like other students, he was kept in a separate room with a parent. In 2013, the investigation concluded that such treatment amounted to sex discrimination. The school district agreed to a resolution that required them to treat the student as male for all purposes and revise its policies for the treatment of transgender students in the future. In October, the education department reached a similar agreement with another California school district. A transgender girl had reported that school officials failed to respond to other students verbally harassing her, and that teachers disciplined her for wearing makeup and suggested she transfer to another school. Federal civil rights laws should ensure that "transgender students and students who do not conform to stereotyped notions of masculinity or femininity can learn in a safe, educational environment," said assistant secretary Catherine E. Lhamon in a statement about the decision. In both cases, the school districts entered into voluntary agreements. Had they not, Turner says, they might have faced a bigger penalty that would also loom over any schools that defied the new guidance the loss of federal funding. The new memo comes at a time when many questions regarding transgender students are still being answered like how admissions offices at women's colleges should treat transgender applicants. Though state legislatures and athletic associations have tackled the issue, the memo does not address athletics, which are covered under a different portion of Title IX than single-sex schooling. But Turner says the new language clarifies the department's basic sentiment about issues affecting transgender students in public schools. "The overall principle says that schools cannot discriminate based on sex," she adds. "And it's clear that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on transgender status." |
US | They Were the Yin and Yang of Each Other Pittsburgh Says Goodbye to Inseparable Brothers Gunned Down | Ronna Wedner's voice broke as she recalled Cecil Rosenthal's daily visits to her flower shop in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. "Every day, it was, Good afternoon, ladies.' He would tell you how beautiful you were. Everyone was beautiful to him," Wedner, whose family has owned the Squirrel Hill Flower Shop for about 70 years, tells TIME. "He was the happiest guy I knew.", Cecil Rosenthal, 59, and his brother David Rosenthal, 56, were among the 11 people killed when a gunman opened fire during a service at the Tree of Life synagogue on Saturday. Hundreds of mourners poured into the Rodef Shalom synagogue in Pittsburgh to pay their respects to the intellectually disabled men, who were adored in the community. , Cecil, the more outgoing of the two brothers, was known for being a regular at the Tree of Life synagogue. Wedner says Cecil passed by her flower shop each day on his way to the temple. "I'd come to work in the morning and he would be there waving, and when I left at night he was standing there again, ready to go in for the evening service," she says, going quiet. "It's just, it's sad. It's sad how he was taken.", Wedner and her daughter, Katy Levin and nephew, Andrew Exler, waited in a long line of people that snaked around the block of Rodef Shalom as hundreds from the Pittsburgh area, and around the country, waited to honor the brothers. Despite the heavy emotion apparent, people reflected on the brothers' lighthearted nature. Levin, who also works in the flower shop, says she was accustomed to seeing Cecil and David every day. She and Cecil had a playful relationship, with him often jokingly asking her for money. "They used to greet us. Cecil used to come in and ask me for a dollar," Levin says. "I'd be like, Cecil what are you doing?'", Numerous attendees at the funeral dubbed Cecil the "unofficial mayor of Squirrel Hill," unafraid to go after what he wanted. He became a part of a Best Buddies chapter in 2005 when the organization shared a space with the disability services group Achieva, which helped and housed the Rosenthal brothers. , "He said, I'm going to be a part of this.' He didn't really ask," says Bill Bailey, a volunteer DJ for Best Buddies who met Cecil more than a decade ago. "I think he just decided he was going to be a part of it. He was older than everybody else there.", A much quieter man than his brother, David Rosenthal was "fanatical about keeping things clean," says Michael Hirt, Cecil and David's brother-in-law, during the service. He was never one to leave a dish sitting unattended. Also a fan of law enforcement, David was particularly attached to his police scanner and very upset when it, at one point, broke. , "David loved anything relating to the police or fire department," Hirt says, noting that his brother-in-law started phone conversations by saying, Michael, the police are looking for you.'", Despite his more introverted nature, David was remembered for having a keen sense of humor and being inseparable from his brother. "They were the yin and yang of each other," Bailey says. Inside the synagogue, people gathered around the aisles, chatting quietly and comforting each other through tears. As seats in the sanctuary filled up, people lined up against the side walls and stood together in the back as services began. , Diane Rosenthal, one of Cecil and David's two sisters, delivered a eulogy while surrounded by some family, speaking to the nature of innocence both possessed. , "Our brothers, Cecil and David were men. But as most people in the audience knows, we referred to them as the boys,'" she said through tears. "Maybe this was because they were in a sense like boys, not hardened like men oftentimes become with age and experience.", Friends and family bid goodbye to Cecil and David on Tuesday, as less than two miles down the road at the Jewish Community Center, a service for Jerry Rabinowitz, a doctor who also who died in the shooting, was underway. Funerals for other victims have been scheduled through the rest of the week. , The start of the funerals for the victims in the synagogue shooting comes as President Donald Trump visits Pittsburgh, a trip that has caused controversy within the community. While Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers said on Monday that Trump is "certainly welcome" to visit, others have disagreed. , By Tuesday afternoon, protestors mobilized near the synagogue in Squirrel Hill to speak out against Trump's appearance. Jewish leaders with the Pittsburgh affiliate of the progressive group Bend the Arc said in an open letter that Trump is not welcome in Pittsburgh and that his "words and policies have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement." Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, who asked that Trump postpone any visits until after the victims were buried so as not to use up security resources, will not be meeting with the president during his trip to the city. , Allegheny County, where Squirrel Hill is located, supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, with 56 of voters. Houses throughout the area bear signs in support of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and others in the party running in the upcoming midterm elections. , Bailey, who said he is quite politically active and previously served as the head of a local NAACP chapter, was not for Trump coming to town. , "It's about headlines," said Bailey, who lives in Squirrel Hill. "This is not Trump country." |
US | How the Supreme Court Just Slowed Climate Efforts and Why Environmental Activists Remain Optimistic | The Supreme Court's decision to delay implementation of President Obama's Clean Power Plan has dealt a serious blow to American efforts to fight climate change, leaving an air of uncertainty both in the U.S. and abroad with international partners around a plan Obama once heralded as "the biggest, most important step" ever taken to combat global warming. The Clean Power Plan, a regulation issued through executive authority and that doesn't need congressional approval, mandates a 32 reduction in carbon emissions from U.S. power plants by 2030 from 2005 levels. The rule charges individual states with the task of devising their own plans to reduce power-plant emissions, most likely through a reduction in coal power, the most carbon-intensive form of electricity. The court's stay comes as more than two dozen states sue to block the Clean Power Plan employing a host of legal arguments ranging from challenging the rule's constitutionality to questioning whether the Clean Air Act permits such regulations. Legal arguments aside, the states say the rule would hurt local economies and kill jobs. Read More How Climate Change Unfairly Burdens Poorer Countries, The Supreme Court's decision to issue a stay does not address the substance of the Clean Power Plan, but legal experts described the decision as a sign of the ultimate fate of the regulations. Supreme Court Justices had never before issued a stay to block pending regulation without waiting for a decision by an appeals court, according to environmental-law experts. "At least five of them think there's a serious issue with the validity of the Clean Power Plan," says Richard Lazarus, a professor of environmental law at Harvard Law School. "If the court thought there was nothing to the claims, they wouldn't have granted the stay.", Even if the court ends up ultimately ruling in favor of the White House, the decision would likely not come until 2017 or 2018. That delay would push full implementation back far beyond 2022 when the plan was originally set to take full force. It would also reduce the chances that the U.S. could meet Obama's stated goal of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions across the economy by as much as 28 below 2005 levels by 2025. A failure to meet those goals could diminish U.S. standing on the international stage where American officials have sought to portray the country as a leader in addressing global warming. The White House touted the Clean Power Plan in a push to get world leaders to commit to cut greenhouse-gas emissions in their own countries in advance of the Paris Agreement, which solidifies international agreement to keep temperatures from rising more than 2C 3.6F by 2100. Environmental-policy experts optimistically portrayed the stay as another wrinkle in the sometimes tortuous path of political compromises that have long been a part of climate-change action. If the country can ultimately meet its climate goals, yesterday's action by the court will be irrelevant. "People understood that the stay of the Clean Power Plan was a possibility," said John Coequyt, the Sierra Club's director of federal and international climate campaigns. "Every country has their own domestic challenges, and people understand the difficulties of the United States more than just about any other place in the world.", Read More How Cities and States Took the Spotlight in Paris Climate Talks, The ruling came as states prepared to submit an initial plan explaining how they would meet emissions-reductions mandates ahead of a now moot September deadline. That date that required states to begin working to reduce emissions before knowing the results of the November presidential election. A Republican President has the power to undo the Clean Power Plan just as easily as Obama enacted it. The Environmental Protection Agency would issue a new timeline in the event that the court upholds the rule. But many state leaders including governors who don't support the regulation have vowed to continue with their plans to implement the Clean Power Plan since the court's ruling. Their states could be left at a disadvantage if they don't take action and the rule is ultimately upheld, state leaders said. Regardless of what the court rules, many experts believe the energy sector will continue to decarbonize thanks to long-running market forces, which have driven down the costs of alternatives to the most damaging fossil fuels. Utilities had begun moving away from coal power well before the Clean Power Plan was announced in 2014 thanks to those forces. Coal-fired power plants produced half of the country's electricity supply a decade ago and now only produce a third. In the meantime, the share of natural gas in the electricity mix has increased from less than a 20 to a third as well. Solar and wind power have also become cheaper. "A transformation of the energy sector is happening under our feet," said Sam Adams, director of the World Resources Institute's U.S. Climate Initiative. "The Clean Power Plan definitely speeds along and supports the transformation, but the momentum is already there." |
US | 8th Largest Mega Millions Jackpot in History Up for Grabs on New Years Day | In a potentially lucrative start to the year for America's lottery players, the Mega Millions jackpot climbed to 415 million in a drawing set to take place on New Year's Day Tuesday. The prize will be the eighth-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history. The jackpot grew from a 348 million prize after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn last Friday. Mega Millions is available to people in 44 states, as well as the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Ticket are not for sale in Nevada, Utah, Mississippi, Alabama, Alaska, and Hawaii. January's massive prize comes on the heels of this year's lottery fever, with a 1.537 billion prize, the largest Mega Millions jackpot ever, drawn in October. One winning ticket was sold for that drawing, but the lucky South Carolina buyer still has not come forward, Mega Millions confirmed in a press release. This past year also saw many of the other largest jackpots in Mega Millions history. In January, a Florida player took home a 451 million prize, and in March a New Jersey resident brought in 533 million. A ticket bought in California won a 543 million prize in July. |
US | These Kids Are Suing the Federal Government to Demand Climate Action They Just Won an Important Vict | A group of young Americans suing the federal government to demand increased efforts on climate change won a notable battle Thursday, as a federal court rejected the government's request to dismiss the case. The ruling paves the way for the 21 plaintiffswho range in age from 9 to 20to take their case to trial in federal court. A ruling in their favor could be a landmark decision on climate change, though it would almost certainly be appealed to a Supreme Court that is set to become more conservative in the wake of Donald Trump's win. "We are standing here to fight and protect everything that we lovefrom our land to our waters to the mountains to the rivers and forests," Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, a 16-year-old plaintiff in the case told supporters after a hearing in Eugene, Ore. this fall. "This is the moment where we decide what kind of legacy we are going to leave behind for future generations.", The case rests on the legal argument that climate change threatens the plaintiffs' fundamental constitutional right to life and liberty. Julia Olson, a lawyer for the plaintiffs and executive director of Our Children's Trust, argued in court that the federal government has understood the threat of climate change for decades and knowingly put the lives of future generations in danger. The current measures in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are insufficient and not aligned with current science, she argued. Read More Donald Trump's Victory Could Mean Disaster for the Planet, The lawsuit awkwardly puts President Obama's Justice Department in a position arguing that the children do not have standing to sueeven though Obama himself has made climate action a priority. Sean Duffy, a lawyer for the Justice Department, acknowledged in a September hearing that climate change poses an urgent threat but dismissed the idea that individual citizens could sue the federal government over the issue. The federal government has no means to address the complaint, Duffy argued. Quin Sorenson, a lawyer representing industry interests including the American Petroleum Institute, supported that argument and added others. But in the hearing Judge Ann Aiken appeared not just sympathetic to the childrenmost of whom were seated in the front of the courtroombut also downright hostile toward the challengers. Aiken seemed to suggest that the court could play a role bringing the federal government to the table with environmental activists to negotiate an agreement. "I would think the government would want the help of the courts to push the good work it's doing," she told Duffy. "There is so much common ground.", Read More What to Know About the Dakota Access Pipeline Protests, Of course, that common ground will likely evaporate as soon as Trump takes office in January. Trump repeatedly rejected the science of man-made climate change as a candidate and promised to undo many existing regulations. A lawsuit forcing policymakers to the table to take action on climate change would be a game-changingif unlikelyvictory for climate change activists at an otherwise dark moment. This week's victory is only a preliminary step forward for the novel lawsuit. The case now faces an actual trial and whatever decision emerges will inevitably be appealed, perhaps as far as the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court ruled in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency that the EPA needs to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles. But the Court has changed since then and will continue to change with Trump in office. |
US | Chelsea Manning Thanks Prison Inmates for Keeping Her Going | Chelsea Manning has written a letter to her fellow inmates for keeping her "alive for the past six years" at Fort Leavenworth prison barracks where she was serving 35-years for leaking secret military and government documents to WikiLeaks. Manning, who published her letter on the Guardian, assures inmates that "they will never be forgotten" despite her being separated from the general population of the prison after former President Barack Obama commuted her sentence on Jan. 17. "I know that we are now physically separated, but we will never be apart and we are not alone," Manning wrote from the new restrictive housing unit she's been placed in. "Recently, one of you asked me, Will you remember me?' I will remember you. How could I possibly forget? You taught me lessons I would have never learned otherwise.", The emotional letter charts the moments when inmates helped her through her lows during incarceration, including the times when she attempted suicide. "You were the people who checked on me after I tried to end my life. You were the people that played fun games with me. Who wished me a Happy Birthday. We shared the holidays together. You were and will always be family," Manning wrote. Read her full editorial here. |
US | Witness Says Gorilla at Cincinnati Zoo Dragged Child Like a Raggedy Ann Doll | One witness who saw a toddler crawl into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati zoo last weekend says the 400-lb. gorilla was handling the child "like a Raggedy Ann doll in his grip," and another called the gorilla's behavior "very violent.", Zookeepers shot and killed an endangered 17-year old western-lowlands gorilla named Harambe after a three-year old boy crawled into his enclosure. Animal rights activists are outraged, and more than 320,000 people have signed a Change.org petition demanding that the boy's parents be held responsible for the gorilla's death. Some are even questioning whether the situation was dangerous enough to warrant killing the gorilla, after video emerged of the animal appearing to protect the boy. But witnesses at the zoo said the gorilla was overpowering the toddler and threatened the boy's life. "I was frozen in fear, it was too traumatic to be on camera," says Kim O'Connor, a witness who filmed the incident. "What you don't see is the way he pulled the boy up the wall. He was treating the little boy like a Raggedy Ann doll in his grip.", Another witness, Deidre Lykin, says the encounter was "horrific." "It wasn't until the gorilla became agitated because of the nosey, dramatic, helpless crowd that the gorilla violently ran with the child!" she wrote in a Facebook post. "And it was very violent although I think the gorilla was still trying to protect, we're taking a 400 lb gorilla throwing a 40 lb toddler around!", O'Connor, who spoke to PEOPLE, said she overheard the boy telling his mother he wanted to go play with the gorilla, and the mother told him he couldn't. "People around me were talking about how big the gorilla was, calling him King Kong, and I heard him say I wanna go!' and the mom was like, No, you're not!'" she says. "I don't think in her wildest imagination she thought he would actually go back and do that.", She says the boy's mother, who has been identified in media reports as Michelle Gregg, didn't realize at first that the child in the enclosure was her son. "All of a sudden, I heard a splash and someone yelled, Oh my God, there's a kid in there!' " O'Connor says. "Kids, men, women, everyone started screaming and then the mother looked around and ran to the wall and said, Oh my God, that's my son!'", Lykin says she witnessed the moment when the mother realized her son had crawled into the enclosure. "She said He was right here! I took a pic and his hand was in my back pocket and then gone!'" she wrote. Lykin says her husband was attempting to talk to the boy over the railing, to calm him down. "As she could find him nowhere, she looks to my husband already over the railing talking to the child and asks, Sir, is he wearing green shorts?' My husband reluctantly had to tell her yes, when she then nearly had a break down!", In a now-deleted Facebook post, the boy's mother thanked zookeepers for their quick action. "As a society we are quick to judge how a parent could take their eyes off of their child and if anyone knows me I keep a tight watch on my kids," she wrote, according to PEOPLE. "Accidents happen but I am thankful that the right people were in the right place today." The boy is reportedly out of the hospital and doing well. |
US | President Trump Threatens to Pull Federal Funding Over Deadly California Wildfires | President Trump threatened to cut federal funding to California over "poor" management as deadly wildfires ravage parts of the state. On Saturday morning, Trump tweeted his first comments on the wildfires since they began earlier this week, making no mention of the nine confirmed victims. Instead, he criticized forest management and threatening to withhold federal payments to California. , Authorities confirmed nine people have died so far, and 250,000 residents have been evacuated due to what has quickly grown into California's most destructive fire in at least a century. On Friday afternoon, Trump approved an emergency declaration for California, allowing for the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to coordinate on disaster relief, including air support and evacuation assistance. His tweet Saturday morning seems to suggest he may withhold federal assistance for future wildfires. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's operating budget for 2018 is 2.3 billion. The state agency is responsible for providing wildfire relief throughout most of the state. It's not the first time this year Trump has criticized the handling of wildfires by state officials. In August, he tweeted that the Mendocino Complex Fire wildfire was being made worse by bad environmental laws that did not allow available water to be properly utilized. |
US | Its a Womens Wave Coming The Womens March Is Turning Into a True Political Force | Dixie O'Connell's older brother cast a write-in ballot for Mickey Mouse in the 2016 presidential election. Fifteen months later, O'Connell marched in the 2018 New York Women's March with a sign that said, "I'm pissed.", She couldn't vote in 2016, but O'Connell is already doing everything she can to cancel out her brother's throwaway ballot. She and her friends, Kaitlyn Viola and Briana Taddeo, both 17, plan to march whenever they can, make phone calls for candidates, and encourage their older relatives to vote responsibly. And this November, they'll be showing up to the polls. "I'm definitely going to vote," says O'Connell, who canvassed and phone banked for Bernie Sanders during the 2016 election, "even if I don't have a candidate I strongly believe in." Taddeo, who will still be 17 in November, plans to convince her homebound grandmother to vote in her stead., One year after the Women's March became the largest single-day protest in U.S. history, O'Connell and her friends represent the movement's new direction Doing anything and everything to wrestle control of Congress from a Republican Party that has largely worked to advance President Trump's agenda. An unprecedented surge of Democratic women are running for office this year, but that's just the crest of the "Pink Wave." In interviews with some of those among the estimated 120,000 people who marched in New York City Saturday, a pattern emerged. If they're not running, they're organizing. If they're not organizing, they're donating. If they're not donating, they're voting. Nobody is doing nothing. The official Women's March organizers have translated this motivation into a new strategy for 2018 Power to the Polls, a nationwide voter registration drive targeting first-timers in swing states ahead of the midterms. Marchers have created their own ways to expand their political impact, too. "Last year we were all in shock, angry we didn't do more, says Diane Johnson, a 59-year old New York City real state broker. "Now we know we can't let this ever happen again." Johnson says she is personally making sure everyone she knows is registered to vote. She's also making regular donations to Emily's List, which supports pro-choice Democratic women candidates. Lisette Cheresson, a 33-year old festival organizer, said that after last year's march, she began attending local Democratic party meetings and learning the inner workings of New York local government. Her friend Erica Duncan, a 28-year old designer, joined the campaign to repeal New York City's "cabaret law," which made it hard for local businesses to allow dancing in their establishments. Lauren Barkley, a 30-year old fashion student, said she has given money to so many different causes over the last year that sometimes after a night of drinking she'll wake up to an email thanking her for her contribution to Planned Parenthood or the ACLU "drunk donating," she calls it. "I don't think any of this would have happened if Hillary had won," Cheresson says. "We would have continued to live under the assumption that we had broken the glass ceiling, when in fact we had only cracked it." She likens this possibility to the Obama presidency, "when people thought racism was over, and really it wasn't.", Kim Hall, 45, says participating in last year's Women's March helped her meet other like-minded women in Wilton, CT. When they noticed that a local candidate for school board had posted confederate flags on Facebook and called on Trump to "build a wall," they started a publicity campaign, organized against her, and got local organizations to pull their endorsements. "It wasn't inclusive, and it didn't belong on our school board," Hall says. In many ways, this year's anniversary March was a celebration of everything the women's movement has done in the last year, from organizing calls to Congress to coalescing around the MeToo campaign. And throughout the March, there was a sense of personal agency, a feeling that any one person could make a difference moving forward. "What you're seeing is an emphasis on the fact that women can make a change in the midterms," says Kathleen McNamara, a 64-year old grants writer carrying a sign showing a pink tidal wave. "It's a women's wave coming." |
US | Colorado Church Halts Funeral Because Woman Was Gay Friends and Family Say | A church in Colorado reportedly canceled a woman's funeral on Saturday after learning that she was gay. Friends of the woman, Vanessa Collier, who died in December at the age of 33, claim that a church in Lakewood refused to hold a memorial service for her because she is a lesbian, the Denver Post" reports. Collier's friends claim the funeral at New Hope Ministries was canceled 15 minutes after the service was supposed to start because the church would not allow a picture to be shown of Collier proposing to her wife, according to 9 News. "Her casket was open, flowers laid out and hundreds of people sitting in the pews," according to a Facebook post about a "Death in Dignity" rally that was held Tuesday for Collier. "Give us an apology!" protesters chanted, according to the Denver Post. According to the newspaper, Collier's death was "unexpected." She leaves behind her wife and two children. This article originally appeared at PEOPLE.com |
US | 3 Dead in Shooting at Colorado Planned Parenthood | Three people are dead, including one police officer, after a shooting at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs on Friday. The suspected shooter has been taken into police custody, according to the town's mayor. Nine other people have been hospitalized and are in good condition according to police, the Associated Press reports. The deceased officer was named as Garrett Swasey, 44, a six-year veteran of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs police department. Colorado Springs mayor John Suthers said the community "mourns the loss of a very brave police officer." Police have not yet confirmed the identity of the suspect. Police first responded to the active shooter on Centennial Boulevard around noon local time. Around 230 p.m. local police assisted by the FBI were still pursuing the shooter. A witness told the AP that she heard up to 20 gunshots in less than five minutes and saw an officer fall to the ground. Joan Motolinia told the AP that he heard gunshots while on the phone with his sister Jennifer, who is hiding in the Planned Parenthood. "She was telling me to take care of her babies because she could get killed," Motolinia said of Jennifer, a mother of three. Police had warned workers and shoppers in nearby stores to stay away from the windows and to not allow anyone in or out. "We are working with the staff of Planned Parenthood to identify where people are in the building and help them get out safely," said Buckley. "Until we have this individual, it's not safe for us to move anybody out of other buildings in proximity to the Planned Parenthood building.", Authorities do not yet know if Planned Parenthood was the shooter's target."It would be premature to speculate what this individual's motives" were, said Buckley. Vicki Cowart, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains, released a statement on the Planned Parenthood site, which read, in part "We share the concerns of many Americans that extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country. We will never back away from providing care in a safe, supportive environment that millions of people rely on and trust.", Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted the statement along with the message "Today and every day, we StandWithPP.", President Obama has been briefed by Homeland Security. |
US | Making a Murderer Petition Gains Enough Signatures to Reach White House | A petition asking the Obama administration to "pardon Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey for the alleged involvement in the murder of Teresa Halbach" allegations recently brought into the spotlight thanks to Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer has exceeded 100,000 signatures, meaning that the White House must now respond. "Based on the evidence in the Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer, the justice system embarrassingly failed both men, completely ruining their entire lives," the petition reads. " This is a black mark on the justice system as a whole, and should be recognized as such, while also giving these men the ability to live as normal a life as possible.", According to the terms of participation on the We the People site, where the petition was made, "a petition must reach 100,000 signatures within 30 days" to "require a response." This specific petition was published on Dec. 20 and currently has over 115,000 signatures. Multiple petitions asking for Avery and Dassey to be pardoned have sprung up since Making a Murderer debuted Dec. 18, but Ken Kratz the special prosecutor in Avery's murder case maintains that the series doesn't tell the whole story. "I believe there to be 80 to 90 percent of the physical evidence, the forensic evidence, that ties Steven Avery to this murder never to have been presented in this documentary," he recently told Fox. He also went on Good Morning America Tuesday to say that Making a Murderer "wasn't a documentary." "It was a defense piece, generated by and for Steven Avery by his defense team," he said. "It wasn't until Netflix decided to repackage it that both sides were invited to participate.", Moira Demos, who made the film along with Laura Ricciardi, told Fox that Kratz rejected their invitations to be interviewed for the series. "We believe the series is what we witnessed," Demos said. "The key pieces of the state's evidence are included in the series.", According to the Department of Justice's website, "the power to grant pardons is vested in the President alone," but there's a caveat The president can only pardon federal criminal convictions, and Avery was convicted of a crime against the state of Wisconsin, not against the United States. As a result, there's not really much the White House can do in this situation the Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, is the only one in this case with the power to pardon Avery. Walker, though, doesn't seem willing "Just because a documentary on TV says something doesn't mean that's actually what the evidence shows," Walker told Fox Tuesday. "The bottom line is that there was a crime that was committed a decade ago. There is a system in the judicial system by which individuals can petition the courts to get relief like others have done in the past that shows that someone might actually be innocent. But I am not going to override a system that is already put in place.", Read more about the Avery petitions here, and watch Making a Murderer on Netflix. |
US | Abducted Ohio Woman Calls Police While Alleged Captor Sleeps | The desperate 911 call of an abducted Ohio woman led police to her alleged captor and the discovery of the bodies of three more women, reports say. , While her alleged captor, Shawn Grate, 40, slept, a woman made a 17-minute phone call to police, begging them for help as she stood in the first-floor bedroom of an abandoned house in Ashland County on Tuesday, the The Columbus Dispatch reports. "Please hurry he's got a taser," the woman whispered to a dispatcher in the 911 call obtained by the Dispatch. When the dispatcher asked the woman if she was able to leave the house, she replied, "I don't know without waking him and I'm scared.", She was able to guide police to Grate's home. He was arrested on Tuesday and charged with one count of abduction, an Ashland Police Department spokeswoman tells PEOPLE. , She told police that she and Grate had become friends about a month ago before he allegedly kidnapped her and held her captive in the abandoned house. , After his arrest on Tuesday, authorities allegedly discovered the remains of two women on the property, and Grate allegedly led them to the remains of a third woman on another property. , One of the bodies found Tuesday has been identified as Stacey Stanley, a 43-year-old mother who went missing about a week ago, Cleveland 19 reports. , "She didn't want to die. She wanted to live. She had a family," Jeana Stanley, Stacey's sister, told Cleveland 19. "This guy who did this to her and these other women? He's a monster." , A prosecutor told the Mansfield News Journal that Grate allegedly admitted he had killed a woman in June. , Investigators found that body in a wooded ravine near a home partially destroyed by a fire, the Journal reports. , Grate was being held at Ashland County Jail on Thursday, according to jail records. An Ashland County Jail spokesman says it does not appear he has entered a plea or appeared in court yet. It was not immediately clear if he has retained an attorney. |
US | Bill Clinton Remembers His Unlikely Friendship With George HW Bush in an Emotional OpEd | Former President Bill Clinton honored the life of George H.W. Bush, who died Nov. 30 in his Houston Home, with a touching editorial about an unlikely friendship between two, who were once political adversaries. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, published Dec. 1, Clinton praised the former President and invited all Americans to give thanks for his service to the country. Clinton said that he loved Bush and considered their friendship "one of the great gifts of my life.", "From Indonesia to Houston, from the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast to Kennebunkport where just a few months ago we shared our last visit, as he was surrounded by his family but clearly missing Barbara I cherished every opportunity I had to learn and laugh with him. I just loved him," he wrote. Clinton recalled the warm welcome he got from his predecessor as he entered the White House to begin his first term. Upon entering the Oval Office on January 20, 1993, Clinton found a handwritten letter from Bush offering him sincere advise about the hardships of the job and well wishes for his future success. "You will be our President when you read this note," the note read. "I wish you well. I wish your family well. Your success now is our country's success. I am rooting hard for you. Good Luck George.", According to Clinton, many people were surprised at their relationship, considering they were once political adversaries. But he said despite considerable differences, he admired Bush's long list of accomplishments in foreign and domestic policy. Clinton applauded his management of the U.S. response to the end of the Cold War and his willingness to reach across the aisle to establish national education goals. "Even more important, though he could be tough in a political fight, he was in it for the right reasons people always came before politics, patriotism before partisanship," Clinton wrote. "To the end, we knew we would never agree on everything, and we agreed that was okay. Honest debate strengthens democracy.", Clinton said Bush's note encapsulated the former President's heart. "He was an honorable, gracious and decent man who believed in the United States, our Constitution, our institutions and our shared future," Clinton wrote. "And he believed in his duty to defend and strengthen them, in victory and defeat. He also had a natural humanity, always hoping with all his heart that others' journeys would include some of the joy that his family, his service and his adventures gave him." |
US | ISIS Claims Responsibility for Muhammad Cartoon Contest Shooting | The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Sunday shooting outside a controversial cartoon competition that lampooned the Prophet Muhammad near Dallas that left the two assailants dead the first time the group has claimed an attack on U.S. soil. A statement read on the extremist group's Al Bayan radio Tuesday said that "two of the soldiers of the caliphate" executed the attack in Garland, Texas, Agence France-Presse reports. "We tell America that what is coming will be even bigger and more bitter, and that you will see the soldiers of ISIS do terrible things," the group said. Reports emerged Monday that the FBI had been investigating one of the shooters, Elton Simpson, since 2006 after it found recordings of the 31-year-old vowing to "fight nonbelievers for Allah.", While there has been no acknowledged link between Simpson, fellow gunman Nadir Soofi, 34, and ISIS, Reuters reported that the FBI had been investigating whether the attack had been instigated by foreign-based militants. The cartoon contest has been deemed deliberately provocative, as any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is forbidden in Islam. |
US | Measuring Wars Impact on Women | American women have been marching off to war in increasing numbers over the last generation. Soon, the Pentagon expects to lift its ban on their service in ground combat, its most demanding, dirtiest and bloodiest form. Is this a good thing?, In Women at War, Army veterans Elspeth Cameron Ritchie and Anne L. Naclerio have produced the first book detailing what war does to the physical and mental health of the growing number of women waging it. Featuring contributions from many military and academic experts, the volume doesn't advocate putting women in the trenches. "Women are already in combat," says Ritchie, a psychiatrist who earned three combat patches before retiring from the Army as a colonel in 2010. The book also doesn't wade into the controversy over whether women have the physical strength to accomplish the mission. Instead, it collects widely-scattered data about what combat does to women and puts it in one place to serve as guidance as the number of female soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines slowly rises. Bottom line women can do it, but it may not be easy. Some 2.5 million women have served in uniform since the Revolutionary War, Lieut. General Patricia Horoho, the Army surgeon general, notes in the book's forward. "Given recent policy changes, by January 2016 it is expected that all military occupations, positions, and units will be open to women," she adds, "thus ensuring that they will play even larger roles in future military operations.", The number of women engaged in major U.S. combat operations is steadily growing. They climbed from 770 in 1989's Panama invasion, to 41,000 in 1991's Gulf War, to 300,000 in the post-9/11 Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns. About 15 of U.S. troops today are female. They represented 10 of those deployed to Iraq between 2003 and 2011, and 8 of those sent to Afghanistan between 2001 and 2013 they were under-represented because they are generally barred from serving in combat units. That also accounts for the fact that they represented only 2.3 of U.S. troops killed in action. More facts from the book, The 40 contributors including 10 men write about women's health on the front lines and the challenges of being a soldier and a mother. "Mothers who deploy may be viewed as uncaring or negligent, rather than serving selflessly and patriotically," Army psychiatrist Elizabeth C. Henderson writes. "It is more culturally acceptable for men to go to war.", "I tried to avoid thinking of my child most of the time," a mother deployed to a war zone said. "I had something to do right after every phone call so that I would not retreat to my tent and start crying.", Women in uniform also are subject to shunning by their male colleagues. "Women who are working in primarily male career fieldsor, as in the military, are breaking into previously closed combat positions currently held by malesmay suddenly find themselves part of a social group that has difficulty fully accepting or integrating females," writes Pentagon psychologist Kate McGraw. "The negative impact of this type of behavior may intensify during periods of high stress, such as in combat or deployed locations.", But experience can ease such trepidation. "I felt tremendous pressure to live beyond reproach, and over time, I have learned that this is an incredibly intense, stressful, and ultimately unsustainable and inhumane way to live," then-Lieut. Paulette Cazares wrote of her first tour as a doctor aboard a U.S. Navy submarine. "Come the second year and second deployment, I was able to dance in bars at ports of call and enjoy a cigar with the CO and know I was on stable footing.", She also writes that her time aboard gave her the confidence she needed to save a young female sailor from dying of appendicitis on what was supposed to have been a quiet Thanksgiving. "At the beginning of that deployment, I would never known or had the courage to demand that a helo move faster," she recalls. "But a few months at sea made this girl a little saltier than she was when she left San Diego.", Being different can pose challenges when nature calls. "In 2011, with all our sophisticated battle systems and unarmed aircraft, women in combat were still wearing diapers because we hadn't figured out how they could take care of basic bodily functions in the back of an armored personnel carrier or transport vehicle," Naclerio says. There remains, after a decade of war, ignorance among both military women and their medical advisers about minimizing such issues, she adds. Only 4.5 of women in Iraq in 2005-2006, for example, were using commercially available female urination devices, which allow women to relieve themselves like men. Both Naclerio and Ritchie express surprise at how little research has been done to smooth the integration of women into the military. Sexual assault is a "major issue" in the U.S. military, the book notes, and has received extensive professional and press coverage. But there has been scant attention paid to consensual sex in the ranks downrange. "A taboo area seems to be the sexual desires of women who deploy," the authors write. "But young womenand most women who deploy are youngdo have sexual desires, perhaps heightened by the daily exposure to death and close bonding in the combat zone." This taboo has led to a dearth of information. "We have very little knowledge of the actual amount of consensual sexual activity that is occurring during deployments between military members because very little research is done on that topic," writes Navy psychiatrist Ann Canuso. Think of it as a new version of "don't ask, don't tell." "Studies indicate that as many as 12 of deployed women had an unplanned pregnancy during deployment in 2008. The dearth of women on the front lines makes them a rarity. But that's slowly expected to change. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said last month that he wants 25 of Marine recruits eventually to be women, more than triple their current 7 of the corps. But until that happens and Marines, both male and female, believe it's a tall order, women on the front lines will continue to feel like they live in a fishbowl. "My presence there seemed to make everyone stop and stare," one forward-deployed woman told Canuso of her visits to the gym. Some of their male counterparts acknowledged their role. One told Canuso about the time he was instructing other young men when a female colleague walked by in her workout gear. "We all just stopped and stared at her for almost a full 30 seconds," he said. "Then I just went back to teaching the men. I never would have done that stateside." |
US | 3 New Sexual Assault Allegations at Princeton | Three new sexual assaults were reported over the weekend to Princeton University police, at a time when colleges and universities are under increasing national scrutiny for how they handle sexual assault allegations. Two of the incidents were reported on Friday and one on Saturday, the Times of Trenton reports. Two of the reported incidentsboth involving unwanted fondlingallegedly occurred over the last month at eating clubs, co-ed social clubs at Princeton. The third report alleged sexual activity while incapacitated during the 2012-2013 school year. Reporting of sexual assault is generally considered a good sign because it indicates that the culture at an institution makes victims feel safe to report. Raising reporting has been one of the signature goals of the federal-government's months-long initiative to improve the handling of sexual assaults on campus. MORE The sexual assault crisis on America's campuses , Princeton has made a number of changes to its handling of sexual assault cases over the last several months, in response to a federal inquiry. It's unclear if those changes played any role in empowering students to come forward. In September, under pressure from the federal government, Princeton became the last Ivy League school to lower its standard of proof for sexual assault violations. Following that decision, the school reached a settlement agreement with the federal government ending an investigation into Princeton's handling of sexual assault. In December, two student officers were stripped of their titles at the Princeton eating club Tiger Inn, after they sent emails ridiculing women including one that contained a sexually explicit photograph. |
US | President Trump Retweeted AntiMuslim Videos Posted by FarRight Group Britain First | President Donald Trump caused waves across the pond Wednesday morning by retweeting three anti-Muslim videos posted on the social media platform by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of the far-right group Britain First. The videos Trump retweeted to his 43.6 million followers are called "Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!", "Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary!" and "Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!", Fransen, who, along with Britain First leader Paul Golding, was charged with causing religiously aggravated harassment earlier this year, tweeted "God bless you Trump! God bless America!" in capitals in response to the President's retweet, followed by the abbreviation OCS, standing for Onward Christian Soldiers. The 31-year-old is set to appear in court in Northern Ireland in December, charged with using "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour" in connection with a speech she made at a Northern Ireland Against Terrorism rally in Belfast on August 6. Britain First, a controversial anti-immigration group which describes itself as a political party and a street defense organization, was formed in 2011 by a former member of the similarly far-right British National Party in order to oppose the rise of radical Islam. The group gained notoriety in 2015 when it shared a photograph of the slain British soldier Lee Rigby, who was killed by two Islamists in 2013, on its Facebook page. The group also made headlines in 2014 when it posted videos online of the group entering and disrupting mosques across London and the northern city of Bradford. |
US | Illinois Says Daily Fantasy Sports Sites Are Illegal | The Illinois Attorney General ruled Wednesday that daily fantasy sports are illegal under state law. State Attorney General Lisa Madigan delivered the ruling in an opinion to state representatives, reports CNBC, saying that the paid contests offered by online daily sports sites like FanDuel and DraftKings are considered gambling. Madigan's office said it expects DraftKings and FanDuel change their terms of agreement and post a notice that says Illinois residents can not play. The companies are already facing a legal battle over the right to operate in New York. While the companies have argued that they run games of skill, officials contest that they are gambling. FanDuel decried the decision in a statement, adding the FX fantasy football comedy "The League" is set in Chicago, "So why the Attorney General would tell her 13.5 million constituents they can't play fantasy sports anymore as they know it and make no mistake, her opinion bans all forms of fantasy sports played for money is beyond us," FanDuel said in the statement. "Hopefully, the legislature will give back to the people of Illinois the games they love. A sports town like Chicago and a sports-loving state like Illinois deserves nothing less.", Read More The Legal Argument for Daily Fantasy Proves It's a Racket |
US | Chelsea Manning Breaks Her Silence | Chelsea Manning, the former military intelligence analyst who is serving a 35-year prison sentence for leaking classified information in 2010, has broken her silence to rail against a lack of military transparency in a New York Times editorial. In the article, Manning calls for a new government body to oversee embedded journalists' press credentials and for a quicker declassification of the military's Significant Activity Reports, which detail the facts of attacks and casualties and could aid reporters' coverage of the conflict. "I believe that the current limits on press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for Americans to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance," Manning writes. The soldier formerly known as Bradley Manning was arrested in 2010 on several charges, including aiding the enemy, after leaking reams of intelligence to Wikileaks earlier that year. The day after she was sentenced to 35 years in prison, Manning whom many consider a traitor to her country came out as a transgender woman and announced she would live her life as Chelsea Manning. Manning points to journalists' coverage of the March 2010 elections in Iraq, which suggested "that United States military operations had succeeded" in establishing democracy, though on-the-ground reports she had access to revealed a crackdown against political dissidents in the country during that time. Manning was also appalled by the disparity between daily media coverage of the war back home and the daily military intelligence reports she read during her time as an analyst. "How could top-level decision makers say that the American public, or even Congress, supported the conflict when they didn't have half the story?", She writes that the system of approving and embedding reporters is deeply flawed and makes it difficult for journalists to report the news accurately. Manning claims the military has a history of granting access to reporters it thinks will write favorable coverage. Policies in place allow for immediate termination of reporters' access, which Manning alleges was has been used as punishment for critical coverage, like when Michael Hastings was denied access following his reporting on Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's critical comments on the Obama administration. "Improving media access to this crucial aspect of our national life where America has committed the men and women of its armed services would be a powerful step toward re-establishing trust between voters and officials," she writes. New York Times |
US | Read Darren Wilsons Testimony to the Grand Jury | Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson described his side of his fatal altercation with unarmed teen Michael Brown in testimony to a St. Louis County grand jury last month. The St. Louis County Prosecutor's office released the transcripts late Monday after the grand jury decided against indicting Wilson in Brown's death. In his testimony, Wilson described stopping Brown on the street and alleged that Brown attacked him as he tried to exit his patrol car to confront Brown, who he believed matched the suspect in a theft. Wilson claims Brown repeatedly swung at him, and maintained "total control" of his gun once he unholstered it to defend himself. Wilson managed to grasp Brown's arm, he told the grand jury, saying, "When I grabbed him, the only way I can describe it is I felt like a five-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan.", He described two shots ringing out from his patrol car during the altercation, claiming he would be shot by his own gun during the struggle. Wilson goes on to claim that he chased Brown down the street, and fired the fatal shots once Brown turned and moved back toward him. Read Wilson's testimony below, , View this document on Scribd |
US | Donald Trump to Stephen Curry Consider Your White House Invitation Withdrawn | Amid a series of tweets ranging from the NFL to healthcare, President Donald Trump also made an announcement Stephen Curry's White House invitation was withdrawn. "Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!" Trump tweeted Saturday morning. The point guard for the Golden State Warriors has said on multiple occasions that he was not likely to attend the visit to the White House as a member of the team, which won the NBA championship title in June. Initially, Curry said he "probably" would not go. , "I don't want to go. That's the nucleus of my belief. If it was just me, it would be a pretty short conversation," Curry told reporters Friday. LeBron James later took to Twitter to defend Curry, calling the President a "bum.", , The NAACP also took to Twitter to defend Curry, posting "A hero dissed by a . fill in the blank TakeAKnee.", , The Warriors later released a statement on Twitter, saying, "We accept that President Trump has made it clear that we are not invited. , The Hill noted that this week, Curry said he didn't think the rest of the team should go either. "We basically don't stand for what our President has said, and the things he hasn't said at the right time," Curry said, according to SF Gate. He said he hopes that by not going, it will "inspire some change for what we tolerate in this country and what we stand for.", "We're all trying to do what we can, using our platforms, our opportunities, to shed light on it," Curry said. "I don't think not going to the White House will miraculously make everything better. But this is my opportunity to voice that." |
US | What to Know About the Mass Shooting in Las Vegas | At least 59 people were killed and 527 were injured after a man opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday in what appears to be the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Police say Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man from Mesquite, Nev. opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Festival from the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Concertgoers reported seeing flashes of muzzle light coming from the upper floors of the hotel and hearing bursts of gunfire over a period of nine minutes. A SWAT team later found Paddock dead in a hotel room, which was filled with 23 firearms. Here's what to know about the shooting, The dozens of those killed during the massacre Sunday evening included an off-duty police officer who coached youth football, a middle school special-education teacher, an Alaskan fisherman celebrating a successful season and a young woman who had graduated from high school just two years ago, among many others. Another victim has been identified by his wife as 29-year-old Sonny Melton, a Nashville nurse. The couple was at the music festival together and Heather Gulish Melton said her husband died saving her life. "At this point, I'm in complete disbelief and despair," she told NBC affiliate WCYB. "I don't know what to say. Sonny was the most kind-hearted, loving man I have ever met. He saved my life and lost his.", As families, friends and colleagues learn more details of their fallen loved ones, many others injured from the shooting were hospitalized in Las Vegas as thousands of people spent hours in line to donate blood. The suspect, identified as Stephen Paddock, was a 64-year-old man from Mesquite, Nev. A SWAT team found him dead in a hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino across the street from the Route 91 festival, authorities said. , Police used a controlled explosion to get into the room, where they found 23 guns, some with scopes, which Paddock had carried into the hotel using "an excess of 10 suitcases," Lombardo said. He said police also found 19 additional firearms, explosives and several thousand rounds of ammunition at Paddock's house in Mesquite. , Authorities also discovered two gun stocks, which could have allowed him to modify weapons to make them fully automatic, AP reports, citing police sources who requested anonymity because the investigation was still ongoing. Eric Paddock, the suspect's brother, told reporters on Monday that Stephen was a retired accountant who frequently made trips to Las Vegas to gamble. The brother appeared shocked by the incident, and said he believes his brother had no affiliation with any kind of extremist organization. Authorities have described the shooting as a "lone wolf" attack, and police said that social media rumors of multiple shooters at multiple resorts were false. , Police have also located a woman named Marilou Danley, who they believe to be Paddock's roommate and girlfriend. Though authorities ruled her out as a person of interest before, police said on Monday that Danley is still a person of interest. Police said she is currently in the Philippines. Police are still investigating the motive of the shooting, but said on Tuesday that the attack as premeditated. Paddock, they said, set up cameras inside and outside of his hotel room, and Lombardo said he believes that was done to monitor police coming to take him into custody. "I can't get into the mind of a psychopath at this point," Lombardo said, when asked about the motive behind the attack on Monday, according to the Associated Press. The AP reported that besides his gun cache, Paddock also had an interest in high-limit video poker and real estate deals. Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI hostage negotiator and supervisor in the bureau's behavioral science unit told AP that Paddock's profile did not match that of a typical mass murderer he was much older than is usually the case and was not known to be suffering from mental illness. "My challenge is, I don't see any of the classic indicators, so far, that would suggest, OK, he's on the road either to suicide or homicide or both," Van Zandt said. But Paddock's weapon horde and his actions did suggest the mass shooting had been planned at least days in advance, Van Zandt said. "He knew what he wanted to do. He knew how he was going to do it, and it doesn't seem like he had any kind of escape plan at all," he added. ISIS claimed responsibility for the atrocity and said that Paddock had converted to Islam months ago, according to the AP. But ISIS, which has falsely claimed responsibility for attacks previously, did not provide any evidence for its claim. The FBI later said it has no immediate evidence linking the shooting to an international terror organization. Paddock's family members expressed shock and confusion when they learned that he was responsible for the attack. "We are completely dumbfounded," his brother, Eric Paddock, said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel. "We can't understand what happened.", In remarks Monday morning, President Trump called for national unity and described the shooting as "an act of pure evil." Trump praised first responders for their quick reaction and offered his condolences to the families of the victims. "We are praying for you and we are here for you, and we ask God to help see you through this very dark period," Trump said. The White House issued a proclamation that all flags be flown at half staff through Oct. 6 in remembrance of the victims. Lombardo wrote on Twitter that he had received a call from the President, who said he will travel to Las Vegas on Wednesday. https//twitter.com/Sheriff_LVMPD/status/914871804216221697, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement that he had also spoken with Lombardo and offered him full support from the FBI, Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Sessions also said he met with FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday morning. Country singer Jason Aldean, who was partway through his set at the Route 91 Harvest Festival when gunshots rang out, called the incident "beyond horrific" and said he and his crew members were safe. "Tonight has been beyond horrific," Aldean wrote in an Instagram post early Monday morning. "It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night.", Ariana Grande whose concert in Manchester, England was rocked by a deadly suicide bombing attack in May spoke out Monday. "We need love, unity, peace, gun control for people to look at this call this what it is terrorism," she wrote on Twitter. Meanwhile, world leaders sent condolences, and some Democratic lawmakers demanded action on gun control in the wake of the violence. , "To my colleagues your cowardice to act cannot be whitewashed by thoughts and prayers," said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, where the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school took place. "None of this ends unless we do something to stop it.", This is a developing story. |
US | 12 People on Flights to Philadelphia Have FluLike Symptoms Officials Say | Twelve passengers on international flights that landed at Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday are showing flu-like symptoms, airport officials said. A total of about 250 passengers, plus crew members, aboard two American Airlines flights Flight 755 from Paris, and Flight 717 from Munich were held for medical review on Thursday, a Philadelphia International Airport spokesperson said in a statement provided to TIME. Except the 12 passengers experiencing flu-like symptoms, everyone was cleared for release, according to the statement. , Benjamin Haynes, a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, confirmed to TIME that the CDC was involved in evaluating passengers. "CDC is aware of two American Airlines flights from Paris and Germany that arrived at PHL airport this afternoon with ill passengers on board," Haynes said in a statement. "CDC and Philadelphia public health officers worked with EMS and Customs and Border Protection officials to evaluate and test the ill passengers for influenza and other respiratory illnesses. Twelve passengers from the two flights reported a sore throat and cough none were identified with fever. None of the passengers are severely ill, and they will be released and informed of test results in 24 hours.", , A representative from American Airlines told TIME that all passengers deplaned normally, and neither the passengers nor the aircrafts were quarantined. Medical examinations occurred after passengers got off the planes. , The incident comes just a day after 11 people on an Emirates flight from Dubai were hospitalized after landing at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. Test results from those patients came back positive for influenza, and all but one had been discharged by Thursday afternoon. The remaining patient was admitted for influenza treatment. |
US | Were Tired of Hearing Politicians Send Thoughts and Prayers Florida Shooting Survivor Speaks Out at | A survivor of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14, was given a platform to speak about gun reform and raise awareness of the upcoming March For Our Lives demonstration during the iHeartRadio Music Awards Sunday evening. Alex Moscou was introduced by the rapper Big Sean, who described the student as "a lacrosse goalie, member of the drama club and a sophomore who survived the attack by a gunman.", The teenager took the microphone to discuss gun reform in the U.S. and he got a big round of applause from the star-studded audience. "We are tired of hearing politicians send their thoughts and prayers to us and doing nothing to make the necessary changes to prevent this tragedy from happening again," Alex said. "School is a place where we should feel safe and if those elected to represent us won't do what's right to keep us safe then we're going to be too loud for them to ignore.", Moscou then spoke about the upcoming March For Our Lives, a demonstration taking place in major cities across the U.S. including New York City and Los Angeles, at the end of the month. "We're marching in Washington D.C. on March 24 for all of our fellow students and for the victims and survivors of gun violence in every community," he said. A wide range of celebrities have endorsed March For Our Lives and some will also be in attendance, including Jimmy Kimmel and Julianne Moore. Celebrities have also been donating to the cause, including George and Amal Clooney who gave 500,000 to March For Our Lives, which was matched by Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, and producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and Marilyn Siegel. |
US | Michigan State University Wont Remove President Amid Criticisms Over Larry Nassar Abuse | The Michigan State University Board of Trustees said Friday that it would not remove university President Lou Anna Simon, who has faced calls to resign amid findings of abuse by former university sports doctor Larry Nassar. Nassar, who was also a longtime physician for USA Gymnastics, has been accused of sexual abuse by hundreds of athletes and was arrested in December 2016 on child pornography charges. The Detroit Free Press reported Thursday that several university administrators, including Simon, had known about accusations of sexual misconduct against Nassar before his arrest. In response, Michigan State University student government leaders sent a letter to the board of trustees calling for change in university leadership. "Students can no longer place faith and trust in the current leadership of our administration," they wrote, according to the Free Press. State lawmakers also called on Simon to resign. But the board voiced its support for Simon on Friday, while also asking the Michigan attorney general to investigate whether school officials had ignored complaints against Nassar. "We continue to believe President Simon is the right leader for the university and she has our support," the board said in a statement, the Free Press reported. "Through this terrible situation, the university has been perceived as tone deaf, unresponsive and insensitive to the victims," the board said. "We understand the public's faith has been shaken. The Board has listened and heard the victims.", While the Michigan State board met on Friday, Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman confronted Nassar in court with a powerful statement. She and many of the athletes who testified in court this week accused USA Gymnastics and Michigan State of enabling Nassar's abuse. "I continue to appreciate the confidence of the Board and the many people who have reached out to me, and to them, who have the best interested of MSU at heart," Simon said in a statement Friday, according to the Free Press. "I have always done my best to lead MSU and I will continue to do so today and tomorrow." |
US | US Sent 400M to Iran While American Hostages Were Freed | As Iran released four American hostages in January, some 400 million dollars were flown into Tehran, according to a report. A cargo plane loaded with Euros, Swiss Francs and other currencies made its way to Iran, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing U.S. and European officials and congressional staff who were made aware of the operation after the fact. The money, the U.S. asserts, was not a ransom payment, but rather the first installment of some 1.7 billion the Obama administration has agreed to pay Iran to resolve a decades-old failed arms deal. "With the nuclear deal done, prisoners released, the time was right to resolve this dispute as well," President Barack Obama announced at the White House on Jan. 17without acknowledging the 400 million cash settlement being flown to Iran. The four hostages, including journalist Jason Rezaian and former Marine Amir Hekmati, were released a day earlier in what was looked at as a diplomatic breakthrough. There is no link to the payment and the prisoner exchange, according to senior U.S. officials cited in the WSJ report, who say that the two arrangements coming together at the same time was a coincidence. "As we've made clear, the negotiations over the settlement of an outstanding claim at the Hague Tribunal were completely separate from the discussions about returning our American citizens home," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. "The funds that were transferred to Iran were related solely to the settlement of a longstanding claim at the U.S.-Iran Claims Tribunal at The Hague." |
US | Trump Administration Halts Visas for Unmarried SameSex Partners of Diplomats | A new Trump administration visa policy appears to give the partners of same-sex diplomats a difficult ultimatum get married, or get out. As of Monday, the U.S. State Department will no longer issue visas to the same-sex partners of foreign diplomats or staffers of U.S.-based international organizations like the United Nations, unless they are married. According to a notice posted on the State Department website, the U.S. will now consider applications from same-sex partners of diplomats and international officials the same way it does for heterosexual partners. The shift requires same-sex partners to apply for a spousal visa, also known as the G-4 visa, and is "effective immediately.", But that could put pose a problem for couples ineligible to legally marry in their home country. Only 25 countries recognize some form of same-sex marriage, according to Human Rights Watch HRW, while in more than 70 others, same-sex relationships are punishable by law. The policy change was announced in July, when the State Department said it would only "accept the accreditation of spouses, both same-sex and opposite-sex," beginning on Oct. 1. Foreign same-sex partners who wish to remain in the U.S. are advised to submit proof of marriage to the State Department by Dec. 31, 2018, or expect to leave the U.S. within 30 days of that deadline. The new policy is intended "to help ensure and promote equal treatment" between straight and gay couples, a State Department spokesperson said in a statement, according to NBC News. But it also rolls back a practice championed by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to extend benefits to same-sex domestic partners of diplomats or international staff posted in the U.S. even if they were not legally married. The new visa regulations quickly garnered criticism for seemingly coercing same-sex couples to enter into a marriage that could earn them prison time back home. Samantha Power, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called the new policy "needlessly cruel bigoted.", "Only 12 of UN member states allow same-sex marriage," she wrote on Twitter. HRW deputy United Nations director Akshaya Kumar said Monday that the new policy will effectively "tear LGBT U.N. staff" from their partners. "Requiring a marriage as proof of bona fide partnership is a bad and cruel policy, one that replicates the terrible discrimination many LGBT people face in their own countries," she wrote in a statement. |
US | Can Computers Fix Gerrymandering | Here's how democracy is supposed to work Citizens go to the polls to choose who will represent them, and when all the seats are filled, the legislative body looks roughly proportional to the makeup of voters. But that's not what happened in Wisconsin's 2012 election, when Republicans took more than 60 of the seats in the state assembly despite getting less than half the votes. That outcomeand similar results in five other states that yearoccurred largely thanks to computer-driven partisan gerrymandering. On Oct. 3, the Supreme Court will hear the case of Gill v. Whitford, which could decide whether that redistricting plan was constitutional and by extension whether the practice of partisan gerrymandering should be reined in. As a political strategy, gerrymandering is hardly new the term dates back to the 1800s. But critics say increasing polarization of Democrats and Republicans and sophisticated software have made it much worse in recent years. "It is questionable how much of a democracy we really are if we have manipulated the lines so that people can change their votes but they can't change who gets elected," says Ruth Greenwood, senior legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, which is representing the people fighting the Wisconsin map. The state argues that the map sticks to traditional districting principles and reflects the natural tendency of political groups to cluster together. Some states have tried to address partisan gerrymandering by assigning the redrawing process to nonpartisan commissions. More typically, though, in states like Wisconsin, the task falls to the sitting politicians. And that means the majority party controls the process that will be used to fill its own seats. Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty of using partisan gerrymandering to their advantage. But about 20 years ago, the GOP gained a national edge, and Democrats have struggled to redraw the lines in their favor ever since. The digital age is partly to blame district lines are drawn with the use of increasingly sophisticated data-analysis and mapping technologies. These days, once a party makes a gerrymandered map, it's harder than ever for the opposing party to regain control and flip the map in their favor. Gerrymandered maps have been challenged in court in the past. The maps are usually overturned when the court finds evidence of racial bias. The 1965 Voting Rights Act protects minority representation. Evidence of partisan bias is another story. Courts have generally given a pass to this kind of gerrymandering, in part because there has never been a concrete metric to prove that a party went too far in gaining an advantage. That's why the Wisconsin case is unprecedented. The Campaign Legal Center is proposing a multistep test to evaluate whether a map is skewed so far as to be unconstitutional. Such a test hasn't been presented to the Supreme Court before. Part of the test relies on a simple calculation, called the efficiency-gap equation, to determine how easy it is for each party to translate votes into seats. If a state's efficiency gap is an outlier by historical standards, it would fail that part of the test. This is not the only test being developed. Political scientists and statisticians are looking at various ways to fight gerrymandering using the same computer-aided analysis that empowered it. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are using computers to create millions of simulations of "reasonably imperfect" legislative maps that can be compared with the ones lawmakers draw up to help determine whether they are gerrymandered. Organizers at Tufts University trained mathematicians at a workshop this summer to serve as expert witnesses on court cases fighting gerrymandering. If the high court rules against the Wisconsin map, the test could have a nationwide impact starting in 2020, when the next Census kicks off a new round of mapmaking. Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a law professor at the University of Chicago who helped develop the test, says it would not eliminate all gerrymandering but would cut off the most egregious plans. "There are places where voters are 50-50, yet one party is locked out of power," Stephanopoulos says. "There is no other practice or policy that has such an impact on who is elected." |
US | The Guardian and Washington Post Nab Pulitzer For Snowden Coverage | The 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism was awarded Monday to The Washington Post and The Guardian's U.S. edition for their reporting on National Security Agency leaks from its former contractor Edward Snowden. According to the Pulitzer committee, each media organization was awarded journalism's highest honor "for its revelation of widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency, marked by authoritative and insightful reports that helped the public understand how disclosures fit into the larger framework of national security.", Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden first approached documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras with his cache of documents. Poitras assisted Snowden in bringing the documents to The Washington Post and Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian, which first published reports about the leaks. Both papers share this year's Pulitzer for their ongoing coverage of Snowden's leaks, which have shed new light on the agency's tactics and operations, and provoked a vigorous international debate on the rights and wrongs of government surveillance. In response to Monday's news, Snowden said in a statement, "Today's decision is a vindication for everyone who believes that the public has a role in government. We owe it to the efforts of the brave reporters and their colleagues who kept working in the face of extraordinary intimidation, including the forced destruction of journalistic materials, the inappropriate use of terrorism laws, and so many other means of pressure to get them to stop what the world now recognizes was work of vital public importance.", Other winners included the Boston Globe, which was honored for its breaking news coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013 the novelist Donna Tartt, whose novel The Goldfinch won the fiction award and The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, which was honored for its editorial writing. |
US | Beau Biden Son of US Vice President Dies at 46 | Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III, the former Delaware Attorney General and son of Vice President Joe Biden, died at 46 after battling brain cancer, the Vice President's office announced Saturday night. "It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life," the Vice President said in a statement. An Iraq War veteran and Bronze Star recipient, the younger Biden was a rising star in democratic politics. He declined to run for reelection in 2014 but was seen as a likely contender for his state's governorship in 2016. "More than his professional accomplishments, Beau measured himself as a husband, father, son and brother," the Vice President said. "His absolute honor made him a role model for our family. Beau embodied my father's saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did.", "Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known," the family said. The elder son of the Vice President, Beau, along with his brother, Hunter, survived a 1972 car crash that killed their mother and sister. Beau, who suffered a stroke in 2010, and was admitted to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas in 2013, is survived by his wife Hallie, and his children, Natalie and Hunter. In a statement Saturday night, Delaware Governor Jack Markell said his family was "shattered" by the loss and extended "his deepest sympathies" to the Biden family. Calling Beau "an outstanding Attorney General, lawyer, soldier, and father," he said, "I feel privileged to have served with him and Delaware is a better place thanks to him.", President Barack Obama also released a statement, saying "Michelle and I are grieving tonight.", Obama quoted the poet William Butler Yeats in a tribute to Biden saying, "I have believed the best of every man," Yeats said. "And find that to believe it is enough to make a bad man show him at his best or even a good man swing his lantern higher.", "Beau Biden believed the best of us all," Obama added. "For him, and for his family, we swing our lanterns higher." |
US | More Than 1000 Pimps and Johns Arrested in Nationwide Prostitution Sting | A coalition of dozens of law enforcement agencies arrested more than 1,000 pimps and sex buyers in a summer-long series of prostitution stings. The months-long annual sting, now known as the National Johns Suppression Initiative, was led by Sheriff Tom Dart of Cook County, Il. A total of 39 law enforcement agencies across 18 states arrested 961 men trying to buy sex and 71 pimps or traffickers, more than in any of his previous stings. About two-fifths of the arrests stemmed from online prostitution ads, and 98 of those ads were placed on Backpage.com, according to a press release from the sheriff's office. In the four years since the annual sting began, more than 4,000 sex buyers and traffickers have been arrested it used to be called the National Day of Johns. "This broad national movement should send a strong message to prospective johns that sex trafficking simply is not a victimless crime," said Sheriff Dart in a statement. "These women and girls have been brutalized and exploited and the most effective way to deter these heinous crimes is to target the demand.", The Cook County Sheriff's office has repeatedly attacked Backpage.com as a haven for pimps and traffickers, and earlier this summer asked Visa and Mastercard to withdraw their credit cards as a form of payment on the site. Backpage.com won a temporary restraining order against Sheriff Dart in July, but in August a judge denied an injunction request that would have forced Dart to retract his statements about the website, concluding that Dart's requests to Visa and Mastercard did not count as censorship. Backpage.com did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Occasionally, officers encountered children while carrying out the stings. The Cook County Sheriff's Office arrested a man who was attempting to buy sex with his 2-year old daughter in the car, and the St Paul, Mn. police department arrested a trafficker who was holding his victim's 3-year old son in order to keep her from going to the police. Dayton, Oh. police recovered a 15-year old runaway who they said was being prostituted on Backpage.com. Read more about the national push to target men who buy sex here. |
US | Knee Defender Passenger Says He Never Reclines His Seat | An airline passenger who got in a fight over reclining seats and was later booted off his flight says he now feels bad about the altercation. James Beach was on an August flight in which he used a product called a "Knee Defender" which prevented the seat in front of his from reclining. Beach, who is six feet, one inch tall, told the Associated Press Wednesday that he doesn't always use the device, but he needed to do some work on his computer during the flight. Beach also said he never reclines his own seat. After the woman seated in front of Beach figured out he had installed the Knee Defender, preventing her from reclining her own seat, the pair got involved in an altercation. Things got messy, with bad language and tossed beverages. The pilots ultimately diverted the flight to Chicago and removed Beach and the woman from the plane. "I'm pretty ashamed and embarrassed by what happened. I could have handled it so much better," Beach told the Associated Press. Beach says his Knee Defender was a gift from his wife. "I put them in maybe a third of the time. Usually, the person in front tries to recline their seat a couple of times, and then they forget about it," Beach said. "I'd rather just kind of let them think the seat is broken, rather than start a confrontation.", After getting kicked off his first flight, Beach says he took a Spirit Airlines flight, since the airlines does not use reclining seats. AP |
US | Nurse Arrested in Sexual Assault Case of Incapacitated Woman Who Gave Birth | PHOENIX A nurse who was supposed to be looking after an incapacitated woman at a long-term health care facility was charged Wednesday with raping her, weeks after she stunned her caregivers and family by giving birth to a baby boy . Nathan Sutherland, a licensed practical nurse, has been arrested and charged with one count of sexual assault and one count of vulnerable adult abuse, according to court records. "We owed this arrest to the victim. We owed this arrest to the newest member of our community that innocent baby," Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said. The surprise birth late last month triggered reviews by state agencies, highlighted safety concerns for patients who are severely disabled or incapacitated and led to disciplinary actions and resignations of staffers and managers. It also prompted authorities to test the DNA of all the men who worked at the Hacienda HealthCare facility. Sutherland, 36, submitted his DNA sample under court order Tuesday and the results came back a few hours later, showing he was a match to the baby. He declined to speak with police and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, police spokesman Tommy Thompson said. Sutherland appeared in court Wednesday but did not enter a plea. A Maricopa County Superior Court commissioner set a 500,000 cash-only bond. If Sutherland posts bond, he would need to wear an electronic monitoring device. Defense attorney David Gregan had asked for a lower bond on the grounds that Sutherland didn't have a criminal record. He described his client as a family man with young children who has lived in Arizona since 1993. "There's no direct evidence that Mr. Sutherland has committed these acts," Gregan said. "I know at this point there's DNA. But he will have a right to his own DNA expert.", Gregan did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Investigators found that Sutherland had treated the victim and spent a lot of time with her, according to a probable cause statement. Investigators believe Sutherland raped the patient sometime between February and April. A former neighbor, Esella Burr, said she lived next to Sutherland, his wife and four children for more than five years. She often saw the couple leave for church on Sundays and they would chat occasionally. "I can't believe it," Burr said. "He told me he was a nurse and he liked his job.", Court records indicate his wife filed for divorce seven weeks ago. A message left at a number listed for her was not immediately returned. Hacienda officials fired Sutherland after learning of his arrest. The company said it was "troubled beyond words." Sutherland had passed an extensive background check. "Once again, we offer an apology and send our deepest sympathies to the client and her family, to the community and to our agency partners at every level," Hacienda said in a statement. The 29-year-old victim has been in long-term care since age 3 and gave birth at the facility on Dec. 29. Employees said they had no idea she was pregnant. As her guardian, the woman's mother was required to submit an annual report to the court that included results of a medical exam. The case has prompted the departure or discipline of key figures at Hacienda HealthCare, including the CEO. The provider says one doctor who had cared for the woman resigned and another had been suspended. Earlier stories had described the patient as being comatose or in a vegetative state. But her parents released a statement Tuesday disputing that characterization. They described her as intellectually disabled because of seizures in early childhood. While she doesn't speak, she has some mobility in her limbs, head and neck. She also responds to sound and can make facial gestures. The family's attorney, John Micheaels, said in a statement that they knew about the arrest but did not want to comment. Thompson said he believes the baby has since been released from the hospital. The woman's family has said they will care for him. |
US | Private Jets Overwhelm Vegas Airport Before MayweatherPacquiao Fight | Numerous celebrities were on hand to watch Floyd Mayweather Jr. beat Manny Pacquiao in Saturday night's "Fight of the Century" in Las Vegas, and they apparently didn't fly coach to get there. Las Vegas's main commercial airport, McCarran International, was reportedly closed to private planes on Saturday after celebrities packed the airport with their parked jets, according to Sports Illustrated. In several images posted to Twitter, the airport lot is filled with private planes and jets, parked wing-to-wing. Fox 11 Los Angeles sports reporter Liz Habib tweeted a shot of the humorous scene, writing "Private Jets at Las Vegas airport!!! Wing to wing airport closed now to private planes MayPac.", , Musician and producer Emilio Estefan, who was headed to the boxing match, also tweeted an image of the full lot at McCarran. "Arrived in LasVegas to a SoldOut airport! Ready for the big fight tonight MayweatherPacquiao Boxing," he wrote on Saturday. , The match, which drew big-name attendees including Beyonc, Jay, Mark Wahlberg, Justin Bieber and Tom Brady, was the biggest payday in boxing history. Pacquiao and Mayweather were estimated to split 300 million before even entering the ring at Las Vegas's Grand Garden Arena. Many celebs bet big on the match, including Wahlberg, who went head-to-head with Diddy for a cool 250,000. Officials for McCarran International said it was expected to reach record volume, and airport officials were directing passengers to nearby, less familiar airports, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on Friday. Rita Carrillo, manager for Signature Flight Support, one of the companies receiving private planes at McCarran, also told the newspaper that the weekend's estimated volume was the largest she could remember in her 30 years at the airport. "I don't think people realize the magnitude of this event," Carrillo said, continuing, "and the type of clientele that is coming in to see us." |
US | American Freed in Iran Prisoner Swap Feels Born Again | One of the five Americans released by Iran as a part of a prisoner exchange described his return as "like being born again.", Amir Hekmanti was part of a group of freed Americans that included Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini. His family says he was visiting his grandmother in Iran in 2011 when he was first detained. Hekmanti, a former Marine infantryman and linguist, was charged with espionage and other crimes a year later, according to CNN. "I feel extremely lucky, alive, for the first time in a long time, and very humbled at everybody's support, from the President to Congress to my fellow Marines, and especially my family who've really gone through so much throughout this time," Hekmanti told reporters outside Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany before traveling to Michigan. Hekmanti, Rezaian and Abedini arrived at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Sunday. "I did not relax until we were out of Iranian airspace," Hekmati said. CNN, , |
US | Alibi Witness for Serial Subject Adnan Syed Gives Evidence in Court | The alibi witness who says her testimony upends the state's case against convicted killer Adnan Syed finally had her say in court Wednesday. Asia McClain, on whose account defense lawyers have pinned their hopes to win a new trial for Syed in the 1999 murder that spawned the hit true-crime podcast Serial, took the stand in a Baltimore courtroom to restate that she was with Syed in a school library at the time prosecutors say he killed his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, 18. McClain now a mother of two who lives in Washington state and goes by her married name, Asia Champman repeated what she'd earlier put into a written affidavit after her offer to testify was either overlooked or dismissed by Syed's defense attorney at his original trial. Read Next Serials Adnan Syed Argues for New Trial, On Jan. 13, 1999, according to Asia, she was in the Woodlawn Public Library while waiting for her boyfriend to pick her up. Shortly after 215 p.m. Syed walked in. "I was so glad to see someone I knew," she said. "He sat across from me." The two chatted for 15 to 20 minutes before McClain's then-boyfriend arrived with another friend, everyone said hello, and she left, recalling that her boyfriend later "wanted to know if that guy Syed was hitting on me.", Syed was arrested on Feb. 28, 1999. On March 1, Asia told a friend that she was with him in the library on the afternoon of the alleged killing, a fact she repeated that night to Syed's family. "I told them I didn't know if it would be helpful, but I remembered seeing him in the library that day and he seemed pretty normal," she said. That night she also recalled writing Syed a letter, reminding him of their conversation and suggesting that the library's video surveillance could prove his whereabouts at the time. She gave him several phone numbers to contact her. The next day, she wrote a second letter to him, again offering any help. She did not then know the timeline put forth by prosecutors, who theorized that Lee was killed about the same time. On March 25, 2000, she says she was visited by Rabia Chaudry, a friend of the Syed family and longtime advocate for Syed's innocence in the case. At that time she wrote an affidavit recounting her time in the library with Syed, and they had it notarized. Syed's current defense attorney, C. Justin Brown, asked if she felt pressured by Chaudry to help. "No, she was very nice about it," she said. But she was never contacted by Syed's lawyer at the time, the now-deceased Cristina Gutierrez, whose competency is one of the issues raised by the defense in the current effort to win a retrial for Syed. And her two letters to Syed never came to light in either of the two trials that preceded Syed's conviction and life sentence for Lee's murder. In April 2010, after McClain had moved to Washington state, she said she learned that someone from the Syed defense team was trying to contact her, and she was given Brown's card. Instead she called the office of prosecutor Kevin Urick. "I thought the prosecutor would be the good guy who could give me unbiased information about the case," she said. "He said, He killed that girl,' and he didn't have any doubt," she said, adding that Urick told her "there's a snowball's chain in hell" that Brown would win Syed's release. That conversation made her think Brown was "playing the system and manipulating the courts.", The the Serial podcast came out, and Asia discovered that Urick had misrepresented their conversation by claiming that Asia had been pressured by Syed's family to write her affidavit. "I was in shock," she said. "I was unhappy, I was angry with myself, that I allowed my thoughts and opinions to be represented by a third party.", She also came to realize how important her timeline was to Syed's defense. Until then, "I didn't think I was very important at all. I didn't think the time period I spoke to him about was of importance because his previous lawyer never reached out," she said. That drove her decision to speak out, she said. "It placed a great weight on my heart to make sure justice could be fairly evaluated.", The hearing on whether Syed will be granted a new trial continues Thursday. |
US | These Are the Hurricane Irma Evacuation Zones So Far | Officials in several U.S. states that lie in Hurricane Irma's potential path have issued states of emergency and, in some cases, mandatory evacuation zones. The Category 4 hurricane, recently downgraded from a Category 5 late Wednesday, has already destroyed communities across the Caribbean and left at least 10 dead. Hurricane Irma spaghetti models a simple way to share storm data and illustrate its projected path suggest it will begin affecting southern Florida, including Miami, as early as Sunday. Here's a list of the areas that have mandatory evacuation zones as of Friday morning. We have also included resources for finding information in states where evacuations may be announced as Hurricane Irma's track becomes more clear. Irma will likely affect Florida most from the southern tip and up along the eastern coast. Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency on Monday. Since then, officials in the following counties have issued evacuations, , The Florida Division of Emergency Management website will update its full list of evacuation orders as more are announced. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency in six counties on Wednesday. The counties have not yet issued mandatory evacuations, but the Emergency Operations Center opened Thursday morning. Emergency officials said they will continue to monitor the storm as officials decide whether to evacuate residents. , More information about staying up-to-date on Georgia evacuations is available here. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency Wednesday amid fears the storm could have a serious impact on the state. Evacuations for South Carolina may be ordered by Friday. Emergency officials recommended that residents familiarize themselves with evacuation zones and routes in the meantime. Hurricane Irma updates for the state are available here. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, when he said that Irma may impact all 100 of the state's counties. He urged residents to learn evacuation routes and stay updated on possible orders to leave. North Carolina officials will post more information about Hurricane Irma here. |
US | This Aerial Photo Shows What Wildfires Did to One California Neighborhood | More than a dozen wildfires have devastated Northern California this week, laying waste to 1,500 buildings, injuring more than 100 and claiming ten lives. Inflamed by powerful winds, fourteen wildfires broke out overnight Sunday and wracked the Napa and Sonoma Valleys Monday, displacing thousands of northern California residents. Two hospitals in Santa Rosa have had to evacuate patients, and the death toll is expected to rise as the trail of devastation grows in what is already one of California's ten most deadly fires. The Santa Rosa neighborhood of Coffey Park was among the worst hit area, according to Business Insider, which published before and after images of the area in all their stark contrast. The residential subdivision, built in the 1980s and home to about 8,000 residents, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, appears to have been completely razed. Aerial photos showed the neatly manicured neighborhood, with single-family homes clustered on tree-lined streets reduced to ash, with trails of smoke rising over a scorched, dystopian landscape. An estimated 20,000 people were evacuated because of the blaze, the Associated Press reports, while four of the six shelters operating in Santa Rosa are at capacity, according to the Santa Rosa Fire Department. |
US | Colorado Attorney General Urges Clerks to Stop Issuing GayMarriage Licenses | County clerks in Colorado who have been issuing marriage licenses to gay couples might soon be ordered to stop, if an appeal to the state's supreme court by its attorney general is carried out. Calling the current situation "legal chaos," where clerks are issuing licenses even though Colorado's ban on same-sex marriage has not been struck down, attorney general John Suthers said the state is being forced to violate its own laws, reports the Denver Post. Suthers asked the supreme court to intervene after judges from some of the state's lower courts refused to entertain a similar request, and allowed county clerks to continue giving gay couples marriage licenses. C. Scott Crabtree, a judge in Adams County District Court, ruled last week that the state's ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional and denied a request to stop Denver clerks from issuing licenses to gay couples. A Boulder County judge also followed suit, and clerks in Denver and Pueblo began issuing licenses to same-sex couples. However, Suthers said the ban still stands, since Crabtree's ruling has not yet taken effect. Most clerks in the state are continuing to issue these licenses because they are against the ban, and Suthers said he understands the issue is an emotional one. "But we simply cannot, as a matter of respect for the rule of law, ignore the processes by which laws are changed," he said. The Denver Post |
US | Family of Alton Sterling He Was Killed Without Regard | Family members of a 37-year-old black man fatally shot by police in Baton Rouge, La. broke down in tears Wednesday as they mourned the loss of a father and pledged to fight for justice. Supporters of Alton Sterling, who was killed early Tuesday while police apparently pinned him down outside a convenience store, called for the police chief to be fired or resign and urged residents to boycott the local mall after the fatal shooting. "I, for one, will not rest or not allow him to be swept in the dirt," said Quinyetta McMillon, 31, the mother of Sterling's 15-year-old son. The teenager, Cameron Sterling, sobbed loudly and was overcome with emotion as his mother spoke at a news conference. Sterling's death, which sparked protests in Baton Rouge, was caught in a graphic video, which was widely shared on social media. The footage appears to show two officers approaching Sterling outside of a convenience store. One officer appears to tackle him over the hood of the car, then both pounce on him, apparently to restrain him on the pavement. "As this video has been shared across the world, you will see with your own eyes how he was handled unjustly and killed without regard for the lives that he helped raise," McMillon, who is not married to Sterling, told reporters. "As a mother, I have now been forced to raise a son who is going to remember what happened to his father that I can't take away from him," she added. "He is at an age of understanding. I hurt more for him and his loss.", McMillon wept as she said the greatest failure as a parent is "to see your child hurt and know there's nothing you can do about it.", Michael McClanahan, head of the NAACP in Baton Rouge, called for Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr. to be fired. "He must step down. We cannot have anybody who allows this type of action to take place," he said. Dabadie said at a news conference that he would not resign and said those who are asking for him to step down from his post were "acting off emotion." "I'm not retiring. I'm not resigning," he added later. "I don't think it's fair for people to act out of emotion. We have done a lot of good in this community. We're working diligently to bring the truth out.", Abdul Rashid Muhammad, who leads the local chapter of the Nation of Islam, urged supporters to boycott the Louisiana mall, starting Friday "until we get justice." "Let's withhold our money," he said. "Don't spend anything.", Sandra Sterling, the aunt of the slain man who raised him, said she was grateful for the unknown bystander who recorded the video but that she was "very disturbed" and "hurt" at what she saw in the footage. "It's a horrible thing to happen to him," she told reporters Wednesday. "He didn't deserve that." |
US | No Footage Yet of Attack Against Empire Star Jussie Smollett in Chicago Police Say | CHICAGO Detectives have reviewed surveillance footage of "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett walking to his downtown Chicago apartment after an early morning visit to a Subway restaurant, but none of the video they've watched so far showed him being attacked, a police official said Wednesday. Investigators "for the most part" can confirm the route Smollett took early Tuesday when he says he was attacked by two masked men along a street in the Streeterville neighborhood, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. However, there are gaps and none of the footage police have reviewed shows an attack, he said, noting that the review is ongoing. Smollett, who is black and gay and who plays the gay character Jamal Lyon on the hit Fox television show, said the men beat him, subjected him to racist and homophobic insults, threw an "unknown chemical substance" on him and put a thin rope around his neckbefore fleeing. Guglielmi said detectives, who are investigating the allegations as a possible hate crime, have looked at hundreds of hours of surveillance video from businesses and hotels in the heavily monitored area. But he said they still need to collect and view more. He said they are expanding the search to include footage from public buses and buildings beyond the scene's immediate vicinity in the hopes of spotting the men who match Smollett's description of the suspects. "We haven't seen anybody, at this point, matching the description he gave, nobody looks menacing and we didn't find a container anywhere," Guglielmi said, referring to a container for the liquid that the actor said was thrown at him. Neither Smollett nor his publicist has spoken publicly about the attack. Smollett, 36, returned to his apartment and his manager called police from there about 40 minutes later, Guglielmi said. When officers arrived, the actor had cuts and scrapes on his face and the "thin rope" around his neck that he said had been put there by his assailant, he said. Smollett later went to Northwestern Memorial Hospital after police advised him to do so. The FBI is investigating a threatening letter targeting Smollett that was sent last week to the Fox studio in Chicago where "Empire" is filmed, Guglielmi said. The FBI did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday, but Bobby Rush, a Democratic congressman from Chicago, issued a statement calling on the agency to conduct "an immediate and sweeping civil rights investigation into the racist and homophobic attack.", In addition to his acting career, Smollett has a musical career and is a noted activist, particularly on LBGTQ issues. There has been a flood of outrage and support for Smollett on social media. Among the many celebrities and politicians who weighed in was California Sen. Kamala Harris, a 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful who knows Smollett. She called the attack "outrageous" and "awful.", Some of the outrage stems from Smollett's account to detectives that his attackers yelled that he was in "MAGA country," an apparent reference to the Trump campaign's "Make America Great Again" slogan, which some critics of the president have decried as racist and discriminatory. Chicago has one of the most sophisticated and extensive video surveillance systems in the U.S. with thousands of cameras on street poles, skyscrapers, buses and in train tunnels. Police say the cameras have helped them make thousands of arrests. In one of the best known examples of the department's use of the cameras, investigators in 2009 were able to recreate a school board president's 20-minute drive through the city, singling out his car on a succession of surveillance cameras to help them determine that he committed suicide and had not been followed and killed by someone else, as his friends speculated. |
US | Tim Kaines Son Was Arrested at a Trump Rally in Minnesota | One of Sen. Tim Kaine's sons was recently arrested after he and a group of people crashed a Minnesota rally where hundreds of people were gathered in support of President Donald Trump, police said. Linwood Kaine, 24, was released from jail Tuesday after the Saturday scuffle but has not yet been charged with a crime, the Pioneer Press reports. He is the youngest son of the Virginia Democrat, who was Hillary Clinton's running mate during last year's presidential election. Authorities said Linwood Kaine was among six people taken into custody. He was arrested on suspicion of second-degree riot, the Press reports. About 50 people showed up at the pro-Trump rally. Some of the counter-protesters lit fireworks and smoke bombs, which sent Trump supporters scrambling, the Washington Post reports. A chemical irritant was also sprayed into the crowd. "We love that our three children have their own views and concerns about current political issues," the elder Kaine said in a statement. "They fully understand the responsibility to express those concerns peacefully." |
US | What Cops Say About Policing Today | The Philadelphia cops on the cover of this week's TIME know as much as anyone about the topic looming in the type above them in their unmarked squad car "What It's Like To Be A Cop in America One Year After Ferguson.", The answer, in a word, would be Harder. "Absolutely," says Sean Devlin, 35, the officer in the passenger seat, who has been patrolling in the 19th District of Philadelphia's west side for the five and a half years he has been a cop. "I do know some officers who are turned off and just doing radio calls only. But it's not in my nature. It's my confidence in my ability and my partner, I can't just fold up shop and sit back and let the community to be held hostage by the small percentage that's the criminal element.", His partner agrees. Mischel Matos, 38, who's behind the wheel in photographer Natalie Keyssar's cover image, says that a year ago, police did not face the scrutiny that accompanies every call for serviceand not just the usual watchfulness cast in the direction of the uniform. People are recording every move you make, or at least every arrest. "The difference comes up every time we encounter an investigation," says Matos. "There's always somebody through the window with a phone recording, expecting us to do something wrong.", READ MORE TIME's Cover Story on What It's Like to Be a Cop in America, It's the new reality facing the 680,000 sworn police officers working in the U.S. today An inversion of the traditional assumption prevailing at the scene of a reported crime, of who's the bad guy in this picture. And if that's a change many cops might find insulting, the cops in West Philly appeared to be taking it in stride, during the two weeks or so I spent among them, reporting the story that subscribers can read here. Police work has never been easy in the 19th , not least because the sprawling district, which takes in some of the toughest inner city neighborhoods, is renowned for a local tradition of cussing the police. "It is, it is," says Matos. "It's different than any other part of the city." Matos says that, though he was born in the Dominican Republic, he's often taken for African-American, which takes some of the edge off encounters in the overwhelmingly black district. "Me and my partner, we have the perfect combination," he says. "We still get tested, but not so much.", Devlin, a military brat who grew up around the world, says he was relieved when he got to remain in the 19th after completing his rookie stint walking a footbeat in its tatty streets. "I'm not pulling over soccer moms and busting kids for keg parties," he says. "I love the camaraderie. I think that's one of the reasons I went into law enforcement.", A bit more than half of the rank and file at the 19th is African-American, and what Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey recalls from the early days of integration as "salt and pepper" partners are common in the district. The racial divide at the heart of the police shootings that coalesced in the Black Lives Matter movement are not evident in the station house. There, everyone is blue first. Black copsespecially those who grew up nearbyspeak with greater feeling about the difficult history that created the neighborhoods they patrol, now riddled with narcotics and the guns that accompany that business. But opinions on how to move forward in the current, national policing crisis were pretty, well, uniform. For instance, every cop seems to want a camera of his or her own. They emphasize that body cams, which thousands of local departments are exploring, will assure a video record of an entire encounter, not just the physical scramble captured on bystanders' cell phones that come out at the point where an arrest is being made, of someone who does not want to be arrested and that person sometimes is more likely to resist when cameras are around, some officers say. But cops also say that body cams will assure people behave better in the first place, because they will be told they are being recorded. "Oh, it's going to be a hug-fest when we get the body cams!" one officer joked. What won't change, however, are the risks that both cops and citizens encounter in the neighborhoods that outsiders long ago learned to avoid. Devlin and Matos have not been involved in a shooting, but they came close in March, happening upon an armed robbery at a pizza shop. "It happens that we were driving right in front of the store, and I saw the workers with hands up," Matos said. They made a U-turn, parked across the street beyond the robber's line of vision, and scrambled toward the shop with guns drawn. They entered as the robber was running toward the door, stuffing a pistol into his waistband. He obeyed their shouted orders to lie down on the floor, and Matos grabbed the weapon. "It was a BB-gun at the end but it looked real," he says. "I had the gun in my hand for a good two minutes, and I didn't realize it was a BB gun until I tried to put it in my pocket.", "It was a really really close call," Matos says. "It happens. It can go wrong,. It can go bad, in less than a second." |
US | Cape Cod Police Officer Shot and Killed While Serving a Warrant to Dangerous Suspect | A Yarmouth police officer who was shot in the head while serving a warrant in the town of Barnstable, Mass. has died from his injuries at Cape Cod Hospital. The officer, Sean Gannon, was shot around 330 p.m. in the Marston Mills neighborhood of the Massachusetts town, according to The Cape Cod Times. Gannon was attempting to serve the suspect a warrant when he was shot, and was apparently searching the home's attic to find the suspect when it happened, according to News 7 Boston. , The suspect, who has a criminal history, is now in custody, but a shootout with police ensued around 545 p.m. after the suspect fatally shot Gannon, CBS 5 reported. The search warrant that was being executed was a "multi-agency warrant search,"CBS 5 said. The Cape Cod Times reported that in addition to a SWAT team showing up, ATF agents also arrived on the scene. A police perimeter was set up around the home, and the suspect was barricaded in his home before being successfully captured after a standoff, CBS 5 reported. The neighborhood was evacuated and police were handing out bullet proof vests in case of additional gun fire, the Cape Cod Times reported. Gannon's K9 unit police dog was also shot and seriously wounded. The animal's current condition is not known, according to the Boston Globe. |
US | Watch Live 911 Memorial Ceremony in New York City | Nearly 3,000 people died 16 years ago today when terrorists flew two planes into New York City's World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon. A fourth, destined for Washington, D.C. crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers tried to overcome the hijackers, killing all those aboard. The 9/11 Memorial Museum will honor victims of the September 11 attacks and the earlier 1993 World Trade Center bombing on Monday morning. Families will read aloud the names of those who died. The program begins at 830 a.m. ET, but will pause seven minutes in to reflect upon the moment that the first plane struck the North Tower. There will be several more pauses throughout the ceremony in remembrance of the time at which the second plane struck the South Tower, the time when both towers fell, and the time of the attacks at the Pentagon and on Flight 93. , You can watch the memorial ceremony above. |
US | This Is How Much the California Gas Leak Is Hurting the Planet | A gas leak deep under Los Angeles has been spewing 1.6 million lbs. of methane each day, with no immediate end in sight. The months-long leak in Porter Ranch is already the worst in California's history, and environmental advocates fear it could have a long-term impact on the climate. While methane does not stay in the atmosphere for as long as carbon dioxide, it traps radiation more effectively, making it a significant contributor to global warming. To put the size of the methane leak in perspective, see how it compares to other causes of climate change, |
US | ICE Detainees in Boston Launch a Hunger Strike to Protest Jail Conditions | BOSTON Dozens of people detained by federal immigration officials are on a hunger strike at a Boston jail. Rhode Island-based community groups Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance and the FANG Collective say they've been in contact with about 70 detainees at the Suffolk County House of Correction who are participating in a hunger strike that began Friday. The organizations say the men are protesting abuse by jail officials and "inhumane conditions" such as bad food and broken bathroom fixtures. They also challenge the jail's authority to detain people on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The organizations say the detainees sent jail officials a list of their grievances Feb. 10. A jail spokesman confirmed the detainees are refusing set meals, but are still eating their canteen food and drinking fluids. |
US | How a Revolutionary New Play Takes Aim at President Trumps Immigration Policies | In Robert Schenkkan's new play "Building the Wall," it's 2019 and America is a dystopia under President Donald Trump. Schenkkan says he took inspiration for this work from the "kind of rhetoric that we were hearing, and continue to hear, in regards to border security and immigration.", Schenkkan, a Pulitzer and Tony prize-winning playwright, wrote a first draft in just a week. The play's concept is simple a conversation between Rick, a middle-aged white man imprisoned for an initially unknown crime, and his interviewer Gloria, an African-American history professor. In the 90-minute piece, the two individuals wrestle with history as they try to understand what happened to America. "Building the Wall" opened at New York City's New World Stages on May 21, 2017 and will play through July 9, 2017. Other productions have already opened in Los Angeles, Denver, Portland, Washington, D.C. and Santa Clara. Schenkkan says he hopes the play's rapid distribution will serve as a model for future plays. "If theater continues to produce art in its normal way, where you commission a play, it takes 3 or 5 months, if you're lucky, to get it written, and then another year-and-a-half of development before it finally arrives on the stage. That will be too late," Schenkkan said. "We're either going to be making history or we're going to be curating history. This interview with Schenkkan is part of TIME's new series, State of the Art, which explores how artists of all kinds are addressing America's political upheaval. |
US | Minnesota Lawmakers NBA Tweet Called Offensive | A tweet by Minnesota Republican State Rep. Pat Garofalo about the NBA went viral Sunday night, with many responding to the message calling it racially insensitive. In a statement sent to Buzzfeed responding to the backlash, Garofalo said "I was talking about the NBA's high arrest rate and that their punishment for positive drugs tests are weaker than other leagues. No intent beyond that. The culture among many pro athletes that they are above the law is the problem, not people like me pointing that problem out." |
US | Julian Assange Says WikiLeaks Will Release Significant Information That Could Damage Clinton | WikiLeaks will publish information that could damage the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton, the website's co-founder Julian Assange told Fox News Wednesday. Assange described the information as "significant" and said that the leak would include "unexpected angles." Assange said that the impact of the leaks would depend on how the public and media respond to the leak when asked by Megyn Kelly whether he thought the leaks would move the needle in an election that seems to be going in Clinton's favor. WikiLeaks released a trove of emails earlier this summer that led to the resignation of Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other top party officials. |
US | Young Republicans Favor Gay Marriage | A strong majority of young Republicans support same-sex marriage, according to a new poll. Among Republican under 30, 61 percent are in favor, according to the survey out Monday from the Pew Research Center. By contrast, a mere 27 percent of Republican over 50 support allowing gay couples to marry, according to the poll. The results highlight not only the widening chasm between young and old Republicans but also the growing isolation of older members of the GOP on the marriage issue. A majority of Americans, 54 percent, now favor same-sex marriage, and the trend in growing support shows no sign of abating. The attitudes of young Republicans toward same-sex marriage are much closer to those of Democrats overall69 percent say they support allowing gays to marrythan to the rest of the GOP. |
US | ICE Has Stopped ForceFeeding Detained Immigrants on Hunger Strike | The U.S. government has suddenly stopped force-feeding all nine Indian immigrants on a hunger strike inside an El Paso immigration detention center, according to local reports Thursday. The dramatic reversal comes as public pressure was mounting on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to halt the controversial practice, which involves feeding detainees through nasal tubes against their will. Last week, the United Nations human rights office said the force-feeding of immigrant hunger strikers at the facility could violate the U.N. Convention Against Torture. On Wednesday, a U.S. district judge said the government had to stop force-feeding two of the detained Indian immigrants, but warned that if their health started to decline he would consider ordering force-feeding again, their attorney said Thursday. The next day, all force-feeding at the detention center near the El Paso airport stopped, according to reports in the El Paso Times and Texas Monthly. "This is a win for us," said Louis Lopez, who is representing Malkeet Singh and Jasvir Singh in the case heard Wednesday in El Paso. Both men are Punjabi Sikhs in their early 20s. "They have a First Amendment right to protest.", Detained immigrants have sporadically staged hunger strikes around the country for years, protesting conditions they face while seeking asylum. But force-feeding, which began under court order earlier this year, has not previously been reported, and advocates involved said they weren't aware it had happened before. In federal courtroom Wednesday in El Paso, U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama heard from Dr. Michelle Iglesias about how men detained in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's El Paso facility are restrained and have feeding tubes pushed through their noses. The judge asked specifically whether they had some other way they could protest, and sought details about the Singhs' physical condition. "What are the physiological and psychological effects of allowing a hunger strike to continue unabated by force-feeding?" he asked. In addition to Guaderrama, U.S. District Judges David Briones, Philip R. Martinez and Frank Montalvo at the El Paso courthouse have issued orders for force-feeding in recent weeks. Those orders are secret, under seal, because they contain "highly sensitive and personal medical information," Montalvo told The Associated Press in a letter declining a request to unseal the orders. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said last week the office views force-feeding as potential "ill treatment" that would go against the convention, ratified by the United States in 1994. The Geneva-based office's statement echoed concerns raised by 14 Democratic lawmakers who have asked ICE for more information about nine Indian men who are being force-fed through nasal tubes. The men went on hunger strike to protest their treatment. Last month, ICE began non-consensual feeding and hydration after a federal judge issued a court order allowing the practice. "ICE is committed to preserving the lives of those in its custody and maintaining orderly detention facility operations," the agency said last week in response to the U.N.'s statement. "For their health and safety, ICE closely monitors the food and water intake of those detainees identified as being on a hunger strike. Medical staff constantly monitor detainees to evaluate whether the hunger strike poses a risk to the detainee's life or permanent health.", |
US | Harvey Weinstein Arrested on Charges of Rape Sex Abuse and More | Disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein was arrested in New York City Friday on charges of rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse and sexual misconduct related to his interactions with two women, the New York Police Department says. "The NYPD thanks these brave survivors for their courage to come forward and seek justice," the NYPD said in a statement. "The arrest and ensuing charges are the result of a joint investigation between the NYPD and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.", Weinstein, 66, arrived at a New York police station to turn himself in shortly before 7.30 a.m. ET, flanked by uniformed police officers. He was wearing a suit, appeared to be limping and was clutching several books. Weinstein was arraigned on the charges Friday. His bond was set at 10 million and he was outfitted with a GPS monitor that will allow him to travel only within New York and Connecticut. Weinstein's attorney, Benjamin Brafman, told reporters outside the courthouse that Weinstein plans to plead not guilty to all the charges. Weinstein has said repeatedly through his lawyers that he did not have nonconsensual sex with anyone. The New York Times and The New Yorker reported sexual harassment allegations against Weinstein beginning in September of last year. According to the Associated Press, more than 75 women have accused Weinstein of wrongdoing, including actress and activist Rose McGowan, who said Weinstein raped her in 1997, and Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra, who said he raped her in her New York apartment in 1992. The initial reporting on Weinstein triggered a wave of sexual abuse allegations from scores of women, including Ashley Judd, Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek, and led to him being fired from The Weinstein Company's board and sued by New York's attorney general. Following scores of sexual harassment complaints alleged against the producer, Weinstein has been undergoing sex-rehab treatment in Arizona and, according to Vanity Fair, additional therapy for "anger management, nutrition, and several addiction-related behaviors." |
US | PEZ Cancels Easter Egg Hunt After Parents Cause Huge Mess | An Easter egg hunt hosted annually by PEZ Candy USA was canceled abruptly after parents rushed the field early and caused a "mess," the company said. Chaos erupted shortly after the Saturday hunt began when some parents ignored the planned three start times for different age groups, NBC Connecticut reports. The event featured 1,000 participants and 10,000 eggs scattered over three fields, the news station said. "Unfortunately people chose to enter the first field prior to anyone from PEZ staff starting the activity. The crowd moved to the second field, waited for only a couple of minutes and proceeded to rush the field without being directed to do so and before the posted start time," PEZ said in the statement. "Due to the actions of a few, the good intent quickly turned into a mess. I would like to sincerely apologize to each of our guests, this was not something created to frustrate or make people angry," the company added. Some of the participants told NBC that several parents were shoving each other. Vincent Welch, a 4-year-old boy, said someone snatched his eggs. "Somebody pushed me over and take my eggs and it's very rude of them and they broke my bucket," he said. |
US | Mayor Resigns From Golf Club After Members Say They Shouldnt Welcome President Obama Over Israel Sta | The mayor of a Maryland suburb resigned from his golf club after some members said they might not welcome President Obama if he wanted to join because of his stance towards Israel. Obama played at the historically Jewish Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, MD, four times during his presidency, the Washington Post reports. But now some members argue that the outgoing president should not be allowed back, due to his decision not to veto the U.N. Security Council resolution that criticized Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. In a document acquired by the Post, one longstanding club member wrote "He has created a situation in the world where Israel's very existence is weakened and possibly threatened He is not welcome at Woodmont. His admittance would create a storm that could destroy our club.", The heated debate has led Democratic activist Jeffrey Slavin, mayor of the town of Somerset, to resign after 61 years of membership. "As today is the celebration of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. who taught us all to dream, it is most appropriate that I take this action," wrote Slavin in an email on Monday, Montgomery Community Media reports. "Where intolerance is accepted, where history is forgotten, where Freedom of Speech is denied, and where the nation's first black president is disrespected," his email concluded. |
US | Massgov Apologizes for Tweeting Sexual Assault Is Always Avoidable | Massachusetts officials apologized Thursday for an offensive tweet about sexual assault sent from the government Twitter account. "Sexual assault is always avoidable," the Wednesday night tweet from @MassGov read, according to ABC. Many accused @MassGov of victim blaming. "The only person to blame for rape is the rapist," one woman wrote on Twitter. The tweet was later deleted. On Thursday, the twitter account posted a series of tweets apologizing, , , , , The Mass.gov director Geoffrey Kula issued a statement Thursday explaining how exactly the tweet went out and what action would be taken against the tweeter, The incident comes at the end of Sexual Assault Awareness month and just when the Obama administration is doubling down on efforts to prevent sexual assault on campus. Today, the Department of Education released the names of 55 colleges facing Title IX sexual assault investigations. |
US | The Washington Redskins Trademark Just Got Canceled | In another victory for those who say the team's name is offensive and should be changed, a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office appeals board on Wednesday canceled the trademark registration for the National Football League's Washington Redskins. The USPTO's decision was the result of a case brought in 2006 by law firm Drinker Biddle Reath on behalf of a group of Native Americans who argued the "Redskins" name was offensive. Federal law bans trademarks that "may disparage" individuals or groups "or bring them into contempt or disrepute.", This litigation has been hard-fought," the lawyer litigating the case, Jesse Witten told TIME. "The term redskin' is an ethnic slur Many people who are Native Americans and not Native Americans have objected to this team name for a very long time.", The U.S. denied the Redskins their trademark once before in 1999, but the decision was later overruled after the team appealed. The team is likely to respond to Wednesday's decision with yet another appeal. Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada applauded the USPTO's decision, calling the Redskins' team name racist. "Every time Native Americans hear that name, it's a reminder of a history of racism and bigotry," Reid said. "This is extremely important to Native Americans all over the country. It's racist.", The USPTO's decision does not mean the Redskins can no longer use their name, but it does call into question the economic future of Redskins merchandise and other related revenue streams. Pressure has long been mounting on the Redskins to change their name, which many Native Americans, football fans and others find disrespectful. A group of 50 U.S. Senators signed an open letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell last month calling on the NFL to change the team's name, something team owner Daniel Snyder has refused to do. "Daniel Snyder may be the last to see this, but it's just a matter of time before he's forced to change the name," Reid said Wednesday. "The writing is on the wall.", Wednesday's decision makes it more difficult for the Redskins to bring successful lawsuits against competing merchants who use the team's name, trademark lawyer for Kenyon Kenyon LLP Jim Rosini told TIME, and the Redskins will have to rely on state trademark and unfair competition laws rather than federal courts to stop infringements. In response to the mounting criticism, Snyder in March announced the creation of the "Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation," a group meant to help struggling Native Americans across the United States. |
US | Mary Bono Resigns as Interim CEO of USA Gymnastics After Just 4 Days on the Job | Mary Bono has resigned as interim USA Gymnastics President less than week into her job, and following scrutiny from Olympic gymnasts over her appointment. "It is with profound regret, coupled with a deep love for the sport of gymnastics and respect for those who aspire to be great gymnast that I today tendered my resignation as the interim CEO of USA Gymnastics," Bono, a former Congresswoman and gymnast, said in the letter Tuesday afternoon. "My withdrawal comes in the wake of personal attacks that, left undefeated, would have made my leading USAG a liability for the organization.", , USA Gymnastics' Board of Directors released a statement saying they accepted Bono's resignation and that they believed it was in the best interest of the organization. "We, as a Board, are committed to taking action when we believe a change of course is necessary and to being responsive to our gymnastics community," the statement said. "While we have made progress, we have much more work to do. This board is determined to take the necessary steps to support a safe, inclusive and competitive environment where all our athletes and members can grow, have fun and achieve their goals.", Bono came under scrutiny from Olympic gymnasts twice in the week since she was appointed as the interim CEO of USA Gymnastics on Friday. First, for a now-deleted tweet from September where Bono covered a Nike logo on her golf shoes in response to Colin Kaepernick's Nike ad. The second was for the fact that Bono was a principal for the law firm that represented USA Gymnastics during the initial investigation of Larry Nassar, the former team doctor charged with multiple counts of sexual assault. On Monday, Gold Medalist and Aly Raisman, who says she was assaulted by Nassar, expressed outrage over Bono's hiring. Raisman asked why USAG would hire someone "associated with the cover up of abuse.", , Bono defended her work at Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting. "I proudly stand behind my body of work at Faegre Baker Daniels and appreciated how much the law firm supported by devoting considerable time to the cause of addiction prevention, treatment and recovery," Bono said in her statement. Prior to the discovery of her involvement in the Nassar case, Raisman's teammate and fellow gold-medalist Simone Biles tweeted her displeasure with Bono over a tweet of her covering a Nike logo on her golf shoes. , , In her statement announcing her resignation, Bono defended her tweet. "With respect to Mr. Kaepernick, he nationally exercised his first amendment right to kneel, "Bono wrote. "I exercised mine to mark over my own golf shoes, the logo of the company sponsoring him for believing in something even if it means sacrificing everything.'", Bono said the covering of the Nike logo was an "emotional reaction" to attending a gold tournament in honor of armed service members, including her brother-in-law who was a Navy Seal who passed away. Bono said he "literally sacrificed everything.", "I regret that at the time that I didn't better clarify my feelings. That one tweet has now been made the litmus test of my reputation over almost two decades of public service." she said. |
US | Washington State Mudslide Death Toll Rises to 39 | The Washington State mudslide has claimed 39 victims, according to the most recent count by the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office. Agency officials have positively identified 36 of the 39 people killed in the March 22 slide, the Seattle Times reports. Seven people remain missing after the devastating mudslide struck the small riverside neighborhood of Oso in Snohomish County on March 22. Seattle Times |
US | Ramen Is in Higher Demand Than Cigarettes at Some US Prisons Researcher Finds | Ramen noodles are becoming an increasingly valuable commodity in U.S. prisonswhere they are even more popular than tobacco. According to new research by Michael Gibson-Light, a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona's school of sociology, the decline in food quality and quantity in prisons due to cost-cutting measures has caused the instant soup's popularity to soar among inmates, The Guardian reports. For his study, Gibson-Light interviewed 60 inmates at one state prison, which he did not identify, and which had switched to a cheaper food provider. The prisoners were no longer receiving three hot meals each day and some claimed they didn't receive enough food or that they were worried the food provided might cause them to feel unwell. An increase in the value of ramen noodles soon followed, with inmates using the soup mix as the main currency in trades, rather than tobacco. Gibson-Light also analyzed nationwide investigations into other prisons and found similar trends in institutions where tobacco wasn't as popular, noodles overtook stamps and envelopes in terms of popularity. "Ramen is easy to get and it's high in calories," Gibson-Light told The Guardian. The Guardian |
US | US Officially Announces Its Pulling Out of Nuclear Weapons Treaty Over Claims Russia Is Cheating | WASHINGTON The United States announced Friday that it was pulling out of a landmark nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, accusing Moscow of violating the Cold War-era pact with "impunity" by continuing to develop banned missiles. President Donald Trump said Russia has been secretly developing "a prohibited missile system that poses a direct threat to our allies and troops abroad." He said the U.S. had adhered to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty since it was signed in 1987, but Russia has not. "We cannot be the only country in the world unilaterally bound by this treaty, or any other," Trump said in a written statement. Some analysts worry the demise of the centerpiece of superpower arms control could fuel a new arms race. U.S. officials fear that China, which is not party to the treaty, is gaining a significant military advantage in Asia by deploying large numbers of missiles with ranges beyond the treaty's limit. Trump said the U.S. will "suspend its obligations" under the treaty on Saturday, meaning it will be freed from its constraints that included the banning of testing and deployment of missiles. At the same time, the U.S. will begin withdrawing from the treaty, which will be effective in six months, he said. An American withdrawal had been expected for months after years of unresolved dispute over Russian compliance with the pact. It was the first arms control measure to ban an entire class of weapons ground-launched cruise missiles with a range between 500 kilometers 310 miles and 5,500 kilometers 3,400 miles. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in early December that Washington would give Moscow 60 days to return to compliance before it gave formal notice of withdrawal. The 60-day deadline expires Saturday. Technically, a U.S. withdrawal would take effect six months after this week's notification, leaving a small window for saving the treaty. However, in talks this week in Beijing, the U.S. and Russia reported no breakthrough in their dispute, leaving little reason to think either side would change its stance on whether a Russian cruise missile violates the pact. "We have raised Russia's noncompliance with Russian officials including at the highest levels of government more than 30 times," Pompeo told reporters Friday at the State Department. "We have provided Russia an ample window of time to mend its way. Tomorrow that time runs out.", Sergei Ryabkov, a Russian deputy foreign minister, said there was no progress after the Beijing talks Thursday. "The position of the American side is very tough and like an ultimatum," he said, according to the Russian state news agency Tass. NATO said that if Moscow failed to destroy all new missile systems that Washington insists violate the treaty, "Russia will bear sole responsibility for the end of the treaty." Russia denies that it has been in violation. Trump said his administration "will move forward with developing our own military response options.", But senior Trump administration officials said they don't expect any immediate testing or deployment of weapons that are banned under the treaty. The officials, speaking after Trump's announcement, said the U.S. is not in position to flight test, let alone deploy, INF noncompliant missiles as a counter to Russia any time soon. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House. One official said that only non-nuclear missiles are being considered for future development and potential deployment, and that allies will be closely consulted before any decisions are made on countering the Russian missiles that allegedly violate the INF treaty. Leaving the treaty would allow the Trump administration to counter the Chinese, but it's unclear how it would do that. "The strategic rationale for leaving the INF seriously involves China," said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a defense expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank. He noted the quality and quantity of Chinese ground-based missiles and growing prospects for Chinese and American conflict in the Asia-Pacific. Taleblu said staying in the pact meant the U.S. was "voluntarily fighting with one hand tied behind its back.", U.S. withdrawal raises the prospect of further deterioration in U.S.-Russian relations, which already are arguably at the lowest point in decades, and debate among U.S. allies in Europe over whether Russia's alleged violations warrant a countermeasure such as deployment of an equivalent American missile in Europe. The U.S. has no nuclear-capable missiles based in Europe the last of that type and range were withdrawn in line with the INF treaty. Nuclear weapons experts at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace say U.S. withdrawal under current circumstances would be counterproductive, even though Russia's violations are a serious problem. "Leaving the INF treaty will unleash a new missile competition between the United States and Russia," they said in a statement. |
US | The Dawn of a New Form of Capital Punishment | In the weeks following the execution of Clayton Lockett, the Oklahoma death row inmate whose botched lethal injection triggered a statewide moratorium on executions, lawmakers there began rethinking their approach to capital punishment. Among the people they called on to help was Michael Copeland. Copeland is a criminal justice professor at East Central University, a public school with about 6,000 students in Ada, Okla. From 2010 to 2013, he was the director of the anti-fraud unit at the Oklahoma Insurance Department. Before that, he was an assistant attorney general for the Republic of Palau, a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean. Copeland is not a doctor. He has no medical training. But what he does have is a close relationship with Oklahoma legislators, some of whom he's known for years. And they often ask Copeland to conduct research and gather data that could help shape bills. He's worked with legislators on reducing the number of uninsured motorists, for example, and helped draft guidelines for the transportation of the mentally ill who are a danger to themselves and others. About a year ago, Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian, who attended high school with Copeland, asked his old friend for ideas on how to replace the increasingly problematic method of lethal injection. After studying the issue, Copeland recommended death by nitrogen, a method that has never been used for a state-sanctioned killing in the U.S. Nevertheless, Oklahoma has embraced the idea. On Friday, Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, signed a bill into law, based on Copeland's research, that would make nitrogen asphyxiation the state's execution method if lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional or the necessary drugs are no longer available. The law marks a new frontier in the increasingly charged debate over the future of capital punishment in America. And it ensured that the state where lethal injection originated three decades ago has resumed its place as the nation's execution laboratory. The Problems With Lethal Injection, The idea of nitrogen asphyxiation or "nitrogen hypoxia" has been been batted around as a method of capital punishment for years. A 1995 National Review article titled "Killing With Kindness Capital Punishment by Nitrogen Asphyxiation," for example, recommended that states use nitrogen gas after a federal district court deemed California's gas chamber unconstitutional. But the method largely remained on the fringes of the capital punishment debate. MORE Texas Running Out of Execution Drug, Twenty years later, the landscape has changed dramatically. Today, a number of states are facing severe lethal injection drug shortages after pharmaceutical companies stopped providing drugs for the procedure. Texas, for example, is down to enough pentobarbital for just a handful of executions. Legislators in Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia have introduced legislation to bring back the electric chair because of problems obtaining drugs, while Utah has resurrected the firing squad. And looming over it all is a Supreme Court case this summer involving Oklahoma's three-drug protocol. The court's decision could potentially force states to abandon lethal injection altogether. "The problem we're having in Oklahoma now and several other states is that while lethal injections used to be an effective and humane way to execute someone, it's really not anymore," Copeland says. "The facts on the ground have changed. Now it's like an experiment every time. Here's some drugs and maybe we'll have a paramedic administer it and let's see what happens. Maybe this will kill em. It's kind of haphazard, and I think it's only going to get worse.", No one could've foreseen lethal injection's problems in 1977, when an Oklahoma legislator asked Dr. Jay Chapman, the state medical examiner, to develop what was intended to be a more humane execution alternative to firing squads. Chapman developed a three-drug cocktail that soon became the default method of executions nationwide. But by 2010, European drug makers acceded to pressure from death penalty opponents and stopped selling drugs for use in executions. As supplies dwindled, states scrambled to figure out how to keep killing without the three drugs they had long relied on sodium thiopental, a sedative pancuronium bromide, a paralytic agent and potassium chloride, a compound that stops the heart. Some states switched to using just one drug, often pentobarbital, a barbiturate. Others began using midazolam, a sedative that has been scrutinized by some anesthesiologists for not being strong enough to properly induce unconsciousness and is at the heart of the upcoming Supreme Court case. Many states have turned to compounding pharmacies, which are unregulated by the federal government, for their supply while passing secrecy laws to keep those drug makers shielded from public view. Last year, there were three executions widely considered botched, all of which included the sedative midazolam. Dennis McGuire, an Ohio inmate convicted of rape and murder, died after reportedly snoring and snorting during his lethal injection. Joseph Wood, an Arizona inmate, reportedly gasped on the gurney in an execution that took nearly two hours. And in Oklahoma, Lockett died in a lethal injection that went so awry that documents obtained by the Tulsa World show that Lockett essentially helped his executioners find a vein after they failed multiple times to insert IVs into his arms and legs. It was that chaotic scene that sent Oklahoma legislators on the search for an alternative. The Search For A Better Way to Kill, Copeland says there were four main criteria he tried to meet in recommending a new execution method 1 it had to be humane 2 it couldn't have supply problems 3 it had to be simple to administer 4 it could be done without medical professionals. Nitrogen, Copeland says, satisfies all four. MORE The Harsh Reality of Execution by Firing Squad, The method would likely consist of a gas mask that covers the head and neck, which would be filled with pure nitrogen from a nearby canister. That nitrogen would displace the oxygen, leading to death by oxygen deprivation, says Solomon Snyder, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins Medical School who is not involved in the Oklahoma bill. The method's supporters cite accidental deaths that were reportedly peaceful such as divers who took in too much nitrogen and pilots whose oxygen levels fell too low as evidence of the chemical's efficacy. Nitrogen hypoxia has also been recommended by some advocates of euthanasia in places without so-called right to die laws. The gas is also relatively cheap and abundant, decreasing concerns about supply problems. "Execution via nitrogen hypoxia is a painless form of capital punishment that is simple to administer, doesn't depend upon the aid of the medical community, and is not subject to the supply constraints we are faced with when using the current three-drug cocktail protocol," State Rep. Mike Christian, who wrote the House bill authorizing nitrogen gas, said in an e-mail. Copeland says that physicians, who declined to testify in front of state legislators, confirmed for a 14-page study he co-authored that a lack of oxygen would lead someone to pass out within about 15 seconds, halt brain waves within 30 to 45 seconds and stop the heart within two to three minutes. In September, Copeland presented his findings to the Oklahoma House Judiciary Committee. His presentation included YouTube videos of people passing out from too much helium, another inert gas. Pilots testified about experiencing hypoxia, describing the gradual decrease of oxygen as undetectable, and Copeland claims the effects with nitrogen would be similar. "We have a lot of parallels," Copeland says. "We've just never used nitrogen in this context.", Changing the context could prove problematic. Administrating the gas within a prison is much different than the instances in which pilots and divers have slowly and accidentally experienced a lack of oxygen. Dr. Michael Weiden, a pulmonary expert at NYU School of Medicine, says that while nitrogen could be administered without medical professionals, using it for capital punishment could create an ironic consequence the need for sedation. "What's going to prevent someone from holding their breath and prolonging their execution?" says Weiden, who supports the death penalty for certain crimes. "People are going to hold their breath as the oxygen leaks out of their bodies. They'll struggle, and somebody who thinks that an individual who's asphyxiating will not freak out without sedation is foolish.", The American Medical Association's ethical guidelines require that "physicians can only certify death, provided that the condemned has been declared dead by another person," according to spokesman R.J. Mills. The association does not have a position on the Oklahoma bill. Despite the unanswered questions, more states appear to be considering nitrogen as they plan for a future without lethal injection. Copeland says he has been in touch with corrections officials in several states, some of which he says are "ahead of us in terms of protocol." Copeland would not disclose the states. Oklahoma Sen. Anthony Sykes, who sponsored the nitrogen bill in the state Senate, says Louisiana and Texas have both shown interest in the method. Louisiana Department of Corrections Secretary James LeBlanc told a legislative committee last year that "nitrogen is the next big thing" and described it as a "painless way to go." In February, the state's corrections department issued a report recommending nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative method of execution. A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice would not confirm that the state was considering alternative execution methods. To some lethal injection experts the interest in nitrogen has familiar echoes of the discussion nearly 40 years ago, when states were contemplating methods other than firing squads and gas chambers. "It looks fool-proof," says Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University who opposes the death penalty over what she says is its inequitable application in the U.S. "It's easy to look at these incidents in a non-prison setting and say they die humanely. But implementing that into a prison setting, the conditions aren't the same. The people doing this aren't the same.", Corrections officials have varied levels of training and experience with lethal injection, which can lead to the sorts of errors that contributed to Lockett's prolonged execution. Denno cautions that the same problems could happen with the administration of nitrogen. Richard Dieter, the senior program director of the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-death penalty group, says Oklahoma would essentially be conducting another experiment if it went adopted nitrogen hypoxia. MORE Georgia Postpones 2 Execution Over Cloudy' Drugs, "This method has never been used before in an execution," Dieter says. "I think it's premature to accept a legislator's promise that all will go well. It's one thing to say that people have died of oxygen deprivation and another to strap an unwilling subject in a chamber and watch the reactions and resistance for the first time.", Now that Fallin has signed the bill into law, Oklahoma has sidestepped something a number of other states have been forced into a return to methods that were all but abandoned decades ago. "You got to remember that if this doesn't pass, the alternative is not to go back to lethal injection," Copeland said in February. "If for some reason lethal injection either becomes unavailable or it's unconstitutional, we go to the electric chair. Maybe you don't believe in the death penalty, but certainly you believe that if we're going to have a death penalty, it should be done in a humane way. And I think nitrogen is better than the electric chair by a wide margin." |
US | Why Ferguson Looks So Much Like Iraq | The photographs and videos of police trying to calm the rioting in Ferguson, Mo. look like a war zone. There's the black-clad special-ops cops, backed by armored tactical vehicles that wouldn't look out of place on a battlefield. The police are doing their best to restore order following Saturday's police killing of unarmed Michael Brown, 18. But their tools and tactics have grabbed the attention of some of the nation's real soldiers dispatched to fight its post-9/11 wars. Brandon Friedman, who served as an Army officer with the 101st Airborne in Afghanistan and Iraq, tweeted a pair of photographs contrasting a policeman in Ferguson with one of him on the eve of the 2003 Iraq invasion. "The gentleman on the left," he said of the Missouri cop Wednesday, "has more personal body armor and weaponry than I did while invading Iraq.", "Army underequipped pros," a commenter said. "Cops here overeq/amateurs.", Actually, that's not right. Local police departments are strapped for cash and can't afford the high-tech body armor, communications gear, weapons and armored vehicles that have replaced the local cop's nightstick, revolver and cruiser. Most of this beefed-up arsenal is coming from the world's biggest Army-Navy surplus store the Pentagon. The scenes from Ferguson have reached a point where Mashable has posted photos from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Fergusonand asked readers to try to figure out where they're from. The Department of Defense told USA Today last year that Ferguson acquired two Humvees, a 10-kilowatt generator and an empty flatbed trailer. St. Louis County, whose police have been out in force in Ferguson, acquired much more equipment, according to the Missouri Department of Public Safety, including night vision goggles, Humvees and more. With the Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected vehicles, Kevlar-vested and helmeted personnel, outfitted with serious-looking firepower, in some snapshots it's tough to tell Ferguson from Firdos Square in Baghdad or Farah, Afghanistan. To be sure, there are times when a law-enforcement challengerescuing hostages or taking down terroristsrequires such heavy-duty gear, including some military handdowns. But the use of SWATSpecial Weapons and Tactics teams has leapfrogged from such serious cases to less-serious episodes of trying to calm civil unrest, where a less-confrontational approach might work better. "American policing has become unnecessarily and dangerously militarized, in large part through federal programs that have armed state and local law enforcement agencies with the weapons and tactics of war, with almost no public discussion or oversight," the American Civil Liberties Union reported in June. "The use of hyper-aggressive tools and tactics results in tragedy for civilians and police officers, escalates the risk of needless violence, destroys property, and undermines individual liberties.", The Pentagon encourages the trend. Beginning with its effort to help fight the war on illegal drugs in 1997, the Defense Department's provision of military gear to local police departments exploded following 9/11. "Since its inception, the Law Enforcement Support Office program has transferred more than 4.3 billion worth of property," LESO says on its website. "In 2013 alone, 449,309,003.71 worth of property was transferred to law enforcement." Seventy-one cents?, There's a bit of a sales pitch, too "If your law enforcement agency chooses to participate, it may become one of the more than 8,000 participating agencies to increase its capabilities, expand its patrol coverage, reduce response times, and save the American taxpayer's investment," it adds, along with a proviso noting that the weapons "are on loan from the DOD and remain the property of the DOD. Trading, bartering or selling of the weapons is strictly prohibited.", In 2011 and 2012, the ACLU estimated that an 63 police departments received 500 Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, armored 20-ton behemoths 3-5 mpg that were designed to defeat enemy roadside bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq. The New York Times reported in June that the Pentagon has given local police forces 435 other armored vehicles, 533 aircraft and nearly 94,000 machine guns. This has at least a few cops wondering what's going on. "We're not the military," Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank has said. "Nor should we look like an invading force coming in.", An ex-Boston police lieutenantfrom a force not known for its gentler, kinder demeanoragrees. "Have no doubt, police in the United States are militarizing, and in many communities, particularly those of color, the message is being received loud and clear You are the enemy,'" Tom Nolan, who spent 27 years on the Beantown beat, wrote for Defense One in June. "Police officers are increasingly arming themselves with military-grade equipment such as assault rifles, flashbang grenades, and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, vehicles and dressing up in commando gear before using battering rams to burst into the homes of people who have not been charged with a crime.", The ACLU said its analysis showed that 79 of SWAT missions were for drug investigations, while 7 were for hostage or barricade situations. It also noted that more than half of the SWAT deployments tracked were aimed at minorities. "The incidents we studied," it added, "revealed stark, often extreme, racial disparities in the use of SWAT locally, especially in cases involving search warrants.", We've been through similar, if not precise, episodes before Think of the Ohio National Guard killing four students with their M1 Garand rifles at Kent State University in Ohio in 1970, for example. The troops turned on the students after some lobbed rocks and tear-gas canisters toward them. A presidential commission refrained from concluding why the Guardsmen fired the estimated 67 shots, but concluded that "the indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable.", Of course, they were military troops. In Ferguson, those now wielding them are local law-enforcement officers, many of whom lack the trainingand the command and control of their usethat most military units receive. |
US | How One Industrial City Is Fighting to Go Green | Larry Atencio is steering his Ford Explorer through the streets of Pueblo, Colo. pointing out how the city is going green. There's the site of a planned community solar garden in an up-and-coming neighborhood, a manufacturing plant for wind turbines that opened in 2010 and the largest solar farm in Colorado, an array of 450,000 panels on 900 acres. Atencio, a small-business man who for years made and sold his own candy and now serves on the city council, has spent years trying to turn this industrial town on the Front Range into a hub for green-energy projects. "Pueblo is becoming quite the renewable-energy city," he says with a grin. It's all part of a deliberate, idealistic plan. In February 2017, just a month after President Trump took office, the city council approved a resolution committing Pueblo to power itself on 100 clean energy by 2035. Local leaders heralded the push as a way to lower energy bills, grow the local economy and reduce the city's climate footprint. But over the past year and a half, Atencio and his colleagues have found that going green is easier said than done. To meet its goal of 100 clean energy, Pueblo will need to overcome a raft of technical, financial and legal challenges. In all likelihood, the city will need to extricate itself from a 20-year contract with the electric utility that built Pueblo a new natural gas plant. Then it will have to develop a new stream of clean energy. All without passing on costs to already angry taxpayers and energy users, who pay some of the highest electricity rates in the region. Pueblo is not the only city grappling with these challenges. As the Trump Administration doubles down on fossil fuels, some 70 U.S. cities, from St. Louis to San Francisco, Orlando to Aspen, have committed to powering themselves with 100 clean energy, according to the Sierra Club, which is organizing a campaign around the pledge. Hundreds more have set their own targets to go green. "You're beginning to see mayors and governors filling this gap," says Carter Roberts, president of the World Wildlife Fund. The stakes are high not only for Pueblo but for the planet. The bulk of the nation's electricity flows through cities, and by acting together to embrace renewable energy, the greening cities hope to achieve two important goals counteract Trump's climate positions, which include pulling out of the Paris Agreement, overturning climate regulations and subsidizing coal and create new demand for U.S. wind- and solar-energy production, which now accounts for less than 8 of the country's electricity. Some cities may incur only modest costs or even save money from going renewable, according to analyses prepared for different cities and utilities, making the decision an easy call. Elsewhere, the expense may collide with the enthusiasm for going green. Pueblo may be headed on such a collision course, and success is by no means guaranteed ultimately, the same city council that set the idealistic goals may choose to bail on them. "Can we get there by our deadline?" asks county commissioner Terry Hart, a key advocate of going renewable. "Don't know. We're going to try." But if Pueblo can figure out the puzzle, so can others. The first reason it's hard to go green is that most cities don't actually have much control over their power sources. Two-thirds of Americans get their electricity from investor-owned utilities, or IOUs. These companies typically have monopolies in their service territory, protected by contracts that can stretch for decades. Pueblo pop. 106,000 is a case in point. In 2010 the city, once dubbed the Pittsburgh of the West, renegotiated its deal for South Dakotabased Black Hills Energy to provide it power. To do that, the company built a brand-new natural gas plant. The facility, which opened in 2012 as the Pueblo Airport Generating Station, occupies a small footprint on the outskirts of town and employs just 20 people, but it can produce nearly enough electricity to power all of Pueblo. The new power plant has come at a steep cost. Black Hills shelled out nearly 500 million to build the facility, a price tag that the company has passed on to consumers via higher electricity rates. As a result, today Pueblo residents face some of the highest electricity bills in the region. Black Hills has tried to mollify angry locals, reducing reconnection fees for struggling residents and supporting a small-scale solar project in a low-income neighborhood. "I want to earn the business of the customers we serve," says Vance Crocker, vice president of Black Hills operations in Southern Colorado, a mild-mannered engineer brought in to repair the relationship between the company and the community. But as long as Black Hills is in the picture, Pueblo's push to go fully green may be impossible. That's because residents will need to pay for the natural gas plant in addition to any new renewable-energy projects. So city leaders in Pueblo are trying to exit their 20-year contract with the company early, using a clause in the agreement with Black Hills that gives the city an opportunity to dump the utility 10 years after signing, in this case in 2020. The process would require the city to condemn Black Hills' assets, force the company to hand over its local infrastructure and potentially form its own nonprofit utility. Ditching the contract midway through is an extreme step, one that Black Hills has acknowledged in SEC filings as a threat to its business. But the most committed locals say it's the only viable way to meet their goal. "There's no room for concessions," says Sue Perkins, an energy lawyer working with Pueblo renewable advocates. The second reason going green is so difficult is the cost. Renewable-energy advocates rave about how cheap renewables have become. Indeed, in many parts of the country, generating electricity from renewable energy can cost less than from coal or even natural gas. That's especially true in southern Colorado, a region the National Energy Renewable Laboratory says is home to some of the country's best land for solar power. But those calculations omit a key variable someone still needs to pay for the existing fossil-fuel infrastructure. While renewable energy may be cheaper than fossil fuels when a utility starts from scratch or replaces old power plants that have reached the end of their usable life, overhauling the existing electricity system is much more complicated and costly. This is particularly true in a place like Pueblo. When the city nixes its contract with Black Hills, it will lose the 3.4 million the energy company pays annually into the city's coffers for the privilege of doing business there. At the same time, Pueblo will need to pay Black Hills in order to take over its assets. That includes not only neighborhood power lines and substations but also, most likely, the much maligned natural gas plant. If Pueblo and Black Hills can't agree on a price, state regulators would step in or the matter would be litigated in court. After that, Pueblo would still need to figure out how to supply the city with renewable energy, which comes with its own set of challenges. Will officials try to build their own power plants? Buy renewable energy from someone else? Or keep powering the city with fossil fuels while purchasing credits that support renewable energy elsewhere? All this will require a team of lawyers, engineers and consultants. Cities that have tried to set up their own utility know how expensive the process can be. Eight years ago, just 150 miles up Interstate 25, the city of Boulder refused to renew its long-term contract with Minnesota-based Xcel Energy because the electric utility refused to go along with Boulder's climate plan, a city program designed to reduce its contribution to climate change. Instead, Boulder opted to go through the process of setting up its own municipal utility. Since then, Boulder has lost tens of millions of dollars in revenue that Xcel would have paid for renewing the contract and shouldered millions more in legal fees and other costs. Residents made up for the lost revenue directly with a voter-approved tax hike in 2011 that was extended last year. "Do we want to be in the business of running an electric utility? No," says Jonathan Koehn, Boulder's regional sustainability coordinator. "But it allows us to live up to the values of this community.", It's not clear just how much going 100 green would cost Pueblo. Advocates of going renewable say the savings from nixing corporate expensesincluding dividends to shareholders and executive compensationcan help make up for the costs. In April, city officials launched a search for a consultant to assess the economic feasibility of leaving Black Hills and are currently evaluating proposals. Even the slightest spike in prices may be higher than residents can bear in a blue collar city where nearly 25 of residents live below the poverty level. Which is why even more than the legal hurdles of separating from Black Hills or the technical challenge of setting up its own power supply, the future of Pueblo's energy may depend on politics and whether local leaders can persuade their constituents to stick with their plans. That may be the hardest hurdle of all. On a Tuesday in May, members of the city's electric utility commission met to discuss splitting from Black Hills. Under questioning, even proponents of going 100 renewable acknowledged it may not be in the cards if it means Pueblo's residents can't afford it. "The economics is really the driving factor," said Hart, the county commissioner. "The environmental factors are important, but they fall behind economics.", With all its struggles, Pueblo represents a particularly challenging case, and other cities may find it easier to go green. "No two cities will get there in the same way," says Jodie Van Horn, who runs the Sierra Club's campaign to push cities to go renewable. That means a wide range of strategies and, perhaps more important, costs that vary from city to city. In Atlanta, officials have identified aggressively encouraging rooftop solar panels and reductions in residential energy consumption as likely avenues. The city may purchase credits to make up the difference. A report commissioned for Salt Lake City, which Mayor Jackie Biskupski says has a "great" relationship with the local utility, shows how the Utah capital and its neighbors could support the construction of new renewable plants and purchase entirely clean electricity with only "modestly higher" costs. "People are more than willing to pay," says Biskupski. Some smaller municipalities, such as Rock Port, Mo. and Georgetown, Texas, have already met their 100 renewable goal, largely because of their locations in the center of renewable-rich territory. And the path to success can be smoother in the roughly one-third of the U.S. that is not bound to an IOU. Municipal-owned utilities and co-ops provide power free from many of the state rules that often make local energy policy difficult for local leaders to manage. In cities with municipal utilities, in places ranging from small towns in the Midwest to large urban areas like Orlando, city councils often have direct authority over electricity contracts and appoint regulators. The situation is more complicated elsewhere and potentially prohibitively expensive. In some cities, the best option to try to fulfill a clean-energy commitment may require pushing the state legislature for pro-renewable reforms or applying local taxes as a lever, according to a May 2017 report from the Meister Consultants Group, an energy-advisory firm. Despite the challenge, the push may pay big dividends for the world if enough places stick with it. Trump has reversed many of the federal policies underpinning the U.S. commitment to deal with global warming, seeking to incentivize coal production even as market factors have driven rapid-fire growth in renewables. In this environment, cities and states can move the needle even if they don't go green entirely. A June report from the Rhodium Group estimated that U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions will fall by up to 20 by 2025, in part thanks to the momentum created by city and state policies supporting renewables. Growth in natural gas use, which emits less than coal but more than renewables, also contributes to the trend. That's short of the Obama-era target of at least 26, but climate advocates hope it's enough to keep the momentum going. "Because of that demand, we're seeing price forecasts for renewable technology coming down," says Kate Larsen, a director at Rhodium. That's why some proponents of going green in Pueblo say getting to 80 or 90 would still be a success. "Eighty percent is a whole lot different than 100," says Steve Andrews, a Pueblo-based energy consultant. "But it gets you 80 of the way there.", And that can make a big difference. In Boulder and Denver, which both get their electricity from Xcel Energy, aggressive campaigns to go green helped push Xcel to announce in June that it would spend 2.5 billion to build a slew of new renewable-energy plants, making renewable generation 55 of the company's electricity mix in the state by 2026. Because renewable energy will replace old inefficient fossil-fuel plants, Xcel expects that the move will ultimately save consumers 215 million a year. It's a step in the right direction, even if it's not enough to satisfy renewable-energy advocates. "The goal is the goal," says Boulder's Koehn. "When they put someone on the moon, they didn't say let's go 80 of the way there.", The moonshot resulted from the vision of President John F. Kennedy, who inspired thousands of federal employees and pushed the U.S. to invest more than 100 billion in today's money in the Apollo program. Today, American cities committed to going renewable will have to generate their own inspiration. |
US | Who Is Paul Whelan the American Detained in Russia for Alleged Spying | New details have emerged about Paul Whelan, the 48-year-old Novi, Michigan, resident who is facing 10 to 20 years in Russian prison on charges of espionage. While U.S. court records and the accounts of Whelan's family and workplace cannot clear him from any suspicion of spying, they depict him as a fairly ordinary American an Iraq war veteran, former sheriff's deputy and corporate security expert who, his brother says is a loyal friend and family member. "We are deeply concerned for his safety and well-being," the Whelan family said in a statement that his twin brother, David Whelan, posted on Twitter. "His innocence is undoubted and we trust that his rights will be respected.", David Whelan later told CNN about that he learned that his brother, who had been in Russia for a wedding, had been detained from a news story. According to David Whelan, Paul Whelan served multiple tours in Iraq as a marine and is a corporate security expert. Paul Whelan had made several trips to Russia in the past, his brother believes that he was attending the wedding to help other guests navigate Moscow. David Whelan told CNN that his brother is a helpful sort of person. "Paul's a kind soul, he's very generous, he's notorious among my kids for his huge belly laugh," he said. He added that his brother is a highly capable individual, who has served in Iraq and worked in law enforcement. In court records from 2013, Paul Whelan testified to working as a corporate security expert for over a decade. At the time, Whelan was working as a senior manager of global security and investigations for Kelly Security Services, he testified. He said that he was responsible for looking into accusations of theft, fraud, sexual harassment and workplace violence. Transportation technology company BorgWarner Inc. confirmed in a statement that Whelan is currently the company's director of global security. "He is responsible for overseeing security at our facilities in Auburn Hills, Michigan and at other company locations around the world," a BorgWarner spokesperson said in a statement. Between 1990 and 2008, Whelan also served several tours in Iraq as an active-duty reservist, he testified. Whelan's future, however, remains uncertain. David Whelan told CNN that he is appealing to U.S. officials to push for his brother's release. He has also been in contact with State Department officials, who say that they are working to secure a meeting between Whelan and U.S. embassy officials in Russia. The State Department declined to comment about the case, but confirmed that they have been informed about Whelan's detention by Russian authorities. A departmental spokesperson said that Whelan is assured access to the consular authorities under the Vienna Convention. "We have requested this access and expect Russian authorities to provide it," the spokesperson said in a statement. , |
US | This Map Shows the Deadliest Counties in the US | Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, is the deadliest county in America, at least by one measure it is the place where residents are most likely to die before the age of 75, which health experts consider premature death. The new edition of County Health Rankings from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, places the county which until very recently was called Shannon County at the bottom of the class in the number of people who died before age 75, a common measure of public health. Oglala Lakota County sits inside the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, whose residents suffer from a number of well-documented health problems. While South Dakota has a number of counties with high rates of premature deaths, the unhealthiest region in the U.S. is arguably the heart of Appalachia, from eastern Kentucky into southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia. Many of the counties have rates of smoking and obesity north of 30 of the population. The annual health rankings use a measure called "premature age-adjusted mortality" from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of their main indicators of overall health. This factor uses statistical methods to adjust for the overall distribution of ages in a county, so that one can compare mortality in any two counties independent of whether one has an overall younger population than the other. Across the country, the median value for this figure is 376 people per 100,000, meaning 0.38 of population will die before age 75 in a given year. That's all people, not just those who pass away. The value for Oglala Lakota County is 983.4, while the lowest in the nation, in Pitkin, Colo. is 118.5. A sufficient sample size was not available for 69 counties, colored white in this map. The 25 counties with the lowest mortality rates and the 25 counties with the highest rates are listed below. 25 Counties With Lowest Mortality Rates, 25 Counties With Highest Mortality Rates, , , Listen to the most important stories of the day. |
US | Indiana Bill Would Allow the Dead to Vote | It's difficult to vote if you're dead. Unless you live in Chicago. Or New York. Or Florida. But an Indiana lawmaker is hoping to make election season a bit easier for the recently departed at least. Indiana Rep. Matt Pierce proposed a bill taken up by the House Elections Committee Wednesday that would allow an absentee ballot from someone who dies before Election Day to be counted. MORE Jeb Bush Pitches Conservatism for the Middle Class, According to the Indianapolis Star, Pierce said he was motivated to propose the bill after hearing that former U.S. Rep. Frank McCloskey's vote in 2004 wasn't counted, because he died from cancer before Election Day. |
US | The Number of Asylum Seekers Has Risen by 2000 in 10 Years Who Should Get to Stay | It is still dark out when Border Patrol agent Herman Rivera's radio crackles to life. His fellow agents, posted nearby on levee roads above the Rio Grande, report movement along the border with Mexico in the dim predawn. As the first rays of sunlight creep across the horizon, the team bursts into action, charging down into the scrub, dodging bushes and ducking under low-hanging branches in pursuit of migrants. Helicopter blades whomp overhead. "I've got one over here," an agent yells from a field where stalks of sugarcane tower over his head. "I've got two over here," screams another. They emerge a beat later with a line of men in handcuffs. Elsewhere, agents discover four more migrants, three from China and one from Guatemala, hiding in thick underbrush. |
US | Muslim Women and Children Attacked in Hate Crime New York Officials Say | A New York City woman attacked two Muslim women and their infant children in what authorities described as a hate crime. Emirjeta Xhelili, 32, was arraigned on Friday after she hit the women in the face and body and tried to rip the hijab off their heads in Brooklyn on Thursday, CNN reported. The women had been pushing their children in strollers. "This is the United States of America, you're not supposed to be different from us," Xhelili yelled during the attack, according to court documents. She swore at the women while telling them to leave the United States. "You don't belong here," she said, according to the documents. Xhelili also pushed one stroller to the ground and rattled the other. The 11-month-old and 15-month old children and their mothers were not seriously injured, CNN reported. Xhelili was arrested and charged with assault, harassment and reckless endangerment of a child. The Brooklyn District Attorney's office characterized the incident as a hate crime. |
US | Occidental College Republicans Slam Vandals Who Destroyed Their 911 Memorial | Occidental College Republicans organized a memorial meant to honor those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks only to discover the nearly 3,000 American flags they planted on the school's quad ripped up and broken in half. "At midnight early this morning, vandals crushed, snapped, and threw in the garbage every single flag. Not one was left in the ground," the group wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday that included pictures of the vandalism. "Most of Occidental was asleep at 1 A.M. but not fifteen of us. Students rallied together to get those flags out of the garbage and up in the quad.", In addition to ripping up the flags, those who destroyed the memorial also put up anti-war posters, the Occidental College Republicans said. The flag display continued to face backlash after the group rebuilt it, with some students kicking over or breaking flags, the group said. The school is investigating the incident, according to an email sent to TIME by Occidental's communications department. Erica O'Neal Howard, the acting dean of students at Occidental, sent an email to the school community Sunday evening asking for information on those involved in the acts of vandalism. "Vandalism or other acts that substantially interfere with the rights of others to engage in protected speech violate the College's Student Code of Conduct and the spirit of this institution," Howard wrote. "Let us work together to find ways to express ourselves and build a community founded on respect.", , |
US | Fraternity Bans Initiations After Hazing Deaths | Popular fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon SAE announced Friday that it will ban the initiation process for its pledges in the wake of a spate of hazing-related deaths. The policy will be enacted on March 9, the group said on its website. At least 10 SAE members have died in hazing, alcohol or drug incidents at SAE events since 2006more than any other fraternity in the U.S. according to data compiled by Bloomberg. There have been over 60 fraternity-related deaths throughout the country since 2005. Many of the victims were freshman pledges, the fraternity members most vulnerable to peer pressure in their first year at college. In 2011, a mother of a Cornell SAE student sued the chapter for 25 million over the death of her son. She claimed that he was forced to drink so much alcohol that he died. In December of 2013, Bloomberg reported that SAE brothers at Salisbury University forced pledges to dress in women's clothing, drink until they almost passed out, wear diapers and stand in their underwear in trash cans full of ice. SAE has had to suspend or close 15 chapters in the last three years. SAEwhich has more than 240 chapters and 14,000 college membersis the most prominent frat to eliminate pledging entirely. Few other organizations have taken such a drastic measure. In the statement, SAE expressed regret over the recent deaths and injuries as well as the "bad publicity" they have brought to the organization. SAE will still recruit members and offer them a "bid" to join the fraternity. Once someone rushing the frat accepts the bid, he will become a member immediately without any sort of hazing process. All SAE members will also be required to complete alcohol education courses. |
US | Abortion Rights Are on the Ballot in Three States | Abortion rights are on the ballot in three states on Nov. 4 as voters in Tennessee, Colorado and North Dakota weigh state constitutional amendments. Here's what you need to know about the three ballot measures that could have national implications, TENNESSEE, Volunteer State voters will be asked to decide whether the state constitution should be amended to explicitly note that it does require funding for nor protect the right to abortion. The new clause being proposed says, The proposal, known as Amendment 1, has its roots in a 2000 Tennessee State Supreme Court decision that struck down several state laws restricting abortion on the grounds that they violated the state constitution. The new amendment would make it easier to enact new measures tightening access to abortion. The Odds, Toss-up. Opponents of Amendment 1 spent more than 3 million in October, compared to about 1 million by supporters, but the latest surveys show a close vote. According to a poll by Middle Tennessee State University released Oct. 29, 39 of registered voters said they supported Amendment 1, while 32 said they opposed it and 15 were undecided. COLORADO, The latest effort to extend the rights of fetuses under so-called personhood laws, Amendment 67 would amend Colorado's constitution so that "unborn human beings" are included as "people" in the state criminal code and wrongful death act. Colorado voters rejected similar proposals in 2008 and 2012. Amendment 67 is also referred to as the "Brady Amendment," named after an 8-month-old unborn child who was killed in a 2012 car accident caused by a drunk driver. Opponents of the measure say it could criminalize miscarriages, some forms of contraception and in-vitro fertilization, while making abortion illegal in Colorado. Under federal law, abortion is a protected right, so passage of the measure could lead to legal challenges. Some supporters of the measure say Amendment 67 is not intended to affect abortion rights or birth control, but would simply allow homicide charges to be brought against anyone who kills an unborn fetus. Yet, one group backing the measure, Colorado Right to Life, states on its website that Amendment 67 "makes abortion a criminal offense.", The Odds, Unlikely to pass. In a poll conducted Nov. 1 and 2, Public Policy Polling found that 56 percent of likely voters opposed Amendment 67, while 38 percent supported it. In an earlier poll from Suffolk University/USA Today, 45 of respondents opposed the measure, while 35 supported it and 17.4 were undecided. NORTH DAKOTA, Voters in North Dakota will decide on proposal similar to the one in Colorado. Measure 1 would amend the state constitution to say the life of a human being begins at conception by adding the following text, Opponents say the measure would outlaw abortion in North Dakota and lead to legal challenges on the basis that abortion is a federally protected right under Roe v. Wade. Supporters say it will protect existing restrictions and regulations governing abortion in the state. Either way, should the measure pass, the final effects are unlikely to be known until the issue is litigated in the courts. The Odds, Toss-up. In a poll conducted for two local news outlets released Oct. 21, 45 of likely voters said they opposed the measure, 39 percent said they supported it and 16 said they were undecided. An earlier poll released by the University of North Dakota put the odds of passage higher, with 50 of voters in favor, 33 opposed and 17 undecided. |
US | Separated Migrant Families Demand Millions in Damages From US Government | HOUSTON Lawyers for eight immigrant families separated under Trump administration policy filed claims Monday against the U.S. government demanding 6 million each in damages for what they describe as lasting trauma. The parents accused immigration officers of taking their children away without giving them information and sometimes mocking them or denying them a chance to say goodbye. The claims allege that many children remain traumatized, including a 7-year-old girl who won't sleep without her mother and a 6-year-old boy who is reluctant to eat. The Trump administration has acknowledged it separated more than 2,000 families last year through the implementation of a zero-tolerance policy intended to crack down on Central American migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. Government watchdogs have also said it's unclear how many families were separated in total because agencies did not keep good enough records as the policy was implemented. In one claim , a Guatemalan woman alleges she was detained in May with her 5-year-old son in a type of temporary detention facility nicknamed a "hielera," or icebox in Spanish. When they arrived in Arizona, the claim alleges, an immigration officer told her the law had changed, that their children would be taken, and that they would be deported. She says the officer then told her "Happy Mother's Day.", The woman says another immigration officer woke her up at about 5 a.m. days later, ordered her to bathe and clothe her son, and then took her son into another room. The woman says she begged not to have her son taken, then asked that the two be deported together to Guatemala rather than separated. "The officer laughed," the claim says. "He made fun of her indigenous accent and said, laughingly, it's not that easy.'", They were reunited in July, but then placed in a family detention center. They were released in November. Stanton Jones, a lawyer for the families, said the families were entitled to monetary damages because of the government's "inexplicable cruelty.", "The government was harming children intentionally to try to advance what it viewed as a policy objective," Jones said. "It's heinous and immoral, but it's also a civil wrong for which the law provides a claim for relief.", The claims were submitted to the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The act gives government agencies six months to respond before a potential lawsuit, Jones said. HHS spokeswoman Evelyn Stauffer said the department couldn't comment on the claims, but that HHS "plays no role in the apprehension or initial detention" of children referred to its care, including children who were separated from their parents by immigration authorities. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. |
US | Americas Uneasy Path Abroad in 2015 | America is not in decline. The U.S. will have the world's most formidable military for the foreseeable future. Its economy remains the world's largest, and its recovery will probably gather more steam in 2015. Its workforce is not aging nearly as quickly as that of Europe, Japan or China. No country has a greater capacity for technological innovation. Almost all the world's biggest tech companies are based in the U.S. For next-generation cloud computing, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and nanotechnology, bet on the U.S. America has an entrepreneurial culture that celebrates not simply what has been accomplished but also what's next. There is every reason to be confident that America has a bright 21st century future. But its foreign policy is a different story. American power is on the wane, a process that will accelerate in 2015. Power is a measure of one's ability to force others to do things they wouldn't otherwise do, and there are now more governments with enough resources and self-confidence to shrug off requests and demands from Washington. There was never a golden age of U.S. power when an American President could count on other governments to do as he asked. But there are several reasons the U.S. is now less able to build coalitions, forge trade agreements, win support for sanctions, broker international compromise or persuade others to follow its lead into conflict than at any other time since the end of World War II. First, there are a growing number of emerging powers that, although they can't change the global status quo on their own, have more than enough power to ignore what America wantsand even to block U.S. plans they don't like. For example, Washington can still tell governments of developing countries that access to capital from Western-dominated lending institutions like the IMF and the World Bank depends on democratic or free-market reforms. But the strongest emerging markets need capital less than they used to, and some of them are creating their own lending and investment institutions. The BRICS countriesBrazil, Russia, India, China and South Africain 2014 launched a 50 billion development bank, an alternative to Washington-based lenders. The BRICS bank can't by itself end U.S. dominance of the global financial system. But add the China Development Bank, the Brazilian Development Bank BNDES and an expanding list of important regional lending institutions, and the world's borrowers are no longer quite so dependent on Western lenders. The numbers tell the story. In 2013 the World Bank disbursed 52.6 billion. The same year, Brazil's BNDES invested 85 billion, and its Chinese equivalent extended loans valued at 240 billion. While emerging powers awaken, Washington's relations with its traditional allies are not what they used to be. It was inevitable that as the Cold War receded further into history, Americans and Europeans would have less in common. Both are unhappy with Vladimir Putin and his assault on Ukraine, but Russia is not the Soviet Union. It's not a global military power. European nations have far more economic exposure to Russia than America does, and Washington needs Putin's help to get things done in other regions, most notably in the Middle East. Though the U.S. and Europe have coordinated their sanctions on Russia so far, we're more likely in 2015 to see disagreements over how best to handle Putin. Nor has it helped transatlantic relations that the U.S. National Security Agency was reportedly listening to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone calls and collecting Internet data, raising fears across Europe that U.S. information-technology firms have given America's spy agencies deep access to European secrets. Last February, Merkel took the extraordinary step of calling for a European Internet, one walled off from the U.S. So much for free movement through cyberspace. Anti-American anger in many European countrieswhich rose sharply during the presidency of George W. Bush, then eased with the election of Barack Obamawas tested by the spy revelations. It will be tested again by the Senate's recently released torture report, which embarrassed a number of European governments that reportedly provided "black sites"secret U.S. prisonsfor use by the CIA. This can only make it more difficult for the next U.S. President to win support from European leaders for anything that wary European voters might not like. The country's relations with Britain will suffer in years to come as it becomes clear that the U.K. will sharply reduce the role it plays in Europe or exit the E.U. altogether. Britain has given Washington much of its influence inside the E.U. and a U.K. outside Europe would weaken the alliance. It's also inevitable that the rise of China will fray U.S. ties with allies in Asia as the governments of these countries hedge their bets on U.S. staying power in the region. An ally like Japan knows that Washington is now less likely to intervene in its security disputes because the American public won't support a lasting U.S. commitment to solve what are perceived to be other people's problems. A Pew Research poll conducted in late 2013 found that for the first time in the half-century that Americans have been asked this question, a majority of respondents said the U.S. "should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own." Just 38 disagreed. More recent polls tell the same story. In a democracy, no President can sustain an expensive, ambitious foreign policy without reliable public support. In the U.S. this support is no longer there, and the world knows it. Short of another large-scale terrorist attack on U.S. soil, it's hard to imagine anything that can restore public appetite for a more assertive foreign policy anytime soon. For all these reasons, the U.S. will exercise less power in the coming years in nearly every region of the world, and we can expect a de-Americanization of the international system. But there are other forces at work as well. Some countries will make a more determined move away from reliance on the dollar. As the world's primary reserve currency, the dollar has served for decades as the vital asset for central banks and commercial transactions of all kinds. Dollar dominance offers the U.S. important advantages. Its stability ensures that the country remains the safest port in any storm, attracting investment that keeps U.S. interest rates relatively low, despite the expansion of the national debt. It helps U.S. companies avoid the transaction costs that come with currency conversion and allows Washington to pay its debts by simply printing more money. But dollar dominance is on the wane as China, Russia, Brazil and others move to denominate more of their commerce in other currencies. Five years ago, China conducted trade almost entirely in dollars. Nearly a quarter of that trade is now settled in renminbi. At the same time, China has announced the creation of an Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, an institution that will not require borrowing nations to uphold the environmental and labor standards that are conditions of help from Western capitals. China has also created a 40 billion Silk Road Fund that is designed to extend Chinese commercial influence across South and Central Asia and into Europe. Those initiatives will give China greater market powerand therefore political influencewith the governments of partner countries and will help Beijing escape the dominance of U.S.-mandated rules and standards. In addition, Russia and China are now talking about creating their own ratings agency to further diminish Western influence in their economies. The emergence of new lenders and investors provides autocratic governments access to cash without having to promise democratic reforms. But diminished influence abroad is only part of the story. For many emerging states, partisan paralysis in Washington makes democracy a less than appealing path toward development. Nor will it be as easy for the U.S. to build greater support for market-driven capitalism, particularly as China continues to demonstrate the growth potential of the state-driven variety. In 2015 congressional opponents of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, an 80-year-old institution designed to enhance the market power of U.S. companies operating abroad, will finally have a golden opportunity to kill it. At the same time, though much has been made of China's economic-reform process, changes to China's economy have less to do with privatization and more with making China's enormous state-owned companies work more effectively. American prospects in the Middle East are not, for the moment, very encouraging. The Obama Administration's bid to make a deal with Iran to scuttle its nuclear program leaves the Saudis worried that the U.S. will lift sanctions on Riyadh's bitterest rival, shifting the region's balance of power in Iran's favor. The continued erosion of U.S.-Saudi ties will persuade the Saudi royal family to run a much more independent foreign policy than it used to. For example, though technically part of a U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition, the Saudis are not working as hard as they could to track funding and arms that militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria receive as they work to destabilize Iraq and Bashar Assad's Syria. Even in places where the U.S. and Saudis have shared interests, the two countries are no longer closely coordinating policies. The most direct challenge will come from China. Washington is still working to solidify its long-term commercial and security interests in East Asia via the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a colossal U.S.-led trade deal involving a dozen countries on either side of the Pacific. For the moment, this is not a deal that will include China and its state-dominated economy. That's why China is working on an enormous international trade deal of its own. At a regional summit meeting in November, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a road map for the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific FTAAP. More than 20 countries have formally signaled interest in FTAAP membership. In fact, Chinanot Americais now the world's lead trading nation. According to analysis by the Associated Press, in 2012 the U.S. was the largest trade partner for 76 countries, and communist China was the lead partner for 124. The U.S. will remain the world's most powerful nation for years to come, but that status doesn't carry as much weight as it used to. Advantages enjoyed for decades are fading as new powers push for new rules and standardsin international politics, the global marketplace and online. Globalization will continue to spread new ideas, speed the flow of information, lift nations out of poverty and drive global consumption. But it's less likely than before to promote American values and an American worldview. |
US | Massachusetts Poised to Ban Upskirt Photos | Massachusetts lawmakers have had it with "upskirting," or the act of sneaking a photo up a woman's skirt. One day after the state's highest court ruled that a man who snapped "upskirt" photos on the subway had violated no state laws, lawmakers sprung into action. USA Today reports that an "upskirting" ban sailed through the House and the Senate and now merely awaits the signature of the governor. Violators will face up to two years in prison and fines as high as 5,000 for photographing adult victims, 10,000 for underage victims. House Speaker Robert DeLeo said it was time "to bring Massachusetts laws up-to-date with technology and the predatory practice of upskirting.'", USA Today |
US | Shock Disappointment and Kindness From Worshippers at Shooters Mosque | There's a quote from the Quran on the wall of the Fort Pierce Islamic Center, where Omar Mateen and his family came to pray. "That ye may know each other," it says, "Not that ye may despise each other.", Every time Mateen removed his shoes and walked to the bathing area where Muslims wash before prayer, he would have passed these words. The Fort Pierce Islamic Center is housed in a building that was once a church, on a street where there are at least five Baptist churches on a 3-mile stretch. The area is heavily Christian, and mostly white, with a significant population of African Americans, but few Muslims. The region is known, literally, as White City, but the Fort Pierce Islamic Center serves worshippers from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Palestine, Jordan and Afghanistan. "He let us down," says worshipper Habiba Haque, a mother of two, as she wipes away a tear. "We tried so hard, so hard to express ourselves, that we are good people.", Read More Orlando Shooter Omar Mateen's Father I Don't Forgive Him', The Islamic center has faced threats and at least one instance of harassment in the days since Mateen killed 49 people at Pulse nightclub in Orlando early Sunday morning in what is now considered the deadliest mass shooting in American history and the worst terrorist attack since 9/11. But when this reporter wanders cautiously into the women's wing of the center as the congregants are sitting down to break their fast for Ramadan the annual holy month during which Muslims eat only before sunrise and after sunset the response is overwhelmingly kind. They offer tea and dates. One insists I take a shrimp fritter. Another woman takes the scarf off her own head to wrap it around my waist, "like a sarong," to hide my knees peeking out from under my shorts. They all express complete shock at Mateen's actions, and agree they never would have expected such a brutal act of violence from someone in their community. Because the mosque separates men and women, most of the women congregants did not have as regular contact with Mateen himself as they had with his mother and sisters. Still, they say, he seemed just like everyone else. Marian Alladin, a retired schoolteacher, says that Mateen had paid a condolence call to her husband after he broke his leg in an accident. "That kid came to my house, he came with his wife, his son, and he sat with him," she recalled, saying he was "very pleasant, very sociable.", His mother and sisters are just like the other ladies at the center, multiple women say, gushing over children and grandchildren and comparing beauty and fashion tips. They are well respected in the congregation, and known as good members of the community. "He came from a very nice family," Alladin says. A representative for the Center for American-Islamic Relations CAIR was at the mosque on Monday to field inquiries from reporters, since the mosque's administration was not equipped to manage the deluge of media requests. "Our hearts are with the victims," said Wilfredo Ruiz, communications director for CAIR of Florida, adding the shooting was a "heinous act" that "has no excuse." He also said that CAIR is urging all mosques and Islamic community centers to implement a "deradicalization" program, in which a team of mental-health professionals and lawyers could reach out to troubled individuals "precrime," when there is not necessarily evidence of an intent to harm since it's difficult to call the police on something as vague as a shift in mood or a change in personality. If there is a suspicion of actual violence, Ruiz urged all community members to contact the police immediately. Many of the women say they are concerned about anti-Muslim violence in response to the attacks, and they are upset that the actions of one disturbed congregant would reflect poorly on the entire community at the center. "We're afraid of backlash, targeting us because he came to this mosque," Alladin says. None of the women interviewed say they could recall any time when anti-gay sentiments were ever expressed at the mosque, and all say that gay Muslims would be welcome to worship there. Read More Thousands Gather in Orlando for Somber Vigil, Most of all, the women expressed a sadness that Mateen had used a religion that teaches peace and kindness as a justification for his act of violence. "If he was religious, he would never do these things," Haque says. "Killing innocent people is like killing all of humanity. It's in the Quran." |
US | Female Army Ranger Grads Are Among Nations Top Soldiers But Cant Fight | "What if you gave a war and nobody came?" was the adage uttered amid dwindling public support for the Vietnam War. This weekend it'll be replaced with "What if you're an Army Ranger, but can't fight?", That's because a pair of Army women will graduate Friday from the service's grueling 62-day Ranger course and earn the prized Ranger tab. That storied black-and-gold patch places them among the nation's top soldiers only 3 of their male counterparts have earned it throughout Ranger history. But despite the accomplishment, they're still barred from direct ground combat, which is the Rangers' raison d'tre. Earning the tab isn't a key into the 75th Ranger Regiment, the Army's top light-infantry outfit, often deployed on the service's riskiest missions. It simply means they're eligible for an assignment into that exclusive unit. Pentagon policy currently bans women from serving in direct ground combat slots, which include infantrylike the Rangersas well as armor, most artillery, and special-operations units. But the pair's graduation is a significant crack in the wall keeping women formally off the battlefield. "This is an historic, path-breaking achievement by two exceedingly fit, determined, and professionally competent women who literally rucked up' and walked point' for their gender," says one-time Ranger David Petraeus, who went on to wear four stars. Soldiers who earn the Ranger tab wear it high on their uniforms' left shoulders for the rest of their careers, though in the past not all male graduates went on to serve as Rangers. Many troops specializing in aviation, intelligence or other career fields will never be able to serve in a Ranger unit, but that tab places them among the Army's finest warrior-leaders and is seen as a first-class ticket to future promotions. Ranger School is the Army's top combat leadership course, and teaches Rangers how to overcome fatigue, hunger, and stress to lead troops during small-unit operations, the very heart of warfare. It's no Boy Scout camp, according to General David Perkins, the Army's top trainer. "Most people in the Army don't go to Ranger School. Most of the males don't want to go to Ranger School," he said recently. "Most of the males that do go to Ranger School fail.", The Columbus Ledger-Inquirer, the local paper near the Ranger School at Fort Benning, Ga. identified the women as 1st Lieutenant Kristen Griest, a military police officer from Orange, Conn. and Captain Shaye Haver, an AH-64 Apache helicopter pilot from Copperas Cove, Tex. The two soldiers, both West Point graduates, find themselves in a limbo created by the Pentagon as it grapples with integrating women ever more deeply into the military's combat units. It's basically trying to amass a stockpile of Ranger-tabbed women believing the Pentagon will lift that ban early next year. Responding to a 2013 order from then-defense secretary Leon Panetta that all military jobs should be open to women in 2016, the services have been conducting tests over the past two years to see if women can handle the dirtiest, most demanding ground combat assignments. While the services may, in the coming months, seek to keep some jobs male-only, the final decision will be made by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in January. Skeptics of the move to open up combat slots to women say that while there is no doubt some women can serve in front-line units, there won't be enough to achieve a "critical mass" to make them a true part of combat units. They fear unit cohesionthe glue that binds soldiers together in battlewill weaken amid sexual dynamics in co-ed front-line units. Male troops can be ordered into combatwill women face that same requirement? And will they have to register for the draft?, The pending female Rangers has generated polarized debates across many military-related websites. Proponents say women have been in combat for decades, and that their ability to attend Ranger School simply recognizes the changing combat realities that have blurred the front lines in warfare. The growing role of women in combat, they maintain, isn't that much different from the racial integration of the ranks that took place after World War II, or the recent change that allows openly gay troops to serve. Critics insist standards have been eased, often on the sly, to let more women serve in combat roles. The Ranger course, spread over Army posts in Florida and Georgia, includes arduous assignments in woods, mountains and swamps. It includes many physical requirements, including 49 push-ups, 59 sit-ups, a five mile run in 40 minutes, and six chin-ups a swim test a land navigation test a 12-mile foot march in three hours several obstacle courses four days of military mountaineering three parachute jumps four air assaults on helicopters multiple rubber boat movements and 27 days of mock combat patrols. "This course has proven that every soldier, regardless of gender, can achieve his or her full potential," Army Secretary John McHugh said. "We owe soldiers the opportunity to serve successfully in any position where they are qualified and capable." |
US | The Fight Over Confederate Monuments Is Moving Beyond New Orleans | A crew of workers in New Orleans on Wednesday removed the statue of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, the third Confederate monument to come down in the city in the last month. But it won't be the last. As the city plans to remove a fourth and final monument a statue of Robert E. Lee in New Orleans' prominent Lee Circle cities from St. Louis to Orlando are considering removing their own Confederate memorials. The push to take down the monuments has gained momentum since Dylann Roof, an avowed white supremacist, opened fire in a historically black church in Charleston, S.C. in 2015 and killed nine churchgoers. Since then, New Orleans has been the most prominent city to take down memorials to Confederate soldiers, led by Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who has forcefully pushed forward a plan first passed by the city council in 2015. Landrieu's efforts drew supporters but also protests and threats of violence a pattern that has played out in a growing number of cities that are following New Orleans' lead. The most contentious battle over the monuments is shifting to Charlottesville, Va. where torch-wielding protesters organized by white nationalist Richard Spencer recently marched in support of keeping a statue of Gen. Lee in one of the city's parks. In April, the Charlottesville City Council voted to sell the monument, but the sale was put on hold by a judge the following month. Read more New Orleans Mayor Defends Removing Confederate Monuments We're Correcting History', "We will not be replaced from this park," Spencer told protesters last Saturday, according to the Associated Press. Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer pushed back against the demonstrations, saying in a statement "I want everyone to know this We reject this intimidation.", In Orlando, the mayor announced earlier this week that the city would move a "Johnny Reb" statue from a city park to a cemetery south of downtown. The statue was first erected in 1911 and commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. According to the Orlando Sentinel, supporters waved Confederate battle flags at a recent city council meeting in support of keeping the monument in place. "I believe this proposal balances the inclusive morals of our community today, while carefully preserving historic artifacts from our past that can be used to further educate and serve as important lessons in today's society," said Mayor Buddy Dyer, according to the Orlando Sentinel. There is some precedent for such a move. A Confederate cannon was removed from College Park Middle School, which was originally named Lee Middle School, to a city cemetery in March. Read more New Orleans Removes First of 4 Confederate Statues This is Not About Politics', In St. Louis, the mayor is reportedly considering the possibility of removing a 1914 monument commemorating Confederate youth but is being held up by the cost. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mayor Lyda Krewson is looking at different options for removing the 40-ton memorial, which has been vandalized in the past and spray-painted with the phrase "Black Lives Matter.", But some cities are seeing significant pushback from residents. In Shreveport, a citizen advisory committee is discussing whether to remove a 1906 monument commemorating a Confederate soldier and four generals, including Gens. Lee and Beauregard, that stands in front of the parish's courthouse. The commission is holding multiple public meetings to discuss the monument's fate. But according to the Shreveport Times, a majority of people at the first hearing supported keeping the Confederate monument in place. "We all have history. We didn't plan it, but it's our history," David Cox, a former Caddo Parish Commissioner, said at the meeting, according to the Shreveport Times. "I was told one time that what you do leaves your legacy. You take down this monument, and you're going to have a legacy of killing history." |
US | These Are the Victims of the Florida High School Shooting | Among those who were killed in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were a beloved football coach who shielded students from gunfire, an aspiring Olympic swimmer, students who had just made college decisions, and a geography teacher praised for saving lives. Fourteen students, two coaches and one teacher were killed in the shooting Wednesday, and other victims are still being treated at nearby hospitals. Suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student at the school, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. These are the victims of the attack, , Dworet, a high school senior, was a competitive swimmer aspiring to compete in the 2020 Olympics. "That was what he was working for, and he would've made it," Nicole Nilsson, a family friend, told TIME. "He had very big aspirations.", Dworet had made the Tokyo 2020 logo his screensaver and had recently signed a letter of intent to join the University of Indianapolis swim team as a freshman in the fall. "Nick's death is a reminder that we are connected to the larger world, and when tragedy hits in places around the world, it oftentimes affects us at home," university president Robert Manuel said in a statement. "Today, and in the coming days, I hope you will hold Nick, his family, all of the victims, as well as the Parkland community and first responders in your prayers.", Dworet would have turned 18 next month. , Feis, an assistant football coach and security guard at the school, died after shielding students from gunfire during the shooting on Wednesday. "He selflessly shielded students from the shooter when he was shot. He died a hero and he will forever be in our hearts and memories," the school's football program said in a tweet. A graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Feis had played football at the school and returned as a coach in 2002. Broward Sheriff Scott Israel who coached with Feis and watched his sons play for him described Feis as a "phenomenal" man who was "adored" by students. "The kids in this community loved him. They adored him. He was one of the greatest people I knew. He was a phenomenal man," Israel said at a press conference on Thursday. "When Aaron Feis died, when he was killed tragically, inhumanely he did it protecting others. You can guarantee that because that's who Aaron Feis was.", , The father of Jaime Guttenberg, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, shared news of her death in an emotional Facebook post on Thursday. "My heart is broken," Fred Guttenberg wrote. "Yesterday, Jennifer Bloom Guttenberg and I lost our baby girl to a violent shooting at her school.", "I am broken as I write this trying to figure out how my family get's through this," he said, thanking friends and family members for their support. "Hugs to all and hold your children tight.", , Alyssa, a soccer player, was one of the students killed in the shooting, the Parkland Soccer Club said in Facebook post on Thursday. "Honor Alyssa by doing something fabulous in your life. Don't ever give up and inspire for greatness," her family said in a note to her friends shared by the soccer club. "Live for Alyssa! Be her voice and breathe for her.", In an emotional interview on CNN, Alhadeff's mother, Lori, implored President Trump to do something to stop gun violence. "This is not fair to our family that our children go to school and have to get killed," she said. "President Trump, please do something. Do something. Action we need it now. These kids need safety now.", , Beigel, a geography teacher at the high school, was remembered Thursday by students who said he died saving their lives. "I will never forget the actions that he took for me and for fellow students in the classroom," student Kelsey Friend told CNN. "I am alive today because of him.", Friend told Good Morning America that Beigel had unlocked a classroom for her and other students to hide inside, but he was shot in the doorway. , Pollack, a senior at the high school, had planned on attending Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida next year. "She was just unbelievable," her father, Andrew Pollack, told the New York Times. "She was a very strong-willed young girl who had everything going for her.", , Hixon, the athletic director at the school, was also among those killed in the shooting. "Chris is probably the nicest guy I have ever met. He would give you the shirt off his back. He does so much. That is terrible that it would happen to anybody. It is so senseless," Dan Jacob, the athletic director at nearby Coral Springs High School, told the Sun-Sentinel. , Hoyer was a freshman at the school. In an interview with People, his aunt Joan Cox described him as a "happy-go-lucky kid" who loved basketball, and a "momma's boy" who rarely got into trouble. "He didn't know what he wanted to do yet," Cox said. "He was just a freshman and was looking forward to high school.", , Schentrup had recently gone on a college visit to the University of Washington, her cousin Matt Brandow said in a Facebook post, calling her the "most intelligible 16 year old I've ever met.", "I love you with all my heart and I'm going to miss you every single living day. I would switch places with you in a second," he wrote. , Montalto was part of her high school's state-champion marching band, the Sun-Sentinel reported. "Our beautiful daughter, Gina Rose, was taken from us during the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School," her mother, Jennifer Montalto, wrote in Facebook post shared by local station CBS 12. "She was a smart, loving, caring, and strong girl who brightened any room she entered.", , Schachter played the trombone in his school's marching band and "just wanted to do well and make his parents happy," his father, Max Schachter, told the New York Times. , Wang was in the school's Junior Reserve Office Training Program, according to the Miami Herald, and was last seen in his gray uniform on Wednesday. His cousin, Aaron Chen, told the Herald that Wang held the door open so others could escape during the shooting. "He was always so nice and so generous," Chen told the New York Times. Chen said his cousin helped him settle in when he moved to Florida and made sure he was not bullied. Wang's best friend, Gabriel Ammirata, also described him as "funny, nice and a great friend," according to the Herald. Ammirata had planned to go to the Chinese restaurant Wang's family owns to celebrate the Lunar New Year on Thursday, he told the paper. , Petty was also a member of the school's JROTC program and participated in the "Helping Hands" program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, helping to clean up Florida Keys after Hurricane Irma hit Florida in September, according to the Miami Herald. "Alaina loved to serve," a statement from her family said, according to CNN. "While we will not have the opportunity to watch her grow up and become the amazing woman we know she would become, we are keeping an eternal perspective.", Duque Anguiano was a freshman at the school, according to the Miami Herald. His older brother, Miguel, posted about his death on Instagram early Thursday. "Words can not describe my pain," he wrote in the post. "I love brother Martin you'll be missed buddy. I know you're in a better place. Duques forever man I love you junior!!!", , Ramsey would have gone to college next year, a family member said in a long Facebook post. The relative remembered her as a "smart, kind hearted and thoughtful person.", "Though she was some what reserved, she had a relentless motivation towards her academic studies, and her soft warm demeanor brought the best out in all who knew her. She was so brilliant and witty, and I'm still wrestling with the idea that she is actually gone," the post said. , Oliver, who was born in Venezuela, moved to the United States with his family when he was 3 years old, according to the Miami Herald. He became a U.S. citizen last January, the paper reported. , Loughran loved her cousins and spending time at the beach, her family said, according to the New York Times. Her aunt, Lindsay Fontana, posted about Loughran's death on Facebook and urged readers to take action to prevent future shootings. "We are absolutely gutted. Cara was 14 years old. She was an excellent student, she loved the beach and she loved our girls," she wrote in the post. "While your thoughts are appreciated, I beg you to DO SOMETHING. This should not have happened to our niece Cara and it can not happen to other people's families." |
US | This Is What JiggeryPokery Means | In a blistering dissent, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wielded an insult on Thursday that has caught the Internet's attention. Arguing against his colleagues' reasoning in their decision to allow health care subsidies nationwide, Scalia accused them of "interpretive jiggery-pokery.", If you're not familiar with the term, Jiggery-pokery dates back to at least the late 1800s, a rhythmic English phrase describing dishonest manipulation or nonsense, akin to hocus pocus, humbug, bambosh, baloney, berley among the Australians, bunkum, hogwash also known as eyewash, flapdoodle, flim-flam, flumadiddle, rubbish, galbanum coming from a French word for empty representations, hooey, hot air, motormouthing, poppycock or malarkey, as Joe Biden is wont to say. Editors at the Oxford English Dictionary traced this particular phrase back to the Scottish word jouk, which means to skillfully twist one's body to avoid a blowto manipulate oneself like an acrobat. Scalia, in this case, insinuates that his colleagues bend themselves and dissemble in order to work around the truth by misinterpreting words of the law. Among the Scots, the word jouk led to the notion of joukery or jookery to describe underhanded dealing or trickery. Pawky is another Scottish word, meaning artfully shrewd. A pawk, on its own, is a trick. And by 1686, some inventive Scottish speakers had combined the words in the phrase joukery-pawkery, which they used to refer to clever trickery or slight of hand. One might declare, as Sir Walter Scott did in his 19th century tale The Black Dwarf, that "There has been some jookery-paukery of Satan's in a' this!" From there, it was not a long linguistic path to becoming the jiggery-pokery that sent America running to their dictionaries this week. Katherine Martin, the head of U.S. dictionaries at Oxford, recalls that Scalia pulled a similar trick in 2013, when he used the "colorful reduplicative colloquialism" argle-bargle. Both she notes, are uncommon in American English, while jiggery-pokery is more commonly used among the Brits than argle-bargle, which describes a disputable bandying of words, a bit like bafflegab. , Just as when Sen. Ted Cruz used the word "squish" to insult his rivals, Scalia's dissent is a reminder that a life in government needn't be lived while only using serious sounding words. Politicians can, after all, be fairly called snollygosters and quockerwodgers who flip-flop and kick tiresor, as Scalia might say, flapdoodlers who deceive themselves and others with their jibber-jabber. |
US | San Francisco Pride Amps Up Security After Orlando Shooting | San Francisco city leaders stood on the steps of the emergency management department on Monday and vowed that the city's annual LGBT Pride festival taking place this weekend would not only be safe but one of the "most celebratory" in its 46-year history. The recent shooting at Orlando gay nightclub Pulse, which Mayor Ed Lee described as a "massacre," had clearly shaken some of the speakers, as well as hardened their resolveand amped up preparations among local, state and federal agencies. "As we move into the Pride weekend, it's really tempting to curl up into a ball and retreat," said San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, a member of the city's legislative body and an openly gay man. "But we have to do the opposite. We need to have the most celebratory and joyous Pride that we have ever had before. That is how we will win and that is how we send the message that nothing is going to get us down.", For the first time, several of the biggest events associated with the weekend-long festival will require attendees to go through security screening at all entry points. The size of bags will also be limited to 18 in. by 18 in. and the committee organizing the event warned of long lines, recommending that people not bring bags at all. A spokesperson for the SF Pride Committee said that the city expects as many as 1 million people to attend the parade on Sunday and about 300,000 people at other events on each of Saturday and Sunday. Though a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department would not release exact figures for how many officers would be on the ground, nor detail the specific roles state and federal law enforcement agencies will play, a high-ranking officer promised to have more police activated in the wake of Orlando. At the press conference, Deputy Chief Michael Redmond said that the department planned to increase the number of officers by about 25, promising a "very high visible presence" around all entertainment venues, as well as plainclothes officers at clubs and events associated with the festival. Attendees were encouraged to remain vigilant in looking for suspicious activity and to sign up for emergency text messages from the city. "The terrorist attack in Orlando, what happened in San Bernardino, the attacks in Belgium and Paris, have created a cloud of concern and fear," said Sam Singer, SF Pride spokesperson, adding that though there is always security at the festival, this year's measures are unprecedented. "We don't know how long this level of security will last in San Francisco.", Despite the concern the LGBT community is facing, after having one of their safe spaces so violated, Supervisor Wiener ended his remarks by striking a defiant tone. "You can attack us, you can beat us, you can bully us, you can kill us," he said, "and we're just going to keep coming back and we're going to be stronger than before." |
US | The Morning Brief Spain Attacks James Murdoch The Defenders | Good morning. These are today's top stories, ISIS claimed responsibility for a pair of attacks in Spain that left at least 14 people dead and more than 100 injured. In the first assault in Barcelona, a van driver mowed down pedestrians on a popular tourist walkway. Hours later in Cambrils, another vehicle plowed into a police car and some civilians, according to the Associated Press. Authorities have made several arrests in connection with the two incidents, but they are still searching for the van driver in the first attack. James Murdoch, the CEO of 21st Century Fox, has promised to give 1 million to the Anti-Defamation League, which aims to stop anti-Semitism. The pledge came as Murdoch blasted President Donald Trump for blaming "both sides" of the violence in Charlottesville, Va. "Standing up to Nazis is essential," Murdoch wrote in an email to friends, according to the New York Times. Marvel's The Defenders, a miniseries that revolves around four of Marvel's biggest superheroes, premieres on Netflix today. The show features Daredevil Charlie Cox, Jessica Jones Krysten Ritter, Luke Cage Mike Colter, Iron Fist Finn Jones and super-villain Alexandra Sigourney Weaver. Also, Some Republicans assailed Trump after he defended Confederate monuments. A student who attended the Charlottesville white supremacist rally has left Boston University after receiving backlash. A new therapy may be able to cure children of peanut allergies. 7-Eleven will let you fill any cup you want with Slurpee for 1.50 today and tomorrow. |
US | Edward Snowden Invokes Martin Luther King to Defend Whistleblowing | Edward Snowden on Thursday invoked Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolent civil disobedience to condemn the U.S. for how it treats whistleblowers, warning that others may not stand up for alleged wrongdoing if they fear punishment. The former National Security Agency contractor, who in 2013 revealed a trove of classified secrets on the intelligence agency's surveillance programs, defended his leaks as an act of "public service" while virtually addressing a crowd at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. "Martin Luther King brought forth this brand of civil disobedience . . . to create change that could not be ignored," said Snowden, who appeared on a video screen from Russia, where he is living under temporary asylum. "If all of the weight is borne by a single individual, you can't build a mass movement because the first one to step forward is put in jail forever.", Snowden had leaked classified documents to journalists to expose the NSA's practice of collecting metadata on millions of phone calls in the U.S. He told the group of Chicago students on Thursday that he would return to the U.S. to "face the music" if he would be given a fair trial. Snowden says such a trial would not be allowed under the Espionage Act, which he said does not allow defendants to avoid sanction by proving their actions were made in the public interest. "If the government was willing to provide a fair trial, I would want to come home and make my case to a jury," Snowden said. "But if the only tune they are playing is an unfair trial . . . is that really something that we would consider to be in America's interest?", Snowden said whistleblowers serve a critical role to the country and some help provide "opportunities to become stronger as a nation.", "I don't discount that fact that risks were involved in this," he said of his leaks. "Living in a free society involves risk. That is not a weakness. That is strength." |
US | Read Donald Trumps Full Victory Speech After Winning Presidency | Donald Trump spoke to a crowd of his supporters at the New York Hilton in Midtown Manhattan early Wednesday morning after his stunning victory over Hillary Clinton in the most bitter presidential election in modern memory. Trump's speech came after a remarkable campaign that shattered many of the norms of American politics. He won a slew of battleground states across the country. The Associated Press declared him the winner at 230 a.m. E.T. and Clinton conceded shortly after. Read the transcript of his remarks below |
US | Lone Mississippi Abortion Clinic Fights Closure | The operators of Mississippi's sole abortion clinic appeared in federal court Monday to fight a 2012 state law that would force its closurewhich would make Mississippi the first state in the 41 years since Roe v. Wade to not have an abortion provider. Jackson Women's Health Organization is challenging HB 1390, which stipulates that all physicians in the state who perform abortions have admitting privileges at hospitals. Although doctors at the bright-pink colored clinic have repeatedly applied for privileges, they have been denied for reasons ranging from religion to desire to avoid controversy. "Some we received no response from, but the ones that we did, they made reference to the fact that because the care we provide is related to abortion, they felt it might be disruptive to the internal politics, as well as the external politics, for the hospital," Dr. Willie Parker, a plaintiff in the case, told NPR. Parker files to Jackson from Chicago every week to be one of two doctors to perform the abortions. A different three-judge panel in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a similar law in Texas last year, causing one-third of its clinics to close. Lawyers on both sides have been arguing about the constitutionality of the law. "Women across the state will be plunged back into the dark days of back-alley procedures that Roe was supposed to end," Julie Rikelmann, an attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights fighting on behalf of the clinic, said in a statement. "This is a blatant violation of women's constitutional rights and an imminent danger to their health and well-being.", "It seems to me you've got a steep hill to climb when you say the only clinic in the state is closing," Judge E. Grady Jolly told attorney Paul Barnes of the Mississippi Attorney General's Office, the Associated Press reports. But Barnes told the three-judge panel that while the Supreme Court says the constitution allows for the right to an abortion, it doesn't allow for the right on an unsafe one. AP |
US | Orlando Shooter Omar Mateens Father I Dont Forgive Him | Seddique Mateen is a US Citizen, the self-appointed President of Afghanistan, and the father of Omar Mateen, the man who killed more than 49 people at an Orlando nightclub this weekend in in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. In the aftermath of the shooting, which is now considered the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil since September 11, the elder Mateen appeared to fluctuate between grief and grandiosity. He was clearly devastated by the loss of his son and at least 49 others who died at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando early Sunday morning. But Mateen, who calls himself the "president of transitional republic of Afghanistan" on his Facebook page and posts online videos of his own political commentary, clearly relished his moment in the spotlight. At first, he reacted as any grieving parent would. "I don't forgive him," Seddique Mateen said Monday morning, shaking his head. Answering the door of his stately Port St. Lucie home in his pajamas, Mir said he had been up all night "in shock.", But an hour later, Mateen appeared again, this time in an immaculate suit with a pocket square, inviting reporters to take off their shoes before entering his home. Only the "professionals" were welcome, he said, and it later became clear that "professional" was Mateen's highest compliment. With wide blue eyes, a bushy mustache, and a calm demeanor, Seddique Mateen gave off the calm authority of a diplomat. Sitting on an ornate upholstered couch inside the home, the elder Mateen continued to condemn his son and praise the United States, which he repeatedly called "my house" and "my home.", "The United States is my house," he said. "The United States is the house that is always taking care of me, my family, all the people from my homeland.", The elder Mateen said the atrocity his son committed is completely inconsistent with his family's religion. "It's against the philosophy that I teach them," he said. But that philosophy is under intense scrutiny, as more details emerge about the elder Mateen's political leanings and video statements that seem at once extreme and bizarre. In several instances, the statements he made to reporters Monday appeared to conflict with statements he has made in videos he published online before the shootings. Seddique Mateen is something of an online personality, posting numerous videos on YouTube and his Facebook page about Afghan politics, including some where he appears to pass himself off as the President of Afghanistan. As recently as June 3, Mateen made statements on Facebook calling himself the "president of transitional republic of Afghanistan.", Although he disavowed the hatred that motivated his son's rampage in the gay nightclub, in a video posted early Monday morning he said "God himself will punish those involved in homosexuality," according to several news outlets. That video has since been removed. Pulse nightclub is a destination for the gay and lesbian community, and the elder Mateen told NBC news Sunday that his son may have been angered when he saw two men kissing in public. On Monday, Mateen expressed more tolerance when asked about his son's feelings towards the LGBTQ community, saying "This is a free country, everybody should get a chance to live in the way that he or she wants to live.", In another video, he appears to show support for the Afghan Taliban, according to translations by the Washington Post. But when asked Monday about his views on the Taliban, Mateen refused to answer definitively, saying first "I don't want to talk about that," and then blandly condemning the extremist group. "The Taliban, what they do is they are terrorists," he said. "They are the terrorist people, and they have all kinds of problems." He declined to elaborate on his previous statements in support of the group. Mateen also said he would have called local law enforcement if he had suspected that his son was considering an attack like this. "I wish I did know what he was doing," he said. "I would have arrested him myself." But he also said he "supported" his son through his FBI surveillance, saying "I didn't see any act of terrorism in what he did.", The FBI are "very professional people," he said with admiration. The elder Mateen seemed especially bewildered that his son had attacked a country that had given him so much. "He was born in America, he went to school in America, you went to college, you was working here, why did you do that?" he said, directing the question to his deceased son. It was mostly quiet at the Mateen's home early Monday morning, before the crush of reporters arrived. There was a mountain bike outside, a deflated kiddie pool, a tiny bathing suit drying on the porch. Inside the home, Mother's Day cards were displayed proudly on the front table. Mateen said he had not slept at all Sunday night, that he was kept awake haunted by what his son had done. "I am upset, they lost their loved ones," he said. "I know how that feeling is. I lost a son, too, and that's the only son I had." |
US | Top Diplomat Says US Has Lost 60 of Its Career Ambassadors Under President Trump | The U.S. has lost 60 of its career ambassadors since January, according to the head of the union that represents diplomatic staff. Barbara Stephenson, the head of the American Foreign Service Association AFSA and former U.S. Ambassador to Panama, wrote in a memo to members that diplomatic leadership ranks are being "depleted at a dizzying speed.", She referred to a recent TIME cover which she said corroborated her vision of government being dismantled. "The cover of the TIME magazine that arrived as I was writing this column jarred me with its graphic of wrecking balls and warning of dismantling government as we know it,'" she wrote. She blamed the decline in staff partially on "the decision to slash promotion numbers by more than half.", In addition to the decline in the number of ambassadors, Stephenson pointed to the reduction in the number of Career Ministers from 33 to 19 and of Minister Counselors from 431 just after Labor Day to 369 todaynumbers she said were still falling. "These numbers are hard to square with the stated agenda of making State and the Foreign Service stronger," she wrote in the memo, which is titled "Time to Ask Why.", She warned that the staff leaving the profession could not easily be replaced, and that the loss would affect the capacity of the U.S. to shape world events. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have made little secret of the fact that reducing the size of the State Department is one of their key goals, something Tillerson called "the most important thing I want to do during the time I have," according to Salon. However, Stephenson railed against this decision in her memo, notable as it breaks a tradition of the diplomatic corps not commenting on politics. "Were the U.S. military to face such a decapitation of its leadership ranks," she wrote, "I would expect a public outcry." |
US | California Town Braces for More Immigration Protests | The southern California city that became a flashpoint in the crisis over children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border is waiting to learn if the feds will try to send new busloads of undocumented immigrantsand whether the tensions on display earlier this week will flare up again. Dozens of protesters blocked the road to Murrieta on Tuesday and managed to turn away a bus headed for a processing center there, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not told local officials if any more are coming, Read the rest of the story at NBC News |
US | What Comes Next for the Dakota Access Pipeline | Supporters of the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline celebrated the Obama administration's decision Sunday not to approve a key permit allowing the pipeline's builder to complete the project. The decision undoubtedly represents a significant victory for those gathered in North Dakota by the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, but the long struggle to block the pipeline remains far from over. The federal government did not definitively reject the path crossing the Missouri and instead chose to spend timeperhaps months or yearson further review, which will ultimately leave the final decision to the incoming Trump administration. "This is a victory for organizing, and it doesn't stop now," says Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network. "More threats are likely in the year to come, and we cannot stop until this pipeline is completely and utterly defeated.", Read More Standing Rock Video Portraits Show How Protesters Are Preparing for a Long Winter, At the heart of the protests and the recent decision is the pipeline's crossing under the Missouri River, less than a mile from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. A permit approval to cross the river in that location is the only permit that remains outstanding for the project. The tribe has argued that the crossing threatens their primary source of drinking water and crosses over ancestral lands. Importantly, tribal leaders have said the government had not taken their views into account in the permit approval process as required by law. The decision on Sunday from the Obama administrationformally from the Department of the Army, which is responsible for ensuring the crossing complies with federal lawwas intended to rectify the tribe's concerns. The Army called for a full Environmental Impact Statement to evaluate the current route, as well as alternatives. That process, which can take years, requires scientific analysis and an opportunity for public comment and criticism. Technically, federal officials could still approve the project's proposed river crossing, but the decision to call for further review suggests at the very least a good deal of skepticism that the pipelinewhich is more than 90 completedwill be finished along this route. "Although we have had continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with the Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access, it's clear that there's more work to do," said the Army's Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy in a statement. "The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing.", Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the pipeline, has said repeatedly that it will not accept an alternate route. The pipeline has a total cost of nearly 4 billion. Luckily for the company, President-elect Trump will have an opportunity to reevaluate the permit process once he takes office. Trumpwho owns a stake in at least one company invested in the projecthas indicated that he supports the pipeline to promote "policies that benefit all Americans.", Read More These Kids Are Suing the Federal Government to Demand Climate Action. They Just Won an Important Victory, Still, expediting approval may not be as simple as a stroke of the pen. Once made, reversing a regulatory decision often entails a thorough and time-consuming process. Both supporters and opponents of the pipeline acknowledge that the process is not exactly clear on how a new president can undo the Obama administration's decision. "That's the 50,000 question," says Craig Stevens of the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now, a business and trade group that supports the pipeline. "They're going to take a look at it when they get into office.", No matter what Trump does opponents of the pipeline have vowed to stop the project by any available means. Many protesters have decided to stay at the camp site even after Sunday's decision, knowing that construction of the pipeline is not imminent. And advocacy groups have promised litigation to slow if not stop the project. "It's pretty clear that they're not going to get this done without a fight," says Jan Hasselman, a lawyer with the environmental group Earthjustice who has represented the Standing Rock Sioux. "The whole world is watching." |
US | Anthony Bourdain Remembered As an Unabashedly Supportive Advocate and Ally in MeToo | Celebrity chef and television host Anthony Bourdain, who died in France at the age of 61, is being remembered for his advocacy and allyship in the MeToo movement. Bourdain openly discussed and criticized harassment and assault issues in the food industry and Bourdain, as a man, took a hard look at his own past to question why women did not come to him to talk about such things. "I came out of a brutal, oppressive business that was historically unfriendly to women," he said on The Daily Show in January. "I knew a lot of women, it turned out, who had stories about their experiences about people I knew who did not feel I was the sort of person they could confide in.", After celebrity chef John Besh was accused of sexual harassment by 25 women, Bourdain tweeted that it was "the beginning of an end of institutionalized Meathead Culture in the restaurant business.", , Bourdain, too, had to reconcile with his own contribution to what he called the meathead culture. In an interview with Slate last October, Bourdain acknowledged how kitchens became a place for harassment, particularly when they are most often run by men who feel empowered to bully those below them. And although Bourdain said he tried to remove himself from a reputation of a "macho" persona, he knew it became a part of him after a certain point. "I am a guy on TV who sexualizes food. Who uses bad language. Who thinks our discomfort, our squeamishness, fear and discomfort around matters sexual is funny. I have done stupid offensive shit," he told Slate. "And because I was a guy in a guy's world who had celebrated a systemI was very proud of the fact that I had endured that.", Bourdain began speaking out after his girlfriend, the actor Asia Argento, accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault last October, the chef often spoke out about pervasive harassment and assault and vocally supported Argento. Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex., , , Many women and MeToo advocates commended Bourdain for his continuous support. The actor Rose McGowan, who has accused Weinstein of rape, posted a video Friday, crying and encouraging people to reach out to suicide hotlines. , , , , If you or someone you know may be contemplating suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. |
US | Google Doodle Celebrates Gloria E Anzaldas Birthday Heres What to Know About Her | Tuesday's Google Doodle celebrates the 75th birthday of American scholar Gloria E. Anzalda. Anzalda spent her life investigating and writing about society, feminism, borders and identity, inspired by a childhood on the Mexico-Texas border. She died in 2004 at age 61. Born on September 26 in 1942 in the Rio Grande Valley, Anzalda wrote about mixed identity in books such as Borderlands/La Frontera The New Mestiza and Light in the Dark Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality. She graduated from Pan American University in 1969 and went on to teach migrant students before moving to California in 1977. She was awarded a posthumous Ph.D. in literature by the University of California Santa Cruz. The doodle celebrates her mixed identity, power as a woman, and ability to live across geographical and social divides. |
US | US Army Kicked Out Thousands of Mentally Injured Vets for Misconduct Report Says | More than 22,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with traumatic brain injuries and mental health disorders have been discharged from the Army for "misconduct," an investigation by National Public Radio has found. , Because the soldiers did not receive an honorable discharge, the veterans are not eligible for retirement and healthcare benefits to which they would be entitled otherwise. Top Army brass say the firings do not violate a 2009 law passed specifically to ensure that soldiers returning from war with severe brain injuries and mental health disorders receive fair treatment because those dismissed did not have issues severe enough to affect their judgement, or because they had recovered from their injuries before the misconduct occurred. Read more at NPR |
US | Everything You Need to Know About This Years Womens March | Pink hats will take to the streets again for the second annual Women's March this weekend. Last year's historic march saw millions of demonstrators in 600 cities, on every continent in the world, marching for women's rights and humans rights. In the U.S. the 2018 marches are taking place on both days this weekend, with marches in some bigger cities like New York and Washington, D.C. scheduled for Saturday and a new event, Power to the Polls, happening in Las Vegas on Sunday. Events this year are scheduled on every continent except Antartica, although last year women there joined in too. This year the organizers of the Women's March are hosting a rally in addition to all the marches called Power to the Polls, a kick-off event for a new national voter registration tour that is happening in conjunction with the march. The goal of the tour is to "register new voters harness our collective energy to advocate for policies and candidates that reflect our values and elect more women and progressives candidates to office," according to the Power to the Polls website. Las Vegas was chosen in part to highlight a mass shooting there in October and because Nevada is a swing state which has a race this fall which could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. Registering for the event and other local events is free. Read More A Year Ago, They Marched. Now a Record Number of Women Are Running for Office, The New York City march events begin on Saturday, Jan.20 at 11 a.m. at the main entrance of Central Park West and 72nd St. The actual march will start around 1230 p.m. and head South towards Columbus Circle. There is also a rally on Central Park West and 61 St. and 62nd St. starting at 1130 a.m. , Last year's New York City march cost 60,000 you can donate via Aplos if you want to support the 2018 march. People will begin gathering at the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday Jan. 20 at 11am. You can RSVP for the event, which is being hosted by March Forward Virginia, on the event's Facebook page and donate to the GoFundMe campaign that is trending. , The special Power to the Polls event is the main attraction in Nevada on Sunday, Jan. 21. A rally to encourage voter registration and electing more women to office will be held at Sam Boyd Stadium beginning at 10 a.m. , The Seattle march events begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday, starting at the Cal Anderson Park and heading down Pike St. before turning onto 4th Avenue. The Seattle marchers have partnered with organizations like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood to participate in the event. , This year's Chicago march events kick off at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 20, at 302 S. Columbus Drive with a "March to the Polls" rally. You can find more detailed directions on their official website and also buy merchandise like hats and scarfs to support the cause. The Chicago chapter has partnered with groups like the Sierra Club to help plan and organize their events 250,000 people showed up to the 2017 march. , The Denver march events start at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 20, with a pre-rally at the Civic Center Park Amphitheater. The march itself begins at 930 a.m. followed by a rally at noon. For those who want to show up early, Planned Parenthood established a gathering point for people at the McNichols Civic Center Building at 830 a.m. , Additional events are taking place in every city throughout the weekend. |
US | Arizona Governor Wont Seek Reelection | Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced Wednesday that she won't run for re-election this year, closing the door on a possible legal challenge that might have allowed her to run for a third term. Brewer, a Republican, had previously cited "ambiguity" in the state constitution's two-term limit for governors because she completed former Gov. Janet Napolitano's term before winning her own full term in 2010. But she ended speculation about running again during a speech in Phoenix, the Arizona Capitol Times reports. "Serving as governor of Arizona has been the privilege and pleasure of my life," Brewer said. "However, there does come a time to pass the torch of leadership. So, after completing this term in office, I will be doing just that.", Brewer rose to national prominence in 2010 after her support for a controversial immigration enforcement bill. Under intense pressure from gay rights groups, the business community and many Republicans, she recently vetoed legislation that would have protected business owners who denied services to gays and lesbians on religious grounds. The GOP is likely to hold the governorship in the conservative state, and several candidates had already started mounting campaigns even before Brewer's announcement. Arizona Capitol Times |
US | Guns Have Divided America Heres What Happens When 245 People Try to Meet in the Middle | Deborah Wallace and Cindy Chester live about 30 miles from each other in Maryland. They ride the same freeways, read the same billboards, dress for the same weather. To some extent they have even encountered the same trauma. But for all that, it's not easy to locate their common ground. Wallace teaches in a part of Baltimore where gun violence is so common that in the space of 15 months, seven of the students at her high school were shot dead. Atop a massage table during a sea cruise she had booked hoping to escape reality, "I just cried," Wallace says. "The masseuse thought she hurt me." The 63-year-old views guns as a plague that needs to be eradicated. In suburban New Carrollton, Chester lives in regret that she did not have a gun at hand, and know how to use it, the day 10 years ago that her ex-boyfriend shot her. She lost her right leg and her unborn child. "It could have changed my whole story," says Chester, 31 and a "firm believer" in the Second Amendment. She wants other women to be empowered to take the action she could not. Even though they may disagree on guns, their opinions are grounded in lived experience and expressed with a sincerity and respect often missing in the national debate. That was the most consistent takeaway from TIME's project on guns, an undertaking that involved three cities and 245 people over five months. The artist JR assembled the mural on this week's cover from separate photographs of every participant, each with a distinct view on firearms. They were situated in a tableau that evokes not only the spirit of debate associated with the Founding Fathers but something else as wellthe unity that flows from a sense of shared enterprise. We saw the same thing in St. Louis in Washington, D.C. and in Dallas We're all in this together. Owning a gun remains one of the oldest and in many places most cherished traditions in America, but it's no longer as commonplace as it was 230 years ago. The right to "keep and bear arms" with a "well-regulated militia" was regarded as so central to the notion of liberty that it came second in the Bill of Rights only to the freedom to think and speak. But when the topic is the Second Amendment, the exercise of the First Amendment lately amounts to talking past one another. The gun debate stands frozen in stalemate, advocates unable to agree even on the meaning of words. When one side appeals for "commonsense gun controls," the other hears only "control." When some say "law-abiding gun owners," others only hear "gun." How did we get here? Over time. See TIME's special report on Guns in America, America was a rural nation for most of its history. And in many places, firearms remain toolsfor sport, for securing food, for a bond to connect generations. In Lewisville, Texas, 10-year-old Cooper Buck spends many weekends hunting with her parents, something she has done since her grandfather gave her her first gun it was pink for Christmas when she was 5. "I really want to pass this down to my kids whenever I get older," she says after being photographed by JR while holding a gun in early September in Dallas. She hopes to show people across the country that her gun is not something to fear. A firearm can be a beautiful thing, depending on the eye of the beholder. Wander the tables of a gun show and the combination of burnished walnut, tooled steel and exquisite balance might be fondly labeled artisanal by a city dweller. The craftsmanship displays tradition and care, including the solemn sort a parent brings to the instruction often via an NRA safety course of a youth in the responsible handling of a lethal weapon, a marker in the passage to adulthood. But fewer and fewer Americans learn about firearms tramping in the woods. Most today live in a suburb, neither city nor country, and in many ways the culture of gun ownership toggles between the two. Rural culture often evokes a defiant individualism that draws on the mythology of the American frontier, and a resistance to regulation as righteous and absolutist as anything free-speech advocates marshal in defense of their own favorite amendment. Gun owners are often gun enthusiasts, and a majority of owners have more than one gun. Research shows that while there are more guns in America than there were 20 years ago, they are owned by a smaller share of the population. Roughly 40 of Americans live in a gun-owning household, but just 30 own guns, according to recent Pew Research Center and Gallup surveys. Other studies have put the percentage of those who personally own guns even lower, at about 22. And only 4.4 of Americans over 16 actually hunt. The view from urban America is markedly different. In cities like St. Louis, which has lost a significant chunk of its population to the suburbs in recent decades and frequently has the highest murder rate in the country, not everyone experiences gun violence in equal measure. Black Americans are more likely to be shot than their white counterparts, and community leaders say much of the gun culture is tied to a lack of access to education, jobs and opportunity. "If we had better job opportunities, better mentors, better role models then we wouldn't see this as much," says Emeara Burns, a 20-year-old college student and activist who grew up hearing gunshots in her St. Louis neighborhood. Shootings are a common occurrence across the country. On an average day, six children are injured or killed in unintentional shootings, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC. From 2012 to 2016, the last years for which data is available, an average of 35,000 Americans died from gun violence every year, according to the CDC. Nearly two-thirds are suicides. Homicides by gun, after declining from their peak in the 1990s, spiked 31 from 2014 to 2016, the CDC found. What more the CDC might have found we cannot say Congress voted in 1996 to limit the scope of research into gun deaths and injuries by the country's premier health agency. Similarly, there is wide disagreement over how to count mass shootings in America. The biggest point of contention is the minimum number of victims that qualifies as "mass." There is, however, no question that the maximum number keeps climbing. The record for deadliest shooting in U.S. history having been set at 49 at Orlando's Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016, stood for just over a year. It was eclipsed by the slaughter of 58 people at a Las Vegas music festival on Oct. 1, 2017. School shootings, astonishing a generation ago, have taken on the element of routineboth in the frequency with which they happen and in the public mind. "Active shooter" drills are now familiar to many kindergartners. And parents in suburbs see their children off in the morning with the pit in their stomach parents in inner cities have felt for decades. At the start of the school year, Beth Poquette Drews asked her music class at a Dallas middle school to create a "respect agreement" outlining how they would treat one another for the rest of the school year. "Usually the answers we receive are things like Don't interrupt,' Keep your hands to yourself,' Listen to each other'the typical things you would expect a child to say," she says. "But this year the first one that came up on the list was Don't shoot each other.'", The school shootings also underscore the utter paralysis in our politics. In a Gallup poll taken in March, 67 of Americans said they wanted stricter laws on firearms sales, the highest percentage for any Gallup poll since 1993. A Quinnipiac survey found almost every American, 97, in support of universal background checks. Yet Congress hasn't passed the Manchin-Toomey measure to expand background checks, first introduced after 20 first-graders were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. "It's hard for people to settle for the modest progress or the modest change," says Senator Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican. Attention tends to gather instead at one extreme or the other, where maximalist positions generate enthusiasm among the confidently certain. In Texas, state representative Jonathan Stickland, a Republican, wants to remove permit requirements on gun owners in an approach known as "constitutional carry." And in Northern California, Representative Eric Swalwell, a Democrat, stokes gun owners' worst fears by proposing that they be required to sell their military-style semiautomatic assault rifles to the government, in a "mandatory buyback." , As Colin Goddard, 33, a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, puts it, "Guns are a symbol for a lot of people, and they mean different things. I think the symbol to some Americans is of tradition, of family, of history. And others I think view it as a symbol of death, fear, destruction. And when you have such different values and feelings associated with one symbol like that, I think it helps explain why this issue and guns is so difficult to talk about.", We divide ourselves. We cluster around the warmth of shared opinions, separate ourselves by disposition, neighborhood or, especially, news feed. Joe Enderby, a 36-year-old who owns a bird-hunting club in the Dallas area, calls himself a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. But he keeps mostly to himself his parallel thought, "There is nothing to fear in gun regulation," because he knows what the reaction will be. "In 2018, the middle is a very difficult place to be," he says. "You have to be on polar-opposite sides, and I think the polarities are the loudest.", Money also matters, and not just in rewarding or punishing candidates. Firearms are a 17 billion industry, and paranoia can juice demand. Gun and ammo sales soared when Barack Obama was President, as gun owners stockpiled whatever rumor said was about to be outlawed by the feds. Nothing was. After Trump was elected, helped along by 30 million from the NRA, sales slowed and have not fully recovered. In March, Remington filed for bankruptcy. TIME repeatedly invited the NRA to participate in this project, but ultimately the organization declined. , The same polarizing political system shapes the side advocating for limits on guns. In addition to their own stereotypes and intolerances, they must lug into the public arena the burden of justifying regulation. In other words, differentiating between the impulse to do something vs. doing something likely to achieve the desired resultsa challenge that remains when the welling emotions summoned by a grieving parent have ebbed. There are reasons the status quo is a standoff. Yet as we learned from listening to many of the voices in our project, two clear themesresponsibility and the need for extraordinary care around lethal forceare common to both the ethos of gun ownership and the stated goals of those who seek controls. Which commends them as logical starting points for a conversation that takes place not through elected surrogates, and not online, but face to face, where Americans still tend to get along pretty well. "Guns aren't going anywhere," says Jamison Sweet, 47, a gun owner in St. Louis who served in the Marine Corps for 15 years. "We need to come together to just listen." That's the first step in bridging the divide, says Holly Sullivan, a 36-year-old single mother and firearms instructor who lives in Connecticut, about seven miles from Sandy Hook Elementary School. "If we could educate on who we are and what we believe," she says, "I think we could find common ground." |
US | Transgender Teens Death Sparks Outcry From Advocates | The apparent suicide of a transgender teenager in Ohio has become a lightning rod for trans activists after a note she left behind said her parents never accepted her gender identity. Leelah Alcorn, 17, was killed after being hit by a tractor trailer in Ohio on Sunday morning, USA Today reports. She left behind a suicide note, which she had scheduled to post to her Tumblr only a few hours after her death. In the note, Alcorn said her parents refused to accept her gender identity and took her to Christian therapists who told her she was "selfish" for feeling like a girl trapped in a boy's body. "I immediately told my mom, and she reacted extremely negatively, telling me that it was a phase, that I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn't make mistakes, that I am wrong," she wrote. Read more The transgender tipping point, Alcorn said she was leaving all her possessions to transgender civil rights groups. "My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year," she wrote. "I want someone to look at that number and say that's f*cked up' and fix it." According to the Youth Suicide Prevention program, more than 50 of transgender youth attempt to commit suicide at least once before turning 20. Alcorn's mother came under fire after writing a Facebook post about her daughter's death in which she referred to Alcorn by her birth name, Joshua Ryan, instead of Leelah, and used male pronouns. Trans leaders like Janet Mock took to Twitter to express their sorrow and outrage, , , , , Advocates have also created several petitions since Alcorn's death. A Facebook group called Justice for Leelah Acorn that highlights the problems with conversion therapy already has over 17,000 likes. It links to a Change.org petition to ban conversion therapy under "Leelah's Law," which has over 66,000 signatories. Another Change.org petition to have the name Leelah Alcorn placed on her tombstone instead of her birth name had 23,674 supporters as of Wednesday morning. |