PROTEST and MARCH
Stop Israeli Collective Punishment of Palestinians
Free Palestinian Children & All Prisoners in Israeli Jails
Stop U.S. Aid to Israel
End Israel’s Colonial Occupation Now!
Saturday, July 12, 12pm
Justin Herman Plaza, Embarcadero BART Station, San Francisco
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org
http://www.AnswerSF.org
Answer@AnswerSF.org
2969 Mission St.
415-821-6545
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This is a call for medical doctors who are willing and able to travel immediately to Gaza to help treat Palestinians wounded in Israel's latest assault on the besieged Strip. Your entry into Gaza will be facilitated and help with the travel costs is also available. If you are a medical doctor who is interested, please reply to this message.
The FPM Team
Free Palestine Movement: https://freepalestinemovement.org
Donations: https://freepalestinemovement.org/donate-2/
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1) UAW: Union Local Coming to Tenn. Volkswagen Plant
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — An official with the United Auto Workers union, which suffered a stinging defeat in its attempt to unionize Volkswagen's assembly plant in Tennessee earlier this year, says it is announcing the formation of a new local at the plant.
UAW Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel tells The Tennessean newspaper (http://tnne.ws/1qNfSn7 ) that the union is confident the German automaker will recognize the union if it signs up a "substantial" number of workers. If successful, it would become the first unionized foreign auto plant in the South.
A Volkswagen spokesman declined to comment to The Associated Press on Thursday.
The union last year said it had signed up a majority of plant workers, but ultimately lost a contentious February vote 712-626. Republican politicians had warned that a union win could imperil economic incentives for the plant's expansion.
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AN URGENT FUNDRAISER FOR LYNNE STEWART'S
MEDICAL NEEDS CONTINUES
http://lynnestewart.org/
LYNNE STEWART HAS JUST BEEN DENIED
MEDICAL BENEFITS. SHE CAN'T RE-APPLY UNTIL JULY!
SHE IS IN URGENT NEED OF OUR HELP NOW!
Because of a determined people’s movement, Lynne is finally home with her family. But she has urgent medical needs and costs. Lynne’s Stage 4 breast cancer spread a year ago to both lungs, back, bones and lymph nodes. Now 74, she has lost weight and has trouble breathing; doctors estimate her lifespan at 12 months. Lynne will soon begin treatment requiring her to pay deductibles and co-payments. To boost the odds, she’ll use a special diet, vitamins, and other healing methods – some costly and none covered by insurance.
Lynne’s spirit is indomitable – help her fight to survive!
“I fought lions, I fought tigers, and I’m not going to let cancer get me,” Stewart said.
Lynne has always come to the aid of those who needed her. Now it’s our turn to stand by Lynne.
SEND LYNNE A DONATION TO:
On line at:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lynne-stewart-s-medical-fund
Or by USPS to:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street?
Brooklyn, New York 11216
PVT Chelsea Manning has served nearly four years in prison, yet she’s
showing a remarkable spirit of persistence. She is unjustly imprisoned,
but not defeated. With plans to enroll in a prelaw/political science
university program, and a legal name change underway, she continues
planning for her future and working to fulfill her dreams. She is
determined to make the best of her situation. However, we know she could
contribute more to the world if she was free.
Please write a letter to Convening Authority Major General Buchanan today urging him to reduce Chelsea’s sentence!
We began collecting letters to include in PVT Manning’s clemency packet last fall. We expected that the military would finalize her record of trial last December, and that she could then submit her application to Maj. Gen. Buchanan by the end of 2013. Just like so many times before, however, the military’s process has slowed Chelsea’s ability to defend her rights. Defense attorney David Coombs now estimates that it will be at least another month before the clemency application can be submitted.
Want to make sure decision-makers know why you believe Chelsea deserves to go free? If you haven’t done so yet, please write a short letter to Maj. Gen. Buchanan. Hundreds of people have already submitted letters for us to use, including Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and award-winning author Alice Walker.
As Alice Walker wrote:
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
Today we issue an international call for Spring Days of Action—2014, a coordinated campaign in April and May to end drone killings, drone surveillance and global militarization.
The campaign will focus on drone bases, drone research facilities and test sites and drone manufacturers.
The campaign will provide information on:
1. The suffering of tens-of-thousands of people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza who are under drone attack, documenting the killing, the wounding and the devastating impact of constant drone surveillance on community life.
2. How attack and surveillance drones have become a key element in a massive wave of surveillance, clandestine military attacks and militarization generated by the United States to protect a global system of manufacture and oil and mineral exploitation that is creating unemployment and poverty, accelerating the waste of nonrenewable resources and contributing to environmental destruction and global warming.
In addition to cases in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia, we will examine President Obama’s “pivot” into the Asia-Pacific, where the United States has already sold and deployed drones in the vanguard of a shift of 60 percent of its military forces to try to control China and to enforce the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership. We will show, among other things, how this surge of “pivot” forces, greatly enabled by drones, and supported by the U.S. military-industrial complex, will hit every American community with even deeper cuts in the already fragile social programs on which people rely for survival. In short, we will connect drones and militarization with “austerity” in America.
3. How drone attacks have effectively destroyed international and domestic legal protection of the rights to life, privacy, freedom of assembly and free speech and have opened the way for new levels of surveillance and repression around the world, and how, in the United States, increasing drone surveillance, added to surveillance by the National Security Agency and police, provides a new weapon to repress black, Hispanic, immigrant and low-income communities and to intimidate Americans who are increasingly unsettled by lack of jobs, economic inequality, corporate control of politics and the prospect of endless war.
We will discuss how the United States government and corporations conspire secretly to monitor U.S. citizens and particularly how the Administration is accelerating drone surveillance operations and surveillance inside the United States with the same disregard for transparency and law that it applies to other countries, all with the cooperation of the Congress.
The campaign will encourage activists around the world to win passage of local laws that prohibit weaponized drones and drone surveillance from being used in their communities as well as seeking national laws to bar the use of weaponized drones and drone surveillance.
The campaign will draw attention to the call for a ban on weaponized drones by RootsAction.org that has generated a petition with over 80,000 signers:
http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6180
And to efforts by the Granny Peace Brigade (New York City), KnowDrones.org and others to achieve an international ban on both weaponized drones and drone surveillance.
The campaign will also urge participation in the World Beyond War movement.
Stop Israeli Collective Punishment of Palestinians
Free Palestinian Children & All Prisoners in Israeli Jails
Stop U.S. Aid to Israel
End Israel’s Colonial Occupation Now!
Saturday, July 12, 12pm
Justin Herman Plaza, Embarcadero BART Station, San Francisco
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org
http://www.AnswerSF.org
Answer@AnswerSF.org
2969 Mission St.
415-821-6545
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The Free Palestine Movement asks for your help with this urgent need.
Call for Medical Doctors to Travel Immediately to Gaza
This is a call for medical doctors who are willing and able to travel immediately to Gaza to help treat Palestinians wounded in Israel's latest assault on the besieged Strip. Your entry into Gaza will be facilitated and help with the travel costs is also available. If you are a medical doctor who is interested, please reply to this message.
The FPM Team
Free Palestine Movement: https://freepalestinemovement.org
Donations: https://freepalestinemovement.org/donate-2/
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Bay
Area United Against War Newsletter
Table
of Contents:
A.
ARTICLES IN FULL
B.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D.
VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
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A.
ARTICLES IN FULL
(Unless
otherwise noted)
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1) UAW: Union Local Coming to Tenn. Volkswagen Plant
2) Three Rikers Officials Charged in Brutal Beating of Inmate
3) Race Is On to Profit From Rise of Urgent Care
4) Ford Says Committed to South Africa, Plays Down Concern Over Strikes
6) In Connecticut, Breaking Barrier Between a Suburb and Public Housing
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/12/nyregion/in-connecticut-breaking-barrier-between-a-suburb-and-public-housing.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
7) In Rubble of Gaza Seaside Cafe, Hunt for Victims Who Had Come for Soccer
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/world/middleeast/missile-at-beachside-gaza-cafe-finds-patrons-poised-for-world-cup.html
8) Gaza Deaths Spike in 3rd Day of Air Assaults While Rockets Hit Israel
"As the air campaign entered its third day, the Palestinian death toll rose to at least 78, a majority of them civilians, according to officials in Gaza. No Israelis have been reported killed. ...The Palestine chapter of Defense for Children International, an independent child-rights organization, said 14 children aged 15 and younger had been killed in the airstrikes on Tuesday and Wednesday, including four toddlers. The group issued a list with the names and ages of those killed, saying its Gaza-based field worker had verified each death."
9) Obscure Rule Restricts Health Law’s Expansion of Care for Addicts
"In California, where only about 10 percent of the 18,155 beds at residential addiction treatment programs are in centers with 16 or fewer beds, officials tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Obama administration to soften the rule, saying in a February letter that 'California is severely limited in its ability to provide this benefit to Medi-Cal beneficiaries.'”
10) No Charges in Killing of Driver After Chase
11) Wrongfully Convicted Man Takes $3 Million Settlement
"In Brooklyn alone, the convictions of seven men have been vacated this year, after the district attorney there began examining 90 troubled convictions. Filing claims against the state and the city is standard practice after a vacated conviction."
12) Despite a Pledge by Samsung, Child Labor Proves Resilient
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
By REUTERS
UNITED STATES: END ALL AID
TO ISRAEL
FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE
July 10, 2014
https://unacpeace.org/
6) In Connecticut, Breaking Barrier Between a Suburb and Public Housing
By BENJAMIN MUELLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/12/nyregion/in-connecticut-breaking-barrier-between-a-suburb-and-public-housing.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
7) In Rubble of Gaza Seaside Cafe, Hunt for Victims Who Had Come for Soccer
By FARES AKRAM
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/world/middleeast/missile-at-beachside-gaza-cafe-finds-patrons-poised-for-world-cup.html
8) Gaza Deaths Spike in 3rd Day of Air Assaults While Rockets Hit Israel
"As the air campaign entered its third day, the Palestinian death toll rose to at least 78, a majority of them civilians, according to officials in Gaza. No Israelis have been reported killed. ...The Palestine chapter of Defense for Children International, an independent child-rights organization, said 14 children aged 15 and younger had been killed in the airstrikes on Tuesday and Wednesday, including four toddlers. The group issued a list with the names and ages of those killed, saying its Gaza-based field worker had verified each death."
By ISABEL KERSHNER
"In California, where only about 10 percent of the 18,155 beds at residential addiction treatment programs are in centers with 16 or fewer beds, officials tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Obama administration to soften the rule, saying in a February letter that 'California is severely limited in its ability to provide this benefit to Medi-Cal beneficiaries.'”
By ANDREW SIDDONS
"In Brooklyn alone, the convictions of seven men have been vacated this year, after the district attorney there began examining 90 troubled convictions. Filing claims against the state and the city is standard practice after a vacated conviction."
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1) UAW: Union Local Coming to Tenn. Volkswagen Plant
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — An official with the United Auto Workers union, which suffered a stinging defeat in its attempt to unionize Volkswagen's assembly plant in Tennessee earlier this year, says it is announcing the formation of a new local at the plant.
UAW Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel tells The Tennessean newspaper (http://tnne.ws/1qNfSn7 ) that the union is confident the German automaker will recognize the union if it signs up a "substantial" number of workers. If successful, it would become the first unionized foreign auto plant in the South.
A Volkswagen spokesman declined to comment to The Associated Press on Thursday.
The union last year said it had signed up a majority of plant workers, but ultimately lost a contentious February vote 712-626. Republican politicians had warned that a union win could imperil economic incentives for the plant's expansion.
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2) Three Rikers Officials Charged in Brutal Beating of Inmate
Two New York City correction officers and a captain were arrested Wednesday on charges that they handcuffed and beat an inmate unconscious with a baton at Rikers Island and then falsified documents to cover it up, the authorities said.
The arrests were part of a monthslong inquiry by the city’s Investigation Department into “a pattern of lawless conduct at Rikers that must be brought under control,” Mark G. Peters, the department commissioner, said in a statement.
“The victims here were not simply the injured inmate but the justice system itself, which cannot properly function when sworn law enforcement officers falsify documents to cover up crimes,” Mr. Peters said. The captain, Moises Simancas, 43, who has nearly 17 years’ experience, and the two correction officers, April Jackson, 34, and Tyrone Wint, 28, who were both hired in 2008, were each charged with attempted first-degree assault, which carries a maximum of 15 years in prison. They were also charged with falsifying business records, among other offenses. They were arraigned on Wednesday in State Supreme Court in the Bronx and released on $50,000 bail each.
All three were removed from contact with inmates after the beating and were suspended after their arrests.
The beating occurred on Oct. 30, 2012, just after Hurricane Sandy. Tensions were high after the storm, according to a statement by the Bronx district attorney, Robert T. Johnson. Rikers was short-staffed and inmates had been locked in their cells for much longer than usual because of the storm.
At the George R. Vierno Center, one of the 10 jails at Rikers, an inmate named Gabino Genao became verbally abusive to one of the defendants, officials said. In response, the defendants went into Mr. Genao’s cell, handcuffed him from behind and led him to a vestibule, “where one of the officers allegedly threw the first punch, but missed when the inmate ducked,” Mr. Johnson said.
The officers then pushed Mr. Genao to the floor, and all three began to punch and kick him in the head, neck and torso, officials said. At one point, one of the officers grabbed a baton and hit him multiple times. He then lost consciousness.
Mr. Genao, now 27, suffered multiple contusions that officials said were consistent with the imprint of a standard-issue baton used by the Correction Department. He had been incarcerated for a parole violation.
After the beating, officers submitted reports that omitted the use of the baton and were “inconsistent with both the assault of the inmate and the injuries he sustained,” the Investigation Department said.
The beating was part of a pattern of brutality, neglect and corruption among correction officers and supervisors that officials say is rampant at Rikers Island. Several recent deaths, including a homeless veteran who died in an overheated cell in February, have prompted fresh scrutiny of the city’s jails. Mayor Bill de Blasio has vowed reforms, particularly to treatment of inmates with mental illnesses, who have surged into Rikers in recent years and suffer abuse disproportionally.
Jail beatings rarely result in prosecution, but there are exceptions. In June last year, the Bronx district attorney’s office charged 10 jail officers and supervisors, including a former Rikers security chief, with savagely beating an inmate and then conspiring to cover up the attack. The inmate, Jahmal Lightfoot, suffered two fractured eye sockets and a broken nose. After the beating, officers then accused Mr. Lightfoot — wrongfully, according to prosecutors — of slashing one of the officers with a makeshift razor.
The three arrested on Wednesday are among at least 12 correction workers referred for prosecution as part of an Investigation Department inquiry into contraband smuggling, brutality and corruption at Rikers Island. Last month, 22 people were arrested, including two correction officers, in a contraband sweep.
The Investigation Department said Wednesday that more arrests were expected.
2) Three Rikers Officials Charged in Brutal Beating of Inmate
Two New York City correction officers and a captain were arrested Wednesday on charges that they handcuffed and beat an inmate unconscious with a baton at Rikers Island and then falsified documents to cover it up, the authorities said.
The arrests were part of a monthslong inquiry by the city’s Investigation Department into “a pattern of lawless conduct at Rikers that must be brought under control,” Mark G. Peters, the department commissioner, said in a statement.
“The victims here were not simply the injured inmate but the justice system itself, which cannot properly function when sworn law enforcement officers falsify documents to cover up crimes,” Mr. Peters said. The captain, Moises Simancas, 43, who has nearly 17 years’ experience, and the two correction officers, April Jackson, 34, and Tyrone Wint, 28, who were both hired in 2008, were each charged with attempted first-degree assault, which carries a maximum of 15 years in prison. They were also charged with falsifying business records, among other offenses. They were arraigned on Wednesday in State Supreme Court in the Bronx and released on $50,000 bail each.
All three were removed from contact with inmates after the beating and were suspended after their arrests.
The beating occurred on Oct. 30, 2012, just after Hurricane Sandy. Tensions were high after the storm, according to a statement by the Bronx district attorney, Robert T. Johnson. Rikers was short-staffed and inmates had been locked in their cells for much longer than usual because of the storm.
At the George R. Vierno Center, one of the 10 jails at Rikers, an inmate named Gabino Genao became verbally abusive to one of the defendants, officials said. In response, the defendants went into Mr. Genao’s cell, handcuffed him from behind and led him to a vestibule, “where one of the officers allegedly threw the first punch, but missed when the inmate ducked,” Mr. Johnson said.
The officers then pushed Mr. Genao to the floor, and all three began to punch and kick him in the head, neck and torso, officials said. At one point, one of the officers grabbed a baton and hit him multiple times. He then lost consciousness.
Mr. Genao, now 27, suffered multiple contusions that officials said were consistent with the imprint of a standard-issue baton used by the Correction Department. He had been incarcerated for a parole violation.
After the beating, officers submitted reports that omitted the use of the baton and were “inconsistent with both the assault of the inmate and the injuries he sustained,” the Investigation Department said.
The beating was part of a pattern of brutality, neglect and corruption among correction officers and supervisors that officials say is rampant at Rikers Island. Several recent deaths, including a homeless veteran who died in an overheated cell in February, have prompted fresh scrutiny of the city’s jails. Mayor Bill de Blasio has vowed reforms, particularly to treatment of inmates with mental illnesses, who have surged into Rikers in recent years and suffer abuse disproportionally.
Jail beatings rarely result in prosecution, but there are exceptions. In June last year, the Bronx district attorney’s office charged 10 jail officers and supervisors, including a former Rikers security chief, with savagely beating an inmate and then conspiring to cover up the attack. The inmate, Jahmal Lightfoot, suffered two fractured eye sockets and a broken nose. After the beating, officers then accused Mr. Lightfoot — wrongfully, according to prosecutors — of slashing one of the officers with a makeshift razor.
The three arrested on Wednesday are among at least 12 correction workers referred for prosecution as part of an Investigation Department inquiry into contraband smuggling, brutality and corruption at Rikers Island. Last month, 22 people were arrested, including two correction officers, in a contraband sweep.
The Investigation Department said Wednesday that more arrests were expected.
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3) Race Is On to Profit From Rise of Urgent Care
NORWALK, Conn. — Start in Room 4, just beyond the reception area: A man is having blood drained from a bruised finger. Over in Room 1, a woman is being treated for eye trouble. Next door, in Room 2, a boy is having his throat swabbed.
For more than eight hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, an assortment of ailments is on display at the tidy medical clinic on Main Avenue here. But all of the patients have one thing in common: No one is being treated at a traditional doctor’s office or emergency room.
Instead, they have turned to one of the fastest-growing segments of American health care: urgent care, a common category of walk-in clinics with uncommon interest from Wall Street. Once derided as “Doc in a Box” medicine, urgent care has mushroomed into an estimated $14.5 billion business, as investors try to profit from the shifting landscape in health care. The office here is part of PhysicianOne Urgent Care. Bankrolled by two private investment companies, PhysicianOne has grown into an eight-clinic operation, the largest of its kind in Connecticut, with plans for even greater expansion.
But what is happening here is also playing out across the nation, as private equity investment firms, sensing opportunity, invest billions in urgent care and related businesses. Since 2008, these investors have sunk $2.3 billion into urgent care clinics. Commercial insurance companies, regional health systems and local hospitals are also looking to buy urgent care practices or form business relationships with them.
The business model is simple: Treat many patients as quickly as possible. Urgent care is a low-margin, high-volume proposition. At PhysicianOne here, most people are in and out in about 30 minutes. The national average charge runs about $155 per patient visit. Do 30 or 35 exams a day, and the money starts to add up.
Urgent care clinics also have a crucial business advantage over traditional hospital emergency rooms in that they can cherry-pick patients. Most of these centers do not accept Medicaid and turn away the uninsured unless they pay upfront. Hospital E.R.s, by contrast, are legally obligated to treat everyone.
But as urgent care centers expand their reach, regulators in some states are scrutinizing their activities. While some states require the clinics to be licensed, most do not. It is unclear whether such urgent care centers offer better or worse care than other providers. But some family physicians — who stand to lose business to the newcomers — wonder if patients are trading quality for convenience.
“The relationship I have with my patients and the comprehensiveness of care I provide to them is important,” said Dr. Robert L. Wergin, a family physician in Milford, Neb., and the president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians. “While there is a role for these centers, if I were sick I’d rather see my regular doctor, and I hope my patients feel that way.”
Already, the race is on to build large chains with powerful, national brands — a McDonald’s or a Gap of health care. Wall Street money is driving the growth, but so are other forces. Millions of newly insured Americans are seeking care. Others are frustrated by long waits at E.R.s, or by having to conform to regular doctor’s hours.
Many experts say a cultural shift is also underway.
“We expect to do our banking 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and to shop 24/7,” said Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, an associate professor in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and an adjunct policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. “So now we want our health care to be 24/7.”
While convenience is one factor, so is cost. The average charge to treat acute bronchitis at an urgent care center in 2012 was $122, compared with $814 at an emergency room, according to data on the website of CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield, which operates in Maryland, Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. The price of treating a middle-ear infection was $100 versus nearly $500 in an E.R. Such cost differences matter not only to commercial insurers, but also to consumers with high-deductible health plans.
Still, just how quickly urgent care is proliferating is difficult to measure. The Urgent Care Association of America, which represents more than 2,600 clinics, estimates there are more than 9,000 clinics in the United States. But Thomas Charland, who runs Merchant Medicine, a research and consulting firm in Minnesota, puts the number at 5,000 to 6,000.
One reason for the discrepancy, Mr. Charland explained, is that the industry is dominated by physician-owned practices with one or two facilities that nobody tracks. But a bigger issue, he said, is that the industry lacks clear criteria about what exactly urgent care means.
“Just because a physician’s office extended its hours doesn’t make it urgent care,” Mr. Charland said. “To me, urgent care means you can do X-rays, that you can do sutures, maybe you’re open one weekend day, plus one or two evenings.”
Regulators in some states are struggling with that question and others as well. In Illinois, for instance, the authorities restrict the use of the word urgent, so clinics there are called “immediate care” facilities. Other states have weighed proposals on whether urgent care facilities should be required to accept Medicaid or uninsured patients.
Despite concerns of possible increased regulations, companies are lining up to buy urgent care groups.
The insurance giant Humana paid nearly $800 million in 2010 to buy Concentra, the nation’s largest group of urgent care centers, with about 300 currently. Two years later, Dignity Health, a San Francisco-based health system, acquired U.S. HealthWorks, a group that today has 176 centers.
Even hospitals are embracing the trend. Florida Hospital in Orlando, for example, has opened 24 Centra Care urgent care clinics.
“We have a number of urgent care centers that have opened up around where I practice, and almost every day, we have patients transferred to us from one of them,” said Dr. Robert E. O’Connor, the chairman of emergency medicine at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and vice president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
But some of the most aggressive buyers have been private equity firms, according to data from a research firm, PitchBook.
In 2010, General Atlantic, a private equity firm, and Sequoia Capital, a giant in venture capital, acquired a stake in MedExpress Urgent Care, which operated 47 clinics in four states. Today, MedExpress has 130 clinics in 10 states.
Last fall, when Dr. R. Robert Rohatsch and his partners decided they needed additional capital to expand their practice, Urgent Care of Connecticut, they received bids from about a dozen private equity firms. Dr. Rohatsch and his partners chose PineBridge Investments and Pulse Equity Partners, which specializes in health and wellness investments.
“We’ve focused on how health care is going to be delivered to consumers in the new world order and how do consumers want their health care to be delivered,” said Douglas W. Lehrman, the founder and chief executive of Pulse Equity.
For now, at least, many patients seem satisfied. At a PhysicianOne clinic, Roberta Giordano got an X-ray recently after she dropped a kitchen knife on her foot, severing a tendon. Peter Andino arrived at the Norwalk clinic on a recent Thursday evening after smashing his finger in a car door. The doctor quickly punctured his nail to relieve the pressure and wrapped up the finger. Mr. Andino was in and out in 45 minutes.
“Dealing with the E.R. is a hassle,” Mr. Andino said. “This place is clean, it’s quick, and it’s about five minutes away from my house. What more could you want?”
3) Race Is On to Profit From Rise of Urgent Care
NORWALK, Conn. — Start in Room 4, just beyond the reception area: A man is having blood drained from a bruised finger. Over in Room 1, a woman is being treated for eye trouble. Next door, in Room 2, a boy is having his throat swabbed.
For more than eight hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, an assortment of ailments is on display at the tidy medical clinic on Main Avenue here. But all of the patients have one thing in common: No one is being treated at a traditional doctor’s office or emergency room.
Instead, they have turned to one of the fastest-growing segments of American health care: urgent care, a common category of walk-in clinics with uncommon interest from Wall Street. Once derided as “Doc in a Box” medicine, urgent care has mushroomed into an estimated $14.5 billion business, as investors try to profit from the shifting landscape in health care. The office here is part of PhysicianOne Urgent Care. Bankrolled by two private investment companies, PhysicianOne has grown into an eight-clinic operation, the largest of its kind in Connecticut, with plans for even greater expansion.
But what is happening here is also playing out across the nation, as private equity investment firms, sensing opportunity, invest billions in urgent care and related businesses. Since 2008, these investors have sunk $2.3 billion into urgent care clinics. Commercial insurance companies, regional health systems and local hospitals are also looking to buy urgent care practices or form business relationships with them.
The business model is simple: Treat many patients as quickly as possible. Urgent care is a low-margin, high-volume proposition. At PhysicianOne here, most people are in and out in about 30 minutes. The national average charge runs about $155 per patient visit. Do 30 or 35 exams a day, and the money starts to add up.
Urgent care clinics also have a crucial business advantage over traditional hospital emergency rooms in that they can cherry-pick patients. Most of these centers do not accept Medicaid and turn away the uninsured unless they pay upfront. Hospital E.R.s, by contrast, are legally obligated to treat everyone.
But as urgent care centers expand their reach, regulators in some states are scrutinizing their activities. While some states require the clinics to be licensed, most do not. It is unclear whether such urgent care centers offer better or worse care than other providers. But some family physicians — who stand to lose business to the newcomers — wonder if patients are trading quality for convenience.
“The relationship I have with my patients and the comprehensiveness of care I provide to them is important,” said Dr. Robert L. Wergin, a family physician in Milford, Neb., and the president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians. “While there is a role for these centers, if I were sick I’d rather see my regular doctor, and I hope my patients feel that way.”
Already, the race is on to build large chains with powerful, national brands — a McDonald’s or a Gap of health care. Wall Street money is driving the growth, but so are other forces. Millions of newly insured Americans are seeking care. Others are frustrated by long waits at E.R.s, or by having to conform to regular doctor’s hours.
Many experts say a cultural shift is also underway.
“We expect to do our banking 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and to shop 24/7,” said Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, an associate professor in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and an adjunct policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. “So now we want our health care to be 24/7.”
While convenience is one factor, so is cost. The average charge to treat acute bronchitis at an urgent care center in 2012 was $122, compared with $814 at an emergency room, according to data on the website of CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield, which operates in Maryland, Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. The price of treating a middle-ear infection was $100 versus nearly $500 in an E.R. Such cost differences matter not only to commercial insurers, but also to consumers with high-deductible health plans.
Still, just how quickly urgent care is proliferating is difficult to measure. The Urgent Care Association of America, which represents more than 2,600 clinics, estimates there are more than 9,000 clinics in the United States. But Thomas Charland, who runs Merchant Medicine, a research and consulting firm in Minnesota, puts the number at 5,000 to 6,000.
One reason for the discrepancy, Mr. Charland explained, is that the industry is dominated by physician-owned practices with one or two facilities that nobody tracks. But a bigger issue, he said, is that the industry lacks clear criteria about what exactly urgent care means.
“Just because a physician’s office extended its hours doesn’t make it urgent care,” Mr. Charland said. “To me, urgent care means you can do X-rays, that you can do sutures, maybe you’re open one weekend day, plus one or two evenings.”
Regulators in some states are struggling with that question and others as well. In Illinois, for instance, the authorities restrict the use of the word urgent, so clinics there are called “immediate care” facilities. Other states have weighed proposals on whether urgent care facilities should be required to accept Medicaid or uninsured patients.
Despite concerns of possible increased regulations, companies are lining up to buy urgent care groups.
The insurance giant Humana paid nearly $800 million in 2010 to buy Concentra, the nation’s largest group of urgent care centers, with about 300 currently. Two years later, Dignity Health, a San Francisco-based health system, acquired U.S. HealthWorks, a group that today has 176 centers.
Even hospitals are embracing the trend. Florida Hospital in Orlando, for example, has opened 24 Centra Care urgent care clinics.
“We have a number of urgent care centers that have opened up around where I practice, and almost every day, we have patients transferred to us from one of them,” said Dr. Robert E. O’Connor, the chairman of emergency medicine at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and vice president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
But some of the most aggressive buyers have been private equity firms, according to data from a research firm, PitchBook.
In 2010, General Atlantic, a private equity firm, and Sequoia Capital, a giant in venture capital, acquired a stake in MedExpress Urgent Care, which operated 47 clinics in four states. Today, MedExpress has 130 clinics in 10 states.
Last fall, when Dr. R. Robert Rohatsch and his partners decided they needed additional capital to expand their practice, Urgent Care of Connecticut, they received bids from about a dozen private equity firms. Dr. Rohatsch and his partners chose PineBridge Investments and Pulse Equity Partners, which specializes in health and wellness investments.
“We’ve focused on how health care is going to be delivered to consumers in the new world order and how do consumers want their health care to be delivered,” said Douglas W. Lehrman, the founder and chief executive of Pulse Equity.
For now, at least, many patients seem satisfied. At a PhysicianOne clinic, Roberta Giordano got an X-ray recently after she dropped a kitchen knife on her foot, severing a tendon. Peter Andino arrived at the Norwalk clinic on a recent Thursday evening after smashing his finger in a car door. The doctor quickly punctured his nail to relieve the pressure and wrapped up the finger. Mr. Andino was in and out in 45 minutes.
“Dealing with the E.R. is a hassle,” Mr. Andino said. “This place is clean, it’s quick, and it’s about five minutes away from my house. What more could you want?”
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4) Ford Says Committed to South Africa, Plays Down Concern Over Strikes
JOHANNESBURG — Ford Motor Co has a long-term commitment to South Africa, its regional head said, playing down any concerns about strikes that an engineering federation said had prompted the U.S. carmaker to consider pulling out of the country.
The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA) said the local head of Ford, Jeff Nemeth, told SEIFSA's chief executive that "he was under pressure from his head office to pull the company's operation out South Africa."
Nemeth told SEIFSA of concerns within Ford over strike action, SEIFSA spokeswoman Ollie Madlala said.
Nemeth spoke to SEIFSA shortly before more than 220,000 workers led by the NUMSA metalworkers union - South Africa's biggest - launched a strike for higher pay that has hit the supply of auto parts.
Asked to comment, the president of Ford's Middle East and Africa operations, Jim Benintende, said: "We have a long-term commitment to South Africa... and we're making news next week about future products."
Ford wanted to respect the strike negotiation process "so all we have to say is that we hope all sides come to amicable agreements as soon as possible," he said.
The strike, now in its second week, has already forced General Motors to halt production, and Ford and other automakers could follow suit if it continues.
The NUMSA strike follows a walkout by platinum miners that lasted five months and ended two weeks ago.
A four-week strike last year by more than 30,000 NUMSA members at major automakers cost the industry around $2 billion.
Ford sells around 6,000 vehicles a month in South Africa, making it the third-largest seller behind Toyota Motor Corp and Volkswagen AG.
It also exports vehicles from South Africa.
(Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by David Dolan and John Stonestreet)
4) Ford Says Committed to South Africa, Plays Down Concern Over Strikes
By REUTERS
JOHANNESBURG — Ford Motor Co has a long-term commitment to South Africa, its regional head said, playing down any concerns about strikes that an engineering federation said had prompted the U.S. carmaker to consider pulling out of the country.
The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA) said the local head of Ford, Jeff Nemeth, told SEIFSA's chief executive that "he was under pressure from his head office to pull the company's operation out South Africa."
Nemeth told SEIFSA of concerns within Ford over strike action, SEIFSA spokeswoman Ollie Madlala said.
Nemeth spoke to SEIFSA shortly before more than 220,000 workers led by the NUMSA metalworkers union - South Africa's biggest - launched a strike for higher pay that has hit the supply of auto parts.
Asked to comment, the president of Ford's Middle East and Africa operations, Jim Benintende, said: "We have a long-term commitment to South Africa... and we're making news next week about future products."
Ford wanted to respect the strike negotiation process "so all we have to say is that we hope all sides come to amicable agreements as soon as possible," he said.
The strike, now in its second week, has already forced General Motors to halt production, and Ford and other automakers could follow suit if it continues.
The NUMSA strike follows a walkout by platinum miners that lasted five months and ended two weeks ago.
A four-week strike last year by more than 30,000 NUMSA members at major automakers cost the industry around $2 billion.
Ford sells around 6,000 vehicles a month in South Africa, making it the third-largest seller behind Toyota Motor Corp and Volkswagen AG.
It also exports vehicles from South Africa.
(Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by David Dolan and John Stonestreet)
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5) ISRAEL: STOP THE KILLING OF PALESTINIANS
5) ISRAEL: STOP THE KILLING OF PALESTINIANS
UNITED STATES: END ALL AID
TO ISRAEL
FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE
Statement by United National Antiwar Coalition
Statement by United National Antiwar Coalition
July 10, 2014
https://unacpeace.org/
Israel, fully backed by the
United States, has engaged in collective punishment of the Palestinian people
since 1948 through forced evacuation, war, occupation, apartheid practices,
expanding settlements, mass incarceration, and outright terrorism. From its
inception, the Zionist objective has been ethnic cleansing and land
appropriation.
The Israeli propaganda machine
always has a pretext, based on charges of anti-Semitism and “existential”
threat, to justify its murderous actions against the indigenous Palestinian
population. Today, they blame Hamas for the kidnapping and killing of
three teenagers. This comes in the context of the Israeli government’s
anger at the recent reconciliation agreement between Hamas and the Palestinian
Authority.
In “retaliation” for the
slain Israeli youth, reminiscent of the Southern lynchings in the U.S., a
racist gang of thugs kidnapped a Palestinian 16-year old, Mohammad Aba Khudair,
and brutally beat and tortured him and finally, burned him alive. Days
later, his American 15-year old cousin, Tarek Abu Khdeir, was savagely beaten
by masked police and others, and then arrested and held while medical treatment
was withheld.
In recent weeks, the State of
Israel has carried out thousands of military raids of Palestinian homes,
arrested hundreds, encouraged mob violence against Palestinians and their civic
institutions, killed and injured hundreds of Palestinians, including many
children, and intensified air attacks.
The people of Gaza, living in the
world’s largest penal colony, who have never recovered from Israel’s last major
assault of 2008-2009 and the ongoing siege, are once again the targets of a
reign of terror from a major military power. On July 8, Israel launched a
new military offensive called “Operation Protective Edge” with a barrage of
intensifying missile attacks on Gaza, activating reservists, and massing
thousands of infantry and assault units at the Gaza border, threatening a
full-scale ground and air invasion.
There is no justification for the
latest escalation of massive military and civilian violence and racist hatred
directed at the besieged Palestinians. Without U.S. financial (over $3
billion dollars annually) and political backing and military weapons, Israel
could not carry out its campaign of terror and ethnic cleansing.
When U.S. State Department
spokesperson Jen Psaki justified the support for the Israeli slaughter in Gaza
by claiming that Israel has a right to defend itself, the question was asked
whether the Palestinians have a right to defend themselves. Despite
considerable pressure, Ms. Psaki did not honor the question with a
response. In spite of the hugely disproportionate might of the
forces arrayed against them, the Palestinians heroically continue to resist.
The U.S. antiwar movement must show our solidarity with them and build protests
everywhere.
At the UNAC founding conference
in 2010, for the first time, a large representative gathering of antiwar and
social justice activists took a strong stand in solidarity with the Palestinian
people. We demanded the U.S. end all aid to Israel - military, economic,
and diplomatic - and took a stand in support of the Palestinian Right of Return
and the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions.
This stance was a turning point for the Palestine solidarity movement in the
U.S. and should be embraced by all who stand for justice.
We demand:
Stop Israeli bombing and killing
End all U.S. aid to Israel
Support the Palestinian call for
BDS
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6) In Connecticut, Breaking Barrier Between a Suburb and Public Housing
6) In Connecticut, Breaking Barrier Between a Suburb and Public Housing
By BENJAMIN MUELLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/12/nyregion/in-connecticut-breaking-barrier-between-a-suburb-and-public-housing.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
NEW HAVEN — Dillard Bennett has lived for most of his life in the shadow of a 12-foot-tall chain-link fence that divides his public housing project from an adjacent suburb. He had to go the long way around to make a trip to a shopping center or to visit his pastor’s home.
His family moved to New Haven from Georgia in 1959, seeking an escape from segregated buses and racial violence. Instead, they found what Mr. Bennett, who is black, called a signal that “hatred for black folks” endures: 1,500 feet of thickly woven metal, enclosing a cluster of public housing projects on three sides.
“They don’t put their hands on you, but they got the wrong attitudes,” Mr. Bennett, 70, said of his neighbors in Hamden, Conn., the suburb of 60,000 on the other side of the fence.
Now the two sides have reached a grudging truce. In May, excavators began tearing down parts of the fence to make way for three roads that will eventually connect the public housing projects to Hamden — the first breach in this border in half a century. The first road is expected to poke through by September.
Built by Hamden in the 1950s to keep crime out of an aspiring middle-class neighborhood, the fence choked off access to jobs for public housing residents and obstructed emergency responders. Anger festered in the projects, and unemployment rates surpassed 75 percent. By 1990, New Haven’s violent crime rate nearly tripled the national average. Rocks sometimes flew over the fence, once battering a Hamden school bus.
In recent years, New Haven remodeled its projects, and the police say violent crime there dropped to nearly zero, but the fence remained. In 2005, under the guise of repairs, Hamden added a second, sturdier fence, which rises in places to 16 feet. Beyond the physical affront, public housing residents were angered by the inequalities the fence embodied, with Hamden’s median income more than four times the average income in New Haven’s housing projects.
New Haven officials have pushed to erase the silvery scar from the edge of their $200 million pastel, mixed-income redevelopment, which currently houses 178 families in a northwest neighborhood called West Rock.
But a chorus of opposition from Hamden residents, some of whom say they still sleep with guns under their beds for fear of attacks by public housing residents, repeatedly overwhelmed the calls to remove the fence. The resistance has emerged from the same residents, both black and white, who recently elected Hamden’s first black mayor.
Mayor Toni Harp of New Haven said the fence’s fall was long overdue. “It’s a relic from the past,” Ms. Harp said. “It was trying to keep the problems of low-income people in one town and not have them move into another town.”
The partial dismantling of the fence was prompted in part by inquiries by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development into New Haven’s claim that its existence fostered discrimination against poor, mostly black residents of public housing. But the city also discovered that the fence, long assumed to sit on Hamden property, actually was built on land owned by New Haven.
That allowed New Haven to tear down the fence without Hamden’s approval.
Hamden residents are not pleased, saying traffic from the new roads will overwhelm their quiet streets. The town’s Legislative Council recently approved a $25,000 historical study into border issues, although it is unlikely to change the result.
Marilyn Hutsell, 61, a black resident of Hamden, has been one of those clamoring for more protection. She endured two stolen cars and one home invasion, she said, and she blames New Haven residents who crossed the fence before it was bolstered in 2005. Hamden cannot risk more violence, Ms. Hutsell said, nor can it permit a culture of “handouts” to leak from the projects into her self-sufficient suburb.
“We don’t want the thugs on the corner, the cars racing through here,” she said. “We don’t want the boomboxes and the loud radios and the music.”
And she said, “They will not be paying their fair share.”
On a recent Friday afternoon, two Hamden police officers straddled bikes just steps from the fence, part of an expanded police presence intended to alleviate residents’ concerns. Hamden also plans to establish a joint police substation with New Haven in the area and install surveillance cameras, Mayor Scott Jackson of Hamden said.
Mr. Jackson had grown so frustrated with his town’s support of the fence that in 2012 he had to be restrained as he confronted a constituent during a heated public meeting. But with federal funding now at risk in the investigation into housing discrimination, the mayor has grown more subdued, choosing to focus on how to manage the sudden turnabout.
“Every time a bike is stolen within a cannon shot of where the fence used to be, it’s going to be blamed on somebody over there,” he said, referring to the public housing projects.
That feeling is familiar to Esther Pearson, 77, a tenant leader in New Haven who took part in intertown mediation sessions over this past year. The discussions were intended to build community, Ms. Pearson said, but instead, they added to her sense of alienation.
Hamden residents largely ignored plans for a cross-border picnic, she said, and repeatedly blamed the New Haven delegation for drug traffic that draws people from both sides. Ms. Pearson stopped attending meetings after two police officers arrived with Hamden’s contingent, which made her feel threatened.
In an era when discriminatory language is frowned upon, Ms. Pearson said, residents of Hamden resorted to veiled remarks.
“They didn’t actually call us blacks, but you could know what they were talking about,” she said.
The fact that more black homeowners are now moving into Hamden has muddled the conflict’s racial dynamics, leading to suggestions that growing class anxieties have made Hamden residents more guarded about opening the border.
But economics underlay the rationale for the fence from the beginning. Notes about deliberations in 1950 show that New Haven helped build the fence, whose purpose was described as “to keep low-income families out of Hamden.”
According to the notes, officials of the Housing Authority of New Haven felt responsible for an earlier effort to shove public housing residents to the edge of the city, a decision that hindered access to transportation and jobs. (The parcel of land that housing officials chose had previously served as a pig farm.) To appease their suburban neighbors, New Haven officials helped hem in their own residents.
“Though H.A.N.H. did not begin with these intents,” the notes read, referring to the authority, “pressure from white neighborhoods in New Haven forced it to build a higher-density project in an isolated corner of New Haven, and whites in Hamden forced them to insure that these families would stay there.”
For some housing experts, the fence has stood as a reminder of the exclusionary zoning rules and wariness toward public housing that prevail in towns across the country, including in Westchester County, N.Y., where plans for affordable housing have faced bitter opposition.
The fact that HUD helped spur the fence’s removal, though, has heartened housing activists who once viewed the federal agency as apathetic about segregating neighborhoods. In a prominent 1995 lawsuit, Baltimore public housing residents sued the department for, among other things, financing a fence around their low-income development. Siding with the residents, a federal judge ruled that the agency had concentrated them in the poorest areas, but said it was not clear that the fence in particular was discriminatory.
“We put up all kinds of barriers, and it’s to isolate ourselves with our own kind,” said Robert Solomon, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law who served as interim director of the Housing Authority of New Haven from 1999 to 2002. The result, he said, is “segregated masses of housing.”
A stone’s throw from Mr. Bennett’s apartment, on the Hamden side of a section of the remaining fence, Miriam Massey, 74, recalled living in fear of public housing residents she described as “third-generation welfare, uneducated people.”
But Ms. Massey, who is white, said she was now willing to see what the opened roads bring.
Maybe, she said, the two towns will recapture the harmony they briefly forged during the Northeast blackout of 1965. A power failure blanketed Hamden, including Ms. Massey’s home. But the streetlights on her block alone flickered on. The reason? A generator from New Haven’s housing projects was helping to power her block.
That night, along a border where trust is scarce and fears run high, street lamps lit the gloomy sidewalks.
NEW HAVEN — Dillard Bennett has lived for most of his life in the shadow of a 12-foot-tall chain-link fence that divides his public housing project from an adjacent suburb. He had to go the long way around to make a trip to a shopping center or to visit his pastor’s home.
His family moved to New Haven from Georgia in 1959, seeking an escape from segregated buses and racial violence. Instead, they found what Mr. Bennett, who is black, called a signal that “hatred for black folks” endures: 1,500 feet of thickly woven metal, enclosing a cluster of public housing projects on three sides.
“They don’t put their hands on you, but they got the wrong attitudes,” Mr. Bennett, 70, said of his neighbors in Hamden, Conn., the suburb of 60,000 on the other side of the fence.
Now the two sides have reached a grudging truce. In May, excavators began tearing down parts of the fence to make way for three roads that will eventually connect the public housing projects to Hamden — the first breach in this border in half a century. The first road is expected to poke through by September.
Built by Hamden in the 1950s to keep crime out of an aspiring middle-class neighborhood, the fence choked off access to jobs for public housing residents and obstructed emergency responders. Anger festered in the projects, and unemployment rates surpassed 75 percent. By 1990, New Haven’s violent crime rate nearly tripled the national average. Rocks sometimes flew over the fence, once battering a Hamden school bus.
In recent years, New Haven remodeled its projects, and the police say violent crime there dropped to nearly zero, but the fence remained. In 2005, under the guise of repairs, Hamden added a second, sturdier fence, which rises in places to 16 feet. Beyond the physical affront, public housing residents were angered by the inequalities the fence embodied, with Hamden’s median income more than four times the average income in New Haven’s housing projects.
New Haven officials have pushed to erase the silvery scar from the edge of their $200 million pastel, mixed-income redevelopment, which currently houses 178 families in a northwest neighborhood called West Rock.
But a chorus of opposition from Hamden residents, some of whom say they still sleep with guns under their beds for fear of attacks by public housing residents, repeatedly overwhelmed the calls to remove the fence. The resistance has emerged from the same residents, both black and white, who recently elected Hamden’s first black mayor.
Mayor Toni Harp of New Haven said the fence’s fall was long overdue. “It’s a relic from the past,” Ms. Harp said. “It was trying to keep the problems of low-income people in one town and not have them move into another town.”
The partial dismantling of the fence was prompted in part by inquiries by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development into New Haven’s claim that its existence fostered discrimination against poor, mostly black residents of public housing. But the city also discovered that the fence, long assumed to sit on Hamden property, actually was built on land owned by New Haven.
That allowed New Haven to tear down the fence without Hamden’s approval.
Hamden residents are not pleased, saying traffic from the new roads will overwhelm their quiet streets. The town’s Legislative Council recently approved a $25,000 historical study into border issues, although it is unlikely to change the result.
Marilyn Hutsell, 61, a black resident of Hamden, has been one of those clamoring for more protection. She endured two stolen cars and one home invasion, she said, and she blames New Haven residents who crossed the fence before it was bolstered in 2005. Hamden cannot risk more violence, Ms. Hutsell said, nor can it permit a culture of “handouts” to leak from the projects into her self-sufficient suburb.
“We don’t want the thugs on the corner, the cars racing through here,” she said. “We don’t want the boomboxes and the loud radios and the music.”
And she said, “They will not be paying their fair share.”
On a recent Friday afternoon, two Hamden police officers straddled bikes just steps from the fence, part of an expanded police presence intended to alleviate residents’ concerns. Hamden also plans to establish a joint police substation with New Haven in the area and install surveillance cameras, Mayor Scott Jackson of Hamden said.
Mr. Jackson had grown so frustrated with his town’s support of the fence that in 2012 he had to be restrained as he confronted a constituent during a heated public meeting. But with federal funding now at risk in the investigation into housing discrimination, the mayor has grown more subdued, choosing to focus on how to manage the sudden turnabout.
“Every time a bike is stolen within a cannon shot of where the fence used to be, it’s going to be blamed on somebody over there,” he said, referring to the public housing projects.
That feeling is familiar to Esther Pearson, 77, a tenant leader in New Haven who took part in intertown mediation sessions over this past year. The discussions were intended to build community, Ms. Pearson said, but instead, they added to her sense of alienation.
Hamden residents largely ignored plans for a cross-border picnic, she said, and repeatedly blamed the New Haven delegation for drug traffic that draws people from both sides. Ms. Pearson stopped attending meetings after two police officers arrived with Hamden’s contingent, which made her feel threatened.
In an era when discriminatory language is frowned upon, Ms. Pearson said, residents of Hamden resorted to veiled remarks.
“They didn’t actually call us blacks, but you could know what they were talking about,” she said.
The fact that more black homeowners are now moving into Hamden has muddled the conflict’s racial dynamics, leading to suggestions that growing class anxieties have made Hamden residents more guarded about opening the border.
But economics underlay the rationale for the fence from the beginning. Notes about deliberations in 1950 show that New Haven helped build the fence, whose purpose was described as “to keep low-income families out of Hamden.”
According to the notes, officials of the Housing Authority of New Haven felt responsible for an earlier effort to shove public housing residents to the edge of the city, a decision that hindered access to transportation and jobs. (The parcel of land that housing officials chose had previously served as a pig farm.) To appease their suburban neighbors, New Haven officials helped hem in their own residents.
“Though H.A.N.H. did not begin with these intents,” the notes read, referring to the authority, “pressure from white neighborhoods in New Haven forced it to build a higher-density project in an isolated corner of New Haven, and whites in Hamden forced them to insure that these families would stay there.”
For some housing experts, the fence has stood as a reminder of the exclusionary zoning rules and wariness toward public housing that prevail in towns across the country, including in Westchester County, N.Y., where plans for affordable housing have faced bitter opposition.
The fact that HUD helped spur the fence’s removal, though, has heartened housing activists who once viewed the federal agency as apathetic about segregating neighborhoods. In a prominent 1995 lawsuit, Baltimore public housing residents sued the department for, among other things, financing a fence around their low-income development. Siding with the residents, a federal judge ruled that the agency had concentrated them in the poorest areas, but said it was not clear that the fence in particular was discriminatory.
“We put up all kinds of barriers, and it’s to isolate ourselves with our own kind,” said Robert Solomon, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law who served as interim director of the Housing Authority of New Haven from 1999 to 2002. The result, he said, is “segregated masses of housing.”
A stone’s throw from Mr. Bennett’s apartment, on the Hamden side of a section of the remaining fence, Miriam Massey, 74, recalled living in fear of public housing residents she described as “third-generation welfare, uneducated people.”
But Ms. Massey, who is white, said she was now willing to see what the opened roads bring.
Maybe, she said, the two towns will recapture the harmony they briefly forged during the Northeast blackout of 1965. A power failure blanketed Hamden, including Ms. Massey’s home. But the streetlights on her block alone flickered on. The reason? A generator from New Haven’s housing projects was helping to power her block.
That night, along a border where trust is scarce and fears run high, street lamps lit the gloomy sidewalks.
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7) In Rubble of Gaza Seaside Cafe, Hunt for Victims Who Had Come for Soccer
7) In Rubble of Gaza Seaside Cafe, Hunt for Victims Who Had Come for Soccer
By FARES AKRAM
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/world/middleeast/missile-at-beachside-gaza-cafe-finds-patrons-poised-for-world-cup.html
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — About a dozen local Palestinians gathered Wednesday evening at the Fun Time Beach cafe, a beachside eatery of plastic chairs, umbrellas, walls of cloth and palm leaves, a container for a kitchen and a small bathroom, to watch the World Cup match between Argentina and the Netherlands.
What they were not watching for was an Israeli missile, apparently targeting what Israel’s military later described as a single terrorist. The blast destroyed the cafe and killed at least eight people.
On Thursday, bulldozers, excavators and rescue officers were digging through the remnants of the cafe on the golden sand of this city in the southern Gaza Strip. They were looking for the body of Salim Sawalli, a possible ninth victim. Two of Mr. Sawalli’s brothers were among the dead.Kamel Sawalli, the oldest of the four brothers, was sitting up beside one of the bulldozer drivers, refusing calls from relatives to attend the funerals. The sand was wet from seeping seawater, making their work to find Salim harder.
I will not go before I find Salim!” the brother shouted over the roar of the bulldozer. “The three should be buried together.”
The cafe was one of more than 750 locations that the Israeli military struck in the first 48 hours of its aerial blitz in Gaza that began in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with the stated goal of halting the rocket attacks from Gaza against Israeli towns and cities.
Among the targets listed by the military are concealed rocket launchers, weapons stores, training sites, tunnels and other facilities used by the militant groups. The military has also bombed scores of homes it says are used as control and command centers by field operatives of Hamas, the Islamic group that dominates Gaza, and other militant organizations. In those cases the occupants are told to vacate the premises, usually by a telephone call followed by a small missile without an explosive warhead hitting the roof as a warning of a pending attack, though the system is not foolproof.
The death toll in Gaza had risen to at least 78 by Thursday, the majority of them noncombatants, according to Health Ministry officials in the Palestinian coastal enclave.
When the military aims to kill a specific militant in a precision attack, no heads-up is given. “We don’t warn terrorists,” said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military. Still, the military says it makes efforts to avoid collateral damage.
The details of what happened at the Fun Time Beach cafe remain hazy. Colonel Lerner said the missile had been meant to be a “precision strike,” adding, “We were targeting a terrorist.”
But he had no immediate information on the identity of the person in Israel’s sights or why the military struck when the cafe was abuzz with more than a dozen people.
Residents of Khan Younis said that Wednesday night was particularly unnerving because of the explosions.
“The bombing did not stop, the children could not sleep, it was really frightening,” said Hassan Bashiti, 52, who stood with a group of men wearing white gowns in the main street of the town where all the stores were closed, waiting for the funerals.
At the Nasser Clinical Center, the main hospital in the city, the wounded were still arriving at noon on Thursday. The wailing sirens of incoming ambulances mixed with the patriotic ballads that blared from the loudspeakers of cars on their way out, leading funeral processions.
Tamer al-Astal, 27, was lying in a hospital bed being treated for shrapnel wounds in his face and leg from the blast on the beach. Mr. Astal, a construction worker, said he lived near the cafe and went there every night.
“We were watching news on the television and waiting for the match to begin,” he recalled. “I heard a terrible boom and felt myself suffocating. I woke up to find myself here in the hospital.”
Three of Mr. Astal’s cousins were among the dead.
Samah Sawalli, 29, said her brothers had been spending their nights at the cafe and coming home at dawn when the daily fast starts in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“They would break their fast there,” she said, wearing a black veil and surrounded by her mother, who was unable to speak, and other women at the family’s home in Khan Younis. Weeping, she recalled their assuring her that Fun Time Beach “was a safe place.”
With the casualties of Israel’s aerial campaign in Gaza mounting, Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing, the main gateway for Gaza’s population of 1.7 million, to allow the evacuation of wounded to hospitals in Egypt and the passage of Palestinians who hold Egyptian citizenship. The crossing, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, had been closed for about a month.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the gate, which Hamas officers shut in a desperate attempt to control the crowds.
Nariman Shurab made it into the departure hall with her three children, who were barefoot. Her husband was unable to travel with them, she said, crying, because he does not hold an Egyptian passport, only a Palestinian one.
She said that an airstrike near her house in Khan Younis had blown out the windows and doors, so she had moved to her mother-in-law’s house, hoping it would be safer.
But then, she said, they also received a warning to vacate their house, referring to a recorded message sent to thousands of mobile phones in Gaza on Thursday. “I could not wait,” she said, as she waited for her passport to be stamped. “I ran out without even getting my children’s shoes and sped to the crossing.”
Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — About a dozen local Palestinians gathered Wednesday evening at the Fun Time Beach cafe, a beachside eatery of plastic chairs, umbrellas, walls of cloth and palm leaves, a container for a kitchen and a small bathroom, to watch the World Cup match between Argentina and the Netherlands.
What they were not watching for was an Israeli missile, apparently targeting what Israel’s military later described as a single terrorist. The blast destroyed the cafe and killed at least eight people.
On Thursday, bulldozers, excavators and rescue officers were digging through the remnants of the cafe on the golden sand of this city in the southern Gaza Strip. They were looking for the body of Salim Sawalli, a possible ninth victim. Two of Mr. Sawalli’s brothers were among the dead.Kamel Sawalli, the oldest of the four brothers, was sitting up beside one of the bulldozer drivers, refusing calls from relatives to attend the funerals. The sand was wet from seeping seawater, making their work to find Salim harder.
I will not go before I find Salim!” the brother shouted over the roar of the bulldozer. “The three should be buried together.”
The cafe was one of more than 750 locations that the Israeli military struck in the first 48 hours of its aerial blitz in Gaza that began in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with the stated goal of halting the rocket attacks from Gaza against Israeli towns and cities.
Among the targets listed by the military are concealed rocket launchers, weapons stores, training sites, tunnels and other facilities used by the militant groups. The military has also bombed scores of homes it says are used as control and command centers by field operatives of Hamas, the Islamic group that dominates Gaza, and other militant organizations. In those cases the occupants are told to vacate the premises, usually by a telephone call followed by a small missile without an explosive warhead hitting the roof as a warning of a pending attack, though the system is not foolproof.
The death toll in Gaza had risen to at least 78 by Thursday, the majority of them noncombatants, according to Health Ministry officials in the Palestinian coastal enclave.
When the military aims to kill a specific militant in a precision attack, no heads-up is given. “We don’t warn terrorists,” said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military. Still, the military says it makes efforts to avoid collateral damage.
The details of what happened at the Fun Time Beach cafe remain hazy. Colonel Lerner said the missile had been meant to be a “precision strike,” adding, “We were targeting a terrorist.”
But he had no immediate information on the identity of the person in Israel’s sights or why the military struck when the cafe was abuzz with more than a dozen people.
Residents of Khan Younis said that Wednesday night was particularly unnerving because of the explosions.
“The bombing did not stop, the children could not sleep, it was really frightening,” said Hassan Bashiti, 52, who stood with a group of men wearing white gowns in the main street of the town where all the stores were closed, waiting for the funerals.
At the Nasser Clinical Center, the main hospital in the city, the wounded were still arriving at noon on Thursday. The wailing sirens of incoming ambulances mixed with the patriotic ballads that blared from the loudspeakers of cars on their way out, leading funeral processions.
Tamer al-Astal, 27, was lying in a hospital bed being treated for shrapnel wounds in his face and leg from the blast on the beach. Mr. Astal, a construction worker, said he lived near the cafe and went there every night.
“We were watching news on the television and waiting for the match to begin,” he recalled. “I heard a terrible boom and felt myself suffocating. I woke up to find myself here in the hospital.”
Three of Mr. Astal’s cousins were among the dead.
Samah Sawalli, 29, said her brothers had been spending their nights at the cafe and coming home at dawn when the daily fast starts in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“They would break their fast there,” she said, wearing a black veil and surrounded by her mother, who was unable to speak, and other women at the family’s home in Khan Younis. Weeping, she recalled their assuring her that Fun Time Beach “was a safe place.”
With the casualties of Israel’s aerial campaign in Gaza mounting, Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing, the main gateway for Gaza’s population of 1.7 million, to allow the evacuation of wounded to hospitals in Egypt and the passage of Palestinians who hold Egyptian citizenship. The crossing, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, had been closed for about a month.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the gate, which Hamas officers shut in a desperate attempt to control the crowds.
Nariman Shurab made it into the departure hall with her three children, who were barefoot. Her husband was unable to travel with them, she said, crying, because he does not hold an Egyptian passport, only a Palestinian one.
She said that an airstrike near her house in Khan Younis had blown out the windows and doors, so she had moved to her mother-in-law’s house, hoping it would be safer.
But then, she said, they also received a warning to vacate their house, referring to a recorded message sent to thousands of mobile phones in Gaza on Thursday. “I could not wait,” she said, as she waited for her passport to be stamped. “I ran out without even getting my children’s shoes and sped to the crossing.”
Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
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8) Gaza Deaths Spike in 3rd Day of Air Assaults While Rockets Hit Israel
"As the air campaign entered its third day, the Palestinian death toll rose to at least 78, a majority of them civilians, according to officials in Gaza. No Israelis have been reported killed. ...The Palestine chapter of Defense for Children International, an independent child-rights organization, said 14 children aged 15 and younger had been killed in the airstrikes on Tuesday and Wednesday, including four toddlers. The group issued a list with the names and ages of those killed, saying its Gaza-based field worker had verified each death."
JERUSALEM
— Palestinian deaths from Israel’s aerial attacks in Gaza rose sharply
on Thursday, while militants there fired more than 180 rockets into
Israel, reaching new targets spread across a vast area of the country.
The escalation appeared to increase the likelihood of a ground invasion and prompted the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to call urgently for a return to calm and a cease-fire.
“Today, we face the risk of an all-out escalation in Israel and Gaza, with the threat of a ground offensive still palpable — and preventable only if Hamas stops rocket firing,” he told an emergency meeting of the Security Council. There were no signs that a cease-fire was imminent, and no signs that diplomats representing the antagonists were heeding Mr. Ban’s call for calm.Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, played an air-raid siren at the Council meeting to reflect what his country’s citizens hear every day. He called his Palestinian counterpart, Riyad Mansour, “a mouthpiece of Hamas.” Mr. Mansour blamed the underlying Israeli occupation, exhorting the Council to intervene and “salvage prospects for peace and security.”
In a televised statement after a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said, “While the campaign has gone as planned, further stages yet await us,” describing what was to come as “tough” and “complex.”
“We have struck hard at Hamas and the terrorists, and as long as the campaign continues we will strike at them harder,” he said.
President Obama spoke with Mr. Netanyahu by phone on Thursday from Air Force One while returning to Washington from a fund-raising trip to Colorado and Texas. A White House statement said that Mr. Obama expressed concern about further escalation of violence and told the Israeli leader that the United States remained “prepared to facilitate a cessation of hostilities” between Israel and the Palestinians. Aides said Mr. Obama also expressed condolences about the murder of three Israeli teenagers and concern about the beating of a teenage American citizen.
A spokesman for the Israeli military said that about 20,000 reservists had been called up and that preparations for a possible ground operation were being completed.
As the air campaign entered its third day, the Palestinian death toll rose to at least 78, a majority of them civilians, according to officials in Gaza. No Israelis have been reported killed.
Airstrikes overnight on a house in Khan Younis and an open-air beach cafe killed at least 15 Palestinians, and one airstrike hit a car used by a local news agency bearing media signs, killing the driver, Hamed Shehab, 27, the officials said. The Israeli military said it had also hit at least eight operatives from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in what it described as several precision strikes. The military said all had been involved in either the manufacture or firing of rockets.
The Palestine chapter of Defense for Children International, an independent child-rights organization, said 14 children aged 15 and younger had been killed in the airstrikes on Tuesday and Wednesday, including four toddlers. The group issued a list with the names and ages of those killed, saying its Gaza-based field worker had verified each death.
Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas leader, said on Palestinian radio, “What we need is for the international community to pressure the occupation to halt its aggression, which is unjustified.” He was referring to Israel.
The rocket fire into Israel reached Mitzpeh Ramon, a town deep in the Negev desert, and the Dead Sea area for the first time. More rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system or fell in open spaces in the Tel Aviv area of central Israel. Sirens wailed in Jerusalem in the early evening, and two rockets were intercepted above the city; two more fell in open areas, one on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Southern cities that have been the targets of rocket fire for years, like Ashdod and Beersheba, came under heavy rocket attack. The rockets caused extensive property damage but no serious injuries as Israelis ran for cover in shelters and fortified rooms with each siren.
Mr. Ban, while repeating his condemnation of indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, also warned Israel, saying “the excessive use of force and endangering of civilian lives are also intolerable.”
“Once again,” he said, “Palestinian civilians are caught between Hamas’s irresponsibility and Israel’s tough response.”
Israel says it is taking precautions in an effort to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza. The military says it warns the occupants of houses marked for destruction that airstrikes are coming by phoning residents then firing a flare or a missile without an explosive warhead onto the roof.
The Israeli military gave an initial explanation of what happened in one case when seven people died and 25 were wounded in the strike on the house of the Kaware family in Khan Younis on Tuesday. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said Thursday that the warnings had been given, and that the attack had commenced after the Israelis had seen people vacating the premises. In the interval between the last warning and the airstrike, people went back in, Colonel Lerner told reporters, saying it was too late to cancel the missile. “It is a tragedy indeed and not what we intended,” he said. A member of the family said earlier that neighbors had come to “form a human shield.”
The Israeli military said that the targeted houses belonged to Hamas members involved in launching rockets or other military activity, and that they had been used as operation centers. If innocents are hit, Mr. Netanyahu said, “it is because Hamas is maliciously hiding behind Palestinian civilians.”
In Gaza, the mood was somber but defiant. Abu Tamer Ajour, 70, said the conflict had come at a bad time, with Hamas unable to pay full salaries to its 40,000 employees, among other hardships. “This aggression makes matters worse,” he said, “but victory will be for the Gaza people and our resistance.”
Riad Fawzi, 48, who is jobless, said he did not expect the clashes to last for long. “The Jews are not interested in more escalation,” he said, referring to Israel. “We are used to this thing, but they cannot endure the same way we endure,” he said. “Allah is with us.”
Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza, Somini Sengupta from the United Nations, and Michael D. Shear from Washington.
8) Gaza Deaths Spike in 3rd Day of Air Assaults While Rockets Hit Israel
"As the air campaign entered its third day, the Palestinian death toll rose to at least 78, a majority of them civilians, according to officials in Gaza. No Israelis have been reported killed. ...The Palestine chapter of Defense for Children International, an independent child-rights organization, said 14 children aged 15 and younger had been killed in the airstrikes on Tuesday and Wednesday, including four toddlers. The group issued a list with the names and ages of those killed, saying its Gaza-based field worker had verified each death."
By ISABEL KERSHNER
The escalation appeared to increase the likelihood of a ground invasion and prompted the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to call urgently for a return to calm and a cease-fire.
“Today, we face the risk of an all-out escalation in Israel and Gaza, with the threat of a ground offensive still palpable — and preventable only if Hamas stops rocket firing,” he told an emergency meeting of the Security Council. There were no signs that a cease-fire was imminent, and no signs that diplomats representing the antagonists were heeding Mr. Ban’s call for calm.Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, played an air-raid siren at the Council meeting to reflect what his country’s citizens hear every day. He called his Palestinian counterpart, Riyad Mansour, “a mouthpiece of Hamas.” Mr. Mansour blamed the underlying Israeli occupation, exhorting the Council to intervene and “salvage prospects for peace and security.”
In a televised statement after a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said, “While the campaign has gone as planned, further stages yet await us,” describing what was to come as “tough” and “complex.”
“We have struck hard at Hamas and the terrorists, and as long as the campaign continues we will strike at them harder,” he said.
President Obama spoke with Mr. Netanyahu by phone on Thursday from Air Force One while returning to Washington from a fund-raising trip to Colorado and Texas. A White House statement said that Mr. Obama expressed concern about further escalation of violence and told the Israeli leader that the United States remained “prepared to facilitate a cessation of hostilities” between Israel and the Palestinians. Aides said Mr. Obama also expressed condolences about the murder of three Israeli teenagers and concern about the beating of a teenage American citizen.
A spokesman for the Israeli military said that about 20,000 reservists had been called up and that preparations for a possible ground operation were being completed.
As the air campaign entered its third day, the Palestinian death toll rose to at least 78, a majority of them civilians, according to officials in Gaza. No Israelis have been reported killed.
Airstrikes overnight on a house in Khan Younis and an open-air beach cafe killed at least 15 Palestinians, and one airstrike hit a car used by a local news agency bearing media signs, killing the driver, Hamed Shehab, 27, the officials said. The Israeli military said it had also hit at least eight operatives from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in what it described as several precision strikes. The military said all had been involved in either the manufacture or firing of rockets.
The Palestine chapter of Defense for Children International, an independent child-rights organization, said 14 children aged 15 and younger had been killed in the airstrikes on Tuesday and Wednesday, including four toddlers. The group issued a list with the names and ages of those killed, saying its Gaza-based field worker had verified each death.
Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas leader, said on Palestinian radio, “What we need is for the international community to pressure the occupation to halt its aggression, which is unjustified.” He was referring to Israel.
The rocket fire into Israel reached Mitzpeh Ramon, a town deep in the Negev desert, and the Dead Sea area for the first time. More rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system or fell in open spaces in the Tel Aviv area of central Israel. Sirens wailed in Jerusalem in the early evening, and two rockets were intercepted above the city; two more fell in open areas, one on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Southern cities that have been the targets of rocket fire for years, like Ashdod and Beersheba, came under heavy rocket attack. The rockets caused extensive property damage but no serious injuries as Israelis ran for cover in shelters and fortified rooms with each siren.
Mr. Ban, while repeating his condemnation of indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, also warned Israel, saying “the excessive use of force and endangering of civilian lives are also intolerable.”
“Once again,” he said, “Palestinian civilians are caught between Hamas’s irresponsibility and Israel’s tough response.”
Israel says it is taking precautions in an effort to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza. The military says it warns the occupants of houses marked for destruction that airstrikes are coming by phoning residents then firing a flare or a missile without an explosive warhead onto the roof.
The Israeli military gave an initial explanation of what happened in one case when seven people died and 25 were wounded in the strike on the house of the Kaware family in Khan Younis on Tuesday. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said Thursday that the warnings had been given, and that the attack had commenced after the Israelis had seen people vacating the premises. In the interval between the last warning and the airstrike, people went back in, Colonel Lerner told reporters, saying it was too late to cancel the missile. “It is a tragedy indeed and not what we intended,” he said. A member of the family said earlier that neighbors had come to “form a human shield.”
The Israeli military said that the targeted houses belonged to Hamas members involved in launching rockets or other military activity, and that they had been used as operation centers. If innocents are hit, Mr. Netanyahu said, “it is because Hamas is maliciously hiding behind Palestinian civilians.”
In Gaza, the mood was somber but defiant. Abu Tamer Ajour, 70, said the conflict had come at a bad time, with Hamas unable to pay full salaries to its 40,000 employees, among other hardships. “This aggression makes matters worse,” he said, “but victory will be for the Gaza people and our resistance.”
Riad Fawzi, 48, who is jobless, said he did not expect the clashes to last for long. “The Jews are not interested in more escalation,” he said, referring to Israel. “We are used to this thing, but they cannot endure the same way we endure,” he said. “Allah is with us.”
Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza, Somini Sengupta from the United Nations, and Michael D. Shear from Washington.
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9) Obscure Rule Restricts Health Law’s Expansion of Care for Addicts
"In California, where only about 10 percent of the 18,155 beds at residential addiction treatment programs are in centers with 16 or fewer beds, officials tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Obama administration to soften the rule, saying in a February letter that 'California is severely limited in its ability to provide this benefit to Medi-Cal beneficiaries.'”
EAST HAZEL CREST, Ill. — On its surface, the Affordable Care Act seems like a boon for addiction treatment centers like the South Suburban Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, housed in a no-frills former hotel outside Chicago.
The law allowed states to expand Medicaid to many more low-income people, meaning that drug addicts and alcoholics who were previously ineligible could now receive coverage for substance abuse treatment, which the law has deemed an “essential health benefit.”
But there is a hitch: Under an obscure federal rule enacted almost 50 years ago, Medicaid covers residential addiction treatment in community-based programs only if they have 16 or fewer beds. The South Suburban Council’s main treatment program has 48. So the very people who might have flowed through its doors in search of care will not be coming. And the same problem faces many other centers, which typically are larger than 16 beds, experts say.The quirk in the law could have a significant impact on substance abuse treatment in Illinois and the 25 other states that have expanded Medicaid under the health care law. While millions of low-income addicts have been promised access to treatment through the expansion, the rule will most likely prevent many from entering residential programs, a more intensive form of care, even as heroin addiction is surging in many states.
In California, for instance, nine out of 10 addiction treatment beds are in programs too large to get Medicaid reimbursement.
“For some addicts, there is an undeniable and essential need for residential treatment,” said Allen Sandusky, the South Suburban Council’s chief executive. “The A.C.A. is going to mess that up badly unless this problem is acknowledged and addressed.”
The rule was intended to prevent Medicaid funds from covering treatment in state psychiatric hospitals, which were far more common when it was written in 1965. The federal government considered such treatment a state responsibility, and it included residential programs for substance abuse under the exclusion.
“The federal government basically said to the states, ‘We’re not going to pay for your institutional care,’ ” said Becky Vaughn, executive director of the State Associations of Addiction Services, which represents treatment providers. “Addiction services never should have been wrapped into that because we are not long term.”
Any change to the rule would have to come from Congress, because it is a provision of Medicaid law. Treatment centers and state Medicaid directors have called for changing or repealing it, but the odds are low, partly because Congress seems unwilling to tackle any health care issues this year, and partly because this one could prove expensive.
Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said most substance abuse treatment for new Medicaid enrollees was being provided on an outpatient basis. Such treatment usually consists of one or more group counseling sessions a week — enough for some, but inadequate for the severely ill, said Paul Samuels, director of the Legal Action Center, a nonprofit group in New York that advocates for people with addiction.
States and treatment providers are now scrambling to accommodate those who need residential treatment without running afoul of the 16-bed rule.
In Washington State, four existing treatment centers are downsizing to 16 beds and four new ones are opening at that size this summer to ensure at least some access — 128 beds — for new Medicaid enrollees. California and New York plan to seek waivers from the Obama administration that would allow Medicaid reimbursement for residential treatment in larger facilities.
Kentucky is trying to determine whether programs with multiple 16-bed units must be counted as one entity, and thus be subject to the rule.
Until now, many states have financed at least some residential treatment for the poor and uninsured with a mix of federal block grant and state funds. But Mr. Samuels said he feared that states may no longer want to foot the bill for addicts who enroll in Medicaid, which is paying 100 percent of costs for the expansion population.
Illinois, for one, has decided to stop using a mix of state general revenue and federal block grant funds for residential addiction treatment for people who have enrolled in Medicaid under the law, putting providers with more than 16 beds in a quandary.
Haymarket Center, a large treatment provider in Chicago, has eaten the costs of residential treatment for more than 40 newly eligible Medicaid enrollees so far this year, said Jeffrey Collord, a spokesman. “We are not turning people away right now,” he said. “But I don’t know how long we can continue to do that, to provide services and not get paid for them.”
The South Suburban Council has so far been able to treat new Medicaid beneficiaries in its smaller 16-bed unit by making it coed instead of for women only. But its larger 48-bed unit cannot accept clients on Medicaid.
So far the juggling has worked. But as more and more of South Suburban Council’s clients enroll in Medicaid, as is expected, the program will have to start turning away many of the new Medicaid enrollees — leaving it, paradoxically, unable to fill its beds, Mr. Sandusky said.
His program receives $143 per patient per day for what is typically a 28-day stay, or about $4,000. The reimbursement rate must also increase for programs like his to survive, he said.
Mr. Sandusky and other substance abuse experts say that many of their patients — typically referred by jails, courts, probation departments, emergency rooms and mental health agencies — need the stability and intensive care of residential treatment, and would probably fail in outpatient programs. Even intensive outpatient treatment, which may be several hours a day, several days a week, is not sufficient for many in this population, Mr. Sandusky said.
“The majority of our clients are in crisis,” Mr. Sandusky said. “They are the clients who present the most challenging issues for our communities and systems.”
Pete Kurpios, 41, started using heroin two years ago and was referred to the South Suburban Council by a hospital after he intentionally overdosed and spent days in a coma. “I’ve tried outpatient and that didn’t work out,” said Mr. Kurpios, who added that he had signed up for Medicaid but was still waiting for confirmation of enrollment. “I had too much time on my hands.”
Jim McCarthy, 53, who was also in treatment at the South Suburban Council last month, said his addiction to alcohol and heroin recently cost him his painting business. “Here you’ve got people watching over you when you might not be capable of watching over yourself,” he said.
In California, where only about 10 percent of the 18,155 beds at residential addiction treatment programs are in centers with 16 or fewer beds, officials tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Obama administration to soften the rule, saying in a February letter that “California is severely limited in its ability to provide this benefit to Medi-Cal beneficiaries.”
Now the state is pursuing a waiver that would, among other things, allow those newly eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to get residential treatment in larger programs. In the meantime, the state will provide a new intensive outpatient treatment benefit for the Medicaid expansion population, said Karen Baylor, deputy director of mental health and substance use disorder services at the California Department of Health Care Services.
In Ohio, Tracy Plouck, director of the state’s Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said 72 percent of the state’s 2,538 addiction treatment beds were in programs too large for Medicaid reimbursement under the rule, known as the Institutions for Mental Disease exclusion. “It’s a serious access challenge,” she said. “I firmly believe there are providers that would increase their capacity but for concerns about the I.M.D.”
Larry Brand, 59, who recently completed a monthlong stay at the South Suburban Council, said outpatient treatment would have felt much riskier because he would not have had a round-the-clock support system. Mr. Brand, who is eligible for Medicaid under the health care law but has not yet signed up, said he had been in and out of prison after stealing to support his cocaine habit. He is determined not to return there.
“There’s no drugs and no alcohol here,” he said, “so it’s like a safe haven for me. If I would have stayed out there and tried to do it on my own, I can’t say what would have happened. But here I am today, clean and sober, and I’ve got a good start.”
10) No Charges in Killing of Driver After Chase
12) Despite a Pledge by Samsung, Child Labor Proves Resilient
DONGGUAN,
China — After work, the three teenage girls giggle and pull at one
another’s hair. But when questioned, they admit their common secret:
They use false papers to work illegally here at the factory that makes
mobile phone components for one of the world’s biggest brands, Samsung.
They are 14 and 15 years old, below the legal working age in China. A few weeks ago, they were living at home with their parents in a small village a six-hour drive from here, finishing middle school.
“We also worked at a factory last summer,” said one of the girls, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of getting fired. “But it was much worse. We were making Christmas ornaments, and some workers got huge blisters on their hands.”
The presence of at least three child workers at the factory in southern China casts a cloud over the labor practices of Samsung and its suppliers.A little more than a week ago, Samsung, the South Korean electronics giant, said in an annual review of conditions at its manufacturing centers that it had found no evidence of under-age workers or child laborers in its global supply chain. In recent years, Samsung has promoted its efforts to monitor and evaluate suppliers and manufacturing operations around the world, noting that the policies were aimed at protecting workers and preventing minors from being hired.
For instance, even though the legal working age in China is 16, Samsung considers that too young, and so its suppliers are instructed not to hire workers under 18. To ensure they do not cheat, Samsung says, it has forced all of them to install a sophisticated facial recognition system on factory sites.
But on Tuesday morning, the three young girls met with a reporter from The New York Times after they were initially identified by the labor rights group China Labor Watch. Near their factory here in Dongguan, they explained how easy it was to work for a company that supplies Samsung.
According to the girls, they were part of a “labor dispatch system” that often funnels child laborers to factories during the summer to help meet a surge in orders that comes just ahead of the fall and winter shopping seasons in the United States and Europe. They were hired as temporary workers, they said, and paid through an agency that has recruitment channels in poor regions.
After they told their story, the three girls locked arms and walked past the security guards and into the Shinyang Electronics factory, which employs more than 600 workers in Dongguan, one of China’s biggest manufacturing centers.
“As part of our pledge against child labor, Samsung routinely conducts inspections to monitor our suppliers to ensure they follow our commitment,” Samsung said in a statement. “We are urgently looking into the latest allegations and will take appropriate measures in accordance with our policies to prevent any cases of child labor in our suppliers.”
The situation at the factory in Dongguan underscores some of the challenges multinational corporations face in sourcing goods from here. Wages and working conditions in China have steadily improved over the last decade. But ensuring that supplier factories comply with guidelines set by global brands, as well as China’s labor laws, is difficult, even though larger factories are regularly audited by outside inspectors.
Many global brands have struggled with labor problems in their Chinese operations. In the last few years, Apple has come under scrutiny in China over labor and safety problems, notably a spate of worker suicides and unrest at facilities run by its biggest contract manufacturer, the Taiwanese company Foxconn.
Apple declined to comment for this article, but the company has said it has taken steps to address labor issues in its supply chain, including deeper audits on its partners and a program that punishes suppliers that hire under-age workers.
Now, Samsung — whose smartphones are popular worldwide — is also the target of labor rights activists. In a report released on Thursday, China Labor Watch, which is based in New York, accused Samsung of allowing a supplier in Dongguan to hire under-age workers, cheating those workers on pay, denying them overtime wages and failing to give them government-mandated labor contracts.
“After allegedly inspecting hundreds of Chinese suppliers, Samsung did not find one child worker,” China Labor Watch said in a statement released on Thursday. “Yet in just one Samsung supplier factory, C.L.W. has uncovered several children employed without labor contracts, working 11 hours per day and only being paid for 10 of those hours.”
For the last decade, labor rights groups have tried to draw attention to labor abuse and health and safety violations in some of China’s biggest factories. They often send young activists to work undercover in the workshops, document conditions, secretly interview workers and examine their pay stubs and employment contracts.
In the Samsung case, a young activist at China Labor Watch was hired by the Dongguan factory and began collecting evidence and making friends with workers suspected of being under-age. According to the account by the labor rights group, the activist ate with the three young girls, and also with two young boys who were believed to be under-age, and secretly recorded their conversations.The activist also took photographs of conditions inside the Shinyang facility, which is owned and managed by a company in South Korea. The Dongguan factory now works exclusively for Samsung to produce plastic components for mobile phones.
A Shinyang spokeswoman, who gave her name as Ms. Fang, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that Samsung audited the company on June 25 and that the auditors found no evidence of workers below age 18, let alone 16.
Samsung says in its own exhaustive audits of hundreds of factories in China during the last two years that third-party auditors found not a single under-age worker. But a Samsung spokeswoman says the company is now conducting its own investigation into the Shinyang facility.
According to its annual sustainability report, which includes a review of human rights and labor conditions at its global centers, Samsung says it has “zero tolerance” for child labor and could “suspend transactions” with suppliers that do not comply with its rules.
In its 2014 report, released on June 30, Samsung acknowledged weaknesses in its supply chain. For instance, the report said that a majority of the facilities Samsung had audited in China failed to comply with the country’s law on the maximum hours of overtime workers are permitted, which is 36 hours a month. The company said it was trying to rectify the situation.
If Samsung verifies that at least three young girls were working at its supplier factory, experts say that would cast some doubts on what the company considers stringent audits, including the use of facial recognition software to determine whether the faces of workers matched their government-issued identity cards.
According to the three young girls, they began working at Shinyang on June 30, just five days after the Shinyang factory says it was audited. They said they were hired as “temporary workers,” given fake ID cards and asked to work the most difficult shift, 8:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., and then to put in an additional three hours of overtime, six days a week.
The work was grueling but tolerable, they said. The girls complained that they were paid about $1.20 an hour because they had been hired by a middleman or “labor dispatch company.” A typical worker, they said, was paid $1.45 an hour. Labor rights activists say this is an increasingly common way factories reduce costs and skirt the labor law.
China Labor Watch said the girls were allowed to avoid the facial recognition system, which is supposed to help prevent under-age workers. And when asked how the factory could provide them with false government-issued ID cards, one of the girls said: “The factory can just borrow real identification cards from other factories to register us. And the system for checking employees as they enter the factory is not that strict.”
Stephanie Yifan Yang contributed research and Brian X. Chen contributed reporting.
9) Obscure Rule Restricts Health Law’s Expansion of Care for Addicts
"In California, where only about 10 percent of the 18,155 beds at residential addiction treatment programs are in centers with 16 or fewer beds, officials tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Obama administration to soften the rule, saying in a February letter that 'California is severely limited in its ability to provide this benefit to Medi-Cal beneficiaries.'”
EAST HAZEL CREST, Ill. — On its surface, the Affordable Care Act seems like a boon for addiction treatment centers like the South Suburban Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, housed in a no-frills former hotel outside Chicago.
The law allowed states to expand Medicaid to many more low-income people, meaning that drug addicts and alcoholics who were previously ineligible could now receive coverage for substance abuse treatment, which the law has deemed an “essential health benefit.”
But there is a hitch: Under an obscure federal rule enacted almost 50 years ago, Medicaid covers residential addiction treatment in community-based programs only if they have 16 or fewer beds. The South Suburban Council’s main treatment program has 48. So the very people who might have flowed through its doors in search of care will not be coming. And the same problem faces many other centers, which typically are larger than 16 beds, experts say.The quirk in the law could have a significant impact on substance abuse treatment in Illinois and the 25 other states that have expanded Medicaid under the health care law. While millions of low-income addicts have been promised access to treatment through the expansion, the rule will most likely prevent many from entering residential programs, a more intensive form of care, even as heroin addiction is surging in many states.
In California, for instance, nine out of 10 addiction treatment beds are in programs too large to get Medicaid reimbursement.
“For some addicts, there is an undeniable and essential need for residential treatment,” said Allen Sandusky, the South Suburban Council’s chief executive. “The A.C.A. is going to mess that up badly unless this problem is acknowledged and addressed.”
The rule was intended to prevent Medicaid funds from covering treatment in state psychiatric hospitals, which were far more common when it was written in 1965. The federal government considered such treatment a state responsibility, and it included residential programs for substance abuse under the exclusion.
“The federal government basically said to the states, ‘We’re not going to pay for your institutional care,’ ” said Becky Vaughn, executive director of the State Associations of Addiction Services, which represents treatment providers. “Addiction services never should have been wrapped into that because we are not long term.”
Any change to the rule would have to come from Congress, because it is a provision of Medicaid law. Treatment centers and state Medicaid directors have called for changing or repealing it, but the odds are low, partly because Congress seems unwilling to tackle any health care issues this year, and partly because this one could prove expensive.
Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said most substance abuse treatment for new Medicaid enrollees was being provided on an outpatient basis. Such treatment usually consists of one or more group counseling sessions a week — enough for some, but inadequate for the severely ill, said Paul Samuels, director of the Legal Action Center, a nonprofit group in New York that advocates for people with addiction.
States and treatment providers are now scrambling to accommodate those who need residential treatment without running afoul of the 16-bed rule.
In Washington State, four existing treatment centers are downsizing to 16 beds and four new ones are opening at that size this summer to ensure at least some access — 128 beds — for new Medicaid enrollees. California and New York plan to seek waivers from the Obama administration that would allow Medicaid reimbursement for residential treatment in larger facilities.
Kentucky is trying to determine whether programs with multiple 16-bed units must be counted as one entity, and thus be subject to the rule.
Until now, many states have financed at least some residential treatment for the poor and uninsured with a mix of federal block grant and state funds. But Mr. Samuels said he feared that states may no longer want to foot the bill for addicts who enroll in Medicaid, which is paying 100 percent of costs for the expansion population.
Illinois, for one, has decided to stop using a mix of state general revenue and federal block grant funds for residential addiction treatment for people who have enrolled in Medicaid under the law, putting providers with more than 16 beds in a quandary.
Haymarket Center, a large treatment provider in Chicago, has eaten the costs of residential treatment for more than 40 newly eligible Medicaid enrollees so far this year, said Jeffrey Collord, a spokesman. “We are not turning people away right now,” he said. “But I don’t know how long we can continue to do that, to provide services and not get paid for them.”
The South Suburban Council has so far been able to treat new Medicaid beneficiaries in its smaller 16-bed unit by making it coed instead of for women only. But its larger 48-bed unit cannot accept clients on Medicaid.
So far the juggling has worked. But as more and more of South Suburban Council’s clients enroll in Medicaid, as is expected, the program will have to start turning away many of the new Medicaid enrollees — leaving it, paradoxically, unable to fill its beds, Mr. Sandusky said.
His program receives $143 per patient per day for what is typically a 28-day stay, or about $4,000. The reimbursement rate must also increase for programs like his to survive, he said.
Mr. Sandusky and other substance abuse experts say that many of their patients — typically referred by jails, courts, probation departments, emergency rooms and mental health agencies — need the stability and intensive care of residential treatment, and would probably fail in outpatient programs. Even intensive outpatient treatment, which may be several hours a day, several days a week, is not sufficient for many in this population, Mr. Sandusky said.
“The majority of our clients are in crisis,” Mr. Sandusky said. “They are the clients who present the most challenging issues for our communities and systems.”
Pete Kurpios, 41, started using heroin two years ago and was referred to the South Suburban Council by a hospital after he intentionally overdosed and spent days in a coma. “I’ve tried outpatient and that didn’t work out,” said Mr. Kurpios, who added that he had signed up for Medicaid but was still waiting for confirmation of enrollment. “I had too much time on my hands.”
Jim McCarthy, 53, who was also in treatment at the South Suburban Council last month, said his addiction to alcohol and heroin recently cost him his painting business. “Here you’ve got people watching over you when you might not be capable of watching over yourself,” he said.
In California, where only about 10 percent of the 18,155 beds at residential addiction treatment programs are in centers with 16 or fewer beds, officials tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Obama administration to soften the rule, saying in a February letter that “California is severely limited in its ability to provide this benefit to Medi-Cal beneficiaries.”
Now the state is pursuing a waiver that would, among other things, allow those newly eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to get residential treatment in larger programs. In the meantime, the state will provide a new intensive outpatient treatment benefit for the Medicaid expansion population, said Karen Baylor, deputy director of mental health and substance use disorder services at the California Department of Health Care Services.
In Ohio, Tracy Plouck, director of the state’s Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said 72 percent of the state’s 2,538 addiction treatment beds were in programs too large for Medicaid reimbursement under the rule, known as the Institutions for Mental Disease exclusion. “It’s a serious access challenge,” she said. “I firmly believe there are providers that would increase their capacity but for concerns about the I.M.D.”
Larry Brand, 59, who recently completed a monthlong stay at the South Suburban Council, said outpatient treatment would have felt much riskier because he would not have had a round-the-clock support system. Mr. Brand, who is eligible for Medicaid under the health care law but has not yet signed up, said he had been in and out of prison after stealing to support his cocaine habit. He is determined not to return there.
“There’s no drugs and no alcohol here,” he said, “so it’s like a safe haven for me. If I would have stayed out there and tried to do it on my own, I can’t say what would have happened. But here I am today, clean and sober, and I’ve got a good start.”
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10) No Charges in Killing of Driver After Chase
By ANDREW SIDDONS
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11) Wrongfully Convicted Man Takes $3 Million Settlement
"In Brooklyn alone, the convictions of seven men have been vacated this year, after the district attorney there began examining 90 troubled convictions. Filing claims against the state and the city is standard practice after a vacated conviction."
A
man who spent 15 years in prison for a Brooklyn murder he did not
commit agreed to a $3 million settlement approved on Thursday with New
York State, one of the largest such settlements in recent history.
The settlement for the man, Jabbar Collins, is among a wave the state is expected to face. In Brooklyn alone, the convictions of seven men have been vacated this year, after the district attorney there began examining 90 troubled convictions. Filing claims against the state and the city is standard practice after a vacated conviction.
Judge Faviola A. Soto of the New York State Court of Claims approved the amount for Mr. Collins at a hearing.
Janet Polstein, an assistant attorney general for the state, said at the hearing, “This is reasonable compensation for the loss of liberty Mr. Collins suffered in state incarceration.”Mr. Collins was convicted of killing a rabbi in 1994 in the Williamsburg section of the borough. He always claimed he was innocent, and, while in prison, began researching the law and his case, filing records requests and appeals from behind bars and interviewing witnesses.
After a decade of working on his own, he hired a lawyer, Joel B. Rudin. Mr. Rudin filed a motion asking a federal judge to overturn the conviction, arguing that prosecutors had withheld key material and had knowingly presented false testimony at trial. The judge castigated the district attorney’s office for its handling of the trial; the district attorney’s office then agreed to clear Mr. Collins of the conviction and not to seek another prosecution.
Mr. Collins called the settlement “bittersweet,” saying he felt vindicated by it but wished that his mother, who died a year ago, were alive for it. He said he wanted to keep working on wrongful-conviction cases, and was considering going into the ministry. But the memory of prison lingers.
“I still have nightmares,” he said. “Waking up and thinking that I’m still there, that I was dreaming about this part of my life.”
Freed in 2010, Mr. Collins, 42, joined Mr. Rudin’s firm as a paralegal. Mr. Collins sued the state in 2011 under the Unjust Conviction Act, which requires people to show through “clear and convincing evidence that they were unjustly convicted.”
This year, Martin Tankleff, who served 17 years in prison for the murder of his parents before his conviction was overturned, got $3.3 million under the act.
The state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, proposed legislation in February that amended that act so that people who falsely confessed or who pleaded guilty — not just people who were convicted — but who were later exonerated could also sue the state.
Since 2000, the attorney general’s office under Mr. Schneiderman and his predecessors has settled 66 wrongful-conviction claims; the Collins settlement is the seventh largest.
Mr. Collins has a suit pending against the city on civil rights claims, also filed in 2011. That suit has involved the depositions of the former Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, and some of his subordinates. Mr. Rudin recently received approval from a judge to question Louis Scarcella, a retired detective whose methods have come under question; the current district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, is reviewing 57 of Mr. Scarcella’s cases.
Mr. Rudin said it was a strategic victory to secure the state claim before resolving the federal civil rights suit, because the state payout might have been reduced had a federal settlement already been reached. “Traditionally in settlement negotiations in wrongful-conviction cases, the city tries to exploit what it sees as the desperation of the plaintiff,” he said. “This gives Jabbar some financial security and makes him even more determined to see the city case through.”
Mr. Rudin said last month that the city and Mr. Collins had begun talking about a settlement but were far apart on a figure. A judge set an Oct. 20 trial date for the civil rights suit, while encouraging a settlement before then.
11) Wrongfully Convicted Man Takes $3 Million Settlement
"In Brooklyn alone, the convictions of seven men have been vacated this year, after the district attorney there began examining 90 troubled convictions. Filing claims against the state and the city is standard practice after a vacated conviction."
The settlement for the man, Jabbar Collins, is among a wave the state is expected to face. In Brooklyn alone, the convictions of seven men have been vacated this year, after the district attorney there began examining 90 troubled convictions. Filing claims against the state and the city is standard practice after a vacated conviction.
Judge Faviola A. Soto of the New York State Court of Claims approved the amount for Mr. Collins at a hearing.
Janet Polstein, an assistant attorney general for the state, said at the hearing, “This is reasonable compensation for the loss of liberty Mr. Collins suffered in state incarceration.”Mr. Collins was convicted of killing a rabbi in 1994 in the Williamsburg section of the borough. He always claimed he was innocent, and, while in prison, began researching the law and his case, filing records requests and appeals from behind bars and interviewing witnesses.
After a decade of working on his own, he hired a lawyer, Joel B. Rudin. Mr. Rudin filed a motion asking a federal judge to overturn the conviction, arguing that prosecutors had withheld key material and had knowingly presented false testimony at trial. The judge castigated the district attorney’s office for its handling of the trial; the district attorney’s office then agreed to clear Mr. Collins of the conviction and not to seek another prosecution.
Mr. Collins called the settlement “bittersweet,” saying he felt vindicated by it but wished that his mother, who died a year ago, were alive for it. He said he wanted to keep working on wrongful-conviction cases, and was considering going into the ministry. But the memory of prison lingers.
“I still have nightmares,” he said. “Waking up and thinking that I’m still there, that I was dreaming about this part of my life.”
Freed in 2010, Mr. Collins, 42, joined Mr. Rudin’s firm as a paralegal. Mr. Collins sued the state in 2011 under the Unjust Conviction Act, which requires people to show through “clear and convincing evidence that they were unjustly convicted.”
This year, Martin Tankleff, who served 17 years in prison for the murder of his parents before his conviction was overturned, got $3.3 million under the act.
The state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, proposed legislation in February that amended that act so that people who falsely confessed or who pleaded guilty — not just people who were convicted — but who were later exonerated could also sue the state.
Since 2000, the attorney general’s office under Mr. Schneiderman and his predecessors has settled 66 wrongful-conviction claims; the Collins settlement is the seventh largest.
Mr. Collins has a suit pending against the city on civil rights claims, also filed in 2011. That suit has involved the depositions of the former Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, and some of his subordinates. Mr. Rudin recently received approval from a judge to question Louis Scarcella, a retired detective whose methods have come under question; the current district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, is reviewing 57 of Mr. Scarcella’s cases.
Mr. Rudin said it was a strategic victory to secure the state claim before resolving the federal civil rights suit, because the state payout might have been reduced had a federal settlement already been reached. “Traditionally in settlement negotiations in wrongful-conviction cases, the city tries to exploit what it sees as the desperation of the plaintiff,” he said. “This gives Jabbar some financial security and makes him even more determined to see the city case through.”
Mr. Rudin said last month that the city and Mr. Collins had begun talking about a settlement but were far apart on a figure. A judge set an Oct. 20 trial date for the civil rights suit, while encouraging a settlement before then.
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12) Despite a Pledge by Samsung, Child Labor Proves Resilient
They are 14 and 15 years old, below the legal working age in China. A few weeks ago, they were living at home with their parents in a small village a six-hour drive from here, finishing middle school.
“We also worked at a factory last summer,” said one of the girls, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of getting fired. “But it was much worse. We were making Christmas ornaments, and some workers got huge blisters on their hands.”
The presence of at least three child workers at the factory in southern China casts a cloud over the labor practices of Samsung and its suppliers.A little more than a week ago, Samsung, the South Korean electronics giant, said in an annual review of conditions at its manufacturing centers that it had found no evidence of under-age workers or child laborers in its global supply chain. In recent years, Samsung has promoted its efforts to monitor and evaluate suppliers and manufacturing operations around the world, noting that the policies were aimed at protecting workers and preventing minors from being hired.
For instance, even though the legal working age in China is 16, Samsung considers that too young, and so its suppliers are instructed not to hire workers under 18. To ensure they do not cheat, Samsung says, it has forced all of them to install a sophisticated facial recognition system on factory sites.
But on Tuesday morning, the three young girls met with a reporter from The New York Times after they were initially identified by the labor rights group China Labor Watch. Near their factory here in Dongguan, they explained how easy it was to work for a company that supplies Samsung.
According to the girls, they were part of a “labor dispatch system” that often funnels child laborers to factories during the summer to help meet a surge in orders that comes just ahead of the fall and winter shopping seasons in the United States and Europe. They were hired as temporary workers, they said, and paid through an agency that has recruitment channels in poor regions.
After they told their story, the three girls locked arms and walked past the security guards and into the Shinyang Electronics factory, which employs more than 600 workers in Dongguan, one of China’s biggest manufacturing centers.
“As part of our pledge against child labor, Samsung routinely conducts inspections to monitor our suppliers to ensure they follow our commitment,” Samsung said in a statement. “We are urgently looking into the latest allegations and will take appropriate measures in accordance with our policies to prevent any cases of child labor in our suppliers.”
The situation at the factory in Dongguan underscores some of the challenges multinational corporations face in sourcing goods from here. Wages and working conditions in China have steadily improved over the last decade. But ensuring that supplier factories comply with guidelines set by global brands, as well as China’s labor laws, is difficult, even though larger factories are regularly audited by outside inspectors.
Many global brands have struggled with labor problems in their Chinese operations. In the last few years, Apple has come under scrutiny in China over labor and safety problems, notably a spate of worker suicides and unrest at facilities run by its biggest contract manufacturer, the Taiwanese company Foxconn.
Apple declined to comment for this article, but the company has said it has taken steps to address labor issues in its supply chain, including deeper audits on its partners and a program that punishes suppliers that hire under-age workers.
Now, Samsung — whose smartphones are popular worldwide — is also the target of labor rights activists. In a report released on Thursday, China Labor Watch, which is based in New York, accused Samsung of allowing a supplier in Dongguan to hire under-age workers, cheating those workers on pay, denying them overtime wages and failing to give them government-mandated labor contracts.
“After allegedly inspecting hundreds of Chinese suppliers, Samsung did not find one child worker,” China Labor Watch said in a statement released on Thursday. “Yet in just one Samsung supplier factory, C.L.W. has uncovered several children employed without labor contracts, working 11 hours per day and only being paid for 10 of those hours.”
For the last decade, labor rights groups have tried to draw attention to labor abuse and health and safety violations in some of China’s biggest factories. They often send young activists to work undercover in the workshops, document conditions, secretly interview workers and examine their pay stubs and employment contracts.
In the Samsung case, a young activist at China Labor Watch was hired by the Dongguan factory and began collecting evidence and making friends with workers suspected of being under-age. According to the account by the labor rights group, the activist ate with the three young girls, and also with two young boys who were believed to be under-age, and secretly recorded their conversations.The activist also took photographs of conditions inside the Shinyang facility, which is owned and managed by a company in South Korea. The Dongguan factory now works exclusively for Samsung to produce plastic components for mobile phones.
A Shinyang spokeswoman, who gave her name as Ms. Fang, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that Samsung audited the company on June 25 and that the auditors found no evidence of workers below age 18, let alone 16.
Samsung says in its own exhaustive audits of hundreds of factories in China during the last two years that third-party auditors found not a single under-age worker. But a Samsung spokeswoman says the company is now conducting its own investigation into the Shinyang facility.
According to its annual sustainability report, which includes a review of human rights and labor conditions at its global centers, Samsung says it has “zero tolerance” for child labor and could “suspend transactions” with suppliers that do not comply with its rules.
In its 2014 report, released on June 30, Samsung acknowledged weaknesses in its supply chain. For instance, the report said that a majority of the facilities Samsung had audited in China failed to comply with the country’s law on the maximum hours of overtime workers are permitted, which is 36 hours a month. The company said it was trying to rectify the situation.
If Samsung verifies that at least three young girls were working at its supplier factory, experts say that would cast some doubts on what the company considers stringent audits, including the use of facial recognition software to determine whether the faces of workers matched their government-issued identity cards.
According to the three young girls, they began working at Shinyang on June 30, just five days after the Shinyang factory says it was audited. They said they were hired as “temporary workers,” given fake ID cards and asked to work the most difficult shift, 8:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., and then to put in an additional three hours of overtime, six days a week.
The work was grueling but tolerable, they said. The girls complained that they were paid about $1.20 an hour because they had been hired by a middleman or “labor dispatch company.” A typical worker, they said, was paid $1.45 an hour. Labor rights activists say this is an increasingly common way factories reduce costs and skirt the labor law.
China Labor Watch said the girls were allowed to avoid the facial recognition system, which is supposed to help prevent under-age workers. And when asked how the factory could provide them with false government-issued ID cards, one of the girls said: “The factory can just borrow real identification cards from other factories to register us. And the system for checking employees as they enter the factory is not that strict.”
Stephanie Yifan Yang contributed research and Brian X. Chen contributed reporting.
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B.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND
ONGOING
CAMPAIGNS
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Transport Workers Protest Oakland Schools Censorship of Mumia
Fresh from defeating Obama’s nominee to head the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department because he served for a period as Mumia’s attorney, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is attacking an Oakland teacher’s lesson plan that asks students to compare the censorship of Martin Luther King’s later, thoroughly radical positions with the censorship of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s prison writings. As a result of this intimidation from the FOP, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) took down an entire web site—Urban Dreams—which contained this as well as educational material on a diverse range of issues!
The following is an open letter by the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee protesting this outrageous act of police-state censorship . . .
Stop the Censorship!
Restore the Urban Dreams web site!
Open letter to Oakland School Board members:
May 28, 2014
Members of the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, including (among others) the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), BART workers and AC Transit bus drivers, were appalled to hear that the Oakland Unified School District succumbed to pressure from the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the right-wing Fox News by shutting down the educational Urban Dreams website, which includes material on Mumia Abu-Jamal and Martin Luther King Jr.
In effect, academic freedom was pushed to a back seat of the bus. This censorship is wrong. The Urban Dreams website must be restored immediately for all to freely visit and learn.
If not, OUSD administration has joined in with the FOP’s vendetta against Mumia Abu-Jamal. The target of the FOP-Fox News smears was a lesson plan by Oakland teacher Craig Gordon asking students to compare the media’s wall of silence on Martin Luther King’s militant anti-corporate, anti-war campaigning with its wall of silence on Mumia’s writings.
To take that lesson plan down, OUSD took down the entire Urban Dreams website, a website containing many rich and evocative teacher-developed lessons, of which Gordon’s is one. Several of these lesson plans were still in active use by teachers in Oakland and elsewhere. [Urban Dreams was initially set up under a grant from the federal Dept. of Education in 1999-2004].
Academic freedom was pushed to the back of the bus.
This censorship is wrong!
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Black journalist called the “voice of the voiceless,” was framed for the murder of a Philadelphia policeman over 30 years ago and sentenced to death. Only recently was this innocent man removed from death row.
Fifteen years ago, in the best tradition of the abolitionists, Oakland teachers initiated a teach-in on the plight of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the vestige of slavery, the death penalty. Indeed, Craig Gordon was one of the organizers of that teach-in.
Following that stellar example in 1999, striking school teachers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, demanded his release from prison. As well, longshore workers shutdown all West Coast ports and led a march of 25,000 strong in San Francisco calling for the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Workers in the Bay Area, especially here in Oakland, have a long and proud tradition of defending Black victims of the racist state oppression – from Martin Luther King Jr. to Angela Davis to Huey Newton to Oscar Grant.
Oakland teachers have an obligation to teach that history
and students have a right to learn from that history!
The Urban Dreams website must be restored immediately
for all to freely visit and learn!
Contact Jack Heyman, chair of the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, at TransportSolidarity@yahoo.com.
The statement above was published at:
http://sfbayview.com/2014/stop-the-censorship-restore-the-urban-dreams-website/
This message from: the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
www.laboractionmumia.org
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Transport Workers Protest Oakland Schools Censorship of Mumia
Fresh from defeating Obama’s nominee to head the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department because he served for a period as Mumia’s attorney, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is attacking an Oakland teacher’s lesson plan that asks students to compare the censorship of Martin Luther King’s later, thoroughly radical positions with the censorship of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s prison writings. As a result of this intimidation from the FOP, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) took down an entire web site—Urban Dreams—which contained this as well as educational material on a diverse range of issues!
The following is an open letter by the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee protesting this outrageous act of police-state censorship . . .
Stop the Censorship!
Restore the Urban Dreams web site!
Open letter to Oakland School Board members:
May 28, 2014
Members of the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, including (among others) the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), BART workers and AC Transit bus drivers, were appalled to hear that the Oakland Unified School District succumbed to pressure from the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the right-wing Fox News by shutting down the educational Urban Dreams website, which includes material on Mumia Abu-Jamal and Martin Luther King Jr.
In effect, academic freedom was pushed to a back seat of the bus. This censorship is wrong. The Urban Dreams website must be restored immediately for all to freely visit and learn.
If not, OUSD administration has joined in with the FOP’s vendetta against Mumia Abu-Jamal. The target of the FOP-Fox News smears was a lesson plan by Oakland teacher Craig Gordon asking students to compare the media’s wall of silence on Martin Luther King’s militant anti-corporate, anti-war campaigning with its wall of silence on Mumia’s writings.
To take that lesson plan down, OUSD took down the entire Urban Dreams website, a website containing many rich and evocative teacher-developed lessons, of which Gordon’s is one. Several of these lesson plans were still in active use by teachers in Oakland and elsewhere. [Urban Dreams was initially set up under a grant from the federal Dept. of Education in 1999-2004].
Academic freedom was pushed to the back of the bus.
This censorship is wrong!
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Black journalist called the “voice of the voiceless,” was framed for the murder of a Philadelphia policeman over 30 years ago and sentenced to death. Only recently was this innocent man removed from death row.
Fifteen years ago, in the best tradition of the abolitionists, Oakland teachers initiated a teach-in on the plight of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the vestige of slavery, the death penalty. Indeed, Craig Gordon was one of the organizers of that teach-in.
Following that stellar example in 1999, striking school teachers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, demanded his release from prison. As well, longshore workers shutdown all West Coast ports and led a march of 25,000 strong in San Francisco calling for the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Workers in the Bay Area, especially here in Oakland, have a long and proud tradition of defending Black victims of the racist state oppression – from Martin Luther King Jr. to Angela Davis to Huey Newton to Oscar Grant.
Oakland teachers have an obligation to teach that history
and students have a right to learn from that history!
The Urban Dreams website must be restored immediately
for all to freely visit and learn!
Contact Jack Heyman, chair of the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, at TransportSolidarity@yahoo.com.
The statement above was published at:
http://sfbayview.com/2014/stop-the-censorship-restore-the-urban-dreams-website/
This message from: the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
www.laboractionmumia.org
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AN URGENT FUNDRAISER FOR LYNNE STEWART'S
MEDICAL NEEDS CONTINUES
http://lynnestewart.org/
LYNNE STEWART HAS JUST BEEN DENIED
MEDICAL BENEFITS. SHE CAN'T RE-APPLY UNTIL JULY!
SHE IS IN URGENT NEED OF OUR HELP NOW!
Because of a determined people’s movement, Lynne is finally home with her family. But she has urgent medical needs and costs. Lynne’s Stage 4 breast cancer spread a year ago to both lungs, back, bones and lymph nodes. Now 74, she has lost weight and has trouble breathing; doctors estimate her lifespan at 12 months. Lynne will soon begin treatment requiring her to pay deductibles and co-payments. To boost the odds, she’ll use a special diet, vitamins, and other healing methods – some costly and none covered by insurance.
Lynne’s spirit is indomitable – help her fight to survive!
“I fought lions, I fought tigers, and I’m not going to let cancer get me,” Stewart said.
Lynne has always come to the aid of those who needed her. Now it’s our turn to stand by Lynne.
SEND LYNNE A DONATION TO:
On line at:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lynne-stewart-s-medical-fund
Or by USPS to:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street?
Brooklyn, New York 11216
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Tell Maj. Gen. Buchanan why Chelsea deserves to be free!
Please write a letter to Convening Authority Major General Buchanan today urging him to reduce Chelsea’s sentence!
We began collecting letters to include in PVT Manning’s clemency packet last fall. We expected that the military would finalize her record of trial last December, and that she could then submit her application to Maj. Gen. Buchanan by the end of 2013. Just like so many times before, however, the military’s process has slowed Chelsea’s ability to defend her rights. Defense attorney David Coombs now estimates that it will be at least another month before the clemency application can be submitted.
Want to make sure decision-makers know why you believe Chelsea deserves to go free? If you haven’t done so yet, please write a short letter to Maj. Gen. Buchanan. Hundreds of people have already submitted letters for us to use, including Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and award-winning author Alice Walker.
As Alice Walker wrote:
Private Manning was the one soldier willing to speak out against what he thought was wrong. When others silently followed orders, Manning could not. Pvt. Manning is a humanist, meaning he sees humanity before nationality, and values human life above all else. When he released documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, he wanted the American people, and the world, to judge for themselves if the U.S. military was properly valuing human life in Iraq and Afghanistan. As taxpayers who fund that military, we deserve that opportunity.Learn now how you can write a letter to be included in Chelsea Manning’s official application for clemency!
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
http://www.privatemanning.org/pardonpetition
Help
us continue to cover 100%
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38591
COURAGE
TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
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End Drone Killing, Drone Surveillance and Global
Militarization
United National Antiwar Coalition Call for Spring Days of
Action 2014
Today we issue an international call for Spring Days of Action—2014, a coordinated campaign in April and May to end drone killings, drone surveillance and global militarization.
The campaign will focus on drone bases, drone research facilities and test sites and drone manufacturers.
The campaign will provide information on:
1. The suffering of tens-of-thousands of people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza who are under drone attack, documenting the killing, the wounding and the devastating impact of constant drone surveillance on community life.
2. How attack and surveillance drones have become a key element in a massive wave of surveillance, clandestine military attacks and militarization generated by the United States to protect a global system of manufacture and oil and mineral exploitation that is creating unemployment and poverty, accelerating the waste of nonrenewable resources and contributing to environmental destruction and global warming.
In addition to cases in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia, we will examine President Obama’s “pivot” into the Asia-Pacific, where the United States has already sold and deployed drones in the vanguard of a shift of 60 percent of its military forces to try to control China and to enforce the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership. We will show, among other things, how this surge of “pivot” forces, greatly enabled by drones, and supported by the U.S. military-industrial complex, will hit every American community with even deeper cuts in the already fragile social programs on which people rely for survival. In short, we will connect drones and militarization with “austerity” in America.
3. How drone attacks have effectively destroyed international and domestic legal protection of the rights to life, privacy, freedom of assembly and free speech and have opened the way for new levels of surveillance and repression around the world, and how, in the United States, increasing drone surveillance, added to surveillance by the National Security Agency and police, provides a new weapon to repress black, Hispanic, immigrant and low-income communities and to intimidate Americans who are increasingly unsettled by lack of jobs, economic inequality, corporate control of politics and the prospect of endless war.
We will discuss how the United States government and corporations conspire secretly to monitor U.S. citizens and particularly how the Administration is accelerating drone surveillance operations and surveillance inside the United States with the same disregard for transparency and law that it applies to other countries, all with the cooperation of the Congress.
The campaign will encourage activists around the world to win passage of local laws that prohibit weaponized drones and drone surveillance from being used in their communities as well as seeking national laws to bar the use of weaponized drones and drone surveillance.
The campaign will draw attention to the call for a ban on weaponized drones by RootsAction.org that has generated a petition with over 80,000 signers:
http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6180
And to efforts by the Granny Peace Brigade (New York City), KnowDrones.org and others to achieve an international ban on both weaponized drones and drone surveillance.
The campaign will also urge participation in the World Beyond War movement.
The following individuals and organizations endorse
this Call:
Lyn Adamson, Co-chair, Canadian Voice of Women for
Peace; Dennis Apel, Guadalupe Catholic Worker, California; Judy Bello, Upstate
NY Coalition to Ground the Drones & End the Wars; Medea Benjamin, Code Pink;
Leah Bolger, Former National President, Veterans for Peace; Canadian Voice of
Women for Peace; Sung-Hee Choi, Gangjeong Village International Team, Jeju,
Korea; Chelsea C. Faria, Graduate student, Yale Divinity School; Promoting
Enduring Peace; Sandy Fessler, Rochester (NY) Against War; Joy First; Bruce K.
Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space; Holly
Gwinn Graham, Singer/songwriter, Olympia, WA; Regina Hagen, Darmstaedter
Friedensforum, Germany; Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence; Malachy
Kilbride; Marilyn Levin and Joe Lombardo, Co-Coordinators, United National
Antiwar Coalition; Tamara Lorincz, Halifax Peace Coalition, Canada; Nick
Mottern, KnowDrones.org; Agneta
Norberg, Swedish Peace Council; Pepperwolf, Director, Women Against Military
Madness; Lindis Percy, Coordinator, Campaign for the Accountability of American;
Bases CAAB UK; Mathias Quackenbush, San Francisco, CA; Lisa Savage, Code
Pink, State of Maine; Janice Sevre-Duszynska; Wolfgang Schlupp-Hauck, Friedenswerkstatt
Mutlangen, Germany; Cindy Sheehan; Lucia Wilkes Smith, Convener, Women Against
Military Madness (WAMM), Ground; Military
Drones Committee; David Soumis, Veterans for Peace; No Drones Wisconsin; Debra
Sweet, World Can’t Wait; David Swanson, WarisACrime.org;
Brian Terrell, Voices for Creative Nonviolence; United National Antiwar
Coalition; Veterans for Peace; Dave Webb, Chair, Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament (UK); Curt Wechsler, Fire John Paki Wieland, Northampton (MA)
Committee to Stop War(s); Loring Wirbel, Citizens for Peace in Space (Colorado
Springs, CO); Women Against Military Madness; Ann Wright, Retired U.S. Army
colonel and former diplomat; Leila Zand, Fellowship of Reconciliation.
United National Antiwar Coalition
UNACpeace@gmail.com
UNAC
P.O. Box 123
Delmar, NY 12054
518-227-6947
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Sireen Khudairy Appeal Update.
Sireen
Khudairy was arrested again at 4am on Tuesday 7th January 2014. According to
reports she has been taken to Huwwara military point. When the Israeli army
took her from her home they didn't show any papers to her or the person she was
with.
This
follows eight months of harassment of this 24-year-old Palestinian woman who is
a teacher, activist and supporter of the non-violent action against the Israeli
occupation. She was previously imprisoned from May to July 2013, and has been
subjected to frequent harassment ever since. See further details at:
http://freesireen.wordpress.com
Please
help by contacting your Embassies urgently to demand her release and spread her
appeal widely. Follow updates on:
https://www.facebook.com/FreeSireenKhudiri?ref=hl
Please
contact us to let us know any action you take. We will pass this information on
to her family. Thanks for your solidarity and support.
Steven Katsineris, January 2014
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U.S.
Court of Appeals Rules Against Lorenzo Johnson’s
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
The
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied Lorenzo Johnson’s motion to
file a Second Habeas Corpus Petition. The order contained the outrageous
declaration that Johnson hadn’t made a “prima facie case” that he had new
evidence of his innocence. This not only puts a legal obstacle in Johnson’s
path as his fight for freedom makes its way (again) through the state and
federal courts—but it undermines the newly filed Pennsylvania state appeal that
is pending in the Court of Common Pleas.
Stripped
of “legalese,” the court’s October 15, 2013 order says Johnson’s new
evidence was not brought into court soon enough—although it was the prosecution
and police who withheld evidence and coerced witnesses into lying or not coming
forward with the truth! This, despite over fifteen years and rounds of legal
battles to uncover the evidence of government misconduct. This is a set-back
for Lorenzo Johnson’s renewed fight for his freedom, but Johnson is even more
determined as his PA state court appeal continues.
Increased
public support and protest is needed. The fight for Lorenzo Johnson’s freedom
is not only a fight for this courageous man and family. The fight for Lorenzo
Johnson is also a fight for all the innocent others who have been framed and
are sitting in the slow death of prison. The PA Attorney General is directly
pursuing the charges against Lorenzo, despite the evidence of his innocence and
the corruption of the police. Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
—Rachel
Wolkenstein, Esq.
October 25, 2013
For
more on the federal court and PA state court legal filings.
Hear
Mumia’s latest commentary, “Cat Cries”
Go
to: www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org for more information, to sign the petition, and
how to help.
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PUSH
CHELSEA'S JAILERS TO RESPECT HER IDENTITY
Call
and write Ft Leavenworth today and tell them to honor Manning's wishes around
her name and gender:
Call:
(913) 758-3600
Write
to:
Col.
Sioban Ledwith, Commander
U.S.
Detention Barracks
1301
N Warehouse Rd
Ft.
Leavenworth KS 66027
Private
Manning has been an icon both for the government transparency movement and
LGBTQ activists because of her fearlessness and acts of conscience. Now, as she
begins serving her sentence, Chelsea has asked for help with legal appeals,
family visits, education, and support for undergoing gender transition. The
latter is a decision she’s made following years of experiencing gender
dysphoria and examining her options. At a difficult time in her life, she
joined the military out of hope–the hope that she could use her service to save
lives, and also the hope that it would help to suppress her feelings of gender
dysphoria. But after serving time in Iraq, Private Manning realized what
mattered to her most was the truth, personal as well as political, even when it
proved challenging.
Now
she wants the Fort Leavenworth military prison to allow her access to hormone
replacement therapy which she has offered to pay for herself, as she pursues
the process to have her name legally changed to ‘Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.’
To
encourage the prison to honor her transgender identity, we’re calling on
progressive supporters and allies to contact Fort Leavenworth officials
demanding they acknowledge her requested name change immediately. Currently,
prison officials are not required to respect Chelsea’s identity, and can even
refuse to deliver mail addressed to the name ‘Chelsea Manning.’ However, it’s
within prison administrators’ power to begin using the name ‘Chelsea Manning’
now, in advance of the legal name change which will most likely be approved
sometime next year. It’s also up to these officials to approve Private
Manning’s request for hormone therapy.
Call:
(913) 758-3600
Write
to:
Col.
Sioban Ledwith, Commander
U.S.
Detention Barracks
1301
N Warehouse Rd
Ft.
Leavenworth KS 66027
Tell
them: “Transgender rights are human rights! Respect Private Manning’s identity
by acknowledging the name ‘Chelsea Manning’ whenever possible, including in
mail addressed to her, and by allowing her access to appropriate medical
treatment for gender dysphoria, including hormone replacement therapy (HRT).”
While
openly transgender individuals are allowed to serve in many other militaries
around the world, the US military continues to deny their existence. Now, by
speaking up for Chelsea’s right to treatment, you can support one brave
whistleblower in her personal struggle, and help set an important benchmark for
the rights of transgender individuals everywhere. (Remember that letters
written with focus and a respectful tone are more likely to be effective.) Feel
free to copy this sample letter.
Earlier
this year, the Private Manning Support Network won the title of most
“absolutely fabulous overall contingent” at the San Francisco Pride Parade, the
largest celebration of its kind for LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender
and Questioning) people nationwide. Over one thousand people marched for
Private Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning in that parade, to show LGBTQ
community pride for the Iraq War’s most well-known whistleblower.
Help
us continue to cover 100%
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38591
COURAGE
TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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SAVE
CCSF!
Posted
on August 25, 2013
Cartoon
by Anthonty Mata for CCSF Guardsman
DOE
CAMPAIGN
We
are working to ensure that the ACCJC’s authority is not renewed by the
Department of Education this December when they are up for their 5-year
renewal. Our campaign made it possible for over 50 Third Party Comments to be
sent to the DOE re: the ACCJC. Our next step in this campaign is to send a
delegation from CCSF to Washington, D.C. to give oral comments at the hearing
on December 12th. We expect to have an array of forces aligned on the other
side who have much more money and resources than we do.
So
please support this effort to get ACCJC authority revoked!
LEGAL
CAMPAIGN
Save
CCSF members have been meeting with Attorney Dan Siegel since last May to
explore legal avenues to fight the ACCJC. After much consideration, and
consultation with AFT 2121’s attorney as well as the SF City Attorney’s office,
Dan has come up with a legal strategy that is complimentary to what is already
being pursued. In fact, AFT 2121’s attorney is encouraging us to go forward.
The
total costs of pursuing this (depositions, etc.) will be substantially more
than $15,000. However, Dan is willing to do it for a fixed fee of $15,000. He
will not expect a retainer, i.e. payment in advance, but we should start
payments ASAP. If we win the ACCJC will have to pay our costs.
PLEASE
HELP BOTH OF THESE IMPORTANT EFFORTS!
Checks
can be made out to Save CCSF Coalition with “legal” in the memo line and sent
to:
Save
CCSF Coalition
2132
Prince St.
Berkeley, CA 94705
Or
you may donate online: http://www.gofundme.com/4841ns
http://www.saveccsf.org/
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16 Years in Solitary Confinement Is Like a "Living Tomb"
American
Civil Liberties Union petition to end long-term solitary confinement:
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard: We stand with the prisoners on hunger
strike. We urge you to comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in
America’s Prisons 2006 recommendations regarding an end to long-term solitary
confinement.
In
California, hundreds of prisoners have been held in solitary for more than a
decade – some for infractions as trivial as reading Machiavelli's "The
Prince."
Gabriel
Reyes describes the pain of being isolated for at least 22 hours a day for the
last 16 years:
“Unless
you have lived it, you cannot imagine what it feels like to be by yourself,
between four cold walls, with little concept of time…. It is a living tomb …’ I
have not been allowed physical contact with any of my loved ones since 1995…I
feel helpless and hopeless. In short, I am being psychologically tortured.”
That’s
why over 30,000 prisoners in California began a hunger strike – the biggest the
state has ever seen. They’re refusing food to protest prisoners being held for
decades in solitary and to push for other changes to improve their basic
conditions.
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard has tried to dismiss the strikers and
refuses to negotiate, but the media pressure is building through the strike. If
tens of thousands of us take action, we can help keep this issue in the
spotlight so that Secretary Beard can’t ignore the inhumane treatment of
prisoners.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Solitary
is such an extreme form of punishment that a United Nations torture rapporteur
called for an international ban on the practice except in rare occasions.
Here’s why:
The
majority of the 80,000 people held in solitary in this country are severely
mentally ill or because of a minor infraction (it’s a myth that it’s only for
violent prisoners)
Even
for people with stable mental health, solitary causes severe psychological
reactions, often leading people to attempt suicide
It
jeopardizes public safety because prisoners held in solitary have a harder time
reintegrating into society.
And
to add insult to injury, the hunger strikers are now facing retaliation – their
lawyers are being restricted from visiting and the strikers are being punished.
But the media continues to write about the hunger strike and we can help keep
the pressure on Secretary Beard by signing this petition.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Our
criminal justice system should keep communities safe and treat people fairly.
The use of solitary confinement undermines both of these goals – but little by
little, we can help put a stop to such cruelty.
Thank
you,
Anthony
for the ACLU Action team
P.S.
The hunger strikers have developed five core demands to address their basic
conditions, the main one being an end to long-term solitary confinement. They
are:
-End
group punishment – prisoners say that officials often punish groups to address
individual rule violations
-Abolish
the debriefing policy, which is often demanded in return for better food or
release from solitary
-End
long-term solitary confinement
-Provide
adequate and nutritious food
-Expand
or provide constructive programming and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates
Sources
“Solitary
- and anger - in California's prisons.” Los Angeles Times July 13, 2013
“Pelican
Bay Prison Hunger-Strikers' Stories: Gabriel Reyes.” TruthOut July 9, 2013
“Solitary
confinement should be banned in most cases, UN expert says.” UN News October
18, 2011
"Stop
Solitary - Two Pager" ACLU.org
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What
you Didn't know about NYPD's Stop and Frisk program !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rfJHx0Gj6ys#at=990
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Egypt:
The Next President -- a little Egyptian boy speaks his remarkable mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeDm2PrNV1I
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Wealth
Inequality in America
[This
is a must see to believe video...bw]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM
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Read
the transcription of hero Bradley Manning's 35-page statement explaining why he
leaked "state secrets" to WikiLeaks.
March
1, 2013
Alternet
The
statement was read by Pfc. Bradley Manning at a providence inquiry for his
formal plea of guilty to one specification as charged and nine specifications
for lesser included offenses. He pled not guilty to 12 other specifications.
This rush transcript was taken by journalist Alexa O'Brien at Thursday's
pretrial hearing and first appeared on Salon.com.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/bradley-mannings-surprising-statement-court-details-why-he-made-his-historic?akid=10129.229473.UZvQfK&rd=1&src=newsletter802922&t=7
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You
Have the Right to Remain Silent: NLG Guide to Law Enforcement Encounters
Posted
1 day ago on July 27, 2012, 10:28 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Occupy
Wall Street is a nonviolent movement for social and economic justice, but in
recent days disturbing reports have emerged of Occupy-affiliated activists
being targeted by US law enforcement, including agents from the FBI and
Department of Homeland Security. To help ensure Occupiers and allied activists
know their rights when encountering law enforcement, we are publishing in full
the National Lawyers Guild's booklet: You Have the Right to Remain Silent. The
NLG provides invaluable support to the Occupy movement and other activists –
please click here to support the NLG.
We
strongly encourage all Occupiers to read and share the information provided
below. We also recommend you enter the NLG's national hotline number
(888-654-3265) into your cellphone (if you have one) and keep a copy handy.
This information is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact the
NLG or a criminal defense attorney immediately if you have been visited by the
FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should also alert your relatives,
friends, co-workers and others so that they will be prepared if they are
contacted as well.
You
Have the Right to Remain Silent: A Know Your Rights Guide for Law Enforcement
Encounters
What
Rights Do I Have?
Whether
or not you're a citizen, you have rights under the United States Constitution.
The Fifth Amendment gives every person the right to remain silent: not to
answer questions asked by a police officer or government agent. The Fourth
Amendment restricts the government's power to enter and search your home or
workplace, although there are many exceptions and new laws have expanded the
government's power to conduct surveillance. The First Amendment protects your
right to speak freely and to advocate for social change. However, if you are a
non-citizen, the Department of Homeland Security may target you based on your
political activities.
Standing
Up For Free Speech
The
government's crusade against politically-active individuals is intended to
disrupt and suppress the exercise of time-honored free speech activities, such
as boycotts, protests, grassroots organizing and solidarity work. Remember that
you have the right to stand up to the intimidation tactics of FBI agents and
other law enforcement officials who, with political motives, are targeting
organizing and free speech activities. Informed resistance to these tactics and
steadfast defense of your and others' rights can bring positive results. Each
person who takes a courageous stand makes future resistance to government oppression
easier for all. The National Lawyers Guild has a long tradition of standing up
to government repression. The organization itself was labeled a
"subversive" group during the McCarthy Era and was subject to FBI
surveillance and infiltration for many years. Guild attorneys have defended
FBI-targeted members of the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement,
and the Puerto Rican independence movement. The NLG exposed FBI surveillance,
infiltration and disruption tactics that were detailed during the 1975-76
COINTELPRO hearings. In 1989 the NLG prevailed in a lawsuit on behalf of
several activist organizations, including the Guild, that forced the FBI to
expose the extent to which it had been spying on activist movements. Under the
settlement, the FBI turned over roughly 400,000 pages of its files on the
Guild, which are now available at the Tamiment Library at New York University.
What
if FBI Agents or Police Contact Me?
What
if an agent or police officer comes to the door?
Do
not invite the agents or police into your home. Do not answer any questions.
Tell the agent that you do not wish to talk with him or her. You can state that
your lawyer will contact them on your behalf. You can do this by stepping
outside and pulling the door behind you so that the interior of your home or
office is not visible, getting their contact information or business cards and
then returning inside. They should cease questioning after this. If the agent
or officer gives a reason for contacting you, take notes and give the
information to your attorney. Anything you say, no matter how seemingly
harmless or insignificant, may be used against you or others in the future.
Lying to or misleading a federal agent is a crime. The more you speak, the more
opportunity for federal law enforcement to find something you said (even if not
intentionally) false and assert that you lied to a federal officer.
Do
I have to answer questions?
You
have the constitutional right to remain silent. It is not a crime to refuse to
answer questions. You do not have to talk to anyone, even if you have been
arrested or are in jail. You should affirmatively and unambiguously state that
you wish to remain silent and that you wish to consult an attorney. Once you
make the request to speak to a lawyer, do not say anything else. The Supreme
Court recently ruled that answering law enforcement questions may be taken as a
waiver of your right to remain silent, so it is important that you assert your
rights and maintain them. Only a judge can order you to answer questions. There
is one exception: some states have "stop and identify" statutes which
require you to provide identity information or your name if you have been
detained on reasonable suspicion that you may have committed a crime. A lawyer
in your state can advise you of the status of these requirements where you
reside.
Do
I have to give my name?
As
above, in some states you can be detained or arrested for merely refusing to
give your name. And in any state, police do not always follow the law, and
refusing to give your name may make them suspicious or more hostile and lead to
your arrest, even without just cause, so use your judgment. Giving a false name
could in some circumstances be a crime.
Do
I need a lawyer?
You
have the right to talk to a lawyer before you decide whether to answer
questions from law enforcement. It is a good idea to talk to a lawyer if you
are considering answering any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer
present during any interview. The lawyer's job is to protect your rights. Once
you tell the agent that you want to talk to a lawyer, he or she should stop
trying to question you and should make any further contact through your lawyer.
If you do not have a lawyer, you can still tell the officer you want to speak to
one before answering questions. Remember to get the name, agency and telephone
number of any investigator who visits you, and give that information to your
lawyer. The government does not have to provide you with a free lawyer unless
you are charged with a crime, but the NLG or another organization may be able
to help you find a lawyer for free or at a reduced rate.
If
I refuse to answer questions or say I want a lawyer, won't it seem like I have
something to hide?
Anything
you say to law enforcement can be used against you and others. You can never
tell how a seemingly harmless bit of information might be used or manipulated
to hurt you or someone else. That is why the right not to talk is a fundamental
right under the Constitution. Keep in mind that although law enforcement agents
are allowed to lie to you, lying to a government agent is a crime. Remaining
silent is not. The safest things to say are "I am going to remain
silent," "I want to speak to my lawyer," and "I do not consent
to a search." It is a common practice for law enforcement agents to try to
get you to waive your rights by telling you that if you have nothing to hide
you would talk or that talking would "just clear things up." The fact
is, if they are questioning you, they are looking to incriminate you or someone
you may know, or they are engaged in political intelligence gathering. You
should feel comfortable standing firm in protection and defense of your rights
and refusing to answer questions.
Can
agents search my home or office?
You
do not have to let police or agents into your home or office unless they have
and produce a valid search warrant. A search warrant is a written court order
that allows the police to conduct a specified search. Interfering with a
warrantless search probably will not stop it and you might get arrested. But
you should say "I do not consent to a search," and call a criminal
defense lawyer or the NLG. You should be aware that a roommate or guest can
legally consent to a search of your house if the police believe that person has
the authority to give consent, and your employer can consent to a search of
your workspace without your permission.
What
if agents have a search warrant?
If
you are present when agents come for the search, you can ask to see the
warrant. The warrant must specify in detail the places to be searched and the
people or things to be taken away. Tell the agents you do not consent to the
search so that they cannot go beyond what the warrant authorizes. Ask if you
are allowed to watch the search; if you are allowed to, you should. Take notes,
including names, badge numbers, what agency each officer is from, where they
searched and what they took. If others are present, have them act as witnesses
to watch carefully what is happening. If the agents ask you to give them
documents, your computer, or anything else, look to see if the item is listed
in the warrant. If it is not, do not consent to them taking it without talking
to a lawyer. You do not have to answer questions. Talk to a lawyer first.
(Note: If agents present an arrest warrant, they may only perform a cursory
visual search of the premises to see if the person named in the arrest warrant
is present.)
Do
I have to answer questions if I have been arrested?
No.
If you are arrested, you do not have to answer any questions. You should
affirmatively and unambiguously state that you wish to assert your right to
remain silent. Ask for a lawyer right away. Do not say anything else. Repeat to
every officer who tries to talk to or question you that you wish to remain
silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer. You should always talk to a
lawyer before you decide to answer any questions.
What
if I speak to government agents anyway?
Even
if you have already answered some questions, you can refuse to answer other
questions until you have a lawyer. If you find yourself talking, stop. Assert
that you wish to remain silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer.
What
if the police stop me on the street?
Ask
if you are free to go. If the answer is yes, consider just walking away. If the
police say you are not under arrest, but are not free to go, then you are being
detained. The police can pat down the outside of your clothing if they have
reason to suspect you might be armed and dangerous. If they search any more
than this, say clearly, "I do not consent to a search." They may keep
searching anyway. If this happens, do not resist because you can be charged
with assault or resisting arrest. You do not have to answer any questions. You
do not have to open bags or any closed container. Tell the officers you do not
consent to a search of your bags or other property.
What
if police or agents stop me in my car?
Keep
your hands where the police can see them. If you are driving a vehicle, you
must show your license, registration and, in some states, proof of insurance.
You do not have to consent to a search. But the police may have legal grounds
to search your car anyway. Clearly state that you do not consent. Officers may
separate passengers and drivers from each other to question them, but no one
has to answer any questions.
What
if I am treated badly by the police or the FBI?
Write
down the officer's badge number, name or other identifying information. You
have a right to ask the officer for this information. Try to find witnesses and
their names and phone numbers. If you are injured, seek medical attention and
take pictures of the injuries as soon as you can. Call a lawyer as soon as
possible.
What
if the police or FBI threaten me with a grand jury subpoena if I don't answer
their questions?
A
grand jury subpoena is a written order for you to go to court and testify about
information you may have. It is common for the FBI to threaten you with a
subpoena to get you to talk to them. If they are going to subpoena you, they
will do so anyway. You should not volunteer to speak just because you are
threatened with a subpoena. You should consult a lawyer.
What
if I receive a grand jury subpoena?
Grand
jury proceedings are not the same as testifying at an open court trial. You are
not allowed to have a lawyer present (although one may wait in the hallway and
you may ask to consult with him or her after each question) and you may be asked
to answer questions about your activities and associations. Because of the
witness's limited rights in this situation, the government has frequently used
grand jury subpoenas to gather information about activists and political
organizations. It is common for the FBI to threaten activists with a subpoena
in order to elicit information about their political views and activities and
those of their associates. There are legal grounds for stopping
("quashing") subpoenas, and receiving one does not necessarily mean
that you are suspected of a crime. If you do receive a subpoena, call the NLG
National Hotline at 888-NLG-ECOL (888-654-3265) or call a criminal defense
attorney immediately.
The
government regularly uses grand jury subpoena power to investigate and seek
evidence related to politically-active individuals and social movements. This
practice is aimed at prosecuting activists and, through intimidation and
disruption, discouraging continued activism.
Federal
grand jury subpoenas are served in person. If you receive one, it is critically
important that you retain the services of an attorney, preferably one who
understands your goals and, if applicable, understands the nature of your
political work, and has experience with these issues. Most lawyers are trained
to provide the best legal defense for their client, often at the expense of
others. Beware lawyers who summarily advise you to cooperate with grand juries,
testify against friends, or cut off contact with your friends and political
activists. Cooperation usually leads to others being subpoenaed and
investigated. You also run the risk of being charged with perjury, a felony,
should you omit any pertinent information or should there be inconsistencies in
your testimony.
Frequently
prosecutors will offer "use immunity," meaning that the prosecutor is
prohibited from using your testimony or any leads from it to bring charges
against you. If a subsequent prosecution is brought, the prosecutor bears the
burden of proving that all of its evidence was obtained independent of the
immunized testimony. You should be aware, however, that they will use anything
you say to manipulate associates into sharing more information about you by
suggesting that you have betrayed confidences.
In
front of a grand jury you can "take the Fifth" (exercise your right
to remain silent). However, the prosecutor may impose immunity on you, which
strips you of Fifth Amendment protection and subjects you to the possibility of
being cited for contempt and jailed if you refuse to answer further. In front
of a grand jury you have no Sixth Amendment right to counsel, although you can
consult with a lawyer outside the grand jury room after each question.
What
if I don't cooperate with the grand jury?
If
you receive a grand jury subpoena and elect to not cooperate, you may be held
in civil contempt. There is a chance that you may be jailed or imprisoned for
the length of the grand jury in an effort to coerce you to cooperate. Regular
grand juries sit for a basic term of 18 months, which can be extended up to a
total of 24 months. It is lawful to hold you in order to coerce your
cooperation, but unlawful to hold you as a means of punishment. In rare
instances you may face criminal contempt charges.
What
If I Am Not a Citizen and the DHS Contacts Me?
The
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is now part of the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) and has been renamed and reorganized into: 1. The
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS); 2. The Bureau of Customs
and Border Protection (CBP); and 3. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE). All three bureaus will be referred to as DHS for the
purposes of this pamphlet.
?
Assert your rights. If you do not demand your rights or if you sign papers
waiving your rights, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may deport you
before you see a lawyer or an immigration judge. Never sign anything without
reading, understanding and knowing the consequences of signing it.
?
Talk to a lawyer. If possible, carry with you the name and telephone number of
an immigration lawyer who will take your calls. The immigration laws are hard
to understand and there have been many recent changes. DHS will not explain
your options to you. As soon as you encounter a DHS agent, call your attorney.
If you can't do it right away, keep trying. Always talk to an immigration
lawyer before leaving the U.S. Even some legal permanent residents can be
barred from returning.
Based
on today's laws, regulations and DHS guidelines, non-citizens usually have the
following rights, no matter what their immigration status. This information may
change, so it is important to contact a lawyer. The following rights apply to
non-citizens who are inside the U.S. Non-citizens at the border who are trying
to enter the U.S. do not have all the same rights.
Do
I have the right to talk to a lawyer before answering any DHS questions or
signing any DHS papers?
Yes.
You have the right to call a lawyer or your family if you are detained, and you
have the right to be visited by a lawyer in detention. You have the right to
have your attorney with you at any hearing before an immigration judge. You do
not have the right to a government-appointed attorney for immigration
proceedings, but if you have been arrested, immigration officials must show you
a list of free or low cost legal service providers.
Should
I carry my green card or other immigration papers with me?
If
you have documents authorizing you to stay in the U.S., you must carry them
with you. Presenting false or expired papers to DHS may lead to deportation or
criminal prosecution. An unexpired green card, I-94, Employment Authorization
Card, Border Crossing Card or other papers that prove you are in legal status
will satisfy this requirement. If you do not carry these papers with you, you
could be charged with a crime. Always keep a copy of your immigration papers
with a trusted family member or friend who can fax them to you, if need be.
Check with your immigration lawyer about your specific case.
Am
I required to talk to government officers about my immigration history?
If
you are undocumented, out of status, a legal permanent resident (green card
holder), or a citizen, you do not have to answer any questions about your
immigration history. (You may want to consider giving your name; see above for
more information about this.) If you are not in any of these categories, and
you are being questioned by a DHS or FBI agent, then you may create problems
with your immigration status if you refuse to provide information requested by
the agent. If you have a lawyer, you can tell the agent that your lawyer will
answer questions on your behalf. If answering questions could lead the agent to
information that connects you with criminal activity, you should consider
refusing to talk to the agent at all.
If
I am arrested for immigration violations, do I have the right to a hearing
before an immigration judge to defend myself against deportation charges?
Yes.
In most cases only an immigration judge can order you deported. But if you
waive your rights or take "voluntary departure," agreeing to leave
the country, you could be deported without a hearing. If you have criminal
convictions, were arrested at the border, came to the U.S. through the visa
waiver program or have been ordered deported in the past, you could be deported
without a hearing. Contact a lawyer immediately to see if there is any relief
for you.
Can
I call my consulate if I am arrested?
Yes.
Non-citizens arrested in the U.S. have the right to call their consulate or to
have the police tell the consulate of your arrest. The police must let your
consulate visit or speak with you if consular officials decide to do so. Your
consulate might help you find a lawyer or offer other help. You also have the
right to refuse help from your consulate.
What
happens if I give up my right to a hearing or leave the U.S. before the hearing
is over?
You
could lose your eligibility for certain immigration benefits, and you could be
barred from returning to the U.S. for a number of years. You should always talk
to an immigration lawyer before you decide to give up your right to a hearing.
What
should I do if I want to contact DHS?
Always
talk to a lawyer before contacting DHS, even on the phone. Many DHS officers
view "enforcement" as their primary job and will not explain all of
your options to you.
What
Are My Rights at Airports?
IMPORTANT
NOTE: It is illegal for law enforcement to perform any stops, searches,
detentions or removals based solely on your race, national origin, religion,
sex or ethnicity.
If
I am entering the U.S. with valid travel papers can a U.S. customs agent stop
and search me?
Yes.
Customs agents have the right to stop, detain and search every person and item.
Can
my bags or I be searched after going through metal detectors with no problem or
after security sees that my bags do not contain a weapon?
Yes.
Even if the initial screen of your bags reveals nothing suspicious, the
screeners have the authority to conduct a further search of you or your bags.
If
I am on an airplane, can an airline employee interrogate me or ask me to get
off the plane?
The
pilot of an airplane has the right to refuse to fly a passenger if he or she
believes the passenger is a threat to the safety of the flight. The pilot's decision
must be reasonable and based on observations of you, not stereotypes.
What
If I Am Under 18?
Do
I have to answer questions?
No.
Minors too have the right to remain silent. You cannot be arrested for refusing
to talk to the police, probation officers, or school officials, except in some
states you may have to give your name if you have been detained.
What
if I am detained?
If
you are detained at a community detention facility or Juvenile Hall, you
normally must be released to a parent or guardian. If charges are filed against
you, in most states you are entitled to counsel (just like an adult) at no
cost.
Do
I have the right to express political views at school?
Public
school students generally have a First Amendment right to politically organize
at school by passing out leaflets, holding meetings, etc., as long as those
activities are not disruptive and do not violate legitimate school rules. You
may not be singled out based on your politics, ethnicity or religion.
Can
my backpack or locker be searched?
School
officials can search students' backpacks and lockers without a warrant if they
reasonably suspect that you are involved in criminal activity or carrying drugs
or weapons. Do not consent to the police or school officials searching your property,
but do not physically resist or you may face criminal charges.
Disclaimer
This
booklet is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact an attorney if
you have been visited by the FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should
also alert your relatives, friends, co-workers and others so that they will be
prepared if they are contacted as well.
NLG
National Hotline for Activists Contacted by the FBI
888-NLG-ECOL
(888-654-3265)
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Free
Mumia NOW!
Prisonradio.org
Write
to Mumia:
Mumia
Abu-Jamal AM 8335
SCI
Mahanoy
301
Morea Road
Frackville,
PA 17932
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Rachel Wolkenstein
August
21, 2011 (917) 689-4009
MUMIA
ABU-JAMAL ILLEGALLY SENTENCED TO
LIFE
IMPRISONMENT WITHOUT PAROLE!
FREE
MUMIA NOW!
www.FreeMumia.com
http://blacktalkradionetwork.com/profiles/blogs/mumia-is-formally-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-w-out-hearing-he-s
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"A
Child's View from Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against
Censorship"
book
https://www.mecaforpeace.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=25
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Justice
for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace: Decades of isolation in Louisiana
state
prisons must end
Take
Action -- Sign Petition Here:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/justice-for-albert-woodfox-and-herm\
an-wallace
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WITNESS
GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
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Write
to Bradley
http://bradleymanning.org/donate
View
the new 90 second "I am Bradley Manning" video:
I
am Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-P3OXML00s
Courage
to Resist
484
Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland,
CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
"A
Fort Leavenworth mailing address has been released for Bradley Manning:
Bradley
Manning 89289
830
Sabalu Road
Fort
Leavenworth, KS 66027
The
receptionist at the military barracks confirmed that if someone sends
Bradley
Manning a letter to that address, it will be delivered to him."
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/update-42811
This
is also a Facebook event
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207100509321891#!/event.php?eid=2071005093\
21891
Courage
to Resist needs your support
Please
donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
"Soldiers
sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning
has
been defending and supporting our Constitution." --Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon
Papers
whistle-blower
Jeff
Paterson
Project
Director, Courage to Resist
First
US military service member to refuse to fight in Iraq
Please
donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
P.S.
I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly
becoming
a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to
make
a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!
Please
click here to forward this to a friend who might also be interested in
supporting
GI resisters.
http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
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The
Battle Is Still On To
FREE
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
The
Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO
Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610
www.laboractionmumia.org
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KEVIN
COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable
doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle
Editorial
Monday,
December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death
penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's
death
row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT
ACTION APPEAL
-
From Amnesty International USA
17
December 2010
Click
here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&\
b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To
learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For
a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
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Short
Video About Al-Awda's Work
The
following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's
work
since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown
on
Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l
Al-Awda
Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected
over
the past nine years.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support
Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda,
The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial
support
to carry out its work.
To
submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html
and
follow the simple instructions.
Thank
you for your generosity!
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D.
VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some
of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/
or bauaw.org ...bw]
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Checkpoint - Jasiri X
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq6Y6LSjulU
Published on Jan 28, 2014
"Checkpoint" is based on the
oppression and discrimination Jasiri X witnessed firsthand during his
recent trip to Palestine and Israel "Checkpoint" is produced by Agent of
Change, and directed by Haute Muslim. Download "Checkpoint" at https://jasirix.bandcamp.com/track/ch....
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Exceptional
art from the streets of Oakland:
Oakland
Street Dancing
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
NYC
RESTAURANT WORKERS DANCE & SING FOR A WAGE HIKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_s8e1R6rG8&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
On
Gun Control, Martin Luther King, the Deacons of Defense and the history of
Black Liberation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzYKisvBN1o&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Fukushima
Never Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU-Z4VLDGxU
"Fukushima,
Never Again" tells the story of the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdowns in
north east Japan in March of 2011 and exposes the cover-up by Tepco and the
Japanese government.
This
is the first film that interviews the Mothers Of Fukushima, nuclear power
experts and trade unionists who are fighting for justice and the protection of
the children and the people of Japan and the world. The residents and citizens
were forced to buy their own geiger counters and radiation dosimeters in order
to test their communities to find out if they were in danger.
The
government said contaminated soil in children's school grounds was safe and
then
when
the people found out it was contaminated and removed the top soil, the
government and TEPCO refused to remove it from the school grounds.
It
also relays how the nuclear energy program for "peaceful atoms" was brought
to Japan under the auspices of the US military occupation and also the criminal
cover-up of the safety dangers of the plant by TEPCO and GE management which
built the plant in Fukushima. It also interviews Kei Sugaoka, the GE nulcear
plant inspector from the bay area who exposed cover-ups in the safety at the
Fukushima plant and was retaliated against by GE. This documentary allows the
voices of the people and workers to speak out about the reality of the disaster
and what this means not only for the people of Japan but the people of the
world as the US government and nuclear industry continue to push for more new
plants and government subsidies. This film breaks
the
information blockade story line of the corporate media in Japan, the US and
around the world that Fukushima is over.
Production
Of Labor Video Project
P.O.
Box 720027
San
Francisco, CA 94172
www.laborvideo.org
lvpsf@laborvideo.org
For
information on obtaining the video go to:
www.fukushimaneveragain.com
(415)282-1908
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1000
year of war through the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiG8neU4_bs&feature=share
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Anatomy
of a Massacre - Afganistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6BnRc11aug&feature=player_embedded
Afghans
accuse multiple soldiers of pre-meditated murder
To
see more go to http://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures
Follow
us on Facebook (http://goo.gl/YRw42) or Twitter
(http://www.twitter.com/journeymanvod)
The
recent massacre of 17 civilians by a rogue US soldier has been shrouded in
mystery.
But through unprecedented access to those involved, this report
confronts
the accusations that Bales didn't act alone.
"They
came into my room and they killed my family". Stories like this are common
amongst
the survivors in Aklozai and Najiban. As are the shocking accusations
that
Sergeant Bales was not acting alone. Even President Karzai has announced
"one
man can not do that". Chief investigator, General Karimi, is suspicious
that
despite being fully armed, Bales freely left his base without raising
alarm.
"How come he leaves at night and nobody is aware? Every time we have
weapon
accountability and personal accountability." These are just a few of the
questions
the American army and government are yet to answer. One thing however
is
very clear, the massacre has unleashed a wave of grief and outrage which
means
relations in Kandahar will be tense for years to come: "If I could lay my
hands
on those infidels, I would rip them apart with my bare hands."
A
Film By SBS
Distributed
By Journeyman Pictures
April
2012
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Photo
of George Zimmerman, in 2005 photo, left, and in a more recent photo.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/02/us/the-events-leading-to-the-sooti\
ng-of-trayvon-martin.html?hp
SPD
Security Cams.wmv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WWDNbQUgm4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Kids
being put on buses and transported from school to "alternate
locations" in
Terror
Drills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFia_w8adWQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Private
prisons,
a
recession resistant investment opportunity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGLDOxx9Vg
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Attack
Dogs used on a High School Walkout in MD, Four Students Charged With
"Thought
Crimes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wafMaML17w
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Common
forms of misconduct by Law Enforcement Officials and Prosecutors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViSpM4K276w&feature=related
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Organizing
and Instigating: OCCUPY - Ronnie Goodman
http://arthazelwood.com/instigator/occupy/occupy-birth-video.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Rep
News 12: Yes We Kony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GbzIkYdc8
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
New Black by The Mavrix - Official Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4rLfja8488
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan
One Year Later
http://www.onlineschools.org/japan-one-year-later/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
CIA's Heart Attack Gun
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/assassination-studies/the-cias-heart-attack-g\
un-.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Invisible American Workforce
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/5/new_expos_tracks_alec_private_prison
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor
Beat: NATO vs The 1st Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbQxnb4so3U
For
more detailed information, send us a request at mail@laborbeat.org.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Battle of Oakland
by
brandon jourdan plus
http://vimeo.com/36256273
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Officers
Pulled Off Street After Tape of Beating Surfaces
By
ANDY NEWMAN
February
1, 2012, 10:56 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/officers-pulled-off-street-after-ta\
pe-of-beating-surfaces/?ref=nyregion
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
This
is excellent! Michelle Alexander pulls no punches!
Michelle
Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow, speaks about the political
strategy
behind
the War on Drugs and its connection to the mass incarceration of Black
and
Brown people in the United States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P75cbEdNo2U&feature=player_embedded
If
you think Bill Clinton was "the first black President" you need to
watch this
video
and see how much damage his administration caused for the black community
as
a result of his get tough attitude on crime that appealed to white swing
voters.
This
speech took place at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem on January 12,
2012.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE
BRADLEY MANNING
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/national-call-in-for-bradley
I
received the following reply from the White House November 18, 2011 regarding
the
Bradley Manning petition I signed:
"Why
We Can't Comment on Bradley Manning
"Thank
you for signing the petition 'Free PFC Bradley Manning, the accused
WikiLeaks
whistleblower.' We appreciate your participation in the We the People
platform
on WhiteHouse.gov.
The
We the People Terms of Participation explain that 'the White House may
decline
to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or
similar
matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or
agencies,
federal courts, or state and local government.' The military justice
system
is charged with enforcing the Uniform Code of
Military
Justice. Accordingly, the White House declines to comment on the
specific
case raised in this petition...
That's
funny! I guess Obama didn't get this memo. Here's what Obama said about
Bradley:
BRADLEY
MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!
"He
broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be
charged,
let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the
President
to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with
a
crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!
Obama
on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-
Presidential
remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at
fundraiser.
Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political
action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be
Release
Bradley Manning
Almost
Gone (The Ballad Of Bradley Manning)
Written
by Graham Nash and James Raymond (son of David Crosby)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAYG7yJpBbQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Julian
Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
School
police increasingly arresting American students?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl-efNBvjUU&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FYI:
Nuclear
Detonation Timeline "1945-1998"
The
2053 nuclear tests and explosions that took place between 1945 and 1998 are
plotted
visually and audibly on a world map.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lquok4Pdk&feature=share&mid=5408
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We
Are the 99 Percent
We
are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to
choose
between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are
suffering
from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay
and
no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1
percent
is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.
Brought
to you by the people who occupy wall street. Why will YOU occupy?
OccupyWallSt.org
Occupytogether.org
wearethe99percentuk.tumblr.com
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We
Are The People Who Will Save Our Schools
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFAOJsBxAxY
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
In
honor of the 75th Anniversary of the 44-Day Flint Michigan sit-down strike at
GM
that began December 30, 1936:
According
to Michael Moore, (Although he has done some good things, this clip
isn't
one of them) in this clip from his film, "Capitalism a Love Story,"
it was
Roosevelt
who saved the day!):
"After
a bloody battle one evening, the Governor of Michigan, with the support
of
the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, sent in the National
Guard.
But the guns and the soldiers weren't used on the workers; they were
pointed
at the police and the hired goons warning them to leave these workers
alone.
For Mr. Roosevelt believed that the men inside had a right to a redress
of
their grievances." -Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story'
-
Flint Sit-Down Strike http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8x1_q9wg58
But
those cannons were not aimed at the goons and cops! They were aimed straight
at
the factory filled with strikers! Watch what REALLY happened and how the
strike
was really won!
'With
babies & banners' -- 75 years since the 44-day Flint sit-down strike
http://links.org.au/node/2681
--Inspiring
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
HALLELUJAH
CORPORATIONS (revised edition).mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0WSNRpy3g
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ONE
OF THE GREATEST POSTS ON YOUTUBE SO FAR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8C-qIgbP9o&feature=share&mid=552
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ILWU
Local 10 Longshore Workers Speak-Out At Oakland Port Shutdown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JUpBpZYwms
Uploaded
by laborvideo on Dec 13, 2011
ILWU
Local 10 longshore workers speak out during a blockade of the Port of
Oakland
called for by Occupy Oakland. Anthony Levieges and Clarence Thomas rank
and
file members of the union. The action took place on December 12, 2011 and
the
interview took place at Pier 30 on the Oakland docks.
For
more information on the ILWU Local 21 Longview EGT struggle go to
http://www.facebook.com/groups/256313837734192/
For
further info on the action and the press conferernce go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3fE-Vhrw8&feature=youtu.be
Production
of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
UC
Davis Police Violence Adds Fuel to Fire
By
Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
19
November 11
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8485-uc-davis-police-violence-add\
s-fuel-to-fire
UC
Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4&feature=player_embedded
Police
PEPPER SPRAY UC Davis STUDENT PROTESTERS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWEx6Cfn-I&feature=player_embedded
Police
pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
UC
Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to her car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CZ0t9ez_EGI#!
Occupy
Seattle - 84 Year Old Woman Dorli Rainey Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTIyE_JlJzw&feature=related
*---------*
THE
BEST VIDEO ON "OCCUPY THE WORLD"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S880UldxB1o
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Shot
by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0pX9LeE-g8&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Copwatch@Occupy
Oakland: Beware of Police Infiltrators and Provocateurs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrvMzqopHH0
*---------*
Occupy
Oakland 11-2 Strike: Police Tear Gas, Black Bloc, War in the Streets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tu_D8SFYck&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec
police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest
were
actually undercover Quebec police officers:
POLICE
STATE Criminal Cops EXPOSED As Agent Provocateurs @ SPP Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoiisMMCFT0&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec
police admit going undercover at montebello protests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg&feature=player_embedded
G20:
Epic Undercover Police Fail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrJ7aU-n1L8&feature=player_embedded
*----*
WHAT
HAPPENED IN OAKLAND TUESDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 25:
Occupy
Oakland Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPs-REyl-0&feature=player_embedded
Cops
make mass arrests at occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R27kD2_7PwU&feature=player_embedded
Raw
Video: Protesters Clash With Oakland Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpO-lJr2BQY&feature=player_embedded
Occupy
Oakland - Flashbangs USED on protesters OPD LIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q&feature=player_embedded
KTVU
TV Video of Police violence
http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587714/index.html
Marine
Vet wounded, tear gas & flash-bang grenades thrown in downtown
Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMUgPTCgwcQ&feature=player_embedded
Tear
Gas billowing through 14th & Broadway in Downtown Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU4Y0pwJtWE&feature=player_embedded
Arrests
at Occupy Atlanta -- This is what a police state looks like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YStWz6jbeZA&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Labor
Beat: Hey You Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY8isD33f-I
*---------*
Voices
of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA48gmfGB6U&feature=youtu.be
Voices
of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjKZpOk7TyM&feature=related
*---------*
#Occupy
Wall Street In Washington Square: Mohammed Ezzeldin, former occupier of
Egypt's
Tahrir Square Speaks at Washington Square!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziodsFWEb5Y&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
#OccupyTheHood,
Occupy Wall Street
By
adele pham
http://vimeo.com/30146870
*---------*
Live
arrest at brooklyn bridge #occupywallstreet by We are Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULSI-31Pto&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE
THE CUBAN FIVE!
http://www.thecuban5.org/wordpress/index.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmS4kHC_OlY&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
One
World One Revolution -- MUST SEE VIDEO -- Powerful and beautiful...bw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3R1BQrYCw&feature=player_embedded
"When
injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Thomas Jefferson
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan:
angry Fukushima citizens confront government (video)
Posted
by Xeni Jardin on Monday, Jul 25th at 11:36am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuGwc9dlhQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor
Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand
Jury
Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If
trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate
the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse
Sharkey,
Vice
President,
Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Coal
Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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