Saturday, June 17, 2017

BAUAW NEWSLETTER, SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 2017

------------------------------------------------------*

Bay Area United Against War Newsletter

Table of Contents:

A. EVENTS, ACTIONS
AND ONGOING STRUGGLES

B. ARTICLES IN FULL

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

A. EVENTS, ACTIONS
AND ONGOING STRUGGLES

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

There is no substitute for being at the conference and interacting with the movement leaders and activists who will be there, but if you absolutely can not make it, you can still view a live stream of the conference here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLatnOpu3eZimt5YieDM5MFzDPGe0ZQgzI. To see who is speaking and at what time, please see the program on the conference web site: http://UNACconference2017.org.

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

Juneteenth 2017 (Monday, June 19, 2017)

Land is Power. Land is Liberation. Land is the Commons

On Juneteenth 2017 (Monday, June 19th) Black people across the country will take back land and reclaim space, from vacant lots to empty school buildings. We are taking back land that should be used for the good of the people; land that has historically been denied to Black people. Through these actions we will confront the institutions and individuals that have been built off the extracted wealth of Black people and Black land.

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

--------------

Mark Your Calendars

Special Berkeley Hearing on Urban Shield:  June 20th, 6pm

Longfellow Middle School (1500 Derby St, Berkeley)

The Berkeley City Council will be voting on the city's participation in UrbanShield.

On Tuesday May 16 more than 200 people turned out to the Berkeley City Council in anticipation of the Council's vote on whether or not to continue Berkeley's participation in Urban Shield. After waiting six hours for the agenda item to be heard and after giving powerful testimony, we were told that the Council once again decided to postpone the vote. The coalition and supporters staged a walkout to show the Council that we won't stand for this kind of manipulation.

LET'S TURN OUT STRONGER AND MORE ORGANIZED!

We want to redouble our efforts at the upcoming meeting in showing the Berkeley City Council that they need to stand on the side of the people and not on the side of militarization and oppression.

In the meantime, please call and email the mayor and Council people to urge them to vote No To Urban Shield!

Mayor Jesse Arreguin/ (510) 981-7100/ mayor@cityofberkeley .info

District 1/Linda Miao/(510) 981-7110/ lmaio@cityofberkeley.info /

District 2/Cheryl Davila/ (510) 981-7120/ cdavila@cityofberkel ey.info

District 3/ Ben Bartlett/ (510) 981-7130/ bbartlett@CityofBerkeley.info

District 4/ Kate Harrison / (510) 981-7140 /  kharrison@ CityofBerkeley.info

District 5 / Sophie Hahn/ 510) 981-7150 / shahn@ CityofBerkeley.info

District 6 / Susan Wengraf / (510) 981-7160 / swengraf@ CityofBerkeley.info

District 7/ Kris Worthington / (510) 981-7170 / kworthington@ CityofBerkeley.info

District 8/ Lori Droste / (510) 981-7180 / ldroste@ CityofBerkeley.info

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

California Alliance for Retired Americans

600 Grand Ave, Rm 410

Oakland CA 94610

510-663-4086,  californiaalliance.org

Hello

Please join CARA on August 14 to celebrate Social Security's 82nd birthday, and to re-dedicate ourselves to defend Social Security and preserve, improve, and expand it. Our confirmed speakers so far are Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works and Norman Solomon, author, columnist and activist.

Monday, August 14, Noon, in Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza

Broadway and 14th St, 12th St BART Station.

Rally and Two-Block March to Federal Building

More program details to be announced.

Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/yd94ezv6

Please contact

Michael Lyon, 415-215-7575, mlyon01@comcast.net, or

Jodi Reid, 415-550-0828,  jreid.cara@gmail.com

CARA is sponsoring events across California in July and August to defend and expand Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, in the face of attacks from Washington.  Our Oakland event will draw people from all around the San Francisco Bay Area.  We are hoping you can publicize this event among your members, and bring them on August 14.   We are attaching a copy of our leaflet and a petition your members can sign and return. Anyone can sign the petition, it is not official, but will be used to show support for these programs.

Over its 82 years, Social Security has provided income and dignity to hundreds of millions of retirees and people with disabilities, their spouses and children, and to deceased workers' spouses and children.  For two thirds of seniors, it's been over half their income. Half of women and people with disabilities would be in poverty without Social Security. Almost 10% of children get it.  We will NOT go back to the days of workhouses!

Social Security is the nation's most effective anti-poverty program, yet it is entirely funded by us, we who work for a living, through FICA deductions from our paychecks, and by our employers.  Not a cent comes from the government; in fact our $2.4 Trillion Social Security Trust Fund is invested in loans to help the government run. Those loans must, and will, be repaid to Social Security. It's our program, our money!  Our past, our future!

Forces for austerity want to destroy or undermine Social Security by increasing the retirement age, decreasing the benefits and cost-of-living increases, and converting Social Security from a unified government program of collectively-guaranteed economic security for everyone, to a hodge-podge of private individual accounts for each recipient, invested in the stock market, and managed by expensive Wall Street money managers.

Now, the Trump administration wants to eliminate the payroll tax that is the financial foundation of Social Security and cut $64 Billion over ten years from Social Security Disability Insurance, an integral part of Social Security, by reducing future enrollment with work requirements.

Given this adversity, it's important we remember that our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents won Social Security in the mid-1930s, the depths of the Great Depression, when everything looked stacked against us.  Social Security must be preserved, improved, and expanded. In the 1930s, Roosevelt said "Make me do it!"  We did. We can do it again!

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

SIGN THE PETITION: DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST REALITY WINNER

https://couragetoresist.org/drop-charges-reality-winner/

Jun 8, 2017

Department of Justice:

Drop the changes against Ms. Reality L. Winner, the defense contractor who allegedly shared with the media evidence of attacks against US election systems by foreign agents. This information should not have been classified. Ms. Winner's prosecution appears politically motivated.

Courage to Resist will attempt to keep signers of the Reality Winners petition up-to-date with periodic news and alerts from her family and attorney. You will be able to opt out at any time.

WHY ALLEGED WHISTLE-BLOWER REALITY WINNER DESERVES SUPPORT

BY JEFF PATERSON, COURAGE TO RESIST. JUNE 8, 2017

Reality Winner is a 25-year-old Air Force veteran who was arrested in Augusta, Georgia on June 3rd. She allegedly released classified NSA documents to The Intercept, which were the basis for a story about Russian hacking efforts against US election systems leading up to last year's presidential election. Reality is currently in the Lincoln County Jail in Georgia, and faces up to ten years in prison.

Reality Winner—yes, that is her given legal name—did the right thing, and she should be defended.

Reality allegedly leaked information regarding attempted interference in an election, tampering that many believe assisted in Donald Trump's presidential win—despite earning nearly four million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. The documents published by The Interceptonly confirm earlier accounts of US election hacking attempts and, given the current administration's extreme antagonisms against facts, the release of these documents was clearly in the public interest. Like the vast majority of government documents that are hidden from public view, these reports should have been declassified by now anyway.

Now Trump's own Department of Justice has targeted Reality. It's a sinister move, but on the other hand, simply a continuation Obama's unprecedented zeal in prosecuting whistle-blowers. Trump inherited an atrocious War on Leaks, and Reality is the latest victim of that war. Her arrest is a signal to the world, and the four million other Americans with access to classified information: Only sanctioned leaks benefiting the government will be tolerated.

There's a striking hypocrisy to Trump's crackdown. Less than a month ago the President was criticized for carelessly leaking classified information to Russian officials during a White House meeting. We now know this information concerned a bomb that is being developed by ISIS. This is standard operating procedure: lawmakers have no issue leaking classified information if it somehow furthers their interest, but they aggressively prosecute citizens who expose actual wrongdoing.

I believe that Reality Winner's possible actions should be understood within the context of recent heroic whistleblowing. Shortly before leaving office, Barack Obama commuted the remaining sentence of US Army soldier Chelsea Manning, who was facing 27 more years in prison for exposing war crimes and corruption. Edward Snowden, who leaked information about our government's massive spying program, was granted asylum in Russia but faces espionage charges back home. Just like Manning, it seems that Reality was able to see the inner workings of the United States' war machine.

She served in the Air Force from 2013 until early this year, working as a linguist. Like Snowden, she would have had a better view than most as to how our security state works. Up until last week, she was a military defense contractor with the Pluribus International Corporation in the suburbs outside of Augusta, Georgia, and had Top Secret security clearance.

The US government has spent tens of millions of dollars in better auditing capabilities since the disclosures by Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. Those that would rather keep the public in the dark as to what their government is doing with their tax dollars and in their name, have redoubled their efforts to identify whistle-blowers much more quickly. Winner's arrest was facilitated by the government's increased ability to more easily identify the relatively small number of people that recently accessed documents in question as well as the yellow-colored, nearly-invisible micro dots that most color printers today use to include a printer's serial number and time stamp on each printed page. This appears to have contributed to the focus on Reality Winner.

Reality is expected to plead not guilty to charges against her today. We don't know exactly why she allegedly released the NSA documents to the press, but we do have some insight into her views about the world. Her social media accounts show a woman who, like a clear majority of Americans, is critical of Donald Trump. She has also voiced support for Edward Snowden, and opposition to the US fabricating a reason to attack Iran.

According to The Intercept, [Winner's leak] "ratchets up the stakes of the ongoing investigations into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives . . . If collusion can ultimately be demonstrated – a big if at this point – then the assistance on Russia's part went beyond allegedly hacking email to serve a propaganda campaign, and bled into an attack on U.S. election infrastructure itself."

We are talking about a potentially monumental story that might require prosecutions, but Reality Winner shouldn't be the one who ends up in jail. While the details of the story continue to unfold, by all indications she deserves our support, and the release of these documents should be celebrated.

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

Cuban Documentary "Between Changes"

May 19, 2017

HAVANA TIMES — "Entre cambios" (Between changes) is a documentary dedicated to a specific generation of Cubans: the one who had to live through the fragile limbo when the Soviet Union collapsed. We concentrated particularly on speaking to those who experienced these changes there, in the places where the events took place.

One of the most recurring testimonies that this documentary provides – and the research we did to carry it out – is that of people who went to COMECON (The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) countries under the sugarcoated notion that there they had a more advanced version of socialism that the Cuban version, and instead it turned out that they would be the witnesses of its downfall.

This is where the irony lies: surely, a lot of things used to be better off there than they were in Cuba, even under the centralized State system that the Kremlin imposed on the majority of the territories under its control, but everything "went downhill" between 1988 and 1991.

In the documentary, we can hear accounts from those who were in countries such as Hungary, and in several Republics of what used to be the USSR. We tried our best for these opinions to be diverse and critical.

There wasn't always enough space for all of the material we had collected for the documentary – and we have faith that the extensive research we did will have the opportunity to be covered in other media platforms, or maybe there will even be sequels to this documentary.

However, we tried to maintain a respectful, friendly and proactive dialogue that prevails throughout the film, in order to anchor the diversity of social coexistence today.

Cuba's "post-Soviet" generation – the one which lived in situ with the geopolitical collapse that led to the Special Period disaster here, to the capitalist reforms in Europe and the "excessive '90s" in Russia and its surroundings, with quite a few localized conflicts where a lot of today's jihadist terrorism was born and awful government administrations who justified well-established authoritarian run countries today – is a very active generation nowadays.

Both inside and outside of our archipelago, it has given rise to artists, intellectuals, engineers, bloggers, doctors, scientists and social activists from all kinds of political movements.

It's no coincidence that it was a generation that experienced a great shock (whether in Eurasia, or here in Cuba, where we also experienced a great time of change – but in a different way). We believe that their experiences – which haven't been published widely in explicit terms, which are what we have tried to collect – can contribute to preventing a lot of the negativity that is taking place in Cuba today.

We have to learn our lessons from history, something which clearly wasn't done in the post-1959 period, when existing critique of the then "USSR" was dismissed in Cuba.

This documentary is the result of a co-production between the independent production company "CreActivo" and the research team "Post Soviet Cuba" which is a member of one of the teams from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLASCO).

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=125323

------------------------------------------------------*

Solidarity Statement from the California Coalition for Women Prisoners

Friends,

CCWP sent the solidarity statement below expressing support with the hunger strikers at the Northwest County Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma Washington, one of the largest immigration prisons in the country. People at NWDC, including many women, undertook the hunger strike starting at the beginning of April 2017 to protest the horrendous conditions they are facing. Although the peak of the hunger strike was a few weeks ago, the strikers set a courageous example of resistance for people in detention centers and prisons around the country.

Here is a link to a Democracy Now! interview with Maru Villalpando of Northwest Detention Center Resistance (http://www.nwdcresistance.org/) and Alexis Erickson, partner of one of the hunger strikers, Cristian Lopez.

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/4/14/700_immigrants_on_hunger_strike_at

For live updates, visit:

https://www.facebook.com/NWDCResistance/

California Coalition for Women Prisoners Statement

California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) stands in solidarity with the hunger strikers, many of them women, detained by ICE at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), a private prison operated by the GEO group contracted by ICE in Washington state. We applaud the detainees at NORCOR, a county jail in rural Oregon, who recently won their demands after sustaining six days without meals.

Since April 10th, those detained in NWDC have refused meals to demand changes to the abhorrent conditions of their detention, including poor quality food, insufficient medical care, little to no access to family visits, legal counsel or legal documents, and lack of timely court proceedings. Hunger strikes are a powerful method of resistance within prisons that require commitment and courage from prisoners and their families. We have seen this historically in California when tens-of-thousands of prisoners refused meals to protest solitary confinement in 2011 and 2013, and also currently in Palestine where over 1,500 prisoners are on hunger strike against the brutal conditions of Israeli prisons.

As the Trump administration continues to escalate its attacks on Latinx/Chicanx and Arab/Muslim communities, deportations and detentions serve as strategies to control, remove, and erase people—a violence made possible in a context of inflamed xenophobia and increasingly visible and virulent racism. We stand with the families of those detained as well as organizations and collectives on the ground in Washington State struggling to expose the situation inside these facilities as well as confront the escalating strategies of the Trump administration.

CCWP recognizes the common struggle for basic human dignity and against unconstitutional cruel and inhumane treatment that people of color and immigrants face in detention centers, jails, and prisons across the United States. We also sadly recognize from our work with people in women's prisons the retaliatory tactics such as prison transfers and solitary confinement that those who fight oppression face. Similar abuses continue to occur across California at all of its prisons and detention centers, including the GEO-run women's prison in McFarland, California.. CCWP sends love and solidarity to the hunger strikers in the Northwest. Together we can break down the walls that tear our families and communities apart. ¡ya basta! #Ni1Más #Not1More

Northwest Detention Center Press Release May 4, 2017

Despite threats and retaliation, hunger strikers continue protest

ICE ignores demands for improved conditions

Tacoma, Washington/The Dalles, Oregon—Immigrants held at ICE facilities in two states—the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), run by GEO Group, and NORCOR, a rural public jail—continued their hunger strike today, despite growing weakness from lack of food. The exponential growth of immigration detention has led ICE to contract the function of detaining immigrants out to both private prison companies and to county governments, with both treating immigrants as a source of profit. ICE has been using NORCOR as "overflow" detention space for immigrants held at NWDC, and is regularly transferring people back and forth from the NWDC to NORCOR. People held at NORCOR have limited access to lawyers and to the legal documents they need to fight and win their deportation cases. They are often transferred back to NWDC only for their hearings, then shipped back to NORCOR, where they face terrible conditions. Jessica Campbell of the Rural Organizing Project affirmed, "No one deserves to endure the conditions at NORCOR—neither the immigrants ICE is paying to house there, nor the people of Oregon who end up there as part of criminal processes. It's unsafe for everyone."

The strike began on April 10th, when 750 people at the NWDC began refusing meals. The protest spread to NORCOR this past weekend. Maru Mora Villalpando of NWDC Resistance confirmed, "It's very clear from our contact with people inside the facilities and with family members of those detained that the hunger strike continues in both Oregon and Washington State." She continued, "The question for us is, how will ICE assure that the abuses that these whistle-blowing hunger strikers have brought to light are addressed?"

From the beginning of the protest, instead of using the strike as an opportunity to look into the serious concerns raised by the hunger strikers, ICE and GEO have both denied the strike is occurring and retaliated against strikers. Hunger strikers have been transferred to NORCOR in retaliation for their participation. One person who refused transfer to NORCOR was put in solitary confinement. Just this week, hunger striking women have been threatened with forced feeding—a practice that is recognized under international law to be torture. In an attempt to break their spirit, hunger strikers have been told the strike has been ineffective and that the public is ignoring it.

Hunger striker demands terrible conditions inside detention center be addressed—including the poor quality of the food, the dollar-a-day pay, and the lack of medical care. They also call for more expedited court proceedings and the end of transfers between detention facilities. Hunger strikers consistently communicate, "We are doing this for our families." Despite their incredibly oppressive conditions, locked away and facing deportation in an immigration prison in the middle of an industrial zone and in a rural county jail, hunger strikers have acted collectively and brought national attention to the terrible conditions they face and to the ongoing crisis of deportations, conditions the U.S. government must address.Latino Advocacy

Maru Mora Villalpando

www.latinoadvocacy.org

For live updates, visit:

https://www.facebook.com/NWDCResistance/

News mailing list: News@womenprisoners.org

http://womenprisoners.org/mailman/listinfo/news_womenprisoners.org

------------------------------------------------------*

Labor Studies and Radical History

4444 Geary Blvd., Suite 207, San Francisco, CA 94118

415.387.5700

http://www.holtlaborlibrary.org/mayday.html

Hours

(call 415.387.5700 to be sure the library is open for the hours you are interested in. We close the library sometimes to go on errands or have close early) suggested)

7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Closed on all major holidays and May Day

We can arrange, by request, to keep the library open longer during the day or open it on weekends. Just ask.

Services

Reference Librarian On-site

Email and Telephone Reference

Interlibrary Loan

Online Public Access Catalog

Microfilm Reader/Printer

DVD and VCR players

Photocopier

Quiet well-lighted place for study and research

For an appointment or further information, please email: david [at] holtlaborlibrary.org

------------------------------------------------------*

Support:

CONTRIBUTE

Thank you for being a part of this struggle.

Cuando luchamos ganamos! When we fight we win!

Noelle Hanrahan, Director

To give by check:

PO Box 411074

San Francisco, CA

94141

Stock or legacy gifts:

Noelle Hanrahan

(415) 706 - 5222

------------------------------------------------------*

MEDIA ADVISORYMedia contact: Morgan McLeod, (202) 628-0871
mmcleod@sentencingproject.org

NEW REPORT FINDS RECORD NUMBER OF PEOPLE SERVING
LIFE SENTENCES IN U.S. PRISONS
Washington, D.C.— Despite recent political support for criminal justice reform in most states, the number of people serving life sentences has nearly quintupled since 1984.

A new report by The Sentencing Project finds a record number of people serving life with parole, life without parole, and virtual life sentences of 50 years or more, equaling one of every seven people behind bars.

Eight states — Alabama, California, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, and Utah — have at least one of every five prisoners serving a life or de facto life sentence in prison.
The Sentencing Project will host an online press conference to discuss its report Still Life: America's Increasing Use of Life and Long-Term Sentences, on Wednesday, May 3rd at 11:00 a.m. EDT.

Press Conference Details

WHAT: Online press conference hosted by The Sentencing Project regarding the release of its new report examining life and long-term sentences in the United States. REGISTER HERE to participate. The call-in information and conference link will be sent via email.
WHEN:

Wednesday, May 3, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. EDT
WHO:

Ashley Nellis, The Sentencing Project's senior research analyst and author of Still Life: America's Increasing Use of Life and Long-Term Sentences

Evans Ray, whose life without parole sentence was commuted in 2016 by President Obama

Steve Zeidman, City University of New York law professor and counsel for Judith Clark—a New York prisoner who received a 75 year to life sentence in 1983

The full report will be available to press on Wednesday morning via email.

Founded in 1986, The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.

###

The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.
Sign up for our updates here. Not interested anymore? Unsubscribe.
Problems viewing this email? Click here to view as a web page.


The Sentencing Project
1705 DeSales Street NW, 8th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20036
sentencingproject.org
202.628.0871

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

When they knock on your front door: Preparing for Repression

BAY AREA ANTI-REPRESSION COMMITTEE

When they knock on your front door: Preparing for Repression
BY OAKLANDANTIREPRESSION

On May 24th 2017, police in the Bay Area raided two houses and arrested one person in connection to the recent protests in Berkeley California. In this moment of increasing state repression, we must be vigilant in protecting ourselves, each other, and our communities.

Never speak to the police. Remember that any response can incriminate you and others. You have a right to remain silent, but not to lie – even to say "I don't know." Better responses are "I have nothing to say to you." or "No comment." We recommend practicing how to respond to emergency situations such as raids where police are particularly threatening and nefarious about getting you to speak to them.

Share this information with friends and housemates, particularly those who are intimately tied to political communities but are not that involved or invested in them. These are often the people the state targets to get information on wider activist communities.

Political repression in any form has the common purpose of undermining our movements as a whole, even when it seems particular individuals are the targets. Therefore it is extremely important that we all get prepared for further repression. We do this by supporting each other in remaining calm and brushing up on some basic know-your-rights information as well as being mindful of how we communicate on the internet.

Here are some links with helpful info to get you started:

If an Agent Knocks
This booklet is the best know-your-rights manual to dealing with law enforcement encounters that we've come across. Although it was written for how to handle encounters with federal agents, the information is just as useful in situations with local police. The first chapter, which is only 8 pages, covers law enforcement visits and searches. The booklet also covers state infiltration, surveillance, grand jury resistance, and special considerations for non citizens.

Time to Beef up Defense Against Far-Right Doxxing
Now that there's a far right, internet-based movement growing in this country, we have to deal with attacks on two fronts: the state, and the far right. The alt-right might put you on the radar to the state and/ vis versa. If our personal information is available online, the alt right can find you and "doxx" you, meaning they publicize your name, address, phone number and your family members' names, addresses and phone numbers for the purpose of harassing and intimidating you. Below is an article with tips on preventing this from happening, along with a list of websites that the alt-right uses to uncover people's sensitive, personal information.

Security in a Box – Digital security tools and tactics
The state can and does monitor activists' communication and internet activity. This website is an excellent resource for giving you step-by-step guides to encrypting and securing your various devices and computer operating systems. It also goes over encrypting email.

Resisting Grand Juries
With resistance comes repression and unfortunately often repression leads to more repression. We can help damage control this by always refusing to talk to law enforcement. Sometimes investigations result in grand juries. It is important to be prepared to remain silent if subpeoned to a grand jury. We should all prepare ourselves to support those who refuse to testify. This website has tons of information on grand juries, how they work, and the importance of resisting them. We particularly recommend reading the "Statement of Resistance" written by a collective of folks from various movements in the Bay Area and endorsed by dozens of groups, political prisoners, and former grand jury resisters.

Lastly, if you or anyone you know has been approached by law enforcement or has been visited at their homes or jobs please contact the National Lawyers Guild at 415-285-1011 to access legal advice, resources, and support.

Solidarity is our best weapon in the face of repression. Lets use it!

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

A Message to the... Activist Community From The Mothers and Family Victims Of Police Violence and the Racist Raids By ICE Immigration and NYPD Gang Units

This message is obviously directed to the East Coast cities of New York and New Jersey. But after reading their "What We Want, What We Need" May, 2017 - NY/NJ Parents 10 Point Justice Platform and Wish List I think the platform could be applied pretty much as is to practically every community. Check it out.

Mothers Message to the NY/NJ Activist Community

In order to effectively combat the existing opportunism, hidden agendas and to better provide ALL genuinely good willed social justice organizations and individuals who work inside of the New York and New Jersey metropolitan areas... with more concrete guidelines;

The following "10 Point Platform and Justice Wish List" was adopted on Saturday, May 13, 2017 during the "Motherhood: Standing Strong 4 Justice" pre-mothers day gathering which was held at Hostos Community College - Bronx, New York.......

"What We Want, What We Need"

May, 2017 - NY/NJ Parents 10 Point Justice Platform and Wish List

Point #1 - Lawyers and Legal Assistance: Due to both the overwhelming case loads and impersonal nature of most public defenders, the Mothers believe that their families are receiving limited options, inadequate legal advise and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to help us in gaining access to experienced "pro-bono" and/or activist attorneys as well as the free resources provided by non-profit social justice and legal advocacy groups.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Point #2 - First Response Teams: The Mothers felt that when their loved ones were either killed or captured by the police that they were left in the hands of the enemy and without any support, information or direction on how to best move forward and therefore; WE WANT and NEED community activists to help us develop independently community controlled & trained first response teams in every borough or county that can confirm and be on the ground within 24 hours of any future incident.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Point #3 - Security and Support At Court Appearances: The Mothers all feel that because community activist support eventually becomes selective and minimal, that they are disrespected by both the courthouse authorities, mainstream media and therefore; WE WANT and NEED community activists to collectively promote and make a strong presence felt at all court appearances and; To always provide trained security & legal observers... when the families are traveling to, inside and from the court house.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Point #4 - Emotional/Spiritual Healing and Grief and Loss Counseling: After the protest rallies, demonstrations, justice marches and television cameras are gone the Mothers all feel alone and abandoned and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to refer/help provide the families with clergy, professional therapy & cultural outlets needed in order to gain strength to move forward.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Point #5 - Parents Internal Communication Network: The Mothers agreed as actual victims, that they are the very best qualified in regards to providing the needed empathy and trust for an independent hotline & contact resource for all of the parents and families who want to reach out to someone they can mutually trust that is able understand what they are going through and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to help us in providing a Parents Internal Communication Network to reach that objective.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Point #6 - Community Offices and Meeting Spaces: The Mothers agreed that there is an extreme need for safe office spaces where community members and family victims are able to go to for both confidential crisis intervention and holding organizing meetings and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to help us in securing those safe spaces inside of our own neighborhoods.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Point #7 - Political Education Classes and Workshop Training: The Mothers agreed in implementing the "each one, teach one" strategy and therefore; WE WANT and NEEDfor community activists to help us in being trained as educators and organizers in Know Your Rights, Cop Watch, First Response, Emergency Preparedness & Community Control over all areas of public safety & the police in their respective neighborhoods.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Point #8 - Support From Politicians and Elected Officials: The Mothers believe that most political candidates and incumbent elected officials selectively & unfairly represent only those cases which they think to be politically advantageous to their own selfish personal success on election day and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to help us in either publicly exposing or endorsing these aforementioned political candidates and/or elected officials to their constituents solely based upon the uncompromising principles of serving the people.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Point #9 - Research and Documentation: The Mothers believe that research/case studies, surveys, petitions, historical archives, investigative news reporting and events should be documented and made readily available in order to counter the self-serving police misinformation promoted by the system and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to help us by securing college/university students, law firms, film makers, authors, journalists and professional research firms to find, document & tell the people the truth about police terror & the pipeline to prison.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Point #10 - Grassroots Community Outreach and Information: The Mothers believe that far too much attention is being geared towards TV camera sensationalism with the constant organizing of marches & rallies "downtown" and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to provide a fair balance by helping us to build in the schools, projects, churches and inside of the subway trains and stations of our Black, brown and oppressed communities where the majority of the police terror is actually taking place.

The press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make the criminal look like he's a the victim and make the victim look like he's the criminal... If you aren't careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X

www.hugopinell.com

www.kiilunyasha.blogspot.com

@nyashakiilu

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

100,000 protest in San Francisco, CA

Pictures From Women's
Marches on Every Continent

Crowds in hundreds of cities around the world gathered Saturday
in conjunction with the Women's March on Washington. JAN. 21, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/21/world/womens-march-pictures.html

------------------------------------------------------*

My Heartfelt "Thank You!"

By Mumia Abu-Jamal

Several days ago I received a message from both of our lawyers, Bob Boyle and Bret Grote, informing me that the latest lab tests came in from the Discovery Requests.

And they told me that the Hepatitis C infection level is at zero and as of today I'm Hepatitis C free.

This is in part due to some fine lawyering by Bret and Bob who—remember—filed the suit while I was in the throes of a diabetic coma, unconscious and thus unable to file for myself.

But it's also due to you, the people. Brothers and sisters who supported our efforts, who contributed to this fight with money, time, protests and cramming court rooms on our behalf, who sent cards, who prayed, who loved deeply.

I can't thank you all individually but if you hear my voice or read my words know that I am thanking you, all of you. And I'm thanking you for showing once again the Power of the People.

This battle ain't over, for the State's cruelest gift is my recent diagnosis of cirrhosis of the liver. With your love we shall prevail again. I thank you all. Our noble Dr.'s Corey Weinstein, who told us what to look for, and Joseph Harris who gave me my first diagnosis and who became the star of the courtroom by making the mysteries of Hep C understandable to all. An internist working up in Harlem, Dr. Harris found few thrills better than telling his many Hep C patients that they're cured.

This struggle ain't just for me y'all.

Because of your efforts thousands of Pennsylvania prisoners now have hope of healing from the ravages of Hepatitis C. [singing] "Let us march on 'til victory is won." So goes the old Negro Spiritual, "The Black National Anthem."

We are making it a reality. I love you all.

From Prison Nation,

This is Mumia Abu-Jamal

—Prison Radio, May 27, 2017

------------------------------------------------------*

Court order to disclose DA files in Mumia Abu-Jamal's legal case [video]

This 9-minute video gives background on new revelations about conflict of interest -- an appeals judge who had previously been part of the prosecution team -- in upholding the 1982 conviction of journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal on charges of killing a police officer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17Tp5NlllLU

A ruling to implement a judge's recent order for "discovery" could be made on May 30.

Judge Tucker granted discovery to Mumia Abu-Jamal pursuant to his claims brought under Williams v Pennsylvania that he was denied due process because his PA Supreme Court appeals from 1998-2008 were decided by Ronald Castille, who had previously been the District Attorney during Mumia's 1988 appeal from his conviction and death sentence, as well as having been a senior assistant district attorney during Mumia's trial.

The DA is given 30 days—until May 30, 2017—to produce all records and memos regarding Mumia's case, pre-trial, trial, post-trial and direct appeal proceedings between Castille and his staff and any public statement he made about it. Then Mumia has 15 days after receiving this discovery to file amendments to his PCRA petition.

This date of this order is April 28, but it was docketed today, May 1, 2017.

This is a critical and essential step forward!

------------------------------------------------------*

Dear Friend,

For the first time- a court has ordered the Philadelphia DA to turn over evidence and open their files in Mumia's appeal. In a complacency shattering blow, the District Attorney's office is finally being held to account. Judge Leon Tucker of the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court ordered the DA to produce all of the documents relevant to former PA Supreme Court Justice's role in the case. Castille was first a supervisory ADA during Mumia's trial, then District Attorney, and finally as a judge he sat on Mumia's appeals to the PA Supreme Court.

This broad discovery order follows just days after the arguments in court by Christina Swarns, Esq. of the NAACP LDF, and Judith Ritter, Esq. of Widner Univ.

During that hearing, Swarns made it clear that the District Attorney's practice of lying to the appellate courts would not be tolerated and had been specifically exposed by the U.S. Supreme Court. In the Terrence Williams case, which highlights Ronald Castile's conflict, the Supreme Court in no uncertain terms excoriated the office for failing to disclose crucial evidence. Evidence the office hid for years. This is an opportunity to begin to unravel the decades long police and prosecutorial corruption that has plagued Mumia's quest for justice.

In prison for over thirty six years Mumia Abu-Jamal has maintained his innocence in the death of Philadelphia Police officer Daniel Faulkner on Dec. 9th 1981.

"The Commonwealth must produce any and all documents or records in the possession or control of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office showing former District Attorney Ronald Castille's personal involvement in the above-captioned case ... and public statements during and after his tenure as District Attorney of Philadelphia."

It is important to note that the history of the District Attorney's office in delaying and appealing to prevent exposure of prosecutorial misconduct and the resulting justice. At every turn, there will be attempts to limit Mumia's access to the courts and release. it is past time for justice in this case.
Noelle Hanrahan, P.I.

Prison Radio is a 501c3 project of the Redwood Justice Fund. We record and broadcast the voices of prisoners, centering their analyses and experiences in the movements against mass incarceration and state repression. If you support our work, please join us.

www.prisonradio.org | info@prisonradio.org | 415-706-5222

Thank you for being a part of this work!

------------------------------------------------------*

Protect Kevin "Rashid" Johnson from Prison Repression!

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

WHEN: Anytime
WHAT: Protect imprisoned activist-journalist Kevin "Rashid" Johnson
FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1794902884117144/

On December 21, 2016, Kevin "Rashid" Johnson was the victim of an
assault by guards at the Clements Unit where he is currently being held,
just outside Amarillo, Texas. Rashid was sprayed with OC pepper gas
while handcuffed in his cell, and then left in the contaminated cell for
hours with no possibility to shower and no access to fresh air. It was
in fact days before he was supplied with new sheets or clothes (his bed
was covered with the toxic OC residue), and to this day his cell has not
been properly decontaminated.

This assault came on the heels of another serious move against Rashid,
as guards followed up on threats to confiscate all of his property – not
only files required for legal matters, but also art supplies, cups to
drink water out of, and food he had recently purchased from the
commissary. The guards in question were working under the direction of
Captain Patricia Flowers, who had previously told Rashid that she
intended to seize all of his personal belongings as retaliation for his
writings about mistreatment of prisoners, up to and including assaults
and purposeful medical negligence that have led to numerous deaths in
custody. Specifically, Rashid's writings have called attention to the
deaths of Christopher Woolverton, Joseph Comeaux, and Alton Rodgers, and
he has been contacted by lawyers litigating on behalf of the families of
at least two of these men.

As a journalist and activist literally embedded within the bowels of the
world's largest prison system, Rashid relies on his files and notes for
correspondence, legal matters, and his various news reports.
Furthermore, Rashid is a self-taught artist of considerable talent (his
work has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and books);
needless to say, the guards were also instructed to seize his art
materials and the drawings he was working on.

(For a more complete description of Rashid's ordeal on and following
December 21, see his recent article "Bound and Gassed: My Reward for
Exposing Abuses and Killings of Texas Prisoners" at
http://rashidmod.com/?p=2321)

Particularly worrisome, is the fact that the abuse currently directed
against Rashid is almost a carbon-copy of what was directed against
Joseph Comeaux in 2013, who was eventually even denied urgently needed
medical care. Comeaux died shortly thereafter.

This is the time to step up and take action to protect Rashid; and the
only protection we can provide, from the outside, is to make sure prison
authorities know that we are watching. Whether you have read his
articles about prison conditions, his political or philosophical
polemics (and whether you agreed with him or not!), or just appreciate
his artwork – even if this is the first you are hearing about Rashid –
we need you to step up and make a few phone calls and send some emails.
When doing so, let officials know you are contacting them about Kevin
Johnson, ID #1859887, and the incident in which he was gassed and his
property confiscated on December 21, 2016. The officials to contact are:

Warden Kevin Foley
Clements Unit
telephone: (806) 381-7080 (you will reach the general switchboard; ask
to speak to the warden's office)

Tell Warden Foley that you have heard of the gas attack on Rashid.
Specific demands you can make:

* That Kevin Johnson's property be returned to him

* That Kevin Johnson's cell be thoroughly decontaminated

* That Captain Patricia Flowers, Lieutenant Crystal Turner, Lieutenant
Arleen Waak, and Corrections Officer Andrew Leonard be sanctioned for
targeting Kevin Johnson for retaliation for his writings

* That measures be taken to ensure that whistleblowers amongst staff and
the prisoner population not be targeted for any reprisals from guards or
other authorities. (This is important because at least one guard and
several prisoners have signed statements asserting that Rashid was left
in his gassed cell for hours, and that his property should not have been
seized.)

Try to be polite, while expressing how concerned you are for Kevin
Johnson's safety. You will almost certainly be told that because other
people have already called and there is an ongoing investigation – or
else, because you are not a member of his family -- that you cannot be
given any information. Say that you understand, but that you still wish
to have your concerns noted, and that you want the prison to know that
you will be keeping track of what happens to Mr Johnson.

The following other authorities should also be contacted. These bodies
may claim they are unable to directly intervene, however we know that by
creating a situation where they are receiving complaints, they will
eventually contact other authorities who can intervene to see what the
fuss is all about. So it's important to get on their cases too:

TDCJ Ombudsman: ombudsman@tdcj.texas.gov

The Inspector General: 512-671-2480

Let these "watchdogs" know you are concerned that Kevin Johnson #1859887
was the victim of a gas attack in Clements Unit on December 21, 2016.
Numerous witnesses have signed statements confirming that he was
handcuffed, in his cell, and not threatening anyone at the time he was
gassed. Furthermore, he was not allowed to shower for hours, and his
cell was never properly decontaminated, so that he was still suffering
the effects of the gas days later. It is also essential to mention that
his property was improperly confiscated, and that he had previously been
threatened with having this happen as retaliation for his writing about
prison conditions. Kevin Johnson's property must be returned!

Finally, complaints should also be directed to the director of the VA
DOC Harold Clarke and the VA DOC's Interstate Compact Supervisor, Terry
Glenn. This is because Rashid is in fact a Virginia prisoner, who has
been exiled from Virginia under something called the Interstate Compact,
which is used by some states as a way to be rid of activist prisoners,
while at the same time separating them from their families and
supporters. Please contact:

VADOC Director, Harold Clarke
804-887-8081
Director.Clarke@vadoc.virginia.gov

Interstate Compact director, Terry Glenn
804-887-7866

Let them know that you are phoning about Kevin Johnson, a Virginia
prisoner who has been sent to Texas under the Interstate Compact. His
Texas ID # is 1859887 however his Virginia ID # is 1007485. Inform them
that Mr Johnson has been gassed by guards and has had his property
seized as retaliation for his writing about prison conditions. These are
serious legal and human rights violations, and even though they occurred
in Texas, the Virginia Department of Corrections is responsible as Mr
Johnson is a Virginia prisoner. Despite the fact that they may ask you
who you are, and how you know about this, and for your contact
information, they will likely simply conclude by saying that they will
not be getting back to you. Nonetheless, it is worth urging them to
contact Texas officials about this matter.

It is good to call whenever you are able. However, in order to maximize
our impact, for those who can, we are suggesting that people make their
phone calls on Thursday, January 5.

And at the same time, please take a moment to sign the online petition
to support Rashid, up at the Roots Action website:
https://diy.rootsaction.org/petitions/prison-activist-gassed-in-clements-unit-prison-texas-law-enforcement-is-violently-out-of-control

Rashid has taken considerable risks in reporting on the abuse he
witnesses at the Clements Unit, just as he has at other prisons. Indeed,
he has continued to report on the violence and medical neglect to which
prisoners are subjected, despite threats from prison staff. If we, as a
movement, are serious about working to resist and eventually abolish the
U.S. prison system, we must do all we can to assist and protect those
like Rashid who take it upon themselves to stand up and speak out. As
Ojore Lutalo once put it, "Any movement that does not support their
political internees ... is a sham movement."

**********************

To learn more about Kevin "Rashid" Johnson, the abuses in the Texas
prison system, as well as his work in founding and leading the New
Afrikan Black Panther Party-Prison Chapter, see his website
athttp://www.rashidmod.com

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

------------------------------------------------------*

http://www.freeleonard.org/case/

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Defying the Tomb: Selected Prison Writings and Art of Kevin "Rashid" Johnson featuring exchanges with an Outlaw Kindle Edition

by Kevin Rashid Johnson (Author), Tom Big Warrior (Introduction), Russell Maroon Shoatz(Introduction)

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

REVEREND EDWARD PINKNEY IS FREE!

Greetings & FYI & Please Forward:

Framed and sent to jail for 3 years. All because he dared to have a successful recall referendum against a corrupt Democratic Mayor in a town owned by Whirlpool.

Oh and did I neglect to mention that his successful boycott against Whirlpool reduced their stock market value to junk mail !!!---- Rev. Edward Pinkney Was Released on June 13!!!

After serving the minimum sentence, 30 months (2-1/2 years), for a crime he never committed, Rev. Edward Pinkney has been released on parole as of Tuesday, June 13!

From: gormatthews@gmail.com

To:  justice4bentonharbor@lists.riseup.net

Financial help is needed - we will present

Rev. Pinkney with a Welcome Home check at the Detroit celebration!

Send checks to ~

Moratorium NOW Coalition

5920 Second Ave.

Detroit, MI 48202

(on memo line write: Welcome Home Rev. Pinkney).

Let's give Rev. Pinkney a big welcome home from the belly of the beast!

He is in good spirits and looks forward to his reunion with his wife, Dorothy, his community, and.....the rest of us.

Oh and did I neglect to mention that his successful boycott against Whirlpool reduced their stock market value to junk mail !You can welcome Rev. Pinkney home yourself at a dinner in Detroit on July 8!Saturday, July 8------- 2pm
St. Matthew & St. Joseph Episcopal Church
8850 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI
Please support The People's Pastor by making financial    donations (checkout his website for an address or....see address above

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Major Battles On

For over 31 years, Major Tillery has been a prisoner of the State.

Despite that extraordinary fact, he continues his battles, both in the prison for his health, and in the courts for his freedom.

Several weeks ago, Tillery filed a direct challenge to his criminal conviction, by arguing that a so-called "secret witness" was, in fact, a paid police informant who was given a get-out-of-jail-free card if he testified against Tillery.

Remember I mentioned, "paid?"

Well, yes--the witness was 'paid'--but not in dollars. He was paid in sex!

In the spring of 1984, Robert Mickens was facing decades in prison on rape and robbery charges. After he testified against Tillery, however, his 25-year sentence became 5 years: probation!

And before he testified he was given an hour and a ½ private visit with his girlfriend--at the Homicide Squad room at the Police Roundhouse. (Another such witness was given another sweetheart deal--lie on Major, and get off!)

To a prisoner, some things are more important than money. Like sex!

In a verified document written in April, 2016, Mickens declares that he lied at trial, after being coached by the DAs and detectives on the case.

He lied to get out of jail--and because he could get with his girl.

Other men have done more for less.

Major's 58-page Petition is a time machine back into a practice that was once common in Philadelphia.

In the 1980s and '90s, the Police Roundhouse had become a whorehouse.

Major, now facing serious health challenges from his hepatitis C infection, stubborn skin rashes, and dangerous intestinal disorders, is still battling.

And the fight ain't over.

[©'16 MAJ 6/29/16]

Major Tillery Needs Your Help and Support

Major Tillery is an innocent man. There was no evidence against Major Tillery for the 1976 poolroom shootings that left one man dead and another wounded. The surviving victim gave a statement to homicide detectives naming others—not Tillery or his co-defendant—as the shooters. Major wasn't charged until 1980, he was tried in 1985.

The only evidence at trial came from these jailhouse informants who were given sexual favors and plea deals for dozens of pending felonies for lying against Major Tillery. Both witnesses now declare their testimony was manufactured by the police and prosecution. Neither witness had personal knowledge of the shooting.

This is a case of prosecutorial misconduct and police corruption that goes to the deepest levels of rot in the Philadelphia criminal injustice system. Major Tillery deserves not just a new trial, but dismissal of the charges against him and his freedom from prison.

It cost a lot of money for Major Tillery to be able to file his new pro se PCRA petition and continue investigation to get more evidence of the state misconduct. He needs help to get lawyers to make sure this case is not ignored. Please contribute, now.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Financial Support: Tillery's investigation is ongoing, to get this case filed has been costly and he needs funds for a legal team to fight this to his freedom!

Go to JPay.com;

code: Major Tillery AM9786 PADOC

Tell Philadelphia District Attorney

Seth Williams:

Free Major Tillery! He is an innocent man, framed by police and and prosecution.

Call: 215-686-8711 or

Email: DA_Central@phila.gov

Write to:

Major Tillery AM9786

SCI Frackville

1111 Altamont Blvd.

Frackville, PA 17931

For More Information, Go To: Justice4MajorTillery/blogspot

Call/Write:

Kamilah Iddeen (717) 379-9009, Kamilah29@yahoo.com

Nancy Lockhart (843) 412-2035, thewrongfulconviction@gmail.com

Rachel Wolkenstein, Esq. (917) 689-4009, RachelWolkenstein@gmail.com

Justice4MajorTillery/blogspot

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Commute Kevin Cooper's Death Sentence

Sign the Petition:
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/petition.php

Urge Gov. Jerry Brown to commute Kevin Cooper's death sentence. Cooper has always maintained his innocence of the 1983 quadruple murder of which he was convicted. In 2009, five federal judges signed a dissenting opinion warning that the State of California "may be about to execute an innocent man." Having exhausted his appeals in the US courts, Kevin Cooper's lawyers have turned to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights to seek remedy for what they maintain is his wrongful conviction, and the inadequate trial representation, prosecutorial misconduct and racial discrimination which have marked the case. Amnesty International opposes all executions, unconditionally.

"The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." - Judge William A. Fletcher, 2009 dissenting opinion on Kevin Cooper's case

Kevin Cooper has been on death row in California for more than thirty years.

In 1985, Cooper was convicted of the murder of a family and their house guest in Chino Hills. Sentenced to death, Cooper's trial took place in an atmosphere of racial hatred — for example, an effigy of a monkey in a noose with a sign reading "Hang the N*****!" was hung outside the venue of his preliminary hearing.

Take action to see that Kevin Cooper's death sentence is commuted immediately.

Cooper has consistently maintained his innocence.

Following his trial, five federal judges said: "There is no way to say this politely. The district court failed to provide Cooper a fair hearing."

Since 2004, a dozen federal appellate judges have indicated their doubts about his guilt.

Tell California authorities: The death penalty carries the risk of irrevocable error. Kevin Cooper's sentence must be commuted.

In 2009, Cooper came just eight hours shy of being executed for a crime that he may not have committed. Stand with me today in reminding the state of California that the death penalty is irreversible — Kevin Cooper's sentence must be commuted immediately.

In solidarity,

James Clark
Senior Death Penalty Campaigner
Amnesty International USA

Kevin Cooper: An Innocent Victim of Racist Frame-Up - from the Fact Sheet at: www.freekevincooper.org

Kevin Cooper is an African-American man who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in 1985 for the gruesome murders of a white family in Chino Hills, California: Doug and Peggy Ryen and their daughter Jessica and their house- guest Christopher Hughes. The Ryens' 8 year old son Josh, also attacked, was left for dead but survived.

Convicted in an atmosphere of racial hatred in San Bernardino County CA, Kevin Cooper remains under a threat of imminent execution in San Quentin. He has never received a fair hearing on his claim of innocence. In a dissenting opinion in 2009, five federal judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals signed a 82 page dissenting opinion that begins: "The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." 565 F.3d 581.

There is significant evidence that exonerates Mr. Cooper and points toward other suspects:

 The coroner who investigated the Ryen murders concluded that the murders took four minutes at most and that the murder weapons were a hatchet, a long knife, an ice pick and perhaps a second knife. How could a single person, in four or fewer minutes, wield three or four weapons, and inflict over 140 wounds on five people, two of whom were adults (including a 200 pound ex-marine) who had loaded weapons near their bedsides?

 The sole surviving victim of the murders, Josh Ryen, told police and hospital staff within hours of the murders that the culprits were "three white men." Josh Ryen repeated this statement in the days following the crimes. When he twice saw Mr. Cooper's picture on TV as the suspected attacker, Josh Ryen said "that's not the man who did it."

 Josh Ryen's description of the killers was corroborated by two witnesses who were driving near the Ryens' home the night of the murders. They reported seeing three white men in a station wagon matching the description of the Ryens' car speeding away from the direction of the Ryens' home.

 These descriptions were corroborated by testimony of several employees and patrons of a bar close to the Ryens' home, who saw three white men enter the bar around midnight the night of the murders, two of whom were covered in blood, and one of whom was wearing coveralls.

 The identity of the real killers was further corroborated by a woman who, shortly after the murders were discovered, alerted the sheriff's department that her boyfriend, a convicted murderer, left blood-spattered coveralls at her home the night of the murders. She also reported that her boyfriend had been wearing a tan t-shirt matching a tan t-shirt with Doug Ryen's blood on it recovered near the bar. She also reported that her boyfriend owned a hatchet matching the one recovered near the scene of the crime, which she noted was missing in the days following the murders; it never reappeared; further, her sister saw that boyfriend and two other white men in a vehicle that could have been the Ryens' car on the night of the murders.

Lacking a motive to ascribe to Mr. Cooper for the crimes, the prosecution claimed that Mr. Cooper, who had earlier walked away from custody at a minimum security prison, stole the Ryens' car to escape to Mexico. But the Ryens had left the keys in both their cars (which were parked in the driveway), so there was no need to kill them to steal their car. The prosecution also claimed that Mr. Cooper needed money, but money and credit cards were found untouched and in plain sight at the murder scene.

The jury in 1985 deliberated for seven days before finding Mr. Cooper guilty. One juror later said that if there had been one less piece of evidence, the jury would not have voted to convict.

The evidence the prosecution presented at trial tying Mr. Cooper to the crime scene has all been discredited… (Continue reading this document at: http://www.savekevincooper.org/_new_freekevincooperdotorg/TEST/Scripts/DataLibraries/upload/KC_FactSheet_2014.pdf)

This message from the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal. July 2015

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

CANCEL ALL STUDENT DEBT!

Sign the Petition:

http://cancelallstudentdebt.com/?code=kos

Dear President Obama, Senators, and Members of Congress:

Americans now owe $1.3 trillion in student debt. Eighty-six percent of that money is owed to the United States government. This is a crushing burden for more than 40 million Americans and their families.

I urge you to take immediate action to forgive all student debt, public and private.

American Federation of Teachers
Campaign for America's Future
Courage Campaign
Daily Kos
Democracy for America
LeftAction
Project Springboard
RH Reality Check
RootsAction
Student Debt Crisis
The Nation
Working Families

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson

Dear Supporters:

Today marks the 5th Anniversary of when the United States Supreme Court Reinstated my Wrongful Life Sentence.

The prosecution in my case turned over NEVER seen before Case Discovery to my legal team. This Case Discovery I speak on was withheld from me and ALL of my prior attorneys for 18½ years. Not only was the prosecution's only witness was labeled a SUSPECT in this same murder I've been wrongfully convicted of, I was also furnished with a written statement from this same witness, for almost two decades I was told this witness never made a written statement. So I had to honor a police summary of this witness. Well, this statement shows my innocence and contradicts what this witness testified to from my preliminary hearing to my trial. To make a long story short, the prosecution in my case let this false testimony go un-correct from the lower court all the way up to the United States Supreme Court who relied on this testimony to Reinstate my conviction when I was a free man. This was done knowingly.

For the last 21 years, my family and I have been living this nightmare. Thanks to my legal team headed by Michael Wiseman and the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, who have been working extremely hard to secure my freedom. The judge who is presiding over my case have seen enough evidence to award me an Evidentiary Hearing on my claims of Prosecution Misconduct (Brady Violations).

These hearings will be taking place on July 11, 12, 13 2017 starting at 9am in courtroom No. 8 at the Dauphin County Courthouse, 101 Market Street, 5th Floor, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17101.

Feel free to join me, my family and supporters in my pursuit of my future. For people in the New York Metropolitan area, The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice will be sponsoring a FREE roundtrip bus ride for my family, friends and supporters.

There are seats available on the first come basis. So please send an email asap and make your reservation.

Within the next couple weeks I will be transferred to Dauphin County Prison to await my court dates. I will see you there. I pray that this is the beginning of the end of my 21year nightmare. Thanks for your support and I encourage you to continue. Please continue to support me in any way you can. For those who are in position to financially contribute please do so--It's needed. My freedom is on the horizon.

Free the Innocent,

"The Pain Within"

Lorenzo "Cat" Johnson

Lorenzo is continuing to fight for his freedom with the support of his lead counsel, Michael Wiseman, The Pennsylvania Innocence Project, the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice, and the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson.

Thank you all for reading this message and please take the time to visit our websiteand contribute to Lorenzo's campaign for freedom!

Write: Lorenzo Johnson

DF 1036

SCI Mahanoy

301 Morea Rd.

Frackville, PA 17932

Email: via LorenzoJohnson17932@gmail.com

directly on ConnectNetwork -- instructions here

- Team Free Lorenzo Johnson

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

B. ARTICLES IN FULL

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

1) Jeremy Corbyn has caused a sensation – he would make a fine prime minister

By Owen Jones, June 9, 2017

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/09/jeremy-corbyn-prime-minister-labour

2) States Lead the Fight Against Trump's Birth Control Rollback

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG JUNE 9, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/us/politics/states-lead-the-fight-against-trumps-birth-control-rollback.html?rref=

collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us&region=rank&module=
package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

3) What Turned the British Election? Maybe the Youth Vote

By CEYLAN YEGINSU JUNE 9, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/world/europe/britain-elections-youth-vote.html?rref=

collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=

stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

4) Trump Gives Mattis Authority to Send More Troops to Afghanistan

By MICHAEL R. GORDON JUNE 13, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/world/asia/mattis-afghanistan-military.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=

Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

5) Michigan Official Is Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter in Flint Water Crisis

By SCOTT ATKINSON and MONICA DAVEY JUNE 14, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/us/flint-water-crisis-manslaughter.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=

Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

6) Why Are So Many Young Voters Falling for Old Socialists?

By SARAH LEONARDJUNE 16, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/opinion/sunday/sanders-corbyn-socialsts.html?action=

click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=

opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0

7) Time for a Doctors’ March on Washington

"Texas, for example, now has the highest maternal death rate in the country, and perhaps in the developed world. If this were the result of a new virus or a side effect of a medication, the medical profession would be sounding the alarm. That the death rate is probably in part because legislation intended to restrict abortion has resulted in the closing of women’s health centers doesn’t make it any less of a medical emergency."

By DANIELLE OFRIJUNE 16, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/opinion/ahca-doctors-march-on-washington.html?action=

click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=

opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

8) Amazon to Buy Whole Foods in $13.4 Billion Deal

By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED and NICK WINGFIELDJUNE 16, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/business/dealbook/amazon-whole-foods.html?hp&action=

click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=

top-news&WT.nav=top-news

9) Moving to Scuttle Obama Legacy, Donald Trump to Crack Down on Cuba

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVISJUNE 15, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/us/politics/cuba-trump-obama.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=

Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

10) Judge Finds That DAPL Approval Violated Law

Anna Lee, Bobbi Jean & the Oceti Sakowin Youth

https://www.change.org/p/jo-ellen-darcy-stop-the-dakota-access-pipeline/u/20570444?j=88043&sfmc_sub=163792548&l=32_HTML&u=15366727&mid=7259882&jb=380&utm_medium=email&utm_source=88043&utm_campaign=petition_update&sfmc_tk=a3FIwZ5ycf2ZIuQFIZNpG25f6BAzDXMdi%2f%2fIy56Oy7vL2z79uU3kgPWdN5Qsa%2fiJ

11) Education Dept. Says It Will Scale Back Civil Rights Investigations

By ERICA L. GREENJUNE 16, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/us/politics/education-department-civil-rights-betsy-

devos.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-

column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

12) Minnesota Officer Acquitted in Killing of Philando Castile

By MITCH SMITHJUNE 16, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/us/police-shooting-trial-philando-castile.html?hp&action=

click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-

region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

1) Jeremy Corbyn has caused a sensation – he would make a fine prime minister
By Owen Jones, June 9, 2017
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/09/jeremy-corbyn-prime-minister-labour

This is one of the most sensational political upsets of our time. Theresa May – a wretched dishonest excuse of a politician, don't pity her – launched a general election with the sole purpose of crushing opposition in Britain. It was brazen opportunism, a naked power grab: privately, I'm told, her team wanted the precious "bauble" of going down in history as the gravediggers of the British Labour party. Instead, she has destroyed herself. She is toast.

She has just usurped David Cameron as the "worst ever prime minister on their own terms" (before Cameron, it had been a title held by Lord North since the 18th century). Look at the political capital she had: the phenomenal polling lead, almost the entire support of the British press, the most effective electoral machine on Earth behind her. Her allies presented the Labour opposition as an amusing, eccentric joke that could be squashed like a fly that had already had its wings ripped off. They genuinely believed they could get a 180-seat majority. She will leave No 10 soon, disgraced, entering the history books filed under "hubris".

But, before a false media narrative is set, let me put down a marker. Yes, the Tory campaign was a shambolic, insulting mess, notable only for its U-turns, a manifesto that swiftly disintegrated, robotically repeated mantras that achieved only ridicule. But don't let media commentators – hostile to Labour's vision – pretend that the May calamity is all down to self-inflicted Tory wounds.

This was the highest turnout since 1997, perhaps the biggest Labour percentage since the same year – far eclipsing Tony Blair's total in 2005. Young and previous non-voters came out in astonishing numbers, and not because they thought, "Ooh, Theresa May doesn't stick to her promises, does she?" Neither can we reduce this to a remainer revolt. The Lib Dems threw everything at the despondent remainer demographic, with paltry returns. Many Ukip voters flocked to the Labour party.

No: this was about millions inspired by a radical manifesto that promised to transform Britain, to attack injustices, and challenge the vested interests holding the country back. Don't let them tell you otherwise. People believe the booming well-off should pay more, that we should invest that money in schools, hospitals, houses, police and public services, that all in work should have a genuine living wage, that young people should not be saddled with debt for aspiring to an education, that our utilities should be under the control of the people of this country. For years, many of us have argued that these policies – shunned, reviled even in the political and media elite – had the genuine support of millions. And today that argument was decisively vindicated and settled.

Don't let them get away with the claim that, "Ah, this election just shows a better Labour leader could have won!" Risible rot. Do we really think that Corbyn's previous challengers to the leadership – and this is nothing personal – would have inspired millions of otherwise politically disengaged and alienated people to come out and vote, and drive Labour to its highest percentage since the famous Blair landslide? If the same old stale, technocratic centrism had been offered, Labour would have faced an absolute drubbing, just like its European sister parties did.

Labour is now permanently transformed. Its policy programme is unchallengeable. It is now the party's consensus. It cannot and will not be taken away. Those who claimed it could not win the support of millions were simply wrong. No, Labour didn't win, but from where it started, that was never going to happen. That policy programme enabled the party to achieve one of the biggest shifts in support in British history – yes, eclipsing Tony Blair's swing in 1997.

Social democracy is in crisis across the western world. British Labour is now one of the most successful centre-left parties, many of which have been reduced to pitiful rumps under rightwing leaderships. And indeed, other parties in Europe and the United States should learn lessons from this experience.

And what of our young? They have suffered disproportionately these past few years: student debt, a housing crisis, a lack of secure jobs, falling wages, cuts to social security – the list goes on. Young voters have been ignored, ridiculed, demonised even. They just don't care about politics, it's said, or they're just too lazy. "Under-30s love Corbyn but they don't care enough to get off their lazy arses to vote for him!" one unnamed Tory MP told the Huffington Post's Owen Bennett. Those young voters did indeed get off their "lazy arses", and they kicked several Tory MPs' arses out of the House of Commons.

And then there's the media onslaught. Even by the standards of our so-called free press – a stinking sewer at the best of times – its campaign against Corbyn and the Labour party was utterly nauseating. Smears of terrorism, extremism, you name it. They believed they could simply brainwash millions of Britons. But people in this country are cleverer than the press barons think, and millions rejected their bile.

But a note about Corbyn, and the leadership, too. I owe Corbyn, John McDonnell, Seumas Milne, his policy chief Andrew Fisher, and others, an unreserved, and heartfelt apology. I campaigned passionately for Corbyn the first time he stood, and I voted for him twice. A few weeks ago, a senior Labour MP denounced me as one of the chief gravediggers of the Labour party, and journalists have suggested I should be knighted by the Tory party for my efforts.

But I came to believe that, yes, indeed Labour was heading for a terrible defeat that would crush all the things I believed in. That's what all the polling, byelections and the local elections seemed to say. I thought people had made their minds up about Corbyn, however unfairly, and their opinion just wouldn't shift. I wasn't a bit wrong, or slightly wrong, or mostly wrong, but totally wrong. Having one foot in the Labour movement and one in the mainstream media undoubtedly left me more susceptible to their groupthink. Never again. Corbyn stays and – if indeed the Tories are thrown into crisis as Brexit approaches – he has an undoubted chance of becoming prime minister, and a fine prime minister he would make too.

Now that I've said I'm wrong – perhaps one of the sweetest things I've had to write – so the rest of the mainstream commentariat, including in this newspaper, must confess they were wrong, too. They were wrong to vilify Corbyn supporters – from the day he stood – as delusional cultists. They were wrong to suggest Corbyn couldn't mobilise young people and previous non-voters. They were wrong to suggest he couldn't make inroads in Scotland. They were wrong to suggest a radical left programme was an automatic recipe for electoral catastrophe. No, Labour hasn't formed a government. But it is far closer than it has been for a very long time. The prospect of a socialist government that can build an economy run in the interests of working people – not the cartel of vested interests who have plunged us into repeated crisis – well, that may have been a prospect many of us thought would never happen in our lifetime. It is now much closer than it has ever been. So yes – to quote a much-ridiculed Jeremy Corbyntweet: the real fight starts now.

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

2) States Lead the Fight Against Trump's Birth Control Rollback
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG JUNE 9, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/us/politics/states-lead-the-fight-against-trumps-birth-control-rollback.html?rref=
collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us&region=rank&module=package&version=
highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

WASHINGTON — Not long after President Trump took the oath of office, a busload of women's health advocates made the first of a series of 860-mile round trips from Las Vegas to the Nevada capital, Carson City. Their mission: to push state legislators to expand insurance coverage for contraception.

It worked. On Saturday, Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada, a Republican, signed a measure requiring insurers to cover 12 months of birth control at a time, with no co-payment.

Nevada is not the only state where birth control is suddenly on the legislative agenda. With the future of the Affordable Care Act — former President Barack Obama's signature health care legislation — in doubt and the Trump administration planning to roll back the act's mandate that employers cover contraceptives, the battle over birth control is shifting to the states.

Currently, 28 states have some type of "contraceptive equity" law, aimed at making birth control cheaper and more accessible. Many of those measures — including one in Nevada — were adopted in the late 1990s. The issue has gained urgency with Mr. Trump's election.

"We are on the cusp of seeing another push, a more aggressive push at the state level to protect affordable access to contraception, just like we saw in the late '90s when women realized Viagra was getting coverage and birth control wasn't," said Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, a New York nonprofit that advocates for reproductive rights.

"The feds can set a floor," Ms. Miller said. "States can decide to do better."

Several states are expanding access by requiring insurers to cover a year's supply of contraceptives at a time, as opposed to the customary three months. In Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, last month signed a bill that would do just that, and Colorado's Democratic governor, John Hickenlooper, signed a similar bill this week.

Lawmakers in Massachusetts and New York are also considering "contraceptive equity bills." In New York, Eric Schneiderman, the attorney general, has proposed far-reaching legislation that would cover all forms of birth control, including vasectomies, without co-pays and at no cost to the patient. (Obamacare does not require insurers to cover vasectomies.) The bill has passed the New York Assembly, but awaits action in the state senate.

Mr. Schneiderman, a Democrat, called for similar legislation last year, but said in an interview that Mr. Trump's election increased his sense of urgency.

"We were anticipating this attack would come," he said.

More than 55 million women now have access to free birth control under the Affordable Care Act, according to a study conducted by the Obama administration. But the Trump administration has drafted a far-reaching rule, leaked last week, that would greatly expand the number of employers and insurers that could qualify for exemptions from the birth control mandate by claiming a moral or a religious objection.

For religious conservatives and anti-abortion advocates — many of whom oppose the contraceptive coverage mandate because it includes drugs that they say can induce abortion — the proposed rule was a welcome shift. Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, in a statement issued on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the draft "encouraging news."

But hundreds of thousands of women, many of them poor, could lose access to no-cost birth control if the rule goes into effect. For women like Tacy Geesaman, a 34-year-old mother of two in Las Vegas, who took one of the lobbying bus trips to Carson City, and is contemplating a run for public office, the Trump administration's draft rule is a call to action.

"I feel like religion should be a nonissue in protecting women's rights to have affordable birth control,'' Ms. Geesaman said. "Women's rights are on the line.''

The Affordable Care Act, which passed in 2010, did not explicitly call for insurers to provide birth control free of charge; it called for "preventive services," like mammograms, to be offered without co-pays.

But the Obama administration interpreted "preventive services" as including birth control; insurers are now required to cover 18 birth control methods approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including birth control pills, implantable devices and so-called morning after contraceptives, at no cost to the patient.

A series of lawsuits filed over the last five years by priests, nuns, charitable organizations, hospitals, advocacy groups and others helped chip away at the contraceptive coverage requirement. In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that family-owned businesses could not be forced to pay for coverage that included contraception if doing so violated the business owners' religious beliefs.

That same year, California became the first state to pass birth control legislation codifying Obamacare's requirements, which provided a blueprint for other states to do so.

Since then, Illinois, Vermont and Maryland have adopted their own contraceptive equity laws. Maryland's is among the most expansive; beginning in 2018, all forms of birth control — including vasectomies and Plan B, the so-called morning-after pill — will be free for those with insurance.

"The thought of losing the federal protections was in the back of our minds," said Delegate Ariana B. Kelly, who sponsored the Maryland measure. It passed the Democratic-controlled legislature with bipartisan support, and was signed into law last year by Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, who boasted that Maryland would have "the most comprehensive coverage for contraception in the country."

Women's health advocates credit Obamacare's birth control provisions with helping to reduce rates of teenage pregnancy and abortion, especially among poor women.

In an interview earlier this year, Dr. Raegan McDonald-Mosley, the chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood, said that shortly after Mr. Trump was elected, the organization had experienced a "huge surge in demand" for intrauterine devices and other birth control implants, covered without co-pays under the Affordable Care Act.

"Prior to the A.C.A., those methods were not accessible; they were very expensive due to deductibles and co-pays," Dr. McDonald-Mosley said.

As reproductive rights advocates seek to enshrine the federal mandate in state law, they have in some cases run into opposition from the insurance industry as well as religious conservatives.

Lora M. Pellegrini, president of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, an industry trade group, said the bill pending in that state's legislature "was cloaked as protecting coverage that was part of the Affordable Care Act," but instead "covers everything under the sun." Her group is fighting the measure, arguing that it will raise premiums.

In Nevada, existing law allowed employers to exclude birth control pills and devices if they opposed treatment on religious grounds. But an early version of the measure Governor Sandoval signed removed the religious exemption, and also mandated coverage of the drug mifepristone, known as RU-486, which can induce abortion when combined with another medication.

That drew opposition from anti-abortion advocates, as well as some Republicans like State Senator Joseph Hardy, who complained that the bills as originally written would create "an unfettered right to have an abortion." Mr. Hardy said the legislature considered four separate birth control measures, and spent so much time debating the issue that one of his colleagues complained of "contraceptive fatigue bills."

Eventually, the religious exemption was restored, and the language regarding RU-486 was stripped out — a compromise that allowed both sides to claim victory.

"We kind of saw the writing on the wall, with Trump," said Caroline Mello Roberson, the Nevada state director for Naral Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights group that organized the lobbying effort. "The message we want to send is that women are here to fight back, and states are leading the resistance."

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

3) What Turned the British Election? Maybe the Youth Vote
By CEYLAN YEGINSU JUNE 9, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/world/europe/britain-elections-youth-vote.html?rref=
collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=
stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

LONDON — As Britain took stock on Friday of the stunning results of a snap election that wiped out the parliamentary majority of Prime Minister Theresa May and her governing Conservative Party, one narrative bubbled up to the surface: The youth had spoken.

The election results were fueled partly by a higher turnout rate among young British voters who had long been angry at the results of the referendum last year to leave the European Union, known as Brexit. That vote, overwhelmingly supported by older Britons, was seen by many younger people as a threat to their jobs, their ability to study abroad and their desire to travel freely across the bloc's borders.

In other words, the vote by young Britons on Thursday had a whiff of payback.

"I was so angry about Brexit that I buried my head in a pillow and screamed," said Louise Traynor, 24, a waitress in the southwestern district of Battersea in London, who had never voted before Thursday.

Shaking her head in frustration, Ms. Traynor said she had been angry at herself because she hadn't bothered to vote the first time around. "I was stupid enough to think that the country had some sense," she said.

The Brexit referendum, Ms. Traynor said, could lead to closed borders, which threatened to tear her long-term Spanish boyfriend away from her, and her away from the group of European friends she had made while working at a tapas restaurant.

On Friday morning, she said, much of the anxiety she had felt about her future was replaced with excitement when she realized that her vote for the opposition Labour Party had denied the prime minister a mandate.

Jeremy Corbyn's Labour gained 31 seats, while Mrs. May's party lost 12 seats and its overall majority — leaving a hung Parliament, one in which neither side has enough lawmakers for control. In a statement on Friday, Mrs. May grimly announced that she would form a minority government with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland.

Ms. Traynor said that Mr. Corbyn's campaign had "injected energy" into what otherwise seemed like a stale election that would bring more "doom."

"Does Theresa May care that I've been on minimum wage for three years and I'm still paying my student debt?" she asked. "No, she doesn't. All she cares about is Brexit and getting her deal."

Owen Jones, an author and Labour campaigner, wrote in The Guardianon Friday that young voters had been "ignored, ridiculed and demonized, even. They just don't care about politics, it's said, or they're just too lazy."

He added, "Our young have suffered disproportionately these past few years: student debt, a housing crisis, a lack of secure jobs, falling wages, cuts to social security."

Many young Britons felt compelled to vote after the Brexit decision, because of austerity budgets and what they saw as the establishment's tendency to serve the interests of the rich. This year saw a spike in young people registering to vote — more than one million people under 25 applied.

On the day in May the election was called, 57,987 people under 25 registered to vote — more than any other age group, according to the BBC. About 246,480 young people registered to vote on the last day in May that they were eligible, a significant increase from the 137,400 who did so on the cutoff date in 2015, T he Telegraph reported.

The turnout in constituencies with younger voters rose significantly, appearing to benefit Labour. The turnout for 18- to 24-year-olds was 66.4 percent, according to Sky News data. Other reports put it as high as 72 percent. In the 2015 general election, the rate for voters of the same age range was 43 percent, according to Ipsod, a marketing and opinion research company.

Shona Macdonald, 52, a poll clerk in Nottingham, north of London, told The Times that "It was incredible to see so many students voting. The youth vote galvanized by Jeremy Corbyn was real."

There were doubts that younger voters would cast their ballots for Mr. Corbyn, who had toured the country, attracting crowds of all ages. His campaign was even compared to Bernie Sanders's American presidential race. In a Twitter post on Friday, Mr. Sanders congratulated Mr. Corbyn for "running a very effective campaign."

The payoff was evident in Battersea, where Labour seized the Conservative seat.

"Representatives from the Labour Party knocked on our doors and gathered us in groups, asking us about our problems and talking to us about solutions," said Jessie Cox, a 21-year-old student. "They gave us a reason to vote."

Jennifer Hudson, a senior lecturer in politics at University College London, said the effectiveness of Mr. Corbyn's campaign could be seen in a picture of him with young supporters, cheek to cheek.

"I thought: 'We will never see Theresa May like that with her supporters,'" Ms. Hudson said. "He has managed to create a human connection with his voters."

Even when members of Mr. Corbyn's own party declared him unfit to lead, he continued to focus on young voters, including sitting for an interview with some of the country's top grime music stars that kick-started the grass-roots campaign group "Grime4Corbyn," which encouraged young people to register to vote.

Analysts say that the part of Labour's manifesto that most resonated with Britain's youth was its promise to abolish university tuition fees. But Malia Bouattia, the president of the National Union of Students, said the student vote was also about issues like cuts to the National Health Service.

On Friday, the mood in Battersea was celebratory, though Labour did not win an overt victory. Many youths said they had attended election parties until the early hours of the morning and had skipped work.

"We may still be far from the final result that we wanted, but this feels like progress, and hopefully, it gives out a message to the pompous Tories that they can't make bad decisions on our behalf," said Luke Rossi, 25, a musician who had voted for the first time.

In Battersea Park, students ages 19 to 21 were debating possible political outcomes of the election aftermath. All said they hoped Mrs. May would be removed as leader of her party.

"She's an embarrassment to the country," said Fiona Barry, 20, a student at Queen Mary University in London. "England deserves so much better than that."

That sentiment was not shared by all younger voters. "I like some of Corbyn's policies, but he's just not fit to be prime minister," Aaron Neil, 23, of Dalston in east London, said before the election. "We need a strong leader and party to get us through Brexit negotiations and make sure the economy doesn't collapse."

For now, Mrs. May still leads, but precariously. The election results hammered the pound — it sank as much as 2 percent against the dollar — and plunged the country into uncertainty days before Brexit talks were to begin.

In her statement on Friday, Mrs. May vowed, "I will now form a government, a government that can provide certainty and lead Britain forward at this critical time for our country."

She has also apologized to her party's ministers who lost their seats.

Iliana Magra and Palko Karasz contributed reporting.

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

4) Trump Gives Mattis Authority to Send More Troops to Afghanistan
By MICHAEL R. GORDON JUNE 13, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/world/asia/mattis-afghanistan-military.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=
Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

WASHINGTON — President Trump has given Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the authority to determine troop levels in Afghanistan, three administration officials said Tuesday, opening the door for sending more American forces to a war that the Pentagon chief acknowledged the United States was "not winning."

Mr. Mattis is believed to favor sending several thousand more American troops to strengthen the effort to advise Afghan forces as they push back against gains made by the Taliban, the Islamic State and other militant groups. But officials said he had not yet decided how many more forces to send to Afghanistan, or when to deploy them.

One United States official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing internal deliberations, said that Mr. Trump decided on Tuesday morning to grant Mr. Mattis the authority. It was the latest in a series of moves by the White House to give the Pentagon and its military commanders more latitude to deploy forces and carry out operations.

Mr. Mattis alluded somewhat cryptically to the decision when he testified on Tuesday morning to the Senate Armed Services Committee. During his appearance, the defense secretary promised Congress that the Trump administration would develop a new strategy for Afghanistan by mid-July to turn around the war.

That timetable led to a feisty exchange with Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and the committee's chairman, who complained that the Pentagon had yet to present a plan to regain momentum in a conflict that has been going on for more than 15 years.

"We're now six months into this administration," Mr. McCain said. "We still haven't got a strategy for Afghanistan. It makes it hard for us to support you when we don't have a strategy."

Mr. Mattis sought to ease his concerns by hinting that some troops might be sent as an interim step before the administration's new strategy is finalized. "There are actions being taken to make certain that we don't pay a price for the delay," Mr. Mattis said.

Mr. Trump has already given his Pentagon chief similar authority for Iraq and Syria.

Mr. Trump's approach makes a sharp break from former President Barack Obama, who tightly controlled decisions on military troops, a practice that some critics complained smacked of micromanaging. The president has relaxed the rules for counterterrorism operations in Somalia and Yemen and was quick to approve the military's plan to fire sea-launched cruise missiles at an airfield that President Bashar al-Assad's forces used to mount a chemical weapons attack in Syria.

Proponents say that delegating the authority to the Pentagon will enable it to carry out campaigns against the United States' adversaries without interruptions and will allow it to respond more quickly to changes on the battlefield. The risk, critics say, is the president may become too detached from developments on the battlefield and may use this approach to distance himself from a decision that could be politically unpopular.

There is no debate that the war is Afghanistan is not going well. Gen. John W. Nicholson, the commander of the American-led international force in Afghanistan, told Congress in February that the United States and its NATO allies were facing a "stalemate."

Mr. Mattis offered a similarly sober assessment. "The Taliban had a good year last year, and they're trying to have a good one this year," he said. "Right now, I believe the enemy is surging."

The main question before the administration is how to reverse the trends on the battlefield.

The military's advice from the field has long been clear. In his February testimony, General Nicholson said he needed a "few thousand" troops.

The Pentagon later developed options to send 3,000 to 5,000 more American troops to Afghanistan, including hundreds of Special Operations forces. The reinforcements would be augmented by troop contributions by NATO nations, which American officials have begun to solicit.

An estimated 9,800 American troops are deployed to Afghanistan, most of them assigned to an international force of about 13,000 troops that are training and advising the Afghan military. About 2,000 of the American troops are assigned to fight Al Qaeda and other militant groups.

But Mr. Trump had long expressed skepticism about sending more troops, and the issue has never been easy for an administration that trumpets an "America first" strategy. While Mr. Trump has vowed to defeat terrorist groups, sending more American forces to Afghanistan could cost billions of dollars, and there is no guarantee of producing a clear win.

Even as Mr. Trump has granted Mr. Mattis the authority to set troop levels, the administration's broader strategy review has yet to be completed. Officials said the Afghan review has been broadened to include the policy toward neighboring Pakistan, particularly the question of how to prevent that country from being a haven for the Taliban and militants involved in the Afghan conflict.

That in turn has led to a discussion within the administration about what steps might be taken to mitigate Pakistan's decades-long anxieties over India. The result is that the Afghan review has turned into a larger review of American policy toward Southwest Asia.

Mr. Mattis did not discuss the details of the review with the senators on Tuesday, but he vowed to reverse the slide.

"We are not winning in Afghanistan right now, and we will correct this as soon as possible," he said. "It's going to require a change in our approach from the last several years."

Alluding to the troop reinforcement plan that has been under discussion, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States and allies could help reduce the substantial number of casualties that Afghan forces have sustained by "more effectively advising them, both in planning operations and delivering combined arms."

One argument that proponents have made for sending more troops is that it would enable the United States to advise Afghan units closer to the battlefield.

Asked what it would mean to win in Afghanistan, Mr. Mattis provided a definition that might have been produced by the Obama administration.

The idea, he said, would be to drive down the violence to a level that could be managed by Afghan government forces with the help of American and allied troops in training their Afghan counterparts, providing intelligence and delivering what Mr. Mattis called "high-end capability," an apparent allusion to air power and possibly Special Operations forces.

The result, he said, would be an "era of frequent skirmishing," but not a situation in which the Afghan government no longer faced a mortal threat.

The main purpose of the hearing was to review the Trump administration's $603 billion military spending request, which represents a 3 percent increase over Mr. Obama's last defense plan.

Mr. McCain and other hawkish lawmakers have described the request as far too little to carry out the military buildup Mr. Trump has advertised, a point that Mr. Mattis and General Dunford uncomfortably acknowledged.

The Pentagon officials asserted that the current spending request would help the military improve the readiness of its existing forces while 3 to 5 percent growth would be needed during the 2019 to 2023 budget years to expand the size of the military and buy new weapons.

Helene Cooper contributed reporting.

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

5) Michigan Official Is Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter in Flint Water Crisis
By SCOTT ATKINSON and MONICA DAVEY JUNE 14, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/us/flint-water-crisis-manslaughter.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=
Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

FLINT, Mich. — The head of Michigan's Health Department has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with Flint's tainted water crisis, court documents filed on Tuesday showed.

The criminal charge against Nick Lyon, the director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, is the one most directly linked to the deaths of residents in the three-year-old water contamination case. The water has been tied to the lead poisoning of children in Flint and the deaths of 12 people from Legionnaires' disease.

"Defendant Lyon's acts and failure to act resulted in the death of at least one person," the charging document said.

The document also said: "Defendant Lyon exhibited gross negligence when he failed to alert the public about the deadly outbreak and by taking steps to suppress information illustrating obvious and apparent harms that were likely to result in serious injury. Defendant Lyon willfully disregarded the deadly nature of the Legionnaires' Disease outbreak."

Mr. Lyon was also charged with misconduct in office. If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, he could face 15 years in prison.

Before Tuesday's charges, 13 people had been charged in the crisis, but the charges had included accusations of misconduct in office and conspiracy to commit false pretenses, and appeared less directly tied to deaths than the one against Mr. Lyon.

Over past months, three Flint officials, including a former director of the city's Public Works Department and a former utilities director for the department, were charged. And 10 state officials — including two state-appointed emergency managers assigned to oversee Flint, a state epidemiologist and the former leader of the state municipal drinking water office — faced charges.

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

6) Why Are So Many Young Voters Falling for Old Socialists?
By SARAH LEONARDJUNE 16, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/opinion/sunday/sanders-corbyn-socialsts.html?action=
click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=
opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0

At 68, Jeremy Corbyn has been on the Labour Party’s left flank longer than many of his most enthusiastic supporters — the ones who nearly propelled him to an upset victory in this month’s British general election — have been alive. Bernie Sanders, who won more votes from young people in the 2016 primaries than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton combined, is 75, and has a demeanor that, honestly, reminds me of my Jewish grandfather. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the Communist-backed candidate who, thanks to support from young people, surged in the polls ahead of the first round of France’s presidential election, is a sprightly 65.

What has driven so many young people into passionate political work, sweeping old socialists with old ideas to new heights of popularity? To understand what is going on, you have to realize that politicians like Mr. Sanders and Mr. Corbyn have carried the left-wing torch in a sort of long-distance relay, skipping generations of centrists like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, to hand it to today’s under-35s. And you have to understand why young people are so ready to grab that torch and run with it.

Both Britain and the United States used to have parties that at least pledged allegiance to workers. Since the 1970s, and accelerating in the ’80s and ’90s, the left-wing planks have one by one been ripped from their platforms. Under Mr. Blair, Labour rewrote its famous Clause IV, which had committed the party to the goal of “common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange.” Under Mr. Clinton, the Democratic Party cut welfare programs and pushed anti-worker international trade deals. Writing in 1990, Kevin Phillips, a former strategist for Richard Nixon, called the Democrats “history’s second-most enthusiastic capitalist party.” Elsewhere in Europe, traditional socialist parties became sclerotic and increasingly business-friendly.

All of this left many voters with a sense that there is no left-wing party devoted to protecting the interests of the poor, the working class and the young.

Meanwhile, people my age — I’m 29 — are more in need of a robust leftist platform than ever. The post-Cold War capitalist order has failed us: Across Europe and the United States, millennials are worse off than their parents were and are too poor to start new families. In the United States, they are loaded with college debt (or far less likely to be employed without a college degree) and are engaged in precarious and non-unionized labor. Also the earth is melting.

There’s nothing inherently radical about youth. But our politics have been shaped by an era of financial crisis and government complicity. Especially since 2008, we have seen corporations take our families’ homes, exploit our medical debt and cost us our jobs. We have seen governments impose brutal austerity to please bankers. The capitalists didn’t do it by accident, they did it for profit, and they invested that profit in our political parties. For many of us, capitalism is something to fear, not celebrate, and our enemy is on Wall Street and in the City of London.

Because we came to political consciousness after 1989, we’re not instinctively freaked out by socialism. In fact, it seems appealing: In a2016 poll conducted by Harvard, 51 percent of Americans between 18 and 29 rejected capitalism, and a third said they supported socialism. A Pew poll in 2011 showed that the same age bracket had more positive views of socialism than capitalism. What socialism actually means to millennials is in flux — more a falling out with capitalism than an adherence to one specific platform. Still, within this generation, certain universal programs — single-payer health care, public education, free college — and making the rich pay are just common sense.

At the ballot box, our options have been relatively limited. Clinton- and Blair-era liberals have hobbled their parties’ abilities to confront the ills of capitalism. But while left-of-center parties ran into the waiting arms of bankers, Mr. Sanders and Mr. Corbyn held fast to left-wing politics.

In May, when Labour’s manifesto calling for free university education and increased spending on the National Health Service was leaked, Britain’s mainstream press responded with derision: “Labour’s Manifesto to Drag Us Back to the 1970s” read a headline in the Daily Mail. (In fact, some of Mr. Corbyn’s proposals, like nationalizing rail and water companies, hark directly back to Labour’s Clause IV commitments.) To some readers it may have sounded like a threat, but to many young people it was a promise. Following the headlines, Labour’s poll numbers surged. In the election on June 8, the party finished with a shocking 40 percent of the vote, its highest share in years. And much of the success was thanks to young voters.

Of course, Mr. Corbyn, who is famous for cycling to work and being “totally anti-sugar on health grounds,” has a certain ascetic charm. And there’s something appealingly unpretentious about Mr. Sanders’s Brooklyn accent and disheveled appearance. But it seems safe to say that their success with young people has been based on their platforms, not their charisma.

That’s a good thing, too, since, sooner or later, those platforms will need to acquire new representatives. America’s working class is increasingly racially diverse. Hotly contested politics around race, gender and sexuality shape our political terrain (and our experience of downward mobility). Mr. Sanders suffered shortcomings on this front: He freely confessed to not comprehending the scale of American police brutality when he began his campaign; he can sound awkward when it comes to race and gender.

The upside is that Mr. Sanders’s campaign and Mr. Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party have paved the way for a socialist politics that doesn’t just look like them.

The day after the election in Britain, I flew to Chicago to speak at the People’s Summit, a national convention of progressive and left-wing activists organized by people from the Bernie Sanders campaign alongside National Nurses United.

Also attending were a next generation of leftist organizers and candidates: Linda Sarsour, a 37-year-old Palestinian-American organizer from New York known for her skill in building bridges among communities; Dante Barry, the 29-year-old executive director of the Million Hoodies Movement for Justice; and Maria Svart, also in her 30s, who became the national director of the Democratic Socialists of America in 2011.

I encountered many young people who found themselves radicalized over the last couple of years and are now joining campaigns in their communities for state-level single payer health care or for better housing. Those campaigns exist because older campaigners have carried the torch. Out of all this activity, a next generation of socialist candidates who actaully reflect America is almost guaranteed to emerge.

When Mr. Sanders took to the stage, I looked around to see hundreds of young organizers cheering his democratic socialist agenda. I hit the convention floor and saw people my own age tabling for new lefty magazines and organizations. A friend texted me a Corbyn emoji: thumbs up.

Three days after Britain’s general election, Mr. Corbyn sat down for an interview with Andrew Marr on the BBC. Mr. Marr grilled the Labour leader on the feasibility of turning his platform into governing policy. Was Mr. Corbyn, at this point in his career, really in it for the long haul? “Look at me!” he said. “I’ve got youth on my side.”

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

7) Time for a Doctors’ March on Washington
"Texas, for example, now has the highest maternal death rate in the country, and perhaps in the developed world. If this were the result of a new virus or a side effect of a medication, the medical profession would be sounding the alarm. That the death rate is probably in part because legislation intended to restrict abortion has resulted in the closing of women’s health centers doesn’t make it any less of a medical emergency."
By DANIELLE OFRIJUNE 16, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/opinion/ahca-doctors-march-on-washington.html?action=
click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=
opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

Recently, a patient with end-stage kidney disease told me that his insurance company stopped covering one of his essential medications. It took me hours of phone calls to reinstate this lifesaving treatment. Another patient — frail and elderly — was on the verge of having to move to a nursing home. An intensive blitz to coordinate visiting nurse services, physical therapy, Meals on Wheels and home hospice allowed her to stay in her home.

Advocating for patients is as much a part of medical care as the medical care itself. Diagnosing the problem and prescribing the treatment helps only if the patient can actually get the care. So doctors and nurses spend much of their time fighting on patients’ behalf with hospitals, specialists and insurance companies.

Should that advocacy extend beyond the doctor’s office, when politics has palpable effects on patients’ health? If my patient with kidney disease loses his health insurance, it would be just as life-threatening as the loss of his medications. As his doctor, am I equally obliged to advocate politically to ensure that health insurance remains available?

Right now, the Senate is considering health care legislation that threatens the coverage of millions of Americans. The American Health Care Act, which the House passed in May, would slash Medicaid, raise rates, increase deductibles, cut subsidies and weaken patient protections. Losing insurance — or being priced out of the market — is tantamount to losing health care. For patients with cancer, heart disease or diabetes, disruptions in medical care are as grave a threat to health as blood clots, metastases and sepsis.

Most doctors see an intrinsic distinction between calling an insurance company and calling a senator. The former is part and parcel of patient care, while the latter feels like acting on one’s personal interests or opinions.

But in terms of our patients’ health, there is a moral argument that they are equivalent. In our day-to-day lives, doctors and nurses put our patients’ needs first. We must do the same when our government proposes health care legislation.

Medicine is often practiced in what feels like a cocoon. There’s good reason for this — illness involves exquisite vulnerability, and patients discuss things they do not reveal elsewhere. When doctors and nurses close the exam room door, we are trying to block out the outside world metaphorically as well as physically.

Lately, however, the outside world has been muscling its way in. My patients frequently bring up politics — both those who support President Trump and those who think he is bulldozing our country to the ground. I try to stay out of it because these discussions could swamp what little time we have and because politics should never get in the way of the doctor-patient relationship.

There was a big hoo-ha late last year about a study with the erroneous title “Democratic and Republican Physicians Provide Different Care on Politicized Health Issues.” The study, in fact, demonstrated nothing about the medical care provided to patients. Rather, it surveyed doctors’ responses to hypothetical cases and then correlated that to their voter registration.

It found, for example, that Republican doctors were more likely than Democrats to say they would warn patients about mental health issues connected to abortion, while Democrats were more likely to say they would warn patients about the danger of storing firearms. While this study does remind us to be on the lookout for biases, it should not be taken as a call to minimize political advocacy on the part of medical caregivers.

Regardless of our own political affiliation, doctors need to examine how legislation affects our patients’ health. Texas, for example, now has the highest maternal death rate in the country, and perhaps in the developed world. If this were the result of a new virus or a side effect of a medication, the medical profession would be sounding the alarm. That the death rate is probably in part because legislation intended to restrict abortion has resulted in the closing of women’s health centers doesn’t make it any less of a medical emergency.

It’s heartening to see that medical groups are voicing their opposition to the American Health Care Act. But what about individual caregivers? Members of Congress need to hear from us, en masse, in our professional capacity. Just as we do not stand silent when insurance companies deny necessary medications, we cannot stand silent while our legislators’ actions threaten medical access. It might be time for the Medical March on Washington.

The mission statement for nearly every health care organization contains some variation on commitment to patient care. In the United States there are just under a million practicing doctors and more than four million nurses. An additional seven million or more are employed in the health care system. That’s a lot of voices that could be advocating for patients.

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

8) Amazon to Buy Whole Foods in $13.4 Billion Deal
By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED and NICK WINGFIELDJUNE 16, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/business/dealbook/amazon-whole-foods.html?hp&action=
click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=
top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Amazon said on Friday that it had agreed to buy the upscale grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.4 billion, as the online retailer looks to conquer new territory in the supermarket aisle.

For Amazon, the deal marks an ambitious push into the mammoth grocery business, an industry that in the United States accounts for around $700 to $800 billion in annual sales. Amazon is also amplifying the competition with Walmart, which has been struggling to play catch-up to the online juggernaut.

For Whole Foods, the deal represents a chance to fend off pressure from activists investors frustrated by a sluggish stock price. Whole Foods last month unveiled a sweeping overhaul of its board, replacing five directors, naming a new chairwoman and bringing in a new chief financial officer. It also laid out plans to improve operations and cut costs.

With Amazon, Whole Foods gets a deep-pocketed owner with significant technological expertise and a willingness to invest aggressively in a quest for dominance.

Amazon has designs on expanding beyond online retail into physical stores. The company is slowly building a fleet of outlets, and much attention has been focused on its supermaket dreams. It has already made an initial push through AmazonFresh, its grocery delivery service.

The e-commerce giant has been testing a variety of other retail concepts. It has opened a convenience store that does not need cashiers, and has explored another grocery store concept that could serve walk-in customers and act as a hub for home deliveries.

Under the terms of the proposed deal, Amazon would pay $42 a share for Whole Foods, a 27 percent premium to Thursday’s closing price. After the deal was announced, shares of Amazon rose as much as 3.3 percent while other major retailers, including Target, Walmart and Costco Wholesale fell sharply.

Whole Foods, which was founded in 1978 in Austin, Tex., is best known for its organic foods. The company built its brand on healthy eating and staked its reputation on fresh, local produce, albeit with a high price tag.

But the company has increasingly faced fierce competition from rival supermarkets. National retailers like Costco, Safeway and Walmart have begun offering organic produce and kitchen staples, forcing Whole Foods to slash prices.

Whole Foods has been feeling the heat to bolster its stock for more than a year.

John Mackey, a founder, took over as sole chief executive last year, in a bid to revive the company. Money managers, unhappy with the pace of the turnaround effort, have pushed for more, taking aim at the board, its grocery offerings and its pricey real estate holdings.

The activist hedge fund Jana Partners raised the pressure in April, announcing that it had become the second-biggest shareholder in Whole Foods. Almost immediately, the stock spiked.

In a defensive posture, Whole Foods, a few weeks later, revamped its board and replaced its chief financial officer. Gabrielle Sulzberger, a private equity executive, was named the company’s chairwoman. Ms. Sulzberger is married to Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., the chairman and publisher of The New York Times.

For Amazon, the deal represents both a major pivot into bricks-and-mortar stores and one of the largest categories of retailing — groceries — that it has just barely made a dent in through its online efforts.

The company has increasingly experimented with physical stores, opening a small chain of book stores across the country. In Seattle, it recently opened two drive-through grocery pickup locations for customers who order their items online.

But those efforts are nothing compared to the number and size of stores they will acquire through the Whole Foods deal. The grocery chain encompasses more than 460 stores in the United States, Canada and Britain with sales of $16 billion in the last fiscal year.

“The Whole Foods acquisition provides them more physical locations,” said Mikey Vu, a partner at the consultancy Bain & Company who is focused on retail. “They’re going to be within an hour or 30 minutes of as many people as possible.”

The deal immediately raised questions about how Amazon planned to use technology to update Whole Foods stores.

In one of the internet retailer’s more notable bricks-and-mortar experiments, a convenience store in Seattle called Amazon Go uses a combination of sensors and cameras to automatically keep track of the items shoppers put into their baskets, letting them simply walk out of stores without the need for cashiers.

Amazon has no plans to use the technology it developed for Amazon Go to automate the jobs of cashiers at Whole Foods, said Drew Herdener, a spokesman for Amazon. No job reductions are planned as a result of the deal, he said.

Amie Tsang contributed reporting.

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

9) Moving to Scuttle Obama Legacy, Donald Trump to Crack Down on Cuba
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVISJUNE 15, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/us/politics/cuba-trump-obama.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=
Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday will move to halt the historic rapprochement between the United States and Cuba set in motion by former President Barack Obama, delivering a speech in Miami in which he plans to announce he is clamping down on travel and commercial ties with the island nation to force the government of Raúl Castro to change its repressive ways.

Mr. Trump is expected to declare that the two-year-old Obama-era approach of engagement has amounted to a failed policy of appeasement. To that end, he plans to outline stiffer rules for American travelers visiting Cuba and a sweeping prohibition against transactions with companies controlled by the military, which runs vast segments of the hotel and tourism sector, according to White House officials.

The changes are likely to affect both countries, making it more difficult and costly for Americans to travel to and do business with Cuba. The island’s population potentially may pay the steeper price, particularly Cubans who derive their livelihoods from tourism and increased business opportunities stemming from the opening.

The expected changes will also place a distinct chill on the relationship between the United States and Cuba that was just beginning to thaw after a half-century of isolation and estrangement and thrust the two countries back into an adversarial posture that is among the last vestiges of the Cold War.

In making the shift, Mr. Trump is delivering on a politically potent promise he made to the Cuban-American exile community based in Miami, which backed him in last year’s election and was deeply opposed to the détente. The new policy was shaped in large part by Cuban-American Republicans in Congress, including Senator Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart, both of Florida, and both of whom wanted even stiffer American sanctions on the Castro government.

But many business leaders and human rights groups are profoundly opposed to the change. Even members of Mr. Trump’s own administration have privately argued that the move toward normalizing relations between Washington and Havana had yielded national security, diplomatic and economic benefits for the United States that should not be sacrificed.

The internal conflict is evident in the new approach, which will be enshrined in a policy directive that Mr. Trump plans to issue on Friday, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the president.

Although Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that Mr. Obama made a “bad deal” with Cuba, his shift falls well short of the wholesale reversal that many hard-liners, including Mr. Diaz-Balart, were seeking.

Embassies in Washington and Havana that reopened in 2015 for the first time in a half-century will remain open. The Trump administration is not moving to unwind other regulations that have carved out exceptions to the trade embargo, including those allowing direct financing of certain exports and allowing American dollars to be used in transactions with Cuba, the officials said.

Nor does Mr. Trump plan to restore the “wet foot, dry foot” policy that Mr. Obama ended last year, which allowed Cubans who arrived on United States soil without visas to remain in the country and gain legal residency.

Still, Mr. Trump’s expected changes are substantial.

The directive calls for reversing a rule that Mr. Obama put in place last year to allow Americans who are making educational or cultural trips to initiate their own travel to Cuba without special permission from the United States government and without a licensed tour company so long as they kept records of their activities for five years. The 2016 change punctured a major element of the American embargo against Cuba, which bars tourism.

Now, such trips, sometimes known as “people-to-people” exchanges, will only be possible as part of a licensed tour group, as was the case before last year. And the Treasury Department, which will be tasked with drafting the new rules, will be directed to strictly enforce the law regarding travel to Cuba, including with routine audits.

Mr. Trump is also directing a broad prohibition against Americans doing business with companies controlled by the military, intelligence or security services in Cuba, which control large swaths of the economy, including many foreign-owned hotels, through the military’s business arm known as Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., or Gaesa. However, White House officials said there would be exceptions, including for airports and seaports, meaning that the operation of cruise ships and commercial flights would not be affected.

The current policy, officials argued, enriched the Cuban military and empowered a government that has engaged in human rights abuses. Mr. Trump’s directive will call for the State Department to issue a list of blacklisted companies to comply with the prohibition.

The Trump administration will lay out conditions that the Cuban government would have to meet before the restrictions could be lifted, including holding free and fair elections, releasing political prisoners and allowing Cuban workers to be paid directly, one White House official said.

The impending changes drew sharp criticism from architects of the Obama-era policy.

Benjamin J. Rhodes, a former deputy national security to Mr. Obama who helped broker the opening first announced in 2014, called the clampdown a politically motivated move that would ultimately be self-defeating. He said it would revive an adversarial dynamic between the United States and Cuba that would harm citizens of both countries while allowing the Castro government to once again cast Americans as the root of all its people’s ills.

“For nothing more than a partial rollback, Trump has made us the bad guy again,” Mr. Rhodes said on Thursday. “They are not going as far as the real hard line, but they are going far enough to cause damage.”

Business organizations that have been pushing Congress to lift the embargo, to foster potentially lucrative commercial relationships and closer personal and cultural ties between the United States and Cuba, also voiced opposition.

“The idea that after 55 years of failure, going back to isolationist policies will produce any results is insane,” said James Williams, the president of Engage Cuba, a pro-engagement group.

Mr. Trump plans to cast his decision on Cuba as a matter of human rights, arguing that the changes will ensure that the United States is not rewarding a government that deprives its citizens of basic rights.

“This is going to have a dampening effect, but so be it,” said Jorge Mas, the president of the Cuban American National Foundation, a Cuban exile group. “The Cuban government’s behavior has to change, and they will now understand the cost of not changing behavior.”

Human rights groups had implored the administration not to roll back the engagement policy, arguing that while the Castro government’s record continued to be poor, cutting nascent ties with Cuba would only hurt its citizens.

“The Cuban government was able to use the old policy as an excuse for all the problems on the island and as a pretext for repression,” Daniel Wilkinson, the managing director of the Americas division at Human Rights Watch, said in an interview on Thursday. “It’s true the repressive system in Cuba has not changed, but the fact that two years of a different policy didn’t change things isn’t a reason to go back to one that was a clear failure for decades.”

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

10) Judge Finds That DAPL Approval Violated Law
Anna Lee, Bobbi Jean & the Oceti Sakowin Youth
https://www.change.org/p/jo-ellen-darcy-stop-the-dakota-access-pipeline/u/20570444?j=88043&sfmc_sub=163792548&l=32_HTML&u=15366727&mid=7259882&jb=380&utm_medium=email&utm_source=88043&utm_campaign=petition_update&sfmc_tk=a3FIwZ5ycf2ZIuQFIZNpG25f6BAzDXMdi%2f%2fIy56Oy7vL2z79uU3kgPWdN5Qsa%2fiJ

JUN 16, 2017 — This week, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration failed to fully consider the environmental impacts of the Dakota Access Pipeline when it issued a permit for its construction. The judge ordered the administration to conduct further environmental review. While this has not stopped oil flowing through the pipeline, it opens the door to that possibility – a huge win for our movement!

In the ruling, U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg found that the Army Corps "failed to adequately consider the impacts of an oil spill on Standing Rock's fishing and hunting rights and on environmental justice."

We couldn’t agree more.

After the devastating news earlier this month that President Trump is pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement, it’s inspiring to see judges, lawmakers, corporate leaders and people of Turtle Island taking action when our president won’t. The Court has requested additional briefing on the subject and a status conference next week, so hopefully we’ll have more updates soon.

Sincerely,

The Standing Rock Youth

P.S. One of our original runners who helped kick off this movement, Wilma Steele, is fighting liver failure in the hospital right now. She is a young mother of four, and a fierce warrior for our people and our planet. If you have any prayers or dollars to send her way, she needs our support! You can donate to her medical fund here: http://bit.ly/2rlYBq6.

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

11) Education Dept. Says It Will Scale Back Civil Rights Investigations
By ERICA L. GREENJUNE 16, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/us/politics/education-department-civil-rights-betsy-
devos.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-
column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

WASHINGTON — The Department of Education is scaling back investigations into civil rights violations at the nation’s public schools and universities, easing off mandates imposed by the Obama administration that the new leadership says have bogged down the agency.

According to an internal memo issued by Candice E. Jackson, the acting head of the department’s office for civil rights, requirements that investigators broaden their inquiries to identify systemic issues and whole classes of victims will be scaled back. Also, regional offices will no longer be required to alert department officials in Washington of all highly sensitive complaints on issues such as the disproportionate disciplining of minority students and the mishandling of sexual assaults on college campuses.

The new directives are the first steps taken under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to reshape her agency’s approach to civil rights enforcement, which was bolstered while President Barack Obama was in office. The efforts during Mr. Obama’s administration resulted in far-reaching investigations and resolutions that required schools and colleges to overhaul policies addressing a number of civil rights concerns.

That approach sent complaints soaring, and the civil rights office found itself understaffed and struggling to meet the department’s stated goal of closing cases within 180 days.

The office’s processing times have “skyrocketed,” the Education Department spokeswoman, Liz Hill, said, adding that its backlog of cases has “exploded.” The new guidelines were to ensure that “every individual complainant gets the care and attention they deserve,” she said.

In the memo, which was first published by ProPublica, Ms. Jackson emphasized that the new protocols were aimed at resolving cases quickly.

“Justice delayed is justice denied, and justice for many complainants has been denied for too long,” Ms. Hill said in a statement.

But civil rights leaders believe that the new directives will have the opposite effect. They say that Education Department staff members would be discouraged from opening cases and that investigations could be weakened because efficiency would take priority over thoroughness.

“If we want to have assembly-line justice, and I say ‘justice’ in quotes, then that’s the direction that we should go,” said Catherine Lhamon, who was the assistant secretary of the Education Department’s civil rights office under Mr. Obama, and who now heads the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

The commission — an independent, bipartisan agency charged with advising the president and Congress on matters of civil rights — voted on Friday to conduct a two-year investigation of federal civil rights enforcement, saying it had “grave concerns” about the Trump administration’s agenda. The commission identified the Education Department as an agency that was particularly troubling.

Nevertheless, the department’s move was lauded by advocates who believe that the office for civil rights has been overzealous in its enforcement activities in recent years.

Robert Shibley, the executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an advocacy group, said the measures will be welcomed on college campuses where the department has overstepped in carrying out sexual assault investigations. The organization is financially supporting a lawsuit against the department over a letter issued in 2011 directing campuses to change the burden of proof in cases of sexual assault.

“So many of the campus hearings are kangaroo courts with low due process, and you can’t really have any confidence in the outcomes,” Mr. Shibley said.

Both sides of the civil rights issue keyed on the department’s decision to reverse its practice of automatically broadening investigations and scrutinizing years of data, searching for patterns of violations.

The practice of systematic reviews, which Ms. Lhamon supported while leading the civil rights office, uncovered significant evidence of discrimination in school districts.

“It’s really a way of curtailing the way civil rights enforcement should be handled,” Ms. Lhamon said, reacting to the department’s new direction. “It’s literally a stick your head in the sand approach.”

For example, the department received a complaint that a black student at the Lodi Unified School District in California, about an hour south of Sacramento, received harsher punishment than a white student after the two were in a fight.

According to a published settlement agreement, the investigation found that schools with higher percentages of black students established stricter punishment for discipline incidents, and a review of four years of data revealed that black students across the district received disproportionately higher levels of discipline than white students.

But Mr. Shibley said the practice of systematic reviews was a significant burden, especially on colleges and universities, which sometimes had to review years of previous sexual assault complaints, and remedy anything they were found to have mishandled.

“That was quite alarming from a double jeopardy and civil liberties perspective,” Mr. Shibley said.

Since her appointment as the education secretary, Ms. DeVos has come under fire from lawmakers and civil rights advocates for her remarks about the department’s role in enforcing civil rights laws in the public school system.

The office is charged with enforcing legal prohibitions against discrimination by race, color, national origin, sex and disability.

Ms. DeVos has denounced discrimination in any form and has said schools that receive federal funds must follow federal laws. But she also believes in a limited federal role in education. She has signaled that her office is “not going to be issuing any decrees” on civil rights and that those should come from Congress or the courts.

In the memo issued last week, Ms. Jackson wrote that the department would “robustly enforce the civil rights laws under our jurisdiction, and we will do so in a neutral, impartial manner and as efficiently as possible.”

Ms. Jackson issued another internal memo last week about how her office would respond to cases of discrimination after the rollback of Obama administration rules that encouraged states to allow transgender students to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity.

Ms. Hill, the department spokeswoman, declined to release the internal document, but said it guides staff members on how to “functionally execute on these cases.” Transgender cases will be investigated by the department “fully and fairly” and will not be dismissed or referred because of a lack of guidance.

However, the office has indicated that it will also be more judicious in tackling complaints in general.

In the administration’s budget request for the fiscal year that begins in October, the Education Department has proposed cutting more than 40 staff positions from the office for civil rights, which would require the office to “make difficult choices, including cutting back on initiating proactive investigations,” the department wrote.

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

12) Minnesota Officer Acquitted in Killing of Philando Castile
By MITCH SMITHJUNE 16, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/us/police-shooting-trial-philando-castile.html?hp&action=
click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-
region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

ST. PAUL — The images had transfixed people around the world: A woman live-streaming the aftermath of a police shooting of her boyfriend, Philando Castile, and narrating the searing, bloody scene that was unfolding around her.

On Friday, a jury here acquitted the Minnesota police officer, Jeronimo Yanez, of all charges in shooting, which happened in July 2016 and left Mr. Castile dead, raising the national debate over police conduct toward black people. Officer Yanez, an officer for the suburb of St. Anthony, had been charged with second-degree manslaughter and endangering safety by discharging a firearm in the shooting.

The verdict was announced in a tense courtroom here late Friday afternoon, after five days of deliberations, and the officer was led quickly out of the courtroom, as were the 12 jurors. Mr. Castile’s family, which had nervously watched the proceedings from the front row, abruptly left as well.

“My son loved this city, and this city killed my son,” Mr. Castile’s mother, Valerie, said as she stood on a corner outside the courthouse afterward. “And a murderer gets away. Are you kidding me right now?”

She continued, “The system in this country continues to fail black people and will continue to fail us.”

The case against Officer Yanez — believed to be the first time in Minnesota history that an officer was charged in an on-duty fatal shooting — hinged on one central question: Did the officer have reason to fear that Mr. Castile was reaching for a gun that he had acknowledged having with him when he was pulled over by the officer?

Officer Yanez testified that he feared Mr. Castile was grabbing for the gun, but Mr. Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, said he had merely been reaching for his identification to give the officer.

Though there was dashboard camera video of the events, as well as the live-stream video that Ms. Reynolds began taking after the shooting, there was no video clearly revealing the crucial moments in the front seat of Mr. Castile’s car — and how precisely he had moved his hands before the officer fired.

The shooting set off large marches across the twin cities and, at one point, blocked off a major highway. It drew notice from President Barack Obama, as well as the governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton, who asked aloud: “Would this have happened if the driver were white, if the passengers were white?”

On Friday, as news of the acquittal filtered out, a small group of protesters gathered outside the courthouse, expressing anger and dismay. “It’s not us that were on trial, it was the system that was on trial,” said Mel Reeves, a community activist.

Later in the evening, protesters gathered at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul to express their displeasure with the verdict. The police estimated that 1,500 people set off from there on a march, causing traffic backups and transit delays.

Mike Padden, a lawyer representing Ms. Reynolds, said he was surprised and disappointed by the verdict. “For those who are committed to the idea of leveling the playing field with law enforcement and the citizenry, it’s a big blow,” he said.

John J. Choi, the prosecutor who announced the charges against Officer Yanez, said on Friday that “this verdict brings a lot of hurt and pain and deep-seated frustration for a lot of people in this community.” Mr. Choi said he was disappointed in the verdict, and believed that Mr. Castile “did nothing that justified the taking of his life.”

“We gave it our best shot,” said Mr. Choi, the Ramsey County attorney. “We really did.”

The acquittal was the latest example of charges against an officer, but not a conviction. In recent years, officers in Cleveland, Pennsylvaniaand Tulsa, Okla., have been found not guilty of manslaughter. Elsewhere, including Cincinnati and South Carolina, jurors have deadlocked on charges after a fatal shooting and failed to deliver any verdict at all.

Among some advocates for police officers, the outcome was met with approval.

Earl Gray, a lawyer for Officer Yanez, said he was gratified with the outcome, but frustrated that charges were ever brought.

“The state didn’t have a case in the first place,” Mr. Gray said in an interview on Friday evening after the acquittal. “But because of the protests and the political pressure, I suppose you’d call it, he was charged and he had to go into court and defend himself.”

Mr. Gray said Officer Yanez was “still very shook up” after the verdict, but “extremely happy it’s over.”

“He wants to get on with his life,” Mr. Gray said.

As the officer left the courtroom, Judge William H. Leary III had said, “Mr. Yanez, you will now be excused from this matter with no further obligation to this court. Good luck to you.”

Despite the verdict, though, officials with the city of St. Anthony, where Officer Yanez has worked for several years, issued a statement late Friday saying that they had “concluded that the public will be best served if Officer Yanez is no longer a police officer in our city.” They said they planned to offer him a “voluntary separation agreement.” In the meantime, the city said, he will not be returning to patrol.

Through a week of testimony in the trial, the case had centered chiefly on the conflicting accounts of what Mr. Castile, a longtime school cafeteria worker whom Officer Yanez had pulled over for a broken taillight at twilight on a summer evening, was doing before he was shot.

Prosecutors said Officer Yanez had created a dangerous situation, perceived a threat where none existed and, in addition to killing Mr. Castile, almost wounded Ms. Reynolds and her young daughter in the back seat.

“He was making assumptions and jumping to conclusions without engaging in the dialogue he was trained to have in a citizen encounter like this,” Jeffrey Paulsen, a prosecutor, said in closing arguments. “And that’s his fault, not the fault of Philando Castile.”

Mr. Castile was licensed to carry a gun and was recorded on a dashboard camera video calmly telling Officer Yanez that he had a weapon in the car. Officer Yanez told him not to reach for the weapon, and Mr. Castile and Ms. Reynolds both tried to assure the officer that he was not doing so. Within seconds, Officer Yanez fired seven shots.

Prosecutors said Mr. Castile had mentioned his gun to allay concerns, not to threaten the officer or escalate the situation. “If someone were just about to reach in their pocket and pull out a gun and shoot an officer, that’s the last thing they would say,” Mr. Paulsen said.

Mr. Gray, the defense lawyer, said Officer Yanez had to react quickly to what he believed was an imminent threat. He said Officer Yanez smelled marijuana, believed that Mr. Castile matched the description of a recent robbery suspect and saw him grabbing a gun.

“We have him ignoring his commands. He’s got a gun. He might be the robber. He’s got marijuana in his car,” Mr. Gray told jurors. “Those are the things in Officer Yanez’s head.”

Officer Yanez did not tell Mr. Castile about the robbery suspicions, only that his brake light was out. But Mr. Gray said that this approach made sense, and that Officer Yanez had acted reasonably given his training and what he knew that night.

“He did what he had to do,” Mr. Gray said, adding that the situation was “tragic.”

The jury of 12, including two black people, had to sort through the competing narratives. Both prosecutors and defense lawyers said the video footage supported their version of events.

At Officer Yanez’s trial, in this small courtroom in downtown St. Paul, defense lawyers made repeated mention of Mr. Castile’s and Ms. Reynolds’s use of marijuana. The drug was found in Mr. Castile’s car after the shooting, and Mr. Gray said that Mr. Castile had been under the influence of marijuana and delayed in his reactions at the time of the shooting.

“We’re not saying that Philando Castile was going to shoot Officer Yanez,” Mr. Gray said. “What we’re saying is that he did not follow orders. He was stoned.”

But Mr. Paulsen, the prosecutor, said that version of events was contradicted by video. He said footage showed that Mr. Castile was driving normally, pulled over quickly and was alert and courteous when talking to Officer Yanez. He accused the defense of blaming the victim.

“He offered no resistance,” Mr. Paulsen said of Mr. Castile. “He made no threats. He didn’t even complain about being stopped for such a minor offense.”