Sunday, October 14, 2018

BAUAW NEWSLETTER, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2018

On the right side of the streets, in red brick, are the Chelsea Projects. Across the streets, in white stone, is the Avenue school—from kindergarten to 12th grade—costing $45,000 per year per child. The contrast is mind-blowing!

HBO Documentary Class Divide 2016 New York City.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0Z9Vgz-aEQ

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Message to the troops: Do not collaborate with the illegal immigrant detention camps
Dear Friend.
In our new October PDF newsletter, we're again talking about the massive military-hosted immigrant detention camps decreed this summer by the Trump Administration. Just the idea of these concentration camps brings back memories of the forced relocation and incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. While resistance has slowed them down, they are moving forward. Many of us thought something like that could never happen again, and yet, here we are.
We need to reach the troops with this simple challenge: Do not collaborate with the illegal immigrant detention camps. With your help, we'll spend one penny per military service member--$20,000--on a strategic outreach campaign. Our stretch goal is two cents.
Along with everything else you can do to resist this affront to humanity, please support our campaign to challenge military personnel to refuse these illegal orders. Your tax-deductible donation of $50 or $100 will make a huge difference.
Also in this issue: Army Capt. Brittany DeBarros / Shutting down recruiting center; Hoisting peace flag / Presidio 27 "mutiny" 50th anniversary events / Whistleblower Reality Winner update--"So unfair" says Trump



Upcoming Events
presidio mutiny50th anniversary events of the Presidio 27 mutiny
San Francisco, California
Panel discussion on Saturday, October 13
Commemoration on Sunday, October 14
At the former Presidio Army Base
More info

COURAGE TO RESIST ~ SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT!
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, California 94610 ~ 510-488-3559
www.couragetoresist.org ~ facebook.com/couragetoresist



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Sunday, October 14, Noon:  

CODEPINK Golden Gate Bridge Peace Walk 

Stop Droning Afghanistan
17 Years:  ENOUGH!
PLEASE STOP KILLING US.SHUT DOWN CREECH.jpeg

This month marks the 17th anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, the longest war in U.S. history.  Does it make any sense that the wealthiest nation on the planet should be bombing one of the very poorest nations for 17 years, with no end in sight?  "Mission Accomplished" in Afghanistan has been declared by both president Bush and president Obama…yet the US bombing continues, and over 40,000 military, mercenary and allied troops remain in that devastated nation, "the most droned place on earth." Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been killed, and tens of thousands live with amputations and other permanent injuries.  CODEPINK says:  ENOUGH!

Join us this Sunday in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan.  Wear a sky blue scarf (if you have one), in support of the Afghan Peace Volunteers heroic campaign to end war globally.   
Learn more at:  www.OurJourneyToSmile.com

Wear pink or come as you are, but come in the spirit of unity for nonviolence.
Bring signs ( 2x3 ft. or smaller)......wooden sticks/poles permitted.

We hope to see you there!
Renay, Susan, Laura, Nancy, Ellen, Fred, Carol, Paul, Michael and Toby
(Martha's in DC.  Toby's daughter, Margeaux, is visiting and hopefully will come too!)

11:45 am:  Gather at the SF or Marin end of the eastern walkway of the Golden Gate Bridge.
                   Parking available on all 4 "corners",  just remember to take
                   the last exit on hwy 101 as you approach the bridge, or the
                   first exit after you leave the bridge.

12:00 pm:          Walk on the eastern walkway from the north or south ends, to converge in the middle for Peace in Afghanistan vigil.  

1:00pm      Rally on SF side after the bridge walk:
   Tentative plan for a 5 min. DIE-IN on the plaza to memorialize all those lost lives from this useless 17 year war.

Bring your children, your mothers, friends, relatives and your LOVE!
                  BE GREEN AND CARPOOL


BE GREEN AND CARPOOL

See http://tripplanner.transit.511.org for public transit options.
Golden Gate Transit Buses 10, 70, 80
and SF Muni Bus 28 stop at the bridge (SF side).

FMI & carpooling:  Toby, 510-215-5974  
ratherbenyckeling@comcast.net

"Behind every great fortune there is a great crime." —Honoré de Balzac

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A soldier's tale of bravery and morality





Chris Hedges interviews former combat veteran and US Army officer Spenser Rapone about bravery and morality. The second lieutenant was given an "other than honorable" discharge June 18 after an army investigation determined that he "went online to promote a socialist revolution and disparage high-ranking officers," and thereby engaged in "conduct unbecoming an officer."


https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/439962-combat-veteran-bravery-morality/

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Pardon Whistleblower Reality Winner
Hi Bonnie.
On June 3, 2017, NSA contractor Reality Leigh Winner was arrested and charged under the Espionage Act for providing a media organization with a single five-page top-secret document that analyzed information about alleged Russian online intrusions into U.S. election systems.
Reality, who has been jailed without bail since her arrest, has now been sentenced to five years in prison. This is by far the longest sentence ever given in federal court for leaking information to the media. Today, she is being transferred from a small Georgia jail to a yet-unknown federal prison.
Several months before her arrest, the FBI's then-Director James Comey told President Trump that he was (in the words of a subsequent Comey memo) "eager to find leakers and would like to nail one to the door as a message." Meanwhile, politically connected and high-level government officials continue to leak without consequence, or selectively declassify material to advance their own interests.
Join Courage to Resist and a dozen other organizations in calling on President Trump, who has acknowledged Winner's treatment as "so unfair," to pardon Reality Winner or to commute her sentence to time served.

D O N A T E


towards a world without war
Upcoming Events
troopsFeds holding last public hearing on draft registration
Los Angeles, California
Thursday, September 20
At California State University Los Angeles
More info
presidio mutiny50th anniversary events of the Presidio 27 mutiny
San Francisco, California
Panel discussion on Saturday, October 13
Commemoration on Sunday, October 14
At the former Presidio Army Base
More info
D O N A T E

to support resistance
COURAGE TO RESIST ~ SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT!
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, California 94610 ~ 510-488-3559
www.couragetoresist.org ~ facebook.com/couragetoresist
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Transform the Justice System



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We are off to a terrible start. Today President Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly. He praised Saudi Arabia, doubled down on his decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and went on theattack against Iran. Tomorrow we expect it to get even worse when he chairs the United Nations Security Council. We expect he will continue to lambast Iran, using the same rhetoric that may well lead to war.
What we need now is an educated public who will stand up the to absurd claims by the Trump administration that Iran poses a threat to the United States. In the lead up to the war in Iraq 15 years ago, the press failed us by spreading President Bush's lies about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction. Are they going to do it again with Iran? Add your name to our letter to the New York Times and Washington Post demanding they debunk Trump as he beats the drums of war. 
We see what is happening. Trump is trying to take us into war. He tore up the Iran deal, despite the fact that Iran was adhering to it and despite the wishes of the other countries that were signatories to it. Now he is imposing draconian sanctions that are hurting the Iranian people.
Did you see my disruption of US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook? It is part of our new campaign to send social media messages of friendship and support to the people of Iran. Join us by creating a video of yourself telling the people of Iran that you want to be friends and spread a message of peace. You can even try to do it in Persian. Go to our page to learn how to say "I want to be friends" in Persian. Then send us the video by email or post it on social media with the hashtag #PeaceWithIran.
So much is at stake if we let Trump take us into war with Iran. Iraq is still suffering from the death, destruction and destabilization we caused there over a decade ago. We must act now to stop the next war!   
Towards peace and diplomacy,
Medea and the entire CODEPINK team

Donate Now!
    
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Court: Evidence To Free Mumia, To Be Continued...
Rachel Wolkenstein, lawyer for Mumia, reports on the August 30th hearing, 2018
  _  _  _  _  _  _  _
District Attorney Larry Krasner Opposes Mumia Abu-Jamal's Petition for New Rights of Appeal – Despite Clear Evidence of Ronald Castille's Bias and Conflict of Interest When He Participated As a PA Supreme Court Justice Denying Abu-Jamal's Post-Conviction Appeals from 1998-2012
Next Court Date: October 29, 2018

September 1—Additional demands for discovery made by Mumia's lawyers at the August 30 court proceeding led to Judge Tucker granting a 60-day continuance. The new date for oral argument that Mumia's appeal denial should be vacated and new appeal rights granted is now scheduled for October 29, 2018.  

Two weeks ago, Mumia's lawyers were told by the DA's office that they discovered close to 200 boxes of capital case files that had not been reviewed. A half-dozen were still not found. Last Monday, just days before the scheduled final arguments, a May 25, 1988 letter from DA Castille's office to PA State Senator Fisher (a virulent proponent of expediting executions) naming Mumia Abu-Jamal and 8 other capital defendants was turned over to the defense. 

Krasner's assistant DA Tracey Kavanaugh said the letter was meaningless and opposed the postponement, insisting there is no evidence that Castille had anything to do with Mumia's appeals. Mumia's lawyers argued that finding the background to this communication would likely support their central argument that DA Ronald Castille actively and personally was developing policy to speed up executions, and that he was particularly focused on convicted "police killers." Mumia Abu-Jamal was unquestionably the capital prisoner who was most zealously targeted for execution by the Fraternal Order of Police. 

Judge Tucker agreed with Mumia's lawyers that a search is needed to establish whether Castille was personally involved in this communication. Additional discovery was ordered with Judge Tucker's rhetorical question, "What else hasn't been disclosed?" But the Judge narrowed the required search to particulars around the May 25, 1988 letter.

Not brought out in court is the fact that Mumia's appeal of his trial conviction and death sentence was still pending in May 1988. The PA Supreme Court didn't issue its denial of this first appeal of Mumia until March 1989. This makes any reference of Mumia's case as a subject of an execution warrant highly suspect and extraordinary, because his death sentence was not "final" unless and until the PA Supreme Court affirmed. [The lawyers have not publicly released a copy of the May 25, 1988 letter, so analysis is limited.]

Mumia's lawyers said they would discuss discovery issues with the prosecution and might file a further amended petition with the intention of proceeding to oral argument on the next court date, October 29. 

On Judge Tucker—He is the chief administrative judge overseeing post-conviction proceedings. On August 30 and previously on April 30 opened his courtroom early to for Maureen Faulkner and the Fraternal Order of Police to occupy half of the small courtroom. Not surprising, no consideration was given to Mumia's family including his brother Keith Cook, international supporters from France and the dozens of other supporters who had lined up before 8AM to get into the courtroom. Even press reps suggested that the press be given seats in the jury box to open up space for even lawyers working with Mumia. Even that small consideration was rejected by Judge Tucker.

A more in-depth piece on DA Larry Krasner's opposition to Mumia's petition will be sent out soon. In the meantime, go to: www.RachelWolkenstein.net.


Free Mumia Now!
Mumia's freedom is at stake in a court hearing on August 30th. 
With your help, we just might free him!
Check out this video:

This video includes photo of 1996 news report refuting Judge Castille's present assertion that he had not been requested at that time to recuse himself from this case, on which he had previously worked as a Prosecutor:
A Philadelphia court now has before it the evidence which could lead to Mumia's freedom. The evidence shows that Ronald Castille, of the District Attorney's office in 1982, intervened in the prosecution of Mumia for a crime he did not commit. Years later, Castille was a judge on the PA Supreme Court, where he sat in judgement over Mumia's case, and ruled against Mumia in every appeal! 
According to the US Supreme Court in the Williams ruling, this corrupt behavior was illegal!
But will the court rule to overturn all of Mumia's negative appeals rulings by the PA Supreme Court? If it does, Mumia would be free to appeal once again against his unfair conviction. If it does not, Mumia could remain imprisoned for life, without the possibility for parole, for a crime he did not commit.
• Mumia Abu-Jamal is innocent and framed!
• Mumia Abu-Jamal is a journalist censored off the airwaves!
• Mumia Abu-Jamal is victimized by cops, courts and politicians!
• Mumia Abu-Jamal stands for all prisoners treated unjustly!
• Courts have never treated Mumia fairly!
Will You Help Free Mumia?
Call DA Larry Krasner at (215) 686-8000
Tell him former DA Ron Castille violated Mumia's constitutional rights and 
Krasner should cease opposing Mumia's legal petition.
Tell the DA to release Mumia because he's factually innocent.


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presidio 27
Presidio 27 "Mutiny" 50 years later
Podcast with Keith Mather
During the Vietnam War era, the Presidio Stockade was a military prison notorious for its poor conditions and overcrowding with many troops imprisoned for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War. When Richard Bunch, a mentally disturbed prisoner, was shot and killed on October 11th, 1968, Presidio inmates began organizing. Three days later, 27 Stockade prisoners broke formation and walked over to a corner of the lawn, where they read a list of grievances about their prison conditions and the larger war effort and sang "We Shall Overcome." The prisoners were charged and tried for "mutiny," and several got 14 to 16 years of confinement. Meanwhile, disillusionment about the Vietnam War continued to grow inside and outside of the military.
"This was for real. We laid it down, and the response by the commanding general changed our lives," recalls Keith Mather, Presidio "mutineer" who escaped to Canada before his trial came up and lived there for 11 years, only to be arrested upon his return to the United States. Mather is currently a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of Veterans for Peace. Listen to the Courage to Resist podcast with Keith.



50th anniversary events at the former Presidio Army Base
October 13th and 14th, 2018
keith matherPANEL DISCUSSION
Saturday, October 13, 7 to 9 pm
Presidio Officers' Club
50 Moraga Ave, San Francisco
Featuring panelists: David Cortright (peace scholar), Brendan Sullivan (attorney for mutineers), Randy Rowland (mutiny participant), Keith Mather (mutiny participant), and Jeff Paterson (Courage to Resist).
presidio 27ON SITE COMMEMORATION
Sunday, October 14, 1 to 3 pm
Fort Scott Stockade
1213 Ralston (near Storey), San Francisco
The events are sponsored by the Presidio Land Trust in collaboration with Veterans For Peace Chapter 69-San Francisco with support from Courage to Resist.


COURAGE TO RESIST ~ SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT!
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, California 94610 ~ 510-488-3559
www.couragetoresist.org ~ facebook.com/couragetoresist
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Cindy Sheehan and the Women's March on the Pentagon

A movement not just a protest

By Whitney Webb

  WASHINGTON—In the last few years, arguably the most visible and well-publicized march on the U.S. capital has been the "Women's March," a movement aimed at advocating for legislation and policies promoting women's rights as well as a protest against the misogynistic actions and statements of high-profile U.S. politicians. The second Women's March, which took place this past year, attracted over a million protesters nationwide, with 500,000 estimated to have participated in Los Angeles alone.

  However, absent from this women's movement has been a public antiwar voice, as its stated goal of "ending violence" does not include violence produced by the state. The absence of this voice seemed both odd and troubling to legendary peace activist Cindy Sheehan, whose iconic protest against the invasion and occupation of Iraq made her a household name for many.

  Sheehan was taken aback by how some prominent organizers of this year's Women's March were unwilling to express antiwar positions and argued for excluding the issue of peace entirely from the event and movement as a whole. In an interview with MintPress, Sheehan recounted how a prominent leader of the march had told her, "I appreciate that war is your issue Cindy, but the Women's March will never address the war issue as long as women aren't free."

  War is indeed Sheehan's issue and she has been fighting against the U.S.' penchant for war for nearly 13 years. After her son Casey was killed in action while serving in Iraq in 2004, Sheehan drew international media attention for her extended protest in front of the Bush residence in Crawford, Texas, which later served as the launching point for many protests against U.S. military action in Iraq.

  Sheehan rejected the notion that women could be "free" without addressing war and empire. She countered the dismissive comment of the march organizer by stating that divorcing peace activism from women's issues "ignored the voices of the women of the world who are being bombed and oppressed by U.S. military occupation."

  Indeed, women are directly impacted by war—whether through displacement, the destruction of their homes, kidnapping, or torture. Women also suffer uniquely and differently from men in war as armed conflicts often result in an increase in sexual violence against women.

  For example, of the estimated half-a-million civilians killed in the U.S. invasion of Iraq, many of them were women and children. In the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, the number of female casualties has been rising on average over 20 percent every year since 2015. In 2014 alone when Israel attacked Gaza in "Operation Protective Edge," Israeli forces, which receives $10 million in U.S. military aid every day, killed over two thousand Palestinians—half of them were women and children. Many of the casualties were pregnant women, who had been deliberately targeted.

  Given the Women's March's apparent rejection of peace activism in its official platform, Sheehan was inspired to organize another Women's March that would address what many women's rights advocates, including Sheehan, believe to be an issue central to promoting women's rights.

  Dubbed the "Women's March on the Pentagon," the event is scheduled to take place on October 21—the same date as an iconic antiwar march of the Vietnam era—with a mission aimed at countering the "bipartisan war machine." Though men, women and children are encouraged to attend, the march seeks to highlight women's issues as they relate to the disastrous consequences of war.

  The effort of women in confronting the "war machine" will be highlighted at the event, as Sheehan remarked that "women have always tried to confront the war-makers," as the mothers, daughters, sisters and wives of the men and women in the military, as well as those innocent civilians killed in the U.S.' foreign wars. As a result, the push for change needs to come from women, according to Sheehan, because "we [women] are the only ones that can affect [the situation] in a positive way." All that's missing is an organized, antiwar women's movement.

  Sheehan noted the march will seek to highlight the direct relationship between peace activism and women's rights, since "no woman is free until all women are free" and such "freedom also includes the freedom from U.S. imperial plunder, murder and aggression"that is part of the daily lives of women living both within and beyond the United States. Raising awareness of how the military-industrial complex negatively affects women everywhere is key, says Sheehan, as "unless there is a sense of international solidarity and a broader base for feminism, then there aren't going to be any solutions to any problems, [certainly not] if we don't stop giving trillions of dollars to the Pentagon."

  Sheehan also urged that, even though U.S. military adventurism has long been an issue and the subject of protests, a march to confront the military-industrial complex is more important now than ever: "I'm not alarmist by nature but I feel like the threat of nuclear annihilation is much closer than it has been for a long time," adding that, despite the assertion of some in the current administration and U.S. military, "there is no such thing as 'limited' nuclear war." This makes "the need to get out in massive numbers" and march against this more imperative than ever.

  Sheehan also noted that Trump's presidency has helped to make the Pentagon's influence on U.S. politics more obvious by bringing it to the forefront: "Even though militarism had been under wraps [under previous presidents], Trump has made very obvious the fact that he has given control of foreign policy to the 'generals.'"

  Indeed, as MintPress has reported on several occasions, the Pentagon—beginning in March of last year—has been given the freedom to "engage the enemy" at will, without the oversight of the executive branch or Congress. As a result, the deaths of innocent civilians abroad as a consequence of U.S. military action has spiked. While opposing Trump is not the focus of the march, Sheehan opined that Trump's war-powers giveaway to the Pentagon, as well as his unpopularity, have helped to spark widespread interest in the event.

Different wings of the same warbird

  Sheehan has rejected accusations that the march is partisan, as it is, by nature, focused on confronting the bipartisan nature of the military-industrial complex. She told MintPress that she has recently come under pressure owing to the march's proximity to the 2018 midterm elections—as some have ironically accused the march's bipartisan focus as "trying to harm the chances of the Democrats" in the ensuing electoral contest.

  In response, Sheehan stated that: 

   "Democrats and Republicans are different wings of the same warbird. We are protesting militarism and imperialism. The march is nonpartisan in nature because both parties are equally complicit. We have to end wars for the planet and for the future. I could really care less who wins in November."

  She also noted that even when the Democrats were in power under Obama, nothing was done to change the government's militarism nor to address the host of issues that events like the Women's March have claimed to champion.

  "We just got finished with eight years of a Democratic regime," Sheehan told MintPress. "For two of those years, they had complete control of Congress and the presidency and a [filibuster-proof] majority in the Senate and they did nothing" productive except to help "expand the war machine." She also emphasized that this march is in no way a "get out the vote" march for any political party.

  Even though planning began less than a month ago, support has been pouring in for the march since it was first announced on Sheehan's website, Cindy Sheehan Soapbox. Encouraged by the amount of interest already received, Sheehan is busy working with activists to organize the events and will be taking her first organizing trip to the east coast in April of this year. 

  In addition, those who are unable to travel to Washington are encouraged to participate in any number of solidarity protests that will be planned to take place around the world or to plan and attend rallies in front of U.S. embassies, military installations, and the corporate headquarters of war profiteers.

  Early endorsers of the event include journalists Abby Martin, Mnar Muhawesh and Margaret Kimberley; Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly; FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley; and U.S. politicians like former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. Activist groups that have pledged their support include CodePink, United National Antiwar Coalition, Answer Coalition, Women's EcoPeace and World Beyond War.

  Though October is eight months away, Sheehan has high hopes for the march. More than anything else, though, she hopes that the event will give birth to a "real revolutionary women's movement that recognizes the emancipation and liberation of all peoples—and that means [freeing] all people from war and empire, which is the biggest crime against humanity and against this planet." By building "a movement and not just a protest," the event's impact will not only be long-lasting, but grow into a force that could meaningfully challenge the U.S. military-industrial complex that threatens us all. God knows the world needs it.

  For those eager to help the march, you can help spread the word through social media by joining the march's Facebook page or following the march'sTwitter account, as well as by word of mouth. In addition, supporting independent media outlets—such as MintPress, which will be reporting on the march—can help keep you and others informed as October approaches.

  Whitney Webb is a staff writer forMintPress News who has written for several news organizations in both English and Spanish; her stories have been featured on ZeroHedge, theAnti-Media, and21st Century Wire among others. She currently lives in Southern Chile.

  —MPN News, February 20, 2018

  https://www.mintpressnews.com/cindy-sheehan-and-the-womens-march-on-the-pentagon-a-movement-not-just-a-protest/237835/

  


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[HS-Support] @GovernorVA: Don't transfer activist inmate Kevin #Rashid Johnson again

Please sign and share. 

If you are not familiar with the brilliant, compassionate, and courageous imprisoned activist, writer, artist, Kevin Rashid Johnson, check out rashidmod.com
He is not in the federal prison system, he is in the Virginia state system.  However, due to his persistence and depth in exposing the horrific conditions and treatment inside the prisons, he has been locked in solitary confinement and moved around to prisons in Florida, Virginia, and Texas! Please support Rashid with this simple petition
and make a call if you can. It looks like you can also tweet @GovernorVA!
~Verbena

Rashid Threatened with Transfer — Hearing on Sept 10th — BLOCK THE PHONES! We have learned that the Virginia Department of Corrections is planning to hold a hearing Monday September 10th, to have R…

All,

I just got a phone call from Rashid. He's been told that he will have a
hearing on Monday to process him for an Interstate Transfer. He's not
being told where he's going.

We need to get this news out as broadly as possible, and to state that
this is retaliation for his recent publications and interviews. Please
share the news on all your social media accounts, you might do it while
also sharing his Guardian article or other recent works.

Can anyone organize protest? Perhaps an action alert to have people
flood VADOC with complaints, and/or we could prepare to flood wherever
he goes with complaints. If we could organize a street protest of VADOC
HQ before or after the transfer, that would be amazing.

Dustin McDaniel

To: Virginia Department of Corrections; Chief of VA Corrections Operations David Robinson

Release Kevin "Rashid" Johnson From Solitary Confinement Immediately

We call on the Virginia Department of Corrections to immediately release Kevin "Rashid" Johnson from solitary confinement and not to transfer him again out of state.
Why is this important?
 

After signing the petition, please use the tools on the next webpage to share it with your friends.

This work is only possible with your financial support. Please chip in $3 now. 

-- The RootsAction.org Team

P.S. RootsAction is an independent online force endorsed by Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Frances Fox Piven, Lila Garrett, Phil Donahue, Sonali Kolhatkar, and many others.

Background:



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All Hands on Deck:  Get Malik Washington out of Ad-Seg!


Several weeks ago, friends and supporters of incarcerated freedom fighter Comrade Malik Washington were overjoyed to hear that he was getting released, finally, from Administrative Segregation (solitary confinement) at Eastham Unit in Texas--until TDCJ pulled a fast one, falsely claiming that he refused to participate in the Ad-Seg Transition Program to get him released back to general population.  
This is a complete lie:  Malik has been fighting to get out of Ad-Seg from the moment he was thrown in there two years ago on a bogus riot charge (which was, itself, retaliation for prison strike organizing and agitating against inhumane, discriminatory conditions).  
Here's what actually happened:  when Malik arrived at Ramsey Unit on June 21, he was assigned to a top bunk, which is prohibited by his medical restrictions as a seizure patient.  TDCJ had failed to transfer his medical restrictions records, or had erased them, and are now claiming no record of these restrictions, which have been on file and in place for the past ten years.  Malik wrote a detailed statement requesting to be placed on a lower bunk in order to avoid injury; later that night, he was abruptly transferred back to Ad-Seg at a new Unit (McConnell).  
Malik was told that Ramsey staff claimed he refused to participate in the Ad-Seg Transition program--this is NOT true, and he needs to be re-instated to the program immediately!  He also urgently needs his medical restrictions put back into his records!
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We are extremely concerned for Malik's safety, and urgently need the help of everyone reading this. Please take one or more of the following actions, and get a couple friends to do the same!
1. Call Senior Warden Phillip Sifuentes at Malik's current facility (McConnell) and tell them Keith Washington (#1487958) must be transferred out of McConnell and re-admitted to the Ad-Seg Transition Program!
Phone #: (361) 362-2300 (**048) 00 --  ask to be connected to the senior warden's office/receptionist--try to talk to someone, but also can leave a message. 
Sample Script: "Hello, I'm calling because I'm concerned about Keith H. Washington (#1487958) who was recently transferred to your facility.  I understand he was transferred there from Ramsey Unit, because he supposedly refused to participate in the Ad-Seg transition program there, but this is not true; Malik never refused to participate, and he needs to be re-admitted to the transition program immediately!  I am also concerned that his heat restrictions seem to have been removed from his records.  He is a seizure patient and has been on heat and work restriction for years, and these restrictions must be reinstated immediately."
Please let us know how your call goes at blueridgeABC@riseup.net
2. Flood TDCJ Executive Director Bryan Collier with calls/emails!  You can use the above phone script as a guide for emails.  
(936) 437-2101 / (936) 437-2123

3. Flood TDCJ with emails demanding that Malik's health restrictions and work restrictions be restored: Health.services@tdcj.texas.gov

You can use the call script above as a guide; you don't need to mention the Ad-Seg situation, but just focus on the need to restore his heat and work restrictions!

4. File a complaint with the Ombudsman's Office (the office in charge of investigating departmental misconduct); you can use the above phone script as a guide for emails.

5. Write to Malik!  Every letter he receives lifts his spirit and PROTECTS him, because prison officials know he has people around him, watching for what happens to him.

Keith H. Washington
#1487958
McConnell Unit
3100 South Emily Drive
Beeville, TX 78103







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Listen to 'The Daily': Was Kevin Cooper Framed for Murder?

By Michael Barbaro, May 30, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/podcasts/the-daily/kevin-cooper-death-row.html?emc=edit_ca_20180530&nl=california-today&nlid=2181592020180530&te=1




Listen and subscribe to our podcast from your mobile deviceVia Apple Podcasts | Via RadioPublic | Via Stitcher

The sole survivor of an attack in which four people were murdered identified the perpetrators as three white men. The police ignored suspects who fit the description and arrested a young black man instead. He is now awaiting execution.

On today's episode:
• Kevin Cooper, who has been on death row at San Quentin State Prison in California for three decades.



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Last week I met with fellow organizers and members of Mijente to take joint action at the Tornillo Port of Entry, where detention camps have been built and where children and adults are currently being imprisoned. 

I oppose the hyper-criminalization of migrants and asylum seekers. Migration is a human right and every person is worthy of dignity and respect irrespective of whether they have "papers" or not. You shouldn't have to prove "extreme and unusual hardship" to avoid being separated from your family. We, as a country, have a moral responsibility to support and uplift those adversely affected by the US's decades-long role in the economic and military destabilization of the home countries these migrants and asylum seekers have been forced to leave.

While we expected to face resistance and potential trouble from the multiple law enforcement agencies represented at the border, we didn't expect to have a local farm hand pull a pistol on us to demand we deflate our giant balloon banner. Its message to those in detention:

NO ESTÁN SOLOS (You are not alone).

Despite the slight disruption to our plan we were able to support Mijente and United We Dream in blocking the main entrance to the detention camp and letting those locked inside know that there are people here who care for them and want to see them free and reunited with their families. 


We are continuing to stand in solidarity with Mijente as they fight back against unjust immigration practices.Yesterday they took action in San Diego, continuing to lead and escalate resistance to unjust detention, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and to ICE. 

While we were honored to offer on-the-ground support we see the potential to focus the energy of our Drop the MIC campaign into fighting against this injustice, to have an even greater impact. Here's how:
  1. Call out General Dynamics for profiteering of War, Militarization of the Border and Child and Family Detention (look for our social media toolkit this week);
  2. Create speaking forums and produce media that challenges the narrative of ICE and Jeff Sessions, encouraging troops who have served in the borderlands to speak out about that experience;
  3. Continue to show up and demand we demilitarize the border and abolish ICE.

Thank you for your vision and understanding of how militarism, racism, and capitalism are coming together in the most destructive ways. Help keep us in this fight by continuing to support our work.


In Solidarity,
Ramon Mejia
Field Organizer, About Face: Veterans Against the War


P.O. Box 3565, New York, NY 10008. All Right Reserved. | Unsubscribe
To ensure delivery of About Face emails please add webmaster@ivaw.org to your address book.


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It is so beautiful to see young people in this country rising up to demand an end to gun violence. But what is Donald Trump's response? Instead of banning assault weapons, he wants to give guns to teachers and militarize our schools. But one of the reasons for mass school shootings is precisely because our schools are already militarized. Florida shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was trained by U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program while he was in high school.
Yesterday, Divest from the War Machine coalition member, Pat Elder, was featured on Democracy Now discussing his recent article about the JROTC in our schools. The JROTC teaches children how to shoot weapons. It is often taught by retired soldiers who have no background in teaching. They are allowed to teach classes that are given at least equal weight as classes taught by certified and trained teachers. We are pulling our children away from classes that expand their minds and putting them in classes that teach them how to be killing machines. The JROTC program costs our schools money. It sends equipment. But, the instructors and facilities must be constructed and paid for by the school.
The JROTC puts our children's futures at risk. Children who participate in JROTC shooting programs are exposed to lead bullets from guns. They are at an increased risk when the shooting ranges are inside. The JROTC program is designed to "put a jump start on your military career." Children are funneled into JROTC to make them compliant and to feed the military with young bodies which are prepared to be assimilated into the war machine. Instead of funneling children into the military, we should be channeling them into jobs that support peace and sustainable development. 
Tell Senator McCain and Representative Thornberry to take the war machine out of our schools! The JROTC program must end immediately. The money should be directed back into classrooms that educate our children.
The Divest from the War Machine campaign is working to remove our money from the hands of companies that make a killing on killing. We must take on the systems that keep fueling war, death, and destruction around the globe. AND, we must take on the systems that are creating an endless cycle of children who are being indoctrinated at vulnerable ages to become the next killing machine.  Don't forget to post this message on Facebook and Twitter.
Onward in divestment,
Ann, Ariel, Brienne, Jodie, Kelly, Kirsten, Mark, Medea, Nancy, Natasha, Paki, Sarah, Sophia and Tighe
P.S. Do you want to do more? Start a campaign to get the JROTC out of your school district or state. Email divest@codepink.org and we'll get you started!

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Major George Tillery

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Free Leonard Peltier!

On my 43rd year in prison I yearn to hug my grandchildren.

By Leonard Peltier


Art by Leonard Peltier

Write to:
Leonard Peltier 89637-132 
USP Coleman I 
P.O. Box 1033 
Coleman, FL 33521
Donations can be made on Leonard's behalf to the ILPD national office, 116 W. Osborne Ave, Tampa, FL 33603


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1) Millions of Unnecessary Opioid Pills Prescribed by 5 Doctors, Prosecutors Say
By Benjamin Weiser, October 11, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/nyregion/doctors-charged-opioid-prescriptions.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage


Five doctors in New York City have been charged with taking more than $5 million in return for prescribing millions of oxycodone pills to purported patients who had no legitimate medical need for them, according to indictments unsealed in federal court Thursday.
The series of indictments described noisy crowds of people standing in long lines at all hours, some with visible signs of drug addiction, at the Staten Island office of Dr. Carl Anderson, prompting neighbors to call the police.
Occasionally, ambulances were sent to treat the pill-seeking patients, the charges say.
Another of the doctors, Dante A. Cubangbang, of Manhattan, and his nurse practitioner prescribed 3.3 million pills that were paid for by Medicare and Medicaid over a three-year period — more than twice as many pills as the next highest prescriber in the state, one indictment shows.
The charges were to be announced at a news conference on Thursday by Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York; James J. Hunt, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York office; and James P. O'Neill, the commissioner of the New York Police Department.
The case — another in a line of prosecutions being brought nationallyagainst doctors, drug company executives and drug dealers — is likely to highlight the ways opioids have been aggressively marketed and have contributed to a national epidemic that killed about 72,000 Americans last year.
In March, five Manhattan doctors were indicted on charges they took bribes and kickbacks from Insys, the manufacturer of Subsys, a spray form of the highly addictive painkiller fentanyl.

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2)  Credit Unions, Long a Haven, May Add to Workers' Financial Woes
By Noam Scheiber, October 11, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/business/marriott-credit-union-employee-strike.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbusiness&action=click&contentCollection=business&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

Jose Ramirez Paredes makes just over $13 an hour as a cleaner at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront. His August statement from the Marriott Employees' Federal Credit Union shows more than $800 in overdraft fees for the year.


Working as a dishwasher at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Amos Troyah made about $30,000 in a recent 12-month period. Roughly $2,000 of it was spent on an especially frequent expense: fees on his checking and savings accounts at the Marriott Employees' Federal Credit Union.
The fees came in increments like $6 and $10 — minimum-balance fees, excess-transaction fees, automatic money-transfer fees. On occasion, they were joined by that pooh-bah of personal finance charges, the overdraft fee, at a hefty $35.
Thousands of Marriott workers around the country are on strike, complaining that stagnant wages and unsteady hours have made it difficult to stay afloat. At a time when they are under particular pressure, the credit union may be adding to their struggles. Other employees said Mr. Troyah's experience with fees was common.
For more affluent Marriott employees, on the other hand, credit union membership can be a very good deal. Typical interest rates on car loans and mortgages obtained through the credit union are below the national average, according to financial filings. And better-paid employees less frequently need services that incur high fees, like overdraft protection.

What's more, while the credit union is officially independent from Marriott, the board that oversees it consists primarily of Marriott managers who may not always be sensitive to the inequities these policies impose.
The Marriott workers' experience is a stark example of trends that are increasingly bearing down on the nearly 100 million people nationwide who have credit union accounts.
Credit unions — not-for-profit institutions that are owned by their depositors and receive a federal tax subsidy — were long considered a way to democratize banking. They were meant to serve workers who lacked access to the same financial services as middle managers or executives. Many early credit unions were managed by workers from small offices off factory floors. With the money made on loans, often to better-paid workers, they could offer checking and savings accounts at little or no cost.
This philosophy largely persisted into the 1990s, even as credit unions grew larger and hired professional managers. "You had this relationship with people you were serving that you never lost track of," said Randy Chambers, the president of Self-Help Credit Union in North Carolina, which has merged with a handful of smaller credit unions across the state.
Some credit unions still see their mission in such terms. But in recent decades, many have subtly shifted their approach. As falling interest rates made loans less lucrative, credit unions largely turned to fees to help replace the lost income. Over the past quarter-century, the average value of the fees collected for every dollar of interest income has risen to nearly 17 cents, from just under 7 cents.

For credit unions harder pressed to fund their operations, that figure can get much higher. The GE Credit Union of Connecticut makes 34 cents in fees for every dollar of interest on loans, according to last year's regulatory filings. The Montgomery County Employees Federal Credit Union in Maryland makes 44 cents.
But even against this backdrop, Marriott is an outlier. It takes in 52 cents in fees for every dollar of interest income.

Striking Marriott employees outside a San Francisco hotel. The workers complain that stagnant wages and unsteady hours have made it difficult to stay afloat.

As a result, some Marriott workers find themselves in a kind of financial double jeopardy: Low pay from Marriott keeps their account balances minimal, and those modest balances lead to more fees, crimping their assets further.
"The money gets into my account, and they take it out when I overdraft," Mr. Troyah said. "They are robbing me."

On its own, raising more income through fees is defensible. For example, in a given month, only a minority of accounts typically go into the red. Not charging overdraft fees or minimum-balance fees is, in effect, a decision to ask other members to subsidize that minority.
"People came around to the idea of it not being all that fair to do it that way," said Mike Schenk, chief economist at the Credit Union National Association, an industry trade group. "That you ought to pay for the services you use."

But the effect in many cases is that the people least able to bear the costs of operating a credit union are gradually paying more of them.
Overdraft fees in particular have provoked controversy within the credit union world. "We have a hard time taking seriously any depository institution claim to trying to serve the underserved, making credit available to financially distressed people and charging those same people $30 to $35 for overdraft," said Rebecca Borné, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, which is affiliated with the Self-Help Credit Union.
The Marriott credit union, whose membership of about 32,000 includes housekeepers, dishwashers and cooks, would seem to fill that bill. While fees can be an issue for any credit union with financially strapped members, Marriott's are unusually high: more than 1.7 percent of the credit union's assets. That is three times the percentage generated by fees at credit unions serving workers at Safeway, Publix and Nordstrom — broadly similar service-sector employers.
Glenn Newton, the credit union's chief executive, said that looking at such measures can be misleading because the modest wealth of his members leads to low average deposits. That leaves the credit union with less money for generating income. In effect, he said, the credit union must pay the same costs per member as other credit unions, but has fewer ways to offset those costs.
He urged adjusting the analysis to account for the small deposits — say, by considering how much greater its assets would be if its average deposit was more typical of the industry. That would bring the fee ratio in line with other service-sector credit unions.
As a practical matter, however, the fees that an average Marriott credit union member pays across all services — $94 last year — are far higher than at these other institutions, and higher than at credit unions of a similar size.

Jose Ramirez Paredes makes just over $13 an hour cleaning banquet rooms and other public areas at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront. Mr. Ramirez Paredes said through an interpreter that he helped support his stepson, as well as a daughter and two grandchildren living nearby. He sells Amway products on the side to cover his expenses, which include a mortgage and a car payment that together cost him about $1,000 per month.

But even so, he often falls short. The August statement for Mr. Ramirez Paredes's credit union account shows more than $800 in overdraft fees so far this year. Mr. Newton said that overdraft fees had declined by nearly 10 percent between 2013 and last year, and that he believed such cases were unusual.
Workers like Mr. Ramirez Paredes and Mr. Troyah say their financial problems are heightened by Marriott's decision to rely more on temps and less on full-time employees, who have seen their hours cut back and their annual earnings fall. According to Rachel Gumpert, a spokeswoman for Unite Here, the union that represents the company's striking workers, a central issue in the dispute is that workers are having to hold down multiple jobs to support themselves because they aren't receiving enough hours at the hotel chain.
Mr. Ramirez Paredes says that even though he is considered a full-time employee, he is frequently assigned to work only three or four days per week, sometimes as little as one day. (If his hours in a six-month period fall too much, he will lose his full-time status.) Mr. Troyah's W-2 forms show that his income declined from about $34,000 in 2016 to about $28,000 in 2017 because, he says, Marriott cut his hours.
Both men said that they had asked their managers why they didn't receive more hours, and that the managers had told them business was slow. But that claim was at odds with the presence of workers dispatched from staffing firms. Marriott declined to comment.

Lekesha Wheelings, who has worked as a line cook at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown for the past 12 years, says that she makes just over $19 an hour, but that she, too, is sometimes sent home early and ends up with fewer than 40 hours per week.
Ms. Wheelings, who lives with her eldest daughter and supports twin 17-year-old children, said she made nearly $45,000 in 2016, but only about $39,500 last year because she worked less.

To cope with the strain in her personal finances, Ms. Wheelings has at times resorted to what is known as a mini-loan from the credit union, a six-month loan of up to $500 with an 18 percent interest rate — generally the legal limit for federal credit unions — and a $35 application fee. Including the fee, the effective annual interest rate on such a loan is about 40 to 50 percent.
Some consumer-finance experts say banks and credit unions should be allowed to expand higher-interest lending so they will have an incentive to serve members who are high credit risks. "On a $500 six-month loan, even if underwriting and origination are very, very simple, that's not profitable," said Alex Horowitz of the Pew Charitable Trusts, of the 40 to 50 percent annualized rate. The alternative for many borrowers would be payday loans, which commonly charge annualized rates over 300 percent.
But even more reasonably priced short-term loans can hurt those with the most precarious finances, making them more likely to run up fees on the checking side. "If someone can't afford more debt, the expectation is that it would increase their overall financial burden and lead to more overdraft fees," Ms. Borné said of the mini-loans.
During the months in which she was repaying a mini-loan beginning in late 2014, the Marriott credit union deducted at least $450 in overdraft fees from Ms. Wheelings's checking account, according to her statements. The loan repayment left less money for such expenses as an $8.47 Netflix subscription and a $17 membership in a legal assistance service, but the overdraft protection allowed them to glide through each month, at a steep markup.
Ms. Wheelings says she plans to keep using the credit union but would like to pay fewer fees. Mr. Ramirez Paredes, alarmed by the fees, says he plans to close his account.

By contrast, more affluent workers, including some executives at Marriott, appear to benefit at little cost from the credit union, securing favorable interest rates on car loans and mortgages while largely avoiding heavy fees.

Public records show that several current and former executives have obtained large mortgages from the credit union. They include Don Cleary, the Canada president for Marriott International, who received a $1 million mortgage in December 2016; William McGowan, a longtime design and project manager ($875,000 in December 2014); Michael Rhoads, senior director of international accounting ($825,000 in November 2016); and Norman Jenkins, a former senior vice president ($765,000 in February 2017).
The most common rate that the Marriott credit union reported for mortgages in the fourth quarter of last year was 3.38 percent, below the market average at the time, according to data collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Rank-and-file workers often can't obtain loans with such low rates, however, widening the disparities. In contrast to the car loans below 2.5 percent that the Marriott credit union currently advertises for those with sterling credit, workers with only fair credit — a FICO score in the low 600s — can pay more than 8 percent. Those with poor credit can pay more than 12 percent if they can get a loan at all. And the credit union approves few mortgages, period.
"The proper comparison isn't whether or not an hourly associate has access to the same loans or interest rates as a company executive," said Mr. Newton, the chief executive. "Rather, it's whether the credit union offers value to the members, based on their individual credit profile, versus what they could have received at other financial institutions."
Mr. Newton said the loans the credit union does offer to low-paid workers, like the mini-loan, are a more affordable option than products they could obtain elsewhere, such as payday loans.

Credit unions are legally separate from the companies whose employees they serve. But there is often significant overlap between managers of the two organizations.
At the Marriott credit union, five board members are Marriott employees with "vice president" in their title; three are employees with "director" in their title. The only "on property" employee on the board is the general manager of the Bethesda Suites Marriott in Maryland.

While any member can run for a seat on a credit union's board, many boards are stacked with company executives and those with financial expertise to oversee their increasingly sophisticated operations.
Some credit unions take steps to make sure they remain sensitive to the needs of members. The State Employees' Credit Union in North Carolina maintains a local advisory council composed of workers at each of its more than 250 branches, in addition to its board. The local bodies meet with managers four times a year and are apt to give them an earful if they encounter fees or lending policies that workers regard as unfair. That approach is relatively uncommon in the industry, though Mr. Newton said the Marriott credit union had periodically sought feedback from members in surveys.
"Members should elect the board to look after their own interests, and one of those should be balancing who pays for what," said Jim Blaine, who ran the State Employees' Credit Union for decades before retiring in 2016. But in practice, he added, "you can have a board of senior managers who truly don't understand that 75 percent of people live paycheck to paycheck."

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3) White Americans Gain the Most From Trump's Tax Cuts, Report Finds
By Jin Tankersley, October 11, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/business/trump-tax-cuts-white-americans.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbusiness&action=click&contentCollection=business&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=sectionfront


The tax cuts that President Trump signed into law last year are disproportionately helping white Americans over African-Americans and Latinos, a disparity that reflects longstanding racial economic inequality in the United States and the choices that Republicans made in crafting the law.
The finding comes from a new analysis of the $1.5 trillion tax cut using an economic model built by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal think tank, and released in a joint report with Prosperity Now, a nonprofit focused on helping low-income Americans attain wealth and financial stability. It is the first detailed analysis of the law to break down its effects by race.
White Americans earn about 77 percent of total income in the United States, but they are getting nearly 80 percent of the benefits of the individual and business tax cuts generated by the new law, the analysis found. African-Americans received about 5 percent of the benefits, despite earning 6 percent of the nation's income. Latinos got about 7 percent, although their share of all income is 8 percent.
In total, the analysis estimates, whites will get about $218 billion in tax cuts this year as a result of the law. Black and Latino Americans will get about $32 billion combined.

The analysis starts with a simulation of the law's effects on Americans by income group, using historical tax data. On that front, its conclusions closely track those of distributional analyses by the Tax Policy Center and the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress' scorekeeper on the effects of the cuts. Both found that the vast majority of the law's benefits would flow to the top 20 percent of American income earners.
The economic policy institute's model extends those analyses by combining tax data with race and ethnicity data from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances. It took months to build. 
The racial divide highlighted by the analysis is largely a product of the financial advantages that white people have long held. They earn more on average than black or Latino Americans, and are far more likely to be among the top income earners in the country. That means they were better positioned to gain from a law that delivered higher benefits to top earners, in total dollars and in percentage terms, than low- and middle-income Americans. 
"The average income for white taxpayers is significantly higher than for black or Latino taxpayers," said Meg Wiehe, the economic policy's institute's deputy director. "That's a huge driver."

As a result, the average tax cut going to a white American household is more than double one going to a black or Latino one. The study found that the group getting the highest average cut was Asian-Americans, who have the highest average income of any of the groups.

It appears, though, that even among top earners, whites have fared better than other Americans under the law — probably because the tax cuts affect individual taxpayers differently depending on how they make their money.
High-earning white taxpayers, for example, are more likely to own so-called pass-through companies like limited liability corporations, and pay taxes on their profits through the individual income tax code. The new law includes a special 20 percent deduction for pass-through income, subject to some limitations. The pass-through break does not apply to high earners like professional athletes who get most of their money from salaries. 
The average tax cut, as a share of pretax income, for a white or Asian-American household in the top 1 percent of income earners was nearly 3 percent, the analysis found. For Latinos, it was 1.7 percent. For blacks, it was 1.2 percent.
"Even if you're a successful black or Latino household in the top 1 percent, you've achieved the American dream, you've hit it out of the park," said David Newville, director of federal policy at Prosperity Now, he said, "you're still not getting the same returns from this bill as a white household."

The report's authors note that Congress could have structured the cuts differently in ways that targeted lower- and middle-income taxpayers more directly. They also stress that by steering more money to whites, the law could exacerbate an already stark racial wealth divide in the United States.

The Census Bureau reported last month that the median income for white/non-Hispanic households in 2017 was $68,145. For black households, it was $40,258. For Hispanic households of any race it was $50,486. 
White/non-Hispanic households make up about two-thirds of all households in the country, the census figures show. Blacks and Hispanicseach comprise about 13 percent of households. 
A poll conducted this month for The New York Times by the online research platform SurveyMonkey finds that white Americans are far more likely to approve of the new tax law than those aren't white. The poll found that 55 percent of whites approved of the law, compared with 40 percent of Hispanics and 33 percent of blacks.
"Congress missed a tremendous opportunity" with the tax law, the report's authors write, "to help low- and moderate-income families — particularly those of color — build the wealth needed to secure their share of the American Dream." 
The analysis found that one way in which the cuts were relatively colorblind: Those geared toward middle-class families were, as a share of income, roughly the same across races. 
But because so many more white taxpayers are in the middle quintile of income earners compared with blacks and Latinos, the white middle class reaped much larger benefits: just over $15 billion total, compared with just over $3 billion for middle-income Latinos and just over $2 billion for middle-income blacks.

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4) E.P.A. to Disband a Key Scientific Review Panel on Air Pollution
By Lisa Friedman, October 11, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/climate/epa-disbands-pollution-science-panel.html?action=click&module=In%20Other%20News&pgtype=Homepage&action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage

Traffic in Los Angeles. One critic said the E.P.A. was trying to "cut science out" of policy decisions.


WASHINGTON — An Environmental Protection Agency panel that advises the agency's leadership on the latest scientific information about soot in the atmosphere is not listed as continuing its work next year, an E.P.A. official said.
The 20-person Particulate Matter Review Panel, made up of experts in microscopic airborne pollutants known to cause respiratory disease, is responsible for helping the agency decide what levels of pollutants are safe to breathe. Agency officials declined to say why the E.P.A. intends to stop convening the panel next year, particularly as the agency considers whether to revise air quality standards
Environmental activists criticized the move as a way for the Trump administration to avoid what they described as the panel's lengthy but critical assessment of how much exposure to particulate matter is acceptable in the atmosphere.
"To me this is part of a pattern," said Gretchen Goldman, research director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science-oriented environmental nonprofit. "We're seeing E.P.A. trying to cut science out of the process."

She and others noted that the move follows other decisions at the E.P.A. they find worrisome, including eliminating a senior science advisory position and pressing for new rules that would restrict the number and type of studies the E.P.A. could consider when writing new regulations.
Dr. Goldman, an environmental engineer, wrote on Twitter that the E.P.A. quietly telegraphed its latest move in a personnel announcement Wednesday. In that announcement, the E.P.A. said that a smaller, seven-person umbrella advisory board would from now on be conducting reviews of federal air standards and that the administration hoped to complete any revisions by late 2020.

When asked about the future of the larger, 20-person scientific board, the E.P.A. spokesman confirmed that the board was not "listed" in agency documents as continuing its work past 2018. The body is slated to meet in December.
The EPA is responsible for updating six air standards every five years under the Clean Air Act: carbon monoxide, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, lead, and ozone.

The smaller, seven-member group, known as the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, or C.A.S.A.C., is legally obligated to provide advice to the administrator about those air quality standards. But the work of its sub-panels, such as the one on particulate matter, is not required by law. 
Those panels are typically made up of researchers, doctors and others with specific expertise in the individual pollutants. Their reviews can take as long as 18 months, Dr. Goldman said.
At the same time, the C.A.S.A.C. also is going through a shake-up. Andrew Wheeler, the acting administrator of the E.P.A., announced Wednesday he was installing new members to that panel. They include a biochemist from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality; an air pollution control engineer with the Jefferson County, Ala., Department of Health; a toxicologist with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality; and a pulmonary doctor and professor emeritus from the University of Rochester Medical Center. 
Lianne Sheppard, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Washington who until Wednesday served as a member of the C.A.S.A.C. and also is on the particulate-matter review board, expressed concern that the resulting panel may be too small and inexperienced in some of the specific issues to handle the new volume of work.
"They're being asked to implement a new process, which will significantly increase their workload," Dr. Sheppard said. "All of this will result in poorer-quality scientific oversight." 
Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, a think tank that supports fossil fuels, dismissed concerns about the changes. "Apparently it seems the enviros still don't understand that elections have consequences," he said.
Last year Scott Pruitt, Mr. Wheeler's predecessor, barred advisory committee members from also receiving E.P.A. grants, a change he said was designed to limit conflicts of interest. It also had the effect of making it harder for academic researchers to participate on agency boards. With Mr. Wheeler's additions to the panel, the C.A.S.A.C. board now has only one researcher.

Mr. Wheeler, in a statement, praised the group as being highly qualified with a diverse set of backgrounds needed to take on new responsibilities. 
"These experts will provide critical scientific advice to E.P.A. as it evaluates where to set national standards for key pollutants like ozone and particulate matter," he said, adding the group would "work hard over the next two years to advise E.P.A. in a manner consistent with the Clean Air Act and the protection of public health."

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5)  Afghan War Casualty Report: Oct. 5-11
Reporting was contributed by the following New York Times reporters: Rod Nordland, Mujib Mashal, Fahim Abed and Fatima Faizi from Kabul; Najim Rahim from Pul-i-Kumri; Taimoor Shah from Kandahar; Farooq Jan Mangal from Khost; Mohammad Saber from Herat; Zabihullah Ghazi from Jalalabad; and an employee of The New York Times from Ghazni. October 12, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/12/magazine/afghan-war-casualty-report.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=sectionfront

One attack by the Taliban, on an Afghan police headquarters in Wardak Province killed 14 officers on Oct. 7.


The Times bureau in Kabul mobilized all of its stringers and Afghan reporters to record every attack on the Afghan security forces and civilians that they could find, as a weekly chronicle of the war. 
The number of casualties across Afghanistan increased compared to the previous week, occurring in 13 provinces, even as the weather has turned cold in many parts of the country. The week saw fewer attacks by Taliban fighters compared to last week, but more deaths among security forces. The Times confirmed reports of 96 security force members and 31 civilians killed in the past week.
Oct. 11 Jowzjan Province: six security forces killed
Three soldiers, two police officers and one member of the National Directorate of Security were killed in Taliban attacks on Qarqin District. The Taliban suffered an unknown number of casualties.

Oct. 11 Kunduz Province: 15 border police killed
The Taliban attacked six security outposts in Qala-i-Zal District, killing 15 border police and wounding 18 others. One of the security outposts was overtaken by the Taliban. The attack was carried out by a Taliban Red Unit. Seven Taliban militants were killed in the fighting.
Oct. 10 Paktia Province: two border police killed
The Taliban attacked border police outposts in Patan District. Two border police officers were killed and two pro-government militias were wounded. More than a dozen Taliban were also killed and wounded.
Oct. 10 Jowzjan Province: one police killed 
One police officer was killed in a Taliban attack on security outposts in Burka District.
Oct. 10 Sar-e-Pul Province: six police officers and pro-government militia killed
Six police officers and pro-government militia members were killed and eight others were wounded in clashes between government forces and local militia groups in Balkhab District.
Oct. 10 Ghazni Province: three public order police and three national police killed

The Taliban attacked Waghaz District, killing six police officers — three Afghan National Civil Order Police and three national police officers — and wounding two more.
Two police officers were wounded in a Taliban attack in Deh Yak District.
Oct. 09 Jowzjan Province: one soldier killed
One soldier was killed in a Taliban attack on security outposts in Burka District.
Oct. 09 Sar-e-Pul Province: one pro-government militia killed and four wounded
The Taliban attacked Sancharak District, killing one pro-government militia member and wounding four others.
Oct. 09 Helmand Province: eight civilians killed and 12 wounded
An explosion at a rally in Lashkar Gah for Haji Salih Mohammad, a parliamentary candidate in the coming election, left eight civilians dead and wounded 12 others.
Oct. 09 Ghazni Province: one soldier killed
The Taliban attacked an army base in Andar District, killing one soldier and wounding four others. Meanwhile, NATO forces launched operations in multiple districts of Ghazni against the Taliban, which suffered heavy casualties in these operations.
Oct. 08 Zabul Province: one police officer killed
The Taliban attacked security outposts in Mizan District. A police officer and three members of the Taliban, including a group commander, were killed in the clashes.

Oct. 08 Faryab Province: two soldiers killed
The Taliban attacked the center of Almar District, where the fighting continued until the next day. Two soldiers were killed.
Oct. 08 Jowzjan Province: 15 members of security forces killed 
Thirteen soldiers and two members of the National Directorate of Security were killed, and 20 soldiers and four police officers were wounded in Taliban attacks on military bases in Qush Tepa District. The fighting continued for 11 hours. Two military bases were overtaken by the Taliban.
Oct. 07 Kabul Province: one civilian killed
An I.E.D. explosion in Kabul city killed one civilian and wounded one civilian and one police officer.
Oct. 07 Kandahar Province: five police officers killed
The Taliban attacked police outposts in Jahangir village of Arghistan District. Five police officers were killed and seven others were wounded in the clashes. Thirteen Taliban fighters were also killed and 17 others were wounded. None of the security outposts fell to the Taliban; reinforcements from the district center forced the Taliban to flee.
Oct. 07 Wardak Province: 14 police officers killed
The police chief of Sayed Abad District and 13 other police officers were killed in attacks on the district center. A number of security outposts were captured by the Taliban, but then taken back by Afghan security forces, who arrived to support the police forces.
Oct. 07 Faryab Province: 10 members of security forces and a woman were killed
The Taliban attacked and destroyed an Afghan National Police outpost and an Afghan Local Police outpost in Pashtoon Kot District. Ten police officers and a female civilian were killed and five police officers were wounded in the clashes between the Taliban and security forces. Reinforcements that tried to reach the area were also ambushed by the Taliban.
Oct. 06 Paktia Province: 10 civilians killed

Ten civilians were killed and at least 20 were wounded in airstrikes in Gerda Serai District that were carried out after an attack on campaign provincial forces, a group of Afghan forces supported by Americans in Paktia.
Oct. 06 Ghazni Province: one soldier killed
The Taliban attacked a military outpost in Qazi village of Khogyani District of Ghazni. One soldier was killed and two others were wounded. The Taliban also suffered an unknown number of casualties.
Oct. 06 Ghor Province: seven civilians and four police killed
Clashes between Afghan forces and a local militia left seven civilians and four police dead.
Oct. 06 Kabul Province: one police and one civilian killed 
Two roadside mines exploded in Kabul, killing one police officer and one civilian and wounding nine civilians.
Oct. 06 Kunduz Province: four police killed and one wounded
The Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in Qala-e-Zal District, killing four police officers and wounding one other.
Oct. 05 Khost Province: two civilians killed 
Two civilians were killed when an I.E.D. exploded in their home in Ismail Khail Aw Mondozai District. Three children were wounded in the explosion.
Oct. 05 Khost Province: A bodyguard of parliament candidate killed 
An I.E.D. attached to a vehicle exploded in Khost city, killing the bodyguard of a parliament candidate and wounding four others.

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6) Every Older Patient Has a Story. Medical Students Need to Hear It.
At more than 20 medical schools in the United States, students are getting an earful — about life, about perspective — from healthy seniors.
By Paula Span, October 12. 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/12/health/elderly-patients-medical-training.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=9&pgtype=sectionfront

Elizabeth Shepherd, left, and Dr. Ronald Adelman, a geriatrician at Weill Cornell Medical School, with second-year medical students.


Whatever the cluster of second-year students at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York expected to hear from an 82-year-old woman — this probably wasn't it.
At first, Elizabeth Shepherd, one of several seniors invited to meet with future doctors in an anti-ageism program called "Introduction to the Geriatric Patient," largely followed the script.
As student Zachary Myslinski, 24, read off questions from a standard assessment tool, she responded in matter-of-fact tones.
Health conditions? 
Macular degeneration, replied Ms. Shepherd, a working actor who also teaches Shakespeare at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. But she was getting treatment.

Recent falls? 
Just one, when she missed a bottom step. "In the subway! In public! That was no fun."
Weight loss? 
"Unfortunately not."
Ms. Shepherd, elegant in an animal-print tunic and dangly earrings, easily tucked her hands behind her head, displaying good range of motion. She remembered three words — "pineapple, blue, honesty" — when asked to recall them several minutes later in a cognitive test.
But after telling her rapt audience that she'd raised a son born "out of wedlock" in 1964 and had divorced twice, she added, "I emigrated to Lesbianland for a little while in my 50s."
Eventually returning to heterosexual relationships, she continued, she met a 90-year-old online and had "the most wonderful summer with this man." She's now involved with a 55-year-old, she added. But "he's in Afghanistan at the moment, so my sex life is not as active as I'd like."
Dr. Ronnie LoFaso, the faculty geriatrician guiding the session, said, "This is taking an interesting turn."

But that was the point, really. 
"It's important that they don't think life stops as you get older," Ms. Shepherd told me afterward. "So I decided I would be frank with them."
Dr. Ronald Adelman, co-chief of geriatrics at Weill Cornell, developed this annual program — which includes a theater piece and is required for all second-year students — after he realized that medical students were getting a distorted view of older adults.
"Unfortunately, most education takes place within the hospital," he told me. "If you're only seeing the hospitalized elderly, you're seeing the debilitated, the physically deteriorating, the demented. It's easy to pick up ageist stereotypes."

These misperceptions can influence people's care. In another classroom down the hall, 88-year-old Marcia Levine, a retired family therapist, was telling students about a gastroenterologist who once dismissed her complaints of fatigue by saying, "At your age, you can't expect to have much energy." 
Then, in her 70s, she switched doctors and learned she had a low-grade infection.
At least 20 medical schools in the United States have undertaken similar efforts to introduce students to healthy, active elders, said Dr. Amit Shah, a geriatrician who helps direct the Senior Sages program at the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine.
The programs take many forms, from Weill Cornell's two-hour introduction to a semester-long curriculum at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Some schools, like the Medical University of South Carolina and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, match students with older patients they follow throughout their four-year educations, making home visits, accompanying their "senior mentors" to doctors' appointments, and visiting them if they're hospitalized.
Though the efforts can be voluntary or mandatory, can emphasize clinical skills or encourage new perspectives, they reflect broad agreement on the problems that ageism brings.
In health care, "you hear a lot of infantilizing language: 'sweetie,' 'cutie,' 'honey,'" said Tracey Gendron, the gerontologist who started the senior mentoring program at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. "You hear that people are not worth treating because of their age."
Interruptions are "ubiquitous in medical encounters," said Dr. Adelman, but older patients contend with them more often.

Dr. Adelman has recorded and analyzed doctors visits in which a spouse or adult child accompanies a patient and begins asking and answering the questions. "The older person, who is cognitively fine, is just excluded, referred to as 'he' or 'she,'" Dr. Adelman said. "It can undermine the relationship between the older patient and the doctor."
More broadly, medical research often continues to exclude older people, forcing their doctors to make educated guesses about drugs and procedures, and how much they will help or hurt. 
Yet most doctors, if they're not pediatricians, will spend much of their careers working with older people, becoming — to borrow a phrase from Dr. Donovan Maust, a geriatric psychiatrist at the University of Michigan — de facto geriatricians.
If medical students specialize in pulmonology, they'll find that about 35 percent of their patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are over age 65, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported. 
Endocrinologists treating diabetics will learn that almost 40 percent will be 65-plus. In oncology, more than half of the survivors of all types of cancer are over age 65.
We'll never have enough geriatricians to care for this growing older population, in part because it's hard for doctors to pay off student loans and make a living when virtually all their patients are on Medicare.
Last year, there were just 7,279 certified geriatricians in the United States, only about half practicing full time. The supply is rising only modestly, while the demand will increase a projected 45 percent by 2025, according to the American Geriatrics Society.

Accordingly, many anti-ageism programs mandate participation by all incoming medical students. "The elderly are who they will be caring for," Dr. Adelman said.
The efforts appear effective. Administrators point out that in longer programs, students and seniors often form friendships, sharing pizza or movies outside of required interviews.
An evaluation reviewing 10 senior mentoring programs, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, reported that "the universal goal of positively influencing student attitudes toward older adults was resoundingly achieved."

The students meeting with Ms. Shepherd gave the hourlong session high marks. "Helpful and eye-opening," said Sarita Ballakur, a 23-year-old from Andover, Mass.
"Her candor and openness were incredible," said Jason Harris, 25. "An organ is an organ. A patient is who we'll be dealing with in real life."
"It made me more interested in working with an older patient population," said Mr. Myslinski.
Why, then, aren't there more such initiatives in the nation's 151 M.D.-granting medical schools? They're not particularly expensive, the evaluation found, and older people clamor to take part.

They do involve a fair amount of administrative time. And they require awareness of the particular challenges of this phase of life.
Ms. Shepherd was frank about that, too. 
When she turned 80, she told the students, "I began to realize, this really is different. To know that there are not so many years ahead. To think about how I want to spend the rest of my days. There was a new vulnerability."
She appreciated that they had listened, she said afterward, calling the session "a gift to us, as well as to them. It's an acknowledgment that we are important and of interest."

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7) Citing Arbitrary Use and Racial Bias, Washington Supreme Court Abolishes State's Death Penalty
By Jon Queally, October 11. 2018
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/11/citing-arbitrary-use-and-racial-bias-washington-supreme-court-abolishes-states-death?cd-
\
Scott Langley of Boston, Massachusetts, holds a banner during a vigil against the death penalty in front of the U.S. Supreme Court July 1, 2008 in Washington, DC. The Abolitionist Action Committee and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty held the vigil to abolish the death penalty to mark the 1972 and 1976 Supreme Court rulings suspending the death penalty and later allowing executions to resume. 

Citing racial bias and arbitrary application, the Supreme Court of Washington on Thursday ruled that the use of capital punishment violates the state's Constitution, a decision that will ban the use of the death penalty going forward and immediately commuted the sentences of death-row inmates to life terms.


"Today's decision by the state Supreme Court thankfully ends the death penalty in Washington," declared Washington's Democratic Governor Jay Inslee in response to the ruling.

"The court makes it perfectly clear that capital punishment in our state has been imposed in an 'arbitrary and racially biased manner,' is 'unequally applied' and serves no criminal justice goal," Inslee added. "This is a hugely important moment in our pursuit for equal and fair application of justice."

The ACLU noted the ruling makes Washington the 20th state in the U.S. to ban the death penalty, but the group said it "won't stop fighting until it's struck down everywhere in America."
As Slate reports:
the court held Thursday that capital punishment is imposed in "an arbitrary and racially biased manner" and "fails to serve any legitimate penological goals." The problems go beyond race: Most prosecutors in the state have stopped seeking the death penalty, so all current capital sentences arise from just six of Washington's 39 counties. The location of your crime may therefore determine whether you live or die. This "random" and "capricious" application of the ultimate punishment, the court ruled, fatally undermines any state interest "retribution and deterrence of capital crimes by prospective offenders."

There are currently eight inmates on Washington's death row. The court converted their sentences to life imprisonment and forbade the state from conducting any further executions. Because its ruling is based entirely in the state constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court cannot overturn it. And the court left no room for future reconsideration of its unanimous decision. Capital punishment is over in Washington State.
Jeff Robinson, deputy legal director and director of the ACLU's Trone Center for Justice at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the court recognized clearly that racial bias remains at the heart of "who should and who should die" in the America's skewed justice system.

"There is nothing unique about the role racism played in Washington's death penalty," said Robinson. "What is rare is the Supreme Court's willingness to call out the truth that has always been there."

Noting that both conscious and unconscious racial bias "plays a role in the death penalty decisions across America, influencing who faces this ultimate punishment, who sits on the jury, what kind of victim impact and mitigation evidence is used, and who is given life or death," Robinson said that this kind of "disparity can be described by many words — but justice is not one of them."

Human rights groups and other death penalty opponents said they hope that others states, and ultimately the U.S. federal government, will now follow the other twenty states and ban the death penalty nationwide:
"Washington's Supreme Court showed courage in refusing to allow racism to infect life and death decisions," said the ACLU's Robinson.  "Let's hope that courage is contagious."

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8) 40% of the American middle class face poverty in retirement, study concludes
By Elliot Dinkin, president and CEO of Cowden Associates, October 12, 2-018
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/12/40percent-of-american-middle-class-face-poverty-in-retirement-study-says.html


Nearly half of middle-class Americans face a slide into poverty as they enter their retirement, a recent study by the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School has concluded.
That risk has been driven by depressed earnings, depressed asset values and increased health-care costs — causing 74 percent of Americans planning to work past traditional retirement age. Additionally, both private and public pension plans have been allowed to become seriously underfunded. So what can be done?
Fundamental changes in the structure of the U.S. economy, combined with increased health-care costs and lack of saving, have created a financial trap for millions of American workers heading into retirement.
Roughly 40 percent of Americans who are considered middle class (based on their income levels) will fall into poverty or near poverty by the time they reach age 65, according to the study.
The study also concluded that if workers age 50 to 60 decide to retire at age 62, 8.5 million of them are projected to fall below twice the Federal Poverty Level, with retirement incomes below $23,340 for singles and $31,260 for couples. Further, 2.6 million of those 8.5 million downwardly mobile workers and their spouses will have incomes below the poverty level — $11,670 for an individual and $15,730 for a two-person household.
It can be debated as to how this happened. Who is to blame? Who is ultimately responsible for a retiree's well-being in retirement?
Most importantly, though, employers and employees need to focus on a fix. Personal savings is obviously a needed conversation. And sponsors of pension plans — whether corporate, governmental or multi-employer — need to ensure they are doing their part.
Not coincidentally, older Americans increasingly continue to work longer than their forebears. More than 20 percent of the workforce in the United States is 55 or older, a historic high, and that percentage is expected to increase — 74 percent of Americans now say they plan to work past traditional retirement age.
So how will this impact employer pension plans? Are there solutions? What do they look like? Who do they affect and how?
Employers need to complete an in-depth analysis of their business models, risk management policies, benefit offerings and financial options through a total compensation approach.
A defined benefit plan should be managed like a separate line of business: It should have budgets, forecasts and a strategic plan. The magnitude of the issue and its prominence require this approach, as the plan is a use and source of cash, creates volatile liability and expense and causes negative consequences often at the worst time in business cycles.
The process involves a variety of areas regarding benefit design, cost, risk management, cash flow, taxes, competitiveness and labor management:
Finally, pension plan sponsors must continually monitor investment strategies; the impact of potential regulatory changes, including funding and accounting rules; appropriateness of assumptions; and development of funding policies to ensure they are appropriately managing their risk and cost issues, but acting in the most prudent manner for their current employees and current retirees.

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9)  Kushner Paid No Federal Income Tax for Years, Documents Suggest
By Jesse Drucker and Emily Flitter, October 13, 2018
"The law assumes that buildings’ values decline every year when, in reality, they often gain value. Its enormous flexibility allows real estate investors to determine their own tax bills. ...He is reporting the losses even though he bought his properties with borrowed funds. In many cases, Mr. Kushner kicked in less than 1 percent of the purchase price, according to the documents. Even that small amount generally was paid for with loans. Mr. Kushner’s credit lines from banks rose to $46 million in 2016 from zero in 2009, the documents show.
The result: Mr. Kushner is getting tax-reducing losses for spending someone else’s money, which is permitted under the tax code. Depreciation deductions are available in other industries, but they generally don’t get to take losses related to spending with borrowed money."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/13/business/jared-kushner-taxes.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Jared Kushner, lowest step, probably avoided paying federal income taxes via his family’s real estate investments.

Over the past decade, Jared Kushner’s family company has spent billions of dollars buying real estate. His personal stock investments have soared. His net worth has quintupled to almost $324 million.
And yet, for several years running, Mr. Kushner — President Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser — appears to have paid almost no federal income taxes, according to confidential financial documents reviewed by The New York Times.
His low tax bills are the result of a common tax-minimizing maneuver that, year after year, generated millions of dollars in losses for Mr. Kushner, according to the documents. But the losses were only on paper — Mr. Kushner and his company did not appear to actually lose any money. The losses were driven by depreciation, a tax benefit that lets real estate investors deduct a portion of the cost of their buildings from their taxable income every year.
In 2015, for example, Mr. Kushner took home $1.7 million in salary and investment gains. But those earnings were swamped by $8.3 million of losses, largely because of “significant depreciation” that Mr. Kushner and his company took on their real estate, according to the documents reviewed by The Times.

Nothing in the documents suggests Mr. Kushner or his company broke the law. A spokesman for Mr. Kushner’s lawyer said that Mr. Kushner “paid all taxes due.”
In theory, the depreciation provision is supposed to shield real estate developers from having their investments whittled away by wear and tear on their buildings.
In practice, though, the allowance often represents a lucrative giveaway to developers like Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner.

The law assumes that buildings’ values decline every year when, in reality, they often gain value. Its enormous flexibility allows real estate investors to determine their own tax bills.

The White House last year championed a sweeping revision of the nation’s tax laws that expanded many of the benefits enjoyed by real estate investors, allowing them to reap even larger deductions.
“The Trump administration was in a position to clean up the tax code and promised to get rid of some of the complexity that certain taxpayers use to their advantage,” said Victor Fleischer, a tax law professor at the University of California, Irvine. “Instead, they doubled down on those provisions, particularly the ones they have familiarity with to benefit themselves.”
The documents, which The Times reviewed in their entirety, were created with Mr. Kushner’s cooperation as part of a review of his finances by an institution that was considering lending him money. Totaling more than 40 pages, they describe his business dealings, earnings, expenses and borrowing from 2009 to 2016. They contain information that was taken from Mr. Kushner’s federal tax filings, as well as other data provided by his advisers. The documents, mostly created last year, were shared with The Times by a person who has had financial dealings with Mr. Kushner and his family.
Thirteen tax accountants and lawyers, including J. Richard Harvey Jr., a tax official in the Reagan, George W. Bush and Obama administrations, reviewed the documents for The Times. Mr. Harvey said that, assuming the documents accurately reflect information from his tax returns, Mr. Kushner appeared to have paid little or no federal income taxes during at least five of the past eight years. The other experts agreed and said Mr. Kushner probably didn’t pay much in the three other years, either.
Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Mr. Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said he would not respond to assumptions derived from documents that provide an incomplete picture and were “obtained in violation of the law and standard business confidentiality agreements. However, always following the advice of numerous attorneys and accountants, Mr. Kushner properly filed and paid all taxes due under the law and regulations.” 
Mr. Mirijanian added that, with regard to the tax legislation, Mr. Kushner “has avoided work that would pose any conflict of interest.” 
Representatives of the White House and Mr. Kushner’s firm, Kushner Companies, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The revelation about Mr. Kushner’s minimal tax payments comes as his father-in-law’s taxes are under renewed scrutiny. A Times investigationpublished this month found that Mr. Trump participated in outright fraud that shielded his family’s fortune from estate and gift taxes.
Mr. Trump has broken with decades of tradition by refusing to release his tax returns. But portions of a 1995 tax return previously published by The Times show trends similar to the one visible in the documents detailing Mr. Kushner’s finances. Mr. Trump at the time reported nearly $916 million in losses, which could have permitted him to avoid any federal income taxes for almost two decades.
The summaries of Mr. Kushner’s tax returns reviewed by The Times don’t explicitly state how much he paid. Instead, the documents include disclosures by his accountants that estimate how much tax he owed for the year just ended — called “income taxes payable” — and how much he paid during the year in anticipation of taxes he would owe, called “prepaid taxes.” For most of the years covered, both were listed as zero.

An excerpt of Mr. Kushner's net worth statement for 2011 to 2016, with highlighting by The New York Times. The amount he paid in anticipation of taxes he would owe is called “prepaid taxes.”

Peter Buell, who runs tax services for the real estate practice of the accounting firm Marcum, said the lack of prepayments indicated Mr. Kushner most likely didn’t owe income taxes in those years. Mr. Buell said he was especially confident that Mr. Kushner had no tax liability because the documents also report no “income taxes payable.”

Another clue from the net worth statement: "income taxes payable," the amount his accountants estimated he owed at year's end, also highlighted by The Times.

Kushner Companies — where Mr. Kushner was chief executive and remains an owner — has been profitable and has thrown off millions of dollars in cash annually for Mr. Kushner and his father, Charles, according to an analysis by the company that was included in the documents reviewed by The Times.

But as far as the Internal Revenue Service is concerned, the Kushners have been losing money for years.
Kushner Companies, like many real estate firms, passes on any tax obligations to its owners, including Mr. Kushner and his father, who incorporate them into their personal tax returns. 
Unlike typical wage earners, the owners of such companies can report losses for tax purposes. When a firm like Kushner Companies reports expenses in excess of its income, the result is a “net operating loss.” That loss can wipe out any taxes that the company’s owner otherwise would owe. Depending on the size of the loss, it can even be used to get refunds for taxes paid in prior years or eliminate tax bills in future years.
Mr. Kushner’s losses, stemming in large part from the depreciation deduction, appeared to wipe out his taxable income in most years covered by the documents.
He is reporting the losses even though he bought his properties with borrowed funds. In many cases, Mr. Kushner kicked in less than 1 percent of the purchase price, according to the documents. Even that small amount generally was paid for with loans. Mr. Kushner’s credit lines from banks rose to $46 million in 2016 from zero in 2009, the documents show.
The result: Mr. Kushner is getting tax-reducing losses for spending someone else’s money, which is permitted under the tax code. Depreciation deductions are available in other industries, but they generally don’t get to take losses related to spending with borrowed money.

“If I had to live my life over again, I would have been in the real estate business,” said Jonathan Blattmachr, a well-known trusts and estates lawyer, now a principal at Pioneer Wealth Partners, who reviewed the Kushner documents. “It’s fantastic. You get tax deductions for things you don’t pay for.”

One of the only years in which Mr. Kushner appeared to have owed anything was 2013, when he reported income taxes payable of $1.1 million. According to the documents, Mr. Kushner has filed tax returns separately from his wife, Ivanka Trump — a relatively common practice among wealthy couples who want to avoid entwining their complex personal finances. 
Mr. Kushner’s father appears to have benefited from the same tax deductions, the documents indicate. The experts interviewed by The Times said Charles Kushner most likely avoided paying federal income taxes from at least 2012 to 2016. 
The tax code affords real estate investors great leeway in how they calculate their depreciation — flexibility that often is used to inflate their annual deductions. Among the tactics used by many developers: Their tax advisers prepare studies arguing that much of a property’s value is attributable to things like appliances and parking lots, which under the law can be depreciated more quickly than the building.
Such strategies are almost never audited, tax professionals say. And the new tax law provides even more opportunities for property investors to take larger deductions.
Developers might have to pay capital gains taxes if they sell their properties. But the Kushners, like others in the real estate business, often avoid that tax, too, by using the proceeds of sales to buy more properties within a certain time window.
At least in part because of that perk, the Kushners’ property sales in the period covered by the documents — totaling about $2.3 billion, according to Real Capital Analytics, a research firm — generated little or no taxable income for Mr. Kushner.
Last year’s tax legislation eliminated that benefit for all industries but one: real estate.

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10) The Khashoggi Incident: Trump’s Special Relationship With the Saudi Monarchy
By Gary Leupp, October 12, 2018
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/12/the-khashoggi-incident-trumps-special-relationship-with-the-saudi-monarchy/


The Saudi crown prince and de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman bin Abduld Aziz al Saud (33), has cultivated an international reputation as a progressive reformer, claiming in particular to improve the lot of Saudi women. His March PR visit to the U.S. included a warm and fuzzy interview with Oprah, visits to Harvard and MIT, meetings with Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Michael Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch, and of course his friend Jared Kushner. His purpose was two-fold: to improve the global image of Saudi Arabia, and to call for common action against Saudi Arabia’s arch-enemy Iran.
What is this young man’s record? In March 2011 during the Arab Spring, when the prince was already a senior advisor to his father the king, Saudi Arabia headed an intervention of Gulf states in Bahrain, to quell protests against the absolute monarch. (The great majority of Bahrainis are Shiites, while the king of Bahrain is Sunni. Riyadh views any advancement of Shiite rights and power in the region, both as an expression of heresy—against Sunni Islam—and as an expansion of Iranian Shiite influence.) In June 2017 (after Mohammad had been made crown prince) Riyadh led an ongoing blockade of Qatar, mainly to punish it for its relatively cordial relations with Iran. That November Riyadh detained the Lebanese prime minister during a visit and forced his resignation (later retracted); this was an effort to punish him for his acceptance of the Hizbollah party in the Lebanese cabinet.
Since 2015 the Saudis have been bombing Yemen in an effort to dislodge the (Shiite) Houthi regime in Sanaa, claiming it’s a tool of Iran. Over 10,000 civilians have been killed and over three million people displaced; the Saudi school bus bombing in August killed 51, mostly children, and attracted brief international horror.
The crown prince (MBS, as he likes to be affectionately called) has consolidated his power by the brutal handling of his many rivals within the extravagantly polygamous royal family. (His grandfather Abdullah had at least 35 children by 30 wives.) He is driven by hostility to Iran and all its allies including the Syrian government, Hizbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen (and perhaps the 15 to 20% of the Saudi population who are Shiites, mostly in the oil-rich Eastern Province that faces Iran across the Persian Gulf). He has warmed up to Israel, berating the Palestinians for not making peace, and cooperating with the Israelis to isolate Iran. Anyone paying attention knows he’s a brutal thug.
Trump has made it clear to the Saudi royals that he doesn’t care about their human rights record. The strict application of Sharia law, which he condemns everywhere else—the stonings for adultery, the gay men tossed off buildings, the crucifixions—is not an issue. All that’s the Saudis’ business, a matter of national sovereignty. And the Pentagon has made it clear that it will back the Saudi military effort in Yemen despite many reports of Saudi atrocities. MBS may feel he can act with impunity in the world and the U.S. president will have his back. He also may have miscalculated.
The Turkish police have concluded that U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Turkish consulate in Istanbul last week, by a hit squad of 15 Saudis including a forensic doctor flown in to kill him during his consulate visit. (He was apparently there to complete paperwork related to his planned marriage to a Turkish woman.) He was filmed entering the building but never exited as his anxious fiance waited. The police speculate that his body was dismembered and its parts removed by the hit squad that returned to Saudi Arabia on the same day.
Khashoggi, well known as a journalist in Saudi Arabia where he was once close to the royal family, had written mildly critical op-ed columns about it for the Washington Post. These may have offended the famously thin-skinned prince. They may have occasioned a royal court order for the execution of Khashoggi in the consulate, which is technically Saudi sovereign territory.
If the journalist was in fact murdered, one must wonder what was going through the head of MBS when he ordered the deed. Did he suppose the truth wouldn’t out? Did he expect Turkish indulgence, and Trump’s acceptance? Did he think the extinction of a moderate critic was worth the risk to his and his country’s reputation? (Perhaps he was recalling the assassination of Kim Jong-un’s brother Kim Jong-nam in Malaysia last year, which had no enduring consequences; Malaysia closed its Pyongyang embassy for awhile but it has now reopened. And Trump is now friends with Jong-un.)
The fact that the Turkish police have a week after Khashoggi’s disappearance announced their assumption of foul play will surely affect Saudi-Turkish relations. The two countries have more or less coordinated their actions in Syria but are at odds on Iran, with which Ankara enjoys cordial relations, and on Qatar which has become a Turkish ally in the wake of the Saudi-led blockade. Turkish public opinion will seethe in indignation at a cold-blooded state-ordered murder in Istanbul.
Now the U.S. press reports that U.S. intelligence had intercepted Saudi officials discussing the kidnapping of Khashoggi. This makes MBS look even worse. You sense he won’t be invited back on Oprah. But he might well be welcomed back in Washington. Trump could proclaim the murder story another “hoax” and say he trusts the prince’s word that there was no collusion. So far he merely says he’s unhappy with what happened.
“I’m very concerned about it,” he said Monday, “there’s some pretty bad stories going around — I do not like it.”
Trump says whatever comes into his mind, whenever he wants. He has mocked the Saudi monarchy as being reliant upon his military support to remain in power. He told a wild pep rally Oct. 2 (the very day Khashoggi was apparently killed): “King: we’re protecting you. You might not be there two weeks without us,. You have to pay for your military.” Rapturous applause!
Similarly, Trump said Christine Blase Ford’s testimony on Kavanaugh was “very credible. “I thought her testimony was very compelling and she looks like a very fine woman to me, very fine woman,” Trump said last week.  “Certainly [Ford] was a very credible witness. She was very good in many respects.” But then he trashed her as a liar. He’s nothing if not mercurial, unpredictable.
Trump flatters himself with having excellent relations with almost all world leaders, from Kim Jong-un (whom he “fell in love with) to Angela Merkel (whom in fact despises him). But he can go from hot to cold at any time. He heaps praise on Xi Jinping and then lobs high tariffs on Chinese goods. He gives Turkey’s Erdogan “high marks” for “doing things the right way” then applies sanctions due to the detainment of a U.S. pastor in Turkey accused of complicity in a coup plot. He could turn on MBS anytime.
The basis of the Saudi-U.S. relationship has been from 1945, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt returning from the Yalta summit visited with Abdul Azziz bin Saud aboard a heavy cruiser in the Suez Canal: cheap oil in return for arms and political support. It was understood at the outset that the U.S. would remain what it was, and that the Saudi kingdom would remain an absolute monarchy guided by religious clerics empowered to administer strict Sharia law.
Decades of U.S. rhetoric about freedom and democracy have always rung hollow as the U.S. has chosen as its key allies not only the NATO and Japanese bourgeois democracies but the dictatorships of Park Chung-hee, Ferdinand Marcos, Suharto, Thai juntas, Pakistani juntas, Latin American juntas, the Greek junta, Francisco Franco, Iran’s Shah, Haile Selassi, Mobutu Sese Seko, Augusto Pinochet, Fulgencio Batista, Papa Doc in Haiti… “The Free World” as taught in U.S. schools comprised the non-communist world. Still, the U.S. government, through the State Department, habitually expresses at least the minimal degree of “concern” about “human rights abuses” here and there. Saudi Arabia is always deplored in the annual assessments, but usually credited with making incremental advances. In any case the U.S. mass media pays little attention, until a school bus is bombed in Yemen, and then the matter’s dropped.
Now however Saudi Arabia is in our face, in the form of news reports on the apparent embassy murder. On Oct. 8, six days after the reported disappearance, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo publicly urged the Saudis to investigate The most haughty and unpleasant Heather Nauert, spokesperson for the State Department, tells journalists that in the interval there was high-level discussion with Saudis but she has nothing to report about it.
So here’s the thing. Trump, who is clueless, will sit down with Pompeo and Bolton. They will say that this looks bad, and the young prince is out of control. He needs to be reminded of what you told the Saudi king the other day: you might not be there two weeks without us. When you kill and dismember a U.S. resident Washington Post journalist with kids that have U.S. nationality you embarrass your friends, the president and his son-in-law, who could be shamed by that politically influential paper for not denouncing the murder of its contributor. You jeopardize your access to U.S. weaponry and refueling services in your ongoing Yemen war. You have to own up to this and apologize.
Somehow I don’t think that will happen. No red line in the sand has been crossed. Trump and the prince probably already chatted on the phone and MBS has denied any knowledge or involvement.Trump can accept that and move on, or do what he’s done with Russia and Turkey: apply sanctions in response to human rights violations. But given the triangular tension in the region (Turks, Iranians, and Arabs, all intervening in Syria and involved in Iraq) plus the complex relationships of Israel to both Turkey and the Saudis, any U.S. move in response to this incident could produce a new crisis.
Those in Congress militating against the Saudi war on Yemen and U.S. involvement in it will surely seize on this incident to curtail arms sales to the Saudis, and impose sanctions on Saudis considered responsible. Trump’s stance will define him morally every bit as much as his stance on Kavanaugh, and he’ll present it in front of a world which generally despises and mistrusts him.
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11)  The Deportation Crisis: Report From Long Island
By Barbara Kantz, October 12, 2018
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/12/the-deportation-crisis-report-from-long-island/


 am writing to you from Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, a place you may associate with images of traffic jams on the famed Long Island expressway, the rich and famous of the Hamptons, sandy beaches, and most recently, MS 13. Right now we live in the heart of the beast—the flashpoint of immigration and deportation politics in America’s suburbs.
Long Island has been part of the Latino migration stream of seasonal farm workers from the 40s through the 60s. Some workers were documented using the H-2A visa program available for agricultural workers, but many were not. During the months migrant workers were here, they lived primarily in isolated labor camps. Since the 60s, immigrant worker numbers have grown, seeking work now in suburban rather than rural communities, in service industries like food service, landscape care, nanny and elder services and the building trades. These workers mow our lawns, cook our food, care for our children, and build our buildings, still documented and undocumented.
Long Island also has a long history of segregation, born of the development of the “exclusive”” white suburbs in the post war era. Segregation by race and ethnicity is not new and persists to this day. By the 80s, the immigrant profile shifted from European to Latin Americans, many single men, mostly from Mexico, came in greater numbers. As more Latinos sought permanent residency, increased ethnic anxiety rose. Ideas about Latinos as gang members and welfare recipients began building steadily. The popular culture emphasis on drug and gang behavior (think “Miami Vice”) contributed to the narrative of the violent Latino and Latinas on welfare. The bi-lingual movement of the 1980s also created tension, and by 1996 Suffolk County attempted to have English designated as the official language of the county, the first in New York State. Covered in the New York Times,the article was titled “English Only Bill ignites Debates and Fear on LI.” Local zoning laws calling for the definition of family as five or less unrelated individuals also came in response to large numbers of workers renting single family homes.
In 2007, the town of Southampton attempted to set up a day laborer work site, a proposal that was defeated. (Though day labor hiring is illegal, it is an accepted practice to meet the need for local cheap labor. Many day laborers are not paid in full or at all and have little recourse save for the advocacy groups on Long Island.) The documentary film “Farmingville” (2004) about day laborers in Suffolk County, and the purposeful anti-immigrant Lucero murder in Patchogue (2008) brought increased national attention to Suffolk County.
As political civil war and instability along with the negative impacts of NAFTA on Central America occurred, immigrants began coming from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
With the influx of Central Americans, many of whom are unaccompanied minors and adolescents, the negative consequences of gangs, drug activity, and violence from MS 13 are glaringly real. While attempts are made to place children with family members already here, objections to this kind of “chain migration” is another source of contention.
A Federal approach and intervention was demanded to deal with increased crime on Long Island. President Trump’s visit to Long Island in 2016, where he vowed to wipe out MS13 using the weight of the federal government and federal law enforcement, produced massive protests both pro and anti-immigration.  President Trump, through executive order, has made several changes in law enforcement and immigration practice that is significantly shifting the immigration/deportation landscape. The grounds for asylum seekers—sexual assault, fear of gang behavior, poverty, domestic violence—are no longer accepted. The termination of DACA, and attempts to end temporary protected status for those whose countries suffered disasters are also policies in play. Equally profound and alarming is the eroding of due process.  A wider berth has been given to ICE enforcers. The definition of “a risk to public safety” that used to be decided by judges,
 is now the purview of ICE.  Before this change, judges had to make rulings and issues warrants. Individuals who have been charged, but not convicted, as well as resolved cases, green card holders and permanent resident holders can be re-opened for re-examination and deportation. Since local law enforcement officials are sometimes housed in courts, hospitals and educational institutions, and though they claim not to assist ICE, these “systems” become pipelines for ICE enforcers who often wait outside public facilities as immigrants attend court dates, some toward legalizing their status.
The result of these policies have had profound effects on the Latino communities in Suffolk County. Parents have been more reluctant to participate in community activities, while a decline in people applying for recertification is another. Distrust of local police and authorities have eroded people’s ability to seek help for themselves as MS 13 attacks them as well. My own adult college students at a SUNY college were often reluctant to come to appointments because of our location in a state facility. The stress and fear factors have exacerbated mental health issues in the Latino community who already have poor access to, and are reluctant to seek treatment.
These policies have also had negative effects on farms and businesses in Suffolk. While elected officials and law enforcement often denounce what they describe as a broken immigration system, they also identify the need to create a more efficient guest worker program for East End farms. Anti-immigrant legislation and sentiment hurts the economy, but also divides the community, creates intolerance and defames the reputation of particular towns.
Both federal and local policy changes have been developed under the theory of deterrence logic”.  The U.S. currently refuses to be a refuge for people with problems in their countries of origin. AmerIcans are often unaware of the tumult in Central America, that people quite literally are running for their lives as their own countries are filled with corrupt governments, domestic violence, gang violence, MS 13, and sex and drug trafficking. However,  the arduous trip to cross into the U.S. is STILL preferable to remaining where they are. While fewer people may be attempting to cross, terrorizing these immigrants, many of whom are here legally, calls into question the acclaimed American narrative of  a “nation of immigrants.” This narrative has been replaced by an “immigrant emergency” narrative which gained traction in the aftermath of 9/11. We are not a melting pot, but rather a pressure cooker here in Suffolk County, New York.

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12) 7 Palestinians Killed by Israeli Fire in Gaza Border Clashes
By Isabel Kershner, October 12, 2018
"Since the protests began, about 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, according to the Gaza health ministry. Israel says it acts to prevent breaches of the fence in violation of its sovereignty and to protect Israeli civilians living near the border. One Israeli soldier has been killed, by sniper fire from Gaza."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/12/world/middleeast/gaza-israel-deaths-protests.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=sectionfront

Palestinian protesters evacuating a wounded man during violent clashes Friday along the fence dividing Israel and Hamas-run Gaza.


JERUSALEM — Seven Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire on Friday during stormy protests along the fence dividing Israel and Hamas-run Gaza, according to Gaza health officials.
Four of them were shot dead after they crossed into Israeli territory and approached an army snipers’ post, the Israeli military and a witness said.
There were no injuries on the Israeli side.
In response to the border violence, and to renewed fires on the Israeli side of the fence caused by incendiary balloons flown from Gaza, Israel’s defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said he was halting Qatari-funded transfers of fuel into the Gaza Strip. The fuel shipments had begun in recent days to alleviate the chronic energy shortage in Gaza that has left most of its two million residents with only eight hours of electricity every 24 hours.
Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, has been arranging weekly demonstrations along the Israeli border for the past six months to protest the blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory and demand a return to land in what is now Israel. After attendance and international attention began to wane in recent weeks, Hamas created special units to expand the protests, which they call “The Great Return March.”

The fuel transfers had been a first sign of progress after weeks of intensive efforts by Egypt and the United Nations to mediate a stable cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. In addition to the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt, citing security concerns, Hamas is contending with economic sanctions imposed by its rival, the Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank.
Since the protests began, about 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, according to the Gaza health ministry. Israel says it acts to prevent breaches of the fence in violation of its sovereignty and to protect Israeli civilians living near the border. One Israeli soldier has been killed, by sniper fire from Gaza.
The Israeli military said that about 15,000 Palestinians participated in Friday’s protests in several locations along the fence and that rioters burned tires and hurled rocks, explosive devices and grenades at soldiers and the fence.
The event, in which four of the Palestinians were killed, occurred near El Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. There were conflicting accounts of what happened.
The Israeli military said assailants blew a hole in the fence with an explosive device and about 20 Palestinians entered Israeli territory. Soldiers fired warning shots and most protesters returned to Gaza, the military said, while some advanced toward a military post and were shot and killed.

Fadi Thabet, a Gaza photographer who was at the scene, said that a group came within 30 to 50 yards of an Israeli snipers’ post but that three were killed as they retreated, running back toward the fence. A fourth, Mr. Thabet said by telephone, was shot at close range, “execution style,” as he tried to hide behind a cement wall about 20 yards from the snipers’ post.
Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, praised what he called, in a statement, “massive participation” in Friday’s protest. “The great sacrifice the Palestinian masses have made are landmarks in the history of the march,” the statement said.
The Israeli military described the event as “a blatant terror attempt that was thwarted by I.D.F. troops quickly and professionally,” and which “prevented a possible terror attack against civilians and I.D.F. troops.”
On Thursday, the Israeli military announced that it had neutralized a tunnel built by Hamas to penetrate Israeli territory. It was the 15th such tunnel to be destroyed in the past year, according to Israeli officials.

Iyad Abuheweila and Ibrahim El-Mughraby contributed reporting from Gaza City.

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13) Man Who Fired at a Black Teenager Asking for Directions is Convicted
By Mihir Zaveri, October 13. 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/13/us/jeffrey-zeigler-brennan-walker-trial.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront


A jury convicted Jeffrey Zeigler, 53, on Friday of felony assault for shooting at a black teenager who came to his suburban Detroit home seeking directions.


A 14-year-old boy missed the school bus one Thursday morning in April. He started to walk to school, got lost and knocked on the door of a home in a Detroit suburb to get directions.
A minute later, a white man came out of the doorway with a shotgun, aimed and fired it at the teenager, who is black.
The encounter in Rochester Hills, Mich., was captured on a surveillance video, which was part of the evidence jurors saw this week before convicting the man, Jeffrey Zeigler, 53, on Friday.
He was convicted of one count of felony assault with the intent to commit great bodily harm, which was a lesser charge than the assault with intent to murder that he initially faced. He was also convicted of one count of using a firearm while committing that felony.

Mr. Zeigler, a retired firefighter, faces up to 12 years in prison when he is sentenced in about two weeks, said Paul Walton, chief assistant prosecutor in Oakland County.
Rob Morad, Mr. Zeigler’s lawyer, said his client was “remorseful.”
“He certainly wishes it didn’t happen,” Mr. Morad said on Saturday. “He wishes he didn’t go outside that day.”
The encounter on April 12 once again generated scrutiny over how benign, everyday interactions can turn into potentially deadly situations for black people.
It is also another prominent case of a black teenager being shot at outside of a home in the Detroit area. Theodore P. Wafer was convicted of murder in 2014 for shooting and killing Renisha McBride, 19, on his porch. Mr. Wafer said he was jolted awake by her knocking on his doors around 4:30 a.m.

Mr. Morad said the April encounter happened so quickly that Mr. Zeigler did not have time to consider the boy’s race. “He just reacted and that was that,” Mr. Morad said.

The surveillance video, which does not have any sound, shows the boy, Brennan Walker, approaching the doorway at Mr. Zeigler’s home. Brennan had slept through his alarm and thought he would make the 90-minute trek to Rochester High School on foot. Within an hour of waking up and heading out, Brennan had gotten lost.
In the video, Brennan is wearing a backpack and a hat. A few chairs with cushions are outside the house. He gets close to the door before he turns around and looks like he might walk away. Then he approaches the door again and pauses.
Brennan told The New York Times in April that he had tried another home before Mr. Zeigler’s. He said after approaching Mr. Zeigler’s residence, a woman began yelling as if he were trying to break into the house.
“She didn’t really give me a chance to speak a lot, and I was trying to tell her that I go to Rochester High and I was looking for directions,” Brennan said. “A few moments later the guy came downstairs, and he grabbed the shotgun.”
The video shows Brennan stepping backward and sprinting. Mr. Zeigler points the shotgun, and there is a flash near the muzzle. He testified that he was trying to fire a warning shot, television station Fox 2 reported.
Attempts to reach Mr. Zeigler’s wife and Brennan and his family on Saturday were unsuccessful. In an interview with Fox 2, Brennan’s mother, Lisa Wright, said that she had previously taken his phone away as a punishment, which is why he couldn’t use it to get directions.

Ms. Wright said neighbors should be able to ask each other for directions without fear.
“I shouldn’t be fearful of a child, let alone a skin tone,” she said. “This is a decent neighborhood. If anything, why would I knock on your door to rob you? Why would I have a conversation with you to rob you? It’s ridiculous. Ignorance is everywhere.”
Mr. Morad said that Mr. Zeigler was in a deep sleep that morning. He said that after Brennan rang the doorbell, Mr. Zeigler’s wife answered the door. At some point during their conversation, Brennan moved toward the door and “seemed to jiggle the door handle,” Mr. Morad said.
Mr. Zeigler told Brennan to get off his property, and told his wife to call the police before going into a nearby room, grabbing the shotgun and returning, Mr. Morad said. That’s when Brennan fled.
Brennan ran into sheriff’s deputies who were responding to a call by Mr. Zeigler’s wife, and shared his story of what happened.
Mr. Morad said that between 2009 and 2017, there had been five break-in attempts at the Zeigler residence, which prompted the couple to buy the surveillance camera that captured the encounter with Brennan.


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