PRISON vs. SCHOOL: The Tour
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogmtAQlp9HI
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Aug. 2 National March on the White House
Stop the Massacre in Gaza!
Saturday, Aug. 2, 1:00pm
Gather at the White House
Washington, D.C.
Transportation is being organized from all over the country
Yesterday, Israeli Defense Forces deliberately targeted a group of children playing soccer on a Gaza beach, killing four from the same family and maiming the others—another war crime committed against the Palestinian people.
Join thousands of people in a National March on the White House on Saturday, August 2 at 1:00pm to condemn the Israeli massacre in Gaza.
We have been in the streets every day in cities around the country. What is needed now is a massive National March on Washington.
Israel receives $4 billion in “aid” from the United States each year. This money is being used to commit war crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza. We are demanding that all U.S aid to Israel be ended now!
More than 200 people in Gaza have been killed and more than 1,500 have been wounded from Israeli bombs and missiles. This has to end!
Join us to demand:
Stop the massacre in Gaza! End the blockade of Gaza!
End all U.S. aid to Israel!
End the colonial occupation!
Co-sponsors: ANSWER Coalition; American Muslims for Palestine (AMP); Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR); American Muslim Alliance (AMA); Al-Awda: Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Al-Awda: Palestine Right to Return Coalition - New York; Code Pink; Muslim Legal Fund of America; World Can't Wait; Partership for Civil Justice; MAS Immigrant Justice Center; UNAC - United National Antiwar Coalition; Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).
#2DC4Gaza #LetGazaLive #FreePalestine #Protest4Palestine
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1) Russia Sues McDonald’s, Questioning Quality of the Food
MOSCOW — The McDonald’s cheeseburger will have its day in court.
Russia’s consumer protection agency has filed a claim accusing the restaurant chain of violating government nutritional and safety codes in a number of its burger and ice cream products, a Moscow court announced Friday.
The suit could temporarily ban the production and sale of the chain’s ice cream, milkshakes, cheeseburgers, and Filet-o-Fish and chicken sandwiches, said Yekaterina Korotova, a spokeswoman for Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court, where the case will be heard.
“We have identified violations which put the product quality and safety of the entire McDonald’s chain in doubt,” Anna Popova, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s consumer protection agency, said in statements reported by the Interfax news agency.Food imports often fall victim to geopolitical tensions in Russia, which has banned cheese, wines and other regional delicacies from its post-Soviet neighbors when the mood has soured. Starting Monday, for example, Russia will ban imports of milk and dairy products from Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists have declared independence in the country’s east, the RIA Novosti news agency reported on Friday.
While McDonald’s products are made in Russia, the company’s American identity is lost on few politicians here. When the chain shut down its three restaurants in Crimea after Russia’s annexation of the peninsula in March, some Russian lawmakers called for McDonald’s to be banned throughout the country, where there are more than 400 restaurants, according to the company’s Russian website.
In the past, the discussion over diet has even waxed philosophical. In 2012, the country’s chief sanitary officer, Gennady Onishchenko, used the disputed discovery of a worm in a McDonald’s lunch to deliver a sweeping rejection of all burgers.
“This is not our food,” he said at the time.
Rospotrebnadzor’s complaints, however, were more concrete. The agency claimed that McDonald’s had misrepresented the nutritional values of its hamburgers and ice cream products, and said that in one restaurant inspected in May, traces of E. coli had been detected.
A McDonald’s representative, Nina Prasolova, said in an email that the company had not received an official complaint from either the court or Rospotrebnadzor, and that the nutritional information of its food was “based on the methodology approved by the Food Institute of the Russian Federation.” Ms. Prasolova did not return emails asking about the sanitary inspections.
Ms. Korotova would not comment on whether the court could temporarily close McDonald’s restaurants in the country, citing only Rospotrebnadzor’s demand for the court to “halt McDonald’s illegal activity.” A hearing is planned for Aug. 13.
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2) Most Migrant Children Entering U.S. Are Now With Relatives, Data Show
LOS ANGELES — The vast majority of unaccompanied migrant children arriving in the United States from Central America this year have been released to relatives in states with large established Central American populations, according to federal data released Thursday night.
A total of 30,340 children have been released to sponsors — primarily parents and other relatives — from the start of the year through July 7, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which has overseen the care of the children after they are turned over by Customs and Border Protection. More children have been released in Texas than in any other state, with sponsors there receiving 4,280 children, followed by New York with 3,347. Florida has received 3,181 children and California 3,150. Maryland and Virginia have each also received more than 2,200 children.The numbers do not include those children who are still being cared for in shelters, which have prompted the most outrage from governors and other local officials across the country. Many children who are placed in shelters for some period of time — anywhere between a few days and a few months — have later been released to family members.
Officials have said that more than half of all children initially placed in shelters have gone on to be reunited with at least one parent already living in the United States, and 85 percent of all children have been placed with a close family member.
Sponsors must be vetted by social workers, a process that includes a criminal-background check, and must also promise to make sure that the child appears for required immigration court appearances. The adults do not have to be citizens or legal permanent residents, and officials have acknowledged that some sponsors may be living in the United States illegally.
Children who are not able to find qualified sponsors are placed in long-term shelters or in foster care. Roughly 10 percent of the unaccompanied minors who have been taken into custody this year have been placed in such care, which is overseen by the federal Administration for Children and Families, said Kenneth J. Wolfe, a spokesman for the department.
While the numbers do not include a breakdown by nationality, the vast majority of children are from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Since October, more than 57,000 unaccompanied children have been arrested by Border Patrol agents, primarily in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Nearly 53,000 of those children have been released to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, with more than 47,000 going to sponsors or relatives.
The metro areas with the largest number of immigrants from Central America are Los Angeles, Washington, Houston and Miami, according to census data compiled by the Migration Policy Institute. Los Angeles has the largest number of immigrants from El Salvador and Guatemala, and New York and Miami have the most Honduran immigrants, according to census data.
Federal procedures require that children placed with the Office of Refugee Resettlement be placed in the least restrictive environment possible, with parents as a first choice for placement. If there are no sponsors, the minors will remain in the care of the department unless they return to their country of origin, turn 18 or receive some kind of legal status from an immigration judge.
So far this year, the federal government has opened shelters with 3,000 beds on military bases in Texas, California and Oklahoma and is continuing to search for more space across the country. Mr. Wolfe said there was no plan to release a similar breakdown of how many children are in each shelter.
The federal government has faced criticism for not releasing more information about the children’s whereabouts. This week, Gov. Terry E. Branstad of Iowa called it “outlandish” that the state was not notified about the more than 120 children placed with sponsors in the state. But other state leaders, including Gov. John Kitzhaber of Oregon and Attorney General Kamala D. Harris of California, have said they would do all they could to help such children. Ms. Harris said this week that she had personally appealed to lawyers in the state to help represent the children in immigration court.
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3) In Queens, Immigrants Clash With Residents of New Homeless Shelter
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4) The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less
Economic
inequality in the United States has been receiving a lot of attention.
But it’s not merely an issue of the rich getting richer. The typical
American household has been getting poorer, too.
The inflation-adjusted net worth for the typical household was $87,992 in 2003. Ten years later, it was only $56,335, or a 36 percent decline, according to a study financed by the Russell Sage Foundation. Those are the figures for a household at the median point in the wealth distribution — the level at which there are an equal number of households whose worth is higher and lower. But during the same period, the net worth of wealthy households increased substantially.
The Russell Sage study also examined net worth at the 95th percentile. (For households at that level, 94 percent of the population had less wealth and 4 percent had more.) It found that for this well-do-do slice of the population, household net worth increased 14 percent over the same 10 years. Other research, by economists like Edward Wolff at New York University, has shown even greater gains in wealth for the richest 1 percent of households.
For households at the median level of net worth, much of the damage has occurred since the start of the last recession in 2007. Until then, net worth had been rising for the typical household, although at a slower pace than for households in higher wealth brackets. But much of the gain for many typical households came from the rising value of their homes. Exclude that housing wealth and the picture is worse: Median net worth began to decline even earlier.
“The housing bubble basically hid a trend of declining financial wealth at the median that began in 2001,” said Fabian T. Pfeffer, the University of Michigan professor who is lead author of the Russell Sage Foundation study.
The reasons for these declines are complex and controversial, but one point seems clear: When only a few people are winning and more than half the population is losing, surely something is amiss.
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5) Repeal Prohibition, Again
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
July 27, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/high-time-marijuana-legalization.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0
It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished. It has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the current ban on marijuana, inflicting great harm on society just to prohibit a substance far less dangerous than alcohol.
The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana.
We reached that conclusion after a great deal of discussion among the members of The Times’s Editorial Board, inspired by a rapidly growing movement among the states to reform marijuana laws.
There are no perfect answers to people’s legitimate concerns about marijuana use. But neither are there such answers about tobacco or alcohol, and we believe that on every level — health effects, the impact on society and law-and-order issues — the balance falls squarely on the side of national legalization. That will put decisions on whether to allow recreational or medicinal production and use where it belongs — at the state level.
We considered whether it would be best for Washington to hold back while the states continued experimenting with legalizing medicinal uses of marijuana, reducing penalties, or even simply legalizing all use. Nearly three-quarters of the states have done one of these.
But that would leave their citizens vulnerable to the whims of whoever happens to be in the White House and chooses to enforce or not enforce the federal law.
The social costs of the marijuana laws are vast. There were 658,000 arrests for marijuana possession in 2012, according to F.B.I. figures, compared with 256,000 for cocaine, heroin and their derivatives. Even worse, the result is racist, falling disproportionately on young black men, ruining their lives and creating new generations of career criminals.
There is honest debate among scientists about the health effects of marijuana, but we believe that the evidence is overwhelming that addiction and dependence are relatively minor problems, especially compared with alcohol and tobacco. Moderate use of marijuana does not appear to pose a risk for otherwise healthy adults. Claims that marijuana is a gateway to more dangerous drugs are as fanciful as the “Reefer Madness” images of murder, rape and suicide.
There are legitimate concerns about marijuana on the development of adolescent brains. For that reason, we advocate the prohibition of sales to people under 21.
Creating systems for regulating manufacture, sale and marketing will be complex. But those problems are solvable, and would have long been dealt with had we as a nation not clung to the decision to make marijuana production and use a federal crime.
In coming days, we will publish articles by members of the Editorial Board and supplementary material that will examine these questions. We invite readers to offer their ideas, and we will report back on their responses, pro and con.
We recognize that this Congress is as unlikely to take action on marijuana as it has been on other big issues. But it is long past time to repeal this version of Prohibition.
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6) Let States Decide on Marijuana
In 1970, at the height of his white-hot war on crime, President Richard Nixon demanded that Congress pass the Controlled Substances Act to crack down on drug abuse. During the debate, Senator Thomas Dodd of Connecticut held up a package wrapped in light-green paper that he said contained $3,000 worth of marijuana. This substance, he said, caused such “dreadful hallucinations” in an Army sergeant in Vietnam that he called down a mortar strike on his own troops. A few minutes later, the Senate unanimously passed the bill.
That law, so antique that it uses the spelling “marihuana,” is still on the books, and is the principal reason that possessing the substance in Senator Dodd’s package is considered illegal by the United States government. Changing it wouldn’t even require an act of Congress — the attorney general or the secretary of Health and Human Services could each do so — although the law should be changed to make sure that future administrations could not reimpose the ban.
Repealing it would allow the states to decide whether to permit marijuana use and under what conditions. Nearly three-fourths of them have already begun to do so, liberalizing their laws in defiance of the federal ban. Two have legalized recreational use outright, and if the federal government also recognized the growing public sentiment to legalize and regulate marijuana, that would almost certainly prompt more states to follow along.
The increasing absurdity of the federal government’s position is evident in the text of the Nixon-era law. “Marihuana” is listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act alongside some of the most dangerous and mind-altering drugs on earth, ranked as high as heroin, LSD and bufotenine, a highly toxic and hallucinogenic toad venom that can cause cardiac arrest. By contrast, cocaine and methamphetamine are a notch down on the government’s rankings, listed in Schedule II.
That illogical distinction shows why many states have begun to disregard the federal government’s archaic rules. Schedule II drugs, while carrying a high potential for abuse, have a legitimate medical use. (Even meth is sold in prescription form for weight loss.) But according to the language of the law, marijuana and the other Schedule I drugs have “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”
STATES TAKE THE LEAD No medical use? That would come as news to the millions of people who have found that marijuana helped them through the pain of AIDS, or the nausea and vomiting of chemotherapy, or the seizures of epilepsy. As of this month, 35 states and the District of Columbia permit some form of marijuana consumption for medical purposes. New York is one of the latest states to defy the tired edict of the Controlled Substances Act.
It’s hard for the public to take seriously a law that says marijuana and heroin have exactly the same “high potential for abuse,” since that ignores the vastly more addictive power of narcotics, which have destroyed the lives of millions of people around the world. (There are no documented deaths from a marijuana overdose.) The 44-year refusal of Congress and eight administrations to alter marijuana’s place on Schedule I has made the law a laughingstock, one that states are openly flouting.
In addition to the medical exceptions, 18 states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized marijuana, generally meaning that possession of small amounts is treated like a traffic ticket or ignored. Two states, Colorado and Washington, have gone even further and legalized it for recreational purposes; two others, Alaska and Oregon, will decide whether to do the same later this year.
The states are taking the lead because they’re weary of locking up thousands of their own citizens for possessing a substance that has less potential for abuse and destructive behavior than alcohol. A decision about what kinds of substances to permit, and under what conditions, belongs in the purview of the states, as alcohol is handled.
Consuming marijuana is not a fundamental right that should be imposed on the states by the federal government, in the manner of abortion rights, health insurance, or the freedom to marry a partner of either sex. It’s a choice that states should be allowed to make based on their culture and their values, and it’s not surprising that the early adopters would be socially liberal states like Colorado and Washington, while others hang back to gauge the results.
PRE-EMPTED BY WASHINGTON Many states are unwilling to legalize marijuana as long as possessing or growing it remains a federal crime. Colorado, for instance, allows its largest stores to cultivate up to 10,200 cannabis plants at a time. But the federal penalty for growing more than 1,000 plants is a minimum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10 million. That has created a state of confusion in which law-abiding growers in Colorado can face federal penalties.
Last August, the Justice Department issued a memo saying it would not interfere with the legalization plans of Colorado and Washington as long as they met several conditions: keeping marijuana out of the hands of minors or criminal gangs; prohibiting its transport out of the state; and enforcing prohibitions against drugged driving, violence and other illegal drugs. The government has also said banks can do business with marijuana sellers, easing a huge problem for a growing industry. But the Justice Department guidance is loose; aggressive federal prosecutors can ignore it “if state enforcement efforts are not sufficiently robust,” the memo says.
That’s a shaky foundation on which to build confidence in a state’s legalization plan. More important, it applies only to this moment in this presidential administration. President Obama’s Justice Department could change its policy at any time, and so of course could the next administration.
HOW TO END THE FEDERAL BAN Allowing states to make their own decisions on marijuana — just as they did with alcohol after the end of Prohibition in 1933 — requires unambiguous federal action. The most comprehensive plan to do so is a bill introduced last year by Representative Jared Polis, Democrat of Colorado, known as the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act. It would eliminate marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, require a federal permit for growing and distributing it, and have it regulated (just as alcohol is now) by the Food and Drug Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. An alternative bill, which would not be as effective, was introduced by Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, as the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act. It would not remove marijuana from Schedule I but would eliminate enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act against anyone acting in compliance with a state marijuana law.
Congress is clearly not ready to pass either bill, but there are signs that sentiments are changing. A promising alliance is growing on the subject between liberal Democrats and libertarian Republicans. In a surprise move in May, the House voted 219 to 189 to prohibit the Drug Enforcement Administration from prosecuting people who use medical marijuana, if a state has made it legal. It was the first time the House had voted to liberalize a marijuana law; similar measures had repeatedly failed in previous years. The measure’s fate is uncertain in the Senate.
While waiting for Congress to evolve, President Obama, once a regular recreational marijuana smoker, could practice some evolution of his own. He could order the attorney general to conduct the study necessary to support removal of marijuana from Schedule I. Earlier this year, he told The New Yorker that he considered marijuana less dangerous than alcohol in its impact on individuals, and made it clear that he was troubled by the disproportionate number of arrests of African-Americans and Latinos on charges of possession. For that reason, he said, he supported the Colorado and Washington experiments.
“It’s important for it to go forward,” he said, referring to the state legalizations, “because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished.”
But a few weeks later, he told CNN that the decision on whether to change Schedule I should be left to Congress, another way of saying he doesn’t plan to do anything to end the federal ban. For too long, politicians have seen the high cost — in dollars and lives locked behind bars — of their pointless war on marijuana and chosen to do nothing. But many states have had enough, and it’s time for Washington to get out of their way.
On Monday at 4:20 p.m. Eastern Time, Andrew Rosenthal, the editorial page editor, will be taking questions about marijuana legalization at facebook.com/nytimes.
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7) Pause in the Fighting Gives Civilians on Both Sides a Moment to Take Stock
"More than 140 bodies were recovered across Gaza on Saturday — including 21 members of one family — raising the Palestinian death toll to 1,139, most of them civilians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. On the Israeli side, 42 soldiers and three civilians have been killed."
JERUSALEM — When a temporary cease-fire began on Saturday morning, Akram Qassim joined the throngs of Palestinians who emerged from their homes and temporary shelters. But when he reached his extended family’s three-story building, he found only a crater left by an Israeli airstrike.
“I expected that maybe a shell had hit it and caused some damage,” Mr. Qassim said. “But this is an earthquake.”
Saturday’s cease-fire provided the first daylong relief from violence for civilians on both sides of the conflict since the start of the 19-day war between Israel and Palestinian militants. The 12-hour lull granted people an ability to move, with Israelis visiting their troops and Palestinians discovering damaged neighborhoods and dead bodies. More than 140 bodies were recovered across Gaza on Saturday — including 21 members of one family — raising the Palestinian death toll to 1,139, most of them civilians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. On the Israeli side, 42 soldiers and three civilians have been killed.
On Saturday evening, Israel’s top ministers decided to extend the lull for 24 hours, but said Israeli troops would continue their efforts to destroy tunnels. Palestinian fighters renewed their rocket fire at Israel, and Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, said it rejected any cease-fire that did not include the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
The vast destruction in communities across Gaza shocked residents who had fled their homes, and reactions to it could play a role in negotiations over the terms of a longer cease-fire.
Israel has said its offensive is intended to halt rocket fire by Palestinian fighters and to destroy the extensive network of tunnels — some of them concrete-reinforced — that militants use for combat, smuggling, and sneaking fighters into Israel. This is likely to mean that the Israelis will insist on continuing strict border controls on materials that could be used to build more tunnels.
But Hamas is seeking an agreement that would ease the movement of goods into Gaza from Israel and Egypt — a goal it seeks desperately and may fight to obtain.
“If there is an agreement for a cease-fire, that’s great,” said Mohammed Abu Jama in Al Zanna, an area of central Gaza where power lines had been blown down, an abandoned Israeli military trailer stood in the street and dozens of houses bore the scars of intense clashes.
But Mr. Abu Jama, whose own house was damaged, said any agreement had to include an opening of the crossings that tightly control all movement in and out of Gaza.
“And if there is no agreement, we want the resistance to continue fighting,” he said.
Visits to Al Zanna and two other front-line neighborhoods on Saturday revealed destruction that in places stretched for blocks, with walls punctured by artillery shells, buildings reduced to rubble and streets erased by yawning craters.
The destruction in the Shejaiya neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, site of some of the worst fighting, was so extensive that in some places it was impossible to spot an undamaged building. Scores of buildings, including a hospital and a mosque, had also been damaged or destroyed here in the northern town of Beit Hanoun.
As news of the pause spread though Gaza on Saturday morning, Mariam Fayyad joined the crowds rushing to the area. Many spoke on cellphones with relatives elsewhere, wailing when they received reports of their destroyed homes.
At one point, two men in black face masks who were carrying assault rifles approached from the opposite direction, suggesting that fighters were using the pause to change positions.
Entering her white, three-bedroom house surrounded by fruit trees, Ms. Fayyad let out a wail and ran from room to room, inspecting the damage. Artillery shells had punched holes in the walls and ceiling, doors had been blown from their hinges and rubble covered the floor. The metal bathtub, crumpled like a tin can, sat in the kitchen.
“All the money we had went to this, everything we tired ourselves out for,” said her husband, Ibrahim. Both are teachers and had built the house from scratch, moving in two years ago, they said.
Tragedy also struck the al-Najjar family, whose house in central Gaza was struck by an Israeli airstrike before dawn on Saturday, killing 21 people.
“I was on the balcony when the hit came, and I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up in the hospital,” said Hussein al-Najjar, who lost his father, mother, one brother, two sisters and two sons, ages 1 and 6, in the strike.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, could not explain the airstrike some 19 hours after it happened.
“We’ve been unable to determine the target at this time,” he said late Saturday, adding that militants in the area could have fired antitank missiles, drawing an Israeli response.
Israel says that it strives to avoid killing civilians and blames Hamas for putting them in danger by fighting from residential areas and storing weapons there.
Israeli troops remained in place across Gaza during the lull and continued to search for tunnels but did not advance or engage with Palestinian fighters. The Israeli authorities said that they coordinated with international organizations to evacuate wounded Palestinians, distribute food and repair utilities.
By Saturday morning, Israeli forces had found 31 tunnels and destroyed 15, Colonel Lerner said.
In southern Israel, where most of the rockets fired by Gaza militants have fallen during the war, the lull allowed residents who had spent recent weeks rushing to shelters to venture out. People visited beaches in Ashdod and Ashkelon, Israel Radio reported, and television news contrasted video footage of crowded cafes on Saturday with that from last week when the establishments were empty.
“I was very hesitant, because we know who we’re dealing with; in the end I decided to go out and see if people were around,” a beachgoer identified only as Sigalit said in a radio interview. “It’s fun, but there is still some fear. Let’s hope it continues so that we can enjoy ourselves a bit more.”
At Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, a barber gave haircuts to wounded soldiers. In Maslul, a small community not far from a staging area for the Gaza operation, residents set up 10 barbecue grills to serve the troops, along with showers and a karaoke corner, Israel Radio reported.
Back in Gaza, a group of men and a bulldozer worked to remove bodies from a house that had been flattened in an overnight airstrike.
“We have pulled out six so far and there are three left,” said Mohammed Nasser, who had relatives among the dead.
As the bulldozer dug, one of the dead was found with a Kalashnikov rifle at his side. Cries of “God is great!” erupted from the crowd as the body was carried to an ambulance.
Fares Akram contributed reporting from Beit Hanoun, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem.
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8) All Played Out
"The landscape of youth sports has changed markedly in the last 20 years. Free play, where children gather after school, pick a game and play until called in for dinner, is almost extinct. Highly organized and stratified sports have become the norm. Time, place and rules are now dictated to our kids rather than organized by the kids."
PORTLAND, Ore. — PARENTS and doctors may have disparate views on the goals of kids’ sports. I know how disparate because I happen to be both. As a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and the dad of a kid who loves sports, I see this world from both sides.
Recently, I told a teenage boy, whom I’ll call Lucas, and his parents that he had torn the anterior cruciate ligament (A.C.L.) in his knee. The matching soccer jerseys worn by the entire family were a hint as to how the conversation would go.
“You don’t understand, this is his life!” Mom said.
“We need this fixed — he’s in the Olympic Development Program! He’s elite,” said Dad.
Lucas is 13. The next 40 minutes of what had been a 20-minute appointment were spent trying to reset expectations. Lucas would need a minimum of six months to heal the reconstructed graft. On top of that, his bones were still growing, so the surgical technique would have to be altered to a trickier and less tested procedure. And the harsh reality: Any knee that has had a major injury will never be 100 percent “normal.” His parents were furious and left for the inevitable second opinion.
These visits are exhausting and more common every year. The question is why.
One reason is that our very young kids play harder, and for more hours, than ever before. As a collective, we, the parents, have bought into a new and lucrative paradigm. Our kids no longer play sports; they are youth “athletes.”
The landscape of youth sports has changed markedly in the last 20 years. Free play, where children gather after school, pick a game and play until called in for dinner, is almost extinct. Highly organized and stratified sports have become the norm. Time, place and rules are now dictated to our kids rather than organized by the kids.
Granted, the stigma of being picked last by neighborhood captains still weighs heavily on some of us, so maybe a neutral “adult coach” is just what’s needed. But these paid coaches need to earn their keep and feel pressure to go for the win, so many kids are excluded from even lining up, or they’re relegated to the “Wreck League” (a derogatory reference to the kids who just want to play for noncompetitive recreation).
Eight- and 9-year-old children are often pressured to choose a single sport and to play it all year or risk showing a “lack of commitment.” Kids are “invited” to play in extra-seasonal leagues, but the invitation comes with a caveat. The implicit message is, show up or don’t expect much playing time during the regular season. Kids sense the pressure and sometimes it seeps out in unexpected ways.More juvenile athletes are coming in with repetitive stress injuries (both physical and, in a sense, emotional) that were once rare. Now children show up in my office repeatedly with vague aches and pains, usually in different locations and hard to diagnose but often relieved with a few weeks of rest. By the third visit, I catch on and ask whether they truly enjoy their full-time commitment. If given the emotional space, the kids will often reply no. They just want a break.
As parents, we want what’s best for our kids but we’ve abdicated our parental rights and duties to the new societal norm. Youth sports have become big business. Millions of dollars flow to coaches, leagues, equipment, road trips, motels, tournament fees — and the list goes on. We give in to the herd mentality along with our confounded friends so that our kids won’t be seen as outliers.
We buy the hype about scholarships to college, but the numbers don’t support the athletic route to money. Despite what your “professional coach” tells you about your child’s athletic prowess, it isn’t possible to tell if your 12-year-old has the right stuff to be a college athlete. Very few scholarships are full-ride packages; most don’t come close to covering the cost of college. But when I tell parents that their kid’s chance of scholarship money is less than 2 percent, they shake their heads in sympathy for the other 98 percent.
I treated two teenage sisters who had career-ending knee injuries in the same year. Fifteen thousand dollars of their father’s annual income had been going to three different elite traveling softball teams. His goal was a college scholarship. Now their knees and chances at athletic scholarships were ruined. But $15,000 a year would have been a great D.I.Y. college fund.
Lucas will be fine. He’ll learn how to navigate adversity and that, in and of itself, is a valuable life lesson. In the future, he’ll make decisions for his own kids. Maybe by then we will all have relaxed a bit.
Ron J. Turker is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon.
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10) New Violence Unravels Informal Lull in Gaza
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11) Fast-Food Workers Intensify Fight for $15 an Hour
"... the C.E.O.s of McDonald’s and Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, for receiving executive compensation of more than $10 million a year. They make more than twice as much in a day as many fast-food workers earn in a year."
ADDISON, Ill. — As labor gatherings go, this one was highly unusual — 68 workers arrived on charter buses from St. Louis, 100 from New York City and 180 from Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas. Fifty flew in from Los Angeles and two dozen from Seattle.
These were not well-paid carpenters or autoworkers heading to their annual convention, hoping to sneak in a round of golf. Rather they were fast-food workers — 1,200 of them — from McDonald’s, Burger King and other chains, eager to pursue their ambitious goal of creating a $15-an-hour wage floor for the nation’s four million fast-food workers.
Crowding over the weekend into an expo center in this suburb west of Chicago, many wore boldly lettered T-shirts proclaiming “We Are Worth More” and “Raise Up for $15.”
“If we win $15, that would change my life,” said Cherri Delisline, 27, a single mother who earns $7.35 an hour after 10 years as a McDonald’s cashier in North Charleston, S.C. “I get paid so little money that it’s hard to make ends meet, and I’ve had to move back in with my mother.”It was by far the largest gathering of fast-food workers, and it was largely underwritten by the Service Employees International Union, a powerhouse with two million members known for unionizing hospital workers, home care aides and janitors. Mary Kay Henry, the union’s president, said the S.E.I.U. has adopted the fast-food workers’ cause to lift low-wage workers and combat income inequality.
Knowing how to rally a crowd, Ms. Henry said in her keynote speech, “A selfish few at the top are using their power to hold down wages, no matter how much that hurts families and communities across the country.”
She attacked the C.E.O.s of McDonald’s and Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, for receiving executive compensation of more than $10 million a year. They make more than twice as much in a day as many fast-food workers earn in a year.
Glenn Spencer, executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Workforce Freedom Initiative, asserted that the S.E.I.U. wasn’t pumping $15 million into the fast-food campaign merely out of beneficence.
“You don’t put that kind of money in just to have a sense of altruism,” he said. “You have a plan for how that transfers into new members.”
The S.E.I.U. does hope to somehow unionize throngs of fast-food workers, but those efforts may prove difficult given that most fast-food employees are scattered among thousands of different franchised restaurants. Moreover, the franchisees and fast-food chains are likely to mount a fierce battle against unionization.
The two-day convention, with 150 tables spread across the expo center’s floor, highlighted the campaign’s growth since November 2012, when 200 workers went on a one-day strike at 60 fast-food restaurants in New York. In its most recent strike in mid-May, workers walked out at restaurants in 150 cities nationwide, with solidarity protests held in 30 countries. The focus increasingly includes unionizing; the movement’s motto has become “$15 and a union.”
“My sense is there’s been a recognition on the part of the S.E.I.U. that to get the labor movement out of the very deep rut it’s in, it’s going to take more than an individual local organizing drive — that this is a moment to do a large-scale, high-visibility effort to alter the climate for labor,” said Janice R. Fine, a professor of labor relations at Rutgers University. “They have taken a sector like fast food where the conditions are well known: low wages, part-time hours, irregular hours, often no benefits.”
In a high-stakes move, fast-food workers, backed by the S.E.I.U., have brought several cases before the National Labor Relations Board, asking its general counsel to declare McDonald’s a joint employer of the restaurants run by its franchisees. If the labor board agrees, that would open the door for the S.E.I.U. to try to unionize not just three or five McDonald’s at a time, but dozens and perhaps hundreds.
Business groups oppose such a change. Mr. Spencer said that if the labor board adopted a broader interpretation, “then you make the corporation sit down at the table and talk” with the union. S.E.I.U. officials want McDonald’s and its franchisees to agree not to fight unionization efforts.
McDonald’s declined to comment on the weekend convention, held four miles from its headquarters. The main target of the movement’s attacks and unionization talk, McDonald’s says it provides competitive pay and benefits and opportunities for many workers. The National Restaurant Association has repeatedly criticized the call for a $15 fast-food wage, saying it would result in higher menu prices and cuts in employment.
Ms. Henry said the fast-food campaign has already paid off. She cited its influence in creating an atmosphere for Seattle to approve a $15 minimum wage and for San Francisco and Chicago to be weighing similar measures. In early July, the S.E.I.U. signed a contract for 20,000 cafeteria workers, custodians and other service workers for the Los Angeles school district that will raise their pay, now often $8 or $9, to $15 an hour by 2016.
“The fast-food movement is producing real gains in the wages of our members,” Ms. Henry said, declining to disclose how much money her union has spent on underwriting the campaign — or the convention.
With the midterm elections approaching, Mr. Spencer said the union gets another benefit from the fast-food campaign, which is spurring efforts to raise the minimum wage in many states. “There’s clearly a political dimension here,” he said. “The S.E.I.U. is trying to rally the Democratic base for November.”
Francis O’Donnell, owner of a Buffalo Wings & Rings franchised restaurant near the White Sox stadium in Chicago, said a $15 wage would be a disaster. “It’s going to put a lot of businesses out of business,” he said.
Mr. O’Donnell estimated it would increase his payroll costs by 25 percent, erasing his profit margins. He added, “It would leave me with three choices: raising my prices, which will hurt customers, or reducing my staff” or shutting down.
The Rev. William Barber, a minister from North Carolina who has mobilized liberal protests there, gave a fiery speech with a different view.
Citing Franklin Roosevelt’s Depression-era advice, he told the workers: “You have to stay in the $15 fight until it is a reality. When you raise people’s wages and it raises the standard of living and you increase purchasing power, you actually not only do the right thing morally, but you do the right thing economically, and the whole country is blessed.”
Throughout the convention, one overarching strategy was to say the fast-food movement was an economic justice movement comparable to the civil rights movement — a strategy the service employees used to unionize tens of thousands of cleaning workers in its “Justice for Janitors” campaign. Inspired by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the fast-food workers debated and discussed using nonviolent civil disobedience to step up pressure on the fast-food companies.
“They’re already slowly killing us with the way they’ve got us living,” said Terrence Wise, a Burger King worker in Kansas City, Mo., who served as M.C. for much of the convention. “Are we going to stand up?” he asked. “I want to see who is willing to do whatever it takes, who is willing to get arrested.”
After his pleas, the workers voted unanimously to conduct a wave of civil disobedience actions.
Adriana Alvarez, a McDonald’s worker from Chicago, was ready to answer the call. “It’s awesome to see all these people here,” she said. “I’m ready to take the next step.”
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Bay
Area United Against War Newsletter
Table
of Contents:
A.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. ARTICLES IN FULL
B. ARTICLES IN FULL
C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D.
VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
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A.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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Aug. 2 National March on the White House
Stop the Massacre in Gaza!
Saturday, Aug. 2, 1:00pm
Gather at the White House
Washington, D.C.
Transportation is being organized from all over the country
Yesterday, Israeli Defense Forces deliberately targeted a group of children playing soccer on a Gaza beach, killing four from the same family and maiming the others—another war crime committed against the Palestinian people.
Join thousands of people in a National March on the White House on Saturday, August 2 at 1:00pm to condemn the Israeli massacre in Gaza.
We have been in the streets every day in cities around the country. What is needed now is a massive National March on Washington.
Israel receives $4 billion in “aid” from the United States each year. This money is being used to commit war crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza. We are demanding that all U.S aid to Israel be ended now!
More than 200 people in Gaza have been killed and more than 1,500 have been wounded from Israeli bombs and missiles. This has to end!
Join us to demand:
Stop the massacre in Gaza! End the blockade of Gaza!
End all U.S. aid to Israel!
End the colonial occupation!
Co-sponsors: ANSWER Coalition; American Muslims for Palestine (AMP); Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR); American Muslim Alliance (AMA); Al-Awda: Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Al-Awda: Palestine Right to Return Coalition - New York; Code Pink; Muslim Legal Fund of America; World Can't Wait; Partership for Civil Justice; MAS Immigrant Justice Center; UNAC - United National Antiwar Coalition; Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).
#2DC4Gaza #LetGazaLive #FreePalestine #Protest4Palestine
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Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, July 22, 2014
On July 12, 2014, Gaza civil society issued an urgent appeal for solidarity, asking: "How many of our lives are dispensable enough until the world takes action? How much of our blood is sufficient?"
As Jews of conscience, we answer by unequivocally condemning Israel's ongoing massacre in Gaza, whose victims include hundreds of civilians, children, entire families, the elderly, and the disabled. This latest toll adds to the thousands Israel has killed and maimed since its supposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
In response to this crisis, we urgently reaffirm our support for a ban on all military and other aid to Israel.
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opposed the Vietnam War with his famous declaration: “For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
Today, *we* cannot be silent as the “Jewish state" -- armed to the teeth by the U.S. and its allies -- wages yet another brutal war on the Palestinian people. Apartheid Israel does not speak for us, and we stand with Gaza as we stand with all of Palestine.
In the face of incessant pro-Israel propaganda, we heed Malcolm X's warning: “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
For Israel's relentless war on Gaza is no more an act of "self-defense" than such infamous massacres as Wounded Knee (1890), Guernica (1937), the Warsaw Ghetto (1942), Deir Yassin (1948), My Lai (1968), Soweto (1976), Sabra and Shatila (1982), or Lebanon (2006).
Rather, it is but the latest chapter in more than a century of Zionist colonialism, dispossession, ethnic cleaning, racism, and genocide -- including Israel's very establishment through the uprooting and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians during the 1947-1948 Nakba. Indeed, eighty percent of the 1.8 million people sealed into Gaza are refugees.
Like any colonial regime, Israel uses resistance to such policies as an excuse to terrorize and collectively punish the indigenous population for its very existence. But scattered rockets, fired from Gaza into land stolen from Palestinians in the first place, are merely a response to this systemic injustice.
To confront the root cause of this violence, we call for the complete dismantling of Israel's apartheid regime, throughout historic Palestine -- from the River to the Sea. With that in mind, we embrace the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which demands:
* An end to Israeli military occupation of the 1967 territories
* Full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel
* Right of return for Palestinian refugees, as affirmed by UN resolution 194
Jews Say: End the War on Gaza
No Aid to Apartheid Israel! BDS!
(With 200 initial signers)
Jews Say: End the War on Gaza — No Aid to Apartheid Israel!
On July 12, 2014, Gaza civil society issued an urgent appeal for solidarity, asking: "How many of our lives are dispensable enough until the world takes action? How much of our blood is sufficient?"
As Jews of conscience, we answer by unequivocally condemning Israel's ongoing massacre in Gaza, whose victims include hundreds of civilians, children, entire families, the elderly, and the disabled. This latest toll adds to the thousands Israel has killed and maimed since its supposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
In response to this crisis, we urgently reaffirm our support for a ban on all military and other aid to Israel.
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opposed the Vietnam War with his famous declaration: “For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
Today, *we* cannot be silent as the “Jewish state" -- armed to the teeth by the U.S. and its allies -- wages yet another brutal war on the Palestinian people. Apartheid Israel does not speak for us, and we stand with Gaza as we stand with all of Palestine.
In the face of incessant pro-Israel propaganda, we heed Malcolm X's warning: “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
For Israel's relentless war on Gaza is no more an act of "self-defense" than such infamous massacres as Wounded Knee (1890), Guernica (1937), the Warsaw Ghetto (1942), Deir Yassin (1948), My Lai (1968), Soweto (1976), Sabra and Shatila (1982), or Lebanon (2006).
Rather, it is but the latest chapter in more than a century of Zionist colonialism, dispossession, ethnic cleaning, racism, and genocide -- including Israel's very establishment through the uprooting and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians during the 1947-1948 Nakba. Indeed, eighty percent of the 1.8 million people sealed into Gaza are refugees.
Like any colonial regime, Israel uses resistance to such policies as an excuse to terrorize and collectively punish the indigenous population for its very existence. But scattered rockets, fired from Gaza into land stolen from Palestinians in the first place, are merely a response to this systemic injustice.
To confront the root cause of this violence, we call for the complete dismantling of Israel's apartheid regime, throughout historic Palestine -- from the River to the Sea. With that in mind, we embrace the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which demands:
* An end to Israeli military occupation of the 1967 territories
* Full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel
* Right of return for Palestinian refugees, as affirmed by UN resolution 194
Initial Signers (list in formation; organizations,
schools and other affiliations shown for identification only:
*Co-founder, Jews
for Palestinian Right of Return) ; Avigail Abarbanel,
Psychotherapist; editor, Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish
Peace Activists (2012, Cambridge Scholars), Inverness, Scotland; Noa Abend,
Boycott From Within; Stephen Aberle, Independent Jewish Voices; Vancouver,
BC; Lisa Albrecht, Ph.D. Social Justice Program, University of Minnesota; Anya
Achtenberg, novelist and poet; teacher; activist; International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network; Mike Alewitz, Associate Professor, Central CT State
Unversity; Artistic Director, Labor Art & Mural Project; Zalman Amit, Distinguished
Professor Emeritus; Author, Israeli Rejectionism; Anthony
Arnove, International Socialist Organization; Gabriel Ash, International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network, Switzerland; Ted Auerbach, Brooklyn for Peace; Anna
Baltzer, author and organizer; Ronnie Barkan, Co-founder, Boycott
from Within, Tel-Aviv; Judith Bello, Administrative Committee, United
National Antiwar Coalition; Lawrence Boxall, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada;
Vancouver Ecosocialist Group; Linda Benedikt, writer Munich, Germany; Nora
Barrows-Friedman, journalist; Oakland; Prof. Jonathan Beller, Humanities and
Media Studies Graduate Program in Media Studies, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; Medea
Benjamin, co-founder, CODEPINK; Rica Bird, Joint Founder, Merseyside Jews for
Peace and Justice; Audrey Bomse, Co-chair, National Lawyers Guild Palestine
Subcommittee; Prof. Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, UC
Berkeley; Lenni Brenner, Author, Zionism In The Age Of The Dictators;
Elizabeth Block, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON; Max Blumenthal, Author, Goliath:
Life and Loathing in Greater Israel; and Senior Writer for Alternet.org; Mary
P. Buchwald, Jewish Voice for Peace-New York; Monique Buckner, BDS South
Africa; Maia Brown, Health and Human Rights Project-Seattle & Stop Veolia
Seattle; Estee Chandler, Jewish Voice for Peace, Los Angeles; Rick
Chertoff, L..A. Jews for Peace; Prof. Marjorie Cohn, Thomas Jefferson
School of Law; past president, National Lawyers Guild; Ally Cohen, Ramallah,
Palestine; International Solidarity Movement media coordinator; Ruben Rosenberg
Colorni, Youth for Palestine, Netherlands; Mike Cushman, Convenor, Jews for
Boycotting Israeli Goods (UK); Margaretta D'arcy, Irish actress, writer,
playwright, and peace-activist; Natalie Zemon Davis, Historian; Warren Davis,
labor and political activist, Philadelphia, PA; Eron Davidson, film maker; Judith
Deutsch, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Science for Peace; Roger Dittmann, Professor
of Physics, Emeritus California State University, Fullerton; President,
Scholars and Scientists without Borders Executive Council, World Federation of
Scientific Workers; Gordon Doctorow, Ed.D., Canada; Mark Elf, Jews Sans
Frontieres, London, UK; Hedy Epstein, Nazi Holocaust survivor and human rights
activist; St. Louis, MO; Marla Erlien, New York NY; Shelley Ettinger,
writer/activist, New York, NY; Inge Etzbach, Human Rights Activist, Café
Palestina NY; Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, Emeritus, Princeton
University; Former UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine, 2008-2014; Malkah
B. Feldman, Jewish Voice for Peace and recent delegate to Palestine with
American Jews For A Just Peace; Deborah Fink, Co-Founder, Jews for Boycotting
Israeli Goods UK; Joel Finkel, Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago; Sylvia Finzi,
JfjfP; Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost, EJJP. (Germany); Maxine
Fookson, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner; Jewish Voice for
Peace, Portland OR-; Richard Forer, Author, Breakthrough:
Transforming Fear Into Compassion - A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine;
Sid Frankel, Associate Professor, University of Manitoba; Prof. Cynthia
Franklin, Co-Editor, Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, University of
Hawai’i; Racheli Gai, Jewish Voice for Peace; Herb Gamberg, Independent
Jewish Voices, Canada ; Ruth Gamberg, Independent Jewish Voices,
Canada ; Lee Gargagliano, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Cheryl
Gaster, social justice activist and human right lawyer, Toronto ON; Alisa
Gayle-Deutsch, American/Canadian Musician and Anti-Israeli Apartheid Activist; Jack
Gegenberg, Professor of Mathematics, University of New Brunswick,
Fredericton NB; Prof. Terri Ginsberg, film and media scholar, New York; David
Glick, psychotherapist; Jewish Voice for Peace; Sherna Berger Gluck, Emerita
Professor, CSULB; Israel Divestment Campaign; Neta Golan, Ramallah, Palestine;
Jews Against Genocide; Co-founder, International Solidarity Movement.; Tsilli
Goldenberg, teacher, Jerusalem, Israel; Steve Goldfield, Ph.D.; Sue Goldstein,
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Canada; Marty Goodman, former
Executive Board member, Transport Workers Union Local 100; Socialist Action; Rabbi
Lynn Gottlieb, Freeman Fellow, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Hector Grad,
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Spain; Prof. Jesse Greener,
University of Laval; Cathy Gulkin, Filmmaker, Toronto ON; Ira Grupper,
Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY; Jeff Halper, The Israeli Committee
Against House demolitions (ICAHD); Larry Haiven, Independent Jewish Voices
Canada, Halifax; Evelyn Hecht-Galinski, publisher, Germany; Stanley Heller, The
Struggle Video News TSVN; Shir Hever, Jewish Voice for Just Peace, Germany; Deborah
Hrbek, media and civil rights lawyer, NLG-NYC; Dr. Tikva Honig-Parnass, Jews
for Palestinian Right of Return; Adam Horowitz, Co-Editor, Mondoweiss; Gilad
Isaacs, Economist, Wits University.; Selma James, International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network; Jake Javanshir, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto; Riva
Joffe, Jews Against Zionism; Val Jonas, attorney, Miami Beach; Sima Kahn,
MD; President of the board, Kadima Reconstructionist Community; Yael Kahn,
Israeli anti-apartheid activist; Michael Kalmanovitz, International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network (UK); Dan Kaplan, AFT Local 1493; Susan Kaplan, J.D.
National Lawyers Guild ; Danny Katch, activist and author; Bruce Katz,
President, Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), Montreal, Canada; Lynn Kessler,
Ph.D., MPH, psychologist/social justice activist; Janet Klecker, Sonomans for
Justice & Peace for Palestine, Sonoma CA; Prof. David Klein, California
State University, Northridge; USACBI; Emma Klein, Jewish Voice for Peace,
Seattle WA; Sara Kershnar, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Harry
Kopyto, Legal activist Toronto ON; Richard Koritz, veteran postal trade
unionist and former member of North Carolina Human Relations Commission; Yael
Korin, PhD., Scientist at UCLA; Campaign to End IsraelI Apartheid, Southern
California; Dennis Kortheuer, CSULB, Israel Divestment Campaign; Steve
Kowit, Professor Emeritus, Jewish Voice for Peace; Toby Kramer, International
Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Jason Kunin, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Dr.
David Landy, Trinity College, Dublin; Jean Léger, Coalition pour la
Justice et la Paix en Palestine, membre de la Coalition BDS Québec et de
Palestiniens et Juifs Unis; Lynda Lemberg, Educators for Peace and Justice,
Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON; David Letwin,* activist and teacher,
Al-Awda NY; Michael Letwin,* former President, Association of Legal Aid
Attorneys/UAW Local 2325; USACBI; Al-Awda NY; Les Levidow, Jews for Boycotting
Israeli Goods (J-BIG), UK; Corey Levine, Human Rights Activist,
Writer; National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish
Voices Canada; Joseph Levine, Professor of Philosophy, University of
Massachusetts Amherst; Lesley Levy, Independent Jewish Voices, Montreal; Mich
Levy, teacher, Oakland CA; Abby Lippman, Professor Emerita; activist; Montreal;
Brooke Lober, PhD candidate, University of Arizona, Gender and Women's Studies
Department; Antony Loewenstein, journalist, author and Guardian columnist; Jennifer
Loewenstein, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Wisconsin,
Madison; Alex Lubin, Professor of American Studies, University of New Meixco; Andrew
Lugg, Professor Emeritus, University of Ottawa, Canada; David Makofsky, Jewish
Voice for Peace, Research Anthropologist; Harriet Malinowitz, Professor of
English, Long Island University, Brooklyn; Mike Marqusee, Author, If I
Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew; Miriam Marton, JD; Dr.
Richard Matthews. independent scholar, London ON; Daniel L. Meyers, Former
President National Lawyers Guild-NYC; Linda Milazzo, Writer/Activist/Educator,
Los Angeles; Eva Steiner Moseley, Holocaust refugee, Massachusetts Peace Action
board member and Palestine/Israel Working Group; Dr. Dorothy Naor, retired
teacher, Herzliah, Israel; Marcy Newman, independent scholar; Author; The
Politics of Teaching Palestine to Americans; Alex Nissen, Women in Black; Dr.
Judith Norman, San Antonio, TX; Henry Norr, retired journalist, Berkeley CA; Michael
Novick, Anti-Racist Action-Los Angeles/People Against Racist Terror; Prof.
Bertell Ollman, NYU; Karin Pally, Santa Monica, CA; Prof. Ilan Pappé, Israeli
historian and socialist activist; Karen Platt, Jewish Voice for Peace, Albany
CA; Dr. Susan Pashkoff, Jews Against Zionism, London UK; Miko Peled, writer,
activist; Author, The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine ;
Prof. Gabriel Piterberg, UCLA; Mitch Podolak, Founder, Winnipeg Folk Festival
and Vancouver Folk Music Festival; Karen Pomer,* granddaughter of Henri B. van
Leeuwen, Dutch anti-Zionist leader and Bergen-Belsen survivor; Lenny Potash,
Los Angeles CA; Fabienne Presentey, Independent Jewish
Voices, Montréal; Diana Ralph, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Roland
Rance, Jews Against Zionism, London; Karen Ranucci, Independent Journalist,
Democracy Now!; Ana Ratner, Artist, Puppeteer, Activist.; Michael Ratner,
President Emeritus, Center for Constitutional Rights; Prof. Dr. Fanny-Michaela
Reisin, Jewish Voice Germany; Diana M.A. Relke, Professor Emerita,
University of Saskatchewan; Prof. Bruce Robbins, Columbia University; Stewart
M. Robinson, retired Prof of Mathematics; Professor Lisa Rofel, University of
California, Santa Cruz; Mimi Rosenberg, Producer & Host, Building Bridges
and Wednesday Edition, WBAI 99.5 FM; Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW
Local 2325; Lillian Rosengarten, Author, From The Shadows Of Nazi
Germany To The Jewish Boat To Gaza; Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead, British
Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP); Yehoahua Rosin, Israel; Ilana
Rossoff, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Martha Roth, Independent
Jewish Voices; Vancouver BC; Marty Roth, Emeritus professor of English,
University of Minnesota; Ruben Roth, Assistant Professor, Labour Studies,
Laurentian University; Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Emma Rubin,
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Cheryl A. Rubenberg, Middle East
Scholar; Editor, Encyclopedia of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict;
Author, The Palestinians in Search of a Just Peace; Josh Ruebner,
Author, Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian
Peace; Mark Rudd, retired teacher, Albuquerque NM; Ben Saifer, Independent
Jewish Voices Canada; Evalyn Segal, Rossmoor Senior Community; Sylvia
Schwarz, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Yossi Schwartz,
Internationalist Socialist League; Haifa; Carole Seligman, co-editor, Socialist
Viewpoint magazine; Yom Shamash, Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver,
Canada; Tali Shapiro, Boycott from Within; Israel; Karen Shenfeld, Poet,
Toronto ON; Sid Shniad, National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish Voices
Canada; William Shookhoff, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON; Melinda
Smith, Jewish Voice for Peace, Albuquerque NM; Kobi Snitz, Tel Aviv; Marsha
Steinberg, BDS-LA for Justice in Palestine, Los Angeles; Lotta Strandberg,
Visiting Scholar, NYU; Carol Stone, Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver BC; Miriam
(Cherkes-Julkowski) Swenson, Ph.D.; Matthew Taylor, author; Laura Tillem, Peace
and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas; Peter Trainor, Independent
Jewish Voices, Toronto; Rebecca Tumposky, International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network; Darlene Wallach, Justice for Palestinians, San Jose
CA; Dr. Abraham Weizfeld, JPLO; Bonnie Weinstein, Co-Editor of Socialist
Viewpoint magazine; Publisher, Bay Area United Against War Newsletter; Sam
Weinstein, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network-Labor; former President,
UWUA Local 132; Judith Weisman, Independent Jewish Voices; Not in Our Name
(NION); Toronto ON; Paul Werner, PhD, DSFS Editor, WOID, a journal of visual
language; Noga Wizansky, Ph.D., artist, instructor, and researcher;
Administrator, Institute of European Studies, UC Berkeley; Marcy Winograd,
public school teacher, former congressional peace candidate; Bekah Wolf, UC
Hastings College of Law Student; Co-founder, Palestine Solidarity Project; Sherry
Wolf, International Socialist Organization; Dave Zirin, Author, Game
Over: How Politics Have Turned the Sports World Upside Down.
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1) Russia Sues McDonald’s, Questioning Quality of the Food
2) Most Migrant Children Entering U.S. Are Now With Relatives, Data Show
3) In Queens, Immigrants Clash With Residents of New Homeless Shelter
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/26/nyregion/homeless-shelters-opening-in-queens-stirs-ugly-exchanges.html?ref=nyregion
4) The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less
5) Repeal Prohibition, Again
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
July 27, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/high-time-marijuana-legalization.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0
6) Let States Decide on Marijuana
7) Pause in the Fighting Gives Civilians on Both Sides a Moment to Take Stock
"More than 140 bodies were recovered across Gaza on Saturday — including 21 members of one family — raising the Palestinian death toll to 1,139, most of them civilians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. On the Israeli side, 42 soldiers and three civilians have been killed."
8) All Played Out
"The landscape of youth sports has changed markedly in the last 20 years. Free play, where children gather after school, pick a game and play until called in for dinner, is almost extinct. Highly organized and stratified sports have become the norm. Time, place and rules are now dictated to our kids rather than organized by the kids."
10) New Violence Unravels Informal Lull in Gaza
By ANDREW ROTH
By KATE TAYLOR and JEFFREY E. SINGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/26/nyregion/homeless-shelters-opening-in-queens-stirs-ugly-exchanges.html?ref=nyregion
4) The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less
By ANNA BERNASEK
5) Repeal Prohibition, Again
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
July 27, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/high-time-marijuana-legalization.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0
6) Let States Decide on Marijuana
"More than 140 bodies were recovered across Gaza on Saturday — including 21 members of one family — raising the Palestinian death toll to 1,139, most of them civilians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. On the Israeli side, 42 soldiers and three civilians have been killed."
By BEN HUBBARD
8) All Played Out
"The landscape of youth sports has changed markedly in the last 20 years. Free play, where children gather after school, pick a game and play until called in for dinner, is almost extinct. Highly organized and stratified sports have become the norm. Time, place and rules are now dictated to our kids rather than organized by the kids."
By RON J. TURKER
By ISABEL KERSHNER and FARES AKRAM
July 29, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-conflict.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LedeSum&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
11) Fast-Food Workers Intensify Fight for $15 an Hour
"... the C.E.O.s of McDonald’s and Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, for receiving executive compensation of more than $10 million a year. They make more than twice as much in a day as many fast-food workers earn in a year."
"... the C.E.O.s of McDonald’s and Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, for receiving executive compensation of more than $10 million a year. They make more than twice as much in a day as many fast-food workers earn in a year."
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1) Russia Sues McDonald’s, Questioning Quality of the Food
By ANDREW ROTH
MOSCOW — The McDonald’s cheeseburger will have its day in court.
Russia’s consumer protection agency has filed a claim accusing the restaurant chain of violating government nutritional and safety codes in a number of its burger and ice cream products, a Moscow court announced Friday.
The suit could temporarily ban the production and sale of the chain’s ice cream, milkshakes, cheeseburgers, and Filet-o-Fish and chicken sandwiches, said Yekaterina Korotova, a spokeswoman for Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court, where the case will be heard.
“We have identified violations which put the product quality and safety of the entire McDonald’s chain in doubt,” Anna Popova, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s consumer protection agency, said in statements reported by the Interfax news agency.Food imports often fall victim to geopolitical tensions in Russia, which has banned cheese, wines and other regional delicacies from its post-Soviet neighbors when the mood has soured. Starting Monday, for example, Russia will ban imports of milk and dairy products from Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists have declared independence in the country’s east, the RIA Novosti news agency reported on Friday.
While McDonald’s products are made in Russia, the company’s American identity is lost on few politicians here. When the chain shut down its three restaurants in Crimea after Russia’s annexation of the peninsula in March, some Russian lawmakers called for McDonald’s to be banned throughout the country, where there are more than 400 restaurants, according to the company’s Russian website.
In the past, the discussion over diet has even waxed philosophical. In 2012, the country’s chief sanitary officer, Gennady Onishchenko, used the disputed discovery of a worm in a McDonald’s lunch to deliver a sweeping rejection of all burgers.
“This is not our food,” he said at the time.
Rospotrebnadzor’s complaints, however, were more concrete. The agency claimed that McDonald’s had misrepresented the nutritional values of its hamburgers and ice cream products, and said that in one restaurant inspected in May, traces of E. coli had been detected.
A McDonald’s representative, Nina Prasolova, said in an email that the company had not received an official complaint from either the court or Rospotrebnadzor, and that the nutritional information of its food was “based on the methodology approved by the Food Institute of the Russian Federation.” Ms. Prasolova did not return emails asking about the sanitary inspections.
Ms. Korotova would not comment on whether the court could temporarily close McDonald’s restaurants in the country, citing only Rospotrebnadzor’s demand for the court to “halt McDonald’s illegal activity.” A hearing is planned for Aug. 13.
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2) Most Migrant Children Entering U.S. Are Now With Relatives, Data Show
LOS ANGELES — The vast majority of unaccompanied migrant children arriving in the United States from Central America this year have been released to relatives in states with large established Central American populations, according to federal data released Thursday night.
A total of 30,340 children have been released to sponsors — primarily parents and other relatives — from the start of the year through July 7, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which has overseen the care of the children after they are turned over by Customs and Border Protection. More children have been released in Texas than in any other state, with sponsors there receiving 4,280 children, followed by New York with 3,347. Florida has received 3,181 children and California 3,150. Maryland and Virginia have each also received more than 2,200 children.The numbers do not include those children who are still being cared for in shelters, which have prompted the most outrage from governors and other local officials across the country. Many children who are placed in shelters for some period of time — anywhere between a few days and a few months — have later been released to family members.
Officials have said that more than half of all children initially placed in shelters have gone on to be reunited with at least one parent already living in the United States, and 85 percent of all children have been placed with a close family member.
Sponsors must be vetted by social workers, a process that includes a criminal-background check, and must also promise to make sure that the child appears for required immigration court appearances. The adults do not have to be citizens or legal permanent residents, and officials have acknowledged that some sponsors may be living in the United States illegally.
Children who are not able to find qualified sponsors are placed in long-term shelters or in foster care. Roughly 10 percent of the unaccompanied minors who have been taken into custody this year have been placed in such care, which is overseen by the federal Administration for Children and Families, said Kenneth J. Wolfe, a spokesman for the department.
While the numbers do not include a breakdown by nationality, the vast majority of children are from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Since October, more than 57,000 unaccompanied children have been arrested by Border Patrol agents, primarily in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Nearly 53,000 of those children have been released to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, with more than 47,000 going to sponsors or relatives.
The metro areas with the largest number of immigrants from Central America are Los Angeles, Washington, Houston and Miami, according to census data compiled by the Migration Policy Institute. Los Angeles has the largest number of immigrants from El Salvador and Guatemala, and New York and Miami have the most Honduran immigrants, according to census data.
Federal procedures require that children placed with the Office of Refugee Resettlement be placed in the least restrictive environment possible, with parents as a first choice for placement. If there are no sponsors, the minors will remain in the care of the department unless they return to their country of origin, turn 18 or receive some kind of legal status from an immigration judge.
So far this year, the federal government has opened shelters with 3,000 beds on military bases in Texas, California and Oklahoma and is continuing to search for more space across the country. Mr. Wolfe said there was no plan to release a similar breakdown of how many children are in each shelter.
The federal government has faced criticism for not releasing more information about the children’s whereabouts. This week, Gov. Terry E. Branstad of Iowa called it “outlandish” that the state was not notified about the more than 120 children placed with sponsors in the state. But other state leaders, including Gov. John Kitzhaber of Oregon and Attorney General Kamala D. Harris of California, have said they would do all they could to help such children. Ms. Harris said this week that she had personally appealed to lawyers in the state to help represent the children in immigration court.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) In Queens, Immigrants Clash With Residents of New Homeless Shelter
By KATE TAYLOR and JEFFREY E. SINGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/26/nyregion/homeless-shelters-opening-in-queens-stirs-ugly-exchanges.html?ref=nyregion
The crowd of 500 included grandmothers and small children, Chinese immigrants and the president of a local Republican club, all shouting that the mayor had trampled their rights.
The source of their anger? The 180 homeless families that New York City had moved into the defunct Pan American Hotel in Elmhurst, Queens. The residents felt nervous around the new arrivals, they said. There were reports of shoplifting from the Good Fortune Supermarket, public urination and panhandling — all things, they said, that had been unheard-of in their neighborhood until now.
During the protest on Tuesday night, one of the organizers spoke through a bullhorn in Mandarin, as a few people looked out the windows of the hotel.
“Speak in English!” a woman leaning out a window shouted, holding up her phone, perhaps to videotape the protest.
“Homeless with money,” a protester sneered, referring to the woman and her phone.
While local residents often object when the city opens a homeless shelter in their midst, the vitriol in Elmhurst since the city began moving families into the hotel in early June has shocked New York officials. Because many of those opposed to using the hotel as a shelter are Chinese immigrants, the conflict has also produced discomfiting images of immigrant families and the mostly black and Latino homeless families shouting insults at one another. A local civic group, Communities of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together, has organized a series of protests, including one in late June in which some of the protesters yelled at the shelter residents to “Get a job!” The homeless families responded that their opponents should “go back to China.”
Both the protest organizers and city officials now seem to want to avoid a repeat of that scene. On Tuesday the city sent buses to take the shelter residents and their children to a movie, to keep them away from the protest. And the organizers tried to keep the speakers’ criticism focused on the city’s policy, rather than on the homeless themselves. There were occasional lapses, as when a man translating a speech into Mandarin inserted a sentence saying that the city should not “put this garbage in our community.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio has made it a top priority to tackle the housing crisis by building or preserving some 200,000 units of affordable housing. He has promised to stem the city’s record numbers of homeless people in shelters by starting rent subsidy programs to help working and chronically homeless families.
But with those programs not yet in place, his administration is struggling to house the tens of thousands of people, including some 11,000 families, currently seeking shelter. With the city dependent on private landlords to supply space for shelters and nonprofit service providers to run them, it does not have many options for where to locate shelters.
The Pan American Hotel, on Queens Boulevard, is one of 11 shelters opened since the beginning of the year. A blocky, seven-story structure with 216 rooms, it was purchased recently by investors who are involved in running other shelters. The city’s Department of Homeless Services initially said the hotel was not appropriate for families because its units lacked kitchens. But in early June, facing more families seeking housing than it had units available, officials made an emergency agreement with a nonprofit shelter operator, Samaritan Village, and began moving families in. Because the hotel lacks any kitchens, for now, meals are delivered. As of Tuesday, there were 648 people staying there, including 350 children.
Typically, the city consults extensively with local officials before opening a shelter, a process that can take up to a year. In this case, the Department of Homeless Services notified the local City Council member on the evening before the first families were moved into the hotel, and other elected officials only later. State Assemblyman Francisco P. Moya, one of several officials who have criticized the city’s handling of the shelter, called the failure to notify him in advance “absolutely unacceptable and a complete dereliction of duty.”
Several Republican activists from elsewhere in Queens have also denounced the shelter as an example of government run amok, with one comparing the city’s shelter system to “a gulag.”
Several Chinese people at the protest on Tuesday said they believed that the city had intentionally targeted their neighborhood.
“Government always picks on an easy area,” said Edward Fung, 62, saying that historically the residents of Elmhurst had not been politically organized.
Rachel Lam, 33, said she believed the government was bullying Asians because they assumed Asians would be silent.
“But when it comes to our home, our children, our community, our safety, we will come out and protest,” Ms. Lam said.
At the protest, many of the speakers stressed practical issues, like the neighborhood’s overcrowded schools, and pointed out that there were other shelters and adult homes nearby.
But in interviews, many said the homeless families simply made them feel unsafe.
“When you see them, it looks like they’re going to mug you,” Linda Chang, 50, said in Mandarin. “It makes me feel uncomfortable.”
On an evening earlier this month, many residents who live behind the hotel expressed similar fears.
Mark Gao, 32, a wok chef at a Sichuan restaurant in Manhattan, said that his wife was nervous to walk home alone at night from her restaurant job, and that he had told his nieces not to play outside without an adult.
“Why does the government want to support this group?” Mr. Gao said in Mandarin. “Why do they want to give them free money? We have to work from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.”
He said he had taken his sons and nieces to a protest last month and that they had been scared and confused when the homeless families yelled at them.
“They asked me, ‘Why are these people so bad? Why do they want to fight with us?’ ” he said.
Kendall Walker said his 8-year-old son had been asking him the same questions.
Mr. Walker, 28, is staying in the hotel with his wife, Shakeema Morris, and their three children. The family had been living with Mr. Walker’s brother in public housing in Brooklyn when the brother was evicted for not paying rent. Since arriving at the shelter, Mr. Walker has gotten two jobs — one full time, in building maintenance, and another part time, working in a warehouse.
He said his son, Kendall Jr., had asked him why “the Chinese people” didn’t want them there.
“I told him, just because you’re a different color skin, it makes you no different from anybody else,” said Mr. Walker, who is black. “You still have a voice just like everyone else in the community.”
Mr. Walker said he sympathized with local residents’ frustration that they were not told about the shelter before it opened.
The Department of Homeless Services has said that it plans to use the hotel as a shelter as long it is needed. On Thursday, in a memo to elected officials and community leaders across the city, the department’s commissioner, Gilbert Taylor, said that in the future the department would make “every effort” to notify communities seven days before opening a shelter.
“I understand it’s much better when you have a process, but emergencies are that — emergencies,” Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, the deputy mayor for health and human services, said in an interview.
She said that she had never seen anything as extreme as the reaction in Elmhurst.
“You have good people that somehow or another are looking at other good people and are vilifying them because they feel threatened by some unknown thing that is mostly in their head,” Ms. Barrios-Paoli said. “It’s really sad.”
The protests have drawn criticism from some local residents. Zicheng Pan, 37, whose family owns the Yeung Chinese Restaurant on Grand Avenue, said that someone had come to the restaurant asking him to post fliers advertising one of the protests, but he had decided not to.
“Let’s give them a chance,” he said in Mandarin.
The New Life Fellowship Church on Queens Boulevard is holding a barbecue for the families this weekend, and its youth group is working to combat stereotypes of homeless people.
Tala Haider, 18, who runs the youth group, said he was upset by the tone of the protests.
“This is an immigrant community, which means we were given the opportunity to come here and settle down, and now when a new population is coming in, we’re like, ‘No’ — we’re against it,” said Mr. Haider, who came to America from Pakistan when he was 4.
“I guess they didn’t really think about that yet,” he added.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*The crowd of 500 included grandmothers and small children, Chinese immigrants and the president of a local Republican club, all shouting that the mayor had trampled their rights.
The source of their anger? The 180 homeless families that New York City had moved into the defunct Pan American Hotel in Elmhurst, Queens. The residents felt nervous around the new arrivals, they said. There were reports of shoplifting from the Good Fortune Supermarket, public urination and panhandling — all things, they said, that had been unheard-of in their neighborhood until now.
During the protest on Tuesday night, one of the organizers spoke through a bullhorn in Mandarin, as a few people looked out the windows of the hotel.
“Speak in English!” a woman leaning out a window shouted, holding up her phone, perhaps to videotape the protest.
“Homeless with money,” a protester sneered, referring to the woman and her phone.
While local residents often object when the city opens a homeless shelter in their midst, the vitriol in Elmhurst since the city began moving families into the hotel in early June has shocked New York officials. Because many of those opposed to using the hotel as a shelter are Chinese immigrants, the conflict has also produced discomfiting images of immigrant families and the mostly black and Latino homeless families shouting insults at one another. A local civic group, Communities of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together, has organized a series of protests, including one in late June in which some of the protesters yelled at the shelter residents to “Get a job!” The homeless families responded that their opponents should “go back to China.”
Both the protest organizers and city officials now seem to want to avoid a repeat of that scene. On Tuesday the city sent buses to take the shelter residents and their children to a movie, to keep them away from the protest. And the organizers tried to keep the speakers’ criticism focused on the city’s policy, rather than on the homeless themselves. There were occasional lapses, as when a man translating a speech into Mandarin inserted a sentence saying that the city should not “put this garbage in our community.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio has made it a top priority to tackle the housing crisis by building or preserving some 200,000 units of affordable housing. He has promised to stem the city’s record numbers of homeless people in shelters by starting rent subsidy programs to help working and chronically homeless families.
But with those programs not yet in place, his administration is struggling to house the tens of thousands of people, including some 11,000 families, currently seeking shelter. With the city dependent on private landlords to supply space for shelters and nonprofit service providers to run them, it does not have many options for where to locate shelters.
The Pan American Hotel, on Queens Boulevard, is one of 11 shelters opened since the beginning of the year. A blocky, seven-story structure with 216 rooms, it was purchased recently by investors who are involved in running other shelters. The city’s Department of Homeless Services initially said the hotel was not appropriate for families because its units lacked kitchens. But in early June, facing more families seeking housing than it had units available, officials made an emergency agreement with a nonprofit shelter operator, Samaritan Village, and began moving families in. Because the hotel lacks any kitchens, for now, meals are delivered. As of Tuesday, there were 648 people staying there, including 350 children.
Typically, the city consults extensively with local officials before opening a shelter, a process that can take up to a year. In this case, the Department of Homeless Services notified the local City Council member on the evening before the first families were moved into the hotel, and other elected officials only later. State Assemblyman Francisco P. Moya, one of several officials who have criticized the city’s handling of the shelter, called the failure to notify him in advance “absolutely unacceptable and a complete dereliction of duty.”
Several Republican activists from elsewhere in Queens have also denounced the shelter as an example of government run amok, with one comparing the city’s shelter system to “a gulag.”
Several Chinese people at the protest on Tuesday said they believed that the city had intentionally targeted their neighborhood.
“Government always picks on an easy area,” said Edward Fung, 62, saying that historically the residents of Elmhurst had not been politically organized.
Rachel Lam, 33, said she believed the government was bullying Asians because they assumed Asians would be silent.
“But when it comes to our home, our children, our community, our safety, we will come out and protest,” Ms. Lam said.
At the protest, many of the speakers stressed practical issues, like the neighborhood’s overcrowded schools, and pointed out that there were other shelters and adult homes nearby.
But in interviews, many said the homeless families simply made them feel unsafe.
“When you see them, it looks like they’re going to mug you,” Linda Chang, 50, said in Mandarin. “It makes me feel uncomfortable.”
On an evening earlier this month, many residents who live behind the hotel expressed similar fears.
Mark Gao, 32, a wok chef at a Sichuan restaurant in Manhattan, said that his wife was nervous to walk home alone at night from her restaurant job, and that he had told his nieces not to play outside without an adult.
“Why does the government want to support this group?” Mr. Gao said in Mandarin. “Why do they want to give them free money? We have to work from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.”
He said he had taken his sons and nieces to a protest last month and that they had been scared and confused when the homeless families yelled at them.
“They asked me, ‘Why are these people so bad? Why do they want to fight with us?’ ” he said.
Kendall Walker said his 8-year-old son had been asking him the same questions.
Mr. Walker, 28, is staying in the hotel with his wife, Shakeema Morris, and their three children. The family had been living with Mr. Walker’s brother in public housing in Brooklyn when the brother was evicted for not paying rent. Since arriving at the shelter, Mr. Walker has gotten two jobs — one full time, in building maintenance, and another part time, working in a warehouse.
He said his son, Kendall Jr., had asked him why “the Chinese people” didn’t want them there.
“I told him, just because you’re a different color skin, it makes you no different from anybody else,” said Mr. Walker, who is black. “You still have a voice just like everyone else in the community.”
Mr. Walker said he sympathized with local residents’ frustration that they were not told about the shelter before it opened.
The Department of Homeless Services has said that it plans to use the hotel as a shelter as long it is needed. On Thursday, in a memo to elected officials and community leaders across the city, the department’s commissioner, Gilbert Taylor, said that in the future the department would make “every effort” to notify communities seven days before opening a shelter.
“I understand it’s much better when you have a process, but emergencies are that — emergencies,” Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, the deputy mayor for health and human services, said in an interview.
She said that she had never seen anything as extreme as the reaction in Elmhurst.
“You have good people that somehow or another are looking at other good people and are vilifying them because they feel threatened by some unknown thing that is mostly in their head,” Ms. Barrios-Paoli said. “It’s really sad.”
The protests have drawn criticism from some local residents. Zicheng Pan, 37, whose family owns the Yeung Chinese Restaurant on Grand Avenue, said that someone had come to the restaurant asking him to post fliers advertising one of the protests, but he had decided not to.
“Let’s give them a chance,” he said in Mandarin.
The New Life Fellowship Church on Queens Boulevard is holding a barbecue for the families this weekend, and its youth group is working to combat stereotypes of homeless people.
Tala Haider, 18, who runs the youth group, said he was upset by the tone of the protests.
“This is an immigrant community, which means we were given the opportunity to come here and settle down, and now when a new population is coming in, we’re like, ‘No’ — we’re against it,” said Mr. Haider, who came to America from Pakistan when he was 4.
“I guess they didn’t really think about that yet,” he added.
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4) The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less
By ANNA BERNASEK
The inflation-adjusted net worth for the typical household was $87,992 in 2003. Ten years later, it was only $56,335, or a 36 percent decline, according to a study financed by the Russell Sage Foundation. Those are the figures for a household at the median point in the wealth distribution — the level at which there are an equal number of households whose worth is higher and lower. But during the same period, the net worth of wealthy households increased substantially.
The Russell Sage study also examined net worth at the 95th percentile. (For households at that level, 94 percent of the population had less wealth and 4 percent had more.) It found that for this well-do-do slice of the population, household net worth increased 14 percent over the same 10 years. Other research, by economists like Edward Wolff at New York University, has shown even greater gains in wealth for the richest 1 percent of households.
For households at the median level of net worth, much of the damage has occurred since the start of the last recession in 2007. Until then, net worth had been rising for the typical household, although at a slower pace than for households in higher wealth brackets. But much of the gain for many typical households came from the rising value of their homes. Exclude that housing wealth and the picture is worse: Median net worth began to decline even earlier.
“The housing bubble basically hid a trend of declining financial wealth at the median that began in 2001,” said Fabian T. Pfeffer, the University of Michigan professor who is lead author of the Russell Sage Foundation study.
The reasons for these declines are complex and controversial, but one point seems clear: When only a few people are winning and more than half the population is losing, surely something is amiss.
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5) Repeal Prohibition, Again
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
July 27, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/high-time-marijuana-legalization.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0
It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished. It has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the current ban on marijuana, inflicting great harm on society just to prohibit a substance far less dangerous than alcohol.
The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana.
We reached that conclusion after a great deal of discussion among the members of The Times’s Editorial Board, inspired by a rapidly growing movement among the states to reform marijuana laws.
There are no perfect answers to people’s legitimate concerns about marijuana use. But neither are there such answers about tobacco or alcohol, and we believe that on every level — health effects, the impact on society and law-and-order issues — the balance falls squarely on the side of national legalization. That will put decisions on whether to allow recreational or medicinal production and use where it belongs — at the state level.
We considered whether it would be best for Washington to hold back while the states continued experimenting with legalizing medicinal uses of marijuana, reducing penalties, or even simply legalizing all use. Nearly three-quarters of the states have done one of these.
But that would leave their citizens vulnerable to the whims of whoever happens to be in the White House and chooses to enforce or not enforce the federal law.
The social costs of the marijuana laws are vast. There were 658,000 arrests for marijuana possession in 2012, according to F.B.I. figures, compared with 256,000 for cocaine, heroin and their derivatives. Even worse, the result is racist, falling disproportionately on young black men, ruining their lives and creating new generations of career criminals.
There is honest debate among scientists about the health effects of marijuana, but we believe that the evidence is overwhelming that addiction and dependence are relatively minor problems, especially compared with alcohol and tobacco. Moderate use of marijuana does not appear to pose a risk for otherwise healthy adults. Claims that marijuana is a gateway to more dangerous drugs are as fanciful as the “Reefer Madness” images of murder, rape and suicide.
There are legitimate concerns about marijuana on the development of adolescent brains. For that reason, we advocate the prohibition of sales to people under 21.
Creating systems for regulating manufacture, sale and marketing will be complex. But those problems are solvable, and would have long been dealt with had we as a nation not clung to the decision to make marijuana production and use a federal crime.
In coming days, we will publish articles by members of the Editorial Board and supplementary material that will examine these questions. We invite readers to offer their ideas, and we will report back on their responses, pro and con.
We recognize that this Congress is as unlikely to take action on marijuana as it has been on other big issues. But it is long past time to repeal this version of Prohibition.
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6) Let States Decide on Marijuana
In 1970, at the height of his white-hot war on crime, President Richard Nixon demanded that Congress pass the Controlled Substances Act to crack down on drug abuse. During the debate, Senator Thomas Dodd of Connecticut held up a package wrapped in light-green paper that he said contained $3,000 worth of marijuana. This substance, he said, caused such “dreadful hallucinations” in an Army sergeant in Vietnam that he called down a mortar strike on his own troops. A few minutes later, the Senate unanimously passed the bill.
That law, so antique that it uses the spelling “marihuana,” is still on the books, and is the principal reason that possessing the substance in Senator Dodd’s package is considered illegal by the United States government. Changing it wouldn’t even require an act of Congress — the attorney general or the secretary of Health and Human Services could each do so — although the law should be changed to make sure that future administrations could not reimpose the ban.
Repealing it would allow the states to decide whether to permit marijuana use and under what conditions. Nearly three-fourths of them have already begun to do so, liberalizing their laws in defiance of the federal ban. Two have legalized recreational use outright, and if the federal government also recognized the growing public sentiment to legalize and regulate marijuana, that would almost certainly prompt more states to follow along.
The increasing absurdity of the federal government’s position is evident in the text of the Nixon-era law. “Marihuana” is listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act alongside some of the most dangerous and mind-altering drugs on earth, ranked as high as heroin, LSD and bufotenine, a highly toxic and hallucinogenic toad venom that can cause cardiac arrest. By contrast, cocaine and methamphetamine are a notch down on the government’s rankings, listed in Schedule II.
That illogical distinction shows why many states have begun to disregard the federal government’s archaic rules. Schedule II drugs, while carrying a high potential for abuse, have a legitimate medical use. (Even meth is sold in prescription form for weight loss.) But according to the language of the law, marijuana and the other Schedule I drugs have “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”
STATES TAKE THE LEAD No medical use? That would come as news to the millions of people who have found that marijuana helped them through the pain of AIDS, or the nausea and vomiting of chemotherapy, or the seizures of epilepsy. As of this month, 35 states and the District of Columbia permit some form of marijuana consumption for medical purposes. New York is one of the latest states to defy the tired edict of the Controlled Substances Act.
It’s hard for the public to take seriously a law that says marijuana and heroin have exactly the same “high potential for abuse,” since that ignores the vastly more addictive power of narcotics, which have destroyed the lives of millions of people around the world. (There are no documented deaths from a marijuana overdose.) The 44-year refusal of Congress and eight administrations to alter marijuana’s place on Schedule I has made the law a laughingstock, one that states are openly flouting.
In addition to the medical exceptions, 18 states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized marijuana, generally meaning that possession of small amounts is treated like a traffic ticket or ignored. Two states, Colorado and Washington, have gone even further and legalized it for recreational purposes; two others, Alaska and Oregon, will decide whether to do the same later this year.
The states are taking the lead because they’re weary of locking up thousands of their own citizens for possessing a substance that has less potential for abuse and destructive behavior than alcohol. A decision about what kinds of substances to permit, and under what conditions, belongs in the purview of the states, as alcohol is handled.
Consuming marijuana is not a fundamental right that should be imposed on the states by the federal government, in the manner of abortion rights, health insurance, or the freedom to marry a partner of either sex. It’s a choice that states should be allowed to make based on their culture and their values, and it’s not surprising that the early adopters would be socially liberal states like Colorado and Washington, while others hang back to gauge the results.
PRE-EMPTED BY WASHINGTON Many states are unwilling to legalize marijuana as long as possessing or growing it remains a federal crime. Colorado, for instance, allows its largest stores to cultivate up to 10,200 cannabis plants at a time. But the federal penalty for growing more than 1,000 plants is a minimum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10 million. That has created a state of confusion in which law-abiding growers in Colorado can face federal penalties.
Last August, the Justice Department issued a memo saying it would not interfere with the legalization plans of Colorado and Washington as long as they met several conditions: keeping marijuana out of the hands of minors or criminal gangs; prohibiting its transport out of the state; and enforcing prohibitions against drugged driving, violence and other illegal drugs. The government has also said banks can do business with marijuana sellers, easing a huge problem for a growing industry. But the Justice Department guidance is loose; aggressive federal prosecutors can ignore it “if state enforcement efforts are not sufficiently robust,” the memo says.
That’s a shaky foundation on which to build confidence in a state’s legalization plan. More important, it applies only to this moment in this presidential administration. President Obama’s Justice Department could change its policy at any time, and so of course could the next administration.
HOW TO END THE FEDERAL BAN Allowing states to make their own decisions on marijuana — just as they did with alcohol after the end of Prohibition in 1933 — requires unambiguous federal action. The most comprehensive plan to do so is a bill introduced last year by Representative Jared Polis, Democrat of Colorado, known as the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act. It would eliminate marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, require a federal permit for growing and distributing it, and have it regulated (just as alcohol is now) by the Food and Drug Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. An alternative bill, which would not be as effective, was introduced by Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, as the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act. It would not remove marijuana from Schedule I but would eliminate enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act against anyone acting in compliance with a state marijuana law.
Congress is clearly not ready to pass either bill, but there are signs that sentiments are changing. A promising alliance is growing on the subject between liberal Democrats and libertarian Republicans. In a surprise move in May, the House voted 219 to 189 to prohibit the Drug Enforcement Administration from prosecuting people who use medical marijuana, if a state has made it legal. It was the first time the House had voted to liberalize a marijuana law; similar measures had repeatedly failed in previous years. The measure’s fate is uncertain in the Senate.
While waiting for Congress to evolve, President Obama, once a regular recreational marijuana smoker, could practice some evolution of his own. He could order the attorney general to conduct the study necessary to support removal of marijuana from Schedule I. Earlier this year, he told The New Yorker that he considered marijuana less dangerous than alcohol in its impact on individuals, and made it clear that he was troubled by the disproportionate number of arrests of African-Americans and Latinos on charges of possession. For that reason, he said, he supported the Colorado and Washington experiments.
“It’s important for it to go forward,” he said, referring to the state legalizations, “because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished.”
But a few weeks later, he told CNN that the decision on whether to change Schedule I should be left to Congress, another way of saying he doesn’t plan to do anything to end the federal ban. For too long, politicians have seen the high cost — in dollars and lives locked behind bars — of their pointless war on marijuana and chosen to do nothing. But many states have had enough, and it’s time for Washington to get out of their way.
On Monday at 4:20 p.m. Eastern Time, Andrew Rosenthal, the editorial page editor, will be taking questions about marijuana legalization at facebook.com/nytimes.
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7) Pause in the Fighting Gives Civilians on Both Sides a Moment to Take Stock
"More than 140 bodies were recovered across Gaza on Saturday — including 21 members of one family — raising the Palestinian death toll to 1,139, most of them civilians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. On the Israeli side, 42 soldiers and three civilians have been killed."
By BEN HUBBARD
JERUSALEM — When a temporary cease-fire began on Saturday morning, Akram Qassim joined the throngs of Palestinians who emerged from their homes and temporary shelters. But when he reached his extended family’s three-story building, he found only a crater left by an Israeli airstrike.
“I expected that maybe a shell had hit it and caused some damage,” Mr. Qassim said. “But this is an earthquake.”
Saturday’s cease-fire provided the first daylong relief from violence for civilians on both sides of the conflict since the start of the 19-day war between Israel and Palestinian militants. The 12-hour lull granted people an ability to move, with Israelis visiting their troops and Palestinians discovering damaged neighborhoods and dead bodies. More than 140 bodies were recovered across Gaza on Saturday — including 21 members of one family — raising the Palestinian death toll to 1,139, most of them civilians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. On the Israeli side, 42 soldiers and three civilians have been killed.
On Saturday evening, Israel’s top ministers decided to extend the lull for 24 hours, but said Israeli troops would continue their efforts to destroy tunnels. Palestinian fighters renewed their rocket fire at Israel, and Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, said it rejected any cease-fire that did not include the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
The vast destruction in communities across Gaza shocked residents who had fled their homes, and reactions to it could play a role in negotiations over the terms of a longer cease-fire.
Israel has said its offensive is intended to halt rocket fire by Palestinian fighters and to destroy the extensive network of tunnels — some of them concrete-reinforced — that militants use for combat, smuggling, and sneaking fighters into Israel. This is likely to mean that the Israelis will insist on continuing strict border controls on materials that could be used to build more tunnels.
But Hamas is seeking an agreement that would ease the movement of goods into Gaza from Israel and Egypt — a goal it seeks desperately and may fight to obtain.
“If there is an agreement for a cease-fire, that’s great,” said Mohammed Abu Jama in Al Zanna, an area of central Gaza where power lines had been blown down, an abandoned Israeli military trailer stood in the street and dozens of houses bore the scars of intense clashes.
But Mr. Abu Jama, whose own house was damaged, said any agreement had to include an opening of the crossings that tightly control all movement in and out of Gaza.
“And if there is no agreement, we want the resistance to continue fighting,” he said.
Visits to Al Zanna and two other front-line neighborhoods on Saturday revealed destruction that in places stretched for blocks, with walls punctured by artillery shells, buildings reduced to rubble and streets erased by yawning craters.
The destruction in the Shejaiya neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, site of some of the worst fighting, was so extensive that in some places it was impossible to spot an undamaged building. Scores of buildings, including a hospital and a mosque, had also been damaged or destroyed here in the northern town of Beit Hanoun.
As news of the pause spread though Gaza on Saturday morning, Mariam Fayyad joined the crowds rushing to the area. Many spoke on cellphones with relatives elsewhere, wailing when they received reports of their destroyed homes.
At one point, two men in black face masks who were carrying assault rifles approached from the opposite direction, suggesting that fighters were using the pause to change positions.
Entering her white, three-bedroom house surrounded by fruit trees, Ms. Fayyad let out a wail and ran from room to room, inspecting the damage. Artillery shells had punched holes in the walls and ceiling, doors had been blown from their hinges and rubble covered the floor. The metal bathtub, crumpled like a tin can, sat in the kitchen.
“All the money we had went to this, everything we tired ourselves out for,” said her husband, Ibrahim. Both are teachers and had built the house from scratch, moving in two years ago, they said.
Tragedy also struck the al-Najjar family, whose house in central Gaza was struck by an Israeli airstrike before dawn on Saturday, killing 21 people.
“I was on the balcony when the hit came, and I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up in the hospital,” said Hussein al-Najjar, who lost his father, mother, one brother, two sisters and two sons, ages 1 and 6, in the strike.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, could not explain the airstrike some 19 hours after it happened.
“We’ve been unable to determine the target at this time,” he said late Saturday, adding that militants in the area could have fired antitank missiles, drawing an Israeli response.
Israel says that it strives to avoid killing civilians and blames Hamas for putting them in danger by fighting from residential areas and storing weapons there.
Israeli troops remained in place across Gaza during the lull and continued to search for tunnels but did not advance or engage with Palestinian fighters. The Israeli authorities said that they coordinated with international organizations to evacuate wounded Palestinians, distribute food and repair utilities.
By Saturday morning, Israeli forces had found 31 tunnels and destroyed 15, Colonel Lerner said.
In southern Israel, where most of the rockets fired by Gaza militants have fallen during the war, the lull allowed residents who had spent recent weeks rushing to shelters to venture out. People visited beaches in Ashdod and Ashkelon, Israel Radio reported, and television news contrasted video footage of crowded cafes on Saturday with that from last week when the establishments were empty.
“I was very hesitant, because we know who we’re dealing with; in the end I decided to go out and see if people were around,” a beachgoer identified only as Sigalit said in a radio interview. “It’s fun, but there is still some fear. Let’s hope it continues so that we can enjoy ourselves a bit more.”
At Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, a barber gave haircuts to wounded soldiers. In Maslul, a small community not far from a staging area for the Gaza operation, residents set up 10 barbecue grills to serve the troops, along with showers and a karaoke corner, Israel Radio reported.
Back in Gaza, a group of men and a bulldozer worked to remove bodies from a house that had been flattened in an overnight airstrike.
“We have pulled out six so far and there are three left,” said Mohammed Nasser, who had relatives among the dead.
As the bulldozer dug, one of the dead was found with a Kalashnikov rifle at his side. Cries of “God is great!” erupted from the crowd as the body was carried to an ambulance.
Fares Akram contributed reporting from Beit Hanoun, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem.
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8) All Played Out
"The landscape of youth sports has changed markedly in the last 20 years. Free play, where children gather after school, pick a game and play until called in for dinner, is almost extinct. Highly organized and stratified sports have become the norm. Time, place and rules are now dictated to our kids rather than organized by the kids."
By RON J. TURKER
PORTLAND, Ore. — PARENTS and doctors may have disparate views on the goals of kids’ sports. I know how disparate because I happen to be both. As a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and the dad of a kid who loves sports, I see this world from both sides.
Recently, I told a teenage boy, whom I’ll call Lucas, and his parents that he had torn the anterior cruciate ligament (A.C.L.) in his knee. The matching soccer jerseys worn by the entire family were a hint as to how the conversation would go.
“You don’t understand, this is his life!” Mom said.
“We need this fixed — he’s in the Olympic Development Program! He’s elite,” said Dad.
Lucas is 13. The next 40 minutes of what had been a 20-minute appointment were spent trying to reset expectations. Lucas would need a minimum of six months to heal the reconstructed graft. On top of that, his bones were still growing, so the surgical technique would have to be altered to a trickier and less tested procedure. And the harsh reality: Any knee that has had a major injury will never be 100 percent “normal.” His parents were furious and left for the inevitable second opinion.
These visits are exhausting and more common every year. The question is why.
One reason is that our very young kids play harder, and for more hours, than ever before. As a collective, we, the parents, have bought into a new and lucrative paradigm. Our kids no longer play sports; they are youth “athletes.”
The landscape of youth sports has changed markedly in the last 20 years. Free play, where children gather after school, pick a game and play until called in for dinner, is almost extinct. Highly organized and stratified sports have become the norm. Time, place and rules are now dictated to our kids rather than organized by the kids.
Granted, the stigma of being picked last by neighborhood captains still weighs heavily on some of us, so maybe a neutral “adult coach” is just what’s needed. But these paid coaches need to earn their keep and feel pressure to go for the win, so many kids are excluded from even lining up, or they’re relegated to the “Wreck League” (a derogatory reference to the kids who just want to play for noncompetitive recreation).
Eight- and 9-year-old children are often pressured to choose a single sport and to play it all year or risk showing a “lack of commitment.” Kids are “invited” to play in extra-seasonal leagues, but the invitation comes with a caveat. The implicit message is, show up or don’t expect much playing time during the regular season. Kids sense the pressure and sometimes it seeps out in unexpected ways.More juvenile athletes are coming in with repetitive stress injuries (both physical and, in a sense, emotional) that were once rare. Now children show up in my office repeatedly with vague aches and pains, usually in different locations and hard to diagnose but often relieved with a few weeks of rest. By the third visit, I catch on and ask whether they truly enjoy their full-time commitment. If given the emotional space, the kids will often reply no. They just want a break.
As parents, we want what’s best for our kids but we’ve abdicated our parental rights and duties to the new societal norm. Youth sports have become big business. Millions of dollars flow to coaches, leagues, equipment, road trips, motels, tournament fees — and the list goes on. We give in to the herd mentality along with our confounded friends so that our kids won’t be seen as outliers.
We buy the hype about scholarships to college, but the numbers don’t support the athletic route to money. Despite what your “professional coach” tells you about your child’s athletic prowess, it isn’t possible to tell if your 12-year-old has the right stuff to be a college athlete. Very few scholarships are full-ride packages; most don’t come close to covering the cost of college. But when I tell parents that their kid’s chance of scholarship money is less than 2 percent, they shake their heads in sympathy for the other 98 percent.
I treated two teenage sisters who had career-ending knee injuries in the same year. Fifteen thousand dollars of their father’s annual income had been going to three different elite traveling softball teams. His goal was a college scholarship. Now their knees and chances at athletic scholarships were ruined. But $15,000 a year would have been a great D.I.Y. college fund.
Lucas will be fine. He’ll learn how to navigate adversity and that, in and of itself, is a valuable life lesson. In the future, he’ll make decisions for his own kids. Maybe by then we will all have relaxed a bit.
Ron J. Turker is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon.
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10) New Violence Unravels Informal Lull in Gaza
By ISABEL KERSHNER and FARES AKRAM
July 29, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-conflict.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LedeSum&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
JERUSALEM
— A lull in Gaza hostilities between Israel and Hamas in deference to a
Muslim holiday appeared to unravel late Monday when the area near
Gaza’s main hospital was hit by a missile or rocket. Palestinian medical
officials and Western correspondents at the hospital described the
attack as an Israeli airstrike, but Israel’s military blamed Palestinian
rockets that had been fired at Israel and had gone astray.
There were also reports in Israel that up to four Israelis may have been severely wounded or killed on Monday by mortar rounds fired from the Gaza side at an Israeli military staging area. An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that there had been a mortar attack and casualties, but could provide no further details.The missile or rocket explosion near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City hit an outside wall of the compound and caused damage but no casualties. Plainclothes security officers barred reporters from entering the compound to get close to where the rocket or missile fell.
The strike came after several rockets and mortars were fired into Israel on Monday. A Palestinian man and a 4-year-old boy were reportedly killed by an Israeli airstrike and artillery fire, and an Israeli soldier was wounded in a gunfight in northern Gaza, underlining the fragility of the unsigned calm.
The informal lull, after three weeks of fighting broken only by a couple of brief humanitarian pauses, had been meant to provide a respite for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said the army had “toned down its activities to the level where we are combating tunnels on the one hand and responding to Hamas aggression on the other.”
No cease-fire has yet been agreed on, but Israel was holding off on initiating attacks in Gaza, and there was a marked decrease in rocket and mortar fire against Israel. Hamas had called for a 24-hour cease-fire starting Sunday afternoon, hours after Israel declared that it was abandoning an earlier 24-hour pause because of heavy rocket fire. Israel did not publicly respond to Hamas’s belated call.
The relative calm on Monday came after a statement by the United Nations Security Council supporting the call for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. On Sunday, President Obama called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and expressed growing concern about the rising death toll and urged Israel to embrace an immediate truce, and Secretary of State John Kerry also kept up his efforts to attain a long-term cease-fire.
Mr. Netanyahu spoke with the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, later Monday and strongly criticized the Security Council’s call for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire. Mr. Netanyahu said the Security Council’s statement “related to the needs of a murderous terrorist organization that attacks Israeli citizens,” referring to Hamas, “and does not address the security needs of Israel,” according to a statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s office. He called on the international community to act to demilitarize the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also criticized the Security Council’s statement, saying that while the Palestinians welcomed the call for a cease-fire, it fell short by failing to address the underlying causes of the escalation, including “the continued Israeli occupation” and “the denial of basic Palestinian rights.”
The Palestine Liberation Organization, dominated by the mainstream Fatah faction, has also strongly criticized Mr. Kerry’s efforts, faulting his meetings on Saturday in Paris with European, Qatari and Turkish officials, which took place without Egyptian or P.L.O. representatives. The P.L.O. also accused the participants in those meetings of trying to circumvent the roles of Egypt and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of the P.L.O.
Underscoring the uneasy, unilateral nature of the latest lull and the lack of coordination between the sides, with each reluctant to be led by the other, Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said in a statement Monday morning: “The occupation still rejects any cease-fire related to the Eid. This is a disregard for Muslims’ feelings and their worship. The occupation will bear the responsibility for this escalation and the denial of the Muslims’ worship.”
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting that began July 8 with an aerial campaign that Israel said was meant to quell the rocket fire and led to an Israeli ground offensive. That offensive has focused on Hamas’s underground tunnels, some of which have been used by its gunmen for infiltration into Israel. On the Israeli side, 43 soldiers have been killed, and three civilians were killed by rocket and mortar fire.
About 170,000 Palestinians, roughly a tenth of the population of Gaza, remain displaced, many of them sheltering in United Nations schools and facilities around the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz, described the new situation on Monday as “a lull with no restrictions. The I.D.F. is free to attack and to respond to any fire,” he told Israel Radio, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
After a rocket hit the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Monday morning, the military said it “retaliated toward the Beit Lahiya area,” in northern Gaza, “from which the rocket was fired.” Later, the military said it had hit two concealed rocket launchers and a weapons manufacturing site in the northern and central Gaza Strip.
It was unclear if the current hiatus would lead to a longer, more formal cease-fire, but General Almoz appeared to hint that Israel’s operation might be nearing its end, saying that Hamas’s tunnels, which he described as a “strategic threat,” were now “collapsing in front of its eyes.”
“We don’t promise that we will leave and will not leave a tunnel standing that we know about,” he added. “We are doing all we can to ensure that we are doing the maximum so that we will end with a good operational achievement.”
In Gaza City, people came out onto the streets for the first day of the holiday. The Unknown Soldier Park at the heart of the city was crowded with displaced families. The fountain had stopped working, its water having turned green and murky. The ornate horse-drawn carts that usually give rides to children at holiday times had not yet returned to work.
There were also reports in Israel that up to four Israelis may have been severely wounded or killed on Monday by mortar rounds fired from the Gaza side at an Israeli military staging area. An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that there had been a mortar attack and casualties, but could provide no further details.The missile or rocket explosion near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City hit an outside wall of the compound and caused damage but no casualties. Plainclothes security officers barred reporters from entering the compound to get close to where the rocket or missile fell.
The strike came after several rockets and mortars were fired into Israel on Monday. A Palestinian man and a 4-year-old boy were reportedly killed by an Israeli airstrike and artillery fire, and an Israeli soldier was wounded in a gunfight in northern Gaza, underlining the fragility of the unsigned calm.
The informal lull, after three weeks of fighting broken only by a couple of brief humanitarian pauses, had been meant to provide a respite for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said the army had “toned down its activities to the level where we are combating tunnels on the one hand and responding to Hamas aggression on the other.”
No cease-fire has yet been agreed on, but Israel was holding off on initiating attacks in Gaza, and there was a marked decrease in rocket and mortar fire against Israel. Hamas had called for a 24-hour cease-fire starting Sunday afternoon, hours after Israel declared that it was abandoning an earlier 24-hour pause because of heavy rocket fire. Israel did not publicly respond to Hamas’s belated call.
The relative calm on Monday came after a statement by the United Nations Security Council supporting the call for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. On Sunday, President Obama called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and expressed growing concern about the rising death toll and urged Israel to embrace an immediate truce, and Secretary of State John Kerry also kept up his efforts to attain a long-term cease-fire.
Mr. Netanyahu spoke with the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, later Monday and strongly criticized the Security Council’s call for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire. Mr. Netanyahu said the Security Council’s statement “related to the needs of a murderous terrorist organization that attacks Israeli citizens,” referring to Hamas, “and does not address the security needs of Israel,” according to a statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s office. He called on the international community to act to demilitarize the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also criticized the Security Council’s statement, saying that while the Palestinians welcomed the call for a cease-fire, it fell short by failing to address the underlying causes of the escalation, including “the continued Israeli occupation” and “the denial of basic Palestinian rights.”
The Palestine Liberation Organization, dominated by the mainstream Fatah faction, has also strongly criticized Mr. Kerry’s efforts, faulting his meetings on Saturday in Paris with European, Qatari and Turkish officials, which took place without Egyptian or P.L.O. representatives. The P.L.O. also accused the participants in those meetings of trying to circumvent the roles of Egypt and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of the P.L.O.
Underscoring the uneasy, unilateral nature of the latest lull and the lack of coordination between the sides, with each reluctant to be led by the other, Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said in a statement Monday morning: “The occupation still rejects any cease-fire related to the Eid. This is a disregard for Muslims’ feelings and their worship. The occupation will bear the responsibility for this escalation and the denial of the Muslims’ worship.”
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting that began July 8 with an aerial campaign that Israel said was meant to quell the rocket fire and led to an Israeli ground offensive. That offensive has focused on Hamas’s underground tunnels, some of which have been used by its gunmen for infiltration into Israel. On the Israeli side, 43 soldiers have been killed, and three civilians were killed by rocket and mortar fire.
About 170,000 Palestinians, roughly a tenth of the population of Gaza, remain displaced, many of them sheltering in United Nations schools and facilities around the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz, described the new situation on Monday as “a lull with no restrictions. The I.D.F. is free to attack and to respond to any fire,” he told Israel Radio, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
After a rocket hit the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Monday morning, the military said it “retaliated toward the Beit Lahiya area,” in northern Gaza, “from which the rocket was fired.” Later, the military said it had hit two concealed rocket launchers and a weapons manufacturing site in the northern and central Gaza Strip.
It was unclear if the current hiatus would lead to a longer, more formal cease-fire, but General Almoz appeared to hint that Israel’s operation might be nearing its end, saying that Hamas’s tunnels, which he described as a “strategic threat,” were now “collapsing in front of its eyes.”
“We don’t promise that we will leave and will not leave a tunnel standing that we know about,” he added. “We are doing all we can to ensure that we are doing the maximum so that we will end with a good operational achievement.”
In Gaza City, people came out onto the streets for the first day of the holiday. The Unknown Soldier Park at the heart of the city was crowded with displaced families. The fountain had stopped working, its water having turned green and murky. The ornate horse-drawn carts that usually give rides to children at holiday times had not yet returned to work.
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11) Fast-Food Workers Intensify Fight for $15 an Hour
"... the C.E.O.s of McDonald’s and Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, for receiving executive compensation of more than $10 million a year. They make more than twice as much in a day as many fast-food workers earn in a year."
ADDISON, Ill. — As labor gatherings go, this one was highly unusual — 68 workers arrived on charter buses from St. Louis, 100 from New York City and 180 from Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas. Fifty flew in from Los Angeles and two dozen from Seattle.
These were not well-paid carpenters or autoworkers heading to their annual convention, hoping to sneak in a round of golf. Rather they were fast-food workers — 1,200 of them — from McDonald’s, Burger King and other chains, eager to pursue their ambitious goal of creating a $15-an-hour wage floor for the nation’s four million fast-food workers.
Crowding over the weekend into an expo center in this suburb west of Chicago, many wore boldly lettered T-shirts proclaiming “We Are Worth More” and “Raise Up for $15.”
“If we win $15, that would change my life,” said Cherri Delisline, 27, a single mother who earns $7.35 an hour after 10 years as a McDonald’s cashier in North Charleston, S.C. “I get paid so little money that it’s hard to make ends meet, and I’ve had to move back in with my mother.”It was by far the largest gathering of fast-food workers, and it was largely underwritten by the Service Employees International Union, a powerhouse with two million members known for unionizing hospital workers, home care aides and janitors. Mary Kay Henry, the union’s president, said the S.E.I.U. has adopted the fast-food workers’ cause to lift low-wage workers and combat income inequality.
Knowing how to rally a crowd, Ms. Henry said in her keynote speech, “A selfish few at the top are using their power to hold down wages, no matter how much that hurts families and communities across the country.”
She attacked the C.E.O.s of McDonald’s and Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, for receiving executive compensation of more than $10 million a year. They make more than twice as much in a day as many fast-food workers earn in a year.
Glenn Spencer, executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Workforce Freedom Initiative, asserted that the S.E.I.U. wasn’t pumping $15 million into the fast-food campaign merely out of beneficence.
“You don’t put that kind of money in just to have a sense of altruism,” he said. “You have a plan for how that transfers into new members.”
The S.E.I.U. does hope to somehow unionize throngs of fast-food workers, but those efforts may prove difficult given that most fast-food employees are scattered among thousands of different franchised restaurants. Moreover, the franchisees and fast-food chains are likely to mount a fierce battle against unionization.
The two-day convention, with 150 tables spread across the expo center’s floor, highlighted the campaign’s growth since November 2012, when 200 workers went on a one-day strike at 60 fast-food restaurants in New York. In its most recent strike in mid-May, workers walked out at restaurants in 150 cities nationwide, with solidarity protests held in 30 countries. The focus increasingly includes unionizing; the movement’s motto has become “$15 and a union.”
“My sense is there’s been a recognition on the part of the S.E.I.U. that to get the labor movement out of the very deep rut it’s in, it’s going to take more than an individual local organizing drive — that this is a moment to do a large-scale, high-visibility effort to alter the climate for labor,” said Janice R. Fine, a professor of labor relations at Rutgers University. “They have taken a sector like fast food where the conditions are well known: low wages, part-time hours, irregular hours, often no benefits.”
In a high-stakes move, fast-food workers, backed by the S.E.I.U., have brought several cases before the National Labor Relations Board, asking its general counsel to declare McDonald’s a joint employer of the restaurants run by its franchisees. If the labor board agrees, that would open the door for the S.E.I.U. to try to unionize not just three or five McDonald’s at a time, but dozens and perhaps hundreds.
Business groups oppose such a change. Mr. Spencer said that if the labor board adopted a broader interpretation, “then you make the corporation sit down at the table and talk” with the union. S.E.I.U. officials want McDonald’s and its franchisees to agree not to fight unionization efforts.
McDonald’s declined to comment on the weekend convention, held four miles from its headquarters. The main target of the movement’s attacks and unionization talk, McDonald’s says it provides competitive pay and benefits and opportunities for many workers. The National Restaurant Association has repeatedly criticized the call for a $15 fast-food wage, saying it would result in higher menu prices and cuts in employment.
Ms. Henry said the fast-food campaign has already paid off. She cited its influence in creating an atmosphere for Seattle to approve a $15 minimum wage and for San Francisco and Chicago to be weighing similar measures. In early July, the S.E.I.U. signed a contract for 20,000 cafeteria workers, custodians and other service workers for the Los Angeles school district that will raise their pay, now often $8 or $9, to $15 an hour by 2016.
“The fast-food movement is producing real gains in the wages of our members,” Ms. Henry said, declining to disclose how much money her union has spent on underwriting the campaign — or the convention.
With the midterm elections approaching, Mr. Spencer said the union gets another benefit from the fast-food campaign, which is spurring efforts to raise the minimum wage in many states. “There’s clearly a political dimension here,” he said. “The S.E.I.U. is trying to rally the Democratic base for November.”
Francis O’Donnell, owner of a Buffalo Wings & Rings franchised restaurant near the White Sox stadium in Chicago, said a $15 wage would be a disaster. “It’s going to put a lot of businesses out of business,” he said.
Mr. O’Donnell estimated it would increase his payroll costs by 25 percent, erasing his profit margins. He added, “It would leave me with three choices: raising my prices, which will hurt customers, or reducing my staff” or shutting down.
The Rev. William Barber, a minister from North Carolina who has mobilized liberal protests there, gave a fiery speech with a different view.
Citing Franklin Roosevelt’s Depression-era advice, he told the workers: “You have to stay in the $15 fight until it is a reality. When you raise people’s wages and it raises the standard of living and you increase purchasing power, you actually not only do the right thing morally, but you do the right thing economically, and the whole country is blessed.”
Throughout the convention, one overarching strategy was to say the fast-food movement was an economic justice movement comparable to the civil rights movement — a strategy the service employees used to unionize tens of thousands of cleaning workers in its “Justice for Janitors” campaign. Inspired by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the fast-food workers debated and discussed using nonviolent civil disobedience to step up pressure on the fast-food companies.
“They’re already slowly killing us with the way they’ve got us living,” said Terrence Wise, a Burger King worker in Kansas City, Mo., who served as M.C. for much of the convention. “Are we going to stand up?” he asked. “I want to see who is willing to do whatever it takes, who is willing to get arrested.”
After his pleas, the workers voted unanimously to conduct a wave of civil disobedience actions.
Adriana Alvarez, a McDonald’s worker from Chicago, was ready to answer the call. “It’s awesome to see all these people here,” she said. “I’m ready to take the next step.”
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C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND
ONGOING
CAMPAIGNS
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Free the Whistle-Blowers
An Appeal from Daniel Ellsberg
I am immensely thankful to both these young whistle-blowers who have so bravely stood up against the powerful forces of the US government in order to reveal corruption, illegal spying and war crimes. They were both motivated by their commitments to democracy and justice. They both chose to reveal information directly to the public, at great cost to themselves, so that citizens and taxpayers could be fully informed of the facts. They also revealed the amazing potential of new technologies to increase public access to information and strengthen democracy. It saddens me that our current political leaders, rather than embracing this potential, have chosen to tighten their strangleholds on power and information, turning away from both progress and justice.
Shockingly, the Obama administration has prosecuted more whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act than every previous president combined. These heroes do not deserve to be thrown in prison or called a traitor for doing the right thing. Obama’s unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of the Espionage Act—as if it were a British-type Official Secrets Act, never intended by Congress and a violation of our First Amendment—and Manning’s 35-year prison sentence will have a chilling effect on future citizens’ willingness to uncover hidden injustices. The government has already brought comparable charges against Snowden.
The only remedy to this chilling precedent, designed to effect government whistle-blowers as a whole, is to overturn the Manning verdict. Given that Manning’s court martial produced the longest trial record in US military history, it will take a top legal team countless hours to prepare their defense. But as an Advisory Board member for the Chelsea Manning Support Network, I was inspired by the way citizens around the world stepped forward to help fund a strong defense during Manning’s trial. I remain hopeful that enough people will recognize the immense importance of these appeals and will contribute to help us finish the struggle we started. That struggle, of course, is for a just political system and freedom for our whistle-blowers.
Chelsea Manning has continued to demonstrate uncommon bravery and character, even from behind bars. With the New York Times Op-Ed she published last month, she has cemented her position as a compelling voice for government reform. Working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, Manning was privy to a special view of the inner-workings of our military’s propaganda systems. Despite her personal struggles, she felt compelled to share her knowledge of what was happening in Iraq with the Americans people. If the military hadn’t hidden the number of civilian casualties and incidences of torture detailed in the Iraq Logs she released, we would have known far sooner to expect the civil war that has gripped Iraq fully today. Her exposure of US knowledge of the corruption in Tunisia, by the dictator our government supported, was a critical catalyst of the non-violent uprising which toppled that dictator, in turn directly inspiring the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt and then the Occupy movement in the US
I personally am inspired by Chelsea Manning as I am by Edward Snowden, which is why I have spent countless hours advocating for both of them. I’m asking you to join me today in supporting what I believe to be one of the most important legal proceedings in our country’s history. We are fortunate to have a truly impressive legal team that has agreed to partner with us. Already, our new appeals attorney Nancy Hollander and her team have begun to research legal strategies, and are collaborating with Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the international news media to highlight the significance of this case.
Chelsea is only 26 now, younger than I was when I learned to recognize the injustices of the Vietnam War. She wishes to complete her education, as I did, and go into public service. Imagine what great things she could both learn and teach the world if she were free. Now imagine if our corrupt government officials are allowed to get their way, holding her behind bars until life has almost passed her by, and extraditing Snowden to suffer the same outcome. What a sad result that would be for our country and our humanity.
I have been waiting forty years for a legal process to at long last prove the unconstitutionality of the Espionage Act as applied to whistle-blowers (the Supreme Court has never yet addressed this issue). This appeals process can accomplish that, and it can reduce Chelsea’s sentence by decades. But unfortunately, without your help today it will not happen. We must raise $100,000 by September 1st, to ensure that Chelsea’s team have the resources to fully fight this stage of the appeals process.
Unless Manning’s conviction is overturned in appeals, Snowden and many other whistle-blowers, today and in the future, will face a similar fate. And with them will perish one of the most critical lifelines for our democracy. But you can join me in fighting back. I’m asking you to do it for Chelsea, to do it for Snowden, and to do it because it’s the right thing to do to preserve our democracy. We can only win this great struggle with your help. Please contribute to help us fund Chelsea’s legal appeals today.
It’s time we band together on the right side of history once again.
Free the Whistle-Blowers
An Appeal from Daniel Ellsberg
July 21, 2014 by Daniel Ellsberg
NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, a personal hero of mine, has recently filed to renew his asylum in Russia. Exiled thousands of miles from friends and family, he awaits his fate. He learned from the example of another top hero of mine, Chelsea Manning. Manning helped inspire his revelations that if he released his vital information while in this country he would have been held incommunicado in isolation as Chelsea was for over ten months—in Snowden’s case probably for the rest of his life. And facing comparable charges to Chelsea’s, he would have no more chance than Chelsea to have a truly fair trial—being prevented by the prosecution and judge (as I was, forty years ago) from even raising arguments of public interest or lack of harm in connection with his disclosures. Contrary to the hollow advice of Hillary Clinton or John Kerry, if he were to return to America he would not be able to “make his case” neither “in court,” nor “to the public” from a prison cell.I am immensely thankful to both these young whistle-blowers who have so bravely stood up against the powerful forces of the US government in order to reveal corruption, illegal spying and war crimes. They were both motivated by their commitments to democracy and justice. They both chose to reveal information directly to the public, at great cost to themselves, so that citizens and taxpayers could be fully informed of the facts. They also revealed the amazing potential of new technologies to increase public access to information and strengthen democracy. It saddens me that our current political leaders, rather than embracing this potential, have chosen to tighten their strangleholds on power and information, turning away from both progress and justice.
Shockingly, the Obama administration has prosecuted more whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act than every previous president combined. These heroes do not deserve to be thrown in prison or called a traitor for doing the right thing. Obama’s unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of the Espionage Act—as if it were a British-type Official Secrets Act, never intended by Congress and a violation of our First Amendment—and Manning’s 35-year prison sentence will have a chilling effect on future citizens’ willingness to uncover hidden injustices. The government has already brought comparable charges against Snowden.
The only remedy to this chilling precedent, designed to effect government whistle-blowers as a whole, is to overturn the Manning verdict. Given that Manning’s court martial produced the longest trial record in US military history, it will take a top legal team countless hours to prepare their defense. But as an Advisory Board member for the Chelsea Manning Support Network, I was inspired by the way citizens around the world stepped forward to help fund a strong defense during Manning’s trial. I remain hopeful that enough people will recognize the immense importance of these appeals and will contribute to help us finish the struggle we started. That struggle, of course, is for a just political system and freedom for our whistle-blowers.
Chelsea Manning has continued to demonstrate uncommon bravery and character, even from behind bars. With the New York Times Op-Ed she published last month, she has cemented her position as a compelling voice for government reform. Working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, Manning was privy to a special view of the inner-workings of our military’s propaganda systems. Despite her personal struggles, she felt compelled to share her knowledge of what was happening in Iraq with the Americans people. If the military hadn’t hidden the number of civilian casualties and incidences of torture detailed in the Iraq Logs she released, we would have known far sooner to expect the civil war that has gripped Iraq fully today. Her exposure of US knowledge of the corruption in Tunisia, by the dictator our government supported, was a critical catalyst of the non-violent uprising which toppled that dictator, in turn directly inspiring the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt and then the Occupy movement in the US
I personally am inspired by Chelsea Manning as I am by Edward Snowden, which is why I have spent countless hours advocating for both of them. I’m asking you to join me today in supporting what I believe to be one of the most important legal proceedings in our country’s history. We are fortunate to have a truly impressive legal team that has agreed to partner with us. Already, our new appeals attorney Nancy Hollander and her team have begun to research legal strategies, and are collaborating with Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the international news media to highlight the significance of this case.
Chelsea is only 26 now, younger than I was when I learned to recognize the injustices of the Vietnam War. She wishes to complete her education, as I did, and go into public service. Imagine what great things she could both learn and teach the world if she were free. Now imagine if our corrupt government officials are allowed to get their way, holding her behind bars until life has almost passed her by, and extraditing Snowden to suffer the same outcome. What a sad result that would be for our country and our humanity.
I have been waiting forty years for a legal process to at long last prove the unconstitutionality of the Espionage Act as applied to whistle-blowers (the Supreme Court has never yet addressed this issue). This appeals process can accomplish that, and it can reduce Chelsea’s sentence by decades. But unfortunately, without your help today it will not happen. We must raise $100,000 by September 1st, to ensure that Chelsea’s team have the resources to fully fight this stage of the appeals process.
Unless Manning’s conviction is overturned in appeals, Snowden and many other whistle-blowers, today and in the future, will face a similar fate. And with them will perish one of the most critical lifelines for our democracy. But you can join me in fighting back. I’m asking you to do it for Chelsea, to do it for Snowden, and to do it because it’s the right thing to do to preserve our democracy. We can only win this great struggle with your help. Please contribute to help us fund Chelsea’s legal appeals today.
It’s time we band together on the right side of history once again.
Daniel Ellsberg
Please contribute to help us fund Chelsea’s legal appeals today!
Learn now how you can write a letter to be included in Chelsea Manning’s official application for clemency!
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
http://www.privatemanning.org/pardonpetition
Help
us continue to cover 100%
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38591
COURAGE
TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
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U.S.
Court of Appeals Rules Against Lorenzo Johnson’s
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
The
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied Lorenzo Johnson’s motion to
file a Second Habeas Corpus Petition. The order contained the outrageous
declaration that Johnson hadn’t made a “prima facie case” that he had new
evidence of his innocence. This not only puts a legal obstacle in Johnson’s
path as his fight for freedom makes its way (again) through the state and
federal courts—but it undermines the newly filed Pennsylvania state appeal that
is pending in the Court of Common Pleas.
Stripped
of “legalese,” the court’s October 15, 2013 order says Johnson’s new
evidence was not brought into court soon enough—although it was the prosecution
and police who withheld evidence and coerced witnesses into lying or not coming
forward with the truth! This, despite over fifteen years and rounds of legal
battles to uncover the evidence of government misconduct. This is a set-back
for Lorenzo Johnson’s renewed fight for his freedom, but Johnson is even more
determined as his PA state court appeal continues.
Increased
public support and protest is needed. The fight for Lorenzo Johnson’s freedom
is not only a fight for this courageous man and family. The fight for Lorenzo
Johnson is also a fight for all the innocent others who have been framed and
are sitting in the slow death of prison. The PA Attorney General is directly
pursuing the charges against Lorenzo, despite the evidence of his innocence and
the corruption of the police. Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
—Rachel
Wolkenstein, Esq.
October 25, 2013
For
more on the federal court and PA state court legal filings.
Hear
Mumia’s latest commentary, “Cat Cries”
Go
to: www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org for more information, to sign the petition, and
how to help.
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SAVE
CCSF!
Posted
on August 25, 2013
Cartoon
by Anthonty Mata for CCSF Guardsman
DOE
CAMPAIGN
We
are working to ensure that the ACCJC’s authority is not renewed by the
Department of Education this December when they are up for their 5-year
renewal. Our campaign made it possible for over 50 Third Party Comments to be
sent to the DOE re: the ACCJC. Our next step in this campaign is to send a
delegation from CCSF to Washington, D.C. to give oral comments at the hearing
on December 12th. We expect to have an array of forces aligned on the other
side who have much more money and resources than we do.
So
please support this effort to get ACCJC authority revoked!
LEGAL
CAMPAIGN
Save
CCSF members have been meeting with Attorney Dan Siegel since last May to
explore legal avenues to fight the ACCJC. After much consideration, and
consultation with AFT 2121’s attorney as well as the SF City Attorney’s office,
Dan has come up with a legal strategy that is complimentary to what is already
being pursued. In fact, AFT 2121’s attorney is encouraging us to go forward.
The
total costs of pursuing this (depositions, etc.) will be substantially more
than $15,000. However, Dan is willing to do it for a fixed fee of $15,000. He
will not expect a retainer, i.e. payment in advance, but we should start
payments ASAP. If we win the ACCJC will have to pay our costs.
PLEASE
HELP BOTH OF THESE IMPORTANT EFFORTS!
Checks
can be made out to Save CCSF Coalition with “legal” in the memo line and sent
to:
Save
CCSF Coalition
2132
Prince St.
Berkeley, CA 94705
Or
you may donate online: http://www.gofundme.com/4841ns
http://www.saveccsf.org/
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16 Years in Solitary Confinement Is Like a "Living Tomb"
American
Civil Liberties Union petition to end long-term solitary confinement:
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard: We stand with the prisoners on hunger
strike. We urge you to comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in
America’s Prisons 2006 recommendations regarding an end to long-term solitary
confinement.
In
California, hundreds of prisoners have been held in solitary for more than a
decade – some for infractions as trivial as reading Machiavelli's "The
Prince."
Gabriel
Reyes describes the pain of being isolated for at least 22 hours a day for the
last 16 years:
“Unless
you have lived it, you cannot imagine what it feels like to be by yourself,
between four cold walls, with little concept of time…. It is a living tomb …’ I
have not been allowed physical contact with any of my loved ones since 1995…I
feel helpless and hopeless. In short, I am being psychologically tortured.”
That’s
why over 30,000 prisoners in California began a hunger strike – the biggest the
state has ever seen. They’re refusing food to protest prisoners being held for
decades in solitary and to push for other changes to improve their basic
conditions.
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard has tried to dismiss the strikers and
refuses to negotiate, but the media pressure is building through the strike. If
tens of thousands of us take action, we can help keep this issue in the
spotlight so that Secretary Beard can’t ignore the inhumane treatment of
prisoners.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Solitary
is such an extreme form of punishment that a United Nations torture rapporteur
called for an international ban on the practice except in rare occasions.
Here’s why:
The
majority of the 80,000 people held in solitary in this country are severely
mentally ill or because of a minor infraction (it’s a myth that it’s only for
violent prisoners)
Even
for people with stable mental health, solitary causes severe psychological
reactions, often leading people to attempt suicide
It
jeopardizes public safety because prisoners held in solitary have a harder time
reintegrating into society.
And
to add insult to injury, the hunger strikers are now facing retaliation – their
lawyers are being restricted from visiting and the strikers are being punished.
But the media continues to write about the hunger strike and we can help keep
the pressure on Secretary Beard by signing this petition.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Our
criminal justice system should keep communities safe and treat people fairly.
The use of solitary confinement undermines both of these goals – but little by
little, we can help put a stop to such cruelty.
Thank
you,
Anthony
for the ACLU Action team
P.S.
The hunger strikers have developed five core demands to address their basic
conditions, the main one being an end to long-term solitary confinement. They
are:
-End
group punishment – prisoners say that officials often punish groups to address
individual rule violations
-Abolish
the debriefing policy, which is often demanded in return for better food or
release from solitary
-End
long-term solitary confinement
-Provide
adequate and nutritious food
-Expand
or provide constructive programming and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates
Sources
“Solitary
- and anger - in California's prisons.” Los Angeles Times July 13, 2013
“Pelican
Bay Prison Hunger-Strikers' Stories: Gabriel Reyes.” TruthOut July 9, 2013
“Solitary
confinement should be banned in most cases, UN expert says.” UN News October
18, 2011
"Stop
Solitary - Two Pager" ACLU.org
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What
you Didn't know about NYPD's Stop and Frisk program !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rfJHx0Gj6ys#at=990
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Egypt:
The Next President -- a little Egyptian boy speaks his remarkable mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeDm2PrNV1I
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Wealth
Inequality in America
[This
is a must see to believe video...bw]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM
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Read
the transcription of hero Bradley Manning's 35-page statement explaining why he
leaked "state secrets" to WikiLeaks.
March
1, 2013
Alternet
The
statement was read by Pfc. Bradley Manning at a providence inquiry for his
formal plea of guilty to one specification as charged and nine specifications
for lesser included offenses. He pled not guilty to 12 other specifications.
This rush transcript was taken by journalist Alexa O'Brien at Thursday's
pretrial hearing and first appeared on Salon.com.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/bradley-mannings-surprising-statement-court-details-why-he-made-his-historic?akid=10129.229473.UZvQfK&rd=1&src=newsletter802922&t=7
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You
Have the Right to Remain Silent: NLG Guide to Law Enforcement Encounters
Posted
1 day ago on July 27, 2012, 10:28 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Occupy
Wall Street is a nonviolent movement for social and economic justice, but in
recent days disturbing reports have emerged of Occupy-affiliated activists
being targeted by US law enforcement, including agents from the FBI and
Department of Homeland Security. To help ensure Occupiers and allied activists
know their rights when encountering law enforcement, we are publishing in full
the National Lawyers Guild's booklet: You Have the Right to Remain Silent. The
NLG provides invaluable support to the Occupy movement and other activists –
please click here to support the NLG.
We
strongly encourage all Occupiers to read and share the information provided
below. We also recommend you enter the NLG's national hotline number
(888-654-3265) into your cellphone (if you have one) and keep a copy handy.
This information is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact the
NLG or a criminal defense attorney immediately if you have been visited by the
FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should also alert your relatives,
friends, co-workers and others so that they will be prepared if they are
contacted as well.
You
Have the Right to Remain Silent: A Know Your Rights Guide for Law Enforcement
Encounters
What
Rights Do I Have?
Whether
or not you're a citizen, you have rights under the United States Constitution.
The Fifth Amendment gives every person the right to remain silent: not to
answer questions asked by a police officer or government agent. The Fourth
Amendment restricts the government's power to enter and search your home or
workplace, although there are many exceptions and new laws have expanded the
government's power to conduct surveillance. The First Amendment protects your
right to speak freely and to advocate for social change. However, if you are a
non-citizen, the Department of Homeland Security may target you based on your
political activities.
Standing
Up For Free Speech
The
government's crusade against politically-active individuals is intended to
disrupt and suppress the exercise of time-honored free speech activities, such
as boycotts, protests, grassroots organizing and solidarity work. Remember that
you have the right to stand up to the intimidation tactics of FBI agents and
other law enforcement officials who, with political motives, are targeting
organizing and free speech activities. Informed resistance to these tactics and
steadfast defense of your and others' rights can bring positive results. Each
person who takes a courageous stand makes future resistance to government oppression
easier for all. The National Lawyers Guild has a long tradition of standing up
to government repression. The organization itself was labeled a
"subversive" group during the McCarthy Era and was subject to FBI
surveillance and infiltration for many years. Guild attorneys have defended
FBI-targeted members of the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement,
and the Puerto Rican independence movement. The NLG exposed FBI surveillance,
infiltration and disruption tactics that were detailed during the 1975-76
COINTELPRO hearings. In 1989 the NLG prevailed in a lawsuit on behalf of
several activist organizations, including the Guild, that forced the FBI to
expose the extent to which it had been spying on activist movements. Under the
settlement, the FBI turned over roughly 400,000 pages of its files on the
Guild, which are now available at the Tamiment Library at New York University.
What
if FBI Agents or Police Contact Me?
What
if an agent or police officer comes to the door?
Do
not invite the agents or police into your home. Do not answer any questions.
Tell the agent that you do not wish to talk with him or her. You can state that
your lawyer will contact them on your behalf. You can do this by stepping
outside and pulling the door behind you so that the interior of your home or
office is not visible, getting their contact information or business cards and
then returning inside. They should cease questioning after this. If the agent
or officer gives a reason for contacting you, take notes and give the
information to your attorney. Anything you say, no matter how seemingly
harmless or insignificant, may be used against you or others in the future.
Lying to or misleading a federal agent is a crime. The more you speak, the more
opportunity for federal law enforcement to find something you said (even if not
intentionally) false and assert that you lied to a federal officer.
Do
I have to answer questions?
You
have the constitutional right to remain silent. It is not a crime to refuse to
answer questions. You do not have to talk to anyone, even if you have been
arrested or are in jail. You should affirmatively and unambiguously state that
you wish to remain silent and that you wish to consult an attorney. Once you
make the request to speak to a lawyer, do not say anything else. The Supreme
Court recently ruled that answering law enforcement questions may be taken as a
waiver of your right to remain silent, so it is important that you assert your
rights and maintain them. Only a judge can order you to answer questions. There
is one exception: some states have "stop and identify" statutes which
require you to provide identity information or your name if you have been
detained on reasonable suspicion that you may have committed a crime. A lawyer
in your state can advise you of the status of these requirements where you
reside.
Do
I have to give my name?
As
above, in some states you can be detained or arrested for merely refusing to
give your name. And in any state, police do not always follow the law, and
refusing to give your name may make them suspicious or more hostile and lead to
your arrest, even without just cause, so use your judgment. Giving a false name
could in some circumstances be a crime.
Do
I need a lawyer?
You
have the right to talk to a lawyer before you decide whether to answer
questions from law enforcement. It is a good idea to talk to a lawyer if you
are considering answering any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer
present during any interview. The lawyer's job is to protect your rights. Once
you tell the agent that you want to talk to a lawyer, he or she should stop
trying to question you and should make any further contact through your lawyer.
If you do not have a lawyer, you can still tell the officer you want to speak to
one before answering questions. Remember to get the name, agency and telephone
number of any investigator who visits you, and give that information to your
lawyer. The government does not have to provide you with a free lawyer unless
you are charged with a crime, but the NLG or another organization may be able
to help you find a lawyer for free or at a reduced rate.
If
I refuse to answer questions or say I want a lawyer, won't it seem like I have
something to hide?
Anything
you say to law enforcement can be used against you and others. You can never
tell how a seemingly harmless bit of information might be used or manipulated
to hurt you or someone else. That is why the right not to talk is a fundamental
right under the Constitution. Keep in mind that although law enforcement agents
are allowed to lie to you, lying to a government agent is a crime. Remaining
silent is not. The safest things to say are "I am going to remain
silent," "I want to speak to my lawyer," and "I do not consent
to a search." It is a common practice for law enforcement agents to try to
get you to waive your rights by telling you that if you have nothing to hide
you would talk or that talking would "just clear things up." The fact
is, if they are questioning you, they are looking to incriminate you or someone
you may know, or they are engaged in political intelligence gathering. You
should feel comfortable standing firm in protection and defense of your rights
and refusing to answer questions.
Can
agents search my home or office?
You
do not have to let police or agents into your home or office unless they have
and produce a valid search warrant. A search warrant is a written court order
that allows the police to conduct a specified search. Interfering with a
warrantless search probably will not stop it and you might get arrested. But
you should say "I do not consent to a search," and call a criminal
defense lawyer or the NLG. You should be aware that a roommate or guest can
legally consent to a search of your house if the police believe that person has
the authority to give consent, and your employer can consent to a search of
your workspace without your permission.
What
if agents have a search warrant?
If
you are present when agents come for the search, you can ask to see the
warrant. The warrant must specify in detail the places to be searched and the
people or things to be taken away. Tell the agents you do not consent to the
search so that they cannot go beyond what the warrant authorizes. Ask if you
are allowed to watch the search; if you are allowed to, you should. Take notes,
including names, badge numbers, what agency each officer is from, where they
searched and what they took. If others are present, have them act as witnesses
to watch carefully what is happening. If the agents ask you to give them
documents, your computer, or anything else, look to see if the item is listed
in the warrant. If it is not, do not consent to them taking it without talking
to a lawyer. You do not have to answer questions. Talk to a lawyer first.
(Note: If agents present an arrest warrant, they may only perform a cursory
visual search of the premises to see if the person named in the arrest warrant
is present.)
Do
I have to answer questions if I have been arrested?
No.
If you are arrested, you do not have to answer any questions. You should
affirmatively and unambiguously state that you wish to assert your right to
remain silent. Ask for a lawyer right away. Do not say anything else. Repeat to
every officer who tries to talk to or question you that you wish to remain
silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer. You should always talk to a
lawyer before you decide to answer any questions.
What
if I speak to government agents anyway?
Even
if you have already answered some questions, you can refuse to answer other
questions until you have a lawyer. If you find yourself talking, stop. Assert
that you wish to remain silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer.
What
if the police stop me on the street?
Ask
if you are free to go. If the answer is yes, consider just walking away. If the
police say you are not under arrest, but are not free to go, then you are being
detained. The police can pat down the outside of your clothing if they have
reason to suspect you might be armed and dangerous. If they search any more
than this, say clearly, "I do not consent to a search." They may keep
searching anyway. If this happens, do not resist because you can be charged
with assault or resisting arrest. You do not have to answer any questions. You
do not have to open bags or any closed container. Tell the officers you do not
consent to a search of your bags or other property.
What
if police or agents stop me in my car?
Keep
your hands where the police can see them. If you are driving a vehicle, you
must show your license, registration and, in some states, proof of insurance.
You do not have to consent to a search. But the police may have legal grounds
to search your car anyway. Clearly state that you do not consent. Officers may
separate passengers and drivers from each other to question them, but no one
has to answer any questions.
What
if I am treated badly by the police or the FBI?
Write
down the officer's badge number, name or other identifying information. You
have a right to ask the officer for this information. Try to find witnesses and
their names and phone numbers. If you are injured, seek medical attention and
take pictures of the injuries as soon as you can. Call a lawyer as soon as
possible.
What
if the police or FBI threaten me with a grand jury subpoena if I don't answer
their questions?
A
grand jury subpoena is a written order for you to go to court and testify about
information you may have. It is common for the FBI to threaten you with a
subpoena to get you to talk to them. If they are going to subpoena you, they
will do so anyway. You should not volunteer to speak just because you are
threatened with a subpoena. You should consult a lawyer.
What
if I receive a grand jury subpoena?
Grand
jury proceedings are not the same as testifying at an open court trial. You are
not allowed to have a lawyer present (although one may wait in the hallway and
you may ask to consult with him or her after each question) and you may be asked
to answer questions about your activities and associations. Because of the
witness's limited rights in this situation, the government has frequently used
grand jury subpoenas to gather information about activists and political
organizations. It is common for the FBI to threaten activists with a subpoena
in order to elicit information about their political views and activities and
those of their associates. There are legal grounds for stopping
("quashing") subpoenas, and receiving one does not necessarily mean
that you are suspected of a crime. If you do receive a subpoena, call the NLG
National Hotline at 888-NLG-ECOL (888-654-3265) or call a criminal defense
attorney immediately.
The
government regularly uses grand jury subpoena power to investigate and seek
evidence related to politically-active individuals and social movements. This
practice is aimed at prosecuting activists and, through intimidation and
disruption, discouraging continued activism.
Federal
grand jury subpoenas are served in person. If you receive one, it is critically
important that you retain the services of an attorney, preferably one who
understands your goals and, if applicable, understands the nature of your
political work, and has experience with these issues. Most lawyers are trained
to provide the best legal defense for their client, often at the expense of
others. Beware lawyers who summarily advise you to cooperate with grand juries,
testify against friends, or cut off contact with your friends and political
activists. Cooperation usually leads to others being subpoenaed and
investigated. You also run the risk of being charged with perjury, a felony,
should you omit any pertinent information or should there be inconsistencies in
your testimony.
Frequently
prosecutors will offer "use immunity," meaning that the prosecutor is
prohibited from using your testimony or any leads from it to bring charges
against you. If a subsequent prosecution is brought, the prosecutor bears the
burden of proving that all of its evidence was obtained independent of the
immunized testimony. You should be aware, however, that they will use anything
you say to manipulate associates into sharing more information about you by
suggesting that you have betrayed confidences.
In
front of a grand jury you can "take the Fifth" (exercise your right
to remain silent). However, the prosecutor may impose immunity on you, which
strips you of Fifth Amendment protection and subjects you to the possibility of
being cited for contempt and jailed if you refuse to answer further. In front
of a grand jury you have no Sixth Amendment right to counsel, although you can
consult with a lawyer outside the grand jury room after each question.
What
if I don't cooperate with the grand jury?
If
you receive a grand jury subpoena and elect to not cooperate, you may be held
in civil contempt. There is a chance that you may be jailed or imprisoned for
the length of the grand jury in an effort to coerce you to cooperate. Regular
grand juries sit for a basic term of 18 months, which can be extended up to a
total of 24 months. It is lawful to hold you in order to coerce your
cooperation, but unlawful to hold you as a means of punishment. In rare
instances you may face criminal contempt charges.
What
If I Am Not a Citizen and the DHS Contacts Me?
The
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is now part of the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) and has been renamed and reorganized into: 1. The
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS); 2. The Bureau of Customs
and Border Protection (CBP); and 3. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE). All three bureaus will be referred to as DHS for the
purposes of this pamphlet.
?
Assert your rights. If you do not demand your rights or if you sign papers
waiving your rights, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may deport you
before you see a lawyer or an immigration judge. Never sign anything without
reading, understanding and knowing the consequences of signing it.
?
Talk to a lawyer. If possible, carry with you the name and telephone number of
an immigration lawyer who will take your calls. The immigration laws are hard
to understand and there have been many recent changes. DHS will not explain
your options to you. As soon as you encounter a DHS agent, call your attorney.
If you can't do it right away, keep trying. Always talk to an immigration
lawyer before leaving the U.S. Even some legal permanent residents can be
barred from returning.
Based
on today's laws, regulations and DHS guidelines, non-citizens usually have the
following rights, no matter what their immigration status. This information may
change, so it is important to contact a lawyer. The following rights apply to
non-citizens who are inside the U.S. Non-citizens at the border who are trying
to enter the U.S. do not have all the same rights.
Do
I have the right to talk to a lawyer before answering any DHS questions or
signing any DHS papers?
Yes.
You have the right to call a lawyer or your family if you are detained, and you
have the right to be visited by a lawyer in detention. You have the right to
have your attorney with you at any hearing before an immigration judge. You do
not have the right to a government-appointed attorney for immigration
proceedings, but if you have been arrested, immigration officials must show you
a list of free or low cost legal service providers.
Should
I carry my green card or other immigration papers with me?
If
you have documents authorizing you to stay in the U.S., you must carry them
with you. Presenting false or expired papers to DHS may lead to deportation or
criminal prosecution. An unexpired green card, I-94, Employment Authorization
Card, Border Crossing Card or other papers that prove you are in legal status
will satisfy this requirement. If you do not carry these papers with you, you
could be charged with a crime. Always keep a copy of your immigration papers
with a trusted family member or friend who can fax them to you, if need be.
Check with your immigration lawyer about your specific case.
Am
I required to talk to government officers about my immigration history?
If
you are undocumented, out of status, a legal permanent resident (green card
holder), or a citizen, you do not have to answer any questions about your
immigration history. (You may want to consider giving your name; see above for
more information about this.) If you are not in any of these categories, and
you are being questioned by a DHS or FBI agent, then you may create problems
with your immigration status if you refuse to provide information requested by
the agent. If you have a lawyer, you can tell the agent that your lawyer will
answer questions on your behalf. If answering questions could lead the agent to
information that connects you with criminal activity, you should consider
refusing to talk to the agent at all.
If
I am arrested for immigration violations, do I have the right to a hearing
before an immigration judge to defend myself against deportation charges?
Yes.
In most cases only an immigration judge can order you deported. But if you
waive your rights or take "voluntary departure," agreeing to leave
the country, you could be deported without a hearing. If you have criminal
convictions, were arrested at the border, came to the U.S. through the visa
waiver program or have been ordered deported in the past, you could be deported
without a hearing. Contact a lawyer immediately to see if there is any relief
for you.
Can
I call my consulate if I am arrested?
Yes.
Non-citizens arrested in the U.S. have the right to call their consulate or to
have the police tell the consulate of your arrest. The police must let your
consulate visit or speak with you if consular officials decide to do so. Your
consulate might help you find a lawyer or offer other help. You also have the
right to refuse help from your consulate.
What
happens if I give up my right to a hearing or leave the U.S. before the hearing
is over?
You
could lose your eligibility for certain immigration benefits, and you could be
barred from returning to the U.S. for a number of years. You should always talk
to an immigration lawyer before you decide to give up your right to a hearing.
What
should I do if I want to contact DHS?
Always
talk to a lawyer before contacting DHS, even on the phone. Many DHS officers
view "enforcement" as their primary job and will not explain all of
your options to you.
What
Are My Rights at Airports?
IMPORTANT
NOTE: It is illegal for law enforcement to perform any stops, searches,
detentions or removals based solely on your race, national origin, religion,
sex or ethnicity.
If
I am entering the U.S. with valid travel papers can a U.S. customs agent stop
and search me?
Yes.
Customs agents have the right to stop, detain and search every person and item.
Can
my bags or I be searched after going through metal detectors with no problem or
after security sees that my bags do not contain a weapon?
Yes.
Even if the initial screen of your bags reveals nothing suspicious, the
screeners have the authority to conduct a further search of you or your bags.
If
I am on an airplane, can an airline employee interrogate me or ask me to get
off the plane?
The
pilot of an airplane has the right to refuse to fly a passenger if he or she
believes the passenger is a threat to the safety of the flight. The pilot's decision
must be reasonable and based on observations of you, not stereotypes.
What
If I Am Under 18?
Do
I have to answer questions?
No.
Minors too have the right to remain silent. You cannot be arrested for refusing
to talk to the police, probation officers, or school officials, except in some
states you may have to give your name if you have been detained.
What
if I am detained?
If
you are detained at a community detention facility or Juvenile Hall, you
normally must be released to a parent or guardian. If charges are filed against
you, in most states you are entitled to counsel (just like an adult) at no
cost.
Do
I have the right to express political views at school?
Public
school students generally have a First Amendment right to politically organize
at school by passing out leaflets, holding meetings, etc., as long as those
activities are not disruptive and do not violate legitimate school rules. You
may not be singled out based on your politics, ethnicity or religion.
Can
my backpack or locker be searched?
School
officials can search students' backpacks and lockers without a warrant if they
reasonably suspect that you are involved in criminal activity or carrying drugs
or weapons. Do not consent to the police or school officials searching your property,
but do not physically resist or you may face criminal charges.
Disclaimer
This
booklet is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact an attorney if
you have been visited by the FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should
also alert your relatives, friends, co-workers and others so that they will be
prepared if they are contacted as well.
NLG
National Hotline for Activists Contacted by the FBI
888-NLG-ECOL
(888-654-3265)
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Free
Mumia NOW!
Prisonradio.org
Write
to Mumia:
Mumia
Abu-Jamal AM 8335
SCI
Mahanoy
301
Morea Road
Frackville,
PA 17932
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Rachel Wolkenstein
August
21, 2011 (917) 689-4009
MUMIA
ABU-JAMAL ILLEGALLY SENTENCED TO
LIFE
IMPRISONMENT WITHOUT PAROLE!
FREE
MUMIA NOW!
www.FreeMumia.com
http://blacktalkradionetwork.com/profiles/blogs/mumia-is-formally-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-w-out-hearing-he-s
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"A
Child's View from Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against
Censorship"
book
https://www.mecaforpeace.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=25
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WITNESS
GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
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The
Battle Is Still On To
FREE
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
The
Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO
Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610
www.laboractionmumia.org
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KEVIN
COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable
doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle
Editorial
Monday,
December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death
penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's
death
row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT
ACTION APPEAL
-
From Amnesty International USA
17
December 2010
Click
here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&\
b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To
learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For
a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
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Short
Video About Al-Awda's Work
The
following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's
work
since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown
on
Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l
Al-Awda
Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected
over
the past nine years.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support
Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda,
The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial
support
to carry out its work.
To
submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html
and
follow the simple instructions.
Thank
you for your generosity!
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D.
VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some
of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/
or bauaw.org ...bw]
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Prison vs School: The Tour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogmtAQlp9HI
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Checkpoint - Jasiri X
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq6Y6LSjulU
Published on Jan 28, 2014
"Checkpoint" is based on the
oppression and discrimination Jasiri X witnessed firsthand during his
recent trip to Palestine and Israel "Checkpoint" is produced by Agent of
Change, and directed by Haute Muslim. Download "Checkpoint" at https://jasirix.bandcamp.com/track/ch....
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Exceptional
art from the streets of Oakland:
Oakland
Street Dancing
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
NYC
RESTAURANT WORKERS DANCE & SING FOR A WAGE HIKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_s8e1R6rG8&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
On
Gun Control, Martin Luther King, the Deacons of Defense and the history of
Black Liberation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzYKisvBN1o&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Fukushima
Never Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU-Z4VLDGxU
"Fukushima,
Never Again" tells the story of the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdowns in
north east Japan in March of 2011 and exposes the cover-up by Tepco and the
Japanese government.
This
is the first film that interviews the Mothers Of Fukushima, nuclear power
experts and trade unionists who are fighting for justice and the protection of
the children and the people of Japan and the world. The residents and citizens
were forced to buy their own geiger counters and radiation dosimeters in order
to test their communities to find out if they were in danger.
The
government said contaminated soil in children's school grounds was safe and
then
when
the people found out it was contaminated and removed the top soil, the
government and TEPCO refused to remove it from the school grounds.
It
also relays how the nuclear energy program for "peaceful atoms" was brought
to Japan under the auspices of the US military occupation and also the criminal
cover-up of the safety dangers of the plant by TEPCO and GE management which
built the plant in Fukushima. It also interviews Kei Sugaoka, the GE nulcear
plant inspector from the bay area who exposed cover-ups in the safety at the
Fukushima plant and was retaliated against by GE. This documentary allows the
voices of the people and workers to speak out about the reality of the disaster
and what this means not only for the people of Japan but the people of the
world as the US government and nuclear industry continue to push for more new
plants and government subsidies. This film breaks
the
information blockade story line of the corporate media in Japan, the US and
around the world that Fukushima is over.
Production
Of Labor Video Project
P.O.
Box 720027
San
Francisco, CA 94172
www.laborvideo.org
lvpsf@laborvideo.org
For
information on obtaining the video go to:
www.fukushimaneveragain.com
(415)282-1908
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1000
year of war through the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiG8neU4_bs&feature=share
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Anatomy
of a Massacre - Afganistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6BnRc11aug&feature=player_embedded
Afghans
accuse multiple soldiers of pre-meditated murder
To
see more go to http://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures
Follow
us on Facebook (http://goo.gl/YRw42) or Twitter
(http://www.twitter.com/journeymanvod)
The
recent massacre of 17 civilians by a rogue US soldier has been shrouded in
mystery.
But through unprecedented access to those involved, this report
confronts
the accusations that Bales didn't act alone.
"They
came into my room and they killed my family". Stories like this are common
amongst
the survivors in Aklozai and Najiban. As are the shocking accusations
that
Sergeant Bales was not acting alone. Even President Karzai has announced
"one
man can not do that". Chief investigator, General Karimi, is suspicious
that
despite being fully armed, Bales freely left his base without raising
alarm.
"How come he leaves at night and nobody is aware? Every time we have
weapon
accountability and personal accountability." These are just a few of the
questions
the American army and government are yet to answer. One thing however
is
very clear, the massacre has unleashed a wave of grief and outrage which
means
relations in Kandahar will be tense for years to come: "If I could lay my
hands
on those infidels, I would rip them apart with my bare hands."
A
Film By SBS
Distributed
By Journeyman Pictures
April
2012
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Photo
of George Zimmerman, in 2005 photo, left, and in a more recent photo.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/02/us/the-events-leading-to-the-sooti\
ng-of-trayvon-martin.html?hp
SPD
Security Cams.wmv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WWDNbQUgm4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Kids
being put on buses and transported from school to "alternate
locations" in
Terror
Drills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFia_w8adWQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Private
prisons,
a
recession resistant investment opportunity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGLDOxx9Vg
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Attack
Dogs used on a High School Walkout in MD, Four Students Charged With
"Thought
Crimes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wafMaML17w
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Common
forms of misconduct by Law Enforcement Officials and Prosecutors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViSpM4K276w&feature=related
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Organizing
and Instigating: OCCUPY - Ronnie Goodman
http://arthazelwood.com/instigator/occupy/occupy-birth-video.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Rep
News 12: Yes We Kony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GbzIkYdc8
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
New Black by The Mavrix - Official Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4rLfja8488
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan
One Year Later
http://www.onlineschools.org/japan-one-year-later/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
CIA's Heart Attack Gun
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/assassination-studies/the-cias-heart-attack-g\
un-.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Invisible American Workforce
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/5/new_expos_tracks_alec_private_prison
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor
Beat: NATO vs The 1st Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbQxnb4so3U
For
more detailed information, send us a request at mail@laborbeat.org.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Battle of Oakland
by
brandon jourdan plus
http://vimeo.com/36256273
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Officers
Pulled Off Street After Tape of Beating Surfaces
By
ANDY NEWMAN
February
1, 2012, 10:56 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/officers-pulled-off-street-after-ta\
pe-of-beating-surfaces/?ref=nyregion
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
This
is excellent! Michelle Alexander pulls no punches!
Michelle
Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow, speaks about the political
strategy
behind
the War on Drugs and its connection to the mass incarceration of Black
and
Brown people in the United States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P75cbEdNo2U&feature=player_embedded
If
you think Bill Clinton was "the first black President" you need to
watch this
video
and see how much damage his administration caused for the black community
as
a result of his get tough attitude on crime that appealed to white swing
voters.
This
speech took place at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem on January 12,
2012.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE
BRADLEY MANNING
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/national-call-in-for-bradley
I
received the following reply from the White House November 18, 2011 regarding
the
Bradley Manning petition I signed:
"Why
We Can't Comment on Bradley Manning
"Thank
you for signing the petition 'Free PFC Bradley Manning, the accused
WikiLeaks
whistleblower.' We appreciate your participation in the We the People
platform
on WhiteHouse.gov.
The
We the People Terms of Participation explain that 'the White House may
decline
to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or
similar
matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or
agencies,
federal courts, or state and local government.' The military justice
system
is charged with enforcing the Uniform Code of
Military
Justice. Accordingly, the White House declines to comment on the
specific
case raised in this petition...
That's
funny! I guess Obama didn't get this memo. Here's what Obama said about
Bradley:
BRADLEY
MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!
"He
broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be
charged,
let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the
President
to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with
a
crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!
Obama
on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-
Presidential
remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at
fundraiser.
Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political
action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be
Release
Bradley Manning
Almost
Gone (The Ballad Of Bradley Manning)
Written
by Graham Nash and James Raymond (son of David Crosby)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAYG7yJpBbQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Julian
Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
School
police increasingly arresting American students?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl-efNBvjUU&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FYI:
Nuclear
Detonation Timeline "1945-1998"
The
2053 nuclear tests and explosions that took place between 1945 and 1998 are
plotted
visually and audibly on a world map.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lquok4Pdk&feature=share&mid=5408
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We
Are the 99 Percent
We
are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to
choose
between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are
suffering
from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay
and
no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1
percent
is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.
Brought
to you by the people who occupy wall street. Why will YOU occupy?
OccupyWallSt.org
Occupytogether.org
wearethe99percentuk.tumblr.com
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We
Are The People Who Will Save Our Schools
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFAOJsBxAxY
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
In
honor of the 75th Anniversary of the 44-Day Flint Michigan sit-down strike at
GM
that began December 30, 1936:
According
to Michael Moore, (Although he has done some good things, this clip
isn't
one of them) in this clip from his film, "Capitalism a Love Story,"
it was
Roosevelt
who saved the day!):
"After
a bloody battle one evening, the Governor of Michigan, with the support
of
the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, sent in the National
Guard.
But the guns and the soldiers weren't used on the workers; they were
pointed
at the police and the hired goons warning them to leave these workers
alone.
For Mr. Roosevelt believed that the men inside had a right to a redress
of
their grievances." -Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story'
-
Flint Sit-Down Strike http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8x1_q9wg58
But
those cannons were not aimed at the goons and cops! They were aimed straight
at
the factory filled with strikers! Watch what REALLY happened and how the
strike
was really won!
'With
babies & banners' -- 75 years since the 44-day Flint sit-down strike
http://links.org.au/node/2681
--Inspiring
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
HALLELUJAH
CORPORATIONS (revised edition).mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0WSNRpy3g
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ONE
OF THE GREATEST POSTS ON YOUTUBE SO FAR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8C-qIgbP9o&feature=share&mid=552
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ILWU
Local 10 Longshore Workers Speak-Out At Oakland Port Shutdown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JUpBpZYwms
Uploaded
by laborvideo on Dec 13, 2011
ILWU
Local 10 longshore workers speak out during a blockade of the Port of
Oakland
called for by Occupy Oakland. Anthony Levieges and Clarence Thomas rank
and
file members of the union. The action took place on December 12, 2011 and
the
interview took place at Pier 30 on the Oakland docks.
For
more information on the ILWU Local 21 Longview EGT struggle go to
http://www.facebook.com/groups/256313837734192/
For
further info on the action and the press conferernce go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3fE-Vhrw8&feature=youtu.be
Production
of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
UC
Davis Police Violence Adds Fuel to Fire
By
Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
19
November 11
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8485-uc-davis-police-violence-add\
s-fuel-to-fire
UC
Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4&feature=player_embedded
Police
PEPPER SPRAY UC Davis STUDENT PROTESTERS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWEx6Cfn-I&feature=player_embedded
Police
pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
UC
Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to her car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CZ0t9ez_EGI#!
Occupy
Seattle - 84 Year Old Woman Dorli Rainey Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTIyE_JlJzw&feature=related
*---------*
THE
BEST VIDEO ON "OCCUPY THE WORLD"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S880UldxB1o
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Shot
by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0pX9LeE-g8&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Copwatch@Occupy
Oakland: Beware of Police Infiltrators and Provocateurs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrvMzqopHH0
*---------*
Occupy
Oakland 11-2 Strike: Police Tear Gas, Black Bloc, War in the Streets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tu_D8SFYck&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec
police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest
were
actually undercover Quebec police officers:
POLICE
STATE Criminal Cops EXPOSED As Agent Provocateurs @ SPP Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoiisMMCFT0&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec
police admit going undercover at montebello protests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg&feature=player_embedded
G20:
Epic Undercover Police Fail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrJ7aU-n1L8&feature=player_embedded
*----*
WHAT
HAPPENED IN OAKLAND TUESDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 25:
Occupy
Oakland Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPs-REyl-0&feature=player_embedded
Cops
make mass arrests at occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R27kD2_7PwU&feature=player_embedded
Raw
Video: Protesters Clash With Oakland Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpO-lJr2BQY&feature=player_embedded
Occupy
Oakland - Flashbangs USED on protesters OPD LIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q&feature=player_embedded
KTVU
TV Video of Police violence
http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587714/index.html
Marine
Vet wounded, tear gas & flash-bang grenades thrown in downtown
Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMUgPTCgwcQ&feature=player_embedded
Tear
Gas billowing through 14th & Broadway in Downtown Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU4Y0pwJtWE&feature=player_embedded
Arrests
at Occupy Atlanta -- This is what a police state looks like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YStWz6jbeZA&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Labor
Beat: Hey You Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY8isD33f-I
*---------*
Voices
of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA48gmfGB6U&feature=youtu.be
Voices
of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjKZpOk7TyM&feature=related
*---------*
#Occupy
Wall Street In Washington Square: Mohammed Ezzeldin, former occupier of
Egypt's
Tahrir Square Speaks at Washington Square!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziodsFWEb5Y&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
#OccupyTheHood,
Occupy Wall Street
By
adele pham
http://vimeo.com/30146870
*---------*
Live
arrest at brooklyn bridge #occupywallstreet by We are Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULSI-31Pto&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE
THE CUBAN FIVE!
http://www.thecuban5.org/wordpress/index.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmS4kHC_OlY&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
One
World One Revolution -- MUST SEE VIDEO -- Powerful and beautiful...bw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3R1BQrYCw&feature=player_embedded
"When
injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Thomas Jefferson
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan:
angry Fukushima citizens confront government (video)
Posted
by Xeni Jardin on Monday, Jul 25th at 11:36am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuGwc9dlhQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor
Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand
Jury
Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If
trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate
the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse
Sharkey,
Vice
President,
Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Coal
Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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