Sunday, October 04, 2015

BAUAW NEWSLETTER, SUNDAY, OCTIBER 4, 2015




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

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


Bay Area United Against War Newsletter

Table of Contents:

A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS

B. ARTICLES IN FULL


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

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



A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS


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

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


Wednesday, October 7, 2015, 7pm in Berkeley!
Vijay Prashad on Palestine and the Middle East
Wednesday, October 7, 7pm
First Congregational Church of Berkeley
2345 Channing Way
(near downtown Berkeley Bart)
Facebook event

Vijay Prashad is a prominent & charismatic scholar and critic of US foreign policy. Two of his 17 books have been named “Books of the Year” by the Village Voice. Currently Professor of International Studies at Trinity College in Connecticut, he was previously Edward Said Chair at the American University of Beirut.

In addition to speaking about his new book, Letters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War & Occupation, Vijay Prashad will give an overview of ever-changing events in the Middle East – not to be missed

“WHAT WE DO IS TO CREATE A SHORT-CIRCUIT BETWEEN THE HEART AND THE HEAD.” - Vijay Prashad

TICKETS: $10, $15, $20 sliding scale – available now through Brown Paper Tickets!

$15 Tickets also available in bookstores
East Bay: Books Inc./Berkeley, Moe's, Diesel, Walden Pond
San Francisco: Modern Times.
You can also get tickets directly from MECA (no service charge!) -- call or email Sue or Nawal weekdays, 510-548-0542, susan@mecaforpeace.org

Vijay Prashad edited Letters to Palestine, tracing the “swelling American recognition of Palestinian suffering, struggle, and hope, in writing that is personal, lyrical, anguished, and inspiring.” For example, after the 2014 Gaza assault, polls revealed that a majority of Americans under thirty found Israel’s actions unjustified.

Letters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War & Occupation includes contributions by Mumia Abu Jamal, Naomi Shihab Nye, Robin D.G. Kelley, Teju Cole, Junot Diaz (who wrote the Introduction), Noura Erekat, Huwaida Araf, Remi Kanazi, Sarah Schulman, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Alex Lubin, and more! (Note: these writers will not be speaking at this event.)

Read Vijay Prashad's new piece on the Iran deal here

Check out this recent interview in "Red Pepper" with Vijay Prashad about "Letters to Palestine"

Hear Vijay Prashad on Democracy Now!

Benefit for aid to Palestinian children, cosponsored by KPFA, Arab Resource & Organizing Center, Jewish Voice for Peace/Bay Area, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.
Wheelchair accessible. ASL interpreted.

For info www.mecaforpeace.org, 510-548-0542.

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

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

Tour organizer: ISM Support Group in Northern California

California Speaking Tour of David Sheen, Oct. 21-29, 2015

The Bullet, the Ballot, and the Boycott: Racism in Israel Today


Oct. 21-29, 2015, independent Canadian-Israeli journalist and filmmaker David Sheen will present the Bullet, the Ballot & the Boycott at venues in California.  He will cover Israeli incitement to racist violence, the focus of his on-the-ground reporting for the past five years.

David will describe how top Israeli political and religious leaders use dehumanizing discourse to inspire vigilante attacks toward Palestinians, Africans and other non-Jews, especially during the 2014 assault on the Gaza Strip.  It will include material that Sheen presented at the Russell Tribunal on Palestine in Brussels, as well as new information never before been made public in English.

David's speaking schedule is as follows.  To make arrangements for David to come to your event or to add the name of your organization as a tour endorser, please call 510-236-4250 or write to us at solidarity@ism-norcal.org.

Wed., Oct. 21
6:00pm
San Jose State University, details to follow
SJSU Students for Justice in Palestine
https://www.facebook.com/sjsusjp

Thu., Oct. 22
TBA
Berkeley, details to follow
Zaytuna University
www.zaytuna.edu

Sun., Oct. 25
2:00pm
Uptown Body & Fender, 401 26th St., Oakland
ISM-NorCal & JVP-Bay Area
510-236-4250, ism-norcal.org
$10 suggested donation


Thu., Oct. 29
TBA
The Markaz, 5998 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles
The Markaz & JVP-LA
www.themarkaz.org 310.657.5511


www.ism-norcal.org
ISM Northern California | Supporting Palestinian-led non...
Northern California branch of the Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct-action methods...

View on www.ism-norcal.org
Preview by Yahoo


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

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




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

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


Commute Kevin Cooper's Death Sentence

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


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

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

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

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

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

Cooper has consistently maintained his innocence.

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

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

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

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

In solidarity,

James Clark
Senior Death Penalty Campaigner
Amnesty International USA

News Updates

  • Death Row Stories
    Kevin Cooper's case will be the subject of a new episode of CNN's "Death Row Stories" airing on Sunday, July 26 at 7 p.m. PDT. The program will be repeated at 10 p.m. PDT. The episode, created by executive producers Robert Redford and Alex Gibney, will explore how Kevin Cooper was framed by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and District Attorney.Viewers on the east coast can see the program at 10 p.m. EDT and it will be rebroadcast at 1 a.m. EDT on July 27. Viewers in the Central Time zone can see it at 9 p.m. and midnight CDT. Viewers in the Mountain Time zone can see it at 8 p.m. and ll p.m MDT. It will be aired on CNN again during the following week and will also be able to be viewed on CNN's "Death Row Stories" website.
Kevin Cooper: An Innocent Victim of Racist Frame-Up
- from the Fact Sheet at: www.freekevincooper.org
 
Kevin Cooper is an African-American man who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in 1985 for the gruesome murders of a white family in Chino Hills, California: Doug and Peggy Ryen and their daughter Jessica and their house- guest Christopher Hughes. The Ryens' 8 year old son Josh, also attacked, was left for dead but survived.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Free Albert Woodfox!

On June 8, 2015 a federal judge granted Louisiana prisoner Albert Woodfox unconditional release. Albert's conviction had already been overturned three times - most recently in 2013 - yet every time the state has appealed.

Today, Albert is still behind bars after spending four decades in cruel, unjust solitary confinement. He believes that he and fellow prisoners, Herman Wallace and Robert King, were first placed in solitary confinement in retaliation for their activism. All three men were members of the Black Panther Party. Together, they came to be known as the Angola 3.

It is time for the State of Louisiana to stop standing in the way of justice. Call on Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to ensure Albert's cruel and unjust confinement is not his legacy. Learn more

http://act.amnestyusa.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1839&ea.campaign.id=35593&ea.tracking.id=Country_USA~MessagingCategory_PrisonersandPeopleatRisk&ac=W1506EAIAR2&ea.url.id=414689&forwarded=true

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

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

Amnesty for all those arrested demanding justice for Freddie Gray!

 

Amnesty for ALL those arrested
demanding justice for Freddie Gray!

Sign and distribute the petition to drop the charges!
Spread this effort with #Amnesty4Baltimore

"A riot is the language of the unheard"
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

An estimated 300 people have been arrested in Baltimore in the last two weeks. Many have been brutalized, beaten and pepper-sprayed by police in the streets, and held for days in inhumane conditions. Those arrested include journalists, medics and legal observers.

One individual arrested for property destruction of a police vehicle is now facing life in prison and is being held on $500,000 bail. That's $150,000 more than the officer charged with the murder of Freddie Gray.  

The legal system has made it clear that they care more about broken windows than broken necks; more about a CVS than the lives of Baltimore's Black residents.

They showed no hesitation in arresting Baltimore's protesters and rebels, and sending in the National Guard, but took 19 days to put a single one of the killer cops in handcuffs. This was the outrageous double standard that led to the Baltimore Uprising.

 Sign the petition to drop the charges on all who have been arrested.

Petition to Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake

Download PDF of Petition 

http://www.answercoalition.org/amnesty_for_all_those_arrested_demanding_justice_for_freddie_gray?utm_campaign=baltimore_amn1&utm_medium=email&utm_source=answercoalition

Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake
City Hall, Room 250,
100 North Holliday St.,
Baltimore, MD 21202

Dear Mayor Rawlings-Blake:

I stand in solidarity with those in Baltimore who are demanding that all charges be dropped against those who rose up against racism, police brutality, oppressive social conditions and delay of justice in the case of Freddie Gray. The whole world now recognizes that were it not for this powerful grassroots movement, in all its forms, there would be no indictment.

It is an outrage that peaceful protesters have been brutalized, beaten and pepper-sprayed by police in the streets, and held for days in inhumane conditions. Those arrested include journalists and legal observers.

Even the youth who are charged with property destruction and looting should be given an amnesty. There is no reason a teenager -- provoked by racists and justifiably angry -- should be facing life in prison for breaking the windows of a police car.

The City of Baltimore should work to rectify the conditions that led to this Uprising, rather than criminalizing those who took action in response to those conditions. Drop the charges now!

Sincerely,
[add your name below]

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

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



CANCEL ALL STUDENT DEBT!

Sign the Petition:

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


Dear President Obama, Senators, and Members of Congress:


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

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

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



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

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




MUMIA'S FINAL APPEAL FOR HEALTHCARE DENIED!

Last night Mumia got notice that the final appeal of his PA Department of Corrections grievance was denied. Listen to his reaction here.

This denial comes on top of the magistrate Judge’s proposal to deny Mumia's right to treatment last week.

Remember-- one of the reasons the Judge gave was her claim that Mumia had not "exhausted his administrative remedies" or received a final denial of his request for care. Now he has received that denial.

We know that withholding Mumia’s care is immoral and illegal. We are confident that we will win this battle in court- but we can’t do it alone.





We have 3 days left to raise $2,948 to support Mumia’s legal team in securing his right to hepatitis C treatment!

If you have already joined us, we’re inviting you to ask one friend to match your gift. We need about 50 more freedom fighters to join us to reach our goal— and we want you to make that happen with us!

If you haven’t given yet- now is the time to make a contribution for Mumia. Will you join us?

Health care is a human right- for Mumia, and for all prisoners. Let's prove it.‪ #freemumia #fight4mumia

Reply directly to this email to respond to the campaign owner, Prison Radio . Visit the campaign page to view all comments and updates for this project.

Help spread the word about the campaign!
PRISONRADIO.ORG

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

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

Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson
 
Updates from the New "Team Free Lorenzo Johnson":
Thank you all for your relentless effort in the fight against wrongful convictions and your determination to stand behind Lorenzo.

To garner even more support for Lorenzo Johnson, we have been hard at work updating the website and developing an even more formidable and dedicated team. Please take a moment to visit the new site here.

During the month of July, Lorenzo wrote two new articles for The Huffington Post titled "When Prosecutors Deny Justice for the Innocent," and "Hurry Up and Wait for Justice: The Struggle of Innocent Prisoners." In these articles, Lorenzo discusses the flaws in the criminal justice system, which he deems is a "serious problem in this country."

Lastly, Lorenzo has a message to you all.

A Letter from Lorenzo:

July 23, 2015
Dauphin County Prison
Harrisburg, PA

Dear Supporters,

I hope all is well with everyone and your families. As for myself, I'm still on my journey in pursuit of my vindication. Sorry for my website being shut down for a couple of weeks. It was being transferred to a new provider and management. I'm back and will do my best to keep everything up to speed with what's taking place.

I would like to thank ALL of my loyal supporters in the U.S. and in the MANY different counties that have signed on to support my innocence. Thanks for all of the letters, emails, photos, etc. Like I always say, I get energy to carry on and inspiration hearing form you, please stay engaged in my struggle.

As of this moment, nothing has changed, but – the continued delay tactics are constantly being used by my prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General William Stoycos. With the mounting of evidence that supports my innocence and police and prosecution misconduct claims that is steadily piling up, you would think that I would be having a couple of evidentiary hearings on my actual innocence appeal that have been pending since August 5, 2013.

At the time of this writing, I've been moved from SCI-Mahanoy to Dauphin County Prison and locked down for 23 hours and 40 minutes a day. In the 20 minutes I get to come out, I get to take a shower and make a short call. Prosecutor Stoycos had me moved so I can be a witness in his attempt to have my codefendant Corey Walker's attorney removed from representing him. How dare he call into question an attorney who is seeking justice for her client, when prosecutor Stoycos himself violated multiple constitutional rights of mine and Mr. Walker, that led to us being in prison for 20 years and counting.

Prosecutor Stoycos is continuously abusing his power and his endless resources he has at his disposal. He is not tough on crime, he's tough on Innocent Prisoners. Prosecutor Stoycos is doing everything in his power to prevent justice from taking place. I encourage everyone to continue to speak out against my nightmare, invite others to get involved by going to my website and signing my Freedom Petition and whatever else they're willing to do.

On a positive note, I just enrolled in warehouse management trade and started on July 13th. Unfortunately, you're only allowed to miss a couple of days and Prosecutor Stoycos had me temporarily transferred on July 14th … It's extremely hard on Lifers to get into these trades due to the fact that Lifers are placed at the back of the list of ALL vocational classes. I try to further my education every chance I get, so when I do come home, I will be certified in different work.

The month of the hearing has come and left, without me being brought to the courthouse … I'm one of MANY innocent prisoners who endures this non-stop madness in our pursuit of Justice and Freedom. Now that my webpage is almost caught up to speed, I promise prompt updates and as everyone knows that contacted me directly, I personally reply to those in the states and out of the country. For those who can make a financial contribution, everything counts. Take care and let's continue to fight until we achieve Freedom, Justice, and Equality for all innocent prisoners.

"The Pain Within"

Free the Innocent
Lorenzo "Cat" Johnson

[Note: Lorenzo has since been transferred back to SCI Mahanoy and can be reached at his usual address.]

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

Write: Lorenzo Johnson
            DF 1036
            SCI Mahanoy
            301 Morea Rd.
            Frackville, PA 17932

 Email: Through JPay using the code:
              Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
                                     or
              Directly at LorenzoJohnson17932@gmail.com

Have a wonderful day!
- The Team to Free Lorenzo Johnson


freelorenzojohnson.org

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

 Join the Fight to Free Rev. Pinkney!

Click HERE to view in browser

http://www.iacenter.org/prisoners/freepinkney-1-28-15/


On December 15, 2014 the Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan was thrown into prison for 2.5 to 10 years. This 66-year-old leading African American activist was tried and convicted in front of an all-white jury and racist white judge and prosecutor for supposedly altering 5 dates on a recall petition against the mayor of Benton Harbor.

The prosecutor, with the judge's approval, repeatedly told the jury "you don't need evidence to convict Mr. Pinkney." And ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE WAS EVER PRESENTED THAT TIED REV. PINKNEY TO THE 'ALTERED' PETITIONS. Rev. Pinkney was immediately led away in handcuffs and thrown into Jackson Prison.

This is an outrageous charge. It is an outrageous conviction. It is an even more outrageous sentence! It must be appealed.

With your help supporters need to raise $20,000 for Rev. Pinkney's appeal.

Checks can be made out to BANCO (Black Autonomy Network Community Organization). This is the organization founded by Rev. Pinkney.  Mail them to: Mrs. Dorothy Pinkney, 1940 Union Street, Benton Harbor, MI 49022.

Donations can be accepted on-line at bhbanco.org – press the donate button.

For information on the decade long campaign to destroy Rev. Pinkney go to bhbanco.org and workers.org(search "Pinkney").

We urge your support to the efforts to Free Rev. Pinkney!Ramsey Clark – Former U.S. attorney general,
Cynthia McKinney – Former member of U.S. Congress,
Lynne Stewart – Former political prisoner and human rights attorney
Ralph Poynter – New Abolitionist Movement,
Abayomi Azikiwe – Editor, Pan-African News Wire<
Larry Holmes – Peoples Power Assembly,
David Sole – Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice
Sara Flounders – International Action Center

MESSAGE FROM REV. PINKNEY

I am now in Marquette prison over 15 hours from wife and family, sitting in prison for a crime that was never committed. Judge Schrock and Mike Sepic both admitted there was no evidence against me but now I sit in prison facing 30 months. Schrock actually stated that he wanted to make an example out of me. (to scare Benton Harbor residents even more...) ONLY IN AMERICA. I now have an army to help fight Berrien County. When I arrived at Jackson state prison on Dec. 15, I met several hundred people from Detroit, Flint, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids. Some people recognized me. There was an outstanding amount of support given by the prison inmates. When I was transported to Marquette Prison it took 2 days. The prisoners knew who I was. One of the guards looked me up on the internet and said, "who would believe Berrien County is this racist."

Background to Campaign to free Rev. Pinkney

Michigan political prisoner the Rev. Edward Pinkney is a victim of racist injustice. He was sentenced to 30 months to 10 years for supposedly changing the dates on 5 signatures on a petition to recall Benton Harbor Mayor James Hightower.

No material or circumstantial evidence was presented at the trial that would implicate Pinkney in the purported5 felonies. Many believe that Pinkney, a Berrien County activist and leader of the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO), is being punished by local authorities for opposing the corporate plans of Whirlpool Corp, headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

In 2012, Pinkney and BANCO led an "Occupy the PGA [Professional Golfers' Association of America]" demonstration against a world-renowned golf tournament held at the newly created Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course on the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The course was carved out of Jean Klock Park, which had been donated to the city of Benton Harbor decades ago.

Berrien County officials were determined to defeat the recall campaign against Mayor Hightower, who opposed a program that would have taxed local corporations in order to create jobs and improve conditions in Benton Harbor, a majority African-American municipality. Like other Michigan cities, it has been devastated by widespread poverty and unemployment.

The Benton Harbor corporate power structure has used similar fraudulent charges to stop past efforts to recall or vote out of office the racist white officials, from mayor, judges, prosecutors in a majority Black city. Rev Pinkney who always quotes scripture, as many Christian ministers do, was even convicted for quoting scripture in a newspaper column. This outrageous conviction was overturned on appeal. We must do this again!

To sign the petition in support of the Rev. Edward Pinkney, log on to: tinyurl.com/ps4lwyn.

Contributions for Rev. Pinkney's defense can be sent to BANCO at Mrs Dorothy Pinkney, 1940 Union St., Benton Harbor, MI 49022

Or you can donate on-line at bhbanco.org.

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

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

COURAGE TO RESIST

 http://couragetoresist.org/

New Action--write letters to DoD officials requesting clemency for Chelsea!

Secretary of the Army John McHugh

President Obama has delegated review of Chelsea Manning's clemency appeal to individuals within the Department of Defense.

Please write them to express your support for heroic WikiLeaks' whistle-blower former US Army intelligence analyst PFC Chelsea Manning's release from military prison.

It is important that each of these authorities realize the wide support that Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning enjoys worldwide. They need to be reminded that millions understand that Manning is a political prisoner, imprisoned for following her conscience. While it is highly unlikely that any of these individuals would independently move to release Manning, a reduction in Manning's outrageous 35-year prison sentence is a possibility at this stage.

Take action TODAY – Write letters supporting Chelsea's clemency petition to the following DoD authorities:

Secretary of the Army John McHugh

101 Army Pentagon

Washington, DC 20310-0101

The Judge Advocate General

2200 Army Pentagon

Washington, DC 20310-2200

Army Clemency and Parole Board

251 18th St, Suite 385

Arlington, VA 22202-3532

Directorate of Inmate Administration

Attn: Boards Branch

U.S. Disciplinary Barracks

1301 N. Warehouse Road

Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027-2304

Suggestions for letters send to DoD officials:

The letter should focus on your support for Chelsea Manning, and especially why you believe justice will be served if Chelsea Manning's sentence is reduced.  The letter should NOT be anti-military as this will be unlikely to help.

A suggested message: "Chelsea Manning has been punished enough for violating military regulations in the course of being true to her conscience.  I urge you to use your authorityto reduce Pvt. Manning's sentence to time served."  Beyond that general message, feel free to personalize the details as to why you believe Chelsea deserves clemency.

Consider composing your letter on personalized letterhead -you can create this yourself (here are templates and some tips for doing that).

A comment on this post will NOT be seen by DoD authorities–please send your letters to the addresses above

This clemency petition is separate from Chelsea Manning's upcoming appeal before the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals next year, where Manning's new attorney Nancy Hollander will have an opportunity to highlight the prosecution's—and the trial judge's—misconduct during last year's trial at Ft. Meade, Maryland.

Help us continue to cover 100% of Chelsea's legal fees at this critical stage!


Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org


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

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

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

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

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



B. ARTICLES IN FULL


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

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

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

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

1) California: Number of Starving Birds Rises
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS



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

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

2) The Prison Problem
By

Pretty much everybody from Barack Obama to Carly Fiorina seems to agree that far too many Americans are stuck behind bars. And pretty much everybody seems to have the same explanation for how this destructive era of mass incarceration came about.

First, the war on drugs got out of control, meaning that many nonviolent people wound up in prison. Second, mandatory-minimum sentencing laws led to a throw-away-the-key culture, with long, cruel and pointlessly destructive prison terms.

It’s true that mass incarceration is a horrific problem. Back in the 1970s the increase in incarceration did help reduce the crime rate, maybe accounting for a third of the drop. But today’s incarceration levels do little to deter crime while they do much to rip up families, increase racial disparities and destroy lives.

The popular explanation for how we got here, however, seems to be largely wrong, and most of the policy responses flowing from it may therefore be inappropriate.

The drug war is not even close to being the primary driver behind the sharp rise in incarceration. About 90 percent of America’s prisoners are held in state institutions. Only 17 percent of these inmates are in for a drug-related offense, or less than one in five.

Moreover, the share of people imprisoned for drug offenses is dropping sharply, down by 22 percent between 2006 and 2011. Writing in Slate, Leon Neyfakh emphasized that if you released every drug offender from state prison today, you’d reduce the population only to 1.2 million from 1.5 million.

The war on drugs does not explain the rocketing rates of incarceration, and ending that war, wise or not, will not solve this problem.

The mandatory-minimum theory is also problematic. Experts differ on this, but some of the most sophisticated work with the best data sets has been done by John Pfaff of Fordham Law School. When I spoke with Pfaff on Monday I found him to be wonderfully objective, nonideological and data-driven.

His research suggests that while it’s true that lawmakers passed a lot of measures calling for long prison sentences, if you look at how much time inmates actually served, not much has changed over the past few decades. Roughly half of all prisoners have prison terms in the range of two to three years, and only 10 percent serve more than seven years. The laws look punitive, but the time served hasn’t increased, and so harsh laws are not the main driver behind mass incarceration, either.

So what does explain it? Pfaff’s theory is that it’s the prosecutors. District attorneys and their assistants have gotten a lot more aggressive in bringing felony charges. Twenty years ago they brought felony charges against about one in three arrestees. Now it’s something like two in three. That produces a lot more plea bargains and a lot more prison terms.I asked Pfaff why prosecutors are more aggressive. He’s heard theories. Maybe they are more political and they want to show toughness to raise their profile to impress voters if they run for future office. Maybe the police are bringing stronger cases. Additionally, prosecutors are usually paid by the county but prisons by the state, so prosecutors tend not to have to worry about the financial costs of what they do.

Pfaff says there’s little evidence so far to prove any of these theories, since the prosecutorial world is largely a black box. He also points out that we have a radically decentralized array of prosecutors, with some elected and some appointed. Changing their behavior cannot be done with one quick fix.

Some politicians and activists suggest that solving this problem will be easy — just release the pot smokers and the low-level dealers. In reality, reducing mass incarceration means releasing a lot of once-violent offenders. That may be the right thing to do in individual cases, but it’s a knotty problem.

Two final points. Everybody is railing against the political establishment and experts and experienced politicians. But social problems are invariably more complex than they look. The obvious explanation for most problems is often wrong. It takes experience and craftsmanship to design policies that grapple with the true complexity of reality.

Finally, recategorizing a problem doesn’t solve it. In the 1970s, we let a lot of people out of mental institutions. Over the next decades we put a lot of people into prisons. But the share of people kept out of circulation has been strangely continuous. In the real world, crime, lack of education, mental health issues, family breakdown and economic hopelessness are all intertwined.

Changing prosecutor behavior might be a start. Lifting the spirits of inmates, as described in the outstanding Atlantic online video “Angola for Life,” can also help. But the fundamental situation won’t be altered without a comprehensive surge, unless we flood the zone with economic, familial, psychological and social repair.


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

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

3) At the U.N., Raúl Castro of Cuba Calls for End to U.S. Embargo
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN

President Raúl Castro of Cuba called for an end to the economic embargo of his country on Monday at the United Nations General Assembly, repeating a sentiment offered earlier in the day by President Obama.

“Diplomatic relations have been restored between Cuba and the United States,” Mr. Castro declared, adding: “Now begins the long and complex process” of lifting the 53-year-old embargo.

President Obama, speaking in the U.N. chamber earlier in the day, suggested that the U.S. Congress would eventually do just that.

“I’m confident that our Congress will inevitably lift an embargo that should not be in place anymore,” Mr. Obama said in his own speech.

In addition to lifting the embargo, Mr. Castro also called on the United States to return the land occupied by an American military base in Guantánamo Bay, and end anti-government radio and television broadcasts as well as programs he described as “subversive and destabilizing.”The United States and Cuba re-established full diplomatic relations in July, when the diplomatic missions in each country were upgraded from interest sections to embassies.

Mr. Castro and Mr. Obama met for the first time in April and were expected to meet again on Tuesday.

In his address to the General Assembly, Mr. Castro also declared his solidarity with other left-leaning governments of Latin America including Venezuela and Ecuador.

And he blamed the Western industralized nations of NATO for what he characterized as their destabilizing involvement in the Middle East for the current refugee crisis and said, “Europe should take full responsibility for the human crisis that it helped create.”


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

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

4) Missouri Finds Planned Parenthood Didn’t Mishandle Fetal Tissue
By
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/us/planned-parenthood-fetal-tissue-missouri.html?ref=us

An investigation by the attorney general’s office in Missouri has found no evidence that a Planned Parenthood clinic in the state illegally handled fetal tissue.

The conclusions of the attorney general, Chris Koster, were released a day before the organization called for a nationwide demonstration on Tuesday called “National Pink Out Day” to rally support after recent controversy over undercover videos by abortion opponents.

Mr. Koster’s office said in a report released on Monday that it had been asked by Missouri residents and lawmakers to investigate Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis clinic, the only one in the state licensed to perform surgical abortions.

The request to look into practices at the clinic came after the opponents released videos in July that they said showed that Planned Parenthood nationwide illegally handled and disposed of fetal tissue.Planned Parenthood has repeatedly denied the claims made in the videos, which were made surreptitiously by an anti-abortion group called the Center for Medical Progress and released during the summer.

The Missouri attorney general’s report said that it reviewed more than 3,500 pages of documents and conducted multiple interviews of representatives at the clinic and the pathology laboratory. The 47-page report included copies of lab reports and waste-disposal tracking documents.

It said the investigation covered 317 surgical abortions that took place in June, a month that was chosen because the procedures happened before the release of the videos in July.

“As a result of our investigation, the Office of the Missouri Attorney General has found no evidence that PPSLR has engaged in unlawful disposal of fetal organs and tissue,” the report said, using the abbreviation of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region.

Planned Parenthood, which provides an array of health services, including abortions, through clinics and affiliates nationwide, is under criticism over the use of aborted fetal tissue that it provides for medical research.

Led by Republicans, many in Congress want to cut off all federal funding to the organization, and some lawmakers have threatened to shut down the federal government in order to do so.

The president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, appeared before Congress on Tuesday in her first testimony since the undercover videos emerged. In an opinion piece published in The Huffington Post before her testimony, Ms. Richards said the claims by the activists in the heavily edited videos were “false and discredited.”

On Monday, Planned Parenthood sued Utah’s governor for directing state agencies to discontinue their contracts with the health care provider after the videos were released, Reuters reported.
 *---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

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

5) How Many Deaths Did Volkswagen’s Deception Cause in the U.S.?
"The impact of smog and soot pollution on global health is substantial: A recent paper by Jos Lelieveld, at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany, and colleagues estimated that air pollution causes some three million premature deaths a year, and that the number of deaths could more than double by 2050. ...The part of the country that has probably experienced the most harm from the Volkswagen fraud is California, which already has the worst air quality in the nation. About 7,200 premature deaths a year are caused by air pollution there, according to the California Air Resources Board, and 73 percent of the state’s population, or 28 million people, live in counties with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution."
By

Volkswagen’s diesel deception unleashed tons of extra pollutants in the United States, pollutants that can harm human health. So while many commentators have been quick to say that the cheating engines are not a highway safety concern, safety — as in health — is still an issue.Unlike the ignition defect in General Motors vehicles that caused at least 124 people to die in car crashes, Volkswagen pollution is harder to link to individual deaths. But it is clear to public health researchers that the air pollutants the cars illegally emitted damage health, and they have formulas for the number of lives lost from excess pollution in general. Indeed, the Environmental Protection Agency uses its own estimates of the health effects of air pollution to create its regulations of what’s allowed. After consulting with several experts in modeling the health effects of air pollutants, we calculated a death toll in the United States that, at its upper range, isn’t far off from that caused by the G.M. defect.

Volkswagen said last week that it had installed software that deceived emissions tests in 11 million diesel cars, allowing the vehicles to emit far more pollutants than regulations allowed. Our estimates examine only the impact on public health in the United States, but it’s clear the negative effects were probably substantially higher in Europe, where the cars are much more common.

The chemicals that spewed illegally from the Volkswagen diesel cars — known as nitrogen oxides or NOx — have been linked to a host of respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, as well as premature deaths. Nitrogen oxides are a byproduct of burning fossil fuels at high temperature, whether in cars, power plants or other machines like industrial boilers. The chemicals can be harmful to humans, and in warm, sunny conditions, they can also turn into ground-level ozone, or smog, and unhealthy particle pollution.

Nitrogen dioxide and ozone irritate the lungs, increasing airway inflammation, coughing and wheezing, and can lower resistance to respiratory illness like influenza, especially with long-term exposure. The chemicals can also worsen the suffering and risk of serious illness or premature death for those with conditions like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Older people, who are more likely to have these ailments, are particularly vulnerable.

The impact of smog and soot pollution on global health is substantial: A recent paper by Jos Lelieveld, at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany, and colleagues estimated that air pollution causes some three million premature deaths a year, and that the number of deaths could more than double by 2050.

The American Lung Association estimates that nearly 41 percent of Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone. And that’s with reductions brought about by national air quality standards and regulation. Between 1980 and 2014, the E.P.A. estimates that nitrogen dioxide levels in the air fell by more than half. The Obama administration has stepped up its regulation of emissions from power plants and tightened standards for vehicles. A still tougher ozone standard is expected next month.

The part of the country that has probably experienced the most harm from the Volkswagen fraud is California, which already has the worst air quality in the nation. About 7,200 premature deaths a year are caused by air pollution there, according to the California Air Resources Board, and 73 percent of the state’s population, or 28 million people, live in counties with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution.

California also has the largest number of diesel passenger cars — some 50,000 of them, said Dave Clegern, a spokesman for the state’s air resources board, which regulates air quality in the state. Regulation has helped, Mr. Clegern said, but “we still have a significant problem.” Regulations are developed with automakers at the table, he said, and “in order to do that, you have to have a level of trust.” Regarding the Volkswagen deception, he said, “This kind of thing is, to say the least, absolutely no help.”

The potential damage of technologies like the “defeat device” that allowed Volkswagen to evade pollution rules since late 2008 is substantial. Volkswagen diesel cars represent fewer than 1 percent of cars on the road in the United States. But if every car — gasoline, diesel and electric hybrid — exceeded the legal limits by a similar amount, the consequences for air pollution and human health would be significant.

“Beijing comes to mind,” said Paul Billings, a senior vice president at the American Lung Association.

To estimate the harm in the United States, we used two different scientific models for the effects of nitrogen oxide pollution on human health.

One comes from a sort of natural experiment, when new regulations on power plant pollution caused some counties, but not others, to cut back on nitrogen oxide pollution. The counties subject to regulation reduced their nitrogen oxides emissions by 350 tons a year.

A team of three researchers — Olivier Deschenes, Joseph S. Shapiro and Michael Greenstone — looked at the mortality rates and medical spending before and after the change. In a working paper, they found the reduced pollution was responsible for about five fewer deaths for every 100,000 people in the affected counties each year, as well as for a decrease in spending on prescription drugs. Most of the seemingly excess deaths in the higher pollution regions occurred among older Americans, though other health issues affected the young as well as the old.

The estimated Volkswagen pollution, about 46,000 tons since late 2008, is the equivalent of about 4 percent of the power plant pollution reduction they measured, meaning it could be expected to cause an estimated 106 deaths if it had similar effects.We ran this projection by Mr. Greenstone, a professor of economics and director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, and a contributor to The Upshot. He said it seemed sensible as an estimate, but “the magnifying glass is really close.”

Noelle Eckley Selin, an associate professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at M.I.T., ran the numbers a slightly different way. She looked at the mortality effects of the particulate pollution produced by nitrogen oxides, using the numbers the Environmental Protection Agency uses to make health estimates. Her method brought the effects to about 40 additional deaths over the period, in addition to some other nonfatal health consequences. That probably undercounts the impact, though, since it does not consider the effects of direct nitrogen oxide pollution or smog.

Now for all the caveats. Our estimates for the amount of nitrogen oxide pollution are back-of-the-envelope. We relied on data from Kelley Blue Book on the number of Volkswagen diesel cars registered each year, and we applied a standard number of miles driven by each car, based on a government average, to arrive at a total number of vehicle-miles traveled.

The E.P.A. has said that the vehicles emitted up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxides. But earlier research suggests that the pollution levels ranged widely among the vehicles and their driving conditions. We looked at 39 times the legal standard, but that may be a high assumption. (If you want to estimate the effects for emissions at, say, 29 times the legal limit, you can adjust our numbers down accordingly.)

Because smog is worse in the summer, Mr. Greenstone recommended that we look at pollution from five months each year. Ms. Selin’s approach was based on year-round pollution levels.

Of course, modeling the health effects of tailpipe emissions is more complicated than the sort of straight multiplication we have employed in both methods. The harm from nitrogen oxide pollution depends on how close people are to roads, as well as on topography and weather patterns. People who live in large cities, or near major roads, tend to experience disproportionate harm. Other news organizations, including Vox and The Guardian, have calculated slightly different estimates of the amount of pollution and the resulting harm.

Don Anair, deputy director of the vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the precise effect of the Volkswagen fraud would require intense and complex computation.

Still, he cautioned against taking the view that the Volkswagens have reversed the progress with pollution from automobiles. Since the standards went into effect from 2004 to 2009, he said, emissions of nitrogen oxides have been 90 percent lower. “It’s not like this is going to offset the majority of the benefits of these standards,” he said. “But there will be some impact, and we need to get a better handle on it.”


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

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

6) Florida: Officer Killed Man Who Bit Him, Police Say
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS



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

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

7) New York City Bar Association Urges Reduction of Mass Incarceration in Report
By TATIANA SCHLOSSBERG

The New York City Bar Association released a report on Monday urging federal and state leaders to “make the reduction of mass incarceration a top priority.”

Titled “Mass Incarceration: Seizing the Moment for Reform,” the report offers several recommendations for changing sentencing laws and other policies on the state and federal levels, including repealing or reducing mandatory minimum terms, reducing sentences for nonviolent offenses and providing sentencing alternatives to prison.

Judge Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court in Manhattan, who is a member of the City Bar Association’s executive committee, said in an interview on Sunday, “Judges did not make the laws that have led to mass incarceration, but we have had to implement them and we have seen firsthand, therefore, some of the terrible results.”

He added, “We have a role to play in trying to make the public aware of problems in the criminal justice system in our country that we as judges see and participate in every day of our lives.”

Politicians from both major parties, legal scholars and activists have recognized mass incarceration as a critical criminal justice issue, especially after police shootings in Ferguson, Mo., and other places, where protesters have repeatedly made connections between racially concentrated policing, the biases of the criminal justice system and mass incarceration.

Over the years, the number of prison sentences and their lengths have increased for both violent and nonviolent offenses, even as crime rates have dropped. This is largely a result of mandatory minimum terms for certain offenses, such as drug convictions, though there are other contributing factors, the report said.

The report also includes many statistics that point out the cost, both human and economic, of certain criminal justice policies. In the United States, more than two million people are imprisoned, including those in local jails — a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

The report also highlights the racial disparities of incarceration: One in 35 African-American men and one in 88 Latino men are in prison, and African-American men are six times more likely than white men to be behind bars. Since 1970, the report states, the prison population has increased fourfold, costing taxpayers $260 billion every year.

“It is heart-rending to see case after case of young black males who are, because of the severe laws that we have, going to be ripped from their families and often spend some of the most formative years of their lives in prison with devastating effects on them, on their families and on the communities as a whole,” Judge Rakoff said.

The City Bar Association is also creating a task force comprising defense lawyers, prosecutors, judges and others to continue to examine the issue.

The bar association has often weighed in on laws and policies that affect New York State and the city, and Judge Rakoff is among several sitting judges who have offered opinions on mass incarceration.

New York City has also emerged as a leader in the effort to reduce prison populations, mostly through its system of drug courts for dealing with nonviolent offenses that often sends people to rehabilitation programs rather than to prison, Judge Rakoff said. He added that New York is not the only city or municipality with these drug courts.

Though advocates and scholars who study the issue said Judge Rakoff’s stance was symbolic and important, they saw a need for more direct engagement.

Alyssa Aguilera, a political director for VOCAL-NY, an advocacy organization for low-income people affected by H.I.V. and AIDS, the drug war and mass incarceration, said that while it was a positive development to see recognition of the issue at many levels, “ultimately, the way that we are able to see change is through our legislative process and through policy shifts in the city, state and nationwide.”

Heather Ann Thompson, a historian at the University of Michigan who studies mass imprisonment and served on the National Academy of Science’s blue ribbon panel on its causes and consequences, said that the focus on sentencing guidelines was important, but that more attention needed to be paid to re-entry programs and addressing the fallout of mass incarceration.

Additionally, she said, Americans should not forget that mass imprisonment is a political product: “Through the politicians we elected, we chose the disastrous policies that led to the crisis of mass incarceration.

“We didn’t need to do it because of historically remarkable crime rates. We chose it, so we must now unchoose it.”


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

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

8) As Banks Retreat, Private Equity Rushes to Buy Troubled Home Mortgages
"Housing advocates and lawyers for borrowers contend that the private equity firms and hedge funds are too quick to push homes into foreclosure and are even less helpful than the banks had been in negotiating loan modifications with borrowers. Federal and state lawmakers are taking up the issue, questioning why federal agencies are selling loans at a discount of as much as 30 percent to such firms."
By

Private equity and hedge fund firms have bought more than 100,000 troubled mortgages at a discount from banks and federal housing agencies, emerging as aggressive liquidators for the remains of the mortgage crisis that erupted nearly a decade ago.

As the housing market nationwide recovers, this is a dark corner from which banks, stung by hefty penalties for bungling mortgage modifications and foreclosures, have retreated. Federal housing officials, for the most part, have welcomed the new financial players as being more nimble and creative than banks with terms for delinquent borrowers.

But the firms are now drawing fire. Housing advocates and lawyers for borrowers contend that the private equity firms and hedge funds are too quick to push homes into foreclosure and are even less helpful than the banks had been in negotiating loan modifications with borrowers. Federal and state lawmakers are taking up the issue, questioning why federal agencies are selling loans at a discount of as much as 30 percent to such firms.

One company has emerged as a lightning rod, criticized by housing advocates and lawyers for borrowers, but admired by investors: Lone Star Funds, a $60 billion private equity firm founded in 1995 by John Grayken. In just a few years, Lone Star’s mortgage servicing firm, Caliber Home Loans, has grown from a bit player to a major force in the market for distressed mortgages.

An examination by The New York Times of housing data and court filings, as well as interviews with borrowers, lawyers and housing advocates, revealed a pattern of complaints that Lone Star was quick to begin foreclosure proceedings, whether the firm had bought a delinquent mortgage at a federal auction or directly from a bank.

Take Charles and Pamela Hubbard of Sacramento. They briefly lost their home when Lone Star’s Caliber subsidiary dealt harshly with their request for a loan modification. The couple said they had submitted the application to reduce their monthly mortgage payments four days before a planned foreclosure sale, but the Lone Star subsidiary said the Hubbards had been late in completing the application and pushed ahead with the sale.

Within a month, the three-bedroom house that the Hubbards had lived in for two decades was auctioned off to another affiliate of Lone Star with the right to resell it later. The foreclosure was rescinded only after the couple went to court.

Caliber declined to comment on individual borrowers, but it said that in general, it was “committed to providing the best possible service to all borrowers, and identifying solutions that allow troubled borrowers to continue to pay their mortgages and stay in their homes is our top priority.” It said it had one of the highest loan modification rates in the industry.

Another window into how Caliber and Lone Star operate can be seen in a rare look into one of Lone Star’s biggest deals — a bundle of 17,000 distressed mortgages that had an unpaid balance of $2.96 billion.

With money from public pension funds, Lone Star bought those mortgages in the summer of 2014 at an auction held by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The loans were originally underwritten before the financial crisis by banks like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, with insurance guarantees from the Federal Housing Administration.

The list of those mortgages was provided to The Times by the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, which obtained them through a Freedom of Information Act request.

HUD rules barred Lone Star from foreclosing on most of the mortgages it had acquired until early March. But since then, the firm has picked up the pace of foreclosures, an analysis showed.

As of the end of August, Lone Star and Caliber had foreclosed on at least 1,500 of those formerly F.H.A.-guaranteed mortgages — or 9 percent of the pool, according to an analysis of the home addresses performed by RealtyTrac, a foreclosure tracking service. Many of the foreclosed homes are clustered in Florida, Ohio, New Jersey, California and Texas.

A majority of the homes foreclosed on by Caliber have been bought back by another Lone Star affiliate at either a trustee or sheriff’s auction. The private equity firm is looking to resell the homes, and many can be found on Zillow, an online real estate listing service.

Moving Fast in Ohio

This foreclosure push was felt by John P. Glynn and his wife, Tammy, of Gahanna, Ohio. They were working with JPMorgan Chase on a loan modification when their mortgage was sold to Lone Star in last summer’s HUD auction.

After Caliber took over the handling of the Glynns’ mortgage, the talks that had been going on with JPMorgan over a modification ended. Caliber filed a lawsuit in February seeking to foreclose on the loan.

“I got the impression they didn’t want to work anything out,” said Mr. Glynn, an industrial engineer.

Caliber is now working toward reaching a settlement with the Glynns.

The firm said it had modified or restructured loans for 2,300 delinquent borrowers in the HUD pool. It noted that modifications were outpacing foreclosures and that it expected “the number of successful modifications to continue to increase over time.”

The number of foreclosures can be expected to rise as well.

In February, a HUD report analyzing the status of some of the 79,000 soured mortgages it sold over the last five years — including those bought by Lone Star — reported that 20 percent of the mortgages had been foreclosed, 9 percent had been restructured and 6.4 percent had been resold to other firms or investors. Borrowers remained delinquent on about half the loans.

In addition to Lone Star, other private equity firms have emerged as big buyers of troubled mortgages from federal agencies and banks. They include Bayview Asset Management, an affiliate of Blackstone Group, and Selene Investment Partners.

These firms have swarmed into troubled mortgages because they can squeeze profits from these loans by either restructuring them or by foreclosing on them and then repackaging the distressed loans into bonds that are sold to mutual funds and hedge funds.

Private equity’s push into the distressed mortgage market has produced some benefits. Thousands of homes that were abandoned by borrowers are now back on the market. In the HUD sales, about 10 percent of homes were vacant, according to the February report.

Still, housing advocates argue that federal housing agencies should make it easier for nonprofit organizations to have a better chance to compete for troubled mortgages, believing that these groups would work harder to avoid foreclosures.

Representative Michael E. Capuano, a Massachusetts Democrat, wrote this year to Julian Castro, the HUD secretary, expressing concern that nonprofit housing groups were too often losing out to private equity firms in the bidding for distressed mortgages.

In his letter, Mr. Capuano, who singled out Lone Star, said the HUD sales “may turn out to be an efficient new mechanism for increasing evictions.”

The tendency to act quickly on foreclosures is, in part, by design.

The acquisition of distressed mortgages by Lone Star is the engine in a well-oiled securitization machine that assumes that foreclosure and resale of the homes are inevitable components of the process. In these securitizations, many of the soured loans are bundled into bonds that yield up to 4 percent. They are then sold to hedge funds and mutual funds.

The short-term securities generate income for investors from the proceeds derived from foreclosing on the mortgages and then selling the homes on the open market. Last year, Lone Star sold 17 such securitizations, with a combined unpaid loan balance of $10 billion, and the firm is on pace to complete a similar number of deals this year, according to Intex Solutions, a securitization deal tracking service.

A confidential offering document for one of these Lone Star deals — named VOLT 2015 NPL, a transaction backed by 4,895 delinquent mortgages — indicates that the firm considers foreclosure and sale of the homes the most likely outcome for a majority of the loans.

The offering statement, reviewed by The Times, says “payments on the notes are expected to largely come from liquidation and sale proceeds, although there are expected to be collections each month from monthly payments by mortgagors.”

The document notes that about 9 percent of the mortgages were part of the pool of loans purchased from HUD.

Lone Star and other private equity buyers contend that many of the foreclosures involve homes that have been abandoned by borrowers, or loans beyond hope. The private equity firms also maintain that foreclosures are less profitable than modifications because the process is costly and time-consuming, and the homeowners are not making any payments for years at a time.

Federal housing officials reject much of the criticism of their sales of loans to firms like Lone Star, noting that many of the borrowers have not made a mortgage payment in three years. The private buyers, officials say, often represent borrowers’ last, best hope of striking a deal that can keep them in their homes. HUD officials also point out that the loan sales have reduced the obligation of the F.H.A. insurance program to guarantee mortgages against default, saving billions in the process.

In a letter in May responding to the criticism from Mr. Capuano, the Massachusetts congressman, Erika L. Moritsugu, a HUD assistant secretary, said the program was “putting the loans in the hands of purchasers motivated to help a borrower reperform.”

She said the private buyers were expected to reduce the principal owed by a borrower because “that is often the best way to help someone who is multiple years in arrears” and “headed for foreclosure.”

Nonetheless, in response to the criticism, HUD recently increased the period during which a private buyer cannot foreclose on homes to 12 months from six months, and it sought to create smaller pools of loans to give nonprofits a better chance at submitting winning bids.

While HUD has hoped that buyers of its loans will seek to reduce permanently the principal or debt owed by a borrower, Caliber tends not to do so.

In the first half of 2015, Fitch Ratings said of the loans it had reviewed, Caliber had not completed any modifications that included permanent principal reductions.

Instead, Caliber generally offers to modify loans for five years, during which a borrower makes either reduced monthly payments or simply pays interest on the loan. But those modifications revert to their original payment terms in the sixth year, sometimes with any deferred unpaid principal or unpaid interest added to the back end of the loan.

Short-Term Relief

Such deals provide short-term relief to borrowers but do not provide a permanent remedy for homeowners short of cash.

George Velazquez, 51, an auto appraiser who lives on Staten Island with his wife, Evelyn, said there was no room to negotiate with Caliber when it presented him with a five-year interest-only mortgage modification after Lone Star bought their loan from HSBC.

Diane Cipollone, a lawyer and a consultant to the National Fair Housing Alliance, said these kinds of modifications simply delay the inevitable and do not present “good odds for any of these borrowers to keep their homes when the temporary modifications expire.”

Phillip Harris, 62, who has black lung disease, has lived for more than 40 years in a three-story building in San Francisco that doubles as his home and a boardinghouse. Caliber threatened to foreclose on the mortgage a few months after Lone Star bought the loan from Bank of America and scheduled a sale of the property for March 19.

Mr. Harris sent in an application for a loan modification — a move that under California law would stop the foreclosure process. But because the documents were not yet in Caliber’s computer system, the firm said it intended to go ahead with the foreclosure and sale of the house.

About a week before the trustee sale, Mr. Harris and his lawyer, Tiffany Norman, said they called Caliber and spoke with an employee who identified herself only as Katrina. On the recorded call, Mr. Harris and his lawyer repeatedly told the Caliber employee that the application had been submitted.

“We definitely don’t doubt you guys sent that in,” the Caliber employee said during the phone call, a recording of which was produced in litigation. But the employee said there was nothing she could do to stop the sale because it took five to seven days for an application to be “uploaded into” Caliber’s system.

Ms. Norman went to court and got a temporary restraining order against Caliber. A few weeks ago, a Caliber lawyer approached Ms. Norman about a potential settlement.

Formerly known as Vericrest Financial, Caliber has grown rapidly. Today it manages more than 327,465 mortgages with a combined value of just over $71 billion. Some of Caliber’s growth has come from Lone Star’s steering of standard mortgage origination business to the firm by requiring prospective buyers of the foreclosed homes it puts up for sale to be prequalified for a mortgage from Caliber.

As Caliber has grown, so have the customer complaints. More than 1,000 complaints have been lodged with the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with complaints running 54 percent higher than a year ago, the agency reports. Caliber said in an email that the modifications it had made had reduced the average borrower’s monthly payments more than 20 percent.

“A collaborative solution that turns a nonperforming loan into a performing loan is not only the best outcome for homeowners, but it is the most attractive economic outcome for the long-term oriented investors who own the mortgages,” Caliber said.

Help From the Court

In the case of the Hubbards, it took court action to get Lone Star and Caliber to work with them.

Lone Star bought the loan on their three-bedroom home in Sacramento from Beneficial Financial, a division of HSBC, in the summer of 2014 for an undisclosed sum.

Soon after buying the mortgage, which had an unpaid balance of $300,000, Caliber and Lone Star moved to foreclose. The sale of the home on Jan. 20 sent the couple running to court. They argued that the sale took place even as Caliber employees said they were trying to “find a way to escalate the submission.”

After the Hubbards sued, Caliber and the couple began negotiating. In May, they agreed to a short-term modification that would reduce the Hubbards’ monthly payments on the mortgage by several hundred dollars, to $1,953 for the next five years.

Caliber filed a formal notice with county officials on May 29 that rescinded the sale of the home to Lone Star.While the matter was resolved, it could have turned out differently if a buyer not affiliated with Lone Star had stepped in to buy the home.

“I don’t know why they went through with it because it just didn’t make any sense,” said Mr. Hubbard, 64, a civilian employee with the Army. “Maybe people who get into these situations are categorized as no good, and they simply don’t want to deal with them.”

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

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

9) Judge Allows Class-Action Suit Over Mississippi Prison Conditions
By

Inmates at a privately run Mississippi prison where, they say, guards arranged for prisoners to attack one another, ignored fires set by inmates to signal distress, and allowed prisoners to trade whiskey and cellphones will be permitted to file a class-action lawsuit against the facility, a federal court judge ruled this week.

The judge, William H. Barbour Jr., granted the request by inmates at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility in Meridian on Tuesday in their lawsuit against the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

Judge Barbour wrote in his opinion that there was sufficient evidence that the prison had failed to appropriately address complaints that inmates were being denied “adequate food, shelter, medical and mental health care, and safety.”

Further, the judge wrote that evidence, including inmate statements, showed that prisoners had been subjected to “unreasonable harm from other inmates and from prison staff who routinely use excessive force.”

As part of the evidence reviewed by Judge Barbour, a captain at the prison said in a deposition that prisoner-on-prisoner violence was commonplace, that corrections officers were poorly trained, and that guards facilitated inmate violence by opening cell doors and then failed to intervene when prisoners were assaulted.

But Judge Barbour wrote that for the inmates to prevail in the lawsuit, they must prove that prison officials were aware of the potential for harm that the conditions in the facility created and did not take reasonable measures to abate them.

The company that operates the prison, the Management & Training Corporation, based in Utah, also runs another Mississippi prison, the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility, which is under federal court oversight for conditions including severe and systematic violence against inmates.

Issa Arnita, a company spokesman, referred questions to the Mississippi Department of Corrections. A spokeswoman for the department, Grace Simmons Fisher, said, “We are prepared to defend the case as one lawsuit on its merits in court.”

The inmates are being represented by several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Margaret Winter, associate director of the A.C.L.U.’s National Prison Project, said Thursday that substandard conditions at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility had existed for years.

“We hope that the state will reconsider the wisdom of counting on a profit-motivated industry to run the prisons humanely and safely,” she said.

At the East Mississippi Correctional Facility, about 70 percent of the 1,200 inmates have some form of mental illness, advocates say. Inmates there say that they are punished for seeking medical care, that toilets often do not work and frequently overflow, and that some inmates live in near-total darkness because light bulbs are not replaced.

To attract the attention of corrections officers, prisoners who live in solitary confinement units set fires that the guards sometimes allow to burn out. The inmates use contraband matches or loose wires to set the blazes.


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

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

10) California: Planned Parenthood Clinic Attacked
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS



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

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

11) State’s Chief Judge, Citing ‘Injustice,’ Lays Out Plans to Alter Bail System
By

New York State’s chief judge announced a series of administrative changes on Thursday intended to reduce the number of people who are incarcerated for long periods before trial because they cannot make bail.

The judge, Jonathan Lippman, who will retire at the end of the year, has been a longtime advocate for overhauling the bail law in New York, but his proposed bill failed to gain traction in the State Legislature for the last two years.

In a breakfast speech in Manhattan to the Citizens Crime Commission, Judge Lippman said the judiciary could no longer wait for lawmakers to act to address a system he said punishes people for being poor. He said he would take several steps within the current legal framework to urge judges to set bail low enough that defendants could await trial at home, or to use alternatives to cash bail, like electronic monitoring.“Defendants who are unable to post bail serve a sentence before their cases are ever resolved,” Judge Lippman said. “They do so regardless of innocence or guilt, and the harm that this injustice causes is intolerable.”

The judge said the human cost of the bail system was brought into sharp focus in June by the suicide of Kalief Browder, 22, who as a teenager spent three years at Rikers Island, much of it in solitary confinement, awaiting trial on a charge he had stolen a backpack. His bail was set at $3,000, a sum he could not pay, and it was revoked entirely two and a half months later.

Bronx prosecutors eventually dismissed the case because the victim had left the country. But in the meantime, Mr. Browder’s schooling and social life were derailed, his psyche was shattered and he slipped into a deep depression.

Mr. Browder was among approximately 50,000 people jailed each year in New York City because they cannot come up with enough cash or have too little property to secure a bail bond. More than half of those defendants remain in jail for the duration of their cases, which can drag on for more than a year when the accusation is serious. Four out of 10 people on Rikers Island are there because they cannot afford bail.

“Far too many people are trapped in pretrial detention simply because they are poor,” Judge Lippman said. He said being in jail before trial “can tear apart the very fabric of people’s lives.” It often forces people to lose income, fall behind on rent, lose their jobs or forgo education.

For starters, Judge Lippman said, he would set up an automatic review of all bail determinations made at arraignment in criminal court, appointing a judge in each borough to take a second look at those decisions within 10 days to see if bail should be reduced.

For felonies, Judge Lippman said he would order judges to periodically review the strength of the prosecution’s case and the people’s readiness to go to trial. The judge would then consider lowering or eliminating bail if the case has weakened. These reviews might avert another tragedy like the death of Mr. Browder, he said.

“In the Kalief Browder case, there were numerous adjournments, one after another,” he said. “It was not until three years into the case that a judge, after pressing the prosecutor and proactively seeking to resolve the case, learned that the prosecution had lost contact with its key witness.”

Judge Lippman said he was also starting a program in Manhattan that would allow judges to use electronic supervision through bracelets linked to smartphones as an alternative to cash bail.

Finally, the judge said, he would retrain judges and encourage them to employ several less onerous kinds of bail that are available under the current law, passed in 1970.

That law provides for nine kinds of bail bonds, allowing defendants and their families, for instance, to use a credit card to post bail or to pay 10 percent of the bail directly to the court and sign a promise to pay the rest.

In practice, however, judges use only two types of bail — cash or insurance company bail bonds. Judge Lippman said he would step up training for judges and clerks about the alternatives.

He pointed out other jurisdictions, like Washington, that have established alternatives to cash bail. “Make no mistake, in my view, the ultimate goal may well be to end our reliance on cash bail in New York,” he said. He added, “It is fundamentally unfair for a person’s liberty to be all about how much money you have.”

Public defenders applauded Judge Lippman’s plans. Robin Steinberg, executive director of the Bronx Defenders, said the automatic reviews of bail decisions would hold arraignment judges accountable for their decisions and give defense lawyers more time to make a case for lower bail.

Justine M. Luongo, who oversees criminal practice for the Legal Aid Society, agreed, saying such reviews in criminal court, where low-level offenses are handled, could significantly reduce the jail population.

Most impoverished defendants facing misdemeanor charges cannot afford bail and many plead guilty to avoid jail and go home, she said. “For our clients, $500 might as well be a million,” she said.

The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said he supported Judge Lippman’s efforts, but he said one of the biggest hindrances to resolving cases quickly was a shortage of judges, especially in criminal court. “It’s like trying to push a swamp through a pinhole,” he said.

Nicholas Turner, the president of the Vera Institute of Justice, said the state was still relying on cash bail to ensure defendants do not skip town, rather than modern risk-assessment surveys and other tools for determining who is likely to return to court. Changing the underlying system, he said, would require legislation.

“We are still operating in a structure that fundamentally needs to be changed down the road,” he said. “We know we have a statute that is outmoded.”


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

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

12) Airstrike Hits Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Afghanistan"The hospital treated the wounded from all sides of the conflict, a policy that has long irked the Afghan security forces. ...Doctors Without Borders said at least nine members of its staff and seven patients, including three children, had been killed and 37 wounded, 19 of them hospital staff members. ...In a statement, the aid group, also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières, or M.S.F., accused the American military of continuing the bombing for 30 minutes after receiving phone calls telling military contacts that the hospital was being bombed. “All parties to the conflict including in Kabul and Washington, were clearly informed of the precise location [GPS Coordinates] of the M.S.F. facilities – hospital, guesthouse, office,” the statement said."
By


KABUL, Afghanistan — A United States airstrike appeared to have badly damaged a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in the Afghan city of Kunduz early Saturday, killing at least 16 people, including patients and staff, and wounding dozens.

The United States military, in a statement, confirmed the 2:15 a.m. airstrike, saying that it had been targeting individuals “who were threatening the force” and that “there may have been collateral damage to a nearby medical facility.”

Accounts differed as to whether there had been fighting around the hospital that might have precipitated the strike. Two hospital employees, an aide who was wounded in the bombing and a nurse who emerged unscathed, said that there had been no active fighting nearby and no Taliban fighters inside the hospital.

A Kunduz police spokesman, Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, insisted that Taliban fighters had entered the hospital and were using it as a firing position.The hospital treated the wounded from all sides of the conflict, a policy that has long irked the Afghan security forces.

Video posted Saturday morning of the hospital grounds showed fires still burning, blackened walls, and, in one building, a collapsed ceiling. One side of one building appeared to be pockmarked by bullets or possibly shrapnel, suggesting that there could have been fighting there. But it was impossible to tell whether the marks were new or not.

Doctors Without Borders said at least nine members of its staff and seven patients, including three children, had been killed and 37 wounded, 19 of them hospital staff members. The group described the hospital as “very badly damaged.”

In a statement, the aid group, also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières, or M.S.F., accused the American military of continuing the bombing for 30 minutes after receiving phone calls telling military contacts that the hospital was being bombed. “All parties to the conflict including in Kabul and Washington, were clearly informed of the precise location [GPS Coordinates] of the M.S.F. facilities – hospital, guesthouse, office,” the statement said.

“M.S.F. urgently seeks clarity on exactly what took place and how this terrible event could have happened,” the group added.

A military spokeswoman in Kabul, Susan Harrington, said that because the investigation was still underway, it was not possible to comment .

The nurse, who asked not to be identified because he had instructions not to speak to reporters, said that two other nurses at the hospital had been killed by severe burns from the fires set off by the bombs. “Most of my colleagues died in the fire after the bombing,” he said.

“When the bombing occurred, we were treating patients; then we lost our way, everyone stumbled and fumbled to escape,” the nurse said. “I don’t even remember how I got out.”

Doctors Without Borders said 105 patients and caretakers had been at the hospital, along with 80 staff members. The hospital was “partially destroyed” in the bombing, the group said, adding that it had been “hit several times.”

An airstrike from a fixed-wing aircraft can include more than one bomb directed at the same target. Similarly, if an attack is carried out by helicopters, soldiers may fire multiple rounds at a single target. The Afghan Army has been using helicopters to attack targets in Kunduz, and a spokesman for the Afghan army brigade in Kunduz, Ghulam Hazrat, said Afghan helicopters were “maneuvering and targeting enemies last night.”

The director of public health for Kunduz Province, Saad Mukhtar, said that about 40 to 50 wounded patients had been rescued and taken to the regional hospital, which is also in the city of Kunduz.

The International Committee of the Red Cross condemned the bombing.

“This is an appalling tragedy,” said Jean-Nicolas Marti, the head of the organization’s delegation in Afghanistan. “Such attacks against health workers and facilities undermine the capacity of humanitarian organizations to assist the Afghan people at a time when they most urgently need it.”

Kunduz has been the scene of heavy fighting since Thursday, when Afghan government security forces began a counterattack on the Taliban, which captured the city on Monday.

Among the dead was the Afghan head of the hospital, Abdul Sattar, the resident said. Both foreign and Afghan staff worked there.

Although the hospital was overwhelmed in recent days by civilians wounded in the fighting, and was running short of supplies, staff members continued to work. Early on, the Taliban had respected the hospital’s request not to bring weapons inside, according to staff members, and the hospital had been a refuge in the shattered city of Kunduz.

The United States began dropping bombs on the Kunduz area on Tuesday in an effort to aid Afghan forces fighting the Taliban.

The civilian deaths in the Saturday airstrike, and the discrepancies in the accounts of what led to the bombing, were a painful reminder of a pattern that played out again and again in the years before the United States scaled back its role in Afghanistan, as American aircraft trying to strike the Taliban mistakenly hit civilians, frequently killing women, children and the elderly.

Although such mistakes have accounted for a small fraction of civilian deaths in the war, each one has taken on magnified significance in the eyes of many Afghans, because it is the fault of a foreign power. That has done much to alienate the Afghan population, which in turn has hurt the American-led forces and their Afghan government allies.

Civilian casualties from coalition airstrikes have also engendered support for the insurgency. Whatever the Taliban’s atrocities, and there certainly have been many of them, the insurgents do not have aircraft and the devastating capacity to kill from above. Nonetheless, in the first half of 2015, a United Nations report says, the Taliban and other antigovernment forces were responsible for 70 percent of civilian casualties.

In 2012, after years of American strikes that hit wedding parties, villages filled with women and children, and even, in 2011, nine young boys gathering firewood on a mountainside in Kunduz Province, the American military reached an agreement with Hamid Karzai, then the president, to sharply limit the circumstances in which air support was used, and to avoid population centers and Afghan homes almost entirely.

At the time, exceptions were allowed for extraordinary circumstances, for instance, when Afghan government forces requested help. It was unclear whether those rules remained in place. However, the United States military was careful to say on Saturday that it had dropped only two bombs in Kunduz since the city fell to the Taliban: one airstrike took place earlier this week, and the second apparently struck the hospital on Saturday.

The United Nations says that 19,368 civilians have been killed in fighting in Afghanistan since 2009, when the world body began to keep detailed statistics. Nearly 33,300 have been wounded.

Jawad Sukhanyar and Ahmad Shakib contributed from Kabul and an employee of the New York Times contributed from Baghlan Province.


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

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

13) Greece: A Record Number of Migrants Come Ashore
By


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

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

14) Oklahoma Appellate Court Stays Execution for 3 Inmates
By

HOUSTON — An Oklahoma appellate court agreed with state officials on Friday to postpone the executions of three inmates in October and November after the scheduled execution of one of the inmates was stopped on Wednesday because of a problem with one of the lethal-injection drugs.

The order by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals granted an indefinite stay for the three inmates, and it came the day after Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma’s attorney general, asked the court to delay the executions while his office investigated what went wrong this week. The scheduled execution of Richard E. Glossip on Wednesday at a state prison in McAlester, Okla., was halted by Gov. Mary Fallin after prison officials realized that a supplier had sent them the wrong drug.

Potassium chloride, which stops the heart, was supposed to be used by the state Department of Corrections as part of its three-drug protocol, but the execution team instead received potassium acetate from the drug supplier, which the officials did not identify. The sealed box arrived the day of the execution, and officials did not notice the mistake until they opened it two hours before Mr. Glossip was set to die.

Mr. Pruitt said in a statement that the families of the inmates’ victims “deserve to know, and all Oklahomans need to know, with certainty, that the system is working as intended.”

Mr. Glossip’s execution had been rescheduled for Nov. 6, but the court’s decision on Friday will postpone it indefinitely, and also postpone the Oct. 7 execution of Benjamin R. Cole and the Oct. 28 execution of John M. Grant. The court instructed the state to file status reports every 30 days while the stay remains in effect.



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

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

15) The Transport Workers Solidarity Committee is deeply saddened to hear about the passing of our past member and comrade, Eugene (Gino) Pepi.
Via Email
October 3, 2015

Gino's family were immigrants from Italy who became part of the trade union movement, and Gino was a working-class militant his entire life. As a member of ATU 1555 and long-time BART employee, Gino was a Trotskyist, an internationalist who devoted his life to the political organization of the working class on a revolutionary program.

He was a member of the Morenoist tendency in Argentina, following which he joined the Left Party. He was also active in the Peace and Freedom Party. Based on the respect of his coworkers, Gino ran for and was elected Shop Steward from 1992-2002 and then Vice President of ATU 1555 from 1993-1995.

For Gino, solidarity began from his understanding that the black question was central to a worker's revolution in America. During his tenure as Vice President of ATU 1555, as a member of the Justice for Jerrold Hall Committee, Gino was instrumental in convincing his local to pass a resolution condemning the murder of Jerrold Hall, a young black man who was shot by a BART cop with a shotgun outside of the Hayward BART station. In doing this, he encountered serious resistance from his own union leadership, but also from a significant number of rank-and-file union members who considered BART police to be “fellow workers”. Although Gino was unsuccessful in persuading the union to take job action, the resolution was a step forward for the ATU. Not surprisingly, it provoked an outraged response from the Police Officers Association.

Gino was not afraid to stand up for what was right in the face of criticism. He fought against concession bargaining, and for the workers to take control of their own union. His fight for Jerrold Hall recalls the scathing criticisms he made at a BART Board meeting following the shooting of Oscar Grant, during which he said:

“BART may try to discredit me and the statement I made today. Discredit away. It will not undo the community's justifiable anger, the shooting death of Oscar Grant and the 2 others, not undo the safety consequences for BART workers, nor cleanse the blood BART has on its hands. I encourage all BART employees to speak out.”

He also defended Mumia Abu-Jamal and worked closely with Martina Correia, Troy Davis' sister, to save him from execution.

Gino was one of the initiators of the 1997 six-day BART strike. He worked to organize joint action with other unions, including a mass picket with the ILWU. During the recent 2013 BART strike, Gino worked with the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee to organize the BART workers rally at Oscar Grant Plaza. He defended George Figueroa, one of the strike leaders, when George was framed up by BART management, who were working in conjunction with the ATU leadership to suspend George from work and take him out of the strike. Gino worked alongside us to try to create rank-and-file strike committees in multiple unions, aiming to build a joint strike of transit unions.

These efforts were ultimately defeated through the counterorganizing of the ATU leadership, which expelled its own elected, militant representatives from the bargaining team. Despite this, Gino's leadership was exemplary. He was constantly reminding ATU members that they had the right under the ATU Constitution to challenge their leaders and take control of the strike. For example, here is something he wrote to a coworker.


"[Name removed] Can we picket BART expansion construction sites? EBART, Fremont, Airport connector?


Eugene Pepi Yes, absolutely yes, we can picket the BART extension construction. At the SEIU CAT meeting last Tuesday night SEIU BART chapter officers and negotiators made it clear that their goal is to shut down the extension construction with pickets. That is BART and those construction workers are working for contractors to BART. We are one working class in the same fight at the same place. If we want to win greater solidarity action from the other unions, like the ILWU and the Teamsters, we need to get our union brothers and sisters at ACTransit/ATU192 into action with us.
If the ATU International won't do it, we have to. The beginning of the ATU constitution makes it clear, if you are in the ATU, picket lines and strikes by ATU members means don't cross. We are human beings asking for our brothers and sisters in to take action with us, for all of us. An injury to one is an injury to all and the way to freedom is through organization now! If the corporations want to use the law to break us, we best prepare to break the law. It's how we built our unions and how we won the struggle for civil rights."

Though he never backed down from his principles, Gino had a big heart and never held a grudge. As many of you may know, he loved Zydeco and introduced some of us to it, in between the political meetings, flyering and debates. He loved photography and filmmaking, and was a member of the National Writers Union; he might well have had a screenplay squirreled away someplace. His coworkers all knew and loved him. When he had his illness last year, he was doing what he did best, shooting the breeze with a fellow BART worker at the station.

We remember his life and revolutionary contributions with pride. We are sure that he would join us in saying:

An Injury to One is an Injury to All!
Workers of the World, Unite!


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

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

16) New Data Reveals Stark Gaps in Graduation Rates Between Poor and Wealthy Students
For the first time ever, the public can see the graduation rates for Pell Grant recipients at over 1,000 schools.
By Annie Waldman / Pro Publica
October 2, 2015
http://www.alternet.org/education/new-data-reveals-stark-gaps-graduation-rates-between-poor-and-wealthy-students?akid=13545.229473.M6hekL&rd=1&src=newsletter1043461&t=16
 
A new report released last week provides a detailed look at the graduation rates of low-income college students. At many colleges, low-income students graduate at much lower rates than their high-income peers.

At the University of Missouri-Kansas City, only 35 percent of Pell Grant recipients graduate college, a rate that is more than 20 percentage points lower than that of their wealthier peers. And at St. Andrews, a liberal arts college in Laurinburg, North Carolina, only 13 percent of Pell Grant recipients graduate, more than 50 percentage points less than students who don’t receive the grants.

The study found 51 percent of Pell students graduate nationwide, compared to 65 percent of non-Pell students. The average gap between wealthy and poor students at the same schools is much smaller: an average of 5.7 percentage points. That’s because many Pell students attend schools with low graduation rates. (You can now look up whether poor students are graduating at the same rate as their classmates in our newly updated interactive database, Debt by Degrees.)

Ben Miller, the senior director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress, said that schools with large graduation gaps deserve greater scrutiny.

“Colleges have responsibility to ensure that the students they enroll are well served,” said Miller. “If you’re going to enroll someone, you should do the absolute best you can to graduate them, or else don’t take their money.”

The new report comes on the heels of recently released federal education data that has brought new focus on how low-income students fare at college, including how much federal debt they take on and how much they earn after graduation. The graduation rates of low-income students were not included in that data.

The group behind the new report, the Education Trust, collected the graduation rates of Pell Grant recipients — typically students whose families make less than $30,000 a year — for a selection of more than 1,000 colleges across the country.

A spokesman for University of Missouri-Kansas City said many of their students are low-income and that the school is working to do better. “We are not satisfied with that gap,” said John Martellaro. “We are investing more resources in our student success programs in an effort to narrow that gap.” (Read their full statement.)

St. Andrews did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

At more than a third of the colleges studied, schools were able to serve their Pell students almost as well as non-Pell students, with a gap of less than 3 percentage points.

Other schools have managed to graduate Pell students at an even higher rate than their non-Pell peers. According to the new data, nearly 90 percent of Pell recipients are able to graduate Smith College, compared with an 85 percent graduation rate of non-Pell students. And at Western Oregon University, Pell recipients have a graduation rate of 50 percent — nearly 10 percentage points better than their peers.

Both schools worked hard to ensure high graduation rates, including improving admissions policies and bolstering financial aid, as well as increasing advising and support services for students at school, says the new report.

The Pell Grant program is the nation’s largest need-based student grant program, giving out billions of dollars annually. Yet for years, the data on Pell recipient graduation rates was mostly hidden from the public eye.

Although colleges are required to give the government graduation-rate data that's broken down by gender and race, the data is not required to be reported by income or Pell Grant status. Since 2008, schools are required to disclose Pell graduation rate data if it’s requested by prospective students.

“It’s kind of astounding when you think about how much money is spent on the Pell Grant program,” said Andrew Kelly, the director of the Center on Higher Education Reform at the American Enterprise Institute. “We don’t have any idea about how much of that money goes to producing degrees. We don’t know what happens to Pell recipients after they enroll.”

In order to collect Pell graduation rates, the Education Trust filed requests for data through state higher education systems as well as with the schools themselves. Some of the data was purchased from U.S. News and World Report. However, only around 1,150 schools were included in the report, out of the more than 7,000 institutions in the country. The survey also did not include data from for-profit colleges, where many Pell-recipients attend school.

Sisi Wei contributed to this report.

Annie Waldman is a senior reporting fellow at ProPublica.


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

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

17) Doctors Without Borders Says It Is Leaving Kunduz After Strike on Hospital
By and ASHLEY SOUTHALL

KABUL, Afghanistan — Doctors Without Borders said Sunday that it was withdrawing from Kunduz, a day after its hospital there was hit by what appeared to be a American airstrike, leaving the remaining residents in the embattled northern Afghan city even more vulnerable.

The aid organization also raised the death toll in Saturday’s airstrike on the hospital, saying that three more patients had died, raising the total fatalities to 22 — 10 patients and 12 staff members. The charity has said that at least three of the dead patients were children, and that 37 people were wounded in the attack.

“No medical activities are possible now in the MSF hospital in Kunduz, at a time when the medical needs are immense,” said Tim Shenk, a spokesman for the organization in New York.

The charity, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, called on its Twitter feed for an independent investigation, “under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed.”

“Not a single member of our staff reported any fighting inside the hospital compound prior to the US airstrike on Saturday morning,” it said. “The hospital was repeatedly & precisely hit during each aerial raid, while the rest of the compound was left mostly untouched.”

The Pentagon said in a statement on Sunday that an investigation of the episode under the auspices of the NATO military headquarters in Afghanistan would be completed in a matter of days. The United States military has also opened “a formal investigation to conduct a thorough and comprehensive inquiry,” it said in the statement. The Afghan government has also vowed to investigate the airstrike.

The Pentagon said the strike was targeting insurgents who were firing on American service members advising and assisting Afghan security forces in Kunduz. It acknowledged that the strike was conducted “in the vicinity” of the hospital.

Residents walking around the city and reached by phone said they saw dead bodies from the fighting, lying in the street because there were now no hospitals to pick them up.

The city was taken by the Taliban almost a week ago, and despite a counterattack by the Afghan Security Forces that began on Thursday, there has been only limited progress. However, the government forces are currently fighting the Taliban in the city, a considerable advance from last week when they were pinned down at the airport.

It was difficult to corroborate any reports because electricity was limited in the city and people were having trouble recharging their phones, especially if they lacked generators.

Several residents reported by phone that for several hours Sunday, government forces managed to raise their flag in one of the main squares, but that several hours later the Taliban had retaken it.

“The situation is very, very bad, so bad that one can not imagine it,” said Fazel Ahmad, a resident who said there had been 25 families on his street, but now he and one other family were the only ones left.

Alissa J. Rubin reported from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Ashley Southall from New York.


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

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

18) Valeant’s Drug Price Strategy Enriches It, but Infuriates Patients and Lawmakers
"This year alone, Valeant raised prices on its brand-name drugs an average of 66 percent, according to a Deutsche Bank analysis, about five times as much as its closest industry peers."
By and

J. Michael Pearson has become a billionaire from his tough tactics as the head of the fast-growing Valeant Pharmaceuticals International.

And consumers like Bruce Mannes, a 68-year-old retired carpenter from Grandville, Mich., are facing the consequences.

Mr. Mannes has been taking the same drug, Cuprimine, for 55 years to treat Wilson disease, an inherited disorder that can cause severe liver and nerve damage. This summer, Valeant more than quadrupled its price overnight.

Medicare will now have to cover about $35,000 for the 120 capsules he takes each month, and Mr. Mannes will have to pay about $1,800 a month out of pocket, compared with about $366 he paid in May.

“My husband will die without the medicine,” said his wife, Susan, who is now working a second part-time job to help pay for health care. “We just can’t manage another two, three thousand dollars a month for pills.”

Cuprimine is just one of many Valeant drugs whose prices have spiked as part of the company’s concerted strategy, which has richly rewarded its investors and made it one of Wall Street’s most popular health stocks.

But Valeant’s habit of buying up existing drugs and raising prices aggressively, rather than trying to develop new drugs, has also drawn the ire of lawmakers and helped stoke public outrage against the growing trend of higher and higher drug prices imposed by big drug companies. This year alone, Valeant raised prices on its brand-name drugs an average of 66 percent, according to a Deutsche Bank analysis, about five times as much as its closest industry peers.

Some presidential candidates have also seized on the issue. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, called for efforts to control “price gouging” after a public outcry over the actions of Turing Pharmaceuticals, which abruptly increased the price on a drug to $750 a tablet from $13.50.

And last week, Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform demanded that Valeant be subpoenaed for information about big price increases on two old heart drugs that the company acquired in February.

The threat of government action is making the pharmaceutical industry nervous. A big sell-off in biotechnology stocks over the last two weeks helped wipe out the sector’s gains for the entire year. Valeant’s stock has been among the hardest hit, losing about a quarter of its value since Sept. 18. Still, the stock is trading for about six times as much as it was five years ago, a meteoric rise that far outpaced most drug companies.

Valeant defended itself, saying in a statement that it “prices its treatments based on a range of factors, including clinical benefits and the value they bring to patients, physicians, payers and society.” It says patients are largely shielded from price increases by insurance and financial assistance programs the company offers, so that virtually no one is denied a drug they need.

But Mr. Pearson, a former McKinsey & Company consultant, has been blunt about saying he has a duty to shareholders to wring the maximum profit out of each drug. And in some cases old neglected drugs sell for far less than newer drugs for the same diseases.

If “products are sort of mispriced and there’s an opportunity, we will act appropriately in terms of doing what I assume our shareholders would like us to do,” he told analysts in a conference call in April.

Valeant is an extreme example of practices that have been around in the pharmaceutical industry for years. The United States, unlike most countries, does not control drug prices, and pharmaceutical manufacturers have relied heavily on steady and sometimes outsize price increases in this country to bolster their revenue and profits.

Valeant is known for buying one company after another, and laying off their employees to achieve savings, while accumulating a debt of about $30 billion. It spends an amount equivalent to only 3 percent of its sales on research and development, which it views as risky and inefficient compared to buying existing drugs. Traditional big drug companies spend 15 to 20 percent of sales on research and development. Valeant also pays extremely low taxes because it is officially based in Canada, although Mr. Pearson operates from New Jersey.

Price increases provide an extra boost to the company’s sales and profits.

For example, after Valeant acquired Salix Pharmaceuticals this year, it raised the price of one Salix drug, the diabetes pill Glumetza, about 800 percent, in two steps.

“How can they just do this?” said Gail Mayer, a retired computer systems analyst on Long Island, who said her monthly supply of Glumetza went from $519.92 in May to $4,643 in August. For now, her insurance is covering most of that increase, but she is worried that it will stop covering the drug altogether, as others have.

“I’m sure it didn’t cost them $4,000 more to make,” Ms. Mayer said. “You don’t just go buy a bottle of milk and suddenly the supermarket charges you $100.”

Mr. Pearson has told analysts that it is standard industry practice to raise the price of a drug shortly before it faces generic competition, which Glumetza might face in February.

The drug industry argues that list prices are typically not what health plans pay after discounts and rebates are negotiated, and there is evidence that these discounts are increasing.

But even if patients are often shielded, the costs are paid by insurers, hospitals and taxpayers and lead to higher premiums and co-payments for everyone, critics say.

Jeffrey M. Rosner, the senior director for pharmacy sourcing and purchasing at the Cleveland Clinic, said that nine drugs with particularly egregious price increases had cost the hospital an additional $11.2 million annually, an increase of about 10 percent in drug costs for hospitalized patients. And Valeant’s products represented 80 percent of that additional cost, he said.

The price of one Valeant drug, Mephyton, which helps blood clot better, has been increased eight times since July 2014, he said, and now costs about $58.76 a tablet, up from $9.37. The price of another, Edecrin, a diuretic, has gone up nine times since May 2014 and is now at $4,600 a vial, up from about $470. When his staff called to inquire, Valeant refused to discuss pricing over the phone, Mr. Rosner said.

Many of the drugs undergoing gigantic price increases are old and no longer have patent protection, raising the question of why generic alternatives do not pop up.

The generic equivalent of Cuprimine, the drug taken by Mr. Mannes, is being sold by some foreign pharmacies for $1 a tablet, in contrast to the $260 Valeant is now charging.

For some Valeant drugs there are generic alternatives. For others, the sales have been too small to interest a generic company. That could change now that the prices are higher, but it would probably take several years for a generic-drug maker to win approval from the Food and Drug Administration to start selling such a product.

More conventional pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, which conduct their own research and development, have rushed to distance themselves from companies like Turing and Valeant. The Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade group, expelled Turing, saying it did not reflect the organization’s values. Martin Shkreli, the former hedge fund manager who runs Turing, is also facing a federal criminal inquiry into his activities at a previous company, Retrophin, according to Retrophin regulatory filings.

But while more conventional companies do not typically triple or quadruple prices overnight, they do often raise them year after year at a rate far faster than inflation. Big pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Merck raised list prices an average of 13 percent in 2014 and 8 percent so far this year, according to Deutsche Bank.

Ronny Gal, a pharmaceutical analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, said smaller price increases on widely used drugs had a much bigger effect on health care spending than the larger increases by Valeant on drugs with small sales.

Dr. Irl B. Hirsch, a diabetes specialist at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, said insulin prices had risen so much in recent years that some patients were scrimping on groceries to pay for it. The price of a package of five Lantus injectable pens from Sanofi has gone from about $179 in 2010 to $372 last year, he said, and insurance will often cover only one package at a time.

“All of this stuff that makes life so inconvenient, this would have been unheard of five or 10 years ago,” he said.

The more conventional companies and their backers argue that research and development has a high risk of failure, so they deserve premium prices when a drug succeeds. They now are concerned that innovation will be undermined by a reaction to price increases imposed by companies like Turing and Valeant.

Jacking up prices of old drugs, “with no R&D risk-taking, is just not right,” Bruce Booth, a prominent life sciences venture capitalist, tweeted on Tuesday, adding that the practice “hurts the industry & innovators.”

With Valeant’s stock price falling, Mr. Pearson sent a letter to employees Monday, arguing that increased prices accounted for only a small and declining part of the company’s business. “Valeant is well positioned for strong organic growth, even assuming little to no price increases,” he wrote.

But in the company’s regulatory filing for the second quarter, Valeant said that its growth in the United States and other developed markets “was driven primarily by price,” not by increased volume. Analysts at Morgan Stanley estimated that “outsized” price increases on eight drugs accounted for about 7 percent of Valeant’s revenue and 13 percent of its earnings before taxes and interest in the second quarter.

For now, with Congress in the hands of Republicans and election season in full swing, quick government action on drug prices is considered unlikely.

The Manneses are applying for financial assistance from a foundation recommended by Valeant to help pay for Cuprimine. But Ms. Mannes was upset enough to write to elected officials and call local television stations.

“This madness has to stop,” she said.




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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























__._,_.___
Posted by: bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
Reply via web post • Reply to sender • Reply to group • Start a New Topic • Messages in this topic (1)





.


__,_._,___
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment