Friday, March 13, 2015

BAUAW NEWSLETTER, FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015





SF Antiwar Protest on 12th Anniversary of U.S. Invasion of Iraq

Saturday, March 21, 12 noon, Powell and Market Streets

In solidarity with the “Spring Rising” protest at the White House on Mar. 21

Stop Pres. Obama’s proposed new 3-year AUMF – Authorization for Use of Military Force!

End U.S. War and Occupation in the Middle East and Central Asia – U.S. Out!

No to U.S. sanctions and intervention vs. Iran, Venezuela, Korea, Cuba, Mexico, Russia, Haiti and everywhere

Free Palestine – End U.S. Aid to Israel!

Fund People’s Needs, Not Endless War!

To Endorse or Volunteer reply to: answer@answersf.org
More info: 415-821-6545 or visit www.ANSWERsf.org.
ANSWER SF

To join the Facebook event for Spring Rising: https://www.facebook.com/events/430232700485435
For more information, click here:
http://nepajac.org/springrising.html

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Cancel the #DetroitWater Debt and Start Afresh

Sign the petition:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cancel-the-detroitwater-debt-and-start-afresh


We call on the City of Detroit and the newly-formed Great Lakes Water Authority to cancel the existing debts of Detroit Water and Sewerage customers and start afresh with simple, affordable rates: all customer past-due balances are wiped clean.

Last year, Detroit made international headlines when tens of thousands of residents lost their access to water through an aggressive shut-off program by the water department.

The city of Detroit has endured decades of economic turmoil, drastic depopulation and repeated mismanagement. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) is over $5 billion in debt (over $4,500 per family in the metro Detroit area).To compensate, they have increased rates over 119% in the last decade.¹Residents who fall behind on their bills risk water shutoff, and in 2014 that’s exactly what happened to tens of thousands of Detroiters.

The shutoff program didn't work, and the DWSD collected less than 3% of the over $100 million currently owed.² A large number of the families who entered into payment plans last year are now defaulting on them yet again because they lack sufficient income.

In contrast, a voluntary bond tender offer initiated during the shutoffs allowed the city to renegotiate high interest rates on municipal water bonds and save over $250 million in interest fees for the city.³

The bond markets know that Detroit's water debt is junk and the city will unlikely ever be able to pay the current interest rates, which is why Default Trends proclaimed Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) its "Biggest Default of 2014".⁴

Corruption in the DWSD has been rampant, with former Department head Victor Mercado currently serving an 8-month federal corruption sentence for "conspiracy to commit extortion" by padding department contracts and rigging bids that netted his business associates millions. Although many of those contracts are now being scrutinized by the city's legal team, Detroiters are still paying dearly for the fraud of past leaders.

The overbearing Detroit water debt has a human side, too: it has pushed Detroit into an outright humanitarian crisis. Rates of infectious disease and sickness are up dramatically, leading the National Nurses union recently to declare a 'Public Health Emergency' in Detroit.⁵The water department is significantly under-staffed and water infrastructure is crumbling, leading to leaks that cost taxpayers tens of millions annually. The department is unable to address these time-sensitive issues due to lack of funding, as it currently spends 46% of its operating revenue on debt service to banks - the largest line-item by far in its budget.

We call on the City of Detroit and the newly-formed Great Lakes Water Authority to cancel the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department's existing debts and start afresh with simple, affordable rates: all customer past-due balances are wiped clean.

Detroit's existing water/sewerage rate structure is highly-regressive and unaffordable for too many families. We call on the city to implement the 2005 Water Affordability Plan to ensure that no family pays more than the EPA-recommended threshold for water, including "lifeline rates" for essential quantities of drinking/bathing water.⁶

The water department acknowledges that 90% of its operating costs are fixed⁷, meaning they don't depend upon how much water is consumed by users. Still, they charge usage-based rates that fluctuate dramatically with weather (up to 18% decrease in usage) and with broader demographic shifts in the region (2/3 of Detroit's population has left the city since 1950). Creating a progressive rate structure based at least partially upon a family's income - as is done with many public services like streetlights, schools, libraries, etc - would more equitably distribute the burden of operating a system relied upon by over 4 million people for essential drinking water.

The Detroit Water Brigade has provided emergency relief and advocacy to hundreds of families since June of 2014, including providing immediate financial assistance to families currently without water.⁸We've seen first-hand the disastrous effects of these harsh, debt-driven austerity policies.

We pledge to escalate this campaign in the coming months until we bring relief to the tens of thousands of metro Detroit families living without water today and the millions living precariously with unaffordable water rates.


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Free Albert Woodfox!
End the Injustice. Don’t Oppose Bail for Albert Woodfox

In 1972 a young white prison guard named Brent Miller was fatally stabbed inside Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as “Angola.” Although no physical evidence tied Albert Woodfox to the crime, he was immediately assumed to be guilty and placed in solitary confinement; 23 hours a day isolated in a small cell, four steps long, three steps across. He was eventually convicted of the crime after trials tainted with constitutional violations and other legal issues, and has been held in solitary confinement, fighting to prove his innocence ever since.

Albert believes that he and fellow prisoners, Herman Wallace and Robert King, were placed in solitary confinement in retaliation for their activism and outspoken critique of injustice. All three men were members of the Black Panther Party and campaigned for better treatment, racial solidarity, and an end to the brutal sexual slavery in prison. Woodfox, Wallace and King came to be known as the Angola 3.

Albert Woodfox’s conviction has been overturned three times - most recently in 2013 on the basis of racial discrimination in the selection of a grand jury foreperson. In late 2014, an appeals court upheld the decision in Alberts favor, and on February 6, his lawyers filed for bail. After years of the State of Louisiana appealing decisions in Albert’s favor, It is critical that Governor Bobby Jindal show leadership, and ensure that Albert’s cruel and unjust isolation is not his legacy. April 2015 will mark 43 years since Woodfox was first placed solitary - for a crime he maintains that he didn't' commit, a claim that much of the available evidence supports. It is time for the State to let the wisdom of the courts stand and ensure his release.


Amnesty International
http://act.amnestyusa.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1839&ea.campaign.id=35593&ea.tracking.id=Country_USA~MessagingCategory_PrisonersandPeopleatRisk&ac=W1502EAIAR2&ea.url.id=359128&forwarded=true

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Rasmea Odeh sentenced to 18 months, but is coming home!

On Thursday, March 12, 2015 10:18 AM, Prisoner News wrote:

Over the objections of a prosecution team that called for 5-7 years in federal prison, a harsh sentence with terrorism enhancements, Judge Gershwin Drain sentenced Rasmea Odeh, Chicago’s 67-year-old Palestinian community leader, to 18 months for Unlawful Procurement of Naturalization, of which she was convicted last November.

Almost 200 of Rasmea’s supporters filled two courtrooms in the Detroit federal courthouse, and left disappointed but not defeated. “This is a blow, of course, but we have to remember that the government wanted the judge to lock Rasmea up for half a decade or more,” said Muhammad Sankari of the national Rasmea Defense Committee. “Judge Drain had to weigh the outpouring of support that Rasmea has inspired from across the country. We made it impossible for the judge to justify an extended prison term, and now, we will stand with her in the fight to appeal the conviction itself, to make sure she doesn’t serve one day of that prison sentence.”

The decision came after her attorneys argued that she not be imprisoned at all. Seventy important leaders of unions and community-based, faith-based, civil rights, and student organizations, as well as prominent academics and activists, wrote letters to the judge in the past few weeks, urging him to issue a sentence with no prison time beyond the month Rasmea served in a county jail following the November verdict. They cited her invaluable service as a community leader in Chicago, as well as concerns for her age, poor health, and chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

One of the many letters of support came from Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton of Detroit. He wrote, “I am asking for compassion in her sentencing. Rasmea has much to offer her community…keeping her out of prison would allow her to continue as a contributing and productive person, doing the work that is so critical to hundreds of refugee women.”

For their part, prosecutors called for Judge Drain to issue a sentence far beyond standard sentencing guidelines. While prosecutors had been barred from branding her a terrorist in front of the jury last year, today they were bound by no such court orders, asking that a terrorism enhancement be added to prolong her sentence.

Frank Chapman of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression said, “The government showed their true colors today, making it clear this case was never about immigration, but rather, the political persecution of a Palestinian hero. What they didn’t bargain for is that Rasmea would defend herself, and that thousands would rally around her.”

During the trial last year, Rasmea was prevented from presenting evidence about the events that led to her conviction by an Israeli military tribunal 45 years ago. Judge Drain had ruled that the circumstances of conviction by Israel didn’t matter. “Not the illegal 1967 massacres and occupation - let alone the military ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians from the land and their homes when Palestine was partitioned in 1948 - not the midnight sweeps and kidnapping by the invading Army after the 1967 war, not the torture, not the kangaroo court and false confessions, not the prison time,” said her attorneys in filings to the court.

"Be strong whatever happens," Rasmea said before speaking to the judge, "I am strong."

After the sentencing, Rasmea was released on bond, as she sets out to appeal her conviction. Surprising many, the prosecution did not object, despite having pressed for her bond to be revoked after the guilty verdict. She credits the work of her supporters across the country for forcing the government’s hand.

Zena Ozeir of the Z Collective in Detroit said, “I have no doubt Rasmea’s freedom today is owed to the public outcry against her persecution. The government is still out to lock her up for years, but that is something they couldn’t win today. We have been with her at every hearing and trial date, we’ve held protests across the country, and flooded their phone lines and mail boxes, with people of conscience demanding an end to this prosecution, and an end to her unjust treatment in jail this fall. We will not stop until we win justice for Rasmea!”

After today’s hearing, Rasmea returns to Chicago, where she will continue her important community activism and work with her attorneys on an appeal of the verdict. If Odeh loses her case on appeal, she will have to serve the full sentence, and then lose her citizenship and be subject to immediate removal from the United States.

Rasmea Defense Committee
justice4rasmea.org
 
follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend
Copyright © 2015 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights reserved.
Thanks for your ongoing interest in the fight against FBI repression of anti-war and international solidarity activists!
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414

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Open Letter to the People and Leaders of Iran from the People of the United States

Sign onto the letter at:
http://www.answercoalition.org/open_letter_to_the_people_of_iran?utm_campaign=open_letteriran&utm_medium=email&utm_source=answercoalition#sign

To the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran:

It has come to our attention while observing the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States government that a group of 47 U.S. Senators are attempting, against the will of the majority of the American people, to sabotage any agreement due to their hope of creating additional conflict between our country and the people of Iran.

We would also like to bring to your attention that many people in the United States are aware that the United States government is in violation of a treaty approved by the Senate and signed into law. The treaty imposes an affirmative obligation on the United States and all other countries possessing nuclear weapons to act to diminish and eventually eliminate all of their existing nuclear weapons as a condition for relieving non-nuclear countries of the need to acquire such terrifying weapons. The official name of this treaty is the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons or NPT.
We also wanted to bring to your attention that under the U.S. Constitution, (Article 6, Clause 2), any treaty approved by the Senate and signed into law “shall be the supreme law of the land” in the United States.

Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty requires the United States as a nuclear power to: “pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control". (our emphasis)

We wanted to make sure that you were aware that the U.S. Constitution, recognizing the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as the supreme law of the land in the United States, requires government officials to carry out two specific tasks:

First, to eliminate the U.S. nuclear arsenal under its Treaty pledge of “general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control;”

And second, to “pursue negotiations in good faith” with other nations for the achievement of nuclear disarmament.

As things stand, the United States is in violation of this “supreme law of the land.”

The United States is not ridding itself of nuclear weapons. It possesses thousands of operational nuclear weapons that it is not destroying. In fact, it is in the process of improving their capability, deploying them on updated fighter aircraft, and other land-attack missiles, aircraft carriers and submarine platforms at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars in new government funding.
The United States also provides more than $4 billion in military and economic aid to the state of Israel although Israel refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or allow outside inspectors, and does not deny that it possesses a considerable arsenal of nuclear weapons. We are not aware of any call by U.S. officials insisting that Israel sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or begin liquidating its own nuclear arsenal. 

We, the people of the United States, are also aware that Iran as a signatory to the same Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has the absolute legal right, as do all signatory countries, to develop a nuclear capability for civilian energy purposes.

Article IV of the Treaty states: “Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.”

As a side note, we are also aware that when your country was ruled by a monarch installed in power in 1953 as a consequence of a CIA led-coup against the then constitutional government in Iran, the policy of the U.S. government was to encourage the development of an Iranian nuclear program.
We hope that this letter enriches your understanding that the spirit and content of the Open Letter by 47 Republican Senators does not conform with the views and desires of a broad section of public opinion inside the United States.

Their real aim in scuttling and sabotaging the current negotiations between the United States and Iran, perhaps unprecedented in the form they have chosen, is to create more conflict including the danger of military action against Iran.

Be assured that the last thing the American people want is war with or against Iran.
-- Add your name to these initial signers:

Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General • Cynthia McKinney, former Congresswoman • Brian Becker, ANSWER Coalition • Cindy Sheehan, peace activist • Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director, Partnership for Civil Justice Fund • Heidi Boghosian, Esq., Constitutional Rights attorney • James Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles • Debra Sweet, Director, World Can't Wait • Chuck Kauffman, National Co-Coordinator of Alliance for Global Justice • Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst • Eugene Puryear, Party for Socialism and Liberation • Juan Jose Gutierrez, Vamos Unidos, USA • Phil Wilayto, author and editor, Virginia Defenders Newspaper • Don DeBar, Host, CPR News • Arturo Garcia, Alliance Philippines • Radhika Miller, Attorney, Washington, D.C. • Rev. Claudia de la Cruz, Rebel Diaz Arts Collective (RDACBX) • Kim Ives, Haiti Liberte • Benjamin N. Dictor, Attorney, New York, NY • John Beacham, ANSWER Chicago • Phil Portluck, Voices4Justice72.com • Preston Wood, ANSWER - LA • Mike Prysner, March Forward! • Jeff Bigelow, labor organizer • Gloria La Riva, National Committee to Free the Cuban Five   

Add your name to these initial signers:
http://www.answercoalition.org/open_letter_to_the_people_of_iran?utm_campaign=open_letteriran&utm_medium=email&utm_source=answercoalition#sign

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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter

Table of Contents:

A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS

B. ARTICLES IN FULL



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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS



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Oakland Action to End Solitary Confinement

Part of Statewide Coordinated Actions to End Solitary Confinement (SCATESC)

Monday March 23rd 2015 11:30am-1:30pm

Oakland’s SCATESC will start Monday, March 23rd, 2015 and happen on the 23rd of each month

*Same Location Monthly: Downtown Oakland 14th and Broadway*

Let's make a public show of our commitment to stop the torture!
Leafleting and speakers (you)
This fight is not over!

Cosponsors: California Families Against Solitary Confinement (CFASC); Peoples' Action for Rights and Community (PARC); Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSS); Project: Pollinate; Sin Barras.
              
PHSS and many other co-sponsors and endorsers are conducting actions statewide in CA, nationwide, and internationally. These actions coincides with 2013 proposals for action from Pelican Bay State Prison Hunger Strikers, which calls for “…designating a certain date each month as Prisoner Rights Day. … [when] supporters would gather … throughout California to expose CDCR’s actions and rally to support efforts to secure our rights.”

We choose the 23rd of each month for the 23 or more hours every day that people are kept alone in 7 by 11 foot concrete cells.

Endorsers: Ramona Africa and The MOVE Organization; Cabrillo College Justice League; Cafe Intifada; California Peace and Freedom Party; Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action (COPA) Restorative Justice Institutions; Darrell and Karen Darling; Family of Frank Alvarado Jr., killed by Salinas Police, July 10, 2014; Free Our Minds, Free Radio Santa Cruz; Rabbi Borukh Goldberg; Justice for Palestinians, San Jose; LA Laborfest; Dylcia Pagán, former Puerto Rican Political Prisoner held in US prison; Leonard Peltier Support Group Silicon Valley; Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC); South Bay Committee Against Political Repression (SBCAPR); Donna Wallach; Anti-Racist Action-LA

Questions or want to be added as co-sponsor or endorser? phssreachingout@gmail.com
http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com
@CAHungerStrike
Find us on Facebook
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity


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Save the Date - UNAC National Conference, May 8 - 10, 2015


UNAC is the major national antiwar coalition in the U.S. today.  The existence of a United National Antiwar Coalition is vital and we need your financial support to continue our work and to expand.

With U.S. wars today accelerating and expanding globally in various forms – from drone attacks on Yemen and Pakistan, never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, support to neo-fascists in Ukraine, and proliferating Africom forces to threats of war for regime change in Syria – we have an obligation to do whatever is possible to educate the public and to take action to stop the carnage.

The wars abroad are connected to global warming with most wars fought over energy resources with the U.S. war machine as the largest polluter.

At home, we see hugely growing income inequality, a militarized and racist police force, mass incarceration of Blacks and Latinos, and a massive police state apparatus that includes global surveillance and laws to quell dissent.

In spite of the trillions spent by the U.S. corporate war government and its controlled media propaganda machine to keep us in check, the people are fighting back.  We’ve been inspired and strengthened by the hundreds of thousands of new activists taking to the streets of this country to stop police brutality, to build Occupy encampments, to fight for decent wages, to demand full rights for immigrants, to win marriage equality, to end global warming, to demonstrate solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza, and to protest unending U.S. wars.

UNAC has played an active, often leadership role, in all of the antiwar and social justice movements of our time.  While most activists are focused on their particular issues, the most vital role we can play is to connect the issues to their source.  All of the injustices and crimes we protest, stem from the imperialist insatiable drive for expanding profit and control – and the U.S. is the largest imperialist power militarily and economically.  When there should be plenty for all, only the obscenely wealthy benefit while the rest of the 99% struggle just to survive.

Some of our recent major accomplishments:
·       Initiated protest against NATO and 15,000 marched in Chicago in 2012.
·        Called for immediate actions against threats of war and coups directed at Libya, Iran, No. Korea, Africa, Latin America,    Ukraine, and maintaining the U.S. presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
·        Organized a national tour for Afghan leader Malalai Joya.
·        Sent representatives to international NATO protests and conferences.
·        Serve on the Board of the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms to act against Islamophobia , racist attacks on Muslims, and attacks on our civil liberties.
·        Participated in national efforts to organize anti-drone actions.
·        Campaigned to defend victims of government repression who speak out and expose Washington’s crimes, including Rasmea Odeh, Mumia abu Jamal, Lynne Stewart, Chelsea Manning, and the Midwest activists targeted by the FBI.
·        Produced national educational conference calls featuring experts on topics such as U.S. intervention in Africa, the destruction of Libya, the developing wars in Syria, and others.
·        Built an antiwar contingent in the massive New York City Climate Change march and built Climate Change action in other cities around the country.
·        Helped organize protests against Israel’s attack on Gaza
·        Helped organize protests against the murder of Blacks by white police and the militarization of the police forces in the U.S.

UNAC has a history of bringing hundreds of activists together at large national conferences to learn about the issues of the day, to discuss the way forward and to vote on an Action Program for the coming period.

The UNAC conference next May will bring activists from all the movements in motion to cross-fertilize these struggles.  We are particularly dedicated to bringing young activists together to support and learn from each other.  For this, we need your help to offer subsidies to leaders from Ferguson, from the border wars in the southwest, from the Native Americans who are fighting against the pipelines ruining their lands, from the Students for Justice in Palestine, and many others.

Please give generously so that we can continue our work to bring harmony and justice to the peoples of this earth.

You can send a check to UNAC at PO Box 123, Delmar, NY 12054 or click the button below to contribute on-line with your credit or debit card.

 https://www.unacpeace.org/

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On Behalf of Wadiya Jamal and
Mumia Abu-Jamal,
A Contribution Request

The message following is a forward from:
Rachel Wolkenstein
Sister, Advocate and Friend of the Extended Family

Samiya “Goldii” Abdullah, a daughter of Wadiya Jamal and Mumia Abu-Jamal died on December 17, 2014 after years of battle with breast cancer. Samiya would have been 37 this January 9 and is survived by two young daughters, Aiyanah and Aaiyah, affectionately known as Dolly and Puddy, ages eleven and four.

Samiya was a remarkable woman. She was accomplished as a musician, an activist and rapper on social justice, particularly in the struggle for Mumia’s freedom. She devoured books and education. During her long, often debilitating illness, Samiya finished her Masters Degree in School and Mental Health Counseling from the University of Pennsylvania with honors. She was dedicated to her young daughters and wanted them to grow up loving each other as much as she did her brothers and sisters. And she wanted her daughters to see Mumia (called “Pop Pop” by them) walk out of prison and home with their grandmother, Wadiya.

Samiya's active fight for Mumia's freedom, began at the young age of four. Mumia wrote about this in “The Visit” printed in Live from Death Row in 1994. This was recreated in the movie "Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary."

"My father is still considered to be a dangerous individual … his mind is what they fear, there is over- whelming evidence that would exonerate him of his conviction.
"He is an innocent man and the commonwealth has always known this, but being too Black, too smart, and too strong … The government will silence anyone that possesses the power to open the minds of the people."   
                     —Goldii

Samiya’s strength, character and spirit were nurtured by Wadiya and Mumia and are being passed on to her daughters.

On behalf of Wadiya Jamal and Mumia Abu-Jamal, this is a request for funds to assist Wadiya for care of her granddaughters, Dolly and Puddy.

A financial contribution of any amount will be greatly appreciated.

Please send checks or money orders, made payable to Wadiya Jamal:

Wadiya Jamal
P.O. Box 19404
Kingsessing Postal Station
Philadelphia, PA 19143-9998

In loving memory of Samiya and in tribute to her fierce fight for life,

Rachel Wolkenstein
Sister, Advocate and Friend of the Extended Family


Hear Mumia’s Words (and Song) played before the Janazah for Samiya on December 20, 2014: “Samiya Abdullah Makes Transition”:

http://prisonradio.org/sites/default/files/audio/uploads/SamiyaAbdullahMakesTransition12-19-2.mp3?download=1

This message has been sent to you by:
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222  •  Oakland CA  •  510.763.2347
www.laboractionmumia.org

Donate Now
to fight the “gag” law!
go to:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/protect-freedom-of-speech-keep-mumia-on-the-air

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Support Prison Radio

$35 is the yearly membership.

$50 will get you a beautiful tote bag (you can special order a yoga mat bag, just call us).

$100 will get the DVD "Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary"

$300 will bring one essay to the airwaves.

$1000 (or $88.83 per month) will make you a member of our Prison Radio Freedom Circle. Take a moment and Support Prison Radio

Luchando por la justicia y la libertad,

Noelle Hanrahan, Director, Prison Radio

PRISON RADIO

P.O. Box 411074 San Francisco, CA 94141

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


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Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson

Lorenzo Speaks Concerning Prosecution's Brief:
JANUARY 1, 2015—The prosecutor has run away from (almost) every issue raised in my PCRA by begging the Court to dismiss everything as “untimely”. When they don’t do this, they suggest that me and my lawyers were “defamatory” towards either my former prosecutor Christopher Abruzzo or Detective Kevin Duffin, in our claims they withheld, misused or hid evidence of my Innocence, in order to secure an unjust conviction in this case. If I charged, a year ago, that about a dozen AGs (attorneys general) were involved in circulating porno via their office computers, people would’ve laughed at me, and seen me as crazy.

But, guess what? During 2014, we learned that this was the truth. How can it be defamatory to speak the truth? Notice the OAG (Office of Attorney General), never said the obvious: That AG Abruzzo didn’t inform the Defense about the relationship between his Motive Witness and his head detective (Victoria Doubs and Det. Duffin); that Det. Duffin doesn’t deny Doubs was his god-sister, and that she lived in his family home, or that he assisted her whenever she got into trouble.

Why not? Because it is true. How can you defame someone who defames himself? Mr. Christopher Abruzzo, Esq., when a member of the higher ranks of the OAG, sent and/or received copious amounts of porno to other attorneys general and beyond. What does this say about his sense of judgment? He thought enough about his behavior to resign from his post in the Governor’s Cabinet. If he thought that his behavior was okay, he’d still be sitting in the Governor’s cabinet, right? The OAG cannot honestly oppose anything we’ve argued, but they try by seeking to get the Court to do their dirty work, how? By denying an Evidentiary Hearing to prove every point we’ve claimed.

The prosecution is trying desperately to avoid dealing with the substance of my claims in Com. v. Lorenzo Johnson. So, they slander my Legal Team and blame them for defaming the good AG’s and Cops involved with this case. They try to do what is undeniable, to deny that they hid evidence from the Defense for years. They blamed me for daring to protest the hidden evidence of their malfeasance and other acts to sabotage the defense. They claim that they had an “Open File” policy with my trial counsel. But “Open File” is more than letting an attorney read something in their office. If it’s a search for the truth it must include what is turned over to the attorney, for how do we really know what was shown to her?

They say it is inconceivable that an attorney would read a file, beginning on page nine (9), and not ask for the preceding eight (8) pages. Yet, it is conceivable if trial counsel was ineffective for not demanding the record of the first eight pages. Pages that identify the State’s only witness as a “SUSPECT” in the murder for which her client was charged! How could such an attorney fail to recognize the relevance of such an issue, barring their sheer Ineffectiveness and frankly, Incompetence.

By seeking to avoid an evidentiary hearing, the prosecution seeks to avoid evidence of their wrongdoing being made plain, for all to see. If they believe I’m wrong, why not prove it? They can’t. So they shout I filed my appeal untimely, as if there can ever justly be a rule that precludes an innocent from proving his innocence! Not to mention the fact that the prosecution has failed to even mention the positive finger prints that ay my trial they said none existed. Don’t try to hide it with a lame argument about time. When isn’t there a time for truth? The prosecution should be ashamed of itself for taking this road. It is unworthy of an office that claims to seek justice.

After the trial verdict The Patriot-News (March 18, 1997) reported, “Deputy Attorney General Christopher Abruzzo admitted there were some serious concerns about the strength of the evidence against Johnson and praised the jury for doing a thorough job.” I guess he forgot to mention all of the evidence he left out to show Innocence.

Now, more than ever, Lorenzo Johnson needs your support.
Publicize his case; bring it to your friends, clubs, religious
and social organizations. 


SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION

http://www.freelorenzojohnson.org/sign-the-petition.html

CONTRIBUTE TO LORENZO'S CAMPAIGN FOR FREEDOM!
http://www.freelorenzojohnson.org/how-can-i-help.html


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

 Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
              Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC



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Click HERE to view in browser
http://www.iacenter.org/prisoners/freepinkney-1-28-15/
       
Join the Fight to Free Rev. Pinkney!

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."  

New Court Date on 4 Motions for Rev. Pinkney 

TUES, FEB. 24 1pm Berrien County Court 

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.

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COURAGE TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org/

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

November 24, 2014 by the Chelsea Manning Support Network

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

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 B. ARTICLES IN FULL




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1) Official: Average Wall Street Bonus Rises to Nearly $173,000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS




2) Homeowners Try to Assess Risks From Chemical in Floors
"But while federal rules exist for workers, no federal rules protect consumers from formaldehyde or most other airborne chemicals in their homes. And while research exists on formaldehyde’s health effects, experts have difficulty correlating levels of exposure with cancer risk since so many factors can affect the development of the disease."
By AARON M. KESSLER and





3) Two Officers Are Shot Amid Protests Outside Ferguson Police Station
By




4) Focus in Brooklyn Subway Shooting Is on Whether Deadly Force Was Justified
By




5) Roof Collapse Kills Workers in Bangladeshi Cement Factory
By




6) Rats and Rot: NYC Report Rips Family Homeless Shelters
"Ultimately, the city spent $637,000 for the guards who were ordered after the DOI inspection, plus over $750,000 to fix the stairs."
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS





7) Ferguson Protests Resume Quietly After Shootings
By and




8) Swedes Offer to Question Julian Assange in London
By

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/14/world/europe/julian-assange-sweden-london-sexual-assault-allegations.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news




9) Starving Sea Lions Washing Ashore by the Hundreds in California
By
10) Coroner: 19-Year-Old Man Killed by Cop Shot in Head, Torso
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS











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1) Official: Average Wall Street Bonus Rises to Nearly $173,000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York's state comptroller says the average bonus paid to securities industry employees in New York City grew 2 percent last year to nearly $173,000.

Thomas DiNapoli says according to his office's analysis, that's the largest average Wall Street bonus since the 2008 financial crisis, though the industry was slightly less profitable last year.

According to the report Wednesday, the securities industry has been profitable for six consecutive years. It has added 2,300 jobs in the past year, amounting to 167,800 workers in New York City. That's still 11 percent less than before the crisis.

Pretax profits for broker/dealer operations of some 200 New York Stock Exchange members — the traditional measure of profitability for the securities industry — totaled $16 billion last year, down $700 million from 2013.


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2) Homeowners Try to Assess Risks From Chemical in Floors
"But while federal rules exist for workers, no federal rules protect consumers from formaldehyde or most other airborne chemicals in their homes. And while research exists on formaldehyde’s health effects, experts have difficulty correlating levels of exposure with cancer risk since so many factors can affect the development of the disease."
By AARON M. KESSLER and

Installing a new wood floor is usually about aesthetics: brown or black? Glossy or matte?

Now, some Americans and businesses are grappling with another feature: formaldehyde.

Uneasy consumers have flooded state and federal safety agencies with inquiries about Lumber Liquidators, the discount flooring retailer accused in a “60 Minutes” episode of selling laminate wood with high levels of formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. Should they rip it out? Leave it in? And what are the dangers to adults, children or even pets?

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of New York has now opened an inquiry into whether the company violated safety standards. Safety officials in California are also likely to investigate.

But federal regulators, armed with murky rules or none at all, have scrambled to respond, leaving consumers largely responsible for assessing the risk. Formaldehyde exposure can cause immediate health problems like respiratory and sinus effects, but the effects of long-term exposure remain unclear.

That has left many Lumber Liquidators customers concerned about what they should do.

Sol Hesney, 66, and his wife, Lynne, said they were mystified when their two dogs became sick shortly after they moved into their apartment in Fort Lee, N.J., five years ago.

“The vet was stumped. We were stumped,” said Mr. Hesney, who ultimately had both dogs euthanized.

After the news of Lumber Liquidators’ high-formaldehyde flooring broke on March 1, Mr. Hesney said he and his wife decided that they would replace their floors — they had installed the company’s Chinese-made laminate floors before moving in.

“We looked at each other and said, ‘Maybe that’s what explains this. It’s just too coincidental,’ ” he said. Since they moved in, he said, he had three serious sinus colds requiring antibiotics within a year’s time, something that had never happened to him before, and his wife had bronchitis.

But regulators, at least for now, are advocating a more tempered approach.

“We are not encouraging people to rip out their flooring right now,” said Lynn Baker, an air pollution specialist with the California Air Resources Board, which enforces the state formaldehyde rules that Lumber Liquidators is accused of breaking.

Commercial customers could also be affected, although Lumber Liquidators estimates that commercial sales make up less than 10 percent of the market for laminate flooring, a cheaper alternative to hardwood. Homeowners account for the bulk of its sales.

Laminate flooring itself is commonly used in some types of commercial spaces, experts say.

Lumber Liquidators disputes the “60 Minutes” report and says its flooring is safe. The company also said it was considering offering air testing services to reassure concerned consumers.

Installers, too, find themselves on the front lines after the report.

“The installers literally don’t want to install it,” said David Hill, president of Texas Best Flooring in Dallas. Mr. Hill, who does not work with Lumber Liquidators products, said he had received hundreds of emails and at least 15 calls a day from worried consumers.

“It’s confusion. Everybody’s confused, and everybody wants it out of their house,” Mr. Hill said. A spokesman for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the agency was paying close attention to the Lumber Liquidators issue, though as of Tuesday it had received no formal complaints.

But while federal rules exist for workers, no federal rules protect consumers from formaldehyde or most other airborne chemicals in their homes. And while research exists on formaldehyde’s health effects, experts have difficulty correlating levels of exposure with cancer risk since so many factors can affect the development of the disease.

“Any exposure to a carcinogen can increase your risk of cancer,” said Marilyn Howarth, a toxicologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.

Mr. Baker, with the California agency, said consumers should ask two questions: How long has the flooring been installed, and have they been feeling sick?

“If the flooring has been installed more than a couple of years ago, most of it has probably already off-gassed,” he said, meaning that the chemical would probably have been released. “If it was just installed last week, that’s a different story — you definitely want to ventilate the home.”

The floorboard controversy bears a resemblance to the cases of Chinese-made drywall that released sulfur gases into thousands of homes built after the 2005 hurricane season, which resulted in metal corrosion and health complaints. But while the drywall gases were expected to be released for decades, formaldehyde emissions in flooring may not last as long.

“You’ll get a fairly large amount that off-gasses early on, and then it starts to become less over a period ranging from months to a couple of years depending on the amounts contained in the product,” Mr. Baker said.

Most new floors emit small levels of formaldehyde. But it also seeps out of adhesives used to bind furniture and other household items, affecting the quality of the air residents breathe.

To combat its harmful effects, governments around the world have limited the use of formaldehyde in household products, particularly those made of wood. In Europe, chemical emissions from composite wood products are tightly regulated, and Japanese regulators put the onus on home builders to limit formaldehyde levels over all within houses they construct.

The United States, however, trails when it comes to such regulations. California enacted rules to cap emissions from composite wood products sold in the state. As far back as 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency said it was considering adopting California’s limits nationwide, and it issued a proposed rule in 2013.

But after many delays at the request of the wood products industry, the E.P.A. has yet to complete its rule. On Tuesday, the E.P.A. said it had no plan to investigate Lumber Liquidators, citing the lack of a finished rule. The agency says it is trying to give consumers “actionable guidance” when it comes to formaldehyde from composite woods, according to Bob Axelrad, a policy adviser in the office of air and radiation.

That includes proper ventilation, when possible, and using reliable air testing methods.

David Krause, an environmental consultant at the consulting firm Geosyntec and the former state toxicologist of Florida, said ventilation helped but was not always a solution: Humidity, for example, can intensify the problem.

Testing indoor air quality is also not a simple proposition — mainly because federal standards are geared toward workplaces, not homes. There are no definitive testing levels, and people react in different ways to the chemical.

“We really don’t have anything that is enforceable,” Dr. Krause said.

Still, based on current knowledge of the Lumber Liquidators’ product, he added: “This is not a ‘Your hair’s on fire’ emergency.”

The Consumer Product Safety Commission may take a lead role in investigating Lumber Liquidators. The commission can push for a recall if it can prove direct harm to human health.

But that would involve a long regulatory inquiry. Several consumers have begun pursuing a different path: suing the company.




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3) Two Officers Are Shot Amid Protests Outside Ferguson Police Station
By

FERGUSON, Mo. — Two police officers were shot here early Thursday morning as gunfire rang out in front of the police station, throwing into panic what had been a spirited — and at times tense — but largely peaceful night of protests.

Demonstrators and police officers alike hit the ground when the gunshots echoed through the crisp air. Many people ran for cover. The police, clad in riot gear, dragged their wounded fellow officers to safety. Others crouched behind cars and walls, drawing their handguns or rifles as they rapidly swiveled their heads every which way to survey their surroundings.

One officer, from the St. Louis County Police Department, was shot in the shoulder, and the other, from the suburban Webster Groves department, was shot in the face. Both were in serious condition, but their injuries were not life threatening, said Sgt. Brian Schellman, a spokesman for the St. Louis County police.The shots, which witnesses said they believed originated from the top of a hill about 220 yards directly across from the station, came just hours after the Ferguson police chief, Thomas Jackson, announced that he would resign, a move greeted with praise from protesters. Chief Jackson had been at the center of criticism that he ran a racially biased department ever since one of his white officers fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager seven months ago.

But Thursday’s shooting threatened to ratchet up tensions, as well as unravel efforts to change the way the police here do business and to heal the anger and frustration that Mr. Brown’s killing had unleashed.

In addition to Chief Jackson’s resignation, two other high-ranking Ferguson officials, the city manager and the municipal judge, left their jobs after a scathing Justice Department report last week that accused the city of racially biased and unconstitutional practices in its law enforcement. City officials had hoped that the changes would help residents see that they were prepared to start anew.

Instead, Chief Jon Belmar of the St. Louis County Police Department said that Thursday’s shooting only realized the worst fears he has had since the unrest over Mr. Brown’s killing — that it would lead to serious violence.

He said he believed the gunman targeted the officers who were lined up shoulder to shoulder in front of the Ferguson police station to keep protesters back.

“I’ve said all along that we cannot sustain this forever without problems,” Chief Belmar told reporters during a news conference in front of Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where the wounded officers were being treated.

“I don’t know who did the shooting, to be honest with you,” he added. Chief Belmar said that based on the bullets’ trajectory and where the officers had been standing, he assumed that “these shots were directed exactly at my police officers.” He said he did not know what kind of gun had been used.

The Webster Groves officer is 32 years old and a seven-year veteran of the force, while the St. Louis County officer is 41 and has 14 years experience, the county police said.

Emotions quickly ran high after the shooting. One Ferguson officer, standing among the protesters as things calmed down, said, “This is what they wanted to happen.”

When a protester told him that no one wanted this to happen, the officer was adamant, saying that that was his opinion and that the protester could differ if he wanted.

Protesters on the scene were quick to point out that the gunfire did not come from among them, rather from a distance behind them.

Earlier in the night, the protests took on a familiar pattern that had not really been seen here since after a grand jury announced in November that it would not indict the white officer, Darren Wilson, for the fatal shooting of Mr. Brown.

It was as much a celebration of Chief Jackson’s resignation as it was a call for more action.

“Not just Jackson, we want Knowles, Ferguson has got to go!” they yelled in reference to James Knowles III, the mayor of Ferguson.

Protesters engaged in a cat-and-mouse game of sorts with the police. Dozens of them flooded into the street in front of the Police Department, blocking cars as they tried to pass. Things occasionally became tense between the protesters and motorists, some of whom refused to back away when demonstrators lined up in front of their vehicles. On several occasions, drivers inched forward, tapping the knees of protesters who dared them to hit them.

Each time, one side would eventually give in: Either the driver would back away, or the protesters would let them through. But on other occasions, police officers wearing helmets and clutching transparent shields and batons would race into the street to clear away the demonstrators. The police made a handful of arrests.

Some of the tensest moments came when the protesters fought among themselves. Some people urged others to block cars, while others urged their fellow demonstrators to get out of the street and direct their anger at the officers in front of the police station.

There were tussles between protesters who did not recognize one another, with the fault line appearing to be those who had been demonstrating for many months versus those who were new to the movement. Some took offense to the supposedly new protesters trying to tell them what to do. At one point, it devolved into fisticuffs in the street, as the police stood by watching.

But by midnight, the situation calmed down, and the number of protesters dwindled to around 100, if not fewer. They stood on the east side of South Florissant Road, while the police held their line on the west side, in front of the station.

Then, without any warning or seeming escalation, the shots rang out.

“I heard the bullets go past my head,” said Bradley J. Rayford, a freelance photographer, who said he was standing near the officers when the shots were fired. After the first one, Mr. Rayford said, he looked up at a hill across from the police station and saw muzzle fire from that direction. He said he heard about four shots, after which he moved to the ground.

After the shots were fired on Thursday, the remaining protesters scattered, and the St. Louis County Police Department’s homicide unit was sent to investigate.

Dozens of officers from around the region also arrived to secure the area. A group of officers in tactical gear carefully walked up the hill across from the police station where Mr. Rayford and other witnesses said the shots had come from.

By 2 a.m., a handful of people remained in the lot across the department, which was encircled in yellow police tape. Investigators tried to interview people in the group. But in a sign of the chasm that remained between law enforcement and this protest movement, many of them were reluctant to talk.





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4) Focus in Brooklyn Subway Shooting Is on Whether Deadly Force Was Justified
By

For nearly everyone on the packed Brooklyn-bound No. 4 train, the Tuesday evening commute began like any other. Bodies crammed together. Tempers contained beneath the fatigue of a long day.

In one car, an argument flared as the train left Manhattan: Two men, co-workers returning from a job site, bristled when an older man, William J. Groomes, stepped between them to get on, officials said.

It was the sort of scene that occasionally erupts underground and usually fizzles. In this case, angry words turned to blows. And Mr. Groomes, a 69-year-old retired New York City correction officer, was carrying a loaded 9-millimeter handgun.

The confrontation spilled into the subway station under Brooklyn’s Borough Hall. As Mr. Groomes struggled with one of the men on a station mezzanine, near a revolving exit door, a shot rang out, striking the man, Gilbert Drogheo, 32, in the chest. He died at Brooklyn Hospital Center.On Wednesday, the police charged Mr. Drogheo’s co-worker, Joscelyn Evering of Brooklyn, 28, with assault and menacing. But the police and prosecutors were still grappling with whether the killing — the first in the transit system this year — constituted a crime, or if Mr. Groomes had been justified in his use of deadly force to counter what he told detectives was an assault.

The Brooklyn district attorney’s office said on Wednesday that it was still “investigating the incident to see if a grand jury presentation is warranted.”

Neither Mr. Drogheo nor Mr. Evering was armed, the authorities said. Mr. Groomes told detectives that he had warned the men he intended to arrest them before following them through the station, his gun at his side, a law enforcement official said.

“There is an issue to be determined, which is whether Groomes was justified,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because no decision had been made on whether to charge him. “The shooting occurred after Groomes told them they had assaulted him and he was going to arrest them.”

The killing called to mind events of another era, when subway crime was rampant and New York could make a hero out of someone like Bernard Goetz, a white man who opened fire in 1984 on four black teenagers who he believed were going to rob him on a No. 2 train.

But while Mr. Goetz’s weapon was illegal, Mr. Groomes had a permit for the gun he took onto the subway at a time when, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton has said, riders are safer than ever. Unlike the episode involving Mr. Goetz, the moment the gunfire erupted on Tuesday was captured on video.

Detectives spent much of Wednesday interviewing witnesses and reviewing video, trying to piece together the events that preceded the altercation and its deadly conclusion. Mr. Groomes, who was hospitalized after the shooting, had been released by Wednesday. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Norman Seabrook, the president of the union that represents correction officers, said he had spoken with Mr. Groomes on Wednesday. “He’s thankful for all the support he’s gotten,” he said. “He’s done nothing wrong.”

Under New York State law, people have the right to defend themselves against an aggressor and to use deadly physical force when confronted with the imminent use of deadly physical force.

But unlike states with “stand your ground” laws, such as Florida, New York imposes a duty to retreat before deadly force is used, said James A. Cohen, a criminal defense lawyer and Fordham University Law School professor. “That’s the difference with a cop, who doesn’t have a duty to retreat,” Mr. Cohen said.

Any decision to bring charges, he said, would turn on who had been the aggressor, at first as well as just before the gunfire.

As for the idea that Mr. Groomes planned to arrest the two men, Mr. Cohen said: “People, even though armed, don’t go about trying to arrest people they have altercations with. And for good reason.”

Mr. Groomes fired after what the police and witnesses described as a prolonged confrontation that spilled from subway car to platform to mezzanine.

“They’re standing in the door; it’s crowded, and everyone is headed home,” said a witness, Eliza Byard, who was in the car with the men.

“They were in the way,” Ms. Byard said, adding that the younger men seemed “a little out of it,” as if they might have been drinking.

While still on the train, the law enforcement official said, the younger men had insulted Mr. Groomes, who mostly ignored them. “At one point, they called him a boy,” the law enforcement official said. “He says: ‘Don’t call me boy. I’m not your boy.’ ” Investigators said that at another point, one of the men punched Mr. Groomes in the head.

It was not clear when Mr. Groomes pulled the gun from his pocket, but as he did he told the men he was going to arrest them and suggested he was a law enforcement officer. Witnesses described the panic that spread when the weapon emerged.

A cellphone video, recorded by a person in the station and first broadcast by WCBS-TV, showed Mr. Groomes moving through the station. At one point in the video, Mr. Groomes appeared to be descending back toward the train as a man who appeared to be Mr. Drogheo moved away from him.

“Don’t shoot!” a man can be heard saying in the video.

Outside the Borough Hall station on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Drogheo’s youngest brother, Eric Maldonado, 16, said that there was no justification for the killing. “If you watch the video, my brother is running,” he said. “He didn’t have to die.”

Mr. Drogheo, the father of a 3-year-old daughter, worked as an electrician at the same company as Mr. Evering, and the two often rode home from jobs together. This week, they had been installing paneling in the East 20s in Manhattan, Mr. Evering’s mother, Patricia Livingston, said.

“They had no guns, no weapons in his bag,” Ms. Livingston said. “They had tools.”

Mr. Groomes, who lives in Brooklyn, retired from the Correction Department in 1993 after 18 years. Like many retired law enforcement officers, he has a permit to carry a concealed handgun.

A friend called Mr. Groomes “a wonderful guy” and a regular neighbor. “If anybody would try to mess with his character, I would defend him on that,” the friend, Sikkim Assing, said.

Ms. Assing, who is also a retired correction officer, said she understood why Mr. Groomes would want to have a gun permit.

“A lot of people choose to carry a gun because we work with the garbage of New York,” she said. “We got to protect ourselves.”

Reporting was contributed by Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Nate Schweber and John Surico, and research by Susan C. Beachy.



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5) Roof Collapse Kills Workers in Bangladeshi Cement Factory
By

NEW DELHI — The roof of a cement factory collapsed Thursday afternoon in the southwestern Bangladeshi city of Mongla, killing at least six people and leaving scores more in the wreckage, a government safety official said.

Around 40 people were rescued in the first hours after the roof collapsed, but as night fell, as many as 70 remained trapped in the collapsed structure, said Mahboob ul-Allam, senior assistant secretary in Bangladesh’s disaster management department. Part of the factory, which is run by the army and located about 200 miles from Dhaka, the capital, was under construction, he said.

The cause of the collapse is being investigated.

Two years ago, a similar collapse focused global attention on unsafe conditions in Bangladesh’s garment industry, which handles orders for many of the world’s top brands and retailers. More than 1,000 people were killed in that collapse, which a government report attributed to substandard construction materials and blatant disregard for building codes.

 


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6) Rats and Rot: NYC Report Rips Family Homeless Shelters
"Ultimately, the city spent $637,000 for the guards who were ordered after the DOI inspection, plus over $750,000 to fix the stairs."
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — One family of six was living in a homeless-shelter apartment where a dead rat festered on the floor for two days. Another family had no living-room furniture and had been without electricity for days.

At a different homeless family shelter, a puddle of urine soiled the floor of the only working elevator. And at yet another, one stairway was so treacherously rusted that inspectors ordered guards to block access to it until it was repaired.

All those buildings were part of a system that costs the city Department of Homeless Services about $360 million a year, with the agency sometimes paying well above neighborhood market rates for apartments, according to a city Department of Investigation report released Thursday. It found decrepit and dangerous conditions and lacking enforcement were rife in the city-paid, largely privately-run shelters that house nearly 12,000 homeless families with children.

"At its worst, DHS is turning a blind eye to violations that threaten the lives of shelter residents," the report said, calling for repairs, stiffer inspections and new mechanisms to compel fixes.

The homeless services agency said it had already axed some unacceptable apartments from the system, stepped up inspections and asked for money to hire 19 new inspection staffers, among other steps.

While that's progress, "much work still needs to be done," Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peters said in a statement.

New York City is legally obligated to provide shelter to all homeless people and has long grappled with how to house them. The problem has grown more acute as the numbers of people seeking shelter rose from an average of about 39,000 a night in the start of 2010 to over 60,000 this past November, according to the most recent data the nonprofit Coalition for the Homeless has gathered from city agencies.

Conditions in some family homeless shelters were bleakly spotlighted in December 2013, when The New York Times profiled an 11-year-old girl who lived amid mice, rotting walls and communal bathrooms in a Brooklyn shelter that no longer houses children. Mayor Bill de Blasio took office the next month and asked for an investigation.

Investigators inspected 25 of the over 140 family shelters last spring and summer. They range from converted hospitals and schools with on-site social services to single-room occupancy hotels and "cluster sites:" apartments within buildings that also house private tenants.

The "cluster sites" proved particularly deplorable, the report said. Inspectors reported roaches crawling on the walls, holes in the corners and unlocked front doors with inadequate security in lobbies of buildings with histories of shootings and other crimes. Garbage was piled in halls, beds were broken and there were rats, including the reeking, dead one that had lingered for two days, the report said.

The city pays an average of $2,450 a month for cluster site apartments, while the average rent in some of their neighborhoods is $1,200 a month and lower, the report said.

But even some better-equipped shelters had fire code violations and other problems, including the rusted-out stairwell, the report said. It was one of two in a 140-family building.

The homeless services agency had known the stairway was deteriorating since 2012 and tried to get money to fix it. Ultimately, the city spent $637,000 for the guards who were ordered after the DOI inspection, plus over $750,000 to fix the stairs. They reopened in September.

Reach Jennifer Peltz on Twitter @ jennpeltz.


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7) Ferguson Protests Resume Quietly After Shootings
By and

FERGUSON, Mo. — This region awoke Friday to an uneasy calm on Friday as the police continued searching for the person responsible for shooting two officers a day earlier during a protest outside the police station here.

Demonstrators returned to the police station on Thursday night for a peaceful but boisterous rally, as they sought to deny any link to the violence and shift attention from the shooting to their calls for change in Ferguson’s police and court system.

Sgt. Brian Schellman, a spokesman for the St. Louis County Police, said Friday morning that detectives were continuing to look into leads, but that no one was in custody. He described it as an “active investigation.”

Investigators on Thursday scoured nearby streets for evidence, and some people were brought in for questioning. They were later released.Protesters were small in number, about 100, and at times subdued in tone. They marched and chanted for a few short hours, heading home as rain began to fall. And they had a simple, symbolic goal: to keep the demonstrations alive the day after the two officers were shot.

Many questioned whether protesters would return to the street outside Police Headquarters — doing so would once again expose officers securing the building to danger — but the demonstration on Thursday night seemed to form as a kind of defiant answer.

“What the coward who shot at the police officers last night did was to try to take us off message,” said Cat Daniels, an activist known as Mama Cat who handed crackers and cookies to protesters. “We refuse to be taken off message.”

In many ways, the demonstrations on Thursday night seemed to unfold as if the shooting never happened. Protesters used the same confrontational speech they had in the past. Some wore Guy Fawkes masks or bandannas covering their faces. Others denounced the “racist police” and blared rap songs with antipolice lyrics.

Though several Ferguson officials have resigned since the release of a scathing Justice Department report, activists demanded that other officials, including the mayor, also step down. Anger over the killing of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager who was shot by a white Ferguson officer in August and whose death ignited unrest, remained as fierce as ever.

“How many kids did you guys kill today?” one protester shouted at police officers who walked by him.

As Ms. Daniels put it: “I personally feel bad for the officers and what they had to go through. But they went home. Mike Brown laid on that ground for four and a half hours and no one cared.”

There were no arrests during the demonstration. But activists asserted on social media that two protesters had been pulled over in traffic stops nearby and arrested.

The shooting occurred shortly after midnight on Thursday as officers guarded the police station while a demonstration was winding down. Officials called the shooting an “ambush” and said that the officers had been targeted. One officer was shot in the face and the other in the shoulder. Both were treated at a nearby hospital and released.

Down the street from the police station, a group of clergy members and protesters gathered for a nighttime prayer vigil, with several pastors condemning the shooting of the officers while maintaining that peaceful protesters were not to blame.

“We come to curse all of those who would stand in the midst of peaceful protest and cast off shots of violence,” said the Rev. Starsky Wilson, a chairman of the Ferguson Commission, which was appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon to study the public’s relationship with law enforcement and other socio-economic problems.

Law enforcement officials made several small but significant changes in their handling of the protests and guarding of the police station, taking a more cautious and less visible approach.

Last year, after the announcement that a grand jury declined to indict Darren Wilson, the white officer who killed Mr. Brown, police officers formed a shoulder-to-shoulder line across the police station’s parking lot facing protesters. Known as a skirmish line in police parlance, the line created a human shield between the protesters and the police station. The two officers who were shot were standing in such a protective line.

But during the protest on Thursday night, officers mostly stood behind four parked police sport utility vehicles. The human shield was replaced for the most part by a kind of vehicular shield. At one point, when the demonstrators crowded the street blocking traffic, seven officers stood in front of the vehicles. Compared with last year’s demonstrations, when a line would stretch across the length of the parking lot and remain there so long that officers would rotate in and out, the skirmish line this time was short and brief.

One of the police commanders in charge of overseeing security outside the building said he wanted to “reduce some of that visibility” of his officers, calling the concrete barriers that blocked the entrance of the parking lot “a position of cover.”

“There is probably more of a sense of unease, a little bit more nervousness, based on what happened last night,” the commander, Lt. Jerry Lohr with the St. Louis County Police Department, said as he stood outside the police station. “Officers are worried. I think the spouses, the families’ of these officers, are extremely worried. Personally, I ran home today to change and get ready to be up here, and my wife wanted to take a picture with my son. So she asked my 14-year-old son and I to get a picture taken together. My wife never asks for a picture. It’s her way of expressing that emotion, that concern.”

Lieutenant Lohr had won praise from many protesters last year for de-escalating tensions between law enforcement and the demonstrators. He said a few protesters he knew had come up to him on Thursday to denounce the shooting. Throughout the night, he walked among the crowd with about 10 officers, asking protesters who were standing in the street to move onto the sidewalk to allow traffic to flow. He was yelled at, greeted politely, hugged, questioned, ignored.

“I don’t think it’s fair to stereotype and say this was an act of the protesters,” he said of the shooting. “The majority of the people that are out here are here to have their voices heard. The majority of people out here aren’t here to physically engage the police.”




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8) Swedes Offer to Question Julian Assange in London
By

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/14/world/europe/julian-assange-sweden-london-sexual-assault-allegations.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

LONDON — In a move that could unlock years of stalemate, Swedish prosecutors on Friday offered to travel to Britain to question the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over allegations of sexual assaults in 2010.

The Swedish officials had previously refused to conduct interviews in London, where Mr. Assange has taken refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy since June 2012.

But with some of the crimes under investigation set to reach their statute of limitations in August, the officials said that they had changed their minds, and that they had also asked for permission to take a swab of DNA from Mr. Assange.

“My view has always been that to perform an interview with him at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London would lower the quality of the interview, and that he would need to be present in Sweden in any case should there be a trial in the future,” Marianne Ny, the director of public prosecutions in Sweden, said on Friday in a statement.

“Now that time is of the essence, I have viewed it therefore necessary to accept such deficiencies in the investigation and likewise take the risk that the interview does not move the case forward,” she added.

One of Mr. Assange’s defense lawyers, Per Samuelson, welcomed the initiative and suggested that it would most likely be accepted. He said he had spoken to Mr. Assange early on Friday.

“This is what we have been asking for, for years, so finally the prosecutor is speaking the same language,” Mr. Samuelson said. “We are a little irritated that it has taken her so long to do.”

“We received the formal request from the Swedish prosecutor by email,” he added. “In that email, there are some preconditions, one of which is that both the Ecuadorean and the United Kingdom authorities approve the request. For us, she could come tomorrow, but since she demands that the two countries approve, that could take some time.”

Mr. Samuelson added, however, that he thought that both Britain and Ecuador wanted to resolve the situation and would not obstruct an interview taking place in London.

He also said that the Swedish prosecutor already had access to a sample of Mr. Assange’s DNA. “We don’t know why she is asking for it once more,” he said, adding that he had not discussed that aspect of the request with Mr. Assange.

Mr. Samuelson said that Mr. Assange welcomed the change of position from the Swedish prosecutor.

“I am convinced that once the prosecutor hears him, she will understand that he is innocent and will drop the investigation,” he said.

In the statement, Ms. Ny said that if Mr. Assange agreed to the interview in London, it would be carried out by the supporting prosecutor to the case, Chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren, along with a police officer.

Karin Rosander, the director of communications for the Swedish prosecutor, said that it was unclear how soon any interview could take place. After getting the agreement of Mr. Assange, the Swedish authorities would still need to make a formal request to Britain before going ahead, she said.

Mr. Assange is wanted for questioning over allegations of sexual misconduct and rape involving two women he met during a visit to Sweden in 2010.

No charges have been brought formally, but that step is usually taken later in a criminal investigation in Sweden than in many other countries. In 2012, Mr. Assange lost an appeal in Britain against extradition to Sweden, prompting his request for refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where, under diplomatic protocol, Britain does not have jurisdiction.

Mr. Assange denies the allegations, but he has refused to go to Sweden to face them because he says he could then, ultimately, be extradited to the United States. There, he might face trial over the publication on WikiLeaks of huge quantities of delicate information that caused acute embarrassment for the United States and for other governments and revealed confidential details about diplomatic relations.

A solution to the impasse would probably be welcomed by Britain, where a police chief said this year that the cost of guarding the embassy to ensure that Mr. Assange did not leave was draining resources.

The Metropolitan Police in London have provided a 24-hour guard at a cost of about $15 million since the operation began, and Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe told LBC Radio this week that officials were considering “how we can do that differently in the future, because it’s sucking our resources in.”
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9) Starving Sea Lions Washing Ashore by the Hundreds in California
By


CAPISTRANO BEACH, Calif. — By the time Wendy Leeds reached him, the sea lion pup had little hope of surviving.

Like more than 1,450 other sea lions that have washed up on California beaches this year, in what animal experts call a growing crisis for the animal, this 8-month-old pup was starving, stranded and hundreds of miles from a mother who still needed to nurse him and teach him to hunt and feed. Ribs jutted from his velveteen coat.

The pup had lain on the beach for hours, becoming the target of an aggressive dog before managing to wriggle onto the deck of a million-dollar oceanfront home, where the owner shielded him with an umbrella and called animal control. In came Ms. Leeds, an animal-care expert at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, which like other California rescue centers is being inundated with calls about lost, emaciated sea lions.

“It’s getting crazy,” she said.Experts suspect that unusually warm waters are driving fish and other food away from the coastal islands where sea lions breed and wean their young. As the mothers spend time away from the islands hunting for food, hundreds of starving pups are swimming away from home and flopping ashore from San Diego to San Francisco.

Many of the pups are leaving the Channel Islands, an eight-island chain off the Southern California coast, in a desperate search for food. But they are too young to travel far, dive deep or truly hunt on their own, scientists said.

This year, animal rescuers are reporting five times more sea lion rescues than normal — 1,100 last month alone. The pups are turning up under fishing piers and in backyards, along inlets and on rocky cliffs. One was found curled up in a flower pot.

Last week, SeaWorld San Diego said it would shut its live sea lion and otter show for two weeks so it could spare six of its animal specialists for the rescue-and-recovery effort.

“There are so many calls, we just can’t respond to them all,” Justin Viezbicke, who oversees stranding issues in California for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said on a conference call with reporters. “The reality is, we just can’t get to these animals.”

As the injured animals proliferate, their encounters with humans are growing. Some people offer misguided help such as dousing the pups with water or trying to drag them back into the ocean. Others take selfies with the stranded animals, pet them or let their children pretend to ride them, rescuers said.

As Ms. Leeds approached the quaking sea lion on Capistrano Beach, she frowned at a pile of tuna near his muzzle. “Has someone been trying to feed him?” she asked.

Many are sick with pneumonia, their throaty barks muted to rasping coughs. Parasites have swarmed their digestive systems. Some are so tired that they cannot scamper away when rescuers approach them with nets and towels and heft them into large pet carriers.

“They come ashore because if they didn’t, they would drown,” said Shawn Johnson, the director of veterinary science at Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. “They’re just bones and skin. They’re really on the brink of death.”

This year is the third in five years that scientists have seen such large numbers of strandings. Researchers say they worry about the long-term consequences of climate change and rising ocean temperatures on a sea lion population that has evolved over thousands of years to breed almost exclusively on the Channel Islands, relying on circulating flows of Pacific upwellings to bring anchovies, sardines and other prey.

“The environment is changing too rapidly,” said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service who found that pups on the Channel Islands were 44 percent underweight. “Their life history is so much slower that it’s not keeping up.”

Scientists said it was too soon to predict how these strandings and deaths could affect California’s sea lion populations, which stand at what scientists say is a healthy 300,000. As their mothers leave them to take longer, less productive foraging trips, the pups are simply not growing normally.

“We do expect the population to take a drop,” Dr. Melin said. “Probably not something catastrophic, but probably a really good hit. It is going to impact the overall population eventually if we continue to have these events back to back.”

For now, rescue and rehabilitation groups like Pacific Marine Mammal Center, in Laguna Beach, have the feel of big-city emergency rooms. Volunteers and staff members pull up with crates of freshly beached sea lions to be weighed and examined. They shave numbers into the animals’ brown coats, warm the coldest ones in saltwater baths, and try to coax them back to health with smoothies of herring, Karo syrup, Trader Joe’s brand salmon oil and other nutrients.

Many have rebounded, gaining weight and graduating from indoor holding pens and tube feedings to eating small fish and romping in outdoor pools. The gaunt new arrivals lie forlornly inside, lethargic and scrawny. The recovering ones loll outside like sunbathers on a crowded roof deck, rolling around in hose spray and occasionally flapping around the small pools in their pens. After four or five weeks, many should be ready to be released back into the ocean.

But the death rates are sobering, and staff members say they have to make quick and sometimes painful decisions to euthanize animals unlikely to survive. Of the 1,450 sea lions scooped up from the shores, about 720 are now being treated, Dr. Viezbicke of NOAA said.

Michele Hunter, the center’s director of animal care, said, “It’s very difficult to see so much death.”

On Capistrano Beach, Ms. Leeds hauled the quaking sea lion into a kennel, accepted a $20 donation from the homeowner who had called in the report and headed down the highway to a fishing pier where a lifeguard had spotted another pup in the sand.

This one was small and cool to her touch with ragged, unsteady breathing, so she piled both animals into the same kennel so they could keep each other warm. They seemed to bond quickly: When Ms. Leeds reached toward one, the other snapped at her hand. Within the hour, veterinary workers would decide that both pups were too starved and sick and had to be put down. For the moment, the two curled up together like a pair of brown socks for the ride back to the rescue center.


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10) Coroner: 19-Year-Old Man Killed by Cop Shot in Head, Torso
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MADISON, Wis. — A 19-year-old biracial man who was unarmed when killed by a white Madison police officer was shot in his head, right arm and torso, according to preliminary autopsy reports released Friday.

The report from the Dane County Medical Examiner did not say how many times Tony Robinson was shot on March 6, but said he died from "firearm related trauma." The results of toxicology tests aren't expected for several more weeks.

Robinson was fatally shot by police officer Matt Kenny after Kenny was summoned to a call that the young man was jumping in and out of traffic and had assaulted someone. Authorities said the officer heard a disturbance and forced his way into an apartment where Robinson had gone, and fired after Robinson assaulted him.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating the shooting; state law requires an outside agency to look into any fatal police shootings. Attorney General Brad Schimel has said he hopes to have the bulk of that investigation done and submitted to the local district attorney in two weeks.

There have been numerous peaceful protests of 1,000 people or more since the shooting. Robinson's funeral was scheduled for Saturday.

A memorial for Robinson at the scene of the shooting still drew a few people Friday morning. Visitors have left flowers and mementos outside the apartment and scribbled notes on its walls.

Associated Press writer Kia Farhang contributed to this report.


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