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US | Its Going to Feel like 50 Below in the Midwest This Week Heres What Extreme Cold Does to Your Body | Parts of the Midwest are bracing for their coldest temperatures in decades this week, with Tuesday night conditions predicted to feel like 50 degrees below zero or colder in areas of the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa, according to AccuWeather. Temperatures in Chicago are also predicted to dip below negative 25 for the first time since the mid-1980s, AccuWeather says. Health officials have warned residents to stay indoors as much as possible, since the brutal cold can become dangerous in just minutes. But what actually happens to your body in the frigid air? TIME asked Dr. Ronald Furnival, a pediatric emergency physician and a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Almost as soon as you step outside, your body starts to siphon blood flow away from your extremities to focus on keeping your brain and internal organs warm. That's why your fingers, toes and ears tend to get cold before your core, Furnival says. "The blood vessels would start to contract and reduce blood flow" to areas including the face, ears, nose and fingers as a "defense mechanism" against extreme cold, Furnival says. For most people, at least in the short-term, this adjustment is pretty harmless. But Furnival says people with preexisting heart conditions may be at risk of complications associated with these blood pressure changes, especially if they try to do strenuous outdoor activity like shoveling snow. In extreme cold, frostbite or the freezing of skin and underlying tissues can start to set in after just five to 15 minutes outside, Furnival says. The process can be especially quick if your skin is wet, or if you're not properly covered up with hats, gloves and boots, in addition to warm clothing. "Exposed extremities and digits and things can get frostbite fairly quickly," Furnival says. "If there's a strong wind and the weather's pretty cold and the windchill is pretty low, then it goes a lot faster." Risk of frostbite intensifies whenever the temperature drops below five degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Mayo Clinic, and becomes especially pronounced when cold and wind cause temperatures to fall below negative 16.6 degrees. While mild to moderate frostbite can be reversed with warm water and blankets, severe frostbite can lead to permanent or long-lasting damage in the affected area. Signs of frostbite include a prickling feeling, followed by numbness and changes in the skin's color and appearance. It may turn pale, red or blue, or take on a waxy look, according to the Mayo Clinic. Furnival says signs of hypothermia, or a core body temperature that falls below 95 degrees, can surface after just 30 minutes to an hour in frigid temperatures. "You start to have some decrease in your central temperature, so you can have some mild hypothermia to moderate hypothermia develop," Furnival says. "People might start to feel confused and start to slur their words and start to have some neurologic changes. Some of the central core organs might be affected, so they might have problems with rapid heart rate and even worsening of the extremities, if blood flow is further reduced to those extremities.", Furnival says individuals with preexisting medical conditions and children, who have less insulation, are at particular risk. But everybody, even otherwise healthy adults, should be aware of these dangers and take appropriate precautions, Furnival says. "Cover up as well as you can with hats and gloves and mittens and boots and warm clothing, and then limit your exposure outside," he recommends. "It's okay to go outside, but you have to prepare for it, and you have to be coming in periodically to warm back up." |
US | This Facebook Post Got 2 Dozen Middle Schoolers Suspended | About two dozen middle school students were suspended over a Facebook post encouraging peers to break their school's dress code, parents told Atlanta's WSB-TV 2 News. A Sunday Facebook suggested that students should violate the dress code by wearing the color red the next day at school. All two dozen students who either shared or commented on the post were suspended, even if they didn't say they were agreeing to the plan. Some students were given the boot for up to 10 days. Parents told WSB-TV that "the principal called the students' actions a terroristic threat.", School administrators will decide if the suspended students are to be punished further. WSB-TV |
US | Pope Francis Prepares to Speak to Congress | Pope Francis is no stranger to institutions of power. When he speaks to the U.S. Congress on Thursdayfrom the same spot where Presidents give the State of the Unionhe is not on as foreign a ground as one might think. If anything, the moment just echoes his experience since becoming the Bishop of Rome the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica is twice as large as the U.S. Capitol, centuries older, and is the center of the globe's most far-reaching empire, one billion strong. Consider the scene in Rome the Sunday before Pope Francis left for Cuba and the U.S. The dome of Saint Peters consumed the blue Roman sky. Towering white columns of the square around penned the thousands of pilgrims who packed the piazza to hear the Pope's Sunday address. When Francis finally appeared, he was but a dot in an Apostolic Palace window hundreds up feet above. "Viva Papa!" a group of schoolchildren shouted, trying to get his attention. Others held enormous banners with soccer slogans. But it was in vain. Francis was too far above them all, holding court where his forefathers have stood. He asked the people below a question Jesus asked in the Gospels "Who do you say that I am?'", Read More Why Immigration Is Different for Pope Francis, If architecture reveals theology, it is hard to miss message of the Vatican the Church of old is a fortress that keeps the Pope above the people. Now, two after two and a half years of Francisthe People's PopeSaint Peters has never looked more out of place. The visual of the People's Pope, and his Church, seated there is just bizarre. The question"Who do you say that I am?'"is ringing louder and louder in his Church. It is another reason that Francis' travels matter so much. On the road he gets to meet his people and share glimpses into their lives. He can stop for selfies with school children, even if it means making the President of the U.S wait. He can stop his motorcade to bend down and kiss a disabled child. He can scratch his prepared remarks, as he did in Cuba, when he heard the moving testimony of a nun in Havana, and speak whatever the Spirit moves him to say. He is free to be who he wants his Church to be, and with the people of the Church themselves. It would be a mistake to view Washington as Francis as a U.S. politician, a candidate looking for a vote. His mission is far bigger than that. As his brief speech at the White House showed, his political opinions do not fall neatly into the left-right divide. He reminded reporters on the way to the U.S. that his only ideology is the church's doctrine, while his address to U.S. bishops showed that he is as concerned with pastoral matters here as he is political ones. Speaking to Congress is really just another moment to practice for his bigger goal. America is not his to reform. Saint Peters however, that's a different story. Read Next Pope Francis Meets America |
US | Serials Adnan Syed Argues for New Trial | The subject of the Serial podcast's first season went back to court on Wednesday as his attorney argued for new trial. Adnan Syed, who was found guilty in 1999 of killing his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, made his first public appearance since his incarceration as a teenagerand since his story was downloaded more than 68 million timesduring the beginning of a three-day hearing in the Baltimore City Circuit Court, NBC News reports. Syed's attorney, C. Justin Brown, says his client's former lawyer, Christina Gutierrez, failed to contact an alibi witness, Asia McClain, who could have placed Syed at school and away from the crime scene. He argues that, Gutierrez, who was disbarred in 2001 and died in 2004 after previously being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, was too ill to provide proper counsel and called on a friend of hers to testify about her decline. Brown also said Gutierrez failed to bring forth evidence that could have called into question the accuracy of the cell-phone records that the prosecution used to construct a timeline of the murder. Syed was present but did not speak during the hearing, and it is unclear if Brown plans to call on him to testify. Maryland Deputy Attorney General Thiruvendran Vignarajah argued that "overwhelming evidence" put Syed behind bars, not his attorney's mishandling. "Mr. Syed was convicted because he did it," he said. NBC News |
US | Parents in the Deadly California Cliff Crash Were Allowed to Keep HomeSchooling Despite Abuse Claims | The parents who drove off a California cliff with their six adopted children were allowed to continue home-schooling them despite repeated allegations of child abuse across three states. The crash that killed Jennifer and Sarah Hart and at least three of their children, has become the latest high-profile case in which alleged child abuse coincided with home schooling. New details reveal that child welfare officials, who reportedly interviewed the family in 2013, did not pursue a case against the Harts despite their children being in violation of state home-schooling laws. Jay Remy, communications director for the Oregon Department of Human Services, declined to comment on the existence of specific child welfare cases, citing privacy laws, but he said if children are not registered in public school or home school, it could be cause for concern in a child-abuse investigation. "It could raise questions as to whether the child is isolated and it could also raise questions about whether a child's educational needs are being met," he said in an email. The fact that the Hart children were home-schooled for the past seven years is also one reason investigators still know so little about what happened before the crash. "We didn't have a lot of classroom information coming in, you know, from the classmates," Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, who is leading the investigation, told TIME. Friends and extended family members have also not been able to offer much insight into what preceded the family's car crash, which authorities say might have been intentional. There is no evidence to suggest that home-schooled students suffer abuse at higher rates than students enrolled in public school. But a 2014 report from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, which looked at 28 cases of "extreme child abuse," found that it was common for abusive parents to remove their children from public school. "This homeschooling' appears to have been designed to further isolate the child and typically occurred after closure of a previously opened Child Protective Services case," the paper stated. "Their isolation was accompanied by an escalation of physically abusive events.", Child-welfare experts say it can be harder to identify abuse and prevent it from escalating if children don't regularly come into contact with teachers and other adults. And proposed laws in several states have recently sought to change home-schooling regulations because of child abuse incidents, with little success. A bill introduced in Hawaii in January would require school districts to conduct a background check on parents before approving them for home schooling. But those bills have met vocal opposition from home-schooling advocates, who argue that cases of abuse are a rare exception, and many home-schooled children are involved in sports and other activities outside the home and are often connected to a community of home-schooling families. "I think most parents who choose to educate their children at home are doing so because they believe they can provide a better education or at least as good of an education and that they think that they can meet the unique needs of their particular child," said Tj Schmidt a staff attorney for the Home School Legal Defense Association, which advocates for the rights of home-schooling families. No state prohibits parents from home-schooling their children because of a history of child-abuse allegations. Pennsylvania law prohibits parents from home-schooling if they have been convicted of certain crimes within the past five years, including child endangerment, kidnapping or aggravated assault. But the law is far less stringent in other states, including Minnesota, where Sarah Hart was convicted of misdemeanor domestic assault in 2011 after her daughter came to school with bruises on her stomach and back following a spanking that "got out of control," according to a police report. Days after her sentencing, all six Hart children in kindergarten through 7th grade were pulled out of the public school system for home-schooling, according to district records. In 2013, Oregon child welfare officials determined there was not enough evidence to pursue a child-abuse case against Jennifer and Sarah Hart, according to a friend who reported them for abuse, despite the fact that the Harts had not registered for home schooling, as required by state law. "The kids were regularly punished for common childlike and adolescent behavior, such as laughing too loudly or taking a small piece of food that was offered without permission from Jen," the friend, Alexandra Argyropoulos, said in a statement to TIME. "Her reactions were overblown, and the punishments seemed unnecessarily cruel. She would deprive them of meals, take away talking privileges for a day, and make them stand in a corner and stare at a wall for a long extended period of time.", Argyropoulos said Oregon Child Protective Services officials told her they did not have enough evidence to pursue a case after interviewing the Hart children. But when the Harts lived in West Linn, Oregon, the children were never enrolled in their local public school district, nor were they ever registered for home schooling through the local Education Service District, as Oregon state law requires. "At that point, it should have come to light that they were not being legally educated that they were, in fact, truant. It should have, and I don't know why it didn't," said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, which advocates for stronger home-schooling regulations. Argyropoulos started a White House petition last week, calling for the creation of a national child abuse registry to better track reported abuse across state lines, arguing such a database could have helped the Hart children. "This happened because our state agencies are unable to communicate effectively," she said in a statement. "Jen and Sarah were able to skip from state to state with six children knowing that a trail of their documented abuse would go without further investigation or consequence." |
US | Princeton Approves Revisions to Sexual Misconduct and Assault Policy | Princeton University faculty members approved recommended revisions to the university's policies for addressing sexual misconduct and assault on Monday, the university announced. The changes will bring the institution into full compliance with Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination at schools that receive federal funding. Princeton is one of 76 institutions being investigated for possible violations of Title IX, which also has requirements about how educational institutions handle sexual assault claims. One of the changes Princeton faculty approved shifts the burden of proof from the "clear and persuasive" standard, which mandates that three-quarters of evidence must indicate guilt, to the "preponderance of evidence" standard, which is less rigid. The Department of Education recommended the "preponderance" standard in a 2011 guide to how colleges could comply with Title IX. Other changes include allowing rights to appeal a case afforded equally to both the alleged offender and the victim allowing both sides to appoint advisers outside of the university and the removal of students from adjudication panels, the Daily Princetonian reports. Princeton's Faculty Advisory Committee on Policy first recommended the revisions, which were drafted over the summer, earlier this month. The changes will be brought to the Council of the Princeton University Community for incorporation into Princeton's rules on Sept 29. |
US | Beachgoers Beware The Great White Shark Population Is Growing Again | New research suggests that the population of great white sharks off both coasts of the U.S. is growing again after years on the decline. One report ventures that there are over 2,000 great whites living off California 10 times the amount estimated by a recent Stanford University study. On the other side of the country, scientists haven't been able to conclude an exact population size, but estimations suggest that the sharks in the Atlantic are rebounding, after a significant drop in the 1970s and 1980s because of commercial shark fishing. The upswing is likely the result of wildlife-preservation efforts over the past two decades, although conservationists are hesitant to celebrate the news. For one, the great white belongs to a group of aquatic species that typically struggle to recover from sharp declines in population. What's more, their generally reclusive behavior often requires scientists to rely on guesswork when keeping tabs on them and a dearth of historical information doesn't help, "They're back on the way up, but to be honest, I don't think any of us know what up' is," George Burgess, a Florida-based researcher, told Live Science. "The fact is, we have no real idea what the population was before we started screwing around with the environment on both coasts." |
US | Minnesota Bans Antibacterial Triclosan | Minnesota is banning the germ killer triclosan, which is found in many soaps and body washes. Governor Mark Dayton signed the bill on Friday, but the ban won't take effect until January 2017. State senator John Marty, who sponsored the bill, said that the impact of the bill which is the first statewide ban in the nation would be felt across the board. "While this is an effort to ban triclosan from one of the 50 states, I think it will have a greater impact than that," he told the Associated Press. According to the Food and Drug Administration FDA, triclosan is not known to be harmful to humans, but a growing number of studies suggest that the chemical may cause hormone disruption. The FDA has said it is "engaged in an ongoing scientific and regulatory review," but that it doesn't have enough information to recommend that consumers stop using it. Some consumer products have already begun dropping the chemical, which is in about 75 of all antibacterial soaps sold in America. Procter Gamble already sells triclosan-free products, including toothpaste, and plans to completely eliminate its use by 2014. |
US | Boy Calls 911 After Fathers Apparent Drug Overdose I Think My Dad Is Dead | An 8-year-old Wisconsin boy is being called courageous by law enforcement after he dialed 911 and alerted authorities to his father who was unconscious at the steering wheel following an apparent drug overdose. The boy can be heard in police audio tearfully telling a dispatcher about his dad's condition as he sat in a car with his two younger siblings. "I think my dad is dead. He's not waking up or anything," he said, according to CBS 6. The boy then did his best to describe his surroundings so officers could find their car. His 33-year-old father, Christopher Koeberl, faces charges of child neglect, operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and operating a motor vehicle while revoked, the Washington Post reports. He allegedly admitted to taking snorting three Xanax pills before the incident, which took place last Wednesday, the newspaper said. Read More Dad Records Son's Heartbreaking Reaction to Mom's Drug Overdose, Waukesha Police gave him credit for being brave enough to call 911 under pressure. |
US | Utah Wont Recognize Gay Marriages In Dispute | Utah said Wednesday that it will not recognize the same-sex unions made since a federal judge allowed gay marriage in the state while the matter remains under legal dispute. The Supreme Court put same-sex marriage in Utah on hold Wednesday by granting the state's request for a stay while it appeals a lower-court ruling that its ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. The state says more than 1,000 same-sex coupled married in the 17 days between the initial ruling and the Supreme Court stay, CNN reports, and those couples are now in legal limbo. "Based on counsel from the Attorney General's Office regarding the Supreme Court decision, state recognition of same-sex marital status is ON HOLD until further notice," Derek Miller, the chief of staff to Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, said in a letter to cabinet officials. "Please understand this position is not intended to comment on the legal status of those same-sex marriages that is for the courts to decide," Miller wrote. "The intent of this communication is to direct state agency compliance with current laws that prohibit the state from recognizing same-sex marriages.", CNN |
US | Fed Government Removes Many Hospital Errors from Public Access | The federal government has stopped disclosing some hospital errors to the public, preventing people from being able to thoroughly research the conditions of a hospital prior to a visit. USA Today reports that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CMS previously maintained a record of many avoidable mistakes called "hospital acquired conditions" HACS on its Hospital Compare website, but removed eight of these HACS last year including instances such as patients given the wrong blood type during a transfusion, foreign objects left in patients' bodies during surgery and a score of other life-threating errors. The data was instead provided on a less accessible public spreadsheet that disappeared earlier this month. The Hospital Compare site now details just 13 conditions including the rate of infectious diseases being contracted after surgery. CMS says that some uncommon HACS were removed to reflect measurements from reliable sources such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CMS spokesman Aaron Albright wrote in an email to USA Today that the new data is the "most relevant to consumers." He added that the changes reflect advice from the National Quality Forum, an organization that reviews performance measurements. Ann Grenier, NQF spokeswoman, told the newspaper that certain HACS were removed because they were not "appropriate for comparing one hospital to another.", The recording of HACS not only provides information for prospective patients, but it could also helps determine the amount of Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement that a hospital receives. Under The Affordable Care Act, the hospitals with the 25 highest rates of certain HACS will receive up to to 1 less in Medicare reimbursement. CMS says that the removed HACS rarely occur in the hospitals and that they are working on a new set of measurements for recording commonly occurring errors. USA Today |
US | A 911 Victim Has Been Identified 16 Years After the Attacks | Advances in DNA testing have enabled medics to positively identify the remains of a victim of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, The New York Times reports. It has been 16 years since 2,753 people were killed when the twin towers were destroyed, and more than two years since the last victim among them was positively identified. The man whose name officials have withheld at the request of his family becomes the 1,641st victim of the attacks to be positively identified. Improvements in the way DNA is extracted from bone fragments and more sensitive testing technology led to the latest positive identification, New York City's chief medical examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson told the Times. "This ongoing work is vital because with each new identification, we are able to bring answers to families affected by tremendous loss," Sampson said. Read more Beyond 9/11 The 15 Year Anniversary of September 11, Around 40 of the people who died in the Sept. 11 attacks have yet to be positively identified. NYT |
US | What to Know About Cesar Sayoc the Mail Bomb Suspect | Federal authorities arrested Cesar Altieri Sayoc Jr. on Friday in connection with the 13 mail bombs sent to high-profile Democrats and other individuals, FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Friday. Sayoc has been charged with five federal crimes and faces up to 58 years in prison, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said during a news conference. On Friday, officials said two additional packages were found one recovered in Florida that was addressed to Democratic Sen. Cory Booker and one in a Manhattan post office addressed to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Since Tuesday, devices have been intercepted addressed to Clinton, Obama, Biden, billionaire George Soros, the actor Robert De Niro, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, former Attorney General Eric Holder and former CIA director John Brennan. Here's what to know about the suspect behind the mailed package bombs. Records for Sayoc show he is associated with an address in Aventura, Florida, and is registered as a Republican in Florida. According to Florida criminal records, Sayoc was born in New York. The van was covered in stickers that show President Donald Trump and the presidential seal, among other pictures. Authorities have not said whether the van is connected with Sayoc. , Sayoc was arrested in 2002 in Miami for making a bomb threat. Records say he threatened to "throw, place, project or discharge" a destructive device. Criminal records show Sayoc was arrested on multiple other occasions for fraud, tampering with evidence, drug possession and unlawful use of a driver's license. A Twitter account that matched Sayoc's name made frequent references to the Seminole Tribe and appeared to discuss having Native heritage. The account's bio says the owner works at the Seminole Hard Rock Live. However, the Seminole Tribe said Friday that Sayoc was not involved with the tribe. "We can find no evidence that Cesar Altieri, Caesar Altieri, Caesar Altieri Sayoc, Ceasar Altieri Randazzo Facebook or Julus Cesar Milan Twitter is or was a member or employee of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, or is or was an employee of Seminole Gaming or Hard Rock International," Gary Bitner, a spokesman for the tribe, said in a statement. He added the tribe had not yet verified whether Sayoc worked for any of the tribe's vendors. "At this time, we cannot verify if he is or was an employee of a vendor company.", The Twitter account linked to Sayoc's name also frequently tweeted right-wing conspiracy theories and posted memes attacking George Soros, liberals and Trump's opponents. Some posts also made reference to the upcoming midterm elections, saying things like "Red Wave 2018" and showing images that encouraged followers to "Vote Republican.", Federal officials declined to discuss Sayoc's motive on Friday, saying that the investigation was still ongoing. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he did not know why the suspected bomber was targeting Democrats. "He appears to be a partisan," Sessions aid. Wray added that while the FBI believes it found "the right guy," the agency does not know if there were more people sending mail bombs if there are more bombs that have not yet been discovered. |
US | Every SingleOccupancy Restroom in California Could Be Labeled All Gender | Companies in the bathroom signage business may be poised for a boom. On Friday, a California lawmaker from the San Francisco area announced the introduction of a bill that would require every single-occupancy restroom in the state to be labeled as an "all gender" facility. Several cities, including Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, have proposed or passed similar resolutions in recent years. But Assemblymember Phil Ting's office says his measure would be the most progressive and expansive statewide law in the nation. "Restrooms are a necessity of life. Access to them influences our ability to participate in public life," Ting said in a statement. "Signs restricting single-use restroom access by gender create problems of convenience, fairness, and safety. They defy common sense, which is why many of us ignore them. All gender' signs will end these problems and ensure everyone's rights are protected.", Read More The Gender-Neutral Bathroom Revolution Is Growing , Proponents of such measures say that while accommodating transgender people is part of the impetus, there are several benefits to removing signs that restrict such bathroom use to solely "men" or "women." Among the cases commonly cited parents with opposite-sex children who aren't sure which bathroom to use individuals with opposite-sex caregivers and any woman who has had to wait in line for the ladies' room while the mens' sits vacant. The bill has the support of several lawmakers from the San Francisco area, as well as the chair of the state's LGBT caucus. While states such as Vermont and New York are considering bills that would require gender-neutral signage on state-owned and operated buildings, California's measure would apply to essentially any single-occupancy restroom available to the public. Ting's office did not have an estimate of how many bathrooms in the state would require relabeling if the bill passes. The earliest it could go into effect would be the beginning January 2017. The measure comes at a time when bathroom use is being debated in state legislatures and courts around the nation. Many recent conflicts have arisen when a transgender student desires to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity, raising objections among some that doing so would violate the privacy of cisgender students or put them in danger. Several statesincluding Missouri, Indiana, South Dakota and Wisconsinare considering bills that would limit transgender students usage of facilities at public schools. The Equality Federation, an LGBT rights group, says it is currently tracking 27 bathroom-related bills in more than 10 states, describing many of them as "anti-transgender.", On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit heard oral arguments in the case of Gavin Grimm, a high school junior in Virginia who identifies as transgender. School administrators allowed Grimm to use the "correct" bathroom for two months, according to lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union, before his bathroom use became the subject of incendiary school board meetings where he was called a "lady" and once compared to a dog that wants to pee on fire hydrants. Eventually the school board voted to require Grimm to use "alternative facilities," which the ACLU lawyers characterize as unequal treatment and discrimination. A ruling in the case is expected in the next few months. Read More Everything You Need to Know About the Debate Over Transgender People and Bathrooms, California already has in place the most progressive student-related law regarding facility use, which withstood repeated attempts by social conservatives to have it overturned. It affirms the rights of transgender students, from K through 12, to use facilities and play on sports teams that align with their gender identity. "All Californians should have the same freedom to participate in public life, go about their day, and use the bathroom when they need it," Kris Hayashi, executive director of Transgender Law Center, said in a statement about the California bill. "By making single-user restrooms accessible to all genders, this law will make life easier for everyone and reduce the harassment regularly experienced by transgender people and others who don't match people's stereotypes of what it looks like to be a man or a woman." |
US | Ahmed the Clockmaker Wants to Go to MIT | Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old boy who was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school, gave a press conference Wednesday where he thanked supporters and talked about his hopes for the future. "When I showed it to her, she thought it was a threat to her," Mohamed said of the teacher at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas who thought his clock was a bomb, reports NBC. "It was really sad she took a wrong impression of it.", Mohamed's arrest set off a social media firestorm Wednesday, which got him offers of numerous prestigious internships and even an invitation from President Obama to the White House. But during the press conference, Mohamed explained what he really wants to do go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for college. In the meantime, he added, "I'm thinking about transferring from McArthur to any different school.", READ NEXT Why Kids Should Be Making Clocks in Science Class |
US | Mothers Team Up to Fight Stand Your Ground Law | The mothers of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis are working together to end Florida's infamous "stand your ground" law. "These two moms are going to make positive change to make sure that stand your ground' doesn't continue to happen," Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin told CBS News. "Stand your ground" laws allow people who fear for their safety to use deadly force against their agressor and override any legal obligation they have to retreat. Fulton and Lucia McBaththe mother of Davisboth lost their sons to men whose actions put the law center stage and sparked national debate, though they didn't necessarily use the law as part of their legal defense. Martin was killed by George Zimmerman in 2012 and Davis was shot and killed by Michael Dunn during a dispute over Davis' music volume. Martin was acquitted, while Dunn was convicted of attempted murder but the jury hung on more serious murder charges. Fulton and McBath are helping to lead a protest Monday at Florida's State Capitol for the repeal of stand your ground. They argue the law gives killers the excuse to "shoot and kill someone and then ask questions later.", But Florida is preparing to expand the law to allow people who feel their life is in jeopardy to fire a warning shot, CBS reports. Proponents of this addition say it will protect people like Marissa Alexander, who says she fired a warning shot in 2012 that killed her abusive husband. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Alexander's family is joining the march in protest of the law. CBS News |
US | The Wire Creator Calls for End to Violence in Baltimore | The creator of The Wire, the acclaimed HBO crime-drama that was set in Baltimore and aired from 2002-2008, called on Monday for an end to violence that erupted after funeral services for Freddie Gray, whose death following an injury in police custody has become the latest rallying cry for law enforcement reforms. "The anger and the selfishness and the brutality of those claiming the right to violence in Freddie Gray's name needs to cease," David Simon, a former Baltimore Sun police reporter, wrote on his website, where he also engaged with commenters. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency Monday after 15 police officers were injured following violent clashes with demonstrators described by police as "lawless." The confrontations occurred in the hours after funeral services for Gray, who died April 19 following the arrest one week earlier. "There was real power and potential in the peaceful protests that spoke in Mr. Gray's name initially, and there was real unity at his homegoing today," Simon continues. "But this, now, in the streets, is an affront to that man's memory and a dimunition SIC of the absolute moral lesson that underlies his unnecessary death.", Read the rest of Simon's statement here. |
US | French Historian Says He Was Detained for 10 Hours at Houston Airport | A French historian was arrested and detained for 10 hours at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston after flying in from Paris to attend a symposium at Texas AM University. Henry Rousso, a pre-eminent scholar on the Holocaust, wrote about the recent ordeal for the Huffington Post. Rousso said a policeman who took issue with his tourist visa interrogated him for several hours on Feb. 22, including "the recording of my fingerprints and a search of the body." The policeman suspected Rousso was traveling to the U.S. to work "illegally" after noting his recently issued J-1 visa a non-immigrant visa issued to academics expired this past January. Rousso was eventually allowed to enter the U.S. at 1.30 a.m. but only after a colleague called "the president of Texas AM, who immediately alerted a law professor in charge of immigration issues," he later learned. "Without them, I would have probably been handcuffed, chained, and shackled back to Paris.", , , Richard J. Golsan, director of the Center for Humanities Research at Texas AM, who invited Rousso to the conference, told CNN that Rousso was left "shaken" by the incident. "At this point he loves this country but is frankly disturbed about what is going on.", French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has also tweeted a message of support for Rousso, , U.S. Customs and Border Protection CBP did not immediately respond to TIME's request for comment. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE told CNN "The United States has been and continues to be a welcoming nation. Applicants for admission bear the burden of proof to establish that they are clearly eligible to enter the United States. In order to demonstrate that they are admissible, the applicant must overcome all grounds of inadmissibility." |
US | Read President Obamas Remarks On the Alton Sterling and Philando Castile Police Shootings | President Obama spoke Thursday on the shooting deaths of two black men in Minnesota and Louisiana this week, shortly after arriving in Warsaw, Poland. Read the full speech below |
US | How Often Does Your College Report Sexual Assaults | The prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses is often masked by low levels of reporting, as Eliza Gray reported in a recent TIME cover story. Despite the troubles with reporting, comparing the number of incidents that are recorded on campuses can be instructive. In the interactive below, you can search for your school to see how many sexual assaults it reported between 2006 and 2012. Counterintuitive though it may seem, a higher number of reports from an institution is often a good sign, because it means the school is doing a better job than others at addressing the issue. According to research from the Department of Health and Human Services pdf, nearly one in five women is the victim of sexual assault or an attempted assault while attending college. Reporting levels for all schools are well below that number. All schools that receive federal funding must submit annual security reports to the Department of Education, and the White House recently pressured universities to address the problem more proactively. In 2012, the most recent full year on record, 4-year non-for-profit and public institutions averaged 1.8 reported assaults. The 55 schools currently facing Title IX sexual assault investigations averaged 12 reported assaults in 2012. The ten schools with the highest number of reported assaults average 27.9 in 2012. As the chart shows, the number of reported assaults is on the rise at many institutions. Here are the top-ten schools with the highest cumulative reports of sexual assault from 2006 to 2012. Again, high reports don't necessarily mean the highest levels of the crime. Methodology, Forcible and non forcible sexual assaults are available from 2006 to 2012 from the Department of Education's annual security reports. This includes on-campus security reports, such as dormitories and school buildings, and non-campus security reports like Greek housing. Schools are filtered by four-year private not-for-profit schools and public schools. |
US | Youngest Son of Former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine Found Dead | Jeffrey Corzine, son of former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and an aspiring photographer, has been found dead in a hotel room in Mexico City. He was 31 years old. He was discovered after failing to respond to several messages from worried family members. According to the NY Daily News, Jeffrey Corzine had struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for years. "Mr. Corzine is obviously devastated by this tragic loss. We ask that all respect his family's privacy during this very difficult time," the former Governor's spokesman Steven Goldberg told the NY Daily News. Jon Corzine served as senator for New Jersey from 2001 to 2006 and the state's governor from 2006 to 2010. NY Daily News |
US | Why Immigration Is Different for Pope Francis | Like a practiced American politician, Pope Francis began his first public remarks on U.S. soil Wednesday by talking about his immigrant forefathers. "As the son of an immigrant family," he said, "I am happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families.", The moment was subtle but subversive, in a way that this pontiff excels. America is in the midst of a years-long argument about immigration, a political fight whose divisions have only seemed to deepen as the 2016 presidential race gets underway. But while Pope Francis has proudly interjected himself into the debate over climate change inside the United States and helped broker a rapprochement with Cuba, he has approached immigration more at the symbolic level. On the plane ride to the U.S. Francis lamented that he was not able to follow through on his original wish to enter the country by crossing the border from Mexico. That's because Francis' goal in the United States is more pastoral than political. He is visiting a country whose Catholic churches are in the midst of a demographic sea change, with older denominations on the East Coast struggling to stay afloat, while their counterparts in the South and West overflow with immigrants. According to the Pew Research Center, more than one-third of U.S. Catholics are Hispanic, a rate which has grown by five percentage points since 2007, while more than half of Latinos in the U.S. identify themselves as Catholic. Read More Here's the American Poet Pope Francis Just Quoted, In a speech to U.S. bishops later Wednesday, Francis addressed this topic directly, talking about their pastoral mission to serve immigrants, something which he acknowledged can be difficult. "I too know how hard it is to sow the Gospel among people from different worlds, with hearts often hardened by the trials of a lengthy journey," said the Argentinian native. At the end of the speech, he returned to the topic again, urging them to continue working to understand the hopes of these "pilgrims"a word with special resonance with a strong tradition of making pilgrimages to holy sites and one that the official Vatican text carefully placed within quotes in the official transcript. "From the beginning you have learned their languages, promoted their cause, made their contributions your own, defended their rights, helped them to prosper, and kept alive the flame of their faith," he said. "Even today, no American institution does more for immigrants than your Christian communities.", Noting the "stream of Latin immigration" affecting their dioceses, Francis then spoke to them directly as the first Latin American pope, thanking them for their hard work and encouraging them to continue. Read More Pope Francis I Am Not a Liberal, "Perhaps it will not be easy for you to look into their soul perhaps you will be challenged by their diversity. But know that they also possess resources meant to be shared," he said. "So do not be afraid to welcome them. Offer them the warmth of the love of Christ and you will unlock the mystery of their heart. I am certain that, as so often in the past, these people will enrich America and its Church.", That message resonated with people who were outside the church. Daniel Pineda, 30, stood across the street 17th and Rhode Island Avenue as the pope was speaking, still giddy over having filmed him briefly as he passed by. "My family is Latino, we come from Peru, " said Pineda, who said he's looking forward to hearing more of the Pope's message on immigration. "The Pope isn't afraid to deliver a message. People here are tired of the gridlock. It's great to see a pope come here and talk about that, that we need to be more open-minded and talk to each other.", Read Next Pope Francis Blurs Political Lines in White House Speech |
US | Violence Worsens in Ferguson on 4th Night of Clashes | Demonstrations over the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager continued for a fourth night in Ferguson, Mo. on Wednesday, as protesters clashed with police and 10 people were arrested. Scores of police officers in riot gear attempted to disperse more than 300 protesters, with police firing tear gas, stun grenades and smoke bombs, Reuters reports. Demonstrators threw rocks and petrol bombs toward the officers, police said. Authorities have so far refused to identify the officer involved in the shooting death of Michael Brown last weekend, citing the officer's safety. But the decision has fueled anger among the demonstrators. On Wednesday, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that details from the investigation would not emerge for weeks. Brown, 18, was shot dead on Saturday, prompting the racially charged demonstrations in the majority black suburb of St. Louis, where the police force is nearly all white. Authorities say Brown was shot in a struggle for a gun, while some witnesses claimed Brown had his hands in the air. Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson told reporters Wednesday that the officer who shot Brown had been struck in the cheek during the incident and taken to hospital. Gov. Jay Nixon urged "patience and calm" in a statement on Wednesday and said that he will visit the area on Thursday. "The worsening situation in Ferguson is deeply troubling, and does not represent who we are as Missourians or as Americans," he said in the statement. "While we all respect the solemn responsibility of our law enforcement officers to protect the public, we must also safeguard the rights of Missourians to peaceably assemble and the rights of the press to report on matters of public concern.", Some 40 people have been arrested since Saturday, according to Reuters, and authorities have asked protesters not to demonstrate in the evenings. On Wednesday night, St. Louis Alderman Antonio French and two journalists, Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post and Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post, were among those detained. Reuters |
US | Warriors Respond to Donald Trump Disinviting Stephen Curry to the White House | The Golden State Warriors have responded to President Donald Trump disinviting point guard Stephen Curry to the White House. The team said no team members will go. "While we intended to meet as a team at the first opportunity we had this morning to collaboratively discuss a potential visit to the White House, we accept that President Trump has made it clear that we are not invited. We believe there is nothing more American than our citizens having the right to express themselves freely on matters important to them," a statement from the Warriors reads. Earlier Saturday, Trump tweeted, "Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!", Curry had said on multiple occasions that he was not likely to make the visit after his team won the NBA championship title, later adding that he felt no members of the team should go. The Warriors added that they were disappointed they wouldn't have the opportunity to create a dialogue on important issues, but said they would still use the time in a meaningful way. "In lieu of a visit to the White House, we have decided that we'll constructively use our trip to the nation's capital in February to celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion the values that we embrace as an organization." |
US | Suspected Malware Attack Disrupts Some Major Newspapers Nationwide The FBI Has Been Alerted | A suspected malware attack disrupted production of the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune and several other major newspapers around the country this weekend. The computer virus caused problems for newspapers connected to Tribune Publishing, the company confirmed this weekend, compromising software crucial to the news production and printing process. Tribune owns the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the New York Daily News, the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, and other newspapers across the nation. "This issue has affected the timeliness and in some cases the completeness of our printed newspapers," Tribune Publishing spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said in a statement published by the Chicago Tribune. "Our websites and mobile applications however, have not been impacted.", , The Saturday edition of the Chicago Tribune was published without paid death notices and classified ads, according to the newspaper. Some markets will receive an abridged version of the Saturday edition on Sunday. The malware also hobbled operations at the South Florida Sun Sentinel, temporarily shutting down newspaper production and impacting phone lines, causing already confused subscribers to be incorrectly told that the numbers they were calling were not in service, the newspaper later reported. , The attack also stymied delivery of the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union Tribune on Saturday, as well as the West Coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, according to the Los Angeles Times. The West Coast editions of the two New York papers are printed at the same Los Angeles printing facility as the L.A. Times. In June, Tribune Publishing sold the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune for 500 million to Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotech billionaire. Under an ongoing transition agreement, Tribune Publishing, formerly known as Tronc, continues to print the two West Coast newspapers and provide other essential services. "We apologize to our customers for this inconvenience," the L.A. Times said in a statement published in an article about the malware. "Thank you for your patience and support as we respond to this ongoing matter.", The Tribune Publishing spokeswoman also said "there is no evidence that customer credit card information or personally identifiable information has been compromised.", The company also said it is "making progress" to resolve publishing issues, and has reported the attack to the FBI. The Bureau declined to comment. As of Saturday afternoon, Tribune suspected the cyberattack to be of foreign origin, according to the Los Angeles Times, though the precise motive remains unclear. |
US | Janet Mock Maxine Waters and Ben Platt On What Makes Them Optimistic About the World in 2018 | Janet Mock, Christopher Wylie, Gayle King, John Dickerson, Ben Platt, and Maxine Waters discussed what makes them optimistic about the world in 2018 during the TIME 100 Gala on Tuesday night. "What makes me optimistic, specifically this year, is of course the resistance movement, but specifically the creativity that's come out of that," said activist and writer Janet Mock. "I think a lot of artists have seen the urgency of the timesjust being around other artists who are creating stories, creating works, creating things in these tortured times is super inspiring.", "What makes me optimistic this year are those kids from Parkland, and the fact that they're on this list," said Dear Evan Hansen actor and singer Ben Platt. "Some people that are so sort of young and have had such sort of limited experience with the world already have such goodness within the them and are such fighters.", From Nicole Kidman to Carmen Yuln Cruz to Adam Rippon, celebrities and luminaries from all industries gathered for the TIME 100 Gala celebrating TIME's 100 most influential people in the world for 2018. |
US | Emmett Tills Family Seeks New Investigation Into Lynching | The family of Emmett Till is seeking a new investigation into his 1955 lynching after a report revealed a key witness fabricated her testimony. The Associated Press reports two of Till's cousins Wheeler Parker and Deborah Watts want authorities to reopen the investigation following the revelation that Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman who alleged Till made advances toward, had lied. In Timothy Tyson's book, The Blood of Emmet Till, Donham said she "had fabricated the most sensational part of her testimony," according to a Vanity Fair report from January. She told Tyson that her claim Till had made physical and verbal advances on her was "not true.", According to Till's family, a new investigation could help answer lingering questions surrounding his death. Till was abducted and murdered at the age of 14 by two white men who accused him of having whistled at a white woman in a grocery store. His brutal killing, and the subsequent acquittal of the defendants by an all-white jury, helped spark the Civil Rights movement. |
US | Californias Wildfires Are Only Getting Worse | There is no good time for a wildfire to break out, but the middle of the night may be the worst. The darkness makes it hard for firefighters to size up the flames, and people like Eduardo Flores are tucked away in their beds. When Flores, 66, and his wife awoke to find flames nearing their Santa Rosa, Calif. mobile-home park in the early hours of Oct. 9, they hammered on neighbors' windows and doors, imploring them to wake upand race out. "By the grace of God, we got out with our lives," Flores says. "It was literally raining fire. We were choking, gasping for air." They made it to a safe distance, and then watched their home turn to ash. As of Oct. 10, 17 large wildfires were burning in California, including one of the worst firestorms the northern part of the state has ever seen. The flames ate through pristine wilderness and manicured communities both, claiming lives and torching homes and businesses as well as wineries in the world-renowned regions of Napa and Sonoma. The blazes left at least 17 people dead, dozens more missing and more than 2,000 structures destroyed. Among the tragic toll were animals unable to escape. One observer said the smell of their charred remains lingered in air thick with ash and the fire retardant dropped by planes flying above. As an estimated 20,000 people evacuated, Governor Jerry Brown declared an emergency in eight counties and asked the federal government for help. President Trump approved a federal disaster declaration on Oct. 10. "We will be there," the President said of California, a state that is leading the legal charge against many of his key domestic policies. As Trump spoke, the fires had collectively burned more than 115,000 acres, an area three times the size of San Francisco, where smoke floated down from blazes to the city's north. October tends to be the worst month for wildfires in California. The land is parched and humidity is low. And conditions were primed for fires to spread in recent days as gusts of over 50 m.p.h. whipped blazes across ground that had been drying out all summer. This year's fire season had "already been an extremely busy one," says Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The state has grappled with more than 7,700 fires in 2017 so far, and their number and intensity has been growing year over year, with bigger blazes causing more destruction during a fire season that is now about 78 days longer than it was in 1970. Many factors explain why California only recently emerged from a five-year drought, turning its trees and shrubs into ready-made tinderboxes. A decline in logging has ensured that forests are packed with fuel. And the state's steadily growing population means a greater risk of fires, with more people in harm's way. Experts like Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science at the University of California, Berkeley, say climate change is a key part of the equation too. Increased temperatures are making it "more difficult to deal with fire in the state," he says, "because of drier, longer seasons.", So does that mean the fires will only get worse? Stephens says there are plenty of small ways Californians can minimize the number of people who find themselves suddenly homeless. Measures range from changing rules about where people are allowed to build to teaching homeowners not to keep firewood near the front porch. That lesson is little help for those who no longer have porches to go home to. On Oct. 10, with winds dying down, some residents were working their way back into evacuation zones to see what was left. Napa winemaker Clayton Kirchhoff weaved through smoke and back roads only to find that his home was "just gone." He knew he was lucky to be safe. But he was overcome by big and little questions, like whether the wine he had been tending each day would spoil and turn to vinegar, or what would have happened if he had been asleep when the fire started. For the moment he planned to sift through the rubble, he said, "and see if there's anything that might have survived.", With reporting by MELISSA CHAN/NEW YORK, For more wildfire photography, visit time.com/california-on-fire |
US | Weve Never Seen Anything Like This Why Arkansas Is Executing 7 People in 11 Days | Starting next week, Arkansas will attempt something that's never been done in the U.S. execute seven death row inmates in a single state over the span of 11 days. The scheduled spate of executions comes after Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced in March that one of the state's execution drugs was set to expire by the end of April. The plan to beat that deadline has set off last-minute court proceedings, protests from anti-death penalty groups, legal challenges from pharmaceutical makers, and letters from religious leaders and former corrections officers urging the governor to reconsider. Family members of the victims, meanwhile, are looking for closure after decades of waiting for the executions to move forward. If they do, they'll represent one of the most active periods for capital punishment in the U.S. since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. "In the modern history of the death penalty, no state has ever attempted to carry out this many executions in this short a timeframe," says Robert Dunham, president of the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes the way capital punishment is carried out in the U.S. "It's unprecedented.", Here's what you need to know about the executions in Arkansas. The governor, a Republican, said he made the decision to plan the executions within days of each other because the state's supply of the sedative midazolam, one of three drugs used in lethal injections in Arkansas, would expire by the end of April. "It's not my choice," Hutchinson said at a February news conference. "I would love to have those extended over a period of multiple months and years, but that's not the circumstances that I find myself in." The governor said it may be impossible to find another drug if the current supply of midazolam runs out and that he owed it to the families of the victims to carry out the executions. If the state does so, the executions will be the first in Arkansas since 2005. The state has executed 27 inmates since 1976, a fraction of the more than 1,400 that have taken place in the U.S. in the last four decades. The governor's decision is a sign of how problematic lethal injections have become for many states, which began having difficulty obtaining drugs around 2010 due to shortages and pressure from anti-death penalty groups. In response, many states have turned to midazolam, which has been at the heart of a number of executions that have gone awry in the last few years, including ones in Alabama, Arizona, Oklahoma and Ohio. The drug was also central to a 2015 Supreme Court case in which Oklahoma death row inmates challenged the constitutionality of using midazolam, arguing that there was no definitive proof that it properly rendered inmates unconscious. The court, however, ruled 5-4 for the state. The drug's efficacy is still routinely challenged by death row inmates and anesthesiologists. The seven death row inmates are all male four are black and three white. They were all convicted of murder, and some of them received their sentences decades ago. According to the Fair Punishment Project, a group affiliated with the Harvard Law School, four of them appear to have either serious mental illness or an intellectual impairment. An eighth inmate was initially scheduled to be included, but a federal judge stayed his execution following the recommendation of a state parole board. Lawyers for the seven condemned inmates, who have called the scheduled killings "execution by assembly line," argued in federal court this week that the drug used by Arkansas is ineffective at properly sedating inmates and objected to the compressed schedule of the executions, saying they cannot provide proper counsel. "We've never had that many scheduled in such a compact time, involving incredible stress on the system," Jeff Rosenzweig, one of the inmates' lawyers, told The Guardian. But many of the victims' family members say they're ready for this chapter to close. Don Davis, one of the inmates scheduled to die on Monday, was convicted of killing 62-year-old Jane Daniel in 1990. Her daughter, Susan Khani, told NBC News "We've suffered long enough and my mom really suffered that last day.", She added "I've been promised this for 25 years," according to NBC News. "I just hope this time it goes through.", Despite the court challenges, Leslie Rutledge, the state's attorney general, says her office is committed to carrying out the executions. "Attorney General Rutledge supports the death penalty and believes it is past time for the victims' families to see justice for the horrible murders of their loved ones," according to a statement from the attorney general's office. "This office is prepared to respond to any and all challenges that might occur between now and the execution dates.", Arkansas' executions come as support for the death penalty has dropped nationwide. According to a 2016 survey by the Pew Research Center, only 49 of Americans said they support the death penalty for those convicted of murder, the lowest point since the 1970s. In the last few weeks, more than 200 faith leaders in Arkansas sent a letter to the governor urging him to reconsider the executions, as did more than two dozen former corrections officers. The Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is planning a rally on Friday to raise awareness about the executions. Even best-selling author John Grisham wrote an op-ed in USA Today urging his home state to "stop the execution madness.", On Thursday, two pharmaceutical companies Fresenius Kabi USA and West-Ward Pharmaceuticals filed amicus briefs in an Arkansas district court, saying they believed the state illegally obtained the drugs for the executions. The companies have refused to supply drugs to states for lethal injections, and Arkansas has not disclosed where it got them. While the efficacy of the drug remains a concern, the rushed schedule could bring its own challenges. Dunham, of the Death Penalty Information Center, says there are questions about the ability of executioners to carry out seven executions in such short a timeframe. He points to the problems involving Oklahoma's 2014 execution of Clayton Lockett, who convulsed and groaned on the gurney and died 43 minutes after he was first sedated. It was the first of two executions scheduled for that day, but the second one was called off after problems with Lockett's lethal injection. Oklahoma's Department of Public Safety issued a report finding that officials involved in Lockett's execution felt additional stress because of the back-to-back executions, which could've led to problems inside the execution chamber. The department has since recommended that the state only schedule one execution per week. "If they botch one, there may be emotional effects that impair the ability to properly conduct the other," Dunham says. The Death Penalty Information Center has tracked just 10 instances of multiple executions on a single day, the last one occurring in 2000. Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor who studies lethal injection, says that carrying out more than one execution already heightens the risk that something could go wrong let alone seven in a week and a half with an often-criticized lethal injection drug. "We've never seen anything like this," she says. Still, the Arkansas Department of Corrections says it's ready. Solomon Graves, a spokesperson for the Arkansas DOC, said via email that "training has occurred related to carrying out a sentence of death and the individuals involved are prepared to carry out their respective responsibilities." |
US | No Way for a Person to Live Sex Trafficking Victim Speaks Out After Her Rescue | A Philadelphia woman who was rescued from sex trafficking spoke out about her former life of drug addiction and prostitution in a new video the FBI posted Wednesday. The woman, identified only as Ali, had spent five years on the streets, where she quickly became addicted to heroin and fully dependent on her sex traffickers for drugs and money, officials said. She escaped with the help of law enforcement, although it's unclear when. "They have that control over you," Ali said of her sex traffickers, who physically abused her. "I felt obligated to do certain things with them in order for them to keep providing for me . . . I was willing to sacrifice enduring that because without that person I thought I had nothing.", Ali, who has a master's degree, said she left her stable home for the notoriously violent streets of Kensington after she tried heroin and became addicted. "It's honestly like a war zone," she said of the neighborhood. "Most of what goes on there is drugs, prostitution and violence. It's crazy when I think about it now because it's no way for a person to live.", William Johnson, a deputy sheriff with the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office, arrested Ali after her family asked authorities for help finding her. When that happened, Ali said she was scared but also relieved because she "knew that it was over." "I knew that the way that I was living and my days on the streets and years of living that way was ending," she said. "I don't think I would have made it off of the streets alive had I continued to stay out there.", Ali now works at a treatment center helping others fight their addictions, according to the FBI. It's unclear how old she was when she was rescued. The agency posted Ali's story as it announced it had recently rescued 84 children, including a 3-month-old girl, and arrested 120 alleged traffickers, following a nationwide crackdown on child sex trafficking. |
US | Today Is National Wear Red Day Heres Why People Are Dressing Up | Women and men across America will be color-coordinating today for National Wear Red Day 2018, which aims to dispel myths surrounding heart diseases. National Wear Red Day is intended to help raise awareness of heart disease, in particular among women. Heart disease is often generally associated with men, but cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women. , , Every year, nearly 500,000 American women die from heart disease and stroke. Launched in 2004 by the American Heart Association AHA, National Wear Red Day also aims to raise funds for research into the misunderstood disease. Here are five more heart disease facts from the American Heart Association in honor of National Wear Red Day, |
US | Ancestrycom Revealed This Womans Father Was Her Familys Fertility Doctor Now Shes Suing | A woman allegedly discovered her biological father was the fertility doctor her parents used to conceive her in 1980 through an Ancestry.com DNA test, according to a lawsuit filed last week. Howard Fowler and Sally Ashby, then married but now divorced, were having difficulty conceiving, and in 1979 they sought help from Dr. Gerald E. Mortimer, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Idaho. The suit alleges Mortimer diagnosed Fowler with "a low sperm count and a low sperm mortality" and diagnosed Ashby with a tipped uterus. Mortimer completed a procedure in June, July, and August 1980 in which a mixture 85 of Fowlers' DNA along with 15 of a donor's DNA are used for the insemination. The couple specified that they would only do the procedure if the donor was a college student, over 6-feet tall, with brown hair and blue eyes. Ashby became pregnant in August 1980. But in July 2017, Ashby and Fowler's daughter Kelli Rowlette "received a notification on Ancestry.com that a DNA sample she had submitted matched with Dr. Mortimer's DNA sample," according to the complaint. "Ancestry.com predicted a parent-child relationship between Dr. Mortimer and Mrs. Rowlette." Rowlette, who is also listed as a plaintiff, did not know who Dr. Mortimer was when she saw the notification. Rowlette was convinced that the Ancestry.com test was an error, and mentioned this to Ashby, who after examining the results on her own was "devastated" to see Dr. Mortimer's name. Ashby told Folwer, and the two of them allegedly anguished over whether to tell their daughter. Rowlette eventually found out, when helping go through old papers discovered her birth certificate with Dr. Mortimer's signature on it. The couple maintains in the complaint that they did not know that Dr. Mortimer's genetic material was being used. "Had Mr. Fowler and Ms. Ashby known Dr. Mortimer was going to inseminate Ms. Ashby with his own genetic material, they would not have agreed to the Procedure," the complaint says. TIME called a number for Dr. Mortimer, but it went straight to a full voicemail inbox we will try back. TIME also attempted to reach him at a number listed on a Facebook page, but was told that Dr. Mortimer had retired several years ago. Ancestry.com said in a statement, "DNA testing helps people make new and powerful discoveries about their family history and identity. We are committed to delivering the most accurate results, however with this, people may learn of unexpected connections.", "With Ancestry, customers maintain ownership and control over their DNA data," the statement continued. "Anyone who takes a test can change their DNA matching settings at any time, meaning that if they opt out, their profile and relationship will not be visible to other customers.", Ashby, Fowler and Rowlette are suing Dr. Mortimer, now-retired, along with Obstetrics and Gynecology Associates of Idaho Falls, where he used to practice, for battery, fraud, intentional and negligent emotional distress, breach of contract and medical negligence, among other charges. They are seeking 75,000 in damages, according to the complaint. "After much consideration, Mrs. Rowlette and her family made the difficult decision to allow their personal grief to become public through the legal process," the family's attorney Shea C. Meehan said in a statement via email. "Ultimately this decision was made for the purpose of holding the responsible parties accountable for a grievous and damaging violation of trust. While the family understands the public's interest in their story, they ask that their privacy be respected as they focus on the difficult process of healing from this trauma.", When reached for comment, the Obstetrics and Gynecology Associates of Idaho Falls gave the following statement "None of the healthcare providers of were part of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Associate of Idaho Falls practice from 1979 to 1980, and have diligently strived to provide care to their patients that is in compliance of the standards of healthcare practice." |
US | Chicago Officer Who Fatally Shot Teenager Charged With FirstDegree Murder | Correction appended, Nov. 24, The Chicago police officer who was allegedly videotaped shooting 17-year old Laquan McDonald more than a dozen times was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday, making him the first Chicago police officer to face such charges for an on-duty shooting. Jason Van Dyke allegedly shot the black teen 16 times last year in an incident that was captured on police dashcam video, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Last week, a judge ruled that the video of the incident should be released by Wednesday, since the city had not proved that releasing the video would undermine the ongoing investigation. Two lawyers who have seen the video say that it depicts Van Dyke shooting McDonald sixteen times, and that the victim was walking away from the officer at the time of the shooting. Police say McDonald was shot when he lunged at the officers with a knife, and his autopsy showed he had PCP in his system. Van Dyke's attorney Dan Herbert said that his client's actions were justified because he feared for his life. Requests for comment from Van Dyke's attorney were not immediately returned. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel released a statement condemning Van Dyke, but defending the police force at large, , Correction An earlier version of this article misstated the day the police officer was charged. It was Tuesday, Nov. 24. |
US | Princeton Receives 300M Rare Book Collection Universitys Largest Gift Ever | Princeton University declared Monday that it received a donation of books and manuscripts worth approximately 300 million, amounting to the most generous gift in its history. Class of 1936 alumnus William Scheide died last year at age 100, bequeathing a 2,500-volume rare book and manuscript collection to the Ivy League university. The haul includes historic treasures like the six earliest prints of the Bible and the original printing of the Declaration of Independence. He also gifted the 1746-founded seat of learning with Beethoven's music sketchbook, signed by the composer himself. It is "one of the greatest collections of rare books and manuscripts in the world today," said Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber in a statement. "I cannot imagine a more marvelous collection to serve as the heart of our library.", The collection will be fully digitized to increase its accessibility to the public, which can view it upon request. It will remain in Princeton's Firestone Library. |
US | Man Who Kept Woman Captive For 10 Years Charged With Kidnapping Rape | A man who abducted his ex-girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter and held her captive for 10 years was charged Thursday with rape and kidnapping to commit a sexual offense. Isidro Medrano Garcia's 25-year-old victim escaped Monday after nearly ten years of imprisonment and assault, calling police for help after reconnecting with her sister on Facebook. The victim told Santa Ana police that Garcia drugged and kidnapped her when he was living with her mother in August 2004. The assaults, she said, had begun two months prior. "He told her then, You can't go home. You're here illegally, you don't speak the language, your mom's called the police, they will send you back. I'm your only hope,'" Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said at a Thursday press conference. Police say that the victim tried to escape twice and was severely beaten. Garcia and his victim moved to several different locations and, eventually, she was no longer physically restrained. Garcia got them employment at the same night cleaning service to keep her close by. She was forced into marriage in 2007 and gave birth in 2012. Garcia faces five felony counts and will be arraigned later Thursday. AP |
US | Everything You Should Know About the Boston Marathon Bombing Trial | The trial of one of the accused Boston Marathon bombers started Monday, nearly two years after the attack that killed three people and injured more than 260 others, with the beginning of the selection of the jury that will ultimately decide the fate of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Here's what to know as the trial gets underway. What happened in April 2013?, Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, are suspected of building and detonating pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the marathon on April 15, 2013. The brothers escaped initial capture but were later identified as suspects and confronted in a days-long manhunt that shut down much of the Boston area and transfixed the country. Tamerlan died after a shootout with authorities that followed the death of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer he was also said to have been run over by a vehicle driven by his brother, Dzhokhar, who was later found in a boat parked on a driveway in nearby Watertown. , What about the brothers' background?, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar came to the U.S. from Kyrgyzstan when they were aged 15 and 8, respectively. The older brother became a solid boxer while in Cambridge, Mass. and his younger sibling would become a popular wrestler at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School before enrolling at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Dzhokhar was said to have adjusted to life in the U.S. easier than Tamerlan, who authorities painted as having become disillusioned and who they said would later align with radical Islam. MORE The Horror. The Heroism. What charges does Tsarnaev face?, He faces 30 federal counts including the bombing of a public place, malicious destruction of public property, carjacking, disruption of commerce and possession and use of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death. Here's the full list. How long is the trial expected to last?, That's unclear, but it could be several months. Selecting a fit jury from a pool of more than 1,200 could take a few weeks, according to the Boston Globe, and the trial will be split into two phases. The first will involve determining his innocence or guilt if the jury finds Tsarnaev guilty, the second phase will revolve around his sentencing. Where will the trial take place?, The trial is set to be held at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston. Tsarnaev's defense team repeatedly tried to have it moved, arguing it would be too difficult to find an impartial jury where the attack took place. But the district court wouldn't budge, writing in a newly released decision that it would be capable of finding 12 jurors and six alternates in the "large and diverse" population that resides in the district's Eastern Division. Who are the lawyers on both sides?, Legendary defense attorney Judy Clarke quickly joined Tsarnaev's defense team, bringing her experience of representing the likes of unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Jared Lee Loughner, whose 2011 shooting rampage in Arizona left six people dead and 13 injured, including former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Many of her clients are convicted and imprisoned while having avoided capital punishment, which Clarke opposes. Two other members of Tsarnaev's defense team are Miriam Conrad, the chief public defender for Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, and David Bruck, a Washington and Lee University School of Law professor and the director of its death penalty defense clinic. The prosecution is largely composed of Assistant U.S. Attorneys with strong background in terrorism cases. William Weinreb and Aloke Chakravarty both played key roles in the handling of the arrest of failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad in 2010. Nadine Pellegrini formerly led Boston's major crimes unit. Both legal teams will be presided over by U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. Who will likely be called as witnesses?, The court was recently handed a list of 590 law enforcement personnel, 142 civilians and 1,238 exhibits that they might make use of during the trial, the Times reports. That group includes some of the officers who were involved in the response to the attack, in addition Tsarnaev's arrest and questioning. Does Tsarnaev face the death penalty?, Yes. Even though the crime was committed in Massachusetts, where capital punishment has been illegal since the early 1980s, prosecutors charged Tsarnaev in the federal court system, which allows it. A poll by the Globe in July found that 62 of respondents supported the decision by Attorney General Eric Holder to seek the death penalty, but 29 opposed his choice., What is the defense expected to argue? , Legal observers agree that the defense attorneys will try to protect their client from the death penalty rather than prove his innocence. Among the issues at play will be how Tsarnaev may have been influenced by his older brother, which would involve cooperation from close friends and family. The defense team had previously said it had difficulties researching his relatives overseas. How do people in Massachusetts feel about the trial?, Interviews with local residents and survivors, conducted by the Boston Globe and New York Times, suggest they are ready to bring the tragic saga to a close. How exactly they hope to do that varies, as some say they don't want to rehash the attack while others are eager to learn more about what happened. Why has the case taken so long to come to trial?, The trial was originally scheduled to begin last fall but the defense team asked for it to be pushed back to September 2015 or later, claiming it didn't provide enough time to prepare due to an overwhelming amount of material from prosecutors. The new date then became Jan. 5. Listen to the most important stories of the day. |
US | Powerball Jackpot Grows to 422 Million | This Wednesday's Powerball jackpot has grown to 422 million, after nearly three months without a winner. Anyone who wins this week's jackpot will be able to opt for a 291 million lump sum or a 422 million annuity paid over 29 years, the Associated Press reports. While the 292.2 million to 1 chance of winning a Powerball might be daunting, the odds are better for the range of smaller prizes from 1 to 4 million. New Jersey matriarch Pearlie Mae Smith and her seven children won the last jackpot of 429.6 million on May 7. |
US | President Trump Says Having a Pet Dog Feels a Little Phony to Me | WASHINGTON President Donald Trump isn't hiding the fact that he isn't a dog person. He appeared impressed Monday night while describing the drug-detecting abilities of German shepherds that work for the U.S. Secret Service, but he also made it abundantly clear that he can get by in his daily life without the slobbery canine companionship that many of his predecessors welcomed. "I wouldn't mind having one, honestly, but I don't have any time," Trump said at a campaign rally in El Paso, Texas, after he described watching a shepherd sniff out drugs hidden in a box. The crowd cheered its approval after he asked, "How would I look walking a dog on the White House lawn?", The president shook his head and said "I don't know I don't feel good. Feels a little phony, phony to me" as he motioned disapproval with his hand. Trump said "a lot of people" have told him he should get a dog because "it's good politically.", "I said, Look, that's not the relationship I have with my people,'" he said. Trump will break a long tradition of presidential pet ownership if he remains pet-free. Barack Obama had Portuguese water dogs called Bo and Sunny, and George W. Bush had Scottish Terriers named Barney and Miss Beazley. Bill Clinton had Buddy, a chocolate Labrador Retriever, and a cat named Socks. Presidents well before those three also shared the White House with pets. Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, has an assortment of pets, including Harley, an Australian shepherd a rabbit named Marlon Bundo and a cat, Hazel. The American Veterinary Medical Association says more than half of U.S. households, or nearly 57 percent, owned a pet at the end of 2016. Nearly one in four households nationwide, or 38 percent, owned one or more dogs, which the association says is the highest estimated rate of dog ownership since 1982, when it began measuring ownership. |
US | Louisiana Blue Lives Matter Law Makes Attacks on Police a Hate Crime | Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a bill Thursday that would expand the state's definition of hate crime to include crimes that target police officers, firefighters and emergency medical workers. A hate crime is usually considered so if the victim is targeted because of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or other identity-based characteristicsbut Louisiana is the first state to add the victim's profession to the list, according to CNN. Under the law, being convicted of a hate crime in Louisiana adds extra penalties to the sentence, which could be up to five more years in prison for felonies or up to another six months in prison for misdemeanors. The bill was drafted after a Texas sheriff's deputy was abused, shot and killed while in uniform in August, according to the network. "Coming from a family of law enforcement officers, I have great respect for the work that they do and the risks they take to ensure our safety," Edwards said Thursday. "They deserve every protection that we can give them." |
US | Father of Sandy Hook Killer Breaks Silence | The father of Adam Lanza, who killed 20 young children and six adults in Newtown, Conn. in December 2012, has broken his silence for the first time, telling the New Yorker about his son, "You can't get any more evil.", Peter Lanza, a finance executive who divorced Adam's mother Nancy in 2009, spoke with the New Yorker writer Andrew Solomon during several extensive interviews leading up to a 7,600-word story published on Monday. "You can't get any more evil," Peter said of his son. "How much do I beat up on myself about the fact that he's my son? A lot.", On Dec. 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza went on a shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Before the massacre, Adam fatally shot his mother Nancy. As first responders arrived at the school, he shot himself in the head. It was one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history and prompted a national debate about gun control. More than a year after the shooting, Peter described his son's upbringing. He said that by the time Adam entered middle school, "it was crystal clear something was wrong." Adam was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, but his father thinks that had little to do with the eventual shootings. "Asperger's makes people unusual, but it doesn't make people like this," he told Solomon. "With hindsight, I know Adam would have killed me in a heartbeat, if he'd had the chance," Peter said. After the shootings, he shied away from the press, but said he broke his silence because "I want people to be afraid of the fact that this could happen to them.", New Yorker |
US | Orlando Nightclub Attack Was Deadliest Mass Shooting in US History | A gunman's attack on the Pulse Orlando gay nightclub early Sunday left 50 people dead, police said, which makes it the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. The shooter, Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Florida. opened fire with an assault-type rifle and a handgun at the crowded club at about 2 a.m. Sunday. In addition to the 50 people who were killed, an additional 53 were injured, officials said at a press conference. The death toll makes the attack deadlier than the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, in which student Seung-Hui Cho shot 32 people to death before killing himself, and the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. in which gunman Adam Lanza killed 27 people before killing himself. Here is a list of America's deadliest mass shootings. 50 people, June 12, 2016 After a gunman opened fire at a prominent gay club in Orlando early on Sunday morning, 50 people were killed and 53 injured. Police killed the shooter after he held some locals in the club hostage. 32 people, April 17, 2007 A 23-year-old student at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia killed 32 people in shooting spree in two locations. The shooter, Seung-Hui Cho pre-recorded a video of him ranting about rich "brats" and complaining about being bullied. Cho killed himself on the scene. 27 people, December 14, 2012 20-year-0ld Adam Lanza gunned down 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, as well as six adults and school staff before killing himself. Lanza committed suicide. 23 people, October 16, 1991 George Hennard crashed his pickup truck through the walls of Luby's Cafeteria, a packed restaurant in Killeen, Texas. The 35-year-old then shot and killed 23 people before killing himself. A former roommate said he hated "blacks, Hispanics, gays" and said women were "snakes.", 21 people, July 18, 1984 A security guard fired from his job entered a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California with a shotgun and killed 21 employees and customers, including children. The guard, 41-year-old James Huberty, was killed by a police sniper an hour after he started shooting. 18 people, August 1, 1966 A 25-year-old former marine, Charles Joseph Whitman, went to the top of a tower at the University of Texas at Austin shortly after killing his wife and mother, and shot and killed 16 people on the campus , wounding 30. He was then killed by a police officer. 14 people, December 2, 2015 Husband-and-wife couple Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik opened fire at an employee gathering in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people. Both were radicalized in the United States and discussed jihad in private messages to each other. 14 people, August 20, 1986 A part-time mail carrier in Edmond Oklahoma, Patrick Henry Sherrill, armed with three handguns, kills 14 postal workers 10 minutes before killing himself. 13 people, November 5, 2009 Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 people and injured 32 in a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas during a shooting rampage. He was caught and sentenced to death. 13 people, April 20, 1999 Students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, shot and kill 12 other students and a teacher. They committed suicide in the school's library. 13 people, February 18, 1983 Three men robbed 14 people in a gambling club in Seattle, shooting each of them in the head and killing 13. Two of them were were convicted of murder, while the third was convicted of robbery and second-degree assault and deported to Hong Kong in 2014. 13 people, September 25, 1982 40-year-old prison guard and army veteran George Banks killed 13 people in Wilkes-Barr, Pennsylvania, including five of his own children. He was sentenced to death but the ruling was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after finding Banks mentally unfit. 13 killed, September 5, 1949 A 28-year-old World War II veteran named Howard Unruh killed 13 people on the street of Camden, New Jersey with a German Luger pistol. He was found insane sent to a mental institution. 12 people, September 16, 2013 James Holmes, a 24-year-old recent neuroscience PhD at the University of Colorado, killed 12 people and wounded 58 in a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Holmes is serving life in prison without parole. 12 people, July 29, 1999 44-year-old Mark Barton of Atlanta killed his wife and two children at his Atlanta home, then opened fire in two separate stock brokerage houses, killing nine people and wounding 12. 12 people, September 16, 2013 Aaron Alexis, a 34-year-old former Navy officer shot and killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard. |
US | Jon Stewart and David Letterman Make Return at USO Bash | Jon Stewart and David Letterman both came out of retirement to appear at the USO's 75th birthday party at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Thursday, and Stewart couldn't help himself from making a Donald Trump joke. Introducing Joe Biden, who was there with his wife Jill, Stewart said, "He's always a guy, you know, we had a lot of fun with he's a guy that's unpredictable.", "He'll say whatever he kind of thinks of, whatever comes to his mind, sort of impulsive," the former Daily Show host continued. "Sometimes, you might think to yourself, That sounds crazy,' or Man, that is crazy.' And who would have thought that now, that gets you the Republican nomination.", "Don't worry," Stewart finished. "Trump's gonna keep you busy. You're going to have to repaint all the planes with TRUMP in big gold letters.", Former Late Show host Letterman also spoke at the event, joking, "I'm pretty much ready to go and happy to be out of the house." |
US | What to Know About the Shooting of Police Officers at a Protest in Dallas | Five police officers were killed and seven others wounded in Dallas on Thursday night, after being targeted by a gunman during a protest against the deaths of two black men by police in separate incidents this week. Two civilians were also wounded in the Dallas shooting. The gunmanwho officials say acted aloneopened fire on officers from an "elevated position." He was later killed by a police explosive after a standoff with law enforcement officers. The shooting now ranks as the deadliest targeted attack on U.S. police officers in nearly 100 years and the deadliest day for law enforcement since the 9/11 terror attacks, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Details have emerged throughout the day, as the investigation developed. Here's what's important to know, The incident began with an "ambush" on officers The first shots rang out around 845 p.m. on Thursday near a street in downtown Dallas where protesters were marching and police were engaged in crowd-and-traffic control. A total of 12 officers were injured in the ensuing gunfight. At a press conference on Friday morning, Dallas Police Chief David Brown described the incident as an "ambush" on officers. Carlos Harris, a local resident who witnessed the incident, told the Dallas Morning News that the attack seemed "strategic." "It was tap tap pause. Tap tap pause," he said. As the investigation continues, parts of the downtown area will remain closed to the public until Wednesday, police said. The gunman was killed by a police explosive The suspect, who died after a standoff with police at a downtown parking garage, told negotiators he was upset about the recent police shootings as well as the Black Lives Matter movement. He also told negotiators that "the end is coming" and that he planned to "hurt and kill" more members of law enforcement. Officials identified the suspect as 25-year-old Micah Johnson, an Army veteran. He had completed a tour in Afghanistan, serving in the Army from March 2009 to April 2015, according to the AP. "The suspect said he was upset about Black Lives Matter," Brown said during a morning press conference. "He said he was upset about the recent police shootings. The suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.", Johnson, who was killed by a police bomb robot, told police he was not affiliated with any groups. While Brown initially said three suspects had been arrested, officials at a press conference on Friday evening said it now appears Johnson acted alone. "As we've started to unravel this fishing knot, we realized that the shooting came from one building at different levels from this suspect," Rawlings said. Officials said the explosive became their only option after negotiations broke down. "We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was," Brown said. "Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger.", These are the five victims , Officials identified the victims as Dallas Area Rapid Transit DART officer Brent Thompson and Dallas Police Department officers Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Lorne Ahrens and Michael Smith. Friends and families are mourning the victimsa group that included veterans, a newlywed and several fathers. Laura Zamarripa, Patrick's older sister, remembered her brother in an interview with TIME as a caring force in her life and a good father. "He just had a constant smile on his face after he became a father," she said. Read more about the victims here. The shooting comes amid a heated debate over the role of law enforcement in communities Thursday's shooting could further polarize a heated national debate about race and law enforcement following the deaths of Philando Castile in St. Paul, Minn. and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La. both black men who were shot by police officers within a day of each other. The protest in Dallas was one of multiple demonstrations that took place across the country against the two police shootings, with hundreds of people taking to the streets in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and other cities. Aside from the families of the two victims, activists, celebrities and politicians have spoken out against the deaths of Sterling and Castile. U.S. leaders have condemned the violence In a speech from Warsaw, where he is currently attending the NATO Summit, President Barack Obama called the mass shooting a "vicious, calculated and despicable attack on law enforcement" and said there is "no possible justification" for violence against police. At a press conference on Friday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch characterized the incident as an "unfathomable tragedy.", "To all Americans, I ask you, I implore you, do not let this week precipitate a new normal in this country," she said. "I ask you to turn to each other, not against each other, as we move forward. Let us support one another. Let us help heal one another. I urge you to remember today and every day, we are one nation, we are one people and we stand together. |
US | Boston Area Dogs Are Climbing Snow Banks to Escape | You know your city officially has too much snow when your dog can climb the mountainous snow bank in your yard and escape. The Weymouth Police Department, about 15 miles outside of Boston, Mass. issued this warning on its Facebook page on Thursday "Please watch your dogs. We have been dealing with a large number of dogs that are running the streets. Most of them are getting out of yards that are usually secure because of snow banks.", , MORE Watch the Most Selfless Dog in the World Shovel Snow, The police department warned residents that their beloved pets could get hit by cars or picked up and sent to a shelter if they didn't have their proper tags. Snowfall in the Boston area has shattered records in the past month. Snow totals have now hit 100 inches for the season, and most snowfall has come within the past month. A University of Oklahoma meteorologist has even calculated that the likelihood of this much snow falling in a 30-day stretch would occur only once every 26,315 years. |
US | Attorneys for Gretchen Carlson Seek Public Trial for Sexual Harassment Suit Against Fox CEO Roger Ai | Attorneys for former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson argued Friday that her sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News CEO Roger Ailes should be tried publicly with a jury trial, after his team moved to transfer the suit to a New York federal court, which would keep the proceedings private. Carlson filed her suit in New Jersey Superior Court, leading attorneys for Ailes to argue she was trying to circumvent the arbitration clause in her contract, which requires workplace disputes to be resolved in a New York-based arbitration, the New York Times reported. Attorneys for Carlson responded by accusing Ailes of "judge shopping," arguing that the clause applies to suits against her employer, Fox News, and Carlson is only suing Ailes. "After invoking jurisdiction of the New Jersey federal court and filing a motion there, Mr. Ailes decided that he doesn't like the judge assigned to this case and he illegally is attempting to judge shop by now seeking to move the lawsuit to another jurisdiction," Carlson's attorney, Nancy Smith, said in a statement. "We feel confident that the law will not allow such maneuvering.", In requesting to move the case, an attorney for Ailes accused Carlson's team of attempting to "game the system.", "Gretchen Carlson's attorney has led a concerted smear campaign to prejudice the rights of Roger Ailes in this case," Susan Estrich said in a statement. "Her attempt to game the system so as to avoid the arbitration clause for her client's baseless allegations is contrary to law and unsupported by the facts.", Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti also refuted claims about "judge shopping.", "We're trying to get this to the court where it belongs," Briganti said in a statement. "If anything, Gretchen Carlson's lawyer was attempting to judge-shop by having this heard in her comfort zone of state court in Bergen County, where neither Roger nor Carlson reside.", Read more Gretchen Carlson Regrets Not Speaking Up About Earlier Sexual Harassment, In the wake of Carlson's suitwhich argues that she was fired from the network for refusing to sleep with Ailes and for making complaints about sexism in the workplacemore women have accused him of sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior dating back decades. Ailes and his team have denied the accusations, saying Carlson's contract was simply not renewed. Other Fox hosts and personalities have also defended Ailes and said Carlson was upset about being fired from the network. |
US | Christian Pot Dispensary Takes on IRS | At Lanette Davies' shop in Sacramento, everyone stops what they're doing at 6 p.m. Some patrons come especially for this moment in the day, while others just happen to be there. "We have prayer every night, for our community and our patients," she says. And those patients are all taking at least one of the same prescriptions medical marijuana. Her shop, Canna Care, is a "Christian-based dispensary," where the owners believe in both the powers of Christ and cannabis. The not-for-profit dispensary has a rare mix of messages, but it might also be on the verge of setting a new precedent for the marijuana industry. On Feb. 24, Davies and her husband Bryan will face the Internal Revenue Service in tax court over disputes about business deductions. A ruling in their favor could help pull dispensaries like hers out of a legal limboin which states view them as legitimate businesses but the IRS continues to view them as aiding in drug trafficking. Federal law defines pot as a controlled substance, and that is the law that the IRS follows, even after 20 states and Washington, D.C. have legalized medical marijuana. "The tax law is grossly unfair," says San Francisco-based tax attorney Robert Wood, who has written extensively about the issue. "Whether you think dispensaries are a good idea or not, if they're lawful businesses under state law, they should be able to deduct their business expenses like anybody else.", So far, courts have ruled that dispensaries can't do that. Businesses like Canna Care aren't eligible for what would normally be routine deductions like payroll expenses and rent, because of a section of the federal tax code known as 280E, which dates back to 1982more than a decade before California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana in 1996. When Davies' filed her taxes in 2006, 2007 and 2008, she listed 2.6 million in such deductions. The IRS, which has repeatedly pursued dispensaries using that section of the code, came knocking with an audit in 2011 and refused to accept those deductions, levying nearly 875,000 in additional taxes on Canna Care. As it has with other dispensaries, the IRS offered to settled the case for about 100,000, Davies says, but she refused on principle. "I could have settled this and walked," she says, "but it would have been morally and ethically wrong to do so." Davies believes her company is being unfairly targeted while providing a valuable service for people with serious ailments, including her husband and daughter, she says. Her husband's chronic arthritis converted them on the subject of cannabis., The IRS declined to comment. Courts have issued rulings that suggest dispensaries are eligible for some tax deductions. In 2007, a California judge ruled that if a medical marijuana dispensary also provides extensive care-giving services, the owner may treat those businesses as separate for tax purposes. In a 2012 case, another California judge affirmed that a dispensary could deduct the cost of goods soldi.e. the cost of the marijuana. The tax code, the judge ruled, "disallows deductions only for an expense of a business," like providing health care plans for employees or advertising or legal services, and that does not include product. In this case, the IRS allowed Canna Care to deduct the cost of its marijuana, too. While Wood sides with the Davies' in spirit and says "it's an appealing argument" that dispensaries legal under state law should be taxed like any other business, he says Congress, not the courts, will likely have to make that clarification in the tax code. "What the tax court has done is make sympathetic noises but act as if their hands are tied," he says. Davies remains hopeful. "It's in God's hands now," she says. |
US | Dramatic Boat Rescue in Hawaii Caught on GoPro | Four children and four adults were rescued by helicopter after their boat capsized in rough waters off the coast of Mokolai in Hawaii Sunday. And it was all captured on a GoPro camera attached to one of the child's heads as he bobbed 12 miles off shore, waiting for help. "It got scary rough real fast where waves were breaking over the bow and it happened really quick," crew member Jeff Kozlovich told Hawaii News Now. "Before we knew it, too much water was in the boat and we really couldn't steer well or maneuver.", Luckily the group, which had set out from Oahu for an overnight trip, was each wearing life vests and had three kayaks on board. As water began to sink the 21-foot vessel, the group abandoned ship and used their cell phones to call 911, although the US Coast Guard told local news that an "EPIRB" tracking device alerted them to the situation. , , |
US | How Popular is Your Fraternity | Fraternities have existed on American college campuses since the nation's founding. By mapping thousands of chapters across 794 campuses, we determined which fraternities are most common in each state. Alpha Phi Alpha, which was founded at Cornell in 1906, has at least 290 active chapters, more than any other fraternity, according to data available on GreekRank.com. Kappa Sigma dominates the South and Northwest. It is the most common fraternity in nine states. Tau Kappa Epsilon and Alpha Phi Alphaa historically African-American fraternitytie for second place, each taking six states across the eastern U.S. Sigma Alpha Epsilon's dominance in the West comes into sharper focus when searching for the fraternity's chapters. GreekRanka site that ranks fraternities and sororitiesprovides active chapter locations for 80 social and professional fraternities across 794 colleges. No other aggregated data is publicly available on fraternities. Chapter locations published on fraternity websites report suspended and inactive chapters inconsistently, and membership numbers are even harder to locate, making anything beyond a geographic comparison difficult. Methodology Active chapters are aggregated by state to determine winners. When fraternities tie for chapter numbers, like in Alaska with fewer campuses to extend influence, the most senior fraternity takes first place. Listen to the most important stories of the day. |
US | Bowe Bergdahls Dad on Why He Grew That Beard | The sight of Bowe Bergdahl's father standing by President Barack Obama in the White House Rose Garden Saturday might have come as a shock to viewers unfamiliar with his long bushy beard, reminiscent of the facial hair often grown by devotees of Islam, including his sons' captors. His rudimentary knowledge of Pashto and Urdu, prevailing languages in Taliban strongholds, compounded the confusion. But as Robert Bergdahl explained to TIME in May 2012, he grew the beard out of a desire to better understand the world from which his son could not escape. Robert Bergdahl said he began growing the beard as soon as he received news of his son's capture. He was on his usual UPS delivery route on July 1, 2009, when management radioed him back to headquarters. Two army officers delivered the devastating news, and according to friends, he resolved in that moment to do whatever he could to facilitate his son's release. That included scouring websites and chat rooms for rumors about his son's captors, teaching himself Pashto and Urdu and growing a long, eye-catching beard. A devout Presbyterian, Bergdahl was aware of the impression he made on local congregants. His former pastor told the Washington Post that Bergdahl occasionally explained to friends that he had not developed any sympathies for the Taliban, he only wanted to understand their worldview. Nonetheless, those attempts to understand the Taliban have occasionally shaded into acts and gestures that strike some critics as a little too close for comfort. Just recently, reports surfaced of a tweet deleted from Bob Bergdahl's Twitter account that directly addressed a Taliban spokesman. "I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners," it read. "God will repay for the death of every Afghan child, ameen." |
US | Justice Department to Investigate Ferguson Missouri Police | The Justice Department intends to launch a civil rights investigation of the entire Ferguson, Missouri, Police Department, according to administration officials. An announcement of the investigation is planned for Thursday. With the help of the FBI, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has been investigating last month's fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager, Michael Brown, who was wounded several times by a Ferguson police officer. The shooting touched off several days of sometimes violent protest. But this new investigation would be much broader, looking at the conduct of the entire Ferguson Police Department over the past several years, Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News |
US | Hurricane Maria Made Landfall in Yabucoa Puerto Rico As a Category 4 Storm | Hurricane Maria made landfall at 615 a.m. ET in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico on Wednesday as a strong Category 4 hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center. Water levels at a nearby harbor rose by over 4 feet, the NHC says. Hurricane Maria brought maximum sustained winds of 155 mph when it hit Yabucoa. As of 10 a.m. ET, the storm's core was still moving over Puerto Rico, bringing "life-threatening wind, storm surge and rainfall," the NHC reported. The area is still recovering from damage brought by Hurricane Irma. After hitting Yabucoa, Hurricane Maria is expected to move over the Dominican Republic's northeastern cost, then begin turning north. A hurricane warning is already in effect for the area, as well as for Turks and Caicos and the southeastern Bahamas. The NHC's forecast also noted that Maria may regather strength before hitting the Dominican Republic Thursday morning. |
US | Columbia Settles Lawsuit Brought by Former Student Accused of Sexual Assault by Mattress Girl | Columbia University has settled a lawsuit alleging mistreatment under Title IX brought by a former student who had been cleared by the school of sexual misconduct, according to the Washington Post. Paul Nungesser was accused of rape in 2012 by fellow student Emma Sulkowicz, who demonstrated against the way university dealt with her case by carrying her mattress around the New York City campus. Two other students also accused Nungesser of sexual assault. The school investigated the allegations and found Nungesser not responsible of sexual misconduct in November of 2013. He both graduated from the school and filed the lawsuit in 2015. "Columbia recognizes that after the conclusion of the investigation, Paul's remaining time at Columbia became very difficult for him and not what Columbia would want any of its students to experience," the university said in an emailed statement. The school did not reveal details about the settlement terms. , The university also said it would continue going over and updating its policies toward ensuring both accusers and the accused are treated respectfully. "Together with Paul and his parents we have fought for three long years for a statement like the one Columbia released today," said Nesenoff Miltenberg partner Andrew T. Miltenberg in an email. "It gives Paul a chance to go on with his life and recover from the false accusation against him.", News of the settlement came as Education Secretary Besty DeVos took meetings with both advocates for victims of sexual assault and those accused of the crime. |
US | FDA Calls Out Vaping Company for Putting Erectile Dysfunction Drugs in Its Products | The Food and Drug Administration called out an e-cigarette company Thursday over concerns that its products contain unapproved drugs meant to treat erectile dysfunction. The FDA said the China-based HelloCig Electronic Technology Co. Ltd. has 15 days to respond to the charge that two of their e-liquid products sold in the U.S. contain unapproved drugs that are active in Viagra and Cialis. One of the products was even called E-Cialis.', "E-Cialis HelloCig E-Liquid" contained sildenafil and tadalafil and "E-Rimonabant HelloCig E-Liquid" contained sildenafil, the FDA said in its press release. "These ingredients can be associated with significant safety issues and the risk of serious adverse events. For example, they may interact with nitrates found in some prescription drugs used to treat, high blood pressure or heart disease, and can lower blood pressure to dangerous levels.", Both Cialis and Viagra are FDA-approved but the drugs contained with in those medicinces are not approved by the agency to be added to e-cigarette liquids. HelloCig used Cialis bottles and pill imagery in their ads, implying the e-liquid could treat erectile dysfunction. HelloCig also advertised Acomplia bottles and pills, which is a unapproved anti-obesity drug, the FDA said. , The administration's commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, M.D. said they were calling out the vaping company because including these ingredients are potentially dangerous to younger consumers. "This action is part of FDA's broader effort to regulate the safety of vaping products, and crack down on misleading claims and illegal and dangerous e-liquids that may entice youth or put consumers at risk." he said. "There are no e-liquid products approved to contain prescription drugs or any other medications that require a doctor's supervision," Gottlieb continued. "Prescription drugs are carefully evaluated and labeled to reflect the risks of the medications and their potential interactions with other medicines, and vaping active drug ingredients is an ineffective route of delivery and can be dangerous.", The FDA sent a warning letter to the company, listing its grievances and demanding a response within 15 days. |
US | Bud Light Took a Stance Against Corn Syrup But Experts Say That Doesnt Make Beer Better or Healthier | Bud Light really wanted people to know it does not use corn syrup in its beer. But the recipe decision, touted in a 2019 Super Bowl commercial, triggered quite the backlash from beer competitors and corn farmers. Beer industry and brewing experts say Bud Light's advertising tactic is playing on a public perception that corn syrup is unhealthy, by implying that it is added to other beers as a sweetener. But the inclusion of corn syrup in beer does not make a difference in nutrition or taste, according to beer industry and brewing experts. While it sounds similar to high fructose corn syrupa sweetener commonly added to sodas and flavored beveragescorn syrup itself is a clear, sweet liquid derived from corn starch that contains glucose. Added to the beer brewing process, corn syrup is eaten by yeast, turning the sugars into alcohol, according to Kaylyn Kirkpatrick, a brewing extension associate at Cornell University working in the department of food sciences. "Corn syrup is not really going into the finished beer," Kirkpatrick tells TIME. "It's more of a processing aid and is 100 fermented out.", The debacle started when Bud Light's Super Bowl ad on Sunday showed a large barrel of the corn syrup being delivered by mistake to the Bud Light castle. In a quest to get the corn syrup to its intended recipients, the "king" of Bud Light and a group of followers travel long distances to deliver the barrel to Miller Lite and Coors Light, since both companies brew beer using corn syrup. , The advertisement drew criticism from corn farmers and others in the domestic beer industry. The National Corn Growers Association said it was disappointed in Bud Light. Miller Lite thanked Bud Light for "including us in our first Super Bowl ad in over 20 years," and pointed out it has "more taste and half the carbs.", , While well-known domestic lagers like Coors Light and Miller Lite do include corn syrup in their brewing processes, the ingredient is added so the sugars will ferment and transform into alcohol, giving the brews their signature light body and crisp taste. Further, because the sugars from the corn syrup are fermented out during the beer brewing process, no one is drinking straight sugar from a bottle of beer unless otherwise added. Bud Light also adds sugars into its fermentation process. But instead of relying on corn syrup, Bud Light uses rice as its source of a fermentable sugar during its brewing process. According to a list of ingredients used in Bud Light, the drink includes water, barley, rice and hops. A spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch, which makes Bud Light, confirmed that those ingredients are used in the drink. The company uses corn syrup in some of its other products, including Busch Light and Natural Light. Anheuser-Busch bought more than 1 billion pounds of corn ingredients last year, according to the company's spokesperson. , "We fully support corn growers and will continue to invest in the corn industry," the spokesperson said. "Bud Light's Super Bowl commercials are only meant to point out a key difference in Bud Light from some other light beers. This effort is to provide consumers transparency and elevate the beer category.", The company also reached out to the National Corn Growers Association in light of its criticism, in an effort to make amends, Neil Caskey, the group's chief communications officer, told CNN. MillerCoors chief communications officer Pete Marino pointed out Bud Light's rice use in a tweet defending his company. He also noted that Anheuser-Busch uses high fructose corn syrup in some of its beverages, which is true a look through the company's hard soda and iced tea beverage products finds that high fructose corn syrup is used as ingredient. , The differences between using rice and corn as a source of sugar are slim to none, according to Matt Simpson, an expert in the beer industry who runs the consultancy The Beer Sommelier. "The only reason Bud Light is able to make any case for this advertising campaign is the perception that corn syrup is somehow worse than rice syrup," he says, referring to the rice mixture that Anheuser-Busch likely uses in its recipe. "It's really not true. If you eat a teaspoon of rice syrup or corn syrup your body will process them the same way. By the time it's turned into alcohol, there's literally no difference between them. They've been fermented.", Kirkpatrick concurs. Corn syrup in beer "should not be a health concern," she says. "You might get differences in the final flavor of the product, because sometimes that comes through the fermentation differently," she says. "But in terms of caloric value, if people are worried about sugars left behind in the beer, those are all going to be eaten up in the brewing process." |
US | A Mosul Preview Iraq Government Launches Attack on Tikrit | A force of 30,000 Sunni and Shiite fighters, both soldiers and militia, launched a large-scale offensive Monday to push the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria out of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown. Eighty miles northwest of Baghdad, Tikrit could serve as a model for the coming and much bigger battle to retake Mosul. ISIS seized Iraq's second largest city, as well as Tikrit, last summer in a humiliating defeat for the U.S.-trained Iraqi forces. General Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, the local Iraqi military commander, told Iraqi state television that the assault was "going on as planned," primarily from the east. Iraqi warplanes were attacking targets in and around Tikrit, Iraqi TV added. A Pentagon spokesman said that while the U.S. government had received prior notice of the attack, no U.S. warplanes are involved. He also declined to comment on reports that Iranian forces are playing a role. Pentagon officials said the Iraqi army's success in retaking Tikrit is vital if the planned assault on Mosul is to remain on track. In recent months, the timetable for launching that counteroffensive has ranged from next month to next year, according to U.S. military officials. Mosul is ISIS's key Iraqi redoubt, and so long as it controls the city it will hold sway over much of northern Iraq. Tikrit, three hours south of Mosul on Iraq's Route 1, is an important transit hub between Baghdad and Mosul. It would give the central government an important logistical hub from which to fuel its Mosul offensive. Iraqi forces have failed in previous efforts to retake Tikrit. But Monday's offensive comes after Iraq's new Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, visited Iraqi forces on the eve of the operation and said "zero hour" for taking back Tikrit had arrived. He addressed the Iraqi people in a televised address Monday. "Today, God willing, we start an important military campaign to liberate the citizens of Salahuddin province which includes Samarra, Dhuluiya, Balad, Dujail, al-Alam, al-Door, and Tikrit and other areas in the province from ISIS," al-Abadi said. "Our goal is to liberate people from the oppression and terrorism of Daesh," he added, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. Western Iraq's population largely belongs to the Sunni Muslim sect, as does ISIS. The prior, Shiite-dominated Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, angered Sunnis with its oppressive governance that sidelined Sunnis. It is not clear whether or not the more inclusive approach of al-Abadi, also a Shiite, since taking office in September has succeeded in easing those wounds. On Feb. 19, a senior official at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, which oversees U.S. military operations in Iraq, told reporters that U.S. officials hoped an Iraqi-led attack on Mosul could begin as soon as April. "But by the same token, if they're not ready, if the conditions are not set, if all the equipment that they need is not physically there and they are not trained to a degree in which they will be successful, we have not closed the door on continuing to slide that to the right" further into the future, the Central Command official said. Despite that caveat, some U.S. military officials have derided any suggestion that the Iraqi military would be sufficiently trained and outfitted to storm Mosul as soon as April. Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said last Friday that it still might happen. "This is going to be and must be an Iraqi-led operation, and that more critically, we're not going to be able to go, nor do we want to go any faster than the Iraqis are ready to go," he said. "I just can't put a date certain on there and say it's going to happen at a certain time, nor am I prepared to, you know, rule something out and tell you definitively, Well, April's out.'" |
US | Watch the Emotional Speech That Helped Bring Down the Confederate Flag | An emotional speech by a descendant of Jefferson Davis Wednesday helped convince the South Carolina House to remove the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds. "I cannot believe that we do not have the heart in this body to do something meaningful such as take a symbol of hate off these grounds on Friday," Rep. Jenny Horne said. Horne's ancestor, Jefferson Davis, was the president of the Confederacy. "For the widow of Sen. Pinckney and his two young daughters, that would be adding insult to injury," she yelled, fighting back tears. Pinckney, a state senator, was one of nine victims in a racially-motivated shooting at a black church in Charleston on June 17. The shooting set off a contentious debate about the role of the Confederate flag in modern society, specifically about its place at the South Carolina State House. The state House voted at 1 am Thursday morning to remove the flag. |
US | FBI Child Abuse Almost at an Epidemic Level in US | Tens of thousands of children are being sexually exploited each year in the U.S. according to an investigation by the BBC. Despite rescuing 600 children last year, the FBI says child sex abuse is at epidemic levels where tens of thousands of children are believed to be sexually exploited in the country each year. "The level of paedophilia is unprecedented right now," Joseph Campbell of the FBI told the BBC. Campbell, who works in the Criminal Investigation Division, has seen individuals from all walks of life engaged in both child pornography and child exploitation, calling it a problem "almost at an epidemic level.", Hundreds of American children are also being sold into sex, according to the BBC, where poverty and neglect are thought to be some of the main reasons why young kids are vulnerable to sex trafficking. Jenny Gaines, who works at Breaking Free, a Minnesotan-based advocacy group that provides support for former sex workers, says many "manipulate and take advantage of underage girls." Half the women who visit the support group were under the age if 18 when they were first sold for sex. , |
US | Alabama Executes Muslim Inmate After His Request for an Imam Was Denied | ATMORE, Ala. A Muslim inmate who complained in a legal challenge that Alabama wouldn't let his Islamic spiritual adviser be present in the execution chamber was put to death Thursday after the nation's highest court cleared the way. Dominique Ray, 42, was pronounced dead at 1012 p.m. of a lethal injection at the state prison in Atmore. Ray had argued Alabama's execution procedure favors Christian inmates because a Christian chaplain employed by the prison typically remains in the execution chamber during a lethal injection, but the state would not let his imam be present. Attorneys for the state said only prison employees are allowed in the chamber for security reasons. Prison system spokesman Bob Horton said Ray was visited by his imam both Wednesday and Thursday. Ray's imam, Yusef Maisonet, watched the execution from an adjoining witness room. There was no Christian chaplain in the chamber. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday had stayed the execution over the religious arguments, but the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for it to proceed in a 5-4 decision Thursday evening. Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissent that the dissenting justices considered the decision to let the execution go forward "profoundly wrong.", Other states generally allow spiritual advisers to accompany condemned inmates up to the execution chamber but not into it, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which studies capital punishment in the United States. Durham said did not know of any other state where the execution protocol calls for a Christian chaplain to be present in the execution chamber. Ray was sentenced to death for the 1995 rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl. Tiffany Harville disappeared from her Selma home on July 15, 1995, and her decomposing body was found one month later in a cotton field. It was Alabama's first execution of the year. Ray was convicted in 1999 after another man, Marcus Owden, confessed to his role in the crime and implicated Ray. Owden told police that they had picked the girl up for a night out on the town and then raped her. Owden said that Ray cut the girl's throat. Owden pleaded guilty to murder, testified against Ray and is serving a life sentence without parole. A jury recommended the death penalty for Ray by an 11-1 vote. Ray's attorneys had also asked in legal filings to stay the execution on other grounds. Lawyers say it was not disclosed to the defense team that records from a state psychiatric facility suggested Owden suffered from schizophrenia and delusions. The Supreme Court also rejected that claim Thursday. |
US | Hurricane Matthew Devastates Mobile Homes in Florida We Just Didnt Know It Was This Bad | Cristy Emerson had always wanted a skylight. That's what her husband Jeremy Emerson, 35, playfully reminded her as they surveyed the damage to their Oak Hill, Fla. home after Hurricane Matthew tore through early Friday. The metal roof of their bedroom had been ripped off the walls, leaving the room flooded with light but marred by sopping pink installation hanging from the rafters. "We're going to have to move," Cristy, 38, says, looking at the ruined bed. "We're finally going to get that house he's been wanting.", The Emersons are among hundreds in Florida evaluating damage to their homes and businesses in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, a powerful Category 3 storm that blew up the coast on Friday, prompting widespread evacuations and pummeling the state with rain and wind. Oak Hill is about a half hour south of Daytona Beach, near the water. The Emersons had already paid off the mobile home, but they do not have any kind of homeowners insurance. Jeremy owns a lawn company and Cristy is studying therapeutic massage and skin care while she raises their four kids, 15, 11, 10 and 8. Cristy says they've been saving for a new home for about a year, but the storm damage will move up their timeline. A lot. "We knew the front was tore upwe just didn't know it was this bad," Jeremy says. A neighbor had texted him that their home was damaged, and he and Cristy had come from a relative's house in nearby Edgewater to see how hard it was hit. It was worse than they'd expected. "We saved most of our stuff, the most important stuff," Cristy says. But they did not speak much as they looked over the home they had known for more than 14 years. Rain is pooled on the floors of bedrooms where their four children sleep on bunk beds, the ceiling sagging brown under the weight of the water. Printed sheetspink for the girls, blue for the boysare darkened into red and navy from the water. The room where the family keeps their exercise equipment and computers once had a roof, but now has the same unwelcome skylight as the master bedroom. There is water pooled on the floor in the kitchen, and the tub in the bathroomwhich was recently renovatedis now filled with murky brown sludge. Jeremy jokes that he will take the entire bathroom to their new home, tile by tile. In the bedroom, there is a small candleholder with the word "Love" inscribed on the front. Each of the votives is filled with water. Neighbors did not fare any better. Viren Patel, the owner of the Sunoco gas station across the street, closed his business Thursday at 4 p.m. to prepare for the storm. Metal sheets have loosened from the roof of the gas station and portions of the overhang are rattling as if they might fall off in the wind. Patel estimates it will cost him 5,000 to 10,000 for the structural repair, but he'll also have to throw away all the rotten food inside the convenience store, which could set him back 3,000. Overall, he may be looking at up to 13,000 worth of property lost in less than 12 hours. "It was really bad," he says. Alexis Moore and Angela Ridgdill live in a nearby home, but they drove into the Oak Hill trailer park to check on property for a family member. "All their roofs are gone," Moore says. "There are big holes in the side of the house," Ridgdill adds. One of the homes in the neighborhood has sopping wet toys and bedding piled outside, like a garage sale gone horribly wrong. "We thought it would be a lot worsewe thought we would lose our house," Moore says. "I feel like we got really lucky." As it happens, Moore and Ridgill's home did not sustain much damage, but they did lose a fence they had recently put in. "Panel by panel, we watched it go," Moore says. "Every hour we lost a panel.", The worst part, they say, is that people around here likely won't have the money to bounce back from the storm. "A lot of people here don't have a lot of money," Moore says. "There aren't a lot of jobs to replace what they did lose." |
US | University of Missouri Faculty Stages Walkout as Racism Protests Widen | A group of faculty staff will begin a two-day walkout at the University of Missouri to protest the school's handling of racist incidents on campus, joining student activists and the football team in a widening clash with the administration. "We, the concerned faculty of the University of Missouri, stand in solidarity with the Mizzou student activists who are advocating for racial justice on our campus," said a statement released late Sunday night by the so-called Concerned Faculty group, ABC reports. The faculty planned to meet at a central quadrangle at 10am and respond to student questions in the form of a teach-in, according to the statement. The University of Missouri has been deeply divided in recent weeks over the school administration's handling of several racist incidents that occurred this fall, including one when intoxicated white students harassed the Legion of Black Collegians with the N-word, and another student reported being subjected to racial slurs. The most recent racist incident came on Oct. 24, when a swastika was drawn with human feces on a college dorm's white wall. The Missouri Students Association wrote in an open letter on Monday that "the academic careers of our students are suffering" and "the mental health of our campus is under constant attack." Co-signed by the student government president, vice president and top officers, the letter formally demanded that Missouri System President Tim Wolfe resign. More than thirty football players have said they will not participate in practices or games until President Wolfe resigns or is fired, with the head football coach Gary Pinkel tweeting his support. A graduate student, Jonathan Butler, is now seven days into a hunger strike that he says will last until Wolfe is removed. The ConcernedStudent1950 protest organization has demanded Wolfe be removed and that the university overhauls the way it handles racial harassment. The group also demands an awareness curriculum and an increase of black faculty and staff to 10 by the academic year 2017-2018. The call for reform has reached the office of Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon. "Racism and intolerance have no place at the University of Missouri or anywhere in our state," Nixon said. "Our colleges and universities must be havens of trust and understanding. These concerns must be addressed to ensure the University of Missouri is a place where all students can pursue their dreams in an environment of respect, tolerance and inclusion.", Other Mizzou alumni, including its team's onetime football star Michael Sam, lent their support to the students, , Wolfe, the system president, apologized for an incident last month when his car allegedly bumped into a protest group, and said he had met with Butler, the hunger striker. "We are open to listening to all sides, and are confident that we can come together to improve the student experience on our campuses," Wolfe said in a statement. "Racism does exist at our university and it is unacceptable.", ABC |
US | California Court Gets One Step Closer to Deciding Ubers Fate | For Uber's lawyers, the case heard before theirs in a San Francisco courtroom on Thursday may have looked like a harbinger of future woes. California Northern District Judge Edward Chen was going over the details of a 227 million settlement that FedEx, a 44-year-old company with close to the same value as 6-year-old Uber, agreed to pay earlier this summer. That payout should end an argument over whether FedEx misclassified 2,100 drivers as independent contractors in California and thus denied them benefits that employees get like overtime pay, reimbursed expenses and meal breaks. Soon Uber's lawyers would be before the same judge arguing about the same classification question with respect to about 75 times that many drivers. At stake in a suit that could shape the future of the on-demand and sharing economies was the question of whether 160,000 Uber drivers in California can be treated as a single class. Uber's lawyers argued that they cannot, that there is no such thing as a "typical" Uber driver and that it would make more sense for each driver to bring their own case an expensive undertaking that most drivers likely wouldn't pursue. On the other side was Boston-based lawyer "Sledgehammer Shannon" Liss-Riordan, who spent a long, heated afternoon arguing that three Uber drivers should be able to stand in for all current and former drivers in the state. If Chen sides with her when he rules in the coming weeks, that would make this single suit potentially worth billions and capable of setting a precedent that sends other startups reeling to revamp their business models. Following in Uber's tracks, a long string of startups have shaped their business models around treating drivers or couriers or cleaners as independent contractors rather than employees. That's a much cheaper proposition but it requires that companies give up control. While contractors legally can't be told when or how to work, they also don't have to be paid minimum wage or given money for the gas they use on the job. Uber doesn't have to shell out any payroll taxes for independent contractors or pay them workers' compensation. Liss-Riordan, who was given her nickname by American Airlines skycaps after winning them a six-figure settlement in a wage-and-hour case, argue that Uber is really an transportation company using technology to pose as mere software licenser in order to save money and unfairly compete. The company exercises the kinds of control that employers do, she has argued, setting the rates that drivers earn per mile, telling them which models of cars they can drive and kicking them off the platform for getting low ratings. In the arguments over the diversity of Uber drivers in California, questions arose about what all the drivers want and whether it matters. Theodore Boutrous presented some 400 declarations from drivers who said they loved being contractors, that they didn't want their status to change, that they cherished the freedom that their status affords them. If they were employees, "the business model would have to change," Boutrous warned, "and there would be rigid schedules and this flexibility and this autonomy couldn't exist.", Liss-Riordan countered by offering a declaration from her paralegal, who had called about 50 of those drivers to ask if they understood the stakes. "They didn't realize they could be reimbursed for expenses," she said. "They didn't really understand what this was about." Chen questioned Boutrous' claim that their flexibility would have to evaporate if they were reclassified, saying those drivers may have been under the impression that things would have to change rather than be within Uber's discretion to change. A growing group of startups who began their lives using the contractor model are reverting to more traditional employment, saying that they're willing to pay the extra costs to have more direct control over their workers and their process. Curtis Lee, CEO of on-demand valet company Luxe, says that they hope that as employees their valets will be more likely to stick around and be more dedicated to the company. They still will not be required to work a minimum or maximum amount of hours as employees, he says, though they will start scheduling them in shifts. Lee also says that he doesn't think the conversion is right or fair to force on every company. "For Uber, it's a totally different situation," he says. Boutrous spent his day arguing that point, cataloging how some the 160,000 have agreed to 17 different terms of agreement, some of which forbade them from driving for other companies like Lyft while their Uber app is on which many drivers do. He detailed how some have used Uber to start their own small businesses while others turn on the app just a few hours per week. While some of them do rely on Uber to make a living, others use it for a little extra cash or to make their car payments. "These are real live human beings who vary widely," he says. "It's a hornet's nest.", The day ended with Chen inviting the lawyers for the two remaining cases on the docket to approach the bench. Like Liss-Riordan, both of them were arguing cases against Uber, involving issues like how the company conducted background checks. Boutrous stood and reintroduced himself as the counsel representing the company in case after case. If Chen rules that the 160,000 drivers can go ahead as a class, that might make Uber more seriously consider settling that suit amidst its own hornet's nest of legal troubles. |
US | Orlando Shooters Father Posted Bizarre Videos on Afghan Politics | YouTube videos posted by the father of the Orlando shooter over the last several years show him devolving from amateur pundit on Afghan politics to a man who appears to be suffering from delusions of grandeur. A naturalized American who came to the U.S. from Afghanistan in 1986, Siddique Mateen has a Facebook following of more than 10,000 and has been airing an amateur interview show on YouTube called the "Durand Jirga Show." He told TIME that he is founder and CEO of an organization called "Durand Jirga," a religious nonprofit devoted to resolving the dispute over Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. Mateen started the recordings in 2011, and they became more preposterous since, with him wearing Army fatigues at points, several Afghanistan observers say. In an interview, Mateen first said he wore the fatigues in the video because "those are the clothes I wear," then said he bought them for Halloween. He said he paid about 100 for them. In several videos translated for TIME, Mateen announces himself as the new president of the country and asks all government employees in Afghanistan to obey his orders and no one else's. He subsequently orders the arrest of the real Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, as well as several other senior officials, whom he refers to as traitors. He even encourages his supporters to strike Ghani, if not worse. "We want to find a hero to take the turban off Ashraf Ghani and slap him a few times and very hard," Mateen said. Read More Orlando Shooter Omar Mateen's Father I Don't Forgive Him', In an interview at his home on Tuesday, Mateen said he called for the arrests for his own protection. "I wanted to go to Afghanistan, and they plan if that if I go to Afghanistan, they will eliminate me," he said. He said the last time he had been to his home country was in 2014. "From my popularity, they feel in danger," he said. Mateen boasts that he has 20 million followers in Afghanistan, and that some of his videos have gotten up to 20,000 views. Some of Mateen's videos are aimed as getting Pashtuns, who live in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, to unite against other rivals. In some videos he criticizes the Taliban, and in others he credits them for bringing Pashtuns together. "Our brothers in Waziristan, our fighting brothers in the Taliban movement and national Afghan Taliban are rising up," he says in one video. On Tuesday, days after his son Omar Mateen killed 49 people in an Orlando nightclub in what is now considered the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil since September 11, the elder Mateen condemned the Taliban. When asked about the apparent support he voiced in his videos, he said, "Those are the killers. They kill the people of Afghanistan. You think I support the killers?" and added, "I wanted to bring the peace, and the Taliban is the main problem.", When pressed further, he said "the translation must be wrong.", The videos show an obsession with the Durand Line, the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan that was demarcated in the late 19th century in an agreement between a British diplomat, Sir Mortimer Durand, and an Afghan king, Abdur Rahman Khan. The division left the Pashtun ethic group on both sides of the border and is viewed by some in the region as an unnatural place for dividing people. Indeed, there are tensions over this border to this day. But that doesn't mean Mateen is a considered a legitimate voice on the issue, says Barnett Rubin, a renowned expert on Afghanistan and South Asia. "A few years back, Siddique Mateen popped up out of the blue and starting sloganeering on the Durand issue," Rubin, the Senior Fellow and Director at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, told TIME. "He's a megalomaniac. And according to all of my Pashtun contacts, he's totally unknown and totally irrelevant," Rubin says. Rather, Mateen's longing for his homeland may have one awry. "In any long-time exile community, you have people who develop an ide fixe about an issue, and he's an example of that. It seems to me that he has a personality disorder," Rubin adds. "And if you think like that, your son might have a problem as well.", As he smiled calmly for a portrait photograph on Tuesday, Mateen said matter-of-factly, "I am the President of the provisional government of Afghanistan," when asked about why he made the videos. Mateen also rails against the evils of Pakistan, ISIS and a variety of other prominent figures involved in U.S. policy in Afghanistan, such as Zalmay Khalilzad, who served as Washington's ambassador to Kabul. In all of the videos he is focused on a fiercely specific, nationalist view of Afghanistan. But in none of them does he espouse violence against Westerners, non-Muslims or homosexuals. However, on Monday, he posted a video on Facebook in which he said "God himself will punish those involved in homosexuality," according to a Washington Post translation. The video has since been removed. In many of Mateen's most recent videos posted on his Facebook page, he is wearing fatigues, as if serving as commander in chief. And particularly chilling, just 12 hours after news of his son's massacre broke, Mateen added a new picture to his page. It features his own image, looking presidential in suit and tie, emblazoned on a green t-shirt with his would-be title, looking as if he were running for office. He explained Tuesday that he posted the photo because his followers sent it to him. "My followers sent it to me and said "put that," we want this picture of you,'" he said. "That shows our popularity." When asked why he posted it so soon after news of the killings, he said, "don't relate that to anything.", "I was here," he says, raising his arm in the air,"and now he brought me down to there," he points to the floor. "This stupid boy.", Mateen says he will not resign his self-described role in the Afghan provisional government because of his son's attack. "My son did this and I dishonor him, why should I resign?" he says. "Now my fight against terrorism is doubled, stronger.", When pressed, Mateen gave an answer that is becoming something of a familiar refrain. "It's not about politics," he said. "It's a very sad day." |
US | Heres What Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Said About Indicting Russian Intelligence Officers | Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for conspiring to interfere in the 2016 presidential election on Friday. At Friday's press conference, Rosenstein outlined the charges leveled against the Russian intelligence officers, including money laundering, aggravated identity theft and conspiring to access computers without authorization as part of their efforts to influence the election. Rosenstein did not specifically name the DNC or the Clinton presidential campaign as victims of the Russian hacking efforts, saying, "When we confront foreign interference in American elections, it is important for us to avoid thinking politically as Republicans or Democrats and instead to think patriotically as Americans. Our response must not depend on which side was victimized.", Read Rosenstein's full statement announcing the indictment below |
US | FEMA Sends 28000 Liters of Bottled Water to Flint Mich | FEMA has dispatched 28,000 liters of bottled water to Flint, Mich. where residents have been struggling with a lead-contaminated water supply for months. FEMA maintains stockpiles of commodities that would be needed in the event of disaster, and distributes them to non-profits as they near their expiration date. On Tuesday, the agency sent two trucks' worth of bottled water to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, which covered the shipping costs and will distribute the water to other food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters, the Flint Journal reports. For months, Flint residents have been told not to drink unfiltered tap water due to lead contamination in the Flint River, which was the city's water source from April 2014 to Oct. 2015. Though the river is no longer used as the source, the water supply is reportedly still contaminated in parts of the city. Flint Journal |
US | Passengers on 4 Southwest Flights May Have Been Exposed to Measles | A Texas resident sick with measles may have exposed passengers on four Southwest Airlines flights to the highly contagious virus, officials said. The individual took flights connecting through Houston's Hobby Airport on Aug. 21 and 22, the Houston Health Department announced Thursday. The passenger was diagnosed with measles after traveling, a Southwest representative told TIME, but health department said the person was contagious at the time of the flights. Southwest is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC to notify passengers on four flights of the possible exposure, the airline said. These flights include Flight 5, from Dallas to Houston on Aug. 21 Flight 9, from Houston to Harlingen on Aug. 21 Flight 665, from Harlingen to Houston on Aug. 22 and Flight 44, from Houston to Dallas on Aug. 22. The CDC did not immediately respond to TIME's request for comment. Widespread and effective vaccination has made measles rare in the U.S. but 107 cases across 21 states were reported during the first six months of this year alone, in part because of lingering anti-vaccine sentiment. The viral infection causes symptoms including rash, fever, sore throat, inflamed eyes and runny nose, according to the Mayo Clinic. Passengers on the affected flights may develop symptoms as late as Sept. 12 and should see their doctor if so, according to the Houston Health Department. Other travelers who were in the affected airports on Aug. 21 or 22 are at a lower risk of infection than those who were on flights with the sick passenger, the health department said. The alert caps off a week that included two other high-profile health incidents on flights. On Wednesday, passengers and crew on an Emirates flight from Dubai to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport tested positive for influenza. The next day, 12 passengers on two international American Airlines flights into Philadelphia were found to have "flu-like symptoms." |
US | Grand Jury Process Raises Questions About a Ferguson Indictment | Officer Darren Wilson testified this week in the grand jury investigation into his shooting of Michael Brown, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The newspaper's scoop was unusual. Unlike most criminal-justice proceedings in the U.S. grand juries are highly secretive. Leaking information about them is a criminal act. But perhaps it should no longer be surprising to see the investigation take an interesting turn. More than a month after Brown's death in Ferguson, Mo. the grand jury appears to be nowhere near a decision on whether Wilson should be charged. And the road to justice has been paved with strange decisions. Several elements of the grand jury's proceedings have been uncommon, according to legal experts surveyed by TIME. None of these decisions are necessarily improper. But together they have raised eyebrows. "This is not your regular St. Louis grand jury case," says Susan McGraugh, a veteran Missouri criminal-defense attorney and law professor at St. Louis University. The investigation has been fraught from the start. Residents of Ferguson, who have massed in protests each day since Brown was killed on Aug. 9, immediately cast doubt on the impartiality of McCulloch, who has been the county's elected prosecuting attorney since 1991. McCulloch's father, a police officer, was killed in the line of duty by a black suspect. Critics have pointed to his record of charging police-involved shootings and suggested that his background may cloud his judgment in the case. There were early murmurs that McCulloch would recuse himself or be replaced by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon. Instead, McCulloch has delegated the task of presenting evidence to two senior attorneys in his office. The first unusual decision taken by the prosecutor's office, experts say, was not to recommend a specific charge for Wilson. Instead, the prosecutors are presenting evidence as it becomes available, and leaving it up to the grand jury to decide what the evidence warrants. To some members of the community, the decision was taken as a sign that McCulloch may be trying to avoid an indictment. "To present a case to a grand jury, without any direction or instructions with regard to what you want them to achieve," says Adolphus Pruitt of the St. Louis NAACP, "gives the best odds that an indictment will not occur.", McCulloch has ordered that all testimony in the case be transcribed. This is rare, because it can be used against witnesses in future legal proceedings. In addition, McCulloch has pledged to immediately release full transcripts and audio recordings of the panel's testimony in the absence of an indictment. This too is highly unusual. The prosecutor's office, which did not respond to an interview request from TIME, has said these decisions were designed with transparency and openness in mind. But they may also be a way to head off criticism. "It will take the heat off McCulloch if the grand jury comes back with something that the public doesn't like," says McGraugh. Without a charging recommendation, the grand jury has the option to indict Wilson on either first- or second-degree murder, or either voluntary or involuntary manslaughter. "If they return an indictment for either murder or manslaughter, no one's going to care that he didn't have a charging recommendation," says Jens David Ohlin, a professor at Cornell Law School. "If, on the other hand, they don't return an indictment, he can deflect any criticism and say I presented all the evidence to the grand jury, and in their wisdom they decided.", There is a greater chance that the jury declines to return an indictment than the public may expect, Ohlin says. "It's a very difficult case.", With three blacks and nine whites, the grand jury's composition reflects the demographic makeup of the county, which is roughly one-quarter black. It was empaneled before Brown was shot, and began hearing evidence shortly after. The proceedings could prove unusually lengthy. Authorities originally suggested they expected a decision on whether to charge Wilson by mid-October. But a circuit judge recently extended the panel's term, giving them until Jan. 7 to decide whether to charge the officer in connection with Brown's death. The case is complex, and justice is often slow. But within the community, there are suspicions that the protracted proceedings are a way to drag out the case until the anger on the streets fadesand, perhaps, to gain the benefit of winter weather that might deter protesters. It won't work, warns Pruitt of the NAACP. "If there's no true bill," he says, "as a community, we are going to be thrust right back into the same discontent and civil disobedience we experienced the first time around." |
US | Florida is Investigating Two More Cases of Zika Not Related to Travel | Florida health officials confirmed Wednesday that they are looking into two more cases of Zika that do not appear to be related to travel or sexually transmitted. The cases which number four in total raise the possibility that mosquitoes in the U.S. are carrying and transmitting the virus, Reuters reports. "Evidence is mounting to suggest local transmission via mosquitoes is going on in South Florida," said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC spokesman Tom Skinner. All four cases have been identified in the Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Local transmission of the virus is defined under the U.S. Zika response plan as two or more cases not related to travel or sex with an infected person, that occur within a 1-mile diameter of each other within one month. To confirm whether Zika, is in fact, homegrown, scientists will survey houses and neighbors within a 150-yard radius of the infected person's home roughly the flying distance of the mosquitoes. The state is asking locals and visitors within the area of the investigation to submit urine samples in order to help scientists determine the number of people affected. Florida is currently dealing with 328 travel-related cases of Zika and monitoring 53 pregnant women infected with the virus. Reuters |
US | Americas Transgender Homecoming Queen Speaks Out | In the fall of 2013, Cassidy Lynn Campbell's classmates elected her homecoming queen of their Huntington Beach, Calif. high school. The selection of a transgender girl for the honor was particularly striking in a traditionally conservative town, and it was celebrated by many as a tolerance milestone. But amid the cheers were plenty of sneers, including from some of Campbell's peers, and she posted a teary-eyed confessional video on YouTube the night of her election in which she talked about the pain of being trans. Campbell spoke with TIME for the cover story, The Transgender Tipping Point, and discussed life as a trans woman and her quest for acceptance. |
US | Death Penalty Slowly Fading Away Across the US | In 2016, states handed down fewer death sentences than at anytime since capital punishment was reinstated in 1972. The number of executions hit a low not seen in a quarter-century. And for the first time in four decades, opinion polls showed that fewer than half of Americans supported capital punishment. That's the state of capital punishment in the U.S. today as captured in a new report from the Death Penalty Information Center. The annual year-end look by the DPIC, which collects data about capital punishment and is critical of how executions are carried out, highlights the continued decline of the death penalty across the country. "Last year we saw generational lows in new death sentences, executions, and measured support for the death penalty in public opinion polls," says Robert Dunham, executive director of the DPIC. "Everything dropped more this year.", Read more Every Execution in U.S. History in a Single Chart , There were 30 total death sentences issued in 2016, according to the DPIC, a drop of 39 from last year's record low of 49 and well below a modern peak of 315 in 1996. The number of executions also declined to 20, eight less than last year the fewest since 1991. As capital punishment falls out of favor in many states, the practice is increasingly limited to a few dozen counties in the U.S. The DPIC report finds that the number of jurisdictions that imposed the death penalty fell from 60 counties in 2012 to just 27 in 2016. Several factors are behind the decline, including the continued problems states have had in the last few years in obtaining drugs to carry out lethal injections. These shortages have led to the use of experimental drug cocktails that have been blamed for several "botched" executions in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona. Read more Pennsylvania Stops Using the Death Penalty, Dunham also says fewer prosecutors are seeking the death penalty while juries appear to be more hesitant in imposing it. That tracks with a September poll from the Pew Research Center, which found that 49 of respondents said they supported the death penalty for convicted murderers, while 42 opposed it. The level of support was the lowest since the 1970s. The November elections, however, were a vote of confidence for the death penalty in a handful of states. Faced with a choice to end the death penalty, California voters elected to keep the practice but voted to speed up the appeals process for death row inmates Nebraska voted to repeal a law passed last year that abolished capital punishment and Oklahoma chose to place the death penalty in its state constitution, which will protect it from state courts that may be inclined to rule it unconstitutional. |
US | The Art of the Hostage Deal | Armed Venezuelan police stormed Thamara Candelo's apartment complex at dawn on June 30, 2016. It was two weeks after her wedding day, and Candelo's American husband, Joshua Holt, was lying in their bed in Caracas. One officer demanded to see his visa. Others ransacked the rooms, took Holt's phone and finally ordered him to get into a pickup truck. For the next five hours, his gun-toting captors mocked and hit him. Then they took him to the Helicoide, a prison home to the Venezuelan intelligence police. He has not been allowed out since. Holt, 25, sent this account of his capture in a letter last August to his parents, who live south of Salt Lake City in his childhood home. It was only the beginning of an ordeal his family could never have fathomed when the young couple met online through their church that year. Holt was accused of arms possession, though witnesses told his family and lawyers that they watched agents plant firearms in the apartment after the arrest. He and Candelo have been held without trial. Five preliminary hearings have been canceled, with no explanation other than judges or courts were unavailable. According to his family, Holt has lost more than 50 lb. subsisting on the prison's diet of uncooked chicken and raw pasta, meals former Helicoide inmates have claimed are mixed with feces. He was denied medical care for bronchitis, a kidney stone and pneumonia. When an infection spread from his jaw to his eye, authorities pulled a tooth and filled the hole with cement, right atop his exposed nerve. Holt became suicidal. On July 3, the 368th day of his imprisonment, he fell from his bunk when guards woke him, sustaining what his family fears was a concussion and a back fracture. "Demons stroll the hallways," Holt wrote of the prison. "I have been told by 10 or 20 people, prisoners and guards, that I am here because I am American.", At any given moment, a handful of innocent Americans are detained in grisly conditions by hostile governments. Others are held by terrorist groups. At least four U.S. citizens are currently imprisoned in Iran. A North Carolina pastor is jailed in Turkey, accused without public evidence of membership in a group the government considers to be terrorists. Last year, North Korea seized Otto Warmbier, an Ohio college student visiting Pyongyang on a tour program, and sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly trying to steal a propaganda poster. Warmbier fell into a coma in captivity after "tortuous mistreatment," according to his family, and died days after he was finally released in June. Three other Americans remain in prison in North Korea. Many of the families of these captives are united by a faith that President Trump will do what it takes to win their loved ones' release. As a candidate, Trump promised that his dealmaking skills would free innocent Americans held abroad. "This doesn't happen if I'm president!" Trump tweeted a few weeks before Election Day, when Iran sentenced two Americans for allegedly spying. As President, Trump has indeed pushed forcefully, and personally. In April, his Administration negotiated the release of aid worker Aya Hijazi, who had been held for three years in an Egyptian prison. Trump sent a plane to pick her up and tweeted a photo montage of him and Hijazi with Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" playing in the background. He has boasted about the deal in interviews, saying it took him just 10 minutes in the Oval Office with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to secure Hijazi's release. "President Obama tried and failed many times over three years, but we were able to get this done in a very short period and that is an amazing victory for Aya and her family," Trump tells TIME, adding that "there have been other releases, some that we can't talk about.", Senior White House officials have held dozens of meetings with captives' families in the first months of the Administration. Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell speaks every two weeks with Babak Namazi, whose father and brother are imprisoned in Tehran and were the subject of Trump's pre-election tweet. Lawyers for Andrew Brunson, the pastor detained in Turkey since October, say Trump aides have been involved in their case since the presidential transition. MORE Read an Interview With President Trump on U.S. Captives Abroad, All this outreach from the highest levels of government is why Josh Holt's family believes Trump will be his savior. "Right after Trump's Inauguration, I thought, He's going to get him home," Josh's mother Laurie Holt tells TIME from her living room, where Faith family friends is stenciled above the window. Laurie was invited to the White House in April. Even Donald Trump Jr. has weighed in on behalf of the Holts, according to Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah. At one point, Trump Jr. offered to go to Venezuela, Hatch says. A lawyer for Trump Jr. did not return multiple requests for comment, and the Trump Organization declined to comment. U.S. Presidents have often struggled with the challenge of when to trade favor or treasure for Americans captured abroad. Trump says he will deal forcefully with foreign adversaries. "We are aggressively pursuing the release of our people. We will leave no lawful tool, partnership or recovery option off the table," Trump tells TIME. "I am always tough on countries or terrorist groups that hold our people hostage or detain them on fake charges and keep them captive in hellish locations far from their family and loved ones.", Trump may find that the issues are not as black and white as he and the families that have placed their hope in him initially thought. In the past, hostile foreign governments have demanded a high price for the release of captives, from the release of criminals in the case of Iran to diplomatic concessions in the case of North Korea. "Securing the release of American hostages is really hard," says longtime U.S. diplomat James Dobbins, now a senior fellow at the Rand Corp. "Normally, the only options are to rescue or ransom them. Rescue requires first locating them and is not even an option when they are being held by another state. Paying ransom is against U.S. policy as it only encourages more hostage taking. This leaves U.S. officials with a very narrow range of alternatives.", When foreign adversaries take captives, the course of history can change. It's a tribal tale woven through mythology. When Hades kidnapped Persephone, despair killed all the fruits of the earth until the Greek gods reached a compromise. The Trojan War of Homer's Iliad was fought to bring home Menelaus' wife Helen, the woman whose face launched a thousand ships. In America's earliest days, President George Washington paid ransoms for shipping crews taken by Algerian pirates. Less than a decade later, Thomas Jefferson refused to do the same, starting the First Barbary War. Jimmy Carter's presidency buckled under the humiliation of Iranian revolutionaries holding 52 Americans for 444 days. When George W. Bush was in the White House, Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces held three American defense contractors captive for five years until they were rescued in a military helicopter operation. Barack Obama's presidency changed in the summer of 2014, when the Islamic State beheaded an American hostage, freelance journalist James Foley, and posted the macabre footage online. Two other Americans met a similar end. In the aftermath, several of their families spoke out against what they saw as the Obama Administration's inaction and refusal to pay the ransoms the terrorists demanded. By contrast, many European governments do pay ransoms., Partly in response, Obama created the first-ever special presidential envoy for hostage affairs as well as a new interagency Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell to coordinate intelligence, diplomatic, legal and military efforts to bring Americans home safely and to better communicate with victims' families. By most accounts, the new efforts were an improvement. Many families finally felt like the Administration was giving them the voice and information they desired amid the bigger geopolitical policy priorities. "Our citizens are held as hostages because they are Americans, so getting them released means understanding what kidnappers want from America," says James O'Brien, Obama's hostage envoy. Despite the political rancor over Trump's election, aides to both Administrations have largely cooperated on hostage and detainee cases. "Obama deserves some credit," Homeland Security Adviser Thomas Bossert said at an Aspen Institute event in mid-July. But the new Administration has also gone its own way. Trump's first hostage crisis came early in his presidency. Two months after Trump negotiated Hijazi's release from Egypt, he got on the phone with Warmbier's parents, who were in disbelief about their son's incurable comatose state. "It was, Are you taking care of yourself?' and, We worked hard, and I'm sorry this is the outcome,'" Otto's father Fred recalled, days before his son died. Trump sent Powell to the funeral in Ohio to represent the White House. "Otto's fate," Trump said, "deepens my Administration's determination to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people.", Trump directed the National Security Council to create strategies for each detainee, a senior Administration official says. Take the case of the Namazi family. Siamak Namazi, a 45-year-old businessman and dual citizen of the U.S. and Iran, was visiting his family in Tehran in 2015 when authorities intercepted him at the airport and locked him in solitary confinement. For months, his father Baquer, 80, who is also a dual citizen, went to the prison every day to beg the guards to let him see his son. Then he, too, was seized. In a petition filed to the U.N. their lawyer Jared Genser notes that Iranian authorities have presented no evidence to support their accusation that the Namazis were spying. Since Trump's Inauguration, Babak Namazi, Siamak's brother and Baquer's son, has been invited to the White House four times, an opportunity never granted under Obama. Trump Administration officials raised the Namazi case with Iranian counterparts in Vienna this spring during a compliance review of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. On July 21, the Trump Administration threatened Iran with "new and serious consequences" unless all unjustly imprisoned Americans were returned. Lawyers for Brunson, the North Carolina pastor detained in Turkey, also praise Trump's support. Brunson, who had lived in Turkey for 23 years, was accused of being tied to a cleric, now in the U.S. whom the Turkish government accused of staging a coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last year. Brunson's attorney Jordan Sekulow, the son of Trump's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow, says it took a petition with hundreds of thousands of signatures to get the Obama White House to focus on the fate of a former client, pastor Saeed Abedini, who was held in Iran before being freed after the implementation of the nuclear deal with Iran. In contrast, Sekulow began working with Vice President Mike Pence's staff on the Brunson case shortly after Election Day. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Brunson's wife Norine when he visited Turkey in March. When Trump hosted Erdogan in the Oval Office in May, he asked for Brunson's release and insisted that the request be included in the meeting's readout. "They are different than the Obama Administration, which was strategy before action, heavier on strategy, lighter on action," says David Bradley, chairman of Atlantic Media, who has worked closely with the families of Americans captured by the Islamic State. "The Trump Administration is more focused on action, pedal to the metal, one to take much greater risk, politically.", Trump's moves have drawn plaudits from supporters across the U.S. as well as Republicans on Capitol Hill. Evangelist Franklin Graham asked his nearly 6 million Facebook followers to thank Trump for pushing for Brunson's release. Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida is among those to praise Trump for issuing three rounds of sanctions against Venezuelan officials. "It's absolutely true," says Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, "that this White House has placed a higher priority on securing the release of Americans unfairly jailed or detained overseas than the previous Administration did.", Trump's approach raises questions of its own. Obama never invited al-Sisi to the White House his rise to power included a coup, and the State Department and outside observers have criticized the regime's repeated human-rights abuses. Even though Trump's Oval Office sit-down with al-Sisi resulted in Hijazi's release, critics feared the invitation signaled the Administration's blessing of the regime. Broader policy discussions, Obama's envoy O'Brien says, are necessarily part of getting hostages released. Iran and Cuba released U.S. prisoners after extensive diplomatic and security negotiations with Obama Administration officials. "Seeking the release of a hostage without encouraging more such incidents requires more patience, subtlety and dedication to the task than most American leaders can bring to bear, or risk," says Christopher Hill, a four-time ambassador under three Presidents. Families too are beginning to worry that geopolitical realities may make it hard for Trump to deliver on his promises. On July 26, the Trump Administration announced the latest round of sanctions on current and former Venezuelan officials. "I am concerned that the government does not take into consideration the possible negative consequences that these sanctions could have on Josh Holt," says Holt family lawyer Carlos Trujillo. There's also a concern that Trump's impulsive comments could complicate other strategic U.S. efforts to get captives released. The same day that Chinese Nobel laureate and human-rights activist Liu Xiaobo died after nearly a decade as a political prisoner, Trump called Chinese President Xi Jinping "a terrific guy" for whom he has "great respect." The White House later stated that Trump was "deeply saddened" by Liu's death, but some activists feared that Trump had effectively removed any incentive for Xi's government to free Liu's wife, who remains under house arrest, and potentially undercut his Secretary of State's call for the government to set her free, made the same day. Then there are practical matters. Trump has not appointed a new special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, the position Obama created to streamline solving such cases and to centralize assistance for hostages' families. The Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell continues its work, but largely devotes its resources not to cases of Americans like Warmbier or Holt, who were detained by governments, but to criminal and terrorist hostage cases, where Americans have been kidnapped by nonstate actors. Financial assistance for victims is similarly split, leaving those detained by foreign governments in the lurch. "As a country, we should be helping the few people unfortunate enough to become political causes," O'Brien says. "It is important that the U.S. government do more to support the families and the prisoners once they come home.", None of this has dimmed the Holt family's faith in Trump. Soon after Josh's parents got word last summer that he and Thamara had been taken, they reached out to their elected officials and learned to use WhatsApp to communicate with their South American legal team. Within a week, they launched a JusticeForJosh social-media campaign and asked people to tweet at then candidate Trump. "We have gotten word he could help us," the family posted on Facebook in July 2016. At first, Laurie says, she had a hard time getting Washington's attention, though Secretary of State John Kerry brought up Josh's case when he spoke with Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro in September 2016. When Laurie first visited D.C. last fall, she had meetings with State Department officials and her local representatives. Soon after, she says, U.S. officials recommended that the family keep Josh's case quiet during a pending U.S. Administration change. But as the months went on, she and her husband became convinced that that was a mistake. When she returned to Washington in April, Laurie was surprised and relieved to be invited to the White House. For an hour, the 49-year-old accountant sat down with Trump's then Deputy National Security Adviser, K.T. McFarland, who assured her that the President was already aware of her son's case. Laurie has not heard from the White House since then, and McFarland has left the White House. Behind the scenes, Trump Jr. has been working with Hatch to get Holt released, the Senator says. During the 2016 presidential race, Trump Jr. and Hatch had campaigned together in heavily Mormon districts out west, and Hatch brought up Holt's case. Since his father took office, Trump Jr. has remained involved, Hatch says. At one point, Hatch says Trump Jr. brought in friends from New York who did business in the region. "They indicated they might be able to do something," Hatch says. "I was willing to stretch real hard to help them if they would help get this young man out." But the idea was ultimately discarded, according to Hatch. On a Friday evening in early July, the Holt family held a press conference near their Utah home. In a landscaped park featuring splash playgrounds and basketball courts, Holt's parents pleaded with Trump and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley to intervene on Josh's behalf. Hatch spoke, and friends came from their Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation and from Holt's high school football team. But the rally was small compared with the scene on the other side of the park, where kids cartwheeled and families picnicked, enjoying the end of a summer workweek. It was a reminder of just how lonely their struggle remains. When Laurie and Jason leave for work each morning, they see an American flag across the street atop their church flagpole, which Josh built for his Eagle Scout project. When they return home, they spend their evenings calling their lawyers, researching new strategies and trying to be good parents to their three other children, who have at times felt placed on the back burner. They shelled out more that 30,000 for their first legal team before they found new representation. Even in captivity, Josh's car payments and other bills are still due. Venezuela's political crisis has accelerated as its economic situation deteriorates. Maduro plans to hold a vote on July 30 that senior Administration officials say will move his rule toward dictatorship. In 2016, three-quarters of Venezuelans lost an average of 19 lb. each amid food shortages, according to a survey on living conditions there. Violent police raids on apartment complexes have continued, and in May, Venezuela launched Operation Knock-Knock to round up alleged antigovernment conspirators. Washington and Caracas have not had ambassadors since 2010, and in December the State Department issued a warning to U.S. citizens against visiting Venezuela. Venezuela's national oil company gave 500,000 to Trump's Inauguration through Citgo Petroleum, the subsidiary it owns in the U.S. and which the Holts are boycotting. But after Trump's second round of sanctions against its officials in May, Maduro soured on the Trump Administration. "Get your dirty hands out of here," he said in a televised speech to Trump, who has called the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis "a disgrace to humanity." Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin started sending several thousand tons of wheat each month to Venezuela, which leveraged nearly half of Citgo for a loan from a Russian state-owned oil company. The Venezuelan embassy in D.C. did not comment on Holt's case, after multiple requests., The Holts refuse to give up. Every so often, Laurie goes downstairs to dust her son's bedroom. It remains almost exactly as it was the day he left. A painting of Jesus hangs above the foot of his bed, where he wanted it to be so that he could see it first thing each morning. Josh's wristwatch collection sits in a box on his dresser, save the favorites he took to Venezuela for his wedding, lost now to prison guards. Laurie has filled his closet with gifts for her son's new family, ready for whenever Josh and Thamara are freed. There are winter snow bibs from when she hoped they'd be home for Christmas, and now, in summer, Hello Kitty dresses for her new granddaughters. The tags are still on. "All our family wants is to have him and his family home with us, so that we can start to be whole again," Laurie says. "His only mistake was falling in love with somebody that was so far away.", With reporting by MASSIMO CALABRESI/WASHINGTON |
US | The Teen at the Center of the DC March Video Disputes Taunting Native Americans | DETROIT The student who stared and smiled at an elderly Native American protester drumming in his face outside the Lincoln Memorial as his schoolmates chanted and laughed says he did nothing to provoke the man in the videotaped confrontation and was only trying to calm the situation. The student identified himself in an email statement Sunday evening as junior Nick Sandmann of Covington Catholic High School in a northern Kentucky suburb of Cincinnati. An official working with the family confirmed Sandmann's identity, speaking on condition of anonymity because the source didn't want to distract from the statement. Videos posted of the confrontation drew wide criticism on social media. "I am being called every name in the book, including a racist, and I will not stand for this mob-like character assassination of my family's name," wrote Sandmann, who added that he and his parents have received death threats since video of Friday's confrontation emerged. Both Sandmann and Nathan Phillips say they were trying to defuse tensions that were rising among three groups on a day Washington hosted both the March for Life and the Indigenous Peoples March. But video of Sandmann standing very close to Phillips, staring and at times smiling at him as Phillips sang and played a drum, gave many who watched it a different impression. Other students appeared to be laughing at the drummer and at least one could be seen on video doing a tomahawk chop. The dueling accounts emerged Sunday as the nation picked apart footage from dozens of cellphones that recorded the incident on Friday in Washington amid an increasingly divided political climate fueled by a partial government shutdown over immigration policy. Phillips had approached Sandmann, but well before that, both his group and Sandmann's, which had taken part in the anti-abortion rally, were confronted by a third group that appeared to be affiliated with the Black Hebrew Israelite movement. Videos show members of the religious group yelling disparaging and profane insults at the students, who taunt them in return. Video also shows the Native Americans being insulted by the small religious group. Sandmann wrote that the students were called "racists," "bigots," "white crackers" and "incest kids" by the third group. He said a teacher chaperone gave the students permission to begin their school chants "to counter the hateful things that were being shouted at our group.", One of those chants, however, is what led Phillips and Marcus Frejo, a member of the Pawnee and Seminole tribes, to approach the youths. It was a haka a war dance of New Zealand's indigenous Maori culture, made famous by the country's national rugby team. Frejo, who is also known as Chief Quese Imc, told the AP in a phone interview that he felt the students were mocking the dance. Phillips, an activist described by the Indian Country Today website as an Omaha elder and Vietnam War veteran, said in an interview with The Associated Press that he was trying to keep peace between the high school students and the religious group. He said he heard people chanting "Build that wall" or yelling, "Go back to the reservation." At one point, he said, he sought to ascend to the Lincoln statue and "pray for our country." Some students backed off, but one student wouldn't let him move, he added. "They were making remarks to each other such as In my state those Indians are nothing but a bunch of drunks.' How do I report that?" Phillips said. "These young people were just roughshodding through our space, like what's been going on for 500 years here just walking through our territories, feeling like this is ours.'", Sandmann said he heard no student chant anything beyond school spirit chants, and that he hadn't even been aware of the Native American group until Phillips approached him. "The protester everyone has seen in the video began playing his drum as he waded into the crowd, which parted for him. I did not see anyone try to block his path," Sandmann wrote. "He locked eyes with me and approached me, coming within inches of my face. He played his drum the entire time he was in my face.", Sandmann said one of the Native American protesters yelled at them that they "stole our land" and they should "go back to Europe," but that he never spoke to or interacted with Phillips. "To be honest, I was startled and confused as to why he had approached me.", He wrote that he "believed that by remaining motionless and calm, I was helping defuse the situation.", "I said a silent prayer that the situation would not get out of hand," he wrote. He said the incident ended when the buses arrived and his teacher told him it was time to leave. Though many commenting on the internet were taken back by Sandmann staring at Philipps, the teen said he was "not intentionally making faces at the protestor. I did smile at one point because I wanted him to know that I was not going to become angry, intimidated or be provoked into a larger confrontation." He said he had never encountered any kind of public protest before. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington apologized for the incident on Saturday, saying "this behavior is opposed to the Church's teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person." They promised to take "appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.", Sandmann said he has provided a copy of his statement to the diocese and said "I stand ready and willing to cooperate with any investigation they are conducting." A spokeswoman for the diocese did not return an email Sunday night. Covington Catholic High School, in the northern Kentucky city of Park Hills, was quiet Sunday as the area remained snow-covered with temperatures in the teens. The all-male school, which has more than 580 students, appeared deserted with an empty police car parked in front of the building. |
US | This Is Your Time to Rise Oprah Tells Graduates to Fight for Truth and Hope in a World Off its Rocke | Oprah Winfrey urged graduates to "be the truth," and "take a stand for our right to have hope," speaking at the commencement ceremony of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism on Friday. "In about an hour and a half you're going to be catapulted into a world that appears to have gone off its rocker," Winfrey said, listing a series of problems gun violence, climate change, systemic racism, media bias, economic inequality. "The homeless need opportunity, the addicted need treatment, the Dreamers need protection, the prison system needs reforming, the LGBTQ community needs acceptance, the social safety net needs saving, and the misogyny needs to stop," she said. "This moment in time, this is your time to rise, even though you can't go anywhere you can't stand in line at Starbucks, you can't go to a party, you can't go anywhere without everyone talking about how bad things are, how terrible it is. And this is what I know The problem is everybody is meeting hysteria with more hysteria, and then we just are all becoming hysterical, and it's getting worse.", Oprah also offered graduates a path forward. "Here and now, I believe, you have to declare war on one of our most dangerous enemies, and that is cynicism," she said. "Because when that little creature sinks its hooks into you, it'll cloud your clarity, it'll compromise your integrity, it'll lower your standards, it'll choke your empathy, and sooner or later, cynicism shatters your faith.", , Winfrey's powerful speech at the Golden Globes in January set off speculation about her political aspirations and a potential presidential campaign. But she has said she has no such plans. "I hesitate to say this because the rumors from my last big speech have finally died down, but here it is Vote," she said on Friday. "Pay attention to what the people who claim to represent you are doing and saying in your name and on your behalf.", "If they go low thank you, Michelle Obama we go to the polls. People died for that right," she said. "I think about it every time I cast a vote, so don't let their sacrifice be in vain,", Winfrey also left graduates with a list of simpler advice eat a good breakfast, pay your bills, recycle, make your bed, aim high, say thank you, and put your phone away at the dinner table. "I hold you in the light, and I wish you curiosity and confidence, and I wish you ethics and enlightenment. I wish you guts," she said. "I hope you shake things up, and when the time comes to bet on yourself, I hope you double down." |
US | The Morning Brief Trumps Afghanistan Address Total Solar Eclipse and Jerry Lewis | Good morning. These are today's top stories, President Donald Trump is expected to address the nation tonight on the U.S. military's next move in Afghanistan after 16 years of war. Trump will deliver his televised speech at 9 p.m. EDT. A total solar eclipse, visible throughout the U.S. will cross the country from coast to coast today for the first time in history. The rare phenomenon begins in Oregon at about 1016 a.m. PST and ends in South Carolina at 244 p.m. EDT. Watch TIME's live broadcast here. Jerry Lewis, a legendary comedian and filmmaker, has died in his Las Vegas home at 91, his publicist said. Lewis died of natural causes and had battled many ailments, including lung disease pulmonary fibrosis and heart issues, according to the Associated Press. Also, Ten sailors are missing after a U.S. warship collided with a tanker near Singapore. At least one person has died after a vehicle rammed into two bus stops in Marseille, France. The University of Texas at Austin is removing the statues of four figures tied to the Confederacy. Today's Google Doodle celebrates the eclipse. |
US | A US Service Member Was Killed by Enemy Fire in Afghanistan Military Confirms | WASHINGTON The U.S. military says an American service member has been killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan. A military statement says the incident is under investigation, and details were not released. The statement issued Tuesday did not name the service member or the branch of the military, pending notification of the family. News of the death came the same day that a suicide bombing attack by the Taliban on an Afghan military base in eastern Maidan Wardak province killed at least 45 people and wounded as many as 70 others. |
US | Record Numbers of College Students Are Seeking Treatment for Depression and Anxiety But Schools Can | Not long after Nelly Spigner arrived at the University of Richmond in 2014 as a Division I soccer player and aspiring surgeon, college began to feel like a pressure cooker. Overwhelmed by her busy soccer schedule and heavy course load, she found herself fixating on how each grade would bring her closer to medical school. "I was running myself so thin trying to be the best college student," she says. "It almost seems like they're setting you up to fail because of the sheer amount of work and amount of classes you have to take at the same time, and how you're also expected to do so much.", At first, Spigner hesitated to seek help at the university's counseling center, which was conspicuously located in the psychology building, separate from the health center. "No one wanted to be seen going up to that office," she says. But she began to experience intense mood swings. At times, she found herself crying uncontrollably, unable to leave her room, only to feel normal again in 30 minutes. She started skipping classes and meals, avoiding friends and professors, and holing up in her dorm. In the spring of her freshman year, she saw a psychiatrist on campus, who diagnosed her with bipolar disorder, and her symptoms worsened. The soccer team wouldn't allow her to play after she missed too many practices, so she left the team. In October of her sophomore year, she withdrew from school on medical leave, feeling defeated. "When you're going through that and you're looking around on campus, it doesn't seem like anyone else is going through what you're going through," she says. "It was probably the loneliest experience.", Spigner is one of a rapidly growing number of college students seeking mental health treatment on campuses facing an unprecedented demand for counseling services. Between 2009 and 2015, the number of students visiting counseling centers increased by about 30 on average, while enrollment grew by less than 6, the Center for Collegiate Mental Health found in a 2015 report. Students seeking help are increasingly likely to have attempted suicide or engaged in self-harm, the center found. In spring 2017, nearly 40 of college students said they had felt so depressed in the prior year that it was difficult for them to function, and 61 of students said they had "felt overwhelming anxiety" in the same time period, according to an American College Health Association survey of more than 63,000 students at 92 schools. As midterms begin in March, students' workload intensifies, the wait time for treatment at counseling centers grows longer, and students who are still struggling to adjust to college consider not returning after the spring or summer breaks. To prevent students from burning out and dropping out, colleges across the country where health centers might once have left meaningful care to outside providers are experimenting with new measures. For the first time last fall, UCLA offered all incoming students a free online screening for depression. More than 2,700 students have opted in, and counselors have followed up with more than 250 who were identified as being at risk for severe depression, exhibiting manic behavior or having suicidal thoughts. Virginia Tech University has opened several satellite counseling clinics to reach students where they already spend time, stationing one above a local Starbucks and embedding others in the athletic department and graduate student center. Ohio State University added a dozen mental health clinicians during the 2016-17 academic year and has also launched a counseling mobile app that allows students to make an appointment, access breathing exercises, listen to a playlist designed to cheer them up, and contact the clinic in case of an emergency. Pennsylvania State University allocated roughly 700,000 in additional funding for counseling and psychological services in 2017, citing a "dramatic increase" in the demand for care over the past 10 years. And student government leaders at several schools have enacted new student fees that direct more funding to counseling centers. But most counseling centers are working with limited resources. The average university has one professional counselor for every 1,737 students fewer than the minimum of one therapist for every 1,000 to 1,500 students recommended by the International Association of Counseling Services. Some counselors say they are experiencing "battle fatigue" and are overwhelmed by the increase in students asking for help. "It's a very different job than it was 10 years ago," says Lisa Adams Somerlot, president of the American College Counseling Association and director of counseling at the University of West Georgia. As colleges try to meet the growing demand, some students are slipping through the cracks due to long waits for treatment and a lasting stigma associated with mental health issues. Even if students ask for and receive help, not all cases can be treated on campus. Many private-sector treatment programs are stepping in to fill that gap, at least for families who can afford steep fees that may rise above 10,000 and may not be covered by health insurance. But especially in rural areas, where options for off-campus care are limited, universities are feeling pressure to do more. At the start of every school year, Anne Marie Albano, director of the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders CUCARD, says she's inundated with texts and phone calls from students who struggle with the transition to college life. "Elementary and high school is so much about right or wrong," she says. "You get the right answer or you don't, and there's lots of rules and lots of structure. Now that life is more free-floating, there's anxiety.", That's perhaps why, for many students, mental health issues creep up for the first time when they start college. The average age of onset for many mental health issues, including depression and bipolar disorder, is the early 20s., Dana Hashmonay was a freshman at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York in 2014 when she began having anxiety attacks before every class and crew practice, focusing on uncertainties about the future and comparing herself to seemingly well-adjusted classmates. "At that point, I didn't even know I had anxiety. I didn't have a name for it. It was just me freaking out about everything, big or small," she says. When she tried to make an appointment with the counseling center, she was put on a two-week waitlist. When she finally met with a therapist, she wasn't able to set up a consistent weekly appointment because the center was overbooked. "I felt like they were more concerned with, Let's get you better and out of here,'" she says, "instead of listening to me. It wasn't what I was looking for at all.", Instead, she started meeting weekly with an off-campus therapist, who her parents helped find and pay for. She later took a leave of absence midway through her sophomore year to get additional help. Hashmonay thinks the university could have done more, but she notes that the school seemed to be facing a lack of resources as more students sought help. "I think I needed something that the university just wasn't offering," she says. A spokesperson for Rensselaer says the university's counseling center launched a triage model last year in an effort to eliminate long wait times caused by rising demand, assigning a clinician to provide same-day care to students presenting signs of distress and coordinate appropriate follow-up treatment based on the student's needs. Some students delay seeing a counselor because they question whether their situation is serious enough to warrant it. Emmanuel Mennesson says he was initially too proud to get help when he started to experience symptoms of anxiety and depression after arriving at McGill University in Montreal in 2013 with plans to study engineering. He became overwhelmed by the workload and felt lost in classes where he was one student out of hundreds, and began ignoring assignments and skipping classes. "I was totally ashamed of what happened. I didn't want to let my parents down, so I retreated inward," he says. During his second semester, he didn't attend a single class, and he withdrew from school that April. For many students, mental health struggles predated college, but are exacerbated by the pressures of college life. Albano says some of her patients assume their problems were specific to high school. Optimistic that they can leave their issues behind, they stop seeing a therapist or taking antidepressants. "They think that this high school was too big or too competitive and college is going to be different," Albano says. But that's often not the case. "If anxiety was there," she says, "nothing changes with a high school diploma.", Counselors point out that college students tend to have better access to mental health care than the average adult because counseling centers are close to where they live, and appointments are available at little to no cost. But without enough funding to meet the rising demand, many students are still left without the treatment they need, says Ben Locke, Penn State's counseling director and head of the Center for Collegiate Mental Health. The center's 2016 report found that, on average, universities have increased resources devoted to rapid-access services including walk-in appointments and crisis treatment for students demonstrating signs of distress since 2010 in response to rising demand from students. But long-term treatment services, including recurring appointments and specialized counseling, decreased on average during that time period. "That means that students will be able to get that first appointment when they're in high distress, but they may not be able to get ongoing treatment after the fact," Locke says. "And that is a problem.", , In response to a growing demand for mental health help, some colleges have allocated more money for counseling programs and are experimenting with new ways of monitoring and treating students. More than 40 of college counseling centers hired more staff members during the 2015-16 school year, according to the most recent annual survey by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors. "A lot of schools charge 68,000 a year," says Dori Hutchinson, director of services at Boston University's Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, referring to the cost of tuition and room and board at some of the most expensive private schools in the country. "We should be able to figure out how to attend to their whole personhood for that kind of money.", At the University of Iowa, Counseling Director Barry Schreier increased his staff by nearly 50 during the 2017-18 academic year. Still, he says, even with the increase in counseling service offerings, they can't keep up with the number of students coming in for help. There is typically a weeklong wait for appointments, which can reach two weeks by mid-semester. "We just added seven full-time staff and we're busier than we've ever been. We're seeing more students," Schreier says. "But is there less wait for service? No.", The university has embedded two counselors in dorms since 2016 and is considering adding more after freshmen said it was a helpful service they would not have sought out on their own. Schreier also added six questions about mental health to a freshman survey that the university sends out several weeks into the fall semester. The counseling center follows up with students who might need help based on their responses to questions about how they'd rate their stress level, whether they've previously struggled with mental health symptoms that negatively impacted their academics, and whether they've ever had symptoms of depression or anxiety. He says early intervention is a priority because mental health is the number one reason why students take formal leave from the university. As colleges scramble to meet this demand, off-campus clinics are developing innovative, if expensive, treatment programs that offer a personalized support system and teach students to prioritize mental wellbeing in high-pressure academic settings. Dozens of programs now specialize in preparing high school students for college and college students for adulthood, pairing mental health treatment with life skills classes offering a hint at the treatments that could be used on campus in the future. When Spigner took a medical leave from the University of Richmond, she enrolled in College Re-Entry, a 14-week program in New York that costs 10,000 and aims to provide a bridge back to college for students who have withdrawn due to mental health issues. She learned note-taking and time management skills in between classes on healthy cooking and fitness, as well as sessions of yoga and meditation. Mennesson, the former McGill engineering student, is now studying at Westchester Community College in New York with the goal of becoming a math teacher. During his leave from school, he enrolled in a program called Onward Transitions in Portland, Maine that promises to "get 18- to 20-somethings unstuck and living independently" at a cost of over 20,000 for three months, where he learned to manage his anxiety and depression. Another treatment model can be found at CUCARD in Manhattan, where patients in their teens and early 20s can slip on a virtual reality headset and come face-to-face with a variety of anxiety-inducing simulations from a professor unwilling to budge on a deadline to a roommate who has littered their dorm room with stacks of empty pizza boxes and piles of dirty clothes. Virtual reality takes the common treatment of exposure therapy a step further by allowing patients to interact with realistic situations and overcome their anxiety. The center charges 150 per group-therapy session for students who enroll in the four-to-six-week college readiness program but hopes to make the virtual reality simulations available in campus counseling centers or on students' cell phones in the future. Hashmonay, who has used the virtual reality software at the center, says the scenarios can be challenging to confront, "but the minute it's over, it's like, Wow, OK, I can handle this.'" She still goes weekly to therapy at CUCARD, and she briefly enrolled in a Spanish course at Montclair State University in New Jersey in January. But she withdrew after a few classes, deciding to get a job and focus on her health instead of forcing a return to school before she is ready. "I'm trying to live life right now and see where it takes me," she says. Back at the University of Richmond for her senior year, Spigner says the attitude toward mental health on campus seems to have changed dramatically since she was a freshman. Back then, she knew no one else in therapy, but most of her friends now regularly visit the counseling center, which has boosted outreach efforts, started offering group therapy and mindfulness sessions, and moved into a more private space. "It's not weird to hear someone say, I'm going to a counseling appointment,' anymore," she says. She attended an open mic event on Richmond's campus earlier this semester, where students publicly shared stories and advice about their struggles with mental health. Spigner, who meets weekly with a counselor on campus, has become a resource to many of her friends because she openly discusses her own mental health, encouraging others not to be ashamed to get help. "I'm kind of the go-to now for it, to be honest," she says. "They'll ask me, Do you think I should go see counseling?'" Her answer is always yes. |
US | The 25 Cities Where Millennials Are Moving | Millennials are moving to America's cities and not just the biggest ones. While places like New York City and Los Angeles remain millennial magnets, research from real estate analytics firm RCLCO shows that smaller cities, from Virginia Beach, Va. to Riverside, Calif. are actually seeing the most relative growth in their population of 25-to-34-year-olds. Virginia Beach's uptick in millennials a 16 increase from 2010 to 2015 in the metro area is no surprise to Bryan Stephens, president of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, which includes Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Newport News. Several years ago, Stephens' department asked local millennials what would make the region a more attractive place to live, work and raise a family. In response to the survey's results, the city has focused on extending a Norfolk light rail, which launched in 2011, as well as developing new restaurants and revamping city centers. "All of that has been deliberately evolved over the past few years," Stephens says. Virginia Beach has also earned a reputation for being an attractive home for retirees too., Of the 50 metro areas analyzed, most urban centers saw an increase in millennials from 2010 to 2015, while 11 cities saw a decline. New York City had the greatest increase in the total number of millennials, with 29,774 added from 2010 to 2015. But that only represented a 2.5 uptick, placing New York at the bottom of the list below. Hover or tap circles on the map to see the millennial population change for both urban and suburban areas, Over the past decade, there's been an increase in the number of young adults in urban areas, largely due to a 32 increase in births between 1978 and 1990, according to Dowell Myers, professor of demography at the University of Southern California. He says that upswing has led people to believe that there's been a real change in millennials' preferences, when really there were just a lot more young people born 25 years ago. Nationally, 21 of 25-to 34-year-olds lived in cities in 2015, and 73 lived in suburbs a ratio that is unchanged from 2010. Correction The original version of this story misspelled Bryan Stephens' name. |
US | Everything We Know So Far About the Dallas Shooting Suspect | Texas officials say that a suspect who was killed after a standoff with police was the lone gunman in an attack that left five police officers dead and seven wounded in Dallas on Thursday night, the deadliest day for law enforcement since the 9/11 terror attacks. Police identified the gunman as 25-year-old Micah Johnson and said he was an Army veteran with no criminal history. He completed a tour in Afghanistan, serving in the Army from March 2009 to April 2015, according to the Associated Press. "Others have identified him as a loner," police said in a statement. Dallas Police Chief David Brown said Johnsonwho told police he was not affiliated with any groupswas killed in a standoff with law enforcement in a parking garage during the early hours of Friday morning. Brown said Johnson told police he was upset with police shootings and wanted to kill white officers. The Dallas shooting began during a protest over police brutality, following the deaths of two black men by police officers in separate incidents this week. "The suspect said he was upset about Black Lives Matter," Brown said during a press conference Friday morning. "He said he was upset about the recent police shootings. The suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.", Johnson was killed by a police bomb robot after the lengthy standoff. "We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was," Brown said. "Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger. The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb.", Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said Johnson had threatened to use bombs. At a press conference on Friday night, Rawlings said officials gave Johnson "plenty of options" for surrender before they used the robotic explosive. "As it concerns the cowardice, it seems as if the sole suspect now has received his justice, and what will be important is to ensure that there are no other potential co-conspirators with this particular assailant," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at the same press conference. While Brown initially said that three suspects, including a woman, had been taken into custody by Dallas police, state and federal officials said on Friday evening that it now appears Johnson acted alone. "As we've started to unravel this fishing knot, we realized that the shooting came from one building at different levels from this suspect," Rawlings said. Police said that during a search of Johnson's home, detectives found bomb making materials, ballistic vests, rifles, ammunition, and a personal journal of combat tactics, which they are still reviewing. In addition to the 12 officers, two civilians were injured in the shooting, which President Barack Obama called a "vicious, calculated and despicable attack." |
US | California May Sue President Trump Over Emergency Declaration | SACRAMENTO, Calif. California is likely to sue President Donald Trump over his emergency declaration to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, the state attorney general said Friday. Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Gov. Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, told reporters there is no emergency at the border and Trump doesn't have the authority to make the declaration. "No one in America is above the law, not even the president of the United States," Becerra said. "The president does not have power to act frivolously.", Trump declared a national emergency earlier in the day to bypass Congress to use money from the Pentagon and counterdrug efforts to fulfill his promise of completing the border wall. The president said immigrants entering the U.S. illegally were invading the country. The announcement was immediately met with resistance from members of Congress. Becerra and Newsom said they were reviewing the emergency declaration but were likely to join other states in suing. They did not say when the state plans to file a lawsuit or what specific legal arguments it will use. But both challenge the notion that there was a true emergency. Becerra said past presidents used such declarations after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. Becerra pointed to Trump's comments earlier in the day that he did not need to issue the emergency declaration but was doing so to accelerate plans for his border wall. He suggested Trump hopes any legal challenges will ultimately be determined by the U.S. Supreme Court. Five of the court's 9 members were appointed by Republican presidents. "He knows he will lose in court and that he is hoping to use the U.S. Supreme Court as a tool in his game to fulfill a campaign promise," Becerra said. Newsom argued Trump's plan to use money on the border wall that had been dedicated for military installations and combating drugs would hurt California. Newsom on Monday signed an executive order to pull most of California's 360 National Guard troops from the Southern border but said 100 will remain there to help federal officials combating transnational drug crime. "Interdiction policies we are engaged in that we want to advance in California now are being put at risk because of this political crisis that's being manufactured," Newsom said. Building a wall, he argued, will not stop the flow of illegal drugs that come across ports of entry in vehicles or by other means. Becerra has filed at least 45 lawsuits against the Trump administration. |
US | Major Reservations Why Cities Are Worried About Airbnb | Using Airbnb in San Francisco and New York may not be so breezy by the end of this year. Right now, a visitor can hop on the site, find an apartment or house that a local isn't using and click "Book It." A few housekeeping matters later, a tourist has connected with someone willing to share their home, that host has made some extra money and Airbnb has taken a slice. Like business models driving other companies in the sharing economywhether they're promoting the shared use of cars, tools or drivewaysthe basic idea is simple. The reality isn't. In dense urban areas on both coasts, many transactions taking place on sites like Airbnb are technically illegal. In San Francisco, renting out an apartment in a building with more than three units for less than 30 days is not allowed. New York City has similar prohibitions. In both metros, hosts have been evicted for breaking the law or clauses in their leases, and lawmakers are struggling to legitimize a business that provides income for residents and is loved by travelers but also causes problems. "Clearly Airbnb and a few other companies are changing the universe of what people assume are their rights as residents in neighborhoods," says New York state Sen. Liz Krueger, who helped write the law prohibiting short-term rentals in New York. "It's challenging the model of business regulation and frankly it's wreaking havoc in certain communities.", There are people who unknowingly break their leases by using Airbnb and lose their apartments, she says. There are neighbors kept awake by partying tourists or made nervous by a revolving cast strangers on their floor. And there are residents who get displaced so that landlords can rent out their apartments full time on sites like Airbnb. "It's not OK and it shouldn't be OK," Krueger says. "There are reasons most cities have specific laws for hotels.", Other lawmakers think it should be OKbut with caveats. Two bills in the New York legislature, both currently in committee, would carve exemptions out of the law to help legalize shorter-term rentals in New York City. And on Tuesday, San Francisco lawmaker David Chiu proposed legislation that would regulate short-term rentals there. Like one of the New York bills, Chiu's proposal would create a registration system run by the city all would-be "hosts" who want to rent out their homes would have to apply for approval and let the city keep certain information about them on file. The San Francisco legislation limits eligible homes to primary residences where locals live at least three-quarters of the year, a clause aimed at keeping landlords from displacing renters to use apartments like hotels. David Hantman, Airbnb's head of public policy, lauded the proposal in a blog post, but also wrote that "certain provisions could be problematic to our hosting community," like a "registration system that could make some of their personal information public." Airbnb stresses that people abusing the system, which has been used by more than 11 million people, are exceptions in an otherwise happy home-sharing economy. In economic impact studies, Airbnb found that 82 of users share only the home in which they live. In an attempt to find out more about what business transactions are taking place, the New York attorney general's office has subpoenaed data on thousands of Airbnb users in New York City. It's part of an effort to separate hosts who are using the service to essentially run illegal hotels from the "casual users who are doing this once in a while," says Melissa Grace, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office. She says the 82 who are renting out only their primary residence could account for a much lower percentage of the total listings. Airbnb is fighting to keep the information private, a move it says is meant to protect its users, and the two are currently in settlement discussions. Another New York law currently prohibits Airbnb hosts from collecting and paying hotel taxes to the city, something that is required under the proposed San Francisco legislation. The company is fighting to change that, hoping it would help legitimize the business and estimating it could kick 21 million a year into New York's coffers. Airbnb spent 120,000 to lobby New York City council members last year and has reported another 20,000 so far in 2014, according to lobbying records. Other cities have already found their balance between oversight and facilitating a popular service. Austin, Texas, a city where thousands upon thousands descend each year for events like SXSW, set up a licensing system for short-term rentals last year. Each applicant has to pay a 285 fee and provide certain documentation like proof of insurance. The city also limited the amount of homes that could be rented out in each building and area of the city, so no neighborhood would be overrun. No more than 3 of the units in one building, for example, can be used for short-term rentals. The promises and pitfalls of the sharing economy will be aired during upcoming hearings in San Franciscoand in oral arguments on April 22 if Airbnb and the New York attorney general fail to reach a settlement out of court. "We still have a long way to go before we get a good law enacted," Hantman wrote in his post responding to the San Francisco legislation. "It is just the beginning of what promises to be a very long process during which the entire Board of Supervisors will look at this proposal, hear from all sidesincluding our communityand make decisions about how to proceed." |
US | Beware of These Hoaxes Being Spread About the Las Vegas Shooting | Information spreads quickly after mass shootings, as people frantically try to find out what happened. But misinformation spreads even faster. After the shooting Sunday night at the Route 91 Harvest Festival near the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas killed at least 58 people and injured hundreds more, online trolls started circulating reports of fake victims, suspects and details of the event. Multiple Twitter accounts blasted out pleas for help finding "relatives" who were at the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert, when in reality the images attached were of unrelated people. One Twitter user was using a photo of Mesut zil, a German soccer player who plays for Arsenal, Buzzfeed reports, while others were posting images of a suspect in a Mexican murder case, a porn star and a Vine user, among others. Trolls were also spreading fake images of suspects. Police have identified Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man from Mesquite, Nevada, as the shooter. But social media accounts were labeling other people the shooter, while conservative media personality Wayne Allyn Root tweeted to his nearly 110,000 followers that there were shots fired at multiple hotels in a "coordinated Muslim terror attack.", , There isn't evidence of shots fired at other hotels on the Las Vegas Strip Sunday night, nor is there evidence that the shooter was linked to Muslim terrorists. , Viral hoaxes are not a new phenomenon for the early hours after a mass shooting, or even the weeks, months and years following one. In response to a Twitter user wondering what kind of person deliberately spreads hoaxes after a tragic event, Nelba Mrquez-Greene, whose daughter was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, responded, "Many people. Five years later they still contact you. It's bad and no one wants to talk about. As a victim? I have to." |
US | White Nationalists Carrying Torches Descend on Charlottesville Again | White nationalists once again descended on Charlottesville, Va. for a torch rally Saturday night, less than two months after the college town descended into chaos when violent clashes broke out between the group and people protesting them. Prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer and as many as 50 others held a brief rally with tiki torches in Emancipation park that lasted between five and 10 minutes, after which they boarded the bus and left the city, CNN reports. Charlottesville authorities are discussing the possibilities of legal action in response, according to a statement from local police. Video footage posted on social media by Spencer showed the group chanting "you will not replace us" and "Russia is our friend, the south will rise again.", Charlottesville Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TIME. Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer characterized the rally as "another despicable visit by Neo-Nazi cowards" in a Twitter post. "You're not welcome here! Go home!" he tweeted. "Meantime we're looking at all our legal options. Stay tuned.", "How are we cowards?' We came back," Spencer replied on Twitter. "Also, you have no authority to ban American citizens from C'ville, doofus.", White nationalists demonstrated twice over the summer before the "Unite the Right" rally in August that resulted in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer after a car plowed into a crowd of counter protesters. Spencer said in a video posted on Twitter that "Charlottesville 3.0 was a great success.", "We came, we triggered, we left," he said. "It was a great success and we're going to do it again. It was definitely a model that should be repeated." |
US | 8 Dead After Driver Strikes Multiple People on New York City Bike Path | Eight people are dead and at least 11 injured after a man in a rented pickup truck drove down a popular bike path in Lower Manhattan Tuesday, hitting several pedestrians and a school bus before being shot by police, officials said. The incident is being treated as an act of terror. "Based on the information we have at this moment, this was an act of terror. And a particularly cowardly act of terror," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a press conference two hours after the attack. "We know that this action was intended to break our spirit.", At 305 P.M, the 29-year-old suspect, who was identified as Sayfullo Saipov, according to the Associated Press, entered the West Side highway in a rented Home Depot pickup truck, and began striking pedestrians as he drove south down the road, NYPD Commissioner James P. O'Neil said at the press conference. The truck subsequently collided with a school bus near Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan, injuring two adults and two children, and the driver emerged from the vehicle with two guns, which authorities later identified as paintball and pellet guns. A law enforcement officer shot the suspect, and he was transported to a hospital after sustaining a gunshot wound. As of Tuesday evening, none of the victims had been publicly identified. According Associated Press, the Argentine Foreign Minister confirmed that Argentinean citizens died, although a number was not provided. Two students had been injured in the school bus collision, according to a spokeswoman with the New York City Department of Education, as well as two staffers working with the bus company contracted with the DOE. Carmen Farina, Chancellor of the New York City School system, said that the department will be providing guidance and trauma counselors Wednesday in schools for those who needed them. , An investigation into the incident is underway, although New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he believed the suspect acted alone and is not part of a wider plot. A law enforcement official told the Associated Press the suspect shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he exited the truck. In the immediate aftermath of the incident the area surrounding Chambers Street was largely blocked off and heavily guarded by law enforcement, although parents who needed to pick their children up from school were allowed to enter the closed off vicinities. The incident ended right by Stuyvesant High School, one of the city's most prestigious specialized schools. "This incident is over," said O'Neill. "It did end right by Stuyvesant High School so we had to make sure all the kids were taken care of, and we held them in place for a while.", A woman who was parked opposite Stuyvesant High on Chamber Street, waiting to pick up her children at nearby PS 89, heard the rented truck hit the school bus. The impact was on the passenger side, which was extensively damaged. "It was like aluminum foil." She dialed 9-11. The woman, who gave her name only as Ms. Lin, said the driver of the white rental stumbled out of the truck and fled across West Street. He was challenged by a man clad entirely in gray, she said, and circled back across the street to elude him. The fleeing driver held his hands over his pockets, she said. "I thought it was a hit and run," she said. She said police were on the scene within seconds and she heard four shots. Another mom who rushed to Stuyvesant to find her child told TIME she had witnesses the suspect crash into the school bus. "I saw there was a car crash into a school bus and then i saw aman come out of his car circling around the west side highway and chambers, circling with the paintball and pellet guns in his hands.", The White House said President Trump has been briefed on the incident by his Chief of Staff, General John Kelly, and will continue to be updated as more details are provided. The White House issued a statement from Trump a little after 7 P.M. offering the administration's full support to the NYPD and FBI's investigation and thanking the first responders. , But Trump had already taken to Twitter on three separate occasions before the statement was issued. Initially, he called the suspect "a very sick and deranged person." "Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE U.S.A.!" he wrote. A little over an hour later, Trump followed up with another tweet, this time about the need to stop ISIS, even though no connection has been established between the attack and the terrorist group. "We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!" he tweeted. And, less than an hour later, Trump tweeted again, this time offering "thought, condolences and prayers" to the victims, writing that "God and your country are with you!" |
US | Mourners Gather to Remember Philando Castile That Couldve Been Me | The remembrances are written in chalk. Purple, pink, and yellow scrawls. Some are short "Love all as one." Others more pointed "There was a family in that car." Some serve as almost a warning "Because this revolution will be on the Internet.", A few days ago, the sidewalks along Larpenteur Avenue were just a lonely stretch bordering the Minnesota State Fair and the three-story brick Falcon Arms Apartments. Now it's a makeshift memorial for Philando Castile, who died Wednesday after being shot by police here in Falcon Heights, Minn. following a traffic stop for a broken taillight. "That could've been me," said Jimmy Mireri, a black 23-year-old who visited the site Wednesday night and worked with Castile at J.J. Hill Montessori School. "Who's to say that shouldn't have been me?", Read more What to Know About Philando Castile's Death in Minnesota, Mireri, now a fourth-grade teacher at a nearby elementary school, says he remembers Castile, who worked as a cafeteria supervisor, as "the guy that everyone in the building loved." , "He worked with children, distributing the food, and the kids appreciated him," Mireri says. "He was the kind of guy that would always ask how you're doing.", On Friday evening, dozens of people visited to lay bouquets of flowers along Larpenteur. A group of 200 from nearby Luther Seminary and Lutheran Social Services walked a mile and a half to the memorial in silence. One woman held a crucifix. Once arriving, the group sang "We Shall Overcome" and "This Little Light of Mine," lighting dozens of candles and placing them alongside lilies, marigolds, daisies and miniature angel statues. Across the street, birthday balloons hung from the street signs at Larpenteur and Fry. Castile's 33rd birthday would've been next week. "We have to open our eyes and see that our justice system is unjust, that racism is our original sin," said Laura Thelander, a pastor at Luther Seminary. Read more Minnesota Governor Doesn't Think Philando Castile Would Have Been Killed If He Were White, Several residents said Friday night that while they were shocked by the video of Castile, which was recorded on Facebook Live in the aftermath of the shooting and has since been viewed millions of times, they've witnessed a similar situation just in the past year the death of Jamar Clark, a black 24-year-old who was shot Nov. 15, 2015, by Minneapolis police. The two officers involved were not criminally charged. "Surprisingly, I'm not surprised," says Ashley Aguy, 26, a social worker from Bloomington, Minn. referring to Castile's death. "But we're hurting. There's a lot of pain, a lot of trauma.", For some, visiting Larpenteur Avenue was a way to make Castile's death real in some tangible way. Tamiko Robinson, a St. Louis Park resident, says she saw the Facebook Live video initially show up in her feed, but she scrolled past it. She didn't think it was real, that it was some sort of staged scene. But after she saw Castile's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, on the news, she went back and watched. "He did everything he was supposed to do, and still his life was taken," Robinson said. "We're living in a state of fear.", As the sun set Friday along Larpenteur's chalked sidewalks, mourners gathered to pray. They asked for understanding. They asked for an end to violence. They asked for people not to retaliate, like the incident in Dallas, Texas, Thursday, where five officers were fatally shot at a demonstration against police shootings. They asked people to remember Castile, to make sure his memory didn't wash away. |
US | Pharma Company Behind Meningitis Outbreak to Shell Out 100 Million | Attorneys in New England reached a proposed 100 million settlement on Tuesday with the owners of the pharmaceutical operation that produced tainted drugs responsible for the 2012 nationwide meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people. The 100 million deal will provide compensation to insurers and victims of the outbreak in accordance with a Chapter 11 plan filed by the owners of New England Compounding Pharmacy Inc. according to Bloomberg. The outbreak, which infected more than 700 people, was largely blamed on a steroid administered by spinal injection that was produced by the company. A judge must still approve the settlement along with a system that will distribute the funds to victims awaiting compensation. |
US | Flying on American Airlines Could Be Unsafe for Black Passengers NAACP Warns | The safety and wellbeing of African American passengers may be compromised while flying with American Airlines, according to a national travel advisory released Tuesday by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP. The NAACP, a key organization in the civil rights movement, said that for a number of months it has been monitoring "a pattern of disturbing incidents reported by African-American passengers, specific to American Airlines." In August this year, the group issued its first ever travel advisory for a U.S. state, Missouri, warning visitors their civil rights could be threatened if they entered the state. The incidents suggest a "corporate culture of racial insensitivity and a possible racial bias" at the airline, according to the NAACP. The NAACP cited four incidents it said showed "troublesome conduct" by American Airlines. One of these was an allegation that an African-American man was removed from a flight for responding to "discriminatory comments" from two "unruly" white passengers. Another alleged that an African-American passenger was relegated from first class to coach, while her white traveling companion was allowed to keep the first class seat she had booked. The group said it was concerned that the cases it cited were only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the airline's treatment of black passengers. "The NAACP deplores such alarming behavior on the part of airline personnel," they continued. "We are aware of these incidents only because the passengers involved knew their rights, knew to speak up and exercised the courage to do so promptly.", Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, said "All travelers must be guaranteed the right to travel without fear of threat, violence or harm. The growing list of incidents suggesting racial bias reflects an unacceptable corporate culture and involves behavior that cannot be dismissed as normal or random.", He called for American Airlines to meet with him to talk about the problems, and said the national travel advisory would remain in place until the NAACP's concerns are addressed. The CEO of American Airlines responded on Wednesday, saying he was "disappointed" to hear of the NAACP's travel advisory, and was "eager to meet with the NAACP to listen to their issues and concerns." |
US | South Dakota Could Pass Bathroom Bill Affecting Transgender Students | Update The Senate voted to approve the bill on Tuesday afternoon, 20 to 15, after a fiery debate. South Dakota is on the cusp of becoming the first state in the nation to require public school students to use facilities like bathrooms based on their "chromosomes and anatomy" at birth. The so-called "bathroom bill," which passed the state House in early February and is being debated by the state Senate Tuesday, marks a revival of the charged fights that played out in states across the country in 2015. At least five other states have considered similar "bathroom bills" this session, and scores of other measures that LGBT rights advocates consider discriminatory are pending in legislatures around the U.S. Among them are variations on a proposal that exploded in Indiana last year, when controversy over a so-called religious freedom law became a flashpoint in the ongoing debate over religious belief and legal equality. The Hoosier State's measure led to an estimated 60 million in lost revenue, and after weeks of economic and political pressure, Indiana Governor Mike Pence approved revisions to the law clarifying that businesses couldn't use it to turn away LGBT patrons. To many supporters, these bills are necessary to protect deeply held religious beliefs and are worth the controversy and lost revenue. To critics, however, the measures seemed aimed at allowing people to treat LGBT citizens differently, based on moral opposition to homosexuality and transgenderism, and serve as a reminder that the lessons of the Indiana fight were fleeting. "There's a bit of amnesia," says Eunice Rho, advocacy and policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "The original plan was to make sure marriage equality wouldn't be legal. You don't have to scratch very far beneath the surface to see that these bills are about eroding LGBT equality.", The battle over bathrooms, The fight in South Dakota echoes earlier clashes over gender identity and bathroom use of transgender people. The sponsor of the South Dakota bathroom measure, state Rep. Fred Deutsch, has argued in committee testimony that it is necessary to protect the "bodily privacy rights" of "biologic boys and girls" and that transgender students should be offered alternate accommodations if they do not wish to use the facilities that correspond to their sex assigned at birth. Deutsch did not respond to TIME's request for an interview., Read More The Debate Over What Indiana's Religious Freedom Act Is Really About, Though the bill does not specify what those accommodations would be, schools that have dealt with conflicts over bathroom use have often instructed transgender students to use staff or nurse facilities, or facilities in buildings separate from their peers. The Department of Justice has issued several rulings and opinions that say such treatment of transgender students amounts to sex discrimination under Title IX, though federal courts are still weighing the issue. "This bill causes actual harm to transgender students, an already vulnerable population," says Libby Skarin, the ACLU's South Dakota policy director, who has testified against the bill. "It singles out and targets them and attempts to isolate them, in a way that is really truly hurtful and discriminatory.", Rebecca Dodds, the mother of a transgender son who recently graduated from high school in the state's famed Black Hills, said compelling students to use a separate facility could force them to out themselves to their peers, which could lead to harassment or violence. "For my son, I wouldn't want him to go to school as a boy and be questioned by other students about why he can't just go to the bathroom with the other boys," she says. "He was afraid to tell me and I'm his mom It's really awful to think about your child being the one that they'd say, Okay, everybody, go to the locker roombut not you.'", Before he came out, Dodds says, the prospect of having to use the girls' room was so uncomfortable that he would just not go to the bathroom at school. She didn't know that at the time, and Dodds was perplexed about why her child was repeatedly getting urinary tract infections and other related health problems. "My son has dealt with social isolation and doesn't particularly like his own body," she says. "To think he would be some kind of threat to other kids is really absurd.", Speaking in support of the bathroom bill, a representative from South Dakota Citizens for Liberty said the measure offers a good compromise "It allows for the sensitive accommodation of students who are experiencing personal trials," Florence Thompson testified at a hearing of the Senate education committee on Feb. 11. "And does so without giving preferential treatment to a tiny segment of the student population at the expense of the privacy rights of the vast majority.", Religious freedom and discrimination, Another measure being considered in South Dakota serves as an example of the new surge of religious freedom bills. It has more than three dozen co-sponsors, and, after passing unanimously in the House, is awaiting further action in the Senate. It extends protections for people with three moral beliefs that are laid out in the bill's text, 1 Marriage is or should only be recognized as the union of one man and one woman 2 Sexual relations are properly reserved to marriage 3 The terms male or man and female or woman refer to distinct and immutable biological sexes that are determined by anatomy and genetics by the time of birth. Read MoreEverything You Need to Know About the Debate Over Transgender People and Bathrooms, While critics worry about such bills being used to turn away LGBT people from housing, jobs or businesses, they also worry it could open the door to a broader insertion of personal morality in the public sphere. A pharmacist might, for instance, refuse to fill a birth control prescription for an unmarried woman or a child care agency might refuse to look after a boy or girl with gay parents, without risk of losing their state licenses. The fight has played out at the state level largely because there is no federal law that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The Equality Act, a federal bill that would create such protections, is unlikely to go anywhere in a Republican-controlled Congress. Meanwhile, the majority of states lack LGBT non-discrimination laws, although a bill in Pennsylvania will likely add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state's non-discrimination protections. As in Indiana, the embrace of LGBT-inclusive policies by many major corporations could help determine whether these religious freedom and bathroom measures become law. In Georgia, where lawmakers are considering at least four religious freedom bills, a group of businessesincluding Coca-Cola, ATT and Deltahas formed to promote "inclusive" policies, explicitly mentioning sexual orientation and gender identity as qualities that should be respected. In South Dakota, dollars and cents may determine whether the bathroom bill passes too, with the ACLU arguing that the passage of such a law would put the state in direct conflict with federal policyand therefore all but guarantee costly litigation for school districts that are forced to choose to follow one or the other. Failing to comply with guidance from the Department of Education, which has said that students' gender identities must be respected, could run the risk of costing local districts hundreds of millions in federal funds. Yet supporters like Deutsch say that the guidance coming from the federal government is the reason such bills are needed, so that South Dakota won't be pressured into providing facility access for transgender students that is not yet explicitly laid out in federal law. "I know it stimulates lots of passion, there's nothing I can do about that," he said in a Senate committee hearing. "If you have boy anatomy, you use boy facilities. If you have girl anatomy, you use girls facilities. And if you're a transgender student, schools make local decisions to provide you the best reasonable accommodations that they can come up with." |
US | TV Reporter Spots Minnesota Bank Robbery Suspect on Live TV | , A Minnesota television reporter doing a segment on a bank robbery spotted on live TV the alleged robber fleeing the scene after he returned and robbed the same bank again. Adam Sallet, a reporter with KIMT-TV, was doing a live news report Tuesday outside the Sterling State Bank in Rochester, Minnesota, when a bank employee came running out of the building, having spotted the suspect, who was off camera. "That guy right there. That's the robber," the employee said, pointing. "Oh, that's the robber," replied Sallet, who was clearly taken aback, though he dealt with the situation professionally. "This is live TV, folks," he said. "That's the robber, just went by, according to the bank employee. So, I've got to go here and call 911. I'll talk to you later." The suspect initially got away, but police caught up to him later on Tuesday near the Twin Cities, north of Rochester, reports KAAL-TV. Police arrested the man, who was identified as Ryan Russell Liskow, 36. "Fortunately for us, we had a police officer that was returning from a Twin Cities training class and he spotted the suspect's van on Highway 52 and called it in," Rochester police lieutenant Mike Sadauskis said. Police told the Rochester Post-Bulletin that Sallet's eyewitness account was useful in apprehending Liskow. He "obviously had information right away," said Rochester police captain John Sherwin, and was "able to provide a vehicle description, which already matched the vehicle we were looking for, so we knew right away that this was very likely the same guy that hit the bank on Monday.", Sallet later reflected on the bizarre turn of events. "I was on edge already because that guy was a little suspicious," he told The Post-Bulletin. "Then I thought, Holy smokes, that just happened, and I have to report on it and be a witness.' ", Sterling State Bank said in a statement that it was "thankful that none of our employees were harmed during the robberies that took place at our North Rochester office. We are also grateful for the fast, professional response from law enforcement in arresting a suspect in these robberies. It is our sincere hope that this individual will not be able to cause any further harm." |
US | Why Its So Hard to Investigate the Recent Wave of AntiSemitic Threats | Nearly 200 children and adults were at the St. Paul Jewish Community Center in Minnesota which offers swim lessons, community lectures and preschool classes when the phone rang with a bomb threat on Monday morning. Students quickly evacuated to a nearby fire station, police officers swept the building and the center re-opened after no bombs were found. Days later, no one has been arrested. "There's very little evidence on which to move forward," said Steve Linders, a spokesman for the St. Paul Police Department. He said it's not yet clear what phone number or device was used to make the threat. The case illustrates the challenges faced by law enforcement officials and hate crime experts working to combat a wave of recent anti-Semitic incidents across the country. "Statistically, most of them are hoaxes. Realistically, you have to handle every one as if it's the real deal," said James Mulvaney, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who previously worked with the New York Police Department's hate crimes task force. "The duty of a terrorist is to terrorize, and you can terrorize a community without actually causing damage but by just causing unrest," Mulvaney said. "Any threats against these places is an act of terror because it scares the heck out of people and it scares the heck out of people who have a history of being victimized.", There have been nearly 70 bomb threats at 53 Jewish Community Centers JCCs in the U.S. and Canada so far this year, according to the JCC Association of North America. Although it's difficult to quantify, civil rights experts see those threats as part of a spike in racist and anti-Semitic incidents since the presidential election. The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 1,094 bias-related incidents in the month following the election. But the center, which has long tracked hate groups, has no way of comparing that figure to previous months because it only began tracking hate incidents after the election, when it was flooded with an "alarming" number of reports about racist and anti-Semitic incidents. The Anti-Defamation League does not release its annual audit of hate incidents until all reports can be vetted, but the organization said it has been receiving more reports than usual this year. More than 150 members of Congress on Wednesday sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the FBI, urging authorities to "swiftly" investigate recent threats and prosecute the perpetrators. The FBI has said it is investigating "possible civil rights violations in connection with threats to Jewish Community Centers across the country" and declined to comment further. "The reason they're so difficult is, indeed, because this is not 1980 where someone can just do a quick look and find where the call emanated from," said Oren Segal, director of the ADL's Center on Extremism, noting that the internet and other forms of technology have made it easier for perpetrators to remain hidden. He said the ADL, whose headquarters were targeted with a bomb threat on Wednesday, is working with the FBI to investigate the source. "They're extremely difficult to investigate, again, because they are perpetrated from a distance. The offender tends to remain anonymous, and hate crimes are difficult to identify in the first place," said Jack Levin, a hate crimes expert and co-director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University. "Even if they never find the perpetrator, there are solutions that go beyond law enforcement," Levin said, noting that the community and political leaders can offer support to those affected. He believes hate crime laws are also important because they can be a deterrent. "It's kind of like asking the impossible How do you stop racism? If I knew the answer to the question if anyone knew the answer to that question the world would be a much better place," said Ryan Lenz, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch blog. Lenz said President Donald Trump's denunciation of anti-Semitism this week and Vice President Mike Pence's visit to a vandalized Jewish cemetery in St. Louis were important steps. But he thinks the threats deserve more attention. "I think it's important to recognize that something changed in this country after the election," Lenz said. "This without a doubt is a new development.", Melissa Chan contributed reporting. |
US | Woman in Texting Suicide Case Begins Jail Sentence | TAUNTON, Mass. A Massachusetts woman who sent her suicidal boyfriend a barrage of text messages urging him to kill himself was jailed Monday on an involuntary manslaughter conviction nearly five years after he died in a truck filled with toxic gas. Michelle Carter was sentenced to 15 months in jail in 2017 for her role in the death of Conrad Roy III, but the judge allowed her to remain free while she appealed. Massachusetts' highest court upheld her conviction last week, saying her actions caused Roy's death. A lawyer for Carter had urged the judge to allow the 22-year-old to stay out of jail while they take her case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her attorneys said in court documents that she has no prior criminal record, hasn't tried to flee, and has been receiving mental health treatment. But a judge ruled Monday that she should start her sentence. Carter showed no discernible emotion as she was taken into custody, though her shoulders sagged as she stood and prepared to be led away. Earlier in the day, Massachusetts' highest court denied an emergency motion filed by her lawyers to keep her out of jail. Carter was 17 when Roy, 18, took his own life in Fairhaven, a town on Massachusetts' south coast in July 2014. Her case garnered international attention and provided a disturbing look at teenage depression and suicide. Carter and Roy both struggled with depression, and Roy had previously tried to kill himself. Their relationship consisted mostly of texting and other electronic communications. In dozens of text messages revealed during her sensational trial, Carter pushed Roy to end his life and chastised him when he hesitated. As Roy made excuses to put off his plans, her texts became more insistent. "You keep pushing it off and say you'll do it but u never do. It's always gonna be that way if u don't take action," Carter texted him he on the day he died. But the juvenile court judge focused his guilty verdict on the fact that Carter told Roy over the phone to get back in his truck when it was filling with carbon monoxide. The judge said Carter had a duty to call the police or Roy's family, but instead listened on the phone as he died. "After she convinced him to get back into the carbon monoxide filled truck, she did absolutely nothing to help him she did not call for help or tell him to get out of the truck as she listened to him choke and die," Supreme Judicial Court Justice Scott Kafker wrote in the court's opinion affirming her conviction. At trial, Carter's lawyer argued Carter had initially tried to talk Roy out of suicide and encouraged him to get help. Her attorney said Roy was determined to kill himself and nothing Carter did could change that. Her appellate attorneys said there was no evidence that Roy would have lived if Carter had called for help. They also argued there wasn't enough evidence to prove that Carter told Roy to get back in his truck. Her phone call with Roy wasn't recorded, but prosecutors pointed to a rambling text that Carter sent to a friend two months later in which she said called Roy's death her fault and said she told Roy to "get back in" the truck. Daniel Marx, who argued the case before the Supreme Judicial Court, said last week that the court's ruling "stretches the law to assign blame for a tragedy that was not a crime.", "It has very troubling implications, for free speech, due process, and the exercise of prosecutorial discretion, that should concern us all," he said. |
US | Cancer Doesnt Know What Its Up Against Leaders React to John McCains Diagnosis | Politicians from both sides of the aisle have shown an outpouring of support for Arizona Senator John McCain, who has been diagnosed with brain cancer following an operation to remove a blood clot from his left eye. Democrats and Republicans alike praised McCain's military service and wished him a full and speedy recovery. Here's how a few friends and colleagues reacted to the news of his illness, President Donald Trump offered his "thoughts and prayers.", , Former President Barack Obama, who ran against McCain in the 2008 presidential race, was among the first to respond, calling the decorated veteran "an American hero.", , Vice President Mike Pence also offered prayers and support. , As did his predecessor, former Vice President Joe Biden. , Former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said McCain "is as tough as they come," followed shortly by a message from her husband, former President Bill Clinton. , , McCain's running mate during his presidential bid, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, wrote in a Facebook post "John McCain is one tough fighter we know he'll face this diagnosis with courage and strength. Our family continues to lift John and his family up in prayer.", , House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement that McCain had "earned the admiration of the entire nation," and offered prayers from his family and the House of representatives. "All of us, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Americans, are behind him," Ryan wrote. , Here are a few more words of support from McCain's fellow members of Congress, past and present, , , , , , , , , , |
US | San Juan Mayor Responds to Donald Trumps Twitter Attack | San Juan Mayor Carmen Yuln Cruz seemed to make a response to President Donald Trump's Hurricane Maria criticism on Twitter Saturday by focusing on the work that needs to be done in Puerto Rico. "The goal is one saving lives. This is the time to show our true colors'. We cannot be distracted by anything else," Cruz tweeted in English and Spanish. Her comment came about half an hour after Trump, in a series of tweets, slammed her and other Puerto Rican officials' leadership ability and said she starting acting "nasty" toward him after Democrats told her to. , "The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump," Trump tweeted. After saying Cruz and "others in Puerto Rico" have "such poor leadership ability," he added that "they want everything to be done for them." He also said 10,000 federal workers are in Puerto Rico. , , , Later in the day, President Donald Trump did an about-face when he praised other officials in Puerto Rico, adding on Twitter "Do not believe the fake news.", |
US | How The Transportation Sector Is Moving Away from Petroleum | The transportation sector is moving away from oil slowly but surely. Driven by growth in the use of biofuels and natural gas, non-petroleum energy now makes up the highest percentage of total fuel consumption for transport since 1954, according to a new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration EIA. In total, 8.5 of fuel used by the transportation sector came from non-petroleum sources in 2014. Biomass from corn-based ethanolstill supported by generous government subsidiesrepresented the largest non-petroleum energy source and was used primarily to fuel cars and other light vehicles. Use of natural gas to operate pipelines followed close behind. The report also shows smaller but still significant increases in the use of electricity, biodiesel and natural gas in vehicles. Climate change and fluctuating oil prices has made moving away from petroleum when possible a priority for governments and corporations alike. But it's still uncertain which fuel will be the best and greenest replacement, according to Christopher R. Knittel, an MIT professor of energy economics . Ethanol, natural gas, hydrogen and electricity are all possibilities. "We don't know where we'll be 50 years from now," said Knittel. "There are four potential replacement for petroleum, and, ultimately, we don't what's going to win out.", While the overall trend away from petroleum is encouragingpetroleum accounts for over a third of global greenhouse gasesthe newfound reliance on biomass might be seen as a double-edged sword. Using ethanol, which is currently mixed with petroleum and represents around 10 of the gas sold for most cars in the U.S. provides only "marginal benefit" over petroleum in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, according to Knittel. Using electricity in the transport is generally better and cleaner, but the technology is still in its early stages. Where it does exist, as in Tesla cars, it's often expensive and impractical for large-scale use. |
US | This Is What Real Affirmative Action Would Look Like | Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered a robust eulogy for the traditional affirmative-action policies that the Supreme Court officially buried in a case out of Michigan decided last week. She hit hard at the most salient point in favor of the policies that putting a thumb on the scale in favor of a student of color is no more unfair than putting a thumb on the scale in favor of children of alumni especially alumni wealthy enough to write checks to the school. Yet it has long seemed to me that most of what Sotomayor thinks of as affirmative action has become a crutch for schools and other institutions. It's an excuse for them to take minimal action of the least affirmative kind. Killing it might force schools to be more active and more affirmative in their efforts to achieve diversity. Here's my thinking, The ruling announced by the court last week, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, was the continuation of years of controversy in Michigan. Eleven years ago, in a linked pair of rulings, the Supreme Court struck down the University of Michigan's undergraduate affirmative-action program because it automatically added points in favor of minority applicants regardless of their individual qualities. At the same time, in Grutter v. Bollinger, the Justices upheld the Michigan law-school program because it made race just one factor in its person-by-person analysis of applicants. Michigan voters responded by approving a ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to ban all traditional affirmative-action programs. The latest ruling a 6-2 majority opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy upheld the right of the voters to take that step. It's likely the opinion will encourage some other states to do likewise. What strikes me about the banned program and others like it is how little they actually do to increase the opportunity for poor and minority students to go to college. The august institutions of higher learning tend their websites and publish their catalogs, but otherwise pretty much figure that they've built the school, now students will come. Minority students with the imagination to seek an education and the discipline to complete high school often in failing public schools get extra points in favor of their applications. But far more underprivileged youngsters never make it to the point of applying. Schools that truly want to increase the number of disadvantaged kids in their freshman class should take far more affirmative actions than they've taken in the past. They should hire scouts in the inner cities and decaying suburbs to look for bright elementary-school students. They should go into the homes of those children to explain to their parents that success in college can be a path to prosperity for the entire family. They should create advertising campaigns around their most successful minority students and alums, glamorizing the idea of academic achievement. Steps like these should be taken for all disadvantaged kids of promise, regardless of race. But because they are aimed at the bottom of the economic ladder, they will serve to advance young people of color. If every major college and university in the country were to get serious about truly affirmative actions like these, I'm pretty confident we would ultimately see more high school seniors from minority groups who are able to meet race-blind admission standards. Instead of ignoring them for 12 years, then tilting the field in their favor when most of them have already given up, start early to support their chances of success. Sound crazy? I might cop to the charge but for one fact our major colleges and universities are already doing all of these things and more to raise the number of topflight athletes on their campuses. I would venture that there is not one 10-year-old basketball phenom in the state of Michigan who is not already on the radar of the big state schools. Indeed, a tall boy or girl with a good inside move is going to be scouted by universities across the country. He or she will be visited at home by university recruiters who fly in on private jets and fill Mom with visions of big paychecks to come. Meanwhile, the sports information departments and marketing teams spend vast sums and countless hours to tell the stories of each school's greatest athletes, knowing that these stories will inspire the next young stars to follow in those footsteps. Let me be clear I'm not against college sports, which have been a path to success for thousands of young Americans who might otherwise never have been exposed to higher education. But our institutions of higher learning are heavily subsidized by taxpayers rightfully so!, and we have purchased the right to expect that they will be as affirmative and as active in building young scholars. Leaving students of promise to find their own way to the college doorstep, then putting a thumb on the scale in the admissions office, is simply too late and much too little. |
US | More White People Are Dying Than Are Being Born in 17 States | More white Americans are now dying than being born in a third of U.S. states, according to a study released Tuesday, which shows white deaths outpacing births in a record 17 states stretching from California to Maine. The study, by the University of New Hampshire, found natural decreases in the white population across 17 states in 2014, including Florida, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, which together comprise 38 of the U.S. population. That's a big shift from 2004 when only four states had more white deaths than births. The declines, exacerbated by the Great Recession, are largely driven by an aging white population, fewer women of childbearing age, and lower fertility rates overall, according to researchers. Read more Middle-Aged White Americans Are Dying at Higher Rates, "The white population isn't replacing itself," says Ken Johnson, a University of New Hampshire demographer and co-author of the study. "That accelerates the growing diversity of the American population.", From 1999 to 2014, the number of white births fell 8.4 to 2.1 million overall in the U.S. declines accelerated by the 2008-09 recession that caused many women to delay having children due to economic concerns. The number of deaths in that same period rose 5.8 to more than 2 million. Previous studies have shown that more white Americans, particularly middle-aged men, are dying from opioid abuse, suicide and problems associated with obesity in recent years. While past research has shown natural decreases in white populations in more rural parts of the country, the UNH studybased on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionfinds white population decreases in more diverse states like Arizona and Nevada as well. That, Johnson says, may speak to the appeal of Donald Trump, who garnered a large portion of white voters in this year's presidential election. "You see this natural decrease happening in heavily blue states and heavily red states," Johnson says. Read more U.S. Steps Closer to a Future Where Minorities Are the Majority, The study mirrors projections by the U.S. Census Bureau that the country's white population will start to decline in absolute numbers by 2025. Minority populations, particularly Latinos, continue to grow thanks to higher fertility rates, and the Census projects that the U.S. will be majority-minority around the mid-2040s. "The future of the growth in this country has to do with racial minorities," says William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution. "If we didn't have minorities in this country, we would be like Japan, which is very old and has a declining labor force and declining population.", The move toward a majority-minority nation isn't likely to reverse itself, Johnson says, adding that several more states, including Vermont, South Carolina, Oregon and Tennessee, could soon see natural decreases in white population in the next few years. |
US | Edward Snowden Joins Twitter | Edward Snowden has just joined Twitter. @Snowden's first tweet? "Can you hear me now?", That tweet might be a jab at the only account @Snowden is following @NSAGov, the official account for the National Security Agency, his former employer and the organization from which Snowden leaked classified documents in 2013. The account, which is verified by Twitter, has a bio reading, "I used to work for the government. Now I work for the public. Director at @FreedomofPress.", Snowden's emergence on Twitter follows a recent smattering of press for the fugitive. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt revealed in a September interview that he secretly met with Snowden to research his role in the biopic Snowden, and he conversed with journalist Kashmir Hill at the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Awards earlier this month. , Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey eagerly welcomed Snowden to his platform, |
US | How Baltimore Police Lost Control in 90 Minutes | On school days in western Baltimore, local kids gather at a drab shopping center called Mondawmin Mall where bus routes begin and end. On Monday, the hangout became the scene of a riot. Policing experts who reconstructed the events of the day said that Baltimore police did not send enough officers to the situation at the start, failed to quickly make arrests once trouble began and did not deploy additional officers quickly enough. Key decisions led the situation to spiral out of control in a short 90 minutes, a lesson other police departments should heed. Baltimore's police force was prepared for more unrest related to the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who suffered a spinal injury while in police custody. Messages on social media seemed to be goading students to violence, so police went to the mall in riot gear by around 3 p.m. Still, they went prepared for typical high school rebellion, not a full-blown riot. "When we deployed our officers yesterday, we were deploying for a high school event," Baltimore Capt. J. Eric Kowalczyk told reporters on Tuesday. Baltimore cops are trained to handle violent crowds, former police officials told TIME. Officers are drilled in maneuvers how to form defensive lines, what formations to stand in, how to divide and conquer a crowd. But while police can practice arrests, subduing suspects and even home assaults, there is no real preparation for an angry mob like facing an angry mob itself. In the 90 minutes that Mondawmin Mall transformed from transit hub to launching pad for a riot, Baltimore police were outnumbered and too passive in pursuing arrests, experts said. MORE Baltimore Mayor Defends Handling of Riots, The timeline of Monday's unrest goes something like this. By 330 p.m. the kids were throwing bottles and bricks at police officers. They were ordered to disperse, but the violence escalated as officers were injured. By 430 they were setting fires and making their way downtown. The police were unable to stop them. "I was there. I saw our reaction. I gave directions to advance," Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said. "They just outnumbered us and they outflanked us.", The officers at Mondawmin Mall were too small a group to properly handle the crowd, experts say. There were enough officers at the mall to hold a line and some property, but not enough to penetrate the crowd and make arrests, says Neill Franklin, who oversaw Baltimore police training from 2000 to 2004. "You've got to have enough boots on the ground," said Franklin. "Without that, there's nothing you can do. You'll be overwhelmed very quickly." Also important for policing is a deep familiarity with surrounding streets and alleys. In order to secure an area, Franklin said, police should know all the access and exit points where protestors can approach from. Before backup arrived, the police officers stationed on the streets around Mondawmin Mall were unable to arrest stone-throwers quickly enough to snuff out the violence. For a crucial hour and a half on Monday afternoon, they were pelted with rocks as high school and middle-school students ran through the streets. Outnumbered, the officers were forced to retreat and hold their lines, and the crowd quickly got out of control. "The moment the first bottle or the first rock is thrown first, or the first officer is assaulted, action has to be taken," said Jon Shane, associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "And it has to be swift, and it has to be firm." Much of the crowd had already moved downtown by the time enough police had arrived to make arrests. Overall, the problem seems to be that police were too passive, an ironic situation given that the protests were related to overly aggressive tactics officers have taken in other circumstances. The Baltimore Police Department has in recent years sought to tone down aggression. A comprehensive retraining in the late 2000s connected Baltimore cops with young people in the city, while the top brass has warned officers repeatedly in recent months not to overstep behavioral bounds. "In past years, had there been riots like this there isn't any question there would have been many hundreds of arrests," said Adam Walinsky, a onetime advisor to former Attorney General Robert Kennedy who led Baltimore's program to retrain its city police from 2007 to 2012. But with tight police oversight, Walinsky added, "what are they supposed to do?", MORE Baltimore Mom Explains Why She Smacked Son at Riot, It didn't help that Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake gave mixed signals in the days before the riots. The police were instructed "to do everything they could to make sure the protestors were able to exercise their right to free speech. It's a very delicate balancing act," Rawlings-Blake said, adding, "we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well." She later walked back her comments, and expressed outrage that property was being looted. But much of officers' restraint can be attributed to the appearance of hesitancy at higher levels, critics say. Still, the police department's tepid response to the first hour and a half of violence may have actually saved lives. Years of close training meant that despite all the police injuries, no police fired on the crowd, and no protestors were killed. "What I was impressed with is when they had bricks thrown at them, the police officers held their fire," said Ret. General Russel L. Honor, who led operations and brought calm to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. "The police showed extraordinary restraint.", Compared with the Los Angeles riots of 1992, when 53 people were killed, or the Baltimore riots of 1968 when more than 600 were injured, the unrest has so far been relatively tame. "Police have been really great example of being reserved of not doing some of the things we've seen in other cities," said Franklin. "They are really doing their best not to make things worse by being overly aggressive.", After the showdown at Mondawmin Mall, the west Baltimore kids were joined by adults who burned buildings and looted on their way downtown. By Tuesday morning, 19 police officers had been injured, 15 buildings and 144 cars were set on fire, and more than 200 people had been arrested. For millions at home watching eerie scenes of looting and night fires on television, the violence looked similar to the riots that unfolded in Ferguson last year. Unlike Ferguson, though, there were no rubber bullets at Mondawmin Mall, assault rifles or fleets of heavily armored vehicles. In the first hour and a half of the riots, there was just a hapless group of Baltimore police officers, struggling to contain a crowd that was too big, and too unpredictable. In a larger sense, the decisions police made on Baltimore's streets yesterday don't matter much. It's the long game of improving police community relations that counts. Many have urged the Justice Department to provide more funding for police training and special programs. "This problem didn't start last night or last week or when Freddie Gray got killed," said Walinsky, the Baltimore police reformer. "Once a riot starts, it's a little late." |
US | How Trumps Policies Are Fueling the Culture Wars | Call it the anti-diversity administration. U.S. President Donald Trump is on course to reverse decades-old efforts to empower and protect minorities. Affirmative action policies at colleges and universities are being reviewed by the Justice Department. Trump supports curbs on immigration of non-English speakers and proposed a ban on transgender people in the military. He says it's time to stop political correctness. But civil rights' advocates promise him a fight at every turn and a philosophically divided Supreme Court will likely be the final arbiter on the most contentious issues. Trump's backers say the change in tone is welcome. "Diversity is a way of justifying discrimination hiring people based on their race, and that's a violation of federal law," said Hans von Spakovsky, a lawyer at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "That's what the prior administration wanted to ignore.", The effects are rippling across America, with workers stepping out and challenging companies' policies on diversity. A Google engineer wrote a memo arguing that men were more suited biologically to work in tech than women, drawing support of Breitbart News the right-wing website that was run by Trump's chief strategist Stephen Bannon. Google fired the employee this week. Conservative commentators like Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck, and websites including the Drudge Report and Breitbart have railed against political correctness for years. What's new is that the culture warriors now have a backer in the highest office in the land against rights' advocates. "We must stop being politically correct," Trump wrote on Twitter in June, criticizing the mayor of London's response to a terror attack attributed to radical Islamists that left seven dead. "If we don't get smart it will only get worse.", Trump's stance appeals to his mostly white base, which has felt left behind in a country where they will be a minority by mid-century. His policies are also a sharp rebuke to predecessor Barack Obama, the first black president, and a vocal advocate for diversity. Trump "is showing a radical disregard for the civil rights accomplishments of the past 50 years," said Reverend Jesse Jackson, who marched in 1965 with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama, and organized the Rainbow Coalition in 1984. "All elements of inclusion are under attack. It's a countercultural revolution.", Although the majority of Americans say an increasingly diverse population is positive the percentage of whites has fallen from 84 percent in 1965 to 62 percent in 2015, according to the Pew Research Center there is a deep political divide. According to a Pew poll last year, 78 percent of Democrats agreed that immigrants strengthened the country compared with 35 percent of Republicans. That division was particularly pronounced after Trump announced plans in January to ban entry to the U.S. to people from seven mostly Muslim countries. The move was backed by 81 percent of Republicans and only 9 percent of Democrats, according to a February Pew poll. From executive orders to early morning tweets, Trump has used every means to get his anti-diversity message across. His administration is a reflection of his attitudes. Eighteen of the 24 cabinet members are white males. That's a break from the trends of earlier presidents, who had increasingly surrounded themselves with more women advisers and people of different races. About a third of Obama's cabinet was composed of white men. "This administration is signaling in not so subtle ways that we're not as concerned about civil rights anymore," said Clayborne Carson, a Stanford historian who has spent most of his professional life studying King Jr. "The impact is that certain people are going to feel empowered to move in a different direction from the ideal of diversity.", When the Google engineer was fired, the free-speech platform Gab offered him a job, as CEO Andrew Torba said "Silicon Valley exists in a bubble world where Wrong Think is not permitted.", The administration will have to fend off legal challenges to the president's anti-diversity policies. The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have sued to overturn Trump's actions, often with the support of coalitions of Democratic state attorneys generals. "President Trump's discriminatory policies aren't just un-American in some cases, they're unconstitutional, and we'll fight them every step of the way," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in an emailed statement. The administration is also looking to the courts to further its agenda. The Justice Department intervened in an employment lawsuit, arguing that federal gender-discrimination laws shouldn't apply to sexual orientation, reversing course from the past decade of court rulings. The U.S. Supreme Court, where justices are divided between conservatives and liberals, is already set to decide in October whether Trump's travel ban is constitutional. The make up of the court may change to become more conservative if members of the liberal wing retire in the next two years, as the challenges to Trump's policies wind through lower courts. Even if some or all of these efforts fail to get off the ground or crumble in court, they send a message to Trump's base that the embrace of diverse groups that was a signature of the Obama administration is no longer a go. |
US | Juggalos in Face Paint and Masks March on Washington to Protest Gang Classification by FBI | Saturday was a busy day in the nation's capital. On the National Mall, supporters of President Donald Trump gathered for a "Mother of all Rallies." They shared the space with another demonstration with a very different cause face paint and mask-wearing "Juggalos" passionate fans of the "horrorcore" rap group Insane Clown Posse ICP protesting what they say is discriminatory treatment by the FBI. "We're different. We're not dangerous," a speaker said from the rally stage. "Music is not a crime.", A 2011 report by the FBI labeled Juggalos as a "loosely-organized hybrid gang" that is "forming more organized subsets and engaging in more gang-like criminal activity.", The Justice Department's Gang Task Force places Juggalos in the same classification as notoriously violent gangs such as the Bloods and Crips, according the Associated Press. "We're painting our faces and clowning around," said Fonz Tobin, a 25-year-old from Albuquerque, N.M. who joined the Juggalos when he was 13, according to USA Today. He told the paper that he works at Target while pursuing film production on the side. "Am I out there dealing drugs? Am I out there shooting people up?" he said. "No. I have a job.", Organizers wrote on the march's website that the FBI's classification "has resulted in hundreds if not thousands of people subjected to various forms of discrimination, harassment, and profiling simply for identifying as a Juggalo.", In 2014, the two members of the ICP and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the FBI in order to change the change the Juggalos' status, but to no avail. "It's time for the FBI to come to its senses and recognize that Juggalos are not a gang but a worldwide family united by the love of music," Joseph Bruce aka Violent J, a member of ICP, said at the time. "There has never beenand will never bea music fan base quite like Juggalos, and while it is easy to fear what one does not understand, discrimination and bigotry against any group of people is just plain wrong and un-American." |
US | JJ Watts Hurricane Harvey Donation Drive Tops the 15 Million Mark | Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt announced Friday that his donation drive for Hurricane Harvey flooding victims has raised over 15 million, far exceeding his initial goal of 200,000. "Every single time we hit one of these landmarks I'm amazed," Watt said in a video posted to Twitter. "I've said it so many times before but I think the worst times bring out the best in people, and we're seeing that in abundance right now.", The NFL player launched the fundraising effort Sunday after seeing the damage Harvey had caused in the Houston area and beyond. "Where we stand right now is, we want to take care of the immediate needs first, so we have nine semi trucks fully loaded with supplies coming into town this weekend. My teammates and I are going to go directly into the community to some areas that were hit very hard and we're going to hand those out.", , "I want to do right by everybody who donated, and I want to make sure we do right by the people of Houston. So I'm taking my time to make sure that we do this thing right," Watt said. "I'm not going to do it hastily, I just want to make sure we do it right." |
US | How Opening Cuba Helped Isolate Venezuela | President Obama's decision to reopen relations with Cuba is having an interesting side effect it's helping isolate Latin America's other hard-line leftist regime in Venezuela. On Monday, Obama signed an Executive Order freezing the U.S. assets of seven midlevel Venezuelan officials over their handling of protests last year. In years past, many Latin American officials would have viewed it as more of the same from America, whose policy of punishing Cuba with sanctions was widely seen as anachronistic at best. Now, thanks to the ongoing rapprochement between the U.S. and Cuba, Washington is less easy to ignore, especially on matters of morality and fair play. So it was that Monday's executive order naming Venezuelan security officials turned out to be aiming what U.S. officials called "a spotlight" onto a government that other Latin American nations are also watching with concern. "Until very recently, most countries in the region were reluctant to say anything about Venezuela," says Daniel Wilkinson, managing director of the Americas division at Human Rights Watch. "If this is just U.S. sanctions, and the U.S. is doing it on its own, then it's much easier for Venezuela to play the victim card. That's why it's really important for the U.S. government to be working with other democratic governments in the region to make this more of a collective.", On Friday, the President of Colombia publicly despaired over Venezuela, even though he has staked his legacy on peace talks being hosted by Maduro's strongest ally in the region, Havana. "It interests, hurts and worries us, all what's going on in Venezuela," President Manuel Santos said in a speech. What's going on in Venezuela is a mess. The collapse in oil prices last autumn sent the economy into free fall, 95 of its export revenue flowing from petroleum sales. President Nicols Maduro, who was elected after his mentor Hugo Chvez died in office two years ago, is struggling to remain in control amid economic chaos and shortages of heavily subsidized staples. The cascade of indignities includes a shortage of necessaries that led the government to take over a toilet-paper factory and the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago to offer an oil-for-toilet-tissue deal. Maduro, in what economists call a strategy of diversion, blames the U.S. for waging "economic war" on the country. He has ordered most U.S. diplomats out of the country the ambassador was expelled five years ago and abruptly required visiting Americans to obtain visas. None of which was lost on the White House, which took pains to emphasize that the new sanctions were aimed at individual officials, and not "the people or the economy of Venezuela.", "The point of these sanctions or policies is really to shine a light," a senior Obama Administration official said Monday, speaking in a not-for-attribution conference call shortly after the Executive Order was released. Obama's actions went beyond the law passed by Congress, the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014, to draw attention to the abuses of Venezuelan officials who authorized surveillance of opposition leaders, "hundreds of forced entries and extrajudicial detentions," and the use of excessive force, including sexual assault and using live ammunition, against protesters and journalists. Prosecutor Katherine Nayarith Haringhton Padron is named for charging a former lawmaker and the mayor of Caracas with conspiracy "based on implausible and in some cases fabricated information.", "You go back a year ago, when there was this wave or protests that was met with very aggressive and violent response by the government," says Wilkinson, who was expelled by Venezuelan authorities in 2008. "This was a sustained process over more than a month of nonviolent protesters being severely beaten, in some cases tortured, being shot point-blank range with rubber pellets Protesters would be held for two days without access to a lawyer, then summoned to a hearing in the middle of the night, with a lawyer having five minutes to prepare.", Whether the sanctions will work remains to be seen. Under the Executive Order, U.S. financial institutions have 10 days to report any holdings controlled by the seven officials, and longer still to see if freezing them alters the behavior in what Transparency International calls the most corrupt country in the western hemisphere. But in diplomatic terms, the effects might be felt sooner. Before Obama and Cuban President Ral Castro announced their plans to reconcile, the Summit of the Americas, set to convene April 10 in Panama City, was sizing up as an awkward occasion for the U.S. leader. Instead, it may be Maduro who draws the sideways glances. |