9/08/2018

bauaw2003 BAUAW NEWSLETTER, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2018

 





Lifetime likelihood of imprisonment for..





Transform the Justice System





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Prisoner Hunger Strike August 21-September 9

The start of the strike was symbolically timed to mark the 47th anniversary of the death of the Black Panther leader George Jackson in San Quentin prison in California. The end of the strike, September 9, marks the day in 1971, when 1,000 of the Attica prison's approximately 2,200 inmates rioted and took control of the prison, taking 42 staff hostage.

  

  https://www.dropbox.com/s/r5cr546jlscgkhj/Prison%20Strike.pdf?dl=0




Letter of Support for the 2018 Prison Strike from Termite Collective in Canada

News Article

August 25, 2018


To who it may concern,

We are a group made up of individuals from diverse backgrounds, including volunteers, former inmates, and currently incarcerated inmates. Many of our members are inmates serving life sentences, several of our group members have been incarcerated for more than a quarter century and two have been incarcerated for more than forty years (each). We have accumulated over 300 years of incarceration in Canadian penitentiaries.

Recently we read an article about the call for a National Prison Strike (America). While our countries may not be the same and the names of the draconian laws and policies are different; the results are the same.

The prison industrial complex exists to make money off and from the needless suffering of human beings. While conditions in most Canadian prisons seems to be, if not better, shall we say different than in America? We have much in common. We too are over incarcerated, overcrowded, over worked, underpaid, under fed, under educated. We too suffer undue delays of parole hearings. We too are separated from our loved ones. We too suffer poor healthcare (in Canada, a country with free universal healthcare) and we too are tired of being subjected to the abuses of callous and masochistic staff.

Up until a few years ago, our system was much better than it is now. Then we had our own Donald Trump moment; our was not a former reality TV star, ours was a right wing religious nut case named Steven Harper. He made sweeping "prison reforms" such as cutting inmate pay in half, cutting most rehabilitation programs, and cutting many other services, especially those designed for lifers. He even cut most of the chaplaincy staff, and then outsourced the remaining chaplaincy to another country (America). Recently, a decision was made in Orlando, Florida to cut the number of chaplains in a Canadian prison. A full time chaplain lost his position, for which he was only being paid 4 hours a week; and no reason was even given. Luckily, after some outside pressure, that particular decision was reversed.

All in all, our Trump-lite, Steven Harper, introduced a huge piece of legislation he named Safer Streets and Communities. Everyone else commonly referred to it as the omnibus crime bill. In this lovely bit of legislation, he rolled the Canadian prison system back at least 50 years. He had plans to go even further; he wanted to revoke our right to vote. Yes, convicted felons in Canada can still vote, even while still incarcerated, even lifers. But, Harper wanted to take away that right! Harper also wanted to introduce a life means life (no change for parole) policy and at one point he talked about making all sentences indefinite sentences (life); meaning that you would only get out (even for minor offenses) when the powers that be say you are reformed. Which, in most cases, would be never!

Thankfully he was defeated before he could implement those particular heinous policies. The current government made a lot of promises for change, but have actually done very little. I guess we have to be thankful that at least they haven't made things any worse.

In short, yes this was a rather long-winded way to say something, in short; but here it goes:

We the inmates in Canadian prisons offer you our support, our solidarity, and our prayers; we hope that your demands will be met and that your conditions will improve. No human beings should be kept in cages and treated worse than animals; in fact, if animals were treated like prisoners, PETA would go off!

The practice of making money from the suffering of other human beings (prisoners) must stop! All incarcerated and detained men and women are entitled to respect, dignity, humane treatment, proper healthcare, and access to rehabilitation programs and release from prison.

Respectfully yours,

the Termite Collective


Recent Articles:

Strike Statement to the Press; August 22, 2018

Comrade Malik speaks out on nationwide program of political repression against prison organizers

How to Make Anti-Repression Phone Calls to a Prison

Solidarity rally with nationwide prison strike in Milwaukee

Support Prisoners Who Vowed to Strike!

Get Involved

Support IWOC by connecting with the closest localsubscribing to the newsletter or making a donation.





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Tell Missouri Gov. Mike Parson: 

Appoint a special prosecutor for Mike Brown's case!


Four years ago, my son, Mike Brown, was fatally gunned down by Officer Darren Wilson as he surrendered with arms in the air, pleading for his life. The world erupted and nothing has been the same since that nightmarish summer. My family and community took their outrage and pain to the streets. We made public pleas for the officer who murdered my son in broad daylight to be indicted and convicted. Yet, we were denied justice. My heart was broken over and over again. It has been 4 years, but I cannot forget. I will not stop fighting until Mike gets the justice he deserves.

Newly elected Missouri Governor, Mike Parson, has the opportunity to right this terrible wrong by appointing a special prosecutor to reopen my son's case. 

Over the course of three months after Mike was murdered, my family and I waited as St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney, Bob McCulloch presented my son's case to a grand jury before the police investigation was over. McCulloch completely ignored standard protocol for a Prosecuting Attorney by enlisting the help of a grand jury to determine the charges against Officer Darren Wilson. It was a setup from the beginning. McCulloch abdicated his role as a County Prosecutor by making a politically calculated move that would shield him from criticism from the police and the media. 

Here are the facts:

  • McCulloch overwhelmed the jury with redundant and misleading information in an effort to manipulate the jury's confidence in Wilson's guilt.
  • A lawsuit was filed by one of the grand jurors detailing challenges and exposing their experiences on the grand jury.2
  • McCulloch admitted to allowing witnesses he knew were NOT telling the truth to testify before the grand jury. 3

The evidence is too significant to ignore. McCulloch thought he could avoid public scrutiny and accountability at the conclusion of this case. But he is wrong. I will not allow Bob McCulloch to get away with obstructing justice for my son. 

McCulloch cannot be allowed to get away with forgoing any and all responsibility as a high-level prosecutor. McCulloch's actions set a horrible precedent for prosecutors across the country. The primary charge for a prosecuting attorney is to fairly seek and achieve justice. McCulloch instead chose to make a political move with no regard for my family's pain. Furthermore, the relentless state-sanctioned violence against Black people has been nonstop since this nightmare began. Year after year, month after month, day after day, Black people remain targets for a bloodthirsty police force. This year alone, there have been over 600 incidents of deadly police encounters.4 Prosecutors are one of the few leverage points we have over the police. We must send a strong message to not only people in Missouri but to everyone around the country - killer cops will be held accountable.  

I am holding onto all hope that we get the justice we deserve. I believe in the resilience of our communities. And I believe that we will win. 

With love, 

Lezley McSpadden


References: 

    1. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/77984?t=12&akid=15843%2E46097%2EOtfN0y
    2. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/77985?t=14&akid=15843%2E46097%2EOtfN0y
    3. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/77735?t=16&akid=15843%2E46097%2EOtfN0y
    4. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/7854?t=18&akid=15843%2E46097%2EOtfN0y


Sign Here:


https://campaigns.organizefor.org/petitions/tell-da-mcculloch-reopen-the-local-investigation-of-mike-brown?akid=15843.46097.OtfN0y&rd=1&t=19



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Court: Evidence To Free Mumia, To Be Continued...

Rachel Wolkenstein, lawyer for Mumia, reports on the August 30th hearing, 2018

  _  _  _  _  _  _  _

District Attorney Larry Krasner Opposes Mumia Abu-Jamal's Petition for New Rights of Appeal – Despite Clear Evidence of Ronald Castille's Bias and Conflict of Interest When He Participated As a PA Supreme Court Justice Denying Abu-Jamal's Post-Conviction Appeals from 1998-2012

Next Court Date: October 29, 2018


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



Free Mumia Now!

Mumia's freedom is at stake in a court hearing on August 30th. 

With your help, we just might free him!

Check out this video:


This video includes photo of 1996 news report refuting Judge Castille's present assertion that he had not been requested at that time to recuse himself from this case, on which he had previously worked as a Prosecutor:

A Philadelphia court now has before it the evidence which could lead to Mumia's freedom. The evidence shows that Ronald Castille, of the District Attorney's office in 1982, intervened in the prosecution of Mumia for a crime he did not commit. Years later, Castille was a judge on the PA Supreme Court, where he sat in judgement over Mumia's case, and ruled against Mumia in every appeal! 

According to the US Supreme Court in the Williams ruling, this corrupt behavior was illegal!

But will the court rule to overturn all of Mumia's negative appeals rulings by the PA Supreme Court? If it does, Mumia would be free to appeal once again against his unfair conviction. If it does not, Mumia could remain imprisoned for life, without the possibility for parole, for a crime he did not commit.

• Mumia Abu-Jamal is innocent and framed!

• Mumia Abu-Jamal is a journalist censored off the airwaves!

• Mumia Abu-Jamal is victimized by cops, courts and politicians!

• Mumia Abu-Jamal stands for all prisoners treated unjustly!

• Courts have never treated Mumia fairly!

Will You Help Free Mumia?

Call DA Larry Krasner at (215) 686-8000

Tell him former DA Ron Castille violated Mumia's constitutional rights and 

Krasner should cease opposing Mumia's legal petition.

Tell the DA to release Mumia because he's factually innocent.


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Join us this Friday, Sept. 7th as we rally against the last Urban Shield to take place!


As we celebrate our victory over Urban Shield and bid farewell to the largest militarized SWAT training in the world, we will be uplifting community demands to build up community-based emergency preparedness and disaster response that are not based on policing and militarization. To that end, our rally on Friday is packed with local and international leaders who will be speaking about their first hand experience in responding to disasters, resisting militarization, and how these issues overlap. Speakers include:

  • Pablo Paredes, Boricuas in Berkeley - speaking about the impacts of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico, the state's militarized response, and how community members organized effective disaster response
  • Joye Braun, Indigenous Environmental Network - speaking to the militarized crackdown of water protectors at Standing Rock and people's resistance
  • Yara Herrero de Freitas, Movement of People Affected by Dams - speaking to the community organizing and opposition to dam construction in Brazil
  • Lara Kiswani, Arab Resource and Organizing Center - speaking to the Stop Urban Shield Coalition's work and victory ending Urban Shield
  • And more!

When:
Friday, September 7th
From 4pm to 6pm
Facebook Event Page

Where:
Alameda County Sheriff's Office
1401 Lakeside Dr.
Oakland, CA 94612

More info:

Earlier this year, communities in the Bay Area achieved a huge victory by ending Urban Shield after a prolonged grassroots campaign. With 2018 as its last year – we want to amplify our victory and defend our gains in fighting police militarization! On September 7th, coinciding with the Peoples Climate Movement - Bay Area mobilization, we will be rallying against the Alameda County Sheriff's Office hosting the final Urban Shield militarized war games and weapons expo. While the Sheriff's Office and law enforcement officials continue to justify the need for militarized policing programs by citing a need to respond to emergency situations and disasters, we know that true emergency preparedness comes from building up community strength, response, and resilience.

From the recent natural disasters in Puerto Rico, Sonoma County California, and Texas, to crises in Haiti, New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, we have seen how militarized police responses only contribute to the violence and chaos that people face in these situations. During these disasters, we have seen how it is neighbors and community members themselves that are the most effective first responders. In defeating Urban Shield, we seek to uplift community based models of preparedness and response over policing and militarization.

Join us for a rally and mobilization featuring cultural artists, powerful speakers, and disaster survivors as we draw the connection between militarism and climate change, and demand real community based preparedness and responses to natural and man-made disasters that do not rely on militarization.


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Labor will Rise on September 8th to march as one in a Labor Contingent for Climate Jobs & Justice that will gather on Steuart Street just below Market at Embarcadero Plaza, at 10 a.m. The ILWU Drill Team and a Fire Engine driven by members of SF Firefighters Local 786 honoring first responders will lead the contingent. The Brass Liberation Orchestra will bring up the rear.

The march will call on the political leaders convening later in the week at the Global Climate Action Summit called by Governor Jerry Brown to take urgent, effective action to address climate change and the threat of runaway global warming. The time for half-measures and symbolic gestures is over. We need a transition to a renewable and sustainable energy system that is rapid, just and equitable for impacted workers and front-line communities.

Please plan to attend. Wear union colors. Bring union banners. Help Labor Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice on Saturday, September 8th. RSVP at CA.RiseforClimate.org

Sign the Labor Pledge and check out the Labor Council's resolutionendorsing the march.

For more information visit the event's Facebook page or write to http://bit.ly/LaborRiseGoogleGroup.




Right now, Californians have the opportunity to make waves not just in our state, but around the globe. Together, we can make California the first major economy in the world to stop all new fossil fuel development and embark on a racially, economically just transition to 100% clean energy.

In the past year Trump has launched unprecedented attacks on frontline communities, the Clean Power Plan, and the EPA. Meanwhile, Governor Brown would like to build his legacy around the climate - but he has yet to stand up to Big Oil and prioritize a clean energy future for all of us. Now Governor Brown is hosting the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco September 12-14 with public officials from around the world.

That's why we're planning the largest climate march the West Coast has ever seen – days before the Summit, as part of a global day of action. Sign up to march in San Francisco on September 8.

Eight weeks later, millions more will take these demands to the polls, making Climate, Jobs, and Justice deciding issues in the mid-term elections and beyond.

We won't be acting alone. Bay Resistance is working with the California Environmental Justice Alliance, Idle No More SF Bay, 350, People's Climate Movement, and hundreds of other labor, faith, environmental justice, and community groups.

Mark your calendars to Rise for Climate, Jobs & Justice on September 8th. Then sign up to paint the largest street mural ever with us that day, so elected officials hear our message loud and clear!

In solidarity,

Kung, Celi, Kimi, Irene, and the Bay Resistance team


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Usher in the "Age of the Healer," and Abolish the "Age of the Warrior."


4th Annual SHUT DOWN CREECH,

September 30 - October 6, 2018


Come for all or part of the week!

DSC03990.jpeg

Shut Down Creech 2016



This summer 2,500 peace activistsconverged at U.S. Air Base Ramstein, in Germany, in their first courageous mass civil resistance to Stopp Ramstein!Ramstein, the largest foreign U.S. military base, plays a critical role in the U.S. Drone Killing Program by acting as THE KEY RELAY STATIONin the U.S. global drone assassination program. Without a relay base like Ramstein, the U.S. could not successfully kill remotely from the other side of the planet. German activists demand an end to Germany's complicity in the illegal and immoral U.S. remote killing apparatus. As one German activist shouted out passionately and movingly in this video: "Stop the Murder!"At least 5 American citizens participated in the protest, including CODEPINK members Ann Wright, Toby Blomé and Elsa Rassbach. Dozens of us blocked two merging roads into one gate for nearly an hour, and ultimately about 15 people were arrested, including 2 Americans. It was an amazing collective stance for peace & justice, and the German police were remarkably humane and civil in how they responded. Fortunately all were released after being detained briefly.


Ramstein's "partner drone base," CREECH AFB, plays an equally important role as a CENTRAL DRONE COMMAND CENTERin the U.S. 

Learn more about Ramstein and Creech in this important Intercept investigative report.


SF Bay Area CODEPINKcalls on activists from across the country to converge this fall at Creech AFB for our 4th annual nonviolent, peaceful, mass mobilization to SHUT DOWN CREECH, and help us put an end to the barbarism of drone murder. Per a NY Times articleover 900 drone pilots/operators are actively working at Creech, remotely murdering people in foreign lands, often away from any battlefield, while victims are going about their daily lives: driving on the highway, praying at a mosque, attending schools, funerals and wedding parties, eating dinner with their family or sleeping in their beds. 

WE MUST STOP THESE RACIST KILLINGS NOW! 


Shockingly, one recent report indicated that about 80% of all drone strikes go totally unreported.We must stand up for the right of all people around the planet to be safe from the terror of remote controlled slaughter from abroad. Drone killing is spreading like wildfirewith at least 10 countries now who have used drones to kill. The U.S is fully responsible for this uncontrolled Pandora's box, by developing and proliferating these horrendous weapons without giving concern to the long term consequences. 


WE MUST STOP THE MURDER!



Last April our protestat Creech was reported in over 20 states across the country by mainstream media, including TV, radio, print and military media, thus reaching tens of thousands of Americans about our resistance to these covert and brutal practices. It is remarkable the impact a small handful of peacemakers can have with a well planned action. We need you to help us educate the public and awaken the consciousness of U.S. military personnel. Drone operators themselvesare victims of this inhumanity by bearing deep psychic wounds within. Through our twice daily vigils, we call them over to the side of peace, and encourage them to assess the consequences and reality of having a daily job of remote-control murdering. U.S. drones are the main tool used to terrorize and dominate the planet. We must stand up to these barbaric policies and the system that gives little thought to the world our children's grandchildren will be living in, and the harm it is doing now to our young men and women in uniform. 

RISE AND BE A VOICE AGAINST THE MADNESS!



JOIN CODEPINK& FRIENDS AT CREECH THIS FALL,September 30 - October 6.


Check out our updated website for details on the 4TH Annual SHUT DOWN CREECH.



Let's show the Germans that we have a thriving U.S. resistance to U.S. Global Militarism and Drone Killing too!


We hope to see you there,


Eleanor, Maggie, Toby, Ann, Mary and Tim


Sponsored by S.F. Bay Area CODEPINK


Check out these inspiring videos of this summer's 2018 drone protest at Ramstein, Germany:


Great Overview of Stopp Ramstein(13.5 min - watch the first and last 2-3 minutes)





In Closing: Inspiring words

from Rafael Jesús González, Poet Laureate of Berkeley, Xochipilli Men's Circle


"We cannot say the purpose these millenniums of the Patriarchy have served, but their lopsided reign is toxic and has maimed and sickened men and women and greatly harmed the Earth. It must come to an end. Women, our grandmothers, mothers, aunts, sisters must now take the reins for we men have made a botch of things. Women must take their power and men must step aside, follow, and support them even as we heal and liberate ourselves by freeing and honoring that which is feminine in our nature: loving, caring, nurturing. We must all free ourselves or none will. The long, long Age of the Warrior must come to an end and we must usher in the Age of the Healer.
Please lead us, our sisters. Together we must heal and heal the Earth or court the demise of all that lives."

Ometeo.
Quilticoyotzin



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presidio 27

Presidio 27 "Mutiny" 50 years later

Podcast with Keith Mather

During the Vietnam War era, the Presidio Stockade was a military prison notorious for its poor conditions and overcrowding with many troops imprisoned for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War. When Richard Bunch, a mentally disturbed prisoner, was shot and killed on October 11th, 1968, Presidio inmates began organizing. Three days later, 27 Stockade prisoners broke formation and walked over to a corner of the lawn, where they read a list of grievances about their prison conditions and the larger war effort and sang "We Shall Overcome." The prisoners were charged and tried for "mutiny," and several got 14 to 16 years of confinement. Meanwhile, disillusionment about the Vietnam War continued to grow inside and outside of the military.

"This was for real. We laid it down, and the response by the commanding general changed our lives," recalls Keith Mather, Presidio "mutineer" who escaped to Canada before his trial came up and lived there for 11 years, only to be arrested upon his return to the United States. Mather is currently a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of Veterans for Peace. Listen to the Courage to Resist podcast with Keith.


50th anniversary events at the former Presidio Army Base

October 13th & 14th, 2018

keith matherPANEL DISCUSSION

Saturday, October 13, 7 to 9 pm

Presidio Officers' Club

50 Moraga Ave, San Francisco

Featuring panelists: David Cortright (peace scholar), Brendan Sullivan (attorney for mutineers), Randy Rowland (mutiny participant), Keith Mather (mutiny participant), and Jeff Paterson (Courage to Resist).

presidio 27ON SITE COMMEMORATION

Sunday, October 14, 1 to 3 pm

Fort Scott Stockade

1213 Ralston (near Storey), San Francisco

The events are sponsored by the Presidio Land Trust in collaboration with Veterans For Peace Chapter 69-San Francisco with support from Courage to Resist.


COURAGE TO RESIST ~ SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT!

484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, California 94610 ~ 510-488-3559

www.couragetoresist.org ~ facebook.com/couragetoresist

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Cindy Sheehan and the Women's March on the Pentagon

A movement not just a protest

By Whitney Webb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Different wings of the same warbird

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

  In response, Sheehan stated that: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  —MPN News, February 20, 2018

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

  


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The Quakers about Jamil Al-Amin



Newark Office

89 Market St. 6th floor - Newark, NJ 07102 (973) 643 1924 - nymro@afsc.org


Re: Imam Jamil Al-Amin (formerly known as H. Rap Brown) (PDF)


July 7, 2018


Dear John Lewis:

I am addressing this to you with copies to others because this is both a professional as well as a personal letter. I spent almost eight years in the south during the civil rights era, serving in Tennessee under the leadership of Maxine and Vasco Smith of the Memphis NAACP and then at Highlander for a year and a half. Professionally, I have the privilege of directing the Prison Watch Program for the American Friends Service Committee. The AFSC is a faith based Quaker organization with a deep belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome injustice. Our Prison Watch Program has been providing witness to conditions of confinement in United States prisons for over four decades, speaking truth to power via publications, public speaking and all forms of media.

In my professional capacity as a monitor of US prisons, I am often called upon to document the treatment endured by a specific person in our criminal legal system. Imam Jamil Al-Amin has been of special interest to me because of his leadership during that important era opposing the racism with which this country has governed. Since then, he has been convicted of serious charges in Georgia, spending the last 18 years in different prisons. He has sustained a number of physical transfers away from his family in Georgia, including spending many of those years in solitary confinement in both the state and federal systems, with no explicit charges for this type of placement. The use of isolated confinement for political dissidents from the civil rights era has been well documented. It was Andrew Young who, as US representative to the United Nations, noted that the United States had what he "would consider political prisoners". In later years, any number of us noted the differential treatment borne by political dissenters who ended up in US prisons. The use of extended isolation was used on many of them, including the Imam. The impact of this extended isolation has been medically documented as extremely damaging to the human psyche.

This should serve as a letter of human rights concern about the Imam. Of specific and current concern is his medical condition, as well as his age. The Imam was diagnosed at the federal Butner Medical Center in 2014 with a pre-cursor stage of multiple myeloma, an incurable form of cancer related to leukemia. This disease causes weight loss, kidney failure, rib fractures and other skeletal abnormalities. It is a medical condition which needs regular medical monitoring. He has been moved twice since his time in a medical facility and is currently at the USP in Arizona. His family and supporters feel continuing concern about his well-being. His disease coupled with his age make the Arizona weather often difficult for him. The long physical, and therefore emotional, separation from family is wearing on the Imam and his entire family. Punishment for a verdict of guilt in the United States is removal from society. The isolation and neglect he endured at ADX, and the current isolation from his home state of Georgia is beyond acceptable. It is hard for me, as a professional witness, to fathom the rationale for this ongoing placement. It also remains difficult for me to understand why this person, or any other person in prison, would be denied access to scholars and journalists. Because of his well-documented history of activism, there are those who would like to interview the Imam as a way of authenticating and studying this history.

Because I have been an activist since the Civil Right Era, my personal awareness of the Imam's life has been ongoing during the decades I have coordinated the AFSC Prison Watch Program. I remain profoundly impacted by the treatment of the Imam and other imprisoned political dissenters from my era of activism. They have endured inappropriate torture in the form of years of solitary confinement. Many, including the Imam, have also endured what can only be described as purposeful medical neglect. It seems to me that it is time for legislators of conscience to investigate our elderly imprisoned citizens, many who have suffered severely for their political beliefs. They need to be released. Short of that, they need to be close to home and cared for medically.

On a personal level, I have always felt very attached to my brave generation - from those who served in Vietnam to those who marched in the South. My own youthful experience in the south was full of many of those people being murdered, being spit at, called a race traitor and feeling unprotected from such hatred. I remember not understanding what there was to hate so deeply and feeling as if we were in a war against black and brown people. H. Rap Brown was an integral part of that very important force to the country towards real social change.

I have been witness since that time to what has happened to so many protesters from my generation who ended up in US prisons. You cannot give me a reason for their "specialized" treatment - the poor medical care which feels purposeful; for keeping families miles apart for no understandable reason; and for the general cruelty to the elderly in our society's prisons no matter why they were convicted. The Imam is currently 75 years old and is serving a life sentence without parole. It doesn't seem logical to keep him from his family, from Georgia or from dialogue with those who seek that with him. It certainly doesn't speak well of our criminal legal system to not provide appropriate medical care.

We need legislators of integrity to consider interceding in what can only be seen as ill-chosen restrictions and neglect. I am specifically reaching out to you because I have imagined a dialogue between you and the Imam, and I wondered if even you would be allowed to see him. Aside from his conditions of confinement issues, perhaps the most disturbing thing of all is that his voice has been deliberately silenced.

Sincerely,

Bonnie Kerness, MSW

Director

Prison Watch Program


Cc: Ben Chavis

Bennie Thompson


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




Kevin "Rashid" Johnson Self Portrait, 2013


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


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



Kevin "Rashid" Johnson has been a Virginia prisoner (#1007485) since 1990. During his imprisonment, he became a human rights advocate and a journalist. His journalistic work in particular exposes abuses by prison administration and staff. His related steps toward litigation have resulted in his being "interstate compacted" or transferred back-and-forth between state prisons.


Currently, Rashid is being held in solitary confinement with no legitimate security justification at Sussex I State Prison in Virginia. Between 2012 and June of 2018, he has been transferred to prisons in three other states (Oregon, Texas, and Florida) before being returned to a different prison in Virginia. He was kept in solitary confinement in Texas and Florida, where he witnessed and suffered many acts of abuse by prison staff. All this, in reprisal for his political and journalistic activity.


Each state prison transfer has subjected Rashid to serious abuses -- the most recent being caged in a freezing cold cell without heat or a blanket for over a week. Over the years, Rashid has had his life threatened by corrections officers and endured explicit, violent retaliation for exercising his First Amendment right of protected free speech. 


Rashid expects to be transferred again soon and to be subjected to more serious conditions of extreme isolation.


Kevin Rashid Johnson does not advocate for violence or illegal activity and has not been charged with anything of the like during his imprisonment. He is not a threat to the Virginia Department of Corrections – he is an imprisoned journalist and human rights advocate – and should be released from solitary confinement immediately.



Solitary confinement has been increasingly recognized by courts and society as a torturous means of punishment. This punitive measure has been imposed on Kevin Johnson not because of any violent conduct on his part but because of his relentless exposure of abuses by prison officials, his willingness to challenge those abuses through the legal system, and his efforts to educate fellow prisoners and encourage them to challenge by peaceful means the unhealthy and humiliating conditions to which they are subjected. Using solitary confinement as a tool to silence someone who exposes prison abuses and advocates for prison reform is a human rights abuse and unconstitutional.



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


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


-- The RootsAction.org Team


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


Background:




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


Several weeks ago, friends and supporters of incarcerated freedom fighter Comrade Malik Washington were overjoyed to hear that he was getting released, finally, from Administrative Segregation (solitary confinement) at Eastham Unit in Texas--until TDCJ pulled a fast one, falsely claiming that he refused to participate in the Ad-Seg Transition Program to get him released back to general population.  

This is a complete lie:  Malik has been fighting to get out of Ad-Seg from the moment he was thrown in there two years ago on a bogus riot charge (which was, itself, retaliation for prison strike organizing and agitating against inhumane, discriminatory conditions).  

Here's what actually happened:  when Malik arrived at Ramsey Unit on June 21, he was assigned to a top bunk, which is prohibited by his medical restrictions as a seizure patient.  TDCJ had failed to transfer his medical restrictions records, or had erased them, and are now claiming no record of these restrictions, which have been on file and in place for the past ten years.  Malik wrote a detailed statement requesting to be placed on a lower bunk in order to avoid injury; later that night, he was abruptly transferred back to Ad-Seg at a new Unit (McConnell).  

Malik was told that Ramsey staff claimed he refused to participate in the Ad-Seg Transition program--this is NOT true, and he needs to be re-instated to the program immediately!  He also urgently needs his medical restrictions put back into his records!

-----

We are extremely concerned for Malik's safety, and urgently need the help of everyone reading this. Please take one or more of the following actions, and get a couple friends to do the same!

1. Call Senior Warden Phillip Sifuentes at Malik's current facility (McConnell) and tell them Keith Washington (#1487958) must be transferred out of McConnell and re-admitted to the Ad-Seg Transition Program!

Phone #: (361) 362-2300 (**048) 00 --  ask to be connected to the senior warden's office/receptionist--try to talk to someone, but also can leave a message. 

Sample Script: "Hello, I'm calling because I'm concerned about Keith H. Washington (#1487958) who was recently transferred to your facility.  I understand he was transferred there from Ramsey Unit, because he supposedly refused to participate in the Ad-Seg transition program there, but this is not true; Malik never refused to participate, and he needs to be re-admitted to the transition program immediately!  I am also concerned that his heat restrictions seem to have been removed from his records.  He is a seizure patient and has been on heat and work restriction for years, and these restrictions must be reinstated immediately."

Please let us know how your call goes at blueridgeABC@riseup.net

2. Flood TDCJ Executive Director Bryan Collier with calls/emails!  You can use the above phone script as a guide for emails.  

(936) 437-2101 / (936) 437-2123


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


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


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


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


Keith H. Washington

#1487958

McConnell Unit

3100 South Emily Drive

Beeville, TX 78103








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

By Michael Barbaro, May 30, 2018

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





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


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


On today's episode:

• Kevin Cooper, who has been on death row at San Quentin State Prison in California for three decades.




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


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


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


NO ESTÁN SOLOS (You are not alone).


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



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


While we were honored to offer on-the-ground support we see the potential to focus the energy of our Drop the MIC campaign into fighting against this injustice, to have an even greater impact. Here's how:

  1. Call out General Dynamics for profiteering of War, Militarization of the Border and Child and Family Detention (look for our social media toolkit this week);
  2. Create speaking forums and produce media that challenges the narrative of ICE and Jeff Sessions, encouraging troops who have served in the borderlands to speak out about that experience;
  3. Continue to show up and demand we demilitarize the border and abolish ICE.


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



In Solidarity,

Ramon Mejia

Field Organizer, About Face: Veterans Against the War



P.O. Box 3565, New York, NY 10008. All Right Reserved. | Unsubscribe

To ensure delivery of About Face emails please add webmaster@ivaw.org to your address book.



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Feds extend deadline for public comments on future draft

The feds initially provided only a few days for the public to submit comments regarding the future of the draft in the United States. This mirrored their process of announcing public hearings with only a few days notice. Due to pressure, they have extended the deadline for your online comments until September. 

They need to hear from us!

  • It's time to end draft registration once and for all.
  • Don't expand the draft to women. End it for everyone.
  • No national service linked to the military--including immigration enforcement.
  • Until the US is invaded by a foreign power, stop pretending that the draft is about anything other than empire.
  • Submit your own comments online here.

As we have been reporting to you, a federal commission has been formed to address the future of draft registration in the United States and whether the draft should end or be extended.

The press release states "The Commission wants to learn why people serve and why people don't; the barriers to participation; whether modifications to the selective service system are needed; ways to increase the number of Americans in service; and more."

Public hearings are currently scheduled for the following cities. We encourage folks to attend these hearings by checking the commission's website for the actual dates and locations of these hearings (usually annouced only days before).


  • September 19/21, 2018: Los Angeles, CA

For more background information, read our recent post "Why is the government soliciting feedback on the draft now?"


Courage to Resist Podcast: The Future of Draft Registration in the United States

We had draft registration resister Edward Hasbrouck on the Courage to Resistpodcast this week to explain what's going on. Edward talks about his own history of going to prison for refusing to register for the draft in 1983, the background on this new federal commission, and addresses liberal arguments in favor of involuntary service. Edward explains:

When you say, "I'm not willing to be drafted", you're saying, "I'm going to make my own choices about which wars we should be fighting", and when you say, "You should submit to the draft", you're saying, "You should let the politicians decide for you."

What's happening right now is that a National Commission … has been appointed to study the question of whether draft registration should be continued, whether it should be expanded to make women, as well as men register for the draft, whether a draft itself should be started, whether there should be some other kind of Compulsory National Service enacted.

The Pentagon would say, and it's true, they don't want a draft. It's not plan A, but it's always been plan B, and it's always been the assumption that if we can't get enough volunteers, if we get in over our head, if we pick a larger fight than we can pursue, we always have that option in our back pocket that, "If not enough people volunteer, we're just going to go go to the draft, go to the benches, and dragoon enough people to fight these wars."

The first real meaningful opportunity for a national debate 

about the draft in decades . . .

Courage to Resist -- Support the Troops Who Refuse to Fight!

484 Lake Park Ave. No. 41, Oakland, CA 94610

510-488-3559


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Incarceration Nation

Emergency Action Alert:

RELEASE DRAFTERS OF THE AGREEMENT TO END HOSTILITIES FROM SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

In October, 2017, the 2 year court monitoring period of the Ashker v. Governor settlement to limit solitary confinement in California expired. Since then, the four drafters of the Agreement to End Hostilities and lead hunger strike negotiators – Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, Arturo Castellanos, George Franco, and Todd Ashker, have all been removed from general population and put in solitary in Administrative Segregation Units, based on fabricated information created by staff and/or collaborating "inmate informants." In Todd Ashker's case, he is being isolated "for his own protection," although he does not ask for nor desire to be placed in isolation for this or any reason. Sitawa has since been returned to population, but can still not have visitors.

Please contact CDCr Secretary Scott Kernan and Governor Edmund G. Brown and demand CDCr:

• Immediately release back into general population any of the four lead organizers still held in solitary

• Return other Ashker class members to general population who have been placed in Ad Seg 

• Stop the retaliation against all Ashker class members and offer them meaningful rehabilitation opportunities

Contact Scott Kernan. He prefers mailed letters to 1515 S Street, Sacramento 95811. If you call 916-324-7308, press 0 for the Communications office. Email matthew.westbrook@cdcr.ca.gov and cc: scott.kernan@cdcr.ca.gov

Contact Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.,  c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173, Sacramento, CA 95814; Phone: (916) 445-2841Fax: (916) 558-3160; Email: https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov39mail/

As a result of the administrative reviews established after the second prisoner hunger strike in 2011 and the Ashker settlement of 2015, California's SHU population has decreased from 3923 people in October 2012 to 537 in January 2018.  Returning these four men and many other hunger strikers back to solitary in the form of Ad Seg represents an intentional effort to undermine the Agreement to End Hostilities and the settlement, and return to the lock 'em up mentality of the 1980's.

Sitawa writes: "What many of you on the outside may not know is the long sordid history of CDCr's ISU [Institutional Services Unit]/ IGI [Institutional Gang Investigator]/Green Wall syndicate's [organized groups of guards who act with impunity] pattern and practice, here and throughout its prison system, of retaliating, reprisals, intimidating, harassing, coercing, bad-jacketing [making false entries in prisoner files], setting prisoners up, planting evidence, fabricating and falsifying reports (i.e., state documents), excessive force upon unarmed prisoners, [and] stealing their personal property . . ." 

CDCr officials are targeting the Ashker v. Governor class members to prevent them from being able to organize based on the Agreement to End Hostilities, and to obstruct their peaceful efforts to effect genuine changes - for rehabilitation, returning home, productively contributing to the improvement of their communities, and deterring recidivism.

Please help put a stop to this retaliation with impunity. Contact Kernan and Brown today:

Scott Kernan prefers mailed letters to 1515 S Street, Sacramento 95811. If you call 916-324-7308, press 0 for the Communications office. Email matthew.westbrook@cdcr.ca.gov and cc: scott.kernan@cdcr.ca.gov

Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.,  c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173, Sacramento, CA 95814; Phone: (916) 445-2841Fax: (916) 558-3160; Email: https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov39mail/

Read statements from the reps: 

Todd – We stand together so prisoners never have to go through the years of torture we did  (with Open Letter to Gov. Brown, CA legislators and CDCR Secretary Kernan)





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"There Was a Crooked Prez"

By Dr. Nayvin Gordon


There was a crooked Prez, and he walked a crooked mile,

He found a crooked lawyer upon a crooked isle,

They bought a crooked election which caught a crooked mission,

And they both lived together in a little crooked prison.


April 28, 2018



"Trumpty Dumpty"

By Dr. Nayvin Gordon


Trumpty Dumpty sat on his wall,

Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the kingpin's forces and all the KKKlansmem

Couldn't put Trumpty together again.


July 25, 2018


Dr. Gordon is a California Family Physician who has written many articles on health and politics.



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It is so beautiful to see young people in this country rising up to demand an end to gun violence. But what is Donald Trump's response? Instead of banning assault weapons, he wants to give guns to teachers and militarize our schools. But one of the reasons for mass school shootings is precisely because our schools are already militarized. Florida shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was trained by U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program while he was in high school.

Yesterday, Divest from the War Machine coalition member, Pat Elder, was featured on Democracy Now discussing his recent article about the JROTC in our schools. The JROTC teaches children how to shoot weapons. It is often taught by retired soldiers who have no background in teaching. They are allowed to teach classes that are given at least equal weight as classes taught by certified and trained teachers. We are pulling our children away from classes that expand their minds and putting them in classes that teach them how to be killing machines. The JROTC program costs our schools money. It sends equipment. But, the instructors and facilities must be constructed and paid for by the school.

The JROTC puts our children's futures at risk. Children who participate in JROTC shooting programs are exposed to lead bullets from guns. They are at an increased risk when the shooting ranges are inside. The JROTC program is designed to "put a jump start on your military career." Children are funneled into JROTC to make them compliant and to feed the military with young bodies which are prepared to be assimilated into the war machine. Instead of funneling children into the military, we should be channeling them into jobs that support peace and sustainable development. 

Tell Senator McCain and Representative Thornberry to take the war machine out of our schools! The JROTC program must end immediately. The money should be directed back into classrooms that educate our children.

The Divest from the War Machine campaign is working to remove our money from the hands of companies that make a killing on killing. We must take on the systems that keep fueling war, death, and destruction around the globe. AND, we must take on the systems that are creating an endless cycle of children who are being indoctrinated at vulnerable ages to become the next killing machine.  Don't forget to post this message on Facebook and Twitter.

Onward in divestment,

Ann, Ariel, Brienne, Jodie, Kelly, Kirsten, Mark, Medea, Nancy, Natasha, Paki, Sarah, Sophia and Tighe

P.S. Do you want to do more? Start a campaign to get the JROTC out of your school district or state. Email divest@codepink.org and we'll get you started!


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Major George Tillery

MAJOR TILLERY FILES NEW LEGAL PETITION

SEX FOR LIES AND

MANUFACTURED TESTIMONY

April 25, 2018-- The arrest of two young men in Starbucks for the crime of "sitting while black," and the four years prison sentence to rapper Meek Mill for a minor parole violation are racist outrages in Philadelphia, PA that made national news in the past weeks. Yesterday Meek Mills was released on bail after a high profile defense campaign and a Pa Supreme Court decision citing evidence his conviction was based solely on a cop's false testimony.

These events underscore the racism, frame-up, corruption and brutality at the core of the criminal injustice system. Pennsylvania "lifer" Major Tillery's fight for freedom puts a spotlight on the conviction of innocent men with no evidence except the lying testimony of jailhouse snitches who have been coerced and given favors by cops and prosecutors.


Sex for Lies and Manufactured Testimony

For thirty-five years Major Tillery has fought against his 1983 arrest, then conviction and sentence of life imprisonment without parole for an unsolved 1976 pool hall murder and assault. Major Tillery's defense has always been his innocence. The police and prosecution knew Tillery did not commit these crimes. Jailhouse informant Emanuel Claitt gave lying testimony that Tillery was one of the shooters.


Homicide detectives and prosecutors threatened Claitt with a false unrelated murder charge, and induced him to lie with promises of little or no jail time on over twenty pending felonies, and being released from jail despite a parole violation. In addition, homicide detectives arranged for Claitt, while in custody, to have private sexual liaisons with his girlfriends in police interview rooms.

In May and June 2016, Emanuel Claitt gave sworn statements that his testimony was a total lie, and that the homicide cops and the prosecutors told him what to say and coached him before trial. Not only was he coerced to lie that Major Tillery was a shooter, but to lie and claim there were no plea deals made in exchange for his testimony. He provided the information about the specific homicide detectives and prosecutors involved in manufacturing his testimony and details about being allowed "sex for lies". In August 2016, Claitt reaffirmed his sworn statements in a videotape, posted on YouTube and on JusticeforMajorTillery.org.

Without the coerced and false testimony of Claitt there was no evidence against Major Tillery. There were no ballistics or any other physical evidence linking him to the shootings. The surviving victim's statement naming others as the shooters was not allowed into evidence.

The trial took place in May 1985 during the last days of the siege and firebombing of the MOVE family Osage Avenue home in Philadelphia that killed 13 Black people, including 5 children. The prosecution claimed that Major Tillery was part of an organized crime group, and falsely described it as run by the Nation of Islam. This prejudiced and inflamed the majority white jury against Tillery, to make up for the absence of any evidence that Tillery was involved in the shootings.

This was a frame-up conviction from top to bottom. Claitt was the sole or primary witness in five other murder cases in the early 1980s. Coercing and inducing jailhouse informants to falsely testify is a standard routine in criminal prosecutions. It goes hand in hand with prosecutors suppressing favorable evidence from the defense.

Major Tillery has filed a petition based on his actual innocence to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Larry Krasner's Conviction Review Unit. A full review and investigation should lead to reversal of Major Tillery's conviction. He also asks that the DA's office to release the full police and prosecution files on his case under the new  "open files" policy. In the meantime, Major Tillery continues his own investigation. He needs your support.

Major Tillery has Fought his Conviction and Advocated for Other Prisoners for over 30 Years

The Pennsylvania courts have rejected three rounds of appeals challenging Major Tillery's conviction based on his innocence, the prosecution's intentional presentation of false evidence against him and his trial attorney's conflict of interest. On June 15, 2016 Major Tillery filed a new post-conviction petition based on the same evidence now in the petition to the District Attorney's Conviction Review Unit. Despite the written and video-taped statements from Emanuel Claitt that that his testimony against Major Tillery was a lie and the result of police and prosecutorial misconduct, Judge Leon Tucker dismissed Major Tillery's petition as "untimely" without even holding a hearing. Major Tillery appealed that dismissal and the appeal is pending in the Superior Court.

During the decades of imprisonment Tillery has advocated for other prisoners challenging solitary confinement, lack of medical and mental health care and the inhumane conditions of imprisonment. In 1990, he won the lawsuit, Tillery v. Owens, that forced the PA Department of Corrections (DOC) to end double celling (4 men to a small cell) at SCI Pittsburgh, which later resulted in the closing and then "renovation" of that prison.

Three years ago Major Tillery stood up for political prisoner and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal and demanded prison Superintendent John Kerestes get Mumia to a hospital because "Mumia is dying."  For defending Mumia and advocating for medical treatment for himself and others, prison officials retaliated. Tillery was shipped out of SCI Mahanoy, where Mumia was also held, to maximum security SCI Frackville and then set-up for a prison violation and a disciplinary penalty of months in solitary confinement. See, Messing with Major by Mumia Abu-Jamal. Major Tillery's federal lawsuit against the DOC for that retaliation is being litigated. Major Tillery continues as an advocate for all prisoners. He is fighting to get the DOC to establish a program for elderly prisoners.

Major Tillery Needs Your Help:

Well-known criminal defense attorney Stephen Patrizio represents Major pro bonoin challenging his conviction. More investigation is underway. We can't count on the district attorney's office to make the findings of misconduct against the police detectives and prosecutors who framed Major without continuing to dig up the evidence.

Major Tillery is now 67 years old. He's done hard time, imprisoned for almost 35 years, some 20 years in solitary confinement in max prisons for a crime he did not commit. He recently won hepatitis C treatment, denied to him for a decade by the DOC. He has severe liver problems as well as arthritis and rheumatism, back problems, and a continuing itchy skin rash. Within the past couple of weeks he was diagnosed with an extremely high heartbeat and is getting treatment.

Major Tillery does not want to die in prison. He and his family, daughters, sons and grandchildren are fighting to get him home. The newly filed petition for Conviction Review to the Philadelphia District Attorney's office lays out the evidence Major Tillery has uncovered, evidence suppressed by the prosecution through all these years he has been imprisoned and brought legal challenges into court. It is time for the District Attorney's to act on the fact that Major Tillery is innocent and was framed by police detectives and prosecutors who manufactured the evidence to convict him. Major Tillery's conviction should be vacated and he should be freed.


Major Tillery and family


HOW YOU CAN HELP

    Financial Support—Tillery's investigation is ongoing. He badly needs funds to fight for his freedom.

    Go to JPay.com;

    code: Major Tillery AM9786 PADOC


    Tell Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner:

    The Conviction Review Unit should investigate Major Tillery's case. He is innocent. The only evidence at trial was from lying jail house informants who now admit it was false.

    Call: 215-686-8000 or


    Write to:

    Major Tillery AM 9786

    SCI Frackville

    1111 Altamont Blvd.

    Frackville, PA 17931

    For More Information, Go To: JusticeForMajorTillery.org

    Call/Write:

    Kamilah Iddeen (717) 379-9009, Kamilah29@yahoo.com

    Rachel Wolkenstein (917) 689-4009, RachelWolkenstein@gmail.com



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    Free Leonard Peltier!

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

    By Leonard Peltier


    Art by Leonard Peltier


    Write to:

    Leonard Peltier 89637-132 

    USP Coleman I 

    P.O. Box 1033 

    Coleman, FL 33521

    Donations can be made on Leonard's behalf to the ILPD national office, 116 W. Osborne Ave, Tampa, FL 33603


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    1) Colin Kaepernick's Nike Campaign Keeps N.F.L. Anthem Kneeling in Spotlight

    By Kevin Draper and Ken Belson, September 3, 2018

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/03/sports/kaepernick-nike.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbusiness&action=click&contentCollection=business&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront

    Colin Kaepernick tweeted the new Nike advertisement he appears in as part of a new deal with the company.


    Colin Kaepernick, the former N.F.L. quarterback who inspired a player protest movement but who has been out of a job for more than a year, has signed a new, multiyear deal with Nike that makes him a face of the 30th anniversary of the sports apparel company's "Just Do It" campaign, Nike confirmed on Monday.

    The first advertisement from Nike, one of the league's top partners, debuted Monday afternoon, when Kaepernick tweeted it, assuring that his activism and the protest movement against racism and social injustice he started would continue to loom over one of the country's most powerful sports leagues.

    Nike will produce new Kaepernick apparel, including a shoe and a T-shirt, and if the merchandise sells well, the value of the deal will rival those of other top N.F.L. players, according to people close to the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because Nike had not formally announced it. Nike will also donate money to Kaepernick's "Know Your Rights" campaign.

    The N.F.L. did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The ad and the campaign, coming a few days before the start of the N.F.L. season on Thursday, is likely to annoy the league's top executives and its owners. On Thursday, Kaepernick won a victory in his grievance against the league when an arbitrator let his case, in which he accuses the league of conspiring to keep him off the field because of his activism, advance.


    A wave of on-field protests has continued, with varying degrees of intensity, since summer 2016, when Kaepernick began kneeling during the playing of the national anthem.

    Now, with just one tweet, the former N.F.L. quarterback and Nike have set the world alight, causing a flurry of stories in major publications, inspiring a top trending hashtag across social media and possibly even contributing to a broader decline in the stock market.

    Reaction to Kaepernick's tweet was swift. Almost immediately, "Just Do It" and "Nike" became top trending terms on Twitter in the United States, and by morning the hashtag #NikeBoycott was one of the most used on the social media service. People posted videos and photographs of themselves destroying their Nike apparel in response to the company's decision to work with Kaepernick. Kaepernick has been a Nike endorser since he entered the N.F.L. in 2011.


    Nike's stock price fell more than two percent in early trading Tuesday. It was the worst performing stock in the Dow Jones industrial average, helping to drag the average to a fall for the first part of the day. While some investors are likely nervous that the company's decision to prominently feature Kaepernick could inspire a boycott, the stock price of main competitor Adidas was also down more than two percent. The broader stock market downturn was being blamed on worries about tense negotiations over Nafta.


    The N.F.L. has struggled to contain the on-field protests, which have also included raised fists and other gestures, which league officials have blamed for dragging down the league. Television ratings have declined and certain segments of the fan base have reacted angrily. President Trump has made the N.F.L. a target for not firing players who refuse to stand for the national anthem.

    The protest movement Kaepernick started has been interpreted by some as being disrespectful to the American flag and the military. Political conservatives have widely condemned it. Many of those posting on social media Monday and Tuesday about boycotting Nike or throwing out their Nike gear referenced their connection to and support for the military, even though the players who, like Kaepernick, have protested have made it clear they are not anti-military and some veterans have expressed support for their actions.

    The Kaepernick deal could be awkward for the league.

    In March, Nike and the N.F.L. announced an extension of an apparel deal through 2028. As part of that deal, Nike supplies 32 teams with game-day uniforms and sideline apparel that features the company's swoosh logo. When that deal was announced, Brian Rolapp, the NFL's chief media and business officer, called the company "a longtime and trusted partner" of the league.

    Kaepernick and Nike already had an endorsement deal, dating to when he entered the league in 2011, but it was expiring soon and has now been extended.

    The new Kaepernick ad features a close-up, black-and-white photograph of his face, with copy that references his kneeling and his belief that his activism is keeping him out of the league.

    The ad reads: "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything."

    When asked if Nike had run the campaign by the N.F.L., a spokeswoman, Sandra Carreon-John, responded: "Nike has a longstanding relationship with the N.F.L. and works extensively with the league on all campaigns that use current N.F.L. players and its marks. Colin is not currently employed by an N.F.L. team and has no contractual obligation to the N.F.L."


    The new contract was negotiated by Kaepernick's lawyers, Mark Geragos and Ben Meiselas, and Nike executives.

    Even as the N.F.L. season approaches, the Kaepernick story has continued to dominate the N.F.L. narrative. On Friday, Kaepernick received an ovation from the crowd at the United States Open match between Serena Williams and Venus Williams.

    Serena Williams, LeBron James, Odell Beckham Jr., Shaquem Griffin and Lacey Baker are also part of the "Just Do It" anniversary campaign.

    Nike's decision to make new Kaepernick merchandise and to make him the face of a campaign could, if they are successful for the company, undercut the argument from N.F.L. owners that he is bad for business. Previously, Nike stated that it "supports athletes and their right to freedom of expression on issues that are of great importance to our society," but the company had not used Kaepernick in any recent ad campaigns.

    There is reason to believe that Kaepernick, despite not playing, will move merchandise. During the second quarter of 2017, his officially licensed jersey was the 39th-best selling in the league. As an unsigned free agent, he was the only player in the top 50 of those rankings not signed to a team.

    With Kaepernick seemingly having little chance of playing in the N.F.L. again, Geragos was eager to try to portray him as something more than a football player.

    "I give Nike credit for understanding that he's not just an athlete, he has become an icon," Geragos said.

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    2) Like frogs in a slowly boiling pot, Americans are finally realizing how dire their labor situation is

    By Harold Meyerson, September 3, 2018

    https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-meyerson-labor-question-20180903-story.html#

    Labor union members in a protest outside the Ronald Reagan Medical Center at UCLA on May 8.


    The Labor Question is back, big-time. The term came into use around the turn of the 20th century; it was a shorthand way of asking: What should be done about the working class' smoldering discontent in the wake of industrialization? The anger was palpable, made manifest in waves of worker revolts that stretched from the nationwide rail strike of 1877 through the general strikes of 1919.

    Not all the battles were fought in the plants and in the streets. Progressive state legislatures in the early 20th century enacted laws setting minimum wages and limiting the hours women and children could be compelled to work; the courts routinely struck them down, and just as routinely short-circuited strikes by imposing jail sentences on strikers.

    It was the New Deal, and the rise of unions that the New Deal facilitated, that rendered the Labor Question seemingly moot. In the three decades following World War II, when unions were strong and prosperity broadly shared, the term receded into the history books alongside other phrases – like, say, "slaveholder" – that evoked a dark and presumably buried side of America's past.

    For the last several decades, however, it's the largely egalitarian spirit of the New Deal that has receded into the shadows. The economic inequality that preceded the New Deal is back with us; the Labor Question has returned.


    At the core of the problem is the imbalance of economic power, which takes the form of booming profits and stagnating wages. The Financial Times recently reported that the share of company revenues going to profits is the highest in many years, which necessarily means that the share going to the main alternative destination for company revenues – employees' pockets – has shrunk.

    Nor is this a short-lived phenomenon brought about by the Republican tax cut. In 2011, the chief investment officer of JP Morgan Chase calculated that three-quarters of the long-term increase in U.S. companies' profit margins was due to the declining share going to wages and benefits. A study last year by Simcha Barkai, an economist at the University of Chicago's Stigler Center, found that labor's share of the national income has dropped by 6.7% since the mid-1980s, while the share of the nation's income going to business investment in equipment, research, new hires and the like has dropped by 7.2%. Correspondingly, the share of the nation's income going to shareholders (the lion's share to the very wealthy, among them the CEOs who are compensated with shares) rose by 13.5%. That shift has put American workers at a double disadvantage, as their wages and the private-sector investment that creates jobs and boosts productivity have both hit the skids.

    Like slowly simmering frogs, Americans have required some time to grasp just how dire their situation has become. On Labor Day 2018, however, it's clear that most of them now realize the need to reshuffle the power structure. A Gallup Poll released on Friday showed support for unions at 62%, the highest level in 15 years, with majority backing from every demographic group except Republicans, and even they are evenly split, 45% to 47%.

    The overwhelming public support for striking teachers this spring in such red states as West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona was no fluke; another recent poll, this from the venerable education pollster PDK, found 73% support for teachers' strikes, and a remarkable 78% support from parents of school-age children. The two-to-one rejection of a right-to-work law this summer by Missouri voters is further evidence of a pro-labor shift in public opinion, as are the successful unionization campaigns over the past year of such not-easily-fired workers as university teaching assistants and journalists (including those at such venerable anti-union bastions as the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times).


    As was the case during the years when the Labor Question was first before the nation, the chief instrument the right relies on to diminish worker power is the courts. The Supreme Court's decision in June in the Janus case, which was meant to reduce the membership and resources of public-sector unions, was just the latest in a string of rulings to advantage corporate and Republican interests. During the past year, however, progressives have put forth some of the most far-reaching proposals in many decades to rebalance economic clout, including bills from two Democratic senators – Massachusetts' Elizabeth Warren and Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin – that would require corporations to divide their boards between representatives of workers and representatives of shareholders.

    Since conservatives and business interests began pecking away at the New Deal's handiwork in the 1970s, class conflict in America has been largely one-sided. On this Labor Day, however, it's clear that the battle has finally been joined. The Labor Question is before us and remains to be resolved.

    Harold Meyerson is executive editor of the American Prospect. He is a contributing writer to Opinion.

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    3) Trump Administration Moves to Sidestep Restrictions on Detaining Migrant Children

    By Caitlin, September 6, 2018

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/us/trump-flores-settlement-regulations.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront

    A child who was separated from his mother at the border arrived for a court hearing on his immigration status in Houston in August.


    Moving to bypass restrictions on the detention of migrant families in federal custody, the Trump administration introduced on Thursday a regulation that would upend a federal court settlement that requires such families to be released after 20 days.

    The so-called Flores settlement has become a prime target in the administration's attempt to punish migrants for crossing the border with their children as a means of deterrence. Administration officials have long believed that migrants, primarily from Central America, are bringing children to the United States to shield themselves from consequences of crossing the border without permission.

    "Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the department's ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country," said the secretary of Homeland Security, Kristjen Nielsen. "This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress."

    The proposal is likely to end up in court, where the federal district judge overseeing the Flores consent decree, Dolly M. Gee, has rejected repeated attempts to modify its provisions.


    The settlement stems from a 1997 consent decree reached in litigation over a migrant child based on claims that federal detention was damaging, physically and emotionally, to children's health. In 2016, the courts extended the settlement to apply to migrant families.


    Unaccompanied migrant children at a shelter in Houston. An administration proposal to bypass restrictions on the detention of migrant families is expected to end up in court.


    The administration has challenged the settlement repeatedly, rhetorically and in court, referring to it as a legal loophole permitting illegal immigration. But as recently as early this year, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions installed a new zero-tolerance border policy that resulted in the jailing of thousands of migrant parents, the administration did not succeed in winning a reprieve from the settlement's provisions protecting children from lengthy confinement.

    Immigrant advocates decried the move for new regulations as a workaround that would put migrant families at risk.

    "The Trump administration has been whittling away at the basic rights of women and children since they came into office. Efforts to weaken or eliminate basic child protection standards by calling them a burden or loopholes, and eliminating their obligations for the basic care of children, is just another example of the administration's abdication of human rights," said Michelle Brané, director of the Migrant Rights and Justice program at the Women's Refugee Commission. "The court has already had to to step in repeatedly to uphold these basic child welfare principles. It is clear that the administration is incapable of holding themselves accountable."


    The proposed rule, now under review through the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, would enshrine into regulation the relevant terms of the Flores settlement and terminate the long-running litigation. It would "satisfy the basic purpose" of the settlement agreement by ensuring that all migrant children in government custody "are treated with dignity, respect and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors," the administration said in its announcement.

    The new regulatory structure would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold families with children in licensed facilities or those that meet ICE's family residential standards, as evaluated by independent reviewers engaged by ICE.

    The public has 60 days to comment on the proposed rules, followed by a 45-day period in which lawyers who negotiated the original settlement can challenge the government's move in court.

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    4) Roy Oliver got jail time for killing Jordan Edwards. Is widespread police accountability next?

    By Chauncey Alcorn, August 30, 2018

    Roy Oliver got jail time for killing Jordan Edwards. Is widespread police accountability next?


    Of the estimated thousands of American police officers who have killed civilians while on the job over the past 13 years, Roy Oliver is only the second to be convicted of murder.


    The former Balch Springs, Texas, patrolman who fatally shot 15-year-old Jordan Edwards in the head with an AR-15 in 2017 was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday night, despite pleas for mercy to jurors from his mother and wife.


    Oliver's half sister, Wendy Oliver, shocked the court Wednesday by testifying against her own brother during his sentencing hearings, urging jurors to send him to jail for life.


    Prosecutor Mike Snipes said the outcome of this case should restore public trust in the American justice system by demonstrating that bad officers will be held criminally accountable.


    "We believe this case shows if a rogue policeman gets out of line that we will prosecute you," Snipes said Thursday. "I think that justice was done in the case. All we cared about was Jordan Edwards and his family."


    The Edwards family's civil attorney, Lee Merritt, who is representing the late teen's parents in a planned civil suit against the city of Balch Springs, said Oliver's conviction and 15-year sentence are a "huge deal" for the country.


    "It does set a precedent," Merritt said during an interview. "We need cases like this to exist on the books."


    Oliver's defense attorneys have already announced plans to appeal his conviction, but Merritt says that appeal is unlikely to succeed.


    "His attorneys would have to find some evidence that was new that was not discoverable previously, or some misconduct on behalf of the prosecutors," Merritt said. "Despite this being a really important case, it's very limited [in terms of the evidentiary elements that determined its outcome]."


    Oliver's case would have to make it through a lengthy Texas criminal court appeals process and be ruled on by the state's supreme court before his attorneys could bring it before a federal circuit court judge, and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court.


    "It's going to change the law if it's appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court," Merritt said. "Texas is certainly one of the worst places for civil rights litigation in the country. We're always concerned about a judge that has conservative leanings who supports law enforcement creating a roadblock, but that would have had to happen at the trial level, even in Texas."


    The lasting impact of this rare kind of murder conviction is still debatable, in part because Jordan Edwards was what multiple attorneys referred to as the "perfect victim" — an unarmed honor roll student and popular athlete with no criminal record who was beloved by everyone in his community.


    "Our victim was a beautiful, perfect kid who had a remarkable life ahead of him," Snipes said. "We felt like the defendant was the converse of that."

    Merritt said people needlessly killed by police shouldn't have to be saints for their killers to be held criminally accountable — but it certainly helped in Edwards' case.


    "We need the Jordan Edwards of the world, unfortunately," he said. "When the civil rights movement was started, Claudette Colvin was the first woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, but Rosa Parks had to come forward, who was loved by her community and had no blemishes. They used her case to upset Montgomery, which then changed the world."


    Since 2005, there have been thousands of people killed by police, yet only 93 non-federal law enforcement officers have been arrested for murder or manslaughter for an on-duty shooting, according to Bowling Green State University criminal justice Professor Philip Stinson, whose research focuses on crimes committed by police officers.


    According to Stinson, of those 93 arrested officers, only 33 have been convicted of a crime resulting from those shootings. Sixteen of those officers took a plea deal and seventeen were convicted by a jury. 


    The only other officer found guilty of murder in the last 13 years is former Rocky Ford, Colorado, Police Officer James Ashby, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in October 2016 for the fatal shooting of Jack Jacquez.

    "In the cases where an officer has been convicted, it is often for a lesser offense," Stinson said Thursday. "Roy Oliver testified in his own defense at his trial. Anecdotally, I can tell you over the last several years when that happens, the officers are generally acquitted or they have a hung jury or a mistrial."


    Former University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing testified in his own defense twice during two separate trials that resulted in hung juries after Tensing fatally shot an unarmed Sam DuBose on July 19, 2015.

    Tensing told jurors that he feared DuBose was going to run him over with his car during a traffic stop. Footage from Tensing's body camera didn't back up his story, compelling UC police to fire him. Earlier this year, Tensing received a police union grievance settlement of almost $350,000 from UC for terminating his employment.


    Former North Charleston, South Carolina, Police Officer Michael Slager pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges in 2017. Slager's criminal prosecution for fatally shooting Walter Scott in the back while Scott was running away from the officer resulted in a mistrial after he testified in his own defense — even though the shooting was captured on video by a witness's cell phone camera.


    Edwards, DuBose and Scott are all black and all three were unarmed when they were killed.


    Oliver's conviction may be encouraging to police reform advocates, but Stinson doesn't think this one case says anything definitive about changes in how the criminal justice system treats officers accused of homicides.

    "Policing is very static," Stinson said. "I don't think the Oliver case would have much of an effect. We see roughly the same number of shootings each year. We don't seem to see much change in terms of the conviction rate in these cases. They're very difficult cases to obtain convictions from prosecutors."


    Still, Merritt said Oliver's conviction and sentencing are a step in the right direction. Since the officer's fate was announced Wednesday, Merritt said he's seen many people on social media complaining that Oliver's sentence was too lenient. He's eligible for parole after 7.5 years, but Merritt said it's unlikely Oliver will be released before the end of his full sentence.


    "He will be a cop behind bars," Merritt said. "He's going to have a really tough time in there. It's unlikely he'll make it seven and a half years without doing something to survive that will make it difficult for him to get parole. The inmates will realize he's up for parole and they're going to be egging him on to get marks on his record that will not allow for his release."


    Jordan Edwards' family was happy Oliver was convicted, but were disappointed he didn't get a life sentence, according to Merritt, who sees the outcome of the case as a victory.


    "I know it's difficult for black folks to recognize a win as a win sometimes because we've been so abused in this country," Merritt said. "I don't want to delegitimize their concerns, but people came together and moved heaven and earth to achieve this conviction. We should at least acknowledge the progress even if we're not satisfied, which we shouldn't be."

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    5) Trump Administration Discussed Coup Plans With Rebel Venezuelan Officers

    By Ernesto Londoño and Nicholas CaseySeptember 8, 2018

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/08/world/americas/donald-trump-venezuela-military-coup.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

    A military ceremony in Caracas, Venezuela, this month. The White House declined to answer detailed questions about talks with rebellious officers.


    The Trump administration held secret meetings with rebellious military officers from Venezuela over the last year to discuss their plans to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro, according to American officials and a former Venezuelan military commander who participated in the talks.

    Establishing a clandestine channel with coup plotters in Venezuela was a big gamble for Washington, given its long history of covert intervention across Latin America. Many in the region still deeply resent the United States for backing previous rebellions, coups and plots in countries like CubaNicaraguaBrazil and Chile, and for turning a blind eye to the abuses military regimes committed during the Cold War.

    The White House, which declined to answer detailed questions about the talks, said in a statement that it was important to engage in "dialogue with all Venezuelans who demonstrate a desire for democracy" in order to "bring positive change to a country that has suffered so much under Maduro."

    But one of the Venezuelan military commanders involved in the secret talks was hardly an ideal figure to help restore democracy: He is on the American government's own sanctions list of corrupt officials in Venezuela.


    He and other members of the Venezuelan security apparatus have been accused by Washington of a wide range of serious crimes, including torturing critics, jailing hundreds of political prisoners, wounding thousands of civilians, trafficking drugs and collaborating with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.

    American officials eventually decided not to help the plotters, and the coup plans stalled. But the Trump administration's willingness to meet several times with mutinous officers intent on toppling a president in the hemisphere could backfire politically.

    Most Latin American leaders agree that Venezuela's president, Mr. Maduro, is an increasingly authoritarian ruler who has effectively ruined his country's economy, leading to extreme shortages of food and medicine. The collapse has set off an exodus of desperate Venezuelans who are spilling over borders, overwhelming their neighbors.

    Even so, Mr. Maduro has long justified his grip on Venezuela by claiming that Washington imperialists are actively trying to depose him, and the secret talks could provide him with ammunition to chip away at the region's nearly united stance against him.


    "This is going to land like a bomb" in the region, said Mari Carmen Aponte, who served as the top diplomat overseeing Latin American affairs in the final months of the Obama administration.


    Beyond the coup plot, Mr. Maduro's government has already fended off several small-scale attacks, including salvos from a helicopter last year and exploding drones as he gave a speech in August. The attacks have added to the sense that the president is vulnerable.

    Venezuelan military officials sought direct access to the American government during Barack Obama's presidency, only to be rebuffed, officials said.

    Then in August of last year, President Trump declared that the United States had a "military option" for Venezuela — a declaration that drew condemnation from American allies in the region but encouraged rebellious Venezuelan military officers to reach out to Washington once again.

    "It was the commander in chief saying this now," the former Venezuelan commander on the sanctions list said in an interview, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals by the Venezuelan government. "I'm not going to doubt it when this was the messenger."

    In a series of covert meetings abroad, which began last fall and continued this year, the military officers told the American government that they represented a few hundred members of the armed forces who had soured on Mr. Maduro's authoritarianism.

    The officers asked the United States to supply them with encrypted radios, citing the need to communicate securely, as they developed a plan to install a transitional government to run the country until elections could be held.


    American officials did not provide material support, and the plans unraveled after a recent crackdown that led to the arrest of dozens of the plotters.

    Relations between the United States and Venezuela have been strained for years. The two have not exchanged ambassadors since 2010. After Mr. Trump took office, his administration increased sanctions against top Venezuelan officials, including Mr. Maduro himself, his vice president and other top officials in the government.

    The account of the clandestine meetings and the policy debates preceding them is drawn from interviews with 11 current and former American officials, as well as the former Venezuelan commander. He said at least three distinct groups within the Venezuelan military had been plotting against the Maduro government.

    One established contact with the American government by approaching the United States Embassy in a European capital. When this was reported back to Washington, officials at the White House were intrigued but apprehensive. They worried that the meeting request could be a ploy to surreptitiously record an American official appearing to conspire against the Venezuelan government, officials said.


    But as the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela worsened last year, American officials felt that having a clearer picture of the plans and the men who aspired to oust Mr. Maduro was worth the risk.

    "After a lot of discussion, we agreed we should listen to what they had to say," said a senior administration official who was not authorized to speak about the secret talks.


    The administration initially considered dispatching Juan Cruz, a veteran Central Intelligence Agency official who recently stepped down as the White House's top Latin America policymaker. But White House lawyers said it would be more prudent to send a career diplomat instead.

    The American envoy was instructed to attend the meetings "purely on listening mode," and was not authorized to negotiate anything of substance on the spot, according to the senior administration official.

    After the first meeting, which took place in the fall of 2017, the diplomat reported that the Venezuelans didn't appear to have a detailed plan and had showed up at the encounter hoping the Americans would offer guidance or ideas, officials said.

    The former Venezuelan commander said that the rebellious officers never asked for an American military intervention. "I never agreed, nor did they propose, to do a joint operation," he said.

    He claimed that he and his comrades considered striking last summer, when the government suspended the powers of the legislature and installed a new national assembly loyal to Mr. Maduro. But he said they aborted the plan, fearing it would lead to bloodshed.

    They later planned to take power in March, the former officer said, but that plan leaked. Finally, the dissidents looked to the May 20 election, during which Mr. Maduro was re-elected, as a new target date. But again, word got out and the plotters held their fire.

    It is unclear how many of these details the coup planners shared with the Americans. But there is no indication that Mr. Maduro knew the mutinous officers were talking to the Americans at all.


    For any of the plots to have worked, the former commander said, he and his comrades believed they needed to detain Mr. Maduro and other top government figures simultaneously. To do that, he added, the rebel officers needed a way to communicate securely. They made their request during their second meeting with the American diplomat, which took place last year.


    The American diplomat relayed the request to Washington, where senior officials turned it down, American officials said.

    "We were frustrated," said the former Venezuelan commander. "There was a lack of follow-through. They left me waiting."

    The American diplomat then met the coup plotters a third time early this year, but the discussions did not result in a promise of material aid or even a clear signal that Washington endorsed the rebels' plans, according to the Venezuelan commander and several American officials.

    Still, the Venezuelan plotters could view the meetings as tacit approval of their plans, argued Peter Kornbluh, a historian at the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

    "The United States always has an interest in gathering intelligence on potential changes of leadership in governments," Mr. Kornbluh said. "But the mere presence of a U.S. official at such a meeting would likely be perceived as encouragement."


    In its statement, the White House called the situation in Venezuela "a threat to regional security and democracy" and said that the Trump administration would continue to strengthen a coalition of "like-minded, and right-minded, partners from Europe to Asia to the Americas to pressure the Maduro regime to restore democracy in Venezuela."

    American officials have openly discussed the possibility that Venezuela's military could take action.

    On Feb. 1, Rex W. Tillerson, who was secretary of state at the time, delivered a speech in which he said the United States had not "advocated for regime change or removal of President Maduro." Yet, responding to a question afterward, Mr. Tillerson raised the potential for a military coup.

    "When things are so bad that the military leadership realizes that it just can't serve the citizens anymore, they will manage a peaceful transition," he said.

    Days later, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has sought to shape the Trump administration's approach toward Latin America, wrote a series of Twitter posts that encouraged dissident members of the Venezuelan armed forces to topple their commander in chief.


    "Soldiers eat out of garbage cans & their families go hungry in Venezuela while Maduro & friends live like kings & block humanitarian aid," Mr. Rubio wrote. He then added: "The world would support the Armed Forces in #Venezuela if they decide to protect the people & restore democracy by removing a dictator."


    In a speech in April, when he was still White House policy chief for Latin America, Mr. Cruz issued a message to the Venezuelan military. Referring to Mr. Maduro as a "madman," Mr. Cruz said all Venezuelans should "urge the military to respect the oath they took to perform their functions. Honor your oath."

    As the crisis in Venezuela worsened in recent years, American officials debated the pros and cons of opening lines of dialogue with rebellious factions of the military.

    "There were differences of opinion," said Ms. Aponte, the former top Latin America diplomat under Mr. Obama. "There were people who had a lot of faith in the idea that they could bring about stability, help distribute food, work on practical stuff."

    But others — including Ms. Aponte — saw considerable risk in building bridges with leaders of a military that, in Washington's assessment, has become a pillar of the cocaine trade and human rights abuses.

    Roberta Jacobson, a former ambassador to Mexico who preceded Ms. Aponte as the top State Department official for Latin America policy, said that while Washington has long regarded the Venezuelan military as "widely corrupt, deeply involved in narcotics trafficking and very unsavory," she saw merit in establishing a back channel with some of them.

    "Given the broader breakdown in institutions in Venezuela, there was a feeling that — while they were not necessarily the answer — any kind of democratic resolution would have had to have the military on board," said Ms. Jacobson, who retired from the State Department this year. "The idea of hearing from actors in those places, no matter how unsavory they may be, is integral to diplomacy."

    But whatever the rationale, holding discussions with coup plotters could set off alarms in a region with a list of infamous interventions: the Central Intelligence Agency's failed Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro as leader of Cuba in 1961; the American-supported coup in Chile in 1973, which led to the long military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet; and the Reagan administration's covert support of right-wing rebels known as the contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s.


    In Venezuela, a coup in 2002 briefly deposed Mr. Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chávez. The United States knew a plot was being hatched but warned against it, according to a classified document that was later made public. The coup took place anyway and the George W. Bush administration opened a channel to the new leader. Officials then backed away from the new government after popular anger rose against the coup and countries in the region loudly denounced it. Mr. Chávez was reinstated as president.

    In the latest coup plot, the number of military figures connected to the plan dwindled from a high of about 300 to 400 last year to about half that after a crackdown this year by Mr. Maduro's government.

    The former Venezuelan military officer worries that the 150 or so comrades who have been detained are probably being tortured. He lamented that the United States did not supply the mutineers with radios, which he believes could have changed the country's history.

    "I'm disappointed," he said. "But I'm the least affected. I'm not a prisoner."

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    6)  Dallas Police Officer Kills Her Neighbor in His Apartment, Saying She Mistook It for Her Own

    By Matthew Haag, September 7, 2018

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/us/dallas-police-shooting-botham-shem-jean.html?action=click&module=In%20Other%20News&pgtype=Homepage&action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage

    Botham Shem Jean was fatally shot inside his Dallas apartment by a police officer on Thursday night.


    A Dallas police officer fatally shot a neighbor inside the man's apartment late Thursday night, claiming that she mistook his apartment for her own and believed he was an intruder, the police said.

    After completing her shift on Thursday, the officer went to her apartment building across the street from the Dallas Police Department's headquarters shortly before 10 p.m. But the officer, who was still in police uniform, did not go to her own unit and instead tried to enter the residence of a neighbor, Botham Shem Jean. She then shot him, the authorities said.

    Mr. Jean, 26, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

    It was not clear how the officer, whose name has not been released, mistook where she lived or why she opened fire.

    Chief U. Renee Hall of the Dallas Police Department said that investigators were seeking an arrest warrant to charge the officer with manslaughter. Chief Hall said it became clear in the beginning of the investigation that the case was not a standard officer-involved shooting.


    "We were dealing with what appears to be a very unique situation," Chief Hall said at a news conference on Friday afternoon. "Right now, there are more questions than we have answers."

    The Police Department asked the Texas Rangers, the state's top law enforcement agency, to take over the investigation.

    Chief Hall said that the officer had been questioned only when other officers responded to the shooting on Thursday night. While the officers took a blood sample from her to test for alcohol or drugs, investigators have been unable to further question her.

    The chief identified the officer only as a patrol officer who is white, saying that the officer was not in custody and that she did not know her whereabouts.


    Within hours of the shooting, there was an outpouring of grief for Mr. Jean from Dallas to St. Lucia, his home country in the Caribbean, as well as demands that the officer be charged in his death.


    Mr. Jean was born in the Caribbean and later moved to the United States, where he graduated in 2016 from Harding University in Arkansas. He was active on campus and in student groups, including as a member of the Good News Singers, the university said on Friday. With a booming, soulful voice, Mr. Jean often led the group in songs.

    Bruce McLarty, the university's president, said on Friday that he recalled when he asked Mr. Jean in 2014 to sing a hymn at a major event at Harding, which is associated with the Churches of Christ. Mr. Jean agreed but later confessed that he had said yes without actually knowing the song.

    "He called back to St. Lucia and asked his grandmother to teach him that old hymn on the phone," Dr. McLarty said in a statement. "He shared it with us at Lectureship that night, and it was a truly special moment."

    Mr. Jean moved to Dallas after college. After an internship at the accounting firm PwC, formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, he joined the company full time in July 2016 in its Dallas offices, the company said. He was currently a risk assurance experienced associate.

    "This is a terrible tragedy," a PwC spokeswoman said in an email. "We are simply heartbroken to hear of his death."


    Mr. Jean was a member of a prominent family in St. Lucia. His mother, Allison Jean, was a senior official in St. Lucia's Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development. A family friend said that Ms. Jean could not comment on Friday because she was receiving chemotherapy treatment.

    One of Mr. Jean's uncles is the chief executive of a regional water utility in St. Lucia, while another uncle, Earl Jean, played professional soccer in Europe and on the island's national team.

    "How can this nasty world take you away from me," Earl Jean wrote on Facebook on Friday. "This is the worst day of my life thus far."

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    7) District Attorneys Dismantle Legacy of Tough Marijuana Enforcement

    By Jan Ransom and Tyler Pager, September 7, 2018

    "A New York Times investigation in May found that the primary targets of marijuana arrests in New York City are black and Hispanic people. In the past three years, black people were arrested on low-level marijuana charges at eight times the rate of white people, and Hispanic people were arrested at five times the rate of white people. In Manhattan, those figures were even more troubling: Black people were arrested at 15 times the rate of white people."

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/nyregion/nyc-marijuana-laws.html?action=click&module=In%20Other%20News&pgtype=Homepage&action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage

    Cyrus R. Vance Jr., right, the Manhattan district attorney, is expected to announce next week that his office will vacate misdemeanor marijuana warrants dating to 1978.


    Even as the authorities in New York City have scaled back enforcement of marijuana laws, a legacy of tough policies remains: People are hindered from getting jobs, apartments and access to education because of decades-old marijuana convictions and outstanding warrants.

    Now Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, is expected to announce next week that his office will vacate misdemeanor marijuana warrants dating to 1978. In Brooklyn, District Attorney Eric Gonzalez is going further, offering people with low-level convictions for marijuana possession the chance to have them vacated and the underlying charges dismissed.

    Mr. Gonzalez's office will also automatically vacate 3,438 open marijuana warrants stemming from summonses and is encouraging people to come forward to have misdemeanor arrest warrants cleared.

    The moves are part of a national shift in how states and cities are rethinking marijuana laws. The drug has been legalized in nine states and Washington, D.C., and cities including San Francisco and San Diego are automatically clearing old misdemeanor convictions.


    Both the Manhattan and Brooklyn district attorneys have stopped prosecuting the vast majority of people arrested on marijuana offenses, responding to enforcement policies that ended up targeting young black and Hispanic men.

    "We must remember those who have convictions on their record based on these cases that we are no longer going to prosecute," Mr. Gonzalez said during a news conference Friday announcing the changes. "To fail to address these past convictions would be hypocritical and would be to turn a blind eye on all the harm caused by marijuana enforcement in prior years."

    In Manhattan, where 3,042 misdemeanor marijuana warrants will be vacated, 78 percent of the defendants in those cases are black and Hispanic.

    "The effect of an open warrant can be very negative," Mr. Vance said during an interview at his office this week. "It can prevent you from getting a job. It can prevent you from going to the police to report other crimes for fear that you're going to be picked up. If you are an immigrant, you also run the risk of deportation.

    "When folks say this is crazy and New York City is going to hell in a handbasket, we are not. The city wants a rational approach to criminal justice."


    Mr. Vance said he would also like to clear certain marijuana convictions, but that would require state legislation that would allow for record expungement. Mr. Gonzalez is circumventing the legislation issue by instead vacating convictions and dismissing charges. In Brooklyn, at least 20,000 people have a low-level marijuana conviction dating to 1990.

    People with certain violent felonies or sex offenses are not eligible to have their convictions vacated in Brooklyn.

    Defense attorneys, elected officials and academics lauded the new initiatives, calling them "a step in the right direction."

    "The recognition is that this has to stop," said Justine Luongo, the chief of Legal Aid's criminal defense practice. "Marijuana is not an issue that should be criminalized."

    Lisa Schreibersdorf, executive director of Brooklyn Defender Services, called Mr. Gonzalez's decision to vacate convictions "a visionary one."

    "It will save so many of our clients from deportation, loss of student loans, loss of housing, removal of their children and other very disproportionate outcomes that make no sense," Ms. Schreibersdorf said. "Of course, New York should legalize marijuana, but in the meantime this is an incredible opportunity for Brooklyn residents."

    In the spring, the Brooklyn district attorney's office began declining to prosecute some cases of people who were arrested on charges of smoking marijuana in public. In Manhattan, prosecutors spent six months studying cities that have legalized marijuana and released a report in May. The purpose, Mr. Vance said, was to review what other states were doing and seize on opportunities for improvement in New York.


    "The impact on individuals and communities affected marks a significant shift in the understanding of prosecutors and the job they're doing and how they should do it," said David M. Kennedy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. "It represents another really important step in a new trajectory that the city is on with respect to criminal justice and public safety."

    A New York Times investigation in May found that the primary targets of marijuana arrests in New York City are black and Hispanic people. In the past three years, black people were arrested on low-level marijuana charges at eight times the rate of white people, and Hispanic people were arrested at five times the rate of white people. In Manhattan, those figures were even more troubling: Black people were arrested at 15 times the rate of white people.

    The following month, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the Police Department would cut down on arrests for publicly smoking by more than half and give people summonses instead, but would continue to arrest some individuals who have past arrests or convictions. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced last month that a working group will draft legislation proposing the legalization of marijuana.

    When asked about the programs announced by the district attorneys in Brooklyn and Manhattan, Mr. de Blasio's Office of Criminal Justice said it would review the initiatives.

    It was unclear whether district attorneys in other boroughs are considering similar measures. In Staten Island, the district attorney's office declined to comment. The Bronx district attorney, Darcel D. Clark, called for the State Legislature to decriminalize marijuana.

    "Decriminalization would ensure fairness for residents of the Bronx and throughout New York State," Ms. Clark said in a statement. "The piecemeal approach to enforcing marijuana laws county by county creates disparity and will not change the underlying fact that marijuana is still illegal."

    A spokeswoman for the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said the office would review any marijuana misdemeanor arrests that have not been dismissed. City Councilman Rory Lancman criticized Mr. Brown for not doing more.


    "Every New York City resident has the right to ask their district attorney why they can't have the same benefits as the policies in Brooklyn and Manhattan," Mr. Lancman said, adding that in Queens the office has lagged behind in "recognizing how damaging many years of policing and prosecution have been to hundreds of thousands of residents over the years."

    A 36-year-old woman who asked to remain anonymous because she hopes to have her marijuana possession conviction dismissed said she has long dreamed of being a New York City taxi driver. She had held off applying for fear she would not get the job with a drug conviction in her past.

    But after Mr. Gonzalez's announcement, the woman, a mother of three, said she will begin to save money to pay the Taxi and Limousine Commission's application fee. She hopes that her conviction will be vacated.

    "I know I broke the law," she said. "I became a public nuisance. I want to show the community that I changed."

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    8) New Antarctica Map Is Like 'Putting on Glasses for the First Time and Seeing 20/20'

    By Shannon Stirone, September 7, 2018

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/science/antarctica-map-rema.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront

    The Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica in a new map made with satellites operated by a Department of Defense agency.


    You may never make it to the South Pole, but you can now see Antarctica and its glaciers in unprecedented detail. 

    Researchers this week announced the release of a new high resolution terrain map of the southernmost continent, called the Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica, or REMA, which they say makes Antarctica the best mapped continent on Earth. 

    Antarctica is the most desolate and inhospitable place on Earth and its remoteness makes monitoring changes in the fluctuations of ice and water levels difficult. Because of the warming climate, seasonal changes at Antarctica are becoming more severe, making the need to understand the loss of ice even more important.

    Ian Howat, the project's principal investigator and a professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University, and Paul Morin, of the University of Minnesota, used data from a constellation of polar orbiting satellites to image the frozen wastes. The satellite data was licensed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is part of the Department of Defense.


    Previous maps of the continent had a resolution similar to seeing the whole of Central Park from a satellite. With this new data, it is now possible to see down to the size of a car, and even smaller in some areas. The data is so complete that scientists now know the height of every feature on the continent down to a few feet. 

    "If you're someone that needs glasses to see, it's a bit like being almost blind and putting on glasses for the first time and seeing 20/20," said Dr. Howat.

    The team used 187,585 images collected over six years to create the map. 

    "Until now, we've had a better map of Mars than we've had of Antarctica," said Dr. Howat. 

    The pictures are so detailed they had to use one of the most powerful supercomputers on Earth to ingest the data. Having access to this amount of information will allow researchers to better monitor the effects of climate change on the ice.



    Previous images of Antarctic terrain left much to be desired. The difference between two images from previous surface imaging on the left and the new map on the right demonstrates the difference. 

    The upturned shovel feature in the bottom right is called Siple Dome. Hills like these are found all over Antarctica, their smooth surface made by accumulations of ice. The large mounds act like obstructions in this stream of glacial ice that is flowing out to the Ross ice shelf, Antarctica's largest.



    Observing snowfall, ice-growth and the rate of melt and fissures will allow scientists to monitor sea-level rise and glacial melt with more accuracy. Ice shelves bear the brunt of pressure from flowing rivers pushing against them. The faster the ice melts on the land, the more weight the ice shelf has to contain, resulting in breaks of glaciers into the sea.


    Scientists who keep a close watch on large ice shelves like Larsen C, above, will now be able to study the streams of ice and stress fractures that occur between the mountains. Because of the location of Antarctica and because the rest of the year there isn't enough sunlight at the poles for the satellites to see the land, images can only be taken from December through March, the summer season. Since the last set of data was collected, a large section of this glacier has broken off into an iceberg named A-68.



    This is a large river of ice flowing between two mountains called the Glacier South of Dry Valley. Images like these will be free and accessible to scientists for their research.



    Explorers and scientists stationed at Antarctica will also find the new map useful. By having such a detailed topographical map, new routes to science stations can be planned around the continent's dangerous terrain. 

    At the center of this image above are two locations called Halley V & VI. Both were British research bases. They have since had to move because the ice shelf began to break off.



    "Something that's always been a problem is knowing where the ice is and knowing how thick it is," Dr. Howat said.


    The 150 terabyte data set is the first that will allow researchers to watch the fracturing of ice shells within a three week time span, nearly tracking changes on the ice in real time. These streams are flowing into Filchner ice shelf where stress fractures can be seen forming between hills. Such fractures are often the early signs of a full break from the glacier.



    Dr. Howat and Mr. Morin hope to update the map every year. With REMA it will be possible to watch icebergs forming and glaciers moving like this flow of ice at Byrd Glacier, which is the largest ice stream on Antarctica.

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    8) Gov. Brown needs to speed up the review process for death row inmate Kevin Cooper

    By The Times Editorial Board, September 6, 2018

    http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-brown-cooper-death-penalty-20180906-story.html

    Melanie Bostic of Lancaster and Michael Wharton of San Leandro, Calif., protest outside the state prison in San Quentin on Feb. 9, 2004. 


    A San Bernardino jury sentenced Kevin Cooper to death three decades ago after convicting him of murdering two adults and two children and severely wounding a third child. But the jury didn't know that the investigation into those murders was, to say the least, problematic.

    Subsequent inquiries and analyses persuasively show that investigators may have planted a blood sample from Cooper on a T-shirt found near the crime scene; that they failed to test — and then lost — a pair of bloody overalls worn by another man on the day of the murders; that the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence from Cooper's lawyer; and that the only eyewitness — the wounded child — initially told a hospital social worker that the attackers were three or four white men. (Cooper is black.) The victims suffered multiple slash and stab wounds from a number of weapons, more than one could reasonably expect a single perpetrator to inflict. Nevertheless, the child testified at trial that the attacker was a single man.

    Cooper, though, has had an inordinate amount of trouble getting the courts to give him a fair hearing. In one appeal, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Cooper's plea for a new hearing despite a scathing, 100-page dissent by Judge William Fletcher that dissects how the police and courts not only failed to give Cooper a fair trial, but also apparently conspired to convict him. "Kevin Cooper has now been on death row for nearly half his life," Fletcher wrote. "In my opinion, he is probably innocent of the crimes for which the state of California is about to execute him."

    Cooper has asked Gov. Jerry Brown to order new, more sophisticated DNA tests on the shirt and other items, tests that he believes will prove once and for all that someone else committed the murders. He also wants the governor to conduct an innocence hearing to weigh those test results and, ultimately, to pardon him. Brown has asked the San Bernardino County district attorney's office, which opposes reopening the case, for a response by Oct. 11 to Cooper's allegations before deciding whether to conduct the review.


    But time is running out on Brown's term, and chances are increasing that it could end before the review process does. If so, the next governor and his legal staff would probably have to start over, assuming they chose to address Cooper's requests at all. That would unjustly delay yet again the search for the truth, and the possible freeing of an innocent man.

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    5) Trump Administration Discussed Coup Plans With Rebel Venezuelan Officers

    By Ernesto Londoño and Nicholas CaseySeptember 8, 2018

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/08/world/americas/donald-trump-venezuela-military-coup.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

    A military ceremony in Caracas, Venezuela, this month. The White House declined to answer detailed questions about talks with rebellious officers.


    The Trump administration held secret meetings with rebellious military officers from Venezuela over the last year to discuss their plans to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro, according to American officials and a former Venezuelan military commander who participated in the talks.

    Establishing a clandestine channel with coup plotters in Venezuela was a big gamble for Washington, given its long history of covert intervention across Latin America. Many in the region still deeply resent the United States for backing previous rebellions, coups and plots in countries like CubaNicaraguaBrazil and Chile, and for turning a blind eye to the abuses military regimes committed during the Cold War.

    The White House, which declined to answer detailed questions about the talks, said in a statement that it was important to engage in "dialogue with all Venezuelans who demonstrate a desire for democracy" in order to "bring positive change to a country that has suffered so much under Maduro."

    But one of the Venezuelan military commanders involved in the secret talks was hardly an ideal figure to help restore democracy: He is on the American government's own sanctions list of corrupt officials in Venezuela.


    He and other members of the Venezuelan security apparatus have been accused by Washington of a wide range of serious crimes, including torturing critics, jailing hundreds of political prisoners, wounding thousands of civilians, trafficking drugs and collaborating with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.

    American officials eventually decided not to help the plotters, and the coup plans stalled. But the Trump administration's willingness to meet several times with mutinous officers intent on toppling a president in the hemisphere could backfire politically.

    Most Latin American leaders agree that Venezuela's president, Mr. Maduro, is an increasingly authoritarian ruler who has effectively ruined his country's economy, leading to extreme shortages of food and medicine. The collapse has set off an exodus of desperate Venezuelans who are spilling over borders, overwhelming their neighbors.

    Even so, Mr. Maduro has long justified his grip on Venezuela by claiming that Washington imperialists are actively trying to depose him, and the secret talks could provide him with ammunition to chip away at the region's nearly united stance against him.


    "This is going to land like a bomb" in the region, said Mari Carmen Aponte, who served as the top diplomat overseeing Latin American affairs in the final months of the Obama administration.


    Beyond the coup plot, Mr. Maduro's government has already fended off several small-scale attacks, including salvos from a helicopter last year and exploding drones as he gave a speech in August. The attacks have added to the sense that the president is vulnerable.

    Venezuelan military officials sought direct access to the American government during Barack Obama's presidency, only to be rebuffed, officials said.

    Then in August of last year, President Trump declared that the United States had a "military option" for Venezuela — a declaration that drew condemnation from American allies in the region but encouraged rebellious Venezuelan military officers to reach out to Washington once again.

    "It was the commander in chief saying this now," the former Venezuelan commander on the sanctions list said in an interview, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals by the Venezuelan government. "I'm not going to doubt it when this was the messenger."

    In a series of covert meetings abroad, which began last fall and continued this year, the military officers told the American government that they represented a few hundred members of the armed forces who had soured on Mr. Maduro's authoritarianism.

    The officers asked the United States to supply them with encrypted radios, citing the need to communicate securely, as they developed a plan to install a transitional government to run the country until elections could be held.


    American officials did not provide material support, and the plans unraveled after a recent crackdown that led to the arrest of dozens of the plotters.

    Relations between the United States and Venezuela have been strained for years. The two have not exchanged ambassadors since 2010. After Mr. Trump took office, his administration increased sanctions against top Venezuelan officials, including Mr. Maduro himself, his vice president and other top officials in the government.

    The account of the clandestine meetings and the policy debates preceding them is drawn from interviews with 11 current and former American officials, as well as the former Venezuelan commander. He said at least three distinct groups within the Venezuelan military had been plotting against the Maduro government.

    One established contact with the American government by approaching the United States Embassy in a European capital. When this was reported back to Washington, officials at the White House were intrigued but apprehensive. They worried that the meeting request could be a ploy to surreptitiously record an American official appearing to conspire against the Venezuelan government, officials said.


    But as the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela worsened last year, American officials felt that having a clearer picture of the plans and the men who aspired to oust Mr. Maduro was worth the risk.

    "After a lot of discussion, we agreed we should listen to what they had to say," said a senior administration official who was not authorized to speak about the secret talks.


    The administration initially considered dispatching Juan Cruz, a veteran Central Intelligence Agency official who recently stepped down as the White House's top Latin America policymaker. But White House lawyers said it would be more prudent to send a career diplomat instead.

    The American envoy was instructed to attend the meetings "purely on listening mode," and was not authorized to negotiate anything of substance on the spot, according to the senior administration official.

    After the first meeting, which took place in the fall of 2017, the diplomat reported that the Venezuelans didn't appear to have a detailed plan and had showed up at the encounter hoping the Americans would offer guidance or ideas, officials said.

    The former Venezuelan commander said that the rebellious officers never asked for an American military intervention. "I never agreed, nor did they propose, to do a joint operation," he said.

    He claimed that he and his comrades considered striking last summer, when the government suspended the powers of the legislature and installed a new national assembly loyal to Mr. Maduro. But he said they aborted the plan, fearing it would lead to bloodshed.

    They later planned to take power in March, the former officer said, but that plan leaked. Finally, the dissidents looked to the May 20 election, during which Mr. Maduro was re-elected, as a new target date. But again, word got out and the plotters held their fire.

    It is unclear how many of these details the coup planners shared with the Americans. But there is no indication that Mr. Maduro knew the mutinous officers were talking to the Americans at all.


    For any of the plots to have worked, the former commander said, he and his comrades believed they needed to detain Mr. Maduro and other top government figures simultaneously. To do that, he added, the rebel officers needed a way to communicate securely. They made their request during their second meeting with the American diplomat, which took place last year.


    The American diplomat relayed the request to Washington, where senior officials turned it down, American officials said.

    "We were frustrated," said the former Venezuelan commander. "There was a lack of follow-through. They left me waiting."

    The American diplomat then met the coup plotters a third time early this year, but the discussions did not result in a promise of material aid or even a clear signal that Washington endorsed the rebels' plans, according to the Venezuelan commander and several American officials.

    Still, the Venezuelan plotters could view the meetings as tacit approval of their plans, argued Peter Kornbluh, a historian at the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

    "The United States always has an interest in gathering intelligence on potential changes of leadership in governments," Mr. Kornbluh said. "But the mere presence of a U.S. official at such a meeting would likely be perceived as encouragement."


    In its statement, the White House called the situation in Venezuela "a threat to regional security and democracy" and said that the Trump administration would continue to strengthen a coalition of "like-minded, and right-minded, partners from Europe to Asia to the Americas to pressure the Maduro regime to restore democracy in Venezuela."

    American officials have openly discussed the possibility that Venezuela's military could take action.

    On Feb. 1, Rex W. Tillerson, who was secretary of state at the time, delivered a speech in which he said the United States had not "advocated for regime change or removal of President Maduro." Yet, responding to a question afterward, Mr. Tillerson raised the potential for a military coup.

    "When things are so bad that the military leadership realizes that it just can't serve the citizens anymore, they will manage a peaceful transition," he said.

    Days later, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has sought to shape the Trump administration's approach toward Latin America, wrote a series of Twitter posts that encouraged dissident members of the Venezuelan armed forces to topple their commander in chief.


    "Soldiers eat out of garbage cans & their families go hungry in Venezuela while Maduro & friends live like kings & block humanitarian aid," Mr. Rubio wrote. He then added: "The world would support the Armed Forces in #Venezuela if they decide to protect the people & restore democracy by removing a dictator."


    In a speech in April, when he was still White House policy chief for Latin America, Mr. Cruz issued a message to the Venezuelan military. Referring to Mr. Maduro as a "madman," Mr. Cruz said all Venezuelans should "urge the military to respect the oath they took to perform their functions. Honor your oath."

    As the crisis in Venezuela worsened in recent years, American officials debated the pros and cons of opening lines of dialogue with rebellious factions of the military.

    "There were differences of opinion," said Ms. Aponte, the former top Latin America diplomat under Mr. Obama. "There were people who had a lot of faith in the idea that they could bring about stability, help distribute food, work on practical stuff."

    But others — including Ms. Aponte — saw considerable risk in building bridges with leaders of a military that, in Washington's assessment, has become a pillar of the cocaine trade and human rights abuses.

    Roberta Jacobson, a former ambassador to Mexico who preceded Ms. Aponte as the top State Department official for Latin America policy, said that while Washington has long regarded the Venezuelan military as "widely corrupt, deeply involved in narcotics trafficking and very unsavory," she saw merit in establishing a back channel with some of them.

    "Given the broader breakdown in institutions in Venezuela, there was a feeling that — while they were not necessarily the answer — any kind of democratic resolution would have had to have the military on board," said Ms. Jacobson, who retired from the State Department this year. "The idea of hearing from actors in those places, no matter how unsavory they may be, is integral to diplomacy."

    But whatever the rationale, holding discussions with coup plotters could set off alarms in a region with a list of infamous interventions: the Central Intelligence Agency's failed Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro as leader of Cuba in 1961; the American-supported coup in Chile in 1973, which led to the long military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet; and the Reagan administration's covert support of right-wing rebels known as the contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s.


    In Venezuela, a coup in 2002 briefly deposed Mr. Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chávez. The United States knew a plot was being hatched but warned against it, according to a classified document that was later made public. The coup took place anyway and the George W. Bush administration opened a channel to the new leader. Officials then backed away from the new government after popular anger rose against the coup and countries in the region loudly denounced it. Mr. Chávez was reinstated as president.

    In the latest coup plot, the number of military figures connected to the plan dwindled from a high of about 300 to 400 last year to about half that after a crackdown this year by Mr. Maduro's government.

    The former Venezuelan military officer worries that the 150 or so comrades who have been detained are probably being tortured. He lamented that the United States did not supply the mutineers with radios, which he believes could have changed the country's history.

    "I'm disappointed," he said. "But I'm the least affected. I'm not a prisoner."

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    6)  Dallas Police Officer Kills Her Neighbor in His Apartment, Saying She Mistook It for Her Own

    By Matthew Haag, September 7, 2018

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/us/dallas-police-shooting-botham-shem-jean.html?action=click&module=In%20Other%20News&pgtype=Homepage&action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage

    Botham Shem Jean was fatally shot inside his Dallas apartment by a police officer on Thursday night.


    A Dallas police officer fatally shot a neighbor inside the man's apartment late Thursday night, claiming that she mistook his apartment for her own and believed he was an intruder, the police said.

    After completing her shift on Thursday, the officer went to her apartment building across the street from the Dallas Police Department's headquarters shortly before 10 p.m. But the officer, who was still in police uniform, did not go to her own unit and instead tried to enter the residence of a neighbor, Botham Shem Jean. She then shot him, the authorities said.

    Mr. Jean, 26, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

    It was not clear how the officer, whose name has not been released, mistook where she lived or why she opened fire.

    Chief U. Renee Hall of the Dallas Police Department said that investigators were seeking an arrest warrant to charge the officer with manslaughter. Chief Hall said it became clear in the beginning of the investigation that the case was not a standard officer-involved shooting.


    "We were dealing with what appears to be a very unique situation," Chief Hall said at a news conference on Friday afternoon. "Right now, there are more questions than we have answers."

    The Police Department asked the Texas Rangers, the state's top law enforcement agency, to take over the investigation.

    Chief Hall said that the officer had been questioned only when other officers responded to the shooting on Thursday night. While the officers took a blood sample from her to test for alcohol or drugs, investigators have been unable to further question her.

    The chief identified the officer only as a patrol officer who is white, saying that the officer was not in custody and that she did not know her whereabouts.


    Within hours of the shooting, there was an outpouring of grief for Mr. Jean from Dallas to St. Lucia, his home country in the Caribbean, as well as demands that the officer be charged in his death.


    Mr. Jean was born in the Caribbean and later moved to the United States, where he graduated in 2016 from Harding University in Arkansas. He was active on campus and in student groups, including as a member of the Good News Singers, the university said on Friday. With a booming, soulful voice, Mr. Jean often led the group in songs.

    Bruce McLarty, the university's president, said on Friday that he recalled when he asked Mr. Jean in 2014 to sing a hymn at a major event at Harding, which is associated with the Churches of Christ. Mr. Jean agreed but later confessed that he had said yes without actually knowing the song.

    "He called back to St. Lucia and asked his grandmother to teach him that old hymn on the phone," Dr. McLarty said in a statement. "He shared it with us at Lectureship that night, and it was a truly special moment."

    Mr. Jean moved to Dallas after college. After an internship at the accounting firm PwC, formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, he joined the company full time in July 2016 in its Dallas offices, the company said. He was currently a risk assurance experienced associate.

    "This is a terrible tragedy," a PwC spokeswoman said in an email. "We are simply heartbroken to hear of his death."


    Mr. Jean was a member of a prominent family in St. Lucia. His mother, Allison Jean, was a senior official in St. Lucia's Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development. A family friend said that Ms. Jean could not comment on Friday because she was receiving chemotherapy treatment.

    One of Mr. Jean's uncles is the chief executive of a regional water utility in St. Lucia, while another uncle, Earl Jean, played professional soccer in Europe and on the island's national team.

    "How can this nasty world take you away from me," Earl Jean wrote on Facebook on Friday. "This is the worst day of my life thus far."

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    7) District Attorneys Dismantle Legacy of Tough Marijuana Enforcement

    By Jan Ransom and Tyler Pager, September 7, 2018

    "A New York Times investigation in May found that the primary targets of marijuana arrests in New York City are black and Hispanic people. In the past three years, black people were arrested on low-level marijuana charges at eight times the rate of white people, and Hispanic people were arrested at five times the rate of white people. In Manhattan, those figures were even more troubling: Black people were arrested at 15 times the rate of white people."

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/nyregion/nyc-marijuana-laws.html?action=click&module=In%20Other%20News&pgtype=Homepage&action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage

    Cyrus R. Vance Jr., right, the Manhattan district attorney, is expected to announce next week that his office will vacate misdemeanor marijuana warrants dating to 1978.


    Even as the authorities in New York City have scaled back enforcement of marijuana laws, a legacy of tough policies remains: People are hindered from getting jobs, apartments and access to education because of decades-old marijuana convictions and outstanding warrants.

    Now Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, is expected to announce next week that his office will vacate misdemeanor marijuana warrants dating to 1978. In Brooklyn, District Attorney Eric Gonzalez is going further, offering people with low-level convictions for marijuana possession the chance to have them vacated and the underlying charges dismissed.

    Mr. Gonzalez's office will also automatically vacate 3,438 open marijuana warrants stemming from summonses and is encouraging people to come forward to have misdemeanor arrest warrants cleared.

    The moves are part of a national shift in how states and cities are rethinking marijuana laws. The drug has been legalized in nine states and Washington, D.C., and cities including San Francisco and San Diego are automatically clearing old misdemeanor convictions.


    Both the Manhattan and Brooklyn district attorneys have stopped prosecuting the vast majority of people arrested on marijuana offenses, responding to enforcement policies that ended up targeting young black and Hispanic men.

    "We must remember those who have convictions on their record based on these cases that we are no longer going to prosecute," Mr. Gonzalez said during a news conference Friday announcing the changes. "To fail to address these past convictions would be hypocritical and would be to turn a blind eye on all the harm caused by marijuana enforcement in prior years."

    In Manhattan, where 3,042 misdemeanor marijuana warrants will be vacated, 78 percent of the defendants in those cases are black and Hispanic.

    "The effect of an open warrant can be very negative," Mr. Vance said during an interview at his office this week. "It can prevent you from getting a job. It can prevent you from going to the police to report other crimes for fear that you're going to be picked up. If you are an immigrant, you also run the risk of deportation.

    "When folks say this is crazy and New York City is going to hell in a handbasket, we are not. The city wants a rational approach to criminal justice."


    Mr. Vance said he would also like to clear certain marijuana convictions, but that would require state legislation that would allow for record expungement. Mr. Gonzalez is circumventing the legislation issue by instead vacating convictions and dismissing charges. In Brooklyn, at least 20,000 people have a low-level marijuana conviction dating to 1990.

    People with certain violent felonies or sex offenses are not eligible to have their convictions vacated in Brooklyn.

    Defense attorneys, elected officials and academics lauded the new initiatives, calling them "a step in the right direction."

    "The recognition is that this has to stop," said Justine Luongo, the chief of Legal Aid's criminal defense practice. "Marijuana is not an issue that should be criminalized."

    Lisa Schreibersdorf, executive director of Brooklyn Defender Services, called Mr. Gonzalez's decision to vacate convictions "a visionary one."

    "It will save so many of our clients from deportation, loss of student loans, loss of housing, removal of their children and other very disproportionate outcomes that make no sense," Ms. Schreibersdorf said. "Of course, New York should legalize marijuana, but in the meantime this is an incredible opportunity for Brooklyn residents."

    In the spring, the Brooklyn district attorney's office began declining to prosecute some cases of people who were arrested on charges of smoking marijuana in public. In Manhattan, prosecutors spent six months studying cities that have legalized marijuana and released a report in May. The purpose, Mr. Vance said, was to review what other states were doing and seize on opportunities for improvement in New York.


    "The impact on individuals and communities affected marks a significant shift in the understanding of prosecutors and the job they're doing and how they should do it," said David M. Kennedy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. "It represents another really important step in a new trajectory that the city is on with respect to criminal justice and public safety."

    A New York Times investigation in May found that the primary targets of marijuana arrests in New York City are black and Hispanic people. In the past three years, black people were arrested on low-level marijuana charges at eight times the rate of white people, and Hispanic people were arrested at five times the rate of white people. In Manhattan, those figures were even more troubling: Black people were arrested at 15 times the rate of white people.

    The following month, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the Police Department would cut down on arrests for publicly smoking by more than half and give people summonses instead, but would continue to arrest some individuals who have past arrests or convictions. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced last month that a working group will draft legislation proposing the legalization of marijuana.

    When asked about the programs announced by the district attorneys in Brooklyn and Manhattan, Mr. de Blasio's Office of Criminal Justice said it would review the initiatives.

    It was unclear whether district attorneys in other boroughs are considering similar measures. In Staten Island, the district attorney's office declined to comment. The Bronx district attorney, Darcel D. Clark, called for the State Legislature to decriminalize marijuana.

    "Decriminalization would ensure fairness for residents of the Bronx and throughout New York State," Ms. Clark said in a statement. "The piecemeal approach to enforcing marijuana laws county by county creates disparity and will not change the underlying fact that marijuana is still illegal."

    A spokeswoman for the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said the office would review any marijuana misdemeanor arrests that have not been dismissed. City Councilman Rory Lancman criticized Mr. Brown for not doing more.


    "Every New York City resident has the right to ask their district attorney why they can't have the same benefits as the policies in Brooklyn and Manhattan," Mr. Lancman said, adding that in Queens the office has lagged behind in "recognizing how damaging many years of policing and prosecution have been to hundreds of thousands of residents over the years."

    A 36-year-old woman who asked to remain anonymous because she hopes to have her marijuana possession conviction dismissed said she has long dreamed of being a New York City taxi driver. She had held off applying for fear she would not get the job with a drug conviction in her past.

    But after Mr. Gonzalez's announcement, the woman, a mother of three, said she will begin to save money to pay the Taxi and Limousine Commission's application fee. She hopes that her conviction will be vacated.

    "I know I broke the law," she said. "I became a public nuisance. I want to show the community that I changed."

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    8) New Antarctica Map Is Like 'Putting on Glasses for the First Time and Seeing 20/20'

    By Shannon Stirone, September 7, 2018

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/science/antarctica-map-rema.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront

    The Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica in a new map made with satellites operated by a Department of Defense agency.


    You may never make it to the South Pole, but you can now see Antarctica and its glaciers in unprecedented detail. 

    Researchers this week announced the release of a new high resolution terrain map of the southernmost continent, called the Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica, or REMA, which they say makes Antarctica the best mapped continent on Earth. 

    Antarctica is the most desolate and inhospitable place on Earth and its remoteness makes monitoring changes in the fluctuations of ice and water levels difficult. Because of the warming climate, seasonal changes at Antarctica are becoming more severe, making the need to understand the loss of ice even more important.

    Ian Howat, the project's principal investigator and a professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University, and Paul Morin, of the University of Minnesota, used data from a constellation of polar orbiting satellites to image the frozen wastes. The satellite data was licensed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is part of the Department of Defense.


    Previous maps of the continent had a resolution similar to seeing the whole of Central Park from a satellite. With this new data, it is now possible to see down to the size of a car, and even smaller in some areas. The data is so complete that scientists now know the height of every feature on the continent down to a few feet. 

    "If you're someone that needs glasses to see, it's a bit like being almost blind and putting on glasses for the first time and seeing 20/20," said Dr. Howat.

    The team used 187,585 images collected over six years to create the map. 

    "Until now, we've had a better map of Mars than we've had of Antarctica," said Dr. Howat. 

    The pictures are so detailed they had to use one of the most powerful supercomputers on Earth to ingest the data. Having access to this amount of information will allow researchers to better monitor the effects of climate change on the ice.



    Previous images of Antarctic terrain left much to be desired. The difference between two images from previous surface imaging on the left and the new map on the right demonstrates the difference. 

    The upturned shovel feature in the bottom right is called Siple Dome. Hills like these are found all over Antarctica, their smooth surface made by accumulations of ice. The large mounds act like obstructions in this stream of glacial ice that is flowing out to the Ross ice shelf, Antarctica's largest.



    Observing snowfall, ice-growth and the rate of melt and fissures will allow scientists to monitor sea-level rise and glacial melt with more accuracy. Ice shelves bear the brunt of pressure from flowing rivers pushing against them. The faster the ice melts on the land, the more weight the ice shelf has to contain, resulting in breaks of glaciers into the sea.


    Scientists who keep a close watch on large ice shelves like Larsen C, above, will now be able to study the streams of ice and stress fractures that occur between the mountains. Because of the location of Antarctica and because the rest of the year there isn't enough sunlight at the poles for the satellites to see the land, images can only be taken from December through March, the summer season. Since the last set of data was collected, a large section of this glacier has broken off into an iceberg named A-68.



    This is a large river of ice flowing between two mountains called the Glacier South of Dry Valley. Images like these will be free and accessible to scientists for their research.



    Explorers and scientists stationed at Antarctica will also find the new map useful. By having such a detailed topographical map, new routes to science stations can be planned around the continent's dangerous terrain. 

    At the center of this image above are two locations called Halley V & VI. Both were British research bases. They have since had to move because the ice shelf began to break off.



    "Something that's always been a problem is knowing where the ice is and knowing how thick it is," Dr. Howat said.


    The 150 terabyte data set is the first that will allow researchers to watch the fracturing of ice shells within a three week time span, nearly tracking changes on the ice in real time. These streams are flowing into Filchner ice shelf where stress fractures can be seen forming between hills. Such fractures are often the early signs of a full break from the glacier.



    Dr. Howat and Mr. Morin hope to update the map every year. With REMA it will be possible to watch icebergs forming and glaciers moving like this flow of ice at Byrd Glacier, which is the largest ice stream on Antarctica.

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    8) Gov. Brown needs to speed up the review process for death row inmate Kevin Cooper

    By The Times Editorial Board, September 6, 2018

    http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-brown-cooper-death-penalty-20180906-story.html

    Melanie Bostic of Lancaster and Michael Wharton of San Leandro, Calif., protest outside the state prison in San Quentin on Feb. 9, 2004. 


    A San Bernardino jury sentenced Kevin Cooper to death three decades ago after convicting him of murdering two adults and two children and severely wounding a third child. But the jury didn't know that the investigation into those murders was, to say the least, problematic.

    Subsequent inquiries and analyses persuasively show that investigators may have planted a blood sample from Cooper on a T-shirt found near the crime scene; that they failed to test — and then lost — a pair of bloody overalls worn by another man on the day of the murders; that the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence from Cooper's lawyer; and that the only eyewitness — the wounded child — initially told a hospital social worker that the attackers were three or four white men. (Cooper is black.) The victims suffered multiple slash and stab wounds from a number of weapons, more than one could reasonably expect a single perpetrator to inflict. Nevertheless, the child testified at trial that the attacker was a single man.

    Cooper, though, has had an inordinate amount of trouble getting the courts to give him a fair hearing. In one appeal, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Cooper's plea for a new hearing despite a scathing, 100-page dissent by Judge William Fletcher that dissects how the police and courts not only failed to give Cooper a fair trial, but also apparently conspired to convict him. "Kevin Cooper has now been on death row for nearly half his life," Fletcher wrote. "In my opinion, he is probably innocent of the crimes for which the state of California is about to execute him."

    Cooper has asked Gov. Jerry Brown to order new, more sophisticated DNA tests on the shirt and other items, tests that he believes will prove once and for all that someone else committed the murders. He also wants the governor to conduct an innocence hearing to weigh those test results and, ultimately, to pardon him. Brown has asked the San Bernardino County district attorney's office, which opposes reopening the case, for a response by Oct. 11 to Cooper's allegations before deciding whether to conduct the review.


    But time is running out on Brown's term, and chances are increasing that it could end before the review process does. If so, the next governor and his legal staff would probably have to start over, assuming they chose to address Cooper's requests at all. That would unjustly delay yet again the search for the truth, and the possible freeing of an innocent man.

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