This report was published on YouTube on March 6.
Click here to learn more about Ethan Payne and his condition.
Click here to learn more about Ethan Payne and his condition.
Friday, March 8, 2019
Help for New York Farmers: $2.3 Million in Funding Available to Address the Impact of Climate Change
A total of $2.3 million in funding is available through round four of the Climate Resilient Farming grant program for farmers in New York State. The grants will help farms reduce their operational impact on the environment and better prepare for and recover after extreme weather events.
Since the launch of the program in 2015, a total of $5.1 million has been provided to 40 projects across the state, helping 70 farms implement critical projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote energy savings, mitigate water and soil quality concerns and increase on-farm resiliency to climate change.
"Extreme weather is the new normal and it is becoming more and more unpredictable each year," Governor Cuomo said. "This funding is vital to helping farmers mitigate the impact of climate change and allows them to take the necessary measures to protect their crops and livestock from damage caused by extreme weather while also helping reduce their environmental footprint."
Click here for the full announcement.
Source: The Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
Teenage Boys Have Emotional Reaction to Teacher's Homecoming
CBS News: A beloved teacher and coach from Utah was deployed in Afghanistan, and
when he surprised his students with his homecoming, a group of teenage
boys piled on top of him to give him a bear hug.
Man Drops to One Knee, Re-Proposes to Wife After 63 Years of Marriage
This report was published on YouTube on March 7.
In Their Shoes: Responding to Homeless Calls as a Spokane Police Officer
This report was published on YouTube on February 26, 2019.
Red Cross Service to Armed Forces - Serving Those Who Serve
This report was published on YouTube on February 11, 2019.
American Red Cross: The Red Cross helps members of the military, veterans and their families
prepare for, cope with, and respond to, the challenges of military
service.
Women Who ROCK! (Poni Betty, An MSF Mechanic in South Sudan)
This report was published on YouTube on March 6.
International Women’s Day: Who Are the Women Making a Difference in Your Community?
Al Jazeera English: Lina Iris Viktor is a New York-based, London-born artist of Liberian
descent who has the touch of gold. Her work uses the powerful contrast
and symbolism of black and gold to explore race, gender and themes in
African history. Her work is winning accolades, but on her own terms.
Meet the Tunisian Fisherman Determined to Keep Saving Migrants at Sea
This report was published on YouTube on March 7.
Women Who ROCK! (Canada's First Black Female Stunt Coordinator)
Global News: She was in AVP: Alien Vs. Predator, The Incredible Hulk, and Land of the
Dead Movie – Stunt coordinator, Angelica Lisk-Hann talks about what it
takes to bring action to life on television and movie screens as
Canada's first black female stunt coordinator.
Girls for Gender Equity: Get Trained to Be a Poll Worker!
The following announcement was submitted by Girls for Gender Equity (GGE).
GGE
is proud to partner with the New York City Council to support the
participation of young people in New York City’s Participatory Budgeting
(PB) process! PB is a process whereby New Yorkers ages 11 and up can
vote on how their city council members spend up to $1 million in public
funding in their districts.
PB
is one way for the public - regardless of immigration status - to
participate in the city budget. Thirty-one members of the New York City
Council are participating in PB this year. Find out if your elected
representative is participating here. Vote week is March 30 to April 7.
Get Involved: Poll Worker Trainings
Poll
worker trainings are two-hour trainings on how to best assist during
vote week at polling sites throughout the city. Poll workers can be as
young as 11-years-old and volunteer regardless of immigration status. No
sign up is needed but you must attend one of the trainings below in
order to volunteer to be a poll worker for this PB cycle.
Being a poll worker is a way to contribute to your community through support and assistance where you are needed and wanted.
Here are the training dates, times and locations.
Click on the graph to increase its size.
Introducing 'ONWARD', A JustLeadershipUSA Newsletter
The following statement was submitted by DeAnna Hoskins, President/CEO of JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA).
Dear Friend,
It is my absolute pleasure to welcome you to our new JLUSA newsletter, ONWARD.
In the past two years, JLUSA has expanded from a small team in a New York City office to a staff working in cities and states across the country. We have invested in the leadership of over 120 directly impacted Leading with Conviction fellows, and with our Emerging Leaders graduates, our network has grown to more than 600 trained leaders! Our advocacy campaigns continue to redefine justice as we work to decarcerate and end the reliance on mass supervision and harmful technology, build stronger communities through justice reinvestment, and demand a working future for the millions of our neighbors returning home. Finally, we count JLUSA members in all 50 states + D.C. and I hope you or a loved one will join this amazing network of change-makers.
All of these achievements reinforce our mission of cutting the US correctional population in #halfby2030 while empowering the people most affected by incarceration to drive policy reform.
In this and future newsletters, you will find campaign updates, leader highlights, upcoming events, and ways to get involved with our work. None of what we have accomplished so far would be possible without each and every one of you and we hope that you will continue to lend your voice, your passion, and your support in the months and years to come.
I could not be prouder of this team, our network of leaders, and our campaigns, and I look forward to fighting alongside all of you as we work to ensure a future that centers health, safety, and human dignity for all.
ONWARD!
DeAnna Hoskins, President/CEO
It is my absolute pleasure to welcome you to our new JLUSA newsletter, ONWARD.
In the past two years, JLUSA has expanded from a small team in a New York City office to a staff working in cities and states across the country. We have invested in the leadership of over 120 directly impacted Leading with Conviction fellows, and with our Emerging Leaders graduates, our network has grown to more than 600 trained leaders! Our advocacy campaigns continue to redefine justice as we work to decarcerate and end the reliance on mass supervision and harmful technology, build stronger communities through justice reinvestment, and demand a working future for the millions of our neighbors returning home. Finally, we count JLUSA members in all 50 states + D.C. and I hope you or a loved one will join this amazing network of change-makers.
All of these achievements reinforce our mission of cutting the US correctional population in #halfby2030 while empowering the people most affected by incarceration to drive policy reform.
In this and future newsletters, you will find campaign updates, leader highlights, upcoming events, and ways to get involved with our work. None of what we have accomplished so far would be possible without each and every one of you and we hope that you will continue to lend your voice, your passion, and your support in the months and years to come.
I could not be prouder of this team, our network of leaders, and our campaigns, and I look forward to fighting alongside all of you as we work to ensure a future that centers health, safety, and human dignity for all.
ONWARD!
DeAnna Hoskins, President/CEO
Click here to review the newsletter in its entirety.
Source: JLUSA
Thursday, March 7, 2019
Fired Florida Officer Guilty of Slaying Black Motorist
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A fired Florida police officer was found
guilty of manslaughter and attempted murder Thursday for the fatal 2015
shooting of a stranded black motorist, becoming the first officer in the
state to be convicted of an on-duty shooting in 30 years.
Click here for the full article.
Source: Associated Press
Jeffrey Epstein, Alan Dershowitz, and Pals Accused of Sex-Trafficking Ring
A lawyer for one of Epstein’s victims claims he was part of
sex-trafficking ring with Dershowitz and others—but the Harvard attorney
says sealed documents will prove his innocence.
By Kate Briquelet
Famed attorney Alan Dershowitz was accused of involvement in
billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking ring by
an attorney for one of Epstein’s victims, who claimed in federal court
on Wednesday that the release of sealed documents will prove it.
Paul
Cassell, who represents Virginia Roberts Giuffre, told the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Second Circuit that the testimony of other witnesses
will show Dershowitz’s involvement in the alleged trafficking of “his
close friend Jeffrey Epstein.”
“When all the records come out it
will show that Epstein and [Epstein’s alleged madam Ghislaine] Maxwell
were trafficking girls to the benefit of his friends, including Mr.
Dershowitz,” Cassell said in oral arguments for a case filed by the Miami Herald to unseal a collection of court documents relating to Giuffre’s now settled lawsuit against Maxwell.
Click here for the full article.
Source: The Daily Beast
Movement at North Korea ICBM Plant Viewed as Missile-Related, South Says
New activity has been detected at a North Korean intercontinental
ballistic missiles plant, South Korean media said on Thursday, as U.S.
President Donald Trump said he would be very disappointed if Pyongyang
rebuilt a rocket site.
Click here for the full article.
Source: Reuters
Senior Pentagon Leaders Testify on Substandard Living Conditions at Military Housing
Senior military and civilian leaders at the Pentagon testify at a Senate
Armed Services Committee hearing on the current state of military
housing in the wake of a new report showing many military families
living in substandard conditions.
Click here for video.
Source: C-SPAN
Op-Ed: It's Not About the Wall
By Steven Jonas
Trump's most famous campaign promise, "Build the Wall
and Mexico Will Pay for It," was never about a Wall, per se. Trump is so disinterested in any kind of real
Wall, that he doesn't even know: a) how much of one there already is, b) how
many other kinds of other barriers there already are, c) how many miles of the Mexico/U.S.
border are either virtually impossible or prohibitively expensive to build on,
d) that El Paso is one of the safer cities in the U.S., e) that there is a
difference between Latino workers coming to find jobs that are being offered by
U.S. employers at below U.S.-worker wages (and such workers would not be coming
if such jobs were not being offered by, let's say, Trump-owned
resorts) and refugee/asylum seekers, seeking to enter under the provision of
U.S. and International law (about which Trump obviously knows nothing). And so on and so forth.
So, if it's not about the Wall, per se, what is it about? (Let me say here that I know I am not telling the politically and Trump-ily aware folks in the U.S. [and indeed around the world] anything most of you don't already know. But I thought that it might be helpful to put it all in one place.) First and foremost, and this is very well-known, talked about far and wide, from the advertising master Donny Deutsch on MSNBC to the economics master Paul Krugman in The New York Times, it is about Trump's most valuable winning card: racism. As is well-known, Trump began his campaign for the Presidency not when he descended the golden escalator in 2015, but when he jumped up the birtherism movement in 2011. Then on the escalator he broadened the racist message from African-Americans to Latinos, specifically in the beginning to Mexicans.
The "drugs-rapists-criminals-gangs" message has
only been intensified in recent months, as the fight over wall money has itself
intensified. But it did not have to, for
the first two years of the Trump Presidency.
In fact, it might be speculated
that a reason that Trump did not seriously go for some significant sum of Wall money
when he had the whole of the Congress is a sign that indeed the Wall per se is not
the issue. For, and it is what I am
speculating here, that what Trump wants is not a Wall, but the Wall-issue,
as the symbol of his racism that is, for a significant portion (but not all) of
his base, his most important characteristic.
Click here for the full article.
Source: OpEdNews.com
Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Disagreeing with the President
This report was published on YouTube on March 6.
DNC Announces Fox News Will Not Be a Media Partner for 2020 Debates
This report was published on YouTube on March 6.
House Delays Resolution Seen as Subtle Rebuke of Democratic Congresswoman
This report was published on YouTube on March 6.
Alex Trebek Announces He Has Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer
This report was published on YouTube on March 6.
From The G-Man wishes Mr. Trebek well in his effort to beat the odds. Fight on, sir. Fight on.
South Africa: Two White Farmers Jailed for Murder of Black Teen
This report was published on YouTube on March 6.
Seatbelts Required in the Back Seat? This and Other Surprises in Cuomo’s Budget
In New York, the state budget is often used as a vehicle to tuck in nonfiscal initiatives, and this year is no exception.
Click here for the full article.
Source: The New York Times
Looking for Details on Rogue N.Y. Police Officers? This Database Might Help
The Legal Aid Society has created a searchable database of lawsuits
filed against the police since 2015 to help identify problematic
officers and units.
Click here for the full article.
Source: The New York Times
NYC Nurses Threaten to Strike Over Hospital Overcrowding
Nurses at three city hospitals said they will launch a strike within
weeks if the medical centers continue to ignore their demands to address
staffing shortages that put patients at risk.
Click here for the full article.
Source: The New York Daily News
NYC Says Cable Giant Charter Communications Owes $6 Million in Fees
City Hall is dunning cable giant Charter Communications for $6 million
in unpaid fees — and says the company needs to pay up or its lucrative
franchise agreement may not get renewed in 2020.
Click here for the full article.
Source: The New York Daily News
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Number of Parents Refusing Vaccines 'High and Getting Worse,' Pediatrician Says
PBS NewsHour: The childhood vaccine program of the United States has proven to be one
of the most powerful public health achievements of our history," Dr.
John McCullers told a Senate hearing on Tuesday. And yet, vaccine
opposition and hesitancy "are now impairing our ability to effectively
ensure coverage," he said. McCullers, pediatrician-in-chief at Le
Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, explained how
pediatricians can play an important role in counselling parents who get
much of their misinformation online or from uninformed opinions on
social media. But for parents who aren't swayed by their doctors,
McCullers says broader educational and policy fixes are needed to combat
this public health threat.
Queen Elizabeth Marks 50th Anniversary Charles' Investiture as Prince of Wales
Global News: Queen Elizabeth held a reception at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday to mark
the 50th anniversary of the investiture of her oldest son Charles as
Prince of Wales.
Venezuela's Guaido Holds News Conference After Meeting with Union Leaders
Global News: Venezuelan opposition leader and self-declared interim president Juan
Guaido meets with public workers and union leaders at the Colegio de
Ingenieros a day after his return to Venezuela.
Kim Jong Un Receives Hero's Welcome Upon Return to North Korea
Global News: North Korea's state media released a video of its leader Kim Jong Un
returning to Pyongyang on March 5 after visiting Hanoi for the second
summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ocasio-Cortez, Warren and Sanders in an Unlikely Skirmish With N.Y. Democrats
They’re fighting over an arcane but critical aspect of New York’s
election laws that gives small parties the ability to wield significant
influence in state politics.
Click here for details.
Source: The New York Times
NYPD Update: The February Crime Stats and Other Issues
Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner O’Neill hold a media availability at NYPD headquarters in Manhattan.
Source: NYC Mayor's Office
Mayor de Blasio Signs Legislation on Basement Apartment Legalization
Source: NYC Mayor's Office
Monday, March 4, 2019
Governor Cuomo to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler: 'I Urge You to Visit the Hudson River'
"In New York, we are leading the fight to protect our environment with the most ambitious environmental agenda in the nation.
"Administrator Wheeler, while you are in New York, I urge you to visit the Hudson River, one of this country's natural treasures that is also one of the most pressing Superfund sites in the country. New York has fought to restore this vital resource but the ball is now in the EPA's court. The EPA can either do the right thing and continue to hold GE accountable for continued clean up, or they can side with big polluters and let GE off the hook for its responsibility to clean up PCBs in the river.
"The EPA has moved toward issuing a Certificate of Completion ending GE's responsibility for cleaning up the Superfund site, but our research confirms that high levels of PCBs remain in the river. We refused to allow PCB contamination to continue to jeopardize the health and safety of our communities for generations to come. We hope and expect that the EPA will join us in ensuring the full completion of the cleanup."
Source: The Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
Here’s the State of African-American Media Today — and Steps It Can Take Going Forward
Appropriately, Democracy Fund released a report
on the state of African-American media in the last days of Black
History Month here in the U.S. It includes a detailed history of
African-American media, from the 1800s’ Freedom’s Journal and Frederick Douglass’ The North Star — creating a legacy of, according to the late Columbia Journalism professor Phyllis Garland,
“never [intending] to be objective because it didn’t see the white
press being objective. It often took a position. It had an attitude.
This was a press of advocacy. There was news, but the news had an
admitted and a deliberate slant.”
Click here for the full article.
Source: NiemanLab
Mocking the Dead: A Message for Michelle Malkin and the GOP
Karma's a Bitch!
Get
ready! It's coming for you, Michelle! It also has its sights on members
of the GOP that have leaned so far to the right that they can't even
walk down the halls of Congress without bumping into a damn wall.
Those
who cheered Malkin's recent act of disrespect toward Senator John
McCain at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) can expect
a visit, too. Taking pleasure or pride in mocking the dead doesn't make
you a true conservative. It makes you a heartless dumb-ass. Period, end of
story!
The universe is the greatest equalizer. Laugh now, but rest assured. You all will cry later.
"G-Man"
It's Time to Finally Listen to Native Journalists
By Nick Martin
To be a Native American reporter—to be Native at all—is to be constantly active, constantly tired, and constantly mad.
I’ve written ledes that open this way numerous times in just the past few months. The repetition is part of a long history of Native issues being ignored or erroneously covered by the mainstream American media.
Depending
on who you talk to, the non-Indigenous crowd’s coverage of Indian
Country issues is either stagnating or improving too slowly. But no one
who regularly covers Native issues will claim that the major
publications are doing a good job. It’s not because they’re not trying
to cover our issues; it’s because they’re trying to cover Indian Country
without the journalists that call that place home.
“Are they
doing it better? No, in short,” Native American Journalists Association
President Tristan Ahtone, member of the Kiowa Tribe, told Splinter on a
phone call earlier this month. “I think there’s effort there, but those
organizations move at glacial speeds when it comes to change.
Click here for the full article.
Source: Splinter
The Intercept: MSNBC Yet Again Broadcasts Blatant Lies
This Time About Bernie Sanders’ Opening
Speech, and Refuses to Correct Them
Speech, and Refuses to Correct Them
By Glenn Greenwald
MSNBC is a dishonest political operation, not a news outlet. It systematically and deliberately refuses to adopt
a defining attribute of a news outlet: a willingness to acknowledge
factual errors, correct them, and apologize. That they not only allow
their lies to stand uncorrected but reward their employees who do it most frequently – especially when those lies are directed at adversaries of the Democratic Party – proves that they are, first and foremost, a political arm of the Democratic establishment.
The most recent example is as glaring as it is malicious. On Saturday
in Brooklyn, Bernie Sanders delivered his first speech for his 2020
presidential campaign in front of thousands of people. MSNBC broadcast
the speech live, and anyone can watch the full 2-hour event, or just Sanders’ full 35-minute speech, on YouTube.
As a result, there’s no confusion possible about what was said. Everyone can see it with their own eyes.
Before Sanders spoke, he was introduced by a series of speakers
including three African-Americans: South Carolina State Rep. Terry
Alexander (who spoke of Sanders’ life-long commitment to equal justice
and opportunity), former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner
(who heralded Sanders’ long-time commitment to racial justice and his
status as “only one of two white elected officials” who supported Jesse
Jackson’s presidential campaign run in 1984), and racial justice
activist (and Intercept columnist) Shaun King (who described in
detail Sanders’ history as an anti-racist and civil rights activist in
the 1960s and his decades-long devotion to issues of racial equality).
After Sanders’ speech, MSNBC immediately asked its panel for its
reaction. The first person they turned to was Zerlina Maxwell, who the
host identified only as an “MSNBC analyst.” What the host omitted, but
which Maxwell herself acknowledged, was that she was a paid official for
Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign against Sanders: that, revealingly, is
the first person MSNBC had opine on Sanders’ speech.
After the host noted that Maxwell was making gestures of disapproval
throughout Sanders’ speech and asked her what the cause was, Maxwell
proceeded to state demonstrable lies about that speech. She said:
To be very serious about it, I clocked it. He did not
mention race or gender until 23 minutes into the speech. And just for
point of comparison, I went back and looked at Elizabeth Warren’s
opening speech, for example. She mentions race and discrimination in the
first paragraph. So that’s a big difference.
That is a big difference. It’s also a total lie.
Click here for the full article.
The Week Ahead in Washington
Axios' Alayna Treene and the Philadelphia Inquirer's Jonathan Tamari preview the week ahead in Washington.
Click here for video.
Source: C-SPAN
Why America's Policies Toward Mothers Need to Be Fixed
This report was published on YouTube on March 3.
Ogden R. Reid, Herald Tribune Editor and Congressman, Dies at 93
Ogden
R. Reid, the former editor of The Herald Tribune who represented
congressional districts in Westchester County, N.Y., for 12 years, first
as a Republican and then as Democrat, died on Saturday at his home in
Waccabuc, N.Y. He was 93.
His death was confirmed by his son David.
Mr.
Reid was the scion of a newspaper publishing family whose grandfather
was the editor and principal owner of the renowned New York Tribune and
whose father merged it in the 1920s with the equally storied New York
Herald to form The Herald Tribune. Mr. Reid was The Herald Tribune’s
president and editor in the 1950s.
The
newspaper was respected for its high-quality journalism but dogged by
financial troubles that would help bring its demise in the 1960s; the
family sold its controlling interest in 1958. Mr. Reid entered
government service the next year when President Dwight D. Eisenhower
named him ambassador to Israel.
In
1961, another Republican, Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, appointed Mr. Reid
chairman of New York’s State Commission Against Discrimination. Some
politicians saw the move as intending to help make Mr. Reid better known
in the state should he seek elective office. His family’s ties to the
Republican Party went back to the 19th century.
Click here for the full article.
Source: The New York Times
From The G-Man salutes Mr. Reid's profound contribution to journalism and his service to the aforementioned congressional districts. May his family, friends and colleagues find some measure of comfort in the days to come, and may Ogden R. Reid forever rest in peace.
Jon Stewart Sticks by Praise for Trump Administration's Handling of 9/11 Fund
WASHINGTON
— Jon Stewart, no fan of President Trump, on Sunday stuck by his praise
for the Trump administration’s handling of the cash-strapped program
that aids ill and dying 9/11 responders.
“The Trump Justice Department is doing a good job running the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund,” Stewart told the Daily News.
Stewart
spoke after Trump on Sunday night retweeted a supporter’s post of video
showing Stewart praising the Justice Department’s handing of the fund.
Click here for the full article.
Source: The New York Daily News
NYU Professor Says He Was Targeted for Turnstile Jumping at Harlem Station....
A
New York University professor's turnstile jumping summons at a Harlem
train station with malfunctioning MetroCard machines has prompted civil
rights advocates to call on the NYPD's inspector general to probe racial
disparities in fare evasion enforcement.
The
Legal Aid Society fired off a letter last week to Inspector General
Phil Eure asking him to look into a January ticket that Prof. Terrance
Coffie received for going through the security gate at the St. Nicholas
Ave. station when none of the MetroCard machines were working properly.
Click here for the full article.
Source: The New York Daily News