(2020-05-07). PDF download of May 7 issue. workers.org 
Click to download entire 12-page PDF May Day coverage. Also: COVID‚Äë19 North Carolina protest; Genocide on Detroit; Cuban medical team; Trump and China; Pennies vs. billions; Tear down the walls A world without prisons; Mumia: On prison guards; Louisiana death camps; ‚ÄÇEditorial Fascists = bosses' tools; World Palestine Britain Venezuela . . . |
(2020-05-07). SFPD Wore "Blue Lives Matter" Face Masks While Responding to Protests. indybay.org Photos of the scene at a May 1 housing protest in San Francisco show a row of police wearing face masks that depict the "thin blue line" flag. At least one policeman at a reopen rally the same day wore the same mask. Police regulation states that officers cannot alter their uniform. City Police Chief Bill Scott says he is seeking "neutral" face coverings for the city's rank and file.
(2020-05-07). Mass Incarceration Poses a Uniquely American Risk in Pandemic. zcomm.org Mass incarceration is not only causing people to die of Covid-19 behind bars. As corrections facilities become hot spots, the virus is also rapidly spreading into the surrounding communities…
(2020-05-07). Lawsuit Targets Toxic Copper Mine Threatening Minnesota's Boundary Waters Wilderness. globalresearch.ca Conservation groups The Wilderness …
(2020-05-07). 80% of Prisoners at Ohio's Marion Prison Test Positive for COVID-19. zcomm.org Calls Grow for Mass Release…
(2020-05-06). Mumia Abu-Jamal: 'On Prison Guards'. workers.org 
This slightly edited commentary from April 24 by political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is available at prisonradio.org/media/audio/mumia. Mumia Abu-Jamal By Mumia Abu-Jamal I remember in [State Correctional Institute] Huntington and even in [SCI] Green. You know, when I was alone with a [guard] talking man-to-man, the guy said: "Listen, I'm a . . . |
(2020-05-06). Ecuador's Moreno govt persecutes opponents as coronavirus catastrophe exposes its neoliberal war on public sector. thegrayzone.com Sentencing former President Rafael Correa and Jorge Glas to eight years in jail and barring them from public office for…
(2020-05-06). PLANDEMIC, a film about the global plan to take control of our lives, liberty, health & freedom. thealtworld.com "ABOUT THE FILM Humanity is imprisoned by a killer pandemic. People are being arrested for surfing in the ocean and meditating in nature. Nations are collapsing. Hungry citizens are rioting for food. The media has generated so much confusion and fear that people are begging for salvation in a syringe. | Billionaire patent owners are pushing for globally mandated vaccines. Anyone who refuses to be injected with experimental poisons will be prohibited from travel, education and work. No, this is not a synopsis for a new horror movie. | This is our current reality. | Let's back up to address how we got here… In…
(2020-05-06). First COVID-19 Death in Immigration Detention a Result of Continued Dehumanization of People by ICE. commondreams.org ______________________________…
(2020-05-06). SPLC's Civil Rights Memorial Center, closed due to COVID-19, publishes children's activity book online. splcenter.org …
(2020-05-06). Army Abducts Fateh Secretary In Al-Jalazoun. imemc.org Israeli soldiers abducted, on Wednesday evening, the secretary of Fateh movement in the al-Jalazoun refugee camp, north of the central West Bank city of Ramallah. The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) has reported that the soldiers abducted Tha'er Nakhla, while he was heading back home after a visit to the al-'Ezariyya …
(2020-05-06). Israeli army bombs three different locations inside besieged Gaza strip. peoplesdispatch.org Israel continues its oppressive policies against Palestinians and has seized fresh Palestinian lands and demolished houses. It is also refused calls to release Palestinian prisoners in light of the COVID-19 emergency…
(2020-05-05). Solitary Confinement Used For Children As Young As 11 After COVID-19 Exposure. therealnews.com 
Lawyers say Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services and the Department of Correctional Services aren't being transparent about conditions in juvenile detention centers.
(2020-05-05). Víctor Polay: Incarceration in a Peruvian Naval Base. peoplesdispatch.org 
The political prisoner has spent the past two decades in complete isolation in a special penitentiary center on a Naval Base in Peru. Amid the spread of COVID-19 the incarcerated population is especially at risk…
(2020-05-05). The Case for Prison Abolition: Ruth Wilson Gilmore on COVID-19, Racial Capitalism & Decarceration. democracynow.org 
The spread of COVID-19 threatens the lives of more than 2.3 million people locked up in prisons and jails throughout the United States. We look at how the call to release prisoners during the coronavirus pandemic makes the case for prison abolition, with scholar Ruth Wilson Gilmore, co-founder of California Prison Moratorium Project and Critical Resistance and the author of "Golden Gulag: Prison, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California." Her forthcoming book is "Change Everything: Racial Capitalism and the Case for Abolition."
(2020-05-05). Calls Grow for Mass Release from Ohio's Marion Prison as 80% of Prisoners Test Positive for COVID-19. democracynow.org 
We get an update on one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the United States, at the Marion Correctional Institution in Ohio, where 11 prisoners and one staff member have died, and at least 80% of prisoners and half of the prison staff tested positive. Despite growing calls to release thousands of Ohio's nearly 50,000 incarcerated people as the coronavirus spreads, Governor Mike DeWine has only approved the release of more than 100 people in the state's prisons. "We're seeing a few people being released … but not anywhere near the 20,000 [we are] demanding," says Azzurra Crispino, whose husband, James, is in…
(2020-05-05). Headlines for May 5, 2020. democracynow.org Dire Forecasts Warn U.S. Death Toll Could Surge in Coming Weeks as States Move to Relax Restrictions, China Rebukes Trump Admin Claim That Coronavirus Was Man-Made, Report Says Brooklyn Jail Destroying Medical Records to Hide Toll of COVID-19, J. Crew Files for Bankruptcy, Betsy DeVos Sued for Garnishing Wages of Student Loan Holders During Pandemic, EU, World Leaders Pledge Billions to Fund Coronavirus Vaccine; U.S. Sits Out, Questions Raised After 3 Doctors in Russia Fall from Hospital Windows, U.K. May Have Second-Highest Coronavirus Death Toll; France Identifies COVID-19 Case from December, Venezuela Detains…
(2020-05-05). Moral Choices for Today's Physician. jamanetwork.com In this essay, Don Berwick considers moral choices physicians face personally, organizationally, and globally and exhorts them to understand that the health of humanity depends on their speaking out against the social injustice of overpricing drugs and services, mass incarceration, and the lack of environmental responsibility.
(2020-05-05). My Name Is Not "Interpreter" jamanetwork.com In this essay, the author relays his personal experience with ethnicity-based discrimination and discusses the "microaggressions" that medical trainees from underrepresented groups based on race/ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation experience.
(2020-05-05). Palestinian Prisoner Re-Detained on the Day of his Release. imemc.org Israeli forces, on Monday morning, arrested Nihad Zgheir, as soon as he was released from Israel's Gilboa jail, Quds News Network reported. The Committee of the Families of Jerusalem Prisoners told QNN that Zgheir, 42, who was released from prison Monday morning, after serving 35 months, was re-arrested by the …
(2020-05-05). COVID-19: UN teams step up efforts to protect rights in prisons, as revolts intensify worldwide. news.un.org As senior UN officials spread the alarm over the rapid spread of COVID-19 through prisons — where physical distancing is nigh on impossible, and hygiene is often inadequate — UN Corrections, Justice and Human Rights teams are working to protect prison staff and detainees from the ravages of the virus.
(2020-05-04). Spy Plane Resumes Flights Over Baltimore Amid COVID-19. therealnews.com 
The expensive aerial surveillance program won't help heavily disinvested Baltimore, say Ceasefire co-founder Erricka Bridgeford and author Brandon Soderberg.
(2020-05-04). Headlines for May 4, 2020. democracynow.org U.S. Makes Up a Third of Known Cases as Trump Revises Predicted Death Toll, NYC Nursing Home Reports Nearly 100 Deaths Linked to COVID-19, Trump Admin Continues Attack on China, Insists COVID-19 Developed in Wuhan Lab, White House Blocks Anthony Fauci from Testifying to House, Senators Return to Work in Coronavirus Hot Spot Washington, D.C., SCOTUS to Hear Cases by Phone, Arguments Will Be Open to Public, NYPD Violently Attack Two Black Men During Social Distancing Enforcement, Guards Sue ICE Jail for Failing to Protect Workers, Georgia Restaurants Refuse to Reopen After Gov. Kemp Lifts Lockdown, Spain, Italy Eas…
(2020-05-04). Boyle Heights celebrates May Day for the 6th consecutive year. fightbacknews.org Los Angeles, CA – On Friday, May 1, a car protest of over 40 vehicles driven by workers, teachers and activists took to the streets for the sixth consecutive year to celebrate International Workers Day, May Day, in the Boyle Heights neighborhood. Organized by Centro CSO, this year's May Day protest focused on Trump's attacks on immigrants and called for free healthcare for COVID-19 patients, support for public education, jailing killer cops and community control over the police. | "The coronavirus pandemic has affected oppressed nationalities like African Americans, Chicanos and American Indians the most. Unsafe…
(2020-05-04). Venezuela: 45 Killed in Guanare Prison Riot. venezuelanalysis.com The government pledged to investigate the May 1 riot, which it described as an attempted breakout.
(2020-05-02). [Editorial] COVID-19: remaking the social contract. thelancet.com "Allegiance, after all, has to work two ways; and one can grow weary of an allegiance which is not reciprocal." The British playwright David Hare quoted this line by the American writer James Baldwin in his recent reflections on the UK Government's response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Baldwin's reminder and warning in the context of civil rights in the mid-20th century USA speak now in the pandemic to communities the world over who are unsure of their governments' allegiances to them.
(2020-05-02). Sudan bans female genital mutilation, UNICEF vows to help support new law. news.un.org The United Nations Childen's Fund (UNICEF) welcomed the landmark move by Sudan's transitional government this week to criminalize female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), with a three-year jail sentence for offenders.
(2020-05-02). [Perspectives] Death of a courtier. thelancet.com A plague sweeps the nation, the head of state's health is threatened, and the business of government is rendered fragile and unsteady. It has been over a decade since Hilary Mantel began her Thomas Cromwell trilogy with Wolf Hall in 2009, and 8 years since 2012's Bring Up the Bodies, but what felt like an arduous wait now seems like nothing but impeccable timing. Cromwell even ends the novel under his own version of lockdown as a prisoner in the Tower of London. The world has been uncannily prepared for The Mirror & the Light.
(2020-05-02). [World Report] Prisons are "in no way equipped" to deal with COVID-19. thelancet.com Prisons are a hotspot for COVID-19. In theory, prisoners have the same right to health as anyone else, but the reality is very different. Talha Burki reports.
(2020-05-04). Coronavirus-positive scientist to return home from U.S. jail: Tehran. iranian.com Sirous Asgari, an Iranian scientist imprisoned in the United States who has contracted the novel coronavirus, will return home soon, according to Iran's Foreign Ministry. During a press conference on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said the ministry is following up on Asgari's case both in Iran and in the U.S. Asgari, who has …
(2020-05-01). How to Protest in a Pandemic. aclu.org 
For
(2020-05-01). A County Jail Battles COVID-19 and the Opioid Crisis—At the Same Time. progressive.org The pandemic and an increase in immigration detainees create a double whammy for the rural Ohio jail.
(2020-05-01). McDonald's Employees are Working through the COVID-19 Pandemic. So Why Don't They Have Access to Paid Sick and Family Leave? aclu.org Essential workers are on the front-lines during the COVID-19 pandemic, and have suffered
(2020-05-01). What Happened When I Needed an Abortion During the Pandemic. aclu.org I am a 30-year-old woman and mother of three kids living in Tennessee. My oldest is just over two years old. My two girls are nine-month-old twins. Because the twins were born prematurely, they have significant medical needs. I have no family living nearby, and very little caregiving support. I tried to get my son into daycare earlier this year, but the childcare facility — anticipating that they might have to shut down temporarily because of COVID-19 — declined to accept new enrollments., , After my girls were born, I knew I could not handle another child; I am already stretched almost to the brea…
(2020-05-01). A COVID-19 Balancing Act: Public Health and Privacy. aclu.org Some states are officially loosening their stay at home restrictions, and more will join in the coming months as Americans attempt to inch their way back to pre-COVID-19 life. Some of us will return to work, gather in small groups, and maybe even dine at a neighborhood restaurant. , , As we proceed, what will it take to keep us safe and prevent new spikes in infections? Many experts say we won't be out of the woods until there's a vaccine, but how would a national vaccination plan even work? At the same time, technological solutions are being proposed, especially related to contact tracing, the process b…
(2020-04-30). How the ACLU is Responding to the Pandemic, Visualized. aclu.org 
The COVID-19 pandemic has closed down many businesses, but the ACLU's work of defending and expanding civil liberties and civil rights continues, essential as ever. At the ACLU, our most immediate focus has been on issues arising from the government's response — or lack thereof — to the pandemic., , Since the start of the outbreak, we've filed over 90 legal actions and have seen thousands of people released from prisons, jails, and immigration detention. | We and ACLU offices across the country are working in nearly every state to save lives, advocate for vulnerable communities, safeguard the r…
(2020-04-30). Utah's Shiny Surveillance Technology to Address COVID-19 Fails Miserably. aclu.org 
How many times have you failed to get a new digital device working properly the first time? While toddlers can (amazingly) master iPhones in minutes, some tech gadgets require many troubleshooting attempts to activate. And even then, they might fizzle., , Last month, the state of Utah learned that simple tech lesson in a very public way., , As part of a series of measures to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert issued an executive order requiring every adult crossing the Utah border to submit an electronic State of Utah Travel Self-Declaration Form with details about their contact info…
(2020-04-30). Four Myths About Trans Athletes, Debunked. aclu.org For years state lawmakers have pushed legislation attempting to shut trans people out of public spaces. In 2020, lawmakers zeroed in on sports and introduced
(2020-04-29). Federal Bill Would Release Vulnerable People from Prisons to Help Stop Spread of COVID-19. aclu.org A month ago, Congress gave the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
(2020-04-28). Trump attacks trans health access during a pandemic. liberationnews.org 
Under an expected rewrite of part of the ACA, discrimination against trans people in health care would be legally permitted.
(2020-04-28). Headlines for April 28, 2020. democracynow.org Known U.S. Deaths Top 56,000 as New Study Shows True Number Likely Much Higher, Trump Ignored Early Intelligence Reports as Coronavirus Spread, Trump Denies Responsibility for Spike in Disinfectant Poisonings, Texas Reopens Businesses, California Warns Against Violating Restrictions | , Trump's Plan to Give Commencement Address at West Point Could Bring Back 1,000 Cadets to Campus, NY Cancels Primary After Removing Bernie Sanders from the Ballot , U.N. Calls for Release of Immigrant Prisoners as San Diego Facility Refuses to Allow Face Mask Delivery, More Cases Reported at Prisons as New Study Shows 96% of Inmate…
(2020-04-22). First person to die in Alabama's prisons with COVID-19 spent more than four decades behind bars. splcenter.org …
(2020-04-18). David Meiswinkle Interview — Ongoing Suppression Of 9/11 Truth & Proof Of Controlled Demolition. thelastamericanvagabond.com Joining me today is the President and Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, David R. Meiswinkle, Esq. David is a retired New Brunswick police officer and a United States Army veteran, as well as a criminal defense attorney. He is here today to discuss the continuing cover up of 9/11 truth, and …
(2020-03-31). [Comment] Ensuring global access to COVID-19 vaccines. thelancet.com The current response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic involves aggressive implementation of suppression strategies, such as case identification, quarantine and isolation, contact tracing, and social distancing. However, models developed by the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team suggest that "transmission will quickly rebound if interventions are relaxed".1 WHO warns of multiple simultaneous outbreaks of COVID-19 worldwide.2 The development of COVID-19 vaccines that can be used globally is therefore a priority for ending the pandemic.
(2020-02-28). Carol Anderson on Voter Suppression. fair.org 
Media…
(2020-02-04). Biden Threatens Lawsuit to Halt Release of Real Iowa Caucus Results. theantimedia.com American democracy—ain't it grand?>