Julian Assange's father warns WikiLeaks' publisher's health is "declining rapidly" in Belmarsh Prison
wsws.org | 2019-08-20
"The government will willingly sacrifice Julian's well-being to the demands of the US and the UK."
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/20/ship-a20.html
New Calif. law is one of nation's strongest to prevent police shootings
Marilyn Bechtel | peoplesworld.org | 2019-08-20
On a stage packed with legislative and other civic leaders, civil rights activists and members of families with loved ones killed by police, California Governor Gavin Newsom on Aug. 19 signed one of the country's strictest laws limiting conditions for police to use lethal force. The law, Assembly Bill 392, the California Act to Save …
peoplesworld.org/article/new-calif-law-is-one-of-nations-strongest-to-prevent-police-shootings/
APTP Monthly Membership Meeting: Scott Morris on Santa Rita Jail
Anti Police-Terror Project | indybay.org | 2019-08-20
East Side Arts Alliance | 2277 International Blvd. | Oakland, CA 94606…
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/17/18825530.php
Lawsuit Challenges Trump EPA's 200 Million-Acre Expansion of Bee-Killing Pesticide
commondreams.org | 2019-08-20
______________________________…
commondreams.org/newswire/2019/08/20/lawsuit-challenges-trump-epas-200-million-acre-expansion-bee-killing-pesticide?cd-origin=rss
Black August Forum: Down with the Racist Prison System!
Party for Socialism and Liberation | indybay.org | 2019-08-20
2969 Mission St. near 26th St.
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/15/18825505.php
600 Mink Liberated from Jerry Marr Mink Farm in Washington (Delayed Report)
Animal Liberation Press Office | indybay.org | 2019-08-20
Washington State: In early November last year, animal liberation activists crossed a waist high stream to reach the woods surrounding Jerry Marr mink farm in northern Washington. While waiting to ensure the farm was free from security patrols, the activists were met with the scattered cries and constant scratching of imprisoned minks. Within fifteen minutes six hundred cages were opened. Fencing was damaged allowing escapees easier access to the nearby creek. These solitary predators can travel ten miles in a day and will quickly disperse over a large area once released. Hopefully a handful of animals found the N…
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/15/18825509.php
Lawsuit on Behalf of 55,000 Migrants Accuses Trump Administration of Torture in ICE Detention Centers
Jake Johnson, staff writer | commondreams.org | 2019-08-20
"Tens of thousands have suffered as a result of the federal government's abject failure to provide basic medical care. More will suffer, and more will die, without court intervention." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/trump_ice.jpg …
commondreams.org/news/2019/08/20/lawsuit-behalf-55000-migrants-accuses-trump-administration-torture-ice-detention?cd-origin=rss
Facing Federal Charges for Aiding Migrants, Activist Says He Won't Be Deterred
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-19
| We broadcast live from Tucson, Arizona, where the government recently put humanitarian activist Scott Warren on trial amid the ongoing policing of the U.S.-Mexico border, separation of families, and cruel and inhumane conditions at immigrant jails across the country. Warren, a longtime volunteer with the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, was charged with three felony counts for his alleged crime of providing food, water and shelter to migrants in Ajo, Arizona. The immigrants had arri…
truthout.org/video/facing-federal-charges-for-aiding-migrants-activist-says-he-wont-be-deterred/
Trump is Taking More Money for Raids and Detention. Congress Should Stop Him
aclu.org | 2019-08-19
Without congressional checks, ICE and CBP will continue to overspend and overstep. | The budget for Trump's turbo-charged immigration enforcement and border militarization is now larger than ever. And just last week, we learned that ICE plans to redirect even more money to further expand immigration detention and enforcement. The request is currently pending approval by congressional approp…
aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention/trump-taking-more-money-raids-and-detention
Sanders unveils plan to end cash bail, ban private prisons, and 'fundamentally transform' US criminal justice system
Jake Johnson | nationofchange.org | 2019-08-19
Decrying America's status as the "world's leading jailer," Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday released a comprehensive plan to confront the crisis of mass incarceration, end the criminalization of poverty, and dramatically overhaul the U.S. criminal justice system. | "We have a criminal justice system that is racist and broken, and working together we're going to fundamentally transform it," said Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. | The platform, which Sander…
nationofchange.org/2019/08/19/sanders-unveils-plan-to-end-cash-bail-ban-private-prisons-and-fundamentally-transform-us-criminal-justice-system/
Health Care Imperialism: Looting the World's Doctors
David Penner | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-08-19
To poach and rely on highly skilled foreign workers from poor countries in the public sector is akin to the crime of theft. — "Migration of Health Workers: An Unmanaged Crisis," The Lancet, May 28, 2005 What is striking about the tyranny of the medical industrial complex is not only its unconscionable oppression of the …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/08/health-care-imperialism-looting-the-worlds-doctors/
Sanders Plans to Overhaul US Criminal Justice System
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-19
The United States Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders Sunday talked about his plans to "reform every aspect of America's dysfunctional criminal justice system". | RELATED: | Cardi B Meets Bernie Sanders, Talks Minimum Wage, Unemployment | His proposals include cutting the prison population in half, end mandatory minimum sentencing, legalizing mariju…
telesurenglish.net/news/Bernie-Sanders-Plans-to-Overhaul-Dysfunctional-Criminal-Justice-System-of-US-20190819-0004.html
Salvadoran Woman Acquitted in Retrial for Stillbirth
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-19
A Salvadoran court absolved a woman previously convicted of aggravated homicide after she gave birth to a stillborn child, the woman's lawyer Bertha DeLeon said on Monday, in a closely watched retrial that overturns a 30-year prison sentence. | Defendant Evelyn Hernandez, 21, has already served three years of the sentence handed down after prosecutors said she had induced an abortion. | RELATED: | El Salvador Teen Rape Victim to be Retried for Abortion | The case had attracted in…
telesurenglish.net/news/Salvadoran-Woman-Acquitted-in-Retrial-for-Stillbirth-20190819-0008.html
Bernie Sanders: 'We will go to war with White Nationalism'
NationofChange Staff | nationofchange.org | 2019-08-19
Senator Bernie Sanders announced to a Black Church PAC Presidential Forum in Atlanta this week that, if elected, his administration "go to war against white nationalism and racism." | "When we combat white nationalism and when we combat racism," Sanders told the crowd. "We are gonna use all of the laws in our power, including executive orders in every area, to make certain that we end the discrimination which now exists in healthcare, where black women are dying three times the rate of white women when they give birth." | Referring to white nationalism as "domestic terrorism", Sanders also said that "Too many…
nationofchange.org/2019/08/19/bernie-sanders-we-will-go-to-war-with-white-nationalism/
"Humanitarian Aid Is Never a Crime": No More Deaths Volunteers Drop Water in Desert to Aid Migrants
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-19
Volunteers with the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths have been venturing into the harsh Sonoran Desert for years to leave life-saving supplies for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Longtime volunteer Scott Warren was charged with three felonies for the alleged crime of providing food, water and shelter to migrants. After a hung jury in June, he is now facing retrial on two felony counts and faces a possible 10 years in prison. As he awaits his next trial as well as deals with misdemeanor charges in another case of aiding migrants, Democracy Now! followed him into the Sonoran Desert for his first trip…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/19/humanitarian_aid_is_never_a_crime
Activist Scott Warren, Facing Federal Charges for Aiding Migrants, Says He Won't Be Deterred
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-19
We broadcast live from Tucson, Arizona, where the government recently put humanitarian activist Scott Warren on trial amid the ongoing policing of the U.S.-Mexico border, separation of families, and cruel and inhumane conditions at immigrant jails across the country. Warren, a longtime volunteer with the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, was charged with three felony counts for his alleged crime of providing food, water and shelter to migrants in Ajo, Arizona. The immigrants had arrived at the doorstep of a humanitarian shelter after a perilous journey across the Sonoran Desert. At the same time, he and othe…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/19/no_more_deaths_scott_warren
Iranian Oil Tanker Leaves Gibraltar Despite US Pressure
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-18
The Iranian oil tanker seized as a tool of confrontation between the Persian country and the West has finally left Gibraltar Sunday after the British territory rejected a request from the United States to pursue the detention. | RELATED: | France Fires Back at Trump Over Iran Comments | The Adrian Darya 1, formerly known as Grace 1, left anchorage off Gibraltar around 11: 00 p.m.
telesurenglish.net/news/Iranian-Oil-Tanker-Leaves-Gibraltar-Despite-of-US-Pressure-20190818-0013.html
After 10 years, federal executions set to resume
Gloria Rubac | workers.org | 2019-08-17
Attorney General William Barr is moving the United States backward. He is taking hard-fought civil rights gains to the dumpster. Just like President Donald Trump, he has nothing but racist contempt for people caught up in the so-called criminal justice system. Barr suddenly announced in a Department of Justice press . . . | Continue reading After 10 years, federal executions set to resume at Workers.org…
workers.org/2019/08/17/after-10-years-federal-executions-set-to-resume/
"In the US Prison Industrial Complex, slavery can be used as form of punishment"
Alex Anfruns | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-08-17
On the 31st July 2019 a group of incarcerated people at Scotland Correctional, North Carolina, started a hunger strike in order to protest against the use of torture in the correctional facility. In the United States, there are more than 2 million people incarcerated. To know more about the hunger strikers' conditions, Alex Anfruns has …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/08/in-the-us-prison-industrial-complex-slavery-can-be-used-as-form-of-punishment/
Activists challenge ICE profiteers
Betsey Piette | workers.org | 2019-08-17
Shortly after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, shares of CoreCivic Inc. and GEO Group (CXW and GEO on the stock exchange) shot up 21 and 43 percent, respectively. The two companies controlled 85 percent of the private, for-profit prison industry. Today, facilities run by these two companies hold . . . | Continue reading Activists challenge ICE profiteers at Workers.org…
workers.org/2019/08/17/activists-challenge-ice-profiteers/
'Quash' convictions and release women jailed for protesting against wearing veils in Iran, urge UN rights experts
United Nations | un.org | 2019-08-16
Decades-long prison sentences handed down to three women protesting the strictly enforced wearing of veils in Iran, have drawn alarm and condemnation from six United Nations independent human rights experts.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/08/1044371
Friday's Daily Brief: Education key for Rohingya, DR Congo violence continues, Zimbabwe protest latest, women's rights in Iran, environmental protection
United Nations | un.org | 2019-08-16
Our main stories today: Two years in, Myanmar's Rohingya youth need more education; DR Congo testimonies highlight armed brutality; appeals for Zimbabwe to 'stop cracking down' on protesters; Iran urged to release women jailed for protesting veiling laws; and new human rights agreement on environmental protection.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/08/1044391
US Trained Honduran Police Get Medieval as Political Prisoner Edwin Espinal Released
Adrienne Pine | mintpressnews.com | 2019-08-16
The Honduran corruption canard keeps the focus on police resources and individuals rather than on the pangs of privatization, and so it is often the line favored by the U.S. State Department.
mintpressnews.com/honduras-political-prisoner-edwin-espinal-released-us-trained-police-medieval/261374/
Rap Brown, now Jamil Abdullah El-Amin, Challenges His Imprisonment
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-16
Kairi Al-Amin, the son of H. Rap Brown, now Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, talks about his father's case and his appeal because of a prosecutor violating his right not to testify him by questioning during closing arguments. Al-Amin is 75 and with a sentence of life imprisonment…
therealnews.com/stories/rap-brown-now-jamil-abdullah-el-amin-challenges-his-imprisonment
For Years, Reporters Questioned the Terror Prosecution of Hamid Hayat. Now He's Been Freed
Trevor Aaronson | theintercept.com | 2019-08-16
After spending 14 years in prison on charges that he attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan, Hamid Hayat was freed on August 9 following a California judge's decision to overturn the conviction. | From the start, Hayat's case had been controversial. | The government's star witness, Naseem Khan, was a fast-food worker earning $7 per hour before the FBI enlisted him as an informant and paid him nearly $230,000 over three years. Khan came to the FBI's attention about a month after the September 11 terrorist attacks by claiming to have information about a visit to the United States by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama…
theintercept.com/2019/08/16/terrorism-september-11-prosecution/
The Great Land Robbery: How Federal Policies Dispossessed Black Americans of Millions of Acres
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-16
Over the 20th century, black people in the U.S. were dispossessed of 12 million acres of land. Half of that loss — 6 million acres — occurred over just two decades, from 1950 to 1969, a period largely associated with the civil rights struggle. This mass land dispossession, which affected 98% of black agricultural land owners, is part of the pattern of institutional racism and discrimination that has contributed to the racial wealth gap in the United States. Many of the driving forces behind this land theft were legal and originated in federal policies, as documented by Vann Newkirk, staff writer at Th…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/16/vann_newkirk_great_land_robbery
India turns Kashmir into a giant prison
susan_p | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-16
Susan PriceIssue 1233 Kashmir 2019 Indian occupation of KashmirThe left in India and Pakistan is united in opposing the decision by Narendra Modi's BJP government on August 5 to unilaterally revoke Kashmir's autonomy, send in troops, impose a curfew and shut down all communications. | Pakistan's Awami Workers' Party spokes…
greenleft.org.au/content/india-turns-kashmir-giant-prison
Bulgaria: Jock Palfreeman denied parole
susan_p | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-16
Andy FlemingIssue 1233 Bulgaria Jock Palfreeman Bulgarian Prisoners Rehabilitation Association (BPRA)Anti-fascist activist Jock Palfreeman was denied parole on July 17 on his 20-year prison sentence for murder in Sofia, Bulgaria.
greenleft.org.au/content/bulgaria-jock-palfreeman-denied-parole
The Challenges of Breastfeeding as a Black Person
aclu.org | 2019-08-15
How our workplaces and healthcare system create barriers to breastfeeding. | The fight to protect individual choices about reproductive care, including breastfeeding, is an ongoing battle. The central lesson of the reproductive justice movement is that choice means little without access. That lesson applies equally to breastfeeding. | Though laws, in the workplace and other contexts, are in place to protect the right to breastfeed, many low-income women and w…
aclu.org/blog/womens-rights/pregnancy-and-parenting-discrimination/challenges-breastfeeding-black-person
Truck Rams Anti-ICE Protest in Rhode Island
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-15
A corrections officer struck Never Again protestors with his truck outside of the Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island, hospitalizing two while other protestors were pepper sprayed by police. Update: A Captain involved in the incident was placed on leave pending an independent investigation, officials say…
therealnews.com/stories/truck-rams-anti-ice-protest-in-rhode-island
The BDS movement calls to boycott three anti-Palestinian German clubs
SAMIR | bdsmovement.net | 2019-08-15
The BDS movement calls to boycott three anti-Palestinian German clubs: PACBI StatementConne Island, Golden Pudel and : //about blank are complicit in Israel's oppression of Palestinians | Cultural Boycott Right To BoycottAugust 15, 2019…
bdsmovement.net/news/bds-calls-to-boycott-three-german-clubs
SPLC publishes Opportunity Costs: Unequal Justice in Alabama's Community Corrections Programs
splcenter.org | 2019-08-15
A new investigative report published today by the Southern Poverty Law Center reveals serious flaws in Alabama's community corrections programs, an otherwise promising system for diverting people from the state's prisons.
splcenter.org/news/2019/08/15/splc-publishes-opportunity-costs-unequal-justice-alabamas-community-corrections-programs
Federal Ex-Offenders at Risk of Losing Ties to Their Community in DC
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-15
A DC Real estate mega-developer has reneged on an agreement to lease one of his properties for a re-entry program for 300 men returning from federal prison. What does this mean for those men, their families, and the community?
therealnews.com/stories/federal-ex-offenders-at-risk-of-losing-ties-to-their-community-in-dc
BDS condemns antisemitic, fascist forces in Germany and worldwide
patrick | bdsmovement.net | 2019-08-14
BDS condemns antisemitic, fascist forces in Germany and worldwide: BNC StatementOur nonviolent movement opposes all forms of racism and racial discrimination. | Right To BoycottAugust 14, 2019 | By: | | Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) …
bdsmovement.net/news/bds-condemns-antisemitic-fascist-forces-germany-and-worldwide
"River of Fire": In New Memoir, Sister Helen Prejean Reflects on Decades of Fighting Executions
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-14
The Trump administration is moving ahead with plans to resume the death penalty after a more than 15-year moratorium. This week Attorney General William Barr proposed fast-tracking executions in mass murder cases, and last month ordered the execution of five death row prisoners beginning in December. The federal government has executed just three people since 1963 — the last being in 2003. The death penalty is widely condemned by national governments, international bodies and human rights groups across the world. Experts say capital punishment does not help deter homicides and that errors and racism in the…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/14/sister_helen_prejean_federal_death_penalty
Expanding Involuntary Confinement is Not the Answer to Solve Gun Violence
aclu.org | 2019-08-13
Institutionalizing people against their will is usually a mistake. | In the wake of last weekend's tragic shootings, President Trump did what he does best: stoked fear and cast blame. He proclaimed that "we must reform our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence and make sure those people, not only get treatment, but when necessary, involuntary confinement." | There are two things wrong with the idea of involuntary commitment as a solution to gun violence. First, focusing on people with identifiable mental disabilities won't help. The data is clear: men…
aclu.org/blog/disability-rights/integration-and-autonomy-people-disabilities/expanding-involuntary
Intent on Restoring His Conviction and Death Sentence, Arizona Reinvents Its Case Against Barry Jones
Liliana Segura | theintercept.com | 2019-08-13
On a clear, blue day in late spring, Arizona Assistant Attorney General Myles Braccio stood before a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. It was just after 10 a.m. Braccio had a half-hour to salvage a 24-year-old death penalty conviction that had been overturned by a federal judge. "Your honors," he began, "this case today presents nothing more than a habeas petitioner who hired several new experts, many years after his convictions and sentences, in an attempt to undermine the jury's verdicts." | The petitioner was Barry Lee Jones, sent to death row in 1995 for an unspeakable crime: the rape and…
theintercept.com/2019/08/13/arizona-death-penalty/
Unequal Justice: John Roberts' Dark Legacy of Voter Suppression
Bill Blum | progressive.org | 2019-08-13
Plaintiffs are litigating voting rights cases in Alabama, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, and several other states. Some will succeed, some will fail, but all will be more uncertain and expensive thanks to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
progressive.org/dispatches/unequal-justice-john-roberts-dark-legacy-of-voter-suppression-blum-190812/
Weekend Read: Neo-Nazi leader must pay more than $14 million in damages
splcenter.org | 2019-08-10
A federal judge has ruled in an SPLC lawsuit that neo-Nazi leader Andrew Anglin must pay more than $14 million in damages for using his website to launch an antisemitic campaign of terror against a Jewish woman and her family.
splcenter.org/news/2019/08/10/weekend-read-neo-nazi-leader-must-pay-more-14-million-damages
Over 132,400 Opposed Trump's Anti-Trans Health Care Plan
aclu.org | 2019-08-09
A proposed rule would undermine protections for transgender people and others facing discriminatory denials of health care and insurance coverage. | The Trump Administration has shown it will stop at nothing to undermine access to health care for marginalized communities. Most recently, the Administration has proposed to undermine critical protections against sex discrimination in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, the Health Care Rights Law. Instead of combatting discrimination in accessing health care a…
aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/transgender-rights/over-132400-opposed-trumps-anti-trans-health-care-plan
New Civil Rights Memorial to be installed on 54th anniversary of Voting Rights Act
splcenter.org | 2019-08-05
Jimmie Lee Jackson was beaten and shot by Alabama state troopers during a peaceful voting rights march on Feb. 18, 1965.
splcenter.org/news/2019/08/06/new-civil-rights-memorial-be-installed-54th-anniversary-voting-rights-act
Oklahoma Victims Compensation Program Disproportionately Denies Funds for Black Victims
aclu.org | 2019-07-31
Data shows that Black victims are often denied compensation for the very same crimes as committed against white victims, who did receive compensation. | Tiras Johnson, age 23, was unarmed when he was shot and killed in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His family was devastated by his death, and they were struggling to pay for Tiras' funeral. Like many victims' families, Tiras' mother applied for financial compensation through the Oklahoma Crime Victims Compensation Act in order to cover his funeral costs, but instead received a surprising response in the mail. | The letter, addressed to Tiras' mother, Netarsha, explained that h…
aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/oklahoma-victims-compensation-program
Los Angeles demands justice for Anthony Vargas — #JailKillerCops!
Kameron Hurt | liberationnews.org | 2019-07-31
On July 27, over 60 members of the Los Angeles community gathered outside the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Department to celebrate the life of Anthony Daniel Vargas, who would have been celebrating his 22nd birthday that day.
liberationnews.org/los-angeles-demands-justice-for-anthony-vargas-jailkillercops/
Supreme Court Order No 'Big Victory' For Trump's Border Wall. The Fight Continues
aclu.org | 2019-07-29
The Supreme Court has not yet decided the case, or given Trump's abuse of emergency powers the stamp of approval. | Late Friday evening, the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration a temporary green light to begin construction of the border wall using military funds Congress denied. The order, while temporary and limited to specific wall projects where fencing already exists, threatens to permanently damage border communities, the environment, and our Constitution's separation of powers. | But it's not the "big victory" President Trump q…
aclu.org/blog/national-security/supreme-court-order-no-big-victory-trumps-border-wall-fight-continues
When Kicking Around an Orange Gets You On Probation
aclu.org | 2019-07-26
I was in 8th grade. I just didn't want to get in more trouble, so I signed the papers, like I was told to. | I was in 8th grade when it happened. I'll never forget the feeling of those cold, clanky pairs of metal constraints. I was being handcuffed in front of my friends and classmates. | As a lot of middle school students do, I was fooling around with my friends outside at lunch. We found an orange and started kicking it around like a soccer ball. It turns out I picked a bad day to fool around, and a bad person to tick off. A school resource officer — basically a cop — was stationed in the cafeteria,…
aclu.org/blog/juvenile-justice/when-kicking-around-orange-gets-you-probation