2019-02-02: Social Media Postees

Controversial ATCA Legislation Halts US Aid to Palestine
teleSUR | telesurenglish.net | 2019-02-02
February 1 ushered in an end to some US$60 million in U.S. aid to Palestinian security forces following legislation – which would leave foreign aid recipients vulnerable to anti-terrorism lawsuits – coming into effect on January 31. | RELATED: | UN Cuts Palestine Food Aid After U.S. Reduced Funding | "At the request of the Palestinian Authority, we have wound down certain projects and programs funded with assistance under the authorities specified in ATCA (Anti-Terrorism Clarification A…
telesurenglish.net/news/Controversial-ATCA-Legislation-Halts-US-Aid-to-Palestine–20190202-0003.html

The Vanishing Wealth of Black America
Bob Lord | zcomm.org | 2019-02-02
Before we even begin the challenge of persuading white Americans to do right, we first must persuade ourselves to stop doing wrong. Racism, structural and overt, is alive and well in America today…
zcomm.org/znetarticle/the-vanishing-wealth-of-black-america/

Fishermen and Winnemem Wintu file lawsuit to protect San Joaquin River salmon
Dan Bacher | indybay.org | 2019-02-02
Noah Oppenheim, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Association called Friday's lawsuit, "a long overdue wake-up call that the State Water Board must now do its job to prevent the imminent extinction of this irreplaceable fishery. For decades this regulatory process has been captured by water agencies with no compunctions about hastening the end of salmon fisheries. Today salmon fishermen and fishing communities are raising their voice." | "Unless the Board is ordered to comply with the law and these flows are restored at the scientifically recommended levels, California's salmon wil…
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/01/31/18820911.php

Lawsuit alleges Amazon caused worker's death
WSWS | wsws.org | 2019-02-02
The wife of a worker who died at a Joliet, Illinois Amazon warehouse in 2017 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Amazon for the extreme delay of medical treatment that led to his death.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/02/02/amaz-f02.html

Virginia governor admits to KKK/blackface yearbook photo, refuses to resign
RT | rt.com | 2019-02-02
Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia is refusing to resign over photos from his medical school yearbook showing him wearing either a KKK costume or blackface. He campaigned in 2017 on accusing his Republican opponent of racism. | …
rt.com/usa/450375-governor-virginia-northam-yearbook-racist/

The U.S. 12-Step Method to Conduct Regime Change
Vijay Prashad | commondreams.org | 2019-02-01
Vice President Mike Pence speaks at Iglesia Doral Jesus Worship Center after meeting with Venezuelan exiles and community leaders on February 01, 2019 in Doral, Florida. Vice President Pence met with families, political prisoners and former elected officials who were forced to flee their country due to political persecution. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/venezuela_regime_change.jpg
commondreams.org/views/2019/02/01/us-12-step-method-conduct-regime-change?cd-origin=rss

Ghandi and the American Civil Rights Movement
Consortiumnews | consortiumnews.com | 2019-02-01
Howard Thurman travelled to India and returned to the U.S. intent on bringing nonviolence to the struggles of African Americans, writes Walter E. Fluker. Howard Thurman's image on Howard University chapel's stained glass window. (Fourandsixty from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA)… Read more ?…
consortiumnews.com/2019/02/01/ghandi-and-the-american-civil-rights-movement/

Immigrants in US Subjected to Nasal Force-feeding at ICE Detention Center
Patrick Martin | globalresearch.ca | 2019-02-01
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is force-feeding immigrants held in a detention center in Texas, using brutal torture against at least ten men engaged in a hunger strike against their prolonged confinement and mistreatment. The men, mainly Sikhs from … | The post Immigrants in US Subjected to Nasal Force-feeding at ICE Detention Center appeared first on Global Research.
globalresearch.ca/immigrants-in-us-subjected-to-nasal-force-feeding-at-ice-detention-center/5667228

Congress, Don't Give DHS Unrestricted Authority to Build a 'Smart Wall'
ACLU | aclu.org | 2019-02-01
What Congress must do to ensure that border technology doesn't trample on the rights of border communities. | On Thursday, House Democrats unveiled their proposal for a $55 billion Department of Homeland Security budget. The proposal includes some strong provisions — including no funding for a border wall, no new Border Patrol agents, and a requirement for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to cut its detention of immigrants and phase out the jailing of immigrant families. But there are also a number of troubling elements, ch…
aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/ice-and-border-patrol-abuses/congress-dont-give-dhs-unrestricted-authority

ICE Partners Again With a Sheriff It Once Severed Ties With Because of Racial Profiling
ACLU | aclu.org | 2019-02-01
Sheriff Terry Johnson is known for racial profiling. He just secured $2.8 million in taxpayer funding to do ICE's bidding. | Whether it's Jeff Sessions, Stephen Miller, or Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the Trump administration has a real knack for empowering and absolving people who push discriminatory law enforcement and immigration policy. Now there's another name to add to that list: Sheriff Terry Johnson of Alamance County in North Carolina. Six years after the federal government severed ties with Sheriff Johnson for his office's discriminatory policing of Latinx residents, Uncle Sam and the Alamance County Sheriff's O…
aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/ice-and-border-patrol-abuses/ice-partners-again-sheriff-it-once-severed-ties

Jailed Journalists Appeal to Myanmar's Top Court For Release
teleSUR | telesurenglish.net | 2019-02-01
Lawyers for two Reuters reporters jailed in Myanmar for breaking a colonial-era official secrets law appealed to the Supreme Court Friday against their conviction, as a rights group said the government wielded repressive laws against peaceful critics. | RELATED: | Myanmar Court Denies Reporter's Appeal, Defense Outraged | The appeal, citing evidence of a polic…
telesurenglish.net/news/Jailed-Journalists-Appeal-to-Myanmars-Top-Court-For-Release-20190201-0014.html

28 Ways to Celebrate Black History Month
Vanessa Mbonu@naacpnet | naacp.org | 2019-02-01
Issa Rae Rooting For Everybody Black GIF from Issarae GIFs Since the 1970s, the month of February has been an exceptional period for the Black community as we devote 28 days — 29 if we're lucky — to commemorate all things Black. Black History Month is celebrated across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany […] | The post 28 Ways to Celebrate Black History Month appeared first on NAACP.
naacp.org/latest/28-ways-celebrate-black-history-month/

"Do We as a Society Have a Right to Kill?": Chinonye Chukwu's Film "Clemency" Examines Death Penalty
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2019-02-01
As the state of Texas this week carried out the nation's first execution of the year, we look at "Clemency," a new film starring Alfre Woodard that examines the death penalty from the perspective of those who have to carry out executions as well as the condemned. Woodard portrays prison warden Bernadine Williams as she prepares to oversee what would be her 12th execution as warden in the aftermath of one that was horribly botched. As her life seems to unravel, Williams, for the first time, grapples with what it means to be part of a system of state-sanctioned murder, as the execution date for Anthony Woods, playe…
www.democracynow.org/2019/2/1/do_we_as_a_society_have

Corporations Have Paid Out at Least $2.7 Billion in Civil-Rights and Labor Lawsuits Since 2000
Michelle Chen | thenation.com | 2019-02-01
Corporations Have Paid Out at Least $2.7 Billion in Civil-Rights and Labor Lawsuits Since 2000…
thenation.com/article/corporations-lawsuits-civil-rights/

Comment: The Politics of Racism
Bill Lueders | progressive.org | 2019-02-01
To say that Donald Trump is a racist is to state the obvious but miss the point.
progressive.org/magazine/comment-the-politics-of-racism-lueders/

Vietnam: Hanoi Misleads UN on Rights Record
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2019-02-01
Twenty-five political prisoners currently locked up for exercising basic rights. | | © 2018 Private | (Geneva) — Vietnam presented a grossly inaccurate picture of its human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on January 22, 2019, Human Rights Wat…
hrw.org/news/2019/02/01/vietnam-hanoi-misleads-un-rights-record

Immigrants in US subjected to nasal force-feeding at ICE detention center
WSWS | wsws.org | 2019-02-01
The Trump administration has imported the savage tortures carried out at Guantanamo Bay and other CIA prisons, for use against immigrants and refugees.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/02/01/immi-f01.html

Bolton Threatens to Send Venezuela's Maduro to Guantanamo Bay Prison
Jessica Corbett | theantimedia.com | 2019-02-01
(CD) — National Security Adviser John Bolton–the neoconservative who's played a key role in the Trump administration's effort to overthrow the Venezuelan government–suggested on Friday that President Nicolás Maduro could find himself locked away in the U.S. military prison at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba if he does not soon step aside. Bolton–who has repeatedly threatened U.S. military action to force …
theantimedia.com/bolton-venezuela-maduro-guantanamo-bay-prison/

The price Peter Norman paid for his anti-racism
stuart_m | greenleft.org.au | 2019-02-01
The Peter Norman Story | Written by Andrew Webster & Matt Norman | Macmillan, 2018 | $34.99 | Australian sprinter Peter Norman had just run a blistering 20.6 seconds in the men's 200-metre final at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games to claim the silver medal. After he heard about the plans of the gold and bronze medallists, African-American runners Tommy Smith and John Carlos, to protest against racism in the US, Norman agreed to support their actions by wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badge, stating: "I'll stand with you". | In The Peter Norman Story, his nephew Matt Norman, w…
greenleft.org.au/content/price-peter-norman-paid-his-anti-racism

'Yiiiiikes': John Bolton Threatens to Send Venezuela's Maduro to Offshore US Prison at Guant√°namo
Jessica Corbett, staff writer | commondreams.org | 2019-02-01
National Security Adviser John Bolton—the neoconservative who's played a key role in the Trump administration's effort to overthrow the Venezuelan government—suggested on Friday that President Nicol√°s Maduro could find himself locked away in the U.S. military prison at the Guant√°namo Bay Naval Station in Cuba if he does not soon step aside. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/bolton_0.jpg
commondreams.org/news/2019/02/01/yiiiiikes-john-bolton-threatens-send-venezuelas-maduro-offshore-us-prison-guantanamo?cd-origin=rss

"Always in Season" Looks at 2014 Hanging in North Carolina and Racial Terrorism
Shared by Cherise | truthout.org | 2019-02-01
As we mark the beginning of Black History Month, we look at Always in Season, a disturbing new documentary that examines lynching in the United States both past and present. It also looks closely at the case of Lennon Lacy, a 17-year-old African-American high school student who, on August 29, 2014, was found hanging from two belts attached to a wooden swing set in a largely white trailer park in Bladenboro, North Carolina. Local authorities quickly determined his death to be a suicide, but Lacy's family and local civil rights activists feared authorities may have been covering up a lynching. We speak with Lacy…
truthout.org/video/always-in-season-looks-at-2014-hanging-in-nc-legacy-of-racial-terrorism/

ICE Force-feeding Immigrant Detainees on Hunger Strike
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2019-02-01
Screenshot from a 2013 video of Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) volunteering to undergo the standard operating procedures for force-feeding of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. | © 2013 The Guardian/YouTube | ICE officials are force-feeding six immigrant detainees who are on hunger strike in Texas, according to an investigation published by the Associated Press. | The AP reported indications that nearly 30 men — mostly from India an…
hrw.org/news/2019/02/01/ice-force-feeding-immigrant-detainees-hunger-strike

Chinonye Chukwu's Film "Clemency" Examines the Death Penalty
Shared by Cherise | truthout.org | 2019-02-01
As the state of Texas this week carried out the nation's first execution of the year, we look at Clemency, a new film starring Alfre Woodard that examines the death penalty from the perspective of those who have to carry out executions as well as the condemned. Woodard portrays prison warden Bernadine Williams as she prepares to oversee what would be her 12th execution as warden in the aftermath of one that was horribly botched. We speak with Nigerian-American writer-director Chinonye Chukwu, who says she was inspired to take on the subject after the execution of Troy Anthony Davis, who was put to death by the…
truthout.org/video/chinonye-chukwus-film-clemency-examines-the-death-penalty/

What Breastfeeding Has to Do With Economic Security
ACLU | aclu.org | 2019-01-31
A recent study from the Center for WorkLife Law reveals the heavy toll of breastfeeding discrimination and the pressing need for more protections. | The discrimination began almost immediately after Barbara, an emergency room nurse, returned from maternity leave. Like most breastfeeding parents, Barbara needed to pump regularly to keep up her milk supply and prevent infection. But while her co-workers got smoke breaks, Barbara wasn't allowed to take time to pump, leaving her in pain: "I'd feel like my breasts [were] bursting," she said. | When she did get breaks, Barbara found herself expressing breast milk for h…
aclu.org/blog/womens-rights/pregnancy-and-parenting-discrimination/what-breastfeeding-has-do-economic

Senate Judiciary Vote on the Barr Nomination
Adam Lee | naacp.org | 2019-01-31
The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on whether or not to send the NAACP-opposed nomination of William P. Barr to the full Senate with a positive recommendation on Thursday, February 7, 2019. We need to contact the entire Senate Judiciary Committee and urge that they oppose this misguided nomination. For information on the nominee, as […] | The post Senate Judiciary Vote on the Barr Nomination appeared first on NAACP.
naacp.org/latest/senate-judiciary-vote-barr-nomination/

Catholic Bishop in Kentucky: Trump agenda is anti-life and immoral
Henry Millstein | peoplesworld.org | 2019-01-31
In the midst of controversy over videos showing young men from a Catholic high school in Kentucky harassing a Native American in Washington, D.C., the Catholic Bishop of Lexington, Kentucky, John Stowe, issued a remarkable op-ed in the Lexington Herald-Leader condemning President Trump's racist and anti-immigrant agenda as a violation of Catholic moral principles. The …
peoplesworld.org/article/catholic-bishop-in-kentucky-trump-agenda-is-anti-life-and-immoral/

Headlines for January 31, 2019
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2019-01-31
Venezuela: U.S. Urges Military to Back Guaidó as Protesters Take to Streets, Reuters: UAE Hired Ex-NSA Agents to Spy on Opponents and Critics, Congress Reintroduces War Powers Resolution to End War on Yemen, Trump Hits Back After Intelligence Chiefs Contradict Him on Iran, N. Korea, Israeli Forces Kill Teenage Palestinian Girl at West Bank Checkpoint, Israel: Thousands of Israeli Ethiopians Protest Racism, Police Brutality, Migrants: Scores Killed in 2 Boat Wrecks Off Djibouti Coast, Humanitarian Ship Docks in Italy After European Nations Agree to Process Migrants, Colombia: 2 Community Leaders Killed Amid Mounti…
www.democracynow.org/2019/1/31/headlines

Dialogue: Women's March Leaders on Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Racism & More
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2019-01-31
Thousands took to the streets for women's marches across the country on January 19, exactly two years after Donald Trump's inauguration sparked a burgeoning women's movement. But some of this year's marches were steeped in controversy. In November, Teresa Shook, one of the founders of the Women's March movement, called for the removal of the four national co-chairs: Bob Bland, Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez and Linda Sarsour. She accused them of allowing "anti-Semitism, anti-LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform." Much of the criticism focused on links between some of the c…
www.democracynow.org/2019/1/31/dialogue_womens_march_leaders_on_accusations

US Interrogators Are Working in UAE Prisons in Yemen
Middle East Monitor | theantimedia.com | 2019-01-31
(MEMO) — US interrogators are present in UAE prisons in Yemen, the Daily Beast has revealed today, providing shocking evidence that the American military is a witness to the torture of Yemenis. In a series of interviews, two former detainees have testified to being interrogated by men with American accents, who looked on as they were beaten and electrocuted. …
theantimedia.com/us-interrogators-uae-yemen/

Darwin pub staff take a stand against racism
Fred_F | greenleft.org.au | 2019-01-31
Staff at the Rorkes pub in Darwin walked off the job on January 22 after refusing to follow the owner's orders to ban Aboriginal patrons from the premises. | Larrakia elder June Mills called for a boycott after allegations of racism against owner Mitchell McNamee came to light. | Staff told ABC News that McNamee had told them to ban Indigenous patrons using the excuse of "no singlets". Thom Brock, a former…
greenleft.org.au/content/darwin-pub-staff-take-stand-against-racism

Smith College Overhauls Policing Practices After Black Student Racially Profiled
ACLU | aclu.org | 2019-01-30
After a Smith College employee called the cops on a Black student as she ate lunch, Smith will take up the ACLU's recommendations for police reforms. | This past July, Oumou Kanoute was a rising sophomore at Smith College, working on campus over the summer to mentor high school students interested in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, careers. A young Black immigrant and the daughter of a single mother, Oumou is exactly the kind of striver colleges like Smith seek to attract. | But Oumou felt anything but welcome on that late July afternoon. As she ate in a common room, wearing the unofficial Sm…
aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/smith-college-overhauls-policing-practices-after-black

NAACP Challenge to 2020 Census Preparations Moves Forward
Vanessa Mbonu@naacpnet | naacp.org | 2019-01-30
Federal judge denies Census Bureau motion to dismiss suit over inadequate government preparations for the 2020 Census The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and its allies today won a major court ruling that allows them to proceed with a federal lawsuit challenging the government's inadequate preparations for the 2020 Census. "[T]he census must […] | The post NAACP Challenge to 2020 Census Preparations Moves Forward appeared first on NAACP.
naacp.org/latest/naacp-challenge-2020-census-preparations-moves-forward/

Saudi Arabia: 10 Reasons Why Women Flee
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2019-01-30

| January 30, 2019 Video | Saudi Arabia: 10 Reasons Why Women Flee: | Rahaf al-Qunun, the Saudi woman who managed to successfully flee her allegedly abusive family, has shed new light on the countless women trapped under the abusive male guardianship system in Saudi Arabia. Women face systematic discrimination and are left exposed to domestic violence under the male guardianship system and have few places to…
hrw.org/news/2019/01/30/saudi-arabia-10-reasons-why-women-flee

Prisons Across the U.S. Are Quietly Building Databases of Incarcerated People's Voice Prints
George Joseph | theintercept.com | 2019-01-30
Roughly six months ago at New York's Sing Sing prison, John Dukes says he was brought out with cellmates to meet a corrections counselor. He recalls her giving him a paper with some phrases and offering him a strange choice: He could go up to the phone and utter the phrases that an automated voice would ask him to read, or he could choose not to and lose his phone access altogether. | Dukes did not know why he was being asked to make this decision, but he felt troubled as he heard other men ahead of him speaking into the phone and repeating certain phrases from the sheets the counselors had given them. | "I was c…
theintercept.com/2019/01/30/prison-voice-prints-databases-securus/

Trump Says 58,000 Texans Voted Illegally. Here's What Actually Happened
ACLU | aclu.org | 2019-01-29
Voter fraud is extremely rare. States using unreliable data to justify purges of eligible voters, unfortunately, is not. | The president of the United States is once again spreading unsubstantiated claims about rampant voter fraud and undermining faith in the integrity of our democracy. This time, he's claiming that 95,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in Texas and more than half have actually voted. These numbers,…
aclu.org/blog/voting-rights/fighting-voter-suppression/trump-says-58000-texans-voted-illegally-heres-what

The One Wall Trump Doesn't Like
ACLU | aclu.org | 2019-01-29
The Trump administration continues to push laws and policies that breach the wall separating religion and the government. | President Trump may be the world's most renowned fan of building walls, but there's at least one wall he loathes: the wall of separation between church and state. From the Muslim ban to his so-called "religious freedom" executive order, Trump and his theocratic supporters have pushed l…
aclu.org/blog/religious-liberty/government-promotion-religion/one-wall-trump-doesnt

2-year-old expelled by mall, community demands disability rights
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2019-01-29
Wyoming, MI – Discrimination against a two-year-old girl with a disability brought close to 150 people to Rogers Plaza Town Center for "Walking with Claire" on January 27. | On a Sunday afternoon, the normally empty mall was filled with family, friends and disability rights activists wearing, "Walking with Claire" t-shirts. Some held signs reading, "Disabled lives matter!" and "We heart our community! Everybody belongs!" | The large crowd gathered to walk slowly behind Claire and her parents, Andrew Dykstra and Hiliary Goddard-Dykstra, to the far end of the mall. There everyone sat down on the floor together to r…
www.fightbacknews.org/2019/1/28/2-year-old-expelled-mall-community-demands-disability-rights

NAACP Statement on Racist and Homophobic Attack on Jussie Smollett
Vanessa Mbonu@naacpnet | naacp.org | 2019-01-29
"The recent racist and homophobic attack on acclaimed actor and activist Jussie Smollett is troubling. The rise in hate crimes is directly linked to President Donald J. Trump's racist and xenophobic rhetoric. It is dangerous for any society to allow a tone of divisiveness and hatred to dominate the political discourse. As this rhetoric continues to […] | The post NAACP Statement on Racist and Homophobic Attack on Jussie Smollett appeared first on NAACP.
naacp.org/latest/naacp-statement-racist-homophobic-attack-jussie-smollett/

Headlines for January 28, 2019
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2019-01-28
U.S. & Taliban Agree to Path for Afghan Peace Deal, Federal Employees Return to Work as Gov't Agencies Temporarily Reopen, Venezuela: Maduro Gov't Defies U.S. and European Calls to Support Opposition, Philippines: Twin Bombs Rock Cathedral, Killing At Least 20, U.N. Condemns Killing of Palestinian by Israeli Settlers, Israeli Forces Kill 3 Palestinians Across Occupied Territories, Brazil: Mining Dam Collapse Kills At Least 58, Hundreds Still Missing, France: Protesters Take Streets for 11th Week, Call Out Police Brutality, Germany to Shut Down All Coal Plants by 2038, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Reinstates…
www.democracynow.org/2019/1/28/headlines

In Congress, a Threat to Americans' First Amendment Right to Boycott
ACLU | aclu.org | 2019-01-28
A new bill promotes state laws targeting boycotts of Israel — even though multiple judges have found such laws to be unconstitutional. | The Senate is scheduled to vote Monday on a bill that includes language that would encourage states to pass unconstitutional laws penalizing businesses and individuals who participate in politically motivated boycotts against Israel. | More than two dozen states have adopted such laws in the past four years. Their collective target is the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, "a glob…
aclu.org/blog/free-speech/congress-threat-americans-first-amendment-right-boycott

Racist Website Faith And Heritage Is Closing Up Shop
Hatewatch Staff | splcenter.org | 2019-01-28
Faith and Heritage, a website launched in 2011 espousing the racist "Kinist" interpretation of Christian theology, announced on Jan. 13 that it would stop publishing articles.
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/01/29/racist-website-faith-and-heritage-closing-shop

Netanyahu Forms Alliances with Far-Right Authoritarian Leaders
Shared by Hezvo Mpunga | therealnews.com | 2019-01-27
Shir Hever says Netanyahu is abusing his image as a protector of the Jewish people, and cuts deals with far-right and anti-Semitic heads of state, absolving them of their racism towards Jews in exchange for their superficial support for the State of Israel. All this, to win the upcoming Israeli elections | The post Netanyahu Forms Alliances with Far-Right Authoritarian Leaders appeared first on The Real News Network.
therealnews.com/stories/netanyahu-forms-alliances-with-far-right-authoritarian-leaders

Trump Administration Puts Religious Beliefs Over the Best Interests of Children
ACLU | aclu.org | 2019-01-25
The Department of Health and Human Services has exempted South Carolina from federal nondiscrimination requirements for child welfare programs. | Across the United States, there are over 440,000 children in the public child welfare system. Nearly a quarter of these children are awaiting adoption with many living in group homes because no family is available to care for them. In the end, too many of these children will age out of the system without ever becoming part of a loving family. Despite these facts, the Trump administration this week made it even harder for these children to find foster and adoptive parent…
aclu.org/blog/religious-liberty/using-religion-discriminate/trump-administration-puts-religious-beliefs-over

Data Reveals Driving as a Person of Color in Illinois Leads to More Unjustified Searches
ACLU | aclu.org | 2019-01-25
Baseless traffic stops and inconsistent search standards harm the public trust and damage police-community relationships. | In January 2016, Richard Jackson, a Black man, was driving to his home on Chicago's West Side when he noticed a car trailing him. As he turned into the alley leading to his driveway, the unmarked police car pulled him over and four officers leapt out, demanding that he lower all four of his car's windows. Jackson's grandparents, who live with him, watched from their home's window in fear. | After running his license, one officer told Jackson he would be let go with a warning. But when Jackso…
aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/reforming-police-practices/data-reveals-driving-person-color-illinois-leads

My Time as an NAACP LAW Fellow
Aba Blankson | naacp.org | 2019-01-25
I applied for the NAACP's law fellows program because of the organization's legacy in protecting the rights of people of color and in doing so the rights of all people. Law school has allowed me to more fully contextualize the history of race in the United States, and I recognized the crucial role the NAACP has played […] | The post My Time as an NAACP LAW Fellow appeared first on NAACP.
naacp.org/latest/time-naacp-law-fellow/

Weekend Read: 'I'm going to be paying it down until I die.'
splcenter | splcenter.org | 2019-01-25
The women incarcerated in Corinth, Mississippi, have a phrase for it: "sitting it out." We have another name for it: "debtors' prison."
splcenter.org/news/2019/01/25/weekend-read-i%25E2%2580%2599m-going-be-paying-it-down-until-i-die

My NAACP Law Fellowship
Rachel Johnson | naacp.org | 2019-01-24
I thoroughly enjoyed my 1L summer at the NAACP and I cannot speak highly enough about my experience there. I decided to go to law school because I wanted to learn how to address the ways systemic issues such as housing discrimination and mass incarceration adversely affect the African American community. Working for the NAACP […] | The post My NAACP Law Fellowship appeared first on NAACP.
naacp.org/latest/naacp-law-fellowship-blog/

Lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck: Bush, Rumsfeld & Cheney Are a Troika of Tyranny & Should Be in Prison
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2019-01-24
As Venezuela faces an attempted coup supported by the U.S., Brazil and the European Union, we speak with human rights attorney Wolfgang Kaleck. In November, John Bolton accused Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua of being part of a "troika of tyranny." Kaleck says the real "troika of tyranny" is George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who should be in prison for war crimes. Kaleck is a human rights attorney who for decades has been at the forefront of the legal fight to hold powerful actors and governments around the world accountable for human rights abuses. His new book, titled "Law Versus Power: Our Global…
www.democracynow.org/2019/1/24/lawyer_wolfgang_kaleck_bush_rumsfeld_cheney

3 Members of a Kansas Militia Once Plotted To Bomb a Mosque, Now Are Going to Prison
splcenter | splcenter.org | 2019-01-24
Three members of a militia group known as "the Crusaders" were sentenced Friday to a total of 81 years in prison for plotting to bomb Somali and Muslim communities in Kansas.
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/01/25/3-members-kansas-militia-once-plotted-bomb-mosque-now-are-going-prison

Spectre Unmasked: Racist 'Alt-Right' Podcaster Used To Be Local Reporter
Michael Edison Hayden | splcenter.org | 2019-01-18
A notorious white nationalist podcaster with a history of instigating harassment campaigns and threats of violence against reporters is in fact a journalist himself, Hatewatch has learned.
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/01/18/spectre-unmasked-racist-alt-right-podcaster-used-be-local-reporter